The Nation March 11, 2013

Nigeria’s widest circulating newspaper

274 days rain coming in Lagos, says NIMET NEWS Page 3

•Flood-prone areas residents told to leave

Why we killed NNPC officials

•Survivors relive ordeal

NEWS

Page 10

www.thenationonlineng.net

VOL. 8, NO. 2425 MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

TR UTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM TRUTH

N150.00

UK, Italy to join Nigeria’s battle against terrorism Britain, Italy name victims of Ansaru’s executions

A DESERVED HONOUR

Plot against Amaechi thickens over NGF row

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HE Governors Forum crisis is set to return in a more vicious manner.

There are plans to discredit Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi and unleash antigraft agencies on top officials of Rivers State—all in a bid to force a new leadership.

Some “powerful forces” in Abuja and the Presidency have been fingered in the plot allegedly designed to “cut Amaechi to size”.

It was gathered that some forces in Abuja, in connivance with about five governors, were uncomfortable that Amaechi had an edge and earned public sympathy in the battle with the Presidency over the election of a new chairman for the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF).

Although the NGF chairmanship election is about two months away, the aggrieved forces are uncomfortable that Amaechi is still commanding a large following among Northern governors and those in the opposition.

It was gathered that in spite of the formation of PDP Governors Forum, security reports available to the “powerful forces” indicated that Amaechi is still a force to reckon with.

The security reports fol-

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RITAIN yesterday vowed to work with Nigeria to bring the killers of seven foreign hostages to justice as the death of the construction workers were confirmed.

Islamist fundamentalist group Ansaru on Saturday said it had killed the abducted workers of Lebanese construction firm Setraco.

The British, Italian, Greek and Lebanese nationals were abducted at a construction site in Jama’are, Bauchi State on February 6.

Ansaru posted a video of the bodies of the slain workers, which the British, the Italian and the Greek have confirmed to be real.

The group said it killed the hostages to prevent an operation to rescue them, apparently referring to reports that British aircraft were seen in Nigeria.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague identified the Briton among them as Brendan Vaughen. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti gave the name of the Italian victim as Silvano Trevisan.

“We will work with Nigeria and other affected countries to bring the killers to justice and tackle terrorism in the region,” Hague said.

Monti promised Rome would use “every effort” to stop the killers.

A statement from Greece’s foreign ministry said authorities had already informed the hostage’s family.

“We note that the terrorists never communicated or formulated demands to release the hostages,” the statement said, but

From Yusuf Alli, Abuja

lowed botched plans by the forces to use Rivers State House of Assembly against Amaechi.

A source said: “The campaign against Amaechi has been heightened. Firstly, they want to use the PDP Governors Forum to technically remove Amaechi by selecting a nominee from the Forum as Amaechi’s successor in May. “They have also subjected every movement of Amaechi in and out of the country to heavy security surveillance.

“Some so-called ‘powerful forces’ in Abuja, who are afraid of Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, in collaboration with the Presidency, have also hatched a plot to completely discredit, malign and completely destroy the reputation of Governor Amaechi.

“They want to lay the foundation for security and anti-corruption agencies to move into action in Rivers State and arrest Rivers State Government officials on phantom and manufactured allegations of corruption against the governor and Continued on page 4

Unveil oil block owners, Falana urges Fed Govt

Continued on page 4

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By Joseph Jibueze

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We are utterly determined to work with them to hold the perpetrators of this heinous act to account, and to combat the terrorism which so blights the lives of people in Northern Nigeria and in the wider region •Actor Olu Jacobs displaying his Industry Merit Award plaque during the Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards (AMVCA) in Lagos...at the weekend. Story on page 12

IGHTS activist Femi Falana (SAN) yesterday urged the Ministry of Petroleum Resources to publish an up-to-date list of all individuals who have been allocated oil blocks.

