The Nation June 02, 2012

Recalled 7 Lagos doctors give conditions PAGE

Govt refers them to commission, LASUTH

VOL.07 N0. 2144

‘Security agencies spent five months to locate German hostage’s abode in Kano’ PAGE

4 Why operatives opened fire to free him

Nigeria’s widest circulating newspaper

TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

Police fire tear gas at UNILAG students Power PAGE 4 supply cut

SATURDAY, JUNE 02, 2012

N150.00

The first indigenous Seaward Defence Boat (SDB) built by the Nigerian Navy and commissioned by President Goodluck Jonathan in Lagos... yesterday

Oteh-Hembe face-off latest

250 face sack at SEC over leakage of documents 5 PAGE

Fuel scarcity looms as suppliers drop out

PAGE 57

Directors, deputy directors may be swept away D-G seeks permission to restructure commission

2 NEWS

I

T came like a bolt out of the blue. As Tuesday’s morning sun cruised steadily across the nation’s skies, spewing its mild-dull rays over the land, the people were glued to their television sets, or in the alternative, radio sets. A presidential broadcast commemorating the 13th year of un-interrupted democracy in Nigeria was on.

The broadcast, a 74-paragraph address of approximately 6,052 words, which began at 8.00 am, took about 52 minutes of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. The speech writers, either by design or accident, saved the best for last, or so it seemed.

It was now close to 9.00 am. The narrative had built up steadily, and now the president was appraising the never say die spirit of the average Nigerian.

He then declared: “Let me end this address at the point where I began. What matters most to all of us is Nigeria. It is what binds us together. We have a duty to be loyal to our country. If we believe this to be a sacred obligation, it will not matter whether we are Christians or Muslims, or politicians, irrespective of political parties or divide. It really will not matter whether we are civil society agents, social activists or union leaders. What matters is Nigeria. This nation exists because we are one. We must, therefore, remain as one family, and work together to defend our country…

“This is what we should do. And we must. As a starting point, we must draw strength from our history and work to ensure that the labour of our heroes past is not in vain. It is partly for this and other reasons that I have directed, as part of the activities marking today’s Democracy Day, that all due processes should be initiated for the building of a Presidential Museum in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. This museum will document the lives and times of Nigeria’s Presidents and Heads of Government since 1960 and remind us, by extension, of the high points of our national history”.

The president then dropped the clincher of his address on paragraph 71: “It is also in this regard that the Federal Government has decided that (the) late Chief M.K.O. Abiola be honoured for making the ultimate sacrifice in the pursuit of justice and truth. Destiny and circumstances conspired to place upon his shoulders a historic burden, and he rose to the occasion with character and courage. He deserves recognition for his martyrdom, and public-spiritedness and for being the man of history that he was. We need in our land more men and women who will stand up to defend their beliefs and whose example will further enrich our democracy. After very careful consideration and in honour of Chief M.K.O. Abiola’s accomplishments and heroism on this Democracy Day, the University of Lagos is renamed by the Federal Government of Nigeria, Moshood Abiola University, Lagos. The Federal Government will also establish an Institute of Democratic Studies and Governance in the University”.

It was followed by the closing remark of “Thank you”.

And that was it. But rather than elicit instant joy and applause, it was greeted with an ironic twist. Students of the institution reacted with spontaneous protest, rejecting the name change.

The students marched out of their hostels and gathered at the YABATECH junction from where they moved round the school chanting protest songs denouncing the name change of the school.

They carried placards with various inscriptions such as: “Reverse or Resign, UNILAG can’t be called MAU”.

The students then blocked all access roads to the school causing heavy traffic on the University of Lagos Road as well as St. Finbarrs’ College Road.

On Wednesday, the second day of the protest, the students blocked the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos.

They marched from their main campus at Akoka, Yaba, through Herbert Macaulay Street to the Adekunle link of the bridge and used Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) buses to block the busy highway.

The protest caused a spirally traffic gridlock in the city.

In the ensuing scenario, the institution’s

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 02, 2012

RENAMING OF UNILAG ABIOLA VARSITY

•UNILAG’s main gate

•Some of the protesting students

When noble intention stirs popular revolt Senate in an emergency meeting, ordered the school shut for two weeks and all students were ordered to leave the campus immediately.

Rejection galore The gale of rejection that has hit the president’s gesture at immortalising the late Chief M K O Abiola, the winner of the June 12 1993 presidential election, was not borne out of the denial of the heroic exploits of the late business mogul. On the contrarily, all the eminent voices that have openly faulted the presidential renaming of the institution had been predicated on three major things: poor timing; illegality and non-consultation.

On the fringe is the issue of ego or status problem the re-naming would impose on critical stakeholders of the institution’s community.

Augustine AVWODE Assistant Editor

Notable among those who had voiced their opposition to the re-naming include Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka.

While pleading with the Abiola family not to misconstrue the opposition to the renaming, Professor Soyinka blamed the Federal Government for not consulting widely before the announcement which he claimed came to him as a shock and likened the action to those in the days of military regime.

“Next is my confession to considerable shock that President Goodluck Jonathan did not even think it fit to consult or inform the administrators of the university, including Council and Senate, of his intention to re-name their university for any reason,

however laudable. This arbitrariness, this act of disrespect, was a barely tolerated aberration of military governance. It is totally deplorable in what is supposed to be a civilian order”.

The literary giant then suggested that court action be instituted to settle the matter.

“Legalists have claimed that there is a legal flaw to the entire process. The university, solidly backed by other tertiary institutions nation-wide, should immediately proceed to the courts of law and demand a ‘stay of execution’. That should give President Jonathan time to re-consider and perhaps shift his focus to the nation’s capital for institutions begging for rituals of re-naming.

After all, it is on record that the National Assembly did once resolve that the Abuja stadium be named after the man already bestowed the unique title of “Pillar of African

NEWS 3

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 02, 2012

RENAMING OF UNILAG ABIOLA VARSITY

Fawehinmi; Abuja-based lawyer, David Agunbiade; a UNILAG lecturer, Prof. Lai Olurode; Osun State University lecturer, Prof. Siyan Oyeweso; and the leader of the Civil Society Coalition, Shehu Sani, all asking the Federal Government to reverse its decision and do the right thing.

Fayemi, who is an alumnus of UNILAG, described Jonathan’s action “as an opportunistic recognition of the late winner of June 12, 1993 presidential election.”

Ashafa said: “The timing of the announcement is insensitive when the remains of the VC of the institution have not been buried. I wonder why the Federal Government had to do such a controversial thing in a university environment.”

Mohammed said in a statement that the pronouncement was a blunder borne out of ill advice to the President.

Like Agunbiade and Sani, Mohammed alleged that the renaming of UNILAG after Abiola by a mere statement by the President was done to secure votes in the SouthWest in 2015.

Both the alumni association, the Parents Forum and the institution’s Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have all also rejected the renaming.

No going back

•President Jonathan

•Asiwaju Tinubu

•Mr. Maku Sports”. He deserved that, and a lot more.

What he did not deserve is to be, albeit posthumously, the centre of a fully avoidable acrimony, one that has now resulted in the shutting down one of the institutions of learning to whose cause, the cause of learning, President-elect MKO Abiola also made unparalleled private contributions”.

Former Lagos Governor and National Leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, rejected it because it tends to “localise” what Abiola stood for.

In a statement, Tinubu contended that though the President’s decision to rename the university after Abiola was welcome, it fell short of what was required.

He said: “We must congratulate the President for attempting to do it, but we say-do it right. MKO was elected by the entire country not just by the Yoruba – he was arrested and taken to Abuja. He was tried, incarcerated

•Prof. Soyinka

•Chief Babalola and eventually died in very controversial circumstances in Abuja under the custody of federal agents. Abiola’s mandate was a national mandate which he tried to reclaim.

But we must be careful not to localise or sectionalise MKO.” Legal luminary and former Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council of the University of Lagos, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), provided the legal angle to the controversy in its finest details and concluded that even though the action was noble, it was nonetheless not only illegal but an executive usurpation of the functions of the National Assembly.

Babalola, who was Abiola’s lawyer, added that President Jonathan’s powers as visitor to the university did not include changing its name without recourse to the National Assembly.

“It is pertinent to state that I do not entirely agree with the manner in which the government has gone about its decision.

“To my mind, a decision to honour the sacrifice of a man such as the Late Bashorun MKO Abiola required much more thoughtfulness and thoroughness than that which the current decision seems to display.

“I take this view in the light of the obvious illegality and unconstitutionality of the decision to change the name of the University of Lagos to Moshood Abiola University, Lagos.

“The University is a creation of statute.

Everything relating to the University including its name, administration and control is provided and regulated by statute therefore necessitating that any action taken in respect of the University must comply with the provisions of the Law. “Therefore, the most important yardstick against which the decision must be measured is the provisions of the University of Lagos Act, Cap U9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

“Clearly, a unilateral change in the name of the university from that stated in Section 1 of the Act cannot under any guise, be regarded as consistent with the provisions of the Act...

“The powers vested in President Jonathan under Section 16 of the University of Lagos Act are not wide enough to support the decision of the Federal Government to change the name of the University of Lagos to Moshood Abiola University, Lagos”, Chief Babalola argued.

Others who had also spoken against the name change included Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi; a member of the National Assembly, Senator Gbenga Ashafa; Mohammed, son of the late legal giant Gani

In what looks like a brewing stalemate, the Federal Government and the National Universities Commission (NUC) have said there would be no going back on the renaming.

Speaking in Abuja, Information Minister, Mr. Labaran Maku, said the president only showed that he truly appreciates late Abiola’s contribution to the political development of the country.

“Yes sometimes government decisions get reactions from the populace, we do not as an administration see this as a disapproval. We just see it as a normal way in every democracy that when you take major decisions definitely sometimes you have public reaction but we should not allow the protest to overshadow the national significance of what Mr. President has done. I think he has shown that he is a true statesman and he truly appreciates the significance of M.K.O’s contribution in the political development of our country and as people who were adults in 1993.

We think that this decision has been long overdue and that, today, Abiola can turn in his grave and say this nation for whom I made a supreme sacrifice for political development has recognized my contributions.

“It is our hope that reason will prevail and that the decision to honor one of our nations’s icons and heroes will be appreciated by all Nigerians, including our youths and students who are the future leaders of this country, “he had explained.

Way out The way out of the controversy is the law court. A professor of the institution who craved anonymity, said the courts would be flooded by legal actions in no distance time because the action of the government did not only come in bad taste in terms of timing but importantly, illegal.

“Look at the timing, the community was still mourning the demise of a very amiable Vice Chancellor, without consultation, no prior information, you just imposed your will on everybody because you are looking for votes in 2015. It is bad, it is illegal and since pride and ego will make it impossible for him to reverse, the court will decide it.

Also, Lagos based legal practitioner and an alumni of the institution, Johnson Okagbare told The Nation on Friday that since the government has seemly closed the way to a reversal of the action of the Federal Government, those who are aggrieved should go to court to enforce their demand or right.

“You have heard all the arguments, especially that by a former Pro-Chancellor, Chief Babalola; take it or leave it, people will go to court and you will see the outcome. The president would be made to go before the National Assembly before this will legally take effect. At the National Assembly, he may win but then it would have become legal and properly named,.” he stated.

4 News

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

UNILAG: Students condemn FG over new name

T

HE Distance Learning Students Association of the University of Lagos has condemned the decision of President Goodluck Jonathan to change the name of the institution to Moshood Abiola University, Lagos.

In a statement, the Vice-President of the association, Nsikak Tom Udo, said: ”Our position remains clear: if President Jonathan wants to immortalise MKO Abiola, he should change the name of one of the newly established universities or, better still, name the national stadium, Abuja after him.

“We will resist any move by the Federal Government to unjustly and illegally change the name of our dear University of Lagos in order to score cheap political point.”

He berated the police for “unprofessional conduct” while dispersing protesting students of the institution.

“The Nigerian police have again demonstrated their level of unprofessionalism by firing teargas at the armless students who were staging a peaceful protest.The attack resulted in the collapse and subsequent hospitalisation of a female student,” he said.

Protesting UNILAG students, Police clash •From left: Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Mrs. O. Oladunjoye; Chairman, Zinox Computers Technologies Limited, Leo Stan Ekeh, OFR; Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola and his deputy, Joke Orelope Akinfulire during Ekeh’s donation of four police patrol vehicles to Lagos State Security Trust Fund at the State House, Alausa, Ikeja yesterday.

Photo: Omosehin MOSES

Security agencies spent five months to locate slain German hostage’s abode in Kano •Why security agencies opened fire to free him

F

ACTS emerged yesterday Yusuf ALLI, Managing that it took security agen- Editor, Northern Operation cies about five months to locate THE HOUSE where Ger- months, we were trying to loman hostage, Engr. Edgar Fritz cate where the late German hostage was kept in Kano. The abRaupach, was killed in Kano.

It was also learnt that the agen- duction of the hostage was done cies opted to attack the house af- in a sophisticated manner that ter establishing that the terror- suggested the possibility of exists were heavily armed. But the ternal backing.

"With sufficient intelligence manhunt for the killers of the gathering, we were able to lohostage has started.

A reliable source, who spoke cate the house on the outskirts with our correspondent in con- of Kano, and we took time to fidence, said security agencies design the operation.

"We were able to establish combed Kano for five months to locate the hostage’s hideout that some leaders of the terrorat Danbare, Rijiyar Zaki Quar- ist gang were either living in the house or coordinating activities ters in Kano.

The source said: "For five from the place. No one was,

however, sure whether Edgar was there or not.

"Going by recent confrontations between the police and terror groups in Kano, it was actually the least place we thought Edgar Raupach would be.

"But it became necessary to use force on the residence when we discovered that the terrorists were heavily armed.

"I can tell you that we conducted the operation with due diligence and military tactics.

We did our best but most people may not appreciate the stress we went through.”

Responding to a question, the source added: "It was after security agencies had located the

house that other military formations were involved in a collaboration."

At press time, it was gathered that security agencies were still on the trail of the people behind the killing of the German hostage.

The source added: "We are already after the people behind the gruesome murder of the German hostage. We will get them."

Raupach was kidnapped on January 26, 2012, following alleged arrest and detention of a Muslim woman, Oum Seif Allah Al Ansari, in Germany.

The female Muslim is said to be in custody in a German prison.

Election Petition: Supreme Court declines request to reverse self on 180-day deadline

T

HE Supreme Court yesterday refused to reverse itself on its stance that an election petition must be heard and determined within 180 days from the day it was filed.

Dismissing the appeal by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governorship candidate in Akwa-Ibom State, Senator John Akpanudoedehe, the court said it lacked the jurisdiction to hear it.

It rebuffed spirited efforts by the Appellant’s counsel, Kola Awodehin , SAN, to hear the substantive appeal with the preliminary objection.

Upholding the preliminary objection of Governor Godswill Akpabio and his deputy, Nsima Ekere, the court said the appeal constituted an abuse of court process.

In the unanimous ruling, Justice Mary Peter-Odili said the meaning and purport of Section 285(6) of the Constitution is unambiguous.

Since the court cannot amend the constitution, Justice Odili said there was no live issue remaining in the petition as the appeal had become an academic exercise.

Odili said: “A matter of fair hearing is applicable only in live matter, not as in this case.

There is no foundation upon which this court can do what the appellant has invited it to

Kamarudeen OGUNDELE, Abuja do. This appeal is dismissed as an abuse of court process.”

The presiding Justice, Christopher ChukwumaEneh, John Fabiyi, Sulaiman Galadima, Bode RhodesVivour, Sylvester Ngwuta and Olukayode Ariwoola agreed.

Counsel to Akpabio, Bayo Ojo, SAN, had urged the court to dismiss the appeal as a flagrant abuse of court process.

He posited that the court had laid to rest issues of 180 days as stipulated in Section 285(6) of the Constitution.

He advised the appellant to go to challenge the amendment made to the constitution if not satisfied.

But Awodehin maintained that what the framer of the Constitution envisaged was an uninterrupted 180 days.

He submitted that the petition was barely 60 days old when it was dismissed before the petitioner went to the appellate court to explore his rights of appeal.

He maintained that if the decision is not reversed, no petitioner would have right to fair hearing as his right of appeal would have eaten into his 180 days and may be left with no time to prove his case at the tribunal when he returns.

Akpanudoedehe is challenging the decision of the Court of Appeal, which affirmed the verdict of the Election Petition Tribunals that had dismissed his petition on the grounds that it was not heard within 180 days as stipulated in Section 285 (6) of the Constitution.

The Supreme Court had in November last year ordered that the two petitions be heard on merit. But the lower court declined to hear the appeal, citing the apex court’s decision in the Borno case.

Dissatisfied, the Appellants approached the Supreme Court for a redress.

Akpanudoedehe contended that the decision in Borno case was reached per incuriam because the court did not consider the effect of its interpretation of Section 285(6) of the constitution on some other basic and fundamental provisions of the Constitution. *The decision is inconsistent with Section 36(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which guarantees the right o fair hearing within a reasonable time. *The adopted interpretation of Section 285(6) of the 1999 Constitution in ANPP v Goni extinguishes the constitutionally guaranteed right of appeal against the decision of an Election Tribunal and the right of

a successful Appellant to fair hearing on the merit of the Petition. *The adopted interpretation of Section 285(6) of the 1999 Constitution ....ousts the jurisdiction of the Election Tribunal upon an unconditional order of re-trial, limits the judicial powers of the Courts or Tribunals to determine the Petition within a reasonable timeframe and unix ones the foundational doctrine of separation of powers enshrined in the basic structure of the 1999 Constitution in Sections 6(6)(a) and 4(a). *The interpretation given in the decision of ANPP v Goni is wrongful and has manifested greater injustice. The continuing retention of the decision in ANPP v Goni will manifest great injustice and negates the earlier decision of this court in Unongo v Aku (1983) NSCC page 563 at page 568. *The decision in ANPP v Goni has impeded and continues to impede the development of the law. This has led to unjust results and miscarriage of justice contrary to public policy. *This court is not obliged to perpetuate a decision where it is shown, as in the instant case, that it was decided on wrong premise or given per incuriam.

FFICERS of the Nigerian Police Force have fired teargas at protesting students of the University of Lagos, while the students resumed the third day of protest over the renaming of the institution.

The clash started as the security agents tried to prevent the students from heading to the streets to commence another day of protest, which started on Tuesday.

The police officers were stationed at the main gate of the institution, to prevent the students from leaving and as the students procession wanted to force their way through, canisters of teargas were fired to disperse the students.

The students filed out at the school’s gate chanting songs and insisting that the federal government rescinds the change of name.

While these prevailed, scores of security personnel kept a close watch and distance from the protesters.

O

Continued on Page 5

NAAPE’s strike action illegal, says Air Nigeria

T

HE management of Kelvin OSA OKUNBOR Air Nigeria has declared as illegal the strike action embarked upon by its workers under the auspices of the Nigerian Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE).

The workers, protesting non=payment of salaries, had gone on strike, disrupting the airline’s domestic and regional flights. But a statement issued by the company’s management described it as unfortunate, noting that it came without without due exploitation of the laid down avenues of negotiations.

The statement reads in part: “The strike action is uncalled for and a cheap blackmail by NAAPE as only one hour notice was given before the strike action was embarked upon.

“This, to say the least, is an unacceptable behaviour in the aviation industry and management is of the view that NAAPE is acting under external influence.

“It is very unreasonable and cheap blackmail for NAAPE to embark on strike action based on non-payment of May salaries at the midnight of May 31st when, in fact, some of the staff had collected their salaries with the rest of the staff still being processed.

“It is therefore illegal and criminal for NAAPE to allow itself to be used by competitors, who are envious of the giant steps already taken by Air Nigeria, and Management is already working on a policy that will put a permanent stop to this cheap blackmail.

“We regret the inconveniences this development has caused our passengers and wish to assure that efforts are ongoing to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.

“In order to minimise the inconveniences, we have set up a refund process across our route network for passengers wishing to seek alternative arrangements for their travels.

“Our daily scheduled flight operation to London will operate as it is not affected by the strike action.”

At the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos yesterday, furious passengers were seen at the airline’s ticketing and check-in counters asking questions about the airline.

It was learnt that trouble started early around 6 am when pilots and engineers of the airline embarked on strike, leading to the grounding of the airline’s operations as there was no pilot to fly the aircraft or engineers to certify it air worthy.

Urban poor to pay N4 per kilowatt of electricty

C

ONTRARY to widespread reports, Urban poor and rural dwellers will pay N4 per kilowatts of electricity consumed from June 1, 2012, the Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji has said.

The minister, during a town hall meeting at Government House, Kano yesterday disclosed that the rich will instead pay more, while the poor will pay less Nnaji, on the occasion explained that the Federal Government decided to review the tariff downwards from N7 to

Kolade ADEYEMI, Kano N4 per kilowatt of electricity consumed by the poor, so as to reduce their burden as part of part the benefits from fuel subsidy.

“We have come to realize that the issue of the tariff is been misconstrued, there is no time it was reviewed upwards, rather we favoured an adjustment, where the urban and rural dwellers will pay less from N7 to N4 for power consumed,” he further explained.

News 5

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

killed in Maiduguri’s 250 face sack at SEC over leakage Five fresh Boko Haram attack of documents F N •Directors, deputy directors may be swept away OLLOWING the leakage of documents during its face-off with the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may sack about 250 of its employees.

The restructuring may also affect most of the directors and deputy directors of the commission considered to be hostile to the management.

The development is already causing serious anxiety in SEC, with many of the employees confused on how to survive the new definition of loyalty in the commission.

But some officials of the commission are also asking the government and the National Assembly not to gloss over the allegation that the management blew N44 million on three vehicles without due process.

According to findings by our correspondent, the management of SEC has written to the Presidency on the need to restructure the commission and reshape it to allow the nation to cope with contemporary challenges in the capital market.

Yusuf ALLI, Managing Editor, Northern Operation It was, however, learnt that the management is discretely planning to use the proposed restructuring to sack almost half of its about 600 employees.

It was gathered that the management might seize the opportunity to get rid of those alleged to be behind the leakage of official documents during the face-off between SEC and the House Committee on Capital Market.

Findings revealed that the management of SEC was shocked that a March 13 board memo and details of the expenditure incurred by Oteh in Transcorp Hilton leaked to the public.

The memo from the Secretary to SEC, E.K. Aigbekaen, to the Executive Commissioner (Finance and Administration) confirmed that the Board of SEC approved the controversial N30 million to

the House Committee.

Another issue that has drawn the ire of SEC has to do with the alleged purchase of three cars for N44 million, which was raised before the House Committee on Capital Market.

A reliable source said: "Since the leakage of some documents during the crisis involving SEC and the House Committee on Capital Market, many staff (employees) have been quizzed by security agencies.

"Now, the management has come out with a restructuring plan which may affect about 250 of the over 600 staff.

"Some of the targets are directors, deputy directors and other staff considered to be disloyal to the system, going by the rate at which official memos in their care were leaked."

But some employees of the organisation believe that the restructuring plan is aimed at suppressing and gagging

them from talking about the challenges in SEC. "A culture of suspicion is reigning in SEC. The staff are gripped with anxiety over the looming purge," the source added.

A top management source in SEC, who spoke in confidence, said: "Regarding the grilling of some staff of the commission by security agencies, it is a normal thing, going by the abuse of the system by these people. Once these staff have committed infractions, you cannot stop security agencies from doing their job.

"On the planned restructuring of SEC, how can any reasonable person oppose such a move? Is there any organisation that is static? The truth is that there are some deadwoods within the system.

"We have some top officials of SEC without adequate knowledge of the capital market. Do you expect SEC to retain these lazy hands?"

IO fewer than five persons were killed in parts of Maiduguri, the Borno state capital between Thursday and Friday, according to residents of the town.

Some of the residents, who spoke with journalists on condition of anonymity, said the assassins were likely to be members of the dreaded Boko Haram sect.

The victims included two persons at Zuwa Da Wuri Hotel in Gwange Ward of the ancient town and a classroom teacher.

They were said to have fallen victim to the fundamentalists during an attack on a residence and the hotel popular for selling beer and other liquor at about 1pm yesterday.

Thursday’s attacks, according to a police source, occurred at Abaganaram Market in Kofa Biyu area of the town.

Speaking on Friday’s attacks, Ibrahim Isa, a resident, said: “As we prepared for the Jumat prayers, we started hearing gunshots at the hotel. We saw people running, and some had to quickly lock their shops and market stalls and ran for cover.

“Five minutes later, men of the Joint Task Force (JTF) rushed to the hotel and condoned off the entire area, rained bullets for about 15 minutes and left everyone in fear.”

Sources at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH), who pleaded anonymity, told journalists that

Joseph ABIODUN, Maiduguri

two bodies were brought into the Emergency and Accident Unit (EAU) at about 2 pm yesterday.

One of them said the two corpses had just been brought in from Zuwa Da Wuri Hotel in Gwange area. He claimed they were fresh corpses and “must have been killed this afternoon (yesterday).”

Confirming the incidents to journalists, the spokesman of the Borno State Police Command, Gideon Jibrin, said: “There were attacks at the Abaganaram Market and Kofa Biyu where two people were killed on Thursday afternoon, but the police area commanders of the two affected areas are yet to send in their official reports on the killings.”

This, according to him, would not allow him to give details on the attacks. He also revealed that on the same day, a classroom teacher was shot dead in the presence of his wife and children in Sulemanti Ward of the town.

He, however, said no arrest was yet made in the incidents.

Speaking to journalists on the hotel incident, the spokesman of the Joint Task Force (JTF), Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, said he was not aware of the attacks where two people were killed at a hotel. He explained that he had not been told about it by the men on the field.

New CJN: FJSC recommends Aloma-Mukhtar, Mahmud Mohammed to NJC •NJC meets June 5 as Nigeria gets set to produce first female CJN

T •Country Director,Tessy Mother and Child Development Foundation, Tharesa Jaja (centre), presenting gifts to inmates of the Abuja Chidren's Home during a visit to the Home at Karu in Abuja yesterday. With them are Maria Anodere and Inaede Felix Photo: Akin OLADOKUN

SNG back in court, files N100m suit against FG over fuel subsidy protest B ARELY 48 hours after a Federal High Court, Ikeja threw out its initial suit, the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) was back in court yesterday to refile its suit against the Federal Government for the enforcement of the fundamental rights of its members who were prevented from using the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park, Ojota to continue its protest against fuel subsidy removal in January, this year.

Justice Stephen Adah of a federal high court had on Wednesday struck out the initial suit of the SNG based on the preliminary objection filed by the Federal Government.

Adah had upheld the argument by the government's counsel, Mr. Taiwo Abidogun, that the suit was not competent because its mode of commencement was improper and defective.

Justice Adah held that the commencement of the suit through a motion on notice instead of originating processes was a fatal defect and could not be overlooked as a mere irregularity.

Taking a cue from the ruling of the court, the SNG brought its

Adebisi ONANUGA

new suit through an originating motion, pursuant to sections 34, 35(1), 39(1), 40, 41(1) and 46(1) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999( as amended ), Articles 5, 6, 9, 10, 12(1) of The African Charter on Human and People's right (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Cap A9, LFN 2004 Order 2 Rules 1, 2, 3, 4 AND 5 of Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedures) Rules, 2009.

The group filed a Notice of Application for an order enforcing their fundamental right under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended.

SNG asked for N100 million as general, special and exemplary damages against the Respondents jointly and severally for the unlawful, arbitrary and illegal violation of the Applicant's fundamental rights.

The respondents in the suit included President Goodluck

Jonathan; the National Security Adviser, Gen. Andrew Azazi; the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshall Oluseyi Petinrin; and Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika.

Others are the Inspector-General of Police, Muhammed Abubakar; and the Attorney General of the Federation, Bello Adoke.

SNG asked the court for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Respondents, their agents, privies, and/or assigns howsoever from further acts that will constitute intimidation, harassment, torture and restrictions or threats of restrictions of the movement of members and supporters of the Applicant into the Gani Fawehinmi Park (Freedom Park), Ojota, Lagos (or any other place and/or venue it desires to publicly protest the policies of the government) for the purposes of protesting the Respondents' policy withdrawing subsidy on premium motor spirit (petrol) and other policies of the Federal

Government of Nigeria in line with their extant rights under the provisions of the constitution.

HE Federal Judicial Service Commission yesterday recommended Justice Maryam Aloma-Mukhtar to the National Judicial Council (NJC) for appointment as the next Chief Justice of Nigeria.

The NJC is expected to meet on June 5 to either ratify or reject the recommendation.

If the nomination is accepted by the NJC, AlomaMukhtar will be the first female Chief Justice of Nigeria in July when the current holder, Justice Dahiru Musdapher, is expected to retire from the bench.

But in the alternative, a judge of the Supreme Court,

Protesting UNILAG students, Police clash Continued from Page 4 As a measure to ensure that there are no gunshots at the scene, the police officers, all had their magazines detached from their guns.

Meanwhile, the school authority has ordered that the closure of the University, due to the continued students protest.

The Dean of Student Affairs, Professor Olukayode Amund said the authorities had allowed students to remain on campus after the initial directive to shut down the University on Wednesday, hoping that the students will halt their protests to forestall the breakdown of law and order.

“The move to enforce the closure becomes necessary as a section of the students are marching outside the campus to protest,” Prof Amund said, adding that the directive would be enforced today.

Management of one of the female hostels, Honours Hostel, has cut power supply and told students to pack their bags and go home.

The students have been on street protest since Tuesday over the renaming of the institution after the late business mogul and politician, MKO Abiola.

The protest was however suspended on Thursday for the burial of the Vice-Chancellor, who recently passed away.

Yusuf ALLI, Managing Editor, Northern Operation Justice Mahmud Mohammed, has been recommended to the FJSC as another candidate for the office.

Besides the appointment of a new CJN, two more judges have been recommended to the NJC for elevation to the Supreme Court to replace those who will retire in July and October.

Investigation by our correspondent revealed that members of the Federal Judicial Service Commission met behind closed doors yesterday to consider nominations for the CJN and the Supreme Court.

It was gathered that the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN, nominated AlomaMukhtar at the session.

A reliable source said: "We are close to another history in the nation's judiciary. At our sitting on Friday, we recommended a female Justice of the Supreme Court as the next Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN).

"Although another Supreme Court judge, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, is on standby for consideration, Aloma-Mukhtar has undergone security checks to make her ratification by the NJC easier.

"We also recommended two judges of the Court of Appeal to the NJC for elevation to the Supreme Court because there will be three vacancies between July and October."

6 News

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

Jonathan commissions first indigenous Defence Boat

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RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan yesterday commissioned the first ever locally constructed warship in the country, even as he reinstated his adminstration's commitment to improving local content.

Jonathan, who noted that it is impossible to transform the nation without technological revolution, further performed the keel-laying for the commencement of the second locally constructed warship that is expected to be completed in 18months.

This landmark 31-metre Nigerian Navy Seaward Defence Boat (SDB) was conceived as a research and development project by Vice Admiral GTA Adekeye and Rear Admiral GJ Jonah who were then Chief of Naval Staff and Chief of Naval Engineering respectively.

The keel was laid in 2007, while full construction commenced in January 2008 by the both serving and retired naval engineers.

The President, in his short remark, hailed the Nigerian Navy for constructing the country's first locally built warship, saying that it is a truimph for the local content policy of the government.

He also hinted of the possibility of extending the scholarship programme for first class students in the country to the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA), as a way of encouraging more innovations in the country.

"This is the beginning of transformation. You cannot transform without technological revolution

Precious IGBONWELUNDU as a nation, this is the beginning.

I believe that in another 15 to 20 years, may be we will be thinking about starting a project that will take Nigerians into the air.

"We have men and women who are intelligent. That is one of the reasons we came out with a special scholarship. I am not saying only those who have first class are brilliant. Some of the people we celebrate all over the world are school dropouts, they are just creative.

"With the government repositioning the country, we encourage the Nigerian content even in the oil industry. A number of things are being fabricated locally. I was in Lagos not too long ago. Equipment for drilling and marine are being built.

"We have to appreciate God and commend the Navy for what they have done.

"Today, I am particularly pleased because Nigeria at independence we had Nigeria Airways, Nigeria Shipping Line and quite a number of other investments and they we're doing well.

"But because there was no indigenous touch, all these died over a period. And we refused to embrace technology. We are told that the countries that were at par with us, some of them have built aircraft, choppers," Jonathan said.

The event, which had in attendance all the service chiefs and Acting Inspector General of

Police, Mohammed Dikko Abubakar, took place at the Navy Dockyard, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Governor Raji Fashola of Lagos State and Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State graced the occasion, as well as the Minister of State for Defence, Dr Olusola Obada, deputy governors of Rivers and Bayelsa were present.

Fashola praised the Navy for the feat, saying that the security agencies deserved the support of all Nigerians since they have shown their readiness to lay down their lives for the country.

He described the construction of the locally made warship as a clear demonstration of professionalism.

He also added that it gave him greater joy that the Navy could build a ship for the defence of the country.

He therefore submitted that the security agencies deserved the support of all as they are ready to

put down their lives.

Yakowa said it shows that our military in this situation, the Nigerian Navy is positioning itself to provide protection for our country as well as contributing its quota the maintenance of law and order both locally and internationally.

"It shows our military is getting positioned to take its rightful place in tackling both national and international security challenges."

Obada expressed satisfaction that the Navy could complete the project in such a short time, even as she maintained that the feet was mere symbolic.

"I am really amazed that they were able to round it off that fast because I thought it was going to take much longer.

"It shows seriousness because a Navy does not really become a force unless it develops the capability for ship building. So

by this event today, they have shown seriousness in forward movement into the future of the Navy.

"What we have witnessed today is merely symbolic in the sense that we must now go back and ground this whole effort very well. It must be well structured to endure and to be sustained.

"The Navy is a fighting force.

What it should do is to now invest in a ship building venture. The technology is there and there are skilled men all over the world; so we have to bring them here side by side with our own people to now go in fully into ship building.”

"India, Pakistan started with us but today India has two ship buildings, submarine and all sorts of vessels. So, we have to look into the future, structure it well so that it will be well grounded because its success will boost Nigeria's economy, provide job

opportunities and skills as well as put us in the right place in the commity of nations". She said.

Project Mnager, Commander Ibrahim Shehu, said they went through very tough challenges most of which related to limitations in technology as well as man power.

He however stated that his team resorted to creative innovation even as he maintained that the Nigerian Navy has huge capacity.

"We intend to consolidate on the gains from this first vessel in building the second one which Mr. President has graciously approved.

He said the vessel is a 31Metre long with about 5.5 metres wide and 3.4 metres in depth, as well as floats at a draft of about 1.4 metre. It has got a crew of five officers and 20 men, and it carries various weapons which include war gun, canon, among others.

Speakers seek financial autonomy for state legislatures

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ONFERENCE of Speakers of the 36 states in the country has made a case for financial autonomy for legislatures in the various states.

This was part of the communiqué of the conference at the end of its deliberation at the Lagos state House of Assembly complex yesterday.

According to the speakers, financial autonomy will help in strengthening the legislature and improve the living standard of Nigerians.

The chairman of the conference, Hon. Mohammed Inuwa, who addressed the press after the meeting said the speakers resolved to push for financial autonomy and self-accounting for state legislature as is already the case in Lagos so as to have the capacity to give better legislation.

“We are demanding that the state assemblies be given their own fund, that is, financial autonomy so as to have the capacity to give better legislation to Nigerians and also develop to international standard of governance”, Inuwa said.

The speakers, who came to participate in the inauguration/ commissioning of the new ultramodern chamber of Lagos State House of Assembly, said the new chamber has further motivated them to increase the tempo of their demand for independence and financial autonomy for their various legislatures, because if they have control over their funds they will be able to actualise their visions, Inuwa said.

“After seeing the new chamber in Lagos, we unanimously agree that it is a job well done through the speaker, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, who has been up and doing in putting legislation and legislators in a pedestal that can never be forgotten in the history of Lagos State.

“We congratulate him and appreciate the contribution of the

Oziegbe OKOEKI state governor, Babatunde Fashola, other statesmen and Lagosians for understanding and cooperation with the House and government. What they have done is a testimony that democracy in Nigeria has come to stay; they are people with vision, determination and focus to make sacrifices for the development of democracy in the country.

“We are ready to partner with the speaker and the Lagos Assembly with all necessary support and cooperation to enable them continue with the good job they are doing”, Inuwa said.

Responding to reporter’s question, Inuwa said the earlier opposition to financial independence by some state legislatures during the constitution amendment exercise last year was borne out of ignorance and a mistake on the part of the assemblies concerned.

“We made a mistake the first time, we have realized our mistake and we are ready to make amends now. Financial autonomy will help in strengthening the legislature and improve the living standard of Nigerians”, Inuwa stressed.

• From left; President, Ikoyi Metro Lagos Rotary Club, District 9110, Rotary International, Rotn Ify Ejezie with the Chairman Board of Governors, Dowen College, Lagos, Dr. Olumide Philips and a Past District 9110 Governor Rotrary International, Rotn Chief Dipo Bailey at the presentation of The Pride Magazine presented by the Rotary Club of Ikoyi Metro Lagos at Protea hotels Limited., Ikoyi, Lagos

FAAN loses bid to prevent trial of its MD for contempt T

HE Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) yesterday lost in its objection to a contempt proceedings initiated against its Managing Director, George Uriesi, as a Federal High Court in Lagos refused FAAN's application to that effect.

Justice Fatimat Nyako, in a ruling held that the objection filed by FAAN amounted to an abuse of court process the agency having earlier filed an appeal challenging the propriety of the court's order which Uriesi alleged breached and on which basis the committal proceedings was initiated.

The judge struck out FAAN’s objection to the contempt ap-

Rotary 9110 holds 30th annual conference

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OTARY is an organisation of professional and business persons (men and women) committed to the ideal of service to humanity and communities, high ethical standards in business and professions, promotion of world peace and understanding. Its areas of intervention include but are not limited to Health, Hunger & Humanities, Poverty alleviation, Education & Literacy, Water & Sanitation, Economic Development & empowerment and Conflict prevention & resolution and in particular Polio eradication which it has committed over $1.2 billion worldwide to date and of which Nigeria has been a great beneficiary being one of the few countries in the world still with the polio virus. Rotary therefore sees itself as partners and veritable tools in service delivery of Governments to the people.

The District Conference is an annual three day event of all the 2000 plus Rotarians and family of Rotary (i.e. Inner wheel, Rotaract , Interact, Rotary village corps etc) similar to an Annual General Meeting of a large Corporation. This Rotary year 2011-2012 Annual District Conference is tagged "Experience it."

Eric IKHILAE plication and ordered FAAN to pursue its appeal at the appellate court.

Justice Nyako refused to proceed with the hearing of the contempt proceedings on the ground that the alleged contempt was committed exfacie justicea (not in the face of the court). She elected to send it back to the court's Chief Judge for reassignment to a new judge and adjourned hearing in the substantive suit to July 5.

An aviation services firm, Maevis, initiated the contempt proceedings on the ground that FAAN's management allegedly violated an earlier order of the court that parties to its pending substantive suit refrain from any action that seeks to disrupt the res (subject of the dispute) pending arbitration.

Maevis, alleged that rather than maintain the res and await the outcome of the arbitration as ordered by the court, FAAN unilaterally terminated the contract and ejected it from the airports.

Maevis is, by the suit, challenging the termination of its contract requiring it to provide Airport Operations Management System platform in four international airports in Lagos,

Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt.

FAAN's lawyer, Kola Awodein (SAN), had while arguing his client's objection asked the court to strike out the contempt application on the ground that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter.

He contended that the court whose order formed the subject of the contempt proceedings should refrain from assuming jurisdiction over the contempt proceedings in the interest of justice.

Awodein also urged the court to decline jurisdiction on the ground that the records of proceedings of the court did not reflect that the court actually made an order that was allegedly disobeyed by his client.

He noted that the court's record did not reflect that the alleged order was reiterated by the judge on May 19, 2011 as argued by Osinbajo.

Awodein acknowledged that the court did make the said order, but noted that the court's alleged failure to reflect the order in its record of proceedings amounted to an "ambiguity" which, he argued could not form the basis of contempt proceedings.

Osinbajo proffered counter argument, insisting that his client's committal proceedings were duly initiated. He urged the court to discountenance Awodein's argument and assume jurisdiction.

On the committal proceedings, Osinbajo argued that the termination of his client's contract with FAAN and its alleged subsequent "physical eviction" from the airports amounted to a disobedience of the court's order delivered in December 2010.

"The plaintiff has exhibited ample evidence showing why an order of committal to prison should be made against Mr. George Urlesi," Osinbajo said.

He said it was incredible for a federal agency to have disobeyed an order of the court delivered in December 2010 and "reiterated again in May 19, 2011 proceedings of the court."

He urged the court to commit Uriesi to prison to serve as deterrent to other government officials who flout court orders with impunity and believe they can trample on court's decision without being reprimanded.

Responding, Awodein faulted Osinbajo's argument and the competence of the committal proceedings. He argued that Form 48 was not filed and served on his client in accordance with the court's rules and the provision of the Sheriff and Civil Process Act.

NEWS 7

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

Recalled Lagos doctors give conditions

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ESPITE passionate ap peals by the former Governor of Lagos State and Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and other party stalwarts which led to the recall of sacked Lagos doctors under the umbrella of the Medical Guild by Governor Babatunde Fashola on Thursday, they said they would not go back to work.

The doctors rejected the recall on the grounds that it was not accompanied by reinstatement letters.

The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) said the doctors would not go back to work unless “letters of recall are sent to each of them by the state government”.

Asiwaju Tinubu had on Thursday engaged Governor Fashola in a discussion at a closed-door meeting before he agreed to reinstate the doctors.

•Govt refers them to commission, LASUTH O Wale ADEPOJU

Tinubu, at the meeting, tabled the appeals of the leadership of the party, wellmeaning Nigerians and organiastions committed to people’s welfare, urging him to be more flexible in handling the issue of the striking doctors.

The ACN National Leader said there was need to work and build institutions that would develop people and prioritise the welfare of the masses, saying there was no problem without a solution.

His words: “The governor has agreed to suspend the dismissal and advise that they should go back to work and follow the right procedure. I don’t see a point of no return

here and since people are the cornerstone of the progressive policy of the state, I want to thank the governor for looking at it from the point of view of the people, the general concern and I want to advise and appeal to the doctors to immediately resume their work in earnest and forget about this intractable position.”

Tinubu said the impasse between the state and the doctors can be solved, saying: “I don’t want to comment further until all parties respect this outcome.

The governor all along has not said it’s impossible. It is a question of the insinuation that we all have developed.“ The Chairman, Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Edamisan Temiye, said the latest development would determine the next line of action

Jamiu Afolabi Ekungba, one of the ACN gubernatorial aspirants in Ondo State, displaying his working plans during a media chart at The Nation’s head office, Matori, Lagos.

