The Nation Feb 16, 2014 by The Nation

Newspaper of the Year

Confab: Jonathan shops for chairmann North pushes for conference headship

–Page 5

2015: Gulak dares Northern leaders over president’s bid –Page 4

Nigeria’s widest circulating newspaper

Vol.08, No. 2761

TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

SUNDAY

FEBRUARY 16, 2014

N200.00

Jonathan holds secret talks with Ooni, Alaafin, Bayero –Page 4

Kwankwaso, Aregbesola absent as president visits Kano, Osun

33 die in Kano, Enugu crashes –Page 6

Former Governor of Lagos State and National Leader of All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu presenting a book to the President of Sierra Leone, Dr Ernest Bail Koroma during the Presidential Reception in honour of Tinubu who was awarded an honourary doctorate degree at Njala University, Freetown, Sierra Leone, yesterday. In the background are one-time Lagos State Commissioner for Finance, Wale Edun and former Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Dele Alake Photo: TAIWO OKANLAWON

Heavy shooting at Chevron’s $8bn Delta facility –Page 4

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014

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CAPTURED

2 We won't give up on Nigeria, says US envoy

HE United States of America (USA) declared yesterday that it won't give up on Nigeria. Its Ambassador in Nigeria, James Entwistle, said in Kano that Washington would not relent in assisting Nigeria and Nigerians toward realising the country's full potential. Entwistle, who was on a visit to the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano said that Nigeria had achieved a lot in the economic, health, cultural and educational sectors. "But that's the whole point of this; to help build up your capacity and it's clear we are making great stride on this," he said. The envoy said that the U.S. would partner with Nigeria to deal with all aspects of the economy, adding that its recent focus was in the area of health, which has been rewarding in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.

Taking the law into their hands Could this be the place from where our lawmakers got inspiration on how to conduct legislative business? On several occasion, punches have been thrown and babanrigas shredded in the hallowed halls of our National Assembly. But that is nothing compared to what Turkish MPs got up to in their recent bid to reform the country's top judicial body. The bill passed amidst a free-for-all that left one opposition MP with a broken nose. Another MP from the governing AK Party suffered broken fingers. Wise aspirants thinking of going to Abuja in 2015 would do well to acquire a black belt in Karate even as they print their campaign posters!

BAROMETER sunday@thenationonlineng.net

Jonathan and Obasanjo’s bellyaches

HE Daily Sun newspaper quotes former President Olusegun Obasanjo as reiterating that President Goodluck Jonathan vowed before his election in 2011 not to seek a second term if he was elected that year. Reading what

Chief Obasanjo said, it was impossible not to be singed by his anger, nay bitterness. Hear him: “President Jonathan said, not only once, twice, publicly, not only in Nigeria, outside Nigeria, that he would have one term, and said that to me…One of the

things that is very important in the life of any man or any person is that he should be a man or person of his word…If you decide your word should not be taken seriously, that's entirely up to you.” Barometer can of course not vouch for the character of President Jonathan, nor is he competent to defend his vacillations. But it is curious that Chief Obasanjo keeps accusing his opponents of precisely the same faults and

weakness of character that have shaped and sullied his narrow worldview. President Jonathan, he says, does not honour his word. Did Chief Obasanjo ever once honour his? President Jonathan's lack of scruples is in fact probably not even as dishonourable as Chief Obasanjo's absolute lack of consideration for democratic principles. For eight years the latter was president; yet he could not appreciate the contradiction, not to say the inanity, of coaxing

Oduah's enemies got the better of her, so she thinks

ACKED Minister of Aviation, Ms Stella Oduah, will most probably think she was undone by her enemies, chief among whom were those who have one thing or the other to do with the Aviation ministry or the agencies under it. Long used to lying to herself and believing her infernal lies, she is unlikely to put her overdue sack to her own irresponsible managerial misbehaviour, not to say personal conceitedness and deliberate exaggeration of her importance and indispensability to the President Goodluck Jonathan government. But there is no question she is the architect of her own doom. And as this column noted a few weeks ago, her sack was a question of time, for there was little or nothing President Jonathan could do to either salvage her reputation or keep her in office. Indeed, the more the president delayed action, this column observed, the more the image of the president would be battered. The immediate trigger for

her sack was of course the overpriced bulletproof cars she approved for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) ostensibly for her use. She denied the cars were for her use, but few, perhaps no one, believed her. Without the scandal of the controversial cars, it is doubtful whether the president would have assented to her sack though she ruled her ministry with lack of circumspection and carefree brazenness. Nearly all the unions in the Aviation sector were against her brusque and excessive style, but she couldn't care less. She reshuffled the agencies under her ministry with absolute disregard for national and ethnic sensitivities, and she met complaints and agitations with even more ferocious temerity and contempt. And though her so-called airport remodelling was nothing but razzmatazz and superficiality, she dared grumblers to go and hang for all she cared. Her tenure and the serial bizarreness that attended her

policy initiatives were more appropriately a reflection of the spectacular inattentiveness of the president himself, especially how he unbelievably gave so much space and accommodation to his misfiring ministers, many of whom moved around ponderously with oversized egos. But for the car scandal, however, Ms Oduah would

have remained in President Jonathan's cabinet, restlessly concocting new and noxious policies, poking her fingers disdainfully into people's eyes, and preparing for the next great reelection job after the Neighbour-to-Neighbour boondoggle. Before the car scandal, Ms Oduah felt untouchable. During the scandal, she felt immovable. After the scandal, however, she is more likely to feel more recriminatory than anything else. Don't put it past the president to find some great succour for the fallen minister, as he famously did for the ousted chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bamanga Tukur. President Jonathan may have sacked Ms Oduah, but we must never romanticise his action. He did it against his wish and desire, and probably loathed been compelled to take a course of action that violated his compulsive habit of indulging folly and excusing bureaucratic rascality. If he had his

way, he would have continued to condone Ms Oduah's malfeasances, for both his principles and public morality are so expansively defined and delineated that it often takes a huge affront to rules and regulations to ginger him into public expressions of anger. After all, apart from disregarding the reports of panels set up to probe Ms Oduah's car scandal, he also kept the report of his own panel on the same issue for much longer than was tactful or made sense. And without saying a word on the panel report, he has finally but it must be added, reluctantly sacked the erring minister. Did Ms Oduah commit an error of judgement for which she deserves nothing but a sack, or did she criminally breach rules for which she ought to be hauled before a court of competent jurisdiction? We may never know, and the president will probably hiss at this rhetorical question should we make it the next subject of our campaign.

himself to flout constitutional provisions on term limit. If there is still a politician naïve enough to think a president could be cajoled into forfeiting the opportunity of reelection, that politician must be living in a fool's paradise. Power is an aphrodisiac, it is said, and aphrodisiacs do not temper excitement and hunger for anything.

Mbu explains controversies

O R M E R C o m m i ssioner of Police, Rivers State, Mbu Joseph Mbu, has tendentiously explained why he was deemed controversial in his tour of duty in Rivers State. As far as he knew, he explained, the gnome of disrespect was a major irritation to all police officers. Thus, his refusal to tolerate disrespect accounted for the controversies that dogged his tenure. As if this nonsensical argument was not bad enough, he gloated that under him, and in contrast to what he met, the Rivers Police Command had enough tear gas in its armoury for those he described as troublemakers. He could not appreciate the cruel irony of his violent and fiendish disposition. Then, perhaps needled and unsettled by unrelenting criticisms, he finally described himself as a good man. But does an acquiescent and servile man know the meaning of good, let alone exhibit it?

By ADEKUNLE ADE-ADELEYE

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014

COLUMN

Going to meet Pa Michael Imoudu

O Ojavun-Emai deep in the rural bowels of good old Edo State for some bucolic pleasure and rapture with nature. This is the famed old Bendel countryside with its alluring rolling hills, its magical forests, its breathtaking scenic beauty and the sheer expanse of arable lands. This is the land of brave men and women who do not take hostages with their sharp and sizzling tongue. In a situation of national strife and confusion, there is nothing more healing and therapeutic than escaping to the countryside. It acts like a soothing balm to frayed and frazzled nerves. In the post-colonial nation, the city is where it hurts most; the city is where it is most dangerous; the city is where the pathologies of the urban denizens are most pronounced and most severe; the city is the citadel of lost souls. See Paris and die, as they used to say. There are even more compelling reasons to leave the city and head for Ojavun-Emai via the famed Sabongida Ora. The treasures and jewels in this part of the country, both human and natural, are inestimable, to put things in a rather oblique manner. And yet despite having journeyed all over the nooks and crannies of this vast nation, this is one magical corner that had so far eluded yours sincerely. Several opportunities missed, it was beginning to look like a rendezvous permanently postponed, until last Saturday that is. When are we going to see the land of Michael Imoudu? But let us cut to the chase, drop this sentimental waffling, and get to the real reason for going to Ojavun-Emai. As everybody knows, in journalism there are two major disincentives: Censorship and self-censorship. The one is more direct and overt, invariably arising from threats from the powers that be. The other is more covert and oblique, almost certainly arising from warnings from the inner powers that be and the natural human instinct for self-preservation. The antennae of trouble advises you to avoid certain topics and issues. It was Sonala Olumhense, the notable Nigeria journalist and aficionado of fine music, who coined the classic phrase for self-censorship in the eighties. He called it going to Afghanistan. Whenever the home terrain gets too hot, the discerning journalist escapes to some forgotten and misbegotten corner of the globe for some safe topics. But it may well be that the remarkable Ishan pen-pusher spoke too soon. Nigeria is big enough to accommodate strategic detours. Why go to Afghanistan when you can go to Sabongida Ora? Internal self-deportation is better than external self-expulsion. The country is certainly getting more interesting by the day. The stakes are being dramatically raised. It is going to be a desperate scrape. This week in faraway London and on Bloomberg, the old bruiser from Owu dropped another bombshell to the effect that Jonathan agreed to spend only one term. That one is presumably for international consumption. The battle line is sharply drawn. Obasanjo is the Joe Frazier of contemporary Nigerian politics. Once his mind is made up, old Smokin Joe would keep coming at you until you dump him on the canvas that is if he doesn’t fell you with a sledgehammer. See folks? I will rather be in Sabongida Ora. Only last week in this column, we published what was purported to be Okon’s own snipers’ list. An avid reader of the column who goes by various aliases but most notably Tata or Iska Countryman

nooping around With

Tatalo Alamu

•Imoudu

promptly shot back: “Oga Snooper, I worked hard to get your name off the list” To his minatory mentors, Tata argued that it was no use killing the messenger because it brings bad luck. After conceding Snooper’s divine skills as an obituarist, the internet cricket warned Snooper never to mention the word revolution in this column if he doesn’t want his name back on the dreaded list. Well, there is no point mentioning revolution when the real stuff is already with us. Last weekend as soon as the Arik flight landed in Benin, one could sniff revolution in the air. The old city of Benin is draped and emblazoned in revolution. Twice in the last four years in this column, we have had to draw attention to the slow transformation of this historic city from a sleepy rustic municipal village to a glittering metropolis. This Saturday morning as one began to make his way from the sexed up airport through the city and on to the outskirt, you have a feeling of a complete transformation. The colonial clutter and cataract were gone. This was not the

clogged up agrarian catastrophe you knew by heart in the seventies. The streets of Benin are wide and well-paved again, just as the dazed and dazzled Portuguese explorers met them in the fifteenth century. There is a feel-good atmosphere everywhere. Snooper is reliably informed that even the great and wise old king of Benin has flatly insisted that even if the walls of the ancient storied palace have to make way for modernity, so be it. Thank you very much sir. You soon got the imprimatur of the man running the show even inside the bus taking you to Sabongida. The big brother is watching you. Like Bakayoko, the epic character in Sembene Ousmane’s Marxist novel, God’s Bits of Wood, Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole is everywhere and nowhere in particular. But you feel his overpowering presence everywhere. Oshiomhole is an African big brother: tough but compassionate; caring but not careless. It surely takes a tough man to rein in this tough breed.

Inside the bus, Louis Odion, the intrepid and feisty Edo Commissioner for Information, had been running some colorful, abrasive and irreverent commentaries particularly about the political dinosaurs that held the state to ransom. But the driving was getting in the way. The rogue driver, a comically mustachioed fiend if you have ever seen any, could not care a hoot about the august personages he was ferrying. Piking no pass piking, as they say in that corner of the country. After a particularly nerve wracking feat of dangerous overtaking, Louis finally snapped. “I will report you to Comrade”, he shrieked at the devil. This seemed to have calmed him down immediately. Comrade is not for camaraderie when it comes to indiscipline. Snooper is very familiar with the landscape and topography of the old Bendel country side, its flora and fauna and its memorable mix of vegetation. After a few acute remarks about where the road was leading and the rural intersections ahead, Sam Omatseye remarked that his footloose majesty seems to know everywhere in the country. Needless to add that some of the journeys tell their own story and the tragedy of modern Nigeria. Almost 30 years earlier, we were on the same road to bury Dele Giwa in his ancestral village. Snooper remembers that on the road leading to Fugar and Agenebode, Adesua, a former student, miraculously materialised like a beautiful mirage on the side of the road among the crowd waving Dele an emotional goodbye. A few years earlier, Snooper was a regular fixture on the same road. This time around, it was as a gesture of solidarity with the Nigerian Tribune and the African Newspaper group. Alhaji Umoru Omolowo was the police commissioner in the old Oyo State during the infamous electoral heist of 1983. He retired from the force shortly thereafter. But as a gesture of punitive indignation, he had sued The Nigerian Tribune for defamation in his hometown of Okene. Tribune’s lawyer, Barrister Akin Ige, is a great crony and Snooper could not abandon the poor chap to

Goodnight, Toyin my brother

NOOPER will miss one of the ardent fans and most implacable admirers of this column, Toyin Makanju, a.k.a Tee Mac, who fell a fortnight ago. The outpouring of grief speaks volume for this urbane and diffident gentleman who plied his distinguished trade quietly and diligently without ever trying to draw attention to himself. He had an uncanny ear for fine writing and the elegant turn of phrase. Toyin was a genius of newspaper production and one of the unsung heroes of Nigerian journalism rising through the ranks to become production editor of Daily Times and Group Sports editor of the Times group. Many contemporary journalists who cut their teeth under him spoke of his perfectionist streak and his abiding generosity of spirit. He was content with his lot and station in life. Despite his innate civility and meekness, he was never a groveling sycophant of power. He knew his place in the pecking order that matters.

There was always something of the old Lagosian about the departed journalistic icon. Well born and well connected, he was refinement and good breeding personified. He always had about him a guarded politeness and sophisticated diffidence. To superiors and subordinates alike, he was ever courteous and unfailingly polite. Despite being an older kinsman, Snooper always admonished him not to use the Yoruba plural marker of respect when addressing him. But all this fell on deaf ears till the very end. His retort was that achievement and distinction have nothing to do with age. He treated one like a guru and cult figure. When Snooper last met him in late November at the wedding of our niece, he was his usual urbane, discreet and diffident self. He looked well and conducted himself with the usual grace and dignity. At a point, he slipped something into Snooper’s hand which looked

like an exquisite cigar encased in a bullet like silver armour. He had said that it was to help yours sincerely and ease the pains of nocturnal elucubrations. It was only after it was opened that one discovered that it was an elegantly bottled perfume. A few months earlier, against all political sense and economic calculations, he had insisted that yours sincerely should be the chairman at his daughter’s wedding. Snooper obliged, and we had a swell and rousing time, particularly with some of those legendary Lagosian journalists of old who had all come to honour one of their own. As the late journalist was being lowered to mother earth penultimate Friday, Snooper could not but reflect on the futility and vanity of life. The comfort is that the unblemished nobility of his life will serve as an example for future generations. May his great and gracious soul rest in perfect peace. Goodnight, my dear brother.

the mercy of the fierce masquerades of Okene. It must be said for posterity that in court, Alhaji Omolowo was ever polite, courteous and solicitous of our wellbeing. The case eventually collapsed. So much for the rigid binary divides of Nigerian politics. By now, we had arrived in Sabongida Ora. There was something eerily unsettling in the air. The place was exactly as one had dreamt about and imagined. There was a feeling of Déjà vu. Rustic, idyllic villages nestling in the commodious expanse of agrarian paradise. All over the community, you noticed several glinting, freshly coated red-roofed school buildings standing side by side with the dilapidated pigsties that passed for schools in the old era. Again, Louis Odion was very helpful. The administration of the wily Adams Oshiomhole had deliberately left the old buildings as a museum of educational atrocity to remind the people that they were once held in bondage by educated barbarians. The point is well made. Oshiomhole is a wizard of telling tropes and searing symbolisms. Lest we forget why we were actually in the rural nirvana. We had come to Ojavun-Emai to pay our last respects to the late Madam Elizabeth Okheren Ifijeh, beloved mother of Victor Awolowo Ifijeh, the Managing Director of Vintage Press, publishers of The Nation newspaper. Huge banner posters of mama beaming a winsome and most beatific smile adorned the entire route. For Victor who has distinguished himself in the cloak and dagger world of Nigerian print journalism, it was also a triumphant homecoming. The ever retreating and self-effacing Victor would have found the whole thing a tad overwhelming. A man of muscular Christianity and much humility, Victor is rare breed in the pompous and egoistic world of Nigerian journalists. The funeral was now getting to the processional hymn. Will the real Adams Aliyu Oshomhole show up as advertised? Suddenly, the ground erupted. And there was the real McCoy, sleek and agile like a pint-sized political panther in the jungle. The crowd swooned in rapturous ovation as Adams jumped down with his legendary contempt for protocol. The last time Snooper saw him he was carrying his own luggage at Terminal Five in Heathrow. When questioned, Oshiomhole told Snooper that he was heading for Miami for an Edo reunion. But unlike the anonymous ambience of Heathrow, the governor is a folk hero to the rural folks here. And trust the man to know exactly what to say to the crowd. To wild acclaim, he had promised the community a huge water reservoir that would meet their crying need. For a long time to come, the good people of Edo would not be in hurry to forget Oshiomhole. What would the iconic Pa Michael Imoudu say to this development? That one of his own local descendants achieved an infrastructural revolution in his own home state without the textbook workers’ uprising and revolution? The answer is up there in the air. For now, so is Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole. It has been a good trip to the old Afemai Division.

NEWS

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

2015: Jonathan holds secret meetings with Ooni, Alaafin, Emir of Kano

RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan yesterday crisscrossed Oyo, Osun and Kano States for curious ‘private’ meetings with three of the nation’s top traditional rulers - the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade and the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero. Officials gave no details of the meetings other than calling them “private”. Although, Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State was on hand to personally welcome the president to Oyo State, and even accompanied him to Oyo Town, Governors Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State and Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano did not show up to receive him. Only their deputies - Mrs. Titi Laoye-Tomori (Osun) and Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje- received the president. The president’s helicopter landed at the Ibadan Airport around mid-day. On hand to receive him

with Gov Ajimobi were the Oyo State deputy governor, Chief Moses Alake-Adeyemo, speaker of the House of Assembly, Monaurat Sunmonu and the Minister of State for Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Oloye Jumoke Akinjide. From Ibadan, the President flew to Ile-Ife for an appointment with the Ooni. After a brief introduction of the eminent personalities who had gathered at the palace to receive the president, he and his host, Oba Sijuwade, retired into an inner room for discussion. It lasted for about 30 minutes. He was accompanied to the palace by the Osun State deputy governor, Mrs. LaoyeTomori. Among the people at the Ooni’s palace was a PDP governorship aspirant in the state and a native of Ife, Chief Iyiola Omisore, who said that the president’s visit was a demon-

Bisi Oladele, Ibadan/Adesoji Adeniyi, Osogbo/ Kolade Adeyemi, Kano

stration of his love and respect for the traditional institution. The visitor departed the palace at 3.45 pm, declining to state his mission in the ancient town. His next port of call was Oyo Town where he met with the Alaafin for 50 minutes. Again, he did not tell reporters why he was in the town. He merely said that it was a private visit which he did not expect to be reported. But he also acknowledged that he is a public figure whose activities cannot be hidden. The president lauded Oba Adeyemi for the peace reigning in the state and the country at large. He told the crowd who had gathered in the reception hall for his arrival that he was at home to visit his father. Jonathan said he also came to thank the people of

the state and the entire Southwest people for the support given him and the PDP in the 2011 election. He, however, refrained from making political statements, saying it could be interpreted as campaigning. He said: “I thank not only the people of the state but the entire Southwest for the support we received in 2011. I have come to reciprocate the gesture with the hope that things will continue as well. We are one, I remain your own.” Oba Adeyemi initially declined comments, saying his guest was on a private visit. But, when asked about the possible effect of the visit on Oyo politics in 2015, the monarch said President Jonathan did not discuss politics with him and that he was only thankful for the peace reigning in the state and the country. Oba Adeyemi said that the president enjoined him and other traditional rulers in the

country to ensure that Nigerians continue to live in peace with one another. A former governor of the state, Dr Omololu Olunloyo, who was present at the meeting told journalists that the president did the right thing by visiting the Alaafin and the Ooni of Ife. President Jonathan had earlier travelled to Kano and was accompanied to the palace of the Emir of Kano by the Kano State deputy governor, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje and the CBN governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi,. He lauded the Emir for restoring peace and stability to the metropolitan city of Kano. The visit lasted about 20 minutes, 10 of which he spent in private with the monarch. The President told the emir and his advisers: “We are on a private visit to Kano and to wish you good health. Let me use this opportunity to thank the Emirate Council for closely partnering with the government to ensure stable

Defection: Mark not employing double standard, says aide

Heavy shooting reported at Chevron $8.4bn facility in Delta

From Sanni Onogu, Abuja

HE Special Adviser to the Senate President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, yesterday dismissed suggestion that his boss, Senator David Mark, employed double standard in the attempt by 11 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC). The Interim National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed had, in a statement, accused Mark of using double standard in his dealings with the new APC senators after allowing defectors into the PDP and preventing defections into other political parties. Ologbondiyan described the allegation as not only strange but embarrassing. He insisted that the APC’s claims were unfounded and misplaced because no form of defection had taken place in the Senate. Ologbondiyan said: “It is strange for the APC to draw such conclusion because no form of defection had taken place on the floor of the Senate. Conditions for defection were clearly stated in the constitution and for now, no senator had met those conditions as provided in the constitution. “As I speak with you, there is no form of defection in the Senate. I think for anybody, group or political party to accuse the Senate president of double standard in that regard is most unfortunate. “He (Mark) has never employed double standard in his dealings with his colleagues in the upper chamber. He has been straight, fair, just, purposeful and conscientious in his approach to matters affecting every Senator not minding his or her political party.”

security in Kano. “We wish our Emir long life and good health. We need people like the Emir to guide and encourage the government for the good of the nation.” In his response, the emir, Alhaji Bayero reminded the president of the need to restore peace and economic stability to the country. The emir sued for an all inclusive participation in the running of government, saying: “Peace and unity of this country is very paramount to us. We urge the government to further work hard to improve economic stability in Nigeria, adding that he wants the government to carry everybody along and ensure equal sense of belonging.” He pledged that the emirate would continue to support the government to move the country forward. The emir prayed for continuous political stability and economic growth of the country.

•From left: President Goodluck Jonathan with the talking drum presented to him by the Alafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, during his visit to the palace yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

Gulak dares Northern leaders over support for Jonathan

HE Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Ahmed Ali Gulak declared yesterday that Northern leaders who are threatening to vote against President Goodluck Jonathan in next year’s election are free to keep their support. He said there are other people from that part of the country who are willing to vote for the president. “If you say you won’t vote for Goodluck another person would vote for him even from your own house. If Ango Abdullahi says he will not vote for Goodluck Jonathan, Tanko Yakassai will vote for him,” Gulak said on the Kaduna based Liberty Radio against the backdrop of continued agitation by the Ango Abdulahi-led Northern Elders Forum (NEF) for the return of the Presidency to the

From Tony Akowe, Kaduna North in 2015. Gulak blamed the turbulent regional politics of the First Republic for most of the socio-political problems confronting Nigeria today. He said:”Nigeria got it wrong maybe right from the beginning. Don’t forget that immediately after independence, we had military coup because political development at that time was turbulent. Don’t forget operation wetie in the Southwest and the fact that Zik had to leave the Southwest party to form the NCNC. Don’t forget that our politics at that time was regionalised. “The Southwest had the Action Group (AG), the North had the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) and the East had the

NCNC. And because politics was so regionalised, people went to their regional cocoon and I think that was where we started getting it wrong. “Instead of looking at issues from a nationalist point, we were more regional and after that turbulence that followed, the Military came in and there were coups and counter coups until 1979 when we again had a taste of democracy under Shehu Shagari. After four years, the military again came in.” Speaking on the reported pressure by President Jonathan on his deputy to give the governorship ticket of the state to Senator Isaiah Balat, Gulak said “this is the handiwork of the opposition who have come back with their mischief.” He said:”President Goodluck

has nothing to do with Kaduna politics in terms of who becomes governor. It’s entirely in the hands of the Kaduna people. “We know their tactics which is to divide the house, bring in differences for the opposition to come in and take over. The strategy of divide and rule, causing confusion within the presidency and the PDP will not work”. Gulak asked Nigerians to leave the interpretation of the constitution on the eligibility of President Jonathan for the courts to decide, saying “let us leave that to the court to decide. President Goodluck became President on 6th May, 2010 after the death of late President Yar’Adua and the constitution says on the death of the president, the vice becomes the president. President Goodluck did not write the constitution.”

From Shola O’Neil, Port Harcourt

ANIC enveloped much of the Escravos in Warri area of Delta State yesterday after armed troops stormed the Escravos Gas to Liquid facility to break up the week-long industrial action by aggrieved workers. It was learnt that that armed troops shot their way into the camp, which had been shut down by the angry workers since Monday morning. “The soldiers came yesterday(Friday) and gave us an ultimatum to open up the premises or face the consequences. They waited till about 5 pm and left. That was yesterday (Friday),” a worker said. “But they came back this morning (yesterday) and shot their way in. They cut the wire fence and started beating everybody with whips and the butts of guns. They were firing teargas and shooting sporadically.” Workers had grounded activities at the $8.4bn EGTL following disagreement with management and alleged poor working conditions. They complained about the health hazard of their jobs at the facility, lack of proper remuneration and poor quality food since Chevron took over the facility from the builders. Some workers fled the facility in boats.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

NEWS

National Conference: Jonathan P shops for chairman R E S I D E N T Goodluck Jonathan is shopping for the chairman, deputy chairman and secretary of the planned National Conference as preparation for the talks heightens. Delegates can also expect mouth watering allowances, The Nation gathered yesterday. Some forces in the presidency are understood to be pushing for the appointment of a retired Chief Justice of Nigeria or a retired judge of any of the courts in the land to head the conference. A top government source said that whoever would preside over the conference would be a person of "unimpeachable character." Sources also suggested that the president was under pressure to slash the allowances of the 492 delegates following revelations that each of them might return home with as much as N12.195 million at the end of the threemonth conference. Five names are said to be on the list of those being considered by the president as chairman of the conference and a source said that the president is keen to appoint a chairman who will appeal to all Nigerians. Said the source, "We know that some people are making a strong case for a retired Chief Justice of Nigeria, or a retired judge as the chairman of the conference. Others are calling for tested constitutional lawyers or bureaucrats. "The president is being careful in nominating any Nigerian with political leaning to avoid the conference starting on a controversial note. "The good thing is that Nigeria is not short of men of integrity; it is left to Ni-

OVERNOR Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State said yesterday that he was forewarned a long time ago that the Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, would betray him. Speaking at the Saint Barth’s Anglican Church, Bera-Ogoni in Gokana LGA of the state, during the thanksgiving by Senator Magnus Ngei Abe, the governor said that the famous cleric, Apostle Johnson Suleiman, predicted in 2011 that Wike was going to betray him. The prediction, according to him, was made soon after he recommended the then Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt for ministerial appointment. The minister is now the arrowhead of the opposition to Amaechi ahead of the 2015 election. The governor said he did not believe or take the prediction seriously more so when the minister even swore by the lives of his children that he would never

•Jumbo allowances for delegates •North pushes for chairmanship gerians to appreciate them." The source explained that the president would appoint the chairman, deputy chairman, and secretary of the conference. He added: "So far, the North is pushing for the chairmanship of the con-

FROM: Yusuf Alli, Managing Editor, Northern Operation

ference going by the precedent that past conferences were mostly chaired by the South. "Some have also emphasised the need for the South-West to retain

the chairmanship slot in view of the 'rancour-free job that Senator Femi Okunrounmu's Committee has done. "I think as soon as the president is done with the reconstitution of the cabinet, the structure of those who will manage the conference will emerge."

It was also gathered that the president might cut the budget for the conference because the projected number of delegates had been reduced. The federal government had voted N7 Billion for the conference based on the initial delegates of about 571.

•First Lady of Lagos State, Dame Emmanuella Abimbola Fashola (2nd left), Secretary, Association of Teachers' Pensioners, Lagos State, Rev. (Dr) James Owoyemi (2nd right), Alhaja Amdat Adepeju Salau (left) and Alhaja Nafisat Adunni Adeyinka (right) during the Seniors' Valentine, an Intuition Nigeria event in collaboration with the Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials (COWLSO), held at the COWLSO Retirement Villa, Lekki Phase II, Ajah, Lagos yesterday.

Following the unwieldy number of delegates, the president reduced it to 492. It was learnt that the budget may be reduced to either N6billion or N5billion. Also, there were concerns that each of the 492 delegates may earn as much as either N12, 195, 121.95 951, 219 or N10, 162,601.62 for three months if N6billion or N5billion is voted for their allowances. At the rate of N5billion, each delegate may earn N112, 917.79 per day. If N6billion is budgeted for the allowances of the delegates, each of them may be paid N135, 501.35 per day. A source said: "I think the president may reduce the budget because what was put in the 2014 Appropriation was based on about 571 to 572 Delegates before the President pruned it to 492 Delegates. "All I can tell you is that the delegates will be paid only allowances per day to cater for their needs in Abuja. It is too early to assume how much of the N7Billion budget will be voted for the allowances of the delegates. "The details are being worked out. And as soon as the principal officers of the conference are in place, things will take shape. "What we are proposing is to ensure that the National Conference has its own secretariat different from government bureaucracy." On the nomination of delegates, the source said: "Consultations are still in progress. And for those to be nominated by the president, the presidency is tidying up this end."

Wike’s ‘betrayal’ was predicted by cleric, says Amaechi •Gov claims Minister swore with lives of his children not to betray him •I’ll mobilise Rivers people to thwart his governorship bid From Bisi Olaniyi, Port Harcourt

betray him (Amaechi). He said he has done so much for Wike to repay him with evil. The governor cited his intervention when the people of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area vowed to deny Wike a second term as chairman of the council over alleged disrespect for elders, arrogance and poor performance. He said: “Senator Magnus Abe said he does not believe in prophesies, but a prophet came and told me not to make Nyesom Wike a minister, because he would betray me. The name

of the prophet is Apostle Suleiman. I told the prophet to pray against it. “When I confronted Nyesom Wike in the presence of Chima Chinye, he swore with his children that he would not betray me. Any man that swears with the lives of his children is a wicked man. He does not appreciate those children at all.” The governor said: “I am a prophet on my own. I prophesy to people. I told you before that I fasted for 10 months and I saw a lot of things, beyond what the prophet told me. “I saw all the things that came to pass in my governorship. In fact, the

prophet told me then that I would be governor and after that, these were things that would happen; and I told him that they were already revealed to me.” Wike has repeatedly denied betraying the governor, saying he was one of the very few that stood by him when the legal battle to claim his governorship mandate raged. Abe was on January 12 shot by policemen during the inauguration of the proAmaechi’s Save Rivers Movement (SRM), Obio/ Akpor LG chapter and had to be flown to London for further medical treatment. He returned to Nigeria a week ago.

Abe, at the thanksgiving, displayed the doctor’s report from the Princess Grace Hospital, London confirming that he was shot. The State Police Command under the immediate past commissioner, Mr. Joseph Mbu had denied that his men shot the senator. The senator said: “Anybody who says I do not have any cause to thank God, is an idiot. I just want all of you to join me to thank God for saving my life. People were here, busy organising demonstrations, to show that nothing happened to me. I do not begrudge them, because we live in a society where

human lives are not valued. “If it is where human lives are valued, nobody would do that, when someone has gone through the pains I went through. When I got to a society where they value human lives (United Kingdom), their reaction was quite different from the reactions from my home country. That is the difference between Nigeria and places that value human lives.” The Bishop, Diocese of Ogoni (Anglican Communion),the Rt. Rev. Solomon Gberegbara, in his sermon, thanked God for saving Abe’s life and prayed for His continuous protection to the family of the ex-Rivers SSG.

News

31 die in auto crashes in Kano, Enugu

BOUT 31 persons lost their lives in two separate accidents in Kano and Enugu States at the weekend. In Kano, seven were confirmed dead in the crash on the Bagadawa-Mil TaraKatsina Road. The accident, according to the State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Mr. Garba Ibrahim, also caused injuries to nine other passengers.

From Chris Oji, Enugu

The accident involved three vehicles, including an articulated vehicle with Reg. No. KTN 628 AA and two Toyota buses with Reg. No. AA 106 KKH and GNN 26 AA. In Enugu, at least 26 persons died yesterday in the accident at the Oji-River Junction. The accident, according to the spokesman for the

State Police Command, Ebere Amaraizu, occurred when a lorry conveying gravel “lost control thereby killing people within the popular wonderful market.” The truck which was loaded with stones was descending a hill from the Enugu end of the old EnuguAwka road when its brake failed. It rammed into passersby, roadside traders, shop owners, commercial motor cycle riders and vehicles

parked by the roadside. The injured were taken to the Oji-River General Hospital. Sympathizers including the Chairman of the Market Association, Ide Augustine Mba and Chairman, OjiRiver Local Government Area, Mr. Onyemaechi Jideofor, joined law enforcement agents to evacuate the dead and rush the injured to the hospital. The police are investigating the accident.

Mob attacks alleged gays in Abuja

N Abuja mob, wielding wooden clubs and iron bars and screaming to “cleanse” their neighbourhood of gay people, on Thursday dragged 14 young men from their beds and assaulted them, human rights activists claimed yesterday. Four of the victims were marched to a police station, where they allegedly were kicked and punched by police officers who yelled pejoratives at them, said Ifeanyi Orazulike of the International Centre on Advocacy for the Right to Health. The Police operatives threatened that the men would be incarcerated for 14 years, which he said, the maximum prison sentence under the new Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, dubbed the “Jail the Gays” law. “Since the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act was signed, we have expressed concern as a friend of Nigeria that it might be used by some to justify violence against Nigerians based on

their sexual orientation,” the U.S. Embassy said in a statement at the weekend. “Recent attacks in Abuja deepen our concern on this front.” The police spokeswoman for the Federal Capital Territory, Deputy Superintendent Altine Daniel, said she was unaware of the attack but would try to get details. Orazulike said he got a panicked email from a colleague who said he was hiding from a mob of 40 people who struck around 1 a.m. Thursday, going from house to house saying their mission was “to cleanse” the area of gays. He said they used pieces of wood and iron to beat up 14 young men. Orazulike said he drove from his home at 4 a.m. to save the man in Gishiri, a shantytown with mud roads near central Abuja. Those attacked are in hiding and too scared to speak to reporters, he said, recounting their story. “They were told ‘If you come back, we will kill you.’” The walls of houses

arrested,” she told AP. “None of the (law enforcement) agents responded to our distress calls.” Dozens of allegedly gay people have been arrested since President Goodluck Jonathan signed the bill into law in January. It not only forbids gay marriage, which carries a 14-year jail sentence, it makes it a crime for anyone, straight or homosexual, to hold a meeting of gays or to advocate human rights for gays. Convicted offenders can be jailed for up to 10 years. The U.S. President Barack Obama’s initiative to promote the rights of homosexuals has been rebuffed in Africa, where Uganda also is considering a draconian law carrying penalties of up to life imprisonment for certain gay acts. Many Africans believe homosexuality is an evil import from the West. However, the U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, James F. Entwistle, on a recent radio programme assured Nigerians that the United States would not be cutting aid because of the new anti-gay law.

Be just, fair and courageous, Ajimobi urges new SSG, commissioners

HE OYo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, has urged newly appointed commissioners in the state to be just, fair and courageous in the discharge of their duties. He gave the advice while swearing-in the new Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Lekan Ali and eleven commissioners. According to him, such qualities are needed in the task of ensuring adequate

spread of the developmental milestones that are being embarked upon by his administration. The governor also said that loyalty to the state was a major criteria needed in the discharge of their duties as commissioners. While reminding the new appointees on the need to contribute their quota to the development of the state during the period of their service, Ajimobi reminded them that

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Andrew Jackson Young, Jr.

where the men lived have been painted with graffiti declaring “Homosexuals, pack and leave,” he said. Orazulike said he went to the police station later on Thursday and met with a senior officer who ordered the four men released because there was no evidence that they were gay and they had not been caught having sex. Four of them were severely injured and others suffered bruises, he said. They were treated at his organisation’s clinic because they were afraid to go to the hospital. “They said the police slapped and kicked them and swore at them,” he said. Dorothy Aken’Ova, executive director of Nigeria’s International Centre for Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights, said she stayed up all night Wednesday trying to get police and Civil Defence to send officers to the scene after she got a phone call from a man who was being attacked. “Instead of helping them, apparently some of them were

NDREW Jackson Young, Jr., was born on March 12, 1932 in New Orleans. He is an African-American leader, clergyman, and public official. He was a leading civil-rights activist in the 1960s and, as a Democrat from Georgia, served (1973–77) in the U.S. House of Representatives. Under President Carter, Young was permanent representative to the UN (1977–79) and was noted for his outspokenness. He served as mayor of Atlanta (1982– 90) and ran for, but failed to win, the Democratic nomination for governor of Georgia in 1990. In 1999 he was elected to a two-year term as head of the National Council of Churches. Reference: Young, Andrew Jackson, Jr.http:// www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/people/young-andrew-jacksonjr.html#ixzz2qI5i7M2v

they were chosen ahead of thousands of equally qualified citizens of the state, while warning them not to betray the trust reposed in them. The governor, who also used the occasion to explain the delay in the nomination of the remaining commission-

ers in the state, having earlier sworn-in the first set of commissioners, said it was due to the need to look into the issue of geographical and ethnic balancing, stating that in a plural society like Oyo, there was the need to critically look at these factors.

Kano offers free surgery for 6, 000 patients, says commissioner

HE Kano State Government says it is offering free medical surgeries to 6,000 patients in the state. Dr. Abubakar Labaran, the Commissioner for Health, on an inspection tour of facilities at Sheikh Jidda General Hospital in Fagge area of Kano metropolis, where the surgeries would be conducted said the programme was being put together under the Kwankwasiyya Medical Mission. Different surgical ailments are expected to be handled during the exercise,

he said, saying that the two week exercise would be conducted and supervised by the Ministry of Health. The commissioner said that the programme was part of the effort to assist the lessprivileged persons suffering from Hernia, Hydrocile, Fibroid, Lipoma, among other ailments. Labaran expressed satisfaction at the level of preparations by the medical team for the exercise and urged people in the state to take advantage of the opportunity He said that the screening of patients for the surgeries had already commenced.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

NEWS

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

LAUTECH gets substantive VC

‘APC will not practise politics of exclusion’ From Bukola Amusan, Abuja CHIEFTAIN of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara, Bode Towoju, has said the party will not involve in politics of exclusion. Towoju, who lauded the massive turnout at the recently concluded party registration exercise across the country, said Nigerians, especially the Kwara South senatorial district to which he belongs, would begin to witness the true dividends of democracy. Towoju, who spoke in Abuja yesterday, said that the party registration was the first of its kind since Nigeria began its democratic experience, saying the APC would teach other political parties democratic norms. The APC chieftain, who described the turn out as unprecedented, called on the people not to rest on their oars until the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was sacked from ruling the country. The party chieftain said that it had started its change with the distribution of 3,000 exercise books across his constituency in Irepodun, Ekiti, Isin and Oke-Ero councils. He said that people of his constituency had long been shortchanged in receiving democratic dividends, saying the coming of APC would change their perception about governance. Towoju said that the APC would concentrate in empowering the youths and assisting the less privileged in the society.

Youths fume over Olujimi’s ministerial ambition From Sulaiman Salawudeen, Ado-Ekiti

HE Ikere PDP Youths Movement has accused Mrs. Biodun Olujimi of working against the aspiration of the Ekiti South Senatorial district to produce the next governor. They said the former deputy governor “is ready to employ underhand means to achieve her inordinate ambition.” The Ikere PDP Youths Movement made the allegation in a statement at the weekend by its Chairman, Wole Adebayo, and Secretary, Biola Morakinyo. They said: “People of Ekiti South Senatorial District do not want ministerial appointment that Olujimi was lobbying for, using the businessman, Buruji Kasamu. “The entire people of Ekiti South should be put on notice that the Buruji, Fayose and Olujimi alliance are at it again. “They are lobbying to make Olujimi a minister in their vain hope that they can use that to stop the South Agenda. But they will fail. “Olujimi has betrayed the entire people of Ekiti South because of her desperation to be minister and at the appropriate time, God will judge her.”

•The host university, Obafemi Awolowo University contingent, at the 24th Nigerian University Games in Ife, yesterday.

PHOTO: NAN

Aviation stakeholders insist on S expert as minister

TAKEHOLDERS in the aviation industry yesterday called on President Goodluck Jonathan to appoint a professional with technical background as minister of aviation. In an unprecedented, unanimous decision, the stakeholders said their demand is not negotiable. The stakeholders include the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Aviation Roundtable and professional unions, including National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE), National Association of Air Traffic Controllers (NATCA), Nigerian Professional Pilots Association (NPP) and Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN). Others are: National Association of Air Traffic Engineers (NAEE), National Cabin Crew Association (NACCA) and National Air Traffic Communicators Association of Ni-

By Kelvin Osa Okunbor

geria (NACAN). Rising from an emergency meeting yesterday in Lagos, the convener, Captain Nogie Meggison, who is chairman of AON, said there could be no better time to appoint a professional as minister given the enormous challenges in the sector. Megison said stakeholders will not accept any minister, who, out of limited knowledge, would make mistakes that could affect several lives. He said the professionals came together to urge Jonathan to appoint an aviation expert as minister because of the sensitivity of the industry. Failure to appoint a professional as minister, he added, will take the industry several years backwards, noting that

previous ministers could have performed better if they had sufficient knowledge of the sector. Meggison explained that though the immediate minister, Princess Stella Oduah attracted robust funding to the sector, her limited knowledge of aviation led to some of the unpopular policy decisions. According to him:”It is only an aviation professional that will understand the problems of the sector, not a politician. “At a time like this, appointing a non- professional will take the industry several years backwards. “If a new minister is appointed now without a knowledge of aviation, it would take him nine months to twelve months to have a grip of the industry.” The NAAPE President,

Abia new CP vows to chase out criminals

HE new police commissioner of Abia (CP), Ibrahim Adamu, has vowed to chase away all criminals still operating in the state. Speaking in Umuahia when he called on the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Abia State Council, Adamu said that there is need the for police command to improve on the peaceful he has met on ground and sustain same for

peace to reign. He said: “We will improve on what we met on ground. We’re here to ensure peace and nothing but peace in God’s own state and peace we must have to be the most peaceful state in the country and we’re ready to make it so.” Adamu stressed that he needed the cooperation of everybody to achieve his goal

of having a sustainable peace and security in Abia. He solicited the cooperation of journalists in the efforts to keep criminals at bay in Abia at all times. The chairman of Abia NUJ, Hyacinth Okoli, commended the new CP for recognising the media as acritical partner in the fighting of crimes and assured him of full cooperation of the journalists in Abia state.

Christ to his/her live to do so,” he urged. “I know we are all here because of what has happened (pointing at the white and gold casket containing the remains of the late Obadina) but we have to learn to say it is well with my soul,” Osakwe said in a bid to provide succour to those gathered for the funeral. The first daughter of the deceased, Ayomide, took the Bible reading after which a brief biography of the late Assistant Editor was read out by the elder brother, Oluyinka Obadina. After the body of the late journalist was interred, the Editor of Sunday Newswatch, Mr. Olanrewaju Oyetade, gave

a testimony on the kind of man the late Obadina was. He said: “The following words describe the late Obadina: diligence, gentility and loyalty to the system for which he worked.” Oyetade went on to restate the commitment of the Group Managing Director (GMD) of Energy Group and Publisher of Newswatch Newspapers, Jimoh Ibrahim, to the family of the deceased. The brother of the deceased, Oluyinka, thanked Ibrahim and staff and management of the Energy Group and Newswatch newspapers that attended the funeral, praying that such sad accident would not befall them.