He said after the publication, the Goodluck Jonathan administration should cancel all oil blocks allocated to a few interest groups and vest them in the Federal Government in line with

’ P10 •SPORTS P23 •CEO P28 •JOBS P38 •POLITICS P43 •CITYBEATS Continued on page 59

•Mrs Alison-Madueke

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

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NEWS 2012 FLOOD DISASTER

Months C

•Managing Director, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) of McKinsey & Company Michael Halbye (right), GMD/CEO, UBA Plc Mr. Phillips Oduoza (second right), Partner, McKinsey & Company Mr Scott Desmarais (second left) and Group Chief Finance Officer, UBA Plc, Ugochukwu Nwaghodoh, during the visit of the Halbye to UBA Head Office in Marina, Lagos...at the weekend

Many state governments are yet to disburse cash raised from various sources to thousands of people affected by the 2012 flood disaster nationwide, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

•Some of the several houses and government properties affected by the last major flooding in parts of the country.

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•President, Dangote Group of Companies, Aliko Dangote(left) greeting former Lagos State Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Wale Edun at the launch of a book: Financialism- Water from an Empty Well written by former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and former American Consul-General to Nigeria, Mr. Brian Browne in Lagos...last Thursday. With them is Mr. Jide Sanwo-Olu.

•Former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (second right) , Lagos State Deputy Governor, Mrs. Adejoke OrelopeAdefulire (right), the Diocesan Bishop of Lagos, Most Reverend Ephraim Ademowo (left) and his wife Oluranti at the service to commemorate the 60th birthday celebration of Mrs. Ademowo at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina, Lagos...at the weekend.

• Chairman, Lagos Black Heritage Festival, Prof Wole Soyinka (second left), Erelu Abiola Dosunmu (right) Oludisu Holloway, Lagos State Commissioner for Culture, Tourism and Intergovernmental Affairs and Segun Jawando at a briefing on the forthcoming Lagos Canival 2013 slated for March 25 to April 1 in Lagos... at the wekkend.

HE flood affected many states of the federation some five months ago.

A nationwide survey conducted by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), however, showed that most of the governments distributed to various victims tonnes of relief materials received on their behalf.

The materials were donated by the federal, state, local governments, philanthropists, international and other humanitarian agencies that were moved by the plight of the victims.

While many states were yet to disburse cash, few others, however, gave out funds from their coffers, including money provided by the Federal Government to purchase materials.

In Sokoto State, the government said it had distributed cash and relief materials to all the victims based on need.

Sokoto State Commissioner for Environment Dr Jabbi Kilgori said the Federal Government donated N250 million to the 2012 flood victims in 11 out of the 23 local governments.

Kilgori told NAN in Sokoto that the money had since been judiciously distributed to all the victims in the affected areas.

Kilgori also said the Federal Government donated 7,500 bags of assorted grains to the victims.

“All these have also been judiciously distributed to the flood victims in the affected local governments.’’

In Ebonyi, the state government said it would begin the disbursement of N400 million cash and other relief materials to the victims with effect from next week.

The Executive Secretary of the state Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Elder Umunna Igboke, said this in an interview with NAN in Abakaliki.

“The money is the N300 million and N100 million pledged to the flood victims by both the federal and Ebonyi government,” he said.

He said the 2012 flood victims were yet to receive any form of financial assistance since the incident except the first batch of relief materials from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

The materials included bags of rice, garri and wheat.

According to him, the second batch of bags of rice, beans, garri, vegetable and palm oil, sugar, blankets, bath towels and wax prints donated by NEMA would be officially handed over to government for distribution to the victims.

Other materials to be handed over include packets of detergent, mattresses, nylon mats, mosquito nets, plastic cups and spoons.

“The state government also received some relief materials for distribution to the flood victims from the Nigerian Ports Authority.

“They include 200 bags of rice, 300 pieces of foams, 300 pieces of treated mosquito nets and 700 pieces of blankets,” he said.

Igboke, however, explained that the delay in the disbursement of the funds was not deliberate but due to

some bureaucratic bottle necks.

He said the mode of disbursement would be based on the level of destruction suffered by each victim.

In Nasarawa, NAN gathered that the task force set up by Governor Tanko Almakura to distribute cash and materials to the victims began work since February 22.

The committee was inaugurated by Al-Makura in December 2012.

It was charged with the mandate of ensuring that all those genuinely affected by the flood were identified to enable them to benefit from the intervention.

