The Nation January 18,2012

Nigeria’s widest circulating newspaper

T ANSS S WXCE T R and harmonious co-existence in our state through the NO M EOUN R O unwarranted presence of these soldiers NEWS – PAGE 2 OVEB FR ACC GE G 3.5 IL PA 11 •Oba Rilwan Akiolu on deployment of soldiers in Lagos O $

Democracy thrives well in an atmosphere of freedom. Gov‘ernment should thus not undermine the peace, tranquility

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TR UTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM TRUTH

VOL. 7, NO. 2008 WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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Xmas Day bombing suspect in dramatic escape •Police Commissioner suspended •Borno alleges conspiracy against governor

A •Ringim

COMMISSIONER of Police is in trouble over the escape from detention of a suspected Boko Haram member, Kabiru Sokoto, who was arrested in connection with the

From Yusuf Alli and Gbade Ogunwale, Abuja

Christmas Day bombing at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, Niger State.

The suspect was arrested

last Saturday at the Borno Governor’s Lodge in Asokoro, Abuja in company of an Air Force officer.

But the Borno State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Inuwa Bwala, yesterday

said the escape of the suspect confirmed the state government’s suspicion of a plot to eliminate Governor Kashim Shettima.

The suspect, who was in handcuffs, escaped on Mon-

day from a team of policemen who took him to his home in Abaji, near Abuja for a search.

It was gathered that after Continued on page 4

OS: Dozens of people stand at Total filling station in search of fuel at Ikoyi, Lagos ... yesterday. Most filling stations in Lagos metropolis and other parts of the country have •FUEL PRICE CHA CHAOS run out fuel supply. The scarcity has caused untold hardship to workers who resumed work early yesterday after a week strike spearheaded by organised labour to protest the scrapping of petrol subsidy by the government.

PHOTO: AFP

Alleged subsidy fraud: Customs indicts NNPC Oil giant ‘didn’t pay N45b duty from 1999 to 2002’

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NNPC does not make any documentation to the Customs ... The Ministry of Finance wrote to NCS, warning them not to ask for documents because this will cause crisis

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ROM the streets and seminar halls, the petrol subsidy battle returned to the House yesterday, with the Customs disclosing that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) does not have documents to back up fuel importation.

According to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the Ministry of Finance also aided the “illegality” by

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Yes, there have been manipulations in the sector; there is no question about it’. Yes, we are looking into it very aggressively and we have made certain changes ...

From Victor Oluwasegun and Dele Anofi, Abuja

coercing Customs to overlook the essential documents to “avert undue hardship on Nigerians”.

Also yesterday, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, which supervises the NNPC, denied being the approving authority for subsidy deductions.

The Farouk Lawan-led House of

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Representatives Ad-Hoc committee investigating the management of fuel subsidy heard from Deputy Comptroller-General of Customs Julius Ndubuisi Nwankwo, who represented Comptroller-General Abdullahi Dikko Inde, that most fuel importation did not follow due process.

Nwankwo said no invoices are attached during clearance of fuel,

adding that “as we speak, most of the importation of PMS has no documentation”.

He said as a result of the lack of documentation, the NCS is not in a position to give the exact number of vessels imported by the NNPC. “NNPC does not make any documentation to the Customs. Several meetings were held where the NCS was directed not to ask for documents. The Ministry of Finance wrote to NCS, warning them not to ask for documents because this will cause crisis,” Nwankwo said.

Continued on page 4

•MONEY P17 •SPORTS P23 •LIFE P29 •POLTIICS P43 •INVESTORS P48

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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NEWS OUTRAGE OVER SOLDIERS’ DEPLOYMENT IN LAGOS NEW YEAR MESSAGES

Work resumes with soldiers still on Lagos roads •Fuel marketers shut doors against motorists

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USINESSES in Lagos State resumed yesterday following the suspension of the industrial action called by the organised Labour, even as the deployed soldiers still occupy streets and major highways.

Scores of the soldiers were seen at Ojuelegba, Oshodi, Dopemu, Fadeyi, Agege and on Ikorodu Road.

From Pen Cinema in Agege Local Government Area, to Ojodu Berger in Ojodu Local Government Area and other arrears, hordes of residents trooped to the streets to resume their various businesses.

Public and private schools which had been affected by the protest equally threw their gates open to returning pupils.

By Yinka Aderibigbe and Miriam Ndikanwu

At Ojota, where the protest against petrol subsidy removal had been most effective and organised, soldiers were still occupying the area.

They did not disturb residents from going about their normal businesses.

Also, thousands of workers in the state public service returned to the desks at the secretariat, Alausa.

The workers who arrived as early as 8am were excited about the resumption.

The Nation observed long queues at some filling stations, even as many product dealers shut their doors against consumers.

It was observed that only one filling station on Oworonshoki road dispensend products.

The situation was the same from Mile 2 on Lagos-Badagry Expressway to Okokomaiko, save for the Oando filling station at Fin-Niger Bus Stop which opened its gates for motorists. The attendants had not started selling as at 10.45am.

Effort to get the station managers’ comment on the situation was not successful. But while attendants claimed they had run out of stock and were expecting supplies.

“We don’t have fuel. We exhausted our stock during the strike”, they said.

Many motorists queuing up at the filling station in anticipation that sales would soon commence, blamed the government for not ensuring the availability of products before taking action.

Armed soldiers still on guard at Ojota HE Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park, Ojota was still under military siege yesterday. Armed soldiers were deployed to the park and other parts of the state on Monday by the Federal Government to stop the withdrawal of the subsidy on petrol.

The soldiers continued their continued their occupation of the park, despite the outrage and condemnation that greeted the deployment of troops by well-meaning Nigerians, including Governor Babatunde Fashola, Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, Governor Kayode Fayemi, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the civil society among others.

Four military vehicles including an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) were stationed at the Ojota exit

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By Adebisi Onanuga

of the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, overlooking the Freedom Park, Another APC was stationed on top of the flyover near the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) yard, Ketu.

Though the six barricades mounted on the Ojota bridge and around the park have been dismantled, thus easing traffic in the area. The stop and search of the pedestrians had stopped. But stern-looking soldiers still kept eagle eyes on the vehicles moving along the roads.

Each of the APC had a soldier standing at alert behind a sub-machine gun with bullets mounted on it and pointing in the directions of Maryland and Ketu.

Business activities have resumed fully at the motor park adjacent to the Gani Fawehinmi Park.

Traditional, religious leaders flay Fed Govt •Oba of Lagos: we are not under military rule

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AGOS monarch, Oba Rilwan Akiolu yesterday flayed the deployment of troops in the state by the Federal Government to halt the protests against the withdrawal of the subsidy on petrol.

The Chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Monsignor Bernard Okudua, also condemned the deployment . He described the measure as an affront on Lagosians, pointing out that there was no breakdown of law and order in the state during the strike and demonstrations.

Oba Akiolu spoke with reporters in his, Iga Idungaran palace while Okudua, accompanied by Dr Saheed Timehin, Sheik Afeez Abu, Pastor Jeremiah Akunwusi, Venerable Yinka Omololu, Sheik Sikirulai Shaffy and Bishop George Amu, addressed a press conference in Ikeja where he said the peoples’ right to freedom of expression had been breached.

He said: “We find this development particularly unacceptable because Lagos State has always been an epitome of religious and ethnic harmony in this country.

As a state that has harboured over 20 million people of diverse backgrounds without any case of breakdown of law and order, even in the face of violence in other parts of the country, we are at a loss as to what could have warranted such huge presence of military men who have taken over the duties of the police, as if there is a coup d’etat in the country.

“We demand for an explanation because we know that soldiers don’t usually take to the streets

By Emmanuel Oladesu Deputy Political Editor

in the manner they have done, if they don’t have instructions to intimidate, harass, scare and bully innocent citizens, who ironically have been living as brothers in Lagos”.

The cleric, who lamented why only Lagos State was singled out for the deployment of soldiers for a protest that had a national outlook, urged the Federal Government to withdraw the soldiers.

He said: “We sincerely hope that this is not a subtle way by the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in Lagos and this will not be in the interest of the country.”

Oba Akiolu recalled the efforts made by community elders and royal fathers in the state to ensure that the protest against subsidy removal did not degenerate into violence and breach of public peace.

Noting that protesters conducted themselves with maturity and decorum, the Oba pointed out that the death of Ademola Aderinto during the period was allegedly due to the overzealousness of the police.

Oba Akiolu, who is a lawyer and retired as an Assistant Inspector-General of Police, maintained that people have constitutional right to protest against any government policy, especially when their action did not violate the constitution.

He said: “It is therefore, surprising to wake up yesterday (Monday) to find armed soldiers on the streets of our peaceful state intimidating innocent citizens with

their presence. This we condemn in the strongest term as we will not allow anything to rupture the peace we have in our state.”

Urging the Federal Government to withdraw the troops, Oba Akiolu said: “Democracy thrives well in an atmosphere of freedom.

Government should thus not undermine the peace, tranquility and harmonious coexistence in our state through the unwarranted presence of these soldiers.”

Also yesterday, the Bishop of the Diocese of Lagos West, Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, The Revd. Peter Awelewa Adebiyi faulted the Jonathan-led administration for biting the fingers that fed him.

Adebiyi, in a statement, said Lagos State recorded an unprecedented number of votes for Jonathan during the last presidential elections, despite the fact that the state is being governed by one of the opposition parties.

He said:”It is, therefore, unbelievable that this same man that Lagosians voted massively for, turned around to militarise the state in the face of simple and peaceful demonstration against government policies that affected citizens of Nigeria. Are we at a war?

“It is rather shameful and unbelievable seeing military personnel brandishing guns and armoured tanks in the early hours of Monday, as if we are at war,whereas simple dialogue and sense of reasoning would have prevailed instead of the military option which was later called off.

In the first instance, the military invasion was needless, unacceptable and un-called-for.”

•Heavy vehicular traffic returning to Lagos…yesterday PHOTO: ABIODUN WILLIAMS

Ashafa urges withdrawal of soldiers

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HE senator representing Lagos East, Gbenga Ashafa yesterday decried the deployment of armed soldiers to Lagos State and demanded their withdrawal.

Ashafa said the unilateral decision taken by President Goodluk Jonathan to deploy soldiers ran foul of the Constitution.

According to him, the Constitution clearly specified the conditions and circumstances that could warrant such deployment.

The lawmaker said the peaceful protest over the removal of petrol subsidy did not fit into such conditions.

He also noted that Governor Babatunde Fashola as the chief executive officer of the state was neither informed nor consulted before such a decision was taken.

Ashafa said:“This development more than reminds us all of the vagaries of the military and now being replicated under an ostensible democratic dispensation.”

• Ashafa

Ashafa said armed military personnel have no training in crowd control and management and as such, their deployment would only give an impression of an unstable state.

His words: “Whereas we all know that Lagos is the most stable and peaceful state in the Federation.The five-day protest that was carried out in Lagos was very peaceful under the strict supervision of the Nigerian Police Force and they were in total control of the protest.”

He appealed to the President to recall the soldiers from the streets of Lagos.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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NEWS OUTRAGE OVER SOLDIERS’ DEPLOYMENT IN LAGOS

•Reggae star Ras Kimono, Campaign for Democracy (CD) President, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, Bakare, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, Fuji star Wasiu Ayinde and Femi Anikulapo-Kuti at a press conference in Lagos…yesterday

Save Nigeria Group threatens court action

•Bakare: victory rally in Ojota Saturday

•A filling station in Mushin, Lagos not dispensing fuel yet, Lagos…yesterday PHOTO ADEOLA SOLOMON

IAMS

Why we deployed soldiers in Lagos,

by Defence minister •‘There was plot to recreate Arab Spring’

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OLDIERS will remain on the streets of Lagos, until the Federal Government is satisfied that normalcy has returned, Minister of Defence, Dr. Bello Haliru Mohammed has said.

The minister spoke with reporters in his office yesterday.

He said the deployment of the soldiers was informed by security reports detailing plans by some unnamed persons and groups to hide under the protests “to cause anarchy and security breach.”

According to him, the groups wanted to unleash the kind of upheaval currently going on in Syria and other Arab countries, saying the Federal Government has the constitutional responsibility to forestall such actions.

He said: “We learnt through security reports that some people were trying to take over the protests to cause anarchy. Some of these people threatened to continue the protests, even if the organised

From Gbade Ogunwale, Assistant Editor, Abuja

labour decided to suspend the strike.

“From the reports available to government, these people were planning to ignite actions typical of what is going on in Syria and other Arab countries and there is no way any responsible government would fold its arms and watch some people destabilise any part of the country.

“The deployment of soldiers was meant to forestall anarchy so government stepped in to control the situation so that people with the wrong motives can be put in check.

The soldiers will be withdrawn as soon as normalcy returns to the streets of Lagos and other parts of the country where soldiers are on such duties” “Let me emphasise that under no circumstances will government stand aloof while some misguided elements unleash violence on the society. The administration is committed to promoting the greatest good for the greatest number of

Nigerians irrespective of tribe, religion or political affiliation.”

Mohammed said if soldiers were not deployed in Lagos and other parts of the Northeastern parts of the country, the nation would have been on fire by now, stressing that the Federal Government has been able to achieve some measure of success by confining the activities of the Boko Haram sect mainly to the northeastern part of the country.

The minister said the country has come out of the fuel subsidy protests stronger and more united with strong commitment to the growth, development and sustenance of democracy.

He assured that the Federal Government would continue to respect the rights of the Nigerians to express themselves within the confines of the law and in accordance with the dictates of the democratic space.

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Before the rally, we sought the necessary permission from the Lagos State government and wrote to notify the Lagos State Commissioner of Police and asked him to provide protection. The policemen deployed in the park were mostly idle throughout the five days we spent at the park, as there was no breakdown of law and order

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AVE Nigeria Group (SNG) yesterday threatened to take the Federal Government to court over the deployment of troops in Lagos, lamenting that soldiers scared away protesters on Monday at the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park, Ojota.

It also flayed the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) for calling off the strike without consultation with the civil society groups on the outcome of the meeting Labour held with the Federal Government in Abuja at the weekend.

SNG Convener Pastor Tunde Bakare, who unfolded plans by the organisation to hold a “victory rally” at the same park on Saturday, said that the struggle against the unjust policy is not over. He said, although the Nigeria Labour Congres (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) have not engendered public confidence, owing to their infidelity behind closed door, they should bring all negotiations with the Belgore Committee to a close within a week and report to Nigerians.

Bakare said Nigerians reserve the right to resume their protests, if the negotiators compromise the essence of the popular action. He clarified that SNG did not call for regime collapse, explaining that the group only asked government to change its character and bad policies.

He unfolded plans by SNG to go to court against troops deployment to the state to forestall further protest, stressing that it is against the law.

Bakare said: “As we are set to use all lawful weapons to bring change in Nigeria, we shall be heading to the court in the next few days to protest the violent violation of our rights to peaceful protests by the Federal Government through the deployment of troops and tanks to the Gani Fawehinmi Park, Ojota, on Monday.This violation is totally uncalled for.

“Before the rally, we sought the

By Emmanuel Oladesu Deputy Political Editor

necessary permission from the Lagos State government and wrote to notify the Lagos State Commissioner of Police and asked him to provide protection. The policemen deployed in the park were mostly idle throughout the five days we spent at the park, as there was no breakdown of law and order.”

The cleric said SNG would also use the court to compel an investigation into how the Federal Government allegedly spent N1.6 trillion as against N240 billion budgeted for subsidy in the last fiscal year.

On the victory rally billed for Ojota on Saturday, he said: “As a mark of application of the new found spirit of our people demonstrated in the five days of peaceful protest at Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park, we shall be holding a victory rally at the same venue on Saturday.”

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

NEWS Alleged subsidy fraud: Customs indicts NNPC Continued from page 1

Besides, revealed the officer, NNPC never berthed the mother vessels at Nigerian ports, contrary to the provisions of the extant laws.

Said Nwankwo: “Vessels imported into this country are referred to as mother vessels. These mother vessels never get to the ports in Nigeria. The vessels are normally anchored offshore. If you see the manifest covering these imports, what you will see is ‘offshore Cotonou, offshore Lome’.

“They never get to the ports. Rather, you have smaller vessels that pick these products from the mother vessels and they come to the ports to report to the Customs – in line with the provision of the enabling Act of Customs.

“These mother vessels do not report to Customs. Customs does not board mother vessels; we can only board vessels that are anchored within our territorial waters.

The smaller vessels take these products to the ports.”

Nwankwo urged the Committee to look into “the average diversion and compare with the capacity of the mother vessels with the smaller ones that their capacity are known”.

He said NNPC has failed to pay duty on imported Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) worth N45 billion to Customs from 1999 to 2002 when the duty was formally suspended by the Federal Government.

Nwankwo said to ensure transparency, NEITI should conduct forensic audit of all the ships in Nigeria and from exporting countries.

While he berated the corruption in the oil and gas sector, Nwankwo said there was no documentation of PMS imported by NNPC into the country and that only independent oil marketers attempted to document importation.

According to him, the Federal Ministry of Finance had

in a letter sent to Customs warned that any insistence on enforcing Customs rules (SEMA) would cause untold hardship and petrol scarcity.

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), corroborating the allegation by the NCS, said the management of the country’s crude oil and importation of petroleum products by the NNPC was deficient in transparency.

NEITI chairman Prof.

Assisi Asobie, payments made in respect of fuel subsidy by the NNPC “lack transparency and due process”.

According to him, subsidy payments should be made from the Central Bank through the Petroleum Fund, but that has not been the case with the NNPC. His words: “This clear due process is not followed by the NNPC. NNPC estimates the subsidy entitlements and deducts the estimated amounts directly from the domestic crude proceeds before remitting the rest to the Federation Account.”

He noted that during the audit of the oil and gas sector for 2006 and 2008, NEITI discovered inadequacies that complicated the problem of accurate determination of volume of imported petroleum products.

Asobie said from 2002, NNPC lifted domestic crude at the market price, providing incentive for export of domestic crude rather than domestic refining of all crude.

From 2006 to 2008, the total oil lifted from the country was 8.8 million barrels.

NNPC lifted 4.8 million barrels,” Asobie said.

According to him, “the measurement methods used by the PPMC and DPR are not in accordance with best practice. Even then, they are not consistently applied and cannot be relied upon.”

The NEITI chair noted that the systems for recording the movement of refined prod-

Senate backs EFCC probe of oil subsidy •Says it has facts on subsidy deals From Onyedi Ojiabor and Sanni Onogu, Abuja

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•Mrs Alison-Madueke with NNPC Group Managing Director Austin Oniwon at the hearing ... yesterday PHOTO: ABAYOMI FAYESE

ucts through the PPMC pipeline are outdated, paper based and subject to error.

Petroleum Resources Minister Diezani AlisonMadueke told the committee that deductions by the NNPC for subsidy were legal.

She said NNPC’s action was embedded in the 2011 Appropriation Act, page 14, item no. 8 where it is stated that deductions be made on domestic subsidy and joint venture cash calls, adding that section 5 (80) (3) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, empowers the corporation to deduct from source.

“I need to say clearly that we have done nothing unconstitutional as a ministry, particularly regarding deducting at source. We do not take money from the federally appropriated revenue,” Mrs Alison-Madueke said.

The Minister said N245b was budgeted for two months because it was calculated that deregulation was going to take off, but the budget went up to N1.3tr as the process could not begin as planned.

“It is Ministry of Finance that authorises the payments that are made for subsidy and not the Ministry of Petroleum Resources,” she said.

Mrs Alison-Madueke dis-

missed the existence of a cabal in the NNPC and stressed that deducting subsidy cash at source by the NNPC was in line with the provisions of the law.

Lawan asked the Minister to name the “cabal” in the oil sector. The Minister replied: “I think I have to say at this time that I’m under oath and it will be most improper to speculate on the existence or not of the purported cabal.

“Let me say for the purpose of records that I think that we cannot afford as a country to criminalise either a certain group in one fell swoop, just as we cannot afford to criminalise the policy of subsidy itself.

“The policy on subsidy, I believe, was enacted at a time when the government, was trying to do its best for the people of Nigeria, I believe it was the best of intentions at the beginning.”

She, however, clarified the roles of oil marketers, some of whom were accused of being responsible for the rot in the subsidy regime.

Said the minister: “When you have a pool of marketers, many of whom are bonafide marketers, who do very legal job for this country, and I say this because I have been severally taken to task and called

all sort of names for saying this, but as Minister of Petroleum Resources, I think I have the courage to say, ‘Yes, there have been manipulations in the sector; there is no question about it’. Yes, we are looking into it very aggressively and we have made certain changes and once we have taken time to look at the situation on ground to begin to institute those aggressive changes which are already reaping rewards for us.”

Mrs Alison-Madueke restated the government’s resolve to combat corruption in the sector. She said: “I will continue to do that as I am sure the entire country can see that a lot of things are happening that we will continue to harp on, until we are able to weed out those who have actually corrupted the system and manipulated the system to their own advantage to the detriment of the entire country and the economy as a whole.

“So many of them were not found to do that, there are elements who have not done so and who have gained a lot from manipulating the system and we expect to find them in the soonest possible time.

“But I think we should not criminalise the actual act or legal marketing or the concept of fuel subsidy.”

HERE are enough facts to nail oil majors who allegedly partook in the N1.3 trillion paid as fuel subsidy last year, the senate said yesterday.

The senators insisted that it is the same cartel in the oil industry that brought the current hardship Nigerians are going through.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, dropped the hint at a news conference in Abuja .

Abaribe said the Senate is resolved more than ever before to assist the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to ensure that economic saboteurs masquerading under oil subsidy payment are brought to book.

He noted that the senate started investigation into alleged massive fraud in the oil industry when it empowered its joint committee to probe the management of fuel subsidy regime.

The senate investigation, he said, revealed startling facts on how the cartel in the oil industry hijacked funds meant for payment of fuel subsidy for their selfish end.

Abaribe said that the Senate is fully in support of the EFCC in its efforts to bring all economic saboteurs to book.

The EFCC, he said, should intensify its investigation into the handling and management of fuel subsidy funds.

He said: “Senate will ensure that the economic saboteurs are brought to book.

The Senate started the investigation and will ensure that the right thing is done.”

Xmas Day bombing suspect in dramatic escape Continued from page 1

the search, the police decided to take the suspect to the traditional ruler of the town (the Ona of Abaji) in a Toyota Hilux Van. A group of irate youths allegedly waylaid the police team. In the process, the suspect escaped.

But the police authorities were shocked that a Boko Haram suspect could escape while in company of about 10 armed policemen.

Based on preliminary investigations, Inspector-General of Police Hafiz Ringim ordered the suspension of a Commissioner of Police.

The Police confirmed the escape of the suspect in a statement by its spokesman Olusola Amore yesterday. The police said: “The suspect was handed over to a commissioner of Police for further investigation and he consequently detailed his men to take the suspect to Abaji in furtherance of investigation.

“In the course of undertaking this important procedure, the policemen on escort with the suspect were attacked by the suspected sect gang mem-

Hold IG Ringim responsible, says Falana

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AGOS lawyer Femi Falana has threatened to take Inspector General of Police Hafiz Ringim before the International Court of Justice for prosecution, for aiding and abeting crimes against humanity.

He said the IGP should be punished for the escape of the Boko Haram suspect.

In a statement last night, he said: “A fortnight ago, President Goodluck Jonathan disclosed that the federal government had been inflitrated by the dreaded Boko Haram sect. Even though the statement was borne out of frustration the government should be blamed for rejecting the genuine calls for the removal of incompetent security chiefs.

“It was particularly embarrassing that Mr Hafiz Ringim was retained as the Inspector-General of Police after hosting a co-founder of the dangerous Boko bers and in the process the suspect freed.” ”The police view this development as a serious negligence on the part of the commissioner of Police and have since been queried and suspended from duty. If a criminal case is established against him and his team,

Haram sect last year.

“When asked to justify the meeting which was held at the police headquarters, the police chief claimed that he handed over the prime suspect to an unnamed security agency! In an interview aired on AIT later, the wanted suspect claimed that he alerted the IGP, in advance, of the bombing of the police headquarters.

“Last Saturday, the police arrested the serial murderer who bombed St Theresa’s Catholic Church, in Madalla, Niger State. He was reported to have made useful statements to the police on the masterminds of the sect. In a bid to prevent him from exposing the sponsors of terrorism, he was allowed to escape yesterday in questionable circumstances. Whereas he was arrested by two lorry loads of mobile policemen on Saturday, only three policemen were de-

they will be prosecuted.”

Another Boko Haram suspect, Aliyu Tishau, was similarly freed in 2011 from the custody of the police, who maintained that Tishau was released to a sister security agency for further investigation. Tishau has not been re-arrested till date.

tailed to accompany him yesterday to his house for a belated search. After the escape of the suspect, Mr Ringim attempted to divert the attention of the government and Nigerians by threatening to charge unarmed protesters with treason!

“I am compelled to call on President Goodluck Jonathan to remove IGP Ringim without any further delay. The country needs a new IGP who will be ready to partner with the management of the state security service to combat the menace of terrorism.

“However, if Mr Ringim is not punished for the gross negligence which led to the release of two chieftains of the nihilist organization, I will not hesitate to request the special prosecutor of the international court to investigate and prosecute him for aiding and abeting crimes against humanity.”

Bwala said: “The intrigues and drama of the reported escape of the alleged Boko Haram suspect arrested at the Borno Governor’s Lodge in Abuja from the police does not only sound fairy tale, it justifies our suspicion to the effect that there may be a grand conspiracy in-

tended to either embarrass the Governor and Government of Borno State or to eliminate Governor Shettima.

“Suffice it to raise some posers, the answers to which may give a clue into the seeming mystery: If the man escaped while under escort, how

•Shettima

can a man possibly in handcuffs outrun more than a platoon of armed policemen?

“Could the alleged sympathisers of Boko Haram, which Mr. President said have infiltrated the security agencies, facilitated the escape? Could the arrest and escape stories not be a phantom arrangement after all? From which point did the police radar pick the said suspect in Zuba? Why was the whole drama headed for the Borno Governor’s lodge in particular?

“Let me state, for the avoidance of doubts, that nobody or group, no matter their positions can intimidate Governor Shettima or rope him or any official of the Borno State Government for that matter into any phantom plot.

“We are aware that certain people have been plotting to rubbish the development efforts of Governor Shettima.”

ADVERT HOTLINES: 01-280668, 08070591302, 08052592524 NEWSROOM: LAGOS – 01-8962807, ABUJA – 07028105302 COMPLAINTS: 01-8930678

THE BIG PROTEST

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2011

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NEWS OUTRAGE OVER SOLDIERS’ DEPLOYMENT IN LAGOS •NO TO SOLDIERS National Missioner, Ansar-Ud-Deen Society of Nigeria Sheikh AbdulRahman Ahmad (right), CoChairman(Christian), Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), Rev. Monsignor Bernard Okodua (middle) and Baba Adinni of Lagos Sheikh Abdul-Hafiz Abou addressing reporters at the NUJ secretariat, Alausa on the deployment of soldiers in parts of Lagos by the Federal Government following the nationwide protest against the removal of petrol subsidy declared by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) ...yesterday

Deployment of soldiers provocative, undemocratic, says Lagos Assembly L

AGOS State House of Assembly has described the deployment of soldiers in Lagos by the Federal Government as provocative and undemocratic.

The House spoke through its Chairman, House Committee on Information, Strategy and Security, Segun Olulade.

Olulade, at a news conference yesterday, said:”We want to condemn in strong terms the present occupation of different parts of Lagos by military personnel to disrupt a largely peaceful protest by law-abiding citizens of Lagos.

“We view this action on the part of the president as provocative and undemocratic, particularly in a democratic dispensation. This House of Assembly believes this unilateral action from the Federal Government is a call to anarchy and destruction of public peace that lacks any

‘It’s symptomatic of a dictatorial regime’

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HE Muslims’ Rights Concern (MURIC) has described the drafting of soldiers to Gani Fawehinmi Park, Ojota, Lagos and other states as a sheer naked show of power.

A statement signed by MURIC Director, Dr Is-haq Akintola, demanded the immediate withdrawal of soldiers from the streets.

“Drafting armed soldiers to confront civilians who are merely expressing their displeasure is, to say the least, symptomatic of a dictatorial regime. Protest is a legitimate weapon freely employed in democratic dispensations. Drafting the army out on the streets exposes the ideological poverty of the Jonathan regime. Resorting to the use of brute force against unarmed and peaceful protesters is a bad omen. It moves the Nigerian president close to the pedestal of

By Oziegbe Okoeki

trait of civility and considered as an aggression against the peace-loving people of Lagos.”

Olulade described the presence of soldiers as reminiscent

By Tajudeen Adebanjo

erstwhile Russian dictator Joseph Stalin to whom “one death is a tragedy, one million a statistics”. Whoever drafts out armed soldiers knowing full well the past atrocities of the Nigerian military is not different from the Shah of Iran, Augustino Pinochet of Chile, Benito Mussolini in Italy and, of course, Adolf Hitler of Germany,” Akintola said.

“The occupation of such a monumental place shows how desperate the Jonathan regime has become. This is an assault on the collective freedom of the Nigerian people and wanton display of contempt for the memory of the late human rights activist, Gani Fawehinmi, whom the present president is reaping from the fruits of his struggles,” he added.

of the “sad period of the reign of the military junta in Nigeria.” He called on President Goodluck Jonathan to urgently withdraw the military from the streets of Lagos.

Attesting to the fact that the protest in Lagos was largely peaceful and civil, Olulade said: “It is not out of place for Nigerians to protest and react to issues, but this must be observed in relation to the

provisions of the law, which was hitherto adhered to throughout the period of the protest. Indeed, the people have the right to protest and react to issues, especially to policies that have economic interpretation, just like the increment in the pump price of petrol.”

Olulade said the protesters only expressed their fundamental human rights as entrenched in the Constitution.

The House also sympathised with the relations of those who lost their lives during the protest, while identifying with the right of every citizen to freely express themselves in a free society by engaging in a peaceful protest.

Also present at the press conference were: Deputy Speaker Kolawole Taiwo, Majority Leader Ajibayo Adeyeye and Deputy Whip Rotimi Abiru.

Activists vow to continue protests

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IVIL Society Organisations (CSOs) yesterday condemned the deployment of soldiers on the streets of Abuja and Lagos by the Federal Government.

The CSOs spoke in Abuja under the auspices of Civil Society Groups in Abuja and Other Stakeholders.

They described the development as a “sad reminder of our past experiences.”

The organisations and their leaders represented at the briefing include: Hon Dino Melaye (Anti-Corruption League), Ezenwa Nwagwu (Joint Action Front, FCT), Pastor Sarah Omakwu (Family Worship Centre, Abuja), Azeenarh Mohammed (Occupy Nigeria, Abuja Chapter), Dr Yunusa Tanko (Save Nigeria Group, SNG), Willy Ezugwu (Secretary Conference of Nigeria Political Parties, CNPP), Hon Oyetakin Ebenezer (Nigeria Advance Party, NAP) and Ruz Ben-Okagbue (SNG).

•Petition EFCC over NNPC audit report From Sanni Onogu, Abuja

According to Melaye, the CSOs and their allies bear no grudges against President Goodluck Jonathan, saying their protests were aimed at ensuring good governance in Nigeria.

He condemned the Inspector-General of Police Hafiz Ringim for threatening protesters with treason.

The groups also dissociated themselves from the decision of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) to call off street protests.

Ben-Okagbue said: “We completely dissociate ourselves from the NLC decision to call off the protests which they did not initiate.

“We condemn in the strongest terms the drafting of soldiers to the streets of Lagos and Abuja to intimidate unarmed protesters. This is a sad reminder of our past

‘We condemn in the strongest terms the drafting of soldiers to the streets of Lagos and Abuja to intimidate unarmed protesters. This is a sad reminder of our past experiences’ experiences.

“We also insist that we have a fundamental right to peaceful protests even without the backing of the NLC and we question the sincerity of the government’s commitment to democracy

in light of the IG’s threat to arrest any protester found on the streets henceforth.”

Ben-Okagbue added: “We call on the Minister to step aside during the period of probe so as not to influence the exercise knowingly or otherwise.

“In the same vein, we call on the Group Managing Director of NNPC to step aside and for the Executive Secretary of the PPPRA to do the same.

“Where they fail to heed our advice, we implore our President Goodluck Jonathan to order them to proceed on indefinite leave pending the conclusion of investigation. This is only to assure Nigerians that the exercise will be free of undue interference.”

Melaye, on behalf of the groups, later presented a petition to the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission

(EFCC), Ibrahim Lamorde to thoroughly investigate the KPMG’s Interim Report on the Process and Forensic Review of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The report was received on behalf of the EFCC chief by an Assistant Director in the agency, Mr Osita Nwaja.

He called on the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani AlisonMadueke, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Austin Oniwon, and the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Mr Reginald Stanley to resign their positions in view of the pending probe.

According to him, since they were in office when the report was made, they ought to step aside or be removed to allow the EFCC free hand to carry out their investigations.

Lagos NUJ decries military occupation

By Dupe Olaoye-Osinkolu

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HE Lagos Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) has described as embarrassing and unnecessary the huge presence of soldiers on major roads in the Lagos metropolis Lorry loads of soldiers were seen patrolling Ikorodu road , Agege Motor Road , Pen Cinema, while Armoured Personnel Carriers were manned by soldiers at Ojota , Maryland and other major highways in the city.

A statement by the council’s Chairman Mr. Deji Elumoye and Secretary, Sylva Emeka-Okereke urged President Goodluck Jonathan to urgently reverse his decision to use the military to harass innocent civilians in the country.

While noting that in a democratic dispensation, the deployment of troops to the streets is not only uncalled for, but unwarranted, the NUJ chiefs enjoined the President to send the soldiers back to the barracks” where they rightfully belong’’.

They, however, advised the Federal Government that rather than use the soldiers to harass innocent Nigerians, it should use them to fight the increasing rate of insecurity of life and property in the country.

It wondered why the President should use military to intimidate those who voted massively for him during the last presidential election.

Noting that the nation’s 1999 Constitution as amended allows for peaceful protests, the NUJ officials wondered why Nigerians should be denied their constitutional rights of freedom of expression and association.

According to them, it is unthinkable that despite the mass support for Jonathan, the President is still using the federal might to oppress his supporters while allowing the so-called cabals to move freely in the society.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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NEWS ACN condemns Jonathan over comment on Lagos

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HE Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) yesterday condemned a report credited to President Goodluck Jonathan that the bulk of the controversial government subsidy on fuel is being consumed by Lagosians.

In a statement in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party reiterated its earlier warning against turning the debate on fuel subsidy to an ethnic or sectional issue, describing the trend as unhealthy for national unity and unbecoming of a President who said he received a panNigeria mandate.

ACN said: ‘’While speaking at the 2011 President’s NYSC Honours Award in Abuja on Monday, President Jonathan was quoted as saying the government cannot continue to borrow money to subsidise fuel for people ‘who have 10 or 15 cars and all their underaged children will be driving the cars around Lagos’. ‘’Apart from the fact that the statement is unpresidential, singling out Lagos in a country that has many other cities with a high number of cars, just to justify the government’s unpopular policy of fuel subsidy removal, is putting a presidential seal on the crude and irresponsible newspaper adverts by groups that have introduced a sectional/ethnic angle to the debate on fuel subsidy. ‘’The President’s statement, on the same day he deployed troops in Lagos to harass and intimidate unarmed citizens, is a window to his innermost thoughts and feelings about the people of Lagos in particular and the entire Southwest in general. If this is not so, we demand a retraction of that unfortunate statement and an

apology from the President,’’ ACN said.

The party said even with the saying that human memory is short, it is too soon for President Jonathan to forget the role played by the people of the state and region that he has now chosen to denigrate in championing - purely on the principle - his elevation to the post of Acting President, when he was being squelched by the cabal surrounding late President Umaru Yar’Adua ‘’Mr. President, please recall that the million-manmarch by the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) against the attempt to sideline you, when President Yar’Adua was indisposed and unable to carry out the functions of his office, was held in Lagos. Also, our party, the ACN, played a foremost and constitutionallydriven role - even more than the waffling PDP - in this regard. ‘’Mr. President, please recall that Lagos and Ogun states moved for the implementation, at the national economic council, of the 13 per cent derivation that is now being enjoyed by states in the SouthSouth, and that the votes of the people of Lagos and the South-west contributed to making you President. ‘’Therefore, it neither advances national unity nor extol the virtues of good leadership for you to join the ethnic and sectional jingoists seeking to demonize the people of a certain state or region over an issue that is of great interest and concern to the entire people of Nigeria. Lagos state in particular and the South-west in general have done nothing to warrant the increasingly brazen attacks against them in recent times,’’ ACN said.

•THE OLD AND THE NEW: Outgoing Director General, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Alhaji Idi Farouk(left) handing over to his successor Michael Omeri in Abuja...yesterday PHOTO ABAYOMI FAYESE

FCT completes integrity test on bombed UN House, says Minister T

HE Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Bala Mohammed, yesterday said the government has completed integrity test on the UN House that was bombed on August 26 by Boko Haram sect.

He said the government is weighing options on the report of the test on whether to rehabilitate the UN House or pull it down completely for a fresh structure.

But he denied allegation by one of his predecessors, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai that he has about 13 Special Advisers.

He however confirmed plans to build a $1billion World Trade Centre in Abuja.

Mohammed, who made the disclosures at a session with reporters in Abuja , said about N90million was spent on the

•Abuja to get $1b World Trade Centre From Yusuf Alli and Yomi Odunuga, Abuja

integrity test conducted by Julius Berger Plc. He said: “On the UN building, we have carried out integrity test. The test was carried out by Julius Berger Plc and we spent between N60million and N90million.

“I don’t want to divulge the contents of the report because of security implications. But after a careful study of the report, we will be able to determine whether we should rehabilitate the building or demolish it.

“Mr. President has howev-

Resign now, Senator tells Alison-Madueke

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ENATOR Gbenga Obadara yesterday called on the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke to resign or be redeployed to another ministry to allow the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) free hand to investigate the payments of N1.3trillion subsidy on petrol and kerosene last year.

The call is sequel to the letter by Mrs. Alison-Madueke inviting the anti-graft body to probe all imports subsidy payments on fuel and kerosene.

Obadara, who represents Ogun Central Senatorial District on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the Red Chambers spoke in Abuja in an exclusive interview with The Nation.

According to the Senator, Mrs. AlisonMadueke ought to step aside to allow for “decency”, “probity” and “transparency”.

From Yomi Odunuga, Abuja Bureau Chief and Sanni Onogu, Abuja

Obadara said: “The way forward is what they have just started and I can tell you, the Minister of Petroleum cannot approbate and reprobate.

“She is not supposed to be on that seat while that investigation is being done by the EFCC. “Morally, she is supposed to be removed to another Ministry if the President still wants her to be a part of his government.

“In that, there would be probity. In that, Nigeria will see that for the first time we have taken the bull by the horn. We must take the bull by the horn.

“Let a fresh blood be injected into that Ministry. Believe me, if you have character, even elected and appointed people,

we should have character to say no when we are being confronted on things that bothers on national issues.

“It means the President must have done much. It is like who comes to equity, goes with clean hands. If this has been there for these very good months and nothing was done until when this issue of subsidy removal came up and you are writing on the 12th of January to EFCC as if she just resumed that office last week.

“And mind you, it was during her tenure N1.3trillion was spent as subsidy.

No! She should be able to have decency to step aside and let a clean job be done.”

Earlier, Senator Obadara bemoaned the huge economic loses that attended the one week labour strike and street protests saying they could have been avoided through wise counsel.

er made sure that the operation of the UN does not suffer with a temporary accommodation for the agencies. These UN bodies do so much for Nigeria in terms of partnership and projects that we cannot ignore or neglect them.

“Certainly, our process is very slow, we will certainly be there.”

On el-Rufai’s allegation that he has 13 Special Advisers, the FCT Minister added: “I do not have up to that number. I came with about two to three Special Assistants.

“I did not bring in anybody to pay special salaries or dollar salaries; we are not loud mouthed, we are being modest. What we are doing is not casual or ad hoc.

“And in any case, I inherited these offices that they are

talking about. We have built a career of service, not a career of consultancy Mohammed unfolded plan by the FCT to launch a new mass transit scheme tomorrow and put in place a BRT policy in order to ease movement of commuters.

He said: “Our new mass transit scheme will bring in service that is permanent and sustainable and institutionalized. I don’t want to get publicity for this scheme whereby you will say these are “Bala buses”. What I want is an efficient mass transit scheme.

“The World Bank has assisted us on the BRT plan and very soon, it will take off.”

The Minister also said that Abuja would soon get a $1billion World Trade Centre, which will be built by Churchgate “The Trade Centre will make Abuja a business destination. We have received accreditation for the World Trade Centre.”

Boko Haram kills two soldiers in Maiduguri

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OME gunmen suspected to be members of Boko Haram sect yesterday shot dead two soldiers attached to the Joint Task Force (JTF).

They were stationed at a military check – point in AjilariRailway cross in Maiduguri, Borno State.

The gunmen allegedly came on a tricycle each with an AK 47 rifles. They opened fire on the soldiers.

JTF Field Operation Commander, Col. Victor Ebheleme confirmed the killing of the soldiers.

“As I am talking to you now, we are in the bush pursuing those who perpetrated this dastardly act, and we are doing our best to see that we arrest them, that is why you are witnessing massive traffic hold-up in the city, and we are sure that we will get them”, he said.

Aprill polls: Cross River REC Igini urges parties to stick to rules

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HE Resident Electoral Commissioner, INEC, Cross River State, Mike Igini has restated the Commission’s avowed commitment to perform its oversight duty on strict compliance by political parties to rules, processes and procedures.

The REC was speaking in his office while addressing Chairmen and Secretaries of Political Parties in the state ahead of the April polls.

Igini emphasised the need for political parties to abide by the laws and rules of the electoral process to ensure peace and tranquillity in the

state during the period of the exercise.

The REC reminded the party leaders that the best safeguard for peace and group harmony is to abide by party rules, laws and guidelines that bind all members thereby giving their members a sense of inclusion and respect.

He promised that: ‘’INEC in Cross River State as an umpire has no interest in and will never have interest in who wins in party elections or nominations as flag bearers but has oversight statutory duty on strict compliance to well defined rules,

process or procedures by which such persons become winners’’ He said this has become important in the development of what he termed an enduring culture of periodic elections in the nation’s democratic dispensation, noting that good and orderly behaviour begins from the parties which are the smaller unit that make up the larger political unit.

The REC was of the view that only party members who have been groomed in an orderly process of internal Democratic Election Socialization within their par-

ties can abide by such culture at inter-party elections in the larger society.

He said it is in the light of the above that INEC observes party conducted elections in accordance with the constitution and the electoral Law and pointed out some relevant sections of the Act which relates to the conduct of party nomination exercise.

Igini announced that the commission would soon commence the continuous voter’s Registration exercise which he said, is for those who have attained voting age as well as those who could not be captured in the previous

exercise.

Quoting Section 227 of the Constitution, Igini warned the parties to refrain from acts of violence by way of retaining, organising, training or equipping any person or group of persons for the purpose of enabling them to achieve any political purpose as the commission and security agents would not tolerate such acts.

Wishing the political parties and their members fruitful conduct of the elections, the REC reminded them of the peaceful nature of Cross River State as a tourism destination and the need to main-

tain such peaceful ambiance for the growth of the state and the nation in general. in their remarks, the Party chieftains commended INEC on its efforts at entrenching true democracy as demonstrated in the April, 2011 General Elections.

They however pointed out some grey areas that needed improvement in subsequent elections. They range from absence of some voters names in the voters’ register, insufficient security at some poling units, refusal of some media outfits to air campaign materials from opposition parties among others.

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

NEWS Kwara police parade boy, 13, others for alleged arson •Detention of minor barbaric, says NBA From Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin

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HE Kwara State Police Command has paraded a 13year-old boy and 11 others for allegedly torching the campaign office of President Goodluck Jonathan/Bukola Saraki/Abdulfatah Ahmed during a protest against fuel subsidy removal in Ilorin, the state capital, last week.

The command’s spokesperson, Dabo Ezekiel, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), yesterday addressed reporters in Ilorin.