By Ugochukwu Ugoji-Eke, Umuahia

Slain Newswatch Editor buried

HE remains of the late Assistant Editor, Saturday Newswatch, Oluwatoyin Obadina, were yesterday interred at his Adamo, Ikorodu residence in Lagos. The short funeral service was conducted by the ministers of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Lagos Province 21, Zone 9, Master KeyParish. Pastor Johnson Osakwe, who gave the sermon, exhorted people to live a meaningful life, mindful of the hereafter. “Live your life with the consciousness of where you are going to. I enjoin anyone here that has not accepted Jesus

Isaac Balami, said stakeholders will not succumb to any threat or blackmail until the president appoints an industry expert as minister. “The mistakes we have made in the past are enough. We cannot continue in the old fashion of recycling politicians to oversee the aviation sector,” he insisted. The President of Aviation Roundtable, Captain Dele Ore, said there is no going back on the agitation for the appointment of an aviation professional as minister. According to him: “We need somebody to hit the ground running, a seasoned professional, who does not need ten months or one year to learn the rudiments of aviation. “If Dr Aliu, an aviation expert trained in Nigeria, could be elected as the President of ICAO, why can’t an aviation professional run aviation industry?”

HE Governing Council of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso has appointed Professor Adeniyi Gbadegesin as the substantive Vice Chancellor of the institution. The Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the University, Professor Wale Omole, said the appointment was for a period of non-renewable five years. Gbadegesin, a professor of Geography, was educated at the University of Ibadan where he bagged a B.Sc (First Class Honours) in 1979 as the best graduating student in Geography. After the mandatory National Youth Service in Bauchi State, he enrolled for a postgraduate Master’s programme in Geography in the University of Ibadan, completing it in 1981. His brilliance again showed when he completed the Ph.D programme within a record time of three years in 1984. Starting what has today grown to be an outstanding career in the academics in January 1983 as Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Geography, University of Ibadan, he got upgraded to Lecturer II Grade in 1984, Lecturer Grade I in 1988, Senior Lecturer in 1991, Reader in 1996, and became Professor of Geography on October1, 1999. He has over 60 publications in learned journals, books and refereed proceedings. Gbadegesin has attended and presented papers at numerous international and local conferences. Married to Lanre, Gbadegesin was appointed Acting Vice Chancellor of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Ogbomoso in 2011.

Ekiti, Bamidele trade words over finances

OUSE of Representatives member and Labour Party(LP) governorship aspirant, Opeyemi Bamidele, has accused Governor Kayode Fayemi of wasting nearly N400 billion since assumption of office. He made the allegation yesterday in his Iyin-Ekiti country home at the weekend during the LP’s ward congresses held across the 17 wards in the state. But the Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Tayo Ekundayo, fired back, describing the lawmaker as a pathological liar. He said Bamidele has always employed lying to deal with his perceived enemies. Bamidele accused the state of taking N3 billion monthly, saying the deduction has accumulated to N120 billion. According to him: “This is aside 16 Local Governments who also take a sum of N3 billion monthly which amounts to N120 billion in 40 months. “We also receive money

From Sulaiman Salawudeen Ado-Ekiti

from the SURE-P, MDGs, Ecological Funds and the N25 billion taken from the Capital Market.” But speaking with reporters on phone, Ekundayo said: “Where did he get the figure from. What is the entire money coming to the state? This is political season and people will conjure all sorts of all. “Again, we have always known Bamidele as a veteran liar. He does not ever hide his hatred for the truth all his life. “There was never a time Ekiti gets N3 billion allocation. If he could tell lie in this regard, he is capable of telling lies on other issues. He is just running his mouth.” He added: “Let the people be alert not to be swayed by his lies. More of such lies will come from him from time to time. But, again, his lying strategy is an indication that Ekiti people should be wary of his evil plans.”

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

NEWS

Ilaje/Ese-Odo bye-election: Group tasks INEC on voter register From Damisi Ojo, Akure

HE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been urged to correct the alleged injection of names into the voter register in Ondo State before the coming bye-election into the vacant seat of Ilaje/Ese-Odo Federal Constituency. A group, Progressive Initiative Forum (PIF), which gave the charge in a press statement issued in Akure, the state capital, said the electoral body must correct the anomalies noticed in the 2012 governorship election in the state before conducting the byeelection. The group said the call has become imperative because of the rulings of the Election Petitions Tribunal, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, which admitted that there were injections of names into the voter register used for the governorship election in the state. It added, “One thing that is very true about the last election was that everybody, including the judiciary directly or indirectly, agreed that fictitious names were criminally injected into the voter register. This criminality was perpetuated obviously by Machiavellian politicians holding sway in our dear state. Having gotten away with this heinous fraud, who says they won’t try it again in the coming bye-election for the House of Representatives in Ilaje and Ese Odo Local Government Areas.?” The group, however, expressed concern over the readiness of INEC to release the authentic voter register in good time before the bye-election is conducted.”

NCWD boss urges youth on nationbuilding

IGERIAN youths have been tasked to take up the responsibility of salvaging the nation. The Director General, National Centre for Women Development (NCWD), Lady Onyeka Onwenu, handed down this charge while playing host to members of the executive council of the Arewa Youth Forum (AYF) in her office. Stressing that the youths must brace up and take charge of the country’s affairs, Onwenu stated that they do not have to wait for it to be handed over to them. She noted, “Youths own this country; they are the agents of peace and unity,” adding that the leaders of this country are always ready to guide them when they make mistakes. While commending the Arewa Forum for its drive for peace and unity, Onwenu disclosed that the NCWD is developing a set of programmes targeted at the nation’s youth. This, according to her, is to direct and sensitise them on productive utilisation of their time and resources, especially as the 2015 general elections is fast approaching.

Lagos to construct waste-water plants in housing estates F T

Ondo farmers cry out over new cocoa policy From Damisi Ojo, Akure

HE Lagos State Government has concluded plans to construct waste water plants in housing estates across the state. The plan, according to the state governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, is aimed at reducing the spate of dumping waste-water into the lagoon. Shortly after inspecting the Abesan Wastewater Treatment Plant, which currently serves the Abesan Housing Estate in Mosan Okunola Local Council Development Area of the state, Fashola added that plans are already ongoing to

By Oziegbe Okoeki

construct a new Waste Water plant in Odo-Iyalaro in Ojota area and some other housing estates aimed at addressing the issue of dumping waste water into lagoons and the river bodies. The governor, who expressed satisfaction with the capacity of the plant, said it was only possible due to the commitment of the state’s Ministry of the Environment. He said, “The mechanical and electrical parts are at optimum condition, subject to maintenance over the last few years by the state. Where we have some difficulty now is the sewage

networks from a few of the parts of the Estate that we are trying to connect so that the waste water can come through directly here for treatment and processing and this is the best that we can have in any part of the world.” He said the state government recently rehabilitated the Alausa Waste Treatment Plant which currently operates at optimum capacity, adding that the next phase will see new plants springing up across the state. Coordinator of Lagos State WasteWater Management Office

(LSWMO), Engineer Olalekan Sodeinde, who conducted the governor and his team round the facility, said it currently operates at a capacity of 2400 cubic metres representing full operational capacity of the facility. He, however, said the challenge facing the plant is the channelisation of waste water within the estate to the plant. Fashola inspected the facility with members of the State Executive Council, including the Deputy Governor, Mrs. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, Commissioner for the Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello, among others.

ARMERS in Ondo State under the aegis of Oda Cocoa Estate Farmers Union at the weekend rejected the recent policy of the state government on Cocoa Revolution Project, describing it as capable of subjecting them to oppression and slavery. In a protest letter written to the state governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, the farmers said the conditions being introduced by government were capable of driving them out of the plantation where they have been allottees for many years. The farmers claimed that the government has decided to reallocate blocs of cocoa in Oda Cocoa Farm to prospective individuals, while whoever is allocated any bloc of cocoa in the farm will now be treated like a labourer and no longer allottee xxx farmer. The farmers noted that the labourers they are using on their farms have now gone to collect the forms which are free because they are aware that the conditions would not be favourable to their masters. The Cocoa Revolution Project of the state government had given some conditions that all allottee farmers in the plantation must abide by. These conditions include the fact that government would continue to buy all cocoa produced by the allottee farmers.

Senator commended on projects, health bill

L-R: Chief Marketing Officer MTN Nig. Ltd., Mr Larry Annetts; Mrs. Mojisola Akpata and GM, Innovation and Product Development ,MTN Ugonwa Nwoye, during the MTN Valentine Rave Party at Eko Hotel and Suites Lagos at the weekend. PHOTO: MUYIWA HASSAN

1,000 delegates for Anglican conference in Ibadan N O fewer than 1000 delegates are expected to attend the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) Standing Committee meeting scheduled to hold between today, February 16, and February 22 taking place at the St James Cathedral, Okebola, Ibadan. The Archbishop of Ibadan dioceses, Rev. Joseph Akinfenwa, disclosed this while addressing journalists

From Tayo Johnson, Ibadan

over the weekend at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Secretariat in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. “The standing committee meeting of the church is the convocation of all the major organs of the Anglican Church in Nigeria. It is attended by about five delegates each from all the 178 Dioceses of the Church of Ni-

geria. Bishops and their wives, Chancellors, Lay delegates and Mothers’ Union officials from all over the nation gathered at the Standing Committee meeting to chart the course for the Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. “The three, day gathering affords us the opportunity to study and pray together, take reports from all organs and constituent units, review the state of the nation, and formu-

late policies for the progress of the Church with a view to further empowering the church and her people to fulfill their role as salt of the earth and light of the worl,” Rev Akinfenwa disclosed. Commending the State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, on his urban renewal project, Akinfenwa also praised the governor for his support to ensure the success of the conference.

opmental projects must progress. That shows our efforts to boost our economy now must be all inclusive, because our developmental agenda must not be stagnant.” The Speaker, Hon. Najeem Salaam, who acknowledged the challenges facing the state in terms of dwindling revenue accruing to the state, said that the policy makers should begin to work on the financial independence of the state through initiatives that could buoy up its rev-

enue. The Speaker also raised the alarm on the high level of corruption in the country, noting that the major obstacle to the nation’s prosperity is as a result of corrupt practices by those at the nation’s helm of affairs. The immediate past Speaker of the House, Hon. Adejare Bello, preached against violence in the forthcoming elections in the state, saying members of all political parties should see themselves as brothers and sisters.

Budget: Consider dwindling federal allocation, Aregbesola tells Assembly

SUN State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, has urged the state House of Assembly to consider the dwindling federal allocations to the state when working on this year’s appropriation sent to it by the executive arm of government. The governor drew the attention of the state legislators to the reduction of allocations to the state, saying the situation has negatively impacted on the execution of projects that have di-

From Adesoji Adeniyi, Osogbo

rect bearing on the people. Addressing members of the House at a budget retreat in Ejigbo, Osun State, the governor maintained that government business must be the product of synergy between the executive and the legislature in consultation with all segments of the society. He said, “We are not getting what was projected from the federation account, and our devel-

POLITICAL pressure group, known as Patriotic Isoko Ame Youth Movement in Ndokwa-East local government area of Delta State, has commended the Senator representing Delta North, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, for facilitating some projects to the area. The group which spoke through its National President, Comrade Emmanuel Okezino Udogu, said it was happy and proud with, “the impressive performance of Senator Okowa at the floor of the Senate, especially in the area of debates on bills and motions. He has consistently displayed intelligence, maturity and good intention in contributing to debates on issues of national importance as they affect the well being of the citizens.” Udogu expressed the group’s appreciation over the projects so far attracted by the federal legislator to Ndokwa-East and the entire Ndokwa land, which he said include water projects, internal roads drainages and construction and solarpowered street lights, adding that the projects have impacted positively on residents of the area. He also commended Okowa for sponsoring the National Health Bill, which he observed would revolutionise the country’s health sector, while calling on all stakeholders to ensure the bill is given due attention.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

NEWS

FG assures Kashimbila community on compensations

NDLEA discovers methamphetamine in female artificial hair

From: Frank Ikpefan, Abuja

HE Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe, has assured communities around the Kashimbila buffer Dam of adequate compensations for their lands before completion of the project. The Kashimbila buffer Dam is under construction in Takum Local Government Area of Taraba State to mitigate the disasters that may arise from the break of Lake Nyos in Cameroun. The minister gave assurance to the communities while inspecting the Dam site at Kashimbila, Takum Local Government Area close to Cameroun border. A statement in Abuja by the ministry's Deputy Director (Press), Mrs. Oyeboade Akinola, stated the minister expressed the federal government's appreciation to the communities for releasing their lands for the dam. She stated that their support to Kashimbila Dam project was commendable. According to Ochekpe, the construction of the Dam would not only benefit the federal government but also the communities around the Dam. She said: "We are doing this for the progress of Nigeria but we are also doing it for the progress of the communities because if nothing is done and the environmental hazards of Lake Nyos come, the first

US-based oil magnate declares for presidency By Jide Orintunsin, Minna

NIGERIAN based inthe United States of America, Ibrahim Ladaja, has joined the presidential race under the banner of All Progressives Congress (APC). The oil and gas magnate said he decided to return home to salvage the country from what he described as the misrule of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the inefficiency of President Goodluck Jonathan. Ladaja, who declared his ambition to newsmen in Minna yesterday, said the ruling PDP has failed to provide solutions to the various socio-economic and political problems in the country. The presidential aspirant, who claimed to have consulted widely with many stakeholders in the country, said APC is the only viable platform that can bring about the desired change in the country. Ladaja, who hails from Biu in Bornu State, said he has a master plan to put an end to the dastardly killings of innocent lives by the outlawed Boko Haram group within the first three months, if voted into power. He also said that his administration will ensure the establishment of state police. Ladaja also pledged a review of the revenue allocation formula in favour of the federating states. “

Drunken policeman kills chairmanship aspirant

HE killing of a former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chairmanship aspirant, Femi Awoyale, yesterday triggered wild protests in Oro, Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State. The late Awoyale was said to have been accidentally shot by a drunken policeman drafted to a hotel in the town during the last Friday's St. Valentine's Day celebration. Already a combined team of anti-riot policemen and soldiers drafted to the community has re-

From Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin

store law and order. It was gathered that at about 11:15pm on the fateful day, fun seekers had converged on Topmost Hotel with the late Awoyale. The management of the hotel, it was added, invited policemen to provide security for the Valentine fun seekers. An eyewitness said that the rowdiness of the fun seekers woke the alleged drunk policeman from his sleep, who shot twice into the air to scare away trouble makers.

• Interiors of The blood- stained vehicle

The gunshots, it was gathered, created a pandemonium among the fun seekers. But the policeman allegedly hit the butt of his gun on the wall, discharging its bullets which hit the politician on the chest. The eyewitness said: "He didn't know that the bottom of the gun had hit the wall and bullets were released and hit Awoyale in the chest, came out of him again and hit the wall." Attempts to revive the

victim via first aid proved futile as he gave up the ghost instantly. The body of the deceased has been deposited at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) mortuary. The command's spokesperson Ajayi Okasanmi confirmed the incident. He said the accused policeman has been arrested, adding that he is currently undergoing orderly interrogation at the command headquarters in Ilorin, the state capital.

By Kelvin Osa Okunbor

HE National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has discovered three kilogrammes of substances that tested positive for methamphetamine inside female hair attachments. Anti-narcotic officials detected the drugs at the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) cargo section of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos. The drug was meant for export to South Africa. The NDLEA's airport commander, Mr. Hamza Umar, said that the agency apprehended a 37- year-old freight forwarder in connection with the illicit shipment. Umar added that the discovery was barely few days after a suspected drug trafficking syndicate abandoned five kilogrammes of heroin hidden inside a shipment of praying rugs from Pakistan. The suspect, Mark Udegbulun, told narcotic investigators: "I personally received the shipment from my friend and customer at Yaba, Lagos. "He paid me to send the bag to South Africa as unaccompanied cargo. Unfortunately, while the officers were searching the bag, the drug was found inside nine of the packs of hair attachment," the Nnewi-born Udegbulun stated. He is married and has two children. The suspect will be charged to court soon.

Ojiyi goes home

• Bullet holes on the vehicle

Robbers cart away N17million T

IKE a Hollywood movie, armed robbers last weekend waylaid a Toyota Hilux pick-up vehicle on the busy Ishaya Bakut road. Within seconds, they killed two policemen and carted away over N17 million. The cash, it was gathered, was for payment of National Youth Service Corps members whose passing out ceremony was to take place on the following day. The slain policemen attached to the Benue State Civil Service Secretariat were Timothy Anyangaor and Faned Mtaghenyi.

•Kill two policemen From: Uja Emmanuel, Makurdi

A motorcycle mechanic, Akuha Gbande, who witnessed the robbery close to his workshop, said two young men alighted from a Toyota Corolla close to the junction between Makurdi to Otukpo Road and Ishaya Bakut Road. They shot sporadically with their automatic rifles at the oncoming pick-up vehicle heading towards B Division police station on Ishaya Bakut Road in Makurdi, he added. He recalled the bullets deflated the tyre of the Hilux

and bought it to a halt. Two police escorts who returned fire, the witness said, were killed while the vehicle was riddled with bullets. Gbande stated the robbers removed the big Ghanamust-go bag containing the money believed to have been withdrawn from an old generation bank. Investigations revealed the incident was the second involving staff of the Ministry of Finance. Robbers snatched over N20million from a cashier and driver of the ministry

some weeks ago. The police were said to have wondered such amount were withdrawn without security escorts. The driver and cashier were arrested and charged to court. The Police Public Relations Officer(PPRO), Daniel Ezeala, confirmed the incident to our correspondent. He said the vehicle used by the robbers had been found with a government plate number. Ezeala disclosed that investigation has commenced into the incident, assuring that the suspects would soon be fished out.

Adesina advocates 30% agricultural lending to women

HE Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Akinwumi Adesina, has called for 30 percent lending support for female farmers. Adesina spoke in Jos, Plateau State when he led a delegation of the management staff of the ministry on a tour of agricultural facilities in the state. He said the repayment rate of women on loan facilities is about 98 percent

From: Frank Ikpefan, Abuja

as against the men who pay less. The minister said: "We are going to work very actively with you to help in this finance because there is no reason why at least 30 percent of all bank lending shouldn't be going to women because they are the majority of the farmers. "We believe it is time to have an affirmative action with regards to women to make sure they get both extensions, access

to finance and better access to market because investing in women secures the lives of a household and the destiny of a nation. "If you look at the majority of our farmers, they are women and they are better farmers but they do not get as much support as the men do. "One of the things that encourage me is that the women are all getting their fertilisers through the GES which creates empowerment for them." The minister assured the

female farmers of support with the dedication of N10million for the establishment of a Farmers Micro Finance Bank. The facilitator of FADAMA 3 women farmers in Plateau, Mrs. Mary Afan, who unveiled plans to establish the Farmers Micro Finance Bank, told reporters that the success of the GES to women farmers in the state was unprecedented. She said all the 35,000 women in her group accessed their inputs of three bags of fertilisers.

HE former Chief Medical Director of Amaku Specialist Hospital, Akwa, Sir Samuel Ojiyi, is dead. He was 77. The deceased was educated at Edo College, Benin City and University of Khartoum Sudan where he studied Medicine and Surgery. He practised at several medical care centres in the Eastern states, including Polyclinic Asata Enugu, Awgu General Hospital and Amaku Specialist Hospital Awka. Ojiyi is survived by his wife, Barrister Grace Ojiyi, eight children and many grand children. A service of songs holds at his residence, No.7 Carter Street, Enugu on Monday March 3. The commendation service at Cathedral Church of Good Shepherd Enugu holds the following day. His remains will be laid to rest on Thursday March 6 after burial service at St. John's Anglican Church Nise in Anambra State.

•Late Ojiyi

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

Kerry presses China to ease Internet controls

.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday he urged Chinese leaders to support Internet freedom and promised to look into whether American companies help Beijing curb access to online material. "Obviously, we think that Chinese economy will be stronger with greater freedom of the internet," Kerry said at a meeting with bloggers following talks with Chinese leaders. He urged Beijing to convince neighbouring North Korea to return to stalled nuclear disarmament talks. During the 40-minute meeting yesterday, the bloggers appealed to Kerry to support Chinese human rights activists and freer use of the Internet. Zhang Jialong, who reports on finance for Tencent Finance, part of China's largest social media company, complained U.S. companies were helping Beijing block access to Internet use and social media services such as Twitter. Kerry said it was the first time he had heard complaints U.S. companies were helping the Chinese government control Internet access and that he would check into that.

Lebanon forms government after 10-month deadlock

EBANON announced a new government yesterday, breaking a 10-month political deadlock during which spill-over violence from neighbouring Syria worsened internal instability. A caretaker government has run the country since former Prime Minister Najib Mikati resigned in March as parties aligned with the Shi'ite Hezbollah movement and a Sunni-led rival bloc pursued a power struggle exacerbated by their support for opposing sides in Syria's almost three-year-old civil war. "A government in the na-

tional interest was formed in a spirit of inclusivity," new Prime Minister Tammam Salam declared on live television. He said he hoped the new government would allow Lebanon to hold presidential elections before President Michel Suleiman's mandate expires in May and finally conduct parliamentary polls that were postponed last year due to the political impasse. "I extend my hand to all the leaders and I am relying on their wisdom to reach these goals and I call on all of them together to make concessions in the interest of our national project," he said.

Parliament designated the Sunni lawmaker as prime minister in April 2013, but he had been unable to form a cabinet for months due to rivalries between the Hezbollah-dominated March 8 bloc and the March 14 alliance, led by the Sunni Future Party. Former Energy Minister Gebran Bassil, from the March 8 bloc, becomes foreign minister. Former Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, also from March 8, takes the finance portfolio. Nouhad Machnouk, a March 14 legislator, was named interior minister. Salam said his "national in-

terest government" had a mandate to fight mounting security problems, which he linked to Syria. "We must also deal with our complicated economic and social issues, the most important of which is the growing number of refugees from our Syrian brothers and the burdens this has placed on Lebanon," he said. Sectarian violence has erupted sporadically in the past year, particularly in the north, and car bombings targeting both security and political targets have increased dramatically, with Hezbollah-dominated areas being the most frequent target.

Peacekeepers disarm militias in Central Africa capital

RENCH and African peacekeepers yesterday launched a major push to disarm militias in the capital of the strife-torn Central African Republic, going house to house searching for weapons. The operation was launched in the early morning hours in Bangui's Boy Rabe neighbourhood, the base of

mostly Christian militias whose attacks have driven many minority Muslims from the city in recent weeks, sparking warnings of "ethnic cleansing". Several automatic weapons, grenades and a large number of munitions were seized in the first hours of the operation that involved some 250 peacekeepers and police, according to an

AFP correspondent on the scene. "All people who were found to have weapons in their homes have been identified and will be handed over to the police," a peacekeeper from the African Union MISCA mission told AFP. The so-called "anti-balaka" militias were formed in the country in response to killing and pillaging by the mainly

Muslim Seleka rebels following their coup nearly a year ago in the majority Christian nation. In recent months, as international peacekeepers deployed to the former French colony have disarmed the Seleka, brutal attacks by the militias have sowed terror among the Muslim population, forcing many to flee the country.

Mediator apologises to Syrians for ineffectual peace talks

NTERNATIONAL mediator Lakhdar Brahimi apologised to the Syrian people yesterday for the lack of progress at peace talks in Geneva after their second round ended with little more than an agreement to meet again. The Algerian-born diplomat said the agreement to evacuate people from the besieged city of Homs had raised hopes that had not been satisfied at the Geneva talks, involving opposition groups and representatives of President Bashar al-Assad. The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) also stressed how meager the results had been, saying an evacuation from Homs did not herald any wider improvement in humanitarian access to Syria's civil war zones, where the United Nations says up to 3 million people in need are beyond its reach. "I am very, very sorry and I apologise to the Syrian people that their hopes, which were very, very high here, that something will happen here," Brahimi told journalists after the talks.

WORLD/COMMENTARY

ODAY's column will be a highly personal intervention. Notwithstanding its personal quality, I hope something of universal application will announce itself before this column's final word is yours to read. Thus, I write pursuant to this hope, meaning I shall write until either I or all I have need to express is exhausted. As Black History Month, February has always been one of my favorite periods of the year. This year, my joy is tempered by a loss I am powerless to reverse although, with all my mortal being, I wish I could do so. Last week, my sister has passed into the realm of souls. She died. Ill for months, she exhibited a faith and courage that revealed this person, so familiar and close to me, to actually be a human being of an extraordinarily heroic and noble character. I was taken by the greatness and strength hidden within her that walked so visibly forth at this moment of crisis and severity. Throughout her illness, loved ones held to the hope that recovery would be hers. It was not to be. This ending was not due to lack of faith. For reasons more sublime than we can fathom, she passed away. That was to be her fate. We dare not argue or second guess. We can only adjust ourselves to this loss and plead for the passage of time to heal the deep cut. The cold-hearted will say her illness presented but one ending and that ending came. The practical will say probability worked as expected. The wicked will say Death rules this earth and thus claimed its inevitable victory. This would be partially correct but wholly wrong. True, Death seizes us all. Against fragile flesh and bone, there is no battle Death does not win. Death took her body. Yet, it lost the larger war for it never conquered her spirit. This woman lived and did so with a grace and beauty that would not succumb to Death. This is the reason I write of her passing. I write not for sympathy or tears. I write that we all may better understand the reasons why we must strive to uplift those around us and to chase evil's darkness back into itself. Thus, I ask you to bear with me as I recall a bit about my sister's character so that you may see more clearly the path along which we should tread. My sister neither lived nor walked frightened by the shadow of death but she strolled in the glow of life overflowing in kindness and service to others. She lived to give better life to others. Although small, nearly petite, she had an indomitable spirit reinforced with the heart of a lion. Her compass was an unerring magnanimity and fairness, allowing her to accept everyone and to treat no one unjustly. She possessed a welcoming heart and would eagerly stretch out a helping hand to both friend and stranger. She possessed no guile; ulterior motives did not come to her. If you disliked her, she wished you the best. If you liked her, she loved you. If you loved her, there was nothing she would not do for you. She laughed more than she cried. She helped more than she hindered and spoke peace and love when others sniped and gossiped. The warmth of her spirit was as the sun. She gave more to this world than she took from it. She was an extraordinary person, a hero in the guise of a neighbor or coworker. Had I not been a writer, you would never have known that this wonderful human being had spent time among us. You would not even know her name. Now you shall: Valerie Browne. I had hoped to write this piece before she departed so that she might have read it (she would have been embarrassed by the attention). But her exit came quicker than expected. In some ways, this lapse is immaterial. She knew who she was and did not need my reminder. More important is that I have told you about her because there is a larger purpose to this brief memorial. This is what beckons my pen to continue writing and write I shall. The story of my sister is not unique. It is the unsung tale of the progress of humankind and of those anonymous heroes whose quiet sacrifices and dignity make such progress attainable. Valerie was not an angel. An angel has no choice but to be angelic. Their deeds

For the love of life He who gives bread to the poor receives a greater reward than he who finds the king's purse.

•Jordan Davis

•His killer, Michael Dunn

are ordained by their nature. A human must make a conscious decision to strive for goodness. It does not come naturally. That was the decision this woman made. Even when life was being stolen from her one hurtful piece at a time, she did not become embittered. Never did she curse Heaven or confuse it with Hell. She remained steadfast even as the final whisper of life exited her lips. Thus, she is an angel now. To me, people like her tell the true story of humanity and progress. We tend to focus on those with power, fame and titles. Yet, the world suffers from too many instances of small-minded people with big titles while we rarely celebrate the large-hearted people who have modest or no titles. By virtue of this column, my name publicly appears on a regular basis. Yet, in living as she did, my sister achieved something much greater than what I now do. Yet, I am known and she was anonymous. Greatness is found not so much in the amount of light shined on you but in the quality of light cast by you and by the life you wrought. She and the millions of underappreciated bright lights like her deserve recognition for the quiet but profound contributions they make to society on a daily basis. It is said a wise man hides not his lamp under a bushel. Nor does a just society commit such bleak error. However, a nation or society bounded in injustice not only conceals these people, it discourages their existence. It seeks to portray them and their contributions as obsolete relics of a long gone era. We must not listen to the deceptive verses of those who would rather society become a relentless contest of grab and snatch, of taken or be taken. There are those amongst us who smile and laugh in your presence but plot to desert you of house, livelihood and future hope. There are those who would destroy much of the world that they might lord over the remnant. This is the battle of the day. This is the battle my sister always encouraged me to fight. I remember her exhortations, so I press on as I must. Thus, I write as I do. Thank you,

Valerie. I could not have had a better sister. This Black History Month, America faces a homicide trial redolent of the Trayvon Martin case a few years ago. Again, the setting is Florida. Again, an armed white man killed an unarmed black youth. Again, the white man's defense is that he shot the boy because he feared for his life. The case startles. Driving his car, the man, Michael Dunn, and his fiancée pulled into a convenience store parking lot next to a vehicle occupied by a few black teenagers, including Jordan Davis, who had no idea the hours of his life were sorely numbered. While the fiancée entered the store, the 47 year-old man complained the rap music emanating from the other car was too loud. For a moment, the volume was decreased. Apparently irked by the domineering tone of the man's request, someone in the vehicle increased the music to its original loudness. An argument ensued. Eventually, the man fired ten shots into the other vehicle. No shots were fired at him. No weapon was found in the other vehicle. When his fiancée emerged from the store, the man simply told her to return to the car. He never informed her that he shot at the other vehicle. He never called the police. He simply drove to a hotel where they would enjoy a late night dinner. Conjuring images of the Martin case, the man claims he acted in self defense. He asserted he was in imminent fear of his life because he thought Davis held something that resembled a stick or a gun barrel. This case is outrageous. There is no evidence of any weapon other that used by Mr. Dunn to slay the boy. True, the boy's behavior was lacking. The music should not have been loud. He should not have argued with Dunn. Yet, Dunn's behavior prior to the shooting was even more questionable for it fermented what otherwise would have been a few uncomfortable moments into lethal tragedy. He had no compelling reason to confront the boys about the music. If he had waited a few moments, his fiancée would have returned to the car.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014 He could have driven away without incident or harm, never to see the boys again. Everyone left to go his own way in quietude or with loud music. Moreover, he is a middle-aged adult. He should have been in firmer self-control than to engage in an angry exchange with a teen. In all probability, Dunn pulled into the parking area with anger already in his mind. The presence of the black youth and their outlandish music infuriated him, pushing him to the walls of his endurance. When the boy disobeyed and argued back, Dunn had enough. He thought he saw a stick or a gun because he wanted to see one where none existed. He wanted an excuse to use his weapon because he thought these black boys had no business existing in the same social space with him. That they deigned to invade and upset the harmony of that space and argue with him multiplied his ire. He moved to exterminate the unwanted intrusion. Thus, he fired ten shots into a vehicle although no one had tried to leave that other car to assault him and not even a harmless paper cup was tossed from that vehicle at him. He victimized these boys because their blackness was literally bête noire to him. Then he exploited the stereotypes relating to their blackness to lay the absurd claim that he was the victim who fortunately escaped death by visiting death on his assailant. The man could not have been in mortal fear. If so, he is a coward. Words are not enough around which to construct such deep fear. Moreover, it would mean he cared little for his fiancée. Why would he allow her to emerge from the store and not rush to protect her if lethality was in the air? More to the point, a man trembling with fear does not unleash a fusillade, then merrily drive away to share a quiet dinner and laughs. His behavior was a more subtle denouement to the evening yet it harkens to a haunting past where whites could lynch blacks then literally enjoy a festive party to celebrate the horrible cruelty they so openly committed. Dunn seems to be of that benighted ilk. For him, the shooting was merely ridding himself of a pesky nuisance. His victims were black thugs, not real human beings. The case is now before a jury. All evidence points against the shooter. Yet, he has racist psychology on his side and this is a powerful weapon that often mocks and trumps objective evidence. It led him to shoot Davis and it might totally exonerate him or allow the jury to convict him of a lesser crime than murder. An acquittal would send a stark message more chilling than that conveyed by the Martin case. The message from Martin was for black youths to be circumspect when alone and to avoid fighting whites in the absence of witnesses. In his case, Davis was not alone. There were witnesses, including the other boys in the vehicle. Davis did not fight Dunn and never came near him. There was not a scratch on the man. Davis was shot merely for talking loudly. If Dunn is excused from this homicide, the legal system would be emitting the message that a black male is, by law, considered to be a lethal threat to a white person whenever the black vocally disagrees with the white. This is an egregious regression to a time when justice was so blind that it could not see well enough to find its way into the workings of the legal and political system. It was so blind that it could not see blacks were being treated so differently than whites that the two groups could occupy the same geographic space while residing in different legal worlds. It took much sacrifice to leave that unjust existence. We ought not return to it. My sister passed too early but hers was by natural causes. Davis died too soon and too unnaturally, He was a brash teenager but that is no reason to snuff out his life. We shall never know the man he might have been. He could have turned into a bright light that bettered the lives of all around him. The world needs no more deaths like this. It needs more life. The injustice must end. That is why I write as I do. That is why I say, "thank you, Valerie, my sister, for your courage and inspiration. Thank you." 08060340825 (sms only)

Ropo Sekoni

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Femi Orebe Page 16

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014

Good riddance

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

At last, the President sums up courage; fires controversial Stella Oduah

HETHER President Goodluck Jonathan finally got his mind made up for him, or he made it up by himself; or whether the President asked the embattled former Minister of Aviation, Ms Stella Oduah, to resign or he gave her the boot, what is important is that Ms Oduah is no more a minister of the Federal Republic. If the President studied the newspapers on Thursday when the news made the headlines, he must have seen that the other ministers that also lost their jobs: Police Affairs Minister Caleb Olubolade, Minister of Niger Delta, Godsday Orubebe and Minister of State for Finance, Yerima Ngama, were more or less footnotes in the matter. The issue was Stella Oduah. And this is understandable. It is true that the present government had been rocked by many scandals: the fuel subsidy scandal, pension scandal, etc, Oduahgate is simply in a class of its own. It was one that recommended itself for instant judgment, yet, for over four months, President Jonathan’s courage failed him to show the minister the door. A minister who approved the purchase of two bullet-proof cars at a staggering cost of N255million without authorisation over four months ago ought to have had her case decided since, if not for the fact that the government loves wasting time on irrelevancies. Quite interestingly, just as President Jonathan was still thinking about how to handle the scandal, a lesser incident occurred in Ghana in which the deputy minister of communications, Victoria Hammah, was sacked for saying that she would not quit politics until she had made $1million. It was a God-sent example that should have shown President Jonathan the light; but he chose not to see it. The House of Representatives set up a committee to probe the matter and the committee found her guilty, making the full house to recommend to the President a review of Oduah’s appointment. Again, the President ignored the representatives. He then set up his own committee. Months after, mum was the word from him on what the recommendation of the committee was. But it was obvious the report was not what the President expected, otherwise he would have hid under it to exculpate Ms Oduah. What is particularly annoying is that while it took this long for President Jonathan to get Ms Oduah out of his cabinet, he did not waste time in throwing away Barth Nnaji, the former Minister of Power, over conflict of interest. This selective approach to the anti-corruption war (is there any war?) does his government no good. Some have contended that Oduah was doing well in the aviation sector; but Nnaji too was making slow but steady progress on power supply until he was given the boot. In Oduah’s case, her so-called good performance in

• Oduah

the Ministry of Aviation was questionable. Even as at the time she was said to be doing well, the arrival hall of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos was a sorry sight whenever it rained, as buckets and other items had to be brought in to collect rain water from the leaking roofs. Those who say the President dilly-dallied for this long on Oduah’s case because he wanted to be thorough, or because he did not want to be stampeded into taking actions would do well to ponder the Oduah saga vis-à-vis other cases that he almost summarily disposed of. Without doubt, the Oduah saga made many Nigerians wonder what it was that made President Jonathan adamant on retaining her. I cannot think of anyone in recent Nigerian history that has survived such an onslaught. But that the President eventually bowed to public pressure has convinced me that it is true that when a child gets to a place of fear, it is natural for him to be afraid. But it is not only a child that frets when he gets to the home of fear; elders too do. That was why Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, hitherto thought to be a strong man, became lily-livered and had to pull the brakes at a point when he discovered that his insistence on having a third term by all means was going to backfire. In Nigeria, few people live to regret toying with handover dates. The docility that Nigerians are usually accused of, and which their leaders often exploit, does not extend to toying with transition schedules! Anyway, now that President Jonathan has fired Oduah and thus relieved himself

“But she is not the only clog in the wheel of the country’s progress. In terms of performance, most of the present ministers are not just there, that is why we are making progress in reverse; although the government boasts a surfeit of attack dogs, sycophants and mischief experts. The truth is, Nigerians had expected a near clean sweep of the cabinet because if a government is as inept as the one we have now, throwing only four ministers into the unemployment market cannot make much difference”

of the moral burden, he still has to decide what to do with his petroleum minister, Diezani AlisonMadueke. If the Jonathan government was embroiled in any scandal, the fuel subsidy scandal which became public knowledge barely seven months after the government was sworn in, is the most talked-about. Since then, there have been sundry other allegations of fraud rocking some parastatals under her ministry, particularly the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), whose books are in a mess. No one can say for sure how many billions of dollars could be missing from its record. Yet, the minister under whose nose these unfortunate developments are happening sits pretty in office, years after. We never had it so bad. It bears restating that no matter what the Jonathan government does, it won’t go far if it does not tackle corruption. Yet, it does not seem the President has the nerve for this task. His self-inflicted distractions on which he wastes precious time and scarce resources cannot permit him to do any tangible thing. Imagine the man-hours lost to the war to dislodge Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State! Whereas if the President had led well, he would not have to lose sleep over whether his party’s lawmakers and governors are defecting; all he would lay bare for Nigerians is his score card which should be speaking for him now, about three years after his assumption of office. This excludes the period he spent to conclude the tenure of his former boss, Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua. If the President’s kernel is cracked for him by some benevolent spirits (because if it is in terms of performance, his government is a monumental disaster) and he manages to get a second term, the story cannot be different. If care is not taken, this is how we would continue to be adrift, and by the time he realises time is no longer on his side, it would have been late and he, like his political godfather, Chief Obasanjo, would start looking for third term. Yet, his government does not seem to have answer to any of the country’s challenges, no matter the number of terms it is given. To worsen matters, it cannot even arrest corruption. So, that is double jeopardy for Nigerians. This is why many Nigerians feel that it is immaterial if President Jonathan sacks his entire cabinet and decides not to work with ministers again, more than enough damage has been done to his government. Now, he would have not just to claim to be fighting corruption but must be seen to be doing so. Well, now that Oduah is gone, that is one down. But she is not the only clog in the wheel of the country’s progress. In terms of performance, most of the present ministers are not just there, that is why we are making progress in reverse; although the government boasts a surfeit of attack dogs, sycophants and mischief experts. The truth is, Nigerians had expected a near clean sweep of the cabinet because if a government is as inept as the one we have now, throwing only four ministers into the unemployment market cannot make much difference.

A vote against public smoking

By Rasak Musbau

HE Lagos State House of Assembly is a good case study of how the legislative arm of government can serve as tool for social engineering. From the child’s right law, building control law, tenancy law, law against illegal trading at unauthorised places to the Lagos traffic law, Lagos state has used emphasis of laws as a means of controlling and regulating unhealthy public conduct. Presently, the House has gone ahead to settle once and for all the face-off between public health activists and pro-tobacco lobbyists by passing the Anti-smoking Bill on Monday, January 20, 2014. As one of the most common and unhealthy of human habits, smoking, generally in public, had been regarded as a personal choice that bystanders had little control over. Now, for the first time and in the first state in Nigeria, the act of public smoking will be regulated when assent is given to the bill. Smokers will still be available to freely smoke in their own homes, in privacy, still able to enjoy themselves while bystanders will be protected from risks associated with smoking. Tobacco use is said to have killed at least one billion people worldwide this century, with 10 million lives estimated to die by 2020 and 70 percent of these deaths to occur in developing nations, Nigeria inclusive. According to the World Health Organisation, WHO, second-hand smoke contributes to over 600,000 deaths per year, from causing conditions such as serious cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. The Organisation, however, concluded that 300 million deaths from tobacco could be prevented in the next 50 years by cutting adult cigarette consumption in half worldwide. For years it has been the opinion of many health professionals, Tobacco control advocates like Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance that eliminating cigarette smoking is one of the most important thing that could be done to improve the health of the people. If the risk factor of public smoking is assessed, there is no doubt that only a handful of pro-tobacco beneficiaries will question the appropriateness of the proposed new law. Meanwhile, while still awaiting the governor’s assent, it is important to start educating the masses on purposes the law is aimed to serve as one cannot rule out protest and disinformation by lobbyists oppose to the law. Whereas the effects of other self-indulgent, personally harmful behaviors, are more singularly linked to the participant, the injurious effects of smoking in public spill over into other people’s lives with a more consistent, tangible, and (sometimes) permanent impact. This proposed new law is to protect second-hand smokers from injurious effects of smoking in public places and save government cost of treating patients with tobacco related ailments. In summary, the law is coming out to protect public interest which is what good governance is all about. Smoking of cigarettes is known to increase the risk of death and disease from lung cancer, from chronic obstructive lung disease such as emphysema, and from heart disease. Second-hand smoke exposure is clearly linked with negative outcomes on one’s health. While the exact degree of the harm is still debated, it’s increasingly harder to make a case that second-hand smoke causes no significant injury to the breather - especially over longer periods of time. From cancer to heart disease, the scientific evidence has mounted for decades now. It is evident that introducing this ban that prohibits smoking in public would benefit Lagosians greatly. Prohibiting public smoking has lots of benefits. For one, it protects anyone who doesn’t smoke, especially kids to avoid secondhand smoke. It equally helps in ensuring that public places become less toxic. Additionally, it reduces the effect of air pollution while by standers won’t have to worry about their health. Perhaps, more importantly, it reduces the possibilities of bystanders contacting smoke related diseases and hazards. Tobacco control advocates like Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance, a coalition of groups and individuals united in their fight against “Big Tobacco”, deserve applause for providing critical support along the way. Hopefully other state houses of assembly will follow suit while the National Assembly will pass the Tobacco Control Bill. Musbau is of the Features Unit, Lagos State Ministry of Information and Strategy.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

COMMENT

Conference modalities: citizens versus subjects (2) The process captured in the recently released modalities is unapologetically undemocratic

ET us return to last week’s metaphor of the missing goat owned by an old witch. The owner of the goat did not trust that everyone in the neighbourhood appearing interested in finding the goat meant well. She would rather that most of her neighbours looking for the goat did not find it. Is this the way things are with several individuals and agencies calling for or responding to the call for a national conference? And does the call for a national conference still have its old witch looking for its missing goat? When the matter of national conference came into public knowledge at the instance of the late Alao Aka-Bashorun, the call was for a sovereign national conference to address modalities for restructuring Nigeria or restoring a truly federal system to Nigeria. In the mouth of NADECO activists during the resistance to the annulment of the 1993 election won by the late Chief MKO Abiola and the military tyranny that followed this at the hands of General Sani Abacha, the call for a sovereign national conference gained more mileage and became a central theme in the antimilitary or pro-democracy activism of 1994 to 1998. Even after the emergence of a post-military government led by General Olusegun Obasanjo, NADECO leaders in and out of government nursed the hope that transition from military to civilian rule would eventually lead to holding of a sovereign national conference to address the problems militating against a union of affection,(distinct from a union of coercion) crafted for over three decades by successions of military dictatorships. Obasanjo came in and organised what he called a Political Reforms Conference which was dead on arrival, largely because it was based on assembling representatives of the country’s nomenclatural class. President UmaruYar’Adua did not pretend to be interested

in any national conference. He was satisfied with the way Nigeria under his rule was structured and believed that good leadership would solve whatever problems were inhibiting peace and progress in multiethnic Nigeria. And until October 2013, President Goodluck Jonathan was not convinced about the need to have a national conference. In short, there was no government leader with serious interest in looking for the proverbial goat of national conference. When President Jonathan finally became converted to the cause of a conference, his conversion speech on October 1, 2013 gave away the vagueness of what he hoped to achieve with a meeting: “Fellow Nigerians, our Administration has taken cognisance of suggestions over the years by well-meaning Nigerians on the need for a National Dialogue on the future of our country. I am an advocate of dialogue. When there are issues that stoke tension and bring about friction, it makes perfect sense for the interested parties to come together to discuss. In demonstration of my avowed belief in the positive power of dialogue in charting the way forward, I have decided to set up an Advisory Committee whose mandate is to establish the modalities for a National dialogue or Conference…” There is palpable evidence in the diction of President Jonathan that he was not clear about what he wanted the conference to achieve, especially in relation to the calls for a national conference for the purpose of restructuring that preceded his conversion. Given the decision of President Jonathan not to be specific about what his dialogue is expected to address, it should not surprise anybody that the modalities for the conference submitted by the Advisory Committee has shied away from giving full recognition to citizens of the nationalities that the British coloniser fought or negotiated treaties with. Choosing to focus on representatives of the nomenclatural class seems to be an appropriate response to President Jonathan’s preference of dialogue to conference in his speech, a clever tactical lexical move.