The Executive Secretary of the state Emergency Management Agency (NASEMA), Dr. Abdullahi Idris, said since November 28, 2012, the government spent N50 million to buy relief materials for the 94,358 persons displaced by the flood.

He explained that more than 200 communities were affected out of which 122, with 94,358 persons, were displaced while 2,000 hectares of farm land were destroyed by the flood.

Idris noted that the situation necessitated the relocation of the affected communities.

Idris said apart from the funds the state received from the Federal Government, it also got some relief materials from Dangote Foundation and would be distributed to victims soon.

Some of the materials already received from the foundation include 350 bags of rice, 1,000 blankets and 1,500 bags of salt.

The executive secretary added that the agency took delivery of materials from NEMA and the Federal Government which includeed 500 bundles of zinc, 400 pieces of planks and 200 mattresses.

Idris, however, said shortly after the release of the N400 million by the Federal Government, more people began to come out with claims.

He said the state government would not deal with them until after handling the 94,538 that were first captured in the inventory.

In Katsina, the state government said it set up a committee to work out modalities for the distribution of the funds donated by the Federal Government to the victims.

Alhaji Hassan Rawayau, the Executive Director of the state’s Rehabilitation and Emergency Relief Agency, told NAN in Katsina that the committee had visited all the local governments affected by the flood.

He said the committee assessed the magnitude of damage suffered by each victim.

Rawayau said the committee had completed its work and submitted the report to the state government for approval.

He said the funds would be distributed to the victims “very soon”.

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

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NEWS 2012 FLOOD DISASTER

after, no cash for flood victims ‘ Most of us are just struggling to resuscitate our farmlands which were destroyed. We have had to travel as far as Uromi in Esan North East Local Government Area to get farm inputs like cassava stems

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Lagos to witness 275 rainy days, says NIMET •Govt urges residents of flood-prone areas to relocate

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HE Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) has predicted 275 rainy days in Lagos.

As a result of NIMET’s prediction, Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment Tunji Bello has warned Lagosians, who live on wetlands along the flood plain areas and near the lagoon, to relocate to safer areas.

The seasonal rainfall, Bello said, would commence in Lagos between the first and second week of March and would end on or before December 17.

On the measures to reduce the incidence of flooding, the commissioner said drainage channels would be cleaned and expanded.

He said the state is collaborating with neighbouring states, such as Osun and

By Temitayo Ayetoto

Ogun to mitigate flooding.

He said: “Very little can be achieved without the collaborative efforts of Lagosians. I have said repeatedly that global occurrences around the world now point out to one single fact, which is that no nation can promise a ‘flood-free’ environment any longer. Even the most industrialised countries in the world can no longer promise a flood-free society. However, what we can promise is reduction of floods to the barest minimum in the state. We in the Ministry of the Environment are ready to increase the capacity of our drains and canals to allow free and discharge of storm water.”

•Bello

The commissioner warned Lagosians to desist from dumping of sewages on drainage paths, constructing illegal structures on drainage alignments, road setbacks.

Fed Govt to compensate owners of farms damaged by flooding

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ENIN-Owena River Basin Development Authority has said the Federal Government would compensate persons whose farms were destroyed by the recent flooding “with improved rice seedlings and other inputs”.

Manager, Asaba Area Office of the organisation, Mr Charles Ovweigho, spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Asaba.

“Most of the farmers were greatly impacted by the recent flooding and government has promised to assist them with the clearing of the land and with improved rice seedlings to enable them to go back to busines,” he said.

Ovwigho said 100 hectares of land, out of the 200 hectares earmarked for rice farming on Asaba-Illah Road, would be irrigated to enable the farmers to cultivate the commodity during the dry season.

He explained that the entire 200 hectares would be cultiOn the distribution of relief materials, the executive director said the local and state governments as well as NEMA had distributed materials worth millions of naira to victims in the affected areas.

In Port Harcourt, the Rivers Government said it spent about N600 million on flood victims across the state.

The acting Press Secretary to the Deputy Governor, Mr Godswill Jumbo, said government spent the N600 million apart from the N300 million provided by the Federal Government.