He said the command arrested 38 suspects for alleged stealing, extortion and arson during the protests.

Ezekiel said 14 persons were arrested for allegedly looting and burning the campaign office located at Adewole Estate, Ilorin.

But the Chairman of the Ilorin branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr Rafiu Balogun, said: “The arrest and detention of a 13-year-old boy is illegal and barbaric. He ought to have been kept at a foster home and not a remand home, which is meant for adults.

“The offence allegedly committed by the minor is ordinarily a bailable offence. Besides, the laws of the land do not allow such a small boy to be lumped with adults. Our society has ruined his life due to ignorance. He needs proper counseling and not punishment. I will talk to the Commissioner of Police and take appropriate step.”

Niger violent protest politically motivated, says govt

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HE Niger State Government yesterday said the violent protest in Minna, the state capital, and some other towns last Wednesday was politically motivated.

Commissioner for Information Mallam Danladi Abdulahamid spoke in Minna after an enlarged State Executive Council (SEC) meeting at the Government House.

Public and private property were burnt and vandalised by irate youths during the fourhour anti-fuel subsidy removal protest that left over 50 vehicles damaged.

The Muritala Mohammed Amusement Park and the constituency office of a lawmaker, Jumai Mariga, were burnt.

The commissioner said the government arrived at this conclusion after Governor

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From Tony Akowe, Kaduna

tians, who suffered losses.

Dismissing the allegation, the commissioner said: “As far as we know, no Christian in Borno State or CAN in the state went to court accusing the government of having a hand in the killing of Christians.

“The in-laws of the late the Yusuf took the previous government to court and the court awarded them N100 million; the present government was magnanimous enough to pay the judgment sum because we do not want to continue to drag this matter while the people are suffering.

“I think this government needs to be commended for taking such a step. In addition, we have compiled a list of

those affected. I am a member of the committee set up by the government to do that and I can tell you that there are 36 Muslims and 41 Christians on the list. So, who is benefiting more?

“We have suffered too much in this state and we do not need anybody to continue to whip up sentiments for us.

Many other states have experienced more deadly crises than what we have in Borno State.

“In any case, the Boko Haram crisis is not a Borno affair. It is a regional crisis that is already assuming a national dimension. Kaduna State has been affected; Kano State was affected; Yobe, Bauchi, Gombe and Adamawa states as well as Abuja and Suleja have also been affected. Many people, including Christians,

have died.

“We are not running a charity government… that would go about looking for people to give money to. If you don’t complain, we will not know that you were affected. As far as I know, there was no Christian that has gone to court and CAN in Borno State has not gone to court either. So, who is complaining that they have not been compensated?

“People have lost loved ones; others have lost their businesses. All we need in Borno State now is not those who will be whipping up sentiments for us. The Kashim Shettima administration is doing everything possible to make sure things work well and I think he deserves commendation.”

Minna

Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, members of the SEC and top security officials assessed the affected areas.

Abdulhamid said: “The government has come to the conclusion that what happened in Minna on Wednesday was politically motivated and an act carried out of sheer envy. This is sad.”

The commissioner said the governor has set up a 13-man committee to probe the protest, assess the extent of damage to property, indentify victims and recommend to government the level of compensation to be given.

The committee, led by the Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Yahaya Dansalau, was given two weeks to submit its report.

•From left: Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) Operations, Alhaji Audu Abubakar; Emir of Bauchi, Alhaji Rilwanu Adamu; Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG), Zone 12, Bauchi, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar; and Police Commissioner Ikechukwu Aduba, during the DIG’s visit to the emir yesterday

From Fanen Ihyongo, Jalingo

comply with the President’s directive. “Otherwise, we shall not listen to them next time,” it said.

Kattaps said: “We suspended the strike because of the window of opportunity for Labour to meet with the Justice Alfa Belgore Committee for further dialogue, since the President shifted ground.”

The Labour leader decried the undue economic emphasis on petroleum products, saying: “Nigeria is rich enough to explore other viable alternatives for foreign exchange earnings.”

Businesses resume in Kano From Kolade Adeyemi, Kano

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HE Borno State Government yesterday said the N100million it paid to the in-laws of the slain leader of the Boko Haram Islamic sect, Mohammed Yusuf, was no compensation but a valid judgment sum.

Information Commissioner Inuwa Bwala told The Nation on phone that Yusuf’s in-laws took the government to court and won.

He said the government has compiled a list of those affected by the Boko Haram crisis. They would soon be issued cheques as palliatives for their losses.

Bwala was reacting to claims by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the 19 northern states that the government was insensitive to the plight of Chris-

From Jide Orintunsin,

Fuel sells for N140 in Taraba HE Taraba State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Jonah Kattaps, has urged the police and other security agencies to enforce the N97 per litre of petroleum pump price announced on Sunday by President Goodluck Jonathan.

Kattaps, who directed workers to call off their strike, addressed reporters in Jalingo, the state capital.

Petrol is still being sold at between N138 and N140 in the state.

It was learnt that some filling stations have shut down to create artificial scarcity.

The NLC urged the police and other security agencies to ensure that petrol marketers

Borno explains N100m payment to Boko Haram leader Yusuf’s in-laws

ANO is alive again, after the suspension of the strike

by Organised Labour over the removal of fuel subsidy, government establishments, public schools and markets, which were shut in Kano State in the last eight days, have reopened.

Vehicles are back on roads in the metropolis, with increased traffic flow.

The state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) yesterday announced the suspension of the strike. NLC Chairman Isah Yunusa Danguguwa made the announcement following a meeting of its officials in Kano.

The curfew imposed on the state by Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso has been relaxed from 10pm and 8am to midnight and 8am.

Information Commissioner Prof. Faruk Umar Jibril said the government and security agencies have been studying the situation and would protect the life of every resident.

JTF arrests six ‘high profile’ Boko Haram suspects HE Joint Task Force (JTF) on Borno crisis, code-named Operation Restore Order (ORO), yesterday in Maiduguri, the state capital, said it has arrested six prominent persons suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect.

The JTF Field Commander, Col. Victor Ebhaleme, told reporters that the arrest was part of the team’s renewed efforts to clamp down on members of the sect.

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He said: “We have continued to record breakthroughs in our effort to ensure the return of peace in Maiduguri.

Consequently, we have arrested six high profile suspected members of the Boko Haram sect.”

Col. Ebhaleme said he was optimistic the JTF would end the activities of the sect.

He said: “I will like to state that part of the successes recorded have to do with the current curfew imposed by

the JTF in Jere and Maiduguri metropolis. Members of the public are hereby advised to adhere strictly to the curfew as violators will have themselves to blame.”

The JTF spokesman said the team yesterday detonated a number of unexploded Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) planted at Kailari, near the London-ciki area in Maiduguri.

Col. Ebhaleme said: “We have just detonated some

IEDs uncovered at Kailari. We have been doing this for some time. It is sad that the IEDs were planted near residential homes, which means the impact would have been disastrous, if they had exploded.”

He urged residents to be vigilant to prevent suspected Boko Haram sect members from planting IEDs near their homes, saying: “People who allow IEDs to be planted near their homes would be treated as collaborators. Therefore, a word is enough for the wise.”

Kwara governorship battle shifts to Supreme Court

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HE governorship tussle between the Kwara State candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Mohammed Dele Belgore (SAN), and Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has shifted to the Supreme Court.

The ACN and its candidate have filed an 18-count appeal challenging the ruling of the Court of Appeal.

The Appellate Court had, on January 7, upheld the ruling of the tribunal, which dismissed Belgore’s petition and upheld

From Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin

Ahmed’s election. But, in its notice of appeal, filed on January 16, the ACN averred that the Appeal Court failed to rule on several issues of law raised in the case of the petitioners ACN, Belgore and his running mate, Adeyinka.

The issues of law, the ACN contended, include whether or not the statutory documents (the EC8 series) taken from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and tendered by the peti-

tioners were duly certified and admissible in law.

The party insisted that the court refused to answer the question of admissibility, despite its contention that by labelling the documents “inadmissible”, the tribunal had prejudiced its mind and could not be said to have attached proper probative value to them.

The party also contended that the Court of Appeal, despite its power to do so, refused to reveal its findings on the documents concerning allegations of overvoting, inflation of results, non-accreditation and

wrong entries but merely adopted the disputed findings of the tribunal.

The ACN noted that rather than adopt the consistent rulings of the Supreme Court, including the case of Nwakwo V Yar’Adua, the Appeal Court adopted its overridden decision in Saraki V Olawepo.

The party also said the Appellate Court erred for failing to consider the discrepancy of 21,192 between the votes recorded on Form EC8As and the number of ballot papers used in the areas being challenged.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18,, 2012

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NEWS Ondo NUJ petitions police

Fayemi monitors compliance with new fuel price

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KITI State Governor Kayode Fayemi yesterday drove himself round Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, to enforce compliance with the new petrol pump price of N97 per litre.

The governor, on Monday, directed the State Petroleum Task Force to ensure that residents were not short changed.

Driving a Toyota Avensis, Fayemi began the monitoring at about 11am.

At Mobil filling station in Old Garage, he ordered the petrol attendant to change the price on the machine from N140 to N97.

Fayemi warned that government would clamp down on any station that fails to comply with the new price.

Some of the filling stations, which were not dispensing, said they had no fuel, but the

Civil societies reject N97 From Adesoji Adeniyi, Osogbo

THE Coalition of Civil Societies in Osun State has rejected the reduction of petrol pump price from N140 to N97.

Rising from a meeting at Fakunle Comprehensive High School in Osogbo, the state capital, group said it did not agree with “the treacherous collusion of labour leaders with the Federal Government to subvert the wish of Nigerians on the matter.”

In a statement by its Coordinating Chairman, Comrade Biodun Agboola, and Secretary Rasheed Raji, the group insisted on N65 per litre.

It described the fixing of petrol price at N97 per liter as “a unilateral decision of President Goodluck Jonathan,” maintaining that the new price is unacceptable to the people of Osun State.

The statement reads: “We demand the immediate and unconditional release of leaders and activists arrested by the Police and soldiers in the course of the protests.

“We view the rolling out of tanks on the order of President Goodluck Jonathan to put an end to popular protests against the fuel price hike as undemocratic and unconstitutional.

“We insist that public rallies at designated places against the fuel Price hike must continue, while neighborhood meetings to pursue the protest to a logical conclusion must commence forthwith.”

From Damisi Ojo, Akure

THE Ondo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) has petitioned the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Sani Magaji, over the attack on its members in Akure, the state capital, during last Friday’s protest again fuel subsidy removal.

The union alleged that its members, including the State NUJ Secretary, Mr. Ebenezer Adeniyan, were rough handled by the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) members during the protest.

NUJ State Chairman Owanikin Akinfolayan said although the NURTW leadership has exonerated its members, it is the duty of the police to fish out the culprits and unravel the motive behind the attack.

From Sulaiman Salawudeen, Ado-Ekiti

governor insisted on checking their tanks to confirm the claims, many of which were true.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Olayinka Oyebode, said the governor embarked on the exercise to confirm reports of alleged manipulation and profiteering by some marketers.

Oyebode said: “You will recall that the governor, in his statewide broadcast on Monday, directed the Petroleum Task Force to monitor all filling stations in the state to ensure compliance with the new price. This is just to demonstrate the seriousness of the governor on the matter. So far, I can say the governor is satisfied with the •Fayemi (right) at a filling station...yesterday level of compliance.”

PHOTO SULAIMAN SALAWUDEEN

Court refuses to hear appeal against Lagos Speaker’s election •Judge’s absence stalls Ikuforiji’s, aide’s arraignment

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HE Court of Appeal, sitting in Lagos, yesterday declined to hear an appeal challenging the election of Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker Adeyemi Ikuforiji on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

The appeal was filed by Mrs. Olajumoke Sawyer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The court said it lacked the power to hear the appeal because it has exceeded the time stipulated by law.

In December, last year, the court struck out an appeal filed by Mrs. Sawyer lawyer, Mr. Deji Fasusi, on grounds that she delayed in compiling records of proceedings from the lower tribunal.

Fasusi was later able to regularise the appellant’s brief and the appeal was listed for hearing on January 9. But last week’s strike prevented the court from sitting.

Yesterday, the appellate court, presided over by Jus-

By Eric Ikhilae

tice K. B Akaahs, held that the 60 days stipulated by the Constitution for the hearing and determination of election petitions lapsed on January 9.

This, he said, denied the court the requisite jurisdiction to hear the appeal.

Justice Akaahs said to entertain the appeal would amount to amending the Constitution, which is the sole responsibility of the National Assembly.

The National and House of Assemblies Election Petitions Tribunal in Lagos had dismissed a petition by Mrs. Sawyer, in which she prayed the tribunal to nullify Ikuforiji’s election.

Sawyer had, in the petition, alleged that information deposed to by Ikuforiji in Form C F001, which was submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), contained falsehood and deliberate misrepresen-

tations.

The petitioner argued that since the respondent (Ikuforiji) deposed in the INEC form that he was born on August 24, 1958, he could not have obtained degrees from a university in Romania in 1977 and 1981.

The petitioner argued that the owners of the degrees presented by Ikuforiji were born on August 24, 1954 and August 24, 1956.

She alleged that Ikuforiji deliberately lied under oath and thus perjured on account of his age and certificate purportedly obtained in 1977 and 1981.

Uphold Ikuforiji’s position that the issues raised by the petitioner were pre-election matters and as such fell outside its jurisdiction, the tribunal dismissed the petition.

Also yesterday, the planned arraignment of Ikuforiji and his aide, Oyebode Atoyebi, for alleged criminal conduct was stalled by the absence of the

judge.

Ikuforiji and Atoyebi were to be arraigned before Justice James Tsoho of the Federal High Court, Lagos.

They were charged with stealing and money laundering by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The accused persons arrived in court early. Dressed in white native attire, Ikuforiji was accompanied by his colleagues, members and supporters of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

By 9 am, the court room was filled with people. But moments later, an official of the court announced that the court would not sit, owing to the judge’s absence.

The arraignment was fixed for January 30. Ikuforiji and Atoyebi are accused of conspiracy and moving cash estimated at N518.1 million “from the Lagos Assembly without it going through a financial institution.”

Council officials destroy toxic fish in Ekiti

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FFICIALS of the Department of Environmental Health, Ado Local Government Area of Ekiti State, yesterday destroyed toxic fish worth almost N200,000.

The fish was seized from a cold room at Mugbagba in Ijigbo, Ado-Ekiti, called Evergreen Frozen Foods.

It is owned by Mr. Sunday Adewusi.

It was learnt that the council officials, who were on an inspection mission at the market, were attracted to the

From Sulaiman Salawudeen, Ado-Ekiti

cold room by the stench coming out of it.

A Senior Environmental Officer in the council, Mrs. Ajayi Yemisi, spoke with reporters after the evacuation.

She said: “They had actually sold some of the fish to a market in Ifaki. This was where someone saw it and asked where they got it. The person did not remember the name of the cold room, but somehow, it was traced to Evergreen Frozen Foods

cold room.”

An attendant in the cold room said: “We had no plan of selling the fish. We did not open for some days because of the strike by Labour, so the fish went bad. When we came this morning (yesterday), our plan was to evacuate them. We were discussing that when the council officials came.”

The Deputy Director, Department of Environmental Health, Mr. Dele Falua, said the owner of the cold room is culpable for failing to re-

port the development before they (council officials) discovered it.

Falua said: “The cold room owner should have reported this to us earlier, but he failed to do so. We have evacuated and buried the toxic fish. We will issue him a Certificate of Destruction and prosecute him.

“This kind of development is not and should not be new to any business owner, as we always move round to sensitise them, particularly those selling food items.”

Ekiti local govt elections postponed till February 4

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HE Ekiti State Independent Electoral Commission (EKSIEC) has postponed the local government elections earlier scheduled for January 21 to February 4.

From Sulaiman Salawudeen, Ado-Ekiti

EKSIEC Chairman Mrs. Abosede Adelusi spoke yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, during a stakeholders’ meeting attended by all

the 19 participating parties.

Mrs. Adelusi said: “The election will now hold on Saturday, February 4, 2012.

This means we are postponing the elections for two weeks.

“The period will allow us to train our ad-hoc staff and do other necessary preparations. It will also enable parties continue with their campaign.”

Mrs. Adelusi assured all

parties of a level field.

She also announced the resignation of a member of the commission, Alhaji Abduraheem Coker, who she said resigned for “personal reasons.”

Oyo lifts curfew •To revamp transport firm THE Oyo State Government yesterday lifted the curfew imposed on the state, following Labour’s suspension of its nationwide protest against fuel subsidy removal.

In a statement, the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Akin Olajide, urged residents to go about their activities peacefully.

Olajide said the joint patrol team of the police, military and other security agencies would continue to maintain peace and order.

Also yesterday, Governor Abiola Ajimobi said the moribund stateowned Trans City Transport Corporation (TCTC) would soon be resuscitated.

Ajimobi said the transport outfit would be brought back under a public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement.

He said the resuscitation of the corporation has become necessary to ease transportation.

The governor blamed the deplorable condition of TCTC on the overbearing influence of past administrations and mismanagement.

Petrol scarcity hits Ogun From Ernest Nwokolo, Abeokuta

LIFE returned to Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, yesterday, after Labour suspended its nationwide strike against fuel subsidy removal.

Shops, eateries and markets were open, with customer going in and out of them.

Civil servants also resumed work at government offices and public schools.

But there was artificial scarcity of fuel in many filling stations, leading to long queues at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Mega Station, where the product was available.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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NEWS Customers storm banks From Nwanosike Onu, Awka

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USTOMERS yesterday besieged banks in Anambra State, following the suspension of the sixday strike by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC).

At some of the banks in Nnewi and Awka, workers were busy with customers, most of them civil servants.

Others were traders, who came to deposit the money they made during the six-day strike.

At the state secretariat, most of the junior workers were seen cleaning their offices. Others were yet to end the strike.

An absentee worker, who met our reporter in the market, said he was trying to raise money for his transportation to work.

“I will resume on Monday,” he said.

Troops invade Ogoni community over killing of soldier S OLDIERS yesterday invaded Teyork (Teyor Kaani), an Ogoni community in Khana Local Government of Rivers State and allegedly shot five persons.

Sources said trouble started after a young woman was allegedly kidnapped by a soldier.

They said some unknown persons mobilised and killed an unnamed soldier, which caused the military men to move into the community.

The Chairman of Khana Local Government, Greg Nwidam, said there was no justification for killing the soldier.

Nwidam said it was the responsibility of the members of the community, especially the elders, to fish out the killers.

The council chief said lawlessness and criminality would not be tolerated in the area.

Two Ogoni indigenes, Dr. Goodluck Diigbo and

•Residents protest

From Bisi Olaniyi and Clarice Azuataalam, Port Harcourt

Tambari Deekor, said the military invasion took place around 6 am yesterday.

They said many indigenes were manhandled and terrorised by the soldiers, who came in 15 trucks.

Deeyor said five persons were shot “but no confirmation of death yet”, adding that “a number of individuals were manhandled.”

Diigbo said he called the Commissioner of Police, Suleiman Abba, who told him that “he doesn’t control the military, but he was sure the invasion will be peaceful.”

But the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of 2 Amphibious Brigade, Bori Camp, Port Harcourt, Lt. Col.

‘It is also true that while these patriotic men (soldiers) were performing their legitimate duties in the said community, a criminal gang shot and killed an officer’ Aminu Iliyasu, said the people of Teyork were not being terrorised by soldiers.

He said: “The attention of 2 Brigade/Sector 2 JTF Operation Pulo Shield Com-

mand has been drawn to the allegation and wishes to set the record straight.

“Officers and men of the command have been and still are deployed all over the state, especially at key and vulnerable points in aid of civil authority for safety and security of life and property.

“It is also true that while these patriotic men (soldiers) were performing their legitimate duties in the said community, a criminal gang shot and killed an officer.

“After due investigation, suspects were identified and arrested for interrogation and possible prosecution.

“Suffice to say that soldiers never invaded Teyor Kaani, a community which they are protecting.”

Iliyasu also reassured the people of the command’s efforts in protecting them.

•Enugu State Governor Sullivan Chime (middle) with the executive members of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) after a meeting at the Government House, Enugu,...yesterday

Ebonyi Assembly passes budget From Ogbonnaya Obinna, Abakaliki

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HE Ebonyi State House of Assembly has passed the 2012 Appropriation Bill of N86.9 billion submitted by Governor Martin Elechi on December 30.

According to Elechi, the budget, tagged: “Budget of Pragmatism”, is 18 per cent higher than the 2011 revised budget.

Recurrent Expenditure is N40.67 billion and represents 47 per cent of the budget.

Capital Expenditure stands at N46.22 billion and represents 53 per cent of the budget.

Water supply and sanitation have the highest provision of N9.53 billion and account for 21 per cent of the capital budget.

Roads and electricity were allocated N9.34 billion, general administration has N7.41 billion.

Speaker Chukwuma Nwanzunku said the budget has a human face and would positively touch the lives of the people.

He commended the AdHoc Committee on the 2012 Appropriation Bill for doing a thorough job.

Long queues at NNPC mega stations

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ESPITE the reduction of fuel price to N97 by President Goodluck Jonathan, some filling stations in Benin City, the Edo State capital, are still selling fuel at N140 per litre.

There were still long queues of vehicles at the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Mega Filling Station as it was the only station selling fuel for N97.

The Chairman of the State Petroleum Monitoring Committee (PMC), Amen Osunde, has directed all major and independent petroleum marketers in the state to adjust their pump price to N97 per litre.

The PMC Chairman, who monitored activities at filling stations, told the marketers and dealers to desist from all forms of sharp practices.

He said any marketer or dealer found to be engaged in such would be dealt with.

Government offices, banks and many businesses, which closed shop since last week, were opened for business.

Public and private schools were opened but very few

Fuel scarcity hits Calabar From Nicholas Kalu, Calabar

OST filling stations in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, yesterday were closed.

The few which opened sold petrol for between N140 and N150.

Only the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Mega Stations sold for the approved price of N97 per litre.

There was a long queue of vehicles at the stations and drivers who were not patient resorted to buying from touts.

Despite the reduction of the petrol pump price by the Federal Government, transport fares were still high.

A visit to the Watt and Marian markets revealed that prices of foodstuff were high.

M

From Osagie Otabor, Benin and Ugochukwu Eke, Umuahia, Polycarp Orosevwotu, Warri , Kazeem Ibrahym, Uyo

pupils showed up.

Pupils were seen around; many of the classrooms were locked.

Teachers were seen discussing and workers cleaning their offices.

The government has said an award tagged “Comrade Government Punctuality Award” will be given to two pupils today.

Filling stations in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, are selling petrol at N145-N150 per litre.

Only major oil marketers like Total, Conoil and the

Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Mega Filling Stations were selling at the new pump price.

When our reporter visited some government offices in Umuahia, they were opened.

Few workers were seen milling around the secretariat, and others discussing how they will come to work with the new hike in transport fare.

Transport fares are still high despite the reduction of pump price of fuel.

In Delta, a long queue of vehicles stormed the NNPC Mega Station in Sapele, which was the only station selling at the ap-

proved price of N97.

Soldiers and other security agents were seen maintaining orderliness at the station.

Some of the independent filling stations were closed.

In Akwa Ibom, there was also a long queue of vehicles at the NNPC Mega Station in Uyo, the state capital.

In most of the filling stations visited yesterday on Ikot Ekpene, Oron, Abak and Nwaniba roads, petrol was sold at N170, N160 and N150 per litre.

Most motorists condemned the attitude of the independent marketers and major marketers, saying they are contributing more to the hardship of the people.

Total, Oando, African Petroleum and Mobil in Ikot Ekpene were not dispensing when our reporter visited yesterday.

Okon Edet, a motorcyclist, said he had been on the queue at NNPC mega station for more that four hours.

Edet appealed to other marketers to comply with the new price in the interest of the masses.

Two pupils win Oshimhole’s laptops From Osagie Otabor, Benin

TWO pupils of Idia College, Benin City, the Edo State capital, were yesterday presented with laptops by the government for their punctuality on the first day of resumption in school.

The pupils were Avarenren Ruth (Junior Secondary School 1) and Osolase Gloria (Senior Secondary School 1).

Presenting the laptops, Governor Adams Oshiomhole, who was represented by Commissioner for Education, Ekpenisi Omorotiomwan, said the “Comrade Oshiomhole Resumption Compliant Award” was to promote punctuality.

Sylva flays PDP’s attack on INEC BAYELSA State Governor Timipre Sylva has decried the campaign of calumny against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He said such slander was aimed at compromising the commission from its adherence to the rule of law on the governorship election in the state.

In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Doifie Ola, Sylva said INEC did the right thing by acknowledging that the subject of the PDP governorship candidate in the state is a subject of inconclusive litigation.

The governor said INEC’s position is in line with a subsisting court order, which the Court of Appeal has upheld.

Sylva said the PDP leadership should allow INEC to follow the law, instead of putting pressure on the commission and trying to arm-twist it to change its position.

“The current PDP leadership should not do anything to derail this democracy by trying to arm-twist INEC. The party leaders should respect the sanctity of the law and the responsibility of INEC to handle electoral matters as guaranteed under our laws,” he said.

Enugu alive From Chris Oji, Enugu

ECONOMIC activities have resumed in Enugu.

Our reporter, who went round yesterday, observed that banks, the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), ministries, among others opened for business.

PHCN office and banks were besieged by customers.

Transport fares are yet to reduce despite the reduction of pump price of petrol from N141 to N97.

Most transporters attributed this to the high cost of the petrol.

They said most filling stations were yet to start selling at N97.

"How can we reduce the transport fares when the filling stations are selling at exorbitant prices?

"We are still buying fuel between N160 and N180 so how can we reduce the fares,” a commercial driver, Linus Ogbuke said.

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18,, 2012

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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BUSINESS THE NATION

E-mail:- bussiness@thenationonlineng.net

Naira falls against dollar

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HE naira fell against the dollar as busi nesses and banks resumed operations after the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) suspended its strike yesterday.

The currency weakened by 0.4 per cent to N162.66 per dollar on the interbank market, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Earlier, it fell to N163.15 per dollar, the lowest since December, 30.

The labour unions suspended their strike on Monday after President Goodluck Jonathan limited gasoline-price increases to N97 ($0.60) a litre. The strike, which shut banks, businesses and ports, began January 9, after the government scrapped subsidies, which it said cost N1.2 trillion last year and vowed to spend the savings on power plants and roads. Fuel prices had more than doubled from N65 a litre.

“With the market being closed over the past few days, we do expect demand for foreign exchange to rise sharply as corporate and banking activities resume,” Ridle Markus, an Africa strategist at Barclays Plcowned Absa Capital in Johannesburg, said in an emailed reply to questions yesterday. “Demand at today’s auction may be much higher than usual, which could put depreciation pressure on the naira against the U.S. dollar.”

Nigeria sold $198 million at a twice-weekly foreigncurrency auction yesterday, less than the $200 million on offer from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The marginal rate, which is also used as the prevailing exchange rate, was N156.70, unchanged from the previous auction on January 11, the CBN, said.

The 14-man committee is to determine the extent of metering, the factors, which delay the procurement and installation of meters in accordance with rules and regulations.

- Dr Sam Amadi, NERC Chairman

Governors demand $3.5b from Excess Crude Account G

OVERNORS are asking the Federal Gov ernment to remit the $3.5 billion from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) agreed upon in their previous meeting to the Federation Account for sharing among the three tiers of government.

In the minute of Monday’s Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting made available to reporters in Abuja, the Chairman, Commissioners Forum and member from Anambra State, Eze Echesi, “complained that there was delay in releasing the additional $2 billion and the second tranche of $500 million from the ECA to the states after the last meeting.”

He told members of the committee that “the governors were worried over the issue and appealed that appropriate measures be put in place to forestall future reoccurrence.”

The ECA contains the savings made from the difference between the benchmark price for crude oil in a budget year and the actual price the crude was sold

From Nduka Chiejina, Asst. Editor (Abuja)

daily. The ECA is maintained to cushion the effects of the volatilities of international crude price and to ensure that all tiers of government maintain a semblance of their standards during harsh economic conditions.

However, Echesi stated that their “Governors informed them that an additional $1 billion would be shared from the ECA for the month and complained that the Account for the month did not include the schedule of the expected amount.”

The minutes detailed the submission of the member from Katsina State, Alhaji Adamu Ibrahim, who said, “ the agreement reached at the November, 2011 meeting was to share $2 billion from the ECA in addition to the $1.5 billion agreed to in October meeting to be released in three installments, while another $1 billion was to be paid in December 2011,

along with the balance of the remaining $500 million.”

Responding on the issue raised, and specifically on the delay in remitting the $2 billion to the states, the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), J.O. Otunla, explained “that whenever drawdown was made from the ECA, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) would require authentication of those mandates by the Minister of Finance before effecting the payments.”

He “expressed regret over the delay and assured that efforts would be made to fasttrack future payments. He, however, confirmed that the $2 billion and the second installment of $500 million had been paid to the states.”

On the issue of $1 billion raised by members, the Chairman of FAAC and Minister of State for Finance, Alhaji Yerima Lawan Ngama, explained that the decision of the house on the

$2 billion and the $1.5 billion were faithfully implemented by the Federal Ministry of Finance, pointing out that payment of the $500 million was not to be made consecutively. He stated that the $1 billion raised by members was never part of the agreement, adding that “consultations would be made on the request and that the outcome would be communicated to members.”

It was discovered from the document that the government is determined to go ahead with its full subsidy removal on the downstream petroleum sector, because the minister of state of finance was said to have told the commissioners of finance from the states that “petroleum subsidy payments was not provided for in the 2012 budget because the Federal Government was committed to the complete deregulation of the down-stream sector during the 2012 fiscal year.”

MARKET CAPITALISATIONS NSE JSE NYSE LSE

-N6.503 trillion -Z5.112trillion -$10.84 trillion -£61.67 trillion RATES

Inflation -10.5% Treasury Bills -7.08% Maximum lending-22.42% Prime lending -15.87% Savings rate -2% 91-day NTB -15% Time Deposit -5.49% MPR -12% Foreign Reserve $33.01b FOREX CFA 0.2958 EUR 206.9 £ 242.1 $ 156 ¥ 1.9179 SDR 238 RIYAL 40.472

From Victor Oluwasegun and Dele Anofi, Abuja

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HE House of Repre sentatives has given its consent to reduce the Federal Government’s hold on the power sector as a bill seeking to further unbundle the sector passed the second reading yesterday.

The bill that would break Federal Government’s monopoly in power generation, transmission and distribution would also give the states, local governments and individuals the opportunity to invest in the sector.

Patrick Ikhariale (PDP, Edo) who sponsored the bill for an Act to amend the electric power sector reform Act, CAP. E7, laws of the Federation, 2004, said: “This is one of the issues that is of great importance to all Nigerians”.

He said poor power supply had been the bane of Nigeria’s development”.

He noted that most companies went under because of the epileptic power supply in the country. As a result, of the cost of generating power for their operations, he said: “Most Nigerians now depend on generators”.

He commended the Federal Government for taking the bull by the horn through its road map for power generation in the country.

Marketers promise smooth fuel supply

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DATA STREAM COMMODITY PRICES Oil -$107/barrel Cocoa -$2,686.35/metric ton Coffee - ¢132.70/pound Cotton - ¢95.17pound Gold -$1,800/troy ounce Rubber -¢159.21pound

Reps back unbundling of power sector

• Customers entering FirstBank, Area 3, Abuja after NLC/TUC suspended its strike over fuel subsidy withdrawal ... yesterday.

PHOTO: NAN

Fed Govt, states, councils share N559b • Political office holders to lose 25% of January salary, says Minister

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HE three tiers of gov ernment shared N559.1 billion in December, last year, the Minister of State for Finance and Chairman of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), Alhaji Lawan Yerima, said yesterday.

Yerima, who spoke in Abuja, said with the resumption of work, the accounts of the beneficiaries would have been credited with their allocations, adding that N57.1 billion was also shared by the three tiers of government, representing proceeds from Value Added Tax for December, last year.

He said the disbursement

From Nduka Chiejina, Asst. Editor (Abuja)

for December was affected by the week-long strike that paralysed economic activities across the country. “The strike affected the internally generated revenue (IGR) because most banks were closed for business,” he stated.

He explained that the savings from the subsidy removal will be recomputed to reflect the new fuel pump price of N97, a development, he said would require a partial regulation of the disbursements of the subsidy savings as against the earlier planned full deregulation.

Yerima said subsequent dis-

bursements from FAAC will be in two phases - statutory and subsidy savings to all tiers of government. However, he did not say when both disbursements will start, stating that the National Assembly would have to appropriate the spending of the subsidy savings before disbursements.

It was also revealed that the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) has prepared the vouchers of all political office holders for their January salaries to reflect the 25 per cent deduction ordered

by President Goodluck Jonathan as part of the reduction of the government spending.

The minister said because

of the re-computation of the subsidy savings, the implementation of this year’s budget will be staggered. He said with $32 billion external reserves and the price of oil still hovering around $100, Nigeria cannot be said to be a poor country.

He hinted that the economic crisis in the Euro zone, the majority of whom are Nigeria’s trading partners, might impact on the nation’s economy.“This is not enough to disrupt the implementation of government’s programmes. But in order to meet the infrastructure demands, subsidy savings will have to address the inefficiencies,” he assured.

HE Independent and majors oil marketers yesterday assured Nigerians of the availability of petrol in all their filling stations.

They gave the assurance in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

They said their assurance stemmed from the new price regime of N97 per litre of petrol as announced

by President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday.

The Federal Government, had on January 1, through the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), fixed the price of petrol at N141 per litre, from N65 per litre.

The National President of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Alhaji Abdulkadri Aminu, told NAN that his members would ensure availability of petroleum products, especially petrol in all their stations. Aminu said the marketers were not against the new price regime of N97 per litre.

He said: “We don’t have any problem with the new price regime because we are just marketers who deal only in buying and selling of petroleum products. We will ensure availability of petrol in all our outlets, once the product is supplied to us.’’

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

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

1.

2.

3.

4.

Arik Aero Arik Aero

1. Arik 2. Aero 1.

2.

3.

4.

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

LAGOS – KADUNA Aero 08.00 Chanchangi 10.00 Arik 10.00 Arik 15.10

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

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

2.

3.

4.

5.

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

08.40 08.40 14.55 15.10 17.40

1.

2.

3.

4.

Arik Aero Arik Aero

LAGOS – WARRI 08.15 11.50 11.55 14.55

09.1 12.50 12.55 15.55

1.

2.

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4.

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6.

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

08.50 09.45 09.40 14.00 15.45 19.55

LAGOS – OWERRI 07.20 14.00 16.30

08.30 15.10 17.40

LAGOS – UYO 10.35

11.35

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

LAGOS – MAIDUGURI 1. IRS 11.15 13.15 2. Arik 15.50 18.00 LAGOS – ILORIN 1. Overland 07.15

08.00

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

• Cross section of children panelists at the children’s forum on the removal of fuel subsidy in Abuja ... yesterday.

CBN sees interest rates on hold

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T may be “counterproductive” to raise interest rates in re sponse to a jump in fuel prices that will probably push up inflation, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Lamido Sanusi, has said.

In an e-mailed response to questions from Bloomberg, Sanusi said: ”We will have to see where the balance of the data points to, but from where I sit, it looks like holding for a bit is the best option.”

He, however, said he wasn’t speaking for the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), which will meet from January 30-31.

The apex bank had estimated that inflation would accelerate to 15 per cent by mid-year, from 10.5 percent in November, taking into account the initial full removal of a subsidy on fuel on January. 1, he said. While the bank is studying the effect of President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to limit the increase, “it is reasonable to keep as close as possible to the current estimates in forming inflationary expectations,” Sanusi said.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) suspended strikes and protests on Monday after Jonathan limited gasoline-price increases to N97 ($0.60) a litre (0.3 gallon). The

strike began on January 9 after the government scrapped the fuel subsidy, which it said cost N1.2 trillion ($7.4 billion), a quarter of state expenditure, last year, and vowed to spend the savings on power plants and roads. Gasoline prices had more than doubled from N65 a litre.

The strike slowed trading in stocks and the naira, closed ports and banks and sparked street protests. It may have cost the economy $5 billion, Gregory Kronsten, head of macroeconomic research at FBN Capital Ltd. in London, said in an e-mailed note yesterday.

“The government may have achieved some savings to fund its infrastructure spend by effectively reducing future subsidy claims,” Kronsten said. “However, the implication of a phased withdrawal is that all the inefficiencies, costs and challenges which are inherent in the system remain.”

CBN left the benchmark lending rate unchanged at a record-high 12 per cent for the first time last year on November 21. It increased the rate 2.75 percentage points in October after inflation climbed above the bank’s 10 per cent target.

The lower fuel-price increase will take pressure off CBN monetary policy and in trying to keep

the naira around a midpoint of N155 per dollar, Leon Myburgh, Citigroup Inc.’s sub-Saharan Africa strategist, said by phone from Johannesburg.

“The central bank is now unlikely to change its naira target this year as the reduced price increase limits pressure on the currency,” he said.

The currency weakened 0.6 per cent to N162.90 per dollar in Lagos on the interbank market. Earlier, it fell to N163.15 per dollar, the lowest intraday level since December 30, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Nigeria, which imports fuel because it lacks refining capacity, pumped about 2.2 million barrels of oil a day last month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, accounting for almost all of its export income. At least, 90 per cent of Nigeria’s crude is produced by Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp., San Ramon, California-based Chevron Corp., Total SA and Eni SpA in joint ventures with the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Crude for February delivery gained as much as 2.3 per cent to $100.97 a barrel and was trading at $100.95 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange in London.

‘Strike highlights Africa’s investment risks’

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HE country’s recent explo sion of violent political un rest is damaging the economy and forcing investors to reassess their optimism over the short-term returns available there and elsewhere in Africa.

Stock and bond investors started looking seriously at sub-Saharan Africa after 2005 when debt forgiveness deals paved the way for growth and reform across the continent. But anyone seeking a killing from the hottest investment pitch of the time will have been disappointed.

Frontier market investors pumped $1.3 billion into African equity funds in 2010 excluding South Africa, EPFR says, up 10-fold from 2005. Such markets are a rung below emerging markets in terms of liquidity, size and transparency, but promise strong returns.

Asset managers Rensaissance estimate Nigeria - two-thirds of MSCI’s frontier Africa equity index and almost a tenth of the broader frontier index - took in half this amount, boosted by deep banking reforms and smooth 2011 elections expected to unleash infrastructure improvements.

The country was also included by

Goldman Sachs in a group of 11 most promising emerging economies after the Britain, Russia, India and China (BRICs).

Yet, a dollar invested five years ago in MSCI’s Africa frontier equity index, comprising Nigeria, Kenya, Mauritius and Tunisia, would have lost 23 cents, Thomson Reuters data shows. In Nigeria, the loss is 36 cents. An investor in mainstream emerging equities would have made a 22 cent profit.

“If you go back to 2006 expectations of frontier markets were very very high, that’s the difference between then and now,” said Andrew Brudenell, who helps manage $180 million in frontier stocks at HSBC Global Asset Management. “What you have are very low expectations and very low valuations.”

In Nigeria, key reforms to unlock the economy’s potential, have been slow, with this month’s removal of the $8 billion petrol subsidy the first major step since President Goodluck Jonathan took office last April.

Worse, recent bombings directed at Christians followed by strikes against the ending of fuel subsidies, have shattered a fragile veneer of stability, with the

strikes estimated to have cost subSaharan Africa’s second-largest economy more than $600 million a day.

Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka even predicts the nation is headed for civil war.

After last year’s debt default in Ivory Coast, Tunisia’s turmoil and currency collapses in Kenya and Uganda, such developments revive Africa’s reputation as a high-risk play for only the most adventurous investors.

“In the current risk off environment, frontier markets are not a short-term story,” said Maria Gratsova, an analyst at Citi.

“They are small and illiquid and that’s not a good place to be when markets are extremely volatile as in past years.”

Gratsova is worried by Nigeria’s increasingly violent sectarianism but remains bullish on it and most frontier markets, saying the woes are reflected in stock valuations some 20 percent below those of emerging markets.

“At this price you are getting access to population growth and GDP growth. It’s not a high price to pay,” Gratsova said.

Afren finds oil offshore

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IL and gas analysts who fol low London-listed Afren Plc were upbeat about the company’s prospects yesterday after it reported success at its Okoro East exploration well that is located offshore southeast Nigeria.

Afren, which is mainly focused on exploration and production in Africa, said that the company has made a new oil discovery at Okoro East well, having encountered 549 feet true vertical thickness (TVT) of net oil pay and 41 feet of net gas pay in “excellent quality reservoir sands.”

The Okoro East exploration well was spud on December 18, last year and reached a total measured depth of 8.751 feet (8,016 feet of true vertical depth) with the jackup Transocean Adriatic IX (350' ILC).

The well according to Dow Jones Newswire, successfully encountered oil in the tertiary reservoir sands, equivalent to those that have been developed and are in production at the Okoro main field, in addition to the deeper, previously-unexplored reservoirs. The discovery of significant pay in these previously-unexplored zones “opens up further prospectivity at similar levels” on the main Okoro field and elsewhere on the block, said Afren.

Zenon: we got no fuel subsidy

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ENON Petroleum & Gas has never benefited from the fuel subsidy regime, its Managing Director, Mr Kanmi Kareem Otaru, said yesterday.

In a statement made available to The Nation, Otaru told the House Ad hoc Committee investigating the subsidy regime that he decided to honour the Committee’s invitation out of respect for the House leadership.

The Zenon chief also said he wanted to use the visit as an opportunity to clear the air about the rumours making the rounds on the social media platforms that Zenon and Mr Otedola belong to a “cabal” exploiting the subsidy scheme. This he said “was all a figment of people’s imagination.”

He explained that going by the Act establishing the PSF scheme, “Zenon couldn’t participate in it because we don’t have a network of PMS retail outlets, which was one of the key criteria beneficiaries must meet and as such, we are not qualified to participate in drawing from subsidy payments on PMS. So, we never collected as records will show.“

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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ISSUES

• Mallam Sanusi

• Adesina

Towards an agro-based economy The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Bankers’ Committee are taking steps to revive agriculture by channelling funds into the sector. The initiatives will drive the government’s policy to diversify the economy for sustainable growth, writes COLLINS NWEZE.

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HE structural imbalance of the economy has over the years remained a source of concern to the government, stakeholders and investors who agree that it should be diversified.

The Federal Government is taking another look at agriculture so as to turn it into another gold mine, beside oil. To actualise this dream, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has instituted policies and initiatives for securing low-cost funds for farmers to work with.

Besides, the Bankers’ Committee, at its retreat in Calabar, Cross River State, resolved to finance critical sectors of the economy, a major departure from financing operators in the financial markets and trading activities to ensure sustained economic development.

Oil The discovery of oil in the mid-1950s diverted government’s attention from agriculture which accounted for over 90 per cent of the country’s total earnings then.

This has adversely affected the performance of the agric sector over the years.

The dismal performance of agriculture in terms of its contribution to yearly total revenue in the last four decades prompted

the CBN, in conjunction with the Bankers’ Committee, to increase lending to the sector from one per cent to five per cent.

CBN initiatives/ implementation As a follow-up, the CBN, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, established the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) in 2009. The CACS is to finance the agricultural value chain from input supply to marketing. The scheme took off on April 23, 2009.

The CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, said the establishment of the N200 billion

CACS is meant to fast-track the development of the agric sector through the provision of credit facilities at a single digit interest rate to large-scale commercial farmers.

The apex bank also tied the scheme to the enhancement of national food security, as it is intended to increase food supply, lower the cost of agricultural produce and product prices. Additionally, the focus is meant to reduce pressure on the foreign exchange spent on food imports; trim down the cost of credit in agricultural production for farmers and exploit more of the untapped potential of the sector. The CACS will also help to shore up the rate of foreign exchange earn-

‘Major challenges still exist in the sector. For instance, 30 to 40 per cent of agricultural produce in the country get spoilt due to lack of processing and storage facilities. Vast amounts of foreign exchange are spent on importing processed foods for which the raw materials abound locally’

ings and make available input to the manufacturing sector and processors.