Photo: Rahman SANUSI

Four gunmen killed on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in bid to rob police patrol van

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OUR suspected gunmen were killed yesterday near Ogere, Ogun State, stretch of the Lagos - Ibadan Expressway while in a desperate attempt to rob police patrol team.

The Nation gathered that a seven - man gang had emerged suddenly from hiding and blocked the access way of a police patrol team mov-

Ernest NWOKOLO, Abeokuta ing in an unmarked vehicle near the Total Filling Station along the expressway after it had failed to stop as ordered by the gang.

It was further gathered that as the suspects were attempting to rob the patrol team, the police officers opened fire on them, resulting in the deaths,

while others escaped into the bush with bullet wounds.

The Command Public Relations Officer, Mr. Olumuyiwa Adejobi, in a statement confirmed the incident yesterday, stating that “while combing the bush by the police, three of the suspected robbers were found dead. They also found a dummy gun, two live cartridges and expended ones.”

by the NMA. Temiye, who briefed journalists yesterday, alleged that the government did not communicate with the Medical Guild or affected doctors directly as required by extant rules of the civil service.

He said: “Since the government has indicated that it was responding to the intervention of stakeholders who made unambiguous calls for the full reinstatement of the doctors, we believe that it ought to have made it clear that the reinstatement is complete and would be without any reprisals.”

He said the NMA only heard that the government had recalled doctors but had no concrete evidence that it was actually true.

“We are looking for concrete evidence. So when we have concrete evidence, we will take action from there.

The doctors were sacked with written letters sent to each of them. Those letters should be retrieved in writing. That is one way of doing it and the government needs to reaffirm the agreement they have reached with us on the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS).

Meanwhile, the state government has informed the returning doctors to liaise with the Lagos State Health Service Commission (HSC) and the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) for further directives and resumption formalities, according to a statement signed by Mr. Hakeem Bello, Special Adviser on Media to the Governor.

The statement goes thus: “Following the intervention of several well-meaning individuals and organisations, the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN has requested a review of the cases of Medical Doctors who were recently dismissed by the Lagos State Health Service Commission (HSC) and the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH).

“Consequently, the relevant authorities of both Health Service Commission and the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) have decided to reverse the dismissal and give all the affected Doctors the opportunity to return to their duty post with immediate effect.

“Returning Doctors are to liaise with the HSC or LASUTH authorities, as the case may be, for further directives and resumption formalities.”

Review revenue sharing formula in favour of LGs, says HAIRMAN of the erty eradication items which Bariga LCDA chair Bariga Local Council included tricycles, motor-

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Development Area (LCDA), Hon. Omoyele Sulaimon, has called for a drastic review of the present revenue sharing formula to make more funds available to local government councils Hon. Sulaimon, while presenting dividends of democracy items to people in the area in pursuit of the council’s poverty eradication programme, condemned the present arrangement which gives the least revenue allocation to the local government in favour of the federal and state governments.

Speaking on the occasion where over 200 people, amongst them widows and youths, were allocated pov-

cycles, sewing and embroidery machines, generator sets, deep freezers, boat engines, among other items, the council boss stated that more funds from the national treasury should be concentrated in the hands of “those who are more closer to the people at the grassroots”.

According to Hon. Sulaimon, “it is the people at the local government level that have more access to the government at that level and are always mounting pressure on the local council administrators, while state and federal governments getting more allocations are distant from the people”.

On the provision of divi-

dends of democracy to the people, the council boss said that the responsibility to cater for the people was that of the leadership that had sought the peoples’ mandate to carry out such obligations, and as such, the electorate must always ensure proper assessment of those seeking elective offices based on their antecedents”.

On what he has done within his short stay in office, Hon. Sulaimon said: “In response to the yearnings of the people, his administration had commenced many community development projects such as tarring of roads and construction of drainages in many streets, beautification of the environ-

ment in the Bariga area, among other projects”.

He added that transformers would be distributed to many locations before the end of 2012.

While distributing the poverty eradication items to the beneficiaries, the chairman urged them to appreciate what the council had done for them, stressing that they should make judicious use of the items to improve their lives and those of their dependants.

Earlier, he had explained that while selecting the recipients, a deliberate monitoring machinery was put in place to identify those really in need of such items after thorough interviews with them.

Ogun partners Shell on primary health care

GUN State government has signed a memorandum of collaboration with Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO) on the provision of comprehensive primary health care delivery in the state.

Governor Ibikunle Amosun, while signing the threeyear multi-million naira pilot programme, thanked Shell for its continued partnership in providing health care facilities for the people, charging the company to do more.

He acknowledged the organisation’s efforts on road rehabilitation in Ota and enjoined other private institutions operating in the state to follow suit and improve on their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by developing their host communities.

He said the challenges being encountered at the Ogun/ Guangdong Free Trade Zone, Igbesa were being addressed in collaboration with the central government.

He sought for increase in gas production in the state as it remained the cheapest source of power supply, saying this would help boost power supply in the state.

Speaking earlier, the Managing Director of SNEPCO, Sir Chike Onyejekwe, said the company was always ready to partner the state government in its industrialization efforts and health care service delivery, adding that the pilot test of the integrated maternal health care service delivery would begin with six health facilities in three local councils in the state which would be sustained.

Ajimobi restates commitment to affordable housing Adeola OGUNLADE

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HE Governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi has restated his commitment to provide affordable and suitable housing for citizens of Oyo State through an efficient private public partnership scheme.

Ajimobi made this known at the ground breaking ceremony of the Ibadan Transformation Estate promoted

by ASO Savings and Loans PLC held at Orisonbaare, area, Ibadan, Oyo State.

According to him, the need to provide affordable housing for Nigerians is more urgent than before as the people face growing inadequacy of housing in urban centres in Oyo State.

“This is public private partnership at its best as we believe that the Transformation Estate will not only provide housing, but skilled and semi-skilled employees will be engaged in the project while 1, 000 people will be

fully employed in the final stage of the project,” the governor said.

In his welcome address, the Executive Director, ASO Saving and Loans Limited, Hassan Usman, who promised to provide the Nigerians with affordable housing schemes and viable mortgage option said: “Through this public private partnership scheme, we will be developing 53.7 hectares of land at the Ibadan-Lagos Expressway and it will consist of 1,400 units of mixed dwelling in two phases.”

He added that the beneficiaries of the scheme would also enjoy mortgage from ASO which would be secured by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBG) at 6% to qualifying contributors to the National Housing Scheme and the Cooperative Hosing Scheme of the FMBG.

Churches, teachers urged to fight piracy

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call has gone to govern ments at all levels, church leaders and teachers to join hands together and wage war against piracy.

Speaking at the three – day Professional Retail Institute for Booksellers in Lagos on Thursday, the lead facilitator and Director of Training, Christian Association International (CTAI), Mr. Jack Scott, said piracy makes inferior goods to be supplied to the readers at cheaper prices to the detriment of the original owners.

Speaking on the training, Scott described Nigeria as unique, saying that marketing of Christian literature needs a lot of vigour as the people have developed reading culture, which makes for competition and growth.

He said for the Christian bookseller to be successful, he must know how to source the products and make them available for the readers and must be adaptable to changes and must be sensitive to what happens around him.

The Christian Booksellers Association Nigeria’s Executive Vice President, the organiser of the event, Segun Asaba, said the workshop is

aimed at updating the Nigerian Christian booksellers on strategies to market Christian literatures and other materials.

He said that the workshop is for church leaders, senior church workers, decision makers, managers, frontline staff, accountants and everyone involved in the book selling chain.

Asaba said through the training, the skills of the booksellers and their workers will be developed and improved upon for greater successes and satisfaction of their customers.

He added that through the training, the participants will learn to build clear marketing plan for themselves, their staff and customers.

Asaba said the training is for every retailer who wants to understand the bookstore business and thrive in it as well as excellent forum for sharing ideas, experiences, principles and opinions.

Speaking at the opening of the workshop in Lagos, former CBAN President, Mrs. Esther Aworinde called on the participants to make good use of the training, adding that the ptogramme is a value added initiative of the association.

8 News

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THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

Nnamdi Azikiwe varsity college provost abducted

N what appears to be a fad among kidnappers, another university lecturer was again abducted Wednesday in Anambra State.

The Provost of College of Health Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Dr. Okey Ikpeze, was kidnapped

•Abductors demand N50m ransom Nwanosike ONU & Odogwu EMEKA Odogwu Awka by unknown gunmen at Ogidi in Idemili North Local Government Area of the

state on Wednesday .

He was kidnapped on his way to Onitsha.

A However, The Nation gathered yesterday that the abductors are demanding N50 million naira ransom.

The state police command

yesterday confirmed the incident, adding that they were in contact with the family of the victim already.

Police spokesman, Emeka Chukwuemeka, told The Nation yesterday in Awka, that the Command had sent out

its men in search of the provost and had already recovered his vehicle.

The students of the institution attempted to protest the kidnap of the lecturer, but were stopped by the Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof Boniface Egboka, who was marking his third anniversary in office .

Addressing traditional rulers, students , members of the academia and guests yesterday at the auditorium of the institution, Egboka said he stopped the students in order to prevent them from taking laws into their hands.

Some of the students defied VC’s directive, they marched to the state police headquarters at Amawbia to seek further clarifications from the police, but were told that something was being done.

Orji: why I’m on developmental •Rivers State Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and his wife Judith during an interactive forum with Rivers women in Port Harcourt ... Thursday.

More female permanent secretaries for Rivers, says Amaechi

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IVERS State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has pledged to appoint more women as permanent secretaries in the State civil service.

Governor Amaechi stated this on Thursday during an interactive session with Rivers women at the Banquet Hall of Government House, Port Harcourt .

He said the decision was in line with his determination to promote gender equity and equality. Amaechi added that the state executive council during it’s last meeting had resolved to appoint more female permanent secretaries.

“We have in three or four cabinet meetings ago, decided that we must increase the number of women permanent secretaries and two or three days ago, I approved and directed the Head of Service

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to prepare the swearing-in of a woman in Tai and we are still thinking that one more woman be appointed as permanent secretary, “ the governor said.

Governor Amaechi reiterated his administration’s determination to create job opportunities for women and build human capital in the state.

The state chief executive said his administration would continue the yearly Christmas discount market to cushion the effects of the yuletide season increase in prices of goods and services on the people.

“We will continue with our discount market every year; due to the success of the previous one.”

The governor urged women to access the two billion naira micro credit facility lodged

with the Rivers State MicroFinance Agency (RIMA), to promote the growth of small and medium scale enterprise to boost our local economy .

Earlier, the wife of the Governor, Dame Judith Amaechi said the women were in Government House to appreciate Governor Amaechi for giving them a pride of place in governance.

“We are here as leaders of women and on behalf of the great women of Rivers State, to express our profound appreciation to you for the immeasurable strides you have achieved in the quest to give women their pride of place.

“We cannot stop thanking you enough for being gender sensitive and promoting gender democracy in our state.

“You have made remarkable impact in the socio-economic development of our

people especially women.

You are indeed a champion of women’s economic and political emancipation,” she said.

She said women in Rivers State have recorded lots of success in its partnership with the government and witnessed a paradigm shift in the Amaechi-led administration and disclosed that women in the last local government elections in Rivers State produced 45 councillors while one woman was elected chairman of local government council. Mrs Amaechi attributed women’s political reawakening and consciousness to the Governor’s ingenuity and support for women’s quest for actualizing 35 percent affirmative action in both appointive and elective positions

Obi drops commissioners, others

OMMISSIONERS in the Governor Peter Obi’s administration, Anambra State, were on Thursday sent forth from their various ministries by the Permanent Secretaries and staff of the ministries amidst wailing.

The governor instructed the commissioners to hand over to the Permanent Secretaries latest by Thursday and vacate their offices.

They are to go alongside Special Advisers and Per-

Odogwu EMEKA Odogwu, Nnewi sonal Assistants. They had earlier been given severance packages even as the new list of would-be commissioners had been sent to the House of Assembly for confirmation.

The commissioners received about N4 million each as their severance package. Five of them are expected to return to their former ministries.

It was a pathetic sight at the Women Affairs and Social Development Ministry as women from all walks of life besieged the office of the Commissioner, Dr Ego Uzoezie crying and weeping because the commissioner would be leaving the office where she had served for six years as a commissioner.

Leaders of Christian Association of Nigeria , Women Wing (WOWICAN),Pastor Onuigwe Josephine , Leadership of Anambra State As-

sociation of Town Unions, Women Wing (ASATU), led

by Dr. Chinelo Okechukwu and President of National Council of Women Societies , Mrs Anthonia Nwadukwe, were all full of tears as they congratulated Dr Uzoezie for her strides in the ministry.

They prayed God to uplift her in her future endeavours and lauded her feats in the ministry which they said was unequalled and incomparable.

Anambra oil producing communities assure workers of safety

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TAKEHOLDERS from the oil producing communities in Anambra State, have allayed the fear of oil companies working in the area, assuring that the youths will not engage in acts that could compromise the safety of the oil workers and installations.

Giving the assurance in Onitsha, while briefing newsmen, Alhaji Dauda Ajagu, from Anam in Anambra East Council Area, dismissed the fear of resurgence of communal war among the communities following the discovery of oil and gas.

According to Ajagu, who is also the Anambra State Chairman of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (SCIA), the discovery of oil in the affected communities who have been in war would only concretize the peace talks between the communities, adding that it would bring development in the area.

He further disclosed that the communities would benefit from the companies exploring oil in their land even as he maintained that every plan have been made to save the community from pollution and other environmental

hazards arising from the oil exploration.

“We will not have any problem with the exploration of the oil and gas because it will further help in developing our areas and will also enhance our income through the corporate social responsibility programmes of the companies exploring oil in our communities,” he said.

He said that the youths of the affected communities which include Aguleri/ Umuleri and Umuoba Anam would never raise arms against each other again as a result of the full operation of

the companies exploring oil and gas in their communities.

Ajagu cautioned those who may be looking for opportunity to cause trouble using the name of oil producing areas to desist from it, warning that such actions would be resisted vehemently by the stakeholders of the communities.

He expressed optimism that the companies exploring oil in their areas would keep to the agreement reached between them and the communities in other to forestall any form of crisis that may arise as a result of marginalization of the host communities.

drive in Abia Ugochukwu EKE, Umuahia

A

BIA State governor, Theodore Orji, has explained why he is working hard to bring the state to the limelight and also at par with other states created at the same time with it.

The governor said it was the only way to ensure that the state catches up with modern society.

Orji said this in Umuahia during the celebration of this year’s Democracy Day and first year in office of his second term as the governor of the state, saying that he was forced to work hard since other leaders before him did little or nothing to build the state.

The governor said that he met the state without any solid foundation, “As the former leaders were visionless, without direction, this is why the present administration under my leadership decided to correct the anomaly.”

He said that it made him to work at both the rural and urban areas of the state, s tressing that such facilities like health sector was in a bad state when he assumed office.

“Today we have built 210 health centres across the state, while general hospitals are being upgraded, since we do not want to preside over the affairs of sick people”.

Orji said that the education sector had not been left out, pointing out that all dilapidated school buildings had been repaired, while subventions to all tertiary institutions in the state had been increased to help them accommodate their problems.

The governor said that in the past one year that he had taken a bold step to build a solid foundation in the state, “unlike the ad hoc approach used by the past leaders of the state which rendered the state near moribund for about 20 years of its creation”.

He explained that despite the constraint that he had never borrowed money to rebuild the state, stressing that the prudent management of the present administration has been the guiding principle of the transformation agenda of his government.

Pensioners in Bayelsa to smile soon Isaac OMBE,Yenagoa BAYELSA State Governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson has inaugurated a 6-member committee to review Pensioners gratuity and all issues concerning the welfare of pensioners in the state.

With a retired Permanent secretary, Mr. Philip Daunemughan as the Chairman of the Committee, Dickson who frowned at the situation where retired civil servants who have served the state meritoriously are being denied their retirement benefits said that the Committee should proffer solution to the trend.

“We don’t want a situation where people serve with all their lives to give their best to this state, and when they retire they are not sure of when they get their gratuities,” noted Dickson in a statement signed the governor’s Senior Special Assistant (Media & Public Affairs), Mr.Daniel IworisoMarkson While describing the public service as very critical to service delivery, the governor restated his administration’s commitment towards improving the welfare of both serving and retired civil servants in the state Other mandates for the Committee include : identifying the cause of the backlog in the payment of gratuities and ascertain the exact number of pensioners who are being owed.

LG decries insecurity, pipeline vandalisation Isaac OMBE,Yenagoa THE Chairman of the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, Chief Tiwei Orunimie, has decried pipeline vandalization, Illegal refineries and insecurity in the council area.

Orunimie spoke while addressing a cross section of supporters and people of the Council when he hosted them to a grand Democracy Day celebration at the Council headquarters. Oporoma also called on parents, traditional rulers in the Council area to prevail on their children and subjects respectively to end what he described as criminal tendencies.

“Though we have security challenges, there is some peace but the security atmosphere is still not good, but we have to tackle it together as pipeline vandalization, Illegal refineries still rampant,” noted the chairman who lauded the Police in the area for strategizing on it.

He said the development had led to the emergence of health hazards along the creeks as the waters are littered with crude oil.

9

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

B

ARAK Obama the US presi dent may not have much in common with the students of UNILAG or MKO University who demonstrated this week against the renaming of their school without notice by the Nigerian President.

But a slip of tongue by the normally erudite US professor of law this week puts both in the same league.

Also the fate of Housni Mubarak and his two sons who have been on trial for corruption and abuse of power will be determined by an Egyptian court which is to give judgement today.

It is expected that the judgement will give a good signal to Bashir Assad the bloodthirsty ruler of Syria whose regime has butchered innocent children in its quest to stay in power by all means even though the opposition against him has been equally guilty of wanton killings of innocent civilians in some Syrian cities too.

William Shakespeare the doyen of English literature is my guide and arbiter in illustrating the topic of today and in that wise is a ‘Daniel come to judgement ‘as in The Merchant of Venice on the issues involving Obama and the renaming of UNILAG. In one of his plays Shakespeare said a ‘rose called by any other name smells just as sweet‘ and really it seems the US president needs enlightenment on this simple statement. This is because at a great ceremony to honor an American of Polish descent with the highest honor in the US for services rendered during the last world war, the US president referred to’ Polish death camps’ when he should have said Nazi Death Camps and the people of Poland are not taking things easy with him at all.

They have asked for an apology because Poles too were massacred in Poland where the Nazis had their death camps they used to exterminate Jews in the Holocaust.

According to reports former Polish President and Nobel Laureate Lech Walesa has insisted that the Obama gaffe must be exploited fully to redress the error of history such that no state anywhere in the

Communications, history and politics

world leader ever makes such a mistake again. Which makes it look as if the misspeak by Obama was a deliberate one although we all know that it was a slip of tongue for which the US president must be blaming himself no end.

To students of the UNILAG who went on rampage after the renaming of their university however the Shakespearean rose imagery can only provoke and aggravate matters. This is because the background logic that a rose called by any other name smells just as sweet in the renaming of UNILAG is that a university is a university, no matter the name it bears. Of course the UNILAG students will ask you to tell that to the marines.

Which really is what they are telling the Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan who made the announcement on Democracy Day – May 29 - ostensibly to honor the contribution of MKO Abiola the president that never took office even though he won the June 12 elections that was aborted by the military regime of IBB; and died in confinement on the eve of his release.

Although the Nigerian president made a broadcast in announcing the renaming, judging by the spontaineous reaction of the UNILAG community, both lecturers and students alike he might well have made a slip of tongue like the US president over Poland.

The rationale for the students an-

ger over the renaming can be summed again in another Shakespearean quotation which says– ‘Who steals my purse steals nothing. It was mine ‘tis his and has been slave to thousands, But he that filches from me my good name robs me of that which not enriches him but makes me poor indeed‘.

Which really is the kernel of the matter and therein lies the mistake of the Jonathan Administration in making an announcement on renaming UNILAG without consultation, on the assumption that any name goes, especially if that name is that of a well loved and popular politician like MKO. Well, it is obvious that the Jonathan Administration not only missed the point on the renaming, it missed the boat of history as well, especially contemporary political history of Nigeria involving MKO Abiola. Before winning the June 12 elections of 1993 MKO was a controversial political figure and business magnate. But he was also a sports lover funding the famous Abiola babes to the finals of the Challenge Cup. MKO was a great Islamic philanthropist who funded and donated to religious projects all over Nigeria which helped built political bridges which helped him to win the June 12 elections. UNILAG however is a secular federal university on which MKO’s well known religious identity is bound to rub off in the global university

community as a religious university. That really is the fear and pain of the UNILAG Community on the matter and one can not easily dismiss such fears as unfounded.

Some have referred to the renaming of University of Ife as Obafemi Awolowo and the fact that the name has come to stay in spite of similar initial protests like the UNILAG one as indications that the renaming will stay. But Awolowo was a larger political figure than Abiola and the comparison is not apt. The only similarity is in the mischief theory on the renaming of OAU by the Babangida Administration in office from 1985 to 1993. The theory was that opponents of Awo in government acted to name OAU on May 12 1987 after him to belittle Awo’s stature as a federalist by naming a regional university after him and that plot was successful. In line with that plot it is easy to see the new mischief by enemies of MKO in this administration out to tarnish his image and June 12 by the renaming of UNILAG after him.

There is no better proof of this than the bitterness, acrimony and division which the renaming has generated all over the nation since it was announced. The renaming has opened extravagant discussions on the worth of MKO and even June 12 that can only tarnish the image of both and their contribution to the political history and development of Nigeria. Surely an apology and a rethink on the renaming is urgently required of the Jonathan Administration which is a democratic one, unlike the IBB and OAU renaming which happened in a military regime.

Names and misuse of names aside, the sentencing of former Egyptian President Housni Mubarak provide another opportunity to use history especially that of long tenure of office to warn active despots like Bashir Assad of Syria that longevity of office for personal and family aggrandize-

ment will ultimately meet its waterloo or nemesis.

Today is the fate of Mubarak and his two sons in Cairo. Mubarak ruled Egypt from 1981 to 2011 when the street revolutions removed him and put him on trial literally. His long tenure I often confuse with the 42 year dictatorship of late Muammar Gaddafi in Libya but really they are birds of the same feather in terms of despotism and a disgraceful exit. Which also brings to mind the 50-year sentence handed down to former President of Liberia Charles Taylor at The International Criminal Court at the Hague this week. Communications technology made us see Taylor on trial to know that we are not watching fiction.

Just as we saw the violent end of Muammar Gaddafi and the pitiable sight of Mubarak being carried to trial on his sick bed. Similarly it is communications technology that has brought the atrocities in Syria to our doorsteps and all I am saying is that Assad who succeeded his father and has been in office for over 12 years now should learn from the fate of Taylor this week and Mubarak today. Assad should now know that he cannot escape the fate of either, given the global pictures of children whose throats were slit by his men in Syrian towns. Surely unless he dies in harness there is no way the sitting president of Syria can escape the long arms of international law given the atrocities in Syria under his present watch.

Given the advent of and rampant use and development of information technology and communications there is no doubt that the lessons of history are alive on satellite TV and the world is indeed a small global village. The lesson for all despots to learn at great personal costs but sooner than later is that though he mills of justice may grind slowly they grind exceedingly fine.

10 COMMENTARY

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

Not more than MKO deserves, but...

vincentakanmode@yahoo.com

T

HOSE who say there is no more to a name than mere label must have learnt some les sons from the events around the city of Lagos in the past few days. All hell was let loose moments after President Goodluck Jonathan announced the re-christening of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) as Moshood Abiola University, Lagos (MAUL). Moved to high dudgeon by a gesture that could have weighed as the President’s biggest achievement for the three years he has been in the saddle, Akokites (the nickname for UNILAG students) trooped to the streets of Lagos in their thousands, chanting antiJonathan slogans.

As an alumnus of the University of Lagos, I remember that the late Bashorun MKO Abiola enjoyed tremendous goodwill within the university community. If for nothing else, Wonder Loaf, his cheap and sumptuous bread, provided succour for many of us who without it would have slept without food for many nights. We were also made to understand that the late business mogul had a hand in the construction of some structures around the campus, including the mosque opposite the Sports Centre, which ranked as a super structure when it was built in the early 80s.

It was a mark of the admiration that the students of the institution had for the late politician that they did not only vote massively for him in the June 12, 1993 presidential election but also participated actively in the protests that greeted Gen. Ibrahim Babangida’s annulment of the free,

fair and credible presidential election clearly won

by MKO. While many of the students who protested the school’s re-christening during the week must have been in diapers during the battle for the revalidation of Abiola’s mandate between 1993 and 1994, I wager that their protests could not have been occasioned by lack of respect or admiration for the symbol of democracy and good governance which Abiola represents even in death.

For a world citizen who lost his life and had his business empire crushed on the altar of democratic struggle, naming the University of Lagos after him cannot be more than he deserves. After all, it is not the first time an institution of such standing would be named after a statesman of Abiola’s stature. Before Tuesday’s announcement, there had been Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile Ife, Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria and Addo Bayero University in Kano, among others. The massive protest the announcement generated could well be an indication of how suspicious the populace have become of the Jonathan government and how much they have lost confidence in its ability to make pronouncements that are truly altruistic. It is a consequence of the President’s squandering of the massive goodwill that occasioned his ascension to power in the face of serious opposition from some influential Nigerians.

Neither Jonathan nor his speech writers helped matters with the manner the announcement was made. Ordinarily, it was a pronouncement that should draw an applause that would reverberate through the length and breadth of the nation if it was more discreetly handled. But the sudden and tepid manner the announcement was made gave it away as nothing but an afterthought. Renaming an institution of the calibre of UNILAG should not be a pronouncement made in the fashion of an emperor. Like the Senate leader, Senator Ndoma Egba noted, the University of Lagos is an institution established by law, its rechristening must also follow due pro-

‘

The controversial announcement and the manner it was made would leave many in doubt as to the veracity of the claim by the President and his aides that his slow approach to issues was informed by his painstaking adherence to due process and the need to think critically before taking decisions

’

cess The controversial announcement and the manner it was made would leave many in doubt as to the veracity of the claim by the President and his aides that his slow approach to issues was informed by his painstaking adherence to due process and the need to think critically before taking decisions. The manner the announcement was made on Tuesday showed that the President’s speech had been prepared before the idea occurred to him or his aides. An embattled Presidency saw the re-christening as a good opportunity to court the South West where the clamour for Abiola’s recognition had been loudest. On impulse, the matter was made an addendum to the President’s speech.

But that does not mean that the rechristening was too much of an honour for a man whose blood had watered our democracy and nurtured it to its present state. Indeed, it could be a greater and more realistic honour to change the nation’s Democracy Day from May 29 to June 12 or bet-

ter still July 8, the date the politician died in 1998.

Wanted: promising government, not government of promises The Jonathan government may be so dormant as to be incapable of organising a parade to mark Democracy Day or the nation’s independence anniversary, but there is a trait for which it will always be remembered—it is a hub that rotates on the pivot of promises.

In the build-up to the election that brought him to power last year, he promised to confront poverty with the fury of a warrior if only to avenge his inability to afford a pair of shoes as a pupil. Many of our countrymen believed him.

They voted for him to become the President.

That, many of them have since realised, was a tactical error. The more auspicious thing to do should have been to contribute money and buy him enough shoes to last him a life time. Now they have nothing but regrets that more than N1.3 trillion was dispensed as fuel subsidy under his nose and it had to take sustained pressure from Labour, civil society groups and the House of Representatives for the President to tepidly refer the matter to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

The President promised security but he has no answer to the killings by the Boko Haram sect and has literally conceded the North East region to the militant group. He promised electricity but millions of our countrymen who can no longer maintain their generators with the hike in pump price of petrol from N65 to N97 per litre now have to depend on candlelight.

The buses he promised as a form of palliative for the masses are still not in sight five months after the so-called subsidy on fuel was nocturnally removed. The Minister of Finance promised that we would begin to feel the impact of the new price of fuel on our roads within six months. We are in the sixth month already but there is nothing in the horizon to herald a new dawn.

Standing on the promises of good luck! Knucklehead

H

ATERS may eat their tongues for all we care. Those who scripted the under-achiever tag to his Godly name should, by now, be slurping their vomit. The professional critics, columnists and pseudo-political analysts who see nothing good in his transformational agenda may continue to gripe till 2015. The opposition parties, civil society groups and all the ubiquitous gangsters are free to pooh-pooh his easy-motion governance style and gentle mien. What have they not called him, anyway? They said he was unprepared for the office, which providence placed on his lean shoulders.

They said he was just a lucky fisherman’s son who happened to be at the right place at the wrong time. They said he, with clinical accuracy, trampled on his party’s manifesto and sidetracked its gentleman’s agreement on rotation of power, thereby forcing his way to the zenith of every politician’s dream—the Presidency. Some said he was weak. Others see him as a dictator. Yet, some others say he is nothing more than an ethnic jingoist and the best example of what a President should not be. Ha! They just went on and on as if the man in question has been sleeping on his hands in Aso Rock— hearing no evil, seeing no evil. They said he was just there for the influence and affluence that such positions attract. They thought he was just sitting there, dispensing favour and junketing round the globe in search of investors.

Well, in the final analysis, what they thought did not matter after all. What matters is what this man has done to transform our lives…for the better. In just one year in the saddle, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has proved them all wrong.

Yes, I know it is easy to hastily jump into conclusions that Knucklehead must be having a brain wave of the wacky hue or that he must have been ‘seriously settled’ to be sounding this crinkly. Those who do not know how much I struggle to avoid liquor would think that I must have had a bottle more than the usual to be spewing this somewhat twisted logic. Some who are out to play mischief with Knucklehead’s new-found romance with Oga Jonah may even conclude that I must have been offered some shots out of the choice wines and spirits that are ever flowing in the place of the Rock.

But that is far from the truth. Not that I would have minded if offered, anyway. After all, they were procured with the tax payers’ money. But, if the truth must be told, I believe in giving knocks and kudos in equal measures on the weekly menu served only on this page. And so, having listened to Jonathan’s first year anniversary speech on May 29 with the help of my power generating set sans the noise and air pollution, it is my belief that all well-meaning critics and patriots should queue behind Alhaji Mujahid Asari Dokubo and fervently insist on the continuity of the Jonathan-Sambo ticket post 2015. Gbam!

Reasons for the adoption of this seeming suicidal position are too numerous to be mentioned on this page. Yet, it does not require any arduous rocket science technique for anyone to see the visible signs of progress the country has made since May 29, 2011 when the President read that powerful inauguration speech at the Eagles Square, Abuja. Okay, he lacked the elocution and pitch that some persons expected of a PhD. holder and lecturer of repute. He was unable to hold the citi-

zens captive by the sheer poetic rendition in his delivery. It was, nonetheless, a powerful speech delivered with the child-like innocence of a once-shoeless school boy who would now bear the burden of over 150 million Nigerians. The shoes might be too big for him but he knew the offer was too tempting to reject.

At least, not with the ‘landslide’ victory that swept him into office.

And so, employing flowery words, Jonathan reminisced about how, collectively, we broke a long-standing myth and elected a citizen from a minority ethnic group as President; he spoke of hope and belief; he reminded us of the tragic death of Mr. Emmanuel Orevba—an unknown supporter who died overwhelmed by the joy of Jonathan’s victory; he did not forget the ultimate sacrifice paid by some Nigerians , including youth corps members who were hacked down during the wave of violence that greeted his success in some parts of the country; he said his leadership would be decidedly transformative; and he was eloquently sanctimonious in vowing to “grow the economy, create jobs, and generate enduring happiness for our people.”

But that was not all. Jonathan warned us, too. He said cynicism and scepticism “will not help our journey to greatness.” He urged us to believe in Nigeria. His words: ”Join me now as we begin the journey of transforming Nigeria. I will continue to fight, for your future, because I am one of you. I will continue to fight for improved medical care for all our citizens. I will continue to fight for all citizens to have access to first class education. I will continue to fight for electricity to be available to all our citizens. I will continue to fight for an efficient and affordable public transport system for all our people. I will continue to fight for jobs to be created through productive partnerships.”

Those were his promises some 365 days back. In the 34th paragraph, he said the “time of lamentation is over.” In the 35th, he counselled patriots to “lift your gaze into the horizon.” In the 37th paragraph of the 41-paragraph speech, he promised ‘never’ to let us down, crowning it with the instructive words in the 38th paragraph to wit he declared: “I know your pain, because I have been there. Look beyond the hardship you have endured.

See a new beginning; a new direction; a new spirit.”

A year later, it is obvious that tremendous progress has been made. First, the President read a 74-paragraph speech. That is a marginal increase of 30 paragraphs more than his inaugural speech. Second, he spent three quarters of the latest speech reeling out his administration’s laudable achievements, which have etched permanent smiles on our faces. Third, he went back in time to remind us about the sordid past and how far we have developed. The challenges posed by the general insecurity in the land notwithstanding, the President said he was confident of success going by what had been achieved in the different sectors in just 12 months. These include a stable democracy; a revitalised foreign policy; a positive economic outlook with projections for employment; the judicious implementation of the power sector roadmap and the commitment to the provision of regular and interrupted power supply with the long story of what is being done to turn the dream into reality; port and customs reforms; a new chart in the petroleum sector; revolution in the agricultural sector with rice and cassava production receiving special mention; he said he had kept his promise to eat cassava bread; that

With

Yomi Odunuga E-mail:yomi.odunuga @thenationonlineng.net SMS only: 07028006913 reforms are ongoing in the education, health, information technology, works and aviation sectors; he reiterated the resolve to fight corruption as a continuous one with some positive results in the last 12 months; and, finally, the determination to check the menace of terrorism with the assurance to “bring the perpetrators to justice.”

Now, this question for haters and professional critics: if a President says he was able to achieve all this in just 12 months despite the presumed lethargy in government, why should Nigerians still doubt his capacity to take us to the Promised Land? Instead of commendations, the cynics and sceptics among us have been whining over his refusal to reinstate Justice Ayo Salami as President of the Court of Appeal. Those blockheads in newspaper rooms spent the entire week rating his ministers low when the real Boss gave them straight As. Na wetin bi dem own for dis mata sef? We keep on insisting that corruption has taken a life of its own under his watch when he just told us that nothing could be farther from the truth. We doubt his capacity to protect us from the sporadic attacks of terrorists when he said everything was being done to bring them to justice. Is that the best way to pay back a man who continues to suffer bouts of sleepless nights while the rest of us sleep with two eyes locked in wonderful dreams?

Can someone tell the cynics and sceptics in our body polity to kindly give this man some space and stop the needless rant over the renaming of a Federal Government institution after the iconic democrat, the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola? We forget so easily that he could have named it after the Dame of Aso Rock if he wishes. In any case, is that all there is to a 74-paragraph presidential diary of achievements?

Is he not transforming Nigeria beyond comprehension? Look at security, infrastructural development in every village and so much more in all towns and cities across Nigeria. So, who has not yet seen the “new beginning” that Oga GJ promised? Why are you not seeing the roads, the rice and cassava pyramids, the cheap fuel, the standard hospitals, the booming economy, the conducive business environment, the standard classrooms, the gainfully employed and happy Nigerians swarming the streets and the light at the end of this dark tunnel?

How can they see anything positive when they stubbornly refused to lift their “gaze into the horizon?” Well, I am saving the bitter part of this piece till another auspicious time because my power generator is running out of fuel! Till that time, I stand on the promises of Jonathan. Do you?

Michael O’

I am not yet fulfilled —Lillian Amah-Aluko

Hopeful songs from the ‘Jewel’ of the savannah

My escape from ritual killers’ den, by 18-yr-old Abigail

The alteration of Gombe State

CRIME / PAGE 15

SCREEN/ 21

THRILLER / 20-21

Weekend

PEOPLE THE NATION, Saturday, JUNE 02, 2012

Relat io

nship

11

Who pushed four-year-old into well?

Poser over

mystery death

The well into which Happiness was pushed Her grief-stricken mother The late Happiness

SEE PAGES 14&15

12

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

•The house where it happened

s l i a r t y s r e v o r t n Co d l o r y r u o f f o y bod l l e w a n found i

T

WENTY-eight-year-old Ekaette Ekong sang a dirge during the week, following the bizarre death of her four-year-old daughter penultimate Wednesday. The hair stylist and mother of two had returned home to prepare dinner for her family, oblivious

Kunle AKINRINADE

of the ill-fate that hung in the air.

Happiness, her four-year-old daughter, had sat in her company while she prepared dinner in the passage of their

,

•The late Happiness

apartment. In the middle of the cooking, the mother of two left Happiness and went into the room to fetch an item only to be told moments later that her daughter had fallen into a well behind the house located at No 1, Aruna Street, Fadeyi, Lagos.

Ekaette fought tears relentlessly as she tried in vain to narrate the story of her daughter’s death when our correspondent visited their residence during the week. Surrounded by sympathisers, the weight of her head on the palm of her left hand quashed her lips into a pitiable sight.

Her husband, Sunday Ekong, who was said to be at home when the incident occurred, gave our correspondent his own account of it. He said: “I returned home at about 6.30 pm that day and was playing with Happiness while her mother was busy with cooking in the passage. Then, a neighbour

called Mama Shukurat sent her five-year-old daughter to invite Happiness to their room but Happiness turned down the invitation about three times, saying he was tired and wanted to eat.

“A few minutes later, I left to buy a VCD from a nearby video store while Happiness, who was actually my step-daughter, sat with her mother. Unfortunately, by the time I returned home, I was confronted with the news that Happiness had fallen into a well at the back of the house. I learned that it was Mama Shukurat who sent her daughter to break the news to my wife.”

The 39-year-old technician also spoke on the fruitless efforts made by sympathisers to rescue Happiness, and how the woman being fingered in the death of the girl had squealed to her husband on the phone that her five-year-old daughter, Shukurat, was responsible for the incident.

It would interest you to know that the well in question was covered with three heavy concrete slabs, and children of Happiness and Shukuta’s age cannot have the strength to remove the slabs.

Therefore, I strongly suspect a foul play and the motive remains a mystery

,

“We quickly organised a rescue mission. We got a Hausa man to rescue the girl and he made two failed attempts before he could bring out her body from the well because of the intense heat inside.

“I don’t believe that Happiness fell into the well, because I overheard Mama Shukurat saying to her husband on the phone: ‘Baba Shukurat, please come home. Shukurat has pushed Happiness into a well.’

I then confronted her with her comments on the phone but she could not say anything.

“She had told us that she was in her room with her daughter when Happiness fell into the well. But how come she knew about the incident so fast that she had to send her daughter to inform my wife?

“It would interest you to know that the well in question was covered with three heavy concrete slabs, and children of Happiness and Shukuta’s age cannot have the strength to remove the slabs. Therefore, I strongly suspect a foul play and the motive remains a mystery.”

The controversial incident, according to a source who asked not to be named, is strange, considering the fact that the well in question was dry. “The well has no water and I cannot figure out what could have made a four-year-old girl to plunge herself into it. The fact remains that Mama Shukurat

13

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

‘How I used fake pregnancy to extort money from PHCN executive who never knew me’

O

•Her step-father

•Happiness’ mother

•The well in question

has a lot of questions to answer concerning the death of the innocent girl, considering the circumstances surrounding the incident.”

When the bereaved mother of Happiness was able pull herself together, she said: “I was preparing dinner for my family when Mama Shukurat sent her daughter to call Happiness. My daughter refused to honour the invitation because she was tired. When Shukurat came the third time, I remember threatening to beat her if she persisted and she left. Sadly, I left for our room to get an item, leaving Happiness at the “kitchen”. By the time I returned, I was confronted with the news of her death.

“The woman actually sent her daughter to break the news to me and I wondered why something like that would happen without an eyewitness raising the alarm. Instead, she chose to send her daughter to break the news to us.”

The incident was reported at

the Alakara Police Division while men of the division arrested Mama Shukurat.

The efforts our correspondent made to speak with the woman failed as she was being detained at the Alakara Police Station. Her husband was also not willing to comment on the matter when our correspondent called him on the telephone. “I am the husband to the woman arrested in connection with the incident, but I cannot talk to you now because the environment is not conducive for this kind of conversation. Please call me back in 30 minutes,” he said.

However, subsequent calls our correspondent made to the phone went unanswered. So also was a text message our correspondent sent to his mobile phone.

The case has since been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for further investigation, while men of the SCID visited the scene of the incident on May

29, 2012 for on-the-spot investigation.

Meanwhile, a younger brother to the father of the deceased girl, Mr. Ini George, has pleaded with the police authorities to expedite action on the investigation of the case. He said the bereaved family was running out of patience. He said there was need to bury their daughter as tradition demands.

“We want the police to hasten action on this matter so we can bury the remains of our daughter while the mastermind is also brought to justice,” he said.

The spokesman of the Lagos State Police Command, Mr Joseph Jaiyeoba could not comment on the incident. ”I have not got in touch with the Divisional Police Officer(DPO) in charge of Alakara Police Station. I will get back to you as soon as I confirm the incident.”,Jaiyeoba said.

He, however, did not get back to our correspondent by press time.

PERATIVES of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Lagos State Police Command, have arrested a 20-year-old undergraduate who allegedly specialised in extorting money from innocent married men by threatening to tell their wives that she is pregnant for them if they fail to pay a specified sum of money to a designated bank account.

According to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Umaru Manko, Chioma, a student of Sociology at the Enugu State University of Technology (ESUT), sometimes threatened to assassinate her victims if they would not cooperate and pay the sums she demanded.

But her cup was said to have become full when she demanded the sum of N125,000 from a Lagos-based official of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to take care of a set of twins she claimed to have had for the man. After paying an initial sum of N25,000, however, the PHCN official contacted Manko, who directed the officer in charge of SARS, Mr. Abba Kyari, a Superintendent of Police, to track Chioma down.

Explaining her role in the incident, Chioma, a native of Osile village, Anambra State, said she had told the PHCN official (name withheld), she had a set of twins for him so that he would send money to her for the upkeep of the children and the hospital bill.

She recalled that she had paid a visit to her boyfriend named Edeth, who was the victim’s personal secretary.

“As we were playing, I took his phone and picked his boss’ GSM numbers without Edeth knowing. I then used the numbers to call his boss and told him that I had a set of twins for him and that I needed money for their upkeep. But he did not say anything.

“When I waited and there was no reply, I called him again and threatened to call his wife and tell her everything about his extra-marital activities with me, which resulted in a pregnancy and the birth of the twins.

“After a few days, he sent N25,000 and told me to be patient. Around April this year, I called him again and told him to send more money as I had spent the one he sent earlier on baby food. He demanded to know where we met and how I became pregnant for him. I told him that we met in a club in Lagos where he had carnal knowledge of me. I told him that I wondered why he would forget so soon and warned him to send more money or I would call his wife on the phone and tell her everything.