Like President Jonathan, many leaders and organisations purporting to be spokespersons for their nationalities pick their words carefully with respect to the holding of a national conference. For example, leaders of the Arewa Consultative Forum have said repeatedly that they have no agenda for any conference, because they have not requested for any conference and would only respond to issues about the unity of the country. Its parallel organisation, the Northern Elders Forum, also states unequivocally that there is nothing wrong with the current constitution imposed on the country by the last military dictatorship. This means that two-sixths of the country is already noncommittal about the conference, if the words of leaders of ACF and NEF are anything to go by. It is difficult to know the reach of a new organisation, Northern Elders Council, but it should be reassuring to conference advocates that there is an organisation in the core north that has no philosophic objection to a national conference. The position of the North-central is not as vocal or clear as that of the organisations that claim to represent the interest of the whole north or what ACF often refers to as one north. The only groups and individuals that are noticeably interested in a national conference and a new constitution are largely groups from the south of the country. South-south spokespersons are calling for a conference of ethnic nationalities, if their public presentations at the interactive sessions are to serve as basis for evaluation of their position. It is therefore not surprising that a minority report emanated from a committee member of South-south origin. On the side of the Southeast region, two groups have already emerged, the traditional Ohanaeze and the Igbo Leaders of Thought under the leadership of Prof Ben Nwabueze. The Ohanaeze is pleased with the modalities announced recently by the Secretary to the Federal Government while the Igbo Leaders of Thought would prefer representation on the basis of nationalities and the ratification of conference rec-

ommendations through a popular referendum, rather than giving the responsibility to the national assembly that has been amending the constitution for almost three years to no avail. Similar to the fragmentation in the position of the Igbo, the Yoruba appears to be having two schools on the conference. The position of APC as a nation-wide political party is not a Yoruba position, just as the unspoken position of the PDP is not the position of any nationality or region in particular. The Yoruba position is represented by two public meetings; one in Isara in the home of Pa Olaniwun Ajayi and another one at the former Western House of Chiefs in Ibadan. It is too soon to know which of these two groups would uphold the Yoruba tradition of egalitarianism in the matter of who should be qualified to choose delegates to discuss matters of national or community interest. But one thing that is clear so far is that the call for another meeting in Ibadan after the meeting in Isara suggests that the Yoruba, like the Igbo, are divided on the recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Committee on modalities for the conference including the erection of No-Go area that is likely to limit frank discussion at the Jonathan conference. In a situation in which most of the regions have no solid positions on conference modalities released by the federal government, it should not surprise anyone if the conference fails to accomplish the kind of re-structuring that motivated Aka-Bashorun, BekoRansome-Kuti, Abraham Adesanya, Bola Ige, Pa Onasanya, Ndubuisi Kanu, Baba Omojola, and many other leaders of NADECO to call for a sovereign national conference to demand a people’s federal constitution for the country. It is a common axiom that democracy is not just about product but also about process. The process captured in the recently released modalities is unapologetically undemocratic. It is, however, possible that there are millions of people who are ready to expect a democratic product from a nondemocratic process. Just like the missing goat, it is the nationalities that own the goat; all other interest groups are neighbours of the owner of the missing goat. To be continued

COMMENT

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

Whose industrial revolution?

Government should commit to fixing infrastructure, not grandiose launches

RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan’s recent launch of the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) and the National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDP) has once again demonstrated the dilemma of continual talk without a commensurate commitment to decisive action. Taken together, NIRP and NEDP are ostensibly designed to resuscitate the country’s comatose industrial sector by promoting industrial growth and employment-generation on the basis of expanded manufacturing, the development of local technologies, the exploitation of comparative advantage and the institution of relevant local patronage programmes. These ambitious schemes are aimed at helping Nigeria to achieve the central goal of the so-called ‘Vision 2020’ project, namely the emergence of the country as one of the world’s 20 largest economies. These are obviously laudable aims. What is suspect, however, is the worrying way in which the Jonathan administration has come to take words as viable substitutes for deeds. Nigerian history is littered with industrial development plans which never got off the ground, even after billions were spent to bring them to life. This is not the first flamboyant plan of action launched by this government. The president launched the Power Sector Reform Roadmap in August 2010; in October 2011, he launched YouWin to tackle youth unemployment; in April 2012, he launched a new national tax policy; in May 2012, he launched the cassava bread initiative; in March 2013, a N3 billion Nollywood grant was launched. Where have all these previous schemes that were announced with so much fanfare taken the country? The power road-map initiated a privatisation process that was so riddled with underhand practices that it resulted in the re-

R. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of the National Assembly, my fellow Nigerians: Today in Nigeria, a teacher spent extra time with a student who needed it, and did her part to lift Nigeria’s graduation rate to its highest level in more than three decades. An entrepreneur flipped on the lights in her tech startup, and did her part to add to the more than eight million new jobs our businesses have created over the past four years. An autoworker finetuned some of the best, most fuel-efficient cars in the world, and did his part to help Nigeria wean itself off oil. A farmer prepared for the spring after the strongest fiveyear stretch of farm exports in our history. A rural doctor gave a young child the first prescription to treat asthma that his mother could afford. A man took the bus home from the graveyard shift, bonetired, but dreaming big dreams for his son. And in tight-knit communities all across Nigeria, fathers and mothers will tuck in their kids, put an arm around their spouse, remember fallen comrades, and give thanks for being home from wars called Boko Haram, kidnapping, robbery and some of the meanest form of crimes against humanity. Today, I speak with one

moval of the minister in charge. The Nollywood grant has been mired in a bureaucratic quagmire, as the financial institution in charge of disbursing the grant has imposed stiff conditions that very few of the supposed beneficiaries can meet. The major reason why these projects fail is because they do not address the fundamental issues confronting the country. No industrial revolution plan can survive in a nation where the basic infrastructure is decrepit. In the absence of power, water, roads and security, most businesses are compelled to provide their own; this strategy naturally increases overheads exponentially. The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Doing Business report in 2013 ranked Nigeria 147th out of 189 countries in ease of doing business. It came 122nd in the list of best places to start a business. In the “Getting Electricity” parameter, the country came 185th. So herculean is the task of running a business in Nigeria that the country has witnessed a steady de-industrialisation, as manufacturers have left the country for places with a more conducive environment. The textile industry has been decimated, in spite of the infusion of stimulus funds. Several enterprises have given up manufacturing for the less-arduous business of wholesale trade. A good number of factories have become places of worship. Those firms which have somehow managed to soldier on are batTRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

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tling competition from cheap imports and contraband goods, while contending with inequitable taxation policies and the difficulties of obtaining equipment and spare parts. The basic principle of sustainable development is that it is the small things that count. Rather than ostentatious launching ceremonies and flamboyant policy statements, the Jonathan administration ought to quietly identify the main obstacles to the country’s growth and seek to comprehensively rectify them. There is, for example, the country’s educational policies which do not address the requirements of manufacturers; the over-emphasis on university degrees has resulted in a dearth of the technicians and artisans that are the lifeblood of manufacturing. There is also the very discouraging nature of industrial policy in Nigeria which appears to offer very little to local manufacturers, either in the way of tariff walls, research and development or financing. Even though crude oil accounts for over 80 per cent of the country’s foreign receipts, the National Assembly is yet to pass the critically-important Petroleum Industry Bill. While countries like India have identified the emerging global digital economy as a viable area of future growth, Nigeria is still thinking almost exclusively of industry and machinery. Nigeria is steadily retreating from former areas of strength like mining and agriculture, and has failed to use them as the basis for a value-added strategy of industrial growth. The country’s vibrant entertainment industry is yet to become a major foreign revenue-earner, despite its enormous continental popularity. Bitter experience has shown that talk alone is not enough. Nigeria must begin to walk the talk if it wishes to realise its ambitious dreams of industrial pre-eminence and sustained economic growth.

LETTERS

Wake up, Nigeria voice to the people we represent: It is you, our citizens, who make the state of our Nigeria strong. And here are the results of your efforts: The lowest unemployment rate in over five years. A new housing market and a manufacturing sector that’s adding jobs for the first time since the 1990s. More oil refined at home than we buy from the rest of the world - the first time that’s happened in nearly 20 years. Our deficits cut by more than half. And for the first time in over a decade, business leaders around the world have declared that China is no longer the world’s number one place to invest; Nigeria is. That’s why I believe this can be a breakthrough year for Nigeria. After five years of grit and determined effort, Nigeria is better positioned for the 21st century than any other nation on earth. The question for everyone around me, the Labarans, Ngozis, Dezianis, Sanusis, is whether we are going to help

or hinder this progress. For several years now, we have been consumed by a rancorous argument over the proper size of the federal government/ subsidy/missing funds and more. These are important debates - one that dates back... But when debates prevent us from carrying out even the most basic functions of our democracy - when our differences shut down government or threaten the full faith and credit of Nigeria - then we are not doing right by the Nigerian people.

Now, as president, I’m committed to making Abuja work better, and rebuilding the trust of the people who sent us here. And I believe most of you are, too. Last month, thanks to the work of my party, the PDP, and the opposition APC, the national assembly finally produced a budget that undoes some of last year’s severe cuts to priorities like education. Nobody got everything they wanted, and we can still do more to invest in this country’s

future while bringing down our deficit in a balanced way, but the budget compromise should leave us freer to focus on creating new jobs, not creating new crises. In the coming months, let’s see where else we can make progress together. Let’s make this a year of action. That’s what most Nigerians want: for all of us in this executive to focus on their lives, their hopes, and their aspirations. What I believe unites the people of this nation - regardless of race or region or party, young or old, rich or poor - is the simple, profound belief in opportunity for all - the notion that if you work

the release of this time table, it behoves on President Goodluck Jonathan to make his intention known to all Nigerians to douse the already tense atmosphere in the polity. Also, his declared intention now would afford Nigerians to measure his achievements. The development in the country as regards this administration’s wish to move it forward calls for more concerted efforts on the part of Nigeri-

ans, whether to give Mr. President another mandate of governing them for another four years, which would shape or mar their collective aspirations. Nigerians would be at a vantage position knowing the kind of leadership that would be saddled with the responsibility of giving the country leadership needed for the overall development of the country. Bala Nayashi, No 1 Yashi Area, Lokoja

Mr. President should declare his intention now

S the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC released the time table for next year’s election, activities for the election could be said to have started. Just recently, President Goodluck Jonathan was speaking on CNBC Africa that he was waiting for the go-ahead from INEC for him to declare his intention on whether to contest or not. We Nigerians assume with

hard and take responsibility, you can get ahead in Nigeria. Let’s face it: That belief has suffered some serious blows. We have lost lots of good, middle-class jobs, and weakened the economic foundations that families depend on. After four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled. The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Nigerians are working more than ever just to get by, let alone to get ahead. And too many still aren’t working at all. So, our job is to reverse these trends. It won’t happen right away, and we won’t agree on everything. But what I offer tonight is a set of concrete, practical proposals to speed up growth, strengthen the middle class, and build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class. Nigeria does not stand still - and neither will I. So, wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more Nigerian families, that’s what I’m going to do. By Prince Charles Dickson

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COMMENT

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014

Jonathan, PDP, un-remitted oil money and 2015

Until the letter from the tempestuous Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, got leaked to the press, Nigerians knew absolutely nothing about any unremitted funds

THINK it is best to start off this Sunday by congratulating our dear president for finally finding the courage to relieve himself of the burdens both Princess Oduah, former Minister of Aviation, and her colleague, Orubebe, of the Ministry of the Niger Delta, had put on him. Orubebe has severally been accused of corruption, ranging from nondisclosure of some assets in his declaration as well as making spurious claims of paying for some phantom projects. Even the House of Representatives has found some of these weighty enough to order an investigation. It has been suggested, back home in his own Niger Delta, that, under him, the East-West road will remain a pipe dream. None of these meant a thing to the president; rather, while lesser charges were being pursued in Usain Bolt fashion by the anti-graft agencies, Orubebe, protected by the presidency, never came under their radar but remained one of the president’s closest allies. The case of our dear princess, commander of the Jonathan N-2-N campaign of 2011, and her two luxury toys, is too recent and putrefying enough to delay us here. Some smart Alecs are talking of the restoration of some facilities at the airports but I ask, if the prices of the armoured cars were padded, who says Nigerians were not shortchanged in those other major items of expense? What do we know of the process of hiring the contractors; can it pass the test of incorruptibility? However, Nigerians need to be

congratulated that, for a season, at least, until the next campaign, these individuals will not daily assault our decency as a people. The PDP, sleaze masters that they are in that party, has become customary to mastermind some hefty financial heists whenever a major election is in the offing. In 2003, apart from a top gun of the stock exchange corralling some high heeled members to contribute huge sums of money, a sum of N300billion was supposedly voted for roads only for then President Obasanjo to later ask his friend, and Minister of Works, Chief Tony Anenih, where the roads built with that huge sum were located: “where are the roads?” hollered Obasanjo. Nigerians are still waiting for the answer aeon years later. Also, in what they never thought could later ground the country for weeks, the PDP, ahead of the 2011 elections, arranged to siphon huge funds from the petroleum subsidy vote to fund its hugely expensive 2011 campaign. For that to happen, a former chairman of the party was ensconced as the chairman of the relevant agency and before Nigerians knew what was happening, the list of petrol products importers ballooned to high heavens with companies ostensibly belonging to the children of two former PDP chairmen and other influential members of the party conspicuously on it. You only get the full import of this scheme if you remember that the same government had earlier entered into an import

agreement with a company named Trafigura, fined 1 million Euros in Amsterdam in July 2010 for dumping toxic petroleum waste on Cote d’Ivoire killing scores of people. According to Farooq A.Kperogi in his article ‘Biggest Scandal In Oil Subsidy Removal Fraud’, the same Trafigura it was, which the Jonathan government contracted to take 60,000 barrels of crude oil per day in exchange for refined products of equivalent value estimated at around $3 billion a year, whereas a third of that amount could have revived the country’s refineries. For this government, it matters not if Nigerians have their health compromised as long as they make money to finance the next outlandish campaign. This then was the precursor to the removal of a socalled ‘subsidy’ on petrol which grounded the entire country and did not end until some were lost. Here we are with the 2015 elections approaching especially at a time the ruling party is gasping for breath having been thoroughly shattered by internal contradictions arising from many years of surviving on impunity, exacerbated by a chairman who threw his weight, needlessly, all over the place, arrogating to himself powers never conferred on him by any party organ. And lo, and behold, Nigeria is confronted again by about the most stupendous public accounting challenge, being creatively rationalised as legitimate, but certainly, un-appropriated, expenses. Until the letter from the tempestuous

Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, got leaked to the press, Nigerians knew absolutely nothing about any unremitted funds. And it would not be until about three months after the letter that the president would now scramble a face-saving meeting of the NNPC, the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the CBN which then narrowed the alleged $49.8 million to between $10billion and $12billion, still leaving at least $2billion unaccounted for. Sanusi has since come back to say that the actual unremitted amount is $20 million. Deposed Sanusi at a senate hearing: “NNPC shipped $67 billion worth of crude, but what came to the CBN, after all reconciliation, stands at $47 billion. Let us know what happened to the remaining $20 billion.” If any evidence of high profile duplicity is needed in all these, it is the rather untenable clam of the NNPC Group Managing Director that although the president may have, as far back as the Yar’ Adua presidency, removed subsidy on kerosene, this directive was not passed down to the NNPC. Even if this were correct, since when has ignorance become justification for an illegality and has the legal dictum ‘ignoramus non juris excusat’ been abrogated? Even if these were so, are Nigerians to now understand that no agency of government brought this to the attention of a humongous NNPC? The GMD must tell his stories to the marines because I sincerely believe

that he is just being clever by half but you bet, this is the story line they will stick to, come rain, and come shine. Like in the case of the oil subsidy removal, in which some companies claimed that ships which never visited Africa delivered fuel cargoes in Lagos, and were paid subsidy in billions of naira, we are again being taken through the same chicanery and high profile scam. Unfortunately, it is most unlikely that anything will come out of all the investigation since big money is involved. I therefore align myself with the view that, and I quote a source that should know: ‘It is already looking like the scandal over the unremitted funds will go the way of all scandals – under the carpet since, instead of dealing with the issue, President Jonathan has been doing what his government does best: finding scape-goats and buying time for a bigger scandal to break’. Or why on earth can the president not order an international forensic audit to look at this gargantuan mess once and for all. This is necessary because external economists are in agreement that the figures are just not just adding up. Using official data, analysis by CSL, the stock-broking arm of Nigeria’s First City Merchant Bank, points to a $24.3bn discrepancy in 2012 between the market value of declared production by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and actual remittances to the state. Also, Charles Robertson, lead economist for Renaissance Capital, an investment bank, identifies a persistent monthly gap of $1.5bn and asserted that the $26bn discrepancy from January 2012 to May 2013 would explain Nigeria’s fiscal problems. He noted that figures from the Nigeria Customs, the IMF and from the country’s main trading partners “are gloriously inconsistent”, concluding that overinvoicing imports by the NNPC is a common method to get cash offshore. If President Jonathan is not complicit in all these, he should order an external forensic audit today.

How not to be a gentleman and other (un) social etiquettes!

The magic words are only known to the Haves who abuse expense accounts, insult charge accounts, assault subventions, batter budgetary allocations and clubber the country

HAVE many observations on the male race in Nigeria, mostly because I am not a member. My most profound discovery about them is that nearly every member of that group does not have a single idea what it means to be a gentleman. Just check out the traffic. Many men, even men-in-black, can be seen struggling for the right-of-way with every other road user, lady or ruffian. I have searched in vain for those I can call knights-in-shining-armour to redeem the race. All I see around me are men in burnished armour. Nearly all of them appear to be versed in the veritable art of how not to be a gentleman. You are offended? Wait then till I ask you this: how many of our men, not counting your fashionistas, know how to sew a button on their most beloved shirt? Most Nigerian men cannot tell one end of the needle from the other. Yet, the book of etiquette says ‘a gentleman knows how to sew on a button’. For that matter, how many of our men know that a gentleman should always walk behind a lady, except of course when there is danger? There you are, none of you! Most men have no idea that they are supposed to walk in such a way that they shield their lady from all dangers, oncoming or from behind. Alas, your Nigerian men appear to need the shelter that women provide; that’s why they make women walk behind them. Yet again, the book says a gentleman al-

ways walks behind a lady. There is a rule in the book of social etiquettes that says men ought always to give their lady friends flowers to mark a variety of occasions: Christmas, birthday, baby bearing, apologies, weekend getaway, valentine, request-to-bemine... Now, all those men who gave their ladies flowers this last valentine should please stand up. That’s what I thought: two men out of one hundred and something million (or whatever you think the population of the country is). Haba! Did you say something about giving flowers not being in our culture? Mmm! I always wondered why the Almighty caused the silly things to grow around here, seeing they are really not part of the culture of Nigerians. You know the way one would hold a baby’s heavily soiled nappy when it’s full of the stuff? That’s how a Nigerian male holds flowers when he is giving them to a lady. He thinks it’s more than his reputation can withstand to be seen doing that. The only time I received a flower in my house was the year I made a lot of noise about it. Since then, there has been a flowery silence. From this book of social etiquettes for men, I also see that gentlemen are not expected to leave dirty crockery around. Ha! That is the one I love most. I wait for the day when Nigerian gentlemen will finish their dinner and promptly see that there

is no dirty crockery lying around, not just by instructing the little ones to deal with it but by rolling up their sleeves and plunging their hands into the soapsuds. In the meantime, we must continue to watch as Baba Wande finishes his dinner and slides off the table end of the conversation, in person, particularly when he ignores the thin voice of the woman wailing about ‘who will wash these plates’. Well, sometimes, the cuckoo waltzes home and daddy decides of his own freewill to clean up. Such days are rarer than finding ruby on the beach; that is why there usually is a song and dance about it when it happens. Even the neighbourhood knows there is something different in the air because the voice of the turtle is heard clearly in the land. Once, I came upon a woman who, unprompted, quickly explained that the father of the house was cooking dinner that evening. I never asked her. I rather think that she needed to explain why she was in the sitting room that dinner preparation hour, rather than in the kitchen. I have not been able to decide whether that was occasioned by guilt or a need to fill the time, that she had normally used for pottering around the kitchen, with words. By far the most profound of the How to be a gentleman’s rules is that gentlemen are expected to laugh and talk quietly. Actually, I think that is where we all fail, both men and women. This abuse of noise is something that is very Nigerian. From

waking time to sleeping time in this country, there is no abating the noises buzzing and belching out of every religion-linked loudspeaker, record dealer, transport canvasser, beer parlour adherent, irate husbands, termagants, and all else. To a man (and woman), Nigerians are just mindless noisemakers. One day, we really should talk about why we have not all become The Walking Deaf in this country. Most importantly, my book revealed that real gentlemen do not abuse expense accounts while on business trips. This is the fine print of a larger law that says gentlemen do not abuse the accounts of their offices or the other privileges of those offices. The finer print of that law says that abusers are liable to be called Common Thieves. I don’t think this rule was written with Nigerians in mind exactly. If it was, then it has fallen flat on its face. Nearly every facet of Nigerian life is peopled with men who do not only abuse their expense accounts, they actually insult them. That exactly is the bane of public life in this country: the fact that Nigerians do not really know the meaning of the epithet Common Thief. Unfortunately for us all, Nigeria is not a class-minded society. Perhaps, once upon a time in its history, it used to be. At that time, there were behavioural expectations for every segment of the tribe. What qualified one for membership within that segment was no more than conformity to the rules. Aberrations were not only

frowned at, they qualified one for exclusion from the segment. That was class behaviour. It did not depend on money; it depended on a certain mental tuning and keying in to a particular degree expected of one. Now, the diffusion that came through the modern life-style has restructured the society to the Haves and the Have-nots. The Haves are those who can rub two kobo together, say the magic words and bring out millions of Naira, while the Have-nots are those who do not know the magic words. No matter how much those ones rub two kobo together, nothing will come out. Zilch. Unfortunately, either by coincidence or luck, the magic words are only known to the Haves who use them to abuse expense accounts, insult charge accounts, assault subventions, batter budgetary allocations and clubber the country. Now, those are the common thieves who cannot be called gentlemen. Does it then follow that the Have-nots are gentlemen? I honestly don’t know; do you? By the above accounts, therefore, a gentleman is someone who seeks to maintain class behaviour that hinges on responsibility. To say that Nigeria needs gentlemen in its public offices (and private ones too) is an understatement. Responsibility allows one to choose that action which can be called the thing to do, you know, the gentlemanly thing. That is what makes a society successful, when it can count on its public citizens to be extraordinary gentlemen.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014

COMMENT

(52) Falling and getting up, again and again, through snow, ice and sleet: a morality tale

•Blizzard conditions in New York

Oluwa yo pa alo ati abo re mo [May the Lord keep your going and your coming sanctified and safe] A benediction of biblical derivation HE first fall happened around the third minute of a 20minute walk. It was Thursday and I had just ended my last class for the week. I think it was the anticipation of a restful weekend that made me walk rather briskly, even thought I was well aware that I was walking on heavily snow-covered pavements. Because of the briskness of my walk, that first fall was a very bad one. As I slipped and lost my balance, the velocity of my walk turned my whole body into a human projectile, hurtling me into a long slide on the pavement that was eventually broken when my feet rammed into the pillars of a coffee house on the street. Badly shaken, I realized that if the path of my long but swift slide had been head-first and not feetfirst, it would have been my head that would have rammed into the pillars and I might in all likelihood have suffered a concussion. By the time a few bystanders had rushed to my help, I had picked myself up, greatly relieved that I was alright, no bones broken, no hips displaced and, yes, no concussion. Since at the time I did not know, indeed could not have known that this would be the first of more falls that would total six or seven before I finally got home that afternoon, what is this essay about and why am I extrapolating from my many falls that afternoon what I call a morality tale? As the well known adage goes, to be forewarned is to be forearmed. For more than forty-eight hours before my misadventures on the snowcovered, icy pavements of Putnam Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Thursday this week, an “advisory” had been persistently put out

on radio and TV by meteorological experts and the civil authorities asking the populace of the Greater Boston area to expect another blizzard that was projected to last from dawn Thursday to mid-afternoon on Friday. Stay home if you don’t have any important or urgent business to do outside, we had been warned. Don’t drive; walk or take public transportation if you have to go out. Many schools were closed, especially the kindergartens and crèches of young children, the so-called pre-schoolers. In the institution in which I teach, the authorities adopted a “wait-andsee” approach: the morning and early afternoon classes were kept open while the evening classes were cancelled with the proviso that if things got really very bad, all classes would be cancelled at very short notice. My class that day was an early afternoon class. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Since I had to go and teach my class that day, I was very conscious of the warnings, the “advisory” that had been widely publicized concerning what to expect and how to prepare oneself for it. But I am a man from the tropics, from the warm, snowless, blizzard-less regions of the planet, even though I have lived and worked now in the temperate zones for a little more than two decades. As I left my apartment intending to go, teach and promptly return home, I looked like the proverbial snowman in my dressing, accoutered like the locals from the tip of my head to the soles of my shoes. Well, eventually, I was to realize that the soles of my shoes did not exactly fit what the denizens, the locals would normally arm themselves with in a blizzard. For in place of rugged boots with rough-hewn, serrated soles designed to yield a firm grip on snow-covered, icy pavements, I had shoes that were fur-lined for warmth inside but had soles that were as smooth as the face of a mir-

ror. In wearing this kind of shoes, I wasn’t being foolhardy; rather, what I thought was that the fresh snow that began to fall that morning would cover the ice that had formed from the frozen snow of the blizzard of the previous week. In general and with a little bit of caution, people don’t slip and fall on fresh, heavy snow; it is when the snow turns to ice that the streets, the pavements become treacherous for walkers. And indeed, as I walked to go and teach my class mid-morning that eventful day, the snow was falling very heavily but there wasn’t the slightest indication that the pavement was slippery and treacherous. But then, between the time of my “going” midmorning and the time of my “coming” mid-afternoon, wet snow, sleet and freezing rain had mixed with the snow and the result was that the icy undertow of the pavement that had been covered in the morning had become exposed by late afternoon. May the Lord keep our going and coming sanctified and safe! After that bad, nasty fall, I became more careful, more “tactical” in my walk. I thought that all I had to do was to rein in the briskness of my walk and keep an eye for the spots to avoid on the pavement. But then about two minutes later, I slipped and fell again. Even though this second fall was not as bad and fearful as the first, I was shaken and became nonplussed. Apparently, I did not know what was in store for me. But by the time that I fell the third time with still a long way to go before I got to my apartment, I came to the sudden and very sobering realization that on this day among days, even with the greatest caution I could muster, there was no assurance, no guarantee that I would not fall again and again. This realization came simultaneously with my awareness that, like a boatman who suddenly realizes in the

middle of a sea far from the shores that his vessel had sprung a big leak, the shoes I had on would be the very instrument of my falling again and again on the ice-strewn pavement. That moment of awareness that I was, so to speak, trapped by and in my shoes was also a moment of a resolution with my fate, with the providential order in the universe that come what may, I would get to my house in one whole unbroken piece! Yes, I am almost certainly going to keep falling, I said to myself, but I am not going to break my neck or my limbs; I am not going to have a fall as bad and nasty as the first one; and I am not going to black out from a concussion! If and when I fall again, it would not be a bad fall and it would not catch my by complete surprise. Indeed, I became metaphysical and said to myself, he that falls but is not crushed by his fall will rise again; let him fall times without number, he will rise again! And isn’t falling and rising, and falling and rising yet again part of the human condition? The Lord will keep our going and coming sanctified and safe! For those of my readers who know only too well my solid secular “iwalesin” worldview and may therefore wonder about my invocation of the grace and will of the Lord several times in this piece, I give assurance that my extraordinary experience this past Thursday has not reconverted me back to a religious, metaphysical worldview. In the tradition of the secular humanism and the materialist, life-enhancing spirituality to which I have devoted the entirety of my adult life, we have our own expressive idiom for the epigraph to this essay that I have repeated several times in this piece and it is captured in the saying that heaven helps only those who help themselves. Altogether, I fell about six or seven times, absolutely without regard to all attempts that I made to

stay on my feet, to walk the pavement and not become a human sled on it. There is no dignity in falling, brothers and sisters, especially in falling again and again within the same period of time. With each fall, a little bit of my self-composure, if not my self-respect, disappeared. While this lasted, I became an unwilling and unwitting embodiment of awkwardness and ungainliness. Indeed, I became a little paranoid, looking back and around me every time that I fell to see if anyone was laughing or was secretly jeering at me. I am happy to report that the thought was in my mind, not in the real world. With my falls, the few people in the street at the time looked away in embarrassment and perhaps also in sympathy. I would like to think that some of them might have realized that something unusual was going on. Some might even have recognized the cause of the mishap: the encounter of plain and non-serrated shoe soles with a treacherously icy pavement. I understand that in the United States, every year thousands of people either die outright or suffer great and crippling disabilities from falling on icy pavements during the winter season. So I consider myself lucky for having emerged from the mishaps of this last Thursday without any broken bones and any temporary or permanent physical disabilities. I suppose this is what led me to the morality tale that I have in this piece tried to extract from the experience. The will of humankind is insuperable; it will rise again and again from failures, defeats and catastrophes. This is what oppressors don’t know. It is what those who fight for the poor, the weak and the dispossessed must base their hope and faith that even the most depressingly oppressive conditions can be changed. Biodun Jeyifo bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014

COMMENT

Nigerian civil service at threshold of N the future [1] IGERIA, undoubtedly, is in the threshold of history. There are commendable development strides in the governance space which, if deepened and accelerated, will soon redefine Nigeria’s global reckoning. But the key words are ‘deepening and acceleration’ which entail balancing ‘doing the right thing’ and ‘doing it right’. Deepening means doing things differently, doing some magic of a sort and here disciplined execution is key. My concern in this attempt to extend discourse on political leadership into the realm of institutional reengineering is resolving the whole issue of ‘execution trap’ through getting the government implementation machinery, the civil service, capability ready in the assumption that sufficient transformational leadership commitment and passion drives the development process. The global world today only recognises those states which are distinguished by their economic competitiveness as well as their democratic governance profile. This explains the many global instruments that track economic growth and development worldwide. For instance, the Global Competitiveness Report, published by the World Economic Forum, assesses the competitive strength of over 150 states, spanning the MINT and the BRICS, the Arab world, Latin America and the Caribbean, the European Union, Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The objective of the Report is to benchmark those factors that hinder or aid national economic competitiveness. Competitiveness is defined as ‘the set of institutions, policies and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country.’ And so, in mapping competitiveness, the Report outlines twelve pillars that are crucial for any state which wants to achieve sustainable growth: institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication and innovation from technological and non-technological knowledge. In the ranking for 2013-2014, Nigeria is ranked 120 out of 148 on the Index, with a score of 3.57 out of 7. The 120 ranking is a drop from 117 in the 2012-2013 ranking. South Africa is the first African country that made a strong appearance at number 53 with a score of 4.37. In terms of the strength of institutions, Nigeria is ranked a dismal 129

By Tunji Olaopa

out of 148. The emphasis of the World Economic Forum on institutions as a critical component of the basic requirements for growth and development brings home cogently the nexus between leadership effectiveness and the crisis of institutions in Nigeria. In those series, we submitted that it is the strength of the institutions that determine the quality of leadership, and leadership itself sets the template for the evolution of such strong institutions in the first place. It is therefore the synergy between the strong leader and the strong institutions that guarantees competitiveness and growth. A nation’s productivity profile becomes the first point at which the development process begins to hurt a state’s governance template. However, increasing the productivity level involves rethinking a country’s institutional capacity to address multifarious issues arising from internal and external dynamics. Institutional capacity speaks to the urgent need for a capable developmental state that would serve as the focal framework for enacting and implementing good governance policies. States that overcome their developmental problems are usually developmental states. And developmental state automatically also assumes the existence of a leadership arrowhead that gives direction to a common national agenda and processes. However, no state can ever hope to become developmental except it can rely on an efficient and effective civil service system that would facilitate the smooth transformation of government policies into a fast and democratic service delivery that will impact positively on the lives of the citizens. Thus, a developmental state is itself made capable by a development oriented civil service that channels inputs into deliverable outputs. The last centenary of the evolution of the Nigerian civil service demonstrates that this institution requires a huge dose of rejuvenation that would not only redeem it from its amalgamated logic, but, much more significant, would also strengthen it as the solid institutional link between the past and the future. When the Nigerian civil service be-

gan its evolutionary journey in 1954, it came into a host of problems which are the consequences of attempting to adapt a foreign structure on local realities. The evolving institution therefore had to undergo series of reform, mediated by several commissions and committees, to panel-beat the civil service system into shape for the task of postindependence reconstruction in Nigeria. In our recent series on the centenary of the Nigerian civil service, we highlighted the most significant of these reforms. We outline the fact that the civil service was given birth to with the tentative hope that it would, through the many reforms, acquire the capacities and competences needed to drive the engine of socio-economic growth in postcolonial Nigeria. However, we eventually came to the conclusion that in spite of the valiant, century-long efforts made on behalf of the civil service system, the institution is still some steps away from delivering capacities, competences and public goods; it is still struggling to attain the status of a world class institution. The reason, essentially, is that within a century, we missed two transformatory moments which the historical dynamics of our evolvement compelled us to confront and utilise. The first is the historic lesson, within the context of the development of the regional civil services, which points at the benefits of a synergy between the political and the administrative leadership as the foundation of a thriving civil service. The successes of the Awolowo-Adebo model of administration, however, have not been translated into the core of our reform efforts. The second transformation moment that was lost was the failure by the military leadership to heed the warning of the Udoji Commission Report on the need for a managerial transformation of the civil service system. If that warning had been heeded, the Nigerian civil service would have successfully installed a performance management system that would bring the institution to a delivery mode required to transform policies to demonstrable developmental outcomes. The Nigerian civil service is now confronted with the prospect of another century, and therefore the urgent need to re-

think its historical dynamics, institutional readiness and transformatory potentials. I have attempted to do all these within the context of a forthcoming book titled: The Nigerian Civil Service of the Future. This eighteen-chapter book is an intellectual effort to retrieve the two transformatory moments within the historical dynamics of the evolution of the Nigerian civil service. The book projects an optimistic and demonstrable theoretical and practical trajectory of how the past of this institution can become a foothold of strength from which to launch the achievements of the next centenary. The Nigerian Civil Service of the Future is meant to serve as a reform blueprint for jumpstarting the debate about institutional renewal and democratic consolidation of the civil service. More than ever before, the Nigerian civil service must prepare for its own future. And that future, according to Walter Mosley, is what we make of it. It would consist of the optimism with which we prepare, the alacrity with which we redouble our efforts, the foresight we bring into our prognosis, the determination with which we rethink our administrative and historical dynamics, and the boldness of our decisions. The forthcoming book roadmaps several issues, landmines and detours, stretching from the past in 1954 to the present—represented by the reform efforts from 1999 to the present Transformation Agenda of the current administration. These issues, landmines and detours constitute the core of the administrative arsenal by which we can take informed steps and decisions into a future already mapped by the lessons of where the rain began to beat us. In the next part of this series, we will make effort to highlight and outline the structure and basic arguments and practical guides which form the basis of the forthcoming book. Suffice to say, in conclusion, that the future of the Nigerian civil service is not a joking matter; the political and the administrative leadership cannot therefore be caught taking it lightly. Our next centenary depends on it. Dr. Olaopa is Permanent Secretary Federal Ministry of Communication Technology Abuja tolaopa2003@gmail.com

Falana, when will you mind your own business? M Y dear FF, your frequent interventions in national affairs these days are getting me worried about how you harness your energies, time and resources at this critical period in your life. I read your statements on police permit for rallies, the kerosene subsidy palaver and the latest was your letter to the Auditor General of the Federation on the missing $20 billion illegally withheld from the Federation Account by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). In your letter dated February 7, you demanded a comprehensive audit of the federation account by the Auditor General of the Federation in order to reconcile the conflicting figures of both the Central Bank of Nigeria and the NNPC. You also threatened to take appropriate legal actions against the Auditor-General if he failed to act on your letter. You and I know that this was not the first time money will be missing from the NNPC. It started way back in 1977 when Vera Ifudu of the NTA had an exclusive interview with Senator Olusola Saraki on the findings of the Senate Committee that investigated the discovery of $2.8 billion in the account of a notable military officer in a Midland Bank branch in London. The Senate Committee’s findings contradicted those of the Justice Ayo Irikefe Panel which absolved the military officer from any wrong doing. Dr. Tai Solarin who helped in spreading the “rumour” through his column in the Nigerian Tribune was advised by Justice Irikefe to mind his own business when he failed to substantiate his claim when he appeared before the panel. Solarin’s confession that he heard about the missing money inside a molue angered Irikefe and his colleagues. I commend your consistency and commit-

By Dapo Thomas

ment to the struggle for a just and better society, responsible leadership and good governance. However, I must warn that you have gotten to a stage in your life when you have to reflect on your activism and your participation capacity considering your age and your expanded family commitments, having attained the status of a grandfather. Just last month, I read that you lost your son-in-law, Juwon Majekodunmi, who got married to your daughter just a year ago. This may not have any direct connection to the struggle, it is just a way of telling you that there is need to re-strategise and possibly deploy and re-channel some of these energies and resources into some personal endeavours. I am concerned about the fact that after almost 35 years of “active activism” you are not showing signs of either withdrawing from it or slowing down the tempo of your anger against the nation’s political leadership. I must acknowledge though that your serial interventions in the Nigerian project have really helped us to achieve the little sanity that we have today, I still feel that the time has come for you to watch from the terrace or the sidelines how the game would be played without your involvement. The history of your activism is replete with so many instances of your confrontations with governments and their security agencies. Some of them were as dangerous as they were lethal. The number of persecutions you have suffered in the course of ensuring that our leaders govern the people, according to their oath of office and the laws of the land, is so massive that we your friends believe that only God could have made you survive them all, at least to date.

I do not know of any government since the time of Alhaji Shehu Shagari in 1979 that you have not had dangerous encounters with. You were unsparing in your attack and condemnation of the high voltage profligacy and police brutality witnessed under the Shagari administration. You could not conceal your anger and bitterness against the outrageous electoral fraud and madness which characterised the 1983 elections nationwide. I must admit, however, that the Shagari administration was full of all kinds of evil capable of destabilising the mental constitution of even the most sober individual in Nigeria. It was a government of brigands. The brushes you had with the Buhari-Idiagbon administration were provoked by Buhari’s slide into tyranny after enjoying popular support from the people for overthrowing the Shagari’s administration. You also revolted against the Buhari administration’s decision to withdraw meal subsidy from all our universities. You protested and fumed against this oppressive policy but all to no avail. The kinds of travails you went through during the regime of Ibrahim Babangida were such that only a man of steel could have survived them. I remember very well that you, Beko and Gani were sent to Kuje Prison purposely because the government of IBB felt that was the only way to break you and your obstinacy. Ernest Shonekan could not even sit properly because of your incessant attacks on the constitutionality of his government. As an eye witness to some of these events, I can confirm that your presence at the daily protest at Ikeja under-bridge was instrumental to the dramatic step aside decision of Ibrahim Babangida. It was a fight-to-the-finish battle with the Abacha re-

gime as you, Gani and Beko took his government to the cleaners with your vitriolic protestations against his despotic activities. My dear friend, I think there are some defects, structural and systemic, in our Aluta strategy. Have you not observed that all our past struggles/Alutas have only led to changes in characters and styles? Just when you think you have dealt with a Babangida and his antics, another character, possibly more evil than Babangida, for instance, an Abacha, would later surface on stage with his own style, his own evil, his own corruption, his own despotic and tyrannic tendencies and exploits and then, the struggle continues. What can we do to end the struggle? When do we have time to mind our own personal business? What profits do we derive from a national struggle that saps our youthful energies and faculties, and also threatens the peace of our old age? What is more pathetic is that some of our people, previously engaged and involved in this struggle, have been blighted by the struggles one-step forward, twenty-steps backward scenario, and have either joined them, the so-called oppressors, or have been settled to keep mute in the midst of evil, or have been disabled physically, mentally, spiritually and economically. You and I might have been favoured to still remain alive, blessed and prosperous, but does that confer on us any moral authority to berate those who have committed class suicide having seen the vanity and futility of a struggle that remains as it was in the beginning and appears to want to remain like that forever? The struggle may be your life but your life does not have to be all about struggles. • Continued on page 70

THE NATION ON SUNDAYFEBRUARY 16, 2014

‘Mark hasn’t fulfilled promises made to Idoma nation’

PDP manifesto needs to be reviewed - Bafarawa

PAGES 20

PAGE 21

2015: Anxiety over Chime’s absence PAGE 25

Epic battle in Kwara PDP

•Abdulrahman Oba

•Gbemi Saraki

The defection of the former Governor of Kwara State, Dr. Bukola Saraki, and his supporters from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), has left a big vacuum in the Kwara PDP, with some of its stakeholders currently embroiled in a fierce battle for relevance. Assistant Editor, Remi Adelowo, reports the scenario playing out and other developments in the state politics

HE Kwara State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is still reeling from the shock of the defection of the former state governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki, to the main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). On the heels of Saraki’s defection was the decision of state governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, two senators, all members of the House of Representatives - all PDP members (except one) in the state House of Assembly, the 18 local government chairmen and over a 100 councilors in the state - to join APC in solidarity with the former governor who currently represents Kwara Central in

the Senate. Widely acclaimed as the political leader of the state, Saraki’s exit from the PDP has expectedly created a void in the PDP, according to sources within the party. The Nation gathered that while the Kwara PDP still boasts of prominent stakeholders, including the Chairman of the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Prof. Abdulrahman Oba; former Minister of Transport, Ibrahim Bio; Senator representing Kwara South, Simeon Ajibola, and Senator Gbemi Saraki, as members, a leadership tussle has ensued amongst these stakeholders over who takes charge of the party

•Ibrahim Isa Bio in the state. An indication that all was not well with the party came to the fore last week during the formal return of Gbemi Saraki, the younger sister of Bukola Saraki, to the PDP from the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) on which platform she contested the 2011 governorship election. Sources revealed that in spite of the invitation extended to other stakeholders of the party, including Oba, Bio and Ajibola, they were conspicuously absent, a development not unconnected to the brewing battle for supremacy and the •Continued on Page 20

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

POLITICS

OU are from the same senatorial district with the Senate President, David Mark. Why did you declare your intention or are you not afraid that the Senator President may seek re-election? My aspiration is premised on the failure of Senator David Mark to deliver anything meaningful to the Idoma people for 16 years he has occupied that position. Since 1999, Senator David Mark has been deceiving us, leading to deep frustrations and hopelessness on the part of the people and their yearnings for positive change. It has become obvious that his often-touted promise has become a recycled promise, which will never come to fruition, and which he can no longer use to manipulate the people to his advantage. The time for that change is now. He has not fulfilled any of the promises he made to the Idoma nation. We all know that one of the major planks of his campaign has been his promise to facilitate the creation of Apa State for the Idoma people, a subject so dear to the Idoma nation because of the challenges we face within the context of our current existence since the creation of Benue State in 1976. Not only has he contested and gone to that office for the past four consecutive terms on the strength of this promise, he has also occupied this position as a conventional Senator for eight years and as Senate President for another eight years How did your people receive the news of your intention to run for the Senate? The declaration of my candidature for the Benue South Senatorial District’s contest on 26th January 2014 has elicited a lot of interest and ardent followership by Idomas and non-Idomas alike. Many have wondered what inspired this decision, especially in the face of the apparent aversion of other Idoma sons and daughters. I mean those who are equally qualified, but have refrained from expressing interest in vying for this office which has been occupied by one individual since inception of the current political dispensation. To address these inquiries, I have outlined in my several discussions with some Idoma people why I think the incumbent holder of that office should no longer continue in that office when his current tenure expires on 29th May 2015. It should be clear to him by now that, having occupied the highest possible office he can aspire to within the Senate, and not having been able to deliver on this promise during the past 16 years, another term of four years to make a record of 20 years in that same office will not make any difference. The Idomas now know better that they can no longer be hoodwinked into believing another round of recycled promise of Apa State, because the process of state creation is a herculean task within a complicated federal structure like ours in Nigeria, and no single person, no matter how well connected, can make it happen except by the collective will of the people. You seem not to believe in the creation of Apa State, or is it because it was being championed by David Mark? The creation of Apa State is achievable, but should not be used as a deceitful material against the people you claim to be representing. As I said, the creation of Apa State has been a campaign strategy for David Mark. So, people like us in Benue State are saying he should stop pledging what he knows he cannot redeem. We are

‘Mark hasn’t fulfilled promises made to Idoma nation’ Chief Madaki Omadachi Ameh is a chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State. He recently declared his intention to contest for the Benue South Senatorial District (Zone C), the same constituency with the Senate President, Sen. David Mark. In this interview with Precious Dikewoha in Port Harcourt, he described Mark’s 16 years in the senate as a wasteful venture. no longer kids in the field of politics, Idoma people are not happy over his attitude, especially the wasted years in the Senate. Are you saying David Mark’s 16 years as a senator is a wasteful venture? Yes, the Idomas cannot point to any meaningful achievement the incumbent Senator has done since he became a Senator. All roads in Idoma are in bad shape or poorly constructed. Even the road that leads to his home town, Akpegede community, is worse than any other road in the state. The only new federal project in the state is the re-construction of the OtukpoOweto Road, which was inexplicably terminated at Iga-Okpaya, leaving out much of the rest of Apa Local Government Area and the entire Agatu Local Government Area, both of which have hardly seen any form of government presence since time immemorial. This road, which terminates at Oweto, provides a very short access to Abuja. Even though a contract has reportedly been awarded for the construction of the bridge and preliminary works are said to have commenced, no one knows when this project will be completed, if at all, judging from the penchant for abandoned projects in Nigeria. Considering the enormous influence the Senate President wields over the budgetary process, he could have included any project within his constituency in the federal budget. But this has not happened, and will not happen no matter how much longer he stays in that office. In fact, I have it on high authority, that some federal projects earmarked for Zone C, such as the Makurdi Naka - Adoka - Ankpa road, which was included in the 2009 draft Federal Budget, was deliberately removed from the final budget document by the Senate President because he said that Adoka people do not usually vote for him during elections. Even the Otobi Dam project, which held out significant promise for provision of much-needed potable water in Otukpo and the surrounding communities, has become a white elephant project. A lot of politicians have said what you are saying today but when they got there they turned their back on the people. What is the hope for the people of your constituency when you become a Senator?