So far, participating banks have given out N133.11 billion to beneficiaries of the CACS. The fund is meant to boost the sector’s funding from financial institutions. The 139 beneficiaries, comprising 115 individuals/private promoters and 24 states, accessed the funds through banks.

Already, banks and the CBN are discussing how to increase lending to the sector.

“That agriculture contributes 40 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is the largest employer of labour and yet receives one per cent of lending is not good enough,” Sanusi had said.

He said the government needed to pay more attention to agriculture, which has the potential of growing the economy.

He said one way of achieving this was by collaborating with the banking system to fix the value chain problems in the agricultural sector, stressing that economic development is about enhancing the productive capacity of an economy by using available resources to reduce risks and remove impediments which, otherwise, could hinder investment.

A report by the Alliance for a Green • Continued on page 14

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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ISSUES • Continued from page 13

Towards an agro-based economy Revolution in Africa (AGRA) showed that agriculture accounts for roughly 41 per cent of GDP in Nigeria and 50 per cent of the economically-active population. Figures revealed by the report showed that if the government is sincere in its poverty reduction campaign, it has to fix agriculture.

It also showed that the country has 70 per cent of its population in rural areas and about 70 per cent also living on less than one dollar a day. It attributed the 70 per cent population figure still living on one dollar a day to the fact that the nation was yet to revive its agricultural sector. It stated that since 2000, agriculture has been the slowest growing sector, growing roughly at about 5.1 per cent per annum.

According to the former Vice-President for Policy and Partnerships, AGRA, Akin Adesina, who is now Minister of Agriculture, agriculture development has to be encouraged in Nigeria to transform the economy, generate jobs and ensure equitable growth. He said the country has become a net importer of food, showing that it spends about $4.2 billion a year importing food items, such as wheat, fish, rice and sugar, among others.

Head, Agricultural Banking, Stanbic IBTC, Jacques Taylor, has said access to agricultural input, market linkages, technical support services as well as access to financial services are key to reviving Nigeria’s ailing agriculture sector. According to a statement from the bank, value chain financing will ensure the flow of financing within the agricultural sector, across all value chain actors, thereby getting agricultural products to the markets.

According to CBN, to participate in the CACS scheme, the borrower shall be a limited liability company with an asset base of not less than N350 million with the prospect to grow the net asset to N500 million in the next three years. The potential beneficiary is also expected to have a clear business plan as well as provide up-to-date record on the business operation. He is also expected to have out growers’ programme, where appropriate as well as satisfy all the requirements specified by the lending bank.

The apex bank said those wishing to benefit from the facility under the medium scale commercial farms/agro-enterprises, must be limited liability firms with asset base of not less than N200 million with the prospect to grow the net asset to N350 million in the next three years.

Bankers’ Committee approach Based on the Bankers’ Committee and CBN’s directive, banks have raised credit to the agricultural sector by additional N212 billion, representing 40 per cent increase.

This is inline with a vision of moving assets to critical economic sectors of the economy such as power, agriculture, transportation, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), among others. The action is a departure from previous financing operators in the financial markets as well as trading that saw operators engaged in widespread round tripping.

The increase, based on a report titled “Bankers’ Committee Economic Development Agenda and Scorecard, indicated that lending to the agric sector rose by 2.78 per cent of total gross lending in the banking sector by October last year, as against same period of the previous year.

It further indicated that the increase in credit was made possible by definite policy measures initiated and implemented by the deposit money banks in the past year. ‘Agric departments and desks were set up at all banks in the country to provide specialised agric lending services. Also 30 professionals were trained on agric commercial lending and Development Credit Authority and

• Access Bank MD, Aig-Imoukhuede

•Sterling Bank MD, Yemi Adeola

• Mainstreet Bank MD, Faith Tuedor-Matthews

•Union Bank MD, Mrs Funke Osibodu

guarantees in the past year.

fertiliser subsidy.

There will be increased focus on the value chain with a view to indentifying commodities for which Nigeria has comparative advantage. The sector will be de-risked through the introduction of risk sharing and technical assistance facilities. The ministry plans to promote agro-based lending by partnering with the CBN to invest $500 million to boost the sector’s industrialisation and unlock about $3 billion of bank lending over a 10-year period.

These measures should begin to tackle banks’ risk aversion to lending to the sector. Agriculture accounts for less than two per cent of total credit extension by banks but as high as 40 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product. The policy makers are targeting that the lending percentage increases to seven per cent over the next decade.

Although we acknowledge that there will be challenges with implementation of the agenda, it is encouraging to see the broad outlines of a blueprint in place, and one that should appeal to the private sector in particular.

Major challenges and palliatives According to FBN Capital report on Good Morning Nigeria, the Ministry of Agriculture aims to create 3.5 million jobs and help generate N300 billion in additional income for farmers. The ministry plans to achieve these by focusing on the value chains of some key commodities under its agriculture transformation agenda. The key tenets of the policy include the encouragement of private capital flows, fixing the agriculture value chain, the creation of a market led structure and the promotion of agro-based lending.

Despite these targets, major challenges still exist in the sector. For instance, 30 to 40 per cent of agricultural produce in the country get spoilt due to lack of processing and storage facilities. A consequence of this is that vast amounts of foreign exchange are spent on importing processed foods for which the raw materials abound locally.

But the government intends to address this by encouraging private sector investment in food processing and storage facilities. Fiscal incentives such as tax breaks on agricultural equipment and tax holidays will be granted to prospective investors.

Subsidy on fertiliser to go The 25 per cent subsidy on fertiliser will be removed as most often than not the subsidy does not reach the intended recipients. To ameliorate the impact of the subsidy removal on rural farmers, the government has set up a N400 billion growth enhancement programme, which will be driven by the private sector. Support will also be given directly to farmers in place of the generalised

The NIRSAL agenda Another scheme adopted by the apex bank is the Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), an idea which is being proposed to drive the agric revolution in the country. The NIRSAL, the Bankers’ Committee said, is a model for financing agriculture differently from the current model which has not yielded the desired impact of making adequate credit available to the sector.

The CBN said it will equally channel $500 million (N77 billion) into NIRSAL. The money will be invested under five basic seg-

‘The NIRSAL is a model for financing agriculture differently from the current model which has not yielded the desired impact of making adequate credit available to the sector’

ments. The Risk-sharing Facility is expected to receive $300 million to address banks’ perception of high-risks in the sector by sharing losses on agricultural loans. The Bank Incentives Mechanism would get $100 million and offers winning banks additional incentives to build their long-term capabilities to lend to agriculture. It will be in terms of cash awards.

Moreso, the Technical Assistance Facility would secure $60 million to equip banks to lend sustainably to agriculture, producers to borrow and use loans more effectively as well as increase output of better quality agricultural products. The Insurance Facility would get $30 million needed to expand insurance products for agricultural lending from the current coverage to new products, such as weather index insurance, new variants of pest and disease insurance among others. Finally, the Holistic Bank Rating Mechanism would get $10 million to decide banks’ agricultural lending effectiveness and the social impact.

The apex bank explained that NIRSAL, unlike previous schemes which encouraged banks to lend without clear strategy to the entire spectrum of the agricultural value chain, emphasises lending to the value chain and to all sizes of producers.

It said the agricultural sector is central to Nigeria’s economy, accounting for 40 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and providing over 60 per cent of employment. However, the sector represents only one per cent of exports. “Over the last decade, agricultural growth has slowed down and today it is under-performing despite enormous potentials. To reverse the trend, there will be need to tackle some of its major challenges such as low productivity, poor technology and cultural practices, low research and development, and under-financing of the agricultural value chain,” the CBN said in a statement.

The NIRSAL is expected to generate an additional $3 billion of bank lending within 10 years to increase agricultural lending from the current 1.4 to seven per cent of total bank lending. It will also increase lending to the “pooled” small farmer segment to 50 percent of the total. The NIRSAL is also expected to reach 3.8 million agricultural producers by 2020 through pooling mechanisms such as value chains, Microfinance institutions, and co-operatives. It will also reduce banks’ break-even interest rate to borrowers from 14 to 7.5 to 10.5 per cent. Analysts insist that the way in which agric grew in other parts of the world was through focused investment in a particular bread basket area and not just spending money every where.

Sensitisation of stakeholders on N30b agric fund begins Banks have begun the sensitisation of stakeholders in the finance and agriculture sectors on the processes involved in the disbursement of the N30 billion set aside for agricultural financing in the country.

Chairman, Bankers’ Committee Sub-Committee on Economic Development and Managing Director, Access Bank Plc, Aigboje AigImoukhuede, said it has become exigent to enlighten stakeholders so that they can understand better all the issues involved in the scheme. Beneficiaries are expected to provide 25 per cent of the required amount as equity contribution to access the facility from any of the participating banks.

He said under the memorandum of understanding (MOU) guiding the scheme, the Banks/Financiers would provide a loan of up to N22.689 billion for financing fertiliser and N2.752 billion for seeds procurement and distribution, while the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Finance shall guarantee 70 per cent of the loan principal payment.

He further noted that the loan would be made available to duly registered/approved agricultural input dealers across the six geopolitical zones at a subsidised interest of seven per cent per annum.

“It is envisaged that this new and innovative partnership would ensure that at least 5,000,000 farmers have access to these essential agricultural input,” he said.

According to him, the document on the financing scheme was initially drawn up by six banks, which later presented it to the other banks in the country on the platform of the Bankers’ Committee for input and comments.

Aig-Imoukhuede said the scheme was designed to provide the needed financial support to borrowers at single digit interest rate to ensure immediate supplies of essential input to farmers for the 2012 farming season.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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MONEY Experts foresee banking sector growth

Banks set to enforce penalty for cashless banking E S

OME banks have written their customers ahead of the March 30 deadline for the enforcement of the penalty for breaching the cash withdrawal limit.

According to the rule of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the e-payment initiative, the daily withdrawal and lodgement limit for individuals and corporate bodies is N150,000 and N1 million.

The banks, in e-mails, sent to their customers said March 30, has been set for the introduction of charges for all transactions relating to withdrawal and lodgements of cash.

Guaranty Trust Bank in an e-mail states: “In our continuous effort to ensure excellent service experience, we have provided a bouquet of easy, convenient and safer banking channels as follows: Point of Sale (POS) Terminal, Automated Teller Machine (ATM), GTConnet, Internet Banking, among several others. Effective March 30, 2012, there will be a service charge on any excess amount over the daily cumulative limits to be borne by account holders (set at 10 per cent for an individual account holders and 20 per cent for corporate account holders). Transactions initiated (above the stated limit) from Lagos State into an account outside Lagos State: e.g.

By Akinola Ajibade

Abuja, into a Lagos account would not attract charges.

Also, Fidelity Bank in a mail, stated: “In our avowed commitment to continually make financial services easy and accessible to you, we have put together various products and services to ensure that we make your transition to a cashless society as seamless as possible.”

The bank added that: “Cumulative daily cash deposits and withdrawals are restricted to N150,000 for individuals and N1,000,000 for corporate. Effective April 1, 2012, there will be a service charge on all transactions above the set limits at the rate of 10 per cent for individuals and 20 per cent for corporate. Third party cheques for payment across the counter are restricted to N150, 000 for cheques issued by individuals and N1 million for cheques issued by companies. Amounts above this limit can only be paid through account-to-account transfer or clearing. For the avoidance of doubt, third- party cheque above the set limits presented for encashment will not be accepted from April 1, 2012.”

In a related development, Access Bank said March 30 has been set

for the implementation of charges on daily cumulative cash deposits and withdrawals above the specified threshold.

The bank said the daily cumulative limit refers to daily account activities involving cash irrespective of the channel or combination of channels used for the cash activities.

The others include Intercontinental Bank Plc, Keystone Bank Limited, Mainstreet Bank Limited, Access Bank Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc. According to the banks, a bouquet of banking channels has been provided as part of efforts to ensure the success of electronic cash payment scheme.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had in a circular to all banks set April 1, 2012 as the takeoff date for the implementation of charges relating to violation of cash-lite policy rules. CBN instructed the banks to comply with all the rules guiding the implementation of the policy to foster growth.

In the circular, the apex bank called for the electronic payments of suppliers, all forms of taxes, salaries and pensions by both private and public organisations with more than 50 employees/pensioners in Nigeria.

XPERTS have predicted growth in the banking industry despite the strike embarked upon by the Nigerian Labour and the coalition of human rights activists.

The industry has since gone to sleep, as all the banks wee shut in the past one week. The development has had impact on deposit generation, inter-bank trading, among other activities in the financial sector. These made observers to conclude that the industry started on a bad note inthe new year.

But the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Keystone Bank Limited, Mr Oti Ikomi, said the fate of the industry and the economy

growth in 2012 is dependent on the performance of oil prices and euro crisis, and not the local problems facing the country.

He said: “We foresee growth in infrastructure. We might have some exchange rate pressure, even though the CBN may try to mitigate it. But if we can get the fiscal initiatives right, the country would do better. Naturally, we expect further consolidation of the banking sector and it would result to improved efficiency in the market and deepen competition in the system. “There would be continuous pressure on the naira and it is also clear that if there is continuous pressure on forex reserves, the naira will not be arbitrarily held by the CBN.”

NASSI calls for co-operation on building economy

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HE President, Nigeria Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI) Chuku Wachukwu has urged the Federal Government to create linkages in the economy.

Speaking during a business forum in Lagos, Wachukwu said Nigeria can achieve a lot through partnership and co-operation among the different sectors of the economy, especially the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs).

He said it is only when there is healthy competition and favourable economic environment that foreign direct investments (FDI) come in. He said there is the need to stimulate the local economy and divestment in the economy, instead of depending solely

on oil revenue. He also said the government should take steps to deepen the economy because it will bring multiple streams of income.

“There should be emphasis on transformation and deepening the economy. I would want to suggest that developing healthy small scale industries, encouraging the informal sector among other things to create wealth in the economy,” he said.

He said there is so much leakage of wealth within the informal sector, which needs to be pieced together.

SMEs with fewer than 10 employees are referred as “micro”, those with fewer than 50 employees as “small”, and those with fewer than 250 as “medium”.

Bank directors elect chairman

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•From left: Chief Technical Officer, Mr Karl Toriola and Chief Marketing Officer, Mr Bola Akingbade, all of MTN Nigeria, at the inauguration of the MTN Ideas Forum for mobile applications in Lagos.

CBN advocates one-day settlement cycle

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HE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is plnning a one-day settlement cycle for Point of Sale (PoS) transactions to facilitate cashless banking.

The settlement cycle of one-day, known in the industry as Tier One (T+1), is to be moderated by the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS).

The NIBSS is owned by all licensed banks including the CBN and discount houses.The body handles key infrastructure needs for inter-bank payments to remove bottlenecks in funds transfer and settlement processes. The firm also operates the Nigeria Automated Clearing System (NACS) which facilitates the electronic clearing of cheques and other paper-based instrument, automated direct credits and automated direct debits.

CBN Acting Director, Banking Payments System Department, Gaius Emokpae, said in a statement that adopting the Tier One model will encourage the implementation of electronic payments in the country, adding that the regulator has

By Collins Nweze also designed a format for sending settlement reports to NIBSS aimed at giving speedy value to merchants on Tier One. “In order to build and sustain public confidence in the electronic payment system, especially for the successful implementation of the Cash-lite Lagos projects, it is important for merchants to get value for PoS transactions on T+1,” he said.

Emokpae advised merchants to comply with NIBSS format of sending their reports in the required formats to the apex bank even after the given timeline of October 1, this year. Merchants are, therefore, mandated to comply with the format, failing which the CBN shall sanction any errant party with a penalty of N50,000 for each day they fail to comply.

The apex bank said the directive is based on powers conferred on it in section 47 of the CBN Act No. 7 of 2007. The provision empowered CBN with the duty of facilitating the clearing of cheques, credit instruments for banks and

for this purpose to organise in conjunction with other banks, clearing houses in such places as it may consider necessary.

The rules apply to clearing and settlement in the Nigeria Bankers Clearing Houses, which practise cheque truncation system.

However, where there is a conflict between the provisions of the cheque truncation guidelines and revised Nigeria bankers’clearing house rules, the former would prevail.

The CBN director explained that e-clearing, otherwise known as cheque truncation involves stopping the physical movement of the cheque and replacing the physical instrument with the image of the instrument and the corresponding data contained in Magnetic Character Ink Character Reader (MICR) line. The cheque details are captured, typically by the bank presenting the cheque or its clearing agent and electronically presented in an agreed format to the clearing house for onward delivery to the paying bank for payment.

ANK Directors Association of Nigeria (BDAN) has elected Chairman of Ecobank, Olorogun Dr. Sonny Kuku, to lead the association as President for the next two years.

The BDAN is the umbrella body of non-executive directors of banks established to provide a forum for improving the knowledge and the competence of bank directors.

Kuku was elected at the 14th Annual General Meeting of BDAN in Lagos. He takes over from Chief Ferdinand Alabraba, who was elected President in 2009, and who also recently retired as Chairman of UBA PLC. Kuku is a Consultant physician and endocrinologist and the head of Medicine and pathology at the

prestigious Eko Hospital, where he also a Partner.

He is also the President of the prestigious Nigerian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism; Chairman, Education Committee, Faculty of Medicine and Examiner and Chairman of the Faculty of Internal Medicine of the West African College of Physicians. Also elected into the 12-member governing council of the Association are Chief Ope Bademosi, Mrs Nike Akande and Mr Nnamdi Oji. BDAN was established in 1997 under the auspices of the Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC).

It was supported by both the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).

Stanbic IBTC introduces ‘SME Quick Loans’

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TANBIC IBTC Bank has deployed a new product, SME Quick Loans, to bridge the huge funding gap in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) segment of the economy. It will enable eligible SMEs to access finance within five days of applying for a loan.

Chief Executive Officer, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Mrs Sola DavidBorha, said the introduction of SME Quick Loan to the market, will benefit SMEs that could not access funding due to lack of financial statements and collateral, reiterating the bank’s commitment to the deployment of innovative products and services to the retail segment of the market.

She said the product will not only provide finance to a large pool of entrepreneurs, but it would do so quickly, in recognition of the urgent financial needs of growing businesses in the country.

Head, Personal and Business Banking, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Obinnia Abajue, said the bank is committed to closing the financing gap for small businesses in the country, through its SME

Quick Loan product.

“Small businesses, which are typically the backbone of the economy, suffer considerably from inadequate access to capital. SME Quick Loan will help to mitigate this problem and empower SMEs to contribute more optimally to economic development. It entails a new credit evaluation approach that reduces loan disbursement process from weeks to less than five days, reduces application forms from 19 pages to two,” he said.

He added: “Stanbic IBTC invested significantly in research in the SME segment in Nigeria, to complement the credit evaluation with processes that fit the SME business owner. All this has improved our ability to determine future risk profiles of customers. The combination of this together with affordability assessments as well as fraud management and prevention allows the bank to increase credit risk appetite. ‘’We are able to offer unsecured loans ranging from N100,000 to N4.5 million, to SMEs to enable them achieve high level of productivity and capacity.”

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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INSURANCE

Insurers seek infrastructure development W

HAT has infrastructure got to do with economic growth? A lot, says the President of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), Dr Wole Adetimehin.

He told The Nation in Lagos that infrastructure development will enhance the growth of the economy and impact on insurance, adding: “the people will patronise insurance when they have the wherewithal.”

Insurance practitioners, he said, are joining forces with all other stakeholders to get the government to build infrastructure that will propel the growth of the economy.

He said: “When the economy is growing, all other sectors will grow simultaneously. This probably accounted for the slow pace of growth in insurance. This is because the economy is not growing.

It is the function of the growth in the economy that would determine what should be the living

Stories by Chuks Udo Okonta

wage, how are people been paid, what level of disposable income they have, from which they can buy insurance.

“So, we are joining stakeholders like Manufacturers Association Nigeria (MAN), financial services sector, real sector and others to impress on the government that it is high time something drastic was done in the development of infrastructure that would propel the growth of our economy.

“More importantly, I am an advocate of improved lifestyle for the working populace of this nation.

Where people could be seen to be earning a living wage that would leave enough disposable income for them to buy insurance. Let us be frank to ourselves. We need to do quite more in developing our economy.

“When more people are employed, the demand for goods and services would increase. The belief

is that Nigeria is one of the countries where people are poorly paid.

Look at the extent we went on the minimum wage which translates to N600 a day. What can somebody do with that amount of money? And you want them to buy insurance from that. We need to address the fundamentals. Nigerians are industrious, they are not indolent. When things begin to work as expected, we would rival the Japan of this world.”

He said insurers are also working hard to reposition the industry through training and enlightenement, adding that efforts are in place to educate people at the grassroots on the need for them to get insurance. He noted that the CIIN, saddled with training, would be professionalised and set standards required in the industry.

He said this has become necessary because, there are new emerging risks out there that insurance companies have to address and provide the needed cover.

• NCRIB President, Mrs Laide Osijo (middle), presenting the Managing Director of Sovereign Trust Insurance (STI) Plc, Mr Wale Onaolapo as winner of the Most Broker-Friendly Underwriter Award won by his company. With them is gospel musician, Evangelist Tope Alabi, the guest artist, at NCRIB Members evening in Lagos.

‘Make insurance policy prerequisite for tenement rate’ T HE Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) may partner with the government to ensure that insurance policy becomes a prerequisite for obtaining tenement rates.

President, Lagos Area Committee of NCRIB Tunde Oguntade said the NCRIB will engage treasurers at the local governments under the planned partnership, adding that the group is poised to ensure that the enforcement of compulsory insurance across the country.

He said: “As brokers, we are looking at talking to chairmen of Local Government Areas, in compulsory insurance. This is public liabilities for public buildings, fire insurance for tenanted buildings and the likes, and we hope that with that, we would enhance patronage. Ideally, when the purse is lean people should take insurance as an avenue to mitigate possible losses. But you found out that people do not take advantage of insurance.

“They have losses and they get poorer, because they did not take steps to mitigate such losses. We would continue to go to public places and create awareness. We are sure that next year, no matter how bad it is, we shall have benefits of awareness in terms of insurance patronage. We hope to talk to treasur-

ers at the local governments to see insurance policy procurement as one of the requirements for obtaining tenement rates and the likes. We are going to talk with the fire brigade too.”

He said brokers would also continue to educate people on the need to safe guide their lives and properties through insurance, adding insurance remains the best way out of crisis.

The Commissioner for Insurance, Mr Fola Daniel, said the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) is poised at providing all the necessary framework that will aid the enforcement of compulsory insurance initiative, adding that the initiative is predicated on the industry’s laws.

He said the commission will ensure the closure of all leakages in the industry, which deterred the growth of the sector in the past, noting that the NAICOM is collaborating with the practitioners to ensure that the insurance sector takes its place in the nation. He said it is sad to note that despite the existence of the compulsory insurance products, Nigerians still die in motor accidents or during collapse of buildings without any form of compen-

sation, adding that the situation will not be allowed to continue.

“The sensitisation of the public on the six insurance products together with the organ that is liable to take the insurance, the sanction for refusal to take the insurance and the benefits to be derived by the people protected by the products have been made the subject of the on-going road-shows embarked upon by the insurance companies across the country since the beginning of the year.

“It is our strong belief that if the provision in existing laws for compulsory insurance are rigorously enforced and the insurance agency systems of insurance marketing is reformed, while the approach to insurance regulation and supervision is made effective and operators-friendly, the idea implicit in the Market Development and Restructuring Initiatives (MDRI) will be realised “We believe also that with the cooperation of all stakeholders in the project, the industry will meet the deadline for all elements of the Financial Services Sector 2020 initiatives,” he added.

“We should be seen as getting people more equipped in terms of their technical expertise and we are not leaving anything lying low in that regard, which is one of the essence of developing our college that would be charged solely for turning out professionals, so that in the long run – in any industry, institution, you would find an insurance professional to talk insurance and advise in an appropriate manner all the time.

“When it comes to awareness, it can never be enough. There are quite a number of initiatives that would promote the acceptability of our products. But insurance is a long term business. We are talking of a lot of people contributing into a

pool which is used to settle a claimant.

“On our part, we are taking insurance to the grassroots and the local governments. We are going to schools, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). We are meeting people from different backgrounds to educate them on insurance,” he added.

President, Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), Mr Laide Osijo, said the council will continue to consult and deliberate with government at all level to enhance insurance practice.

She said efforts would be made to make government to appreciate the roles of insurance practice in economic development.

Workers get tips on saving

W

ORKERS have been given a tip on how to generate sufficient savings for retirement. They can have a little on the side with improved remuneration, Board Member, National Pension Commission (PenCom), Ivor Takor, has said.

Takor, who spoke at a workshop organised by the Certified Pension Institute of Nigeria (CPIN) in Lagos, noted that to sustain the financial well-being of retirees, pension reform should be lined with social security reform, such as those of housing and health.

He said the pension reform is better evaluation, especially on effect on the financial well-being of retirees, adding that only after a relative long period of time will it be possible to know the real impact of the reform on the living conditions of retirees.

“There is, however, a fundamental matter, which is creating conditions for workers to generate sufficient savings in their Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs). Such an environment can only be derived through higher levels of work-related revenue or other forms of remuneration,” he said.

He noted that non-compliant in remittance of contributions by organisations, would affect their workers when they retire.

He called on organisations to embrace the pension scheme, remit their contributions promptly to forestall bleak future for their workers. He said pension is the most visible programme of any so-

cial security scheme, which provides protection to citizens from old age poverty.

He said until the enactment of the Pension Reform Act 2004, pension in Nigeria had a limited coverage, covering only workers in the formal sector, leaving workers in the informal sector without any pension protection.

Takor noted that the reform in the pension sector is still too recent for a better evaluation regarding the effects on the financial well being of retirees.

“Only after a relative long period of time, will it be possible to know the real impact of the reform on the living conditions of retirees.

There is, however, a fundamental matter, which is creating conditions for workers to generate sufficient saving in their retirement saving accounts. Such an environment can only be derived through higher levels of working related revenue or other forms of remuneration. There is also a need to link pension reform with a more encompassing social security reform, including those of health and housing if the financial well being of retirees is to be guarantee and sustained,” he added.

According to PenCom, the RSA registration by age distribution of participants shows that the number of contributors in the age bracket “30 40” accounted for the highest proportion of RSA holders in 2010.

It noted that this age category accounted 35.24 per cent of RSA holders in the year.

How to stop shady deals, by expert

I

NSURANCE industry regulators have been told to enforce ethics to reduce unethical practices by practitioners.

The President/Chairman of Council Institute of Directors (IoD) Nigeria, Lagos, Mr Thomas Awagu, said in Lagos that it is only when ethics are enforced that professionalism will be enhanced.

He said disciplinary codes allow a profession to define a standard of conduct and ensure that practitioners meet this standard, and those who fail are disciplined accordingly.

He noted that this allows those professionals, who act with conscience to practise in the knowledge that they will not be undermined commercially by those who have less ethical qualms.

And also maintains the public‘s trust in the profession, meaning that the public will continue to seek their services.

He said: “Professionals are, therefore, agents of socio-economic growth and development

in any economy; they consistently worked with governments of the day to enhance services delivery in different aspects of their profession. Economic growth comes when professionals exploit opportunities by not keeping yesterday alive a little longer, not defending the obsolete and making alibis for the unproductive things that should have worked out but did not.”

Underscoring the need for professional bodies like the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) and Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), he said such bodies should help governments in formulating national policies and in the appointment of technocrats in their fields where their services are most needed.

“Historically, the rise of great economies has been predicated on the transformational roles of professionals. Professionalism leads to a shift of the economy from the mastery of physical assets and tools to that of intangible assets,” he added.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

19

EDITORIAL/OPINION EDITORIAL FROM OTHER LAND

COMMENT

Harassment in Egypt

No to military occupation •President Goodluck Jonathan and his coterie of advisers must be feeling happy with themselves now

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HEY have countered siege on their governmental psyche, fired by irreverent but peaceful antisubsidy removal protesters with another siege, powered by menacing soldiers.

The democratic president has staged a coup against the democratic ideal of peaceful dissent and he is fated to live happily ever after!

By deploying soldiers to the streets of Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Kaduna and other parts of the country, considered by the Jonathan administration as hot bed of protests against a wrong-headed, misguided and ill-thought out energy policy they sell to the populace as the “withdrawal of subsidy on petroleum products”, the president has confirmed that his slew of bad judgements and knee-jerk approach to state matters, when rigorous introspection is called for, is no accident. That should trouble every patriotic and democratic-minded Nigerian.

Let it be pronounced on every hill and in every dale: the commander-in-chief in this democracy growls at democratic

‘Let it be pronounced on every hill and in every dale: the commanderin-chief in this democracy growls at democratic niceties where differing ideas contend and the soundest prevail. He would rather in rage, after losing an argument, reach for his military sledge-hammer! Now, he has chalked up his first “victory” against peaceful protesters in Lagos and other parts of the country, he probably would now move from victory to victory, smashing democracy itself along the way!’

niceties where differing ideas contend and the soundest prevail. He would rather in rage, after losing an argument, reach for his military sledge-hammer! Now, he has chalked up his first “victory” against peaceful protesters in Lagos and other parts of the country, he probably would now move from victory to victory, smashing democracy itself along the way!

If this sounds alarmist, just refresh yourself with past experiences. When the First Republic reached the tipping point, it had become satanically fashionable for the civilian administration back then to use the military against protesters and political opponents, to crush the Tiv riots as well as smash the fiddled electionrelated anomie in Western Nigeria.

When the Second Republic itself was to cave in, police high-handedness had morphed into military brutality, in those days when the Mobile Police unit was rechristened the notorious “Kill-and-go”. By the time the petrol of cynically rigged election was poured into the mix, it was disaster foretold. The Second Republic collapsed only 29 years ago in 1983. But then, for a nation’s rulers with absolutely no sense of history, it could well have been the start of the last millennium!

Just as well Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State had immediately rallied against the occupation of his state by the army, simply because the citizens had the temerity and audacity to peacefully protest an obnoxious policy, even making the potent point that cheering and jeering comes with the democratic territory.

The Lagos experience, to be sure, was a bit different from the situation in Kano, Kaduna and Niger states, where serious violence broke out along the way.

Still, is a democratic government programmed to reach for the army at the slightest sight of trouble? Mr. Fashola also

did well to have disavowed the occupation in record time, for many were beginning to feel he well might have been part of the decision, since he was part of the fuel-subsidy removal negotiations with Labour.

It is heart-warming too that Prof. Wole Soyinka, the foremost freedom icon who boasts a life-long struggle against a cold, insensitive Nigerian state, has joined in harshly condemning this harsh closure of the democratic space.

Still, if this democracy must be sustained and its gains channelled to the majority as against the current few parasites in government, the National Assembly must take its oversight checks much more seriously. If the Senate had toed the line of the people as the House of Representatives did, and both houses did not change from their constitutionally guaranteed checks in a presidential system to opt for odious compromises, the federal executive could have been less intransigent. Consequently, the strike would not have lasted that long, and the result would have been much more pleasing across the board.

So, every stakeholder in the democratic process must call President Jonathan to order.

He must not hide behind “security” to close the democratic space.

But not doing that starts with the president not taking rash action, as his so-called subsidy withdrawal ambush, that threw the country into a tailspin.

As for appearing to blackmail Labour to pull out of the protest, to the mass anger of its civil society partners and the somehow betrayed-feeling of the mass of anti-subsidy withdrawal protesters, the president must tread cautiously now that it has organised Labour to blackmail.

Lest it fates its presidency to dealing with amorphous and more radical groups when comes the crunch next time.

Unhelpful sectionalism •South-South groups’ campaign on ethnic basis cannot in any way help the president

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T is doubtful if any cause since the anticolonial struggle for Nigeria’s independence has received such a broad base of support across the country as the strike and protests against the removal of fuel subsidy by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration. Not even the much celebrated struggle against the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election gathered such nationwide momentum as was witnessed in the resistance to the removal of the subsidy.

The strike and public protests cut across the nation. They transcended partisan, ethnic, regional or religious lines. People of divergent social classes and cultural world views were brought together in common opposition to a much detested policy. Indeed, but for the ever growing groundswell of support for the anti-fuel subsidy removal movement, it would not have practically shut down the country for an entire week, with indications of even greater intensity if government had not done the unthinkable of bringing in the military to crush peaceful protesters, particularly in Lagos where the protests were largely peaceful. Except the Jonathan administration willfully opts to be mischievously misled, the crisis it faced was a genuinely popular grievance substantially reflective of the current economic hardships suffered by millions of Nigerians.

Against this background, it is most unfortunate that some splinter groups have sprouted, particularly from the President’s South-South region, placing inciting newspaper adverts imputing spurious sectional and even treasonable motives to organisers and participants in the protests.

One of these groups, for instance, which calls

itself ‘Niger Delta Nations Leaders’ placed a most reckless full page advert on page 43 of the January 9th, 2012, edition of Vanguard newspaper, making astounding and unsubstantiated allegations of a “conspiracy and plot to destabilise and disintegrate the country in the coming days and weeks”.

Signed by 15 purported representatives of Niger Delta ethnic groups, they alleged that “promoters of this plot seek to achieve their aims by assassinating the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, and also eliminate senior military and security officers from the South and Middle Belt of Nigeria…”

Some “retired senior military and security officers” and “powerful opportunistic businessmen” were accused of being the promoters of the plot. We expect that by now all those who signed such a brazenly inflammatory advert should have been invited by the relevant security agencies to prove their very serious allegations.

Another pro-fuel subsidy removal advertorial was placed on page 41 of the same edition of the paper by a group identified as the ‘South South Peoples Assembly’. Signed by three prominent South-South personalities, namely, Dr. Kalada Dick Iruenabere, Ambassador Dr. M.T. Mbu and Justice Adolphus Karibi-Whyte; the advertorial advanced reasons that were either fallacious or unconvincing, in support of removal of the subsidy. For instance, they claimed that subsidy removal is a major plank of the President’s Transformation Agenda “which formed the core of his electioneering campaign”. This is simply untrue. President Jonathan never mentioned the contentious

policy during the campaigns. His much touted transformation agenda remained vague and lacking in concrete details throughout the campaign.

Again, the South-South Peoples Assembly argued that on assumption of office, the president was confronted with the possibility of imminent economic collapse, given an unsustainable fuel subsidy of N1.3 trillion.

In reality, President Jonathan had been in office as substantive president for at least one year before his own election. His plethora of promises during his campaign did not suggest he was aware of any looming economic collapse. These kinds of emotionladen and baseless arguments driven by primordial passions do not help the president’s cause. They detract from the panNigerian mandate he won at the polls and his stature as the custodian of a national mandate.

‘His plethora of promises during his campaign did not suggest he was aware of any looming economic collapse. These kinds of emotion-laden and baseless arguments driven by primordial passions do not help the president’s cause. They detract from the pan-Nigerian mandate he won at the polls and his stature as the custodian of a national mandate’

O

N DEC. 29, Egyptian security forces and troops launched an unprecedented raid on 17 offices of American and U.S.funded civil-society groups, including stalwarts of democracy promotion such as the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute and Freedom House. Computers and other equipment were confiscated, and local staff members were issued summons for interrogation. Egyptian officials seeded local media with stories that portrayed the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) as part of an international conspiracy to interfere in the country’s politics.

To its credit, the Obama administration reacted quickly. The State Department publicly condemned the raids and called on the government “to immediately end the harassment of NGO staff, return all property and resolve this issue immediately.” U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta got on the phone to senior officials; the next day officials said that Mr. Panetta had been assured by the head of the ruling military council, Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, that the groups would be allowed to reopen their offices and their property would be returned.

Two weeks later, however, the U.S. NGO offices as well as those of several Egyptian groups remain closed. Their computers have not been returned, and staff members are still being summoned for interviews with prosecutors who say that they are conducting a criminal investigation. In short, the Egyptian government is openly flouting the administration’s demand for a quick reversal of its harassment.

U.S. officials say that they are still pressing the issue hard. But in public, the administration’s rhetoric has been softening. On Jan. 2, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, “It is frankly unacceptable to us that the situation has not been returned to normal.”

Ten days later, the matter was still unresolved after Deputy Secretary of State William Burns met with Mr. Tantawi. Said Mr. Burns: “We are hopeful for a quick and fair resolution, and we will keep working at this.” Egyptian authorities are insisting that the NGOs register under laws passed but never enforced by the deposed authoritarian regime of Hosni Mubarak, which would allow the government to control funding.

The significance of this dispute is difficult to overstate. U.S. funding for pro-democracy NGOs in Egypt — about $40 million this year — pales beside the $1 .2 billion set aside for the Egyptian military. But the aid is vital to nurturing a free political system — and to countering the huge flow of money from Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states to Islamist groups.

The officials campaigning against U.S. groups and funding, such as International Cooperation Minister Faiza Aboul Naga, a Mubarak regime holdover, are trying to preserve their own powers by demonizing liberal civil-society groups and the United States.

At a minimum, any Egyptian government that follows Ms. Aboul Naga’s policies ought to be denied military aid. That’s why it is fortunate that Congress, over the administration’s objections, conditioned the 2012 funding for Egypt on a certification that the government was carrying out a democratic transition. Such a certification ought to be impossible until all the NGOs are allowed to reopen and harassment of their Egyptian partners ceases. Administration officials say they accept that; let’s hope that, through tough words or softer ones, Egyptian authorities are getting the message.

– Washington Post

TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief Victor Ifijeh • Editor Gbenga Omotoso •Chairman, Editorial Board Sam Omatseye •General Editor Kunle Fagbemi •Editor, Online Lekan Otufodunrin •Managing Editor Northern Operation Yusuf Alli •Managing Editor Waheed Odusile

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

20

EDITORIAL/OPINION

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IR: The concept of democracy has received varying definitions and interpretations from scholars and political observers depending on the ideological leaning or interest of the contending scholars. However, there are certain basic features of democracy irrespective of the contending perspectives. One of such is accountability. Every democratically elected government is expected to be accountable to the people, to whom it owes its existence. The people need to be consistently told how public funds are being spent and how the mandate given is being utilized.

Another important hallmark of democracy is freedom of association, speech and expression. This is very fundamental in a democracy as people have the right to make their viewpoints known on ranging issues that affect the citizenry.

One can then imagine the rude shock on the faces of Lagosians when they woke up on the morning of Monday January 16 to discover that President Goodluck Jonathan had deployed hundreds of gun-wielding soldiers on the streets of Lagos in a desperate bid to forestall peaceful protests scheduled to continue that day.

The soldiers took strategic positions in Ikeja, Ikoyi, Surulere and Ojota – places where thousands of Nigerians had poured out to protest the sharp increase in price of petrol.

As much as 16 check points and barricades were mounted around the Gani Fawehinmi Park in Ojota by fierce looking soldiers backed with armoured tanks.

Since the beginning of the present political dispensation, the military have largely integrated it-

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Deployment of soldiers to Lagos self into the larger society in a laudable and professional manner. We will always appreciate their effort in defending the sovereignty of the country. Nevertheless, it is incontestable that the Nigerians who gathered in several parts of Lagos like Falomo, Ikorodu and Ojota to protest the fuel subsidy removal conducted themselves peacefully, singing and dancing while expressing their opposition to the policy of government. It is condemnable for gov-

S

ernment to unleash terror on such defenseless citizens who were exercising their constitutional right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. We are not in a situation of war in Nigeria presently and it is against all democratic norms for government to invade peaceful assembly of civilians.

Even if there was a threat of breakdown of law and order, the responsibility for handling such in a constitutional democracy is that of the po-

lice.

I watched the spokesperson of the State Security Service, Marilyn Ogar on television defend the deployment of troops to Lagos and I couldn’t see any logic in her defence. She claimed that some of the protesters in Lagos were calling the president names as well as committing other such offences which according to her amount to treason. Is this enough to deploy troops in a civilized democracy? Are there no constitutional

Labour should change tactics

IR: Since the advent of military regimes in Nigeria, labour unions have only being effective whenever there is an issue about salaries and wages but hardly ever about how those unemployed or being laid off fared.

All over the country, there had been the vexing issue of casualization right from the big companies to the small enterprises – labour unions hardly see need to redress the situation.

The textile industry, railways etc have thrown many Nigerians into the labour market and I understand that the Bank of industry had on several times, made available funds to enable industries pick up, but very little impact has been made.

The issue of oil subsidy has been on the agenda since Ibrahim Babandiga’s regime when he introduced the Structural Adjustment Programme. This programme if it was allowed to be implemented effectively could have changed Nigeria’s fortune but labour unions kicked against it. They always came up with emotional statement that they are fighting for the masses.

I believe that the unions must play the role of “economic catalyst” to assist government in making sure it fulfils it’s budget plans for the benefit of the masses, but what we see is antagonism, welfarist and communist ideas that had been overtaken by developments in the global economic order. Look at

China, India, etc; they have invaded the world and are trying to take over the consumer goods market all over.

Labour should look beyond strikes to find out why industries are not working, why the National Assembly members should be earning so much, why the oil sector is moribund, why the power sector is epileptic and stop trading blames on investors. I am amazed when they say no to privatization. Has labour ever invested in business that creates employment for Nigerians?

Who are the workers? Are they the few lucky employed, the self employed or the unemployed?

Honestly, the subsidy removal is painful but looking at the world oil

Re: Jonathan’s Loss

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IR: I know that the above titled piece written by Sam Omatseye was already at the press before events in the country on Monday morning overtook it. I know the truth about this country is yet untold by many people expected to do so. I have a different view from that you canvassed on your piece.

For one, as good as the recent demonstration, protest and strike could have been, equally, the seemingly “common factor” of the protest and demonstration too, have not yielded the truth from either the organized Labour or civil society groups.

My view can be confirmed by the eventual result of the whole exer-

means of dealing with such perceived illegality?

It is heart-warming to note that eminent Nigerians, home and abroad, have spoken out in strong terms against the deployment of soldiers to the streets of Lagos. This Gestapo-style occupation of streets of major cities of Nigeria will inevitably drive voices of democratic opposition underground and this scenario will undermine the advancement of democracy, rule of law and constitutionalism in Nigeria.

Finally, the fact that government is now coming up with plans to fight corruption in the oil industry is a reflection that freedom of expression and association actually develops rather than stifle, democracy.

• Tayo Ogunbiyi Ikeja, Lagos

cise. Can you imagine, a dialogue between FG and Labour which Labour had hitherto rebuffed suddenly became an option to them only for Labour to go in to it with their body without spirit? It turned out to be a mere monologue. Abinitio, it’s my belief that Labour went into this action with so many wrong formula and approaches more so, someone was not telling the whole truth to the populace, Nigerians.

Was the policy really defective or Labour was only out to fight noninclusion? Could it be that Labour wanted a sense of belonging, no problem? As it is now, we should not forget that Federal Government has not

reverted to old price of N65 a litre for petrol; it even “promised to pursue full deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector”. Where is Labour in all of this?

Far from what you presupposed, there is no ferment of any revolution here. Many people came out to the street to demonstrate based on different values. Many, no doubt, were victims of sponsors while, most were just politicking again with the destiny of over 167 million Nigerians. We saw all of this obviously in action.

Or, how do you explain the thugs who laid ambush for the likes of Senators Oluremi Tinubu and

Babafemi Ojudu along the Ibadan expressway? Could they be the same Labour or civil society group members? I doubt this much. Are these ones fighting the government policy too?

Reference to your piece entitled; Are the people ready? I wish to state again, ‘we lack organisational and revolutionary ardour’, ‘there is Nigeria without Nigerians’, ‘we are still lost in our ethnic night’.

Suffice to all these, a strong civil protest or uprising are hard to sustain here, I must say. The ingredient this generation lack is just sincerity.

• Abayomi, Tolu, Akure, Ondo State

prices in selected countries, you find that Nigeria’s price is higher even when a basket of some five countries are put together, that tells that some few individuals are benefiting.

Labour should monitor government activities and see how they are implemented to better the welfare of Nigerians. This idea of being in opposition and issuing ultimatum and threats is no more useful. Where is Labour Mass Transit Company; how have they managed this business? The government must check its overhead expenditure; I know government had a policy before restricting official cars to Peugeot 504, 505 and probably few MercedesBenz cars of only 2000cc. But all these are no more. Cost of purchase, maintenance, allowance etc eats deep into government finances coupled with corruption and inefficiency in services rendered by MDAs. Let industries be revitalized and infrastructures be put in proper shape. It is surprising that even the educated and enlightened Nigerians belong to the uninformed class that cannot make a difference in the prospects of the subsidy removal. Even the press is not doing enough. We must change our mindset and trust the government. Let all Nigerians wake up and think rightly. This is where the National Orientation Agency failed. The agency must live up to its functions.