“But it was only an empty threat because I did not know his wife. I told him to hasten up because I suf-

‘

When I waited and there was no reply, I called him again and threatened to call his wife and tell her everything about his extra-marital activities with me, which resulted in a pregnancy and the birth of the twins

,

Ebele BONIFACE fered to put to bed and would not like to generate a scandal because I still loved him.

“I was using my friend’s bank account whenever he wanted to send money to me. But my friend, Edeth, who was a fellow undergraduate at the same university, did not know that I was using his account for fraud.

“After sending so many text messages to the man to send money to me, he sent another N25,000. When I went to withdraw the money, the bank said the victim’s account had a problem. This created a problem. I could not contact my boyfriend, Jude, who used to give me information, being the man’s secretary.

“After some days, as I was desperate to get more money from him, I called him again and told him that I was running out of patience. Two weeks later, he asked me to meet him at City Chef. But on getting there, I was arrested.

“This oga (Kyari) asked me to call the person who gave me the man’s phone number. I then called Jude and told him to come and give me money for something I wanted to do urgently. And because I told him that I was calling from Enugu, I told him to meet somebody in Lagos whom I had told to collect some money from him as the person would be travelling to Enugu from Lagos on that day.

“Edeth used to give me N10,000 every week. But when he got there, he was arrested by operatives of SARS who had posed as the guy I sent to him.

“My target was N125,000, but the man was giving me money in bits.

That was what created a problem for me. I regret indulging in this type of offence. I don’t know what pushed me into it. I did not come from a poor background.”

Edeth (31), a native of Asutan village, Akwa Ibom State, is a computer analyst who worked with the victim as personal secretary. He claimed to have also studied Sociology at the Enugu State University of Technology.

Narrating his involvement in the crime, he said: “I am a casual worker.

I live in Okearo, a border community between Lagos and Ogun states.

I am neither a criminal nor an armed robber. I am a mere personal secretary to the victim, but a casual worker.

Chioma (Nnanedu) is my girlfriend, but she did not tell me about what she wanted to do with my boss’ number. I was giving her vital information, not knowing that she wanted to use it to set my boss up.

“I love her so much that I used to send N10,000 to her every week. Yes, if you calculate the whole money I sent to her every week, it is N10,000.

I knew her in school when I was in 200 level. She used to ask me about my boss’ movement and I used to ask her why. I did not even know that she was communicating with him, because I did not know that she had his GSM number.

“It was when I was arrested that I knew that she was using my boss’ GSM number to defraud him. I did not know that such a thing was going on between them. I did not know that she collected his phone number from my own phone. Everything looks like a dream to me. She was merely using me without me knowing. I still maintain that I did not know anything about this case. You can confirm from her.”

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

14

I’m still an apprentice in 419 business, says suspected fraudster T

WO robbery suspects in the cell of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Police Command have told the operatives that they are advanced fee fraudsters and not armed robbers.

One of the suspects, Paul Okoye, aka Polo (41), a native of Abagana, Njikoka Local Government Area, Anambra State, is married with two kids and resides at Abesan Estate, Lagos. He said: “A boy named Oloyede resides in my area. On May 17, I went to Gowon Estate to take my car. On my way back, policemen stopped me, having earlier arrested Oloyede.

“One of the policemen took my phone, pressed it and saw a name, Chukwudi. He asked who he was and I said I knew him.

He then told me that Chukwudi used to call people on the phone and threatened to kill them.

“Chukwudi used to come to our area and we used to interact as close friends. I knew that Chukwudi used to call people on the phone but I never saw the faces of the people he used to call.

There was somebody he called on the phone to my knowledge, but I did not know the person.

He collected N70,000 and gave me N8,000 from it.

“Another thing I know about Chukwudi is that, at times he would collect complimentary cards from people and give me the cards, and I used to load the GSM numbers on the cards into my phone.

“I am like a kid in this 419 business because the main guys, the big guys are in Abuja, and it is Chukwudi who knows where they are in Abuja. They are many.

One of them is called Stainless, but he is still at large. Others are Lucky, Eze, Emma, Chukwudi, Paul and Sunday aka Sunny.

They are based in Lagos. But Stanley and Stainless with some others I don’t know are based in Abuja.

“Chukwudi had already collected money from four other victims without my knowledge. The line they are using was found in the seat of my BMW car. They later discovered three Techno phones, one Nokia and one Visafone.

“SARS operatives later discovered some vital documents which the gang was using to perpetrate fraud. It was through my phone that they called Oloyede, who is my neighbour. It was through him that I was arrested.

The only money I had received from this job was N8,000, which Chukwudi gave me.

“Other things like loading victims’ phone numbers from their complimentary cards, were done only twice, and they were the ones who even used the victims’ numbers to call and dupe the victims. I am still learning the work.”

Asked how he became a member of the syndicate, he said: “Like I told you, I am not a full member. I am still a kid learning the basic things about fraud. I was once a victim. They duped me of my life savings, and out of

•Mobile phones seized from the suspects

•Olive oil, chemical and candles used by the suspects

Ebele BONIFACE frustration, I started following them. But I was still learning the trade when I was arrested by op-

eratives of SARS. If I am freed, I will go and look for a legitimate business to do, no matter how small the income from it. I feel that what is hap-

pening to me is a spiritual attack from the village, seeing the rate at which I have been falling into unnecessary trouble. But this arrest has opened my eyes and God

‘

Like I told you, I am not a full member. I am still a kid learning the basic things about fraud. I was once a victim. They duped me of my life savings, and out of frustration, I started following them. But I was still learning the trade when I was arrested by operatives of SARS. If I am freed, I will go and look for a legitimate business to do

,

will help me out.”

The second suspect, Emmanuel Ehiemere (48), a native of Aba, Abia State, said he was a trader at Gowon Estate, Lagos, but had to shut down his shop when robbers looted the goods and the cash he had in his provision store.

Explaining how he was arrested, Ehiemere said he was in Polo’s car when policemen crossed them, arrested him and seized his two phones.

He said: “I was inside Polo’s car when policemen crossed us with their vehicle. They seized my two phones and asked me whether I knew Polo. I said I knew him as a friend dealing in aluminium products.

“They usually called me as a treasure man to show victims treasure and pray for them as a spiritualist. I would tell them the treasure they had seen and the ones they would still see. Then I would seal it with prayers. That was the only role I played.

“If we are five in number, the loot would be divided into five places equally, because no one’s job was riskier than the other.

Like you can see now, two of us are arrested. Nobody is saying that anyone did anything worse than the other. We are writing the same statement.

“I rub the olive oil on the faces of victims so that their luck would shine and all my prophecies to them would come to pass.

No evil spirit would move near the victim till he or she had got the treasures I saw spiritually.

“The black oil in the bottle is called chemical. We used the chemical to wash money to become original money in the eyes of the victim, so that he or she would be willing to part with more money as he continues to dream to become a millionaire. We would continue to share his money till his eyes would open and he would discover that he was in the hands of fraudsters.

“I have not got much from this business. I don’t even have a bank account. I am married and I manage any small money that enters my hand.

“This charm tied with rope is not potent. It is a mere symbol we used to confuse our victims. At times, our victims were forced to take an oath with the charm not to divulge information or our transaction. The victim would go home with the fear that he would die if he divulged information.

“As for the candles, we had them in different colours—red, blue, black, white. And whenever I wanted to pray for victims and make revelations about the wealth they were about to acquire, the candles were tied together and the victims were asked to run home before the candle sticks finished burning.

“Some bank documents were given to victims to sign or fill and were asked to go to the bank with them later to withdraw money. All the payment slips are fake documents. The purpose is that when victims see them, they get the impression that what we are doing is genuine and real.”

15

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 02, 2012

From an early age, 18-yr-old Abigail Peter dreamt of becoming an accounting icon like Akintola Williams and David Dafinone. That dream was almost cut short fortnight ago when she was abducted by suspected ritualists in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. She told the story of her miraculous escape to ROSEMARY NWISI

My escape from ritual killers’ den, by 18-yr-old Abigail

•Peter, her father PHOTOS: Rosemary NWIS

•Abigail

“I

T was like a dream because I was coming back from where I went to fix my slippers within our street on Oginigba, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on May 5, 2012 at about noon when a young woman with a grey, medium-size basin filled with plastic bottles containing unidentified substance, asked me to help her lift a load on her head,”she started.

She recalled that as she was about to perform the task, the lady said: ‘No, you can’t make it alone, it is too heavy.’ And she called an-

other young girl, who was passing by to join in the task of assisting her.

That was the last she could recall until she woke up from the voodooinduced stupor only to find herself in a room with scores of unfamiliar faces. “I saw several other children numbering more than 10, including some in school uniforms.

Some of them (children) are about 20 years old, while some are much younger than me.”

The teenage girl spent over 72 hours in the unusual company, cut off from the outside world. “Work-

ers in the place (all women), usually came to the room to pick people; I don’t know what they did with them (people taken out) but I didn’t see them return to the room again.

“While we were there one day, I asked other people how we got there and what we were doing there. The two children in school uniform said they did not know and narrated to me the story of how they found themselves in the room. According to them, theirs happened while they were returning from school one afternoon: a woman offered them a lift and they found themselves in the room.”

Abigail said their meal, usually consisting of wraps of garri and soup, were served by ladies dressed in white. She refused to eat any of the meals because she was advised by her ‘friends’ in school uniform not to. “The women only came in either to take people out or serve food.”

Fortunately for her, she got a miraculous escape three days after her ‘disappearance.’

“Towards the evening of that Tuesday, a young man walked into the room. When I saw him, I was surprised because it was only women that worked there and they were the only people that came either to take people away or give them food. So, I wondered what he was doing there.

“He indicated to six of us, including the brother and sister in school uniform, and asked us to follow him.

My thought was that it had come to our turn: who knows where he was taking us to and what next? We followed him all the same. He walked in front and we followed him until we got to Artillery Junction. I was able to recognise where we were and without saying anything, I branched off, while he continued with the other five towards Port Harcourt/Aba Express Road.

“I walked from there (Artillery) to my house at Oginigba.”

When Abigail got home, she met only her siblings, who were surprised to see her. Her beleaguered parents were at the police station.

Her brother immediately alerted them on phone and they rushed home with the Investigating Police Officer in tow.

The missing child narrated her incredible story to them as she would later do to our reporter.

When asked the location where they were taken to, her reply was: “I don’t know the place, but what I can remember is that the house in which they kept us was a newly built one.”

Picking off the narration, her father, Mr. Peter Oshagwu, recalled that he was in his office on the fate Saturday, when he received a call from his wife at about 4pm, that she had not seen their third child, many hours after she left home.

Oshagwu said he shrugged off his wife’s worry and stayed back to watch one of the day’s European league football matches in his office.

But his nonchalant attitude changed by the pensive mood that prevailed when he got home.

“The house was quiet as though nobody was there. I was told she was still not back. My wife and I went walked around the neighbourhood to see if she had stayed out too late and was afraid to come back to the house. She was nowhere to be found. We went back to the house and prayed and went to bed, but we were still wondering what manner of joke that was.

“On Sunday, we went to church and we prayed for God’s intervention. Thereafter, we went to TransAmadi Police Station to make a formal report. The police reassured us that she would come back, hinting that she might have gone out with some boys. We told them that it can’t be because our children are not like that,” he recalled.

With a heavy heart, he said he managed to get through the day’s work thinking of the next line of action. He then contemplated going on air to declare her missing and to seek assistance from members of the public.

“There was also a plan ‘B’, which was to check Abigail’s telephone call log with the GSM provider to know the last person who called her and their discussion. “But we considered how long it would take to achieve that and discarded it. We continued on our secret investigations with the Police and prayed.”

On one of the couple’s visits to the police station on Tuesday, they got a call from the house that Abigail was home and safe.

“When we got to the house, we saw that she was back alive and was sitting on the floor of the house with sands all over her. She was looking so unkempt, weary and hungry. Her mother and police officer began to bombard her with questions. I was not interested in the story; I was just happy that she was back,” he said.

Ironically, Abigail told the police that she could not locate the dungeon where she and the other kids were kept. Her father said it is because of the effect of the spell cast on her by the ‘evil gang.’

He was, however, thankful to God that his daughter did not give in to hunger, maintaining that eating the evil meals would have consigned her to the same fate as that of dozens of others who did not make it out of the den.

Besides, he said the experience means that kind deeds are becoming increasingly dangerous in view recent happenings, hinting that it was a sign of the end time.

“This is an obvious sign of the last days. Before now, we were thinking that it is something far away from us, but my daughter’s case is a proof that it is here with us and I advise everybody to be prepared.”

16

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 02, 2012

A Nigerian critical of the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan today is the Convener of the Committee of Concerned Northern Professionals, Politicians, Academics and Businessmen (CCNPPAB), Dr. Junaid Mohammed. Ironically, the same Junaid, who was a former member of the House of Representatives in the Second Republic , highly recommended and fought for the appointment of the President at the defunct Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC). Barely 19 years after, the same Junaid thinks otherwise of the President. In this interview, our Managing Editor, Northern Operation, YUSUF ALLI, the critic opens up on how he met President Jonathan. Excerpts:

How I withstood pressure and got Jonathan employed at OMPADEC —Junaid Mohammed •Dr. Mohammed

W

ITH your avowed commitment to sanity in public life, how did you come about OMPADEC appointment? Wasn’t it a failed assignment?

I came about the assignment without knowing what OMPADEC stood for. While on a visit to Umrah in Saudi Arabia , a friend told me that they understood that a school mate of ours, Barr. Ibrahim Ismail, who is currently the Managing Director of this Heritage Printing Press, was looking for me desperately because he said that ex-Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, wanted to talk to me about the new national assignment and that he thought it is a good idea if I could come back to Nigeria very quickly. And I told the people to tell him that I wasn’t coming back.

I went to Saudi Arabia not only for Umra (lesser Hajj) but also to find time to relax and find my new bearing and commiserate with myself. Eventually, I did not hear anything.

When I returned to Nigeria in May, I had a phone call from Babangida and from Ismail Ibrahim and I was made to understand that I was being considered for appointment as a member of that commission. I said well I do not know anything about oil except those I had contact with the people of the Niger Delta during my years in the National Assembly in 1983.

I also told them that I think the government was confused which they needed to clarify because as far as I was concerned, the responsibility for the development of the Niger Delta as a critical area of our national life lies and still

remains with the Federal Government. Any attempt to handover the responsibility for the development of Niger Delta or for handling the consequences of oil exploration in the area to the elite will not work. I believe the development of the oil region should never be given to any elite group in the Niger Delta because the elite in the Niger Delta, like the rest of the elite in Nigeria , are irresponsible.

My feeling has been, since I was in the parliament, that the Federal Government must have full, high power commission to take over the development of Niger Delta. Any attempt to either settle the people or the elite in Niger Delta will backfire badly and Babangida as a friend knew my views about the area. So, when this commission was being put together, he said look, is there any way we can make the commission open for any Nigerian who knew and believe he can be of service to the country and people? But there was uproar from the people of the Niger Delta in government.

When they wanted to make it an exclusive club of only the Niger Delta, there were reservations from the then Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji, the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Aliyu Mohammed and some other people, including even Generals of Niger Delta origin. These Generals said if the matter was going to be left to the elite in the Niger Delta, there will be no development.

So, Babangida decided after consultations with some people that he was going to put the

commission together in such a way that the people of the Niger Delta from oil producing states will have their representatives nominated by their respective governors. But he as president of Nigeria will reserve the right to appoint the chairman, the secretary and three others which meant that there were five people who were appointees of the government and who were not beholding to any of the local politics or any of the local politicians. And that was how my name came about.

When the array of elite from the Niger Delta, who were not in government or military wanted to rush Babangida into taking action, he was desperately looking for me but I was out of the country. Finally, when they wanted to have the commission their own way without anybody from outside the Niger Delta, the Permanent Secretary of Finance, Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji and the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Aliyu Mohammed and Muhammed Gambo (who was National Security Adviser) said no. They said they would not have that commission composed only of people from the Niger Delta because these people have had their history of not doing justice to their fellow brothers and sisters.

And since the President(Babangida) had committed himself to making them the majority stakeholders, other Nigerians must be there to put eye on behalf of the government and the rest of Nigerians because what is at stake is the survival and the entire good health of the national economy.

We were constituted in June and we went straight to Port – Harcourt. The former Chairman of OMPADEC, Albert Horsefall, had man-

aged to hijack the decree on which effectively would have made the activities of the commission impossible. He had said that if you are going to distribute projects, it will be on the basis of oil produced in the area and this is against the decree. Horsefall was determined that certain parts among oil producing areas were going to be favoured. He is a Kalabari, which is like a sub-group of the Ijaw. He wanted the Kalabari to have the largest share of the development funding arising from OMPADEC into their area. But if you go back to the argument of Horsefall saying that you must put money in proportion to the oil and gas produce by an area, then his own town and where he has his house, Degema, would have nothing.

Was that why OMPADEC failed?

Before we left Abuja , Babangida had summoned me and Albert Horsefall and said look, this is a national assignment and I believe the two of you can pull it through if you put your heads together. So, if OMPADEC fails, I will hold you Albert and you responsible because I believe the two of you matter. If you succeed, there will be success in that area but if you fail, the nation would have failed. We promised to do our best.

When we got to Port – Harcourt, it was a different ball game. But I opposed him (Horsefall).

And anytime he brought something which I found unacceptable, I would tell him and confront him. If it became serious, I would fly to Abuja to brief Babangida, the SGF, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and the National Security Adviser. That was how I survived through the years I was in OMPADEC. How did you know President Goodluck Jonathan? Where did your path cross each other?

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 02, 2012

17

•Dr. Mohammed

‘

It is better we all stand up and say no, than allow ourselves to be drawn into a civil war.

As a Northerner, I stood my ground that he must be recruited into OMPADEC to redress the injustice meted out to Ijaw. That is the kind of spirit that I am expecting from him. If I had not appreciated his potential and the need to be fair to all groups, would he have gone this far?

In short, I met President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan exactly early 1993. I met him in the cause of my work as a federal commissioner in the then OMPADEC in Port Harcourt . It has been renamed as the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). So, recruitment into OMPADEC brought me into contact with President Jonathan. We went to Port Harcourt as a skeletal group comprising only commissioners. This means we had 14 staff, apart from the secretary who was a Federal Government appointee. So, we had to start recruiting people.

In the method of recruiting, the former Chairman of OMPADEC, Albert Horsefall again violated not only the constitution but violated Decree No. 23 of 1991 of OMPADEC. He put employment into OMPADEC as a proportion to the oil that is being produced in an area. Producing oil an in area does not guarantee you that the area is the kind of area that produces engineers or doctor. If you have no doctors in the area and you produce all the oil in the Niger Delta, you could not be employed.

So, we found ourselves in a very serious manpower situation. Areas where we have the manpower to come and carry out the projects and execute them were not available. At the same time, areas that were producing the oil hugely so to speak could not unfortunately produce the manpower that was necessarily for the maintenance of the infrastructure that we are trying to put in the Niger Delta. In one of such, there had been earlier recruitment, but there had been a lot of backlash and complaints.

So, people especially among the Ijaw were complaining that they were grossly under-represented and they said some of the people who said they were Ijaw were not Ijaw and did not come from the areas which have now been renamed Bayelsa after the creation of the state.

So...eh…

I took that into consideration and reported to Babangida and Gambo that there were a lot

’

of complaints after the last recruitment exercise. We were about to start another recruitment when the name of President Goodluck came to my attention. I realised he came from a very under-developed area in terms of educational attainment. I also realised that the area is a huge producer of oil in the local government.

I had two friends who are Ijaw. There was late Sam Ikikoro who said there is a young Ijaw man. I asked further, he said they are regarded as Ijaw and they speak Ijaw but they are a small tiny clan or group within the Ijaw group. I asked whether Jonathan comes from that local government or not he said yes. I said okay.

Then I also asked a close friend of mine, an engineer who had settled in Ghana and finished at Ahmed Bello University , Paul Abiu. I said do you know this man (Jonathan)? He said no, he did not know the man but he knows this local government. It is definitely an Ijaw local government. When the issue of recruitment came, I found out that in short- listing the names of applicants, Horsefall said he had an appointee.

I objected to that and insisted that the recruitment was an opportunity to redeem our image as a responsible organisation which is strictly speaking a Federal Government organisation belonging to all the people of Niger Delta. When the name of Goodluck Jonathan came, Horsefall said he had a better appointee, he introduced another name of his cousin. I said I would not accept. That was the beginning of the fight we had and it went on into so many areas and the activities of OMPADEC until the very end. Horsefall was defeated because majority of the commissioners in OMAPADEC then agreed with me and he had no alternative than to recruit Jonathan.

The fight came between me and Horsefall and the fight lasted until the very end of OMPADEC when it was dissolved by the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha. The important thing is that

there was another boy who is now late, he is an Ijaw man. His name was Joe. Joe and Goodluck wanted to come and thank me and even come with their community. I said I didn’t want to see them because what I did was to satisfy my conscience. I believe Horsefall had done injustice by putting too many Kalabari at the expense of Ijaw people.

So, Jonathan knew what you did?

Very much. In fact, he thanked me well for that gesture, which meant nothing to me. As far as I am concerned, it is not for me asking Jonathan for compensation. It is not my business to come and see Jonathan. It was only lately I knew that one of my brothers happened to know him and they are close. That has nothing to do with me and I know I have seen him several times at OMPADEC. As far as I am concerned, my idea of public service is that you do what you can and regard politics as public service. I believe whoever is the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria must learn to listen to criticisms because the country is not his personal matrimony. Nigeria belongs to all us, whether he is my brother or somebody I knew, Goodluck or Horsefall, he has a responsibility to listen to us.

Are you saying your bitter criticism of Jonathan is not personal?

Absolutely no. Jonathan knows better than anybody. Even each time some people tried to incite him against me, he will look and say Dr. Junaid was my boss and that has been the case.

As far as I am concerned, that has nothing to do with me, I have never had any quarrel, not even an argument with him when I was in OMPADEC where we worked together.

That would be how many years?

The relationship started in 1993 and we are now in 2012. So, what is the big thing?

If you knew of good qualities of Jonathan and you recommended him for a job then, why is that you don’t seem to agree ….

(Cuts in) I recommended him to be an Assistant Director, I did not recommend him to be the President of Nigeria. These are two different things. If I were to assess him as an Assistant Director, Ecology, that is a different matter. If I were to give assessment now as a president of the country, it would have been a different assessment. I did not vote for him, I would never have voted for him. I believe he has very serious shortcoming as the President of Nigeria. One, he is not only tribalistic, he practises it. We have a situation whereby the President of Nigeria is an Ijaw man; we have a National Security Adviser who is an Ijaw man; we have the Minister of Niger Delta who is an Ijaw man; we have a Minister for Petroleum Resources which is really the cornerstone of our national economy who is an Ijaw woman.

This is a nation of 150 million people, and your generation has a responsibility to know that Nigeria can never be governed the way Goodluck is governing it and if we are to continue doing that, we are going to find ourselves in a very serious trouble. It is better we all stand up and say no, than allow ourselves to be drawn into a civil war. As a Northerner, I stood my ground that he must be recruited into OMPADEC to redress the injustice meted out to Ijaw. That is the kind of spirit that I am expecting from him. If I had not appreciated his potential and the need to be fair to all groups, would he have gone this far?

But why can’t the North, especially the group you represent, give him the chance to spend his four years? You are not giving him a breathing space...

How are you sure he has planned to spend only four years? Did he tell you? He has made an announcement saying that he is now in his first term? That is not our own interpretation of the provisions of the constitution. If he contests in 2015, God forbids, he would be the only president who would have taken three oaths of office which is clearly unconstitutional. So, what are you telling me? Number two, the North has become irresponsible and completely irrelevant in the scheme of things because Northerners have gone and taken bribe and handed over their own patrimony. The PDP was formed

by Northern Generals and handed over to exPresident Olusegun Obasanjo and Obasanjo has abandoned it and gone somewhere else. As far as I am concerned, it is the responsibility of all Nigerians- either from North or South, East or West- to make sure that we have a working democracy in Nigeria .

If you wait on the North, you are likely going to be disappointed because North itself has not behaved well. From the time Sardauna of Sokoto was assassinated and other northerners were killed in a coup, the North has never completely recovered. It was as if there was a mental breakdown. And some of the people who in their 80s who are pretending to be leaders of the North, were ministers when they were in their 20s and 30s. They have run out of ideas, you cannot ask somebody who is in his 80s, he cannot read a newspaper, he does not watch television, he doesn’t listen to radio. He is not

used to computer. He must remain a leader, but he must remain simply because he happens to be a contemporary of the Premier of the North. That is not my idea of leadership.

What is the condition for peace with Jonathan? Is it about power shifting back to the North?

No. I do not believe in power shift, zoning, and rotation. And I said when they are negotiating this trash with the South, especially by some Northern leaders, I said no country that is truly democratic practises this so-called rotation of power or power shift. I gave them concrete example of Yugoslavia when after the death of Tito, they introduced this thing that they would practise rotation of power. What has happened today? Yugoslavia has been split into five countries and they are still not at peace.

They have about 10, 000 soldiers who are now maintaining peace in a country that used to be one country, one government and one constitution. Is that an achievement? No. if Nigeria was to continue with this zoning or rotation thing, I assure you Nigeria will break up into pieces and there is no way you can break Nigeria peacefully. And even those who are against zoning and rotation because of their own selfish interest, especially our Northern people, they are now coming to realise that you cannot have a system of gentlemen agreement. There are no gentlemen in PDP. And even when you have something, it should be in the constitution.

You are telling me that we must continue with rotation. The North has the chance to produce the president of Nigeria on merit, the North does not have to rely on zoning or rotation.

What we need in Nigeria if we want democracy sincerely is to have a credible electoral system.

Don’t you think INEC is on this path already?

The INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, has bastardised the system. We recently in 2011 had the most violent election in the history of Nigeria . Over 5000 people died and Jega is telling us that we had a free and fair election. You assess an election by the way the registration is conducted. The first problem we had with the last election we had was that the registration failed. It has to be done twice. Secondly, the machine which has dubious technological validity which was being introduced also failed.

So the data capturing machine which was an innovation introduced by the so-called chairman, Jega, failed and they said because he did not use normal norm of awarding contract.

So, as far as I am concerned, the whole thing was done in bad faith, his appointment was done in bad faith, the registration was done in bad faith, the introduction of the data capturing machine was done in bad faith because PDP does not believe in free election. Number two, when the election itself came, the man did not realise that there is a limit within which you can hold an election giving the constitutional provision when the outgoing president must leave and when the incoming president must be sworn in. They started changing the dates of election until he found himself without the one week necessary between one election and another and so some elections were conducted by only two or three days in between. That was enough confusion to invalidate that election.

That to me was not an election. Whether he is from the North or South, Jega failed woefully.

Are you being sincere in your assessment or critique?

Why won’t I? Nigerians must learn to keep aside personal feeling and criticise. For example, I have nothing but contempt for the CBN governor but I also oppose the current effort by the Senate to introduce an amendment to the CBN Act. I know the CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is prone to verbal diarrhoea but that does not mean that you should go and amend a decree on a personal basis. That is too petty of the National Assembly and it speaks about how dishonourable they are. And you can see how people who had been governors of CBN like Adamu Ciroma and others opposed the amendment because there is no need for it.

You are a convener of a group, concerned professionals in the North, if you are seeing that, what does the North want again?

I will be deceiving myself if I could open my mouth and tell you I know what the North wants. What I am saying is that the plight of the North should apply to the rest of the country.

The President on Democracy Day tried to immortalise Abiola, what is your take on that?

Of course, Abiola is somebody I believe should be immortalised but the manner of immortalisation was something I found objectionable. The President politicised the issue. It is clear to any Nigerian who is sincere that the Democracy Day broadcast was nothing but a campaign speech for 2015. The speech was too long, it was empty and a lot of details were so outrageous that you could see that the people who wrote the speech have no respect for Ni-

•Continued on Page 49

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THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

•Different interanational passports and visa allegedly used by Bilal

•The piosoned juice drink the victim refused to drink, the bloodstained club and knife used in stabbing him

A

LEBANESE robbery suspect arrested by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Lagos State Police Command has confessed that he collected the sum of $50,000 from a bureau de change operator, Aliu Sanni, after a member of the gang named Mohammed had stabbed Aliu until he fell into coma.

The Commissioner of Police, Umaru Manko, said Mohammed, who was at large, allegedly stabbed the victim in the chest and some other parts of his body before he was robbed by the gang, and he died after doctors had battled to save his life. However, he said, the Lebanese member of the gang, Bilal Fahs (23) was being detained by SARS while efforts were being made to track down another expatriate suspect who allegedly masterminded the robbery operation. The second expatriate- suspect was said to have fled with his father on hearing that Fahs had been arrested.

Narrating the role he played in the robbery operation, Fahs said he had two international passports and visas from Lebanon and Ghana. On his Lebanese visa, he goes by the name Bilal Fahs, while he appears as Bilal Mohammed in his Ghanaian visa.

He said: “I cannot remember the exact date I came to Lagos for the first time, but I can vividly remember that I did not stay for long the first time I came. A few days after my arrival, I travelled to Kano to work as a plumber in the maintenance section of Tahil Guest Palace, Lamido Crescent, Kano, on a monthly salary of $1,100.

“The guest house belonged to a Lebanese. It was somebody from my village that directed me to the place and I was given the job. But I did not like the way they were ordering me about and shouting at me as if I was a slave. That made me to lose interest in the job and I resigned.

“On March 25, 2012, I came

Ebele BONIFACE

down to Lagos and stayed with my brother, Ibrahim, on Victoria Island. After three days, I left him and went to Apapa to live with another Lebanese called Hassan Mohammed Jamal. He is from my village, Juwaya in Lebanon.

Hassan himself was living with his father, Mohammed Jamal, at the middle floor of a building at No. 32/34, Calcuta Crescent, Apapa. His father is a car dealer who imports cars from Cotonou and other foreign countries, and he worked with his father as the sales manager.”

Fahs became a squatter with Hassan and his father. Then on April 27, being a Friday, Hassan gave Fahs the phone number of one Aliu Sanni, a Nigerian who operated a bureau de change in Apapa, to call him for a deal.

Hassan told Fahs to ask Sanni to come with the sum of $50,000.

Later, Hassan postponed Aliu’s coming till the following Monday, to enable him gather enough cash for the exchange. He had already told Aliu that the exchange would take place at the Calcuta Restaurant. At about 10 am on Monday April 30, Fahs called Aliu as directed by Hassan and Aliu said he would come with the money.

The previous day, a car hire operator, Segun Ogunnaike, had conveyed Fahs from Victoria Island to Apapa. He had paid Ogunnaike N2,000 and told him that he would still need his

Bureau de change operator robbed of $50,000, stabbed to death in Lagos hotel services the following day.

Ogunnaike was excited and gave Bilal his complimentary card to assure the Lebanese that he would be available the following day and that he could call him any time he chose. On the appointed day, Fahs called Ogunnaike and told him to come to Calcuta Restaurant. When he arrived, Fahs and Hassan entered the car and told him to head to an a hotel in the area.

At the hotel, Fahs told Ogunnaike to go and drop Hassan at Calcuta and come back to the hotel to pick him. When Ogunnaike returned to the hotel, he picked Fahs and took him to another hotel in the area. Fahs went into the reception and booked for a room on the last floor for N5,000 a night. Then he sent the driver to go and pick Aliu, the bureau de change man whose ofiice was located at No. 69, Kofo Abayomi Street, Apapa, from Calcuta Restaurant where they had initially arranged to meet.

Unknown to them, Aliu had told one of his colleagues to follow him to the place in order to ensure that he was not taken elsewhere or raise the alarm if he sensed any funny development. Aliu had gone to Calcuta Crescent on a motorcycle, and Ogunnaike, the taxi driver who was asked to bring him, did not know him in person. As Ogunnaike was looking for him, Fahs called Aliu

and told him that the taxi driver he had directed to bring him to a safe place was waiting for him beside Calcuta Restaurant. He looked up and saw the taxi driver and went and joined him in the cab.

The moment they left, Aliu’s colleague, who was assigned to monitor Aliu’s movement, joined a motorcycle and started trailing the taxi. As they headed for a hotel from Calcuta Crescent, Hassan followed them behind on a bike while Mohammed Lawal, who Aliu had earlier instructed to follow him, was also trailing on another bike.

As soon as the taxi driver entered the hotel and parked, Lawal called Aliu and told him that the place they had entered was a hotel and not a private residence, but he responded by saying he was aware of it.

Meanwhile, Hassan had parked outside the hotel’s gate, waiting for his gang members to carry out his instructions. Unknown to Aliu, a Nigerian identified simply as Mohammed had hidden himself in the toilet of the hotel room, wearing a yellow mask and waiting for him to enter. Upon entering the room, Aliu and Fahs sat down and started negotiating.

Aliu showed the $50,000 to Fahs and asked him for the sum he wanted to exchange? But at that point, the suspected assassin appeared from the toilet with a

‘

Unknown to Aliu, another man was already staying behind him, holding a dagger. Speechless and terrified, he could only stare at Fahs who had collected the $50,000 and was expected to hand N7.5 million to him in return. At this point, Mohammed allegedly ordered the suspected assassin to start stabbing Aliu until he slumped and died...

,

yellow mask.

Unknown to Aliu, another man was already staying behind him, holding a dagger. Speechless and terrified, he could only stare at Fahs who had collected the $50,000 and was expected to hand N7.5 million to him in return. At this point, Mohammed allegedly ordered the suspected assassin to start stabbing Aliu until he slumped and died.

Unfortunately for the suspected assassin, one of the hotel’s waiters had overheard the cry of somebody from the room and wanted to find out what was happening when he saw Fahs hurrying out of the room. The waiter ran to the room, saw Aliu in a pool of blood and raised the alarm.

The two policemen on guard duty at the hotel then arrested and handcuffed Fahs, while his accomplices had managed to escape. Fahs was first taken to the Apapa Police Station before he was transferred to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

Asked whether he had been involved in such crimes for long, Fahs said: “It is my first time.

Hassan told Mohammed to follow me, but I knew the role he assigned Mohammed to play. My role was to collect the dollars while Mohammed’s role was to stab Aliu to death. I will not do it again if I am freed.”

The victim was said to have been rushed to the hospital where he was certified dead. The Police also recovered the stick, knife and poisoned juice, which Aliu was said to have declined to drink.

Meanwhile, SARS operatives have spread their dragnets to track down Hassan and his father who were said to have disappeared when they heard that Fahs had been arrested. Fahs is being kept in VIP cell because he is a foreigner.

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THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 02, 2012

Saturday

THRILLER

s g n o s l u f Hope ’ l e w e J ‘ e h t from h a n n a v a s e h of t

e t a t S e b m o G f o n o i The alterat

T

HE day panted hotly like a stove-top. It reeked of noontime heat and the expensive whiff of scholarly décor in an over-charged classroom inside the office of Aisha Ahmed. Despite the heat, Ahmed smiled demurely and very coolly. She glowered with the shine that hope makes in the heart of darkness.

Ahmed would recall her heartfelt grief at the sight of over 200 students stuffed in a class. She would recall with sudden heaviness the stench of dried out sweat and impatience of hapless school kids yearning for the closing bell. School was hardly fun for the average Gombe kid and that tore her heart into shreds. But Ahmed could only do as much as the limits of her current office would allow her. That had to be tasking. It was.

It is, still; consequently, the Commissioner for Education, Gombe State, rises every new day to a fresh challenge. “But the problem is being solved. The situation has improved remarkably from how it was. I could recall that His Excellency, Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo, shed tears as he observed the dilapidated state of many schools in the state as he took over. In some schools, there were about 200 students or

Olatunji OLOLADE Assistant Editor more stuffed in a class. The school environment wasn’t conducive for learning and that became one of the thrust of his Excellency’s developmental blueprint for Gombe State,” disclosed Ahmed.

Indeed, not a few pupils in Gombe State – popularly called Jewel in the Savannah – stand to benefit from the incumbent government’s educational drive, enthused Ahmed.

According to her, education is a major priority of the current administration. “His Excellency promised to turn around the schools and elevate education to an enviable height. He believes that majority of the societal problems can be solved through education,” said Ahmed. To achieve this dream, the government has selected 15 secondary schools and 15 primary schools for rehabilitation.

Before he assumed office, the Gombe school system was unarguably in the doldrums.

Despite the standard and the appeal of its tertiary education sector, investigations revealed an alarming rot in the state’s primary and secondary school systems. There were grey areas

Continued on Page 20

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 02, 2012

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•Continued from Page 19

The alteration of

in which the government could not expand; students outnumbered available classrooms, a situation that resulted in a population of between 200 and 300 students in a particular class. More worrisome was the fact that a school that accounted for 30 per cent of total enrolment in the whole of Gombe State could hardly boast of 10 chairs in one of its overpopulated classes. Today, the situation is remarkably different.

To check the dearth of unqualified and inadequate teaching staff in the schools, the state government has approved the recruitment of 1,000 graduates as teachers in secondary schools. The government has also facilitated a programme by which current teaching staff that are unqualified may undergo in-service training and shore up their qualifications with the appropriate academic honours. In eight years, the former administration spent just N1.3 billion on capital projects in the Ministry of Education but with the coming of the new government, in four months, His Excellency has spent a total of N3.8 billion in turning around the schools that need serious rehabilitation works. The commissioner enthused that the incumbent administration is really enthusiastic about achieving the objectives of the State Universal Basic Education (UBE) scheme. “This administration is pulling all the stops to ensure that the goals of the UBE scheme are met efficiently and with positive results,” stated Ahmed.

A very sad situation The 6-3-3-4 system fashioned after the American system has suffered a lot of implementation problem in not a few states across the country. This has in no small measure dampened the purpose of the break between the senior and junior secondary education process for instance.

Asides most parents’ desperation that their wards proceed to the senior secondary school whether they are qualified to or not, there was inadequate orientation for teachers and administrators, while the infrastructure was virtually non-existent or in deplorable state.

Spurred by the need to revamp the ailing sector, the country’s educational administrators introduced the 9-3-4 system which can be described as an old wine in a new bottle because of its similarity to the 6-3-3-4 system.

The major difference between the two systems is that the 9-3-4 system insists on a nineyear compulsory basic education while the 6-3-3-4 system provided for six years of basic education.

However, stakeholders argued that it doesn’t matter what system Nigeria adopts, if the government fails to tailor it wholeheartedly towards resolving the country’s myriad of educational problems, every system adopted would always fail.

And that is one sad reality Dankwambo’s administration is set to overturn. Among other measures, the state currently facilitates prompt allocation of sufficient financial resources to accommodate enrolment and expansion needs of its schools.

Likewise, the incumbent governor has read the riot act to managers of human resources in the education sector. “He has charged us to prepare for and consciously seek to attain and sustain major improvements across the tiers of state’s education sector,” disclosed Ahmed.

Besides its investments in the educational sector, the incumbent administration also espouses landmark investment in what has been consistently described as both a bridge and complement to human capital development in the state. “This government has it as its major focus to involve the youths and invest heavily in them. We understand the crucial role they play in any nation or state’s march for development; that is why Governor Dankwambo’s administration fosters a comprehensive youth development and empowerment drive. And he provides us adequate funding and moral support too,” revealed Alhaji Sani Mijinyawa Labaran, the state’s Commissioner for Youth Empowerment.

Recently, the state government gave immediate employment to 1,197 youths who have successfully completed their training under the state government sponsored Youth Rehabilitation and Empowerment Programme (YREP). The youths who were camped at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Orientation Camp in Malam Sidi,

•New Science Secondary School in Gombe township under construction

•Governor Dankwambo

•A completed road project at Federal low-cost housing district, Gombe •Ahmed Kwami Local Government Area of the state for the training exercise were urged by Labaran to make judicious use of the knowledge gained from the programme to better their lives and their immediate society.

Already, 500 of the youths have been deployed as environmental marshals, 500 others as Ward Marshals, while about 197 of the participants have been employed as State Traffic Marshals.

More efforts are in the offing to expand and sustain a massive human capital development cum youth empowerment exercise in the state.

Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, who made the disclosure during the graduation of 520 persons from MDG skills acquisition centres in the state, said the state can only improve in its bid to foster a progressive youth segment towards the attainment of Gombe’s developmental goals. Recent graduates from the state’s MDG skills acquisition centres were trained in 13 trades at the cost of N228million. The state has also expanded the school of remedial studies at the Gombe State University, to enable more students redeem their deficiencies and proceed with their education. The objective is to engage the youths positively and profitably, following the outlawing of Yan-Kalare activities in the state.

Recently, an amnesty pro-gramme was launched in the state to curb activities of the Yan-Kalare, a self-styled youth political group.

At the launch of the programme at the Pantami Township Stadium, the Commissioner of Youths and Poverty Alleviation said the government has gone far in initiating a bill to the House of Assembly making it an armed robbery offence for anyone found engaging or perpetuating Kalare activities. The amnesty which witnessed the submission of dangerous weapons from members of the group would also engage 1,200 of them as road marshal assistants, community sanitation workers, security workers among others at the end of a threeweek rehabilitation exercise to be held at the NYSC orientation Camp in Mallam Sidi.

More than N78 million has been earmarked

for the programme and the beneficiaries will be treated to free meals, medical treatment and psychological counseling geared to reform them and ease them back into the society without unmanageable effects on their psyche and the society.

The retrieval of weapons and employment of repentant Kalare boys falls under the government’s Youth Transformation Programme aimed at tackling youth unemployment and restiveness. At the completion of their training, the participants will receive salaries of between N10, 000 and N15, 000 every month as part of the state government’s measures to re-orientate and rehabilitate the affected youth. “All these wouldn’t have been possible without His Excellency’s unwavering support,” noted Labaran.

More often than not, the governor has seized various platforms to reiterate his administration’s commitment to the socio-economic wellbeing of the people. In pursuit of that objective, the administration has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Bank of Industry (BOI) to provide loans for the establishment of small and medium size industries across the state.

Labaran, the state’s Commissioner for Youth Empowerment, said the program was the product of an 11-man committee report on youth engagement. The training centers are located in the three towns of Ture-Mai, Tongo, Lube and Kashere.

The MDG skills acquisition programme in the state is an effective response to the unemployment cum skilled artisanship needs of the state. Located in three major towns across the state, the centres are expected to generate the much sought generation of skilled entrepreneurs and artisans to boost the state’s human capital development enterprise.

To achieve its objective, the programme is facilitated with various departments offering training in various areas of specialisation. The trainees are mostly high school graduates, dropouts and the handicapped. They are distributed into the various departments based on their

interests and they undergo training over various periods ranging from three months, four months, and six months to one year depending on their individual programmes.