• Ameh

A true leader shows empathy for his people, no matter their circumstances, he will always expand the frontiers of opportunities for his people, without undue favouritism or nepotism. This trend, which is fast becoming the norm among political leaders in Idoma Land and elsewhere, needs to be consciously discouraged. Of course, not all of us can have our elder brothers or sisters in high offices for us to be able to enjoy the basic benefits of governance, such as employment for people who are amply qualified. Our teeming youths still remain unemployed and frustrated, in spite of their enormous talents and high level of intellect. This is because they have no hope to access government appointments and other services as to enjoy the benefits of citizenship of this great country. Let me assure you that this campaign will

never resort to denigration of the person of the Senate President, because it is in our collective interest for him to continue to enjoy the high esteem in which he is held at the national level. After all, as the saying goes, “if you do not want your brother to be king, you will never be the brother or sister of a king.” But we must also not shy away from telling the truth to the constituted authority, especially where such people hold positions in trust for the people. When did the dream of serving your people start? For more than 30 years, I have been dreaming to become the governor of Benue State. I went into politics in 2009/ 2010 and I contested at the last general election for Federal House of Representative. But more interestingly, they said I have not done my internship, which is the style of the Peoples Democratic Party. In the PDP, if you have not done that, no matter how good your intensions are, you cannot come into the party and begin to contest election because they believe that there are candidates who were there before you came. Even though I was a favoured candidate, I was asked to step down. During the primary, it was a tough one as things were not done the way they should be done. Because of the experience, when my people decided to search for someone to serve them at the Senate, I decided that I will go to the APC to contest under the platform. That was how I joined the party today. With what is happening in the APC, it is clear that our democracy is getting a better shape, a political party is not anybody’s father’s name. It is a platform to achieve a political aim. I don’t want to compete with those in the PDP, who don’t have political value even when they cannot win election in their own ward. Some people are worried that I moved to the APC but why would I stay in the PDP; why would I stay in a party that enjoys impunity? How close are you to the grassroots? I am a grassroots man, some politicians or privileged individuals are running away from their communities because they do not belong to the grassroots. I love my people, I love my village, that was why I built in my village instead of my local government because it is always good to connect with the people at the grassroots and when that happens, the people get closer to you and the more they do the more you know their problems. Politicians are running away from their villages, believing that the villagers are poor and maybe disturbing or harassing them to get money from their pockets. But the truth is that they need money but money is not their problem. If you give them N1billion, it will disappear in their hand before two months and they will go back to the same life. The major problem is to assist them develop the right psyche that will enable them utilise whatever is given to them. In my community, farmers sell their yam prematurely when it has not been harvested with N200 for five heaps. It is the buyer who now enjoys the fruit of their labour because the buyer now waits until the yam matured. So if the school fees of their children are their problem they will sell their property. I am from Adoka, I am telling you this because I know my people. I sleep in • Continued from Page 25

Gbemi Saraki, Bio, Oba’s epic battle in Kwara PDP •Continued from page 19

control of the party in the state. Long before Gbemi Saraki returned to the PDP, there had been a silent but fierce battle among Oba, Bio and Ajibola for the soul of the party with all efforts to achieve a consensus allegedly spurned by the key stakeholders. To stem the ugly tide, the national leadership of the party, then led by Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, inaugurated an interim executive headed by a former member of the House of Representatives from Delta State, Hon. Solomon Edoja, with Alhaji Jubril Bala Jos as Secretary to run the affairs of the party in the state. Sources revealed that the infighting in the party may not end anytime soon, as Gbemi Saraki, Bio and Oba in the crisis are allegedly working behind the scene to win the party’s governorship ticket for the 2015 general elections. While this crisis remains unresolved, The Nation gathered that both the national leadership of the party and the presidency are working on the option of picking the party’s 2015 governorship candidate from the Central Senatorial Zone, which controls 55 percent of the state’s voting population since the incumbent governor, who is likely to be nomi-

nated for a second term in office by the APC comes from the South Senatorial zone. This permutation leaves Oba and Gbemi Saraki in contention for the party’s ticket since Bio hails from Kwara North, a zone that last produced the governor from 1999 to 1993 in the person of Alhaji Shaaba Lafiagi, who is the incumbent senator representing the zone at the National Assembly. Bukola, Gbemi Saraki feud deepens Against all expectations that the death of the patriarch of Kwara politics, Dr. Olusola Saraki, could be the catalyst for reconciliation between his warring children, Bukola and Gbemi Saraki, The Nation learnt that the feud has further deepened despite the intervention of some influential Nigerians. Gbemi’s formal return to the PDP some days ago at a rally which was also attended by her younger siblings, Laolu and Tope Edu, gave the clearest indication that the centre could no longer hold within the Saraki family. But sources in the state revealed that the gang-up by Gbemi and her siblings rather than diminish Bukola Saraki’s political standing has further shored up his image in the state. Even among PDP members in the state, questions are being asked as to the intention of Gbemi in painting the picture of a gang-up

against her elder brother, with not a few doubting the trio’s capacity to challenge the leadership of their brother in the state politics. Credible sources claim that shortly after Dr. Olusola Saraki passed on, a billionaire industrialist made efforts to broker a truce between Bukola and Gbemi to no avail. During one of such meetings, the businessman was alleged to have impressed it on Gbemi to make peace with her brother, which he claimed was one of the unfulfilled wishes of their father. But the former senator in her response was alleged to have said that her rift with her brother was more of personal than political differences. Why Ajibola remains in PDP The refusal of the Senator representing Kwara South, Simeon Ajibola, to defect to the APC along with the majority of former PDP members, led by Bukola Saraki, has not ceased to confound watchers of Kwara politics. Ajibola’s decision to ditch Saraki might not be unconnected to feelers that he may not be fielded for another term in the Senate following his fall-out with some influential stakeholders in his senatorial district over his alleged unsatisfactory performance. Ajibola, it was gathered, had also read the body language of Saraki, who was said to have bowed to pressure not to support Ajibola’s re-

election in 2015. Belgore’s defection to PDP A few days ago, the former governorship candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Kwara State, Mr. Dele Belgore, defected from the APC to PDP in a move that did not come to many as a surprise. His move to the ruling party, sources alleged, was premised on the offer of the 2015 governorship ticket made to him by key presidency officials and national officers of the party. Belgore’s move to the PDP has fuelled speculations that the powers-that-be may have opted to pick the party’s 2015 governorship candidate from Kwara Central, the largest voting bloc in the state as against the APC, which is likely to nominate the incumbent governor who hails from Kwara South. But the big posers are: will the old PDP members in the state, some of whom are also interested in unseating the incumbent governor, support the alleged governorship aspiration of Belgore in 2015? Will Belgore also not be seen as an interloper by old PDP members just as he labelled Saraki? The likely scenario in the politics of Kwara State in the run-down to the 2015 general elections sure portends an interesting spectacle.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

POLITICS

PDP manifesto needs to be reviewed - Bafarawa •Bafarawa

HE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is facing a lot of challenges. How do you think the party can be reformed? The manifesto of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was written 16 years ago. Since then, so many things have happened. I think for the reformation of PDP, they will need to find out what the Nigerian people need today. They will need to find out what the Nigerian people are looking for. Now, we have security problems, poverty problems and so on. In fact, so many things are happening today which need to be taken care of. Manifesto is just a guideline for Mr. President, the executive governors and so on. So, I think for these needs to be taken care of, the party’s manifesto needs to be reviewed. You have inclination towards the opposition, but now, you have joined the PDP, what informed your decision? Joining PDP is not my decision. It is the decision of my people. Sometimes somebody finds himself in the opposition, not because he wants to be in opposition but because of the circumstances he finds himself. May be in an election, your political party didn’t win, so you find yourself in opposition. That will not stop me from bringing my own ideas, my own contributions towards building the party for the better. If I could not implement it when I was in the opposition, now that I am in the ruling party, it will be easier for me. So, you think people like you can do anything to bring about changes in PDP, things that will make the party to be more people oriented? Yes, because the present chairman of our party is very energetic, a listener; he is someone who can take advice. Therefore, we believe that whatever advice we can give, he will make use of. We are advising him, not for our personal interest but to move our party forward. We don’t have any problem with the current leadership of PDP, the National Chairman and the National Working Committee. I believe they are going to make the PDP better. Put differently, let us say you were not just in the opposition all along, it seems more appropriate to say you have always been on the left of the centre- a progressive. That’s what Bafarawa has always been known as all these years.

Former Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa, who was formally welcomed to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by President Goodluck Jonathan last week Saturday in Sokoto, shared his expectations with few journalists in this interview. Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, presents excerpts Now, you have joined the PDP, which is evidently on the right of the centre. Apart from the emergence of the new National Chairman, are they other signs that have given you the confidence that the party will accommodate the kind of ideas you intend to offer? I will say yes because PDP is a national party. You can see that for the last 16 years, I have been opposing the PDP but as soon as I decided to join the party, they gave me and my supporters the same treatment as those who have been in the party all these while. Look at the calibre of people that followed the president to Sokoto just to welcome me. Based on that, if you retrospect, do you have any regret delaying your movement to the party up till now? Not at all. I don’t have any regret. I am not doing politics for my personal interest. I am in politics for the interest of my people. It is my people’s decision. That is why we find ourselves in PPP. Therefore, I am not regretting anything. Don’t you think you have just joined strange bed fellows? Up till now, we are still building democracy in this country. You can therefore see the professional politicians mixing up with professional office seekers, who are only active during elections. But some people said you left APC, where you are a foundation member for PDP because when the Sokoto State governor joined the APC, you lost the state party structure to him. So, as we asked earlier on, what made you think you stand a chance under PDP platform? Did you take the decision in anger? We are not quarreling with anybody in APC. All we are saying is let us follow the rules of the game. But there is the belief that the power of the incumbency plays very crucial role in the politics of this country. That being

the case, how do you think PDP will win in Sokoto? In politics, never say that one plus one must be two. Incumbents have lost elections in many places in Nigeria: In Zamfara, Kano, Sokoto and Imo, it happened. So, if it happens in Sokoto again, it won’t be new in Nigeria. What is important is that people now have the right awareness. If they see that this candidate is better than the other, they will vote for the better candidate. From the way you relate with the common people, it seems you have some deep affinity with them. What is the secret? When I was governor of Sokoto State, I treated everybody equally, irrespective of their party affiliation. I used to give every political party their share of everything. That is number one. Number two, even before I became governor, I was part and parcel of Sokoto State politics. For the last 38 years, I have been in politics. While I was in office, I was with my people. Even after leaving office, I am still with my people. I don’t go to Kaduna or Abuja to stay. No, I am always with my people. Do you have a candidate you want to annoint for next year’s governorship election in Sokoto? Yes! The candidate I will support is the candidate my people want for that office. For me, I will never go out to annoint anybody. Whoever my people want, I will support him. I believe in internal democracy. Whoever emerges the party’s flag bearer, I will give him my support. What is your take on the re-election ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan? If he wants to contest and if the PDP gives him ticket, that is if he wins the primaries and becomes the party’s presidential candidate, I will definitely work

for him. Whoever emerges the party’s candidate, I will give him support. Are you nursing the ambition of going to the Senate, or if your people ask you to go to the senate, will you go? There are some things my people will ask me to do and I will not do them. They asked me go to the PDP and I went because it is going to affect everyone of us, but if they ask me to go to the Senate and I accept, then I am selfish. I have governed the state for eight years- the whole state. So, for me to now go to the Senate to represent one-third of my state, I am not being fare to myself and I am not being fare to others, especially the young ones, who I think should be given the chance to rise. You must have somebody you should groom to become somebody. I believe the young ones can also do it. Why should I block the chance of the young ones? The current National Chairman of PDP inherited a lot of problems in the party. What advise will you give him to help save the PDP? Mu’azu is not a difficult person, so by his emergence as the National Chairman of PDP, I think God has answered the people’s prayers. This is because Mu’azu believes he can’t do it alone. He needs people’s support, people’s advice. Any leader that admits he can’t do it alone has already solved the problem. But any leader who thinks he can do it alone will soon have problems. I believe Mu’azu is ready, he is determined to bring PDP to a better position. The Sultan was not around to receive Mr President at your formal welcome ceremonies to PDP in Sokoto. Didn’t you read some meanings into that? Not at all. The event was just a party event, an emergency party event and when we fixed the date, Sultan was not in the country. He was in Saudi Arabia and there is no way he could cut his religious duties just to come back to Sokoto to listen to a political matter. He is a leader, a father to all, therefore the only thing he can do for politicians is to give them advice and to pray for them, which he can do from anywhere he is. So, he did not need to be at the event because he is not the National Chairman of PDP. He is the father of all. If he is in, the party chieftains will visit him but if he is not around, the party will go on with its business.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

POLITICS

‘Critics of APC registration exercise are lazy‘

The gaffe on Edo State 2014 budget By Dan Owegie

Member of the Lagos State House of Assembly representing Ikorodu Constituency I, Sanai Agunbiade, in this interview with Assistant Editor, Dare Odufowokan, spoke on the APC membership registration exercise and other issues. Excerpts.

OUR party, the All Peoples Congress (APC) recently embarked on nationwide registration exercise. How has the exercise been in your estimation? It has been wonderful. The turnout has been impressive. The enthusiasm shown by Nigerians towards the party is such that we are encouraged to believe that the time for change has really come. It is such that I can conveniently tell you that the APC is the rave of the moment and would be for a long time to come. The transparency with which the exercise was also conducted across the country also endeared the party to many people. In a move that is quite unusual and very brilliant, the party leadership identified delineated places used for voting during elections long before now in all the wards across the country and directed that people should go there and get registered as members of our party. This is a very logical move that has made the registration exercise very easy and simple. The location became easily identifiable, the process of data collection became easy to do and difficult to falsify. But the use of those polling units have been widely criticised by some people especially in the ruling party. I say that is sheer propaganda and lazy talk. The use of those locations has nothing to do with INEC. No INEC logo was displayed anywhere near the registration centers this time. The party did not at any time tell the people this is INEC registration. APC merely used the polling units as catchment areas for its registration. Why did INEC identify those places in the first place? It was because it considered population and location. So, if it is now convenient for us as a party to use these locations for our party registration exercise too, why should that become an issue? People will always find ways to discredit what they don’t like. What APC did is something very creative. Other parties are free to copy this innovation if they so wish instead of engaging in lazy talks. The units are not permanent properties of INEC. So I think it is unnecessary to glorify such criticism with too much attention. There are also talks about people being forced to register in some states. Still lazy talk. I will say this is an unfair comment from the callous figment in the imagination of some disgruntled elements. Baffled by the huge turnout of the people to be part of the movement towers change, these people are grumbling. People were not forced in anyway. They came out happily and willingly to register. Statements like these only provide proofs that the government at the centre is jittery. Were the 26 lawmakers in Kano State forced to join APC. Were the governors forced? were the councillors and council chairmen in Kwara State forced? This registration is a voluntary thing and those doing it are doing so voluntarily. The high turnout is out of the peoples love for APC. As a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, you are championing a bill meant to protect citizens against forceful takeover of properties. Can you shed some light on this? The constituency I represent is one that is very notorious for violent land scuffles. unfortunately, this is not because the people are violent but because the mainland of Lagos is occupied and the residual of land is left in our axis of the state. And you know how important land is to us here in

• Mr., Dan Owegie is a Chieftain of the All Progressive Congress, APC, Edo State.

•Agunbiade

Lagos. Land is to us what oil is to them in the south South. The demand is high while the supply is now very low. The consequence is that people now sell and resell land at will. This brings about conflicts. With our values eroded and greed taking over our societal lives, we begin to see so many cases of forcible take over of properties across the state. You find young jobless people across the state being equipped to fight one another and destroy lives and properties. You even find the Police and other agencies collaborating to enforce fake judgements. You find lawyers writing fake petitions just to get people threatened into relinquishing their properties unjustifiably. We received a lot of petitions on this in our committee. We saw people storming the Assembly with gunshot wounds. We heard of cases of rape, vandalisation and other such acts of brigandage unleashed on innocent people by criminals in their bid to forcefully take possession of properties. That was when the Speaker tasked our committee to come up with a bill that will wholesomely address the menace. That led the bill before the house today. What has been the response to the bill, especially from alleged godfathers of violent land speculators? Of course we know the danger inherent in the assignment we were given. We knew it wasn’t going to be an easy job but we were determined to do something about the menace of land grabbers. Out take is that if you stand up for the people, you are standing up for God and if you stand up for God, he will protect you. Our intention is not to put anybody in trouble but to protect all stakeholders in the property business. We are not against individuals but against criminalities. This bill aims to protect everybody, even those engaged in forcible take overs too. The target really is to stop all acts of illegal extortions. It is to protect the average individual from illegalities. How optimistic are you that the bill will become law? I am very optimistic that it will scale all hurdles soon so that we can send a clean copy to the Governor for his assent. The people who came for the public hearing were largely supportive of the bill. They just wanted us to be cautious in a few places. Aside that, the people of the state also want the bill to become law. What has been your experience as a two-term legislator in the Asemnbly? You used the word experience. I want to tell you that it has been wonderful. One thing i have come to realise is that one needs to learn the rope e to be able to come to term with the procedures. You can be in the house for four

years and still not get your bearing in the art of lawmaking. Even fourterm legislators cannot claim to know it all. It is not just good english that makes you a good legislator. It goes beyond that. Doggedness, team work, perseverance, willingness and other things like these are most needed for you to succeed as a lawmaker. This is why I have come to agree with the concept that the longer you stay in the house as a legislator, the better for legislation and legislature. I now see the reasons why in the advance country, the strength of the legislature is measured by the experience of the legislators. This enriches the legislature so much that the laws that are churned out are robust and wonderful. Unlike here where we want to change our lawmakers every term on the flimsiest excuses without looking at the effect on the institution. Of course, the lawmaker too must be a worthy representative of his people. He must be a good lawmaker and he must also be able to bend backward and give back to his people in some ways so as to get their nod for more terms. To God be the glory, I have made my impact in all these areas i’ve mentioned. To mention a few, I’ve empowered about 625 youths. I’ve been able to get 10 of my constituents into government employment. Also I got private jobs for six people. We had over 400 students go through our free computer trainingI’ve also through my activities as a legislator facilitated the rehabilitation of roads in the constituency. I have participated in debates, motions, bills etc for years as a legislator. I attend plenary promptly and regularly. With all these, I am now more experienced. So what is your next political aspiration? Everybody has a desire and ambition. A man without ambition is a dead man. But as a politician, your aspiration must always tally with the aspiration of your people. It must also conform with the belief of your party. As an individual, if I have my way, I will like to continue the good work I am doing in the Lagos State House of Assembly for another term. It is my desire and I am daily encouraged by my people to still represent them for another term. So, if my party deems this fit, I will want to remain a lawmaker. But if the party feels otherwise, the decision of the party is binding on me. But it is my opinion that experience, passion,antecedent and temperament must not be scarified for anything in making political choices.

DO State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) recently faulted the 2014 appropriation Act signed into law by the State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, describing it as “motley of uncoordinated numbers and lacking reality.” The State party Chairman, Chief Dan Orbih, who led his entire executive at the press briefing, claimed that the budget has an inbuilt deficit spending of 30 percent. The PDP media hype has left more questions blowing in the winds for Edo people. What does Dan Orbih know about budget process? How many economists does the PDP have to challenge the APC-led government budget of consolidation? Why did the Edo army of economists not advise the former governors. The Edo State 2014 budget, just like all previous Adams Oshiomhole led administration deliberately put capital estimates over and above the recurrent estimates. This is what has led to the transmogrification of Edo State, which the Edo PDP left in ruins. It is incontrovertible that Edo State is far much better today than what the PDP left of it. But on the contrary, the PDP Federal Government budget of over four trillion naira, earmarks over 72 percent of the budget for recurrent expenses, leaving capital projects with a paltry 28 percent. The 2014 Federal budget is simply designed for PDP to manipulate the upcoming 2015 general elections. The budget has been clandestinely prepared to be stolen through all dubious means by PDP to return the party through a do or die process. Sadly, Dan Orbih and his cohort in Edo PDP have not raised a voice against the illconceived, baldly prepared 2014 Federal Budget. Orbih said that “N49 billion out the total budget of N160 billion was expected to be sourced through loan. How did he arrive at such a budget figure when the Governor that presented the budget did not state so? Dan Orbih deludes himself in the aphorism that “when you keep on telling a particular lie all the time, it will be mistaken for truth by credulous listeners.” But he hit the rocks because; Edo people are too politically matured to be told such obvious lies. But in any case, if Orbih is saying Edo will augment the 2014 budget with some borrowings, what Orbih failed to tell Edo people is whether the PDP-led federal government on its own proposed a surplus budget for 2014! Out of a N4 trillion budget for this year, PDP-led federal government is borrowing N1 trillion. So you can see that the pot calling the kettle black It is ridiculous for any individual or Edo PDP for that matter, if one may borrow from the legendary words of Fela Ani Kulapo Kuti, to criticize Oshiomhole over the planed building of three model schools in each of the three senatorial zones. To make matters worse, he claims “facts on grounds showed that existing ones were ill- equipped in terms of content and facilities” where were such facts obtained from? What was the State of public schools under PDP led governments in Edo State? Dan Orbih should stop marketing his ignorance of observable facts in Edo State. Education under the PDP was a disaster. At the Federal level, in spite of the poor funding of public universities which is clear to all, did President Jonathan not embark on the building of new universities in all the states which did not have one in Nigeria? What did Orbih say about that. He kept silent. Professor Wole Soyinka assures that the man dies in likes of the Orbihs who keep silent in the face of tyranny, as is now evident in the PDP-led federal government. Education under the PDP in Edo and at the Federal level is a disaster! Orbih should not even go there at all. Edo State Government has described as ridiculous accusations by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that the stateowned industries have been sold. The PDP administrations in Edo State should be held responsible for the sale of the industries and mismanagement of the proceeds realized from such sales to the detriment of the people. The PDP leaders need to bury their heads in shame having ruined the state economically. The records are there for all to see: There are existing documents to show how the industries were privatized. Churchgate industries acquired Bendel Brewery Limited in 1992, Josien Holdings acquired majority shares in Edo Pharmaceuticals in 1993 while Bendel Feeds and Flour Mills was bought in 1986. Others are Bendel Cement Company purchased by Scancem Holdings, Solid Minerals Processing Company purchased by Goopex Nigeria Limited in 2005 and Fruit Processing Company bought by Alliance Limited in Lagos State. Where does the APC government come in all of these? But Edo State Government of today is not folding its arms and lamenting. It has created the enabling environment for industries to thrive as a first step through the provision of basic infrastructure: Roads, water and electricity. In order to continue its programe on poverty eradication, Edo State Government has concluded plans to tap into the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) N220 billion Micro finance intervention Fund. When fully operational, small and medium scale industries would bounce back and employment rate would leap-frog. Besides, Edo City Transport service has since be repositioned by the State Government and is solving the transportation needs of Edo people. Edo people must continue to ignore the unresearched, illconceived, mischievous and malevolent criticisms of loquacious Edo PDP Chairman, Dan Orbih.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

POLITICS

APC: Fantastic future or fatality?

HE events preceding and culminating in the formation or amalgamation (some do not want the use of the latter) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) are interesting as well as intriguing to an inquiring and analytical mind. While there is the need for Nigeria’s fledgling democracy to have a strong opposition to curtail and checkmate the excesses and seeming impunity of the ruling party at the centre, the coming together of parties: ACN, ANPP, CPC and a faction of APGA to form the APC was unexpected by many Nigerians. Much more so, the speed and timing of its formation caught many napping, especially in the ruling party. It was the thought of many political pundits and analysts that leaders of these erstwhile parties in the ally will truncate the process because of their ambitions. However, it is worth commending that the leaders involved in the merger put their act together against skeptics to initiate the formation of the APC. Looking at the whole scenario with another lens, some opinionated that the merger is the coming together of strange bed fellows which may soon develop fractures and be fragmented into different political parties before the next general elections in 2015. In fact, to talk of the amassing of human resources, the APC currently boasts of many erudite as well as exposed, equipped and enlightened minds crisscrossing the Nigerian landscape. This is one crux of the matter. The writer, as an organisation leadership researcher, will want to analyse the present and future while not losing a vital gaze of the pedigree of the dramatis personae involved in the merger process. The top leaders definitely have more work to do to convince many Nigerians that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is not the same as the APC, as some are already insinuating, especially with defections from the new PDP to the APC. The loss of five governors from the PDP to APC has really caused nightmarish insomnia for the ruling party at the centre, especially with the recalcitrant, albeit immature, attitude of the leaders of the Senate to let go of defecting Senators from the PDP to APC as the issue has been taken to court. Inculcating the four I’s It is the opinion of this writer that for APC to have a sustainable and desirable future envisaged by the founding fathers, it is high time the leaders, given consideration to broad-based consultation with the followers (members of the party at all levels), began to initiate a process of inculcating the four I’s: Identity, Ideology, Induction and Institutionalisation. The time is short. However, with a sagacious strategic leader like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the fold and with other cerebral minds, a lot of ground can still be covered in a few months with a dint of hard work. Identity It is not only a good development but a farsighted one that the APC initiated a process of party membership registration throughout all the wards, local government areas, and states of the federation. As at the time of writing this article, the registration is still on-going. It was indeed a formal way of real members identifying with the party irrespective of their social status. However, to identify with any group, some factors come into play like who are the members of the group, or cherished norms of the group or objectives of the group, etc. Hitherto, the broom is the most popular of the emblems representing the APC as a party largely taken from the erstwhile ACN logo. It is a slogan of the then ACN that the intention of the party was to sweep away the epileptic and inefficient government of the PDP. However, especially with defectors in droves from the PDP to APC,

• Akande By John M. O. Ekundayo

this is the moment for the APC to bear a unique identity that will make and mark them distinctively different from the PDP. For instance, I remember, in Singapore, the ruling party, People’s Action Party (PAP), has a unique identification of wearing white as the party uniform to denounce and exhibit zero tolerance for corruption at all levels in the polity. This is a form of identity that is unique and catchy. The APC will need to do more that flashing or wielding the broom to convince Nigeria that the party is here to herald the real change yearned or longed for by the citizens. Ideology From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online, ideology can be defined as “the set of ideas and beliefs of a group or political party.” Alternatively, it is seen as “a manner or the content of thinking characteristic of an individual, group, or culture.” In essence, there is the urgent imperativeness for the top leaders in conjunction and consultation with members to define and depict in clear cut manner the real, pragmatic and all-embracing ideas, beliefs and line of thought unique to the APC as a political party that all members know, understand and can exploit to woo others into the fold. For instance, for those of us alive in the Second Republic, the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) under the leadership of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, had the four cardinal programmes: Free Education, Free Medical Services, Gainful Employment and Integrated Rural Development. These were once acknowledged by the then UK Government of Harold Wilson administration. Recently, Senator Olusola Saraki came out with some hastily and hurriedly crafted programmes for the APC. For the APC to have a sustainable future and avoid fatality at an early stage, it is imperative for the top leaders to constitute a cerebral and level-headed committee to fashion out a robust and realistic ideology that is sellable to Nigerians in all the six geopolitical zones not just within APC members if the party will want to win at the centre not only in 2015 but to sustain the winning streak like the People’s Action Party (PAP) in Singapore and the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) in Malaysia. Induction While it is worth commending for members to register, it is much more vital for the APC to properly induct its members. In essence, inducting members will be a formal process of making someone a proper member of the party. The process in modern day organisations is to set aside

weeks of capacity building for new employees for them to know, imbibe and internalise core values and culture of their organisations so that the new inductees will function in accord or harmony with old hands without friction thus ensuring and engendering organisational effectiveness. The APC needs this more than any other party now if the leaders desire right attitudinal approach, discipline and healthy organic growth. To this end, the APC, in these days of digital technology, can latch onto online platform to educate, enlighten and equip members at all levels. It is also essential to organise at local government, state or federal level leadership and followership training programmes such as seminars, workshop and conference inculcating the party’s ideology, constitution, history, partisan politics in Nigeria, theory and practice of social inclusion, religious and social harmony, servant leadership, exemplary and courageous followership, etc. Institutionalisation The last but not the least is institutionalisation. It is instructive to point out that after proper means of identification; carving or crafting a befitting ideology; imbibing or internalising core values and culture of the party through well thought out and tailor-made capacity building, the top leaders should envisage a way of building the APC to becoming a national institution that is colossus in status just like UMNO is in Malaysia. For instance, it is impossible for anyone entering Kuala Lumpur, the capital city, not to notice the presence of the ruling party in the Central Business District (CBD) with the UMNO building hosting the party secretariat and providing spaces for other corporate organisations to do their businesses. No doubt in Malaysia, the UMNO has passed the stage of just being a ruling political party to an institution. The APC can strategically think and tinker in a creative process towards becoming a notable and noticeable institution within our clime. I am yet to see one political party from independence till date exhibiting any trait of an institution within Nigeria’s polity. The pervading and prevailing attitude has largely been to grab power and share our common wealth. In line with this line of thought, the APC should begin to head hunt internally for cerebral minds to craft a well robust, sustainable, practicable, adaptable and amenable Strategic Change Plan (SCP) covering a period of five to ten years if the party intends to foist feasible change that is peaceful, proactive, passionate and progressive on the psyche of the Nigerian nation. Conclusion The APC has a golden opportunity to make a real change through servant-leading that can result in real transformational changes that are allencompassing. Followers all over the nooks and crannies of Nigeria and also Nigerians in the Diaspora are watching and waiting to see if they will ever witness a paradigm shift from this mess of cantankerous corruption ravaging the soul of the Nigerian nation to an egalitarian society where poverty will be alleviated. May this golden opportunity not be marred by sheer greed, blind ambition, ethnic jingoism, religious bigotry, rivalry, etc. The leaders must roll up their sleeves to work assiduously, optimising the avalanche of resources within the party. The top leaders should continually demand and value genuine feedback from followers. This should be imputed into the decision-making process of the party. Issues such as conduct of primaries, internal democracy within the party, discipline, nomination, etc should be clearly spelt out in the party’s constitution. -Dr. Ekundayo, a researcher and organisational management consultant, resides in Lagos.

Who killed Bola Ige?

HEN last week I wrote about unresolved murders probably masterminded by political considerations, the most prominent figure whose assassination was cited was the late Chief Bola Ige. He was an ebullient politician, an orator, a redoubtable debater and perhaps the most colourful politician in the South West at the time he was killed. Today, as was the refrain then, the question remains: who killed Bola Ige? Little did I know last Sunday that the question would prop up during the screening of ministers by the Senate. As the ministerial nominee from Osun State appeared before the upper legislative chamber, the question was asked from the most unexpected quarter. Senator Uzamere who had just defected from the All Progressives Congress to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had to fight to put the poser to the nominee. He wanted to know what role Awosiyan played in the sensational murder. He wanted to know why the man had been linked with Ige’s murder. He wanted to know why the man was detained for more than three years for allegedly enlisting the men who pumped hot lead into the Cicero of Esa Oke. Some PDP Senators, in sympathy with the man and invoking party solidarity, tried to shield the nominee from answering the billion dollar question. The more they tried to do so, the more Uzamere insisted. Awosiyan, as could be expected, denied. His supporters in the Senate said he could not be sworn on the Quran, but he said he would not mind if one could be found. He said he had no reason to kill Ige who was his mentor. He said Ige had sponsored his education and was a benefactor to his entire family. He then gave way to emotion. The man cried. The point here is not whether he was actually guilty as charged. Uzamere probably knew that could not be achieved at that point. His objective must have been to tell the world that the matter would not die until the criminals are apprehended and put through the mill of justice. The Senator wanted the world to know that Awosiyan had, at a point, been linked with the highprofile assassination of the former Attorney General of the Federation. He probably wanted to remind the security forces that the matter could never be swept under the carpet; that it is one case whose file should never be closed until the killers are found. And he achieved that much. Those of us who believe in justice and believe that injustice to one is injustice to all, owe Uzamere gratitude for bringing up the matter. Does it really matter is Awosiyan sails through? In any case, having been freed by the law, unless there is fresh evidence linking him to the death, he cannot be stopped on that score. However, it is not only in the interest of Ige’s political associates and the general public that the murderers be unveiled. It is in the interest of all those mentioned and detained for the murder, too. Until the killers are unmasked, they remain suspects in the eyes of the public. Who killed Ige? To what avail? Who was so desperate to ensure that Ige did not mount the soap box to campaign against the PDP? Why and on whose instruction did the Police arrest some mad men alongside strong suspects perhaps to discredit the entire investigation process and set the stage for setting all suspects free? Did the Oyo State government diligently handle the case? Given the fact that he was still a top official of the federal government at the time, did the Obasanjo administration do enough to get to the root of the matter? It is a shame that Ige and Obasanjo were such good friends. He was a great fighter while alive. His wife could not believe that such a cruel fate could befall her darling husband. From the way she saw the prosecution of suspects handled, she lost the will to live. She simply gave up on the Nigerian society. As a judge of the Court of Appeal, she knew the prosecution could not obtain justice the way the matter was being tried. It was no surprise when she died in the process. The woman died. More than a decade after, the assassins must think it is all over. They are now occupying important offices in the land. They are preparing for even more important ones at different levels. We may not know who killed Ige; at least for now. The courts may not be in position to pronounce anyone guilty. The Police may be unwilling to arrest and arraign the real killers again. The state, in view of the masterminds and backers of the crime may be unable to institute thorough probe into the matter. But, it must be observed that what man cannot see, God can. Whom man cannot apprehend, God, the ultimate judge, will. Only a myopic person would believe that the matter is over. It is not. Ige fought all through life. Even now, he continues to fight. And, victory is certain. The struggle for a better Nigeria definitely continues.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

POLITICS

snippets Confab: Oyo Muslims slam Afenifere M

USLIMS in Oyo State under the aegis of the Muslim Community of Oyo State (MUSCOYS) has warned President Goodluck Jonathan and handlers of the planned National Conference to be wary of Afenifere leaders, saying they are not representing the overall interest of the Yoruba people. Led by its chairman, Alhaji Kunle Sanni, MUSCOYS addressed a news conference in Ibadan and said the group is not in tandem with the positions being canvassed by leaders of the pan Yoruba organisation as the agenda of the Yoruba race for the conference. Wondering how Afenifere leaders could leave out Muslims, including personalities like Alhaji Lateef Jakande, Chief Kola Daisi, Prof. Daud Noibi, Shuaib Oyedokun, Dr Jubril Martins-Kuye, among others, from the proposed Yoruba Constitutional Conference, the group said at best, the group of leaders who gathered in Ishara last week are Christian Yoruba leaders. “The so-called Yoruba leaders, gallivanting all over the place, are at best Chris-

•MUSCOYS leaders at the press briefing

Confusion in Enugu over alleged plan to dethrone monarchs

HERE was palpable confusion in Enugu State during the week as words spread that two traditional rulers may lose their thrones for daring to meddle into the political battle between two leading politicians in the state. The two monarchs, from Ezeagu Local Government Area of the State, according to sources, are part of the community leaders who participated in a recent solidarity visit to the Deputy senate president, Senator Ike Eweremadu. Stakeholders and Leaders of Thought from the council area recently paid a “thank you” visit to Ekweremadu in Enugu about a week ago. Speaking during the visit, the leaders said they were there to appreciate the Senator’s developmental projects in their various communities. “We are witnesses to the construction of rural roads, provision of water boreholes, transformers, rural electrification projects, health centres, youth development and empowerment centres, and a lot more. We have benefitted from you and want to assure you that we the Ezeagu people are solidly behind you; we will not hesitate to give you unalloyed support in any of your future political quests; you can always count on us. People should be allowed to make their choice of representatives of their own free will based on the pedigree, antecedents, and integrity of available candidates, the leaders said. However, insinuations that the state government is unhappy with the visit and may have resolved to sanction the traditional rulers who were part of the delega-

tian Yoruba leaders. How can you talk of Yoruba leaders in Yoruba land where at least 70 per cent of the population are Muslims without a single Muslim in their midst. These people have been going in and out of Aso Rock to curry favours for themselves, not for the generality of the Yoruba’’, alleged. He said that those championing the proposed Yoruba Constitutional Conference through a nebulous Yoruba agenda should be regarded as “Yoruba dealers and not leaders’’. The group appealed to Nigerians to see the positions and resolutions of the Afenifere leaders as self -serving and unrepresentative. Sanni, while speaking to newsmen after the press conference said the leaders could not be serving the interest of the Yoruba people let alone the Muslim Community in the Yoruba-speaking states without ensuring that their gatherings are representative enough to cater for the interest of all groups and sections of the geo-political zone.

Industrialisation, key to Ekiti development-Aluko

• Ekweremadu

tion went viral on Thursday. Sources even claimed that the monarchs may have already been queried by the government over what they termed as an unauthorised political program. Although the traditional rulers defended themselves by saying they were mandated by their people to lead the delegation, the government, sources claim, are unimpressed by this argument and may have resolved to deal with the monarchs accordingly.

GOVERNORSHIP aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State, Senator Gbenga Aluko, has restated that industrialisation is the key to the economic development of Ekiti State. In a statement in Ado Ekiti, Aluko, who is the son of the late prominent economist, Prof Sam Aluko, said sustainable development of the state could not be achieved by monthly dependence on federal allocation. According to him, what a serious administration should do is to develop the resources of the people in such a way as to gainfully employ the youths. This he said could be done by establishing at least a factory in each of the local government areas in the state. Citing the example of his billion naira factory, which he established in Ode Ekiti, Gbonyin Local Government Area of the state, Aluko promised that if voted to power, he would ensure that he established one factory in each local government area of the state. Regretting that the only factories found in Ekiti State were water packaging companies and bakeries, Aluko, while applauding the strides the state had made in the field of education, stated that education should, however not be seen as an end in itself, but a means to an end, which is to liberate the people from the shackles of poverty and want.

• Aluko

HADI endorses Agba for governorship

• Imoke

OPE Arewa Development Initiative (HADI), a pan Northern Pressure group has thrown its weight behind the alleged governorship ambition of Mr. Jeddy Godwin Agba to succeed Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State come 2015. In a press conference in Abuja by its National President, Alhaji Muhammadu Ibrahim, the Initiative whose membership cuts

across the federation recalled that its members have benefited from Mr. Agba’s generosity and patronage. They expressed gratitude to Imoke for publicly stating that the governorship slot has been zoned to the northern senatorial zone of the state where Agba incidentally hails from. Ibrahim pointed out that based on the assurance, the coast was now clear for the people of

Cross River State to put more pressure on Agba to retire and join partisan politics. “He is a material and we strongly believe the people of Cross River State will not regret supporting him to become their governor,”said Ibrahim. Ibrahim further noted that Agba’s cognate experience in the public service, particularly in the oil and gas sector, makes him stand shoulders above potential governorship aspirants in the state.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

POLITICS

HEN the Enugu State governor, Sullivan Chime, left the shores of the country on February 4, 2014, shortly after a Council of State meeting in Abuja, which he could not attend owing to a deteriorating health condition, tongues started wagging again. Government’s sources said the governor is expected to be out of the country for at least three months during which he will undergo chemotherapy sessions. The governor, who is battling cancer of the nose, went on a similar routine medical check on September 19, 2012. He never returned until 141 days after recovering from the debilitating cancerous growth. There are fears in Enugu that the current trip might extend that long again. This is based on the way the governor left the country hurriedly. Impeccable sources said Chime hosted the meeting of the South-East Governors’ Forum at the Governor’s Lodge, Enugu on February 2. He looked quite healthy and unruffled, exchanging banters with his colleagues. It was gathered that he left for Abuja on the morning of February 3 for the Council of State Meeting the following day. However, the governor reportedly developed worsening health condition a few hours to the meeting. He was said to have stayed back in his official residence in Abuja, unwell to join his colleagues at the council meeting. After doctors failed to take care of the situation, sources said he was hurriedly flown abroad for further treatment. The governor left unable to tighten many loose ends or determine when he will return. Who is in charge? Of grave concern to political stakeholders in the coal-rich state is the issue of how long Chime will be away. There are fears he failed to handover officially to his estranged deputy, Sunday Onyebuchi, with whom he had fallen apart. The frosty relationship between the duo is believed to have made the possibility of a due handover difficult. Without a proper handover and the governor away, it is feared that governance might suffer serious setbacks in Enugu. Political associates of the governor are also anxious that the absence of their principal might impair their chances come 2015. Investigations revealed that Chime is indisposed to putting his deputy in charge, a development that might precipitate a political crisis witnessed in Taraba and at the federal level when the late President Umaru Yar’Adua was lying on his sick bed. Unlike the previous medical trip that lasted for four-and-half months during which Onyebuchi took over as Acting Governor, investigations revealed that Chime cannot trust his deputy again to hold fort in his absence. This is because of the ill-feelings between them, arising from the suspicion that the deputy might have been hobnobbing with the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, whom the governor has declared as a political enemy. Chime, it was gathered, is upset Onyebuchi is romancing with Ekweremadu’s camp, ostensibly to form a political alliance that could put paid to his supremacy. Though Onyebuchi has reportedly

• Chime

2015: Anxiety over Chime’s absence The sudden departure of Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State for another round of medical treatment may lead to a constitutional crisis with dire consequences for the 2015 elections in the state, reports Sunday Oguntola denied such romance in private sessions with the governor, Chime is believed to have held on to his conviction. He is much more incensed that the deputy is said to be eyeing the governorship slot despite the zoning of the ticket to Enugu North, otherwise known as the Nsukka zone. Should the governor be unable to return until the minimum 65 days acceptable by the constitution, the state might be thrown into a round of politicalcum-constitutional crisis, observers believe. The development might also have telling effects on 2015 elections in the state. Section 190 Sub-section 1 of the 1999 Constitution as amended provides: “Whenever the governor is proceeding on vacation or is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, he shall transmit a written declaration to the

Speaker of the House of Assembly to that effect, and until he transmits to the Speaker of the House of Assembly a written declaration to the contrary, the Deputy Governor shall perform the functions of the Governor as Acting Governor.” Chime’s Chief Press Secretary, Chukwudi Achife, explained that the governor travelled overseas “as part of his routine medical check-up.” But he denied insinuations the governor would be out of the country for three months. Aides of the deputy governor are already reportedly prevailing on him to take over the rein of office, according to constitutional provision. They are also said to be talking to the House of Assembly to declare Onyebuchi the Acting Governor since Chime is away and unable to discharge his official duties. But Chime’s associates, who are jittery

that the absence of their principal might spell doom for them come 2015, are already perfecting strategies to neutralise plans to whittle down the governor’s influence. They are said to have argued that the governor did not transmit a letter indicating he is unable to perform executive duties, a development they contend means he is still in charge. One of them who spoke in confidence said: “Since the governor did not transmit any letter and has not said he is unable to perform, it means he is in charge. He is only away. He will be back before anyone knows it.” A bad timing Some of the governor’s aides are said to be lamenting the absence, which is coming at a most inauspicious time. Chime is locked in many political battles to still be relevant after handing over in 2015. The first battle, his aides say, is the neutralisation of Onyebuchi’s plans to replace him. Onyebuchi, they argue, has since grown from the loyal deputy, who remained committed to Chime, despite his long absence last year. This, it was gathered, was why the governor quickly zoned the emergence of his successor to Nsukka zone. Onyebuchi is from Nkanu in Enugu East, which effectively rules him out of contention based on the Chime’s zoning succession plan. But Onyebuchi is said to have the support of Ekweremadu to gun for the governorship slot. With the deputy as governor, Ekweremadu’s grip on the state will be more than secured. The recent invasion of the deputy governor’s residence, leading to the carting away of over 3,000 egg layers and about 40 crates of eggs from his poultry over alleged violation of environmental laws, is part of the ploy to put Onyebuchi where he belongs, it was gathered. The deputy governor himself alluded to this in his reaction, stating that the action was to prove he is politically impotent. The next important battle is to replace Ekweremadu at the Senate. Chime, who has never hidden his ambition, is going for the deputy Senate president’s jugular. He hails from Enugu West with Ekweremadu, who is currently representing the zone. Investigations revealed that Chime is hell-bent on claiming the ticket despite the acclaimed performances of the current occupier. The governor’s absence, however, appears illtimed to fight what many consider the greatest political battle of his life. Yet, Chime needs the seat as fast as possible. Without it, he won’t be in the system again in a clime where office occupiers crave for relevance. With the Senate becoming the haven for exgovernors, Chime wants to join the exclusive league and secure sitting allowances at the hallowed chambers. Already, Ekweremadu is fighting back, knowing he is up against a formidable opponent. The third-termer believes losing to Chime will lead to his political retirement and possible extinction. For now, the governor’s aides are confident he would be back as soon as possible to assume his predominance in the politics of the state. But should this trip be prolonged, the state will surely be in for long battles, with the winners and losers difficult to predict.