• Nosegbe Bennetts F. Benin City, Edo State.

21

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

EDITORIAL/OPINION

NLC/TUC/ Civil Society professional bodes are not the enemy!; Cut cost of government by 75%; Prosecute the corrupt

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HE touted ‘Peace’ without justice is

not peace. N97 in a country with ‘no change’? No to soldiers on the streets!

Nigerians have had an Tony absolutely unnecessary Marinho injustice and pain and financial loss inflicted on them and deserved to be treated better by an elected government, now revealed as undemocratic, insensitive and greedy!

Hurray and congratulations to the ‘Good Citizens Of Nigeria’ GCON, the Good Citizens of the Federal Republic, GCFR. You are well deserving of these awards won in the struggle for an improved Nigeria. We have been at the nationwide barricades against those who, steeped in mega-luxury provided by the nation increase fuel prices by 120% supposedly to better serve us? We are accused of not having an intelligent, independent thought but are tele-guided by failed politicians and even Boko Haram.

What insults for opposing official tyranny! Failed politicians have a ‘reality check’ way of thinking clearly along people lines, if only temporarily. They are in ‘opposition’ anyway.

And again, so what if some of our fuel goes to fuel-less countries avoiding customs? If a thief steals your food would you starve your children while eating ‘belleful’ yourself and tell the thief to continue to steal directly from your children and stop disturbing you? Is that not punishing your children for another’s fault? Government has seized money from the poor pocket of the masses to compensate for its own corruption and ineptitude while still eating fat at the highest level of governance with the a huge presidential executive budget and 469 National Assembly members requiring N150 billion averaging N320 million/ $2.1 each/year. Will NASS please cut their incomes by 75%.

The can of oily worms that is corruption must be opened fully and examined in the media and by professional bodies under the Belgore Commission but definitely not by any in-

ternal Petroleum Ministry/ NNPC cabal investigating body who cannot investigate its own rubbish. Who has clean hands in an oil field? There are cabals everywhere. The Belgore Commission with the NLC should involve the EFCC and KPMG which has already dug deep into NNPC as the auditors and authors of the ‘KPMG Forensic audit of NNPC’ 20072009 dated November 2010 maliciously ignored by government for 14 months. The Belgore Commission should also initiate or review the audit for 2010, 2011.

Many corrupt oily people, in and out of NNPC and the government contractors called ‘the Oil Cabal’ who are megarich glorified contractors, will be fearful of EFCC financial enquiry. The EFCC and the NLC/TUC representatives and the Belgore Commission have a lot of work to do. Firstly, the wrongly called ‘subsidy’ money, which is really ‘incompetence scam payment’, is not N1.4trillion, if you remove falsely inflated additives like (1) Outstanding interest rates for deliberately late past payments, (2) Arrears of payment for 2009 and 2010, and 2011, (3) Corruption through non-docking of maybe three out of every 10 fuel ships fully paid for; (4) incompetence driven $198m demurrage charges (5) Sundry oily corruption unknowns including massive kickbacks and ‘For Your Presidential Library’ donations and (6) ‘Thank-yous’ at ministerial weddings et cetera.

All these were back-loaded into the N1.4trillion figure falsely inflated by the PR of government creating a scaremongering effort to get the people to agree to a promise of immediate utopia. When you remove all these add-ons, the annual figure will not be N1.4trillion in 2013, but N250-300b/ annum.

Every single Nigerian is being punished for government incompetence and corruption. Much less will be raised from this process in 2013. The results of the strike include loss of life, N1trillion+ lost, and a tsunami of horrifying information through the social media. Nigerian people are better informed, as evidenced by the sustained nationwide strikes.

Add to them the hidden majority at home all demanding one main thing -an end to corruption.

For immediate test of transparency, the Belgore Commis-

sion and Kolade Commission will best serve Nigerians if selected professional bodies and Civil Society Organisations are represented not merely by being given ‘Observer Status’ but actual ‘Membership Status’ at the commissions. NLC/ TUC/ CSO/ Professional bodes are not the enemy. They must send sound accountants and lawyers with forensic accountancy knowledge or they will see nothing resulting. This is an international creative accounting and needs a team of expert accountants to expose and offer a foolproof automated accounting solution.

Government was 100% responsible for this failure. Government employed the oil cartel, government contractors, to cover its expensive failure in refinery management. A refinery is not nuclear physics but a low-tech distillation factory; ask Niger Deltans, and is allocated an agreed amount of raw material –oil –and charges an agreed price for refining a litre of product and gets paid per unit. The refinery charges per litre for ‘refining service’ which have nothing to do with the market price oil or fuel. If a refinery charges N10 or N20 to produce a litre then government merely adds together (1) Cost of production from the oil well + (2) cost of transport to the refinery + (3) Agreed cost of refinery manufacture process; (4) cost of transport from refinery + (5) Government tax all add up to the pump price which has nothing to do with the price in oil. An intelligent government should subcontract the refineries and build more with guarantees of allocation of 5100,000 oil barrels deliveries/day. Nigeria should refine all 2.4millionbpd pre-export.

‘Government was 100% responsible for this failure. Government employed the oil cartel, government contractors, to cover its expensive failure in refinery management. A refinery is not nuclear physics but a low-tech distillation factory’

‘Suffering and Smiling’ Now available for sale in different sizes: -Bicycle, Camel, Horse, Donkey We can also train and equip your dog, goat, ram etc to carry you around; they don’t use fuel or gas. Visit us @ our office No 1 Subsidy Road, Alison Madueke Junction, Goodluck Close, off OkonjoIweala Street, by Labaran Maku Avenue, Sanusi Lamido District Area, Abuja.

Or call 080-Abuja-GEJ….

Welcome to the year of transformation and fresh air!

T

HE above ‘advert’, if you will call it so, was one of the jokes that made the rounds last week as the country was steaming hot in people’s anger over the hike in the price of petrol.

People still had the room to catch fun from an extremely sad development arising from the vision (or lack of it) of those who could not read clearly the political consequences of their (supposedly) economic manoeuvre.

However, to say that Nigerians are a resilient people would be an understatement. It was the late Afrobeat King, Fela AnikulapoKuti, who first stirred the nation’s consciousness to this fact when, many years ago, he released an album titled “Suffering and Smiling”. This is the paradox of our existence as Nigerians.

Ordinarily, a man that is suffering would be expected to keep a straight, stoic face or have rivulets of tears cascading down his face. But not so in Nigeria. It was even reported a few years ago that from a survey undertaken to mea-

sure people’s resilience or behaviour all over the world, Nigerians were found to be a happy lot. This issue generated a lot of controversy all over the place. The consensus of opinion from the debate showed that many people agreed with the fact that Nigerians are a happy people.

But if the environment we live in this country is anything to go by, Nigeria should be a nation where the word “happiness” would be a stranger, where “smiling” could be a taboo and what have you. The reason is simple.

Nothing works in Nigeria. Individually, we may be successful but collectively, we are a failure – a colossal one at that.

That brings me back to the past one week. Nigeria was practically in turmoil. I do not know if some people, particularly those in government, enjoyed the tragi-comedy as it unfolded. If not that some people ‘enjoyed’ the whole mess, why did we allow it to drag on and on? I swear, if there was anybody – highly placed or lowly placed – who was happy at all that things were almost going out of control, that person could easily be referred to as a sadist.

Here was a country full of promises of a brighter future, a country which has pleased God and nature to be so blessed with abundant human and material resources, wasting every good thing placed at its disposal. If the statistics or data of young or old Nigerians who have been ‘lured’ out of the shores of the country by the common refrain “brain drain”

‘What the protests symbolised is the fact that Nigerians are thoroughly upset with the way the affairs of the country have been run in the past, and are still being run’

is taken, the number could easily rank in equal proportion to the population of some of the countries in West Africa. That is, if it does not double or triple the population of any of Republic of Benin, Togo, Ghana etc.

We all know the natural endowments that abound in Nigeria.

There is hardly any region, state, local government or hamlet that is not blessed with a natural resource or another. Just pick up the map of mineral deposits in Nigeria and go through. What this suggests is that we have enough to make us great. But today, poverty is endemic in the country.

Why is it so? We have been quite unfortunate as a people not to have had good governance.

We may have had many governments – civilian or military – in the past 52 years of our existence as a country (Nigeria is yet to be a nation) but our governments have operated like “army of occupations.” This is so, because the rulers have been far removed from the led. There is some disconnect between the leaders and the followers. With the exception of those who manage to pick the crumbs from “thy master’s table” now and again, the leaders feed fat on the resources of the country, while the followers are left to eke out a living like the peasants of old. With bad roads, poor electricity supply, absence of functional hospitals, and dilapidated structures as schools, among many others, what is the difference between this generation and the ‘stone age’ people?

While inflicting punishment on the people, all the leaders will keep on saying is: “please bear with us. It is a necessary sacrifice for a better tomorrow.” That tomorrow never comes. A man who was born in the early morning of October 1, 1960 was derisively

referred to several years ago as “Omo Independence”, meaning a “Child of Independence”. Today, that independence child of those days is about 52 years old. That means he has not only come of age; in fact, he has crossed the Rubicon of life. For a 52-year-old man in a country where life expectancy oscillates between 45 and 50 years, he is closer to his grave, if not living on borrowed time. Now, if at birth way back in 1960, this person was told that Nigeria will get better and for the whole of 50 years and more, he has nothing to show that his generation, even the generation of his children, will ever see the good days as promised, what do you expect? Frustration, bewilderment and forlorn!

These, perhaps, were the reasons why the streets of major cities in Nigeria were ‘occupied’ by protesters. The sudden hike in the price of petrol could have been the last straw that broke the camel’s back, but there are other underlying factors which drove the huge crowd to the streets to show their displeasure. Expectedly, as the days go by, the message from the protesters metamorphosed from the initial request for a reversal of the pump price of petrol, to demand for good governance. What the protests symbolised is the fact that Nigerians are thoroughly upset with the way the affairs of the country had been run in the past, and are still being run.

In the wake of the protests, the president gave a broadcast where he did not really say anything tangible other than the usual flattery that people should make sacrifice.

And as if to demonstrate the preparedness of the leaders to make “that” sacrifice too, he announced a slash of 25 percent from the basic salaries of people in the executive arm of govern-

Dele Agekameh ment. That, to me, was purely cosmetic. What is the basic salary of this clique compared to their mouth-watering allowances?

Who is fooling who?

Look at this. What gains or benefits will Aso Rock provide Nigeria and Nigerians by spending a whopping N18.4 billion as appropriated for 2012? This include N1 billion for feeding, which is approximated to cost N30 million daily; N200 million for lawn watering and N234 million for residential furniture. How do you come up with this type of bogus and inexplicable expenditure only to tell people to make sacrifice? By the way, why did it take the outburst of people’s anger before the President made his socalled “token” sacrifice? If all along, he knew that there would be hike in fuel price, why didn’t he reflect it in the amount earmarked for Aso Rock and other “wasteful inputs” in the 2012 appropriation? Rather than the greatest good of the greatest majority, the leaders seem to savour the pride of inflicting punishment on the people. Maybe, from now onward, the people will no longer be suffering and smiling!

Send reactions to: 08058354382 (SMS only)

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

22

EDITORIAL/OPINION FROM THE CELL PHONE ‘What the government has done with the subsidy removal is to unleash the identified oil cabal dragons on Nigerians. The burden of feeding the cabals has simply been shifted to Nigerians. Government has given the cabal blank cheques, drawn on the faceless, voiceless Nigerians instead of addressing corruption that has engulfed the sector. It should protect the Nigerian masses from these robbers. If government avoids this task, who will save us from the bloodsucking vampires and what duty does the government owe us?’ From Anike.

• Jonathan

For Olatunji Dare Your article “The week after” is very imaginative. Let ministers of Finance, Petroleum Resources and CBN Governor answer the question: where will the trillions earmarked for SURE come from? Anonymous Jonathan is quite inexperienced as per governance. Is this what he promised during his campaign? Is this his Breath of Fresh Air? People like Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke are enemies of the masses and deserve to be removed from the scheme of things before they cause further damage. From Adenike Bamidele No fuel tanker is smuggled across Nigeria’s borders without the awareness of Customs officers in that area. Yet, they are under Dr Okonjo-Iweala. From OSAS You have spoken the heart of many silent Nigerians in your column. Jonathan has betrayed 22 million Nigerians who voted him into power. From Bode You wrote quite passionately about the oil subsidy. But it does not make any sense spending 25 per cent of our annual budget on subsidy to just about 41 Nigerians. What we should concern ourselves with, is to ensure that the subsidy removed from PMS is properly reinvested in other areas of our economy. It is for this reason I believe that any protest against the removal of subsidy, is a protest for the cabal. From Ifeanyi, Port Harcourt.

Mr President, please, I am begging you, for God’s sake, do not allow the ‘devil’ to be in control of your administration. Many presidents had come and made history and left. The voice of the people is the voice of God. Listen to the voice so that you can end well as other presidents.

From Dr Ladi Shambo, Niger State The common man’s fate now hangs between harbingers of death — Boko Haram, fuel subsidy removal, gun totting security agents, headstrong political elite and deaf and dumb leaders. Our corrupt system permits the unthinkable (FIXERS). The people must be proactive and prepare to push for the next line of action - impeachment – as stipulated by law.

Now, we know those who can rule us with experience. The minority kite is hogwashed.

Pure sentiments! If impeachment moves are scuttled, the recall option should be pursued.

The current mass action should produce people with strong and active minds, honest and straight-forward, preferrably, with a background of unfeigned piety; who are appalled at the pomp and ostentation that characterise the lifestyle of political leaders in Nigeria. From John Jimoh, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.

An Igbo man whose wife gave birth today has named the son Chibusubsidim, meaning ‘God is my subsidy’. Any Akwa Ibom child born this month is called Subsi-obong or Subsiabasi. Common Yoruba greeting is now eku subsidy. Any Muslim male-child born this month is named Subsideen, girl, Subsidat.

Anonymous A substantial proportion of the proceeds from sales of crude oil, taxes and other royalities is being used to finance the dubious fuel subsidy.

This has left little or nothing to invest, despite our oil producing country status. I quite agree that the withdrawal is ill-timed and ought to be gradual. Anonymous Thanks for your piece on oil subsidy. For the government to win the confidence of the public, it should go back to negotiation with labour and maintain the status quo of N65/litre. The government must be ready to sacrifice very

well as it is preaching to the public. At least, there should be 40 per cent reduction in the total take home pay of ministers, governors and commissioners, federal and state legislators and substantial reduction in the running cost of Aso Rock and other government houses.

Government should bring out a plan to fight corruption in all its facets. With these, the public will give all the support being asked for. From Adisa Adebayo, Ilorin Is it possible that an unpopular policy may be the right one? Is there a chance that the “cabal” may be right on subsidy? What does public trust connote: siding with populist opinion to today’s applause or taking a smack in the face today and tomorrow says: “Oh how visionary he was.” From Dr Nnamdi, Jos Thanks for your article on the back page of The Nation. There is no trillions accruing from subsidy for the SURE project, it is a RUSE. From T. A., Akure.

For Gbenga Omotoso Jonathan: Cabal did not want me to succeed.

Yar’dua:Cabal behind corruption in fuel importation; cabal in your government behind Boko Haram. Haba! Are you cursed with cabals?

From Vic-Foster Thanks for “Mend it or end it”. What the government has done with the subsidy removal is to unleash the identified oil cabal dragons on Nigerians. The burden of feeding the cabals has simply been shifted to Nigerians. Government has given the cabal blank cheques, drawn on the faceless, voiceless Nigerians instead of addressing corruption that has engulfed the sector. It should protect the Nigerian masses from these robbers. If government avoids this task, who will save us from the blood-sucking vampires and what duty does the government owe us? From Anike.

Only a bloody revolution followed by a sovereign national conference can stabilise the nation. From Emma, Makurdi If President Jonathan thinks he can do to corruption what he did to subsidy, labour, please, go back to work. From Chukwudozie P. Onochie, Lagos State Jonathan is the worst president Nigeria ever had. He chooses to listen to only one person out of 167 million people. Mrs Okonjo-Iweala cannot feel the pains of subsidy removal, she and her immediate family do not live in Nigeria. From Alh. Adeboye Lawal, Felele, Ibadan.

The questions that beg for answers in this petroleum subsidy issue are: why is it that there is no other product that is subsidised in Nigeria?

Why shouldn’t there be subsidies for cocoa and cocoa products produced by Yorubas; or cows, tomatoes and onions produced by the Hausa/ Fulanis? You need to visit the oil producing communities in the Niger Delta to see the level of devastation, still petrol sells for N200 per litre in those areas even before the subsidy removal. It is quite hypocritical of the Yoruba and Hausa/Fulanis to condemn Jonathan for taking the bold decision to remove the waste called petroleum subsidy when crude oil does not exist in any core Yoruba or Hausa/Fulani land. After all, Jonathan comes from a foremost oil producing community, Oloibiri! From Sam Nna Ogbonda, Port Harcourt.

For Segun Gbadegesin If Awolowo were here, could he have voted for PDP was the question I asked the other day when the Yoruba voted for Jonathan? It was only Osun State that voted wisely. I have not forgotten that I asked why would Tinubu have directed people to vote for Jonathan? Please, help Nigerians tell Jonathan that it is not by force to implement a masses-against policy.

Obasanjo’s last son (Jonathan) said the subsidy money will be used for infrastructure. So, he did not budget for infrastructure! If a visitor requests for a bottle of Coke will you have

forced him to take 7Up by all means? Nigerians have spoken clearly, we do not want 7up but Coke. If this Uhorobo man insists on 7up, then he might have poisoned it. Nigerians will not drink his 7up, that was why Buhari wept the other day. Dr Gbadegesin, I ought to have greeted you Happy New Year, sir, but I am still looking for Nigerians’ happiness.

Anonymous More power to your elbow in your write-up for the courage and the facts. Anonymous Everyday for the thief, one day for the owner.

Nigerians are enslaved for being patient all along, but great opportunity is opened through the removal of the mystic subsidy. It is time to get rid of corrupt rulers and executive thugs out of the system. No retreat, no surrender.

Jonathan should listen to the voice of reason and wisdom! From Fisayo We said it, we can not entrust our destiny on this man. Thank God, we know our problem, corruption and fraudulent political structure.

Jonathan should use his power on fundamental issues, not subsidy. This is democracy! Vox populi vox dei! From Fisayo It irks me to see the level of intolerance exhited by so-called activists. Why must you always result to name calling? Those who hold different views from you also have their perspectives and must not be seen as government appologists. l am probably more passionate than most of the mob about Nigeria.

The truth l know as an economist is that subsidy is not sustainable in the longrun. What we should focus on is how to make the government accountable in the managemt of the extra funds that will accrue to government.

Why make our children pay in the future for our comfort today? Anonymous “The limits of rationality” was a fine article.

Our expectation in this country has always been about good governance but what have we got?

Insensitive administration. The rage and the reactions of the people were as a result of the insensitivity of the government. They cannot continue to endure the bad policy and decision taken by the government. The people of this country voted overwhelmingly for the President. Now, is this how to pay them back, by imposing a policy that will cripple them for life? So many things that need to be done, are left undone, before taking the present stand.

We do not have adequate refineries and the revamping of old moribund refineries was neglected. An oil producing nation that cannot boast of at least seven refineries. All the infrastructure relating to oil refineries have decayed. Unemployment continues to soar by the day. Our leaders are not bothered about the survival of the poeple as long as they keep on acquiring illegitimate wealth for themselves and families. The persistent killing of southerners does not concern the president but he can take irrational decision to remove oil subsidy with fiat. You see, luck and circumstance always play a role in power. This is inevitable, and actually makes the game more interesting. But, despite what we may think, good luck is more dangerous than bad luck.

Bad luck teaches valuable lessons about patience, timing and the need to be prepared for the worst; good luck deludes us into the opposite lesson, making us think our brilliance will carry us through. The people are patiently waiting for the next general election when they will vote enmass against the PDP which has become the enemy of the people. From Prince Adewumi Agunloye.

Rationally, what is good for goose is also good for gander. Enough is enough! Rationality has limits, period. With this, let there be phased subsidy removal thus: N100, N120 and N140, ending February 2013. This would be a great contribution by the Nigerian cheated for the nation to move forward peacefully. From Lanre Oseni, Lagos.

The pain Jonathan attempted to inflict was least imagined by Nigerians. Worse was his insistence on the irreversibility from N141!

• Omar

Emotion or rationalism, pain is never a friend to the body. Leaders in Nigeria too hate pain; that’s why huge sums are always voted for them.

Anonymous.

For Tunji Adegboyega I read your article titled “Happiest people’s revolt”, and let me just say that I am right there with you. For the first time in all my years of sojourn on God’s green earth, I was proud to be a Nigerian. The collective stance of the people was astonishing and unprecedented, given the hitherto passivity and timidity of the populace. If Nigerians continue to bond together like this, that breath of fresh air may be closer than we thought, after all.

Great article! From Sherina Okoye.

Your own type of democracy is mob rule. If tomorrow, another set of so-called Labour leaders say that fuel should be N10 a litre since we produce crude, then government must obey the people’s wish. You don’t know the meaning of subsidy; you only know it as prices of things going up. How much is a litre of fuel outside Nigeria, even in Arab states with huge reserves but smaller populations? Anonymous.

Should Nigerians suffer for the failure of the government that has found it difficult to expose those benefiting from fuel subsidy?

Jonathan should summon courage to expose the cabal or leave the stage. …The National Assembly should do the right thing before it is too late. From MAO Adigun.

Those who don’t have respect for voters must not be allowed to rule this country again. Our president is becoming a dictator; no matter the forces at his disposal, he can’t crush the will of the people. We’ve travelled this route before. From Alh Adeboye Lawal, Felele, Ibadan.

I have just read your column on the “Happiest people’s revolt”. Thanks for such an incisive and factual analysis. From Ayagga, S.O. I have just read your column on the fuel protests; I am very impressed. It is sincere people like you we need to move this country forward. Aluta continua! Anonymous.

If I may ask, why can’t The Nation see anything good in other political parties, most especially the PDP and Labour Party, except the ACN? From Uko Boniface, Abuja.

Even God knows that whatever calamity that befalls the nation today should be blamed on some of you writers/columnists, more than on the president. Even if the president had made a mistake with the subsidy removal, there are still a thousand and one other ways to help him out and make the subsidy removal work, knowing that he means well, after all. But for some of our writers to rather come up with all manner of destructive comments, predicting and invoking doom on the nation, all in the name of contributing opinion on the fuel crisis, is quite unfortunate. Our writers cannot sound like people in unpatriotic league with one another to destabilise the nation, employing fuel subsidy as a cover and still expect a better Nigeria than the one we have now.

Our leaders are, indeed, bad, but Nigerians are not better either. From Emmanuel Egwu.

I read your article “A president and the people” (The Nation, January 8). God Almighty will continue to load you with wisdom, knowledge and understanding in Jesus’ name.

Enough of these legions over the down-trodden masses! Meet you next week, God willing. From Yemi Ayoade, Saki, Oyo State.

Keshi to depart for S/Africa tomorrow

Pg. 41

Anichebe eyes more goals for Everton

Pg. 41

•As Moyes keen on Onuoha

Nation Wednesday, January 18, 2012

PAGE 23

•Osaze

WENESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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41

NATION SPORT Wigan won't sell Victor Moses

W

IGAN ATHLETIC insist they would not sell star pair Victor Moses and James McCarthy this month.

Latics winger Moses is in talks over a new contract, while McCarthy is admired by Chelsea and Liverpool.

The Sunday Mirror says Wigan have issued a hands off warning to clubs interested in the talented pair.

NATION SPORT

Milan ready to release Taye Taiwo A

C MILAN is eager to re-sign Genoa midfielder Alexander Merkel, and are looking to include Taye Taiwo in a deal that would see the Germany Under-20 star return to the Serie A champions, Tuttosport reports.

Sunshine defender in Turkey trials

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•Victor Moses

UNSHINE Stars defender, Onyii Chiemeka, is undergoing trials with an undisclosed club in the Turkish topflight.

The former Gateway United skipper has been in Turkey for the past two weeks and says he is confident of snagging a deal.

"I cannot reveal the name of the club until the deal is done. However, everything is going on as planned over here in Turkey and by the grace of God, a deal will be sorted out this week," he said.

Chiemeka was a member of the Sunshine Stars squad that lost out in the semi-final stage of the CAF Confederation Cup in their debut campaign last year.

They also lost out on the Nigerian title to Dolphins on the final day of the season.

Celtic turns attention to Uchebo

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ELTIC are set to take a look at Nigerian striker Michael Uchebo after a recent trial at Stoke failed to earn him a move there.

The 21-year-old currently plays for VVV Venlo in the Netherlands but has attracted plenty of attention from around Europe and he is keen to secure a move to the UK. Uchebo was handed a trial by Stoke but was not offered a contract by the Premier League club and now he could be invited

by Celtic to train with Neil Lennon's

squad.

Uchebo, who is out of contract in the summer, has also reportedly attracted the attention of Old Firm rivals Rangers, who could try and lure him to Ibrox this month.

Stoke manager Tony Pulis said he was impressed with what he saw from the striker but a deal was not going to happen, opening up the possibility for other clubs to come in for Uchebo.

"He came in and technically he looks a good player, but he's not going to be for us," he told BBC Radio Stoke.

Rossoneri coach Massimiliano Allegri is keen to add some more depth to his midfield this winter, and the trainer has earmarked the 19-yearold Merkel as the perfect addition to the squad.

Merkel is a product of the Stuttgart youth academy, and moved to AC Milan in the summer of 2008. The midfielder made his official first team debut in December 2010, but left the Serie A giants for Genoa on a coownership deal last summer.

He has since put in a number of impressive performances at the Luigi Ferraris outfit, and AC Milan are now keen to bring him back to Italy's fashion capital, with Taiwo moving in the other direction.

Fulham tables S N.7b bid for Osaze F

ULHAM has opened discussion with West Brom with a bid of N.4 billion (£3 million) to sign Nigerian striker Osaze Odemwingie.

Though, West Brom value Osaze at the £5m mark, but Fulham are willing to pay £3 million plus performancerelated add-ons for the 30-year-old striker.

Fulham, who also parades Nigeria's

Technical director: Green allays fears of conflict with Eagles’ coach

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•Taiwo

IGERIA Football Federation (NFF) Technical Committee Chairman Christopher Green has allayed fear of possible conflict between Super Eagles Chief coach Steven Keshi and the yet to named Technical Director of the National Teams.

Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday, Green said that the duties of the two officers will not interwoven, talkless of causing conflict "their duties will be spell out from on the onset. "The new Technical Director will be incharge of technical policy

‘Hot Akpabio’ training with Ajax

A

JAX CAPE Town have handed highly rated Nigerian striker George Akpabio on trial.

Akpabio, who was a revelation in his first season in Nigerian Premier League, scoring 18 goals, arrived in Cape Town last week, and is

•George Akpabio

N

months. After then Nasarawa United will come back to Lafia. The stadium will certainly be one of the best in the country by the time renovation work is concluded.

"We are eager to play before our home crowd because we know they will act as a motivating force for the players. I want to thank the governor who is working to see that Nasarawa United becomes a brand name in the country with the total renovation of the stadium in Lafia," said Danladi.

Nasarawa United were relegated from the Nigeria Premier League (NPL) in the 2008/2009 season when they finished 19th with 39 points.

From Andrew Abah, Abuja formulation for all our national team. He is expected to the Board through the Secretariat of the Football Federation. The job of the Super Eagles head Coach is already known, and we don't expect him to over step his boundaries". He said that the appointment of the new technical man is been delayed due to paucity of funds affecting the economy. He however remained optimistic that that would be taken care off in a matter of days.

UPER EAGLES’ head Coach Stephen Okechukwu Keshi is expected to depart the country tomorrow to South Africa where he would team up with the crew of a cable television station Supersports to bring expert analysis of the Africa Nations Cup holding in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

According to our source, the former International has gotten his visa to the former apartheid country and is expected to jet out on Thursday. Also expected to travel along with Keshi is the his first assistant Daniel

From Patrick Ngwaogu, Abuja Amokachie who would be part of the crew. It would be recalled that the former internationals had entered into the contract with Supersports before they were appointed, and NFF in its magnanimity has decided to respect the contract, and advised them to return back early enough to thinker the team to the friendly match against Liberia, which would culminate to the qualifier against Rwanda in Kigali on February 29.

Okocha drums up support for Keshi

F

ORMER Super Eagles captain, Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha is drumming up support for national team coach, Stephen Keshi ahead of Nigeria’s first round 2013 Africa Nation’s cup qualifier against Rwanda.

Nigeria face Rwanda over two legs in the first round of qualifying with the first leg billed for February 29 in Kigali. Keshi has started early in his preparations, inviting a slew of domestically based players to camp in Abuja and Jay Jay believes it’s a move in the right direction.

“There are good players in the (domestic) league and I think (Keshi) should be praised for looking towards the home based players,” Okocha told

SuperSport.com.

Local coaches in Nigeria have been criticised in the past for allowing themselves to be influenced but Okocha says former internationals should allow the coach do his job without any interference.

“A coach is paid to take decisions.

All of us (ex internationals) are not coaches; we might have played the game at a very high level but we are not coaches.

“At the end of the day, it is just the coach’s team and with all due respect, we have to allow him do his job,” Jay Jay stressed.

The former Paris Saint Germain and Fenerbahce midfielder however hinted that he would be disposed toward handing pieces of advice to Keshi privately when he sees it necessary.

“Keshi is my friend and as a friend, I could decide to call him up and speak to him about certain issues but it is left to him to decide whether or not he wants to take my advice,” he said.

Nigeria’s Super Eagles will face Rwanda in the second leg of the 2013 Africa nation’s Cup qualifier on the weekend of June 15 to 17.

Golden Eaglets’ boss, Manu Garba okays salary slash •Says patriotism comes naturally to him

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ESPITE a staggering slash in his monthly emolument as the chief coach of the Golden Eaglets, Manu Garba has confessed that he would accept whatever terms made available to him by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) because he is not driven by money but by his urge to serve his fatherland.

NationSport exclusively scooped from the NFF acting General Secretary, Barrister Musa Amadu in its Tuesday report that the country’s football house has massively reviewed the salaries to be paid to the technical crew of the yet-to-beassembled National U-17 male team owing to the prevailing economic situation.

This according to the report means that the chief coach will have his monthly salary slashed from the agreed N750,000 to N500,000 while his three assistants coach, Emmanuel Amuneke, Nduka Ugbade and Emeka Amadi will earn N300,000 as against N350,000 earlier proposed by the Technical Sub Committee of the NFF. Garba’s three assistants were reported to have objected the initial N350,000 when the news got to them but none of the trio could be reached to comment on the latest development as at the time of filing this report.

When the view of the Golden Eaglets’ coach was sought on Tuesday afternoon, Garba who represented Nigeria at the U-20 World Cup in 1983 in Mexico City told NationSport that no sacrifice was to big to pay for ones fatherland adding that on his part he had no qualms with the latest development highlighting that it was very vital issues concerning their contractual negotiations be sorted on time to allow the technical

From Tunde Liadi, Owerri crew the ample time to prepare a crack team for the country ahead of the African Qualifiers slated to begin very soon.

Garba noted:“I have been in close touch with the Chairman of the Technical Sub Committee and he has assured me that the contract papers will be signed soon. As regard the prevailing economic situation, which I learnt is the reason behind the slash in our salaries, what I will say on that is that, immediately I agreed to work for my fatherland as the chief coach of the Golden Eaglets, I have already agreed to all the dictates of the NFF. Even though I think the current economic hardship should lead to an increase, if it is the other way round I am up to the task and will want to put the country first ahead of other personal ambitions.”

“I will not however speak for my assistants. I will like you to get in touch with them to seek their views on it. I will want the whole talks about the issue concerning the technical crew and what they are going to get monthly to be a thing of the past. It is fast becoming a source of distraction to our programmes.

“We can only work when we are happy and I will like the NFF to resolve what has been disturbing the take off of the technical crew of the team. We have a lot on our hands and we can only achieve them when we are settled to face our jobs. We will only start when we have signed our contract papers and I have been assured it will hold soon,” Garba, who doubles as the Technical Adviser of Gombe United concluded.

Anichebe eyes more goals for Everton

reported to be doing well with the Urban Warriors.

The 19-year-old attended trials with Norwegian top-flight club Viking Stavanger last year, but could not sign because his Nigerian club Plateau United refused to release him, as they were fighting relegation.

"We had another option to send him to Europe for trials, but opted for Ajax Cape Town for their ability to develop youngsters into great players before sending them overseas," Akpabio's manager Mohammed Lawal tells KickOff.com.

"We are confident that he will do well at Ajax because he is a great player."

KickOff Nigeria editor Colin Udoh has this to say about the striker: "Akpabio played for the unfashionable Plateau United and was neck-and-neck with leading goalscorer Jude Aneke for the top scorer's prize in only his first season in the NPL." "He was a target of all top Nigerian clubs – and some in Europe. I'm actually surprised he didn't choose to go to Europe on trial again."

•As Moyes keen on Onuoha

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IGERIA international Victor Anichebe is hoping to hit more targets for Everton after coming on from the bench against West Brom and Villa to net two goals.

The Nigerian International is hoping with the help of the new boys, he can go on and score more for Everton.

Big Vic said: "It was a good team performance against Aston Villa.

We've got a lot of injuries and we've been unlucky over the last few seasons with injuries.

"Shane Duffy, Darron Gibson, Landon Donovan and myself have come in and we've come together as a team and we've done ourselves proud.

"Landon's done ever so well since he came in, he's played three games in quick succession and his ball for the goal was fantastic.

"I saw some great balls Darron was playing to the forwards and hopefully he can gain some confidence and fitness. I think he's a great signing and I'm sure he'll push on to keep doing

Nasarawa Utd relocates to Kafanchan ASARAWA United have made arrangement to play their home games in Kafanchan in this season's Nigeria National League (NNL).

The original home of Nasarawa United - the Lafia stadium - will be under renovation according to chairman of the club, Barrister Isaac Danladi.

SuperSport.com has also been informed that the renovation of the Lafia stadium will last for three months.

"The contract has been awarded and very soon work will start on the (Lafia) stadium. We are hopeful that everything will be done in three

By Bimbo Adesina Dickson Etuhu has also been encouraged by rumours that West Brom manager Roy Hodgson has a poor relationship with the Nigerina international and is willing to listen to offers for the striker, who scored 15 Premier League goals in his debut season but has followed up with only

four in 17 league matches this season.

Odemwingie’s future was thrown in doubt last November after Hodgson claimed Albion had got “nothing” out of the player this season, adding he was “difficult to work out”.

Although Hodgson has since claimed he is not looking to sell Osaze, it is understood he will allow the former Lille and Lokomotiv Moscow striker to leave if West Brom’s valuation is matched.

Coincidentally, Hodgson is also closely monitoring Bristol City’s Maynard and is expected to move for the 25-year-old if he sells Odemwingie.

There is a growing acceptance among Fulham senior officials that Zamora, who turned 31 on Monday, is for sale at the right price, believed to be around the five million pound mark.

Osaze joined West Brom on August 20, 2010 fron Russia side, Locomotiv Moscow for an undisclosed fee on a two-year contract, with the option of a third year in the club's favour.

However, on August 18, 2011 Osaze signed a new three-year agreement with the Albion, after a £4 m bid from Wigan Athletic was turned down by the club.

Keshi to depart for S/Africa tomorrow

well for us."

However, Everton manager David Moyes is hopeful of signing Nedum Onuoha on a permanent deal this month having attempted in the past to sign the Manchester City defender.

Onuoha, 25, has two years left on his City deal from this summer but has not been a part of Roberto Mancini's plans for some time and spent last season on loan at Sunderland. He came on as a substitute for City in last night's win over Wigan Athletic – his first Premier League appearance for the club in two years – and would cost around £4m.

Moyes was at the DW Stadium to watch last night's game in which Onuoha only featured because of the raft of injuries and suspensions currently afflicting Mancini's side.

Onuoha has on occasions trained with the club's development squad instead of the first team, along with fellow Mancini outcast Wayne Bridge.

Everton have inquired about Onuoha before and were close to signing the player in August last year.

The player himself was developed at City's academy but struggled to get games under Mancini's predecessor Mark Hughes as well as the Italian.

It was during negotiations over Onuoha's contract that City's former chief executive, Garry Cook, committed his email gaffe in an exchange with Onuoha's mother Anthonia, who has long represented her son. Cook's subsequent denial, followed by an apology led to his resignation from City in September.

Ahmed Musa: First training was difficult

C •Michael Uchebo (r) of VVV Venlo,Guy Ramos of RKC Waalwijk during the Eredivisie match between

SKA MOSCOW new boy Ahmed Musa says he was well received by his new team-mates and Coach Slutsky when he joined the club from VVV Venlo. ''The first training was very difficult. That's because I do not know yet, what are the requirements for the coaches. Even one name, not at all remember. Do

not worry, It'll take some time, and I will be comfortable,'' says Musa to sports.ru and adds: ''The coach encouraged me.

Expressed his joy that I came and I'll play for CSKA. Said a few kind words. I was very pleased.''

Musa, a big fan of Arsenal, won't be lonely in Russia, as his partner is expected to join him soon in Moscow.

•Anichebe

SCAVENGING

INCENTIVE

PROJECT

Scramble for car parts at burnt church

N400m fertilisers for Sokoto

Rotary fights poverty in Awka

Osun

Caliphate 28

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Anambra

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Email: news_extra@yahoo.com

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

Page 25

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HE first major traditional ceremony in Enugwu-ukwu, Anambra State under its new ruler, Igwe Raph Obumnemeh Ekpeh, attracted a huge crowd of residents and also dignitaries from outside the community.

Enugwu-ukwu kingdom is in Njikoka Local Government Area of the state.

Former Vice President Dr. Alex Ekwueme and his wife Beatrice graced the community’s Igu-Aro, a ceremony at which deserving members of Enugwu-ukwu and others from neighbouring communities were conferred with chieftaincy titles.

Anambra State Deputy Governor Emeka Sibeudu was also there, as was Senator Chris Ngige representing the state’s Central District.

The Igwe as well as his guests harped on the need for members of the community to develop it. They noted the giant strides some indigenous Enugwu-ukwu people have made to develop the community, but they also stressed that a lot more needs to be done.

Erosion is an issue in the community. So is defacement of the town, with illegal structures in many places.

Ngige urged members to rally round their monarch and ensure peace in the community. Without peace, there cannot be any development, he said.

Nine illustrious men and women were honoured with chieftaincy titles, including the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) man in Delta state, Dr. Onyii Oguno.

Others were Senator I. G. Abana, Mr. Ben Ngwuocha, Ozo Ignatius Okoye, Hero Okoye, Fidelis Okekearu and Anthony Okeke, among others.

Enugwu-ukwu is surrounded by neighboring

•Igwe Ekpeh (middle) and his chiefs at the Igu-aro

Community rallies members at feast Monarch confers titles in Anambra Dignitaries urge development From Nwanosike Onu, Awka

towns comprising Nawfia, Nise, Agukwu-Nri, Nimo, Abagana and Enugwu-Agidi with an esti-

mated population of 448,000, according to 2009 figures.

The community also believes communities such as Nawfia, Agukwu Nri, Enugwu- Agidi as

well as some other communities like Oraeri, Neni, Enugwu-Ezike, Umudioka, Ogwashi originated from Umunri.

After the death of its monarch,

Igwe Osita Agwuna, who ruled between 1948 and 2007, the community was almost torn to shreds by persons who believed that the traditional stool was their birthright.

The crisis ended with the installation of Raph Ekpeh following the people’s wish that he fill the position left by Agwuna. Ekpeh’s choice, though, did not go down well with some people. But with his recognition by the state governor Mr. Peter Obi, the issuance of a staff of office and the Iguaro ceremony, the dust has settled.

Chief Frank Osita Nwokike praised the effort of Enugwu•Continued on Page 39

Jos residents trained on disaster management

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•Jang

O fewer than 40 residents of Jos, Plateau State capital, have been trained on how to identify and manage crisis. The trainees received tutelage on how to recognise a man-made disaster before it occurs, and when it happens, how to respond quickly in order to reduce its magnitude and save lives and property.

Those trained were a mix of Christians and Muslims as well as representatives of non-govern-

From Marie-Therese Peter, Jos

mental organisations (NGOs).

The four-day training programme was the second phase of the exercise, the first having taken place earlier. The programme, which took place in the state capital, Jos, was organised by a United States-based group, Humanitarian International Services Group (HISG) in conjunction with Global Relief, an

NGO. Organisers said it was aimed at building the capacity of participants for disaster response and reduction as well as strengthening and expanding networks for disaster management.

Speaking with Newsextra, the Executive Director of Global Relief, Mr. Akanimoh Peter said the training was to encourage the preparedness and response to emergencies, build peace and

transform conflict situations so that people can live together peacefully.

According to him, the goals of HISG and Global Reliefs are to eradicate extreme poverty and protect people from the impact of disaster as well as build safer and sustainable communities.

He regretted the difficulties hindering prompt response to •Continued on Page 26

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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Okorocha approves community council development

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FOURTH tier of administration known as community council government has been established in Imo State following Governor Rochas Okorocha’s assent.

Speaking at an interactive meeting held with the state traditional rulers at Concorde Hotel, Owerri, Okorocha emphasised the need to take government to the grassroots in order to achieve proper community development.

Okorocha who disclosed the decision of the state administration to release subvention to boost a smooth running of the Council Government said the fourth tier government shall be governed by its community traditional rulers.

He explained the legal backing the establishment of council government which he said was enshrined in the Nigerian constitution but has been ignored for years.

Okorocha added that the decision to run council government followed a bill passed by the state state House of Assembly.

The governor maintained that the new government would cede more leadership responsibilities to traditional rulers in the state who would be held to account for every action in their community.

The governor maintained that the new government would cede more leadership responsibilities to traditional rulers in the state who would be held to account for every action in their community

He argued that establishing the government at community level would create a healthy competition among Ndi Eze or monarchs and enhance their performance.

He pointed out that this is the only way to get community system right and actualise development at the grassroot.

Governor Okorocha highlighted on the organogram of the council government which he said flows from the Eze as its head, Office of the Secretary in addition to that of the Youth and Woman Leader which are subject to election by option A4.

He also explained the major conditions contained in the constitution that qualified a people to be a community. He listed those conditions: (A) The community must have a Community Church, Hall, 1000 square meters market and, (B) 10 rooms administrative block in addition to a basic population of 5,000 people.

He said that communities that do not meet up with the above stipulated conditions would lose its monarchy, subvention and have their community scrapped outright.

The governor, however, commended the efforts of the traditional rulers so far, asserting that a great change has taken place both in their conduct and attitude.

He charged them to ensure the success and growth of the fourth tier government in their domain.

In his remark, Chairman, Imo State Council of Traditional Rulers, Eze Samuel Ohiri congratulated Okorocha on his victory at the Appeal Court and for the provision of adequate security in the state which he testified ensured the safety of Imo citizens who returned home for Christmas celebrations.

Present at the meeting were; the Speaker, Imo State House of Assembly, Hon. Ben Uwajimogu, Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Anthony Anwuka, Deputy Governor, Sir Jude Agbaso, members of the state legislature, among several others.

•Ekwueme flanked by his wife Beatrice and Anambra Deputy Governor Emeka Sibeudu

Community rallies members at feast •Continued from Page 25

ukwu people who helped to raise the profile of the community.

Nwokike told Newsextra that in spite of ecological problems bordering on erosion menace which he said is the responsibility of government, infrastructural facilities and other basic amenities which abound in the community are easily traceable to self-help development efforts of the people.

He said the community and its people have since realised that government alone cannot provide all the needs of the people.

He listed those needs as roads, electricity, educational and health facilities, market and industries.