The training scheme is basically hands-on and practice oriented and the trainees are duly exposed to modern technology and equipments relevant to their pursuits. The trainers are usually established professionals in the field and are brought in from as far as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Lagos, Ogun and Edo States to mention a few, to teach the students.

According to Mijinyawa Labaran, the state Commissioner for Education, the government is fully committed and amply supported in its quest to fast-track human capital development in the state. This is even more evident in the government’s agricultural initiatives. The recent procurement of machineries and earth moving equipment to foster rapid development of the rural communities, according to Hassan Ahmadu, Commissioner for Rural Development and Cooperatives will be used for the construction of access roads, earth dams, culverts and other smaller works that would make rural life more meaningful, especially to the youths. The move is not only inspired by the need to save funds but the burning desire to speedily transform Gombe State as well. It will at the same time provide employment opportunities for unemployed youths who will be engaged whenever there is any work to be done in their domain.

The impact of such developmental initiative would no doubt be felt across the state’s agricultural communities as the initiative behind making the rural settlements more alluring is informed by the need to diversify the economy through fostering participation in agricultural activities, especially among the younger people who require great deal of encouragement to stand up to the task of replacing the present generation of aging farmers.

But the first step is to make agriculture very attractive to the targeted youths. That explains why the state government refurbished 35 grounded tractors recently and procured the

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THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 02, 2012

Gombe State •Tractors purchased in actualisation of the government’s agricultural development drive

•Tool set distributed to participants in the ongoing MDG skills acquisition exercise

•Government Arabic Teachers College undergoing reconstruction efforts

same number for farmers in the state. The government has also ordered for additional 200 units of tractors from Pakistan. On arrival, the state tractor hiring unit will have more than enough at farmers’ disposal and at affordable prices too.

In the interim however, 34,000 metric tons of assorted fertilisers have been slated for the current farming season with the probability of adding more. Of the figure, 20,000 metric tons will be provided by the state while the remaining 14, 000 tonnes will be supplied with the assistance of the Federal Government.

So far, the incumbent administration has spent over N19billion on the construction of 50 township roads and six highways. Governor Dankwambo, who disclosed this while flagging-off township road construction in Billiri Local Government stated that the ongoing projects mark the beginning of a comprehensive infrastructure drive in the state. Five Local Government Areas, Balanga, Billiri, Kaltungo, Dukku, and Funakaye, were part of the beneficiaries of the projects. Dankwambo said that during the electioneering campaign he had promised to embark on developmental projects that touch on the lives of everyone in the state, irrespective of religious, tribe or party affiliation.

Far from a grim picture This much is seen in his commitment to the attainment of crucial aspects of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Dankwambo has identified manpower development as the basic resource for the actualisation of such initiative. According to him, he understands the undeniable potentials of indigenous artisanship to societal and national development thus his decision to nurture the production of quality and adequate manpower for housing construction, automobile repair, steel work, renovation and fabrication works of various shades which currently poses a major challenge to individual citizens, urban managers and development planners across the country.

•Reconstruction work at New Science Secondary School, Gombe

Indeed, the types of manpower usually needed in large quantity for housing construction in Nigeria are artisans and labour thus the crucial need for skilled artisan services remains an indisputable reality of the ever-increasing housing needs in both urban and rural areas in the country.

This acute shortage of quality artisans persists despite the existing National Housing Policy’s goal of providing adequate shelter for every Nigerian by 2015. This emphasizes the need for urgent appraisal of the existing training programmes for these artisans if the policy’s goal will not be rendered comatose.

The most prominent means of artisan skill acquisition for automobile repair and building construction in the country are through informal training on the job, that is, traditional hereditary form of apprenticeship and through vocational training schools. In Lagos and the South west states, the residents now suffer from the invasion of incompetent, unreliable and dishonest artisans. Many now resort to Republic of Benin, Ghana, Togo, Burkina Faso and for the well-to-do, China, to handle carpentry, bricklaying and other work in their construction sites. Attempts like the MDG skills acquisition centre in Gombe may probably provide the much needed elixir to salvage the country from its technical despondency.

The Gombe State model None of the government’s developmental drives, however, would amount to much without a veritable pool of funds and conscious effort in pursuit of results. According to Dankwambo, it is the rich information at his disposal that enables him to verify the basic and most pressing requirements of every community. This, he claimed, makes it easier for his government to always get it right in terms of project execution in the state.

Governor Dankwambo, indeed, favours a pragmatic approach to governance: “If I initiate a project today, we start saving money for the project. For example, there is the school rehabilitation account. If it is road construction, I

call it Gombe township road account and that is how we operate for all sectors account.” According to him, the state keeps a capital account worth N2 billion, it maintains a Zenith Higher Education Fund account which is N375m as well as a Joint Capital Project account of N770 million set aside for funding joint projects. Then there is the Primary Education Intervention Account which is N681 million, the Water Rehabilitation Project account of N1.2 billion.

“This is deliberately how we have been saving and every day we monitor the report. There are some people like I said who have this error margin and we cannot leave them, they must also be rehabilitated, some of them still have interest to go to school, some of them will have to be engaged in vocational skill acquisition, to learn one trade or the other. Instead of isolating them, we give them another opportunity to retry. They could go to the university and study to become an administrator or a journalist. So we created school of media studies that will have a programme that will last for three years.”

The system no doubt, is a specialised one that is only relevant to Gombe. No matter what happens, every participant stands to benefit.

However, despite his persistent efforts to transform Gombe into the cynosure of all eyes in Nigeria’s north-east, Dankwambo has to contend with security challenges like every other Governor across the federation. Recently, heavily armed youths stormed the state’s vocational training centre for repented thugs in Malam Sidi. The centre was thrown into confusion as the assailants struck shooting indiscriminately into the centre. Several trainees were injured and rushed to undisclosed hospitals in the area.

The attack occurred few weeks after about 1000 Yan-kalare militants willingly renounced violence and were granted amnesty by the state governor. Notwithstanding the threats posed by the attack, Governor Dankwambo has called for dialogue with members of the Boko Haram group and other militant groups in the country claiming that “A leader has responsibility to

•Labaran ensure justice by listening to all complaints.”

At the backdrop of the incident and his ongoing developmental drive in the state, the governor pledged to intensify his efforts at consolidating the achievements he had recorded in the last one year. He said: “What we have so far done in Gombe State is the preliminary work; it is now that we are making efforts to implement the budget fully. We will make sure that all the projects and the programmes contained in the budget are implemented with the resources we have. And if you look at the 2012 budget, we have not achieved up to 30 to 35 per cent of the budget.”

The number one citizen of Gombe has surely got his work cut out for him, no doubt.

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THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

•Mr Emmanuel Tete shows his gunshot wound

•A burnt building in the attack

r e v i R s s Cro unity m m co n i a g a s boil land r e v o

•Mr Ikpeme showing gunshot wounds to his arm

Nicholas KALU, Calabar

N

OT many people wake up to a bullet in their back. But that was Mr Emmanuel Tete’s experience that fateful Wednesday morning when the people of Ikpanya community in Ibiono in Akwa Ibom allegedly overran the Ntan Obu community, Eniong Abatim in Odukpani in Cross River State, leaving death and destruction in their wake.

The attack that 23rd May was the fourth, The Nation learnt, in a series of invasion by the Ikpanya on the Ntan Obu community, which has always led to loss of lives and property. In the attack, some victims were beheaded and thrown into the river. It was learnt that the Ikpanya community have severally laid claim to the coastal community, Ntan Obu area, and for this reason have often invaded the area to run the people, who are mainly fishermen and farmers, out of the area.

Recently, the community of Ntan Obu Ukpe had cried out for government’s intervention over alleged consistent harassment by people of Ikpanya Village of Ibiono Ibom in Akwa Ibom State.

Chairman of the Esop Ufok Ukpe, Eniong Abatim, Chief David Ikpeme, had told newsmen in Calabar a couple of

months ago that they were greatly disturbed by threats to annex Eniong Creek by indigenes of Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area.

Although it was gathered that the crisis may not be unrelated to rumours that the area is rich in crude oil, the 80-old Ikpeme who spoke through, Dr Awak Anam, a community leader, alleged that the hostility against Ntan Obu Ukpe was provoked by the attempts of their people to beat back the trespass committed by Fulani cattle rearers goaded on the Ikpanya people, as their flood plains are very rich.

He had alleged that on the 16th of February, 2010, the people of Ikpanya Village Ibiono Ibom of Akwa Ibom State invaded Ntan Obu Ukpe, burnt down the buildings, looted property and killed some youths and soon after the incident, the Deputy Governors of both the Cross River State and Akwa Ibom State visited Ntan Obu Ukpe, but that not much has happened since then.

The last attack before the May 23 incident, he said, was on the 17th of February this year. Ntan Obu Ukpe Village was again invaded by Ikpanya.

According to him, since the first invasion of Ntan Obu Ukpe, the people have been living as refugees in their own

land, which had been left desolate.

In an attack that left no less than 40 people dead, including women, children and mobile policemen, the May 25 invasion served as a reminder to the constant dread in which the people in the area live. It was learnt that a community chief was also killed in the raid.

Recounting his ordeal at the Akim Police clinic in Calabar, Mr. Emmanual Tete, a fisherman from Ntan Obu Ukpe, said: “This thing happened around after six in the morning that day. I cleaned up, went into the toilet and after that went into my house to eat. The next thing was a bullet in my back. I fell down; the second one came to shoot me again, blood was flowing all over my back. So they thought I was dead and they left me, saying they did not want to waste bullets.

“I have three children. My wife escaped with one of them.

So after they had gone, I managed to crawl into the backyard to get the remaining two. I carried them and swam across the river with my wound into the bush to the Akwa Ibom axis.

“Somebody I met now helped me with clothes. I went to one clinic in Ibiono; they refused to treat me. But one woman gave me N1000. So I took a bike to Ikot Ekpene. I went to the General Hospital there but they re-

•Mr.Tete

fused to treat me. I went to the police station there, police said I should go to my state; let them go and treat me there. So since 10 in the morning I left Ikot Ekpene around four in the evening for Calabar. Then I got to this clinic.”

He said it was a surprise attack. He said he also saw some men in military uniform leading the invasion. “They had camouflage, bullet proof vest and sophisticated guns.”

Mr Ikpeme Eyibio Ntiense, another fisherman, from Ntan Obu, said the day before the invasion, he had gone to fish in the creeks when some people opened fire on him at about noon but he managed to escape.

He said he raised the alarm telling some people what happened but he was not taken seriously. According to him, he was not in Ntan Obu Ukpe when the invasion took place because he went to Odukpani headquarters to report the matter to the police.

Many did not survive to tell their stories. Chairman of Odukpani, Mr Stephen Asuquo, urged the National Boundary Commission to work with the two states to delineate their boundaries properly based on a Supreme Court judgment of June 24,2004.

He called for dialogue in resolving the matter as the people of both areas would still have

reason to be interacting. He called for the building of Marine Police posts on either side to check such attacks.

He said to check such incident, they had drafted 15 mobile policemen to the area, four of whom were missing after the May 23 invasion. He, however, doused fears of reprisal attacks, saying as peace-loving and hospitable people, they would look for ways to resolve the matter without further crisis.

The Paramount Ruler of Odukpani, HRH Dr Umo Ekanem, told The Nation that the attack was the fourth one since the Ikpanya people started laying claims to Ntan Obu, each time increasing in magnitude.

Chief David Ikpeme had among others prayed for the release of substantial relief materials; referral of the invasion/ annexation to the appropriate law enforcement agents for investigation; deployment of security agents to the entire Ntan Obu Ukpe as a pro-active measure to secure lives and property; establishment of a subnavy station and demarcation of the boundary between the two states by the National Boundary Commission (NBC).

He also urged that steps should be taken by the Cross River State government to cause the enforcement of the 2004 Supreme Court judgment on the rightful ownership of the creek.

LOCATION

BACKSTAGE

SNAPSHOT

REEL NEWS

MUSIC

SCREEN

Edited by: VICTOR AKANDE

Tel: 08077408676

E-mail: victor_akande@yahoo.com

ntertainment

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012, 2012

23

SEE PAGES 28 - 37

I am not yet fulfilled

—Lillian Amah-Aluko

24

STANDh BY! Wit

VICTOR AKANDE E-mail: victor_akande@yahoo.com Tel: 08077408676 (SMS only)

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

THINK

SNAPSHOTS

nt part of An importa s of any the succes is its civilisation late the mu ability to e t led to the a th factors ther success of o Eric .— s civilisation rt Reine

The Lagos flood in cinema

O

NE of the things that thrill me about the scope of most film festivals is the fact that they give attention to human interest issues in all spheres of life, and thus mirroring them through the cinema medium. At the Durban International Film Festival last year, I witnessed similar feat in some environmental related flicks, one of which was Paul Watson's celebrated movie, entitled Eco-Pirate.

The film traces Watson's early career as a frontline activist in Greenpeace and his subsequent more militant approach with the Sea Shepherd Society, critiquing the failure of governments to enforce maritime laws that they created and agreed to, Watson says, “somebody has to do it!”

Speaking broadly about ocean life he states bluntly: “If the oceans die, humanity dies.” No doubt, Watson has an astute understanding of how news stories impact public opinion and the film shows his adept optimization of key media opportunities.

To this end, Time Magazine called him one of the 20 environmental heroes of the 20th century. The Guardian (US) mentioned him as one of 50 people who could save the planet. These are some of the numerous accolades bestowed on Paul Watson which also include honourary citizenship, environmental, animal rights and human rights awards.

It may amount to an over kill if I say that in environmental appreciation and consciousness, the Nigerian government and experts have failed woefully; because indeed, we have heard them paying attention (lip services as they may be) to issues that have to do with cutting down of trees and desertification.

But like Watson rightly accused the government of his country, they too have failed to enforce the laws effectively. However, my thought on this issue may betray a critique's intention and render this piece a criticism if I do not mention the effort of private individuals like Newton Jibunoh, an environmentalist who undertakes series of expeditions across the Sahara desert.

Jibunoh, the founder of a non-governmental organisation called Fight Against Desert Encroachment (FADE), started the expedition with 60 other persons in partnership with the Lagos State government with a reality show tagged The Desert Warriors.

Knowing the efficacy of the media to issues of human interest, the expert had

employed this subtle documentary and broadcast entertainment method to get the attention of people on the evil of desert encroachment, otherwise called desertification. Giving insight into possible causes resulting from cutting down of trees, burning of bushes, lack of rainfall and coincidentally and ironically is the fact that lack of rainfall is caused by desertification. Because for a fact, as they say, when you burn trees, you increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and when there is global warming, the ice in the polar regions melt, the sea level rises and when it rains, there is a lot of flood which washes away houses and people.

This brings us to the issue of last year's Lagos flood; a supposed five days rain pouring within 24 hours and causing death and untold hardships -the same being replicated in Ibadan.

Whatever lessons were learnt from those occurrences, I don't know, because indeed, as typical Nigerians, we forget easily. But another raining season is here, and only those affected by last year's flood would remember.

Including me, whose car was drowned in motion around Ikoyi. However, in recognition of the medium of film as a documentary evidence of our experiences, it would have been worth our while if in no distant time, our filmmakers will begin to make issues of national importance a priority in their story telling career like this model called Paul Watson.

Jibunoh may have done his bit with the Desert Warriors reality, the Lagos State government may have also thrown its weight behind him and helped with public enlightenment on the matter, because as Governor Babatunde

Because the challenges of governance are numerous, it is important that the people rise with social responsibility projects that will keep government on its toes at all times.

A filmmaker's tool of social responsibility is his camera and techniques of motion picture reportage

WRITE TO US!

Raji Fashola once said; “it is a national security problem, and not only are we already facing the burden of high migration and exploding population in Lagos, but that burden will be further exacerbated as more people lose their houses and their homes to the desert, the underlying currents that informed the support of the state government to the venture in the light of the global environmental threat across the world which is currently manifesting in floods, hurricanes, monsoons, heat waves.”

He said further, “When you see what has been happening in other places, you will see that we have been lucky in Lagos. But luck will not take us far; we must act pro actively and decisively because Nigeria is the only country plagued on both sides by desertification and coastal erosion.” According to him, desert encroachment adds to climate change imbalance which increases water levels, and as a coastal state, Lagos will be the most impacted.

This foresight is impressive, but because the challenges of governance are numerous, it is important that the people rise with social responsibility projects that will keep government on its toes at all times. A filmmaker's tool of social responsibility is his camera and techniques of motion picture reportage. But one of the problems of Nollywood is lack of foresight and sensitivity of its filmmakers to issues of national importance, because commercial value takes the topmost place in their calling. Foresight here also relates to their readiness to capture 'spontenous' incidences like the Lagos flood for archival reason and subsequent use.

I recall my piece of February 1, 2009 on this platform which says: May the old Oshodi not be lost Forever. In that article, the story of filmmaker Yinka Ogun was told about how it was almost impossible for him to lay hands on the footages of Maroko, a Lagos settlement where about 10,000 houses were flattened and 300,000 people displaced in July 1990 by the then military regime of Lagos State headed by Colonel Raji Rasaki.

Does anyone, including the broadcast media, have the footage of last year's Lagos flood? What about that of Ibadan? Is any filmmaker thinking of replicating the woes in abstract form of the cinemas, because it is only this type of films that could outlive them.

Then again, just so the government would remember its promises of better life and security for the populace.

Do you watch Nollywood movies? What do you think of the Nigerian motion picture industry? Send your review of any movie or short essay on any topic of your choice about the film industry in not more than 200 words. Send entries by e-mail to: victor_akande@yahoo.com or SMS your short comments to 08077408676

Ogogo set to give daughter away

F

AMOUS Yoruba actor, AlHassan Babatunde Taiwo a.k.a Ogogo, according to reports, will be giving his daughter's hand in marriage in a couple of days.

Come June, Rasheedat Ololade Taiwo, daughter to the thespian will be exchanging marital vows with her heartthrob, Al-Hassan Oluwatoyin Yusuff. Reports say that the engagement and Nikkai ceremony is slated for 16 and 17 of June and will be held at the multipurpose hall of The Federal

Polytechnic Ilaro, Ogun State.

A couple of months ago, the families of the bride and groom had an elaborate Introduction ceremony. Although, Ogogo kept the ceremony from the eyes of the public, it was not altogether a secret. The Introduction had in attendance, friends, fans and close associates of Ogogo including Abbey Lanre and Yinka Quadri, who were learnt to have arrived late. For the wedding ceremony proper, Musiliu Harunan Ishola is expected to entertain guests.

Shan George:

Finding Goodluck among the stars •Shan George

W

ITH a lot of hard work put on the line, actress, Shan George finally made her debut as her flick, Finding Goodluck was premiered on Friday May 25. Held at Terra Kulture, V/I, Lagos, the premiere witnessed the presence of society and showbiz big-wigs who defied the heavy down pour to do honour to the actress.

Leading all to the memorable night was a beautiful rendition of national anthem by Darlene Benson. The atmosphere was charged with fashion parade and the electrifying performance by a couple of up and coming artistes from Enugu State and Republic of Benin.

Ace comedienne, Lepacious Bose was not left out of the fun. The thick humour merchant stole the night with rib-cracking jokes that

got all reeling on the floor with laughter.

Expected to hit the cinema soon, Finding Goodluck parades Shan George as hard working Police Officer. Other acts in the film include Kalu Ikeagwu, Florence Johnson, Franca Anaka, Ekere Nkanga, Eric Anderson, Ita Asuquo and a host of other rising artistes.

Shot in Calabar, the movie tells the story of a State called Aquariv which is besieged by gang of Assassins and kidnappers sponsored by some politicians. The terror is driving the entire state into chaos and tragedy strikes.

Goodluck, son of the Governor (Kalu Ikeagwu) is kidnapped.

Present at the premiere were Ini Edo, Kate Henshaw, Senator Daisy Danjuma, Inspector Oshodi Glover who represented the IG, The Ibru Sisters, Desmond Elliot, Emem Isong, Monalisa Chinda, Chidi Mokeme, Rachel Oniga, Chico and Joy Ejiro, Lillian Bach, Lepacious Bose, Chioma Chukwuka, Mr. Kool, Tonto Dike, Mr. Raw Nwanne, Steph Nora Okere, Anita Hogan, Yemi Sax, Darlene Benson and a host of others.

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THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

RE ELNEW S

Winning films at Festival de Cannes 2012

MCSN seeks revocation of COSON’s licence

•Threat is mere publicity stunt —COSON

F

OLLOWING what it describes as series of false claims and misrepresentation in the process of approval of the Tony Okoroji led Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), the Musical Copyright Society Nigeria (MCSN), through its Counsel, Mr. Kemi Pinheiro, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, has called on the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) to revoke the approval given to the former to operate as a collecting society.

But COSON, in a statement signed by MARY UKET, its Head of Communications says the move

by MCSN to stop its operations is a mere distraction. The statement described the threat by MCSN to sue NCC over COSON as a publicity stunt, “intended to cover up the death blow delivered by the Court of Appeal in MCSN v.

CDT where the court clearly pronounced that without an approval given by the NCC, MCSN cannot legally operate in Nigeria as a collective management organization whether it chooses to call itself

FEATURE FILMS

•Orits

'owner', 'assignee' or 'exclusive licensee'.

MCSN had in an earlier release asked for the dissolution of COSON, alleging through a purported letter dated April 18, 2012, that more than 80 percent of the membership list submitted to the NCC by COSON to support its application for approval as a collecting society, are actually names of genuine members of MCSN or its affiliates, while more than 50 percent of the names in the membership list of COSON are repetition of names aimed at making the membership profile of COSON appear impressive.

MCSN therefore wants the Copyright Commission to revoke the approval given within 90 days, saying it is a misrepresentation with intention to mislead the NCC and the general public. It said if action is not taken in line with its request, it might file a suit against the NCC to ensure compliance.

But COSON claims the allegation of inflated membership is false, expressing concern over

why “MCSN has been busy promoting a Federal High Court judgment which is on appeal, but keeps mum over the Court of Appeal judgment that has sentenced it to death. Is there anyone in Nigeria who does not know that a Court of Appeal judgment is superior to a High Court judgment? It asks.

The letter purportedly addressed to the Director General of NCC, Mr. Afam Esekode had also disclosed that “COSON had also made a false claim of having the expertise and machinery to run a collecting society only to turn around to contract or lease out the approval granted to it by the NCC to an accounting firm, which has no knowledge, experience or expertise in

Palme d'Or Amour (Love) by Michael Haneke Grand Prix Reality by Matteo Garrone Award for Best Director Carlos Reygadas for Post Tenebras Lux Jury Prize The Angels' Share by Ken Loach Award for Best Actor Mads Mikkelsen in Jagten (The Hunt) by Thomas Vinterberg Award for Best Actress Cristina Flutur & Cosmina •Tony Okoroji Stratan in Dupã Dealuri (Beyond The Hills) by Cristian Mungiu collective management”.

Award for Best Screenplay According to the petition, Cristian Mungiu for pour Dupã MCSN alleged that the license Dealuri (Beyond The Hills) given to COSON to operate as a collecting society was granted with a view to displace and supplant MCSN, which has been incorporated and operating since July 20, 1984.

COSON however believes that MCSN is merely scared of what it described as 'its phenomenal growth in so short a time', that it has tried to distract COSON with what it called 'massive media onslaught'.

With the recent development, it is certain that the last is not heard yet of the disagreement involving COSON and NCC on one side, and MCSN on the other side.

I

•Bimbo

people in their months of birth.

Part of the activities that highlighted the celebration was the cutting of the birthday cake by the celebrants. Celebrants are to also show off their dance steps. Denrele, Gbenga Adeyinka, Funsho Adeolu and Omobaba gave the audience something to talk about as they tried to outdo one another on the dance floor.

T

Palme d'Or Sessiz-Be Deng (Silent) by L. Rezan Yesilbas Camera D'or Beasts Of The Southern Wild

by Benh Zeitlin presented in Un Certain Regard Selection The Jury of the CST awarded the "Prix Vulcain De L'artisteTechnicien" to: Charlotte Bruss Christensen, for the outstanding cinematography of the film Jagten (The Hunt) by Thomas Vinterberg

S

Birthday bash for Bimbo Akintola, others

T was indeed a night of style, entertainment, glamour and humour as Koga Entertainment in conjunction with Lee Magazine honoured celebrities who were born in the month of May. Gbenga Adeyinka, Omobaba, Funsho Adeolu, Akin Olaiya, Denrele, Bimbo Akintola among others were celebrated at the upscale hangout joint, Koga Lounge at the Monthly Birthday Party (MBP). The MBP is put together by Lee Magazine to celebrate entertainment industry

SHORT FILMS

MTV clinches Broadcaster of the Year award

ATCOM Star Awards has named MTV Networks Africa (MTVNA) as Broadcaster of The Year. The initiative which celebrates excellence in the African satellite and broadcast industry annually, shared this year's award between MTVNA and Discovery Networks.

SatCom Star Awards highlight exceptional performers and innovators within the industry. The winners were judged by satellite industry leaders, and the award was announced at a gala dinner in Johannesburg, South Africa on May 22, 2012.

Senior Vice President & Managing Director of MTVNA, Alex Okosi, who received the award from Jaylene Naidoo, General Manager, SatCom Africa, noted that “for seven years, MTV Networks Africa has brought innovation and excitement to tens of millions of viewers across Africa, introducing strong new brands that resonate with distributors, audiences and advertisers alike.

We are thrilled to receive recognition of our achievements by our industry peers.” He said.

All set for NAFCA 2012

HE second annual Nollywood & African Film Critics' Awards (NAFCA) is scheduled to hold on September 15 and 16 in North Carolina. According to Dr. Victor Olatoye, the convener of the awards, who recently flew into the country to speak with stakeholders and to re-introduce his organization to the film producers, the ceremony is meant to promote the Nollywood film industry in the Diaspora.

During a stakeholders' forum which held at the Artiste Village, National Council of Art and Culture (NCAC), on Tuesday, May 29, Olatoye, the

President and CEO of Nollywood Film Critics revealed that NAFCA will be celebrated in Durham North Carolina at the luxurious Carolina Theater.

“Until we came into the scene, there were no credible awards in the US. We realised that Nollywood needs a lot of noise making in the Diaspora so that people can actually come to see that we as Africans have good culture and we have our own film industry and they can actually enjoy our work,” he said.

Olatoye revealed that the awards ceremony has about 32 categories which includes as

Best Film, Best Actor in a Film, Best Actress in a Film, Best Original Movie Score, Best Director in a Film, and People's Choice Category where people can actually go and vote, as well as honourary, Hall of Fame and Lifetime Achievement in theatre categories which were introduced this year.

“Our sister company, which is Nollywood Film Critics takes the Nollywood films and African films, we watch them, we write reviews and we assign a star rating system to them which is registered with the US patent office. That gives it a lot of credence,” he added.

•Victor Olatoye

26

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

Day Music met Runway at Ediz Wine Bar

•Magnito

P

ORT-HARCOURT popular hangout, Ediz Wine Bar came out loud last weekend when the management of the Bar made a debut with a fashion show tagged, Fashion Glamour-Music Meets Runway.

The two-day event kicked off with a cocktail party at the Bar, located on Emeya Street, GRA, Phase 1. Date was Saturday May 26. The show attracted a huge crowd among which were the upwardly mobile in the Garden City and from across the country. By 7pm the red carpet had started, with guests taking their turns to pose for the paparazzi. The show afforded others the rare opportunity to mingle and exchanged pleasantries.

The highpoint of the event however was the Runway which held the day after. An initiative of the Bar's owner, Edwin Okoli, the Fashion Glamour, he said was in support of emerging designers. However, the show was not all about fashion; it was a blend of music and fashion, which made the experience rich and entertaining.

With Dreamwave Concept providing the outdoor equipments for the show, occupying the centre of the premises was the Runway where the models strutted to showcase the budding designers'

•Arinze Baba

YQ rebounds with Sandalili

O

NE of the songs presently rocking the airwaves is a new single, Sandalili by crooner of several hits songs; I like Girls and I Am YQ among others.

Featuring Terry G, Sandalili which dropped recently has been circulating major radio stations across the country.

For YQ who left the music radar for a while now, there couldn't have been a better time to return on the music scene than now. No wonder he quickly followed up with a video on the single which is also getting massive airplay on TV stations across the Nation.

Signed to a new Management Company, Habdulmedia Venture headed by Abdullraheem Bamiji, YQ is currently working on his forthcoming album which he intends to drop before the end of the year. The work is coming under his Industreet Music label.

•W4 with Buchi Mercy MICHAEL

creative and conceptual work. On the left hand corner was the regular section, while the VIP guests occupied the other end.

The event was anchored by popular comedian Buchi, who came all the way from Lagos. He was assisted by PortHarcourt-based comedian, Arinze Baba.

It was comedy extravaganza as the duo didn't stop at anything to excite the crowd. In attendance were top celebrities from the fashion, movies and political sectors. From the fashion industry were the likes of Life Mechanics (from

•L-R: Rayce, Ediz Wine Bar boss, YQ

•Runway

America), Hauz of D3, Alfis, Ghian, 2 Rule, Vera Nora Couture (South, South) and On Point (Lagos).

It was an evening of climaxes. Vera Nora was the last to showcase her designs, perhaps the best of the evening.

Her ability to accessorise simple native/African fabrics and turn it into regalia made her designs to standout.

Guests were blown away by the performances of the music stars including W4, Rayce, YQ, M-Trill ,Mr 2k and Magnito among others. Magnito and M-Trill; both rappers were first to thrill, mesmerizing the crowd first with freestyles, before meting out the rhymes which got the crowd screaming. The atmosphere further got a boost when popular singer, Rayce got on stage. The crowd couldn't wait to be thrilled as they danced and sang to his hit song Roll.

Ecstatic, the crowd completely went on frenzy when frontline entertainers; YQ and W4 performed their popular songs I like girls and kontrol respectively.

The show ended with an after party at the Bar, where guests were further treated to non-stop jams from the inhouse Disc Jockey. Saying that the guests had a good time, drinking from the array of vintage wines in excess supply, was stating the obvious.

•M-Trill

Jammal set to Touch Down

P

ROMISING singer and song writer, Jammal of the Trybe Music Clan is set to test the murky waters of the music industry once again with the release of his latest single; Touch Down.

He got his first 'booth' experience in 2002 which signaled the beginning of his career in the entertainment scene after years of harnessing his skills which led to his first single, Here I Stand, in 2011.

Now he drops another track appreciating the true beauty of the Nigerian woman whom he adores so much that, he says, it makes him Touch Down his ego.

The song embraces the heart of the ladies and reminds men of the beauty of the Nigerian woman. Trybe Inc and TMC's very own producer extraordinaire, Xwit, produced the beat of the song while rapper Geniuzz, drops a line on the song.

Jammal is an undergraduate of Babcock University, majoring in Computer Information Systems. His musical influences, he says, include the likes of Chris Brown, Ne-Yo, Usher, Fela, Kanye West and a host of others.

Born Abdul-Azeezm Jammal Ibrahim; the 22 year old hails from Kogi State, but was born and bred in Jos, Plateau State.

At the tender age of 5, he found his love for music singing hymnals with family members and later joined the choir at age 7.

27

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

W4 drops new single!

Big Brother Stargame

Mampi exits

F

OLLOWING the hit song, Kontrol which popularised W4 otherwise called Mr. Wonda, the Afro Pop singer has just released a new single, which he called Like Fada Like Son. Although the new single only dropped less than a week, it has started to generate a lot of buzz on the internet. From the catchy titled Like Fada Like Son to the danceable beat, music buffs are optimistic that the single is likely to be another hit from one of the prodigies of the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

...as eviction threat hits Mildred, Keitta, Edith, Eve

Z

•W4

Rayce performs Figure 8 for PortHarcourt crowd!

W

HILE Lagos fans of Roll crooner, Rayce may have just started to relish his new single entitled Figure 8, a song which dropped only last week on the internet, is Port-Harcourt enthusiasts can actually boast to be the first to see the first ever public performance of the single.

This happened on Sunday at the maiden edition of “Fashion Glamour” organised by popular PortHarcourt hangout, Ediz

Wine Bar. Rayce, who was among several other industry frontliners to perform at the fashion show which made a début at the Bar last weekend gave a dazzling acount of the single before the crowd which sang, danced and nodded to the beat.

With smash hit like Roll which has earned Rayce a national prominence and a follow up single; Figure 8 which is likely to go round major radio stations across the country, the artiste is undoubtedly a force to reckon with on the Nigeria hip hop radar.

•Rayce

•Mampi

F

OLLOWING a successful outing of the Nigerian Breweries' Star Trek crew at the Adamasingba stadium in Ibadan on May 25, the Markurdi leg of the musical concert which took place on the next day, was no less eventful, as thousands of music enthusiasts turned out for one of the biggest musical concerts of the year.

The Ibadan crowd was all over Tuface Idibia as he mounted the stage.

It was obvious they hadn't had him perform for them live in a long while.

Thus, with his band, Tuface assuaged the hunger, occasioned by the prolong yearnings of his fans. The list of songs

P

Samklef lands publishing deal

RODUCER cum singer, Samklef who is working round the clock to put finishing touches to his forthcoming album, is at the moment in a state of euphoria. Not just because of his Sophomore Album, but the Noni Crooner, has also landed an international publishing deal.

Samklef recently signed a deal with Dark Secret International to produce top American artistes. The producer who sounds excited about the deal also said he's not willing to make any comments on it for now.

Dark Secret International is said to be an Atlanta based company with Directors from American mainstream radio broadcasting and production industry.

Speaking on his forthcoming album,

AMBIAN Housema te in the Big Brother StarGame, Mampi became the first Upvillebased to be evicted last Sunday. She was sent packing after scoring the lowest country votes from Africa. With six nominations from her colleagues, she was also the most-nominated Upville Housemate.

However, random nominations resumed in Downville, leaving Ghana's Mildred and Keitta and Botswana's Edith and Eve up for eviction this week.

Meanwhile, with DKB throwing his weight around as Head of House, a surprise visit from DJ Euphonik and a wager victory and Downville, where romance blossomed, Keagan shouted his way

through the week as Head of House and then won this week's Head of House challenge too - IK gave viewers a chance to hear from last week's evicted housemates Luke, Dalphin and Yadel.

Luke said that his time in the house had been “crazy” and quite unlike anything he'd ever experienced before. He said he would miss Jessica as their relationship had bloomed and he'd felt like he'd known her for years. For Dalphin, her time in the House had helped her learn how to live with other people with different characters, and backed her friend Zainab to do well in Upville. Yadel said she had loved everything about the StarGame experience especially Big Brother's commanding voice. She insisted that her relationship with Alex was purely platonic and that she still had a boyfriend at home.

Tanzanian artist Diamond Platinumz set the tone for a cracking show by opening proceedings with Mawazo.a DJ Umculo from Namibia's Fresh FM was hard at work on the decks as well, keeping the studio audience jumping throughout the show.

Mammoth crowd in Ibadan, Makurdi for Star Trek

was endless.

When it was the turn of Hip-hop artiste, 9ice, there was no disappointing the crowd as the singer equally got the crowd dancing and singing along. 9ice had constantly asked the Ibadan crowd to request which of his songs they wanted to listen to. In return, he performed it to their delight.

With two exotic dancers performing with Fuji exponent, Obesere, the

Samklef said it is an album that everybody can relate with. “The album is titled 'Chameleon' and it consists of twelve tracks. It is going to be an eccentric album featuring a lot of upcoming and popular artistes in Nigeria and also some international artistes. Basically too, I will be producing most of the tracks on the album. The last album, 'Nonilizing' was a very successful album. I wanted to name this new one Nonilizing 2, but I thought that I should give it another name since this new album is made up of different kinds of music ranging from alternative rock, Naija House and other genres”.

“My new album will be featuring lots of acts like Skales, Wizkid, Olamide, D Black ,Rotimi from America and a couple of other people. The album is definitely going to be loaded. As for the international acts, we are still negotiating with them but for now I am working with Rotimi, a Nigerian singer based in America”.

crowd could not but ask for more.

At Makurdi, the crowd which queued outside the IBB Square was unprecedented. Gideon Okeke, show host of the recently concluded Star Quest 2012, anchored the Makurdi leg of Star Trek, where the Crystals Band opened the show. They were followed by Diamondz, past Star Quest winners. Rap impresarios, Naeto C and Ice Prince delivered sublime rap lines that kept the crowd entertained and asking for more. Naeto C, a Star Trek veteran, brought on stage Yung Six, an upcoming musical act as back up.

Nigerian Afro-Highlife crooner, J. Martins also delighted the crowd through his fast paced performance. The event held at the Ejigbo Stadium in Lagos yesterday, with another experience taking place today at Zenabab Hotels and Resort in Ilesha.

•Tuface with Naecto C

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R R R R R R R R R E E E E E E E V V V V V V V E E O O CO O O O O V V C C C C C C O O C C THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012,

COVER

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

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COVER

Delectable actress, novelist and movie producer, Lillian Amah-Aluko is quite an interesting personality to engage. The incumbent VicePresident of the Association of Movie Producers who played her first major role in Out of Bounds in a lead with Richard Mofe-Damijo reveals that she left her banking career in order to be more fulfilled. The one time air hostess also opened up on a host of issues in this interview with AHMED BOULOR.

‘Acting and writing feed different parts of my soul’

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LILLIAN AMAH

O you mind sharing what your experience has been like since1987 when you started out as an actress till-date?

The experience has been very rewarding. It has given me the opportunity to earn money by doing something I love. In the beginning, it was slow because I worked full time in a financial institution. But my acting career sprang to life when I left the banking world in 2005 because am more available to take jobs now.

What was it like being part of the movie Out of Bounds which turned to be your first movie?

It was great. I had the opportunity as a new actress on the scene to play a major role with one of my screen heroes, RMD. I also had the opportunity to work with the extremely talented director, Tade Ogidan. The script was good, the cast and crew were lovely people to work with and most of all; I got a good role as Alero the pastor's wife.

How would you describe the business climate of making movies in Nigeria being a film producer and the Chief Executive Officer at

New Dawn Productions?

The business climate of making movies in Nigeria is quite tough right now majorly because of the tough global economic climate. The challenges of piracy, lack of an enabling environment and lack of an effective distribution channel are factors that are hindering the growth of the industry.

What is your motivating factor?

The desire to be successful and leave a good name behind is my greatest driving force.

Have you played your most challenging role yet?

No way. My most challenging role is yet to come.

You are one of those who rarely feature in any kind of movie; what kind of movies do you like to be part of?

I am intrigued and very interested in advocacy parts. Parts that support causes that I agree with are dear to me and I thirst to get such roles. Roles that also help humanity in one way or another are roles that I look forward to playing.

Did you quit Banking because it was something you don't want to do for the rest of your life?

Absolutely! I had done acting and banking side by side for over 10years

I had done acting and banking side by side for over 10years and came to realize that I needed to decide which gave me more fulfillment and face it squarely

and came to realize that I needed to decide which gave me more fulfillment and face it squarely. As the saying goes, "you can't serve two masters at the same time".

Could you throw more light on the 'Open Door Series'?

The "Open Door Series" is an advocacy program and it is one of those projects that are dear to me. It is an International Cultural Exchange program whose aim is to use arts and culture as a tool for global diplomacy. It was started in 2010 by Alhaji Teju Kareem (Zmirage Multimedia) and Prof. Segun Ojewuyi (Southern Illinois University). We chose to use the birth date of Prof. Wole Soyinka th (July 13 ) because he embodies and epitomises the aims of the project. In its 3rd year now, Project WS78 as it is called this year has as its theme "The mind of a Patriot". Last year's theme was "I love my Country". The program involves artistes, cultural activists and actors from America touring Nigeria and the world, 2 students each from each State of Nigeria and a few from the Diaspora coming to Lagos to write an essay. The total number of students

each year corresponds with Kongi's age that year. The children also get a chance to see places of interest in different states and had the opportunity to have lunch last year with Prof. Wole Soyinka. Each year too, the project takes a theatrical production on tour. This year, the play is "Home" by Samm Art Williams directed by Segun Ojewuyi. This year, the project features a lecture titled "From tigritude to transcendence; the conscience and conscientiousness of Wole Soyinka" by the celebrated Prof Robert Fox of Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. The venues for this year are Lagos 13th July, Ogun 14th July, Ondo 15th July and London 28th and 29th July. Thanks to Teju Kareem, I have been opportune to produce the program since inception.

What was the launch of the 'Open Doors Series' in London like?

It was great. 2010 was at The Shaw Theatre and the Tabernacle. 2011 was at The Tabernacle and we will be at The Africa Center this year 2012.

What's Professor Wole Soyinka's involvement in the 'Open Door Series'?

Prof has no involvement beyond graciously lending his birth date as our calendar date. He also hosted the 77 students who participated in last year's essay competition in his home in Abeokuta.

What is the drive behind the 'Open Door Series' harping on the global goal of 'Upholding the dignity of man'?

Man has been seriously dehumanised by global wars, slavery, man's inhumanity to man and the greed, dishonesty and corruption that drives most human beings. We believe it's time to change all that. Man should have dignity and our aim is to uphold that dignity.

Could you mention some of the movies that you have produced?

Jungle Ride, She Devil, The Triangle and Sweet Revenge.

How would you describe yourself?

Interesting, curious, hard working, friendly and quick tempered.

Do you by any chance miss the world of banking?

No

not at all. It was a nice and valuable experience while it lasted.

Are you self-fulfilled with your acting career?

I am on the way to being fulfilled. I am challenged and find it interesting but am not yet fulfilled.

How often do you partake in stage plays?

I do as often as I get asked and have the time. I have professionally done "Joseph and the Amazing techni-color dream coat", "Imaguero", "A Queen for Domingos".

As a novelist, how did you develop your writing skills?

I am not sure I have any acting skills to talk about. I enjoy writing because i enjoy reading. However I had good literature teachers in secondary school and they lit the fire of love for literature in me.

Do you get better scripts from TV series than from films?

Mostly yes but there are some very good film scripts out there too.

Have you succeeded in producing your own soap operas yet?

I am working on one now. It's a telenovela titled "Vessels of Clay" and we are in the pre-production stage.

Does acting and writing give you the same satisfaction?

No. They each feed different parts of my soul.

Have you tried your hands on writing movie scripts?

No. I am a novelist. Screen writing is a different skill which I haven't bothered to acquire.

Have you been able to fulfill some if not all your dreams?

Some yes. I dreamt of being an actress and I am. I longed to be an air hostess and I was Chief Air Hostess of the now rested ADC Airlines for 2 years. There are other dreams that I am still working on and I believe I will achieve those too some day.