‘Mark hasn’t fulfilled promises made to Idoma nation’ • Continued on Page 20

my village always whenever I am in town. My campaign slogan is that everybody should deliver on their campaign promises. I am not poor and I am not also a rich man but I have made money. I spent them on community development. My interest is how to change the lives of my people and make them to be comfortable and not to be building houses, buying cars. I told my people to send me, I also told them that if they have a candidate that is better than me, they should please support the person. Election manipulation and rigging have denied many good candidates of getting into power, do you think 2015 will usher in a new experience in our political system? The 2015 election will be more peaceful; we are developing politically, we are about ending an era where a criminal will jump into politics believing that he will deceive the people and

get away with it. A leader must prepare for leadership, if not, he will make a mistake. I encourage competition. I want my people to compete with me. We have got to a stage where before the next candidate from the other party will make a move to rig, you already know what he is about to do. I want to think the leader of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jaga, is trying. He is in a difficult terrain. I think we are going towards the point of balance of power where no individual can hijack the election result. That is why we need the kind of defection from the PDP to the APC in the House of Representatives and the Senate. The threat that those who are cross carpeting to the APC will lose their job is false. I have been a lawyer for more than 15 years. The constitution provides that when there is a crisis in your party, you are free to move to any other party. People have been moving from one party to the other and nobody has taken them to court, why now? The party is just a platform on which you can

contest an election and if you lose, embrace the winner. That is what I am expecting Senator David Mark to do in the next general election if he decides to contest again. It is not a do-or-die affair; if he wins, I will embrace him too. What is your pedigree as to face the challenges of your ambition? I didn’t come from a wealthy background, my parents are hard working. They tried earnestly to train us in school. My father was a civil servant and my mother a trader. We allowed her to be trading because that is what she loves doing. I hold a Bachelor of Laws LL.B (Hons) degree from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria in 1988 where I graduated as the best all-round student with Second Class Honours (Upper Division), after which I proceeded to the Nigerian Law School, Lagos in 1989, where I also graduated with Second Class Honours (Upper Division), and was duly called to the Nigerian Bar in December 1989. I ob-

tained a Masters in Energy Law and Policy with distinction from the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy (CEPMLP), University of Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom as a British Chevening Scholar in 2006. I have worked in different organisations in the private sector, including top law firms in Nigeria and Brazil, the world renowned Consulting Firm of Arthur Andersen and more recently, with Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, where I held different management positions, including that of Legal Adviser, Head, Land Acquisition and Claims, Head, Security Planning & Strategy, and Managing Counsel, Legislative Development. I am currently engaged in Oil and Gas consulting as Managing Partner, Bbh Consulting, based in Abuja, with offices and partners in Lagos, London and Guangzhou, China. I am also engaged in legal practice as Senior Partner, Energy, Oil and Gas with Bbh Legal Practitioners, Abuja.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

POLITICS

ripples Shagari’s, Ngilari’s 2015 calculations

Who will Kwankwaso anoint as successor? ANO State Governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has remained in the news since he dumped the PDP for the APC a few months ago. In a recent newspaper interview, the outspoken governor declared that he will not seek for another term as governor in 2015 contrary to the wish of his supporters who argue that he is constitutionally qualified to seek for another term. But Kwankwaso’s position was that having first served as governor from 1999 to 2003, his current term as governor which ends next year will be his last. This development, it was gathered, is causing frenzy among the governor’s associates who are anxious to know who, among them, the governor will anoint as his successor.

•Kwankwaso

Abdulkadir’s closeness to Wammako • Shagari

• Nyako

after a long-drawn battle with the leadership of their former party, PDP, and the presidency. Speculations are rife that Ngilari and Shagari are both interested in vying for their states’ governorships in 2015, an ambition they reckoned may not be achieved if they join the APC. The question some people are asking, however, is what gave them the confidence that they will get the PDP ticket, and if they do, how will they fare at the polls as the PDP candidates?

HE Deputy Governor of Adamawa State, Bala James Ngilari, and his Sokoto State counterpart, Mukthar Shagari, seem to have something in common, particularly as it concerns their post2015 political ambition. Contrary to earlier expectations, the two politicians declined to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC) along with their principals, Murtala Nyako and Aliyu Wammako respectively, who joined the major opposition party

Jime warming up T for governorship

• Abdulkadir

HAT former Minister of Youth Development, Inuwa Abdulkadir, is a close political associate of the Sokoto State Governor, Aliyu Wammako, is a fact well known among key political stakeholders in the North West state. Abdulkadir’s sack from the Federal Executive Council (FEC) by President Goodluck Jonathan sometime last year, many allege, was due to his closeness to

Wammako, who had political differences with the president. Expectedly, Abdulkadir took his sack in his strides and has remained loyal to Wammako. Now a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) like the governor, sources revealed that Abdulkadir is being positioned to contest for a seat in the National Assembly in 2015, but it is, however, not decided yet if it’s the Senate or the House of Representatives.

As Imo Assembly vacates Okemili’s seat T •Jime

HE defection of Hon. Emmanuel Jime from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) some weeks ago is still generating ripples within the Benue State chapter of the PDP. An alleged age-long disagreement between the

federal lawmaker and his state governor, Gabriel Suswam, according to sources, informed Jime’s decision to leave the PDP, even as other sources revealed that the lawmaker is allegedly warming up to contest the 2015 governorship race, an ambition that did not receive Suswam’s support.

HE controversy over the rightful representative of the Oru-East Constituency in Imo State House of Assembly, which has dragged on for months, took a new turn during the week as the House funally opted to refer to the court order declaring Hon Greg Okemili’s seat vacant. Rt. Hon Benjamin Uwajumogu, the Speaker of Imo State House of Assembly, said the House took the decision because of its firm belief in the supremacy of the rule of law, especially considering that the Assembly is a lawmaking chamber. According to the Speaker, the house had long been notified of the Court of Appeal judgment by lawyers to the claimant of the seat, Mr. Robert Okwuego, but decided to follow due process and all necessary process before implementing the court order.

•Uwajumogu

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014

IN VOGUE By Kehinde Oluleye

Tel: 08023689894 (sms) E-mail: kehinde.oluleye@thenationonlineng.net

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

GLAMOUR

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Social

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ADETUTU AUDU (E-mail: crownkool@yahoo.com, Tel: 08023849036, 08112662587)

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GLAMOUR 33

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34 GLAMOUR

OLUSEGUN RAPHEAL (08033572821) raphseg2003@yahoo.com

Insight THE NATION ON SUNDAY

JANUARY 16, 2014

40 SUNDAY INTERVIEW

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44 INSIGHT

NATIONAL CONFERENCE

•Obasanjo

•Jonathan

•Adebayo

Oga Bello and Jide Kosoko

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

ETCETERA

SUNNY SIDE

Cartoons

By Olubanwo Fagbemi

POLITICKLE

deewalebf@yahoo.com 08060343214 (SMS only)

A modern dictionary •Romance edition

CHEEK BY JOWL

OH, LIFE!

THE GReggs

The writer has gone soft. After weeks of responding to heat in the polity, he jumps on the bandwagon of affection for respite. Here’s hoping that the first of a series dedicated to Cupid and his constituent spices the prevailing mood, cements the budding affair and points the hopeful in the direction of reciprocated love. Attraction n.: A magnetic feeling shared by two to the exclusion of others at any time. Butterflies adj.: The sensation in the stomach akin to the flutter of insects on the approach of a love interest. Crush n.: A fleeting tenderness directed at a member of the opposite sex with near-lasting conviction. Dating v.: Deploying energy, time and effort to get to know someone you like today, loved yesterday and may not really like tomorrow. Easy adj.: A term men use to describe a woman who thinks of love in a man’s terms. Friend n.: An opposite sex acquaintance with some flaw which negates romantic transition. Gift n.: Something that often counts more than the giver. Heartthrob n.: Something between a heart throbbing with love and a heart robbed of love. Irritating habit n.: What little qualities that endear at first turn into; the guy with the ‘Dreamy eyes’ soon looks ‘Half-asleep’, for instance. Joke v.: A man’s indirect method of getting the attention of an indifferent woman. Kindle v.: The process by which furtive glances and body language explode into full-blown and often uncontrollable passion. Law of relativity n.: The comeliness of one partner is directly proportionate to the unattractiveness of the other as substantiated by one-sided attention garnered by the couple on an outing. Money n.: The source, substance and sustenance of many an affair. Nonsense n.: Also ‘sweet nothings’, it well describes meaningless conversation between the love-struck. One-night stand n.: Invariable conclusion of a hurried romance. Pair n.: Observing the mode of movement at Valentine’s requires no double take; yes, there appears to be more four-armed, four-legged creatures about than usual. Queer adj.: A condition which proves that once smitten, the taciturn Romeo turns twice garrulous and the reserved Juliet becomes doubly preening and petty. Rendezvous n.: The physical point within or without known precincts where the natural order of romantic progression often concludes. Sober adj.: A state of calmness and reason nigh impossible for lovers. TLC n.: Whether in form of a romantic dinner or treatment, ‘Tender Loving Care’ is just reward for the committed lover and a veritable cure for the love-sick. Utopia n.: A form of higher wellbeing fortunately reached by reciprocated love and regrettably bungled by developing-country conditions. Valentine’s Day n.: ‘Buy-day’, Father’s Day and Fool’s Day all rolled into one, with possible effect nine months after February 14. Whim n.: Or ‘love at first sight’. What occurs when two not-so-choosy people looking for love meet. XXXXX n.: Kisses, as they appear in standard stationery of the season – letters and greeting cards. Yarn colloq.: What the hopeful lover does to the object of his infatuation with greeting card, chocolate, cake or spoken words. Zodiac sign n.: In the psychic realm, the twelve parts of the imaginary area in the sky in which the sun, moon and planets are positioned make up the zodiac and the minds of lovers eager to decipher long-term relationship prospects.

QUOTE Love, and a cough, cannot be hid.

Jokes Humour Forever Yours A GIRL asked a guy if he thought she was pretty. He said ‘no’. She asked him if he would want to be with her forever, and he said ‘no’. She then asked him if she were to leave would he cry, and once again he replied with a no. She had heard enough. As she walked away, tears streaming down her face, the boy grabbed her arm and said, “You’re not pretty you’re beautiful. “I don’t want to be with you forever, I NEED to be with you forever. And I wouldn’t cry if you walked away. I’d die!” Forever Not Yours A MAN walks into a jewelry store to buy his girlfriend an engagement ring. Looking behind the glass case, he sees an exquisite band with a handsome-sized rock in its center. “Excuse me, sir,” the gentleman says to the salesman. “How much is this ring?” “Ah, that’s a beautiful piece,” the salesman says. “It goes for N100, 000.”

“My God!” the man says in alarm. “That’s a lot of money!” “Yes, but a diamond is forever.” “Perhaps,” the gentleman says, “but my marriage won’t last that long!” Marry Me ROBERT, a cynical man of early middle age, had evaded many a marital trap, but was now hopelessly in love with pretty young Susan. Finally he said, “Will you marry me, Susan?” She smiled and said, “Oh yes, Robert.” There followed a long silence, till Susan said, “Well, say something more, Robert.” And Robert, in a moment of deep reflection, said, “I think I’ve said too much as it is.”

Curse of beauty BEFORE Linda became engaged, she was quite the beauty, and didn’t mind letting her boyfriend know it too. “A lot of men are going be totally miserable when I marry,” she told him. “Really?” asked the boyfriend, “And just how many men are you intending to marry?” •Adapted from the Internet

—George Herbert

Writer ’s Fountain OW to write and Contest judges are not greatly moved by win: Would you really like to win a lyrical language, snappy dialogue or deep short story contest? What do judges look for insights into the human condition. They look when awarding prizes? You would expect for evidence of structure. Provided a story is every reader to bring his or her prejudices to competent in other respects, its structure, or the table – and they do – but professional lack of it, is the deciding factor. judges usually agree on which stories merit How can you strengthen story structure? an award. By asking seven key questions of your story And how do panels of judges, usually as follows: acclaimed authors, reach their verdicts? How Have you focused on just one protagonist? do they select the winners, among so many A short story should have just one protagonist excellent stories? whose viewpoint the reader will occupy. A Between men and women: story may be told by several narrators, or •Men are a lot more streamlined than through more than one point-of-view, but one women for swimming, because the female’s protagonist must clearly predominate to mamaries create a lot of drag – enough to sustain the reader’s engagement in the story. ensure that racing suits have been developed For instance, a famous collection of short with tiny pegs above the breasts to cause stories was told through 24 different points disturbance, which decreases the drag. of view, but the presence of a single •Men are more likely to be left-handed protagonist was always implicit. (10%) than females (8%). Do you bring on the protagonist early •Men, on the average, can read smaller print enough? The main character should appear than women. in the first 400 words of a short story or no •Men commit suicide three times more later than page one. Readers bond with the frequently than women, but women attempt first strong character they meet. It’s important suicide two to three times more often than that the first person they meet is not a bitmen. player who subsequently disappears.

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-- Page 53

In search of the Nigerian car Page 58, 59

‘There are bright prospects for Kaduna DISCO in 2014 •Mohammed

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World Bank to disburse $159.5m for growth, employment

HE World Bank will disburse 159.5 million dollars on growth and employment project in Nigeria before the end of 2017, a statement said. Notice of the disbursement is contained in a World Bank report titled ``Fostering Transformational

Development in Nigeria'', according to the statement released in Abuja at the weekend. The bank said the project was aimed at addressing the gap that prevented key growth centres from expanding and supporting small and medium enterprises to develop new business

models. ``It is also aimed at creating an enabling business environment,'' the report said. It stated that over 500 enterprises and artisans had benefited from interventions in the meat, leather and construction sectors funded by Department for

International Development (DFID). The World Bank report noted that key preparatory activities included the development of stakeholders networks, especially in the entertainment and ICT sectors. ``Policy development has also been supported,'' it added.

From left: Managing Director of Dermelog, Gunther Mull, Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Dr. Kingsley Mogalu, CBN Governor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, Managing Director, Zenith Bank Plc, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System, Mr. Adeniyi Sonubi and CEO Cham Nigeria Plc, Mr. Ademola Aladekomo, during the launching of Biometric Technology in Lagos…recently

HE Executive Secretary of Water and Sanitation in Africa, Idrissa Doucoure on Monday said that Africa must invest 45 billion dollars annually in order to meet its drinking water needs. Doucoure said that at the just-ended International Forum on infrastructure in Africa, held in Brazzaville. He added that there was the need to explore other areas, including public-private partnership, to source the massive capital needed to develop infrastructure in Af-

Africa requires $45b per year to meet potable water needs rica. He lamented that in Africa, governments do not give drinking water infrastructure the same attention as those of transport, sports and telecommunication. ``Most often, when we talk about infrastructure, we often refer to roads, highways, airports and we forget the basic infrastructure which

includes drinking water and sanitation infrastructure,'' Doucoure said. He said that nearly 300 million Africans did not have access to drinking water. ``We talk about an Emerging Africa by 2020 or 2025, but this emergence will occur only if every person in Africa has access to safe drinking water,'' he said.

He commended that the efforts of the Republic of Congo, which produces about 10,000 cubic metres of water daily, and for its plan to drill 4,000 boreholes in the rural areas. ``I think these are examples that deserve to be known in Africa and to be shared so that we can solve water and sanitation problems,'' he said.

Missing $20bn: Don warns of dire consequences

S claims and counter claims dog allegations that billions of dollars are missing from the federation account, an academic has warned of dire consequences for the people of Nigeria if the allegations turns out to be true. Dr Godwin Owoh, Executive Chairman, Society for Analytical Economics, Nigeria told The Nation "that profound economic leakage through loss of valued economic resources and inordinate resource allocation means that the rest

From Nduka Chiejina (Assistant Editor) of Nigerians are subjected to forced taxation, devastating effects of corruption that perpetuates inequity." Reacting to claims by the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that $20 billion expected to be in the federation account cannot be accounted for, Dr Owoh noted that "if the assertion by the CBN Governor is right, then, the implication is grave for the Nigerian political and economic stability." According this will be "a

precursor to loss of investors confidence in the Nigerian economy, much as it leads to low capital formation and dimunition of the economy's capital progress." The non-remittance of the $20 billion into the federation account he said is "a violation of Section 80 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the recurrent nature of this complaint from the CBN Governor suggests tacit toplevel connivance between the Presidency, the Ministry of Finance, and the NNPC/ Ministry of Petroleum

Resources." He called for an independent investigation of the allegation to be carried out "in a manner that is far beyond mere inquests through 'reconciliations'." On the CBN governor coming out as a whistle blower, Dr. Owoh described the development as "a top score for the CBN Governor if he is very sure of his facts and can stand tall on them." The issue raised he said "is huge, and I believe he is setting a record, assuming he has no skeleton of the type he is accusing others of."

‘Management is 24-hour activity’ •Orakwusi

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Sanusi assures on reserves as stocks decline worldwide By Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf with agency report

HE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Mallam Sanusi Lamido has assured that it has adequate reserves to keep defending the naira as the slumping currency prompted a selloff of the country's stocks, with the all-share gauge posting the world's worst performance at the weekend. "There is a great need to defend the currency because we don't want volatility," Central Bank of Nigeria Deputy Governor Sarah Alade said by phone from Lagos at the weekend. "Whenever there is need to intervene, we will do so." The naira strengthened 2 percent to 162.13 per dollar as of 4:05 p.m. in Lagos, snapping three days of losses. The currency weakened 0.4 percent last Thursday to 165.36 per dollar, the lowest level since Bloomberg started compiling data in 1999. The Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index (NGSEINDX) fell 1.6 percent by the close in Lagos, bringing its weekly decline to 4.9 percent, the most since June. Stocks, bonds and currencies from developing nations have been sold since the start of stimulus reduction by the Federal Reserve last month. Equities in Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer, fell 6.2 percent this year, compared with a 4.7 percent decline in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. The naira has retreated 1.1 percent this year while foreign reserves that Africa's biggest oil producer uses to bolster the local currency dropped to $42 billion this week, the lowest since October 2012. "All of these things are causing panic," Pabina Yinkere, head of research at Lagos-based Vetiva Capital Management Ltd., told Bloomberg in phone. "For an international investor, if the currency is going to devalue, it will affect his own returns." The naira has also been falling since the central bank last month removed the weekly limit of $250,000 that may be sold to a bureau de change. The central bank sells foreign currency at twice-weekly auctions to shore up the naira. It also sells dollars directly to lenders at irregular intervals. The central bank may increase cash reserve requirements for lenders to hold government deposits for the second time this year to 100 percent from 75 percent, Governor Lamido Sanusi said at a conference last Thursday in Lagos. It will probably raise the requirement on private funds to 15 percent from 12 percent, Sanusi said. The regulator raised the deposit level to tighten liquidity while keeping its benchmark lending rate at a record high of 12 percent. "To protect the naira over the next six months, we believe that the CBN will continue to use the CRR as its first policy option, rather than raising interest rates," Kato Mukuru and Ronak Gadhia, Africa equity analysts at London-based Exotix Partners LLP, said in an e-mailed note at the weekend. "Reserves of $42 billion, and import cover of some 10 months, give plenty of ammunition to support the naira in the near term."

Atedo Peterside, others for 11th annual Aret Adams' memorial lecture

HE management of the Aret Adams' Foundation has concluded arrangement to host the 11th edition of the Annual Aret Adams' Memorial Lecture Series, on Thursday, 27th, February, 2014. Tagged: "Oil Theft: Its Impact on Nigeria", it will hold at The Muson Centre, Onikan, Lagos. In a release signed on behalf of the Foundation by the Programmes Coordinator/Secretary, Mr. Akin Jokojeje, he said the chairman of the event is Mr Atedo Peterside, Chairman, Stanbic IBTC BankPlc), while the guest speaker is Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu, Country Chairman/Managing Director, Shell Petroleum Development Co. Ltd, among a host of other personages in the oil and gas, and allied sub-sectors.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

BUSINESS

In search of the Nigeri a Since the early 1960s, the dream of riding the Nigerian car was only fleetingly realised. However, following the new automotive policy, the country seems to be getting ready to drive the made-inNigeria car again, Joe Agbro Jr., reports

O many kids growing up around Ojo, Lagos in the 1990s, Volks was a busstop along the Mile 2 - Badagry Expressway. It was also popularly known for football as crowds gathered there to watch footballers ply their trade. Forgotten was the actual purpose for which the sprawling compound was built in the early 1970s - making cars. To say the company was facing hard times at that time was an understatement as the level of decrepit was visible. However, there is a new lease to the place. Acquired by Stallion Motors, the company now wears a refurbished look. And a recent visit to VON Nigeria as the plant is now known revealed that activities were going on there. Parked all around the compound were red Ashok/ Leyland buses, the type of Bus Rapid Transport, BRT. This is in addition to other vehicles that are being assembled here. Inside one of the sprawling halls, local and expatriate workers worked on buses at different stages of construction. Come April, the company is set to roll out Nigeria's first Sport Utility Vehicle, SUV. And the managing director of VON, Tokunbo Aromolaran, is elated. He should be. Built for Nigerian roads While the first SUV might be a feat, the idea of the made-inNigeria car is not novel. The adventure began in 1959 when UAC (now known as UAC of Nigeria Plc) set up a plant, Niger Motors, that produced Bedford trucks using semiknocked down kits. Today, Niger Motors is GM Nigeria, jointly owned by the UAC of Nigeria and General Motors, USA. It was, however, around the eve of the 1970s that very serious attention was given to local automobile production in Nigeria. Yakubu Gowon as military ruler invited 16 vehicle-manufacturing companies on October 6, 1969, to establish assembly plants. Six of those companies were selected and government partnered with them. And between 1970 and 1980, vehicle assembly plants were set up in the country. Two

•Ashok Leyland branded bus assembled at VON Nigeria

of those plants, Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN), located in Kaduna and Volkswagen of Nigeria (VON) in Lagos, were dedicated to churning out cars. The other four assembly plants Anambra Motor Manufacturing Company in Enugu, Steyr Nigeria Limited in Bauchi, National Truck Manufacturers in Kano, and Leyland Nigeria Limited in Ibadan, assembled trucks and buses. Other private companies like UAC, Leventis, SCOA, BEWAC, and RT Briscoe also established assembly plants. Automobile Peugeot of France's proposal was selected as a fall-out from the 1969 meeting on May 7, 1971 and Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria Limited, set up in Kakuri, Kaduna State, was incorporated on December 15, 1972. On March 2, 1975, Peugeot vehicles started to roll off the plant. The 504 and 505 series received heavy patronage by Nigerians, especially the government of the day, as official cars. Why not? After all, it was built for the Nigerian road. Volkswagen of Nigeria Limited also joined the fray. At its plant in Ojo, Lagos, it churned the Beetle and other Volkswagen brands. And Leyland, Steyr, NTM, and ANAMMCO in Ibadan, Bauchi, Kano, and Enugu respectively, started producing buses and trucks. The companies were producing and doing fine. All seemed to be well. Gathering dust However, as economy hardship set in, and imbalances came in, manufacturers began to close shop as many of these products became more expensive. The Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP, which was introduced by military ruler, General Ibrahim Babangida, further worsened the economic plight of most people and saw to it that less people could afford brand new cars. And the late eighties

into the early 1990s, Nigerians witnessed a proliferation of foreign-used vehicles or what is commonly known as Tokunbo cars over brand new cars because they were cheaper. And in 2012, Director-General, National Automotive Council, NAC, Aminu Jalal, said the nation imported 200,000 usedvehicles and 80,000 new-vehicles annually which cost N400bn. This condition started killing the local automobile companies and local assembly plants started going moribund. According to the chief operation officer of Nigerian Automotive Manufacturers Association (NAMA), an umbrella body for assembly plants in Nigeria, Arthur Madueke, when Nigeria's auto industry was at its peak in the

mid 1980s, the assembly plants produced more cars for Nigerians than they needed. But things nose-dived when government policies became inconsistent, Madueke said. 'Government was not able to monitor the agreements to see who was doing what and when they (government) allowed importation to flood in freely,' he said. 'So they (technical partners) started to use Nigeria as a marketing outlet instead of continuing to develop the local industry.' It was a condition that had to be reversed. And government had plans. Last year, during a tour of Peugeot's Kaduna plant by the NAC board, Alhaji Ibrahim Boyi, the managing director of PAN

Past made-in-Nigeria car projects aborted

HE federal government in 1982 concluded agreement with five auto manufacturers for the establishment of five assembly plants: Mitsubishi in Ilorin, Nissan in Minna, Peugeot in Gusau, Isuzu in Maiduguri, and Mazda in Umuahia. None was established.

Nigeria Limited, lamented the deplorable situation the company weathered. "In 1985, we produced 90,000 cars," Boyi said. "Government policy was very favourable then. But after that, the environment became very bad as all kinds of vehicles started coming into the country." And as at last year, PAN that now assembles Peugeot 307 and Changan Alsvin produced around 30 cars daily and with a reduced workforce of 250 compared to 4,000 in the 1980s. Revving up again Till 2007, when these six assembly plants were privatised, they merely spluttered, producing well-below their capacities while some crumbled. Following the privatisation, PAN Limited became PAN Nigeria Limited, VON Limited bought by Stallion Motors became VON Nigeria Limited, and Leyland became Leyland Buslan. And following NAC's recommendation, the new automotive policy hopes to hike the price of Tokunbos to make them

Wanted: Izuogu’s Z-600

•Prototype of Izuogu Z-600

AUNCHED in 1997, Izuogu Z-600 prototype was the first indigenous Nigerian car, and the first automobile of indigenous all-African technology. The car, a brainchild of engineer Ezekiel Izuogu, caused a stir in the Nigerian media at that time.

The prototype, a front-wheel drive, was equipped with a self-made 1.8L four cylinder engine that got 18mpg and allowed the car to achieve a top speed of 140 km/h. Ninety per cent of the car's components were made locally. Clever features like a door bell used in place of a horn ensured it achieved its low price target. Mass production was planned under Izuogu motors located in Naze, Imo State, but financial and political hurdles prevented the car from passing the prototype stage. In 2005, interest from other African countries arose about the Z-600 and Dr. Izuogu was invited to South Africa to give a speech on science and technology. Optimism surrounded the car until March 11, 2006, when armed robbers raided the factory of Izuogu Motors taking with them the molds for the engine blocks and crank shaft, mudguards and other components. Since then not much is known on the status of the car Culled from Wikipedia

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

BUSINESS

ri an car unattractive by raising taxes on imported vehicles to 70% of the car's original cost. According to stakeholders in the automotive industry, this price hike was to discourage the importation of cars, whether new or used, which overall had negative effects on the nation's economy. Aromolaran put it bluntly: "What the incentive has tried to do is to make it easy for people who are ready to invest to be able to compete effectively with people who have already reached a certain level world over and has made it difficult for us to thrive before now." Hence, from Kano to Ibadan to Lagos, Ode Remo to Kaduna, Nnewi to Kano, and Bauchi to Enugu, assembly lines are once again producing vehicles. At the VON premises, it's a frenetic pace at which local and expatriate workers worked side by side on the assembly lines. It currently produces Ashok/ Leyland buses used in the BRT system of the Lagos Stat government. Also, the company is set to produce the Nissan Patrol, Nigeria's first SUV. Though, only 200 workers are employed on the line that makes buses at VON, the managing director said: "As we are hoping to go into passenger car production, we see that number increasing by about 150 per cent to about 500 very shortly." The story of activity is the same at Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing (IVM) Company, in Nnewi, Anambra State, which founder Chief Innocent Ifediaso Chukwuma incorporated in February 2007. IVM, which started as a trading business in 1976, now produces commercial automobiles, utility vehicles and passenger cars, in collaboration with some Chinese auto manufacturers. It also enjoys government patronage as recently in January, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved N240.2m to purchase 44 locally-made IVM G5 Jeeps for chairmen and coordinators of the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P) across the country. At ANAMMCO in Enugu, Mercedes Benz trucks began to be churned out after a lull. In the case of Leyland it was sold in 1994 to its current owners but this was revoked two years later by the late General Sani Abacha. And in 2006, in a Sale Revalidation/Privatisation Process the company was returned to its current owner. Since then, it started production of buses, three-ton cargo trucks, and specialised three-ton garbage trucks, leveraging on support of its technical partner - China FAW (China Fist Auto Works), the largest automobile company in China. Another company producing vehicles locally is Proforce Limited. Located in Ode-Remo, Ogun State, the company designs and manufactures armoured vehicles that are resistant to AK-47 assaults and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). And since 2010, it has made various armoured vehicles for police and military operations as well as bullion vans for conveying cash.

According to the new automotive policy, vehicle manufacturers in Nigeria are to enjoy zero duty on CompletelyKnocked-Down (CKD) parts while Semi-Knocked-Down (SKD) parts attract five per cent duty. This contrasts 35 per cent levy and 35 per cent duty for imported cars and 35 per cent duty for commercial vehicles. Also, the policy recognises that there will be development of component manufacturing in Nigeria. There are certain aspects of the policy that have already specified the components that will not be part of the CKD package that anybody is going to import. And as part of efforts geared towards revamping the automotive sector, the Nigerian Automotive Manufacturers Association (NAMA), an umbrella body for all assembly plants in Nigeria with 16 members included companies such as PAN Nigeria in Kaduna, National Trucks Manufacturers Limited (NTM) in Kano, Steyr Nigeria Limited in Bauchi, and ANAMMCO in Enugu was set up. Other members are Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company in Nnewi, Zahav Automobile in Lagos, Leyland Buslan in Ibadan; VON Automobile, Lagos, and Leventis Motors in Lagos. The rest were Iron Products Industries Limited in Lagos, Gorgeous Metals Limited in Kaduna, Autobahn Techniques in Lagos, Proforce Limited (armoured vehicles) in Ode-Remo, Ogun State, Lasbag in Akure, and others. Of these, Autobahn Techniques and Lasbag make tricycles, NTM now makes tractors, while others makes cars, buses and trucks. And one major fear is that vehicles would just end up being wholly imported with replacement with local content being put to rest by stakeholders. 'Peugeot plant in Kaduna attained 35 per cent local content in the 80s,' Madueke said, 'and Peugeot sourced some of its components from Nnewi, from Port Harcourt and other places, and abroad.' And already VON Nigeria has achieved 30 per cent local content replacement in assemblying Ashok/Leyland buses. "We started Ashok/ Leyland with a 100 per cent importation of the parts. Today, we only import about 70 per cent of the parts," Aromolaran said. "Over time, we have been able to identify local components and over time we have been able to substitute them." However, with the current trend, Madueke, like other players, is optimistic, saying the lessons from government's previous interventions has been learnt. 'The fact remains too that most of the companies today are no longer government-owned,' he said. 'They are private sector-driven, and I believe that given the environment created by President Goodluck Jonathan, they are going to do a lot better than when government was in control, provided that there is consistency in policy, and that the policy is properly implemented.'

• Managing Director, UBA Cameroon, Mr. Georges Wega, receiving an award from the Group Managing Director/CEO, UBA Plc, Mr. Phillips Oduoza during the Annual UBA CEO Awards organised to reward star performers across the Group, in Lagos at the weekend

‘Unbanning cement import may reduce price to N1, 000'

HE Cement Producers Association of Nigeria (CPAN) has appealed to the Federal Government to lift suspension on cement import licences. This is contained in a statement signed by the Chairman of the association, Mr. David Iweta. According to the statement, lifting of the suspension was the only way to bring down the high price of cement currently being sold at N1, 800 per bag. Adding that this will bring down the price to N1, 000 "It is unacceptable for Nigerians

to buy cement at N1, 800 instead of N500 per bag as it is being sold by countries that have attained self sufficiency and net exporter in production." It alleged that a group of people was deceiving the Federal Government to believe that Nigeria had attained self sufficiency in the cement production. It stressed that the misleading information had resulted to pushing the price from the expected price for locally manufactured cement from about N500 to N1, 800 per bag. "This prompted the Federal Gov-

ernment to push up the duty and levy on cement import to 35 per cent plus other import bills to a total of 45 per cent on imported cement. It also made the government to suspend all already granted cement import licences such that manufacturers can sell their cement at N1, 800," it stated. The statement further revealed that this action had shut the doors to other players into the industry and had blocked competition in the industry adding that the action had also led to poor quality of the product leading to collapse building and loss of lives.

Companies to fight malaria with e-tech

“I

T takes Nigerians to find solutions to our internal problems on whatever level if faces us," were the opening words of Mr. Chris Uwaje, Chairman, Mobile Software Solutions Limited, and President, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), pioneer, ICT Policy for Nigeria. Speaking on why Nigeria has to nail malaria into extinction, Uwaje, said it was one battle that had confronted us so much that even in the days of the Colonial masters when they came to grant Nigeria independence as a nation, they were unable to grant us 'freedom' from malaria. In its wake, malaria has killed hundreds of thousands of Nigerians for many years.

By Joke Kujenya In the current data on malaria in Africa, yearly, one of the 300-500 million cases of malaria result in death. Also annually, Nigeria accounts for over 300,000 thousand deaths. As such, medical experts noted that Nigeria's health profile is in grave danger. On the economic slate, malaria costs Africa an estimated N12billion in loss of productivity on an annual basis. The situation is so weighty that according to the Health Minister, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, a child dies of malaria every second across Africa. "When you see these figures, one is forced to react. That is why in our company here, we have been on a research for quite a long time. Our major concern is to save future generations of Nigerians. Our response to

the eradication of mosquitoes and by extension, the destruction of the epidemic in our continent informed the creation of the game. Permit me to say that our initial drive is not for profit. We have mostly around us today children and younger ones who are quite technology savvy. They like to play games and so, we came up with a game called Malaria Destroyer Game (MDG) which has the endorsement of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. It is in line with the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). "Of the estimated over 100millions cases which result in about 300thousand deaths annually, the urgency to do something novel cannot be over-emphasised.”

•From left: Adim Isiakpona, Marketing & Public Relations Manager, Intel Nigeria, Bolarinwa Onaolapo, Sustainable Development Manager, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), Mr. Iboro Ekanem, Commissioner for Science & Technology, Akwa Ibom State, Ms Enyioma Anaba, Head Marketing, Interswitch Transnational and Edesiri Akpomudjee, Manager, Government & Community Relations East, SPDC at the 2014 National School Science Fair press conference held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State... recently

Banks at risk from corporate governance issues, says S&P

IGERIAN bank ratings are threatened by corporate governance issues and rapid loan growth as competition increases credit risk, said Standard & Poor's. "We see a risk that the momentum behind regulatory improvements may slow after leadership changes at the central bank this year," Samira Mensah, a Johannesburgbased credit analyst at S&P, said in a statement today. "The future growth and stability of the Nigerian bank-

ing sector will largely depend on a cohesive regulatory framework, together with political and institutional stability." Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Lamido Sanusi, 52, will step down when his contract ends in June and he said last month his successor's main challenge will be to maintain the regulator's independence. During his five-year term, he fired bank executives to clean up an industry that was near collapse. Nigerian economy is projected

to grow 6.5 percent this year and stable inflation in Africa's biggest oil producer will support loan growth of as much as 30 percent in 2014, S&P said. Fitch Ratings said on Jan. 31 that pan-African banking companies face regulatory risks after the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission criticized Ecobank Transnational Inc. (ETI) for failing to address governance issues amid allegations of executive fraud and misconduct.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

BUSINESS

FG establishes power sector intervention fund

HE Federal Government on Monday approved the establishment of Power Sector Intervention Fund with initial deposit of N300 billion to facilitate speedy development of the nation's power sector. President Goodluck Jonathan made this known at an International Conference on Power Sector and Infrastructure Financing at the Presidential Banquet hall, Abuja. Jonathan, represented by Vice President Namadi Sambo, said that the setting up of the fund would enable industry players have access to cheap long term funds.

``To enable industry players have access to cheap long term funds, government is hereby setting up a ``Power Sector Intervention Fund''. ``The financial resources for this special Fund will be pooled from the Federal Government, Development Financial Institutions (DFIs) as well as local and global and financial partners. ``The Coordinating Minister for the Economy will give details of the operational structure of the fund. But, will essentially, provide avoidable refinancing and unlending services to the sector. ``On its part, the Federal Government will make initial deposit of N300 billion.''

Jonathan noted that under the National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan about 2.9 trillion dollars was needed for infrastructure development efforts between 2014 and 2045. He said the energy sector alone needed about 900 billion dollars in the next 30 years, saying that a significant percentage of the amount was expected to come from the private sector. The president said that the power sector alone needed 10 billion dollars for Generation and Distribution companies to meet the target of additional 5,000 megawatts in the next few years. According to him, the

nation's transmission grid requires an annual investment of about 1.5 billion dollars for the next five years to ensure its reliability and stability. Jonathan challenged participants to come up with practical funding strategies and help to facilitate the unlocking of the much needed capital for the infrastructural development in the country. He said already the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) had commenced the aggressive implementation of the expansion blueprint funded by a mix of appropriation and funds from financial and multilateral institutions.

BATN welcomes anti-smoking bill, says it is balanced From Nduka Chiejina (Assistant Editor), Abuja

HE recent passage into Law of the Lagos State Public Place Smoking Bill has drawn commendation from British American Tobacco Nigeria. The company, through its Director, of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs in West Africa, Mr. Freddy Messanvi, said that the State has shown a good example of how a balanced and effective law can be passed. The process, he said was transparent and the public hearing and eventual drafting of the bill took all relevant views into consideration. He reiterated earlier views from the company which said that "the bill itself was neither excessive nor discriminatory". He, however, said he hoped that there will be adequate sensitization of all Lagosians especially those who trade in tobacco or who will enforce the laws. Messanvi stated that for laws to be effective, it must be enforced in a just manner as this is the only way it can achieve its intent.

MAN charges manufacturers on sustainable growth By Adeola Ogunlade HE Acting Director General of Manufacturing Association of Nigeria, Rasheed Adegbenro has challenged indigenous manufacturing companies to focus more on building sustainable structure around their businesses. Adegbenro made this call at a Sensitisation Forum organised by the MAN in partnership with Gold Elsh Limited over the weekend in Lagos. Tagged; 'The theme Internal Re-engineering of Internal Process of Manufacturing Firm', it brought together tops business executives, safety experts, entrepreneurs, and small, medium and large scale business owners. According to him, it is well known fact that businesses in the small and medium categories have high rate mortality rate in the developing world. They rarely cross the 50 yearsthreshold due to weak internal processes, undiluted ownership structure, building businesses around personalities rather than institutions and near absence of corporate governance. He said that in a rapidly globalised world, with its attendant collapsing tariff barriers and the accompanying stiff competition, the manufacturing industry needs to be repositioned for future growth while driving down internal cost.

â&#x20AC;˘From left: Director General, NACCIMA, Dr. John Isemede, representative of Lagos State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Mr. Hakeem Adeniji, Director, Product Development, Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mr Henry Otowo and Chairman MAN Export Group, Mr. Tunde Oyelola, during the Export Business Roundtable for NIS Awardees in Nigeria, organised by the NEPC in Lagos...recently PHOTO: MUYIWA HASSAN

NSE partners NRC on rail transport T

HE Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) last Wednesday assured that it would partner with the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), to resuscitate rail transportation in Nigeria. The President of the society, Mr. Ademola Olorunfemi, made the pledge when he paid a courtesy visit to the management of the NRC in Lagos. Olorunfemi said that the society would map out plans to collaborate with the corporation to achieve

modernisation of the railway system. ``We have realised that government alone cannot bring the needed resuscitation of the Nigerian Railway to the fore, that is why we want to pull our weight behind them as engineers. ``Railway is all about engineering, NSE and NRC are interwoven by virtue of what they do, NRC is the foundation of engineering in Nigeria. ``We are going to partner with you all the way, we want to come up with an

action plan, through which we will partner with you,'' he said. The president said that the visit would be a routine exercise to enhance the realisation of the project. Olorunfemi urged the management of the NRC to commit itself to reviving rail transport, assuring that indigenous engineers could help the corporation realise its goals. He said that the NSE was ready to offer assistance to Nigerian Railway Institutes across the coun-

try to get to the dreamland through training of young engineers. The president constituted a 20-man committee to draw up a strategic plan to assist the NRC. ``We are going to showcase your strength, encourage you and stand by you,'' he stated. On the Nigeria Railway Bill, the body promised to support the NRC in appealing to the National Assembly to pass it into law. He urged members of the society to look for areas to help the NRC individually and corporately. The Managing Director of the NRC, Mr. Adeseyi Sijuwade, said that the revitalisation of railway should involve private individuals, stressing that government alone could not do it.

NEPC, SON task exporters on standard

THE Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) and the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) have impressed on prospective exporters and manufacturers, the need to adhere to standards. This, the two bodies stressed, is in line with global best practices. They gave this charge at a public forum tagged: 'Export Business Roundtable' in Lagos recently.

By Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf

Firing the first salvo, Mr. Olusegun Awolowo, Executive Secretary/Chief Executive, NEPC, who delivered the keynote address on the occasion, while justifying the need for the interface and discussion session, said: "The Export Business Roundtable is part of our efforts to identify reputable companies, who in spite of the challenges they encounter in exporting their products, con-

tinue to make a mark in international markets." Awolowo, who was represented by Mr. Henry Otowo, Director, Product Development Department, NEPC, further maintained that the roundtable "Is also part of our strategy of reiterating the need to diversify our dependence on oil to non-oil in line with Mr. President's transformation agenda. "Interestingly, the roundtable has become neces-

sary as a result of the huge export potentials of Nigeria manufacturing products as revealed by the recent NEPC sponsored exhibitions held in Lome, Togo, Accra, Ghana and Niamey, Niger. Reputable companies that had won the Nigerian Industrial Standard (NIS) certification mark with a view to ensuring that they participate in the export business to maximise their potentials.

Ministry seal off fishing company over contraband By Oziegbe Okoeki

HE Federal Ministry of Agriculture through the Federal Department of Fisheries (FDF) has sealed a fishing company in Lagos for allegedly procuring contraband fishes. Mrs. Foluke Areola, the Acting Director of FDF told newsmen in Lagos that the current Agric Transformation Agenda programme of the Federal Government was aimed at achieving self-sufficiency in food and fishery production in Nigeria. "The department is aggressively promoting local fish production through aquaculture and artisanal fisheries," she said. On how the ministry got wind of the nefarious activities of the suspected contraband, Mrs Areola explained that on a tipoff, the department heard that Fashakin foods in Lagos had illegally imported farmed fish products in its cold rooms hence a task force was set up by the department to investigate the matter. She noted that the company was in the process of selling out packed tilapia and pangasius, catfish species known as monster catfish which are banned fishery products. "130 cartons of pangasius and 1900 tilapia were discovered, in the cold rooms, we have sealed two cold rooms. "There are eight cold rooms within the premises but we are putting two cold rooms on hold, one cold room contains pangasius and tilapia, farmed fish which are illegal products. "The second cold room we are putting on hold contains croaker, croaker is not an illegal product but putting it on hold because the product has foul smell. "So we are sealing it and going to send our inspectors to come and take samples of the croaker fish and if we find out that they are still fit for human consumption, we release the products, If otherwise and are still fit for animal feed production, we order it to be sold to animal feed producers in the presence of our fishery inspectors but if it is neither fit for human consumption nor for animal feed production, we order for its destruction and the owner will bear the cost for destruction." Areola said, the Federal Government has been empowering farmers to produce fish which is why the department had to ban any importation of farmed fish products. She said that the department has stopped the importation of all farmed fish products from 31st December, 2013. "Importation is only limited to pelagic fish, which is mackerel, sardine, H/Mackerel and stockfish.â&#x20AC;?