The community, according to Igwe Raph Ekpeh, also lacks some basic things. He said that almost every town on the old Onitsha-Enugu road is linked with the Onitsha-Enugu expressway, except Enugwu-ukwu.

Again, he lamented the environmental sanity of the state especially on the highways like kiosks, shanties, mechanics garages and offensive bill boards.

He said all these distort the beauty of Anambra State, adding that if all these are not tackled, the environment would continue to be disorganised and unsightly.

However, he remembered the charisma of his predecessor, the late Osita Agwuna, in office. Igwe Ekpeh said Agwuna contributed

Jos residents trained on disaster management •Continued from Page 25

disasters, saying they include lack of awareness, bad government policy, lack of coordination as well as extreme poverty maintaining his organization and its partners would do all they can to reduce man-made disaster in the communities.

Peter disclosed the first phase of the training which saw the same number of participants bore good results as the trainees trained others in their communities and the persisting problems in the State were averted in some communities due to the collaborative efforts of the adherents of

•Pepper and tomato sellers at an Abuja market as Organised Labour suspended the strike against fuel subsidy removal

a lot in raising the status of the traditional institution.

Ekpeh therefore advised all to be mindful of undue fears and agitations. He said most struggle with phobias, adding that people in positions of authority have an obligation to use their power to do good for the people.

Ngige, a former governor of the state, called on other indigenes of Enugwu-ukwu to give adequate support to the present monarch.

He said without such support the community would be missing from developmental projects, adding that peace is the only thing Enugwu-ukwu needs at this particular period to rise above other communities in the state.

Christianity and Islamic religions.

The representative of HISG, David Bopp was optimistic the problems the nation is facing will come to an end if every trainee trains others and resolved to avert man-made disaster before it occurred.

Meanwhile, the participants were from the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Ja’amatu Nasril Islam (JNI) as well as some NGOs operating in the state.

Participants who spoke said they were better enlightened and equipped on how to identify manmade disaster and intervene on time

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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Scramble for car parts at burnt church

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ECHANICS, spare parts dealers and scavengers have besieged a burnt church in the Alekuwodo area of Osogbo, Osun State State capital, to remove parts of the six cars razed along with the church.

The church called Millennium Gospel Church, and also known as Life Is Struggle, was burnt last week. By the weekend, the scavengers were seen carting away car engines, back axles and other parts of the burnt vehicles. They were unchallenged.

Also, unidentified people came with sledgehammers to remove iron rods from the burnt church and an adjacent building razed with the church.

The church was described as secret and its activities uncomfortable with residents of the area. It was also gathered that the doors of the church was never opened during its service since the church was built over 30 years ago, a development which had always made the residents of the area uncomfortable.

Last Wednesday, a mob set ablaze a cyber-cafe and a shoemaker’s shop said to belong to members of the secret church.

The arrival of the police prevented them from burning the church until the early hours of Friday.

The residents of the area were

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GBO leaders have been urged to put aside their political differences and unite against the senseless killing of their indigenes in the northern part of the country by members of the Boko Haram terrorist organisation.

The coordinator of Good Governance Initiative (GGI), Mr Festus Mbisiogu, who gave the advice, has said that the silence of the northern leaders in the ongoing crises in that part of the country leaves a lot of rooms for suspicion.

According to him, the attack is targeted on the Igbos and not just Christians and that it was a simi-

•Policemen at the site of the burnt church From Adesoji Adeniyi, Osogbo

said to have reported secret activities of the church many times to the police without any response from the law enforcement agency.

A resident, who preferred not

to be named, said the worshippers in the secret church always drummed and sang inaudible songs at night.

A police source said 30 members of the church arrested on Wednesday night were still in police custody while the investigation into their case continued.

30 members of the church arrested on Wednesday night were still in police custody while the investigation into their case continued

Boko Haram: Igbo leaders should unite

By Jude Isiguzo

lar thing that caused the civil war of the late 60s.

Misiogu said that there is no other time that Igbo leaders need to be more united than now as it is the only way they can fight this problem that has taken the lives of thousands of natives in the north.

He also called on all those who have the interest of the country at

heart to rally round President Goodluck Jonathan as he cannot fight these crises alone.

“Igbo leaders should throw away their differences and fight this battle on a common front. For how long will our people continue to be killed in the north?

Boko Haram has issued an ultimatum to Igbos to leave the north or get killed and they are now killing them. What do you expect an Igbo man in the north that has all

his investments there to do? Nigeria is supposed to be one indivisible country but even if we have to divide, we should try and do it without shedding too much blood. Igbo leaders should take a legal action against what is happing in the north because it is getting out of hand. This was the same trend that made Ojukwu to declare the Republic of Biafra in the 60s”, he said.

Mbisiogu said, “The silence of the northern leaders leaves a lot to be imagined. It seems they have a hidden agenda. It is not a war that President Jonathan can fight alone because the people behind the Islamic sect are part of the

government and they are bent on making sure that the president does not succeed. We must stop them before the whole thing gets out of hand”.

The Coordinator of GGI also praised President Jonathan for his courage in solving the fuel subsidy removal problem which had generated a lot of controversy in the last one week.

He urged the President to invest the proceeds of the fuel subsidy properly so that it will benefit the generality of Nigerians, adding that the NGO is solidly behind him in all his visions and commitments in moving the country forward.

Igbo leaders should throw away their differences and fight this battle on a common front. For how long will our people continue to be killed in the north? Boko Haram has issued an ultimatum to Igbos to leave the north or get killed and they are now killing them

•From left: National Missioner, Ansar-Ud-Deen Society of Nigeria Hajia Rabiat Ahmad; Amirah The Criterion, Hajia Shareefah Yusuf; Amirah, Federation of Muslim Women Association (FOMWAN) Lagos State chapter Alhaja Fatimat Gawat and a lecturer at Lagos State University (LASU) Mrs Ganiyat Adenle at ‘a million-man special Jumat service’ at Ojota, Lagos

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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Yobe emirs promise end to Boko Haram T

Sokoto buys N400m fertilisers

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HE Sokoto State government has procured 63,600 bags of assorted fertiliser worth more than N400 million for dry season farming.

Governor Aliyu Wamakko announced this at Kware town when he launched the sale of the commodity.

Wamakko said that the commodity would be sold to farmers at 70 per cent subsidy.

“Each bag of NPK will be sold to farmers at N 1,700 while a bag of Urea goes for N1,800 but on cash basis.’’

The governor also launched the sale of improved seeds, 500 water pumps, •Wamakko

Al-Makura woos Christian leaders OVERNOR Umaru Al-makura of Nasarawa State has asked Christian leaders to cooperate with the government in its efforts at maintaining peace.

Addressing Christian leaders during a meeting he called at Government House, AlMakura also urged them to educate their members on the need to maintain peaceful co-existence with other communities.

He said he called the meeting to enable them interact wih the state government on how best to ensure the security of lives and property as well as maitain cordial relationship among the people.

The governor said his administration believed that the leaders had a role to play in sustaining peace, stability and the protection of lives and property in the state.

Al-makura said he had held series of meetings with security chiefs, traditional rulers and leaders of the Muslim community on the need for peaceful co-existence among

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Nasarawa different groups in the state.

The governor urged people to go about their day to day activities without fear of molestation.

Earlier, the state Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Ishaya Audu, had assured the governor that Christians in the state would continue to work at promoting understanding among different ethnic and religious divides.

He said Christian leaders would also continue to discourage rumours of threats and insecurity being peddled in the state.

Audu, who condemned the activities of the sect, “Boko Haram’’ said it was capable of destroying the lasting relationship between Muslims and Christians in the country.

Don fetes the mentally challenged MOTIONS flowed last Saturday as Prof Grace Ebakota Uduabor of Ambrose Ali University , Ekpoma marked her 70th birthday with the mentally challenged inmates of So-Said Home, Okota. Some friends of the celebrator who were present at the event vowed to follow her example.

The celebrator who was at the So Said-Home as early as 10am, was received by the officials and the inmates as she came with her well wishers, family and friends.

Soul-lifting songs were rendered and prayers offered for long life for the celebratior. Mrs Omomen Olukoya read passages from the Holy Bible from Matthew 25:31-46 and the officiating minister Pastor Kennedy Osebor prayed for the inmates and for their fast recovery and divine healing.

The children of the inmates entertained the professor and the guests as they danced and sang songs in Yoruba and Igbo Languages while wads of naira notes of various denominations were pasted on their heads to appreciate them.

Gbenga Kuye, one of the family members of the celebrator was touched as he shed tears when she saw a medical doctor ,Lily Madichie and a broadcaster and an actress, Rosemary who introduced themselves as inmates and are on their way to recovery from their mental illness. Kuye said he had never in life shed

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tears as the nature of his job does not allow one to betray emotion. However, he pledged to be supplying water to the Home.

Lady Mabel Bade Ojeikere, another guest praised the professor for coming to the less privileged to celebrate her birthday .She said ‘’ I am touched that Prof could come here to celebrate her birthday with these less privileged ones, this shows that she does not discriminate and has human kindness flowing in her vein .We should therefore, emulate her and drink from her wisdom and knowledge . I was once at the airport when I saw young girls spending money and opening champagne celebrating their birthday and I was touched that there were some people out there who had not eaten since morning .I think we should be our brother’s keeper and assist the needy , the less privileged and the have nots.’’

Ojeikere gave some amount of money to the inmates who are going home after being certified okay.

However , Prof Uduabor presented a cheque of N600,000, food and drugs to the home on behalf of her family .Others supported her with N60,000.

The celebrator, who refused to talk to journalists said with emotion’’ I cannot talk now .I am sorry , this is not the time to talk ‘’, she said, this while looking at some of the inmates with pity.

•Prof. Uduabor (in pink dress) and Mrs Martins with the children of destitute as she presents drugs, food items and cash at the event

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RADITIONAL rulers in Yobe State have thrown their weight behind the fight to end Boko Haram attacks in the state. pesticides and other farm implements to Governor Ibrahim Gaidam has also the farmers at subsidised rates. appealed to the Federal Government to deploy more police and other security He said that flood victims in Goronyo, personnel in the state to match the security Silame, Wurno, Illela, Isa and Gada local From Duku Joel, Damaturu challenge. governments were part of the At separate meetings with the Deputy further resolved to work assiduously with beneficiaries.

Inspector General of Police Operations, Alhaji the police and other security agencies to put He further disclosed that the state Audu Abubakar Karasuwa, Chairman of the the nightmare behind Nigerians, noting that government had purchased additional 85 state Council of Chiefs, who is the Emir of everyone was scared by the level of tractors for sale to farmers at subsidised Fika, Alhaji Muhammed Abali Ibn destruction to lives and property. prices.

Muhammad Idrissa, and that of Potiskum, The traditional rulers however warned “Sokoto State is blessed with fertile land Alhaji Umar Bubaram Ibn Wuriwa Bauya as authorities of security agencies not to divert which is okay for an all-year-round well as the Emir of Damaturu, Mai Shehu the welfare of their personnel so that they cultivation; as such, we should seize this Hashimi ll Ibn Umar El-Kanemi all made the would be willing to put in their best. golden opportunity and produce more pledge to support security operatives in their Earlier, the DIG, Alhaji Karasuwa told the food. domains to bring an end to the lingering royal fathers that the police have taken critical ‘’By so doing, we will ensure food crisis. analysis of the Boko Haram activities as well security and curb the menace of poverty “I will live up to expectations, and will as other criminal elements that have hidden and unemployment.’’ augment the efforts of the Federal under the cover of the present situation for a The governor, however, warned the •From right: Prof Lakin Akintola; Alhaji Rasak Gawat and Alhaji Ishaq Tejidini at the rally Government to attain peace in the state and review of operational strategies that would beneficiaries against re-selling the in Lagos. the country at large”, Governor Gaidam put an end to the insecurity problem. pledged. fertiliser and other items in order not to Alhaji Karasuwa added that the Boko The emirs disclosed that they have never defeat the objective of the gesture. rested holding meetings with key members Meanwhile, Dr Jabbi Kilgori, the state of their emirates with a view to working out Commissioner for Agriculture, and the the best possible ways to curb the Boko Chairman of Kware Local Government, HE Miners Association of Nigeria N the face of current security challenges, Haram activities threatening the peace and Alhaji Abubakar Zamau, have both (MAN) has urged the Federal renowned Islamic aid group, Jama’atul unity of not just the state but the country at Government to make solid minerals praised Wamakko for giving priority to Nasril Islam (JNI) has organised special large to rest. an alternative revenue source to reduce the agriculture. reliance on oil.

As royal fathers, they said they would not prayers for peace in Adamawa and the nation in The National President of the association, sit back and watch this to continue. They general.

The Secretary of the group, on Adamawa state, Alhaji Sani Shehu, made the call in an interview with journalists in Jos. Shehu said that the current economic situation had shown that oil alone was incapable of sustaining the country’s economy growth.

The president said that the disagreement over the removal of fuel subsidy pointed to the fact that petroleum alone could not meet the financial challenges of the government.

According to him, the solid minerals sector has the potential of becoming a major alternative revenue source to rescue government from the current economic challenges.

He recalled that the sector contributed to the country’s foreign exchange earnings between the 60s and 80s and urged the government to pay the desired attention to the sector.

“The revenue Nigeria will derive from solid minerals will compete favourably with what it is currently obtaining from petroleum, if the sector is fully developed.

“India has less potential in solid minerals •From left: Senior Lecturer, Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), Dr Ismail Bidmus; than Nigeria but it now earns more than 75 Senior Lecturer, University of Lagos Dr Tajudeen Yusuf and Chief Imam, Lekki Muslim billion dollars annually from the sub-sector; Community Alhaji Abdurraheem Sayi at ‘a million-man Jumat service’ in Lagos South Africa now earns more than 30 billion •Chairman, Itire-Ikate Local Council Development Area Hon Hakeem Bamgbola (right) dollars annually from solid minerals alone.” congratulating Hon Olugbenga Oyebode on his re-appointment as Secretary to the council at the council secretariat, Baruwa, Lagos.

Sokoto

Yobe

Plea for solid minerals

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Women group hails Ojukwu

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RESIDENT of National Council of Women Societies in Nigeria (NCWS), Chief Nkechi Okenmiri-Mba has said that the late Biafran leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu was instrumental to her emergence as the president of the council.

The NCWS President, who was on a condolence visit to Ojukwu’s wife, Bianca alongside Exco members of the council at Casabianca residence of the Ojukwus in Enugu, expressed deep regrets over his death.

She recalled that Ojukwu threw his full weight behind her ambition of becoming President of the women organisation when she approached him during her campaign, stressing that she reminded him that since 1958 no woman from the southeast has ever headed the organisation.

“He supported my ambition to be president of NCWS when I went to him to seek his support and advice. He asked me if indeed I had the support of the then president, that is my predecessor in office, Hajia Ramatu Bala Usman. And when I said yes, he said the only way he could believe she supported me was for her to come with me to his house for discussions. When I visited him with the then President who also gave her assurance and intention to hand over to somebody from the southeast, he then gave his full support,” Okemiri-Mba narrated.

She said after getting the solid support of the then incumbent, Ojukwu called all the wives of the southeast governors and told them the need for the four-year-term position to be occupied by an Igbo woman.

Enugu From Chris Oji, Enugu

She explained that the meeting took place just about six months before the election.

She said she regretted that shortly after that Ojukwu became ill and that probably accounted for the decline in support of all the wives of the Igbo Governors except that of Imo State, Mrs. Rochas Okorocha who, she said backed her candidature until victory was achieved.

“When the Ikemba fell ill, I didn’t get the support of the other governors’ wives except that of Mrs. Rochas Okorocha, the wife of Imo State Governor,” she said.

She described the late Ojukwu as a brave and intelligent leader, who was ready to accommodate anybody regardless of the person’s place of nativity. “Ojukwu was very accommodating,” she remarked, adding that the Igbo people were very pleased that the immediate past president made sure that some one from the southeast zone emerged the president of NCWS. She said her predecessor in office would have joined them in the condolence visit but for the fact that somewhere around Nasarawa State, her convoy ran into a roadblock as a result of the anti-subsidy removal strike and she had to make a u-turn. “She was supposed to come with us but somewhere in Nasarawa, the road was blocked,” said Okemiri-Mba, who was one-time NCWS president in Imo State.

Clerics urge better security

By Tajudeen Adebanjo

THE League of Imams and Alfas in the Southwest has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to tackle insecurity in the country before it goes out of hand .

This was contained in a statement by the group’s Secretary-General, Sheikh Sodrudeen Biobaku, and Publicity Secretary, Sheik Habibullah Adam-El-ilory.

The clerics warned that this was a trying period for Nigeria and it required patience, wisdom, tolerance and forgiveness to solve the problems.

They said: “We are concerned about the recent happenings in the country and want to appeal to President Goodluck Jonathan to consider the poor masses in his policies. It is wrong at this time when people are still struggling to meet daily needs for the government to compound their burden.

“It will interest you to know that since the new price was announced, prices of goods and services have more than doubled. Yet, the economic fortune of the people has continued to decline.

“There is no doubt that there is so much corruption in the oil sector. If the government wants to be sincere, it should tackle corruption headlong rather than placing additional burden on the masses.”

The group also distanced itself from Boko Haram, adding that the glorious Quran in Chapter 5, Verse 32 had warned that “...taking of a single life without justification is akin to killing the whole of community. And if one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole humanity.”

Haram problem would soon be a thing of the past, while urging the people to continue to cooperate with the security operatives.

The DIG said “no good Muslim and no good Christian support the destruction of lives and especially places of worship be it a Church or a Mosque”.

Islamic group prays for peace

I

Plateau

Briefly

•Ibrahim Gaidam

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Youths urged to embrace peace

HE Chief Whip, of Oyo State House of Assembly, Hon. Adigun-Hammed Abiodun has urged Nigerian youths, particularly those in the state, to eschew violence and embrace peace and dialogue in pursuance of their request from the government.

Hon. Adigun-Hammed, who represents Akinyele State Constituency 11 in the House, gave this charge while receiving some youths from his constituency in his office .

He stressed that the current administration under the leadership of Governor Isiaq Abiola Ajimobi has perfected strategies to ensure that youths roaming the streets are gainfully employed, adding that, that was why ‘ youths in Oyo State must give their total support for the government. ’ According to him, this is governor who knows the the problems of the people and how to tackle them. “As youths and leaders of tomorrow, we all believe we should resort to dialogue rather than embarking on any action or activity capable of disrupting the peaceful co-existence among the various groups in the society.

The Murphy Foundation inaugurated in his first term as a member of the House of Assembly to train youths, women and the needy in skills is to partner with the administration in its guest to address unemployment in the state.

The Chief Whip who stressed that apart from 20 thousand Youths Empowerment Scheme of Oyo State tagged YES-O and Keke Ajumose which were recently inaugurated by the governor, many goodies are in pipeline for the benefit of the people of the state irrespective of their social, tribal, religious or political inclinations. “ Senator Ajimobi will surprise many people. You know his antecedents. He can

By Jeremiah Oke

never do anything that will tarnish his good image. He is a man of many parts and I want to tell you that he will do everything within his reach to improve on what he met on ground. I want you to expect monumental development in the next couple of months.

“I want to tell you that some of these projects would have direct benefits on the lives of the people of the state, especially youths. So I want to appeal to you all to always support the ACN government in the state under the able leadership of Senator Ajimobi,” Hon. Adigun-Hammed appealed.

Adamawa Alhaji Gambo Jika, made this known in an interview with reporters in Yola.

Gambo said the special prayers, which lasted three days, was rounded off on Friday.

“As a matter of policy, we took it upon our self every season we have election to organise such prayers for the peaceful conduct of the election.

“It is also for peace in the state in view of the present security problem facing the state and nation in general,” Gambo said.

Gambo said the group was also planning dialogue among various groups to promote unity and peaceful coexistence.

He condemned recent incidents of killing and attack on places of worship and innocent citizens in parts of the state and urged government to match words with action in maintaining law and order.

While urging the diverse people of the state to live in peace, Gambo cautioned politicians against fuelling religious and ethnic sentiments in the ongoing governorship campaigns. He said the recent ethno religious violence in Guyuk, Lamorde, Numan and Girei local governments was the handiwork of such politicians and called for full investigation into the matter with a view to bringing the perpetrators to book.

Army assesses security challenges in Yobe

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HE Chief of Training and Operations, Nigerian Army,Major General Lawrence Ngubane, has led a team of officers to Damaturu to assess the security challenges in Yobe State.

He told Governor Ibrahim Gaidam during a courtesy call that the assessment tour was in preparation for the deployment of soldiers to check the security challenges in the state.

“We had already visited Bauchi, Gombe and Potiskum. We will proceed from Damaturu to Maiduguri and Yola to assess what is on ground.”

Ngubane commended the Yobe State Government for its cooperation and partnership with security agencies to promote peace and security in the area.

•From right: Chairman, Osun State State Pilgrims Board Olakunle Hassan; a protester and President, The Companion, Lagos District Wale Sonaike at a rally in Lagos

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

Life

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Text only: 08023058761

FUEL SUBSIDY REMOVAL PROTESTS

Ogunbiyi’s Am I A Thief ? in Berlin – Page 31

Nigeria’s most controversial patriot – Page 33

Drama on the streets – Page 35

*Mrs Eguavoen

•Mrs Ogunsanya

‘We lost much ’

– SEE PAGE 30

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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‘We lost much to the strike’ Small-scale entrepreneurs in art business are groaning under the pains of fuel subsidy removal.

Gallery owners recount their losses, which run into millions of naira, reports Assistant Editor (Arts) OZOLUA UHAKHEME.

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N December 28, last year, Mydrim Art Gallery, Ikoyi, Lagos, opened its yearly pastel exhibition featuring 14 artists. The exhibition, a platform for the promotion of pastel medium among Nigerian artsts, has been an end-ofyear outing for the gallery in the past 11 years. But because of some logistics problems, that of last year could not hold as scheduled. It was fixed for between December 28 and January 20. A few days into the opening, the exhibition door was shut, no thanks to the protest against fuel subsidy removal. The gallery, like many small-scale entrepreneurs in the creative industry, lost millions of naira to the strike.

The proprietor of Mydrim Art Gallery, Mrs Sinmi Ogunsanya, is at a crossroads on how to recoup her loss.

According to her, apart from settling bills incurred while planning for the exhibition, she is in a quandary on how to pay the salaries of her staff this month.

“We are in a deep mess and don’t know what to do. It is like putting our future face-to-face to us. It is difficult to calculate the losses so far incurred, because it is not as if we have fixed sales each day. And all through the planning, we invested time and money to hold a successful show. Right now, our yearly 11th pastel show had opened shortly before the strike commenced and we have sold nothing because of the strike. People can’t even see the show not to talk of making any sale.

“In fact, the show should have held before the end of last year, but for some logistics. It is hard to give a figure.

But I don’t know how I will pay January salaries considering we did not work in the better part of January,” she said.

Following this development, the gallery may be forced to extend the the show, depending on when the strike is called off by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). The strike was suspended on Monday. The artists may have to wait a little longer to get their money from sales of their works.

The exhibiting artists are: Kelani Abass, Ade Odunfa, Ajibade Awoyemi, Bede Umeh, Chidinma Ochu, Emmanuel Dudu, Jonathan Jefferson. Others are Joseph Ayelero, Kolawole Olojo Kosoko, Kehinde Oso, Moses Oghagbon, Osagie Aimufia, Samuel Ajoiewe and Stanley Dudu.

To small-scale entrepreneurs, such as gallery owners, artists and event centre operators, the strike impact is catastrophic. Many who are counting their losses, say the removal of fuel subsidy was the worst New Year‘s gift’ ever from any administration to Nigerians.

At times like this, art works which are perceived as luxury goods, are worst hit in terms of demand as most people are more concerned with how to provide basic needs such as food.

Like Mrs Ogunsanya, the Manager of Quintessence Gallery, Falomo, Ikoyi, Mr Moses Ohiomokhai, is also lamenting. He said the gallery lost about N1million on each day of the strike.

“We were forced to sit at home. What can we do? It is very painful because this is the period of the year when those returning to their stations outside the country do their shopping in art works. Now, we have lost that opportunity. It is a big loss to us. The art always catches ‘cold’ when other sectors ‘sneeze’. And by the time we resume, it is going to take a longer time to recover these losses because people will be more concerned with how to sort out the basics of life and certainly not the art,” Ohiomokhai said.

The proprietor of Nike Art Gallery, Lekki, Mrs Nike Okundaye, who hosted a solo art exhibition by former Ondo State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Tola Wewe, said her gallery lost millions of naira. “We can’t open the gallery to the public because of the strike. And we don’t know what to do now. Unfortunately, this is

A photo exhibition at Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.

PHOTO : OZOLUA UHAKHEME

‘We are in a deep mess and don’t know what to do. It is like putting our future face-to-face to us. It is difficult to calculate the losses so far incurred because it is not as if we have fixed sales each day.

Right now, our annual eleventh pastel show had opened shortly before the strike commenced and we have sold nothing because of the strike. People can’t even see the show not to talk of making any sale’

•Chief Okonta

•Mrs Okundaye

PROTEST the time visitors to the country buy a few items,” she added.

Owner of Wangboje Art Gallery in Ikoyi Mrs Iwoje Wangboje-Eguavoen said the strike, though a national sacrifice, cost her gallery unquantifiable losses. “As for the losses so far incurred, I don’t want to think about it.

I see it as a sacrifice and I take it the way it comes. I simply closed the gallery when the strike began on Monday because it is a national issue. The reason for the strike affects everybody and we have to support the protest,” she said.

Mrs Bolanle Austen-Peters of Terra Kulture Art Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, who could not quantify her losses

to her centre, said: “The strike is affecting all of us because at the end of the day, we have to pay salaries, bills and other overheads. However, we must support the NLC and the civil society groups by remaining closed till otherwise directed.”

The helmsman at Nkem Art Gallery, Ikoyi, Chief Frank Okonta, described the strike as a hard one on every Nigerian, saying: “as a pensioner I am not fully in business.”

He added: “I do not really feel the strike in terms of losses from sales of art works because my art gallery is not commercial in the real sense of the word. And I have paid salaries to the few staff I have. My gallery is a walking distance from my home though the strike has forced everybody to sit at home.”

Mr Krydz Ikwuemesi, senior art teacher at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, described the period of the strike as another creative window to some artists who can churn out masterpieces, despite the crisis.

Ikwuemesi, who is the owner of Kuroneko Gallery of Art and Craft, in Enugu, however, expressed worry over the level of compliance with the strike in the state.

“I am surprised at the level of apathy in Enugu during this strike. However, the protest affects everybody including artists. But, at times like this, it is difficult to think clearly, though a crisis like this gives room for creativity to blossom. So many artists could be deep inside producing works that may turn out as master pieces,” he said.

Mr Theo Lawson of Freedom Park, Broad Street, Lagos, said the park was shut during the strike.

The Abuja Writers’ Forum (AWF) condemned the subsidy removal, saying the policy has added to the excruciating plight of Nigerians.

Instead of removing the subsidy, the government should have confronted corruption, which is widely perceived to have led to the bloated amount it claims to have expended on subsidy last year. The forum also called on the government to to suspend the policy and address the killings by the Boko Haram sect and bring the perpetrators to book.

“We also congratulate the House of Representatives for seeing that this is the wish of the people. The Senate should take a cue and break its appalling silence that is tantamount to a calculated conspiracy against the citizenry. Faith leaders and traditional rulers should know • Continued on page 31

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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Ogunbiyi’s Am I A Thief ? in Berlin

By Ozolua Uhakheme Assistant Editor (Arts)

A

N upcoming visual artist, Temitayo Ogunbiyi, has held a solo art exhibition: Am I a Thief ? at the Freies Museum in Berlin, Germany.

The show, which was curated by Anastasia Stein (Alice Art Projects), will run till January 29. It focuses on her new work.

The overwhelming focus of the artist’s research of recent years has been analysing and illustrating contemporary modes of communication and how they affect individuals, communities and the larger society.

She exploits digital media in a manner that creaks selfawareness while utilising these media harmoniously and in concert with more traditional methods and materials, such as pencil, drawing and textiles, which will take the form of three dimensional collages.

Among her works for the show are Mama’s cupboard to Uncle’s (a collage of pencil and pen on paper, wood, acrylic and plastic on board); Regular braid, short and long (2012), and The ‘I’ in OWS, a digital textile print (2012).

When we browse the web daily, we borrow and reinterpret ideas and imagery, share our own thoughts and experiences in forums and on social networks, download music, films and software and get inspired by people from all over the world. Do we steal from each other or do we collaborate? Where are the borders between the private and the public and is how cultural exchange and artistic development mediated by contemporary digital technologies of communication?

Am I A Thief? is an exhibition and site specific installation, which will become a temporary artists’ workshop to further develop the art works. The entire project will be digitally documented and released on the web in the form of a short film for virtual posterity.

Ogunbiyi could get collaboration with Kate Williams and Ugoma Adegoke (Zebra). Williams and Adegoke are famous Nigerian fashion designers, who would jointly create a piece of “haute couture” each, with the artist, for display at the exhibition.

Ogunbiyi studied at the Universities of Princeton and Columbia in the United States. Previously based in New York, she is living and working in Lagos.

According to a statement on the museum’s website, TS Art Projects was founded by Tore Suessbier and beginning with Am I A Thief? the project will start an international exhibition programme applying the Flying Gallery concept to cities so far including Berlin, Munich and New York.

•Ogunbiyi at work

•Mama’s cupboard to Uncle’s, (a collage of pencil and pen on paper, wood, acrylic and plastic on board).

VISUAL ART “Rather than presenting artists in a fixed gallery space, a new location will be sought out for every exhibition. In the future one expects, in addition to a classic exhibition format, visual and audio experiments that involve interdisciplinary collaborations, between musicians and artists.

Complementing every exhibition, there will be artist talks, dinner parties, concerts and fashion shows. This

‘When we browse the web daily, we borrow and reinterpret ideas and imagery, share our own thoughts and experiences in forums and on social networks, download music, films and software and get inspired by people from all over the world. Do we steal from each other or do we collaborate? Where are the borders between the private and the public and is how cultural exchange and artistic development mediated by contemporary digital technologies of communication?’

is a means to assimilate the show into the host cities art scene while simultaneously enhancing it,” the statement said.

The statement added that for 25 days, 25 artists would exhibit their works at the Freies Museum and the works would include paintings, photography, drawings, prints, lithography, installations and videos.

“It’s a spontaneous and independent project that was born and developed by joining energy of talented young people of Berlin, who want to share their art and want to do things together. During 25 days, the space will be opened to all sorts of creative initiatives - workshops, ongoing artists’ projects, and dinners with gallerists, performances, music events and screenings. Some of it will be planned ahead, some will happen spontaneously.

“Part of our residency in Freies Museum will be to compose a book in collaboration with Studio Beirut - a Lebanese-Dutch cultural initiative. The publication will be dealing with stories of international artists involved in Transient Museum and is meant to be a documentation of a social and artistic experiment that we engage in, a chapter of Berlin history happening here and now.

We’re very happy to collaborate with Agora Collective, a great team of great people, who will bring their energy, ideas and experience on how to work and create together within the 25 days residency starting from the opening night,” it said.

‘We lost much to the strike’ • Continued from page 30

that this is not the time to turn a blind eye to the suffering visited on their followers,” the forum said.

In a statement, the forum said it is evident that no matter how good intentioned the decision is, it has been fraught with underhand tactics that indicate a pre-determined course of action.

This view, it added, was accentuated by the president’s broadcast on January 7, which again failed to give any convincing reason for the removal of subsidy, and virtually slashed the slender lifeline of trust that remained between the leadership and the followership. “What seems to be the order of the day is a carefully orchestrated governance by deception, which is punctuated by comical contradictions even from the officials,” the forum stated.

It said the government is so insensitive to the hardship of

Nigerians that it went ahead with its intention without first providing the necessary safety nets.

The forum said: “We note that this removal comes at a time everyone recognises that oil subsidy is not the main problem with the economy or the petroleum sector, but unbridled greed and corruption, which the current administration has shown no willingness to combat…

“However, the present situation is no longer a matter of oil subsidy, and has provided a golden opportunity for Nigerians to sanitise governance so that we can kick-start the emergence of a great Nigeria.

There should be investigation into the activities of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and other agencies involved in the procurement and distribution of petroleum products with appropriate punishment for whoever is responsible for the shady practices. Those responsible for siphoning the subsidy money should be made to refund every kobo.”

•Mrs Eguavoen

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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E-mail:- ozoluauhakheme@yahoo.com

Sinclair Emoghene Ogaga is a member of IJOVUDU Nigeria, the brain behind WXYZ, a dance company. He was also involved in the production of I’ll Take My Chances, a movie co-produced by Ini Edo and Emem Isong. Ogaga speaks with TIMILEHIN OSUNDE on the challenges and prospects of dance as a profession and as a business.

‘Dance is my life’

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NTIL very recently, this form of art was not attractive to many youths as a career. Why dance?

“I studied theatre art and majored in dance. Towards the end of my course, I developed this love for dancing. After graduating, I thought about continuing and identifying what statement I would make with dance. I resolved to preach the gospel of studying and practising dance as it is not roadside people that go into it.

My drive too is because there is no professionalism and I developed this idea of bringing in professionalism where we can teach dance and master it as well as trade it till old age. The reason being that in many countries, people still trade dance as professionals in their 60s. So, I reasoned that Nigeria should not be left out and that if we start now it would not be too late, which was why I started WXYZ. How did you come about the last four letters of English alphabets as a name for your dance company?

It sounds like a cliché. You normally would start school from crèche or nursery where the basics are initially taught. I feel Africans are suppose to be mother of art and now we are saying ‘we want to be professionals in it’, I got this catch phrase like professionals start from ‘WXYZ’, unlike amateurs that start from ‘ABCD’. So, literally, it tells me we will start from WXYZ to go onwards. At that point, the sky would not be the limit, we want to go further.

What genre of dance are you into?

For me, I am a contemporary dancer who is trying to go further with my Latin techniques, which is another genre of dance. But for the company, we teach all forms of dancing, provided it’s a means of expressing oneself. We don’t discriminate; Nigerian, traditional, contemporary African and contemporary western provided it will go to developing the human body. That was why in the launching of the dance company, we did several types of dancing.

As starter, how has it been so far?

It has been really challenging. As an art form, dance is not yet known, which means to say as a profession and a business, challenging would be an understatement. Because you have a lot of convincing to do, a lot of finances going in and not getting much returns. It has been tasking in every sense, imagine having to convince parents to allow their children go practise dancing, when they can be lawyers, accountants. And they see us as never-do-wells. So it’s challenging mentally, physically, emotionally and financially, because we are new in a new field but it makes us stronger.

What inspired you?

Fortunately, I have an older brother whose love and passion for football weathered all sorts of storms and today he does what he enjoys doing and also earns a living from it.

I love dancing and to do any other thing would be deception on my part. If I should decide to work somewhere, for example, an oil company I will later come back to continue as a dance instructor.

This is what has encouraged me to pursue it and a conviction of a light at the end of the tunnel. My dream of becoming a professional

•Ogaga (second right) with others during the event

PERFORMANCE dancer has been the source of inspiration.

From Nigeria’s perspective, how will you assess dance as a profession?

It is basically the same thing. It’s just that is not been practised the right way. There are people who travelled and are practicing, teaching dance and are professionals in the field. But now there are very few of them.

Unfortunately, they are in business and they do not have people who will step into their shoes. In Nigeria, there are a few of them but as strong as other countries in Africa.

For instance, South Africa has so many competitions, but in Nigeria, we are not at that level yet and we are still growing. But, I know with time we will get there.

Who is Sinclair Emoghene Ogaga?

Sinclair is a name. Until recently, I think to some people it’s becoming more than a name, maybe because of the face I wear.

People tend to think Sinclair is a difficult person to deal with and a hard nut to crack.

I was born some 20 something years ago in Jos, lived a while in Abuja then back to Jos before gaining admission into University of Benin to study Theatre Arts. This has been my life so far- acting, performing on stage and involvement in various stage and tele-

vision productions. It’s been a long run and now I’m trying to carve a niche for my very new dance company ‘WXYZ’ in the arts and entertainment industry. I am single but also not searching maybe in the next couple of years I will start the search.

Five years from now, where will you wish WXYZ to be?

I pray to see WXYZ becoming a dance company filled with professionals in the field, those who research into dancing, who travel to learn and come back to teach dancing to younger generations. I want to see WXYZ becoming an art form (dance) reaching to people in their homes. As entertainment it there should be many perspectives of it; from the individuals getting training to becoming professionals and being the best in their games. And to see other students enrolling to becoming schooled in the art of dance. So, in five years, we should be seeing a glimpse of it because businesses don’t always grow easily. I want it to become an entity and we should be able to say we are standing at last.

How will you see contemporary dance in five years in this part of the world?

Unfortunately, dance has not followed the trend that music has in recent years. There has been progress, which we have witnessed in music videos, and there has been various dance artistes coming up and making state-

‘I love acting but I can’t think of any other thing I would have done apart from dancing. Coincidentally, I wanted law but when I got into theatre, I saw no reason to go for law again not even if I were given the certificate as a gift, I won’t take it’

ments. But unfortunately, dance as art, which is suppose to have the same boom as music and film has not.

Why have you chosen benin as your base, why not Lagos or Abuja?

To start a business, you need to start small, so for me, my small start is really very small, and Lagos is really very big. Some few years ago, I tried Lagos but some artistes who moved with me started to leave because the city was quite expensive for us.

In Benin, for example, transportation can easily be got with little amount of money for bus fare to rehearsal venue. And dance is something you have to do daily. If you do that in Lagos you won’t get the people to come for the rehearsals, and you will be finding it difficult to reach out especially when dance is your major income.

If you don’t get the jobs coming in regularly, then you have to reach out so that people can contact you for jobs. This requires a sizeable investment and a good number of us went bankrupt. Again, in so many aspects Lagos is the city where you can make it. But, if you start in Benin, gain grounds, you can then think of relocating. Small as Benin is, everyone takes his time and it provides an environment where you can think, put your acts together, and strategize. WXYZ will sell to Lagos when the time comes.

If you were not in the arts (dance), what else would you have been doing?

I love acting but I can’t think of any other thing I would have done apart from dancing. Coincidentally, I wanted Law but when I got into theatre, I saw no reason to go for law again not even if I were given the certificate as a gift, I won’t take it.

So, it still brings me to the fact that I discovered myself by one spiritual hand that pushed me in this direction and now it’s so real. And now dance is my life.

Commonwealth seeks films from movie makers

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HE Commonwealth Foundation is offering funding and capacity building to film makers to produce a short film which explores and challenges society’s values, on the theme of relationships. Applicants must be 18 and above and must be new and emerging film makers working in appropriate media (film, video, new media). Applications must be made via the online application form. According to the foundation, the film should be up to 20 minutes (maximum) in length and funding of between

£3,000 and £8,000 per film is available. Applicants must be available for an initial skills-building workshop in early March and available to make the film between March and May 2012. Individual filmmakers or collectives should submit a proposal which explores the theme of love in its broadest sense, whether inter-racial, inter-generational or within and between the sexes. The theme should be relevant to the filmmaker and their community.The Commonwealth is looking for original, bold and authentic films in any genre, which entertain as well as

stimulate and encourage debate both locally and globally. Deadline for receipt of applications is 31 January. The entries must be original, bold and authentic films in any genre which entertain as well as stimulate and encourage debate both locally and globally. The film may be a drama or documentary, or a mixture of different genres, comedy or a more serious approach. The films can be made in your local language but in these cases must include sub-titles in English.

The main aim of the film should be to engage and entertain, as well as stimulate and

encourage debate, i.e. it should be an oblique and subtle exploration of a challenging issue in your community. Depending on the sensitivity of the subject matter, the films may be made outside your community or country if necessary or appropriate. The resulting films will be shown locally and internationally to stimulate open debate around these issues, in local communities as well as national television and radio. The films may be shown anonymously if particularly sensitive.

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Nigeria’s most controversial patriot

BOOK REVIEW

POEM

Title:

The ‘Rebel’ I Served

Author:

Uche Ezechukwu;

Publisher:

ThoniMartins Ltd

Reviewer:

Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

By Oluseyi Macaulay

Ninja armed with flying swords noble offering on ignoble wings temples of blood on towers of strength nightmare at dawn Evil boarded on a flight of blind faith assembly of clouds of innocents purpled sky with vials of horror terror at dawn

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HE late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu who died last December is yet to be buried but a book is about to be released on his charmed life and times. It’s in character that Ojukwu almost always dominated all discourse during his journey on earth. In death, he has upped the ante of his enigmatic profile through the imminent release of Ojukwu: The Rebel I Served written by the irrepressible journalist Uche Ezechukwu who served as Ojukwu’s media assistant and speechwriter for two years following the ex-rebel’s pardon and return to Nigeria.

It is, indeed, remarkable that the causes that Ojukwu championed are still staring Nigeria in the face. Ojukwu served as a kind of Nostradamus in seeing far into the future well ahead of his contemporaries; whence the reality of some eminences who opposed him in the past are now calling for a Nigerian confederation! As a world figure in his leadership of the Republic of Biafra, Ojukwu graced the cover of the esteemed TIME magazine and forged friendships with distinguished deans such as the bestselling author Frederick Forsyth, author of The Day of the Jackal.

Ezechukwu brings to bear on the book his intimate knowledge of Ojukwu at close quarters. Ojukwu: The Rebel I Served is thus a candid encapsulation of a well-rounded life. The book is deservedly dedicated “to Mr. Peter Gregory Obi, ‘the uncommon Governor of Anambra State’ (as the Ikemba himself used to describe him), for the unprecedented care, love and attention, which he extended to the icon, thus enabling him spend his last years on earth in comfort and contentment.” It is noteworthy that Ojukwu’s last wish on earth was the clarion call on voters in his native Anambra State to re-elect Governor Obi. When that wish was granted him through the winning of the election by Peter Obi, Ojukwu saluted the people of Anambra State for “giving me a befitting burial even while I’m still alive.”

The known truths about Ojukwu’s life such as being the leader of Biafra in the 30-month civil war and consequently going on a 13-year exile in Cote d’Ivoire are given greater muster through the mastery of Ezechukwu who was strategically poised to know the issues. In his foreword to the book, Obinwa Ben Nnaji, the founding editor of the defunct Enugu-based Satellite newspaper where Ezechukwu was a star columnist, writes: “Many regard it as unfortunate that the Ikemba was not able to pen his memoirs in his lifetime. But all hope is not lost.

The ‘Rebel’ I Served will definitely serve as an adequate stop gap, which will help fill a yawning gap, and add to the rich collection of the literature on the events of before, during and after Biafra, in which most of us were proud to have played an active part.”

It is a mark of Ezechukwu’s doggedness that he wrote the entire book in 17 days flat! Ojukwu died on November 26, 2011, aged 79, and we are here reviewing a book on his life and death barely two months after! Ezechukwu sums up the Ojukwu persona thus: “He was a special, yet a natural person – humane, understanding, fearless, humorous, extremely intelligent, tender, charming and more.

He was also a natural person with normal human foibles: he was often over-ambitious, spontaneous, selfish and even rash at times. Yes, he was not an angel…” To that extent, Ezechukwu has not penned a hagiography. The author’s objectivity cannot be gainsaid. Ojukwu told Ezechukwu that he did not find being addressed as a rebel appalling because it was only rebels who changed the course of history.

The author happened to be a child soldier in the wilds of Biafra, so he was up there with the Ojukwu phenomenon from the very beginning. It was on a certain Tuesday before the Easter of 1986 that Ezechukwu met Ojukwu in flesh and blood through the introduction made pos-

A Hole in the heart of a city

Web of fear spawned by fairy tales untimely paradise violently seduced heroes begot in liars of deception anguish at dawn Yeast of hatred bread of sorrow table of friendship sawn asunder pills of distrust freely dispensed angst at dawn odious fumes of a vile sacrifice pyramid pyres of steel ashen faces gloom at dawn Rabid warriors unleashed crimson embers stoked flashpoint disaster at dawn killers vilified and adorned strength resurrected dagger of vengeance peace at night

A House is not a home sible by the late Chief Chris Offodile. Ojukwu’s controversial declaration for the then ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and the concomitant rivalry with Nnamdi Azikiwe’s Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) forms a pivotal anchor as Ezechukwu worked for Satellite newspaper owned by the family of the then Anambra State Governor Jim Nwobodo of the NPP. There are glimpses of Ojukwu’s war of attrition with the Lagos State government over the ownership of Villaska Lodge, Ikoyi, during which Ojukwu always camped out in the open with Stella Onyeador.