As the incumbent Vice-President of the Association of Movie Producers; what are the recent strides made by the AMP in trying to raise the standard of movie productions in Nigeria knowing fully-well that the rest of Africa is fast catching up with Nigeria?

AMP under the leadership of Zik Zulu Okafor believes that the first step is to re-brand. We are working on changing the perception of ourselves and how the outside world sees us. Movie making is big business and AMP as the business arm of the industry is positioning the industry to encourage investors and like minded business men from the international community. We are meeting with diplomats, the media, practitioners from Hollywood, Bollywood and the global film industry to fashion out ways to make movie making profitable in Nigeria. We intend to show case all of this at the "2 billion eyes on Nigeria" event which the industry with AMP in the driver's seat will host to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Nollywood.

Genevieve Magazine gives out Mercedes

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OLLOWING months of organizing the promo, a lucky subscriber, Lola Oluwole, on Friday, May 25, went home with a brand new B150 Mercedes car having emerged winner in the Genevieve magazine's 'Invest in Your Lifestyle' promo.

Presenting the prize, Mrs. Betty Irabor, Editor-in-Chief of Genevieve magazine said the subscription promo, which started in 2010, was the magazine's own way of rewarding loyal readers while also expanding on its readership base. She stated that in its nine years of existence, Genevieve magazine has remained true to its vision to be a lifestyle guide and best friend, inspiring wholesomeness in all women globally.

Speaking further, Irabor said the choice of Mercedes Benz as a partner in the subscription promo was because of the similar attributes of the two brands.

“If Genevieve were a car, it

would be a Mercedes. We have similar attributes: classy, edgy, fetching, beautiful and elegant,” she said.

Also at the presentation ceremony was Ioannis Anastassiou, who represented Mirko Plath, the Managing Director of Westar Limited, sole distributors of Mercedes brand in Nigeria. He congratulated Miss Oluwole, urging her to always drive safely and happy on the road.

Miss Oluwole was all smiles as she expressed gratitude to God, Genevieve magazine and Mercedes Benz for the car, adding that she had been a loyal subscriber to the magazine since 2010 and never thought she would be the eventual winner of the star prize.

Consolation prizes in the Genevieve magazine 'Invest in Your Lifestyle' promo like DSTV phones and designer bags have been won by subscribers since the campaign started in August 2010.

Ibadan agog for Harp Rhythm Unplugged

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HE next edition of the popular Rhythm Unplugged concert has been slated to take place in the ancient city of Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.

Organisers say the newly assembled music group; Mavin Records crew comprising Dr. Sid, D'Prince and Tiwa Savage will lead the way, as the city finally gets a taste of a first class entertainment. The show is being put together by Cecil Hammond's Flytime Entertainment in conjunction with Harp lager.

Billed to hold today at the Jorgor Centre, Ibadan, it is the first time the concert series is holding in the city.

The event, a music, comedy concert, had its Port Harcourt edition earlier. The show is as usual, expected to

features prominent names like W4, Chuddy K, Samclef, Rayce, Reminesse, Classico, Orexzi and Dpzle among others.

Comedians billed for the show include Apororo, Ebohmbom, Pencil, Ajebaba and Memorycard.

The Harp Rhythm Unplugged concert in Ibadan concert is the fourth in the series of Harp sponsored concerts. The maiden edition was held in Abuja last year, the second (a double show) in Lagos was held December 2011, while Port Harcourt, River State anchored the January edition.

“It promises to be a real night of premium fun with Harp and the Flytime Entertainment team”, said Cecil Hammond, CEO Flytime.

KAKÁ SET FOR SÃO PAULO

RETURN

• Toress

By

Harry Iwuala

KAKÁ SET FOR SÃO PAULO

SNEIJDER TIPS HOLLAND FOR

RETURN

• Kaka

GLORY

Inside The

Glass House WITH AMINU MAIGARI

38

W O D L O O H L Y USTIN Bieber was accused of roughing up a photographer over the weekend outside a shopping centre and as the issue has been reported, his case will be referred to the Los Angeles County District Attorney for possible criminal prosecution. If the teen idol is charged and convicted, he could face up to six months in prison.

The 18-year-old is wanted for questioning

by Los Angeles County Sheriff's investigators, however he is currently in Norway for a concert.

The scuffle allegedly happened when the photographer tried to snap pictures of Bieber and his girlfriend Selena Gomez, after they walked out of a cinema at The Commons in Calabasas.

Sheriff Lt. Robert Wiard says the photographer in question called 911 on Sunday and complained of pain to his chest. Wiard says the photographer was taken to a hospital where he was treated and released. He says Bieber and Gomez left before deputies arrived, so investigators want to talk to him to get his side of the story.

Lohan accused of scheming company INDSAY Lohan has been accused of stiffing Tanning Vegas, a mobile airbrush tanning company, out of $40,000. According to reports, the star failed to pay for tanning sessions from 2007 through 2009, causing the company to sue her in early 2011.

Unsurprisingly, it seems LiLo was less than interested in

paying for tans that faded long ago. On Monday it was reported that the Nevadabased tanning company is trying to move the case to California, where Lindsay and all her assets are located.

Ironically, Tanning Vegas is run by Lorit Simon, who is also the co-founder of Lohan's own self-tanning line, Sevin Nyne.

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Kardashian accuses BA on theft

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EALITY television star Kim Kardashian has long flaunted her extensive lingerie collection in her online tweets but it seems she has severe objections to airline British Airways rifling through her smalls.

The reality star accused the flagship airline of stealing 'irreplaceable' items from her luggage. And the mind boggles at what exactly was taken from the professional self-publicist's bags to prompt her to launch the verbal attack.

The reality star claimed her visit to Europe ended on a sour note after 'sentimental' items were removed from her suitcase.

She had recently been on a promotional trip to London to film scenes for her latest TV show and then flew on to Cannes.

In a series of tweets, she wrote: 'Very disappointed in British Airways for opening my luggage & taking some special items of mine!

Some things are sentimental and not replaceable.

Crane over Ghollywood

Yvonne Okoro dazzles Adams Apples premiere

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WARD-WINNING Ghanaian actress Yvonne Okoro was the belle of the night at the premiere of the final chapter of 'Adams Apples'

by Sparrow Production.

Yvonne played the role of Baaba in the movie.

In the opening chapter of the series, she struggled to forgive her estranged

Queen Latifah declares gay status

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Justin Bieber ‘could face six months in prison’

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THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

husband for his indiscretions. In chapter two, an ugly pre-divorce fight ensued between Baaba and her husband which pushed the latter to give Baaba an ultimatumif she wanted to continue to spend time with their daughter or not. At the end of chapter four, the only one for whom things seemed to turn out okay was Baaba, who was working things out with her eager husband.

Okoro looked stunning at the final premiere in her black, long cutout dress by Kensal, an Istanbul designer. Unlike the Africa Movie Academy Awards in Nigeria where she took a plunge with her dress,

she shifted attention to her back at the premiere.

She was thrilled to be on the 'Adams Apples' red carpet again at the National Theatre in Accra.

Currently, Okoro has gathered a large fan base and is rocking the movie scene beyond expectation.

Her last job was a role with Majid Michel after he won Africa's best actor at the AMAA.

T looks like Obama's open support for gay marriages has eased out things for the LGBT community to a great extent. Among many others, Queen Latifah, real name Dana Owens, has also declared herself a lesbian.

After years of speculation about the singer, actress and songwriter, Queen Latifah's sexual orientation, she has finally stepped out of the closet declaring gays as “her people” at the Gay Pride Parade held on Saturday.

Earlier this month, when Latifah signed to speak on the Beach Lesbian & Gay Pride Festival in Long Beach California, it was not certain whether she will merely support their rights or actually come out to reveal her own orientation. But as she addressed the attendees, the African American songstress made her pride known.

“Y'all my peeps (people),” she said, referring to the LGBT community. “I love you!” Queen performed for more than an hour, rocking the festival with her hits like “U.N.I.T.Y” and “Ladies First.”

The 42 year old, Latifah thanked the crowd for their support and advised them to keep safe.

Thank you to all my favorite peep guests who came out to support me. I appreciate it. I love you so much. Hope you had a beautiful time,” she said.

“Y'all be safe whatever y'all get into tonight. Boys strap it up. Ladies - strap it up.”

Latifah was long rumored to be in a relationship with a Hollywood Choreographer, Jeanette Jenkins.

The two parted ways in 2011.

Jackson, Houston memorabilia on sale

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T has long been known Michael Jackson was leading a traumatic existence before his premature death. But a newly released letter to his former wife Lisa Marie Presley casts even more light on how he was struggling with the pressures of being one of the world's best known celebrities.

The fragile Prince of Pop revealed he had not slept for days and needed to 'take care of my health first' in the document, which has been put up for auction.

In a schoolchild-style scrawl, he wrote: 'I truly need this rest. I haven't slept literally in four days now. I need to be away from phones and business people. I must take care of my health first.' He also told his the lover that he was 'crazy' for her, and signed off under his pet name Turd.

The highly personal message is predicted to fetch up to $1,200 when it goes under the hammer at the Julien's Auctions sale in Beverly Hills next month.

Another interesting piece on the list is one of Whitney Houston's old passports. Given she died just three months ago, some will be wondering if it is too early for such personal items to be on sale.

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THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

How to become marriage material So how do you become the kind of woman men want to marry? I will give some strategies below: Stop thinking of yourself.

Spend 60 days taking responsibility for your man’s needs and seeing things from his perspective, no matter how hard things are for you. If you do this, he may be more receptive to your needs and you will most likely get him in a different state; a state where you can bring up the topic of your needs with him.

Understand him, and how he works. Work out what his needs and values are, and start to understand. If you’re often defensive, start to seek understanding.

Understanding gives you control and empowerment.

You do have control over it.

You’ll have a lot more certainty and happiness in your relationship if you start to understand that you DO have control over it – and you CAN make it better.

More importantly, if you know how to meet his needs in a variety of ways better than anyone else ever could – he would have no reason not to want to be with you for as long as possible!

Do not deny him sex regularly and do not use it as a commodity; do not ever use sex to specifically get what you want from him, if you want sex to be, for the long-term, a mutually enjoyable thing that you both share together.

Be honest and be generous.

When you do sleep with him, be real, be honest and be generous.

What do I mean by this? I mean understand him and learn why he wants sex. Don’t do it hoping it will be over soon. He knows this. He feels it. It is very hard on a man to be sleeping with a woman who wants it to be over, and treats his sexual needs as another “chore” to be done on the list. It’s important that you make time for him, and for the both of you to be together and to keep the passion alive and kicking.

Have high standards for yourself. Get fit, eat well. Also, just because you have had a child does not mean it’s ok to be overweight, depressed or “old” or no fun anymore. My lovely, as hard as it can be to look after so many things, and to have so many things on your mind, make it a habit to set your standards high.

If you want the great rewards and a fantastic loving husband who adores you, start by adoring him and understanding him. Understand that a man like his wife to look nice, not just for the sake of looking nice, BUT because he wants to know that his wife/girlfriend still CARES enough to bother making herself look nice for him. This goes regardless of age. Just because a woman is 60, does not mean she can’t look good anymore. It’s more about never getting “old” on the inside, which then affects the outside.

Men aren’t as terrible as so many women say. They are not “all the same”, and men are happy to be loyal and give to us and cherish a good woman who takes care of his needs and gives beyond herself. They are not always unreasonable creatures, there are compassionate, caring men around.

Hearts With Adeola Agoro

E-mail: libranadeola@yahoo.co.uk

Why do ladies think about marriage when they are destined to remain single till death?

Dear Aunty Adeola, I’m an ardent reader of your Hearts column in The Nation Newspapers. I like the way you handle peoples’ problems with the wisest advices one can learn from too. My question is: Why are ladies always thinking about marriage even when they are not yet ripe and prepared for it and even when it’s been destined that they will remain single till death? Please continue your nice work. - Kenny.

Dear Kenny, maybe if I’d have been shocked to my marrow if I wasn’t built to expect all sorts of questions, but as it were, I’m just amused at your question.

I wonder why you would think that some women are destined to be single for life.

You must have had some experiences and probably seen some horrible situations that made you arrive at this conclusion.

I know that some ladies (even some who are fortunately married) have no business with marriage. You see some women and the way they carry on and you wonder if they are human beings at all. Some are so rude you wonder if they came from another planet. Some are so lazy and dirty you could puke and some are so uncaring and unable to love that it is just honourable for them to remain single. In my time on earth, I’ve seen them all. I’ve seen those who would win in drinking competitions and I’ve seen those who think nothing of having more

than one man at a time. Okay, maybe those are some of the ones you’ve seen and you think some ladies are destined to remain single for life. No sir, you got it all wrong, I do not share your views on that. No woman is destined to remain single.

Why do women think of marriage even when they’re not ripe for it? I guess a lot of us grew up playing mummy-daddy stuff even before we knew what it was all about.

Most women also like being in love and being in romantic situations. I think it’s the whole female structure to want to belong to a man. The reason for wanting to belong may now vary from companionship to financial balance and child-bearing. It could also be for the simple reason of wearing a wedding band and being called Mrs. Whatever the reason, women like being married and till we die, we keep hoping to find that man who would make us complete. Have I answered you?

I’m tired, I’m trembling, I need prayers

As I type this, it’s just 10 am and I’m already tired and worn-out. I get up as early as 5 am everyday to say my prayers after which I organize the day by writing down what and what should go into each working hour. Usually, I don’t slow down until 5pm when I get to prepare something really nice for the family. Fatigue is hardly ever an issue until night time when my brain tells me to relax, rest and sleep. But my brain is sending wrong signals now and what I feel all over is tiredness.

Let me confess: I must have passed the wrong signals to my brain and it’s feeding me back with what I sent to it - TIREDNESS. Since I started preparing for the premiering on my film, Pencil ni Kadara, I’ve turned to jelly. The invitees have been going out since two

From you to me We find peace in those we love and we provide peace of mind to those who love us by our mere presence. Good day to you Adeola.

– From Suleiman (08055431874).

Lost Contacts

•My name is Michael. I’m 30 years old; are you married? Be joyful always – Thessalonians 5: 16.

(08152148587).

P.S: Dear Michael, yes, I am married.

In fact, happily so. Thanks for the Bible verse.

Hon. Tajudeen Yusuf where are you?

Hi Deola, kindly link me with Rep. Tajudeen Yusuf at the National Assembly. We lived in the same house for years and finished school together in Kabba in 1987. I will appreciate if you do this. – Your fan, Ojo Sunday Kintu, 08029531405.

•Aunty Deola, I’m happy to meet you. I saw you in the newspaper and I thank you for sharing your knowledge with people so that their dreams will not be shattered. I’ve been looking for the past copies of the newspaper to read more about the things you write and I will be happy if you could guide me on how

We started dating in Pry. 5, now he’s gone and I want him back Hi Adeola, my name is Oriyomi and I’m 20 years old. I met a guy when I was in primary 5, his name is Taoreed Oluogun. We were so close that people thought we were dating each other and when we got to secondary school, we continued our friendship. But one day, we had a quarrel that ended our friendship.

The problem now is that I’m still in love with him but we have lost contact with each other. I live in Abeokuta while he lives in Lagos.

How do I get him back?

Dear Oriyomi, I’m sure people didn’t think you were dating Taoreed when you were both just in primary 5. When a boy and a girl are fond of each other in their adolescent ages, no one uses the word ‘dating’. It is more of what the oyinbos will call puppy-love. Let me quickly give you the definition of the word dating because it seems a lot of people get it wrong, a boy could just be shagging a girl and she thinks and tells people that they are dating. Nope.

Dating is a form of courtship consisting of social activities done by two people with the aim of each assessing the other’s suitability as a partner in an intimate relationship or as a spouse.

While the term has several meanings, it usually refers to the act of meeting and engaging in some mutually agreed upon social activity in public, together, as a couple. The protocols and practices of dating, and the terms used to describe it, vary considerably from country to country. The most common idea is two people trying out a relationship and exploring whether they’re compatible by going out together in public as a couple, who may or may not yet be having sexual relations. This period of courtship is sometimes seen as a precursor to engagement or marriage.

Now Oriyomi, Taoheed like most guys

might have liked you a lot when you were both growing up, but it is always a totally different game when they grow up and leave an old environment for a new one. Sometimes, their tastes in women change. He might have liked a normal, simple girl in the neighborhood then, but now, maybe it’s all those girls with foundation and pressed powder he likes. With network sites like Facebook et all, guys now have many avenues of meeting interesting girls and you may

weeks ago but I can’t help but have trepidations about the day. I just keep hoping that it turns out well.

The D-day is June 12 at Niccon Luxury, Abuja, so we have just a few days to go. I wish I could just close my eyes and fast forward to the day and see it emerge as one of the best days of my life. But since God does not do fast forward with fixed dates, I can only count hopefully with trembling. Now, that is why and where I need your prayers. Please join me in prayers. I need it.

If you want to be a part of the day and you live in Abuja where it is taking place, please call me for your ticket on: 08067119991. Thanks for your support. Thanks for your prayers.

just belong to his past.

Having said that, Taoheed may also be looking for you, hence the need for me to publish your full names. I usually abbreviate names to protect the privacy of my fans. Let’s hope he calls me for your telephone number. I didn’t publish that in case there are fraudulent people out there who may call you to deceive you to send recharge cards in order to help you. I’m hoping along with you that he calls. Good luck.

to get it. Continue to grow in the wisdom of God. It is well with you and your family, amen. – IniOluwa (08159529452).

P.S: Dear IniOluwa, thanks for your SMS. The book, Hearts with Adeola Agoro (foreword by Sen. Oluremi Tinubu, OON) will answer all your questions. It has a lot of some of the things we have published here in the past. Please call to buy copies.

Dear Aunty Adeola Agoro, I read your piece on Whitney Houston where you said may her soul continue to sing! I’m a fan of the late Whitney, may her soul rest in peace.

Good things do not last. My regards to those she left behind. – Fab (08165212710).

•I’m a regular reader of your educative column every Saturday in The Nation newspaper. Kindly send me the address where I can buy the drug, L-Arginine for weak erection.

Thank you.

P.S: L-Arginine is marketed in the US but they have distributors in the UK where I first saw it. You may buy online or request through me. Please make your requests through email. Cheers!

•I have been reading your column and I love it. Please can you be the patroness of our club; United Sisters Association? Please don’t turn me down (08165227846).

P.S: I will be the patroness of your club if the club dignifies womanhood, supports respect for children, the male folk and religious tolerance.

From Left: Patron Clepact Mission Organization Corps, Pastor Abraham Gatto; Disciple Ayodeji Ogunmuyiwa; Prophetess Kikelomo Afolabi and Elder Bayode Leke at the first graduation ceremony of Clepact Missions Organization Corps held at Adamawa area Ibadan.

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I

wanted to confront my par ents about what I had heard but Tina advised against it.

“It will only worsen the situation. The sensible thing is wait until Zahra gets better then we will take things from there,” she said.

For the next few weeks, I focused on taking care of Zahra. Her health improved rapidly and with time the doctor in charge of her case told me she could be taken home to recuperate.

“She still needs lots of rest and should avoid lifting heavy objects with the injured hand.”

Since she couldn’t go to her father’s house or Tina’s place for that matter for security reasons, I had to get a more secured place for her to stay.

With the help of an estate agent, I was able to get an apartment in a secluded part of town. That was where I took her upon her discharge from the hospital.

“Whose house is this?” she asked on our arrival, as she went round inspecting the apartment.

“Don’t worry your pretty head about that. Just relax and take it easy. Doctor’s orders!”

I stated, wagging a finger at her.

To keep her company, I later brought Mummy and the baby, Michael and they all settled down in the house.

They had been there for nearly a month when I began plans to leave the country. I had been toying with the idea for sometime but a conversation I had with David some weeks earlier helped me make up my mind.

He had called from his base abroad and we had spoken for a long time. When I told him what had happened to Zahra, he had exclaimed: “That’s terrible! What did she do to deserve that?”

Later he had added: “You need to take her away from that crazy country if you don’t want to lose her. Why don’t you come back, Archie? Our friends here all miss you.”

Once I had decided on moving abroad, I began making plans in earnest. I planned everything quietly so my parents would not know what I was up to. I needed to, as there was something I wanted to do before leaving the country for good that would have caused more problems if they found out.

“Marry?” Zahra said, looking surprised when I told her we should get married before travelling out. We were sitting on the verandah of the apartment, taking in the cool,

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012 evening breeze.

I nodded.

“I want us to get married before leaving the country.

Or don’t you want to marry me?” I asked her when I noticed her reaction.

“It’s not that. It’s just that it’s so sudden. I wasn’t expecting it, at least not now...”

She stopped then continued: “But Archie, don’t you think we should wait a little?”

“Why? Wait for what?”

“At least until the issue with your parents is resolved. What do you think they will say or do when they find out that we got married?”

“I don’t care what they say. It’s you I care about,” I stated firmly.

“I know. The thing is, I don’t want to be a source of conflict between you and your parents. So, I think the matter with them should be sorted out before we can do any other thing.”

I did not agree with her and this led to a disagreement between us, the first major one since our relationship began.

“Knowing my parents, it won’t be as easy as you think,” I said, trying to reason with her. “And I don’t want to take chances with your safety. That’s the reason I want us to leave the country. And I want us to go as a married couple.”

“I still believe we should wait,” she insisted.

“You know what, Zahra, I think your problem is that you are not interested.

Maybe you don’t love me enough to want to marry me,” I said, with a deep frown on my face.

She came over to where I sat, kneeling by my chair.

“How can you say that, Archie,” she cried. “I love you. You’ve brought so much joy into my life. You’ve given me a reason to live again after what happened to me. If things were different, I would have married you tomorrow if that’s your wish.

But you know our situation is not normal so we need to be careful when taking any decision.”

I lifted her from the floor and made her sit on my lap.

“I understand that, Zahra.

But I want you to trust me on this. Whatever I’m doing is for our own good, for our future together as a couple.

So, don’t worry. The matter with my parents will be

Zahra stole my heart but my parents want her dead (4) taken care of later. For now, let’s focus on ourselves, on what will make us happy. And nothing will make me happier than for you to be my wife. I hope that’s ok with you.”

She gazed at me keenly for a while then nodded and smiled. She held my face in her hands and kissed me. I could never resist her smile or her caresses, so I softened and kissed her back.

Later, after we had settled the matter, she said: “Aren’t you forgetting something, darling?”

“What’s that?” I asked.

For answer, she showed me her left hand, wriggling her fingers in my face.

“You are supposed to put something on my finger. Or are you so stingy, you can’t afford to buy me an engagement ring,” she said teasingly.

I laughed and said: “Sorry, sweetheart. I’ve been so preoccupied with our travel arrangements that I for-

•Workers sponsored by Ibru Organisation, Lagos, clearing the drainages along ApapaOshodi Expressway, Lagos, to forestall flooding

got. I promise to get you the most beautiful ring I can find.

Trust me.”

Leaving Naija Shortly after, Zahra and I got married. It was a simple ceremony at a registry in town with Tina and Matthew, a close friend of mine who also worked in my company, as witnesses. I didn’t inform my parents because I knew they would have done all in their power to prevent it. We deferred our honeymoon, intending to take it when we had travelled out of country.

After the ceremony, I did not return home but stayed with my new wife at the apartment for a few days.

Back at my parents’ home, my mum wanted to know where I had been all the time.

I told her I had been with a friend.

Perhaps, suspecting something, she looked at me keenly for a while then asked: “And what friend is that?”

“Nobody you know, mum,” was my reply. I headed for the staircase on the way to my room when her next words stopped me in my tracks.

“Are you still seeing that girl?” she asked.

I turned round to face her.

I knew it was Zahra she was referring to but pretended as if I didn’t know.

“Who, mum?” I queried.

“Oh! Come off it, Archie!

You know quite well whom I meant. Zahra. Whatever it is that you have with her must stop. She’s not the one for you.”

“And who do you suppose is the right one for me?” I asked.

“Someone we will be proud to have as a daughterin-law and not one that’s no better than a street girl,” said my father, who had quietly entered the living-room from the verandah.

I greeted him and not wishing to be drawn into an argument with both of them, was

about to proceed to my room when he called me back.

“Look, Archie,” he said, “We are your parents and want the best for you. So, listen to your mother. Leave that girl and go for someone better.”

“That’s where both of you have got it wrong. This girl that you despise so much has brought so much joy into my life. She makes me happy.

And as parents, you should be happy that I’ve found someone that does that. So, the best thing you can do for me is to leave us alone,” I stated quietly.

They exchanged glances then my mum said: “That can’t happen. As long as you are still our son and you live under our roof, you will have to do as we want.”

I smiled a little.

“Mum, I’m a grown man.

Old enough to make my own choices in life.”

“Not when it’s such a bad choice,” my father said in an angry tone.

“Good or bad, the choice is mine. Besides, what more can you both do after your thugs beat her up and nearly killed her the last time?”

“Whatever we did, it was for your own good, to protect your interest as our son and heir,” said my dad. He paused then added: “You might have to consider carefully what we are asking you to do. You will have to leave her or your inheritance can be jeopardised.” It was a subtle threat, designed to make me fall into line.

I was not moved by his words. My father was a very wealthy man and I stood to inherit most of his wealth in the future. But I was ready to turn my back on it all for the sake of my freedom. I was getting increasingly tired of their domineering ways and the manner in which they always sought to control every

aspect of my life.

I had confidence in myself and my ability to make my own way in life. With Zahra, I was ready to start a new life, to be my own man.

But I kept all these thoughts to myself and simply told my dad that I would not succumb to his blackmail.

“You can keep your money. It means nothing to me,” I said, indifferently.

“What is wrong with you, Archie?” my mum shouted then. “You are acting like a fool. And all because of a lady!

You must be under a spell or something. You need to wake up! You hear me? And come back to your senses,” she stated, clapping her hands in my face.

I left them then and went quickly upstairs to my room.

The following week, Zahra and I left the country without my parents’ knowledge. We stopped over at a neighbouring country for our honeymoon which we couldn’t take while in Nigeria. We planned to stay here for a few weeks but we’ve been enjoying the place so much, we’ve decided to stay longer before moving on to Europe where we planned to settle down. Zahra left the baby with Mummy but we hoped to send for him later when he was older.

It was while there that I learnt about my dad’s illness.

Then, a few days ago, Tina sent me another mail, informing me that he wanted to see me and was even ready to accept my relationship with Zahra.

When I discussed the issue with her, she advised that I should go home: “Whatever has happened, he’s still your father. He needs you now. Perhaps, this will be an opportunity for you to settle your differences with him and your mum. You go and I will wait for you here.

Please, do this for me, sweetheart,” she said, placing her head on my chest.

Right now, I’m in two minds about the matter. On one hand, I want to be with my father at his hour of need but when I remember all that he and my mum did to my wife, my heart hardens against him. What do you think I should do?

Concluded Names have been changed to protect the narrator’s identity.

Send suggestions/comments/advice to 08023201831(sms only) or email-psaduwa@yahoo.com

&

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THE NATION, Saturday, JUNE 02, 2012

STYLE Gossip Interviews

SEE PAGES 44 & 45

A bond I shared with my mum

-Osun governor’s SA Ayodele Owoade

41

42

THE NATION SATURDAY, JUNE 02, 2012

With KAYODE ALFRED E-mail:kayflex2@yahoo.com

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Oleku concert Neneth Shonubi draws out celebrities turns 45

M

ay 27, 2012 is a day that will linger in the minds of many in the high society. Not because it is the day set aside to celebrate children, but because it was the day two legends of our time came together to thrill an audience.

In the Oleku Concert, which took place at the Harbour Point Event Centre on Wilmot Road, Victoria Island, Lagos, Otunba Deji Osibogun brilliantly brought Evangelist (Chief Commander) Ebenezer Obey Fabiyi & the mercurial king of world beats, King Sunny Ade, together on one stage to perform together for the first time in 35 years.

Weeks before the date, the epoch-making event had set the social scene in a festive mood. It was as if Christmas had come, and everyone involved was as busy as a bee, to make sure there were no hitches.

For the younger generation who had not experienced this sort of treat, it was an eye opener. The rich blend of tunes from the two experienced crooners was something that graced the ear.

The music legends must have met the expectations of many and exceeded those of a few others. Many who wondered what the hype concerning the event was all about were soon to realise that it was no fluke. It was a profuse supply of fun and excitement that reminded many of the good old days.

For many who had thought that a thing like that would never happen in their time, it was a pleasant surprise. Commander Ebenezer Obey gave a solid performance and King Sunny Ade displayed, in his dance steps, an agility that could not be reconciled with his advanced years.

His Royal Majesty, The Olugbo of Ugboland, Ondo State, Oba Obateru Akinruntan, and his

wife did not only grace the event, they participated actively in the celebration of an era. They were accompanied by Prince Femi Akinruntan and about 10 of Ugboland's high chiefs. They supported the event with cash prizes while Femi also gave the sum of N500,000.

Also in attendance were the National Leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; his wife, Senator Remi Tinubu; the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN and his wife, Dame Abimbola Fashola; the National Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; Ekiti State's Deputy Governor, Mrs. Olufunmilola Adunni Olayinka; Lagos State's Deputy Governor, Hon. Adejoke Adefulire; Alhaji Arisekola Alao; Alhaji Mufutau Olanihun; Akogun Lekan Alabi and ACN's vice-presidential candidate during the last general elections, Mr. Fola Adeola.

Others included former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel; Otunba Alex Onabanjo; DSTV Chairman, Dewunmi Ogunsanya; Dr. Bolu Akin-Olugbade, who is believed to have the highest collection of Rolls Royce vehicles in Nigeria at the moment; MD/CEO, SEAGLE Properties, Yemi Lawal and his wife; Dapo Davies Nnadi; Deola Kazeem and Aremo Segun Oniru, the Commissioner for Waterfront in Lagos State.

Also at the occasion were Hakeem MuriOkunola; Demola Seriki; Shade Kazeem; Deola Kamson; Yinka Osobu; Yomi BadejoOkusanya; Bashorun Dele Momodu; Funmilola Jolaoso; Bolanle Ayeni; Foluso Domingo; Bolade Jegede;Teju Daranijo; Sakiru Oyefeso; Remi Lagos; Mako Alabi; Bola Alabi and Biola Alabi, MD MNET, and many others.

N

eneth Shonubi, Belgian/Congolese-born wife of Gaso Furniture boss, Ganiu Shonubi, is planning a mega celebration of her 45th birthday. Many would remember her socialite husband as a soft-spoken businessman who shuttles between Belgium and Nigeria for his business concerns.

The Ijebu-born businessman, who through hard work and perseverance took his company to the fore in furniture business in Nigeria, is joining his wife to plan a mega celebration. Known for his generous and simple lifestyle, the amiable gentleman fondly called Gaso is one of the biggest furniture manufacturers in the South West.

Interestingly, before he made a name for himself, the Ibadan-based businessman had worked as a garage cleaner in Belgium, from where he was able to build his enviable business empire.

For his wife's 45th birthday party, he is pulling all the strings to ensure that she gets the best. His most recent business move was the building of his event auditorium, Casa Lucio Event Centre in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Moji Akinwumi in new life

A

Mike Adenuga rescues Bunmi Oni

C

hief Bunmi Oni, the former CEO of Cadbury (Nigeria), is back in the news. His exit from the beverage-making company in 2006 was occasioned by an avalanche of allegations of wrongdoing. He was sacked by the company's board over his alleged role in the falsification of the company's financial statements. Also sacked at the time was Cadbury's Finance Director, Ayo Akadiri.

Having served Cadbury for close to 30 years, Oni's sudden removal was bound to come as a shock to many.

He had all along been held up as an exemplary man.

Many were quick to salute his exemplary leadership, not only in Cadbury, but also in the larger society.

Now a silver lining seems to be appearing in the cloud that has since covered him. It was recently gathered that Oni, a top shot in the business sector, has resumed work at Globacom in the wake of the former COO, Jameel Mohammed's long absence from duty.

Things are certainly looking up for him and many believe his appointment by Dr. Mike Adenuga is a move intended not only to bring him back into reckoning but also to use his managerial skills to launch the telecommunications company into the leadership of telecommunication business in Nigeria.

fter a spell of hibernation, Moji, the former wife of Gbenga Obasanjo, has gained a new lease of life.

Confidence, charisma, charm and grace are the new attributes of the former daughter-inlaw of a former number one citizen of Nigeria, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo.

Many would remember her ill-fated marriage to the Obasanjo scion. The allegation of infidelity levelled against her by her exhusband threatened to crumble her self-pride and she retreated deep into her shell.

Gbenga had accused Moji of sleeping with his own father and the marriage naturally crumbled. With an affidavit sworn by Gbenga in the law court to that effect, no one thought it necessary to hear Moji's side of the story.

Many cast aspersions on her and otherwise well put together life began to fall apart at the seams.

The marriage crashed irretrievably and the two parties went their separate ways. After many years in the valley of life, things are looking up for Moji again. She has remarried and moved on with her life and the debacle of the past seems to have been thrown into the dustbin of history.

We hear that Moji and her new husband would soon be moving from their Ikoyi abode to a palatial edifice on highbrow Banana Island, Lagos, where a piece of land goes for hundreds of millions.

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THE NATION SATURDAY, JUNE 02, 2012

Rosemary Osula off social radar

Yosola Kuku still on the ride

Kevin Luciano goes AWOL

The return of Scott Tommey

N

umbered among the most courted top spinsters in Lagos, Yosola Kuku has regained her steam, put the ugly experiences of the past behind her.

With a background of affluence, Yosola ranks among the ladies who call the shots on the social scene in Nigeria.

Daughter of Chief Bewaji Kuku, Yosola was previously attached to fellow silver spoon kid, Niyi Makanjuola of Caverton Helicopters fame. Their relationship, which crashed like a pack of badly stacked cards, was the talk of town for a long time. Niyi is currently married to Moyo Makanjuola and they are expecting a baby.

After her time off the social arena, Yosola is back to take her rightful place.

Easily one of the most sought after singles, she has been in the limelight long enough to be able to hold her own, especially since her mother is one of the matriarchs of high society.

Not only has she resumed her party rounds, there are talks of a new lover hovering around her. Yosola now goes about with a new zeal and zest, and every obstacle in her way is clearing out fast.

F

ounder and CEO of Questionmark Records, Kevin Luciano-Gabriel, is currently off the social radar. It seems he has, like many others, abandoned the social firmament.

Many would remember the ghastly auto accident that threatened to take his life many months back. He was said to have been on his way to his residence on Gana Street, Maitama in Abuja in company with four of his friends when the accident occurred.

It has been months now and nothing has been heard of the handsome dude. Tall, fair and dashing, Luciano is a ladies' man.

At a time, his record label signed Asa and business was very good.

Things later went awry and Asa dropped Luciano's Question Mark like a bad habit.

Recently, the singer sued Kevin Luciano over what she tagged an infringement on her intellectual property.

In all this, society watchers have been unable to catch a glimpse of Luciano as he seems to have gone AWOL. His regular hangouts and relaxation spots have been without his presence as the charming dude takes the back seat.

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TEL:08035733605

Obaro Ibru braves the odds

I

n spite of the seriousness with which he pursues his career, Obaro Ibru, the dandy of the Ibru business dynasty, reserves some care for elegance. At any occasion he chooses to grace, his sartorial sagacity comes to the fore.

But more notably, the most stylish man in the era of St. Moritz Award carries himself so well. Although things are no longer what they used to be since his mum left Oceanic Bank and was jailed after the trial, Obaro has been taking things easy on the social radar. No longer for him are the days of wild partying with the real big boys and silver spoon kids.

Currently the DMD of Aero Contractors, a business also owned by the Ibru clan, the charming dude seems to have found a fresh approach to life after the calamities that have befallen the family in recent times.

Ademola Adekogbe's house for sale

I

f the late Ijebu socialite, Prince Ademola Adekogbe, should look down from heaven, a feeling of disappointment will most likely rule his mind as his house is said to have been put on sale.

Renowned for his gentle mien and benevolent disposition, Ademola treated all classes of men with respect. His house had been a Mecca of sorts as friends, the needy as well as gold diggers, fair-weather friends swarmed around him like the bee does the nectar of a flower.

His sudden surrender to cardiac arrest at his Ijebu mansion came as a shock to all. The household of the late Ademola Adekogbe was thrown into deep mourning as they had lost an irreplaceable gem. Ademola was a perfect example of a jolly good fellow.

He was a friend to the lowly and the mighty and everyone benefited from his deep pocket.

Many who attended his funeral promised the family he left behind heaven and earth, leaving everyone to believe that all would be well with the family he left behind. But years after Ademola passed on, the mighty pledges are yet to be fulfilled. The family has resorted to selling the large estate he committed his life to building.

The mansion located in Ijebuland was put in the market for N200 million some months back. But the news reaching Happenstances now is that the family has become really desperate and has reduced the price to N120 million to facilitate quick purchase.

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THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

‘Whenever I did anything for my mum, something good would happen to me within a week’ Dr. Ayodele Owoade was for many years lecturer in foreign universities before he was invited to serve as a Special Adviser on Land, Physical Planning and Urban Development to the Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregesola. In this interview with GBENGA ADERANTI, the former member of the PRONACO in London, and ex-ACN chairman in the UK talks about his experience as an activist, his relationship with Aregbesola and efforts being made to transform Osun State

Y

OU said you spent about 32 years in the UK. At what age did you leave Nigeria?

I had finished my university at that time and I left Nigeria. When I say long time, I was on and off.

My first time out of Nigeria was in 1979, to do some conferences.

Then I went back in 1986 to do my Masters. I came back and went back again. I was lucky to be awarded Commonwealth scholarships for Master’s and PhD. My Master’s degree was done with an Oyo State scholarship. I came back briefly in 1989/1990, then the Abacha/Babangida thing was too hot for everybody, I went back again.

By and large, I’ve been away from the country since 1982. I was lucky to teach in a few universities outside Nigeria. I was a senior lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe. I left in 1996. I returned to the UK with my family.

It had been a long time out of the country. Every time, my mind was always at home. When the opportunity came to come and serve in the government of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, it was warmly embraced. I took the opportunity with both hands. I’m determined to contribute my quota to making this administration a success. The Ogbeni himself is committed to the state; 150 per cent committed to the state. And those of us working with him have been infected with his vision, his enthusiasm, his passion and his aggression.

Everything about Ogbeni, if you have to work with him, is infectious. He wants this state to be the envy of the world. He wants this state to be an example of what black men could do. He is impatient and he wouldn’t accept for one second that black is an inferior concept. And like I said, I’m happy to have an opportunity to work with him. His vision is clear cut. He wants to transform Osun State socially, economically and politically. He wants to transform the whole state such that we would be the reference point of what black people could do. He may seem to be that he is taking on a lot because what we have in the offing, when translated into money, when cost runs into hundreds of billions.

But he is so gifted. The financial planning has been thorough. Only two days ago, the dualisation of Osogbo to Ikirun to Okuku to Oyo State border was signed. N17.5 billion worth of contract and the financing was crafty. When he told us in the cabinet how it was done, our jaws just dropped. We asked

him how he did it. We were not surprised. He is an osomalo man. Osomalo are known to get the best from economic arrangements. He is a man of the masses. I was to recommend a rate for a particular scheme which the masses had to pay for, and I recommended N500 per unit of that thing.

When I gave Ogbeni my recommendation, he said this is too much. He slashed it to N100. N500 was okay. It was the economic rate. But he said, ‘Don’t you know you are in Osun State? My people are not empowered yet. Don’t take this money from them.’ So, what else do you expect from a leader? He is a wonderful person.

What were your good and bad moments in the UK? I will not want to give my people the wrong impression of the UK. It is 24/7 struggle. If anybody comes here to tell you the good sides of the United Kingdom or anywhere abroad, they would be lying. What we call a good side is that electricity is steady, water is steady, and the roads are clean. But you don’t go there because of those things. I went there to study. I used a United Kingdom scholarship. But apart from that, my mind was at home every time, and I was forever looking for an opportunity to come back home until one came.

I was on the Osun State Broadcasting Corporation (OSBC) programme a couple of weeks ago. I was to talk on emigration.

People who want to go out at all cost. I will just advise you to slug it out here. This is not the right time to go because of the economic meltdown, I’m not an economist. But I can say that for the next five years, it will not be good out there for immigrants especially. It is terrible for indigenes. But for immigrants, it is a very, very bad and unfriendly place to go now. The jobs are not there. When I went there, I didn’t have any cause to look for any job because the scholarship paid for everything to take my family over there. But I could hear and see what was going on.

Some people would go to the UK without papers. You go underground there and you will remain underground. Somebody who has to spend 14 years underground, what is left in it? By the time you get your stay, you are too old. So, it has always been tough. But it is now tougher because of the economic meltdown. My wife is still there. You know, normally in those days, public holiday was double pay. She said they got a letter that if you want to work during public holiday, you are welcome, but it is normal rate. And in some companies, they are actually reducing working hours.

If you are working for 40 hours, they will tell you that look, you have to work for 20 hours. If you lose that out of your pay, what do you do?

It is extremely tough, and the era of people working to pay their way through education is gone because the education itself is expensive.

An average tuition is 10,000 pounds. You still have to live and feed yourself. And the era of my brother taking care of me or giving me one room to live is gone, because by the time you arrive in my house and I feed you for one week, I will ask you, ‘Mr man, go and sort yourself out.’ Everybody is hard up. You cannot bring your own problem to add to another person’s.

My advice is that if anybody has the opportunity, he should stay here. My short time here, I noticed that if people can apply them-

selves, the opportunities are more in Nigeria. That is the advice. I didn’t have problems when I was there because I already had the right scholarship. And when I left the UK, I went to Zimbabwe. I was properly employed in the university. I was teaching in the University of Zimbabwe and rose to become a senior lecturer before I left.

So, it was okay. I went back to the UK and started my own business.

When you get to a certain level, you are able to resist the challenges more. By that time, we had our own home, the economy wasn’t that bad, and we could withstand the economic challenge better. We even started a restaurant, which worked well until the worldwide economic meltdown. So, I enjoyed my time there, but I’m not going back, I’m back home for good, because this is really where one’s

skill and education could be put to the best use. Home is best.

Tell me about your growing up I grew up in Ikire in the Irewole Local Government Area of Osun State. I’m the eldest child of my mum. We were five. I grew up in a polygamous home with brothers and sisters. My early education was in Ikire, St John’s Anglican Grammar School. From there, I went to St Charles’ Grammar School, Osogbo, Osun State. I left St Charles’ in 1971. I was one of the few lucky students there who spent four years. We had what they called double promotion in year one. Based on the strength of our first term examination, we were promoted to year two. Only a few of us, about 20 of us. I was lucky to be one of them. I spent four years in St Charles. I graduated in 1971, worked briefly and went to the

•Owoade

University of Ibadan.