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

BUSINESS

'There are bright prospects for Kaduna DISCO in 2014'

ADUNA Electricity Distribution Company is one of the electricity companies that was sold to private investors by the government. What are the challenges you faced in the course of doing business in the states covered by the company that you think must be addressed urgently before the new owners take over? Let me start by saying that we are fully prepared for the takeover of the company by the new owners. However, let me announce to our customers a little of what we intend to do for them this year before the new owners take over in other to give the quality service that our customers will require from us. First, I want to take us to 2013 because there is no future without the past. I am happy to announce that in 2013, KEDC had the best financial report for the year. By December 2013, our cash collection for the month was N1.070billion, the highest in the history of the company, the highest in the history of revenue generation in the company and I would also like to say by extension that since cash collection recorded the highest peak, power generation also reached its highest peak. By December 2013, we reached 114 mw of power that was available in Kaduna. That been so, the effect is that because of the availability of power, there was corresponding increase in cash collection for the month of December which made us to achieve that feat. We would not have achieved that without the support of the media. We had a lot of challenges during the year and we had to prepare strategies to overcome those challenges. One of the greatest challenges we had was that of public enlightenment, especially on the status of power supply, on the need to fight against vandalism of our equipment, the need for our customers to appreciate the services that we are providing by making them pay their electricity bills as and when due, by also appealing to our customers to make sure that they do not bypass our electricity meters. However, through the joint commitment of members of the press, we were able to overcome those challenges and we are proud to say that the result of the highest performance we attained in December was also as a result of the contribution of the members of the press. However, for us in KEDC, 2014 is a year of hope and a year for the realisation of our dream. We are hoping that before the handover of the company to the new investors, we should be able to meet our settlement invoice, to pay our market requirement by the end of the month. Meeting our settlement invoice means that our bills would have successfully been collected, the running cost for the month successfully settled and been able to pay ourselves our monthly salaries without

The Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company is one of the power companies hitherto under the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) sold to private investors by the Federal Government but yet to be handed over to the new owners. In this interview with Tony Akowe, in Kaduna, the Managing Director of the company, Mallam Mohammed Idris Mohammed spoke on the challenges and prospects of the business recourse to help from anywhere. It is a year of dream because of the target we have set for ourselves. We are hoping to collect N1.5 billion before the new owners take over and that would mean that we will be able to pay for the cost of electricity, pay our salaries and post some profit. By the time we are able to do so, we believe that KEDC will be the first investors' delight and also be like Ikeja and Eko Distribution Companies that are doing very well now. How prepared are you for its eventual take over by the new owners? First, I want to let the public know that Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company is trailing behind Eko and Ikeja Distribution Companies. We are therefore proud to announce that from the strategies we have lined up for this year, we will realise our dream. One of our strategies is to bring our services closer to our customers wherever they are and to do that, we have created five additional business units. They include Zaria City, Birnin Gwari, Jaji, Zuru and Kachia Business Units. We believe that the creation is borne out of necessity to improve the quality of service our customers in those areas enjoy. We are quite disturbed that while the quality of service is improving in Kaduna, drastic efforts must be done by management to ensure that the same quality of service is enjoyed in every nook and cranny of the states under our control. With the additional units, we believe that our services will now be closer to the people and our customers will now have direct access to members of management, our response centres and complain centres. It will now be like responding to fault 24 hours real time. We are also going to commission delightful product that our customers would like. Just like the telecom companies where you buy recharge cards to recharge your phone, our customers can now buy recharge cards with which, from the comfort of their homes and offices and wherever they are, charge their electricity meter and light become available. With this special electricity cards, our customers will be satisfied because sometimes when the customers come here, we have long queues because of network problems and sometimes, because of the breakdown in communication, the customers are unable to recharge their meters. Now, with the introduction of the electricity cards, you can buy the cards and keep in your house, in your wallet and whenever you run out of

â&#x20AC;˘Mohammed

electricity at home, you just bring out the card and recharge your meter anywhere there is network service on your phone. The second delightful product we have is a very interesting product. If you have credit in your hand-held phone and you want to recharge your meter with the credit in your phone, you can do that. It is the most interesting product that our customers will enjoy in 2014. It would mean that as long as there is power supply, you will not have disruption. In addition to that, we are also introducing web-based recharge system. You can go to our website and log on to the site where you want to recharge your meter and with your ATM card, you can recharge your meter and this you can do anywhere you have internet service. We are going to extend our services to ATM in all the banks so that you can go to any bank with your ATM and recharge you metre. These are some of the interesting products that we are going to commission this year and we believe that when these products are made available to

our customers, we believe that quality of service will be improved upon, customer satisfaction will be improved upon and the revenue collection of the company will also be greatly improved upon. That will help us to meet and realise our target. Right now, we have a world class customer service office. It is comparable to any customer care unit anywhere in the world. We are hoping that before the end of the year or before the handover, we will have a banking service here in the office which will serve as a one-stop centre. When that happens, the customer care unit will take charge of customer satisfaction and their needs till the handover. You spoke of the revenue collection, but nothing on the debts being owed the company by consumers. Does that mean your customers are up to date in their payment? Yes, we have talked about cash collection. However, what we should be more concerned with is the level of improvement in our

performance. By January 2013 when we came in, the response rate to our bills was about 35 percent. But as I speak with you today, we have increased that to 52 percent which shows that we are making progress. The debt profile as at today stands at about N40 billion, but it would have been more than this if we had not been able to put things in place to ensure that we get more response from our customers. Majority of the defaulters are the residential customers who by consumption take away about three quarters of our energy. With the new facilities being introduced to help customers pay their bills, we are hoping that when it comes into effect, it will be much easier for them to respond to our bill and with the metering programme currently available, we are confident that prepaid metres are well accepted by customers. Within the next two weeks, we are expecting about 40,000 metres from the World Bank which will be installed in Kaduna. The places to benefit from these metres have been

earmarked and we believe that the installation of these metres will help us tackle the debt profile and will make it easier for customers to buy and utilise energy. Recently, you said that the company would need about N5.7 billion to procure prepaid metres. Could you bring us up to speed on that? The National Electricity Regulatory Commission has come up with a mid-solution. Since the government cannot provide that fund, NERC has now said that if you have money and want to buy metre and you cannot wait for the free metres from government, you can pay to certain vendors accredited by NERC and within five weeks, you will be connected with a new metre. We are glad to say that as at today, that scheme is in place and we are happy to say that customers have been metered in less than four weeks. In fact, we have metered customers in less than two weeks and that is part of the successes we have recorded. So, issue of metering now is left to the customer to decide. That scheme is working and the metres are available because investors have invested in it. The Kaduna State Water Board is blaming your company for erratic water supply in the state. How would you react to this? Between Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company and Kaduna State Water Board, it is a matter of your word against mine. We know that they have heavy equipment that require constant and regular power supply to energise them for them to be able to provide water for customers in every part of the metropolis. Sometimes, due to system fluctuation, we are not able to give them the required energy that can power their machines to provide that service. We also advised them that if they want to have adequate power supply that will power their equipment, they need to run a high voltage special dedicated line that will fire those equipment. During the visit of the minister to the company last year, you complained that one of the contractors handling the NIPP plants in the zone were not performing. What is the position now? You are right that when the minister visited us, I said that about eight of the projects are suffering from abandonment. Interestingly, out of those eight projects, the contractors handling three of them are back to site. Any moment from now, one of these projects here in Kaduna will be commissioned before the end of this month. That project was one of the eight that I mentioned and once it is commissioned, it will take care of a large chunk suffering from low voltage, load shedding and all kind of low quality of service and the power supply situation will improve and the customers will tell a different story.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

Zuma's SONA resonates with business

USINESS Unity SA says it is pleased with President Jacob Zuma's reaffirmation of the National Development Plan in his State of the Nation Address. But the business body remains less optimistic about the effective implementation of the NDP. The NDP is an economic policy framework aimed at eliminating poverty and inequality by 2030. Busa says it will continue to engage with government, with the aim of implementing the NDP and boosting economic growth. It also welcomed measures to tackle youth unemployment. The SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry expressed similar views, saying they welcomed Zuma's optimistic tone, but wanted a more forward-looking view.

U.S. manufacturing output falls as cold weather bites

U â&#x20AC;˘FRANCE, Toulouse : Several hundreds farmers crowded the city centre of Toulouse, southern France, using their tractors and poured manure in front of the prefecture to protest against the new EU policies against water pollution on February 14, 2014 . French farmers believe the European restrictions on nitrogen fertilisers are not taking into account the everyday realities of their profession. AFP PHOTO/ PASCAL PAVANI

China plans the world's longest undersea tunnel

T more than twice the length of the Channel Tunnel, China's latest mega project is not short of ambition. A 76-mile-long tunnel will run between the northern city of Dalian with Yantai, on the east coast. "Work could begin as early as 2015 or 2016," said Wang Mengshu, an expert at the Chinese academy of Engineering, to the China Daily. He added that the new tunnel will knock 800 miles off the current route between the two cities. It will also form a vital link in a high-speed rail line

from China's frozen north to the tropical island of Hainan, in the south. China has a history of epic engineering projects stretching back to the Great Wall. More recently it has built the world's largest high-speed railway network, longest bridges, and several of its tallest skyscrapers. Even so, the new ÂŁ22 billion sea tunnel will present several challenges. Engineers will attempt to bore three tunnels - one for cars, one for trains and one for maintenance - through the hard rock, 100ft below the sea bed. Vertical shafts will be dug

on islands along the route to provide ventilation. But the area is prone to earthquakes and the tunnel will traverse two major fault lines. In 1976, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake in the nearby city of Tangshan killed hundreds of thousands. Experts warned that excavation work through an active fault needs special attention. "The government is being cautious about the project," said a leading researcher on the tunnel at East Shandong University, who asked not to be named. "We proposed this idea of a tunnel 20 years ago and

many research teams have been looking at it since. "We set up a special group to study the Channel Tunnel. In fact, every undersea tunnel engineer in the world has learned from the Channel Tunnel because it is the best example in the world. We learned some construction techniques and also some ways of financing our tunnel." The Channel Tunnel, dug between 1987 and 1991 showed that bores could excavate undersea at high pressure. But technology has improved to such an extent that much more ambitious projects are possible. source: telegraph.co.uk

Lenovo profits and sales reach beyond expectations

HINESE PC maker Lenovo has recently posted its third-quarter profit and sales report, which has been higher-thanexpected. Lenovo said that it saw higher sales of laptops and mobile devices in emerging markets and its earnings rose 30% to 265 million dollars

from a year earlier, while the analysts had expected 247 million dollars. According to the BBC, the firm revealed that its revenues jumped by 15% to a record 10.8billion, led by sales in China. However, the firm has warned that its future finances would be negatively im-

pacted by its recent purchase of IBM's low-end server business and Google's Motorola Mobility. Lenovo has paid more than 5 billion dollars, which amounts to nearly half of the company's market value, to acquire both the businesses. The report said that investors have also raised ques-

tions about Lenovo's acquisitions, as they are not profitable, which Lenovo has insisted are part of a longer-term strategy to move away from its reliance on PC sales and expand its presence in the server and smartphone sectors. Source: businessstandard.com

Uganda developing law to govern Mobile Money, Internet Banking

HE Ugandan government, through the Uganda Law Reform Commission (ULRC), is developing legislation to govern how mobile money and Internet banking transactions are conducted in the country. In Uganda, mobile banking and mobile money services are provided by institutions such as commercial banks, mobile network operators and non-bank financial bodies. However, the rapid growth of effective

commercial transactions with the aid of the Internet has caught the authorities in Uganda off-guard. Whereas the government has enacted electronic related laws and is in the process of enacting legislation of data protection, the ULRC notes that it remains a point of debate as to whether these laws will be sufficient and adequate to address privacy issues and maintain the confidential nature of bankcustomer relations. Despite the lack of direct

legislation, the sector now handles business worth trillions of shillings, owing to its speed, accessibility, convenience, affordability and relative safety. But it has also emerged as a frontier for breeding criminality, hence the need for legislation. Addressing the media, ULRC Secretary Lucas Omara Abong said the new laws would heighten security of transactions undertaken through Mobile Money and Internet banking. The development of the

law comes at a time when Ugandans are increasingly falling prey to fraud on Mobile Money and Mobile banking transactions, largely anchored on ignorance. Prosecution of suspects has also been hard due to lack of direct legislation. The others issues targeted by the law include consumer complaint and dispute resolution, cross border electronic money transfer and regulation of mobile money services. Source: www.bernama.com

Toyota recalls more than 261,000 vehicles for braking problem

OYOTA Motor Corp is recalling 261,114 Lexus and Toyota brand vehicles in the United States because various safety systems, including stability control and anti-lock brakes, could become inoperative. It is recalling vehicles

from model years 2012 and 2013 because an electrical component in the brake actuator, which adjusts fluid pressure in each wheel cylinder, may experience increased resistance, according to documents filed with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

That could lead to reduced vehicle control and an increased risk of a crash as various safety systems, including traction control, become inoperative. Toyota officials could not immediately be reached to comment. The vehicles affected in

the recall include 54,010 of the Lexus RX350 crossover vehicles and 100,052 of the Toyota Tacoma pickup trucks, both from model years 2012 and 2013, as well as 107,052 of the Toyota RAV4 SUVs from model year 2012, according to the NHTSA documents.

.S. manufacturing output unexpectedly fell in January, recording its biggest drop in more than 4- 1/2 years, as cold weather disrupted production in the latest indication the economy got off to a weak start this year. Factory production fell 0.8 percent last month, the Federal Reserve said on Friday. It was the first drop since July and the biggest since May 2009, when the economy was still locked in recession. Output had increased 0.3 percent in December. The Fed attributed the first decline in factory output since July to "severe weather that curtailed production in some parts of the country." Manufacturing joined weak retail sales and employment data in suggesting that cold weather had spurred a stepback in economic growth early in the first quarter. "The big question is whether the U.S. economy is slowing significantly or whether it is merely going through a soft patch caused by extreme weather. The evidence points to the latter," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit in London. The weakness in factory output last month was broadbased, with the production of motor vehicles and parts tumbling 5.0 percent after ticking up 0.1 percent in December. "The inclement weather in January contributed to some of these decreases. Numerous motor vehicle assembly facilities lost one or more days of production during the month," the Fed said in a statement. It also revised down fourth-quarter output at the nation's factories to a 4.6 percent annual rate from the 6.2 percent pace it had reported in January. The drop in factory output last month and a 0.9 percent fall in mining production weighed on overall production, which fell 0.3 percent, the biggest drop since April. SOURCE: Reuters . com.

Biggest Dutch wind farm gets $480m loan

HE company backing the biggest wind farm to be built in the Netherlands got a 350 million-euro ($480 million) loan led by the European and German development banks. Germany's KfW Group, Dutch lender Rabobank Group and the European Investment Bank provided the funds for NOP Agrowind to expand a facility that's already under construction. Agrowind will install 26 of Enercon GmbH's 7.5-megawatt turbines, bringing the Noordooostpolder wind farm to 86 machines, KfW's IPEX export bank said today in an e-mailed statement. The first turbine is expected to start generating in September, with completion of the project scheduled for 2016, it said. No terms were given.

U.S. Stocks advance amid earnings, optimism in economy

.S. stocks rose, with the Standard & Poor's 500 Index headed toward a second straight weekly advance, amid better-than-forecast earnings and speculation a disappointing factory report may mask economic strength. Occidental Petroleum Corp. gained 2.9 percent after saying it will split its operations in California as one of the final steps of a breakup plan. Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. and Campbell Soup Co. added more than 3.7 percent as earnings beat forecasts. Men's Wearhouse Inc. tumbled 7.2 percent after its acquisition target, Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc., proposed to buy the Eddie Bauer brand. The S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent to 1,834.45 at 10:39 a.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 56.93 points, or 0.4 percent, to 16,084.52. Trading in S&P 500 stocks was 13 percent below the 30-day average during this time of the day. "The weather is so horrible everywhere, much of the data could be very distorted," Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at RW Baird & Co., said by telephone from Sarasota, Florida. His firm oversees $120 billion. "The Fed is going to wait until the weather clears and until we get some more numbers in March and April to consider the data.

Inside the flea market Page 66

HAT was the driving force that prompted the establishment of Terragon Group Limited? Terragon Group is basically one of the products of necessity borne out of the strategic vision of a group of individuals who are my co-founders. What we saw was that the world was moving into the digital world. We observed that there was a sharp shift from television, radio and other traditional means to the internet. We also saw that there was an increasing traffic build up on the internet, which needed to be explored. Again, we looked at the ecosystem and we realised that there was a need to give birth to a business that would focus on the new media system, which of course will be driven by mobile and internet. It was this background that led to the emergence of Terragon Group. We started with mobile content aggregation, giving support to the talented people who are creating quality content and helping them monetise it. Through this, we were able to give necessary support to musicians, news reporters and creative minds in general. Through our intervention, we were able to help this set of people put their works on the mobile channel, from where it is monetised. Can you take us through a few solutions Terragon normally deploys to grow brand equity? I think the first approach has always been to identify our target audience and the mode of interacting with them. For instance, if we are targeting the youths, we will ensure that brands engage with them via the digital channel, letting them know the value of the brand, as well as how, where, and when to get the products or services being offered by the brand. We aim to influence their decisions and make them buy. Like I said earlier, the youth population drives consumption, and we know that in Nigeria and the subSahara market, digital communication is limited, so what we have been doing over the last four years is educating brand owners on the value of digital advertising. Of course, such education will involve budgets and other resources which, if put together, will help us reach out to the target audience more effectively. Meanwhile, our strategy revolves round our three respective touch points and execution channels. As a group, we deploy our strategies through: Terragon Limited, Terrragon Media Services and Twinpine. Terragon Limited is the mobile content aggregation platform while Terragon Media Services handles

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014

'How global partnership has expanded SMEs' Mr. Elo Umeh is Chief Executive Officer, Terragon Group Limited, one of the start-ups involved in the Federal Government's YOUWIN project. Adetutu Audu met him in Lagos and he spoke about his life and passion for digital advertising. digital marketing in the area of brand equity and engagement, data analysis, business intelligence and brand content strategy. The third is Twinpine, which is an Africa-focused premium mobile advertising network that helps brands and advertisers to reach consumers via locally targeted mobile platforms. To sum it up, Terragon is an enabler with a variety of solutions to help brands, agencies and organisations. What platforms do you have to show your work globally? Expectedly, we have been interacting with a lot of individuals and organisations online and we exchange with partners globally. But beyond this, in February next year we will be exhibiting at the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (Spain). Without a doubt, the exhibition will be used as an avenue to showcase the works of Terragon Group to the global community. We also have offices in Accra, Nairobi, London, Cape Town, Bangalore and Port Louis and these locations also help us reach out effectively to our customers and partners. Do you have any support or affiliations? Yes, for example we were involved in FG/YOUWIN project and it was indeed a good experience. And we want to use this medium to sincerely thank the Federal Government for conceiving, and executing that project, especially to the young minds like us. The results of the initiative have been very positive and we hope to see a new generation of successful entrepreneurs emerge as a direct consequence of this project. What strategies are being implemented by Terragon to move more prospects through the digital funnel in Nigeria? What we do is to engage the services of experts and to invest in Technology. We ensure that we hire the best hands for the job. Often, instead of employing someone who is not qualified for a vacant position, we would rather let the position lie fallow. Is the infrastructural deficit in Nigeria in any way a setback for you? We have adjusted to the style of the deficit, and when you talk of power for instance, it is not our primary challenge in Terragon. Our challenge and

â&#x20AC;˘Umeh concern is to develop the mobile channel hub of the Nigeria economy. After this, we can talk about power. What exactly are you doing to address this? It's simple, having known that the PHCN is unable to meet the power needs of Nigerians successfully, what we are doing is to ensure that people are reached through their mobile devices. In days past, we depended heavily on traditional methods of advertising, where reaching out to people is subject to time. But the case is not like that with digital communication where you can speak to your audience even in their closet, and that is what we are doing. So the mobile phone is a strong link between the government and the people. Since the digital landscape is vast, success lies in having a consumer focus strategy and clear business goals. What distinguishing strategy has the Terragon group adopted over the years? It is simple! We have gone

viral, with offices in London, Kenya, Uganda, and over half the continents of the world. It's part of our strategy to capture the African continent through excellent execution and relationship management. Your area of specialisation is unique, is there any relationship between what you do now and your background? If we look at it from the generation I belong to, there could be some influences because of the current trend of things globally. The world has become a global village, where digital media is the in-thing. Narrow it down to my family background, there is no correlation. I came from an average home, born in Jos, Plateau State. The family came to Lagos when I was Four, settled in Anthony Village then we moved to Ajao Estate, Isolo Lagos state. My parents are not the moneybag but they value education and good upbringing. What exactly inspires you? Making good of the talent God has given me inspires me.

I read business administration in school; I majored in business. In our family, we never got anything on a platter of gold; rather we work for anything we have gotten. To some extent, my mum is business inclined, but I don't think that is where the inspiration came from. But I think the training ethics of my mum plays a factor. It is believed in some quarters that the youth segment is more accessible via digital platform than other segments of the market. Do you share this belief? I agree with that assumption to a large extent but let me quickly add that the entire market is today crucial to the digital revolution. Yes, the youth segment is easier to reach because they spend more time on the internet but the truth is that the older members of this generation and even the children are not lagging behind in the process. Having said this, I think the youth market is, in the actual sense, important in driving consumption because if you can hit them, you can link other segments of the market. At that point, you can relax and say your campaign is successful. These days, the older folks rely on the youths to make their decisions. In recent debates, some analysts are of the opinion that the digital media will soon edge out the traditional platforms, what is your take? Much as I agree that the digital media have some advantages over traditional media, I don't subscribe to the thought that the traditional will die completely. I also want to emphasise the fact that we are not competing with the traditional folks. Traditional advertising will remain but the truth is that there is the need for people to interact via the digital sector in our economy. That is the gap we are trying to bridge. We are trying to ensure that consumers and brands are able to come up with a personalised engagement across digital channels, using the best and appropriate technology. Another important point to note is that the players in the digital media space will be taking a chunk of the budget meant solely for the traditional media because business owners will always look beyond the traditional to be able to be on the same page with the global trends.

Ministry, others to support Plateau poultry farmers

HE Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) over the weekend pledged to support Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Plateau chapter. The organisations pledged support in Jos, at the inauguration of the association's new office complex at Dadin-Kowa, in Jos South Local Government Area. Mr Daniel Kakwi, the Director, Plateau Green House of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, said that the ministry had empowered 100 poultry farmers under its Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES) in the state. Kakwi, represented by Dr Steven Dowoh, Assistant Director (Vet), said that the farmers were given birds, feeds and drugs at subsidised rates. He assured the PAN that they would continue to get more of such support from the ministry. ``The Federal Government is interested in doing business with associations because individuals have failed government. ``Most times when they (individuals) collect loans, to pay back so that it keeps revolving becomes a problem. ``But for an association, if one person is not there, the other will and that has encouraged government to do business with them,'' he said. The director said that forms for the Growth Enhancement Scheme in poultry were available and urged farmers to make use of the opportunity. ``If you are interested, you can pick an expression of interest form from our office for participation in the Growth Enhancement Scheme,'' he said. Prof. Longmas Wapmuk, ITF Director General, in his remarks, also said that the ITF would never be tired of supporting the farmers in their quest to improve on their performance and productivity.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014

66 BUSINESS/SME REPORT

Hitherto, the flea market commonly known as the secondhand market in Nigeria, was not very popular. Not any more as the burgeoning trade in that sector now operates on a wide scale that cannot be ignored. In this report, Joe Agbro Jr. and Lanre Williams take a look at this thriving trade

HAT shiny brand new clothe, appliance, book or shoe is always desirable. However, when the price of such goods is announced, only those who can pay the price can get such goods. No doubt, for many low income earners, high prices discourage them from buying new things. For this class of people, it is straight to the flea market, where everything next to new is on offer and sold on a bargain. In many cities around the world, flea markets are located in designated spots. But, with a huge proliferation of imports, Nigeria seems to be bursting at her seams with goods such as clothing materials, books, toys, bicycles and household goods such as television sets, audio systems, gas cookers, refrigerators and computer parts. And as the containers land, bearing these goods from the sea ports, buyers and sellers scurry all out to get a good bargain. Though, not peculiar to only these parts, in Nigeria, the flea markets have blosomed in many nooks and crannies. To the sellers, it is business while the buyers see affordable goods on offer. Unlike in the 1980s when it was a thing of shame to be seen patronising flea markets, nowadays many Nigerians as a matter of routine shop in various flea markets which can now be found in different areas. Hence, as goods are unloaded in containers, depending on the goods, they are bound to various markets. In Lagos, for instance, when it comes to used clothes, the go-to place is Gatankowa Market which is around Abule-Egba. It is from here that some other sellers of second-hand clothes come to buy and later re-sell. If it is electronics, it is usually the Alaba International Market, located in Ojo. There are also various warehouses in Apapa and Ladipo Market environs. Daily, at those places, there is a throng of buyers and sellers transacting business. Some sellers share their experience. "I get my products from Ladipo Market," said Miracle Uchenna, who has a stall at Oshodi Market, Lagos. For 25-year-old Uchenna, who sells second-hand batteries, phone and desktop chargers, he started running the business since 2012 with the sum of five thousand naira. According to Uchenna, his motivation for starting the business was borne out of not wanting to stay idle. "As a man, I must not just stay at home," he said. "I have to come out to hustle for a

living." Also selling at Oshodi Market is 38-year-old Rachael Orejia who hails from Anambra State. However, in her own case, she started dealing in secondhand clothes such as jeans, Tshirts, and trousers about three years ago. She started the business to face the difficult economic times. "As the current situation of the country is," she said, "someone must not stay without doing any work." She also said she has to feed her children as well as pay their school fees. And she sourced her materials from Gatankowa Market, which is arguably the state's largest flea market for clothes. Though she said she has faced little challenges, she said the returns on her business is impressive. "It is profitable," Orejia said, "because I earn the sum of N100 from each cloth." Another seller is Godwin Sunday, a 42-year-old Anambra State indigene, who has been in the business for three years. And he sells second-hand pressing irons, electric kettles, electric blenders, and hot plates, at Yaba Market, also located in Lagos. According to Sunday whose highest educational qualification is the senior secondary school certificate (SSCE), he started his business with the sum of thirty thousand naira, but said the amount depends on the scale one wants. "If you want it big," he said, "you have to start with big capital and if you want it small you start with small capital." Sunday said he gets his products from Alaba Market, a popular flea market specialising in all sort of electronics. And every month he goes there to stock up. Speaking of his challenges, Sunday said because he needs to increase his sales, he has turned a vagrant, selling his wares from market to market. "It is the nature of the business to move from one market to another so as to make profit," he said. And as a way of relaxing from this stressful routine, Sunday said, "I do not sell every Tuesday, so I use it as a resting day." His modus operandi is that he starts selling in the evening around 4:00pm because that is the time when workers begin to leave their office. "It is when I sell, so that they (workers) can buy it home directly." Also at Yaba Market is Ikechukwu Joseph who sells second-hand radio sets, television sets, DVD players, CD players, and home theatre systems. Joseph, 56-year-old,

Inside the flea ma

â&#x20AC;˘People buying Tokunbo clothes at Kotangiwa market, Abule-Egba, Lagos who hails from Akwa Ibom State, has been running his business since five years ago, and started the business with the sum of N60, 000 and gets his products from Alaba Market. According to Joseph,

"it is a place where I can get good and cheap products." Concerning the challenges of running his business, Joseph said he used to find himself always on the wrong side of the law, being

harassed by policemen, because he did not issue receipts to his customers. However, Joseph said he got around that and the harassment stopped when he "started issuing receipts" to

PH his customers. For his efforts, Joseph, who veered into the secondhand business "so as not to stay idle" and because it is less stressful, said he earns about N15, 000 at the end of each

â&#x20AC;˘Customers at the Alaba International Market, Lagos, electronics market famous for second-hand goods

PHOTOS: MUYIWA

THE NATIO N ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014

ea market

nd goods

xxx

BUSINESS/SME REPORT

Heritage, Diamond boost SMEs

EPOSIT money banks hitherto averse to small and medium enterprise, SMEs, are now having a change of heart, thanks to the apex bank's imposition of 75 per cent Cash Reserve Requirement, (CRR), on public funds, banks and other financial institutions, in favour of SMEs development. Presently in the country, the SMEs contribute about 47 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP); in China, about 60 per cent and in Egypt, about 80 per cent. It is a generally held belief in the banking circle that SMEs are very risky because operators might not understand how to run the business they want to go into and once given the money, it becomes a problem. Hence, banks ask for collateral far bigger than the loans ought by SMEs. Bayo Ogunnusi, the Group Head of SMEs, Heritage Bank, explained that his bank has introduced new dimension into SMEs financing by bringing up an innovative idea of how to finance SMEs without collateral. This involves partnering

â&#x20AC;˘GMD Diamond Bank, Alex Oti

By Bukola Afolabi with some organisations like RSL Derivatives to help in identifying the SMEs. "We have evolved a unique selling point anchored on innovative approach in financing SMEs. We introduced a strategy, which is the Paris Club for small and medium scale enterprises. It is the first of its kind in this

country, as no bank has done that. This is a system where we partner some organisations to finance SMEs without collateral, through an investment protection fund. We have gone this far because SME is more like a blood running in our veinsboth in passion, foreknowledge and funding," Ogunnusi said. The Paris Club of SMEs was set up by Heritage Bank and RSL Derivatives. A qualified entrepreneur, as explained by Ogunnusi, gets a certificate of membership and with that, he can approach Heritage Bank to finance his business. The bank gives the beneficiary financial advice and monitors the business regularly to ensure that it is properly run. From the credit facility given, 10 per cent of it is kept in an investment protection fund that is insured by Leadway Insurance Plc and managed by Stanbic IBTC nominees. There are 17 million SMEs in Nigeria and they are growing by the day. It is estimated that is the next decade, SMEs would be the main stay of Nigeria's economy.

In a related development, Diamond Bank Plc has announced the completion of its financial literacy training for artisans, which is aimed at boosting the growth of the Micro Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in the country. The statement quoted an Executive Director of Diamond Bank, Mr. Uzoma Dozie, as describing the scheme as the bank's way of giving back to society in a more impactful way. He said, "Our area of concentration in banking is the MSME and this initiative is a way of further projecting that course. We feel a commitment to create more entrepreneurs and new businesses that will eventually partner with us in the nearest future to create a better economy for our country." Head, Corporate Communications, Diamond Bank, Mrs. Ayona Trimnell, who was also a facilitator, stated that the scheme was a continuation of the bank's bid to support and grow MSMEs in Nigeria.

Stanbic IBTC lifts SMEs with $12,000

PHOTOS: MUYIWA HASSAN month. He also said, "sometimes, I earn more than that. It depends on how market goes." Like Lagos, other major cities across the country have thriving flea markets where

PHOTOS: MUYIWA HASSAN

sellers ply their trade. In Kano, there is the popular Sabongida market, home to traders who deal on clothing materials from guinea brocade, kaftans, babariga, danshikis to even household goods and luxury items such as trinkets, jewelries, all at a bargain to the customers. Hajia Aisha Durosinmi, a businesswoman who lives in Lagos is a frequent patron of the Sabongida market, in the heart of Kano. Giving insight on how the popular Kano flea market operates, Hajia Durosinmi said, "The Sabongida market runs weekly from Monday to Saturday. The place is always a beehive of activities as buyers come from different parts of the northern states and beyond. "Most of these buyers always re-sell. I for one patronise the market, because of the good bargain I get for second-hand trinkets and jewelries which are sourced mainly from Egypt and other Arab countries." While most of the flea markets have their own peculiarities, the common thread that runs in them, however, is that they serve the pressing need of the growing under class, whose disposable income is not only meager but can hardly afford them the luxury of living up to the bourgeoisies.

N affirmation of her commitment to boost the small and medium enterprise (SME) segment of the Nigerian economy, Stanbic IBTC is supporting the Tech Cabal Battlefield competition for startup businesses by offering cash prizes to the winner and runner-up in the competition. The SME segment is the major driver of the Nigerian economy and Stanbic IBTC has shown its commitment to highlight the remarkable work of entrepreneurs building businesses that energize the different growth sectors of the economy. Speaking on why the bank is keen to support technology enabled businesses, the Executive Director for Personal & Business Banking at Stanbic IBTC Bank, Mr. Obinnia Abajue, said that technology is a sig-

â&#x20AC;˘GMD Stanbic IBTC, Sola-David Borha nificant enabler of global competitiveness and Stanbic IBTC will supports Nigerian businesses with the financial solutions needed to compete

in the dynamic global environment. The TechCabal Battlefield is a showcase of Nigerian technology where startups will get the chance to present their businesses to an audience of users, technology enthusiasts and investors during the 2014 edition of Social Media Week Lagos. The start-ups will begin their Battlefield journey by applying to the Academy at www.techcabal.com, on or before5 February, 2013. After a rigorous selection process by a committee of experts, seven start-ups will be shortlisted for the final stage of the competition. These shortlisted companies will initially proceed to the academy and receive hands-on training from the Faculty in business, financials, & technology and presentation

30,000 farmers benefit from FG's special value chain initiative

VER 30,000 farmers have benefited from the 2013 Special Value Chain Initiative of the Federal Government's Growth Enhancement Support scheme (GES) in Bauchi. Malam Mohammed Yusuf, the Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in the state, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recently in Bauchi. Yusuf said that out of the beneficiaries, 276 benefited

under the Sesame value chain; 17,400 under sorghum; 11,316, cotton and 871 under soya beans value chain. ``Others are 100 skin dealers and 15 livestock farmers who also benefited under the livestock initiative. He said the scheme had identified problems associated with the stages of production from planting to harvesting, processing, preservation and marketing. ``What the Federal Government did was to

empower the farmers with inputs, create economic value for harvesting, set up processing plants, ensured preservation and link farmers or dealers to available market. ``This is to ensure that nobody at any stage of the production ladder of these commodities run at a loss. ``Under the beef value chain, for example, each farmer received 38 bags of 25 kg fattening concentrate and four blocks of salt licks at 50 per cent discount.

Abuja. Muruako, however, decried the refusal of many agencies to comply with the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007, which requires them to remit 80 per cent of their operating surplus to the fund. He said: ``Between 2008 and 2012, the commission has been able to bring over N114 billion into the consolidated revenue. ``That effort is still continuing. We are going to

have meetings with some defaulting agencies. `Ì am not going to name them here but a lot of them are so fearless and they believe that they are untouchable agencies. `Ùnfortunately, most of these agencies hide under some frivolous expenditure heads. `Èven some will keep repeating every year to ensure that you don't get it clearly on what is supposed to be their operating surplus so that they will continue to cheat the

skills. On the 19th of February, the seven Faculty-honed start-ups will take to the field to present to a panel of judges - experienced entrepreneurs, consultants and financiers - and battle it out for the star prize. Bankole Oluwafemi, Editor of Techcabal.com and convener of TechCabal Battlefield said, "our belief in the Nigerian startup ecosystem just got a huge dose of validation. The first thing for us is in a space dominated by the usual big-tech interests, mainstream entities in the financial sector have seen the future and are beginning to participate actively in it. Already bullish on SMEs, Stanbic IBTC Bank is playing a rather visionary role in Nigeria's technology." ``The farmers were also linked with the Bauchi Meat Factory to ensure that no beneficiary operate at a loss. ``For the leather value chain, each farmer was supported with 10 bags of 50 kg industrial salt at 50 per cent discount for skin preservation, "he said. Yusuf said the effort was aimed at ensuring that the potential of every commodity was optimally exploited. ``The intervention was designed to ensure that every aspect of production is adequately supported to maximise the exploitation of their economic potentials,'' the director said.

Commission secures N114bn consolidated revenue fund

HE Fiscal Responsibility Commission said on Wednesday it ensured that some government agencies remitted their operating surplus totalling more than N114 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund between 2008 and 2012. The Secretary/Acting Chairman of the commission, Mr Victor Muruako, made this known at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in

government. ``They always believe that they can get their way around. Most times, you have to write them, most times they ignore you; they will not even respond,'' he said. He said that the commission would soon begin to ``name and shame these stubborn and powerful'' agencies that have refused to comply with the provisions of the Act.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014

Is the future of journalism in trouble? Will newspapers, magazines and broadcast media become extinct? What will replace them? Questions, questions and questions... JOKE KUJENYA sought answers in this discourse with Mr. Taiwo Obe, Founder and Moderator, EverythingJournalism, a LinkedIn e-forum and Director, the Journalism Clinic and Nigeria Director, Innovation Media Consulting.

hat's the future of journalism in Nigeria in this age of digital media and economic uncertainty? My take on that is that there are lots to contend with. There's the fast way on how the news is spread on social media. There's the hard data on which stories sell faster, which website had the highest hit and the psychological connection between how we think and how what drives sharing? For us in Nigeria, it's time to be bold and go for gold in the way the media is operated. It's about recognising figuratively that “the future is in our hands. What exactly are you suggesting can be done? What has to be done applies to both managers of media and professionals to know that under our hands are the future. It's all under our control; no one else can do for us what we can do for ourselves. I am using my license to stretch it to mean that, only what you do with your hands -your skills -can make you get ahead in the future. US President Barack Obama in June 2013 told a group of youths at a Soweto university that 'the future of the continent is in your hands.' Of course, we all know that he was speaking metaphorically. He was more or less telling them, “yes, you can.” The simple message I have for media owners and the professionals who work in the media is: it is time to use our heads our brains more than our hands. In October 2013, figures released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), show there were 121.8million active telephone lines in Nigeria. A global market research firm, TNS, in its report, 'Navigating growth in Africa,' also states that with no fewer than 26million Smartphone users, Nigeria closely follows South Africa as the second biggest market in Africa. Can you explain what this implies for our situation? I am saying that in internet penetration, Nigeria beats all other countries on the continent, with 45million users. This is according to the latest figures on connectivity rates in Africa from the Internet World Stats. In 2000, there were 4.5 million connected users. And this takes me back to Obama. Let's use that license again and interpret his admonition as: only the skills you possess will put you in good stead in the future. If we are going on that literal train, then, I would rather the US President had told the youth: the future of the continent is in your heads. Because in this age, he who knows, rules the world. This is the plank I am standing on in gazing at the future of journalism in Nigeria. Well, using the international standard in our own situation may not gel. So, what point are you making specifically? The point to ponder is, do rising numbers really mean much to our media owners? Or,

•Obe

Future of Journalism: Media operators need to be more radical and even, the journalists themselves? In my view, it should be because the future of journalism, they better believe, revolves around how Smartphone and internet users are maximally engaged, by the content that our media houses and the individuals provide. When you look at Innovation Media Consulting, which has been described as McKinsey of Journalism Business, it has proved with lots of success stories that “good journalism is good business. That's why the way forward for journalism in Nigeria is about what we know or how we think: the future, yes, is in our heads. It is just simply 'Never complain about the things you can change. If you don't like something, change it or change the way you think about it as Joshua Davidson, speaker, start-up advisor and founder @ChopDawgStudios, often says. Let me give a few examples; in November 2007, at the Ibero-American Summit in Santiago, Chile, late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, railed on former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, calling him a 'fascist' and that 'fascist are not human. A snake is more human. Then, Spain's King Juan Carlos, who was at the meeting, pointed a finger at Chavez and in Spanish asked him, “Why don't you shut up.” Of course, that was headline news on the networks and papers. It was also a hit on YouTube. But someone used his head and deployed technology to deft and profitable use. He got an actor in a bid to avoid legal issues concerning any breach of King Carlos' image rights -to mimic the King asking “Why don't you shut up?” and with sound effects added, a ringtone was born. No fewer than 500,000 people have reportedly downloaded the

insult, generating a reported US$2m. There are branded mugs, t-shirts and all sorts of stuff that have been produced from this. What exactly are you driving at? If you follow several of Nigeria's online portals which aggregate stories about international celebrities, you would have noticed that many of these stories come from Mail Online. What this has meant for Mail Online is increased web traffic. Indeed, since last July, the site has had 33per cent growth in monthly web traffic reaching 161million unique visitors. Someone is surely thinking at the Mail. Yes. Aware that at least 70per cent of all web traffic originates predominantly from the US, Mail Online moved to acquire dailymail.com, so as to migrate from dailymail.co.uk. Also, according to a news report, after 'lengthy negotiations', Daily Mail paid 'excess of one million pounds' to a paper in the US which held the dailymail.com address. Not only that, the Mail has double its staff strength in the US. Why not? The Mail will charge advertisers in the US premium price for this huge traffic; and it is targeting revenues of 60 million pounds in 2014. Surely, rival news sites such as independent.co.uk and Telegraph.co.uk would have to do something quite radical, if they are not going to be left bruised. Good for the Mail... What can we do in Nigeria? If journalism in Nigeria has to move anywhere, the drivers have to do a few things radically. They have to start seeing their media -newspapers, radio, TV -as brands and their readers, viewers and listeners as audiences and meet them wherever they are. The journalists also have

to see themselves as content providers. In June 2010, David Carey became president of the Hearst Magazines, after being president of Conde Nast. In January 2011, he put out a challenge to himself and his team: “Let's dramatically dial up our entrepreneurial thinking. Let's put a final stake in the heart of 'playing it safe'. Let's move out of our comfort zone. Let's think of ourselves as inventors and pioneers who just happen to find themselves in a well-funded start-up. The team listened and acted. Just one example of what happened thereafter, according to an interview with Carey as published in the Innovations in Magazine Media 2012 World Report, Says Carey: “Kate White, the brilliant editor of Cosmo, came up with the idea for Cosmo for Guys. We knew men were readers of Cosmo, but it was hard to get them to read the magazine in a public setting. We knew 30 per cent of traffic to the Cosmo website was male - men trying to figure out women, and vice versa, go back to the beginning of time. With that knowledge, we launched Cosmo for Guys, an iPad-only product, last summer with a radical promotional idea built by the editorial team using new technology. The iPad head girl video went viral with 700,000 views in a matter of days (by January 2012, it was up to 1.2m views). So, we were able to use a viral video to help create a new editorial brand. The video resulted in the sale of thousands of subscriptions, and the video itself hit the top 30 on YouTube. From that excerpt, you would see the power of knowledge and technology. Nigerian journalism can't play in the future while continuing to do business the way it has always done it in the past. It is also imperative that, going forward, professionals with the know in all the various areas that the digital age has spurn have to be engaged to provide solutions. I have seen some journalists armed with three Smartphones in addition to a Blackberry, but you won't find them on Twitter or LinkedIn, in an age when serious journalists are using the social networks to crowd-source and folks who are not trained journalists are creating blogs which draw huge traffic. So, what advice would you give? What I would say is that like the case of these journalists: citizen journalists have taken over your jobs; better wake up. I doubt if many of our journalists have heard of the One-Man Band (OMB). No, I am not talking about Jimi Solanke or his like. I am talking about that solo journalist who carries out multiple roles: shoots, edits and write his stories. This reporter is also called Solo Video Journalist (SVJ); Backpack Journalist; Multimedia Journalist. To be sure this brand of journalism had evolved in the early 1990s with the New York 1 news channel being the first to hire only video journalists. In the late 1990s, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as a cost-saving measure, hired video or journalists or retrained existing journalists or camera man in video journalism. Various other broadcasters such as the BBC and even newspapers such as the New York Times have at one time or the other had or still have one-man-band journalists. Let me assure you that OMB will still be with us for much longer. One major reason for this is technology. When you next see a horde of reporters crowding one politician at an event, you look at what they are pointing at his mouth: their mobile phones. Only a few now use the Digital Voice Recorder for onthe-spot voice and video recordings. Even so, OMB journalism has not developed here as it has in the advanced world where access to even more sophisticated equipment including portable satellite dishes are being deployed by journalists who are either working independently or for news channels. But, I can assure you that for economic reasons, the bug will catch on. And, you must begin to get ready. “This is obviously the direction that much of the industry is going,” states Eric Olsen, a video journalist with the New York Times. He adds: “Being a digital journalist today, despite the troubles the industry as a whole is facing, is one of the most exciting and interesting occupations around

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014

All set for Lagos Social Media Week

frica's most populous city, Lagos, will from tomorrow start off this year's Social Media Week for the second year running. Powered worldwide by Nokia, Lagos will be playing host to the global event for Africa for the second time and in the process joining mega-cities like New York, Milan, Tokyo, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Paris, Doha, Singapore, Washington DC and Barcelona between February 17 and 21 2014 to commemorate the activity now in its fifth edition. The week-long event is expected to bring together thought leaders, creatives and digital influencers from across Africa and around the world to highlight, discuss and generate ideas on the benefits and use of the social media, especially as it concerns individual idiosyncrasies and professional development. The event will run simultaneously across the globe in the chosen cities Organisers have confirmed Al Jazeera's Femi Oke's attendance as one of the keynote speakers. Born of Nigerian parents and a one-time Nigerian Media Personality- of - the -Year - Oke is host of The Stream's, a lively online interactive progamme streamed live on Al Jazeera English. The Social Media Week attracted 66,000 participants globally, while the Lagos 2013 version attracted 8,000 attendees, garnered 19,148 twitter and over 31 million online impressions, this year's event is expected to witness a massive increase in participants, following the increased hype and awareness. The event is co-produced by Dragon Africa and Africa 21 and its operating theme is “A Connected Africa is The Future.” Said Obi Asika, founder of Dragon

Gboyega Alaka previews the Lagos version of the Social Media Week set to unfold simultaneously in 11 cities of the world next week.