It should serve as a measure of Ojukwu’s spirit of accommodation that he employed Ezechukwu as the editor of his magazine NewGlobe, even as some people had given to the ex-Biafra leader anti-Ojukwu articles written by the author in his Satellite column. Insights about Nigerian leaders such as Murtala Muhammed, Olusegun Obasanjo, TY Danjuma etc abound in the book. There is the bombshell that Murtala Muhammed actually hails from Edo State!

Vistas such as Rev Father Anozie’s deranging attack on Ojukwu in church are enthralling. Ojukwu, according to Ezechukwu, “inwardly rued the fact that neither Zik nor he was able to do for Ndigbo what Awo had done for his Yoruba people” and believed that the “Yoruba nation will one day, at their convenience, pull out of Nigeria, without firing a shot, and that is due to the Awo legacy...” In Ojukwu’s view, “the bane of Igbo politics in Nigeria was that Ndigbo were too emotional and believed that politics was religion where the change or adjustment of their political beliefs with changing circumstances was akin to changing your faith which was apostasy that was frowned at in every religion.”

Ojukwu: The Rebel I Served is a remarkable read.

Ezechukwu has given the world an insight into the mind of one of the most gifted Nigerians ever. Given that the book was written in 17 days, there are, of course, some editing errors such as on Page 15: “The Southeast and its leaders had filed out, a mere fortnight earlier to celebrant (sic) his last birthday…” The errors will definitely be corrected in future editions. A very insightful book to behold, Ezechukwu’s Ojukwu: The Rebel I Served deserves an esteemed place in every library.

They adorn these walls as ugly ornaments Invisible trails of vermin Painted with the bile of bitterness For all to see The roof is a dome of cobwebs spun with entangled filial threads that trap the sun’s warmth plunging the enclave in perpetual cold Its fragile foundation quaked by a split along maternal lines that displaced brethren into separate camps still records intrigues and suspicions as after shocks The patriarch wears a mask of anger to scare off domestic intruders and hide the wrinkles of frustrations itched so deeply on his forehead His smiles are rare as comets they brighten this chasm of darkness in a flash then disappear into oblivion with a furious blaze The pain of deprivation soars like hot knife threatening to rend soul and spirit hurting relationships with peers dulling the senses of learning The wind howls in sympathy to mournful tales of vineyard trees wilted leaves and gaunt branches yearning for the refreshments of fertile soils

College alumni back alma mater

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CALL has gone to old boys of Urhobo College, Effurun,Warri, Delta State, to assist their alma mater.

At a forum in Lagos, an industralist, Mr Austin Eruotor, urged them to give back to the school that made them.

He spoke at a fund raising by the Lagos branch of the Old Boys Association of the College. The fund raised will be used to improve the standard of facilities and support students who are in need.

Urhobo College is over 60 years old and reputed for producing notable experienced and seasoned professionals.

In his remarks, Eruotor said it is the right of every child to be educated and provided for by parents and society. He added that it would be an

•Mr Eruotor

By Nsikakabasi Daniels

act of ingratitude for the former students whom God has blessed not to contribute meaningfully in developing the college and the larger society.

“We are poised for a change and we will not rest until we achieve what we are about to do without making noise. At the end, our collectivelysown good seeds will speak for us all,” he said.

He called on government to ensure that monies that will accrue from the withdrawal of fuel subsidy is well utilised for the benefit of the citizenry, adding that government cannot do it all because building a greater and peaceful Nigeria is the responsibility of all Nigerians devoid of religion or tribe.

He said: “We should dare to be like God for He

neither tribe nor religion and respect the right of others and learn to forgive.”

Chief Okotete urged our leaders to be cautious in their utterances so that ambers of disunity would not be fanned. He said in their days, people from ethnic divides lived peacefully among themselves without any form of rancour or suspicion.

Chief Okunmagba stressed the need for the younger generation to focus on things that would add value to their lives and that of their immediate society. He said every individual, no matter his or her level of education, has a contribution to make towards the wellbeing of the society. He advised the youth to emulate leaders with integrity who are selfless with humane spirit and liberal approach to life.

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

The Midweek Magazine E-mail:- ozoluauhakheme@yahoo.com

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T is common knowledge that understanding the language of a people or an industry is an advantage for those selling to participate in the affairs of such a people or doing business in such an industry. Their ability to comprehend and communicate issues clearly in an environment is contingent upon your understanding of the language.

The oil and gas industry as the money-spinner of the Nigerian economy, no doubt, is a familiar but technical terrain, where those with the understanding of the terminologies are in a privileged position to seal up business deals without reservation.

At a period like this when the sector is at crossroads over deregulation, the knowledge of the language of oil and gas is, therefore, critical to practitioners, businessmen, contractors and students whose business require frequent contacts and communication with the industry.

Besides these categories of persons, energy journalists who report the oil and gas industry, and upon whom the general public depend for information and general development, also require a reference material to boost their reportorial capacity.

Michael Honren Owhoko, author of The Language of Oil & Gas, had this category of persons in mind when he conceived the book in 1999. According to him, the book is aimed at boosting the understanding of the language of the petroleum industry, and encourages increased participation. The book is a complete explanation of oil and gas terminology containing current developments in the petroleum frontiers with detailed definitions.

In putting the book together, the author was particularly concerned about the energy journalists who have the responsibility of reporting events of the petroleum industry to the public. He said since over 90 percent of them are non-science and engineering graduates, a material that will deepen their understanding of the language was imperative.

The author who is also an energy journalist and one time Energy Editor, Business Times, Editor, Nigerian Gas, as well as Publicity Secretary, Nigerian Gas Association said, “I know as a matter of fact that a book of this nature will facilitate the reportorial capacity of journalists assigned to energy beat.”

The book is a product of a well researched work and that care had been taken to comprehensively incorporate terminologies and expressions that are generally used in the petroleum industry in the book.

The book which was published in October 2010 by Media Issues Limited was released into the market in last February. Only about seven months ago, yet, the book is characterised by unprecedented market appeal with an overwhelming demand.

It is a known fact that the oil and gas industry thrives on standards, and this explains why every facet of operations is benchmarked against excellence. It is therefore imperative for businessmen and other stakeholders who want to operate successfully in the petroleum sector to come to terms with the reality of the peculiar industry terminologies with a deliberate effort to acquire the language.

‘It is a known fact that the oil and gas industry thrives on standards, and this explains why every facet of operations is benchmarked against excellence. It is, therefore, imperative for businessmen and other stakeholders who want to operate successfully in the petroleum sector to come to terms with the reality of the peculiar industry terminologies with a deliberate effort to acquire the language’

Succour for oil and gas LITERATURE The Language of Oil & Gas is therefore the vehicle for understanding the oil and gas business as well as promoting a free and enhanced relationship with the sector for those determined to stay relevant in the industry within the context of the language.

With this publication, The Language of Oil and Gas,

Owhoko has raised the bar for capacity building among energy journalists across the world. The book is aimed at addressing the challenges faced by energy journalists, and this was why the book was primarily conceived in 1999 when the author was covering the energy beat. The idea of the book was born out of his initial experience when he had difficulties covering the technical aspect of the beat owing to his nonscience and engineering background.

As a result he was under obligation to contribute to the growth of energy reporting in the country by providing a reference material that will encourage those currently covering the beat as well as those who may want to be assigned to it.

Owhoko, who is a member of NAEC and was one time Energy Editor, Business Times and Publicity Secretary, Nigerian Gas Association, said a book of this nature will facilitate the reportorial capacity of journalists assigned to Energy Beat.

The absence of a reference material that is easily accessible to journalists may have informed the popular newsroom maxim that if you want to expose the inefficiency of a journalist, particularly, a greenhorn, post him to the Energy Desk. The book is capable of overwhelming these fears.

Apart from journalists, others such as students, investors, contractors, and businessmen who are venturing into the oil and gas turf for business opportunities will also find the book useful.

Oyadiran leads three others in Enigmatic Last Saturday, Pa Ben Oyadiran, one of the early fine art graduates from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, led three other artists – Kola Okanlawon, Ayo Elebute and Yemi Fakeye – in a group art exhibition entitled: Enigmatic. The exhibition was held at the Ben Oyadiran Gallery in Ibadan, Oyo State. In this chat with OZOLUA UHAKHEME, Oyadiran discusses the issues addressed by the exhibits.

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HAT are the objectives of this maiden exhibition?

We are trying to achieve a revival of traditional original arts in Nigeria. We have to start somewhere and we start with this small gallery here in Ibadan. But we hope to grow from here and spread our tentacles of influence and knowledge to all the parts of Nigeria and eventually to all the parts of the world.

Our identity as a people is irrevocably attached to our arts and our culture. Unfortunately, we are losing that. Our people both young and old think it is cool to pretend not to be able to speak or understand our indigenous languages.

They would rather listen to rap than to ijala and think there’s nothing wrong in being rude to people both and young and old, all because they are wrongly thinking that whatever semblances of foreign culture they observe on television are somehow better than anything they may have at home. But the Chinese man, despite his years of sojourn in the West, continues to cherish his native language, his native arts and his native culture. While his children speak flawless English, they also speak flawless Chinese. While they talk about Picasso, van Gogh, and Monet, they also talk about Gu Kaizhi, Dong Yuan, and Zhan Ziqian.

For our people to hold their own, in this fiercely competitive modern times, they must be proud of where they re from and who they are. Helping to see that, is what I am trying to achieve.

How do you mean?

Art is more than just paintings and sculptures. Art is all

encompassing. We are starting with this exhibition, which will feature paintings and then move on to the celebrations of dance, literature, drama, music, fashion, among others. People all around us have the gene of art in them but probably do not even know it. We will help people see what arts they can do, and then we’ll help them do them.

Not many young artists can relate your face to your works. What are your antecedents?

I am over 80 years old and I am still active in painting and sculpting. I still can lecture you about art history at any given opportunity, tell you about the importance of creativity and originality, and in one single breathe compare the life of Albert Einstein to that of Pablo Picasso.

‘Our identity as a people is irrevocably attached to our arts and our culture.

Unfortunately, we are losing that. Our people both young and old think it is cool to pretend not to be able to speak or understand our indigenous languages. They would rather listen to rap than to ijala and think there’s nothing wrong in being rude to people both and young and old’

I am one of the first generation of artists to graduate from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria. I am an erudite the educator and a master artist.

The title of this exhibition is Enigmatic. Can you explain that?

Ti omode ba subu, a wo iwaju. Ti agbalagba ba subu, a wo eyin wo. This means that when a child stumbles and falls, he looks ahead to fish for help. When an elder stumbles and falls, he looks back to search the cause. It is time for us as a people, to hold still, take stock, and reexamine our ways in order to move forward or make progress.

Our Error Last Wednesday, we erroneously reported in our story, Dele Jegede loses only son. The true report should read Dele Jegede loses son because the Jegede family has four children; a daughter and three sons. The late Ayo was the third and second son. We regret the error.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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The Midweek Magazine

E-mail:- ozoluauhakheme@yahoo.com

Drama ...In theon the streets spirit of Christmas

“S

HOOT me let me die. I want to die for Nigeria.

Shoot me. I want to die.

Shoot me now….” The setting seems like a Nollywood film location. “Nigeria, I die for you. Shoot me now….”

His screaming voice strikes you in the gut as he repeats his desperate petition like a broken record. His voice reverberates within you.

One slow step after another, he advances as he shrieks, wearing the demeanour of a martyr. With both hands raised in the cruciform shape, he looks like a modern day messiah, born to sacrifice his life to revive the humanity that seems dead in the polity of Nigeria.

His coarse voice, like that of an African masquerader, is coming from another world.

As the camera pans into a long shot, a line of heavily-armed mobile policemen comes into view. Their menacingly looking armoured trucks reinforce the martial line, with headlamps flashing confusing and distracting red and blue emergency lights.

The officers raise their weapons in readiness to open fire. But the young man advances without fear or caution, absolutely alone, displaying no iota of apprehension or anxiety, screaming at the top of his lungs. Across the police line, the adrenalin is rising meteorically. The tension is mounting. The inevitable is about to happen. Then, one by one, other young men emerge from the side streets of Abuja into the broad crossroads to join the advancing young man. They are all shouting that they are ready to die for their country. In a matter of seconds, protesters flood the large boulevard. The policemen lower their weapons. Tragedy is averted in Abuja, the artificial city built with oil money as the capital of Nigeria.

Today must be the worst day to stand on the Nigerian road as a police officer. “It takes just one person to confront the tyranny and others will see that the big bad statue has feet of clay,” Abimbola Adelakun, a Nigerian journalist, remarks.

The day before the eve of January 15, the 46th anniversary of the first military coup in Nigeria, Victor Ehikhamenor, the Nigerian painter and installation artist joined peaceful protesters at Falomo in Lagos. As he photographed the event, he could not believe his eyes. No Nollywood director in a sane frame of mind could have preconceived or scripted the drama on Nigerian streets. It is larger than life.

Nearby, Jelili Atiku, a young performance artist stood still as assistants wrapped him up in yards of green and white fabrics, the national colours. The green colour stands for agriculture, and the white for peace. Both agriculture and peace have drastically dwindled in Nigeria. Atiku was preparing for a performance. Skillfully but tightly, they wrap his head and bust in green fabrics, his belly down to his thighs in white, and his feet in green.

Atiku says: “I support the majority of Nigerians protesting against the government’s decision to rescind fuel subsidy.

As an artist, I see art as the most effective medium for expressing social discontent and criticism. On January 13, therefore, I enacted a performance entitled: Nigerian Fetish as my protest and comments on the fuel subsidy removal in Nigeria. The performance was done at Ejigbo, Lagos. Starting at 2.30pm, I had wrapped my body with white and green fabrics and also fastened 27 placards to my body, which thus became a signpost. On both sides of the placards are inscriptions including the following messages: Retain fuel subsidy; Remove corruption not fuel subsidy; Don’t impoverish people; GEJ, You’re an insincere

•Protesters in Lagos.

PHOTO: ISAAC AYODELE

‘As he photographed the event, he could not believe his eyes. No Nollywood director in a sane frame of mind could have preconceived or scripted the drama on Nigerian streets.

It is larger than life’

•Jelili (left) and his colleague

leader; 70 per cent of us live below the poverty line already; We don’t trust your governance again; Why punishing us for your inefficiencies?; Stop inflicting suffering on us; Our economy can sustain fuel subsidy; Don’t send us below poverty line again; Fix the four comatose refineries; Subsidies are our only benefit for being citizens of an oil-rich state; Don’t inflict more hardship on us; Revamp source of energy; GEJ, if you must remove anything, It is Boko Haram; Remove oil Cabal; Are we not the World’s sixth largest export of crude oil? The people is the government; Our demand is a command; Our demand is our power; Our demand: Fix Nigeria; give us peace; police killings and brutality; wipe out corruption; pass petrol industry bill; Give us love; create sufficient jobs; increase refining capacity; Let us become a net exporter of goods not importer; NIGERIA will not perish; Confront oil spillages; enhance our welfare; resolve the problem in education; fund HEALTHCARE adequately; Revamp infrastructure; Enhance transportation system, Fix our roads; Cut cost of governance and recurrent expenditure drastically; Remove astage in governance; Ensure stable power supply; Subsidise transport by 50 per cent; Ensure human capital development; Enhance agriculture; True federalism is the solution; This is modern slavery; To grow economy is not about milking citizens.”

Atiku’s performance takes place on the streets, where he is joined by hundreds of protesters including kids displaying placards that they have designed. Borrowing ideas from African masquerader performances and Afro-diaspora

carnivals, Atiku is also inspired by German modernist Joseph Beuys’s performance, Democracy is Merry of 1973. “Beuys projects the essences and aims of democracy as liberty, participation in governance and dialogue,” Atiku says. He believes that massive anti-subsidy removal protests in Nigeria puts democracy to test in Africa’s most populous nation.

Democracy is also being tested close to the spot on which the premier of the Western region was assassinated in 1966, in the now putrefying city of Ibadan. Occupy Nigeria protesters withdraw the last barricades from the thoroughfares. But dead quiet is the tense evening air. Before the main gates of the University of Ibadan campus, on the highway to Oyo, the streets are deserted as if artificially cleared for a film production.

Across the dual carriage motorway from the university gate is the old shopping complex.

Only a week ago this same arena bubbled and bustled with domestic, romantic, and commercial life. University students, staff, and faculty filled the street to procure goods from hawkers, petty traders, and shopkeepers. Young lovers held hands and whispered sweet nothings.

“Why does she even bother to wear a skirt,” hissed a fruits seller who displayed her ware by the roadside, as she peeled an orange with a tiny blade barely visible in her hand. She was addressing an approaching young lady who, scantily attired, seemed entwined like a climbing rose around her boyfriend. The young lady heard. Colourful language that only Ibadan indigenes could produce was exchanged with free abandon. In broad daylight, Philip,

the dreadlocked lunatic who occupies a corner not too far from the university gates, walked around nude without a care in the world. Rumours had it that he was once an undergraduate before hope abandoned him after years of poverty and despondency. As you dashed across the street without any pedestrian crossing sign, if you were not really careful you could get brushed by scores of battered danfo buses and numberless okada operators jostling for right of way.

All that is different now. After the Oyo State government declared curfew in Ibadan, the capital, the dirty public arenas empty out as night begins to fall. Kunle Famoriyo, the Ibadan based drama practitioner, beamed with enthusiasm, tired after a long day on the streets. “I have just returned from the Occupy Nigeria rally at Bodija, Ibadan,” Famoriyo says with gusto.

“We cannot be tired. Professors, doctors, lawyers, and businessmen were there. DJs and musicians were also available to electrify the arena.” Famoriyo’s passion for the theatre is palpable. His voice is trained, and his body disciplined to capture reality and mime it with artistic fidelity. On stage, every muscle of his face conveys the playwright’s words with uncanny realism. He transforms the writer’s script from fiction to action. He is the master of make-belief, because in art you often have to distort reality to give it some spice. You may exaggerate, abbreviate, or insinuate. But real life, the starting point of art, is not always as sensuously engaging as the fictive forms of making art.

But this time, as Famoriyo narrates the Occupy Nigeria event in Ibadan, he is not delivering his lines from a script. Everything sounds and looks stranger than fiction, but this is the new reality. From the passion on his face, and the exciting message that he is conveying, you could have mistaken the occasion for a stage performance. You have to pinch yourself to check whether this is not a dream. Even Nollywood is more believable than the surreal performances on the streets of Nigeria on the eve of January 15.

•Okediji is of the University of Texas in Austin, USA

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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The Midweek Magazine

Ace broadcaster eyes golden age

‘The station is the favourite of the indigenous people of Lagos and beyond. It operates a programming philosophy of 95 per cent Yoruba and other local dialects in Lagos State, while the remaining five per cent is for English News.

The station is the only one of its kind in Nigeria, dishing out nostalgic melodious songs of yesteryears to the delight of listeners’

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ODAY, the Permanent Secretary, Radio and Television Services, Lagos State, Mr Olalekan Adeleke Ogunbanwo, turns 48.

Ogunbanwo, who joined the broadcast industry as a trainee announcer at the age of 18, rose to the peak of his career through hard work.

In 1997, when the state government deemed it imperative to reorganise the comatose former Lagos State Broadcasting Corporation into two autonomous organisations for efficiency and effectiveness, Ogunbanwo was given the challenge of turning the Radio Service around.

Appointed the General Manager, he gave the job the determination, dynamism, drive, hope and resourcefulness it required. The long-abandoned Eko FM project was quickly completed.

With his leadership style, he revived the dying radio station and patronage gradually rose. The public acceptance and recognition of the two stations was being noted; not surprising, the new station Eko 89.75FM won the Radio category of the first edition of the Pan African Broadcasting Heritage and Achievement (PABHA) Awards 2002.

E-mail:- ozoluauhakheme@yahoo.com

•Ogunbanwo

CELEBRATION Recognising the need for the indigenous audience to have access to information, he submitted a proposal to former Governor of Lagos State Asiwaju Bola Tinubu for the transfer of the old medium wave Radio Lagos to FM. The governor approved and thus was born

the new-improved Radio Lagos 107.5FM “Tiwa n’Tiwa Amititi”. The station is the favourite of the indigenous people of Lagos and beyond. It operates a programming philosophy of 95 per cent Yoruba and other local dialects in Lagos State, while the remaining five per cent is for English News. The station is the only one of its kind in Nigeria, dishing out nostalgic melodious songs of yesteryears to the delight of listeners. The audience reception was instantly electrifying. The discerning sophisticated listeners were amazed that a Public Radio Station could be so innovative and good.

In January 2002, he was appointed Perma-

nent Secretary in the State Civil Service and in February 2005, he was posted to Lagos Television Service to revive the moribund Television Station along with the responsibility of oversight of the Radio Service.

Ogunbanwo brought to the job his usual drive and persistence which culminated in LTV being admitted to the Dstv bouquet channel 129 in June 2008. Lekan is also the initiator of Amuludun Telly, a subsidiary service of HiTV and has been in existence since 2008, specialising in the broadcast of entertainment, lifestyle, music, news and sports in exclusively Yoruba language. Today Amuludun Telly has transformed into a unique brand pioneering indigenous broadcast in the Television industry in Nigeria. The success of the ‘Amuludun Telly experiment’ has, undoubtedly, inspired the birth of other indigenous language service on the HiTV platform. Also in 2009, under his administration, Lagos Television cohosted the Yoruba Music and Film Award (YOMAFA) which was aimed at promotion of excellence in the Yoruba entertainment industry.

In recognition of his outstanding contributions to broadcasting, Olalekan Ogunbanwo has been honoured with several awards which include Announcer of the Year (1981), Best Graduating Student in Phonetics:(FRCN Basic Announcers Course) (1982), Lagos State Media Personality of the Year (1990), Nigeria Media Merit Award TV/Garba Wushishi Prize: as TV Newscaster of the Year (1994), PAN Africa Broadcasting Heritage Achievement Award PABHA/Radio Presenter of the Year (2000), and Award for ingenuity in Broadcasting and Management BobTV honours (2009).

Ogunbanwo, who was born into the family of Pa Emmanuel Adebayo and Madam Ramotu Ogunbanwo of Itun Idomiganran, Ikorodu, had his secondary education at the famous C.M.S Grammar School, Bariga. He is a graduate of English Language (Lagos State University, Ojo) and a Masters Degree holder in Public Administration (University of Lagos).

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

•LONGING FOR CLASS WORK? Pupils of NLNG School, Bonny Island, Port Harcourt during the Meet The Author event.

PHOTO: OZOLUA UHAKHEME

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANAURY 18, 2012

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Mimiko lauds peaceful protests From Damisi Ojo, Akure

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NDO State Governor Olusegun Mimiko has lauded the peaceful manner in which the protests over oil subsidy removal were conducted in the state.

Mimiko declared that the street protests which did not record any tragic incident was a reflection of the genuine desire of the people for peace in the state Addressing a meeting with traditional rulers in Akure, the state capital, Mimiko said, “Our leaders in their respective domains have also held forth to ensure that while we concede the fundamental rights of Labour to protest, they have done it with a sense of responsibility. This blocked the occurrence of any unfortunate incident.

“We appreciate Labour for comporting itself in a most civilised manner. They have been very conscious of the fact that while they have the right to protest, they also have the moral right to ensure that our people are not hurt in anyway.”

The governor also thanked the traditional rulers for their efforts to protect non-indigenes in their domains.

“We have always lived together in peace and harmony. We want to re-emphasise that everybody that is living in Ondo State that is peaceful and living according to the laws of the land will be protected.

“All of us major stakeholders including religious leaders have all resolved that we will do whatever we have to do to ensure that there is no breach of the communal peace that we have always enjoyed in the state.

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HERE are fears that one of the endangered and recently recognised sub-species of chimpanzees seen only in Nigeria and Cameroon would soon disappear.

The alarm was raised by Nigerian conservation biologists who called on Nigerians to preserve the remaining few for posterity.

The biologists added that it was only in the last decade that “scientists recognised this specie as a distinct one,” thereby correcting the initial impression that it was the same specie of chimpanzees found in other parts of

•Governor Rochas Okorocha (middle) flanked by Eze Sam Ohiri and Deputy Governor Sir Jude Agbaso during the meeting with council of Traditional Rulers

I

MO State Governor Owelle Rochas Okorocha has expressed the state government’s preparedness to restructure its health sector.

The governor stated this during an interactive meeting with members of the state chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) at their secretariat in Owerri.

Governor Okorocha said that as part of the restructuring process the government is constructing 27 new General Hospitals and 81 Health Centres in the state, adding that the government will also introduce a Health Insurance Policy in the state in order to take health services to the doorstep of everyone in the state.

Imo restructures health sector Okorocha stated that the state government has approved the payment of the new Medical Salary Structure to doctors in the state but urged them to key into his vision of making Imo State a model state.

He said that from March no subvention would be given to the health sector, adding that doctors should work towards initiating ideas that would enable them pay their workers.

The governor assured the doctors that the life and property are safe.

He called on them to go about their

lawful business.

He also used the occasion to enumerate the various ways the government has put the activities of armed robbers and kidnappers in check.

Also peaking, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Joe Obi Njoku stated that the meeting was at the instance of the governor.

Njoku added that the meeting was a follow-up of an earlier one the governor had with the leader of the NMA on the deplorable condition of hospitals in the state.

In his remark, the chairman of the NMA, Imo State chapter, Dr. Boniface Okorochukwu said that the association in state is prepared to meet with the challenges confronting the health sector.

He told the governor that the standard of services rendered in the hospitals has improved, compared to what it used to be before their last meeting with the governor.

The interactive session also featured contributions from the various doctors on how to move the health system forward.

Alarm over chimpanzee extinction From Marie-Therese Peter, Jos

Africa.

The Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee, whose scientific name is Pan troglodytes ellioti, is among the great apes found occurring naturally in the two countries hence the biologists’ appeal for the urgent need of collaborative action involving all stakeholders and other well meaning indi-

viduals and organizations for its preservation.

According to Miss Jennifer Agaldo, leader of the team which carried out a survey in the Oban Hills division of Cross River National Park in the tropical rain forest belt of south-southern Nigeria, it has been observed that this rare chimpanzee specie has now become very difficult to spot in their habitat suggesting that there might be very few remain-

ing.

The survey she disclosed was supported by the Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP), a partnership of four conservation organisations – BirdLife International, Conservation International, Fauna & Flora International, the Wildlife Conservation Society, whose goals are to promote the development of future conservation leaders and provide them with the capacity to address the most significant conservation issues of the time.

Agaldo said their mission was to assess the population status of the Nigerian-Cameroon chimpanzee and the threats to the species and their habitat and urged citizens not to leave the task of preservation to government alone as “government alone cannot provide the number and maintenance of rangers in protected areas, which is needed for effective patrols to minimize illegal hunting of the chimpanzees and other species and destruction of their habitat”.

The team leader noted that the major threats facing the NigeriaCameroon chimpanzee are the destruction of their habitat by cutting down trees in the forests for farming and timber purposes and hunting for protein needs of local communities living within and around the forests.

She maintained, “These chimpanzees are a national heritage and Nigerians should know that we are blessed and privileged to have these rare chimpanzees in the country and we should work towards protecting them and their habitat.

“Preserving these species, could potentially attract tourists as people around the world would be interested in visiting to see them. This would lead to global interest and more research opportunities within the country and the next generation of Nigerians would not just be told that such a species once existed in our country but rather witness them”

Preserving these species could potentially attract tourists as people around the world would be interested in visiting to see them • A chimpanzee

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

We have also provided electrification of some secondary schools in Awka, supplied reading texts, exercise books to primary schools; we have equally provided assistance to motherless babies, prisoners, among others

Rotary fights poverty in Awka

R

OTARY Club of Awka has done much to improve the lot of residents of the Anambra State capital and its environs.

The club which was chartered in 1984 under the leadership of Prof. Nduka Okafor, a renowned microbiologist, has made a difference in the fight against poverty in the state.

According to its current president, Prof. Austine Nkemdilim Nnoyelu, while speaking with Newsextra recently, “the ancient city of Awka, known for its uncommon legendary craftsmanship and technological ingenuity provided a conducive setting for the new Rotary Club to thrive”.

The Awka Rotary Club is made up of men and women who have distinguished themselves in their chosen vocations and professions like medicine, engineering, law, brewing, trading, media, among others.

Newsextra gathered that before now, the club awarded scholarships to over 100 indigent, floated an apprentice aid scheme and also helped unemployed youths to acquire different skills.

It was further gathered that needs assessments were undertaken in rural communities like Okpuno, Ishiagu and others to seek ways of partnering with these communities in providing technical and logistics support.

The club has been led by 27

•Prof. Nnonyelu in glasses (middle) with other members of Rotary Club, Awka From Nwanosike Onu, Awka

eminent Nigerians and such capable hands as Nduka Okafor, Gilbert Obuekwe, Geff Ogbuagu, Chika Ekwueme, Eric Anazodo, Ndubuisi Nwobu, Sam Ibenegbu, Seb Anekwe, Tony Nwofor, Udoka Imagie, Pat Onyeka and Adaeze Egwuatu among others.

Since its inception, the club has not looked back. Newsextra discovered that it bagged the prestigious Best Club Award in District G140 in 1991, comprising all the clubs in the 11 states of Southeast and Southsouth zones under the leadership of Chief Chika Ekwueme.

Moreover, the Awka Rotary

Club has been involved in the struggle to stamp out polio from the face of the earth. The club invested heavily in this project.

Right now, the club has over 50 Harris Fellows while it has equally attracted over $20,000 which it hopes to double before the end of the present Rotary year.

The President, Prof. A.U. Nnonyelu told Newsextra that the club had equally embarked on building of toilet facilities, provision of borehole water in some rural communities.

He said: “We have also provided electrification of some secondary schools in Awka, supplied reading texts, exercise books to primary schools; we have equally provided assist-

ance to motherless babies, prisoners, among others.

From what Newsextra discovered, the club’s history is replete with humanitarian services not only in Awka metropolis but beyond.

Nnonyelu said: “Rotary Club of Awka is very committed to the propagation of Rotary ideals; this year (2012), the club will improve significantly its membership base by attracting 50 qualified new Rotarians to help in the work of charity to the helpless”.

The organisation also expressed its gratitude to Chief Ozo M. N. C Nwofor, an award winner and Paul Harris Fellow, who according to the club, availed it of meeting venues free of charge

for more than 15 years.

Other kind-hearted hotels used for Rotary meetings, according to Nnonyelu, included Tracy Hotels, Ikenga Hotels, Smith Land Hotels, Choice Hotels, King David Hotels and currently New Orleans Hotel Royale at Udoka Estate in Awka, among others.

One of the beneficiaries of Rotary club of Awka largesse, who gave his name simply as Anthony, told Newsextra that he would never forget the leap given to him by the club.

He said: “I had no hope of furthering my education in life when I met one of the Rotary Club members and narrated my plight, and suddenly that help came when I was given scholarship; I will always remain grateful to Rotary.”

Group urges Ajimobi to reinstate Tokyo

O

YO State Governor Isiaka Abiola Ajimobi has been urged to shun his detractors and ill-advisers by abiding with the Rule of Law, social justice and equity in his actions and

By Tajudeen Adebanjo

deeds.

A socio-cultural group – the Concerned Progressives of Oyo

State - made the call in Ibadan.

In a statement signed by its Chairman, Comrade Rotimi Alen, the group urged Ajimobi to obey the subsisting court judgments on the leadership of the National Un-

•Civil servants returning to work in Abuja at the end of the fuel subsidy strike

ion of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in the state, by reinstating Alhaji Lateef Akinsola a.k.a.

Tokyo as the chairman.

“Since Governor Ajimobi himself is a benefactor of the court processes and the Rule of Law, he cannot afford to take any unilateral action that is tantamount to abuse of the law. Rather, he should always be seen to be a respecter of the Rule of Law in all its ramifications,” the group said.

They declared that the National Industrial Court (NIC) judgment on the authentic leadership of the NURTW in Oyo State is clear and unambiguous in the person of Alhaji Lateef Akinsola a.k.a. Tokyo, while the ruling is subsisting as there has never been any appeal whatsoever that has set it aside till date.

The group remarked that a recent judgment of the Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan pointedly averred that the court would never be party to reviewing a judgment of a court of equal corresponding jurisdiction or a judgment of a sister court and that the judgment of the NIC had laid to rest factionalisation in Oyo NURTW. The statement described Governor Ajimobi as a democrat and respecter of Rule of Law who would not succumb to blackmail from

•Tokyo

sponsored political stooges whatsoever.

“When court orders are being disobeyed, there can be no justice; and when there is no justice, there cannot be peace; and when there is no peace, anarchy follows. And that is why Alhaji Lateef Akinsola has been seeking redress in court through legal means, which is believed to be the last hope of ordinary person,” it said.

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POLITICS THE NATION

E-mail:- politics@thenationonlineng.net

• Gov Imoke

• Okon

• Abang

• Okomiso

Who will fly the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) flag in the April governorship election in Cross River State? Governor Liyel Imoke wants a second term, but two other aspirants are in the race. Correspondent NICHOLAS KALU examines the strengths and weaknesses of the contenders ahead of the January 23 primary.

Battle for Cross River PDP ticket hots up C

ROSS River State has always been perceived as lacking the intrigues that define the essence of the political in this clime. This is largely because the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, which has often been described by members as “one big, happy family”, has had firm control of the state, somehow muscling other political parties out of the political space, while managing to remain cohesive.

It seems the unity of the party has helped keep the state under its control since 1999.

However, it seems the family is not so happy at the moment. Unfolding events in the past months indicate that the days of peace may soon be a thing of the past. Typical of a once good relationship that has gone sour, there have been accusations and counter accusations among different factions that have started emerging in the party.

As the PDP prepares for the primaries of the gubernatorial elections slated for January 23 the lines of dysfunction etched between the various factions are running deeper.

An Appeal Court judgement early last year had postponed the Cross River State governorship elections, along with four others. That was before the primaries of January 9, 2011 had produced Senator Liyel Imoke as the governorship flag bearer of the PDP. He clinched the ticket unopposed and might just have waltzed into Government House without much ado.

At the time, Imoke said the absence of any other contestant from the state at the exercise showed his acceptability by the people due to his commitment to the wellbeing of the people despite the lean resources available PDP. But between then and now, a lot of water, mostly murky, has passed under the bridge.

Now, fighting each other for the gubernatorial ticket on the platform of PDP for the gubernatorial elections which comes up in April are the incumbent governor, Senator Liyel Imoke, former Nigerian Ambassador to Mali and former chairman of the PDP in the state, Chief Sonny Abang, and Chief Patrick Okomiso, who once contested to represent Abi/Yakurr federal constituency in the House of Representatives.

All three recently bought their nomination forms from the PDP national secretariat in Abuja.

Governor Liyel Imoke is from Abi local

government, Abang is from Boki local government and Okomiso from Yakurr, all in the central senatorial district.

Perhaps for political observers in the state, the big surprise is the ambition of Abang, whom many believe had been so close to the Imoke. Abang, it was gathered was part of the “cabal”, of which Imoke was also a member, which had the PDP tightly in their grasp in the state. It was learnt that Abang felt the atmosphere was getting oppresive and decided to be his own man.

Immediately Abang, who was also a former chairman of Boki local council, area, made his intentions known last year, various groups pledging solidarity to the incumbent governor, Senator Liyel Imoke accused the former Ambassador of being a traitor.

The following is a description of Abang’s ambition by Bassey Okim, former state security adviser to the governor.

“To some of us, it was an embarrassment that Chief Sonny Abang who is more like political son to Senator Imoke would get up in the unholy hours of an election year to say that he was going to ask for the governorship of the state. We had said that such an attitude is ungodly and we still say that it is ungodly and immoral. Chief Abang was given all the advantages by Senator Liyel Imoke. He brought him up at the dying days of his reign as chairman of Boki local government area, and made him chairman of the party, kept him there and helped him to become an ambassador. He gave him all the advantages in his political life. So we felt it was wrong to use those advantages against the same man who made you.

There have to be principles even when we talk of our democratic rights or legal rights. These rights should be governed by certain principles and have to be governed

with the fear of God. You can imagine if my father were a king, then I would not allow him to end his tenure or reign, and I get up and tell him I want to take your reign. That is what Absalom did to King David and nobody has ever done that in history and succeeded. We cannot change this position and this is how I would talk to the last day. It is ungodly, it is wrong, it is unconscionable. I pray wisdom prevails on Sonny Abang to spare us the unnecessary trouble of having to say these things again. But so long as this ambition subsists, we would continue to shout to high heavens that it is wrong. We can never support that.”

But Abang does not seem fazed by all these forging ahead, even stronger, with his ambition. If anything, it appears to have added steel to the resolve of the former PDP State chairman.

Abang is also accusing the party of trying to rig him out of the system. According to his camp, there are attempts by the Governor’s camp to handpick delegates for the primary election without adhering to the rules of the party concerning the selection of delegates.

Chairman of the Ambassador Sonny Abang Campaign Organisation, Dr. Godwin Amanke, accused some aides of Imoke of compiling the list of delegates. ‘’They are not in the field doing the campaign. They are rather preparing the list.

Commissioners are writing the list. They have almost finished writing the list of their delegates to be submitted because they have billions to be paid to national officers or to pay to whoever that will want,” he said.

He said they will stop at nothing to ensure that the plot to rig the primaries fail because they will use every legal means to ensure that the proper things are done.

“If they prepare their list because they

‘Unfolding events in the past months indicate that the days of peace may soon be a thing of the past. Typical of a once good relationship that has gone sour, there have been accusations and counter accusations among different factions that have started emerging in the party’

think they have the structure at the secretariat it will be a nullity”, Amanke said.

He said the party guidelines are clear as to how the delegates should emerge - three from each of the wards, to the local government level and to the state level.

Amanke felt sure Abang would emerge victorious in the primary election because “he has campaigned enough and has the support of majority of the party members in the state.”

However, the state chairman of the PDP Mr Ekpo Okon, refuted the allegations.

Also, a top official of the PDP in the state told The Nation, “Let me tell you that nobody was marginalized. The first set of cards that came in were 250, those cards came to the party from the party headquarters in Abuja to the state chapter, and the state chapter distributed them to the local government and then the local government now distributed them to the ward executives of the various chapters, and the instruction was that we should register 250 persons in order of their contributions to their various wards. There was clear order and due process in the distribution of those cards. Those that made noise should go back to their wards and find out why they could not make the first 250.

There was no attempt to marginalize Chief Sonny Abang’s supporters as they would say. Unfortunately, it appears a few supporters of Chief Sonny Abang did not make the first 250 persons. Why, because it is based on their contributions to the growth of the party. So if Sonny Abang has indolent and irrelevant party supporters, they are not expected to make the first 250, but there was no attempt whatsoever to marginalize anybody. The party’s instruction was very clear that we should go back to our wards, democratise the process, follow due process. In the case of my local government, we had to look at the contributions to the party, so the Sonny Abang issue did not play out when we were doing the registration. If any of his supporters were not registered, then it was coincidence, and it was based on the fact that such a person was not an important member of the party in that ward.”

Also it seems Abang is particularly irked by constantly being referred to as Imoke’s “boy”. Recently a horde of Abang’s supporters received him at the Margaret Ekpo • Continued on page 44

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

POLITICS In 2007, Solomon Edebiri contested for Edo State governorship on the platform of the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP). He is seeking the ticket of the Coalition of Progressive Parties (CPPP) for the top job in this year’s poll. He spoke with OSAGIE OTABOR in Benin on his ambition and issues that will dominate the electioneering process.

My plan for Edo, by CPPP aspirant

T

HERE are speculations that CPPP is being funded by PDP and that when the chips are down the coalition will back a PDP candidate?

In 2007, I was invited to join PDP. Because I have integrity, I believe in my vision, I believe in my ideology I did not budge. I do not share the same ideology with PDP. So, it is not possible for me to belong there. If am chosen as the coalition candidate, of course, I will become the leader of the coalition and, therefore, I cannot be dictated to. I will dictate the pace. I have the option to join them or not. But my principle will not allow it. If I pick up the coalition ticket, I will pursue any progressive ideology I will wait for the people to say no at the polls, which I am convinced they will not. I will not let my people down. I will not betray my own integrity. I will not betray my own sincerity. I will stand strong on what I believe in and continue to push.

WHAT are your chances of becoming governor on the platform of CPPP, considering the strength of PDP and ACN in Edo State ?

I am optimistic of emerging CPPP’s candidate because I have done a lot of work. I have also done so much to convince the coalition members that I have what it takes to take the state to the next level. I have what it takes to deliver dividends of democracy to the people.

I have what it takes to supercede what the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) can do.

What are the new things you propose to do?

There is nothing new to do; it is starting afresh. Now, we are in an era where the government is for the rich and the poor are left to suffer in silence. We are coming to say that the poor will have a new lease of life; we will bring succour to them; we will change their fortunes for the better and we will bring school fees down. We will execute what we call an Absolute Social Security System (ASSS) that provides a future for every child, hope for every child and parents.

The system that does not make parents go to sleep and be afraid to wake up in the morning, thinking of how the children will go to school. A system that does not make a pregnant woman go to bed and be afraid that should she fall

• Edebiri

into labour tomorrow, she doesn’t know how to face the medical system. We will bring up a system under which students can go to school whether their parents have money or not.

Do you have the financial might to match the power of incumbency?

The time has come for us to downplay the use of money in politics. History has proved that people can defeat the incumbent. If the incumbent is not a popular person, is not a popular government, history has proved that that candidate, that incumbent can be defeated. You can go round and check in African countries, in European countries, in Nigeria . We know what happened in Imo State . We are aware and it was strongly rumoured that you cannot defeat the incumbent but today the story is different. We are also aware that in a number of states, the story is the same if not for certain obvious manipulations. However, in Edo State , the issue here is clear.

The issue for this election is the people. How much wealth have we created in the people? How much capacity have we built in the people? How much hope have we given to the people? What future have we given to the youths? How much security have we given to them? These are the issues that will determine the next election.

How do you plan to tackle security challenges in the state ?

That is why I talked about our social security system. It will change

the corruption of our traditional system of security. We’ll bring back our traditional values. Our traditional rulers will be held accountable for their communities.

Why do we have traditional rulers in almost every street and on those streets, people are tormented at night, we cannot sleep.

We will bring them back and crime will be monitored. Has anybody been able to define the meaning of security vote? Has anybody ever thought of how security vote should be applied?

Has any person ever thought or looked at the local setting and say the security votes should extend to how we can do local policing?

Anybody that has not thought of that must be one sharing the state wealth. Instead of thinking of how to create security and create wealth for everyone; we are thinking of how to share the wealth. We will depart from that.

Our focus will be on bringing back the real values that existed in the past, that people have ignored. Security is the responsibility of the federal, state, local governments, the chiefs and every member of the community.

Operation Change as your campaign slogan; isn’t it a political statement?

Operation Change is not a political statement. It is a programme that is tailored towards sanitising the environment through the Solomon Iyobosa Edebiri Centre for Change. The centre has a patent acronym, RITA and it simply means Responsibility, Integrity, Transparency and Accountability. It is our belief at the centre that everyone should take upon himself the mantle of personal responsibility. We believe that change is impossible if there is no commitment to change and therefore, we must all commit ourselves to the ethical values that allow change to occur. So, if I get to the Government House, it is not me that will watch myself, RITA will be watching me.

And the millions of people that have stood, watching the television will sit down in the audience and watch me speak about change using RITA will crucify me. So, I have an utmost task to ensure that I deliver, ensuring that RITA philosophy comes to play in the process of delivering myself to the state.

• Chairman House of Reps Committee on Finance, Hon John Enoh (left) with the Chairman Ad hoc Committee Farouk Lawan during the meeting of Minister of Finance with the Ad hoc Committee on the Monitoring of Subsidy Regime in Abuja... Monday PHOTO: ABAYOMI FAYESE

Group supports Mu’azu as PDP chair From Austine Tsenzughul, Bauchi

A

POLITICAL pressure group, Democrats for Good Governance (DFGG), based in the Northeast, is backing former Bauchi State Governor Adamu Mu’azu for the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The Democrats said: ‘’Nigerians must begin to look at the past positive track record of performances of anybody that aspires to hold any public office’’.