I left the University of Ibadan in 1977. I got BSc in Geology. The only difference between then and now is that even while at UI, I got two jobs before I left the university in 1977. I got jobs at Geology Surveying and one oil company. But now, people don’t get a job 20 years after leaving the university. It is one of the worrisome parts of our life in Nigeria. But it needn’t be that way. We’ve lacked the proper leadership to guide against this.

Nigeria has enough resources. We have enough resources to cater for everybody; oil apart. Before oil came, we lived. We were all there when the Western Region was leading the way. But it is not there anymore.

I left the University of Ibadan in 1977, did the usual youth service.

I think I was in the third set, I did

45

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012 my NYSC in Cross River State. I got Oyo State scholarship to go and do my Master’s in Environmental Health Engineering, and then I also got a Commonwealth scholarship in 1986 to do my PhD in Water Resources. That was my growing up.

How active were you in the university?

I was the Information Director of Zik Hall at the University of Ibadan. That portfolio was the loudest in the university. It was exciting. In terms of the community involvement, in the UK, I was the president of Osun State Union between 2000 and 2003. I was the President of the Osun State for four years. I can’t remember the date; I was the chairman of a body called the Nigerian Community Forum. This was a body set out to defend Nigerians in the UK, because Nigerians were the object of serious media bashing. Virtually every newspaper had something negative about Nigeria and Nigerians. The Financial Times of London wrote a particular nasty piece about us. Somebody contacted me that we shouldn’t just fold our arms, I think it was in March 2003.

I read the piece. It said basically that they should not employ Nigerians in the financial sector, in banking and so on.

According to the write-up, Nigerians in the financial sector were planted by outside scammers to feed bank details of customers. If they wrote something like that against your own people and sometimes you know that lie, if told repeatedly, will become like the truth. I took up the challenge, called some Nigerians in the UK together and we mounted a campaign against this type of bashing.

Luckily, we got a good result. The Financial Times apologised to us. I still have the letter they wrote.

Press Complaint Commission, which we took the matter to, also ordered them to write a retraction.

We also mounted a serious campaign on our own because we had a newspaper then in the UK which we used to counter that.

That campaign metamorphosed into an association, the Nigerian British Forum. It is still active. Some other people are leading that now.

My own mission was achieved.

From that experience, I went to start a newspaper. It was called Yoruba Post, based in London. We published for three and a half years. It was more to address the political issues of Yorubaland, because it was no point for a Yoruba man to criticise the Bauchi State Government. If we are in true federalism, we can do it well and live within our own enclave. The mission of the Yoruba Post was to insist that the nation of Yoruba got it right. And we believed that if we got it right, naturally, the other parts of Nigeria would borrow a leaf. And by getting it right, within us, we’re helping Nigeria.

It happened before. The achievements of Western Region under Chief Awolowo informed the achievements of the Northern Region and the Eastern Region. University of Nsukka would not have come about if Ife and Ibadan were not there. Ahmadu Bello University wouldn’t have come about.

They wouldn’t have had any TV station. So many things that were achieved here led to them also thinking to do it. Development in the Western Nigeria had always been to the benefit of the whole country. The newspaper was focused on that. We were very critical of the Yoruba leadership at that time. The likes of Obasanjo and co, we put them on their toes. That time, Obasanjo said he was the president of the whole Nigeria; we told him that look, you became president of Nigeria because you came from a part of Nigeria. You

had a home base and you’re representing a slot. Once you leave, another Yoruba fellow will not have another chance for 40 years, which is going to happen.

We had to fold up because the operation was becoming unsustainable. If I had another opportunity to start a newspaper, I will be better prepared this time. Newspapers are not for profit, they are for service. We could define the objective properly, and we will take it forward.

You have told me some things that many people would not want to talk about. Where did you get your boldness from?

I grew up in Ikire, Osun State with my parents. The kind of thing that they instilled in me was that once you are doing something good, there is nothing to fear. It is only a bad person that thinks twice. Even if you ask a bad person, ‘what is your name?’ he will say let me think about it. I’ve tried to concentrate on what I believe is right. Our life in Nigeria requires that you face challenges with boldness. Otherwise, the people you want to take on will just be getting away with everything they do.

I joined politics late. When I joined, we were trying to influence people in other ways; carry placards, go and do d e m o n stration. But in Nigeria context, nobody listens. I just sat down

•Owoade

lf you want to touch people’s lives, go and join politics.

A professor, in terms of influencing the community, has less impact than a ward chairman, and the ward chairman could be a primary six certificate holder. But he is in the right engagement. I don’t blame politicians for not listening. I’m a politician myself. All politicians have ideas on how to do what and said, ‘lf you want to touch people’s lives, go and join politics.

A professor, in terms of influencing the community, has less impact than a ward chairman, and the ward chairman could be a primary six certificate holder. But he is in the right engagement. I don’t blame politicians for not listening.

I’m a politician myself. All politicians have ideas on how to do what. If it is to construct a road, to build a market, a politician has an idea on how to build lock-up shops and somebody outside of that scheme wants to tutor you how to do it. The tendency is to tell them, ‘If you know how better to do it, come and face what I’m facing.” I will want to challenge everybody out there. We may not all be in politics, people that think they care about society, they must have some form of political involvement. I will invite people to take the plunge.

There is nothing risky in politics. Everybody should devote as much time as they can to it. It is better to put your idea on the table than to shout across the road.

Since I joined politics, a lot of things we were shouting about and were not getting results, I could see that it is a lot easier to get results. But by being in politics, you will say, Oga, this is the way these things should go; have a look, and they will have a look. At least your consideration will be part of the consideration. That is what politics is all about.

Your outfit looks unique.

I s

that the way you dress every time?

I’m a Yoruba man. In the UK, for work, I wear suit and tie. But all my time in the United Kingdom, people could attest to it, every function, I went in my Yoruba dress. In fact, this simple one is being copied from Ogbeni. I used to do complete agbada and I also happened to be a chief of Ikire. I‘m the Babalaje of Ikireland. I was installed in 2008. I take that as small recognition from my community. It is nice.

I’ve enjoyed my time in politics.

Who designs what you wear?

I don’t really have a particular one. But if you know of any, I can’t pay too much for sewing. I have my small tailor in Osogbo.

Your cap is like a signature?

My cap is a signature. All my caps are like this. This is the design. Anybody who knows my surname would easily make a meaning of my cap. Owoade, the circle says it all, the line says it all.

A signature is just what you want to identify yourself with. It is like a trade mark. So, when people see me with a circle and adjoining line, it is Owoade. I copied this from our leader, Asiwaju (Bola Ahmed Tinubu). He started with infinity symbol, which has become his trade mark.

How close were you to your mother when she was alive?

I lost my mother on February 1 this year. Having lost my dad in 1983, I was very close to my mother because she played a very significant role in my days at the University of Ibadan. I remember very well a day I needed N40. I was in the university and I came home. She was doing akara. By the standard then, she was fairly successful. I went to my dad. He was also very caring. My dad couldn’t give me the money. When I went to my mum, I don’t know, all her sales for the day, she just packed everything and gave it to me.

I had a very close bond with my mum. I’m still missing her. She was advanced in years. She was close to 80. But no matter how old, no one wants to lose their parents. One thing I would miss, which I never told anybody, whenever I did anything for my mum when she was alive, within a week or days, something good will happen to me. It gave me joy to look after her. Fortunately, I had come back to Nigeria before she died, it would have been painful if I was abroad. I‘m an orphan now.

You don’t have your family here. As a successful man, you are bound to attract women. How do you cope with that?

I am a Muslim. Women are not problems for me. I’m just focused on what I have to do. Every other thing is just aside as far as I am concerned. I’m not a saint. It is not an issue.

I have been married to my wife for the past 22 years. My wife is more than five women in terms of value.

How did you meet the governor?

When I left the UK in 2010, I came home because I wanted to contest the senatorial seat for Osun West. So, a political leader of mine said you wanted to contest in Osun West; that is Rauf’s area. And he said, ‘Have you met Rauf?’ I said no, I’ve not met him. This political

leader of mine and a friend of Rauf phoned him, and I went to see him that night. When I told him that I wanted to contest the Senate seat, he just laughed. He was so blunt and said: ‘I wouldn’t want you to waste your time and money.’ I asked why. He said he was committed. I was not happy that he didn’t urge me on. He told me that he contested with some people in 2010 and they were all cheated.

The governors were cheated.

Senatorial aspirants were cheated.

Every ACN candidate was cheated. He said those that were cheated along with him were his priorities.

When I heard his reason, it just struck me that he is a leader that will fight for you when you are not there. He made another pledge: all you have to do is to go back to your constituency, go and start building the party. And he promised that if he won, I would not be left out. And I was surprised that in August last year, it was on the morning of the inauguration that I got the text. I was in London. I came back the following day.

Rauf is a leader that his followers would want to die for if need be. He has really created that aura about himself and you will see the people around him, whatever he says we should do, we do because we know he has his reasons and he will not lead you astray. And he will not disappoint you if he says he is going to do something.

He doesn’t forget anything and I have never seen a leader with so much knowledge in my life. He knows so much about so many things, religion, science, technology, agriculture, horoscope, astrology, he knows everything.

I have learnt a lot by working for him and with him. He is fantastic.

After his tenure, so many good things would become culture in terms of behaviour, in term of people exposure. It would be part of us such that nobody will come and mess us up in Osun State.

After this, what next ?

For me, well, one step at a time.

I’m in politics, I won’t deny the fact that I’m ambitious. I would love to go on further engagement. Everything is in God’s hand. I just want to devote my energy to serve people. I really want to do my beat so that at the end of the day, we achieve a lot together. As long as I remain healthy and alive, I will still be part of the political process in my state and hopefully in Nigeria, but my focus now is the assignment I’ ve got to do. The party I belong to has a culture and we have leaders that guide our thoughts.

Do you still consider yourself a man on the side of the masses now?

We’ve been there for the masses.

Hopefully, there will still be a lot of opportunities to serve the masses. But I am on the side of the masses because the people of Nigeria are not getting service. This is not what governance should be like. I have had the privilege of living abroad. I’ve been abroad for some years. I have experienced good governance at the ordinary man’s level. In the ordinary man’s level of governance, there is water, there is electricity and there is security. Once you give them these, they have got governance.

46

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 02, 2012

Go for a fringe F

OR fashionistas in 2012, hair is all about revival and evolution. With styles and colours, we are seeing the best of 2011 reborn, whereas cuts are offering the reworked and luxurious revivals of styles that sit perfectly with the year’s clothing trends.

Make an instant style statement with a fringe. But will you go for blunt-cut bangs, side-swept locks or a peek-a-boo fringe? Take your pick from these model styles.

This model looks gorgeous with an eyeskimming full fringe. •Models

She gives us a lesson in how to work a blunt fringe, opting for a sleek, weavy hairstyle.

47

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 02, 2012

Classic chifffon Bodunrin ADETORO

T

HERE is no exact definition of good fashion sense.

What is fashionable to one may not be so to another person. Are you thinking of what to wear for your next outing? Chiffon dress in different designs and colours would make an ideal outfit for a daytime event.

All you need is a simple classic bag and shoes to add extra elegance to this outfit.

Every woman needs one reliable chiffon blouse or dress she can slip on and feel super fabulous wearing. For longer dress shelf life, look for details and silhouettes that are a mix of the classic and trendy like embellished necklines and retro-inspired colour-mixing.

•Chiffon Cap Sleeve Ruffle Dress •Black Tie Neck Chiffon Blouse With Gathered Waist

•Model

•Mariam Alaari •Khaki Floral Cropped Chiffon Blouse

•Dotted chiffon blouse

S

Sleek Studio holds seminar

LEEK Studio, Nigeria recently organised a seminar to educate their franchises, distributors and the general public on care of the skin. ‘’There is need for more knowledge so that the incidence of damaged skin due to improper use of harmful chemicals will be greatly reduced”, said Dr. (Mrs.) Ebele Ugochukwu, the Managing Director, Sleek Studio, Cosmetics Division, at the seminar . Also on the panel were Dr (Mrs.) Ayesha Akinkugbe, a lecturer with the College of Medicine and Consultant Dermatologist,at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital , Mrs. Nneka Ugochukwu, a Certified Nutritionist and Detox Consultant and MD of Beatbond (Wellness Centre) .

Dr. Akinkugbe spoke extensively about the two main problems of black skin which are acne and hyperpigmentation (dark patches). She outlined the causes and treatment and also illustrated with some brilliant pictures which were indeed very helpful. “To care for a black skin, we need to exfoliate effectively, use a daily sun protection, cleanse, tone and moisturise”.

Mrs. Nneka Ugochukwu then spoke on the importance of nutrition in maintaining healthy skin. She outlined the vitamins and minerals that one should include in his or her daily diet and also the need for regular detoxication.

She concluded by emphasizing the need for a balanced and healthy skin. “If your inner bodies are not balanced and healthy, your skin will not look good no matter the amount of cosmetics one uses superficially. Good skin is a sign of healthiness”,she said. She, therefore, advised that one eats healthy food, sleeps well and uses gentle but yet effective skin products and supplements to achieve a good skin. Dr. Ebele Ugochukwu outlined the advantages of the recently launched Sleek Studio skin care range.

She said the range was developed to target the problems of black skin specifically. She also demonstrated the proper use of the products, pointing out that improper use was one of the major reasons people do not get the best out of their skin care regimen.

Daisy Danjuma

48

SOCIETY

THE NATION SATURDAY, JUNE 2 , 2012

Christy Igbokwe Foundation hosts orphans T

HE Christy Essien Igbokwe Memorial Foundation recently played host to the disadvantaged children from orphanages and the physically challenged in Lagos in what they called Festival of Love to mark this year’s Children Day. The event, which took place at the exotic Nigeria Conservation Foundation, Lekki, Lagos, attracted dignitaries such as Mrs. Ijeoma Nweke who spoke on Ability in Disability, Ms Clarion Chukwurah, Miss Precious Okon (Miss Museum and Tourism 2012), Mrs Antonette Falohun, representing

Zonal Director, NTA Lagos, Network Centre and Chief Edwin Igbokwe.

People from the media and movie and music industries were also in attendance.

First of its kind, the Festival of Love, which shall hold annually, saw the children doing some of the late Lady of Songs’ hits, sack race, fashion parade and so on.

They were given school bags, mathematical sets, pencils, customised notebooks, among other gifts.

•From left: Ms. Philip, Mr. Saheed, Chief Edwin Igbokwe,Mrs Anthonette Falomo,Mrs I.Nweke and Ms. Clarion Chukwurah

•Francis Sky, a crippled singer, thrilling children and guests •Atunda Olu School doing a dance presentation

•Children from Red Cross Motherless Home

What

& Where

•Cross section of children at the event

•A cross section of children doing a cultural dance

•Children from Heritage Home singing

The First Eminent Associaties conferred the Eminent International Gold Award (EMIGA) on Yemi Davies & Company, a frontline estate management company for its positive contributions to the real estate development in Nigeria recently in Lagos. From left: Vice President of First Eminent Associates, Mrs. Nike Edeaghe, presenting the award to Mr. Yemi Davies and his wife, Taiwo, while Mr. Olumide Ojelade, National Co-ordinator, looks on.

•Victor Owoola (second right), cutting his birthday cake at Barachel Model College, Lagos. With him are his friends

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 02, 2012

49

‘President’s Democracy Day broadcast is nothing but a campaign speech for 2015’

‘

•Continued from Page 17 geria . For example, after what we went through on debt trap, how can any Nigerian leader be persuaded to tell any Nigerian that he is now in the process of securing more and more debts?

It is something I found funny.

He said things are getting better Things are not getting better. You live here?

What proof is here that things are getting better. If I ask you as an honest Nigerian, from the time he was sworn in as a president, are you better off or worse off? So, what are you talking about? I mean the fact that he is a leader does not mean that everybody should believe him. I am telling you there was a paper by World Bank which is over 30 years ago where they said it is acceptable for that kind of economy to incur debt to as much as 40 percent of the debt of the GDP. Now, you are telling me that in a country which is still under-developed with a basically rural economy, we can still afford the loans which are of dubious nature and for dubious project in excess of 40 percent of our national economy. Unknown to him, the World Bank has already reversed the situation and I know it was reversed as far back as 10 years ago. Now, you can go and obtain loans of dubious nature for dubious projects and most of the loans get shared out and left in foreign banks and they leave us with debt in our books.

I think that is to insult the intelligence of Nigerians.

Number two, we have countries in the world which has gone bankrupt, Greece has a problem with its debt, it is an European country and a member of the EU. What it has secured today is in excess of 150 percent of their own GDP. Are you telling me that debt is good simply because somebody who is living in air-conditioned office in the headquarters of the World Bank or IMF has told you that it is good to incur debt?

Number three, you look at the security situation. I always say that one single major responsibility of any government is maintenance of law and order, the protection of lives and properties. If the government fails in maintaining law and order, whether it succeeds in economy or whatever, it is of no consequence. As far as I am concerned, Jonathan and the PDP government have failed in the maintenance of law and order which is the primary responsibility of any government. He should now do what is honourable by handing over power come 2015.

If he doesn’t do that, he will have to accept the consequences because Nigerians have already told him that if he rigged the election 2011, he will have to face the responsibility for whatever happens, and that is what is happening.

As far as I am concerned, the speech was nothing, it was a monumental anti-climax. Agriculture is the mainstay of our economy, it contributes between 15 to 20 percent to our national economy. There was nothing there about agriculture except we are going to export bits and bits of cassava to China and we are being told we are going to earn foreign exchange.

On constitution amendment, which areas do you want amendments?

As far as I am concerned, I do not want a fulltime National Assembly, I want us to revert to a system whereby we have part-time members of the National Assembly because what we have now is National Assembly being a mockery. The idea that you can give a senator nearly N400 million in a year as salary and emolument is something I found unacceptable.

As far as I am concerned, in a nation like ours, an institution like the National Assembly cannot be made to live beyond what the average Nigerian earns or lives on. The National Assembly has done nothing for the years we have been in this presidential system of government.

So, if we have to retain the presidential system, we cannot afford to have a full-time National Assembly. That is one area and I am going to canvass for it strongly. Many Nigerians will want us to revert back to the part-time membership of the National Assembly.

Have we practised that before?

Of course we have, I think in the Second Republic . My salary was N15,000 and I had no other way or anything. In fact the staff I had were being paid by the National Assembly directly. And that is why some members of the National Assembly now wanted to be there because they put their hands in those accounts belonging to their staff. I worked as a full-time member earning N15,000 per annum and when

The President politicised the issue. It is clear to any Nigerian who is sincere that the Democracy Day broadcast was nothing but a campaign speech for 2015.

The speech was too long, it was empty and a lot of details were so outrageous that you could see that the people who wrote the speech have no respect for Nigeria. For example, after what we went through on debt trap, how can any Nigerian leader be persuaded to tell any Nigerian that he is now in the process of securing more and more debts?

•Dr. Mohammed

I bought a car, I bought it on hired purchase and when I paid for four years, it became my own car. The issue is that we cannot afford it.

The amount of corruption that is in this so-called full-time parliament is so outrageous, so shameless that we simply cannot afford it if we want our country to survive. As far as I am concerned we must never allow this full-time membership of the National Assembly. It is over and should be done with. If it means scattering the system of Executive President, so be it. Let us go back to the parliamentary system.

Why is it that, I don’t know how far it is correct to say, Dr. Junaid Mohammed is rebellious?

I don’t think I am rebellious. I simply believe that I have had the benefit of what I regard as a sound education and it makes you restless and it makes you looking for answers when you see problems. When I don’t see a problem I don’t look for answer but when I see a problem I look for solution and sometimes I come up with many solutions to a single problem. For example governance is a very close issue to my heart because I believe no society can move forward unless it is properly and decently governed and when I found myself in Nigeria which has been misgoverned from 1950 until today, you can see why I am so restless. I am not rebellious. And mark my words, rebels don’t hold jobs. I have been in government jobs, both in National Assembly as a member twice and also in government positions in the private sector and so many other places. Life itself is a continuous process of learning, adaptation and doing the right thing. If you find yourself doing a wrong thing, the decent thing to do is to reserve yourself and start looking for solutions to the problems you are confronting.

Did you inherit this restlessness from your

parent or nature made you so or as a result of your interaction with Mallam Aminu Kano ?

I think it is a combination of all. My father was in politics. I also went to the right kind of elite school. I also moved around at a very early age and life with Aminu was a defining moment for me because I got to know that as an individual you got autonomy of thinking. That you can sit down and think, that you can challenge certain wisdom, and give account of yourself and I believe in doing that and I have acquitted myself creditably.

You believe in probity, can you cast the first stone or have you ever cast the first stone? What were those defining moments when you were tempted with money and you rejected it?

I will rather want you talk to those who know me better. I left OMPADEC with debt and nothing and there has been times when the current Chief Justice of Nigeria had to pay for my transport from Lagos when I came down from Port Harcourt to Kano and there were times it was Abacha who had to pay for my transport from Lagos to Kano . So, if I had money, I would not go telling my friend I wanted to get a flight ticket to Kano .

OMPADEC was money spinning but it failed.

It means all of you failed If I was one out of the commissioners, you cannot hold the failure to me but I am prepared, and this is for the record to accept full personal responsibility for my own share of anything that went wrong in OMPADEC. It was not just the OMPADEC assignment, I was also a member of the National Assembly. I challenge any Nigerian today to tell me that he has given kobo in the course of my entire career whether in the public service or in the private sector and I want you to please emphasize on this.

Is any of your children taking after you?

’

I have only one son. He is just finishing secondary school and he is thinking of going to university to study economics. The others are daughters and they are married.

Is anyone of them taking after you in terms of ideology or medicine?

I don’t know, may be my last daughter who is now in secondary school, she may want to be a doctor, I don’t know. But whatever she decides, I will be there for her. One read law, the other one marketing. Nobody forced me to do what I am doing. I wasn’t discouraged. My father said it is up to me to take my own decision and I have made those decisions. I have rendered service to my fellow Nigerians and Nigeria is a country I love dearly and I am prepared to do whatever I can to make sure Nigeria is a better place than it is.

We are in era modern capitalism, even the Soviet Union where you trained has been balkanised, why are you not blending?

It is not that I am not blending. I believe that if we have a capitalist system, it doesn’t necessarily have to be the survival of the fittest. I believe you can’t have a capitalist with the national marketing incentive that allows for people to think collectively in terms of their collective destiny. I don’t see that happening.

And I am telling you, those countries that were taken out of their ideology and said they are capitalist countries, actually failed. The Soviet Union actually collapsed, it went bankrupt, it announced its death and started all over again.

But China which remains a capitalist country is doing well, better than the United States .

Is China a capitalist or a Marxist country?

Whatever you call it, it is not a capitalist country, China is a socialist country, it is being driven by a socialist principle, even if they find it necessary to venture out into capitalist market forces in order to develop their country. If capitalism is capable of developing Nigeria , I will be a capitalist but I believe Nigeria will not be a capitalist system and move forward. It is just because it is historically impossible.

What can we be?

We can be a mixed economy, there is nothing wrong in being a mixed economy.

Aren’t we already a mixed economy?

No, we are not, we are in a confused economy, we are in a messed up economy.

50

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 02, 2012

Larry Esin, a onetime National Chairman of Progressive Peoples Party (PPA) and also the governorship aspirant of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the April 2011 governorship election Akwa Ibom State, recently launched Akwa Ibom Facebook Summit for the youths in the state. In this interview with KAZEEM IBRAHYM, he explains the idea behind the summit and the need for government to create welfare programme for the unemployed graduates. Excerpts:

Why we should embrace regionalism —Akwa Ibom CPC governorship candidate Larry Esin

•Esin

W

HAT brought about the idea of this Akwa Ibom Facebook summit?

To be honest with you, after the elections, our followers on Facebook wanted to meet me. You know, they said, listen we’ve been following you for the past four years. Some of us have never seen you one on one; you know, and I thought, yes they deserved a party, we buy them drinks, sit down or we go to Ibeno beach and have a cook out and all that. So, I thought to myself, why waste such valuable time with these young people? Give them something more, let it be of benefit to them. So, that’s how the summit came about. From the idea of let us meet and get to know each other, get to see each other physically, I decided that we should bring finance and start something that they could benefit from.

So today was just the first. Now you could tell from the ideas that came out from that place and the desire for more. There was really no question about politics, I thought people were going to come and ask me ‘are you running for governorship in 2015 and why are you not running and which party?’ I was so happy that nobody was interested in that. They are interested in their lives and listening to the representatives that spoke from the local governments, you could tell that there’s a distance between the people and government. What we did today is what public servants should be doing on a regular basis in their constituencies to hear these people out and figure out ways to meet their demands. Yes government cannot do everything for you, but the primary role of government is to help its citizens to achieve that which ordinarily, the citizens cannot achieve for themselves.

But one may want to look at it that with this summit now, maybe you’re preparing the grounds towards 2015?

You know, there are those that will read in be-

tween it politically. For me the primary objective as I said is for me to get to understand the needs of these young people, that generation. About 70 per cent or so of the population is under the age of 30 in Nigeria today, and nothing is really targeted at them in terms of government policies and all that. So, for me as somebody who wants to serve, who is into public service or is seeking to serve his people, it’s important for me to get to know them, that demographics, to understand that demographics very well, so this is an opportunity for me to do that. It is not geared towards 2015. In Facebook, we had about a 1,500 people that signed up that they are going to attend. I mean signed up ‘yes we are coming to the event’.

So we are testing that medium as well, the social medium to see whether it is a veritable tool for mobilising people. A lot of people can come, it’s easy for them to hear from their friends and say yes I’m coming, but it’s another thing to get them out because let’s face it, a lot of them were out of town, most of our followers, even though they are Akwa Ibomites, they don’t all live in Akwa Ibom. So transportation even from the local governments to come is a problem, they can’t afford it, they desired to come, but they could not make it. A lot of them in Calabar that wanted to come, some were even suggesting that after Akwa Ibom, we should also do one in Lagos for the western region, you know Akwa Ibomites in Lagos and other parts of the country. So I really wanted to use this to gauge the response and from beyond that, to hear the problems that these young people are facing, and you know, I think 90 per cent of what they are saying cuts across employment. The government is doing a lot in infrastructure, spending so much money for these structures, but there has to be investment in human capacity as well.

Otherwise, everything we are doing now will come to zero.

How best can the government go about this, this issue of employment?

Well, my discussions with the Governor Godswill Akpabio in this second term, he wants to set up industries in the 31 LGAs, it was a campaign promise that he made and he wants to come good of that promise. So if he is able to do that, we heard some of those young people talk about no industries in their areas, they have no jobs, so that should be a first step, revive the existing industries because a lot of them are moribund now, they are not doing well; they are not even functioning. Invest money and revive them and then look at what other industries you can bring in, even if you don’t succeed in putting an industry in a local government, at least maybe one in every federal constituencies, that’s achieving. We have about three federal constituencies that is about nine. That you can achieve in the short term, but you need to create employment for these kids. If you cannot create employment for these kids, university graduates in the state, you put on some institution welfare plan at least until they find a job, and I don’t know what the state of the economy is, I don’t know what the finances are in the state, I could say this from outside but maybe if I was sitting on that seat, I’d find out that the money is not there, but you know, those of us that are not in government, we judge anything from what we hear, from what is taken in, I’m sure that all are allegations of government, but I think government should find a way to put every graduate that is not employed in the state, it’s an obligation that will also force government to create jobs, because once you create jobs and you put them in employment, then you take them off the welfare system, but you need to, even if it’s N10,000 a month, so they can pay transport to go around, they can wear a clean shirt, on weekends they can buy drinks and sit with their friends, they can use that money to look for jobs.

To go for a job interview you have to prepare a resume, you have to wear a clean shirt and you need to have transport and some food in the stomach to be able to do an interview. So even if that’s all they do with that N10,000 a month, which I believe we can afford in this state, even if we can’t afford it, you cut off so many other programmes that government can cut, and put that money towards helping these young people, because it’s a very potent group. Every year they are coming out of the university and joining the great line with nothing for them to do.

Don’t you think the infrastructural facilities the government is committing enormous resources into should naturally bring in investors to come and invest, establish the industries instead of the government thinking of doing that

again?

Unfortunately no, in our country today, in our region, in Africa, it does not happen like that. You see, for every investment opportunity we have in Africa today, there is this several of such opportunities in Asia, in Latin America where you have stable governments, where you don’t have kidnappings and all of these issues going on, they have environments that are more attractive. They have better tax incentives for investors to come in, where the cost of operating business is very low, you have electricity 24 hours a day. So we are competing with Asian countries and North American countries. You see, so you can put all the roads you want in there, it is difficult for investors to come, so government has to jump start that.

I hope and I believe this government realises that just doing the roads will not bring investors, you have to go out and actively look for these investors and partner with them and say ‘Listen we are also going to put our money on the table with you’, that was how Dubai was made. We’ll put our money, but you know what after three or four years, we divest. Government will sell the shares and leave the business for you to run, but within those three to four years you the business would have been able to stabilise in Akwa Ibom.

You would have seen the potential of doing business in Akwa Ibom, you would have enjoyed all the incentives, the taxes, the incentives they are going to give to you, but power is a problem and every business needs power. If government should say ‘Okay every local government, aside from those roads, we’ll set up an industrial park in every local government’ and power in that park is free, for the next three years there is free electricity, you know, government can use that as an incentive to get investors to come in. I believe such an incentive in addition to the infrastructure that the government is doing will attract investors.

It all boils down to cost of production, if I’m producing a phone where I’m going to sell in the US market, because that is the biggest market for selling phones, and you tell me to come and produce it in Nigeria where I’ll be competing with someone who is producing in China, my production cost must be lower than that man producing in China, so that when our phones are now in the US market, I can beat him in that market, but if his production cost is lower than mine, I will not come and produce in Nigeria. So it’s all the economics, which boils down to cost of production. So it’s not just roads.

How do we resolve this controversy between leaders from the Northern coalition and the South South leaders that resources coming to the Southsouth are being mismanaged?

My view of that is that, there are strong arguments on both sides. The North looking at how much money comes to the South and looking at

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THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 02, 2012

•Esin with the youth at the summit

the level of development in the South, and they are weighing that against the amount of money we are given in the South and they are saying it is not commensurate and they have a point. We have states today in the South-South that are making more money than three to four states combined in the North, in terms of derivation from the Federal Government, but we are still dealing with infrastructural problems in the South, we are still dealing with educational problems in the South-South, the social infrastructure in the South-south is probably not better than it is in the North, the physical infrastructure in some parts of the South-South is probably not better than it is in the North today.

Security is still a problem, unemployment is still a problem in the South-South, why? Aside from the derivation money that goes to the South-South governments, we have Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) which is an intervention agency that was set up to deal with the development problems in the SouthSouth; we have the amnesty programme that is going on in the South-South, that’s from the South again, oh common! You know, we in the South-South have brought this argument upon ourselves, we have caused this argument, because unfortunately we have not been able to translate, for whatever reason, this enormous revenue that is coming to the South-South into some tangible gains that the North can look at and say ‘well, because they have the money’.

On the other, the South-South argues that they don’t have enough money because they are dealing with environmental problems as a result of all the exploitations in the South-South, they also have an argument, but you see, at the end of the day, with good governance, you don’t need a lot of money to run government or to develop. Good governance goes beyond government policies. You could have good government policies but implementing those policies could be a challenge, and to be able to implement government policies properly, you must have the right people in government, and who are the right people in government? The real representatives of the people, who have been properly elected, and how can you have people to be properly elected? You must have internal democracy in political parties. So it begins with the political parties themselves, where the political parties do not practise internal democracy, you will always have the wrong people that are being propped up to serve in public offices, and once you have that, the system has fallen apart, it is over. You cannot expect anything good from anyone who was not elected, properly elected by the people, by the constituency, and I tell you what, there is also a strong

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argument on the other side about this our electoral process. I heard a governor, a very intelligent governor, we had a discussion and he said: ‘Larry, you know our people are largely uneducated, they cannot think well to let the right person to serve them, so we have to help them to elect these people’. He said some of our people are too clannish, an Ibibio man will not want to vote for Annang man. It must be his brother even though his brother may be the least elect to occupy that office, but because of our clannishness and our ethnicity and all of that, we are not able to exercise that democratic ideal or right effectively by voting for the person regardless of where they come from, but who can deliver that job, and this is why politicians must intervene, the parties must intervene and say fine, even if that were to be the case, why do you bring the wrong people when you know that this person is wrong and cannot do the job? Why don’t you intervene and bring the right people to serve? So, we still have a long way to go in government in this country and as a result of that, development will suffer for quite some time.

Now having said that, we are angling towards regionalism. There is strong emphasis the SouthWest has brought up about regionalism. Also, the South-South summit that was held about a forth night ago brought about the issue of regionalism.

So, what’s your view? Shouldn’t we have a weak centre and strong regions?

Well, I’ve always held that opinion, right from my time as the National Chairman of the Progressive Peoples Party (PPA) I believe that the country is going back to the regional master plan.

Just observe and see what is happening in the country, you have political parties that are controlling different regions of the country. Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has effectively taken over the South-West. Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) with time will take over the North.

In the next election cycles, they’ll take over the North. The Middle Belt, South-South, the Peoples Democratic Party will control the South-South in my opinion. You know, South-East, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) is trying to make some moves in the South-East, but in the next 10 to 15 years, we are going to have political parties controlling different regions of the country and that in itself is good for Nigeria, because when it comes to the time to vote for the centre, who controls the election? All these groups or parties have to sit together and agree on what happens in the centre. So, the regional idea may, not by design, but by necessity come back to the table and when it does, we should not shy away from it, we should embrace it if it does happen, especially if it will yield the democratic dividends that we all hope for.

Now, we’ve seen the outcome of the fuel subsidy probe that the poor masses are made to pay for government failures. What should the government do with the probe reports?

Well, the House of Representatives has submitted its report. I think the Federal Government should look into that report. The president should not sideline that report based on the advice of some politicians, that the House of Representatives report is not important, that they are waiting for the Senate report. I think the fact that, that committee was set up and given that mandate, the president owes them that obligation to look into that report and take whatever recommendations that come with that report, and of course, combining that recommendation with what comes out of the Senate. It is important that it is done. I also heard a side of the argument against the House report that certain people were not invited, people like the former Minister of Petroleum, Dr. Rilwanu Lukman and they should have been because fuel subsidy had been going on during their tenure. They should have been invited, because by not inviting them you give the impression that certain people were being targeted, and that again has caused the whole argument that the House report has no credibility.

So, all of these mistakes should be corrected. The president should look at the report, but it has to be a complete report. In other words, all those who should have been invited for questioning should be invited for questioning and whatever their findings are, should be sent in time.

How can the country overcome this problem of insecurity?

Don’t you think lack of employment is the root cause of this issue?

Of course it is. You saw all those young people in the hall today, a lot of them looking frustrated. They are frustrated; you know you can tell a hungry man all you want about not stealing food, but it gets to a point where he steals because he wants to but because he has to, and the unemployment problem in the country is of serious concern and should be, to not just the Federal Government, but to local and state governments, so this is why you don’t have quality people running the government. How can they create jobs? It’s not easy to create jobs, especially in a country today where we are

All these groups or parties have to sit together and agree on what happens in the centre. So, the idea of regionalism may, not by design, but by necessity come back to the table and when it does, we should not shy away from it, we should embrace it if it does happen, especially if it will yield the democratic dividends that we all hope for

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competing with economies that are fast developing, and we are offering very attractive environment for investments. Government alone cannot provide jobs for everybody; the private sector will need to come in. So, you need people in government that know what it takes to understand the role of government, which is to create an enabling environment for the private sector to thrive. We have local government elections that are coming up, are we saying that we are going to elect the right people into those local governments or it will be business as usual? Will local governments be allowed the independence to run the local governments or it will be business as usual? So, this is where the problem is and the sad part of it is that, our public servants feel that they are insulated from this problem but they are not, they are not insulated from it. You can have all the money and all the police and everything in this country, but a day will come, if we continue the way we are going, then none of us will mean anything anymore. So, it is in the interest of everybody involved that we create employment for everybody.

The difference between the United States and us today is that, the smallest man you see in the United States can afford three square meals a day, has a small apartment that he lives in, he can watch his TV, so he doesn’t care about President Barack Obama; he doesn’t care about the senators or what they are doing, at least he can provide for himself.

But a man cannot put food on the table for his children, a roof over his head, forget about his family, and he has a degree, and he looks out from his shack, he sees some brother who doesn’t even have any qualification, driving around in a hummer with an entourage of people. He would rather stop his children from going to school or one day he is going to resort to some other means of making sure he can get food on the table for his family. So, it is a problem.

How would you assess the administration of Governor Godswill Akpabio?

I think the administration has done well by focussing on infrastructure and I have commended the governor on that. There is still a lot of work to be done. You cannot achieve everything in eight years, especially Akpabio’s situation in which the first four years were very turbulent for him. Enormous distractions, as we speak now there are election matters still pending and those things can distract any sitting governor. Infrastructural wise, Akpabio has done well and I think the next administration must continue from there. The next administration must understand that the need to build human capacity to manage the infrastructure.

•Esin

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FAMIL Y HEAL TH AMILY HEALTH

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

Commitment: Backbone of successful marriages

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EAR Reader, I thank God for the privilege to bring His Word your way today. I pray that you will be mightily blessed in Jesus’ name!

Commitment is the backbone of any successful relationship, marriage and family inclusive. It is the adhesive of every marriage. When commitment is lacking in the relationship between husband and wife, the chances of that home surviving is very slim.

Therefore, to enjoy family success, you must be committed both to the institution of marriage and to your spouse. God has joined you together, but you must be so committed both to the institution and your spouse that nothing is allowed to put you asunder (Mark 10:9).

What then is commitment? The

Oxford Dictionary defines commitment as “an engagement or obligation that restricts freedom of action”. In other words, there are some things you cannot do by reason of your commitment. That is why Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:12: All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient.

Commitment makes you choose the expedient above the lawful. It makes you forgo some things that you like, take pleasure in or even sometimes, rights and privileges that are lawfully yours may have to be forfeited in the interest of the family.

God’s Word says: Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). Commitment, therefore, demands that you promote whatever it will take for you

to ensure that peace reigns perpetually in your marriage. Whatever shortcomings your spouse or other members of your household may have, commitment demands that you find a way to cope with them.

You may even have to forgo some things you really enjoy, just to ensure peace is maintained in your home.

As a man, for instance, commitment demands that you place the interest of your family above your own. God has programmed you as the breadwinner of the family, so, before you consider all that you need, you must first and foremost make adequate provisions for your family’s well-being. So also, as a wife in the home, no matter the lure of your social status, commitment demands that you pay top priority attention to the members of your family, especially your spouse, before yourself or your peers.

Commitment also demands that you discipline your thoughts to conform to the Word of God. Thought you know will cause your family hurt, until you overcome it.

A man once lost his family and destiny to a lousy thought he failed to tame for 25 years. Instead of casting down the imaginations and fantasies of his heart, he constantly indulged in them, until they became an irreversible reality in his

life. Like a roller coaster, his thoughts gradually took on flesh and before he could put a stop to them, his entire destiny was cast before the pigs and crushed under feet. He lost his family and destiny for lack of commitment.

Again God’s Word says that marriage is honourable – that is, respectable. Marriage, as an institution established by God, is perfect, but the individuals in it are not.

People change as they grow, but marriage is constant. It is an unchanging institution. In order to build a successful marriage, therefore, those in it must learn to honour marriage itself. This is the secret!

You can get so committed to the institution of marriage that you can cope with the imperfection of the parties involved. Commitment overlooks the physical changes in your spouse, sometimes the changing fortunes in your finances, etc.

As a single person, before you agree to marry anyone, find out how committed he/she is to God and to marriage. It is the level of his/her commitment to God that will determine how committed he/ she will be to your marriage. Are you married to someone who is not committed to God, and now you are wondering why he/she is not committed to your marriage? He cannot be, because the foundation

is faulty. He needs to be “sold out” to God first!

Nevertheless, all hope is not lost.

If you make a decision today to become committed to your marriage and family, God’s grace will be available to you to establish your desire.

Grace is only available to the redeemed of the Lord. So, if you are not born again, there is no way you can be committed to God and you can never be committed to your marriage. You need to give your life to Christ. Are you set for it? Why not say this prayer of faith from your heart: Dear Lord, I come to You today. I am a sinner. Forgive me my sins. Cleanse me with Your precious Blood. I accept You as my Lord and Saviour. Now I know I am born again!

Congratulations! Till I come your way again next week, call or write, and share your testimonies with me through: E-mail: faithdavid@yahoo.com Tel. No: 234-1-7747546-8; 07026385437, 07094254102 For more insight, these books authored by me are available at the Dominion Bookstores in all the Living Faith Churches, and other leading Christian bookstores: Marriage Covenant, Making Marriage Work, and Building A Successful Family.

Millions risk overdosing on paracetamol by ignoring the recommended daily limit •Nearly a quarter of adults taking paracetamol exceed recommended limit within a 24-hour period •This can lead to an overdose and acute liver damage •Some ignore the manufacturer’s dosage instructions •Others, particularly the elderly, forget how many tablets they have taken

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ILLIONS of people are at risk of unintentionally overdosing on paracetamol, the world’s most popular painkiller, scientists have warned.

Nearly a quarter of adults taking paracetamol are misusing the drug by exceeding the recommended limit with a 24-hour period.

This can lead to accidental overdoses and acute liver damage, according to researchers at Northwestern University in Chicago, who have called for ‘urgent attention’ to address the problem.

Many users ignore the manufacturer’s dosage instructions, while some, particularly the elderly, forget how many tablets they have taken.

Others fail to realise that they are taking various medications containing the active ingredient acetaminophen.

Doctors recommend a maximum daily dose of eight 500mg paracetamol tablets, to be taken no more than two at a time during each four-hour period.

One consequence of an overdose of acetaminophen causing liver failure is a potentially fatal build-up of fluid in the brain.

Lead researcher Dr Michael Wolf and his team looked at the prevalence and potential misuse of pain medication containing acetaminophen as well as the likelihood of overdosing.

They interviewed 500 adult patients receiving care at outpatient general medicine clinics in Atlanta, Georgia, and Chicago, Illinois, between September 2009 and March 2011.

Over half the patients reported some acetaminophen use and 19 per cent were ‘heavy users’, taking it ev-

ery day, or at least a couple of times a week, during the previous six months.

Doctors recommend a maximum daily dose of eight 500mg paracetamol tablets, to be taken no more than two at a time during each four-hour period The researchers tested whether these patients understood the recommended dosage and were able to selfadminister over-the-counter acetaminophen appropriately.