Ted Iwere returns as MD at Independent Newspapers

•Ted Iwere

V •Femi-Oke Africa and chairman, Lagos Social Media Week: “We are really excited to be coming back to Lagos and looking forward to working with amazing event partners, sponsors and the entire community to deliver an incredible week of programming. In our second year in Nigeria, we aim to lead the conversation and further establish SMW Lagos as the number one new media and communications technology conference on this great continent.”

•Obi-Asika To ensure maximum impact on the people, the format for the week-long conference is a mixture of keynotes, panels, workshops, networking events, and mixers, with the majority of the events being free and open to the public. As a build up, SMW Lagos late last year invited Lagosians and the world to contribute to the week's programming by hosting their own events, panel sessions and workshops.

eteran journalist and publisher of online newspaper, Best of Business, has returned to INDEPENDENT newspapers Limited as substantial Managing Director. The new appointment is a confirmation of the job he took up as the interim coordinator in December 2013 when the entire management was forced out on compulsory leave with immediate effect. The order was handed down by chairman of its board of directors, Lawan Gambo, who was purportedly acting on the orders of the publisher, Mr. James Ibori. It will be recalled that the entire top management of the media house were removed in December 2013. Iwere has been in and out of the organization in various capacities since inception in 2001 and was Chief Operating Officer, when Daily Independent won the Newspaper of the Year Award twice.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

Gombe and economic strides of the ‘Man in Blue’ I BRAHIM Hassan Dankwambo may not be a consummate public relations practitioner, but his understanding cum effective use of different communication techniques - for example body language and dress – is as fascinating as his interpersonal communication skills. At any given day you are more likely to spot Dankwambo at an event or meeting in his immaculate sky-blue guinea brocade shaddaBabbar-riga. Indeed, his admirers call him The ‘Man in Blue’. The colour always stands him out of the crowd. He reminds you of the late American President John F. Kennedy, who was not fond of overcoats for outdoor events, which made him come across as more virile and stronger than his overcoat–wearing colleagues. Gombe State, where Dankwambo is today in charge, is strategically located in the NorthEastern zone of Nigeria. It shares borders with all the other five states in the zone: Bauchi, Borno, Yobe, Adamawa and Taraba. Most of the vast land (20,265 sq. Km) of Gombe is cultivable, which unarguably makes it one of the major food baskets of the nation. About 80 percent of its 2.4 million people are engaged in agriculture. A number of basic food and cash crops are produced in the state. They include a wide variety of cereals, legumes, fruits and vegetables. Mineral resources such as limestone, kaolin and gypsum are found in commercial quantity in the state. The economic potential of the state is obviously enormous. With Ashaka Cement factory located in the state and three cotton ginneries spread across it, Gombe has taken the path of industrialization. There are also abundant water resources for irrigation farming and other agro-allied activities. The DadinKowa Dam, for example, is the second largest dam in the coun-

•Continued from Page 18 That is why the Yoruba say: ta ba dagba a ye ogun ja, meaning our involvement in ware fare is halted by old age My dear friend, your involvement in the struggle at this age (approaching 60 years) illustrates one thing: that our generation has failed in evolving a succession plan. When I see Dr. Dipo Fasina (Jingo) still doing aluta at his age, I chuckle at our succession failure. If we started in our 20s and we have been involved in active engagement for more than three decades, what is wrong in handing over to some of our youths who have the vibrancy and the passion for activism? Is it that we don’t have confidence in them or we think they lack the capacity for revolutionary resilience? For all you know, some of these youths are not coming out because they see that some of you, the older generation, are unwilling to quit the stage for them or reluctant to carry them along because you seem to be enjoying the glamour and the publicity of activism. Your dominance and intimidating profiles are sufficient enough to scare these youths off the stage. We need to help them build their confidence and make them know that activism is not just about noise-making but about our individual commitment to a struggle that concerns our collective survival. Activism is not, and should not be, about intense competition for economic or political space but about how to use the available space to create some utilitarian value for all the occupants of the space. I am sorry to have introduced the age dimension into an issue that recognises no limitations in whatever respects. But who will not be bothered about the wastefulness

By Bashir Ibrahim Hassan

try after Kainji Dam. It is a multipurpose dam with a capacity of 1.77 billion cubic metres of water and over 44,000 hectres of contiguous arable land as well as a generating capacity of 34-40 megawatts of electricity. The people of the state are known for their commercial enterprise. This is being complemented by the state government’s efforts in creating an enabling environment for investment and other commercial activities. This situation is attested to by a recent World Bank report in which the state was rated the second state in Nigeria in terms of ease of doing business. There is a general perception that, for a variety of reasons that have become well known, the pace of economic activities in the much of the northern part of Nigeria has considerably slowed down over the past six years. However, Gombe, is challenging that perception as careful study of what is happening in the state in the last two years will show. Given its huge potential, it is pertinent to ask: what is the administration of Dankwambo doing differently to harness them to advance the state socio-economic development and challenge the negative perception of the Northeast zone? The initiatives of the government of Gombe State are numerous. It’s enough to mention a few here. The first is the vision of the administration in developing the human resource capacity to meet the challenges of its socio-economic development needs. Since its inception the administration has invested handsomely in education, based on a vision premised on developing skills for the future industrialisation of the state. The state has its gaze fixed on developing the mining industry in the state in the very near future. Today, the human resource to drive that industry is being pre-

•Dankwambo

pared. For example, 25 students have been sent to China to study various courses in Mining and Mineral Engineering. Another 25 headed to Ghana to study agricultural extension. In the same drive, 20 students have been sponsored to Scotland and India to undertake degree programs in Marine Engineering – so that the state can contribute its quota towards the development of the nation’s marine industry.Not a bad idea for a patriotic people and their government. This initiative, amongst others, is said to be the first of its kind in the history of the state. In line with the same vision, the government has established more tertiary institutions in various parts of the state. Such new institutions include: School of Basic and Remedial Studies, Kumo; College of Education, Billiri; Gombe State Polytechnic, Bajoga and College of Legal and Islamic Studies, Nafada. While these developments at the tertiary level are taking place, a foundation is being laid for a robust primary education. With much of the infrastructure for primary edu-

cation dilapidated, who can think of hospitals in the schools? But the government of Dankwambo has built more than 45 model primary and secondary schools spread across the state. Most of these schools are equipped with a doctor’s office, staff quarters and laboratories which foster basic skills development and sound educational foundation for next generation of Gombawa. Infrastructure is another area that Dankwambo is making the difference. A tour of the state will convince one that the incumbent administration knew the prime place of infrastructure for any sound economic development. Building roads may not be the news but the standard to which it is being build is the news. The township roads in Gombe are being build with crash stone, the road building materials used to build the roads in the FCT. This material gives road longer life span of several years. Examples of such formidable roads include BajogaAshakaGari; Akko-Bula-Abuja; Kona-Tukulma-Tumu covering a total of 66 kilometres. With a growing population coupled with ever increasing number of business and industries, the administration of Dankwambo knew very soon there will be demand for housing accommodation. To address this need, government knew it cannot provide the housing requirement (there is a 5000 housing unit deficit in the state), so it is encouraging private investors into the lucrative market through the state’s

property and investment company (GSIPDC). Today a GSIPDC is building 50 housing units at Shango Housing Estate with a loan facility secured from a Tanzania based Housing development Company Shelter-Afrique. GSIPD has also secured another loan facility and is building another 240 units at Tumfure Housing Estate. All these houses and many others under construction across the state will eventually be sold to private individuals and interest corporations. It’s intriguing how, within such a short period, the former employee of the Central Bank of Nigeria has leveraged his experience and contacts in the banking industry to the benefit of his people. The Bank of Industry is working closely with the state government in advancing loans to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the state. After testing the waters with initial N500 million facilities from the bank, there is now talk of N10 billion facilities after a fantastic result of loan repayment by the beneficiaries. The economies of Dankwambo, the former accountant general of federation is so all-encompassing. There are simply too many sweet stories to tell about these strides that the limited space for this piece will not allow for a more detailed report. Interestingly, the ‘Man in Blue’, Dankwambo, is not only redesigning the economy of Gombe but is also redefining its politics. He may be called names by those who are beguiled by trappings of lost political power into believing they are still living in their heydays practicing their same old political gimmickry. But the man has sworn to a politics of serving the people predicated on sound morality. And the results are there for everyone to see all around Gombe State. Hassan contributed this piece from Abuja

Falana, when will you mind your own business? of energy, time and resources which go into the campaign for a just society, a transparent process, and an accountable system? I am worried that the response and attitude of the state or the government to all the missing funds and corruption allegations are too perfunctory, unserious and unconvincing. What is more, the same citizens whose economic interests are being protected here, are the same people that are being mobilised for the neutralisation and circumvention of the campaign and the struggle. The Stella Oduah saga readily comes to mind. I still remember vividly how people carried placards to support her action because she is from their village. When, therefore, a struggle is developing complexities and such inexplicable contradictions or paradoxes, we need to re-evaluate the strategy of the struggle in order not to endanger the process of attaining the desired objective by unwittingly encouraging the abandonment of the beneficiaries of the struggle. Every struggle needs the people, hence the regular orientation and enlightenment of the masses. There should also be justification and rationale for our action, otherwise the campaign may end up relapsing into ineffectuality. For any struggle to sustain its objective, it is important to consider inclusiveness because of the potency of number as nothing tangible can be achieved from a struggle that notates exclusions. Femoo, I want you to tell me in all sincerity if you were not frustrated and disappointed when you were rejected by your own people in Ekiti when you contested for the gov-

ernorship of the state on the platform of the National Conscience Party (NCP) in 2003. You must have been (mis)led into politics and the governorship race by the illusion (or is it impression) that your popularity and fame as an activist of untainted reputation would get you into power. Again, you would have thought that it was an opportunity for the people to compensate you for your activism over the years and for your past sacrifices to ensure good governance in Nigeria even at the point of death. Were you not shocked and bemused that the same people who refused to vote for you as the governor of Ekiti State enthroned a clown and a clueless fellow like Ayodele Fayose as the governor of a state like Ekiti which boasts of nothing less than three to four professors from every community. What do we call this? An anomaly? A paradox? Political ingratitude? An irony? A contradiction? Whatever name we give to it, there is no justification at all for an enlightened state like Ekiti to have opted for a Fayose where there is a Falana. Any system, nay, any society, where this kind of aberration is encouraged, is sliding into insanity. Though, some people claimed that you were unable to effectively fund your campaign, should that be an excuse for your rejection? Were your selfless sacrifices for the nation not sufficient to obliterate every financial disability? Were your incarcerations not enough to generate goodwill in place of financial insufficiency? Was the humiliation you were subjected to before you were made a SAN, when virtually all your juniors in the Bar had been

made SAN, not an opportunity for the Ekiti people to console their son who was being persecuted for fighting an evil society? The truth is that our people are as confused as our nation. I salute your courage, my friend, because despite this rejection, you were quick to recover and, in no time, resumed your participation in the national struggle again. You refused to be frustrated by the system and the people of your state. You refused to allow the setback you suffered in your political ambition to affect your commitment to the people of Nigeria. But I must submit that the system or society that did this to you was unfair and unjust. I am not trying to rake up any animosity between you and your people but it is important that we all learn one or two lessons from your episode so that tomorrow a Kayode Fayemi will not lose election to an ungrateful Labourer, or a poultry thief or a failed banker. Or an Aregbesola losing election to a peripatetic rogue. We must as a people begin to learn how to reward people’s diligence and selfless services to their fatherland instead of commercialising our electoral potentials/assets. What I love about you, my dear friend, is that you have never accepted any political appointments despite having been offered on so many occasions. You, Gani Fawehinmi and Beko RansomeKuti declined political offices/appointments because you thought that it was a way of inducing compromise. Imagine what would have happened if you had served under

Babangida, Abacha, Obasanjo or Jonathan. Your present campaign against NNPC’s missing funds and the kerosene subsidy would have been weakened by sentiments and partisanship. And once a struggle lacks credibility, it becomes very easy to discredit the campaigner. It is disheartening, though, that you will fight against a particular bad government or system, and when it is time to appoint people into the new government, some clowns and charlatans who never participated in the struggle will come from nowhere to come and reap from where they did not sow. Such is life. I am tempted to ask you to consider spending the rest of your life in the service of GOD by joining us in the Redemption Camp. But I am not too sure if you will not continue your struggle by descending on our redeemed pastors and their “flamboyant” lifestyles. This may be a very dangerous adventure. God, Himself, may be forced to ask you “why you are criticising another man’s servant.” In the church, struggle is regarded as a rebellion while activism is seen as a mutiny against the “heavenly hosts”. Remember that you left the Catholic Church as a page boy when you could not condone or agree with some of their doctrines. I want to believe that you are still very bitter with the Church. God does not encourage rebellion, so, I advise you to mind your domestic business by spending more time with Funmi. Folarin, Folakemi and Foladele. My dear friend, you need some rest after a long battle with this evil society.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014

HAT kind of a church do you run? The church is about 15 years, but we started Grace to Grace International Ministries some five years ago. It’s a family church and we believe in the power of the word. One of the things that make us different is that we do more of projects. We believe in helping the less-privileged. What bought you home this time? From time to time, we go to nations to alleviate suffering. We have been to Uganda, Kenya, UK and Nigeria for projects. What we do are projects not because of churches. We have a project in Ikorodu that people thought was going to be a church. The purpose is to help the masses, so that they can see the other sides of Christianity. We have to be able to show people the same grace and mercies that we have received from God because we are the only Bible now that people are reading. We are more into humanitarian projects. Jesus not only walked on the streets of Jerusalem and Judea but he met individual needs What are some of the projects you have done in the UK for a start? In the UK right now, we started a foundation called Atinuke Adesanya Foundation. What we do every Saturday, we go to Dagenham Library and we are recognised by the council there. We give aids to people. We offer medicare because we realised there are lot of cut downs in the UK. A lot of the hospitals, especially walk-incentres, have been shut down. What we do every Saturday is to do blood check and cholesterol check. We also assist the less-privileged because some of the benefits have been cut down. We give them food and it is amazing. In Nigeria, what have you done? We are doing the same thing we do abroad over here. We have been able to do empowerment programme. We have concentrated in Isawu parts of Ikorodu. We have trained people there and released them to stand on their own. Some of them are now selfsufficient. What new programme is in the offing? It is called GAMP 2014, meaning Grace and Mercy Programme. What we want to do is to launch it on 3rd May. We have doctors and nurses coming from abroad to run checks on people. You find out that people don’t go to the hospitals. In fact, abroad even where there are facilities, people are just afraid to do checks because they don’t want to hear any bad news. But what they don’t know is that what you know, you can fight and that can prolong your life. In fact, I was talking to a colleague in America who stated that cancer kills more

‘People look down on female preachers’ Pastor Atinuke Adesanya is the founder and senior pastor of Grace to Grace International Ministries, Dagenham, UK. She spoke with Sunday Oguntola on the challenges of being a female church leader as well as the many humanitarian strides of the church. Excerpts:

•Adesanya.

blacks in America. The white Americans have higher vulnerability to cancer but they detect early and work round it. But blacks don’t care to know. That is why it kills more blacks. So we are focusing on Isawu, Igbo Olomu and Agric communities in Ikorodu. We want to check their blood level, cholesterol and train them on computer. We have free laptops that we want to give out to outstanding students among our trainees. We are bringing used clothes, bags and even shoes that we can distribute to those who want. Why did you choose Ikorodu of all places? There are no specific reasons why we chose Ikorodu. At least, I am not from Ikorodu. One of the reasons why we chose Ikorodu is because we have a land there. We want to build a health centre, church and bible school in the future on the land. When you do stuffs like these in this part of the world, you must have a political or religious agenda. So, are you starting a church any time soon in Ikorodu?

where. A lot of people believe that women are not supposed to lead churches and I always have a simple illustration for them. I tell them if a man drowns in a river and he needs assistance, will it matter to him if a woman offers to help him out? Everybody keeps saying it doesn’t matter. So, I have challenges as a female church leader. People wonder why my husband is not in the ministry. There is an evil I have seen here. If a man is called, the woman automatically joins him in the ministry and I believe it should not be like that. Ministry is not by nomination but by calling. That a man is called does not mean the wife should join him. Same with the woman who is called. My husband is not in the ministry PHOTO: OLUSEGUN RAPHEAL with me and I don’t Yes, we are starting a have to force him to join me. church in Ikorodu. We are He is into secular practice. Our starting with a house fellow- first son is a pastor and I did ship. And you must know not influence anything. When that land has been there for God called him, it was glarthe past eight years. So, we ing to everyone. Everybody are not doing this empower- knows that going by what he ment because of the church. does in the kingdom that he If we wanted to do that, we has a calling. He had to go to would have started eight Oral Roberts University, came years ago. We just want to back to London and joined the touch people and empower church. I can’t force my husthem. band to say he has to be a pasAre these projects spon- tor. He recognises the call and sored solely by the church? anointing of God upon my Yes, they are. life. He supports the church No grants whatsoever? and has his own work. None, I can assure you. I have a lot of challenges The sponsorship is solely by with acceptance until people the church. The last one was come around and see what from the church’s purse. This God is doing through us. I GAMP, I just shared with have a deliverance service them what we want to do and every Tuesday and people see my people are dangerous what God is doing. Demons givers. are crying out, God is delivIt must be a big church ering people and the barren then to be able to handle such are getting fruits of the projects? womb. Then, people don’t Yes, it is. mind again that I am a woman Is it dominated by Nige- of God. rians? People have challenges We have members who with female preachers. They are Nigerians, Ghanaians, Ja- say they are not submissive maicans, Sierra Leones, Zim- at the home fronts. Is that babweans and others. true with you too? How is it like being a feI really can’t speak for mymale church leader? self. If I had some of my memIt is the same every- bers here, they would have

been able to speak for me because I can’t blow my own trumpet. If my husband were here too, he would have been in the best position to talk on it. For example, I don’t travel without his permission and I travel a lot. Today, I have spoken with him, feeding him on what I have done. So, we are pretty close. I wish he was the one speaking now. Well, many female preachers also hardly have time for their children, making many of them become delinquents. Maybe you can blow your trumpet on how well or badly your children are doing now. I have four children, and by the grace of God, all of them have turned out good. My first daughter is here. Last year, she told me she wanted to move back to Nigeria. So, she is here. She is finishing her youth corps in February. She said she wanted to see life and be part of what she came from. Now, she is the manager in a micro-finance company, LAPO Bank in Ikeja. She is standing out and doing a marvellous job there. I have my second child, who is a pastor. Both of us are in the ministry and we stand shoulder-to-shoulder. My third child has just graduated from the university and I have my last child in college. Every one of them will say that I am a good home manager despite my schedules. When I come back from church on Sundays, my first point of call is always my kitchen. I don’t allow my house helps to cook my food. I have to cook and look after my husband. What I don’t do recently is the cleaning of the house but I supervise that too. My house help in Nigeria

says she has never seen a woman like this. Up till now, I do my cooking myself. I don’t allow my house help to do it for me because I consider it as laziness. And I believe no one can cook to my taste. So, churches have to be humanitarian? Yes, we should be. I know many are not but may God open their eyes to see it. Church is not about the gospel; it is about what we want to offer. For example, we do a church humanitarian project but I have people whose school fees I pay. I have to take the burden off them. I preach the same to my members and some of them are following suit. They ask for names they can help and I offer from the many on my list. I believe that pastors will come to realise as time goes on that showing people the human sides of God makes the gospel easier to preach. As we help people, you feel inner joy. The people appreciate what you do and the news spread quicker about Christ. But beyond the appreciation and what people say, you feel the joy. I don’t believe in living for myself but helping people to find fulfilment in life. When you help people, you are building a nation because the deposits you leave in them make them to be able to help others too. So givers don’t lack? Never, givers never lack. The Bible says give and it shall be given to you. I tell people that when you give, it returns to you in multiple folds, not in the same measure. You find that because we give, our members are not where they used to be. There are testimonies of greatness and uplift. Where are the branches of your church back in Nigeria? We have two in Lagos. One in Ayobo and the other in Iju Water Works. Why do you choose such average and not highbrow communities? That is because we want to reach out to people in those areas. Those in Lekki are comfortable already. They need Christ as well but that will be later. We are interested in those down, down there for now. By the time we go to Lekki, they will easily reckon with us.

xxx

NEWS

Yewa Diocese gets new Bishop

ENERABLE Michael A d e b a y o Oluwarounbi has been elected Bishop for Yewa Diocese of the Church Of Nigeria Anglican Communion, Ogun State. Before his election, he was the supervising Vicar of the Cathedral Church of Advent, Abuja. His consecration comes up next Tuesday at St James Cathedral, Oke Bola, Ibadan, Oyo State.

•Oluwarounbi

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014

WORSHIP NEWS

COLUMN

Living Faith By Dr. David Oyedepo

Praise: Gateway to supernatural harvest!

•Okonkwo(middle) flanked by General Overseer, Deliverance Church Kenya, Bishop Mark Karuiki(L); General overseer, Efatha Ministry, Apostle Josephat Mwingira; Chairman African Apostles, Bishop Tudor Bismark(2nd right) ... at the closing ceremony. PHOTO: MUYIWA HASSAN

Adeboye lauds Jonathan on anti- gay law T HE General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has thrown his weight behind the enactment of the law punishing individuals or groups associated with gay. He spoke at a special prayer and thanksgiving service for First-borns organised by the church last Sunday at the National Headquarters in Lagos. The programme tagged: Born to excel, attracted thousands from across the country and featured prayers, bible teaching, song renditions, and prophetic ministrations. According to him, the commission of God for mankind is to be fruitful and mul-

By Adeola Ogunlade

tiply and replenish the earth. Adeboye said homosexuality is at variance with God’s command and an anathema to the society which should be ignored and rejected by every heaven-bound citizen. Adeboye who spoke through his special Assistant on Personnel and Administration, Pastor Johnson Odesola, said: “I think for everyone who wants to know about the mind of the creator will need to go through the manual of God’s word which stands firmly against gays.” He cited Romans chapter 2 which states very clearly that homosexuality is sin and outright disobedience to God‘s plan for man. More so, he asserted that

our culture in Africa stands against the practice of homosexuality, urging Nigerians not to be taken away by the western culture. He cautioned individuals and groups opposed to the law, stating that it is sad that many western countries have gone far away from God and may end up even legalising suicide and other ungodly acts. Adeboye, who declared a 100-day prayer and fasting programme in the church, said that Nigeria should continue to pray and lift challenges of the nation to God who alone can make all things well. God, he claimed, told him that there will be total transformation in the nation this year.

Former Hillsong vocalist, Darlene Zschech, battles breast cancer

ORMER Hillsong worship leader Darlene Zschech recently finished one of the five rounds of chemotherapy she must undergo for breast cancer. Amid losing hair and having emotional ups and downs, she’s being assured of God’s love, which is “one of the sweetest parts of the journey.” “I am coming to the end of round one of chemo (I have 5 to go) and all I can say is, ‘Grace, grace and more grace,’” Darlene wrote on her blog Friday. “I am learning to rest in every promise from Jesus. In fact, it’s His word that is giving me the strength to inhale and exhale moment by moment.” The singer/songwriter announced she had cancer around last Christmas. On Dec. 29, she wrote on her blog that the doctors discovered at a routine mammogram she had developed breast cancer. “Since then, it has been a whirlwind of appointments, scans and surgery.” “To be completely honest, this is not the kind of news anyone ever really wants to tell. However, I have seen two absolute miracles in my body thus far and I know there will be many more to come,” she said at the time, and quoted Romans 5:3-5: “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance charac-

•Zschech

ter and character HOPE. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Zschech is most famous for penning the worship song “Shout to the Lord.” After serving as worship pastor at the Pentecostal Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia, for over a decade, Zschech stepped down to co-pastor another church with her husband Mark. The couple has been leading Hope Unlimited Church on the Central Coast of New South Wales since 2011. Since her cancer announcement, Zschech has been writing about her journey. She has been finding strength in the many prayers directed toward her as she goes through six

months of treatment. This week, she lost her hair which she finds “very confronting.” “It definitely makes me look sicker than I feel.” The gospel singer wrote that her husband jokes with her saying she can now save a lot of money she would otherwise be paying to hairdressers. And their daughters have named her wig “Betty.” “I love my girls and they are keeping it light and laughter filled for me.” While this has been “a quite a ride on an emotional roller,” she said, “I am assured of God’s love for me. Truly this has been one of the sweetest parts of the journey. My beautiful Emmanuel is never far away. Our Friends, family and our beloved church family are amazing every day. I’m ever convinced that life was always designed to be done in true community. Good days and bad days yet always better together.” She said she has been using this time to write more songs and thoughts, which she’ll share “when I am on the other side of this mountain.” “In fact, we are already planning a Thanksgiving service at our church in November, where we will record songs birthed during this season. We simply want to fill the place with praise for all that God has done,” she added. Source: Christian Post

RAISE, amongst others, is the gateway to supernatural harvest. Fearful harvest is always in response to fearful praise. We must understand that harvest is only sequel to seed time. If no seed is sown, then harvest is never in view. Remember, While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease (Genesis 8:22). Your returns are in response to your investment. When there is no investment, returns are not in view, because in all labour there is profit (Proverbs 14:23). So, profit will only answer to input. There has to be something going in, for something to come out. Even when we have sown our seeds, it takes praise to reap our harvest. What Is In Praise? Wonders: God shows us His wonders when we praise Him (Exodus 15:11). Praise is the Gateway to Supernatural Harvest: Our harvest is not in view until our praises rise up to heaven (Joel 1:12). It is our praise that determines our harvest time. Fearful praises will always culminate in fearful harvest (Psalm 67:5-7; Genesis 8:20). So, we don’t talk of harvest without seedtime. It is, therefore, important for us to know that it is seedtime that precedes harvest. The Bible recognizes different kinds of investment. According to scriptures, in all labour there is profit. That means our harvest or returns are a function of our invest-

ment. Dimensions of investment in scriptures: Spiritual Investment: This is superior to any other kind of investment. It includes prayers and fasting i.e. interceding for the advancement of the Kingdom of God, and the wellbeing of the church of Christ (Mathew 6:6, 18; Colossians 4:12). Soul-winning: This is a form of spiritual investment that guarantees amazing returns, which makes a star of every consecrated soul-winner. Every tireless soul-winner ends up a star (Daniel 12:3). Mental Investment: We can also invest mentally into the Kingdom, by engaging in strategic planning and programming for effectiveness in our stewardship. So, it is not just about serving God, but also engaging strategically in it. He said: Come now, and let us reason together... (Isaiah 1:18). Physical Investment: Our strength is required in our engagement with God. When we invest our energy in the service of the Kingdom, God multiplies it back to us. Our “energy-seed” returns to us as “energy-harvest” (Luke 10:27). So, see physical engagement as an opportunity for renewal of strength (Isaiah 40:31). Material and Financial Seed: This is the key to material abundance and financial blessings. The seed we sow materially and financially, entitles us to returns (Malachi 3:10). Your material and financial investments are your access to the realms of financial fortune (2 Corinthians 9:8).

There is, therefore, nothing you give to God that is wasted! However, we are not to invest grudgingly or of necessity, for “God loveth a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). That means He hates a grudging giver. From Deuteronomy 28:47-48, we understand that we need joy in our service to God, else it becomes a curse. That is why we need the Holy Ghost for empowerment, and the anointing of the Holy Ghost is the oil of gladness. In conclusion, it takes joy to invest acceptably; and it takes joy to access our returns. Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us (Psalm 67:5-6). The Bible also says: Is any merry? Let him sing... (James 5:13). Therefore, receive the anointing to keep serving God tirelessly with the joy of the Lord that entitles you to His harvest, everyday of your life, in the name of Jesus! Friend, the power for supernatural harvest is the preserve of those saved. You get saved by confessing your sins and accepting Jesus as your Saviour and Lord. If you are set, please say this prayer: Lord Jesus, I come to You today. I am a sinner. Forgive me of my sins. Today, I accept You as my Lord and Saviour. Thank You, Jesus for saving me! Every exploit in life is a product of knowledge. For further reading, you can get my books: Understanding The Power Of Praise and Wonders Of Praise. I invite you to come and fellowship with us at the Faith Tabernacle, Canaan Land, Ota, the covenant home of Winners. We have four services on Sundays, holding at 6:00 a.m., 7:35 a.m., 9:10 a.m. and 10.45 a.m. respectively. I know this teaching has blessed you. Write and share your testimony with me through: Faith Tabernacle, Canaan Land, Ota, P.M.B. 21688, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria; or call 7747546-8; or E-mail: feedback@lfcww.org

NEWS

‘Nigerians need God, not more churches’

N Abuja-based gospel artiste, Mrs. Evelyn Akinwale, has said what Nigerians need at this time is not more churches or men of high standing but God. She spoke to reporters after the launch of her new album titled ‘Majoo’ (I will dance) in Abuja. She stated that only love for God would deliver the country out of its current challenges. “Until we go back to that first love, so many things will be going wrong. Even this country, until we go back to our first love, not just establishing churches but loving God for who God is, things will continue to go wrong,” the songstress insisted. She added: “God wants us to go back to our first love and to the stage where we will love Him not because of anything but because of who He is.” Akinwale, who said God has been using her to heal people through music, urged Nigerians to learn to listen to the

From Sanni Onogu, Abuja

right kind of music. She warned that some genres of music can influence people negatively. “Don’t forget that there is power embedded in every music,” she said, adding: “Look at Saul, David had to sing for Saul to be comforted. Also when some people listen to music, they get thrilled, they get comforted, testimonies, healings and deliverance follow. But there are some kinds of music that people listen to and an evil spirit will come upon them.” On her sojourn in Christian music, she said: “I will continue to worship God. It is a must for me because God has been good. I come from a humble background and God has been so good to me. ”The experience has been so nice. I started in Christ Apostolic Church about 15 years ago. I have always been singing. A lot of people say ‘something is touching about your voice.’

•Akinwale

“It is not just about the voice but the Spirit of God. It has been backing me up and supporting me all this while. “My song has impacted positively on people so many times and I believe it is the spirit behind the songs and my voice. I remember vividly when I was in the Chapel of Grace, in Dolphin Estate, a mad man came into the church - I was not even aware - the mad man came and they were trying to chase him away and he went and stood by the entrance. Before the end of that worship that man came back to his senses.”

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014

S reported in the South West news of the National Mirror, Tuesday, January 7, 2014 (p.9), the general overseer of Victory Life Ministries International, Ilesa, Bishop Mike Bamidele, berated the government of the State of Osun for recognising the practice of traditional religion in the state. He described the action as evil and that it could retard the progress of the state. Addressing journalists in Osogbo on January 6, 2014, the Bishop said: “The introduction of traditional religion was evil. I am not the one calling it evil, but it has its basis in the Bible that it is evil and it is truly evil”. He said there is some wickedness in the religion which must be expunged to get it revived by the government, warning Governor Rauf Aregbesola to reverse his recognition of traditional religion before it is too late. Hear him: “Aregbesola should tread softly on religious issues in the state and should be cautioned against promoting traditional religion above other religions in the state.” He went on to urge prominent ministers of God, especially indigenes of the state like Pastor Enoch Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, the founder of Kingsway International Christians Centre, Pastor Mathew Asimolowo and others” to help prevent the state from being turned to idols through traditional religion.” He went further: “The state would go a century backward for promoting aspects of traditional religion that promotes evil because there are contents of the religion which could cause chaos in the state if not addressed”. Although, he did not mention what contents of the religion that now cause chaos, he went on to blame the House of Assembly for passage of the bill which he boasted “will never see the light of the day.” Perhaps the starting point of educating our holier than thou Bishop and the self-imposed representative of God in Nigeria is the universal acceptance of culture (which includes traditional religion) and civilization in the life and affairs of man and a nation. The word “culture” has a long history of definitions and interpretations. During the Victorian era culture was proclaimed to be a curtain which divides classes, religions, political parties and even university faculties. Mathew Arnold, a great protagonist of culture, enlarged this definition to include moral values. Culture is defined by Arnold as “the study of perfection” moved “by the social passion for doing good”. In the 20th century, an anthropological dimension was added to the Victorian definition of culture. In its widest sense culture now stands for a peoples’ traditions, manners, customs, religious beliefs, values and social, political and economic organisation. Culture in this sense does not refer to an individual but to the people as individuals-writlarge. Great nations have their civilisations, education, politics, economy, moral values and ways of life based on their cultures, religions and philosophy. Examples are Britain, Continental Europe

WORSHIP

Osun and traditional religion: A bishop’s howler By Moses Makinde

and Asian countries and the far East where their different religions have become integral part of their social, economic, political, scientific and moral engineering. Thus, we have Judeo Christian Religion which does not belief in Jesus Christ but in God only, and some other historically predominant world religious cultures like Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Lamaism, Sikhism e.t.c. as studied and researched into by scholars in the area of world religions. I wonder whether the Bishop ever did religious studies in the university or did a dissertation on this subject in the university. Many scholars have done their Doctoral Degrees on world religions, including traditional religions, which they end up teaching in the university. Traditional religions are an important subject in a place like the Harvard Divinity School where a Nigerian, Olupona, is a professor of comparative religions. There is no perfect religion; if there is, there will be no need to subject every religion to critical study as an important methodology for the acceptance or rejection of a PhD Degree in Religion. Obviously, our Bishop betrayed his lack of erudition in religious studies and more so of traditional religions. Hence he spoke, using expressions that seemed clever, but actually are not sincere, and do not show much thought. In this age of globalisation, and convergence of cultures, how does traditional religion lead to the retardation of progress? What progress, and whose progress? All religions rest on belief in a Supreme Being known as God or Allah. What you call God or Allah is called Olorun (the owner of heaven) or Olodumare in Yoruba traditional religion. The ultimate prayers and sacrifices (there are sacrifices in the bible) of traditional religions is to our creator, Olorun or Olodumare. I think by traditional religion the Bishop means Yoruba (African) traditional religion which is an integral part of Yoruba culture. It is a pity our Bishop never read Bolaji Idowu’s popular book Olodumare which is a source of reference in the academic study of Yoruba traditional religion. As Christians, we offer our prayers to God directly or through His son Jesus Christ. This is not so for the Jews who do not belief in Jesus Christ as the son of God for which reason we call that religion Judaism or Judeo– Christian religion. Our Bishop should be bold enough to attack the Jews for not believing in Jesus Christ. The traditional religious priests like the Babalawos do make atonements or sacrifices to Olodumare through some lesser deities or gods, and such sacrifices have worked among the Yoruba. This traditional religious belief has been with us ever

before Mary Slessor and other colonialists introduced the Bible and Christianity to Nigeria. What the likes of our Bishop is now saying is that we should jettison our traditional and religious beliefs for foreign assimilated religion instead of using one to complement the other. It is unthinkable whether a Bishop would ask the Hindus or Buddhists to jettison their religions as he would want the Yoruba to jettison Ifa or the divination of the Babalawos whose practices have worked and largely accepted by many Nigerians, especially among the Yoruba and in the Diaspora. Afterall, a Bishop in Nigeria once proclaimed himself as a strong believer of Ifa and the practices of the Babalawos. I and my son, Olumide, have written in separate books that Ifa as a religion, culture and philosophy is not incompatible with Christian religion, nor traditional medicine incompatible with the principles and practices of orthodox medicine. Both religions aim at moral and righteous life while both medical practices aim at prolonging healthy lives on earth. The ignorance of the Bishop shows clearly when Ifa is seen as a repository of knowledge. The concept of Omoluabi derives from an Odu Ifa while the bulk of African moral systems also derived from Odu Ifa that is being scientifically studied at home and abroad. Suffice is to say that this same Ifa as a core of Yoruba traditional religion has so captured the imagination of people in Brazil, Cuba, North America and other advanced regions of the world that the Yoruba traditional religion is being practiced in these places as African diasporic religion, sometimes with greater interest and intensity than we do here. In the last Orisa world conference at OAU, Ile-Ife where I delivered a key lecture on “Philosophy and Development: Lecture in Honour of Awo Ifatoogun” on 25 July, 2013, one would appreciate the popularity of Yoruba traditional religion as evident from the attendance from different parts of the world. The Bishop shot himself at the foot when he veered from his original condemnation of traditional religion to an unsubstantiated rantings. Terribly confused, he changed his argument to say a different thing that Aregbe has placed traditional religion above other religions in the state. One may therefore ask him: what precisely is your grouse against Aregbesola and traditional religion? Is it its introduction or placing it above Christianity and Islam in the state? The absurdity of this religious howler is the fact that Aregbe is a muslim. Now, the Bishop has shifted to another preposterous position that the same Aregbesola is now trying to religiously traditionalize, and no longer Islamize the state just because the three recognized religions are now used in

prayers at official functions in the state. Now we are confused as we do not know what to believe. This confusion is a perfect demonstration that some of our clerics have been talking as if they do not know what they are talking about. We like to point out that culture and all religions are not immune to criticisms and revisions. To those who accept beliefs and norms without criticisms, cultures and religions are static, not evolutionary. We do not live in a world of unchanging beliefs. Thus, even in traditional religions, criticisms are welcome precisely because religious beliefs are dynamic in nature. Hence our Bishop should not be wholly bound by his subjective and dogmatic belief. As rational men we all have autonomous standing for reflexive criticisms. It is precisely these criticisms that have led to revisions of those things that the Bishop calls evil, because he is incapable of making a distinction between traditional religion of the last century and these of modern time when those aspects of traditional religion that offended our sensibilities have been jettisoned. If you like, call it traditional religion in its modernity, and this pre-

cisely is what has been recognised as the third tier of religion and practice among the Yoruba people of the State of Osun. Rather than berate Aregbesola’s effort in this direction in the 21st century, we should appreciate what he is doing to forge a unity of religions (just as we do in the unity of the sciences) among the three recognized religions in the state. In fact, Yoruba traditional religion as practiced in Nigeria and in the Diaspora is part of the global study of African traditional religion. Why should Yoruba traditional religion be recognized in faraway places like Cuba, Brazil and the Americas and not be recognized in Nigeria, its source? Why should eminent Europeans like Susan Wenger and Ulli Bier be so interested in Yoruba culture and religion as to spend the better parts of their lives in Osogbo to the extent that one of them, Ulli Bier, has a Lecture Theatre at the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding named after him in Abere, Osogbo? In as much as our Bishop acted in complete ignorance of what are meant by culture and religion and the relationship between the two, we would pardon him his offences, but he should

apologize to governor Aregbesola and the entire Yoruba race, many of who not only believe in, but practice, traditional religion in Nigeria and in the Diaspora with equal passion and intensity as the christians and muslims believe in, and practise, their religions. After all religion, like philosophy and culture, is a way of life. This is probably why those who brought Christianity to Nigeria have recognized the same sex marriage which, because it is alien to our culture and traditional beliefs, Nigeria has rejected as taboo. But our holy Bishop has kept quiet about this religious and cultural evil. I have said there is no perfect religion just as there is no perfect culture, otherwise there would not have been over 1000 Christian religious denominations as we have in Nigeria today. Now, if the Bishop’s motive is to disparage Aregbesola and the APC government in the State of Omoluabi (a derivation from Yoruba philosophy culture and traditional religion) over religious matters, he has failed woefully because he is on his own. For all we know, Bishop Mike Bamidele may well be a hypocrite, like many of them who preach morality in the morning and break it at noon! •Moses Akinola Makinde, FNAL is a Professor of Philosophy, DG/CEO, Awolowo Centre for Philosophy, Ideology and Good Governance, Osogbo.

ARTS

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014

Presenting a special apostle Title: Apostle of Humility and Service: A Biography of Chief Joshua Ozigi Omuya Authors: Abdulmalik Abdulkarim, Emmanuel Omadivi and Rakiya Yusuf Publishers: Spotlight Communications Limited, Abuja, Nigeria Year of Publication: 2014 No. of Pages: 309 Reviewer: Adinoyi Ojo Onukaba N Apostle of Humility and Service, authors Abdulkarim Abdulmalik, Emmanuel Omadivi and Rakiya Yusuf recount the blessings of Chief Joshua Ozigi Omuya - a brilliant accountant, scholar and teacher, popular author of three well-regarded books in accountancy, successful businessman, philanthropist, devout Christian, selfless community leader, loving and caring husband and father, and politician by association – who turned 60 on February 9, this year. Born in 1954 to Daniel Okuku Omuya and his younger wife, Rebecca Enimire, in Okene, Kogi State, Chief Omuya has done very well for himself, his community and the nation. Since February 2006, he has been the Director of Finance of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He was, from 2005 to 2013, one of the five non-executive directors of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). He is one of Nigeria’s foremost chartered accountants. He has taught accounting at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and worked as a principal consultant in the private firm of the legendary privatization czar, Dr Hamza Zayyad, as well as held senior management positions at the defunct Bank of the North and Savannah Bank Plc. By any measure, Chief Omuya’s life has been illustrious and extraordinary. It has been a blessed life. And Chief Omuya attributes his successes in life to divine favours. This is why he likes to address himself simply as “Blessed J. O. Omuya.” The authors of Apostle of Humility and Service have meticulously counted those blessings - one by one - in this 309-page book. They include having a father and an older brother who knew the value of education, being endowed with the mind of a genius, and meeting at critical periods of his life men and women that some benevolent forces had positioned along the way in the journey of life to help him in surmounting obstacles and seizing opportunities. This book celebrates Chief Omuya as a man who has lived his life “so that the preacher won’t have to lie at his funeral 60 years to come. He believes that true happiness does not come from what we get but from what we give. The authors present Chief Omuya as a man whose personal values of hard work, trust, decency, selflessness, compassion and faith in God are worthy of emulation. Chief Omuya’s greatness emanates not just from having done great things in life, but also from the way he has conducted himself, his relationship with others and his relentless strive to live a virtuous life. In his Foreword to the book, Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi calls the book “inimitable and surely a work to treasure by anyone who yearns to imbibe the tenets of rising through the rungs to positions of leadership”. Sanusi hails Omuya as someone who “puts his personal interests nowhere near that of the system.” Apostle of Humility and Service is not the story of a saint. In fact, what makes this book interesting is that it humanizes Chief Omuya. The authors admire him not because he has no personal failings, but that on aggregate his admirable qualities are more. Readers are presented the facts of a remarkable life and then invited to emulate it if they can. The seventh child of a family of ten children (four men and six females), Chief Omuya has always been unique since childhood. He was breastfed by his biological mother, Enimire, and his stepmother, Ozohu, until he was seven years old. Even after he had been enrolled in Primary School in 1961, Chief Omuya would race home to suck whichever breasts were available. His friends would later joke that Chief Omuya owes his exceptional brilliance to the prolonged breast-feeding as a child and of course research has proved the uncountable benefits of prolonged breast-feeding. Although his father did not go to school, he knew the importance of education. He enrolled his first son, Ibrahim Uhuada Omuya, in school but he later dropped out and took to farming. The next son, David Eneji Omuya was then enrolled. He did well and became a teacher. Having tasted the fountain of knowledge, Eneji persuaded his father to allow him to enroll his

Aiming to the top Title: Career Guide to success Author: Ima-Mariam Nike Agunbiade Year of Publication: 2013 No of Pages: 88 Reviewer: Edozie Udeze AREER Guide to Success was written with deep conviction to help students and young career seekers to find their bearing in life. The author, Ima-Mariam Nike Agunbiade draws from her many years of interaction with people from different backgrounds to produce a book that is indeed a problem-solver. The intention is to assist people where necessary to identify their interests and abilities in whatever they want to engage in. It is important for one to do so, knowing that career hunt or plan needs total planning, packaging and proper execution. It is when this is well-done, properly throughout, that one can then translate them into successful career that can take him/her to the highest career level in life. And as it is most times, the author quickly notes and warns that success may not always translate into or equate wealth. However, one can be both successful and wealthy if he/she follows some laid down rules offered in the book. The key thing to note while planning to start a career is to identify where your innate interest lies. You need to pay special attention to this concept and then try to focus on it. It has to be what you love to do most; what gives you total happiness when you do it. Even when you try to choose your course of study, it has to be that which you love most and what you have the ability to study and pursue with little or no struggle. People excel most when they engage in areas where their interest lie and their ability count most. This is the concept here. When this has been done, the next step is for you to look for a mentor and also create time to research into the topic or subject-matter. According to Agunbiade, “one of the primary ingredients of a successful career is to have a good mentor. It has to be someone who can serve as a role model for you, someone that you aspire to be like… A mentor will direct you on the right path and he has to be someone very knowledgeable about your career.” After years of tutelage or mentoring, you

younger brother, Ozigi, who was by then assisting the eldest brother, Uhuada, in the farm at Owo. Chief Omuya’s parents were among the early converts to Christianity in their community. They belonged to the Anglican Church denomination. For the elder Omuya, who sold hand-woven cloths in and outside Ebiraland, the epiphany came during a crusade where his wife’s string of infant mortalities ended suddenly after drinking ‘holy water’. But his younger wife, Chief Omuya’s mother, didn’t totally surrender herself to the new religion. Her faith in the protective powers of charms and amulets remained until she was won over by her son. Chief Omuya attended St Andrew’s School in Okene where his brother Eneji taught. When Eneji was later transferred to St Paul’s Primary School in Ege, Ozigi followed him. He stayed in Ege until 1965 when he returned to St Andrew’s Okene to complete his primary education. Chief Omuya completed his primary school the same year he lost his father. As a young boy in Okene and Ege, a village on the outskirt of Okene, Chief Omuya was known for his intelligence, obedience and hard work. He fetched water from the stream, washed, cleaned and cooked for his brother. He was very creative and resourceful. He made baskets, brooms, trays and knitted caps to survive. He knitted caps even while in the university on scholarship. He used to carry mud bricks with his mother at construction sites to earn some money to sustain the family. He would also accompany his mother to the farm in Akoko Edo. He was a serious, bookish boy who had no time to play soccer, wrestle or follow masquerades around town during festivities as his age mates did in those days. Eneji was so impressed and proud of his younger brother’s sense of duty, intelligence and moral conduct that he used to pray for him thus: “Wind of favour will locate you wherever you are, you will dig and find water, cultivate and harvest plenty, doors of opportunity will never be shut against you”. God answered Eneji’s prayers. Favour located Chief Omuya. He dug and found water. He cultivated and harvested plenty. Doors of opportunity opened for him at every moment of his life. From a very early age, Chief Omuya had a sense of self. He was comfortable with himself and with his social status. He did not bemoan his humble birth. Not being comfortable with one’s self leads to a feeling of inadequacy, low self esteem, depression and under performance. Ozigi accepted where fate had landed him in life and worked hard to develop himself and “to realize one’s nature perfectly” as the Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde once put it. He dreaded failure. After completing his primary school, Chief Omuya gained admission to Government Secondary School Okene (now Abdul Azeez Atta Memorial College) in 1968. He graduated from the school in 1972 with the best overall result in the then Kwara State for that year. He won prizes in Accounting, Economics, Health Science, History and more. His uncommon performance was the talk of the town in Ebiraland. Most people could not believe that such a smallish young man could set such an all time record. Chief Omuya is the quintessential dynamite that comes in small packages.

need to begin to be your own person. Ask a lot of questions but they have to be cogent ones that will lead you to the right path. Then the moment of decision has come. The book makes it clear by saying – “all along, you have been deliberating, dreaming, thinking and consulting about what career path to take. And you have decided to take a decision about what career to take.” It is interesting to note that the author makes references to many other sources to justify not only what she herself has offered but to assist readers to seek for deeper knowledge to be their own persons in terms of career pursuit, selfactualisation and lots more. She also makes a distinction between a gifted and a talented person. The author puts it thus: “gifted students are those with abilities in one or more academic subjects like English, Mathematics, Science, etc, while talented students are those who have practical skills like sports, music, art, designs, and so on. Both gifted and talented students however require support to maximize their potentials otherwise the gift and talent can disappear.” She reasons that any gift or talent that is not promptly nurtured may soon die off. “Once you know that you have a gift or talent, you should endeavour to build a career along this path because you can be totally certain that you cannot go wrong.” Divided into many segments for easy comprehension, the author equally offers other areas that have to be looked into for a proper career foundation. They include planning, avoiding comfort zones, being mentally alert, workplace attitude and lots more. In all these people have to decide in time how to conduct themselves to rise to the top of their chosen career. As you work with others, try to develop the spirit of team work, try to be tolerant, be your own person, also try to imbibe the culture of humility and selfconfidence. All these are necessary in order for you to achieve your primary career objective. Apart from a few errors, e.g. where Maths is written as Math and other few cases, it is a book carefully written to help teenagers to begin on time to ask questions. These relevant questions will help them to build their future; to get to where they want to be.