In a communiqué issued at their meeting held at Pali Suits and Hotels in Bauchi, the group noted that “the crisis bedeviling the nation today is occasioned by a leadership that has slim foresight.’’

Signed by its Chairman Yusha’u Isa Bala, the Democrats stated that ‘’the Northeast geopolitical zone has contributed immensely to the development of Nigeria, including the prevision of the first Prime Mister of Nigeria, late Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, and should be allowed to provide the national chairman of PDP.’’ According to the group, “the only aptly qualified person to hold that post at this turbulent period is the former governor of Bauchi State, Alhaji Adamu Muazu,who led his state for eight profitable years.’’

It added ‘’Mu’azu left behind a legacy that, at the time of his departure there was no governor that equaled his good record in the Northeast geopolitical zone, and should be given the chance to duplicate similar administrative acumen at national level as experience, knowledge and age are in his favor more than any aspirant from the area.” ‘’Considering the many internal crises from incompetent and selfish leadership, various interest groups and individuals within the party, there is absolute necessity for the party to have a man who is detribalized, selfless, has a proven integrity, visionary and focused, and courageously purposeful ’’, the communiqué said.

On the Fuel subsidy removal, the Democrats asked President Jonathan to listen to the voice of the people, saying “the removal is for the interest of the people and not people for the interest of the subsidy.”

Commenting on security situation, the political pressure group commended President Jonathan, but charged him to ‘’do much more than what has been done as every Nigerian has a right to fair hearing and good things of life and it is the responsibility of the government to provide such services (Security) to its citizens.’’

The meeting held January 14, was attended by 328 delegates from Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe states that make up the Northeast geopolitical zone.

Battle for Cross River PDP ticket hots up • Continued on page 43

International Airport in Calabar.

He addressed them at his residence after a rally through the streets of Calabar to emphasize his desire to run. He said, “In 1998 when we started this process that brought the super machine called the PDP, I was only 28 years old when we built this political family and made Donald Duke governor of Cross River State. Today, the people who rule Cross River State, none is younger than 45 years. They have forgotten us. They call us their boys. Me too I am one of their boys. As old as I am with a good CV, I am still a boy. So if I am a boy, I know where I belong and I belong to the youths. So I am with you. I don’t belong to the high table because I am a boy. For the first time, it is your.”

“After today, I would take you to glory land so that you will see the Cross River State I have in my head. God has blessed me in PDP. I regret nothing, but my heart bleeds for the youths of our state.

I feel I should come and tell you that I am available, but this time, we would reverse the order of politics.”

A curious and unexpected development in the entire drama is the intention of Chief Patrick Okomiso, not to return his own form to the PDP as well as undergo the screening process of the party at the zonal headquarters in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Okomiso said he would still run, because the party lacks internal democracy and that the primaries would not be free and fair.

He called for the party’s executive council to be dissolved and a

new one put in place if the field is to be level for all players.

On why he bought the form if he knew there would be no internal democracy, he said he had not foreseen that the process would be manipulated and prophesied that the state is headed for doomsday if things are not corrected. He said he was consulting with supporters across the state on the next step.

Okomiso had flooded the entire 18 local governments of the state with his poster during Christmas.

Although the posters had no party logo on it, it wished the public, compliments of the season with the message “Leadership means stewardship.”

Meanwhile Governor Imoke appears calm in the face of all these.

On January 1, a crowd of supporters had besieged his home in Abi. Imoke described the crowd as unprecedented and thanked the various groups for their supports, pledges and assurances.

He said that politics is about vision and not ambition and enjoined his supporters not to fear as it is impossible and unimaginable for anyone to defeat him as he pursued a second term in office.

At the moment, Imoke holds the aces. He is leader of the party, has the support of the national headquarters and the president since he acted as the zonal coordinator of President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign last April. He holds the PDP structure in the state. Can Ambassaddor Abang displace him? The full picture will emerge in five days after the primary election.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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THE NATION

INVESTORS Firms count cost of subsidy strike C

OMPANIES are now counting the cost of the fuel subsidy removal strike on their businesses.

According to them, the strike may affect their forecasts for the first quarter (January-March) of this year.

Managing Director, Cowry Asset Management Limited, Mr Johnson Chukwu, said the oneweek strike, which was suspended on Monday, will affect big, medium and small companies.

Beyond the loss of revenue, there is also the loss of capital, particularly for enterprises trading in perishable goods, such as food stuffs, poultry, fishery and meat, which may not have adequate storage facilities because of epileptic power supply, he said.

“In effect, the financial cost of this fuel subsidy strike will manifest in the first quarter performance reports of virtually every company operating in Nigeria, although the magnitude will differ depending on the nature of each company’s line of business,” Chukwu said.

Managing Director, GTI Securities, Mr Tunde Oyekunle, pointed out that with the report that Nigeria lost over N1 trillion during the strike, there would be a bandwagon effect on most quoted companies.

He, however, noted that the level of impact would differ depending on the sensitivity of the sector. He cited the banking industry as one sensitive sector that might feel the stronger impact of the strike.

“There is no doubt that the strike would affect first quarter projections of companies. Already, several billions of naira have been lost as revenues to both government and corporate organisations. Profit forecasts have been distorted already,”Sewa Wusu, economist and investment advisor at Sterling Capital, noted.

Beyond the first quarter ripple effect, analysts were unanimous that the increase in price of PMS would compound the high business costs in the country and further reduce the average profitability of companies.

Oyekunle noted that the retail

U

•From left: Managing Director, Afrinvest West Africa, Ike Chioke; Deputy Group Managing Director, BGL Plc, Chibundu Edozie and Head, Debt Capital Markets, UBA Capital, Egie Akpata, at the shareholders’meeting of United Bank for Africa (UBA) in Lagos.

By Taofik Salako

price of N97 per litre for PMS would increase both production and operation costs of quoted companies.

According to him, there are inherent inflationary effects of the price hike on the economy, which could cause reduction in profitability and force many companies to embark on strategic cost reduction policies including reduction of employees and review of wages and allowances.

“The increase in the cost of petrol from N65 to N97 per litre would certainly add to the overhead costs of companies. A direct consequence of the fuel price increase for companies would be increases in fuelling and transport costs. But beyond this direct impact is the likely increase in the cost of most goods and services, which in some instances act as input for other goods and services, hence a general increase in companies’ overhead costs,” Chukwu noted.

Wusu pointed out the initial multiplier effects on goods and services when the subsidy re-

moval was announced, adding that with a projected 15 per cent inflation by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), there would be further inflationary pressures.

He, however, noted that companies with good marketing strategies and cost cutting measures could mitigate the adverse impact on their performances.

Most quoted companies had been optimistic that they would close the first quarter with strong growths, according to forecasts released by most quoted companies.

Forecasts from most quoted companies for the first quarter ending March 31, 2012 showed that most companies expected improved sales and profitability during the year, with many lossmaking companies hopeful of return to positive net earnings.

Oando Plc has estimated that sales could be about N141.84 billion within the first three months of the year, indicating a possible full-year turnover of N567.4 billion. The board of the company has also estimated net profit of about N2.98 billion during the

period, which could put the company on the path to a full-year profit of some N12 billion.

The projections by Oando indicate that net earnings payable to shareholders per share could be N5.25 during the year, representing a probable earnings yield of 24.1 per cent.Distribution of net earnings, however, depends on the dividend policy of the company.

Cement Company Of Northern Nigeria Plc also expected total sales to hit N3.60 billion by March 2012, indicating a probable simple turnover projection of more than N14 billion for 2012.

The Sokoto-based cement company estimated that net profit after tax attributable to shareholders could be N425.16 million for the three-month period, representing a full-year simple projection of nearly N2 billion.

The projected net profit indicates that investors that buy shares of the cement company at current market price could achieve a probable earnings yield of 32 per cent in 2012, a strong probability of double-digit dividend yield dur-

ing the year.

Also, RT Briscoe (Nigeria) Plc said its sales could be more than N4.73 billion during the first three months of the year while profit after tax was estimated at N85.55 million during the period.

Several companies such as DN Meyer Plc, Evans Medical Plc and Morison Industries Plc that had struggled with losses indicated the new business year might be rewarding to shareholders.

DN Meyer has estimated that it could make modest net profit of N4.9 million on total sales of N503.1 million during the period, an indication that the company might be on course to break its four-year dividend drought.

Also, Evans Medical, which had suffered a major relapse due to accounting scandal, stated that it expected to start 2012 on a positive note. The company predicts that turnover could be N1.62 billion while profit after tax would be more than N62.4 million during the first three months.

Morison Industries also expected a modest net profit of N4.55 million on total sales of N136.84 million during the first quarter.

Union Bank eyes N66.5b profit in three years

NION Bank of Nigeria (UBN) Plc has set a target of N65.5 billion in pre-tax profit in three years. Its board set the target amid hope of a successful recapitalisation of the 95-year-old bank and the huge subscription to its ongoing rights issue.

In a three-year forecast made available to shareholders, the board said it expected that shareholders would have as much as N46.5 billion in net earnings, which it and shareholders could decide on at a general meeting.

Profit after tax exclusively belongs to shareholders who may decide to wholly or partly distribute it in cash payouts or bonus shares or plough it back into the business.

UBN is offering about 1.41 billion

By Taofik Salako

ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at N6.81 per share in the ratio of five new ordinary shares for every nine ordinary shares held as at the September 30, last year. The application list opened on December 14 and will remain open till friday.

According to the indicative timetable for the offer, receiving agents will make returns on February 3 while the parties will forward the allotment proposal to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) late next month. Union Bank is expected to receive the net proceeds of the rights issue in March.

According to the forecasts included in rights issue document, profit before tax is expected to be

about N65.5 billion for the threeyear period between 2012 and 2014.

Profit before tax is expected to be N13.1 billion in 2012 and, thereafter, to N24.6 billion and N27.7 billion in 2013 and 2014.

Net earnings distributable to shareholders is expected to be N9.16 billion in 2012 and subsequently rise to N17.9 billion and N19.4 billion in 2013 and 2014.

Breakdown of net earnings showed that basic earnings per share would be 47.58 kobo, 89.31 kobo and about 101 kobo in 2012, 2013 and 2014, indicating the probable level of dividends that the earnings of the bank might be able to support.

Gross earnings of the bank is estimated at N121.72 billion in 2012 and, thereafter, to N147.85 billion and

N169.22 billion in 2013 and 2014.

The performance of the bank is expected to be driven mainly by its core banking operations with interest incomes estimated to rise from N98.41 billion in 2012 to N119.56 billion in 2013 and spiral further to N133.24 billion in 2014. Net interest income is projected at N70.35 billion in 2012 and it’s expected to subsequently rise by 23 per cent and 12.4 per cent to N87.09 billion and N97.89 billion in 2013 and 2014.

The board noted that it had taken all reasonable assumptions into consideration and the forecasts had been prepared in consistent with the accounting policies normally adopted by the bank.

According to the board, it ex-

pected the growth in trading securities to increase as a result of capital injection from the core investors and rights issue while the impact of the growth in loans and advances over the period would equally result in increase in interest income.

The board said it expected the deposit base of the bank to grow at an average of 13 per cent over the years.

The forecasts, however, were based partly on the success of the ongoing rights issue. However, there were already indications that the issue might be a huge success as several shareholders have indicated interests in picking their rights while many have put in for addi•Continued on page 49

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

49

THE NATION INVESTORS

Osun to float N50b bond, targets private investors with N147b budget

O

SUN State government plans to go to the capital market to raise N50 billion to finance its development programme. The state has also launched its integrated development plan to woo investors.

Governor Rauf Aregbesola said the government will leverage on the opportunities of the capital market to raise a N50 billion bond in two tranches of N35 billion in the first instance and another N15 billion.

By Taofik Salako

According to him, the bond issue will be realised as early as possible.

“As a government, our major role is to create a conducive environment for the thriving of industries in the state. This we shall do with tenacity of purpose in 2012 by providing necessary infrastructure , such as good road networks across the state, regular electricity supply, regular water supply and the like.

Our government is prepared to partner with reliable and worthy investors desirous of establishing their industries in the state,” Aregbesola said.

He urged entrepreneurs and investors to come and establish their businesses in Osun State, assuring that the government was ready to partner with investors by guaranteeing access road, electricity and water to prospective promoters of businesses.

He noted that apart from the advantage of its good geographical location, with its serene environment, Osun has one of the lowest crime rates in the country.

“Our commitment to the development of integrated industrial estates for mini, micro and large manufacturing industries will be pursued with vigour in this fiscal year. The existing industrial estates in Osogbo and Ilesa received the deserved attention of government in this fiscal year. The contract for

the rehabilitation of the road network and drainages within Ilesa Industrial Estate, which cost N95.3 million was awarded during the year and the progress of work has been very satisfactory. Work is also in progress on the electrification of the estate,” Aregbesola said.

He assured that the government would sustain the partnership with the Bank of Industry in providing micro credits for the operators of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).

Union Bank eyes N66.5b profit in three years •Continued from page 48

tional shares.

Recent updates from parties to the rights issue including the issuing houses, registrars, stockbrokers and officials of the bank indicated that the parties were confident that the rights issue would be a huge success.

The ongoing rights issue would give pre-scheme shareholders more equity stake in the

recapitalised Union Bank. In what was considered by several pundits as the best deal of the recent recapitalisation exercises, prescheme shareholders of Union Bank had received three new shares for every 16 shares held to reclaim 15 per cent equity stake in spite of the N116 billion negative shareholders’ funds.

The rights issue would further increase pre-scheme shareholders’

equity stake to 21.5 per cent in the fully recapitalised Union Bank.

Under its recapitalisation deal, Union Bank would receive about $500 million equity capital and $250 million Tier 2 capital from a consortium of international investors to retain its nearly century-old brand and regain its competitive verve as one of the strongest and reliable banks in Nigeria. African Capital Alliance (ACA) is leading

FACTS

TO

other partners including many reputable fund managers, investment funds of The Netherland and United States Governments and Nigerian investors under the Union Global Partners Limited, a special purpose vehicle formed for the recapitalisation of the bank.

TheAsset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) had already raised UBN’s capital base from negative to zero through in-

vestment of N305 billion in the bank. AMCON has thus become the first major investor in the bank owning about 20 per cent with the funds already deposited with the bank since October.

The Board of Directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the US government’s development finance institution has also approved the $250 million tier 2 capital.

FACTS

AG Leventis vs Chellarams: Following the lines of conglomerates

A

G Leventis (Nigeria) Plc and Chellarams Plc are two of the five surviving conglomerates on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). With several business lines and long history of diversified business interests, the facts of their classifications reflect not only in the group structure but also in ownership, management and businesses.

Even with the recent reclassification of companies on the NSE, the two companies were retained under the conglomerates. As conglomerates, their interests range from manufacturing to distribution and retail while their products span foods and beverages, motorcycles, real estate and household items. Chellarams consists of not less than five subsidiaries while AG Leventis has some eight business lines.

With their foreign core shareholders retaining their majority and controlling equity stakes, Chellarams and AG Leventis have been quoted on the stock market for more than three decades and are somewhat indicative of the long-term abiding interests of foreign investors in the economy.

Over the years and with the evolution of the economy, they have modified their business interests to meet emerging economic trends. But all through, they sustain a large basket of business interests, which ensure that from time to time, they reflect, to a large extent, the pulse of the economy.

Both companies appeared to be trailing the same growth pattern with declines in profitability and returns.While Chellarams witnessed substantial growth in sales, high costs impinged on the bottom-line, leaving the company on the same pedestal with AG Leventis which decline in sales had exacerbated declining profitability.

Sales Generation Chellarams’ turnover grew by 20 per cent during the year ended March 31, 2011, a commendable performance given the sluggish sales trend that characterised the conglomerate and consumer business sectors during the period. AG Leventis’ sales dropped by 1.7 per cent during the year ended December 31, 2010 compared with an increase of 21 per cent in 2009, indicating a two-year positive average growth rate of about 10 per cent.

Profitability Both companies witnessed wor-

FACTS TO FACTS

AG Leventis (Nig)

Facts to Facts

Chellarams

Turnover growth Gross profit growth Pre-tax profit growth Gross margin Pre-tax profit margin Net profit growth Return on Assets Return on Equity

2010 % -1.7 -4.5 -55.3 26.2 5.9 -28.6 3.9 7.2

2009 % 21.1 1.1 26.9 13.0 11.7 6.4 10.3

Average % 9.7 -2.25 -27.1 26.55 9.45 -8.45 5.15 8.75

Pre-tax profit margin (Chellarams)

By Taofik Salako

risome declines in both actual profits and underlying profit-making capacity, with actual profits showing negative growth positions on year-on-year basis as well as recent averages. But AG Leventis remained substantially a more profitable company that its competitor with average profit per unit of sale still thrice of that of Chellarams.

Chellarams’ gross profit dropped by 6.4 per cent in 2011, which worsened to 16.5 per cent drop in profit before tax. Post tax, net profit dwindled by 47 per cent. The actual profits reflected the conglomerate’s weakening fundamentals as gross profit margin relapsed from 13 per cent in 2010 to 10 per cent in 2011. Pre-tax profit margin also slipped to 1.5 per cent

as against 2.1 per cent, indicating average margin of 1.8 per cent.

AG Leventis showed similar downtrend with 4.5 per cent decline in gross profit in 2010. With the top-line faltering, the bottomline performance worsened considerably. Pre-tax profit crashed by 55 per cent while profit after declined by 29 per cent, leaving the conglomerate with two-year averages of -27 per cent and-8.15 per cent respectively. Beyond the surface, gross margin slipped from 27 per cent to 26 per cent while pre-tax profit margin nearly halved from 13 per cent to 5.9 per cent.

Actual Returns Both companies have shown declines in their returns in recent years. Chellarams’return on total assets halved from 4.8 per cent to 2.2 per cent, indicating average re-

Turnover growth Gross profit growth Pre-tax profit growth Gross margin Pre-tax profit margin Net profit growth Return on Assets Return on Equity

2011 % 20.2 -6.4 -16.5 10.3 1.5 -47 2.2 7.6

2010 %

13.2 2.1 4.8 15.2

Average % 10.1 -3.2 -8.25 11.75 1.8 -23.5 3.5 11.4

Pre-tax profit margin (AG Leventis)

turn of 3.5 per cent over the past two years. Return on shareholders’ funds also halved from 15.2 per cent to 7.6 per cent, representing a twoyear average of 11.4 per cent.

Similarly, AG Leventis’ return on total assets dropped from 6.4 per cent to 3.9 per cent, indicating an average return of about 5.2 per cent.

Actual return to shareholders, as measured by return on equity, dropped below average to 7.2 per cent as against 10.3 per cent in 2009 and two-year average of 8.75 per cent.

On comparative terms, both companies were at par on returns.

While AG Leventis posted a higher average return on assets, Chellarams beat the competition in return of equity.

The Bottom-line The performance outlooks of the two conglomerates underline the

challenges facing manufacturers, especially consumer goods manufacturers, which usually are the first casualties in a depressing and inflationary economy. With sluggish industry-wide top-line and declining margins,companies such as Chellarams and AG Leventis have been at the receiving end of the global and national economic depression and financial crises.

Poor national infrastructures which have seen most institutions especially manufacturers, and even individuals, functioning as the state generating all basic amenities have compounded the vagaries in the global market. This combination has left most Nigerian manufacturers vulnerable.

The diversity of operations of conglomerates is expected to serve as cushions for them in minor economic corrections.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

50

THE NATION INVESTORS CORPORATE SCORE BOARD

Red Star Express: Walking a tight rope

R

ED Star Express Plc witnessed marginal decline in its actual and underlying profitability last year as the courier and logistics firm struggled with sluggish sales amid increasing operating costs.

Audited report and accounts of Red Star Express Plc for the year ended March 31, 2011 showed a precarious profit and loss position that nearly threw the bottom-line into red but for a significant tax writeback, which propped up net earnings by 85 per wcent. With turnover almost flat, double-digit increase in operating expenses reduced pre-tax profit by almost the same percentage.

The company, however, improved on its balance sheet position with stronger equity support and better liquidity. Besides, the company made a prudent decision to maintain cash payouts at previous year’s rate in spite of writebackinduced 84 per cent growth in net earnings per share.

Financing structure Red Star Express Group’s shareholders’ funds rose by 12 per cent from N1.28 billion in 2010 to N1.44 billion in 2011. The paid up share capital remained unchanged at N295 million. Total assets was almost flat at N2.77 billion compared with N2.72 billion. Current assets had increased marginally from N1.83 billion to N1.87 billion while permanent assets inched up from N892 million to N896 million.

However, total liabilities dropped by 7.6 per cent from N1.44 billion to N1.33 billion in 2011. Both current and long-term liabilities had dropped by 5.3 per cent and 12.5 per cent to N934 million and N396 million in 2011 as against N986 million and N453.1 million recorded in 2010.

With equity funds at 52 per cent of total assets in 2011 as against 47 per cent in 2010, the financing structure of the company was more supportive in 2011. The company sus-

Fiscal Year Ended March 31 Nmillion Profit and Loss Statement Main Business Segment Total turnover Cost of sales Gross profit Operating expenses Interest and other incomes Finance expenses Pre-tax profit(loss) Post-tax profit (loss) Basic earnings per share(kobo) Gross dividend Cash dividend per share (kobo) Net Assets per share (kobo) Balance Sheet Assets: Fixed assets Total long term assets Trade debtors Current assets Total assets Liabilities: Trade creditors Bank loans Current liabilities Long-term liabilities Total liabilities Equity Funds Share capital Total Equity Funds

By Taofik Salako

tained its zero financial leverage, which mitigated the adverse effect of other costs and the sluggish topline. The proportion of current liabilities to total assets improved from 36 per cent in 2010 to 34 per cent in 2011 while long-term liabilities/total assets ratio stood at 14 per cent in 2011 as against 17 per cent in 2010.

Efficiency The company witnessed notable declines in employee productivity and overall cost efficiency with 31 per cent decline in average contribution of each employee to pre-tax profit. Average number of employees increased from 1,114 persons in 2010 to 1,405 persons in 2011. Total staff costs rose from N1.19 billion to N1.21 billion in 2011, indicating a lesser average cost per head of N0.863 million as against N1.06 million in 2010. The largest percentage of recruits in 2011 was junior staff, which remuneration, excluding allowances, ranged from N140, 000 to N210, 000. With relatively significant increase in operating expenses, total costs of business rose to 92 per cent of turnover in 2011 compared with about 90 per cent in 2010. Average contribution of each employee to the bottom-line reduced from N0.425 million to N0.293 million.

Profitability The decline in incomes and profitability of Red Star Express’s main courier business coloured the overall performance of the group, although appreciable growths in other business lines mitigated the overall negative impact. Turnover in the courier business dropped by 3.6 per cent from N3.03 billion in 2010 to N2.93 billion in 2011. Turnover in the smallest business line of freight dropped by 8.03 per cent from N149.36 million to N137.4 million. Meanwhile, turnover in the

2011 12 months

% change

support services business increased by 33 per cent to N587.7 million in 2011 as against N439.5 million in 2010. Logistics business also improved sales by eight per cent from N516.9 million to N558.2 million.

Consequently, total turnover inched up by 1.6 per cent from N4.14 billion to N4.21 billion. Cost of sales was almost flat at N2.79 billion as against N2.77 billion. Gross profit rose slightly by 3.1 per cent from N1.37 billion in 2010 to N1.41 billion in 2011.

However, operating expenses rose by 13 per cent to N1.1 billion as against N937 million in previous year. With non-core business incomes almost unchanged, profit before tax shrank by same 13 per cent from N474 million in 2010 to N411 million in 2011. But with tax writeback, net earnings after tax jumped from N181 million in 2010 to N334 million in 2011.

Segmental analysis of profitability showed decline in profitability of the main courier business, although this was evened out by improvements in other segments.

Gross profit in the courier business dropped by 8.6 per cent from N879.1 million to N803.6 million. Support services segment posted gross profit of N211.8 million in 2011, 95 per cent above N108.6 million recorded in 2010. Gross profit in the freight business improved by 12.4 per cent from N62.9 million to N70.7 million while logistics turned in N327.6 million compared with N320.9 million in 2010.

Underlying profit analysis showed that gross profit margin was almost unchanged at 33.6 per cent in 2011 as against 33.1 per cent in 2011. However, pre-tax profit margin, which measures average pretax profit per unit of sale, dropped from 11.4 per cent in 2010 to 9.8 per cent in 2011. Net earnings per share stood at 57 kobo in 2011 compared with 31 kobo in 2010. The company distributed N177 million as gross dividends for 2011, the same amount paid out to shareholders in previous year. This translated into

2010 12 months

2,925 4,208 2,794 1,414 1,060 58 0 411 334 57 177 30 244

-3.6 1.6 0.9 3.1 13.2 -0.2 -100.0 -13.2 84.8 83.9 0.0 0.0 11.9

3,034 4,140 2,768 1,372 937 58 17 474 181 31 177 30 218

739 896 1,204 1,874 2,770

0.5 0.5 6.3 2.4 1.8

735 892 1,133 1830.0 2,722

162 0 934 396 1,330

-11.7 0.0 -5.3 -12.5 -7.6

183 0 986 453.1 1,439

295 1,440

0.0 12.1

295 1,284

a dividend per share of 30 kobo during the years. Gross dividend/ profit after tax ratio stood at 51 per cent in 2011 as against 94.5 per cent in 2010, which allowed the company to build up reserves and improve sustainable dividend outlook. Net assets per share thus improved by 12 per cent from 218 kobo to 244 kobo. Dividend cover also improved from one time to 1.9 times while actual return on equity increased from 14 per cent in 2010 to 23 per cent in 2011. However, return on total assets dipped 15 per cent in 2011 as against 17.4 per cent in 2010.

Liquidity The liquidity position of the company improved considerably during the year under review. Current ratio, which essentially measures the agility of the balance sheet to meet emerging financing obligations, improved from 1.86 times in 2010 to 2.01 times in 2011. The proportion of working capital to total sales improved from 20 per cent in 2010 to 22 per cent in 2011. Debtors/creditors ratio stood at 745 per cent in 2011 compared with 619 per cent in 2010.

Governance & structures Incorporated as a private limited liability company in 1992, Red Star Express became a public limited liability company and was quoted in 2007. Wholly owned by Nigerian institutional and individual investors, the major core investor in Red Star Express is Dr. Mohammed Koguna, whose direct and indirect shareholdings amounted to about 33 per cent of total equity.

The shares of the company are held by more than 4,200 shareholders.

The firm maintains tight board and management structures and complies with all relevant codes of corporate governance. Koguna still chairs the seven-man board while Mr Sule Bichi leads the ex-

Fiscal Year Ended March 31

•Umar Bichi

ecutive management team as managing director. Red Star Express operates defined charity programmes including the Red Star Foundation which receives 0.5 per cent of net earnings yearly for scholarships in public secondary schools.

Analyst’s opinion The performance of Red Star Express in the immediate past year underscored the challenges faced by service-based companies in a period of economic slowdown.

With poor national infrastructure, the global recession compounded domestic challenges, eroding the margin for the main courier business. But as projected earlier, the diversification of the company’s businesses has started impacting positively on overall performance, creating new growth centres. The firm needs to sustain and improve on the appreciable performances of the subsidiaries while implementing new strategy to stimulate the courier business, which by far still has the greatest capacity to drive overall performance.

Overall, there is reasonable basis to assume that the company could maintain a sufficiently positive overall outlook in the years ahead.

Financing structure Equity funds/Total assets Long-term liabilities/Total assets Current liabilities/Total assets Debt/Equity ratio

2011 %

2010 %

52.0 14.3 33.7 0.0

47.2 16.6 36.2 0.0

Profitability Gross profit margin Pre-tax profit margin Return on total assets Return on equity Dividend cover (times)

33.6 9.8 14.8 23.2 1.9

33.1 11.4 17.4 14.1 1.0

Efficiency Pre-tax profit per employee (Nm) Staff cost per employee (Nm) Cost of sales, operating exp/Turnover

0.293 0.863 91.6

0.425 1.06 89.5

Liquidity Current ratio Working capital/Turnover Debtors/Creditors

2.01 22.3 745.0

1.86 20.4 619.1

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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EQUITIES NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 17-1-12 2ND-TIER SECURITIES

Market goes bullish as investors gain N78b T

HE Nigerian Stock Ex change (NSE) resumed full trading yesterday with a bullish swing as investors scrambled for highly capitalised stocks.

With most stocks on the upswing, aggregate market capitalisation of all quoted equities rose by 1.19 per cent from N6.562 trillion to N6.640 trillion, representing capital gain of N78 billion. The All Share Index (ASI), which tracks prices of all equities, also trended upward by 1.19 per cent to 21,072.27 points as against 20,824.82 points. This confirmed that the increase in market capitalisation was due to capital gains rather than new listings.

All sectoral indices, except NSE Oil and Gas Index, appreciated as investors increased demand for equities ahead of release of corporate earnings and dividend recommendations for 2011 business year.

The NSE 30 Index, which tracks the 30 most capitalised companies, rose from 934.29 points to 946.48 points. NSE Food and Beverages Index also improved from 1,694.32 points to 1,727.19 points. NSE Banking Index trended upward to 274.00 points as against its opening index of 271.444 points. NSE Insurance Index appreciated from 127.96 points to 130.70 points. The

By Taofik Salako and Tonia Osundolire

NSE Oil and Gas Index was unchanged at 228.34 points.

Nigerian Breweries led 24 other stocks on the gainers’ list with a gain of N4.70 to close at N98.76. Julius Berger Nigeria followed with a gain of N1.58 to close at N33.18. Dangote Cement trailed with a gain of N1.49 to close at N118. PZ Cussons Nigeria added N1.40 to close at N29.40. First Bank of Nigeria gained 32 kobo to close at N9.15. UAC of Nigeria rallied 30 kobo to close at N30. Cement Company of Northern Nigeria rose by 25 kobo to close at N5.25.

Cadbury Nigeria gathered 18 kobo to close at N11.98.

Access Bank added 16 kobo to close at N4.86 while Eterna gained 13 kobo to close at N2.75 per share.

However, 17 stocks suffered price depreciation with Nestle Nigeria leading with a loss of N3.88 to close at N419.50. Union Bank of Nigeria lost 50 kobo to close at N9.57. Dangote Flour Mills dropped by 31 kobo to close at N5.89. Avon Crowncaps slipped by 29 kobo to close at N5.65.

Vitafoam Nigeria lost 27 kobo to close at N5.27. Skye Bank declined by 6.0 kobo to close at N3.94. Neimeth

International Pharmaceuticals dropped by 5.0 kobo to close at N1.03 while Japaul Oil and Maritime Services, Prestige Assurance and Dangote Sugar Refinery lost 4.0 kobo each to close at 86 kobo, 90 kobo and N4.66 respectively.

Turnover picked up significantly with the full resumption of on-the-floor and remote trading. Investors staked N1.50 billion on 244.18 million shares in 2,884 deals.

Banking subsector was the most active with a turnover of 182.08 million shares valued at N778.06 million in 1,363 deals. Insurance subgroup followed with a turnover of 35.37 million shares worth N25.79 million in 125 deals.

Diamond Bank was the most active stock with a turnover of 93.65 million shares worth N189.97 million in 30 deals. Continental Insurance followed with a turnover of 26.70 million shares valued at N18.87 million in 50 deals. Skye Bank ranked third with a turnover of 24.36 million shares worth N94 million in 67 deals. First Bank occupied the fourth position with a turnover of 19.68 million shares valued at N179.02 million in 394 deals. Zenith Bank recorded, turnover of 12.78 million shares valued at N156.71 million in 199 deals.

NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 17-1-12

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

55

MONEY LINK

T

HE removal of fuel subsidy by government would lead to price liberalisation in the economy, Renaissance Capital (RenCap), an investment and research firm has said.

The Federal Government had on January 1, scrapped its petrol subsidy, raising the petrol price by about 120 per cent from N65 per litre to about N140 per litre. However, the price was adjusted downwards to N97 per litre after a six-day strike organised by Labour Unions and Civil Society Groups.

The RenCap said the exercise has overshadowed similar actions in Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania where governments removed subsidies in oil and electricity. Ghana withdrew subsidies on petroleum products effective 29 December 2011, which resulted in fuel prices increasing by about 20 per cent.

It said although fuel subsidies are an expedient tool used by some big oil exporters to appease citizens frustrated with delayed development, they are expensive and prone to corruption.

“In East Africa, the subsidy removals were on electricity. Uganda ended subsidies paid to power generators from 12 January 2012, implying a 42 per cent increase in electricity tariffs.

Tanzania’s energy regulator has approved a 40 per cent increase in electricity tariffs. We believe this cutting of subsidies signal a price liberalisation trend,” it said in a statement.

‘Subsidy removal signals price liberalisation’

By Collins Nweze

RenCap, said Sub-Saharan Africa governments appear to be moving to rid themselves of expensive subsidies, which divert funds from other productive expenditure (particularly infrastructure), and put downward pressure on budget deficits, implying higher borrowing costs. For instance, Nigeria’s petrol subsidy cost the government about N1.3 trillion in 2011, representing a three per cent Gross Domestic Product (GDP), an equivalent of the 2011 federal budget deficit.

The subsidy accounted for a very significant 25 per cent of Federal Government expenditure in 2011 exceeding the 2012 federal budget allocations to education, healthcare, power and agriculture combined.

Ghana’s government estimates it spent GHS600 million about ($347 million) on subsidising petroleum products in 2011, which is equivalent to 1.7 per cent of GDP and 4.2 per cent of government’s spending. Uganda’s energy minister says the government has spent UGX1.53 trillionn ($623m) on subsidies to the electricity sector since 2005, which is, on average, about one per cent of GDP. The research firm said subsidies are evidently expensive, particularly for governments that have limited sources of finance and competing developmen-

tal needs, including infrastructure.

“Cutting subsidies will enable these governments to redeploy funds more effectively. We think the debt crisis in the European Union, which has put donor countries’ government budgets under significant pressure, has also compelled these governments to seek other ways of creating fiscal space. This includes doing away with non-essential expenditure,” it said.

However, it added that subsidy removals imply higher inflation. In addition to higher utility and transportation costs, the cost of production is also likely to increase on the back of power and fuel price hikes.

In Nigeria, the complete removal of the petrol price subsidy would push up inflation to about 14 per cent, in 2012, from about 11 per cent in 2011.

But a phased subsidy removal implies a more moderate increase in inflation.

“We expect the impact on Nigeria’s inflation to be pronounced, not only because of the magnitude of the price hike but also because petrol is used to power generators that produce electricity. Electricity costs are, accordingly, likely to increase significantly, adding to upward pressure on inflation,” it said.

For the research firm, cutting subsidies on fuel and utilities reflects a grow-

ATMs moderate queues in banks after strike

T

HE rush expected in banks yesterday following the suspension of the six-day strike

by Labour Unions and Civil Society Groups was minimal. This was because many commercial banks had kept their Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) functional during the strike, thereby enabling customers to meet their immediate financial needs.

Although many of the ATMs did not work-leading to long queues in some banks, but the service helped ameliorate what would have been a rowdy session.

Activities went on as usual at

By Collins Nweze and Akinola Ajibade

Keystone Bank, Ogba branch when our correspondent visited. A staff of the bank who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that the day’s transaction was like any other day, because customers used the ATMs during the strike. “Our cash management unit was loading the ATMs up to three times daily during the strike. So, we were able to meet our customers’ needs,” he said.

Okorie Maduka, a bank customer said he has been finding it difficult to withdraw money since few days ago.

He attributed the development to the strike, and the inability of some banks to put their machines in good condition. “I think the banks would have expected a regular use of ATMs during the strike and put their machines in order,” he said.

However, a large crowd was observed in some other banks such as First Bank, UBA, Oceanic Bank, Intercontinental and GTBank branches in Ogba axis of Lagos. There were also crowds at Zenith and Fidelity branches in Oba Akran Ikeja.

At First Bank, Ogba, another staff

Rand strengthens to six-week high

T

HE rand strengthened to a sixweek high against the dollar after China’s gross domestic product expanded more than economists estimated, boosting stock and commodity prices. South Africa’s currency appreciated as much as 1.4 per cent to 7.9943 per dollar, the strongest level since December 8.

According to Bloomberg report, rand traded 0.7 per cent stronger at 8.0546 per dollar. Against the euro it FGN BONDS

climbed 0.3 percent to 10.2475, headed for a four-month high.

China’s economy expanded 8.9 percent in the three months ended December 31 from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said, beating the 8.7 percent gain forecast in a Bloomberg survey.

The Standard & Poor’s of raw materials gained the most in two weeks and South Africa’s benchmark stock index rose to a record, led by

miners including Anglo American Plc and BHP Billiton Ltd. China is the biggest buyer of South African raw materials.

The Chinese growth data “is an ideal result in that growth is fast enough to dissipate fears of a hard landing but slow enough to generate scope for monetary easing,” John Cairns, a currency strategist at Rand Merchant Bank in Johannesburg, said in e-mailed comments.

Amount N

Rate %

M/Date

3-Year 5-Year 5-Year

35m 35m 35m

11.039 12.23 13.19

19-05-2014 18-05-2016 19-05-2016

WHOLESALE DUTCH AUCTION SYSTEM Amount

Initial Current Quotation Price Market N8250.00 5495.33 N1000.00 N552.20

Price Loss 2754.67 447.80

INTERBANK RATES 7.9-10% 10-11%

PRIMARY MARKET AUCTION (T-BILLS) Tenor 91-Day 182-Day 1-Year

Amount 30m 46.7m 50m

Rate % 10.96 9.62 12.34

Date 28-04-2011 “ 14-04-2011

GAINERS AS AT 17-1-12 SYMBOL CCNN PZ JBERGER NB ETERNOIL DIAMONDBNK GTASSURE HONYFLOUR GOLDINSURE FIDSON

O/PRICE 5.00 28.00 31.60 94.06 2.62 2.03 1.23 2.70 0.65 0.90

C/PRICE 5.25 29.40 33.18 98.76 2.75 2.13 1.29 2.83 0.68 0.94

CHANGE 0.25 1.40 1.58 4.70 0.13 0.10 0.06 0.13 0.03 0.04

LOSER AS AT 17-1-12 SYMBOL DANGFLOUR UBN AVONCROWN VITAFORM NEIMETH CILEASING JAPAULOIL PRESTIGE NEM WEMABANK

O/PRICE 6.20 10.07 5.94 5.54 108 0.66 0.90 0.94 0.54 0.57

C/PRICE 5.89 9.57 5.65 5.27 103 0.63 0.86 0.90 0.52 0.55

Amount

Offered ($) Demanded ($)

MANAGED FUNDS

OBB Rate Call Rate

explained that yesterday was like Mondays, when it normally has high customer traffic. “You know the strike has been on for six days we normally have the highest number of customers on Mondays and Fridays. Today is like Monday because there has not been work for several days,” he said.

Prior to the strike, banks had promised to provide limited branch services mainly through ATMs. “There will be skeletal services, people on essential duties will come to work,” Abdulrahman Yinusa, chief financial officer at Diamond Bank, which operates told Bloomberg.

Trade unions called an indefinite nationwide strike and threatened to shut down ports, fuel stations, banks and oil operations in the country if the government fails to restore the fuel subsidy.

Udom Emmanuel, executive director at Zenith Bank Plc, said branch operations may be affected, ATMs and electronic banking services will be running. “We are being extremely cautious, the lives of our staff come first.

Our normal policy is to remain open,” Folanke Ani-Mumuney, a spokeswoman for FirstBank of Nigeria Plc, told Bloomberg.

DATA BANK

Tenor

NIDF NESF

ing realisation that market prices are required for the power and petroleum sectors to attract much-needed investment. Only then will investors be assured of covering their costs and getting a positive return on their investments.

In Nigeria, the subsidies have made it unattractive for investors to invest in the downstream oil industry and build refineries. The government hopes the removal of the petrol subsidies will attract investment in refineries, and is looking at an ambitious timeframe of 18 to 24 months to get the refineries back on stream.

Amount

Exchange

Sold ($)

Rate (N)

Date

450m

452.7m

450m

150.8

08-8-11

250m

313.5m

250m

150.8

03-8-11

400m

443m

400m

150.7

01-8-11

EXHANGE RATE 26-08-11 CAPITAL MARKET INDEX Currency

Year Start Offer

Current Before

C u r r e n t CUV Start After %

NGN USD

147.6000

149.7100

150.7100

-2.11

NGN GBP

239.4810

244.0123

245.6422

-2.57

NGN EUR

212.4997

207.9023

209.2910

-1.51

149.7450

154.0000

154.3000

-3.04

Bureau de Change 152.0000 (S/N)

153.0000

155.5000

-2.30

Parallel Market

154.0000

156.0000

-1.96

NSE CAP Index

NIGERIA INTER BANK (S/N)

27-10-11 N6.5236tr 20,607.37

28-10-11 N6.617tr 20,903.16

% Change -1.44% -1.44%

MEMORANDUM QUOTATIONS Name

(S/N)

153.0000

DISCOUNT WINDOW Feb. ’11

July ’11

Aug ’11

MPR

6.50%

6.50%

8.75%

Standing Lending Rate ,, Deposit Rate ,, Liquidity Ratio Cash Return Rate Inflation Rate

8.50% 4.50% 25.00% 1.00% 12.10%

8.50% 4.50% 25.00% 2.00% 12.10%

9.50% 5.50% 30.00% 2.00% 9.4%

Offer Price

Bid Price

9.17 1.00 118.85 98.43 0.76 1.04 0.87 1,642.73 8.24 1.39 1.87 7,351.90 193.00

9.08 1.00 118.69 97.65 0.73 1.04 0.80 1,635.25 7.84 1.33 1.80 7,149.37 191.08

ARM AGGRESSIVE KAKAWA GUARANTEED STANBIC IBTC GUARANTE AFRINVEST W.A. EQUITY FUND THE LOTUS CAPITAL HALAL BGL SAPPHIRE FUND BGL NUBIAN FUND NIGERIA INTERNATIONAL DEB. PARAMOUNT EQUITY FUND CONTINENTAL UNIT TRUST CENTRE-POINT UNIT TRUST STANBIC IBTC NIG EQUITY THE DISCOVERY FUND • ARM AGGRESSIVE • KAKAWA GUARANTEED

CHANGE 0.31 0.50 0.29 0.27 0.05 0.03 0.04 0.04 0.02 0.02

• STANBIC IBTC GUARANTE • AFRINVEST W.A. EQUITY FUND

NIBOR Tenor 7 Days 30 Days 60 Days 150 Days

Rate (Previous) 24 Aug, 2011 9.0417 9.6667 11.2917 12.1250

Rate (Currency) 26, Aug, 2011 10.17% 11.46% 11.96% 12.54%

Movement

OPEN BUY BACK Previous

Current

04 July, 2011

07, Aug, 2011

Bank

8.5000

8.5000

P/Court

8.0833

8.0833

Movement

56

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18,, 2012

57

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

NEWS Two Corps members abducted in Rivers WO National Youth

T

•The workers at the secretariat...yesterday

Minimum wage strike: Akwa Ibom workers adamant

A

KWA IBOM State workers yesterday said they would not be harassed and intimidated by the government to call off their strike.

They said until Governor Godswill Akpabio correct the “defective” salary structure table, they would remain at home.

The workers and the government had been at loggerheads over the issue of relativity as it affects the new minimum wage.

Even though the government claimed it had released N16.2 billion for the payment of salaries and arrears of workers from April to December, the workers seem not satisfied with the move.

As the strike enters the third week, the State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Unyime Usoro, said instead of the government to meet its demand, it was trying to divide its ranks by causing disagreement among

•Akpabio orders HOS to open register From Kazeem Ibrahym, Uyo

its leadership.

Usoro told workers to be calm, saying Labour would not succumb to any threat until its demands are met.

He said the government was not ready for discussion with Labour on how to address the defective salary structure table.