They did this by testing if the patients could work out the proper dosing of a single pharmacy medication over a 24-hour period and then assessing the risk of their ‘double-dip-

ping’, or simultaneously taking two acetaminophen-containing products, and thereby exceeding the recommended dose.

The scientists found that nearly a quarter of the participants were at risk of overdosing on pain medication using a single paracetamol product, by exceeding the 4g limit in a 24-hour period Five per cent made serious errors by dosing out more than 6g. In addition, nearly half were at risk of overdosing by ‘double-dipping’ with two acetaminophen-containing products.

Dr Wolf said: ‘Our findings suggest that many consumers do not recognise or differentiate the active

•Risk: Nearly a quarter of adults taking paracetamol are misusing the drug by exceeding the recommended limit

ingredient in over-the-counter pain medicines, nor do they necessarily closely adhere to package or label instructions.

‘Given the prevalence of the problem, risk of significant adverse effects, and lack of a learned intermediary-

for instance, a physician to guide decision making and counsel consumers on proper use - we believe this to be a serious public health threat requiring urgent attention.’

•The research is published online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Council marks Tuberculosis Day

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UBERCULOSIS has been identified as one of the lead ing cause of death in the so-

ciety.

This was said during the World Tuberculosis Day celebrated on May 31.

During the Day’s celebration by Ojo local Government, the Chairman of the council, Yinka Durosimi said the disease that has constituted economic and social burden on people.

The council chair advise people infected with the disease to opt for diagnosis and treatment so they can be free from the disease.

“We are sensitizing the public, you don’t have to hide if you have such sickness, the Lagos state government as well as the local government has spent so much to put all these treatments in place and we don’t want our efforts to be in vain as such when we sensitize them, let them remove that shyness. Let them come out because they say health is wealth, when you are healthy and you take your

Abike ADEGBULEHIN drugs as at when due, you will get better as it is a sickness that has not come to stay, rather, it will go,” he said.

Durosimi who was represented by his vice, Princess Chi-chi FunmiBadero, revealed the twelve centres that was created within the constituents to forestall the spread of the disease as well as treatment of those infected.

In addition, plans of implementing policies and programmes have been made to reduce the level of the occurrences of tuberculosis as such it will no longer constitute public health problem in the Local Government and the maintenance and establishment of effective TB treatment centers have been made possible.

“Let them remove that shyness and come out because health is wealth. When the people within our constituents are healthy and they take their drugs as at when due, their sickness will ultimately go,” said the Council chair.

FAMIL Y HEAL TH AMILY HEALTH

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

Questions on tiredness

Dear Dr. Bola,NICE WRITEUP (SPIRITUAL TIREDNESS). Thank you so much for your incisive article on spiritual tiredness.

It is one of the banes in Nigerians irrespective of religions. I would like to read and follow up other subsequent articles written by you. Best regards.

GHENEGARE from Delta State.

Dear Ghenegare, Your compliment is heart-warming. I hope to combine all the articles of the past three years into a book for readers who want them. Keep in touch with the column and you will know when this is done.

Thank you. Dr. John “TIREDNESS” You seem totally unaware that CFS was proven to be an autoimmune disease when a biomarker for autoimmune was found in 2008. I believe the original replicated study can be found at the website of the National CFIDS Foundation’s website. And the immune

dysfunction was proven in that illness over two decades ago.

Victoria Dear Victoria, Thank you for your interest in the Family Health Column and for the comment you contributed. You seem to be interested in technical details but I am not sure of your background as you did not indicate this in any way. You need to remember that I am a scientist. I don’t look at one evidence but at the body of available evidences.

The 2008 study that you mentioned is relatively new, four years old. It is good but not time-tested.

Several possible biomarkers are being investigated “for early detection, objective diagnosis and treatment of CFS”. These studies are broad and take time (years). Furthermore, in science, researchers look at the same problem from different angles. While

there is evidence of the body’s own immune cells causing problems (Immune Dysfunction Syndrome), there are other studies showing that metabolic or hormonal problems and external factors (certain viruses and microbes) may produce the same chronic fatigue syndrome.

Also, CFS may be regarded as a medical disorder or a “group of disorders” therefore you may be looking at it too simplistically.

Contrary to your impression, perhaps I am not “totally unaware” but I am absolutely cautious. Incidentally, just a few weeks ago, in April, I met the Scientific Director of the National CFIDS Foundation at a conference in San Diego, California. The two of us sat down together and had a friendly chat and she was the first person to discuss CFS with me. I asked her about the cause and she said there was a lot of research going on and they could not say only one definite cause and she discussed the autoimmune role with me. She told me about their website and gave me her business card. I also briefly looked up other sources of information before I wrote the article you referred to.

The technical details are

not layman interest and I did not want to bring such to my column. In my article that you are referring to, I discussed the autoimmune process simply: “This means that one’s own soldier cells are destroying normal cells of the body as if they were foreign invading cells (such as bacteria). It is like soldiers killing their own citizens as if they were enemies.

There may be other underlying factors. “ Immune processes involve many cellular and chemical players that, if described in a non-academic environment, do not help but only intimidate and bore readers, therefore I gave a global non-technical picture. By comparison, a higher authority uses this simplified definition for lay people: “An autoimmune disorder is a condition that occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys healthy body tissue. There are more than 80 different types of autoimmune disorders” (MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia). I think I was not far from the global authority, so, why do you say that I seem totally unaware? Anyway, thank you and I appreciate your participation and I hope you continue to contribute. Dr. John.

An organ is sold every hour, WHO warns

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N organ is sold once an hour, the World Health Organisation has warned, amid fears that the illegal trade is again on the rise.

The U.N. public health body estimates that 10,000 organs are now traded every year, with figures soaring off the back of a huge rise in black market kidney transplants.

Wealthy patients are paying up to £128,500 for a kidney to gangs, often in China, India and Pakistan, who harvest the organs from desperate people for as little as £3,200.

Eastern Europe also has a huge market for illegal organ donation and last month the Salvation Army revealed it had rescued a woman brought to the UK to have her organs harvested.

With kidneys believed to make up 75 per cent of the black market in organs, experts believe the rise of diseases of affluence - like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart problems - is spurring the trade.

The disparity of wealth between rich countries and poor also means there is no shortage of willing customers who can pay a premium - and desperate sellers who need the cash.

Dr Luc Noel, a WHO official, told The Guardian: ‘The stakes are so big, the profit that can be made so huge, that the temptation is out there.’

The WHO does not know how many of the 106,879

Brutal black market on the rise again thanks China’s military hospitals to diseases of affluence are even believed to be carryknown transplant operations in 2010 were performed with illegally harvested organs, but Dr Noel believes the figure could be as high as 10 per cent.

A lack of law enforcement in some countries, and an inadequate legal framework in others meant that the traffickers urging poor people to part with an organ have it too easy, said Dr Noel.

A medical source with knowledge of the situation in China told the Guard-

ian anonymously that rich foreigners mainly from the Middle East and Asia are the usual customers.

‘The stakes are so big, the profit that can be made so huge, that the temptation is out there’ Dr Luc Noel, WHO official ‘While commercial transplantation is now forbidden by law in China, that’s difficult to enforce; there’s been a resurgence here in the last two or three years,’ he said.

He added that some of

ing out the operations.

Jim Feehally, professor of renal medicine at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, said that the key issue was one of exploitation, with poor donors often left with no medical care to recover from the brutal operations.

‘The people who gain are the rich transplant patients who can afford to buy a kidney, the doctors and hospital administrators, and the middlemen, the traffickers,’ he said. ‘It’s absolutely wrong, morally wrong.’

How to stop snoring Snoring is the term used for harsh noises made when the tongue, upper throat, soft palate, and uvula vibrate against each other while a person breathes during sleep.

It’s also the No. one complaint of spouses regarding their partner’s sleeping habits.

A study by one of the leading Clinics in the World concluded that a snoring husband, on average, robs a wife of 62 minutes of sleep a night.

While snoring may disrupt sleep problems, it generally isn’t considered a major health problem in most cases.

However, snoring can also be a symptom of sleep apnea, a deviated septum, nasal polyps, enlarged adenoids, obesity, sinusitis, and other disorders.

Overweight men are more likely to snore, as are people with narrow airways and na-

sal problems.

Snoring can be caused by poor muscle tone, bulky throat tissue, nose deformities, obesity, and having a long uvula or soft palate.

Snoring can be prevented and alleviated in many cases

by maintaining a healthy lifestyle. That includes exercise, proper diet, maintaining a healthy weight, sleeping on your side, sleeping in a regular pattern, avoiding alcohol, and avoiding heavy meals three hours before going to sleep.

53 Coping with diseases with Prof. Dayo Oyekole

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)

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EXUALLY Transmitted Diseases are popularly called ve nereal diseases. They are contagious diseases, easily trans mitted by sexual contact from an infected person to a sexual partner who is otherwise healthy.

The germs causing these diseases vary a great deal, but all depend on the warmth and moisture of the sexual organs for survival. They readily penetrate the delicate skin and moist membranes that come in contact during sexual intercourse.

Once the germs have invaded the tissues of the sex organs, they propagate and spread to other tissues, even throughout the body in some cases.

The sexually transmitted diseases cause various kinds of suffering with tragic results as damage to an unborn child, infertility and even premature death. Once established in a person’s body, the disease tends to persist, if untreated, for the duration of life. Syphilis and Gonorrhoea are the bestknown venereal diseases, but the range also includes genital herpes, candidiasis and warts, as well as trichomoniasis, chancroid, staphylococcal infections and Lymphogranuloma venereum.

In spite of our present knowledge of these diseases and in spite of the availability of effective treatment, the number of cases of sexually transmitted illness has increased so alarmingly that they are virtually out of control. Changes in public attitudes towards sexual matters, widespread use of contraceptive pills and the emergence of resistant strains of organisms seem to have contributed to the increase of these diseases.

The symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases vary, depending on the causative agent. There may be abnormal discharge from the sexual organ, with foul odour and itching sensations, as in Gonorrhoea, Trichomoniasis and Candidiasis.

There may be ulcers and pinching sensations as in Genital Herpes Simplex, Staphylococcus, Syphilis, Chancroid and Granuloma inguinale. Thirdly, there are those characterized by the appearance of lumps and bumps in the private parts, as observed in cases of genital warts and Lymphogranuloma venereum.

Prevention It should be well understood that when a sexually transmitted disease is diagnosed in a man or woman, the disease has probably already passed on to the sexual partner, it is therefore important that both should treated to prevent re-infection.

Also, it is strongly advised that any suspicion of a venereal disease or of possible exposure to infection, calls for urgent medical attention. In fact, prolonged cases of venereal infections have been shown to predispose one to more dangerous infections such as HIV/AIDS. Treatment/Control In Holistic Lifecare, it is strongly advocated that in order to avoid suffering in the midst of plenty, we must turn to NATURE. Some of the natural remedies being advanced for the treatment and control of sexually transmitted diseases include the extracts of local herbs such as Allium cepa, Senna alata and Plumbago zeylanica.

For further information and consultation on Holistic Lifecare research and services, especially on Blood Infections, Infertility, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Chronic Debilitating Conditions as well as mental and social problems, please call on: 0803-330-3897 or visit: Mosebolatan Holistic Lifecare Centre, Adeyalo Layout, Ogbere-Tioya, Off Olorunsogo Express Bridge, Ibadan. Website: www.holisticlifecare.com. Distance is no barrier, we can send remedies by courier if need be.

We also have facilities for accommodation, admission and hospitalization in a serene and homely environment.

54

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

T

HE V-shaped demar cation is just about seven feet. The area is protected by eight pillars, four on both sides. At the head of the demarcation is a metal gate. There is nothing unique or out of place about this place only that great efforts had been taken to preserve and keep the place.

This, the legend says, is the final burial ground of the famous Biblical Queen of Sheba. The great queen who, having heard about the great wisdom of King Solomon, King of Israel, came on to his kingdom to find out for herself.

In Oke Eri in the Ijebu North East Local Government Area of Ogun State, less than two kilometres from Ijebu Ode , off the Ijebu Ode-Ibadan Road, she is known as Bilikisu Sungbo.

Bilikisu Sugbo grave, due to this legend, has become a tourist attraction for many who come from far and near to visit the place. To add fillip to the story that the Queen of Sheba was buried there, many come to the grave side to offer prayers.

According to the keeper of the place, whatever one asks from God while praying at the grave, will be provided.

This legend and the belief that the place has some mystical power have continued to draw visitors to the place.

There is a large covering for the place built with huge metals and covered with corrugated iron sheets. This was done many years ago and it actually could do with a little bit of renovation.

To get there, one could charter a vehicle from Ijebu Ode to Oke Eri. From the Ijebu-Ibadan Road, Oke Eri is off the road. Having entered the community, the Bilkisu Sungob grave is out-

area could serve as a reserved area.

Although the people are convinced that the history passed down to them by their ancestors is authentic, one cannot but be sceptical since there are no enough evidence directly linking this legendary Bilikisi Sungbo to the Biblical Queen of Sheba.

For instance, how can the final resting place of the legendary queen be so far away from where the stories of the Bible or the Quran were written. Also what made the Queen of Sheba choose this small community in Ijebu Ode as her final abode?

Many are asking.

However, many would egually ask what solid evidence does anybody have that the person lying beneath the earth deep in the forest of Oke Eri is not the Queen of Sheba. This probably is what has made the site to have touristic values coupled with the mystic aspect of the grave.

In addition, the legendary Bilikisu Sungbo,a great woman, has left her legacy •The entrance to Bilikisu Sungbo

Oke Eri: Queen of Sheba sleeps here? side the community on the road to Imope. The gate to the compound has decayed and it is falling. Behind the gate, the security post has collapsed.

Entering the compound, the whole place has been overtaken by weeds. On the

left, the building, said to be chalets, has collapsed. By its side is an abandoned structure. At the opposite side is the gate to the grave painted white. At the arch above the white painted gate, there is a vague inscription telling visitors that the place is the

resting place of the Queen of Sheba. Behind the gate is a kind of construction project that had reached the roofing stage before it was abandoned, leaving the skeleton of the wood for the roof hanging awkwardly. The keeper would tell any visitor to re-

Tourism News

move his or her shoes before entering. Surprisingly, behind the abandoned project is a path to the grave.It is well-kept. From the gate to the grave is about 100 metres. The whole area is surrounded by bush. Outside the Bilikisu Sugbo grave

‘

According to the keeper of the place, whatever one asks from God while praying at the grave, will be provided

’

Nigerians advised to invest in Hackney

T

HE first Nigerian female speaker of a British Borough, Mrs. Susan Fajana, has called on Nigerians interested in investing in London to come to Hackney, as they are guaranteed good business clime and a return on investment.

Fajana said this recently during the opening of the London office of Peacock Travels Limited. She said Hackney, being centrally located in London ,offers investors huge opportunity for business and return on investments.

She said: “Hackney is located in the heart of London; it is hard to find a place with more exciting prospects than Hackney. Hackney’s central position makes it a strategically important commercial

centre. Hackney is a good location for Peacock with its good access to markets and its diversity makes it a magnet for people from all over the world.

“There is good access to markets here in Hackney and the council is working to provide substantive help to Hackney businesses. London is a good location for business.

International businesses like to locate to London, for its rich skills base.

“As a British- Nigerian, I am extremely proud to see a Nigerian such as Chief Segun Phillips with such a vision and investment in my borough.”

However, she advised any potential entrepreneur interested in setting up business in London to acquire the necessarily competence since the

person would be competing in the global market.

In addition, Hackney is hosting almost a third of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The borough will receive millions of new visitors and will be the focus of a global audience.

Fajana further said being a Nigerian had given a no dual advantage and support.

She continued: “ An example was in March when I had an international evening to celebrate Hackney communities. I enjoyed excellent support from Nigerians in the UK. In addition, as the first Ekiti person in the UK to rise to the position of a speaker (civic mayor), I was celebrated by Ekiti.

“The Governor sent a representative; the Deputy Gov-

ernor, Her Excellency, Mrs Funmilayo Olayinka, Chief Afe Babalola and two other members of the Ekiti House of Assembly were in attendance.”

She urged Nigeria to learn from her experience as councillor and speaker of her Hackney.

“Nigeria can learn the meaning of the word ‘Democracy’ and ‘Social Equality’ from our political system here in the UK. Let Nigerian politicians step out of their selfcentredness, corruption and lack of accountability and work to put an end to the vicious cycle of poor health, poverty and social exclusion.

As a nation, Nigeria needs to support her people, build capabilities and empower communities,”she said.

•Ekiti State Deputy Governor Mrs. Funmilayo Olayinka and Mrs Susan Fajana

55

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

•The entrance to the complex

for posterity.

To a British archaeologist, Dr. Patrick Darling of Bournemouth University, there is almost no doubt that the Bilikisu Sugbo grave in Oke Eri is the burial site of the Queen of Sheba. To him, some of the signs on ground when he visited it in 1994 were not far away from what he expected. And he has ticked it as the most likely

•Raifu Rufai, the keeper of the site

‘

We have living proofs that it was a powerful kingdom, and there are many links that have similarities to the Queen of Sheba legend

site in the absence of another to contradict it.

“We have living proofs that it was a powerful kingdom, and there are many links that have similarities to the Queen of Sheba legend,” he was quoted as saying.

Some of the features he cited as examples included the mud wall stretching over 100 miles. According to him, “The earthwork, which is larger than the pyramids in Egypt, was built in remembrance of some great figures. Stories talk of a powerful goddess.”

An expert in classical studies, one Andrew Wilson, agrees with Darling to a reasonable extent. “There is always some elements of truth passed down through generations. I would not disregard the notion that she lived in West Africa.” While the claim by scholars that

’

the Queen of Sheba was a black and wealthy woman was also a sort of evidence, Darling pointed out that the belief in the local area that Bilikisu Sugbo is indeed the Queen of Sheba is also another evidence.

His words: “I don’t want to overplay the Sheba theory, but it cannot be discounted.

The local people believe it and that’s what is important.”

To those who may not know, the story of Queen of Sheba is told in both the Bible and the Quran. Identified as Queen of Sheba in the Bible, and Bilqis in the Quran, her story in relationship with the one acclaimed to be with an unparalleled level of wisdom, King Solomon, is prominent, even though with different versions. Reference is made to her in the Hebrew Bible, First Kings 10:1-13 (largely cop-

ied in 2 Chronicles 9:1–12).

And in the Quran, reference is made to her in the 34th chapter.

While one account said she set out on a journey to King Solomon, having been awed by his renowned level of wisdom, another said King Solomon invited her, having heard about the amount of power she wielded and the fact that she and her people worshipped Sun. Solomon was said to have also shown appreciation, giving out gifts and everything that she desired.

But while the account of the Bible says after the visit, she went back to her country, another account holds that a relationship soon started, leading to the birth of some children for King Solomon.

Now where was her country? To start with, Biblical accounts point to the fact that the Queen of Sheba was a black woman.

The community head of Oke Eri, Baale Olaitan is not a happy man. He says that despite the huge tourism potential of the place, no serious effort has been made to develop the place to the status it deserves as a site. He is angry with the former governor of Ogun State,Otunba Gbenga Daniel, who he said promised to develop the place. He started and then abandoned it, leaving it in a worse condition than he met it.

He appealed to the present administration of Ogun State to help develop the place to a world class tourist site.

The Baale, with a tinge of disappointment, said he was tired talking about the place as all efforts in the past to draw the attention of both the Nigerian Commission for Museum and Monument (NCMM) have not yielded positive results.

“Look, I don’t feel like talking about the place any more. I have been the Baale here for 40 years. There is nothing we have not done to make the place get the desired attention. I am now pleading with Governor Ibikunle Amosu to please come and do something here. We need good roads and we need the place to be developed,”the Baale said.

ment Commission (NDDC), Dr. Chris Oboh, has identified tourism as one other way to enrich the people of the Niger Delta region.

He said this could be done through sustainable development of the tourist assets of the region. He said the NDDC was keen to do this in the Niger Delta.

Oboh spoke through his representative, Mr. Aniete Usen, at the second Calabar International Tourism Conference held in Calabar, the Cross River State capital.

The NDDC boss said tourism is the back bone for the development of infrastructure: world class roads, world class air, land and rail transportation, world class hospitals, schools, water supplyand so

Dr. Oboh Dan AILEMEN on.

He said as far back as 2005, Indian tourism industry alone was employing more than 11million full time workers.

“Imagine how promotion of tourism would impact the high

unemployment situation in the Niger Delta,” he stressed.

He was concerned about the level of education and awareness in the region, “Even at the tertiary education and senior government levels, we are hardly aware of the place of tourism in modern economy, talk less of making it part of our curricular or socio-economic awareness campaigns in the media. Our people must be made to know that tourism has emerged worldwide as an instrument for employment generation, poverty alleviation and sustainable human development,”he said. he called for greater awareness so that the people would know the importance of tourism to economic development: “There should be radio and

S

TARWOOD Hotels and Resorts, owners of three international hospitality brands currently in the country: Sheraton, Le Meridien and Four Point By Sheraton, will open a new hotel in the ancient town of Benin city.

The 160 room-hotel will be a Four Point By Sheraton brand and will be opened in 2015.

This news was broken by the West African Regional Manager of the hospitality group, Mr. Alexander Gasseur, at a press conference.

Currently, Starwood has five hotels it is managing in Nigeria. Gasseur said: “We are always looking for new hotels to manage, but it must be the partner and the right environment. Unless these are available, we will not take a hotel. We are not there just to take any hotel; we are looking at the opportunity for a win-win situation.”

On the viability of some of these new hotels in less cosmopolitan cities like Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, Gasseur said the prospect for the success of such hotels was high based on the anticipated steady growth of population and the economy of the country. He said having such hotels in Nigerian cities would impact positively on the cities as the hotels would not only create employment opportunities, but also boost the economy.

Gasseur also used the opportunity to present the new General Manager of Four Point by Sheraton, Victoria Island.

He is Mr. Christian Tomandl. Tomandl, an Austrian, has been in and out of Nigeria in the last 30 years. He was the Deputy Manager of Sheraton Abuja Hotel from 2007 to 2008 before moving to Casablanca, the Moroccan capital. He also worked in Oran, Algeria before returning back to Nigeria as the general manager of the Four Point by Sheraton On the tourism in Nigeria, Gasseur said the Nigerian reputation externally was not positive due to hygiene, health, security situation and difficulty in securing the Nigerian visa.”

He said Nigeria should develop its tourism in areas such as conference tourism by working to make Abuja a conference hub for West Africa just as Cairo, Egypt serves North Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for East Africa and South Africa. He said there was potential for Nigeria to develop its tourism through areas such as Nigerians in the Diaspora visiting home.

•From left: Alex Gasseur, Nanji Tyem and Christian Tomandl

US group leads Nigerian team to FIME

A

Tourism News You can enrich Niger Delta people through managing director of tourism, says NDDC boss the Niger Delta DevelopTHE

Starwood to open another hotel in Benin

television jingles by government and tourism NGOs to the effect that tourism promotes international understanding and gives support to local handicrafts and cultural activities; and that it is an important segment of the country’s economy, in terms of its contribution towards foreign exchange earnings, generation of additional income and creation of employment opportunities” he said.

For a sustainable tourism potential of the country to be to be developed and sustained, Oboh wants to see a comprehensive survey of tourist attractions which involves, Identify existing and potential tourism sites, Conduct detailed profitability studies on each area of opportunity and define exact standards and specifications to which these sites must be developed from the point of view of the leisure tourists.

S one of the measures to promote sustainable healthcare delivery in the country and boost health tourism, the U.S Commercial Service of the United States Mission to Nigeria, plans to lead an official Nigerian delegation to this year’s edition of the Florida International Medical Exhibitions (FIME) and trade fair.

The event is the largest international medical congress in the United States. The Nigerian team among other engagements would establish some synergy with their counterparts thereby building bridges to promote best practices in healthcare delivery and seek foreign direct investment (FDI) for the industry.

The exposition scheduled to be held from August 8 - 10, 2012 at the Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami, Florida, offers over 3,600 healthcare products covering disposable surgical products, emergency systems, laboratory, dental, rehabilitation, orthopedic, imaging, biomedical, pharmaceutical products and healthcare service providers.

Mr. Anayo Agu, Senior Commercial Specialist who confirmed this in Lagos expressed hope that the convention would benefit Nigerian healthcare professionals and stakeholders including importers and distributors of medical, dental, laboratory and pharmaceutical products.

Others who would benefit from the world’s medical marketplace are directors of hospitals, dental clinics and laboratory firms, top government officials (ministers, governors, commissioners, permanent secretaries, etc) responsible for healthcare services.

Doctors, pharmacists, dental and laboratory technologists, CEOs of health management organizations, and CEOs of NonGovernmental Organizations supporting healthcare industry, orthopedic product suppliers, imaging suppliers, medical services providers, biomedical product suppliers, pharmaceutical suppliers, trade facilitators and tourism consumers.

56

THE NATION SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

Safety, the British Airways way Adeniyi ADESINA

T

HE British Airways (BA) has a safety record that is unmatched in the aviation industry.

Why this is so is not farfetched given the type of facilities available at the British Airways Maintenance in Cardiff (BAMC) and at the British Airways Flight Training at Heathrow, London.

They confirm how seriously the airline takes its key objectives - safety and maintenance- which indeed are crucial in the aviation industry.

The BAMC is a subsidiary, funded 100 per cent by the BA. Long-haul aircraft like the 747-777 series undergo checks and interior refit there.

The BAMC is a massive company with an average annual budget of 70 million pounds spent mainly to maintain the aircraft in the BA fleet.

The BAMC is goal oriented. Its priority is to ensure safe, reliable and clean aircraft; timely delivery, costcontrolled and flexible operation.

The BAMC has succesfully assisted BA to shrug off the stiff challenge posed to it by its competitors in the industry.

The BA is in serious supremacy battle in the Far East with SASCO and HAECO; In the Middle East with Emirates and GAMECO and with TAECO in the Chinese market. In Europe, the BA is in huge contest with German Airline Lufthansa, which acquired KLM to deepen its market share and capacity.

According to Mr. Michael Roberts, the Head of maintenance at the BAMC, 20 new Boeing 777-300 series are the latest aircraft waiting to be fixed after the BAMC won the bid for them - following a tough competition.

In addition, the BAMC is anticipating the start of the maintenance of Boeing 787 and A380 aircraft.

The BAMC’s achievements last year include input in 74 BA’s 767,777 and 747 fleet and 11 heavy maintenance D checks.

This year, the company anticipates 21heavy maintenance checks and 78 inputs for 767,777 and 787 fleets.

There will also be Prime First class cabin modifications

for twenty 747 and 777 aircraft.

Inside the huge complex of BAMC, input and refits were nearing completion on a new 777 aircraft when the reporter visited the plant on April 22. It was two days to delivery of the plane to undertake its first ever flight.

The plane’s interior is in four compartments – the first class, the business class, the recently- introduced economy plus class and the economy class.

It is also at the BAMC where fully- flat beds in both the business and first cabins are fixed; and BA is the only airline that has that facility on board.

Officials said the BA plans to invest more than five billion pounds in new aircraft with smarter cabins, over the next five years.

Part of the investment will also be in the provision of elegant lounges and new technologies to make life more comfortable in the air and on the ground for its passengers.

Enhancement of catering for customers onboard is also a top priority of BA. For general maintenance at the BAMC, it takes an average of 38 days to conduct a C or D check on an airplane.

Training and re-training of personnel is taken seriously by the BA. Its flight and cabin crew members are exposed to some of the most advanced training facilities in the world.

The trainings are carried out at United Kingdom’s largest flight training centre in Heathrow, London.

The training centre, also wholly owned by the BA, holds 14 full motion flight simulators, each equipped with 10 million pounds of the world’s most impressive technology.

Mr. Andy Clubb takes charge at the BA flight training centre, where a comprehensive flight safety awareness course has also been developed for companies that are conscious of health and safety and keeping their personnel safe while travelling.

Those on such trainings get the opportunity to experience a simulated aircraft emergency on a full-motion cabin simulator. They are also debriefed on safety advice, information and tech-

•A full motion flight simulator for training at Heathrow, London

•An aircraft undergoing check at the BAMC

niques.

Other features of the training programme include opening aircraft doors and overwing exits, fitting lifejackets, jumping down emergency evacuation slides and walking through smoke-filled cabins.

British Airways was created in 1974 following the merger of British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and the British Eu-

ropean Airways Corporation (BEA) under the British Airways Board It is the largest United Kingdom-based airline in terms of fleet size, international flights, and international destinations. Until 2008, it was the largest airline by passenger numbers.

The airline flew 34.6 million passengers that year.

British Airways serves nearly 150 destinations. It is

If you book early on any of our routes, I’m sure that the rate you pay will be quite different from a customer that books within a few hours to the flight; the best way to verify this is by going online to compare our rates

one of only ten carriers to fly to all six continents.

The combined International Airlines Group entity that BA is now a part of, operates over 400 aircraft, carries over 62 million passengers annually, and serves more than 200 destinations.

The airline has been flying the Lagos-London route for 75 years and it is the airline of choice among generation of Nigerians. It recently added the London-Abuja and London-Port Harcourt routes.

Head of Public Relations of BA for Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific, Ms Helena Fynn, said because of the long-standing relationship between the airline and Nigeria, the face-off over fares would be resolved amicably.

“We are working assiduously to ensure that all issues raised are resolved within the shortest possible

time,” Ms Fynn said.

She advised Nigerian travellers on BA to take advantage of online and early bookings.

According to her, BA fares are competitive and regulated by forces of demand and supply.

Ms Fynn said: “If you book early on any of our routes, I’m sure that the rate you pay will be quite different from a customer that books within a few hours to the flight; the best way to verify this is by going online to compare our rates.

“Our fare offering on the London-Nigerian routes is dynamic. In total, the BA offers up to 40 different fares, across all classes of travel at any one time, each with different conditions such as dates for travel, pre-booking periods and length of stay, which are designed to meet the needs of different passengers.”

57 News

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

PDP frustrating ACN/CPC merger, says Plateau CPC

Sokoto Univesity gets new VC Adamu SULEIMAN, Sokoto

Yusufu Aminu IDEGU, Jos THE Plateau State chapter of the Congress For Progressive Change (CPC) has accused the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of sponsoring internal conflict in CPC so as to frustrate the merger agreement between CPC and ACN. State chairman of the party, Alhaji Mubashiru Aliyu, made this known in a statement issued in Jos yesterday.

According to Alhaji Aliyu, “The ruling PDP is now short of methods and devices to rig and manipulate the 2015 general elections with the emergence of CPC as an albatross to check-mate it.

“So the only option for the ruling party is to sponsor internal rebellion within the CPC so as to weaken the opposition.

“The positive move by CPC to form a formidable merger with ACN is giving PDP and its agents sleepless nights and they deemed it necessary to strike now to destabilised CPC. “When Gen. Mohammed Buhari boldly and clearly told the ruling government that the opposition in Nigeria will not tolerate any attempt to rig the 2015 elections, PDP became jittery and have been devising crude means of clipping the wings of CPC. “We CPC loyalists in Plateau want to use this opportunity to disassociate ourselves from the new national exco of CPC because we’ve found out that the so-called new national exco are paid agents of PDP. “We reiterate that we remain the constitutionally elected national executive chaired by Prince Tony Momoh and that we will not recognise or have anything to do with any illegal and unconstitutional leader of the party at national level”.

‘60,000 maternal deaths occur yearly in Nigeria’ THE president of the Gynaecologists Association of Nigeria, Prof Brian Adinma, has said that 60,000 maternal deaths occur in the country annually as a result of ignorance. Adinma, who was one time Commissioner for Health in Anambra State, dropped the hint yesterday at Ngene town hall in Amawbia, Anambra State during a community sensitisation on prevention of maternal death from unwanted pregnancy.

The exercise was organised by National Council of women Society (NCWS) in collaboration with IPAS Nigeria.

From left: Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun; Commander, Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE), Mr Ayo Sangofadeji; Ogun State Commandant of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr Ayobami Omiyale and Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Mr Okoye Ikemefuna, during a visit to the scene of the fire disaster involving trailers and petrol tankers along Lagos/Ibadan Expressway… yesterday.

Fuel scarsity looms as suppliers drop out

N

IGERIA faces fuel shortages as a crackdown on fraud and the government's lack of funds to pay for subsidies has prompted private firms to halt imports, which could trigger unrest and harm the country's faltering economic expansion.

•Half budget for fuel subsidies this year already spent •Nigeria forced to pay for gasoline with crude oil •Previous efforts to remove budget caused riots, strikes Half the money set aside for fuel subsidies this year has been spent on back payments and will soon run out. But efforts to remove the subsidy at the start of the year failed after protests and strikes forced the government to backtrack.

As a result, reports Reuters, Nigerian and foreign firms are no longer willing to supply and distribute gasoline for cash, making Nigeria wholly dependent on swaps for crude to meet its fuel needs.

Nigeria's Finance Ministry cut its economic growth forecast this month to 6-7 per cent in 2012, from 7-8 per cent earlier, and fuel shortages could bring it down further.

Protests could also erupt, as they have before over the subsidy, a highly emotive issue.

Nigeria is Africa's biggest crude exporter, but is forced to subsidise imports of gasoline to meet the bulk of its fuel needs because it lacks refining capacity.

A probe into the subsidy scheme found billions of dollars had been paid for fuel that never arrived or was resold abroad.

"Under the system it is impos-

sible to make any profit if you are a small company paying interest on the subsidy money owed," said Emmanuel Ogwiji, a director at Eco-Regen, a small firm that imported gasoline last year.

Despite presenting the authorities with documentation proving its activities were regular, his company had to wait half a year to be paid for the delivery.

Gasoline import permits have been issued to 42 marketers this quarter, but barely any have made use of their licences, shipping records show.

Instead, Nigeria has become dependent on a small pool of firms that are being paid for gasoline in oil.

"The government has stopped paying for the subsidy because the money they budgeted for has run out already," said a trader based in Nigeria with an oil major.

"This will definitely lead to shortages. I am hearing people have stopped loading," he added.

Crude is also being used to cover huge demurrage fees incurred by delays arising from ships being forced to wait offshore for weeks at a time before unloading.

At present, there are half a dozen or more tankers waiting offshore to deliver gasoline to Nigeria. Some have been there since April.

With demurrage costs at $16,000-$23,000 per day, significant volumes of oil are being lifted just to pay for delays.

"Only the big companies can survive. Even if you do meet requirements to import, like owning tank storage, you are

still going to make losses. Some companies are still waiting for payments from last year," Ogwiji continued.

A spokesman for the state oil company, Levi Ajuonuma, on Friday denied that any firms could be using crude to buy refined fuel.

"Nothing can be further from the truth than this insinuation that we or any companies are paying for product with crude oil," he said. "Before any ships arrive they should have been paid."

In a statement on Wednesday, the Finance Ministry denied that the crackdown on subsidy fraud was causing fuel shortages.

SWAPS Nigeria has annual crude for product swap deals in place with at least two international oil trading firms - Trafigura and Sahara Oil. Other exchanges are organised on shorter terms and some spot deals may also be negotiated as required.

These are seen to be lucrative for traders as payment in crude is prompt and delivery terms are flexible. They also use crude oil to pay demurrage fees.

"Small firms have to battle for their subsidy money, but with crude it's relatively easy. They pay for everything with oil, including demurrage fees" said a trader.

"You can lift the crude whenever you want, and then deliver the gasoline when they ask for it," said a trader.

Nigeria budgeted 888 billion naira ($5.55 billion)for fuel subsidies this year but it has already spent 451 billion naira on back payments for 2011, the state oil

company and finance ministry said, more than double what it had expected to pay in arrears.

The pool of suppliers delivering gasoline to Nigeria has shrunk as private importers hold out for subsidy payments for fuel aleady delivered, fearful the money may never materialise.

The Nigerian company in charge of arranging swap deals, a unit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, is dealing with just a handful of companies that have the resources to market crude oil received as payment for the fuel.

As a result, deliveries of gasoline have plummeted by over a third, according to the even the most conservative estimates by traders.

"Only a certain number of crude cargoes go against gasoline - I'd say the equivalent of six cargoes of gasoline only, and they need 14 a month of gasoline" said a gasoline trader.

President Goodluck Jonathan, the state-owned oil company NNPC and the Finance M inistry pledged to clean up any inefficiencies, but the latest data shows spending remains out of control.

Africa's biggest crude exporter will need to dip into its oil savings once the budgeted amount runs dry. It has only around $3.5 billion left in the excess crude account (ECA) which is supposed to cushion the economy against sudden oil price falls.

It contained more than $20 billion in 2007 but has been depleted by continual raiding, despite a period of record oil prices.

GOVERNOR Aliyu Wamakko Friday approved the appointment of Prof. Nuhu Yakub as the pioneer Vice Chancellor of the newly established Sokoto State University.

Professor Yakubu was the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja.

A statement issued by the Director of Press Affairs, Abubakar Dangusau in Sokoto, said Prof.

Yakubu's appointment was in exercise of the powers conferred on Governor Wamakko.

"This is by virtue of the powers conferred on the governor and visitor to the University in section 4, sub section 1 of the First Schedule of the Laws of Sokoto State University to appoint a Vice Chancellor."

Similarly, Wamakko in the statement, approved the appointment of Dr. Myra Gordon as a consultant to the University.

"Dr. Myra Gordon is currently an Associate Provost at Kansas State University in the United States of America, USA,” the statement added.

Yar’Adua canvasses for child’s right AS Nigerians join other countries of the world to celebrate the Children’s Day, parents, guardians and Nigerian leaders have been called upon to encourage policies and values capable to guarantee the rights and future of Nigerian child.

Making the call Monday in Lagos, Ambassador Asabe Shehu Yar’Adua said this will reduce the youth restiveness that has characterised most parts of the country. She added: “At the moment, many adults in our country have abandoned this critical, natural and godly role of serving as agents of moral regeneration ethical standard, self-discovery and actualisation.

We have continued to leave undone the duty of nationbuilding through proper and sound and pious up the singular duty of moldings their characters, vision and ways to become good leaders for the next generation.”

Yar’Adua also stressed the need to nurture and protect the Nigerian child as the veritable asset of the country.

According to her, a child represents the dream, wishes and aspirations of what our potentials must be in the future.

“As adults and parents, we have had our time, our primary responsibility and duty now should be to groom our children, whom we dedicate May 27 to celebrate every year, to heroes, visionaries and patriots,” she said.

EFCC arraigns ex-female banker over N125.6m fraud

T

HE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday said it has arraigned a former female banker, Mrs. Marilyn-Joan Obiora before Justice Umar of the Federal High Court in Umuahia, Abia State, on a 15-count charge bordering on conspiracy and fraud of about N125.6million A statement by the Head of Media and Publicity of the commission, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said the suspect is standing trial alone as her cohorts are presently at large.

The statement reads: "The accused person pleaded not guilty to the charge when it was read to her.

"Consequently, the prosecution counsel, C.A Okoli, asked the court to remand her in

Yusuf ALLI, Managing Editor, Northern Operation prison custody pending the commencement of trial.

"Justice Umar remanded the accused following the failure of the defence counsel, Adetayo Oyedele, to present before the court a written application for bail.

"Obiora's arraignment followed a petition by one Mr. Stephen Inegbu, a zonal security supervisor of Diamond Bank Plc in Port Harcourt , on some sharp practices by the suspect and others at large "The sharp practices were detected during a routine examination of customers' accounts in the bank.

"According to Mr. Inegbu, the

bank's inspection unit unravelled three cases of fraud involving the following amounts: N26, 000,000.00 (Twenty Six Million Naira), N91, 600,000.00 (Ninety One Million, Six Hundred Thousand Naira) and N8, 000,000.00 (Eight Million Naira) respectively.

"Further investigations revealed that Marilyn-Joan Obiora masterminded the fraudulent withdrawals that amounted to a total of N125, 600,000.00 (One Hundred and Twenty Five Million, Six Hundred Thousand Naira only), with some help from four other officials of the Bank namely: Eze Nwekwe, Emmanuel Nwosu, Emeka Owo and Emmanuel Okebugwu.

The case was adjourned to July 18th and 19th, 2012, for hearing of bail application and

commencement of trial.

Some of the charges against Marilyn-Joan Obiora and her cohorts read: "That you Marilyn-Joan Obiora and Eze Nwekwe and Emmanuel Nwosu now at large on or about the 26th day of January 2009 at Diamond Bank, Eziukwu Road Aba, within the jurisdiction of this honorable court in your capacity as officials did conspire to commit felony to wit stealing contrary to s. 390(9) of the Criminal Code Cap 38 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (Revised Edition) 2007 when read along with section 15(1) of the failed Banks (Recovery of Debts) and Financial Malpractices in Banks, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (Revised Edition) 2007".

"That you Marilyn-Joan Obiora and Emeka Owo now at large on or about the 13th day of May 2010 at Diamond Bank, Eziukwu Road Aba, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court did and in your position as an officer and business manager of the said Diamond Bank did steal N6, 000,000.00 (Six Million Naira) from a Diamond Bank Account belonging to Mrs. Olubukola Nwoke and thereby committed an offence contrary to s. 390(9) of the Criminal Code Cap C38 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (Revised Edition) 2007 when read along with section 15(1) of the failed Banks (Recovery of Debts) and Financial Malpractices in Banks, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (Revised Edition) 2007".

"That you Marilyn-Joan Obiora and Emmanuel Okebugwu now at large on or about the 29th day of December, 2008, at Diamond Bank, Eziukwu Road Aba, within the jurisdiction of this honorable court did and in your position as an officer and business manager of the said Diamond Bank did steal N20,000,000.00 (Twenty Million Naira) from a Diamond Bank Account 0781100000468 and thereby committed an offence contrary to s. 390(9) of the Criminal Code Cap C38 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (Revised Edition) 2007 when read along with section 15(1) of the failed Banks (Recovery of Debts) and Financial Malpractices in Banks, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (Revised Edition) 2007".

58 NEWS

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

Engage in developmental projects ers given to them as the local litical office holders make efHE Oyo State ALGON council is commitment to the forts to help in addressing the T Chairman, Hon Yekeen advancement of education. needs and aspirations of the Popoola, has called on the politicians to engage in developmental projects that would help in ameliorating the suffering of the rural poor in Nigeria.

Popoola made this known yesterday at the donation of a 12 Pentium computers given to Lagbuke Memorail High Schools One and Two, Lagbuke, Oyo State.

According to him, we would rid our society of social miscreants and hooligans, if po-

StarTimes prepares for digitalised transmission

S

tarTimes, one of Nigeria’s leading pay-tv providers, has reduced the price of its decoder from N7000 to N3900.