Chinese film wins Best Picture at Berlin film festival

HE Chinese film Bai Ri Yan Huo (Black Coal, Thin Ice) has won the Golden Bear for best picture at the Berlin international film festival. Liao Fan won the prize for best actor in the same film, while Haru Kuroki won best actress for her role in the Japanese movie Chiisai Ouchi (The Little House). American Richard Linklater was named best director for his film Boyhood. An eight-person jury decides the awards. This year it was headed by American director and producer James Schamus, probably most well-known for producing Brokeback Mountain. Director Richard Linklater poses with his Silver Bear for Best Director Director Richard Linklater’s film Boyhood followed the life of a boy from age 5 to 18 The Golden Bear for Best Film, on stage during the Berlin Film Festival, in front of someone’s feet The Golden Bear for Best Film, on stage during the Berlin Film Festival Bai Ri Yan Huo features an overweight detective, played by Liao Fan, on the trail of a serial killer. “It’s really hard to believe this dream has come true,” a stunned Diao Yinan, director of the winning film, told the festival audience. Richard Linklater’s ambitious coming-ofage film Boyhood used the same child actors over a 12-year span. Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel, the festival opener, took the Silver Bear grand

•A good year for Asian film in Berlin, as (left to right) Diao Yinan, Liao Fan and Haru Kuroki share the stage

jury prize, while the Ethiopian film Difret, based on a real case of bride abduction in Ethiopia, took the audience award. The festival is one of the oldest and most prestigious film showcases in the world, but this year some critics complained of a dearth of strong entries, and a lack of films with strong political or social agendas. Some 400 films have been screened during the 11-day festival, 23 of them in the competition category. Last year, the main prize was awarded to the Romanian film Child’s Pose. On Friday, British director Ken Loach won an Honorary Golden Bear at what is formally known as the 64th Berlinale International Film Festival. He was celebrated with a gala screening of his 1993 film Raining Stones, about a poverty-stricken suburban family.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

WORDSWORTH W

Osun: At a time like this…

EBERE WABARA

08055001948

ewabara@yahoo.com

Unknown assassins?

HE Guardian of February 11 engaged in stateside English: “Unknown assassins last week pulled the trigger on Imo-born US-based show biz (showbiz) promoter in Owerri.” How on earth will assassins be known in Owerri of all places? Let it just be assassins for reportorial purposes. DAILY SUN advertorial and editorial pages of February 7 contained multifarious mistakes: “The Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Movement invites you to a 2-day annual power packed (power-packed) crusade” “TUC, private firm partner to build 100,000 house (100,000-house) project” Or, loosely: 100,000 house projects “Benin murder: Cop arraigned, remanded in prison” The cop would not have been remanded without being arraigned and when remanded it is in prison! So, a rewrite: Benin murder: Cop remanded “Burial rites of (for) Oba of Benin’s wife begin February 10" “Cleric commends Jonathan over (for) anti-gay law” “Police nabs (nab) 3 robbery suspects in Ondo” Still on DAILY SUN faulty headlines: “Shettima assents (assents to) 2014 budget” “Nigeria-China relations: The issue of oil for infrastructure (oil-for-infrastructure) deals (1)” “Hisbah cops, hoteliers (hoteliers’) association at war in Kano” Still on DAILY SUN under review: “Maintain your culture and tradition, Igbos (Igbo) in Zamfara, (needless comma) urged” “If you have seen him or have information on his whereabout (whereabouts), kindly call or contact the nearest police station or any office of the Federal Inland Revenue Service” (Halfpage advertisement signed by Emmanuel Obeta, Director, Communication & Liaison for the acting chairman, FIRS) “IBM to invest $100m on (in) system development” Lastly from The Voice of The Nation: “JOGS 1974/ 1979 set elects new excos” People & Events: The school elected an executive. ‘Executives’ (excos) here will connote different groups of executives—this is different from the use of ‘officials’. Furthermore, ‘new’ is otiose! ‘Election’ means inauguration of new officials, while re-election means re-endorsement of the existing (old) officials (excos).

Next on focus is THE GUARDIAN of February 7: “...and a sense of purpose in consolidating our 120 year (120-year) heritage as a Bank that puts her (its) customers first.” (FirstBank full-page advertisement) No feminization of language! “The people of Offa in Kwara State appeal to banks to re-open (reopen) their branches....” “Our society has not yet ravenously demanded for justice for those raped.” Yank off the first redundant ‘for’! “Lagos set to provide homes for first time (firsttime) buyers” “Advocating for specialization for estate surveyors and valuers” Just like ‘demand’, ‘advocate’ does not admit ‘for’ when used as a verb or as a gerund. Again, delete the first ‘for’. “Gov. Fashola commissioning (inaugurating) ultra modern (ultra-modern) classrooms at....” Finally from the Back Page of THE GUARDIAN under focus: “In 2003, our public universities were closed for five months because universities (university) lecturers employed wildcat’s measure (wildcat strike) to agitate for improved welfare conditions.” THE NATION ON SUNDAY advertorial and editorial pages take over: “...on this great occasion of his 49th Birthday Anniversary” (Full-page advertisement by Ekiti State House of Assembly) ‘Birthday’ and ‘anniversary’ cannot co-function! “Your commitment to the vision of turning EKSU to a world-class university has resulted in the upliftment (uplift) of the university....” (Full-page advertisement signed by Prof. Patrick Oladipo Aina, VC, Ekiti State University, AdoEkiti) From the advertorial we move to THE NATION ON SUNDAY COMMENT (EDITORIAL) with five scandalous blunders: “Yet, he emerged from prison without bitterness, extending an olive branch of peace to his erstwhile oppressors and helping to lay a solid foundation for a peaceful multiracial South Africa.” Mandela’s example: ‘Olive branch’ does not require adumbration (‘of peace’)” “This comprises of a house in Johannesburg....” Take away ‘of’ because of its awkwardness here.... “This speaks volume (volumes) of the sheer compassion and humanity of the man.” “In doing so, they under-develop their countries, impoverish majority (a ma-

jority) of their people....” “The wealthy among us also have something to emulate in (from) Mandela’s generosity of spirit....” “Afenifere leader says Yorubas (Yoruba) not opposed to conference” “We celebrate your illustrious life, your inspiring leadership which has culminated into (in) monumental transformation of....” “Association of Local Government (Governments) of Nigeria (ALGON) Ekiti State Chapter” (Full-page advertisement) THISDAY of February 6 committed just two gaffes: “Budget: APC threatening the lifewire (livewire) of Nigeria, says FG” “Edo: Court remands killer cop in prison” Where else would the cop have been remanded? SUNDAY Sun Back Page of February 9 wobbled: “CBN said money is (was) missing from federation account (the federation account).” Next on the line-up is THISDAY of February 10 with just three flaws: “Hope dims for Nigeria, Cameroun cross border (cross-border) oil wells exploration” “DISCOs blame TCN over (for) power” “Congratulations, (needless comma) Your Excellency and more grease (power) to your elbow.” (Full-page advertisement for Her Excellency, Lady Odochi Mercy Orji by Dr. & Mrs. Uche Ogah, OON, FCA) DAILY SUN of February 10 takes over from THISDAY with a deluge— yes!—of wrongdoings: “Again, Anambra PDP leadership tussle resurrects” The first and last words in the extract cannot function in the same environment. “6 students remanded in Osun prisons for alleged illegal possession of arms” Where else would they have been remanded? In the shrine! “Herbalist bags 14 years (years’) jail term for fraud” “Kano to revive young farmers (farmers’) clubs in schools” “Police arrest Zuma’s son over (for) fatal crash” “…where three deaf and dumb bothers (boarders) are students” “Works across all data enabled (data-enabled) feature phones” (Full-page advertisement by MTN) “Investors’ interest shift (shifts)…”

ITH the 2014 governorship poll close by in the State of Osun, we have ample opportunity to examine critical issues to serve as a guide or compass for the electorate and Nigerian citizens at large. It is necessary to consider these factors so that we are not misled into decisions that once placed the state on a tip overlooking a cavernous pit of no return. We got to that point in the regime of ex-soldier Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, after the progressive era of Chief Bisi Akande. In nearly eight years of that government, the state witnessed what may yet be described as a massacre; the PDP government inflicted policies and measures that made the people lie prostrate, deprived of all manner of humanity and respect. This ancien regime pulled down the structures of good governance and the dividends of democracy put in place by Bisi Akande. The government that followed that of the current National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) proved it was truly not the one voted into power. For if they were, they would not destroy the future of those who gave them the mandate. Their actions exposed them as impostors. They destroyed education and let schools run into decay best suited for the Dark Ages. They reminded us of the Barbarians who ruined the Roman Empire and feasted on the carrion. They didn’t improve on agriculture and allowed the roads, industries, hospitals, civil service etc to run aground. Insecurity reached a frightening peak as the state became a killing field. Miscarriage of justice came along to compound the situation. The worst victim of these killer blows was the citizen. He reeled left and right under each heavy punch of the government he did not vote into power. This was the biggest tragedy: to seek to destroy the spirit of the citizen. Any government that attempts to chain the soul of a people as the PDP sought to do through its policies under is clearly the arch enemy of

•Aregbesola By Kunle Oyatomi

the society. Truly, the PDP’s regime initiated moves that were a direct antithesis of progressive governance. To be sure, it was really an unusually low period for Osun, and era that should never be allowed to return. It would have been unfair and cruel of nature not to have brought a breather for the citizens through a benign intervening administration. That intervention came in November 2010. Nature, applying all the levers of the democratic process including the people’s power and the legal system, did step in to sweep into office Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola. He has since instituted unusual governance that is steadily obliterating the deadly effects of the unusually poor governance that preceded his era. The governor in less than four years has put a commanding stamp on every facet of life in the State of Osun such that it is as if he’s been at the helm for a decade. He has brought farreaching changes to the critical sectors: education, arts and culture, the citizen’s way of life, transportation, civil service, agriculture and religion, where he has become the only governor in Nigeria who has offered constructive and disinterested balance on the question of religious arbitration. The communal peace arising from the policies of a government that is not leaning (or seen to be leaning) on any religious prop is making

Osun a haven of tourism, with the government now working out a scheme that would earn the state a whopping N15bn from tourism in 2015. The indisputable upshot of this revelation is that there’s abundant life without petrodollars if you have the right leadership with visionary policies. The State of Osun under Rauf Aregbesola has proved the veracity of this assertion many times over through its unique mode of governance and service delivery in its 40 months in power. The questions to pose: what was the missing link all along in the ancien regime that made the State of Osun to stagnate and lose its place in the community of men and women of integrity? Why is there now such a massive outburst of potential and passion to work and rebuild the state? Are there now a different set of citizens who were not available in the past to do what is being done at the moment? What was absent all along during the displaced regime was a caring, committed and disciplined leadership. We also hold the view that the huge popular verve to serve now which the state did not enjoy in the past must be linked to the presence of a leader and his team whose knack to serve selflessly is legendary and infectious. We also do not see the replacement of citizens to take the place of those who inhabited Osun in the days of the PDP. What is making the difference in the State of Osun these past three years-andhalf is the unusual governance of the man, Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola. He is proving the point that when you have a disciplined leader, you would also raise a disciplined followership. When you have a frugal and forward-looking government committed to nothing but altruistic ideology, you would bring forth citizens determined to follow in your footsteps of integrity (Omoluabi generation). •Oyatomi is Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, All Progressives Congress (APC) State of Osun

• National Interim Chairman, All Progressives Congress (APC) Chief Bisi Akande, (third from left) his daughter Dr. Wura Akande (in academic gown), Mr. Femi Akande, Chief Akande's wife, Senator Ajayi Boroffice and Mrs Temitope Ilori, Mr. Idowu Ajanaku (left), Senator Boroffice's wife, Olasunbo, at the graduation of Chief Akande's daughter at Brighton University, United Kingdom at the weekend.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

With Hannah Ojo 08062952262

Hello kids, Are you grateful for life? Yeah! Being alive is a privilege, so live your life well by bringing happiness to people around you. Write your own story of greatness, make a mark and let something positive be recorded in your name. Have a pleasant week ahead!

Jelani Aliyu, the Nigerian who designed an American car

Background:

Ministry of Works, Sokoto. In 1990, Aliyu moved to Detroit, Michigan to enroll at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit under a S o k o t o Schorlarship board sponsorship. He received his degree in automobile design in 1994.

E hails from Sokoto State, Nigeria and is General Motors Lead Exterior Designer and the designer of the Chevy Volt. He was born in 1966 in Kaduna, to Alhaji Aliya Haidara and Sharifiya Hauwa’u Aliyu. The fifth of seven children. Education: From 1971 to 1978, he attended Capital School, Sokoto. In 1978, he gained admission into the Federal Government College, Sokoto, from where he graduated in 1983 with an award as the best in Technical Drawing. After FGC, he got admission into the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria to study Architecture, but soon discovered that curriculum did not support his future vision and plans.

He enrolled at Birnin Kebbi Polytechnic, an institution he felt offered the best creative programmes that would give him the best foundation required to study Automobile Design abroad. He was there from 1986 to 1988 and earned an associate degree in Architecture, with an award as Best All-Round Student. Upon graduation from the polytechnic, Jelani worked for a while at the

QUICK FACTS ABOUT ANTS

Class: Insecta Order: Hymenoptera Family: Formicidae Conservation Concerns: 45 species are at risk due to habitat destruction. Range: Almost all parts of the world; most abundant in the tropics. Habitat: Almost a l l parts of the world; most abundant in the tropics. Feeding Habits: Most ants are omnivores; they eat plant juices, seeds, fruits, other insects, and honeydew, a sugary liquid secreted by aphids. Offspring: Only queen ants lay eggs. Ants pass through egg, larva, pupa, and adult stages. Life Span: Less than six

months on average; some worker and queen ants live for several years. Did You Know Leaf cutter ants grow fungus for food. They collect plant material to fertilize the fungus in their nests. Male ants die soon after breeding with the queen ant. Most queen ants have wings that they tear off after mating. Ants use scent trails to find their way back to their nest. Army ants travel in long, narrow columns in search of prey. •Source: Encarta

Microsoft

Career

In 1994, he began his career with the design staff of General Motors. He worked on the Buick Rendezvous and was the lead exterior designer of the Pontiac G6. He also worked on the Astra with General Motors’ Opel Division. With his brilliant work on the design of the Chevrolet Volt, which was unveiled in 2007, Jelani Aliyu is considered by many to be the super star of the General Motors renaissance.

RIDDLES

•Students of National College, Gbagada, Lagos, performing a poetry recitation of Sam Omatseye’s “This is our land” at the National Library, Yaba, recently

SUDOKU 6

9 1

To play Sudoku:

Fill the box with the numbers 1 to 9 in a way that •Each column must contain all of the numbers 1 through 9 •Each row must contain all of the numbers 1 through 9 •Each block must contain all of the numbers 1 through 9 •No two numbers in the same column, row, or block can be the same.

What is the easiest way to double your money?

What belongs to you but is used by others? A: Your age Everyone has it but no one can lose it. What is it?

4 2

A: A shadow What has a face and two hands but no arms or legs?

A: put it in front of the mirror.

1 1

2 8

A: A clock

WORD WHEEL

R T

A N Send in your stories, poems, articles, games, puzzles, riddles and jokes to sundaynation@yahoo.com

I E N

H O W m a n y words of three or more letters, each including the letter at centre of the wheel, can you make from this diagram?

SPORTS THE NATION ON SUNDAY

Porto offer Eaglets ace Eze 'peanuts'

EXTRA

FEBRUARY 16, 2014

Onyedinma lauds Oyo on female football

HIDERA Eze Eaglets star Chidera Eze is rethinking his options after Portuguese champions FC Porto offered him what has been described as “peanuts”. The U17 star has been on trials at the top Portuguese for almost a month now, but he may now have to seek other options after he was given an offer his handlers were far from impressed with. “The Porto offer is not good, but his agent is tied down by another major transaction and as such it may take some time before Chidera's future is resolved,” a top source told MTNFootball.com Eze was originally to move to Porto along with U17 World Cup MVP and close friend Kelechi Iheanacho before Iheanacho opted for Manchester City. Enugu-born Eze played a bit role as Nigeria won a record fourth FIFA U17 World Cup in UAE last November.

Kayode keeps Israeli club top

LYING Eagles star Olanrewaju Kayode was the hero for Israeli team Maccabi Netanya when he scored the match winner away at Hapoel Ashkelon. Kayode scored the only goal of the game in the 81st minute to give Maccabi Netanya a 1-0 win over their hosts. Maccabi Netanya maintained their top position on the division 2 league table with 54 points from 24 games. "I am happy to have scored the goal which gave us victory. It was a good game and I am happy that we won. I will keep doing my best to get more goals," K a y o d e t o l d MTNFootball.com The former Asec Mimosas of Cote d'Ivoire striker has now scored six goals for his team in the league this season.

CAF Confederations Cup

SuperSport ease into next round

uperSport United have cruised into the next round of the CAF Confederations Cup after a 1-0 win against Gaborone United in Botswana yesterday. Matsatsantsa had led 2-0 from the first leg, and Mame Niang's goal on the stroke of halftime ensured there was to be no hiccups. SuperSport started well and had an early chance through Bennet Chenene, but he headed wide from Lebohang Manyama's cross. The hosts were not to be overawed though, and poured forward in search of an early goal.

CAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE •Kano Pillars players

Pillars crash out

...As Udoh fancies Enyimba's chances in Togo

ILLARS star Rabiu Ali Nigeria champions Kano Pillars have crashed out of the CAF Champions League after they failed to overturn a 3-1 deficit they suffered at AS Vita of DR Congo. Pillars won Saturday's return match 2-1 at the Sani Abacha Stadium in Kano, but lost out 4-3 on aggregate. Etekiama Agiti gave visiting AS Vita a first minute lead, before Pillars fought back to draw level in the 66th minute through a header by Kabiru Umar. Pillars then took the lead in the 70th minute courtesy of Abdul Haruna, but could not score another goal that would have at least taken the game to a penalty shootout. Last year, Pillars crashed out to AC Leopards of Congo Brazzaville in the first round of the competition. Meanwhile, Enyimba FC of Aba new boy Mfon Udoh is confident that his side can notch a positive result in Togo when the People's Elephant file take on Anges de Notse in the return leg of the CAF Champions League preliminary round in Togo. The skilful forward who only joined the Aba Landlords last December after an impressive last season performance with Akwa United made his first appearance on the continent on Sunday action as Enyimba came

from behind to record a 3-1 leg in Aba last Sunday but victory over de Notse in a ten- unfortunately the goals didsion filled encounter at the n't come on time,” he Aba stadium. said.“Overall we got the job Mfon in a chat with done with three late goals futaa.com at the team's camp and take to Togo a two goal in Aba expressed gratitude lead. The team spirit was fanto God for Sunday's victory tastic. and also believes his side “All we need to do in the will wrap up their qualifica- second leg is to play like we tion for the first round of the did in first fixture but we competition with a win in should be more clinical in Togo. front of goal. “We had a fantastic first “I see us (Enyimba) going

to Togo and returning home with at least a 2-1 victory at the end of 90 minutes on Sunday. “We are not going there for a draw but for victory,” the forward stated. Enyimba who were champions in the CAF Champions league in 2003/04 will be hoping to replicate that same feat after missing out on the continental trophy in recent seasons.

2014 World Cup Vitoria Hotel Campinas ready to host Super Eagles

n exclusive peep into the luxurious Vitoria Hotel Concept, Campinas, that will host the Super Eagles during their World Cup campaign in Brazil, has revealed a nice hotel with plenty of English speakers, great breakfast buffet, nice fitness centre with a lot of equipment and very large rooms compared to other hotels in Brazil. According to Goal.com, in an email exchange with hotel's general manager, Barbara Porta assured that the Nigerian team will find an array of English language channels to choose from when they arrive. “We are very prepared to host the Nigerian delegation. We have three more hotels in the Vitoria chain and we have been in this market for 15 years. Last year we hosted the USA, Russia, Brazil and Poland volleyball teams for

two weeks and everything lis founded in the 18th cenwas alright (food, room, tury. The Super Eagles will events, breakfast),” Ms Porta find the city warm and welcoming when they arrive for told Goal. “We are training our the Mundial in the summer. The Vitoria Hotel Concept, employees to give the best service and teaching almost all of founded in 2003, is the bigthem to speak English. I think gest hotel in the Vitoria Hotel we are not going to have any chain. It is a 19-floor edifice problem with the Nigerian del- with 253 rooms. It contains a spa, a swimegation,” Porta added. Located in the city of ming pool, a heliport, fully fitCampinas, the beautiful ted gym and four restaurants Vitoria Hotel Concept has that cater to different tastes been chosen by the Nigeria Mediterranean, Oriental and Football Federation as base Iberian. camp for the Super Eagles dur- “I love the place. It is good ing the 2014 World Cup in for our team and we will be able to achieve full concentraBrazil. Their Group F opponents tion,” Nigeria coach Stephen Argentina, Iran and Bosnia- Keshi gushed about the hotel Herzegovina have opted for when it was announced in Cidade do Galo in Belo December. “It is also good that there is Horizonte, Joaquim Grava and Guaraja both in Sao Paulo an airport in Campinas that serves domestic flights, so we respectively. Campinas itself, a city 96km don't have to travel to Sao from Sao Paulo, Brazil's larg- Paulo to fly to our different est city, is an ancient metropo- venues,” he said.

HE leadership of Nigeria Women League Board has commended the efforts of Oyo State commissioner for Youths and Sports, Hon. Farouk Umar Alao in making sure that Oyo still has its representations in the top cadre of women football in the country. NWLB boss Chief Dili Onyedinma who disclosed this during the recent annual general meeting of the body held at Lokoja kogi State recently described Oyo as one of strong pillar behind the development of women football in Nigeria. But expressed her displeasure over the state of the game in Oyo State that has two strong professional side in women's top cadre before, (Tewo Queens and NITO Queens), but thanked the commissioner for making effort to revive the teams. The Oyo commissioner has approved a camp within the Lekan Salami Sports Complex Adamasingba Ibadan for ladies of Tewo Queens to camp temporarily before the formal takeover process of the team by government would be finalize.

Ibadan Tiger Golf Club holds birthday kitty for vice-captain

EMBERS of Tiger Golf Club last weekend converged on the 18-hole course to celebrate the birthday of vicecaptain of the club, Chief Olatunji Aderoju with a oneday tournament. The boss of Best Option Oil added another year on Saturday, 8th February. The golf tourney which had 69 participants, according to the captain of the club, C o l o n e l John Ogbaje was in compliance with the culture of golfing and one of the traditional ways of celebrating a distinguished golfer. Colonel M.M Kinni emerged the overall winner of the tourney after returning with 66 net, while Chief Dotun Oyelade won the veteran category retuning 98 gross over 72 net. The lady captain of the club, Sumbo Oshile claimed first prize in ladies category. Colonel Ogbaje while speaking during the prize presentations described the celebrant as a fine golfer who had contributed immensely to the development of the club.

Aderoju

THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014

SPORT EXTRA

Ibrahimovic scores in PSG's win

Messi tips England for W/Cup glory

IONEL Messi has included England among a list of favourites to challenge his Argentina side at the World Cup in Brazil this summer. Messi recently returned for full fitness for club side Barcelona and has re-found the form that made him one of world football's most deadliest goal scorers and the Argentine forward has spoken about his country's chances of the winning the 2014 World Cup.Argentina who cruised to qualification in the South America section will be amongst the favourites to win this summer's competition which is to be held in rival country Brazil. Speaking with Marca, Messi discussed the tournament, who the favourites were and his chances of silverware with Barcelona. “The World Cup is coming quickly,” Messi said. "But we also have important things going on at my club, we play Man City in the Champions League and we have still got the league with Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid. "Rightly or wrongly Argentina is always a candidate to win, because we are a big country. “Just like Brazil, Germany, England, all the European teams are always the favourites too. We still need time to get all our details correct for the World Cup.

Juve goalkeeper backs Osvaldo to shine

UVENTUS goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has backed on-loan striker Pablo Daniel Osvaldo to put previous misdemeanours behind him and shine at the Italian giants. Osvaldo completed a move away from Roma, where club ultras turned on the Argentine-born Italy international following a spat in last season's Coppa Italia final, to Southampton in the summer. However, the move never quite went to plan as the 28year-old could only manager three goals in 13 appearances for Saints watching on as English pairing Rickie Lambert and James Rodriguez continued to take all the plaudits for their contributions. Osvaldo's unhappy time in England came to a head, so to speak, as he was involved in a bust-up with team-mate Jose Fonte head-butting the Portuguese, leaving him with a black eye. Southampton decided to cut their losses and offload the forward on loan with a view to a permanent deal and, with the prospect of playing in the World Cup at the end of the season, Buffon believes Osvaldo will make the most of his chance in Turin.

* OUT: Man City boss Pellegrini shows Jose Mourinho exit door in FA Cup yesterday.

FA Cup: Man City edge out Chelsea

ANCHESTER City remain in the hunt for all four major trophies after accounting for fellow Premier League giants Chelsea 2-0 in their FA Cup fifth round clash at the Etihad Stadium. Stevan Jovetic and Samir Nasri got the goals for last season's beaten finalists, who will be hoping to go one better in 2014 as part of an historic quadruple. A flowing move which started on City's left flank delivered the opening goal of the game on 16 minutes, with Edin Dzeko threading the final pass through for Jovetic to drill across Petr Cech and in off the base of the post. City doubled their advantage on 67 minutes, with David Silva beating the offside trap to square for Nasri, who had only been on the field for six minutes, to tap into an empty net. The presence of John Obi Mikel for John Terry aside, the Chelsea side was identical

Costel Pantilimon, back in to the one which beat City 1-0 in the Premier League less City's goal in place of Joe Hart than a fortnight ago, after as Pellegrini continued his cup Gary Cahill passed a fitness rotation policy, had an anxious moment as Chelsea tried test. Yet they lacked the same flu- to respond. The Romanian failed to take ency and although the opening exchanges were cagey, a low Cesar Azpilicueta cross City gradually began to assert cleanly and eventually dived themselves and take control. on it at the second attempt They served warning of amid confusion in the area. City stepped up the prestheir threat for the first time after 15 minutes as Yaya sure with Toure dragging a Toure tested Cech from 25 long-range shot wide and Dzeko forcing a good save yards. The goalkeeper was unable from Cech with a curling to keep hold but Jovetic effort from the edge of the box. Jovetic also turned well outreprieved him as he clipped the rebound onto the top of side the area but could get no power on his shot. the bar. There was no let-off a minChelsea were struggling to ute later as City pieced together a flowing move, with create anything meaningful Silva threading the ball although Eden Hazard, City's chief tormentor last time out, through for Dzeko. T h e B o s n i a n t u r n e d did wriggle free to get in a instantly to sweep the ball shot. Hazard was also hauled into the path of Jovetic, who steadied himself before guid- down by his Belgium captain ing an inch-perfect first-time Vincent Kompany as he shot past Cech and in off the attempted to engineer another far post.

opportunity. City almost doubled their lead before the interval after Jovetic beat David Luiz to a 5050 ball to release James Milner. Milner tore down the right and whipped in a dangerous low ball across the box, but the sliding Dzeko narrowly failed to connect. Jose Mourinho sent on new signing Mohamed Salah for the second half, in place of the quiet Samuel Eto'o, but the Blues were still unable to trouble the hosts in the final third. City looked the more fluid and Jovetic almost broke through, but he lost control and went to ground as he passed Luiz and was booked for diving. With the spark still lacking, Mourinho sent on Fernando Torres for Ramires after an hour's play. Pellegrini also made a change, sending on the fitagain Nasri for his first appearance in five weeks in place of Jovetic.

Maradona engaged to 23-year-old girlfriend

iego Maradona has got engaged to his girlfriend; Rocio Oliva, despite being told by his ex she is carrying their second child and his sixth. Veronica Ojeda, 37, claims she fell pregnant last December after Diego, 53, slept with her at a Buenos Aires hotel behind current squeeze Rocio Oliva's back. Mardona dumped former PE teacher Ojeda when she was four and a half months pregnant with their first child Diego Fernando, now one. He started dating ex women's football player Rocio, 23, at the start of last year. They sealed their engagement with a glitzy party at a top Rome hotel on Valentines FA CUP RESULTS Day - two days after Ojeda Sunderland 1 - 0 S’thampton confirmed Maradona was the Cardiff 1 - 2 Wigan father of her unborn baby. Man City 2 - 0 Chelsea The retired footballer has Sunday matches denied the child is his. Everton v Swansea Sheffield United v N/ Forest Maradona had two daughters with ex-wife Claudia Arsenal v Liverpool

M a r a d o n a t e x t e d h i s lier this week to say: “SomeVillafane. He also has a son called Diego and a daughter daughter Giannina after news one else is sleeping with Ojeda called Jana born from extra- of the pregnancy emerged ear- and it's someone else's baby.” marital affairs. Jana, whose mum worked * Maradona sitting beside in a Buenos Aires nightclub, his 23-year-old girlfriend was born in 1996, and Diego, whose mum was an Italian model, was born a decade earlier. Neither has any relationship with their dad. Two other women, a Cuban and an Argentine, have filed paternity claims against Maradona which have yet to be accepted in court. He only recognised his son with girlfriend of eight years Veronica Ojeda a month after Diego Fernando was born last February. In a magazine interview in Argentina published yesterday, Veronica said: “I haven't ruled out the possibility of winning Diego back again one day. “I'll carry on waiting for him all the time my heart beats for him and my love lasts.”

ARIS Saint-Germain geared up for its Champions League tie against Bayer Leverkusen by defeating Valenciennes 3-0 Friday to extend its lead to eight points in the French league. Argentina winger Ezequiel Lavezzi beat goalkeeper Nicolas Penneteau in the 18th minute before Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic volleyed home in the 50th to notch his 19th league goal this season. The hosts made it 3-0 with an own goal from Valenciennes defender Gary Kagelmacher in the 52nd. ''The players had the Champions League on their minds but they managed to focus on tonight's French league game,'' PSG coach Laurent Blanc told BeIn Sport television. PSG remained the only side still undefeated at home in the league. On Sunday, Lyon hosts Ajaccio, Marseille visits Saint-Etienne and Lille faces Evian. Stuck in the relegation zone, Valenciennes fielded a defensive 5-3-2 system in the hope of containing PSG's potent offense. But the hosts pressed high up the pitch to dominate possession and put Valenciennes on the back foot in the opening minutes.

RVP may return to Arsenal

OLLOWING a season of frustration at Manchester United reports in the Italian media suggest Robin van Persie is angling for a sensational switch back to the Emirates. Sources at Sky Italia claim that RVP's agent held talks with Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger last month after his client had become disillusioned with life at Old Trafford under David Moyes. At 30-years-old this would likely be the striker's last big move of a glittering career, but one which would have seemed unthinkable barely a year ago when the Dutchman fired United to the title in his debut season. The shock news surfaces ahead of yet another pivotal period for his current club, who are pitted against Olympiacos in the Champions League, the competition they are in real danger of being omitted from next season. United are still the favourites to win when they travel to Athens though they lie 11 points behind fourth-placed Liverpool before their next Premier League fixture a t Crystal Palace. With United manager Moyes planning an overhaul in the summer, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that he would consider letting RVP leave.However, whether or not Wenger would be prepared to welcome him back remains to be seen, though Arsenal's dearth of striking options is something which seriously needs addressing.

QUOTABLE

"Let everybody defend his or wealth. Nigerians don't ask their former leaders hard questions. For example, somebody was chairman of a local government council or Speaker of the state Assembly yesterday and today, you see he or she in a Rolls Royce and won't ask how he or she got the money to buy it. Instead, they celebrate the person and he or she suddenly becomes a leader. What qualifies people to become a leader in Nigeria today is how much he or she has accumulated or amassed.”

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014 TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM VOL. 8, NO. 2761

—Rivers State Governor Chibuike Amaechi, berating Nigerians for encouraging corruption by political office holders

RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan may have eased out four members of his so-far uninspiring cabinet, and seems set to bring in more notable persons, but it is doubtful whether the reshuffle will have quite the remarkable momentum he hopes to create for his performance as president and his re-election campaign. His Chief of Staff, the much reviled and hated Mike Oghiadomhe, has been shoved out. So, too, were the haughty Stella Oduah of the Aviation ministry, the officious Caleb Olubolade of Police Affairs, the imperious Godsday Orubebe of the Niger Delta ministry and the relatively unknown Yerima Ngama, Minister of State for Finance. Having watched with macabre delight the effect the reshuffle was having on the country, the president, reports suggest, is now seized by a frenzy to draw more blood. Converted to bloodlust and energised by the sanguinary effect of sacking his men, the president will probably do a little more, if not at a high level, then at a more sober and lower level. The president is believed to be prepared to bring in well-known persons, some of them retired generals, former governors, senators and technocrats. Many think his new team is more likely to be accurately described as star-studded, and he himself seems to have rediscovered the zest to tinker with things. He will also probably think he is in the process of assembling a team that will deliver the presidency to him once more, that is, if the truculent and bellicose former President Olusegun Obasanjo does not derail his wagon. My private thoughts are that Dr Jonathan’s cabinet reshuffle is motivated by wholly expedient reasons, nothing to do with performance, public morality, or even ideas. His paradigms will not only remain the same, woolly and stifling as they have been since he assumed office, they will also fail as usual to achieve any significant purpose. The problem with the Jonathan government, as everyone knows, is not just a case of long-lasting policy inconsistencies, accentuated by bureaucratic in-fighting; it is a case of acute absence of a solid inner core around which his governing paradigms could coalesce.

Jonathan’s late salvoes

•Oghiadomhe

•Oduah

So, the reshuffle as well as the selection of new cabinet members will neither be dictated by any attempt to reinforce the ideas that underpin and propel his government nor be geared towards demolishing his image as a bumbling president and recasting him as a statesman or a charismatic leader. When he assumed office, there was no indication of a genuine conviction about what and how his government should look like; there is nothing at the moment to indicate such a conviction has been birthed. As a matter of fact, Dr Jonathan has shown over the few years that his leadership style is marked by a noticeable reluctance to do what is right and a marked stubbornness to amend what is wrong. He waited almost forever to get rid of Mr Orubebe even after it had become obvious the minister specialised in fo-

menting animosities in the Niger Delta than making friends for the president. Dr Jonathan also demonstrated an unrestrained foul mood in disciplining Ms Oduah after her serial indiscretions had all but alienated virtually everyone in the Aviation industry, civil society, and an incredulous international community stupefied by our government’s slothfulness. It is not clear what Dr Ngama’s faults were, or why the president should skip the head of that ministry and hit upon the seldom-seen and little-known Minister of State. Left to Dr Jonathan, and had circumstances not pushed him to act, there was no way he would have unhorsed Ms Oduah. He proved quite reluctant to do what was right when he stuck adamantly to Bamanga Tukur, the arcane gerontocrat who turned both the PDP and reason itself on their heads. Until it be-

The tragedy of 2015 presidential campaigns

EFORE the third quarter of this year, the profiles of the two main political parties’ standard-bearers may become discernible. Pessimism should be deplored, but the chances of the two big parties presenting inspiring candidates are fairly remote. President Goodluck Jonathan is doing everything possible, notwithstanding the vitriolic denunciation and unease of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, to get himself elected as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate. If he runs, as he is almost certain to do, it will not be on account of any exemplary work he has done to remake and refit the country since he assumed office, or on the grounds of any inspiring image he has projected thus far. As far as both work and image are concerned, Dr Jonathan is an uninspiring and exaggerated blank. If he runs, he will not base his candidacy on what he hopes to do, though he and his party will effuse a smattering of national or even ideological agenda encompassing social, economic and political issues. Nor will he feel the compulsion to demonstrate competence, savvy, charisma and consistency, all of which are components of strong and statesmanlike leadership. He has not shown a modicum of these attributes right from his assumption of office, and they are not intrinsic to him. It is therefore inconceivable that he will feel incommoded by their nonexistence in his character makeup. He will instead base his candidacy, as his political tutelage has taught him, on the geopolitics of his background, the support he can muster from his rabid followers and

supporters, the voluble and recriminatory effusions of jobholders and paid party hawks, and on the potentials of his appointees’ muscle flexing. When he assumed office, the convoluted process had nothing to do with him as a person, or on his background, or on his perceived competence. The people and the legislature were rightly concerned about issues of political decorum and the need to save and uphold the constitution. Concocting a so-called doctrine of necessity upon which Dr Jonathan rode into power was therefore as much a reflection of our concern for stability and continuity as it was an indication of the kind of polity we wished to nurture, one in which a person’s background, faith or social standing was irrelevant. But since he assumed office, Dr Jonathan has done especially little to burnish both his image and credentials. It is also clear that Chief Obasanjo’s reservations about Dr Jonathan has nothing to do with the president’s competence, for the former is himself famously regarded as a hugely distracted and anachronistic politician and leader. But the tragedy does not appear to end with either Dr Jonathan or the PDP. As a matter of fact, there is little indication that the opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), will itself present a remarkable paradigmatic

difference. The party may not have tasted power at the centre to elicit assessment or comparison, but there is much already in it to present us ingredients for a fair conclusion of what direction the party may wish to follow. There are enough tested, charismatic and brilliant politicians in its fold, but its presidential candidate is unlikely to be judged by any of these great attributes or be produced with the peculiar and desperate needs of the country in view. The truth is that if the party is not to come to grief in 2015, it must also focus on the geopolitical dynamics of the country, the campaign for rotation, the need to be sensitive to issues of religion, and the general safeness and acceptability of the candidate himself. The party has promised a transparent process for electing its candidates; but that process will be modified and vitiated by exterior and even ulterior factors, leading to the selection of standard-bearers more safe than adequate for the country’s radical needs. But all may not be lost; for in the end, the performance of a candidate once he assumes office, and in particular for the APC, may be influenced by the internal competitiveness, ideological stature and general stamina and robustness of the party in power.

came impossible for him to ignore the uproar triggered by Alhaji Tukur in the ruling party, the president was determined not to touch the former party chairman. Whether now, in the past, or in the future, Dr Jonathan will neither act out of conviction nor out of principles. On many occasions in the past he had acted solely out of expediency, dithering and pussyfooting all the way; he will continue to do so until the end of his presidency, whether or not he gets a second term. Closely leashed to his often expedient way of handling grave matters is the fact that the president always acts when it is too late. When he finally and reluctantly removed Ms Oduah, he had left the matter to fester every badly until there was no honour left for him in the ugly incident of the armoured cars scandal. It had been expected the president would act firmly and expeditiously by sacking Ms Oduah and sustaining the integrity of the presidency. Instead, he left the matter for far too long, and tongues to wag ceaselessly, before he stirred himself. Whether he convinced himself his re-election chances were threatened by his lack of principles and promptness, or others persuaded him he risked a second term by doing nothing, we may never know. But at least we know he is a skilful procrastinator, one with an eye perpetually on the main chance. Some of the names bandied as candidates for ministerial appointments are gentlemen the country is familiar with. They are strong, may add value, even if nominal, to the Jonathan presidency, and are ordinarily not bad choices. But for a government devoid of positive qualities other than the character of nothingness it both embodies and engenders, and for a government that values expediency over principles, these ‘strong’ men may end up adding nothing to the government, not even in an election year, contrary to the president’s expectations. Indeed, we should expect more procrastination, more surrender to expediency, more sacrifice of everything valuable on the altar of politics, and less adherence to the cause of anti-corruption, justice, fair play and equity. These, in short, typify the essential character of the Jonathan presidency. This character will not change in a million years, and it must shock the rational mind that any talented politician should invest his accomplishment and person on a government whose primary and primordial notions take on life only when mediocrity and farce manifest.

Placating the Southwest

ONSEQUENT upon Dr Jonathan’s piquant but desperate cabinet reshuffle, it has been speculated that some of the vacant positions could be ceded to the Southwest. The president has apparently just woken up to the dire electoral circumstances his impending re-election campaign may face. And there are probably enough views and voices in the zone to encourage the president’s cold and cynical calculations. But if the zone’s conservative leaders are taken in by Dr Jonathan’s permutations, they must be much blinkered than anyone has cared to acknowledge. Given their unreflective embrace of the national conference and their hopelessly romantic notion of its timing and utility at this point, it will not surprise anyone if they remark and applaud the president’s whimsical acknowledgement of the zone’s importance and value. After all, did these leaders not wail over losing the battle for the leadership of the House of Representatives? Like everywhere else, even the Southwest has become depressingly susceptible to the mercantilist calculations of values and is now generally disposed to viewing justice and other noble values through the rose-coloured glasses of ethnicity and sectional parochialisms.

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