His words: “We are expecting the government to call us for a meeting yesterday but we heard that some people in government told the governor that he doesn’t need to meet with us that they have concluded arrangement to divide our ranks.

“So they didn’t invite us for the meeting again. As I am speaking with you, the strike is still on and will still go on until government is ready to address the welfare of the people.”

At the Indongesit Nkanga

State Secretariat yesterday, it was a carnival of sorts as members of the unions mounted speakers at the gate, dancing and singing anti-government songs.

There was a radio announcement on Monday asking local government workers under the umbrella of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), to report for duty.

However, a visit to some councils showed that workers did not heed to the directive as the council gates were still locked.

At Uyo Local Government office, an official said most of the workers refused to come to work because the announcement was not signed by the union chairman but by the secretary and publicity secretary.

Akpabio yesterday summoned an emergency stakeholders' meeting of

elders, paramount rulers and youths at the Government House, Uyo to plead with labour to call-off its strike.

At the meeting which last two hours, Akpabio said the administration would be forced to implement the Nowork-No-pay rule, if the unions fail to call off the strike.

Akpabio, however, ordered the Head of Service, Mrs. Cecilia Udoessien, to open registers for workers.

The governor said he would give the workers timeframe to resume, saying failure to do so, he would be forced to implement the NoWork-No-Pay rule.

He also ordered security agencies to arrest anybody who wants to disrupt the peace.

Akpabio said: "I want to plead that labour should calloff its strike so that workers in the state employ can earn January salary.”

Four children dead in Ebonyi fire

F

OUR children of Opefia village in Izzi Local Government of Ebonyi State were yesterday burnt to death.

The three-bedroom apartment belonging to their father, Godwin Nwadom, was engulfed in fire.

Their mother, Ijeoma, escaped with third degree burns.

Mrs. Nwadom reportedly sells fuel in the black market.

Sources said the incident occurred when a kerosene lantern caught fire when Mrs. Nwadom was trying to sell fuel to a customer.

Nwadom, who wept uncontrollably, said the inferno rendered him hopeless.

The Chairman of Izzi Local Government, Dustan Nwaogbaga, urged the survi-

A

•Another building razed From Ogbonnaya Obinna, Abakaliki

vors to take solace in God. He presented five bundles of wrapper, four bushels of rice, 10 bundles of zinc, a bag of beans and N100, 000 to the family.

A member of the family, Andrew Nwodom, thanked the council chief, saying the pain of losing four children was difficult to forget.

Similarly, a mid-day inferno also razed a bungalow in Abakaliki and destroyed property worth millions of naira.

No life was lost in the incident which affected No. 18 Onuora Street, near the popular Abakaliki Rice Mill.

The family, which owns the building, was yet to return to Abakaliki as members were in the village for the Yuletide.

The family head, Ikechukwu Nwafor, said he received a telephone call that his house was on fire and before he could return, the house had been destroyed.

“I have been living in Abakaliki for 30 years and all I have laboured to acquire, such as cash, property and vital documents were destroyed. “ I don’t know the cause of the fire and why it defied efforts to douse it by neighbours and other residents of

the area,” he said.

His wife, Felicia, thanked God that her family was not inside the house when the incident occurred.

She appealed to the government and well-meaning individuals / organisations, for assistance.

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Herbert Nwokoha, said the service was not alerted about the inferno.

“We could have reacted promptly if informed; as we did to the over 250 fire calls we received last year.

The Executive Secretary of State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA),Igboke Umunna, said he had visited the scene of the incident and carried out necessary assessment.

Doctor dies of Lassa fever in Abakaliki

DOCTOR has reportedly died of the Viral Hemorrhagic Fever, otherwise known as Lassa fever, in Ebonyi State.

Some other doctors are being treated for the disease at the Federal Teaching Hospital (FTH), Abakaliki.

Though no official confirmation has been made by the Ministry of Health, doctors have raised the alarm over the outbreak of the disease.

Some doctors at the FTH, who spoke to our reporter, regretted the outbreak of the disease, adding that doctors

•Others in critical condition From Ogbonnaya Obinna, Abakaliki

are prone to it since they are exposed to infected patients.

The doctors called for the quick intervention of the Federal Ministry of Health to forestall the spread of the disease.

The outbreak of Lassa fever was first reported in the state in 2008.

Several people died. They included two doctors and other health workers.

Last year, four persons said to be residing at the Military cantonment, Nkwoagu, near Abakaliki also died of the disease.

The government said it has set up an emergency response team for the treatment and control of outbreak of communicable diseases, such as Lassa fever, gastroenteritis and meningitis, usually associated with dry season.

The Commissioner for Health, Sunday Nwangele,

said this while addressing stakeholders in Abakaliki.

Nwangele said epidemiologists from the ministry had been deployed to health facilities in the state to check the possible spread of the disease.

He urged the people to report any suspected case to a hospital or the epidemiology unit of the ministry.

The commissioner said the ministry had procured drugs for the treatment of the disease, adding that more was still expected from the Federal Ministry of Health.

Service Corps (NYSC) members have been kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in Udoga village, Etche Local Government of Rivers State.

It was learnt that the victims– a man and a woman– were snatched from a school in Udoga village where they are serving.

The Commissioner of Police, Suleiman Abba, said the police, in collaboration with the military rescued the man.

“Upon receiving information of the kidnap of the two corps members in Udoga village, we and some soldiers have been able to so rescue the man and have arrested two suspects,” Abba said.

From Clarice Azuatalam and Bisi Olaniyi, Port Harcourt

The Commissioner saidthe school where the corps members were kidnapped is in a community that has been in constant communal clashes.

When contacted on their identities, an official at the NYSC Secretariat said the matter was still under investigation.

He said the secretariat was waiting for briefing from the local government inspector of the area.

NYSC spokesman Benjamin Esan said details of the incident were still being awaited, considering the fact that work just resumed after the week-long nationwide strike.

PDP clears Imoke, Abang

C

ROSS RIVER State Governor Liyel Imoke and Sonny Abang have been cleared by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to contest in the governorship primary slated for January 23.

Speaking to reporters after the screening at the PDP Southsouth Zonal Office in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Monday, Imoke described the exercise as transparent, saying the result will be determined by the people.

He promised he will do more for the people because he has the political will and will not rest on his oars.

Former Ambassador to Mali, Chief Sonny Abang, was also cleared at about 10 pm that same day.

But a statement by the Government House Press yesterday said Abang had been disqualified for bankruptcy The statement reads: "The PDP governorship screening panel sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State has disqualified one of the candidates, Amb Soni Abang.

"Abang's ineligibility followed a petition by

From Nicholas Kalu, Calabar

former PDP Chairman in Calabar South Local Government, Etim Inyang and a member, Bassey Effiom.”

"In the petition titled, 'Disqualification of Soni Abang in the Forthcoming Governorship Primary' and dated January 10, the duo hinged their opposition on a court order of June 20, last year, which they said had earlier declared Abangr bankrupt."

PUBLIC NOTICE HARUNA I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Ede Haruna now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Ede Abah. All former documents remain valid. Nursing and Midwifrey Council and general public should take note.

CHRISTOPHER I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Mbetobong Christopher Peter now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Udu Mbetobong. All former documents remain valid. General public should take note.

ALIKA

I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Alika Bridget Ogwugwa, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Morka Bridget Ogwugwa. General public should take note.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

58

NEWS ACN chieftain rejects appointment THE National Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Senator Lawal Shuaibu, has declined his appointment as a member of the task force on the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

Shuaibu declined in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Abuja.

The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, on Monday set up an eight-member special committee to ensure speedy passage of the PIB. Shuaibu said the appointment was well appreciated.

He, however, begged to be excused due to party responsibilities and pressing national issues.

‘Govt ignored environmental concerns’ THE Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has accused the Federal Government of ignoring environmental concerns as it embarked on the deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry.

ERA/FoEN’s allegation is coming on the heels of Monday’s suspension of the nationwide protest led by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and organised/civil society groups.

Amnesty International seeks release of labour activists

A

MNESTY International, Human Rights Watch and 33 civil society organisations have urged the Federal Government to release labour union leader, Osmond Ugwu and member, Raphael Elobuike, and drop all charges against them.

The authorities should investigate state involvement in breaking up a peaceful union meeting and the arrest of the union activists in violation of the right to freedom of association and assembly, the groups further said.

“A review of the prosecution’s evidence reveals an apparent bid by the police and prosecution to silence union activists,” said Corinne Dufka, Senior West Africa Researcher at Human Rights Watch.

“Rather than prosecuting Ugwu and Elobuike, the authorities should investigate who is responsible for targeting their meeting and having

them beaten up and arbitrarily detained.”

The two men were arrested on October 24, 2011 after more than 20 police officers, soldiers and men in plain clothes armed with guns broke up a union meeting in Enugu that witnesses described as peaceful. The security agents stormed the meeting at the state secretariat of the Nigeria Labour Congress and attempted to arrest Ugwu, according to the witnesses.

Ugwu, who is the chairman of the Enugu State Workers Forum, was leading state workers in a prayer meeting for a favourable outcome to the labour negotiations. The women attending the meeting surrounded him to prevent the arrest. The security agents fired into the air to disperse the women and beat those who refused to move with their guns, belts and sticks, the witnesses said.

The security agents

dragged Ugwu out of the compound and beat him up.

In the course of dragging him away from the union members, they tore his clothes but spared his underwear, the witnesses said. The security agents then dragged him by his legs down the road to one of the police vehicles. Ugwu was injured on his head and legs. Elobuike, a civil servant who had been at the meeting and tried to help him, was also arrested, witnesses said.

The police alleged that the crowd threw “stones, bottles and other objects” at them.

After the two men had been taken to the police vehicle, a police officer was hit on the head and injured by a stone thrown from the crowd, a police sergeant said. Witnesses said some of the women fought the police while trying to prevent Ugwu’s arrest.

The two men were taken to the police headquarters in Enugu and on October 26

brought before the Chief Magistrate’s Court, where they were arraigned on assault and attempted murder charges. The Chief Magistrate lacked the jurisdiction to hear the case but remanded them in prison pending a decision by the state Attorney General whether to file charges at the High Court, a practice known as a “holding charge.”

On November 3, the men applied for bail at the state High Court. At the first bail hearing, held on November 18, the judge decided not to hear the case due to concern over a potential conflict of interest since his wife is a senior aide to the state governor. The second bail hearing, scheduled for December 9, was cancelled. At the third scheduled hearing on December 20, the Attorney General appeared in person and opposed the bail application.

The judge adjourned the case till January 26, 2012 to rule

Activists reject N97 petrol pump price

A

POLITICAL pressure group, the Nigeria Voters Assembly (VOTAS), has rejected the petrol pump price of N97 per litre imposed by the Federal Government.

The group, in a statement yesterday by its National President, Comrade Mashood Erubami, said the mandate of Labour and civil society groups fighting for the reversal of the fuel price hike is not N97 but N65.

From Bisi Oladele, Ibadan

The statement read in part: “Nothing has happened between the 9th of January 2012 and Monday when Labour caved in to the ploy of the Federal Government to back N97 in their interest. It is wrong for labour to pull out of the strike by equating the interest of political office holders with the interest of the nation.

“What was imposed by government at gun point was

not our demand and therefore unacceptable to the people.

“The fact that the Federal Government imposed the price unilaterally using subtle blackmail or hijack of the protest by hoodlums and using soldiers to quell the street protests shows the admission of government that the people are sovereign and that government and its ministers are powerless in the game which they started but could not defend to the end.

“The crushing of protest by soldiers shows the temperament of our so-called political leaders and the undemocratic nature of governance, while it reveals the supremacy of the people and the powerlessness of the political office holders in government.”

The group, while also deploring the hike in fuel price by the Federal Government, said it would continue to resist oppressive and anti-people’s policies.

on the matter.

“These two men have been arbitrarily deprived of their liberty,” said Olisa Agbakoba, former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). “The apparent complicity of the prosecution and the delays by the court have allowed the state to run roughshod over their fundamental rights.”

Funeral for ex-editor’s wife

A

RETIRED primary school headmistress, Mrs.Roseline Omosede Odemwingie, is dead.

She was the wife of former Group News Editor of the Daily Times, Mr. Solomon Odemwingie.

A one-time officer of Edo branch of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Mrs. Odemwingie is survived by four children - Blessing, Monica, Harrison and Osayuki.

Odemwingie described his wife’s death as “ very painful,” saying,“ I pray for her gentle soul to rest in the bosom of the Lord.”

Her funeral rites begin on Friday.

•The late Mrs. Odemwingie

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

59

NEWS

Boulder kills man in Bauchi

A

FATHER of three, Mallam Idris Abdullahi, of the family of Baba Abdullahi Adamu of Miri village, on the outskirts of Bauchi, the Bauchi State capital, has been killed by a boulder.

Abdullahi and his childhood friend, Nuhu Hamidu, last Saturday left their homes for a nearby village where they usually dug sand for moulding bricks for commercial purposes. But when they went out last Saturday to mould brick to build Abdullahi’s house, the prospective landlord did not return home.

He had been living with his wife and children in his father’s house.

Both friends dug the earth

A

From Austine Tsenzughul, Bauchi

at the foot of the boulder and gathered the soil to mould the bricks for the planned house near the family’s.

As they dug out more earth under a giant boulder, it shifted and rolled over Abdullahi, crushing him to death.

Hamidu was unhurt but one of their friends, who wept profusely and declined to mention his name, told The Nation how the incident occurred.

He said: “We were digging deep under some giant boulders. From what we can now see, there was no strong base for the boulder to stand on.

It thus suddenly rolled and

fell on him (Abdulllahi), crushing him on the chest.”

An eyewitness who also declined to mention his name, said it took over five hours to retrieve the body of the late Abdullahi from under the rock.

He said: “The stone fell on him at about 1pm and it was not until after 5pm that we used a tipper lorry, with a very big chain borrowed from a construction company, to drag it away before we could take the body.”

Abdullahi, who was buried an hour after his body was removed, according to Islamic rites, is survived by his mother, Mama Fatima Abdullahi, 60; his father, Abdullahi Adamu, 63, who was the Peoples Democratic

Party (PDP) Chairman of Miri Ward for 10 years, his wife and children.

Hamidu could not comment on his friend’s death due to shock. He shook his head continuously in disbelief, shouting: “Allah Allah; Yah Allah!” (Oh God, God; Oh You God!).

Abdullahi’s father said: “I have 12 children but Idi was outstanding. He never disobeyed me. He has been very obedient, doing my wish always. But Alhamdulilahi, Na gode wa Allah Subuhannau wa ta’alla (To God be the glory.

I thank God, the Almighty).”

The incident was not reported to any government agency for documentation and investigation.

Pastor killed in Gombe

CLERIC, Pastor Yahaya Abdu of Baptist Church, Bajoga in Funakaye Local Government Area of Gombe State, has been found dead near his house.

It was learnt that the body of the preacher was found on

From Vincent Ekhoragbon, Gombe

Sunday, with his throat slit open.

Police spokesman Ahmed Mohammed, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), said there was no clue yet on the cleric’s assailants.

He said the police were investigating the matter and would make public their report on it and other recent killings in the state.

Mohammed called for calm among the residents, saying the police would end criminality in the state.

Christian Association of

Nigeria (CAN) Chair, Rev. Abare Kalla said he received the news with sadness, adding that he would establish what happened and how it happened.

He urged Christians to remain calm and steadfast in their prayers to God to reveal those behind the killing.

Boko Haram not yet identified in police, says DIG

T

HE Deputy InspectorGeneral (DIG) of Police (Operations), Alhaji Audu Abubakar, has denied claims by some government officials that the Boko Haram sect has infiltrated the Police.

The police chief spoke in Bauchi during an assessment of the command.

He noted that even if the claims were true, they could only be announced after due process by the police authority.

Abubakar said: “Such claims can only be confirmed after investigation, or after the suspects would have been taken to court for due judicial procedures. But so far, there is no proof of the existence of the sect

From Austine Tsenzughul, Bauchi

members in police formation.

“Whatever you hear about Boko Haram’s existence in the police has not been proved by anyone. We, the police, are like judges and lawyers. If we have no proof in any case, we cannot base an issue on false information or on hearsay.

There is need to verify things very well before making a public pronouncement.

“It’s not until such information is confirmed, after an arrest, investigation and prosecution in a court of law, that someone can be declared a member of Boko Haram sect. As of now, we

have not detected anyone in the police. This is my personal opinion.”

On the order by the Boko Haram leaders for the southerners in the North to return to go back to their states, the police chief said the threat was empty because it is not from the federal or state government.

He said it was the handiwork of terrorists who want to cause disaffection in the country.

Abubakar said: “The terrorists see us as their enemies; we see them like that too. They are doing everything possible to cause disaffection among the various people of the country.”

Police Commissioner Ikechukwu Aduba urged the

DIG to deploy able-bodied men and women from Police Mobile Force (PMF) to square up to the peculiar security challenges in the state.

“We crave the indulgence of DIG ‘B’ and the police high command to bear Bauchi in mind, particularly in the demobilisation and deployment in the state able-bodies men and women from the PMF, who can conveniently contend with our peculiar environment and security challenges.”

He called for the deployment of Armoured Personal Carriers (APCs) in strategic places in the state to curtail the activities of hoodlums.

Aduba added that the state is among the most peaceful in the country.

Why hoodlums hijacked protests, by monarch HE Emir of Ilorin,

T

Alhaji Ibrahim SuluGambari, has blamed the alleged hijack of last week’s protests against petrol subsidy removal by some miscreants on joblessness.

In a statement, the emir urged governments at all levels to tackle unemployment.

He noted that “young people deserve to be gainfully employed and this should be vigorously addressed by the authorities”.

According to him, there is no alternative to gainful employment for the nation’s

From Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin

teeming jobless youths. “Let us approach this matter peacefully within democratic dispensation,” he said.

The monarch decried the attacks on some innocent Kwara residents during the protests, saying: “Indeed, some miscreants have crept in and have taken undue advantage by unleashing vicious attacks on both public and private property of innocent people who are parts of the populace complaining about the hike in petroleum pump price.”

Adamawa poll shifted to Feb 4 •Kaduna Rep by-election also From Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja

F

OR the second time in a week, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday postponed the Adamawa State governorship election till February 4.

The election, which was initially fixed for last Saturday, was last week shifted to January 21 and yesterday to February 4.

In a statement in Abuja yesterday, INEC Chairman, Prof.

Attahiru Jega, attributed the postponement to insecurity in the state.

For the same reason, the commission also announced the postponement of the by-election into Soba Federal Constituency of Kaduna State. The election will hold on February 4.

Jega said: “Due to the prevailing situations in Adamawa and Kaduna states, the INEC has, by the powers conferred on it in Section 26 (i) of the Electoral Act 2010, as amended, postponed the scheduled elections in the two states...

“The elections are the governorship election in Adamawa State and the by-election into Soba Federal Constituency of Kaduna State. The two elections will now hold on February 4.“

It’s turning point in NOA, says DG HE new DirectorGeneral of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. Mike Omeri, yesterday said his tenure would be the turning point in accordance with President Goodluck Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda.

He spoke at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja when he took over from his predecessor, Alhaji Idi Farouk.

Omeri said: “We are definitely in a turning point in the history of our country.

T

From John Ofikhenua, Abuja

Today, we have all agreed that this is a turning point.

As Nigerians, we have decided on that. Mr. President has captured it by saying this is the time for transformation.”

The new NOA boss explained that he is not bringing all the knowledge in the world to the agency, stressing that as the Director General, he has to repose on the management and members of staff.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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NEWS GowonYEAR backs Jonathan’s handling NEW MESSAGES of subsidy, security

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ORMER Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (rtd), has hailed the Federal Government for the amicable settlement of the fuel subsidy removal.

He expressed optimism that the security challenge in the country would soon be overcome.

The Federal Government had on New Year’s eve announced the full deregulation of the downstream sector, which led to the increase of the pump price of petrol from N65 per litre to N141.

But Nigerians took to the streets, protesting the increment for six days. This compelled the Federal Government to reduce the price to N95 per litre.

Addressing reporters after

From Vincent Ikuomola, Abuja

meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan and former President Shehu Shagari yesterday, Gowon expressed optimism that Nigeria would resolve its challenges, like it did during the Civil War without external help.

The former Head of State said they were at the Presidential Villa to pay their respects to the President, since the Council of State meeting had been called off.

He said: “We are here to greet the President. We were to have attended the Council of State meeting that was cancelled because of the situation in the country. The former

Grand mother, two children die in Ibadan fire

A

N early morning inferno in a building at Molete, Ibadan yesterday led to the death of a mother and two children.

The incident, which occured at midnight burnt down a three-bedroom flat and before neighbours could rescue them, the grand mother, Esther Olajide (59), the grand daughters Oreoluwa Ayoola (9) and Fehintola Ayoola (12) had been burnt beyond redemption.

Sympathisers at the Adeyemi Layout, Molete, gathered to condole with the bereaved family.

According to eye witness account, the fire was probably caused by epileptic power supply which was said to be fluctuating.

The inhabitants were said to be asleep when the fire broke out. st

Group hails Alaafin on 41 coronation anniversary

A

SOCIO-POLITICAL group, Millenium City Club of Oyo, has congratulated the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, on his 41st coronation anniversary.

In a statement, the group praised the monarch for his visionary leadership and for supporting the state government’s efforts to improve the lives of the people.

It wished the Alaafin long life and prosperity.

The group said: “We are happy with the good rapport

From Bode Durojaiye, Oyo

between the governor and our esteemed royal father, which has resulted in development in the ancient town.

We, however, solicit more government assistance towards the economic development of Oyo town.”

It also praised the development initiatives of the Caretaker Chairman in Oyo West Local Government, Mr. Soji Ojoawo.

Cleric urges Nigerians to shun sin

T

HE current socio-political and economic crises bedevilling the nation would soon be a thing of the past if the country’s leaders and the citizens will move closer to God, a Lagos cleric has said.

General Superintendent of Christ Redemption Bible Church, Ketu, Lagos, Pastor John Abiodun Ogundare. who stated this at the on-going Annual Covenant Month of the church, asserted that the country’s problems were not insurmountable, insisting, however, that Nigerians needed to move away from

sin and embrace holiness for God to start manifesting his presence in the country.

He expressed optimism that the country would soon overcome its present challenges, urged the nation’s rulers to shun corruption and strive hard to make life more meaningful for the citizens.

The covenant month is a period of fasting and prayers for individuals, the family and the nation, he noted, informing that this year’s edition, which commenced on January 7, would be wrapped up on Sunday, February 5 with a thanksgiving service.

•Rev. Williams (right) and Rev. Okoh...yesterday

PHOTO: ABAYOMI FAYESE

Attacks on Christians disturbing, says Archbishop of Canterbury

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HE Archbishop of Canterbury and Head of Anglican Church in the United Kingdom, Very Rev. Rowan Williams, has said the recurring Boko Haram attacks, especially on Christians in Nigeria, are disturbing.

Williams said he has been discussing with the UK government on how to support those living in fear because of the sect’s activities.

In a letter to the Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Communion in Nigeria, Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, which was read by his representative, the Bishop of Durham Rt. Revd Justin Welby, in Abuja, Williams said: “I write to assure you of my continuing prayers for you and for the work and ministry of the Anglican Church in Nigeria as unrest continues in many parts of Nigeria, both as a consequence of the national strikes and the continuing campaign by Boko Haram.

“The Rt Revd Justin Welby, newly enthroned as Bishop of Durham, comes to you, my brother in Christ, as my trusted emissary, and brings assurances of my prayers and concern for you and for your people. In addition to his time in Abuja he hopes to travel to Jos and to Kano. I have asked Bishop Welby to deliver my greetings to you in person when he meets with you as part of our continuing dialogue and mutual support.

“The news of the ongoing attacks by Boko Haram continues to be very disturbing. We have heard

A

From Gbenga Omokhunu, Abuja

from the Bishop of Damaturu via the Bishop of Hereford how Christians have fled the city in fear of their lives, although Federal Government has urged people to remain in their homes following a crucial security meeting.

We are continuing to raise these issues with the government here in the UK and I know that Bishop Welby will continue with other Bishops and myself to advocate and support the position of those who are living in fear of the ongoing violence.”

Okoh noted that Nigerians are not ready for any religious strife, adding: “Christians and Muslims are very ready to live together.”

He noted that many Nigerians hope that the recent attacks by Boko Haram sect would be the last. The cleric said Christians would not continue to bear the killings.

Okoh said: “It’s our belief that it will not go beyond that, as the church is facing serious temptation. The church does not initiate confrontation. All along, we have try to turn the other cheek, people at this moment with the continuation of Boko Haram attacks are seriously being tempting Christians to find a solution in order to ensure their safety.”

Lawyer criticises President over soldiers’ occupation of Lagos

RIGHTS activist, Mr. Morakinyo Ogele, yesterday expressed con-

cern over the deployment of troops in some states, particularly Lagos.

He described the Federal Government’s action as an assault on democracy, saying President Goodluck Jonathan’s action calls for impeachment Ogele urged the National Assembly to call the President to order, noting that he was already acting beyond the jurisdiction of the Constitution.

A statement by the activist

From Olorunleke Akeredolu, Akure

and made available to The Nation in Akure, the Ondo Stste capital, said protest against any government policy is a legitimate right of the citizens.

He said: “It is now clear that Nigeria is being ruled by people who do not believe in democracy.

“Protest is a legitimate process of telling any ruling class that things are not well in the

society. President Jonathan was brought to power through series of protests organised by civil society groups and some human rights activists such as Mr. Femi Falana.

“But today, soldiers have restricted the movement of these progressive-minded people. The President should be cautious in his act of breaching the provisions of our Constitution, which he has embarked upon on a daily basis.

“The occupation of Lagos is

another way of telling Nigerians that we are under the rule of Assad, the President of Syria, who is daily killing Syrians through the occupation of their capital city by soldiers.

“President Jonathan cannot fight the people of this country through harassment, intimidation and get away with it. We are going to restrict his military dictatorship.”

Ogele, however, appealed to the President to revert petrol pump price to N65, saying the masses are not yet satisfied with the decision of the Federal Government on removal of fuel subsidy.

Why govt survived the strike, by Jonathan

By Oyeyemi Gbenga-Mustapha

OMEN have been urged to benefit from a free cervical screening taking place in Lagos on Friday and next week.

The Clinic Director, Healing Stripes Cancer Screening and Diagnostic Centre, Surulere, Lagos, Dr Femi Olaleye, said the gesture is put together by the Apapa Family of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) under the Healing Stripes Cancer Prevention and Medical Services, as a corporate social responsibility.

Olaleye said: “Cervical cancer is one of the leading cancer killers of women in Nigeria. It kills 8,000 women annually.

Cervical cancer is caused by a virus called the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), commonly present on the male genitalia (90 per cent of men).

“Cervical cancer happens when the cells in the cervix grow out of control from the HPV effect. Yet, if a woman is screened swiftly, the advancement of the lesion can be nipped in the bud.”

From Uja Emmanuel, Makurdi ENUE State Governor Gabriel Suswam has urged the workers to brace up for the drastic measures his administration would introduce following the removal of petrol subsidy by the Federal Government.

Addressing officials of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) after returning from Abuja, the governor said his administration would soon embark on restructuring the work force for effective service delivery.

He noted that this year’s budget was based on the revenue from subsidy to tackle the N18,OOO minimum wage.

According to him, since the subsidy has been partially removed, it would be difficult for the state to meet some of its key targets set in the budget.

Suswam urged the workers to prepare for some sacrifices for the development of the state.

Though he was not specific on the key sectors the restructuring would affect, it was learnt that the governor may soon embark on massive retrenchment of civil servants.

The Nation gathered that over 9,000 workers are due for retirement either as a result of age or years in service.

Some of those who started working in the state’s public service since the days of the split Benue-Plateau State are said to be unprepared to retire.

The government has expressed worry over those who have allegedly retired and later returned to service.

Before agreement with Labour over the N18,000 minimum wage, one of the condition Suswam gave was that a proper audit of workers to determine their actual strength would be carried out.

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Free cervical screening for women

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Subsidy: Suswam to sack 9,000 workers

SUSPENSION OF STRIKE

P

RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan said last night that because of his full mandate from the people, his government did not go down in the face of the recent turbulence in the country.

He expressed regrets about the inconveniencies the strike might have caused the people, especially the diplomatic community.

He said the one week experience has made the administration stronger and indeed better. He promised that the country will not experience such incident again.

From Vincent Ikuomola, Abuja

The president spoke last night during the annual reception for Diplomats, held at the Presidential Banquet Hall, Abuja.

Jonathan also assured that subsequent increase in pump price will be done in a way that it will not bring hardship on the people.

“This is a challenging period all of over the world.

We have crisis here and there, if you look at the international media you will begin to think about histo-

ry and you begin to ask yourself when will the world be in peace. But collectively, we will work towards that.

“For us let me thank you for the role you played in our elections and assure that democracy has not just come to stay in Nigeria but democracy that is sanctioned by an election that is credible, election that is free and fair.

He also appreciated the diplomats understanding, saying, “I know some people must have come to you and send all kinds of messages to your various governments. I believe that you

know that the position of the government is the best for the people.”

He also expressed his appreciation for the goodwill messages the various countries sent to him during the crisis, assuring them that Nigeria “will continue to maintain a very warm relationship with all the organisations and all the countries in spite of our experiences with the Boko Haram”. Nigerian government is totally committed to the maintenance of peace and order in line with the UN Charter.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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FOREIGN NEWS What Sanha failed to achieve as Guinea Bissau President

By Leke Salaudeen

•Sanha

M

ALAM Bacai Sanha was president of the tiny, impoverished West African state of Guinea-Bissau. He died on January 9, and was committed to mother earth on Sunday. He came to power following the assassination of the country’s previous leader. Although he took over promising to clean up the troubled country’s drug trafficking, crime and corruption, little was done.

He became known for his frequent visits to hospitals in Senegal and France, which were always described as “routine check-ups,” but it was an open secret that he suffered from severe diabetes and a hemoglobin problem. He was admitted to the Val-de-Grâce military hospital in Paris in mid-December for an unspecified ailment, and before he died Sanha was in a coma. The head of the National Assembly, Raimundo Pereira, is expected to take over until new elections can be organised.

In a country with a long history of internal conflict, Sanha’s death has caused many to fear for Guinea-Bissau as it now faces a power vacuum with pretenders to the presidency jostling for position.

However, peaceful transitions are rare and there was a suspected coup attempt two

weeks ago in which more than 100 military personnel, many high-ranking, were arrested.

Since gaining independence from Portugal in 1974, with Cuban assistance, after a long struggle spearheaded by the left-wing African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), the country has been plagued by corruption, coups and assassinations.

Sanha won the 2009 elections with two-thirds of the votes after his predecessor, Joao Bernardo “Nino” Vieira, was killed in his home hours after the head of the army died in a bomb explosion. Sanha’s victory, in a peaceful transition of power, marked a rare bright spot for Guinea-Bissau. Less than a year after Vieira’s murder, mutinous soldiers seized the head of the armed forces and placed the prime minister under house arrest in another apparent coup attempt.

Though it was once considered a potential model for African development, Guinea-Bissau’s fortunes have declined. Violence and instability have taken their toll on the country’s economic development, and it sits at the bottom of most economic and health indices. Twothirds of its 1.6 million population live below the poverty line on less than $1.50 per day. It has huge debts and relies heavily on foreign aid.

Born in Dar Salam in the Quinara region in the west of the country, Sanha, a longtime member of the PAIGC, was a guerrilla in the Marxist-led war of independence against Portugal. He served as regional governor to Gabu and Biombo and held several cabinet positions before becoming President of the National People’s Assembly in 1994. The same year saw the country’s first

free elections with Joao Vieira becoming president, supported by General Mane.

Four years later, with Mane not receiving his reward for supporting Vieira, a crippling civil war ensued in which thousands were killed, wounded and displaced. Vieira was deposed in 1999 and Sanha was appointed acting President by the military junta. The war ended after foreign mediation led to a truce, policed by West African peacekeepers, and free elections followed in 2000.

Promising peace and an end to political persecution, Sanha stood, but lost to the Mane-backed Kumba Yala.

Yala was ousted in a bloodless military coup in September 2003. In the 2005 elections, Sanha lost again to Vieira, but his rule was brought to a bloody end in March 2009.

In such a lawless country, with many high-ranking officials believed to be involved in trafficking narcotics, it is perhaps not surprising that Guinea-Bissau, with its numerous islands that sprinkle its coastline, has become a hub for drug-smuggling from Latin America to Europe. This has prompted fears that the drugs trade could further destabilise an already volatile country; Sanha had pledged to combat the flow of narcotics. According to the UN drugs agency, some 27 per cent of the cocaine consumed annually in Europe passes through West Africa, and Guinea-Bissau is the worst culprit.

The former justice minister and analyst Carlos Vamain called Sanha’s presidency “difficult and complex. Difficult in the context of narcotrafficking and the unchanging socio-economic problems of the country. His presidency did not bring the results people had hoped.”

Kidnapped Algerian governor set free in Libya

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KIDNAPPED Algerian regional governor has been freed after his captors were intercepted inside Libya, officials said yesterday, an incident that will raise new concerns about instability spilling over from Libya to its neighbours.

Two Algerian security sources earlier told Reuters the governor was being held by al Qaeda. Security experts have warned the group is exploiting turmoil in Libya after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi to carve out a safe haven.

Algeria’s state news agency, citing a source close to the Interior Ministry, said the governor, Mohamed Laid Khelfi, was freed by the Libyan authorities when they stopped his kidnappers about 150 km inside Libyan territory.

The agency said the governor would soon be handed over to the Algerian authorities at a nearby border crossing.

An Algerian security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters: “The governor is safe and well. He was freed. That is all I can say for now.”

The kidnapping, deep in the Sahara desert, was the most audacious attack on a senior official for years in Algeria, which has been fighting a twodecade battle against Islamist

insurgents.

There was no immediate comment from officials in Libya's interim government on the incident.

Khelfi, governor of the Illizi region about 1,700 km (1,000 miles) southeast of the Algerian capital, was driving away from a meeting on the Libyan border on Monday afternoon when three armed men stopped his convoy, the Interior Ministry said.

The attackers released his driver and an aide, but took the governor in the direction

of the Libyan border, a ministry statement said. He later made telephone contact with his family.

The ministry did not identify the kidnappers, saying only they were young Algerian men who were known to the authorities.

Two Algerian security officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the governor had been held by al Qaeda's north African branch, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Mubarak’s lawyers open defence

L

LAWYERS for the ousted Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, have begun arguing the case for the defence, in a court in Cairo.

Mr Mubarak is accused of ordering the killing of demonstrators during unrest which led to his resignation last year.

His lawyer Farid al-Deeb said his client was innocent, describing him as a clean leader, who obeyed the law and worked tirelessly for his country.

The defence’s arguments are expected to last three days, state media report.

Mr Mubarak’s two sons, one-time heir apparent Gamal and Alaa, are facing separate charges of corruption with their father in the same trial.

Mr Deeb described the former president as a man worn down by illness after devoting his entire life to the service of his nation.

He argued that he had been mauled by malicious talk targeted from all sides, with his reputation being slandered by tongues and pens.

“There is no way that Hosni Mubarak, who is accused of murder and abusing his power, is the same Hosni Mubarak I am about to describe,” Mr Deeb told the court. “He is a man with clean hands and a pure heart.”

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

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www.thenationonlineng.net

WHO SAID WHAT

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012 TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

VOL.7 NO.2008

‘Thus, Africans including Nigerians were involved in a war, the cause of which they knew nothing about and against an enemy that was not of their own making.’

JIDE OSUNTOKUN

COMMENT & DEB ATE EBA

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ITH the strike jointly called for by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) over fuel subsidy removal (FSR) at least suspended for now, it seems the government has won the day against the mass demonstration for the restoration of the subsidy, assuming, that is, that it existed in the first place. When the two unions issued a joint statement saying the strike will go on until the old price of N65 per litre is restored, they said: “We shall neither surrender nor retreat.” They may not have surrendered completely, but they have certainly retreated.

Even then, it should be clearly obvious to all that while government seems to have won the battle for FSR, it has lost the argument for same. It has done so in spite of the brave efforts of the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.

Before, during and after the well publicised town hall meeting in Lagos on FSR, under the umbrella of the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), the two led the war for FSR. As field commanders of the war, government, they said again and again, can simply not continue to subsidise petrol consumption, certainly not on the scale of last year’s which they said had reached N1.36 trillion by October.

To carry on like that, they said, apparently plausibly, is to mortgage the future of our children, possibly even grandchildren.

Problem, however, is that, first, when you scratch the surface of their arithmetic, as some oil experts have done, it does not quite add up. This is because, to begin with, their arithmetic is based on the opportunity cost of not selling the 450,000 barrels of crude meant for local refining at the international market, whereas the arithmetic should be based on the cost of bringing it up and transporting it to the refineries since the 450,000 barrels are above our OPEC export quota.

Then there is the template used by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) for fixing the price of petrol at N141 per litre. This template is made of 24odd elements, with several of them, like the taxes and the demurrage on the item, looking either arbitrary or fishy or both.

Next there is the case of conflicting figures of our rate of consumption among the four institutions involved in the business, namely, CBN, PPPRA, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).Their figures, as Mr. Peter Esele, the President of TUC, pointed out at the NPAN town hall meeting, have ranged between 30 million litres per day to 40. A margin of error of 10 million litres, as Mr Esele said, is obviously

People and Politics By MOHAMMED HARUNA ndajika@yahoo.com

FSR and government’s resort to blackmail (I) ‘Now, if all of these alone do not convince you that government lost the argument for FSR even before the debate started, surely its apparent complicity in the resort to crude blackmail by leading figures and groups from the president’s Southsouth geo-political zone so that government would have its way, should.’

•Dr Jonathan

untenable.

According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), America consumed an average of 379.7 million gallons per day or 1.7 billion litres per day of petrol in 2010.

Depending on which figure of Nigeria’s consumption you pick, this could mean Nigeria consumes somewhere in the region of 1/43 or 1/57 of what the Americans consume. Either figure looks questionable when you compare our economy’s relatively puny $135 billion Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with America’s mighty 14 trillion, i.e. over 100 times the size of Nigeria’s. This is not to mention the fact that the automobile is central to America’s way of life, which it certainly isn’t in Nigeria.

The questionable plausibility of the oil arithmetic of the FSR protagonists apart, there is the question of how government came about spending over five times the N250 billion it budgeted for subsidy in its 2011 budget, a provision based on the performance of the year before. The most likely one phrase answer to this question is government’s totally reckless disregard

RIPPLES

HARDBALL

SUBSIDY REMOVAL IS A PILL PATRIOTIC NIGERIANS SHOULD SWALLOW -Minister of Works

Apology

Last week I said President Goodluck Jonathan travelled to South Africa where the ruling African National Congress was celebrating its centenary, with the First Lady, Dame Patience, in tow, while the war over FSR raged. This was a most egregious mistake on my part as neither travelled out of the country at the time. The error is deeply regretted.

•For comments, send SMS to 08054502909

•Hardball is not the opinion of the columnist featured above

State of emergency by any other name

I

SWALLOW...and get CHOKED?

of the Fiscal Responsibility Law of 2007; a recklessness in pursuit of the presidential ambition of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Otherwise it is difficult, if not impossible, to explain how the huge excess crude account he inherited as acting president, following the death of his boss, Alhaji Umaru Yar’adua, virtually disappeared and our foreign reserve ran dangerously low in the run-up to last April’s general elections and we even restarted borrowing from abroad in spite of all the promises government made that we will never do so again after the so-called debt forgiveness from the Paris Club.

Now, if all of these alone do not convince you that government lost the argument for FSR even before the debate started, surely its apparent complicity in the resort to crude blackmail by leading figures and groups from the president’s Southsouth geo-political zone so that government would have its way, should.

Last Sunday’s Thisday’s editorial, “False Alarm by Niger Delta Elders,” captured this fact very well. Commenting on the claim by the President of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Mr. Miabiye Kuromiema, in company of the

rather voluble Alhaji Asari Dokubo of the Niger Delta Volunteer Force that some nameless persons were planning to assassinate the president along with the National Security Adviser, General Andrew Owoye Azazi; the Army Chief, Lt-Gen. Azubike Ihejirika; and Senate President David Mark; the newspaper rightly dismissed the claim as crying wolf where none existed.

It also dismissed the subsequent claim by the Southsouth Elders, led by the Ijaw leader and former Minister of Information, Chief Edwin Clarke, that some vested interests were trying to use the protest over FSR to remove the president from office.

“We find it very worrisome,” said the newspaper, “that senior citizens (most of whom have held senior government positions in recent past) would promote divisive tendencies. We also condemn any attempt to criminalise the genuine protest of Nigerians over the removal of subsidy by the Federal Government.”

It concluded by saying it is “a great disservice to President Jonathan that some politicians are using his name to further inflame already frayed passions by raising false alarm at this critical stage of our national life.” What the newspaper did not add, but should have, was that the President has not shown any disapproval of the untoward words and deeds of his compatriots. On the contrary, he seems to be all too pleased with their dangerous alarmist and divisive antics.

The prize for false alarm and divisive tendencies would, however, go, not to Chief Clarke’s group for claiming that some faceless groups want to use the FSR protests to remove the president. It would not even go to Messrs Kuromiama and Dokubo for claiming some people are planning to assassinate Mr. President, et al. No. The prize for false alarm and divisive tendencies will go to the latter two along with three others for signing a widely publicised “Open Letter to the Nation (1)” on behalf of the IYC – the sixth person on the document, one Dr. Chris Ekiyor did not sign the document - claiming the protests over the FSR was a plot “to make Nigeria ungovernable for His Excellency, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (so as to) portray him as clueless, weak, incompetent and unable to hold Nigeria together.”

F anyone thought the deployment of soldiers in Lagos on Sunday night was a mere precautionary exercise to subvert freedom of association as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution, the statement issued by the Minister of Defence, Dr Bello Haliru Mohammed, on Tuesday should disabuse such a mind. It was worse. Justifying the deployment on the grounds of certain Lagosians engaging in unlawful activities, he declared imperiously: “From the reports available to government, these people were planning to ignite actions typical of what is going on in Syria and other Arab countries and there is no way any responsible government would fold its arms and watch some people destabilise any part of the country. The deployment of soldiers was meant to forestall anarchy, so government stepped in to control the situation, so that people with the wrong motives can be put in check. The soldiers will be withdrawn as soon as normalcy returns to the streets of Lagos and other parts of the country where soldiers are on such duties.”

It is pointless denying that this deploy-

ment did not amount to declaration of emergency. Just like the disruption of protests on Monday, this deployment is in fact hasty, not well thought out and capable of radicalising Lagos and other Southwest states. The last time this sort of drastic measure was executed in the present Southwest geopolitical zone was in the 1960s, in circumstances that were dire and uncontrollable. At the time, Ibadan was the capital of Western Region, and it was also the cultural, intellectual and political capital of the Yoruba. Today, Lagos roughly approximates what Ibadan was to the Yoruba. By putting troops on Lagos streets, the Federal Government has virtually put troops in all capital cities of the Southwest.

Emergency rule was a disaster in the 1960s; it is impossible for the current deployment of troops to augur well for the region or bring the sort of peace the Federal Government envisages. In the first instance, there was no breakdown of law and order during the recent protests. Indeed, according to the Defence Minister, there was only a threat of it, and it knew those behind it. But rather than investigate the suspects or call them in for a chat, it decided to

wield the hammer. Lagos and the Southwest will see the premeditated deployment as an unconstitutional attempt to stymie free speech. If history is any guide, that retrogressive act of deploying troops to intimidate the region and regress its centuries-old democratic culture is capable of radicalising the region’s youths and creating large-scale disaffection.

In a democracy, and under the presidential system, it is insensitive and belligerent of the Federal Government to deploy troops in a state in the manner it has done without the approval of the governor or the state legislature. It is curious that neither the national legislature nor the larger Nigerian society has shown the degree of outrage commensurate with that unwholesome constitutional infraction. If care is not taken, fascism may be gradually creeping into Nigeria. And if it is not resisted now, it may be difficult to arrest such political malfeasance on a hypothetical tomorrow. We must hope that the Defence Minister’s fears of Lagos re-enacting the Syrian scenario and the Arab Spring would not be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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