This was done ahead of the January 1, 2015 deadline for digitalized transmission of television broadcast announced by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

According to the Brand Manager, Bayo Okeowo, the reduction was based on its preparedness digitalised transmission and its goal of ensuring that every Nigerian has the decoder in his house.

“This would avail every Nigerian not to be left out in the “GoodTime” of great sports, movies, music, news and so on for the enjoyment and broadcast of quality programmes.

people at the grassroots.

Popoola, who is also the the Chairman, Irepo Local Government, also implored the principals of the schools to make good use of the comput-

The ceremony which was fun and exciting had The Chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria in the local government, Alhaji Busari Gboyelade, career officals and people from different walks of life.

FOREIGN

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

News 59

Two Nigerians arrested in Benin for kidnap of US citizens

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WO Nigerians were among those arrested in Benin Republic for the kidnap of a United States

of America (US) national.

The US citizen was kidnapped last week in the country and was freed by

Zambia: ex-leader’s son Andrew Banda arrested

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NDREW Banda, a son of Zambia’s exPresident Rupiah Banda and the deputy high commissioner to India, has been arrested in Lusaka for corruption.

Mr Banda is accused of taking a bribe from an Italian road construction firm of more than $30,000 (£20,000).

He denies corruption, saying the payment was made by Fratelli Locci as a commission to his logistics company.

His father stood down as president last year after losing presidential elections to Michael Sata in September.

President Sata has launched a anti-corruption drive since coming to power that has seen a number of former ministers investigated and some arrested.

However, opponents of the government feel he is targeting the former leader and his associates as a way of settling political scores.

Police said the businessman and diplomat was also arrested for failing to account for $70,000 in his personal bank account.

“Andrew Banda has been formally arrested and

charged for corrupt practices and being in possession of property suspected to be proceeds of crime,” Namukolo Kasumpa, a spokeswoman for Zambia’s police criminal investigations department, told reporters.

Police say he took a 2% cut from all Fratelli Locci’s roadbuilding contracts, but Mr Banda said the money was paid for the services he provided in helping the company register in the country.

His younger brother, Henry, is also wanted by police on a different set of corruption allegations and an international arrest warrant has been issued after he failed to come forward for questioning.

Reacting to his son’s arrest, Rupiah Banda said he had not been in touch with him for “a long time now so I am not really following what is happening,” “But the courts have many people’s sons and daughters, everybody goes before the police, so let’s not make this an issue,” he told reporters.

Andrew Banda was later released on bail, his lawyer Sakwiba Sikota said

Facebook users suffer service disruptions

F

FACEBOOK has suffered a series of service disruptions which left many people unable to use the social network.

The problems meant that the site was unreachable for some people for almost two hours.

Sporadic disruptions were reported by many people and even those who could get through said pages were taking a long time to load.

News of problems getting at and using Facebook spread quickly as people took to Twitter, news sites and blogs to express their frustration.

“Facebook is acting like its stock. It keeps going down,” quipped one Twitter user.

Website watching sites

such as Downrightnow and Downforeveryoneorjustme reported that the site was intermittently available for a period of several hours.

In a statement, Facebook said some users “briefly experienced issues loading the site” but these had been resolved and it should be working fine for everyone. It gave no details about what had caused the problems.

Facebook has a reputation for reliability and the problems come at a sensitive time for the company. It is under intense scrutiny given the poor performance of its stock following its flotation on the Nasdaq stock exchange 18 May. The stock has fallen almost 23% since its debut.

China ‘arrests high-level US spy’ in Hong Kong

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CHINESE security ministry official has been arrested on suspicion of spying for the US and passing on state secrets, Hong Kong media reports say.

The man, who was private secretary to a vice-minister in the security ministry, was arrested earlier this year, various press reports say.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declined to comment on the reports.

If confirmed, it would be the third major incident to hit China-US relations in the past few months.

It would also be the highestlevel spy case involving China and the US to become public since 1985, when intelligence official Yu Qiangsheng de-

fected to the US. The official had been recruited by the CIA, local press and Reuters report.

Hong Kong-based Oriental Daily quotes the monthly New Way as saying on 25 May that the official “fell into a pretty woman trap” set up by the CIA. After the two were photographed in secret liaisons, he was blackmailed and agreed to supply secret information to the US, the reports say.

The official was arrested between January and March on allegations that he had passed information to the US for several years on China’s overseas espionage activities, Hong Kong press and Reuters report.

security forces, an official of the country’s security agency said.

The man, who has not been identified, is believed to have traveled to the West African nation after reportedly being targeted by cyber criminals.

His kidnappers forced him to contact his family for

a ransom, police said.

Pierre Dovonou, an expert on cybercrime based in Benin, told an agency reporter that, as a result of the Nigerian police crackdown on internet fraudsters, many had crossed over the border and were working from the former French colony.

“The kidnapped American

has just been found in (the south-west] Mono region and two of his kidnappers, Nigerians, were arrested and are in the hands of the police in Benin,” a spokesperson for Benin’s interior ministry, Franck Kinninvo said.

“He was found with the combined efforts of the FBI and Benin police,” Mr

Kinninvo said.

The details of the case are unclear, a spokesperson for the US embassy in Nigeria said.

Security sources also said that the man had travelled to Benin to meet up with a group of people from that country and Nigerians that he had met on the internet.

•The victims of the massacre in Houla being laid to rest in a mass grave on May 28, 2012

T

HE UN Human Rights Council has called for an investigation into the killing of more than 100 civilians at Houla, and condemned Syria for the massacre.

The forum passed the resolution with a big majority and wants investigators to identify the perpetrators.

Earlier the UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, said the killings in Houla may amount to crimes against humanity.

She urged the international community to “make all efforts to end impunity” and “ensure accountability for perpetrators” of such “atrocities”.

Residents of the village of Taldou, in Houla, said militiamen had been sent in early on Saturday after the Syrian army unleashed a barrage of heavy weapons late on Friday in response to a local anti-government protest.

‘Criminal liability’ Ms Pillay’s office reported on Tuesday that UN investigators had found most of the 108 victims had been shot at close range or stabbed.

“These acts may amount to crimes against humanity and other international crimes, and may be indicative of a pattern of widespread or systematic attacks against civilian populations that have been perpetrated with impunity,” Ms Pillay said, in a speech to the council read out

UN calls for investigation into Houla killings in Syria by a representative.

The victims of the massacre in Houla are laid to rest in a mass grave (28 May 2012) A government investigation into the Houla massacre blamed armed rebels Those who ordered attacks were “individually criminally liable”, she added, and urged the UN Security council to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC), a move opposed by Russia and China.

As Syria is not a state party to the ICC the court has no jurisdiction to indict its citizens without a Security Council referral.

Meanwhile opposition activists said there had been another mass killing of civilians by pro-government militiamen.

Thirteen factory workers were forced off a bus and executed on Thursday in alBuwaida al-Sharqiya, near the western town of Qusair, they said.

Several videos posted online showed bodies with severe wounds to the head and stomach, consistent with being shot at close range.

In the vote, 41 members voted in favour of the US-

backed resolution condemning Syria, while Russia, China and Cuba voted against it. Two other countries abstained and one was absent.

The resolution also specifies that there should be an “international, transparent, independent and prompt investigation”.

The UN and Arab League envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, said he was frustrated at the continued violence despite the acceptance by all sides of his six-point peace plan, under which a ceasefire came into force in April.

Foreign arms blamed On Thursday, a Syrian government investigation into the Houla massacre blamed armed rebel groups seeking to trigger foreign military intervention.

The US permanent representative to the UN, Susan Rice, dismissed the finding as a “blatant lie”.

Syria’s representative to the Human Rights Council attacked the resolution’s sponsors, among them Turkey and Qatar, saying they bore responsibility for some of the deaths, because, he claimed, they had been supplying weapons to rebel

groups.

Syria’s ambassador to the UN, Faisal al-Hamwi: “The objective behind these efforts is the cheap political ploy of targeting Syria” “No rational person could believe what is being said by some of the sponsors of this session... it is truly despicable,” Faisal al-Hamwi said.

Russia has blocked Security Council action against Syria’s government, and the Russian foreign ministry appears to support Damascus over Houla.

It issued a statement saying: “The tragedy in Houla showed what can be the outcome of financial aid and smuggling of modern weapons to rebels, recruitment of foreign mercenaries and flirting with various sorts of extremists”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia was not supporting any side in the conflict. And he denied that Russia was supplying Syria with arms “which can be used in a civilian conflict”.

Earlier this week, Western diplomats and a human rights organisation reported that a Russian ship carrying arms docked at the Syrian port of Tartus.

Insurgents attack NATO base in Afghanistan

A

FGHAN officials say a suicide car bomber and other suspected insurgents attacked a NATO base outside the eastern city of Khost on yesterday.

A NATO spokesman says that 14 suspected insurgents were killed in clashes at the

base before Afghan and coalition forces repelled the attackers.

The French news agency says seven Afghan civilians were killed. As many as 30 people were injured.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

The ongoing violence in Afghanistan has raised concerns about the ability of Afghan forces to handle security after NATO pulls combat troops out of the country by the end of 2014.

On Thursday, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said

civilian casualties from the Afghan conflict remain at “unacceptably high levels.”

UNAMA said it documented more than 3,000 conflictrelated civilian deaths last year, three-quarters linked to violence by anti-government forces.

60

THE NATION, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

THE NATION SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

61

EQUITIES NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 1-6-12

NSE continues gradual descents shed 0.5%

U

NLIKE the positive opening that welcomed the first transaction day in the month of May when the All-ShareIndex gained 1.38 per cent, the market closed yesterday's (first day of June) transaction in the south, shedding 0.46 per cent to extend the losing streak to 4-day out of the four transaction sessions, this week.

Feelers in the market, is that what does this portend for the month of June? We hope not a downward omen as Q2 results are expected deep in July.

At Friday's close (21,963.87 points), the ASI retraced to 5-week low, dated back to April 25, 2012, when it opened at 21,895.41 points.

The 22,000 psychological points that provided a support points in May has now been broken.

However, the downturn was necessitated by losses in Transcorp, Cadbury, Nigerian Breweries, UBA and

By Taofik Salako and Tonia Osundolire

Oando as traders booked temporal profits.

In summary, ASI shed additional 102.53 absolute points, to close lower at 21,963.87. Similarly, the Market Capitalization of listed equities shed N32 billion representing 0.45 per cent decline, to close lower at N7.005 trillion against previous closed of N7.037 trillion.

Specifically, Transcorp once again emerged top on the volume traded list with volumes in excess of 146.4 million units exchanging hands; however, profit taking by market participants took its toll on the share price sending it for a 4.9 per cent correction in value to close at the day's lower limit of N0.97.

Institutional bid interest, according to operators, not only pulled GTBank out of the doldrums, it also man-

aged to record a marginal lift of 1.3 per cent to close at N15.19. Fidelity Bank, Unity Bank, Wema Bank and Stanbic IBTC closed on a relatively flat note. Zenith Bank on the other end went under the market scalpel for a 54kobo reduction in price to close at N13.45 while the likes of Skye Bank, UBA and Union Bank also shed marginal points.

For the consumer goods Nascon, Dangote Flour, Cadbury and Flour Mill ended the day in negative territory; Nestle on the other end was able to hold its own at N425.00 as volumes on "offer" were less than 20,000 units.

UPL led the list of 16 gainers with a gain of N0.19 to close at N3.99 followed by Bagco with a gain of N0.10 to close at N2.10.

Others on the list were Glaxosmith, Berger, Japaul Oil, Sterling Bank, May & Baker, Prestige, Honeywell Flour and Neimeth.

On the flip side, NASCON let 26 other losers with a drop of N0.22 to close at N4.20. This was followed by Oando with a drop of N0.84 to close at N16.06. Also on the list were NCR, GT Assurance, Transcorp, UAC-Property, FCMB, AG Leventist, Redstar Express and Cutix.

NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 1-6-12

THE NATION SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

62

SPORT EXTRA Siasia, Lagos FA boss hail Apapa Chairman’s Cup final …As FC Bethel lifts trophy

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MMEDIATE past Super Eagles coach, Samson Siasia has commended Hon. Ayodeji Joseph for giving the youth a platform to excel with the hosting and successful completion of the 2nd edition of the Apapa Chairman’s Cup. Siasia who was the special guest of honour at the final which saw FC Bethel defeating Eskay Babes 2-1 to cart home a giant trophy and the sum of N250,000 as prize money.

According to Siasia, “Lagos state has been the pinnacle of football in Nigeria and Apapa Chairman taking the lead is a feat that deserves commendation.

The Chairman even blew our minds by presenting a brand new 32-seater bus to the Apapa Golden Stars team, that’s just what the youth need to excel.

This is a great challenge to other Local Government Chairmen in Lagos and in Nigeria as a whole.”

For Lagos Football Association Chairman, Bar. Seyi Akinwunmi, “the Apapa Chairman Hon. Ayodeji Joseph has been one of our principal partners in Lagos in terms of grassroots football development with his unalloyed sponsorship of the Apapa Golden Stars in the Lagos Junior League. I urge the players and official to be more dedicated because not all teams in playing in the Nigerian leagues have this privilege to have a brand new team bus.”

Other dignitaries in attendance included, exFlying Eagles’ star, Waheed Akanni, Pastor Stephen Ojo, a youth scout from Barcelona based in Ireland, FIFA Football licensed agent, Omijie, ACN Party Leader and top government functionaries from the state.

Earlier, Royal Strikers defeated Badia All Stars 2-1 to win the third place trophy and prize of N100,000 while Eskay Babes smiled home with N150,000 and silver trophy.

Dominion Faith FC were adjudged the Best behaved Team, FC Bethel Captain Hussain Osaro Lukmon won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award while his teammate Seyi Oluwasegun lift the Highest Goalscorer award after scoring 7 goals in the competition.

Victor Moses: We‘ll overrun Namibia

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IGAN ATHLETIC star Victor Moses has said Nigeria have enough quality to overrun Namibia in a World Cup qualifier on Sunday.

Moses, who will be gunning for his second international cap for Nigeria, told MTNFootball.com in an exclusive interview: "From what I have seen of our training sessions, I have no doubt that we will run down the Brave Warriors on Sunday.

"I know we have the quality and talent to do the job on Sunday and we are focused on doing it for Nigerians."

Moses made his long awaited Eagles debut as a late substitute against Rwanda in February in a 2013 Africa Nations Cup qualifier, which ended goalless.

The Wigan Athletics winger told MTNFootball.com he is now itching for his home debut.

"I can't wait to play at home.

You know I never had the

chance even though was close to featuring in the game against Zambia, but am happy and hungry to play in front of my a packed stadium with Nigerians cheering" Victor Moses has

200 teams storm Lagos for GUFAF final qualifiers

T

HE final leg of qualifiers of the Gulder Ultimate Five Aside Football (GUFAF) competition got off to a blistering start as more than 200 teams trooped to the practice pitch of the Nigerian Institute of Sports (NIS), National Stadium venue of the competition.

With the crowd that thronged the venue of the event, the competition seems to have cemented its reputation as Nigerian’s foremost grassroots football competition.

As early as 6 am, the environ of the sports complex was practically taken over by the aspiring football stars as they went about the registration formalities before the takeoff of the games.

Matches were played at the NIS Indoor pitch and Legacy football turf. To accommodate the large number of registered teams which were itching to show off their sublime football skills, the Legacy football turf was divided into two playing pitches. In all, three matches were played simultaneously during the event.

According to Ejiro Omonode, Vice President, Mastersports International, Technical partners with Nigerian Breweries Plc., producers of Gulder Lager beer, the massive turnout was a testimony to the competition’s growing popularity. “I don’t think that there is any doubt that this is Nigeria’s foremost grassroots football competition. This is why we are having such a large crowd of footballers here today and we intend to keep raising the bar of the competition,” he said.

He added that the competition was vital to the nation’s quest of developing its football teams as well as

supplying the nucleus of the nation’s national football teams. “When we talk about grassroots football, it doesn’t just end in the grassroots. We are talking about national development of the country’s football team. If handled correctly, these young lags could very well be the nucleus of Nigeria’s national team,” he added.

While he praised the standard of football on display, he stated that the competition would only get better as it progressed.

“Gulder Five-A-Side is in its third year of existence and we have made giant strides. With the standard of football that we have seen on display, I can say with every confidence that it is only get better,” he said.

In some of the games played on the first day of the Lagos leg of the qualifiers, Danger Babes FC defeated Abina Abayomi by 3-0. Also, Emerald piped Apapa FC 3-0 while Flaming Mary FC also got off on a positive note as they beat DTR FC by a lone goal. Invincible FC also walked away with 3 points after a 4-3 penalty victory against D. Invisible Stars.

Jaiyeoba Timothy emerged as the standout player of the first day of the games in Lagos. The number 9 wearing striker of Danger Babes was also the highest goal scorer after the first day of the competition. He bagged a hat trick in his side’s game.

In all, more than 100 teams made it through the next round of the Lagos qualifiers.

The Lagos leg of the qualifiers which kicked off on Friday June 1, 2012, will be concluded on Sunday June 3, 2012. Two teams are supposed to emerge from Lagos to join two qualifiers each from North Central, South Eastern, South-South, Mid-West and South West zones.

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HE underway Old Port Harcourt Township/ Borokiri Street Football Tournament is said to be geared towards the promotion of unity amongst the inhabitants of the area, especially as it is being organized as a way for the Governor of Rivers state, Rt. Hon Chibuike Amaechi to directly affect the youths of the state through sporting activities.

Speaking on the upcoming Street Football event tagged 'Amaechi's Cup' which recently had its Local Organising Committee, LOC, constituted with Coach Daboere Dokubo as the Chairman, the Rivers State Commissioner for Sports, Barrister Fred Igwe, noted that the tournament which is

From Florence Nkem Israel, Port Harcourt an idea of the governor is being followed thoroughly to ensure that it encourages brotherhood, friendship, peace, fair play and better welfare for the participants.

According to him, the administration is on the verge of reviving the numerous sporting activities that characterised the Old Port Harcourt Township in the past, hence the tournament at this time and the juicy Cash Prize award of Eighteen million naira that would accompany the top three winners home.

"You would agree with me that Old Port Harcourt Township used to be the Garden city centre of

From Tunde Liadi,Owerri

E

•Victor Moses

BRAZIL 2014 WORLD CUP QUALIFIER

Eagles rally Nigerians’ support to beat Namibia

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HE duoofAshdodofIsrael defender, Efe Ambrose and Montpellier SC of France potent striker, John Utaka have enjoined Nigerians to come out in large number to support their darling Super Eagles on Sunday in their 2014 World Cup Qualifier against the Brave Warriors of Namibia in Calabar.

Both players affirmed that though they have their own part to play in the game if given opportunities by the Eagles’ handler, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi, they added that the vociferous fans have an important role to play too as the team starts the race to Brazil 2014 with an expected important victory at the UJ Esuene Stadium, Calabar on Sunday.

Ambrose was the first to speak: “We know Nigerians are not happy with the downward trend of the Eagles of late and the Super Eagles players too are not equally

Amaechi's Cup targets promotion of unity

•Siasia

represented England at various age levels but was handed the all-clear to play for Nigeria by world football governing body FIFA last year after he opted for a change of nationality.

We know Heartland’s weaknesses —Rangers

attraction for football activities and tournaments like the famous Mock Nations' Cup also known as Geniwary Cup. Such competitions yielded dramatic friendship and brotherhood amongst participants and spectators then," he said.

He also noted that the prize package was put up by the Governor to ensure that the winning clubs goes home smiling big while assuring that the Governor would take this gesture to other parts of Garden City soon.

The take home prize for winners is put at N10 million, N5 million and N3 million for the first, second and third positions respectively.

From Tunde Liadi, Owerri happy with the development. We have talked to ourselves and everything will change as from this very match against Namibia on Sunday.

We will not allow what happened to us last year in which we missed out on the 2012 African Cup of Nations to repeat itself.

We are wiser now and we are looking forward to Saturday with the assurances to make Nigerians happy again. We want their support too. We enjoin them to come en-masse to cheer us to victory.”

The former RC Lens, Rennes FC of France and Portsmouth of England leggy striker pointed out to NationSport: “We are ready to do our part as players but we need the backing of our fans too. We are assuring them that there won’t be any heartbreak again. We need them as they need us too.”

NUGU RANGERS’ talisman, Chikeluba Ofoedu has boasted that the Flying Antelopes have the password with which to devour Heartland FC at the Dan Anyiam Stadium Owerri on Saturday in one of the Match Day 30 fixtures of the NPL. The former UNTH, Enugu player got the curtain raiser when both teams clashed on February 19 this year during the first stanza before ExRangers man, Brendan Ogbu leveled the tie in the second half but the light skinned dangerman informed NationSport that they have learnt from their failures to grab maximum points in the first leg and from their 0-2 setback in Aba last weekend.

He pointed out that their coaches have told them the magnitude of the match and that the whole players of the Coal City team have resolved to put all their might into the affair so as to get a favourable result and keep them on the of the league beyond this week.

Ofoedu said: “We know how serious this match is to our quest to win the league and bring smiles to the faces of our supportive fans who have endured many years without a trophy. We want to make atonement for those years this term and after putting a great display since the commencement of the league season,we cannot afford to relax or lose steam now.

“We know that Heartland will come out fighting but we are equal to the task. We know how to play to get good result and this one will not be different. They came to Enugu and picked a draw and i believe nothing will stop us from doing the same in Owerri barring fair officiating,” The Technical Adviser of Rangers FC, Okey Emordi too asserted to NationSport that they have prepared for the tie in Owerri they way they did to all their other away matches and that their objective is to get a favourable result and keep their stronghold on the leadership of the league intact.

COUNTDOWN TO ORIENTAL WAR II IN OWERRI

Rangers’ players, officials get financial boost

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HE Enugu State Government has released over 70 million naira to Rangers International FC to offset the balance of last season’s players and technical officials sign on fees and to give some part to new players as they await this season’s first installment scheduled to be released later this month.

The media officer of the Flying Antelopes Foster Chime further noted that players and officials of the Enugu owned club would get N400,000 if they secure a draw and N600,000 if they are able to defeat Heartland FC of Owerri on Saturday at the Dan Anyiam Stadium, Owerri.

He noted that the State government under the stewardship

From Tunde Liadi, Owerri of Governor Sullivan Chime was doing everything humanly possible to ensure that players and officials of the Coal City team are happy as they hunt for first trophy for the State in about three decades.

Chime said: “The arrears of the sign on fees of players and officials of the team for last season have been paid into their respective accounts as I speak with you and they can have access to it. What the management did to keep the new players happy was to give them some money because the current season’s sign on fees has not been approved by the State government but that will be done in the next few weeks.

THE NATION SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

63

SPORT EXTRA

Senate throws weight behind Eagles, predicts victory against Namibia

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HAIRMAN, Senate Committee on Sports, Distinguished Senator Adamu Gumba has assured Nigerians that the Super Eagles would emerge victorious against Namibia in

From Segun Ogunjimi, Abuja the first match of the 2014 World Cup slated for UJ Esuene Stadium, Calabar on Sunday.

"I want to believe that this time around the Super Eagles will make us proud because we have been following the team"s build up and predations to this match.

"The local players have really proved their mettle in the number of friendly matches they have played most especially against Egypt and Peru. Although they lost the match, they performed

creditably well in the matches.

"So I believe with the blending of the local boys with their foreign counterpart together to play the Namibia match, Eagles will certainly emerge winner on Sunday", Gumba told NationSport in Abuja yesterday.

"The Eagles are ready, Nigerians are ready to support them and we will all be there live to support the team", Gumba assured.

Ejide thrilled by Eagles’ return I

•Stephen Keshi

Terry banned for 3 Euro games

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NION of European Football Associations (UEFA) has banned Chelsea captain John Terry for three European club matches over his red card against Barcelona in the Champions League semi-finals.

Terry sat out Chelsea's victory in the final against Bayern Munich to serve a mandatory one-match ban.

UEFA says its disciplinary panel has added two more matches, after ruling that Terry was guilty of violent conduct when he struck his knee into the back of

Barcelona forward Alexis Sanchez.

Terry is ineligible for the Super Cup match against Europa League winners Atletico Madrid in August, plus Chelsea's first Champions League groupstage match in September.

Terry and Chelsea can challenge the sanction at UEFA's appeals panel.

"I cannot promise anything.

In the first place, it’s not in my style to make any promises because no one can predict the outcome of a game before it is decided.

"I cannot say right now that we would win 50-0 or 5-0. I cannot even guarantee the best of play but one thing I am confident of is that we will get the needed result on Sunday.

“All Nigerians need to do is pray for us and come out to cheer us."

Meanwhile, the Brave Warriors of Namibia arrived Lagos on Thursday from their training base in Germany and will head for Calabar on Friday.

•Ejide

Golden Eaglets trash Tempbol Academy 3-0 ...As coach Manu salutes Gov. Imoke

A

•Terry

S R A E L - B A S E D goalkeeper Austin Ejide has said he is delighted to return to the Super Eagles and has vowed to justify his recall.

The former Gabros FC goalkeeper said he was disappointed to have been left out of the team since a superb showing and a clean sheet against Ghana in a friendly in October in London.

"It was not a pleasant experience being out of the national team. I was not happy while I was out but I believe I will return to the team so far as I kept doing well. I will do my best to hold on to my place in the team," the Hapoel Petah Kivah goalkeeper told MTNFootball.com On the weekend game against Namibia, Ejide said, "We are going for an emphatic win. We have been preparing well for the game and we have resolved to beat Namibia well.

“It is an important match and we are not joking with it."

Also, stand-in Eagles captain in this weekend's World Cup qualifier Vincent Enyeama has insisted that he would not be dragged into making any promises to the fans before the game.

Enyeama, who will lead the Eagles on Sunday in the absence of injured Joseph Yobo, maintained that the Eagles would only go out to get a result, but there would be no pre-match promises.

LL is well that ended well for the Golden Eaglets as the Nigeria's budding youngsters concluded their closed camping in Calabar Friday with an emphatic 3-0 win over Tempbol Soccer Academy, even as Coach Manu Garba (MFR) hailed the impact of Senator Liyel Imoke, the Executive Governor of Cross River to the team’s welfare and overall success.

Head coach Manu Garba described the team's campaign here as very successful following a string of victories culminating in the early morning win over a more experienced side:" The beauty of our victory against Tempbol is that we were able to see some players who have not been too convincing in training and we are okay with their response," the former Nigerian International said.

The game between Golden Eaglets and Tempbol started on a cautious note with both teams sizing up themselves. Tempbol boys, however, showed better initiatives as they came close to scoring on few occasions but were foiled by Isa Emmanuel in goal for the Golden Eaglets.

Determined to 'run down the opponents'- an operative statement within the rank and file of the Golden Eaglets- the coaches brought in fresh legs with the exemption of Isa in goal.

The reshuffle paid off immediately with the Eaglets' first touch of the ball in the second half when former National Under-15 striker, Kelechi Iheanacho overran his marker before sending an acute shot which sailed past the goalkeeper into the net for the opening goal in the 47th minute. Kelechi was back in the hunt in the 65th minute when he sent a fine volley shot that sailed into the net for his second goal. Ibrahim Muazzam, who was voted as the MVP when Golden Eaglets won the Supa Copa NEROS last weekend in Nanka, he capped his fine display with a well taken free kick from the periphery of the box to seal victory.

A delighted Garba said the excellent performance of the players over the last one month shows the team's readiness for forthcoming qualifiers. Nigeria would be meeting neighbouring Niger in September and Garba enthused

that his wards would be at the ready.

“I think we are on course with our program and the boys have shown great improvement over the course of the closed camping here in Calabar," stated Garba who assisted late coach Yemi Tella when Nigeria won the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in 2007.

"We are very grateful to Governor Liyel Imoke and the good people of Cross River state for their generous hospitality to us.

“This helped us a great deal and hopefully we would be back in Calabar anytime soon to continue our preparation. The Governor told us that the state is ready to host our subsequent camps and we would be happy to make Calabar our home," Garba added.

Apart from their 1-1 draw against Calabar Selected in their first game, the Golden Eaglets won their other practice matches in convincing style with a 6-2 defeat of Dreamland Academy; Bob Osim Academy (5-1); Abi Waves FC (5-0); Canaan United (2-1); Tempbol Academy (3-0) and their 4-1 defeat of Nanka XI which secured them the maiden Supa Copa Neros in Nanka last weekend.

Ahmed Musa: Eagles want to win big CSKA Moscow winger Ahmed Musa wants the Super Eagles to beat Namibia convincingly on Sunday in a 2014 World Cup qualifier in Calabar.

The jet-heeled Musa will also speak on his debut season in Russia in this interview with MTNFootball.com NIGERIA is playing Namibia this weekend in World cup qualifier this weekend, what should Nigerians expect?

Ahmed Musa: Victory, that is what Nigerians want and we the players too. We know the importance of this game in our quest to qualify for 2014 FIFA World cup.

How is the weather in Calabar?

It is good. Though hot compared to where we are coming from but we are coping well and that won't stop us from beating Namibia.

You are in camp with some players for the first time, what can you say about that?

It has been fun. We are all here for a common goal which is to play for Nigeria and win. We are getting along very well. Everybody here is a professional and in everything there is always a first time.

What can you say about coach Stephen Keshi and his predecessor Samson Siasia?

There is no reason to compare them. Both of them are fathers to the players, they have played the game to the highest level and are qualified coach. I enjoyed working with Siasia and I am now enjoying myself under coach Stephen Keshi.

What then do you expect from Nigerians on Sunday?

I am calling on them to support us, pray for us as we will do our best to make them happy by beating Namibia silly on Sunday.

Okay. Let’s review your first season in Russia with CSKA. How was it for you?

Though I would not want to rate myself but as far as I am concerned, it was a very good season for me. I am happy with my performance for CSKA. How then would you compare the Dutch league and Russia league?

They are two different leagues and both are of good quality but the only difference is that there are fewer fans at stadiums in Russia compared to what we have in Holland.

They watch football a lot in Holland but I believe Russia will get there in that aspect, apart from that not much difference.

What do you miss most about your former club VVV Venlo?

I miss the fans. They love me a lot and always encouraged me to want to do more. I miss my team mates too but not as much as I miss the fans.

You scored many goals in Holland and when you were in Nigeria, but you only scored once in Russia, what do you think is responsible for this?

No problem about that. I am new in Russia so I tried to adapt to the system and weather, but with more time next season, I will score more goals to help my team.

You played against one of your idols Cristiano Ronaldo in a UEFA Champions League tie earlier this year.

How was the experience?

I felt very great and honoured to play against Ronaldo. It was a great feeling coming face-to-face with one of the best players in the world.

Which game was your best for CSKA? That was the Champions League game against Real Madrid. I played very well in both legs and people commended me afterwards.

And what are your targets next season?

To win the Russian League as well as the Europa League. I also want to score a lot more goals. Any additional honours to this will be appreciated.

What do you mean by additional honours?

Like the Russian Cup and top goals scorer award.

Which was your toughest game?

It was the game against Real Madrid. It was very tough playing against one of the best teams in the world as they really proved themselves against us.

How good is your Russian now?

Not good. I can only say a few things in Russian but with time I hope to understand the language.

How often do you see other Nigerian players in Russia?

We only meet when we play games but we speak on phone because I am an indoor person. I prefer staying indoors to play video game.

Who is your best friend in Russia?

That will be Sekou Oliseh. He is more than a friend to me, he’s a brother.

Ladipo commends Keshi on Utaka’s invitation

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RESIDENT General of Nigerian Supporters Club, Rafiu Ladipo has hailed the inclusion of the Montpellier FC striker, John Utaka in the Eagles team that would take on Namibia in the 2014 World Cup qualifier slated or Calabar on Sunday.

Ladipo expects Utaka to make huge difference in the line up of Eagles and also help the team to beat the visitors.

“I am particularly excited about the inclusion of John Utaka The Attacker in the team that would play against the Namibians in Calabar and I really commend Stephen Keshi for making this move to invite the Montpellier attacker who has really done

From Segun Ogunjimi, Abuja well for himself and his club in the just concluded elite league season in France.

“All of the invited players really made me happy because they are good players but I am beginning to feel that the inclusion of Utaka is beginning to speak certain things. For some time now we have watching him in League 1 and he has done so well in that league and I hope he is coming to reenact all those beautiful performances in the match against Namibia “, he disclosed to The NationSport.

Tomorrow in THE NATION PUNCHLINE

SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012 TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM VOL.7, NO. 3044

It was the same attitude that the Jonathan government exhibited in the New Year when it removed its phantom fuel subsidy. It kept the matter close to its chest only for it to blow on its face —Tunji Adegboyega

Ade Ojeikere on Saturday talk2adeojeikere@yahoo.com

Die, boys, die for Keshi

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TEPHEN Okechukwu Keshi has seen it all in the Super Eagles. He knows how passionate Nigerians are when it comes to football. He has seen Nigerians’ celebrate soccer feats. He knows that the country literally shuts down whenever the Eagles dash Nigerians hope in any competition.

Indeed, Keshi has been a sad man ever since the country’s football nosedived to its present abysmal 56th in the world. He had a reason to be sober, largely because everywhere he went, he was asked to explain the steep fall. He tried to offer advice, but was cautious in proffering solutions; perhaps he didn’t want to be perceived as an interloper.

He wept when Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2006 Germany World Cup at a time his technical savvy ensured that football minnows, Togo qualified for the World Cup. Keshi became the toast of soccer pundits who kept wondering why he wasn’t considered for the Super Eagles job after working with Johannes Bonfrere(in 2000) and Shuaibu Amodu(in 2002) as assistant coach. Every time there was vacancy in the Super Eagles technical crew, Keshi’s name came up, yet, he was never chosen, largely because of his ill-conceived role in the team in which he played for 13 unbroken years.

Tomorrow as Keshi files out with the Super Eagles as chief coach against Namibian at the U.J Esuene Stadium Calabar, he won’t be punching the air to salute the fans like he

did as a player, he would be tossing the coin or watching the referee do so at the centre circle. Nor would he be charging his mates to go for goals. He would be sitting on the bench, watching how his boys implement the match plan.

He will be alone because the buck stops with him. There won’t be a second chance to tinker with the squad list, once the match starts. No one would listen to him, if the results go awry (God forbid). Yet, he will be the one to be sacked, if Nigeria fails to qualify for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa and the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. There must be synergy between the players and Keshi, if the Eagles must re-discover their all-conquering feats of yore.

The players must trust Keshi. They must carry the can, if results are not favourable.

Keshi needs to talk less about the players’ flaws and what it was during his time. He picked the players, trained them, hence he should accept responsibility for whatever fate befalls the team. The buck stops with him.

One must praise Keshi for having the audacity to fish out talents from the domestic league. The growth of soccer in other entities is measured by the quality of the domestic league. We have shot ourselves in the foot by relying on our Europe based players and Nigerians in the Diaspora to play for the Super Eagles. The pool of such players is drying up and we are the worst for it, with the Eagles shambolic outings over the last 12 years.

Watching the Eagles play in Kigali, it was clear that Keshi didn’t know the players much. He opted for the audacious 4-2-4. The team tottered largely because the four men upfront (Yakubu Aiyegbeni, Osaze Odemwingie, Ahmed Musa and the Enugu Rangers pearl Uzoneyi) had never played together. Osaze and Yak were returnees to the squad. They looked out of place in Kigali.

A flat back-four played disjointedly with Taiye Taiwo being the major culprit. Yobo and Ogbogbona of Sunshine FC stood firm in the defence. Sadly too, the two holding midfielders (Joel Obi and Dickson Etuhu) didn’t understand what they were asked to do.

Interestingly, Keshi confided in this writer that those substituted and, indeed, Taiwo wouldn’t be part of his plan for the three crucial matches. He did say too he would have played a wholesale home-based squad, which he felt would have done better.

It would be interesting to see how Keshi marshals his squad against the Namibians.

The Kigali experience would have taught him to start Victor Moses. One would want to see where he fields Moses who brought the desired initiative with his darting runs and good dribbling. With a better referee, Moses would have earned Nigeria the match winner through a penalty kick.

The Eagles fumbled at the South Africa 2010 World Cup because of Ikechukwu Uche’s absence. Since his return, Eagles coaches have introduced him as a substitute.

Had Uche started the Kigali game, Nigeria

would have beaten Rwanda. One expects Keshi to start Uche upfront. But whispers from the camp suggest that Keshi doesn’t think that Uche is a team player. I must tell the Big Boss, that most prolific strikers don’t work for the team.

They position themselves and bury the ball inside the net.

I also hope he doesn’t pair Uche with Peter Utaka upfront with a wide-man in Uzoneyi, who was the best player in Kigali.

This writer would rather have Uche/Musa pair upfront. Keshi talked about missing Fengor, Oduamadi and Obiora Nwankwo.

As the aircraft cruised in the skies from Kigali to Abuja, he remembered Elderson Echiejile and tapped his leg inside the aircraft, telling the story of Papa Idris. He tipped Idris to replace Joseph Yobo in the future.

And that future is here on Sunday, I dare say.

Listening to the Big Boss talk about his players gives hope. But one cannot say if they are prepared to die wearing the national colours during matches. A departure from the past for the new Eagles is that they show the desire to win. What they lack is that extra push and it comes from the players’ resolve than the coaches’ inputs.

The new Eagles don’t have match winners.

Only when Yobo plays do we see a player who takes responsibility to pull the chestnut out of the fire. He is missing now due to injury. The time for the new boys to fight for the new dawn that we crave for the Eagles is. Therefore, anyone who gets the shirt for the Namibian game tomorrow must be prepared to die. They must bang in goals as if doing so has lost its value. We must lead the group from the first game. Good luck boys.

Up Nigeria!

Do the bishops have a case against Obama?

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ELIGION often comes alive in the face of persecution. Recently, Daniel Jenky, the bishop of Peoria, Ill., did not hesitate to play the persecution card in the dispute with the Obama administration over required health insurance coverage of birth control. Evoking the history of “terrible persecution” of the Church, he said: “Hitler and Stalin would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services and health care. . . . Barack Obama — with his radical, pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda — now seems intent on following a similar path.” In an effort to clarify the statement, a diocese spokesperson said, “We certainly have not reached the same level of persecution. However, history teaches us to be cautious once we start down the path of limiting religious liberty.” (She did not explain just what the bishop regarded as the Church’s current “level of persecution” by the administration.)

Jenky’s remarks are only a bit more extreme than standard rhetoric from bishops and other conservative Catholics, who now routinely talk of an “attack” or “war” on religious liberty. Are things really this bad? Or are we seeing a perhaps politically motivated “tempest in a holy water fount”?

To get some perspective, I propose to take a look at the main rational arguments — as opposed to rhetorical appeals — that the bishops and their supporters put forward.

The first argument is based on the right of conscience. It agrees that all employees of a Catholic organization have a right in conscience to practice birth control, but that the organization also has a right in conscience not to pay for (or otherwise facilitate) the practice. The nub of the argument is that an organization’s not offering birth control as part of its health insurance does not take away an employee’s right to birth control; it would at most make it a bit more difficult to obtain.

By contrast, the administration’s requirement that the organization offer birth control coverage does eliminate, in this case, its right not to support the practice.

This argument makes a valid point, but omits the rights of a third party: the govern-

ment, which has a right (and duty) to set up rules for the common good of the nation. In some cases, this right takes precedence over the rights of conscience. The government has the right, for example, to force people to serve in wars they think are unjust or pay taxes to support activities like birth control that they think are immoral. Organized religions have, in our system, greater rights to conscientious exemption than individuals, but there is no absolute immunity that keeps a religion’s claim of conscience from being trumped by the government’s right to “provide for the general welfare.” Once we take account of the government’s right, we see that this argument does nothing to show that Catholic organizations’ rights outweigh the rights of the government in this case.

The second argument begins from the government’s claim that certain religious organizations are not “sufficiently religious” to warrant an exemption from government policy. It recognizes that the Obama administration did exempt, for example, individual parishes and dioceses from the health insurance requirement, but drew the line at institutions like hospitals and universities that are less closely related to the Church and its doctrines.

This argument is willing to concede that religious institutions other than parishes and dioceses might not have the same rights to exemptions from government policy. But it insists that the government itself has no right to decide how and where to draw the line.

That, it says, would allow the government to undermine the Church. For if the government can in a given case decide that, say, a hospital or university is not sufficiently close to the Church to merit the full religious exemption regarding rights of conscience, then there is no reason the government can’t do this in other instances, without limit. Therefore, the argument concludes, giving the government the right to decide such matters in effect gives it the right to destroy the independence of the Church.

This argument correctly points out that the government — in the sense of the executive branch — should not be the sole judge of what

•Obama rights of religious freedom a particular religiously affiliated organization may have. But it is equally wrong to claim, as the argument suggests, that the Church itself should be the ultimate arbiter of its own claims. Nor does it make sense to claim that every effort of the government to restrict religious rights should be rejected on the grounds that it is a step toward the total undermining of religion. One could just as well argue that every restriction on individual liberty is a step toward totalitarianism.

These two arguments express the main case made by Catholic bishops and their supporters against the Obama administration’s birth control mandate. They correctly assert two basic truths: that religious people and institutions have rights to act according to the dictates of conscience and that there are limits on the government’s right to interfere with those rights. But they ignore the complex question of how to balance the right of government to do its job of promoting the general welfare against the right of religious

believers to be true to their consciences.

Therefore they fail to show that, in this case, the government is wrong. At best, the arguments show that there may be a need, as some Catholic organizations are now doing, to ask the courts to resolve these complex questions.

There may be a cogent case against the government’s position. But there is no slamdunk appeal to outrageous violations of the First Amendment, such as genuine instances of persecution or a war on religion would provide. Rather, there are arguments based on complex (and contestable) legal considerations — for example, interpretations of the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act — turning on the question of what sort of burden of proof the government has to show that its requirement is necessary to achieve its legitimate goal. The bishops may have a viable legal case against the Obama administration. But they have no case for a call to the barricades.

We cannot, of course, be certain about the bishops’ motives in overdramatizing what should be a routine disagreement. But their often demagogic reaction suggests political rather than religious concerns. There is, first, the internal politics of the Church, where the bishops find themselves, especially on matters of sexuality, increasingly isolated from most Church members; they seem desperate to rally at least a fervid core of supporters around their fading authority. But the timing of their outbursts also suggests a grasp for secular political power. It’s hard to think that the bishops — especially given their concerns for social welfare — would more than mildly prefer a Romney administration to an Obama administration. But, hoping to emulate the success of Protestant evangelicals, they may well want to establish their own credentials as significant players in American politics.

We can only pray that American Catholics will see through any such effort.

Gary Gutting is a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, and an editor of Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. He is the author of, most recently, “Thinking the Impossible: French Philosophy since 1960,” and writes regularly for The Stone.

Source: New York Times

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