He said the flood affected about 100 communities and displaced more than 800,000 persons in the state.

Jumbo said the amount was used to

vated during the rainy season, adding that the 100 hectares for the irrigation would also be cultivated during the dry season.

He said contract for the irrigation was awarded in 2012 at N200 million, adding that the project was split into two units.

He said the cost of the irrigation in one unit included the installation of sprinkling system, electrical works and other accessories.

Ovwigho stated that the project was part of Federal Government’s strategies to ensure food security in the country.

“The whole essence of the irrigation is for the rice farmers to have the opportunity to cultivate rice in the dry season”, he said.

He said preparation of the 200 hectares would begin this month to enable planting to begin in May.

buy relief materials for victims, including the N300 million from the federal authority.

The press secretary said the state government set up a Flood Relief Committee, headed by his boss, the Deputy Governor, Mr Tele Ikuru.

He said some well meaning Nigerians also contributed relief materials for the victims in the state which was managed by the committee.

Jumbo said the materials included food, clothing, sanitary items and special food for pregnant women, infants and babies.

He said all the items were properly distributed to the affected per-

sons across the state.

The press secretary said there was no monetary disbursement to any victim.

Jumbo stated that various criteria were used in distributing the materials, adding that only persons affected by flood were beneficiaries.

He said the state government properly catered for the victims.

Jumbo said a post flood committee was set up by government in the local government areas to which distribute cassava and yam seedlings, among other crops, to affected persons.

He said farming had begun in

some of the areas where farming was their occupation.

The press secretary noted that after the flood, the state government did not receive any assistance from the Federal Government for victims apart from the initial N300 million.

However in Edo, most victims of the disaster in Etsako Central Local government Area of Edo still live in pitiable condition.

A NAN check showed that most of those whose homes were damaged by the flood, were squatting with relatives and friends.

Several houses and farmlands were destroyed by the flood.

Some victims of the disaster told NAN that “we now live from hand to mouth” after losing their homes to flood.

They therefore appealed to the federal and state governments to fulfil promises made to them during their travail.

The victims, however, expressed satisfaction over some relief materials such as food stuff given to them by the government, individuals and corporate organisations.

Mr Saliu Rufai, a community leader in Ofukpo-Ekperi, however, said the residents had not received financial assistance from the government to rebuild their houses.

Another community leader, Mr Joseph Oshigbele of Osomeigbe community, said government only succeeded in taking statistics of the houses destroyed by the flood.

According to both community leaders, the hardship inflicted by the flood can only be understood better by anyone who cares to visit the community and see things for himself.

“As I speak with you, most of us are just struggling to resuscitate our farmlands which were destroyed.

We have had to travel as far as Uromi in Esan North East Local Government Area to get farm inputs like cassava stems. This is part of what the government promised us and we are yet to get any of it.

“This is planting season for yam and by May, we will be planting rice and we have not gotten any of these farm inputs from the government as promised,” Rufai said.

“All we have received is the team which came to evaluate our damaged houses and also the fumigation carried out immediately the flood receded.

“Aside this, my people are expecting soft loans to enable them to get fully back to their occupation which is farming,” he said.

In Yenagoa, similar victims in various Bayelsa communities expressed concern over alleged delay by the state government in assisting them

to restart life, four months after the flood that hit the state.

NAN reports that more than 70 per cent of the victims are disenchanted by the “slow response” of the government and its post-flood management committee towards their plight.

Mrs Rose Emokoh, a widow who hailed from Zarama community, said life had not been the same since she returned to the community after spending three weeks at a relief camp.

“Since they asked us to return to our villages, life has never been the same. We are yet to receive any assistance from government after all the promises they made,” she stated.

Another victim, Mr. Titus Akpere, a fish farmer from Odi community, said he was among the first batch of those who returned to their communities after the government closed down the camps.

“They told us to return home after the flood went down, with a promise to assist us to resettle; many of us lost everything we had to the flood.

But up till now, we are still waiting.”

Mr John Omiki, a father of five who is a primary school teacher in Ogbia community, said waiting for the state government’s relief package amounted to “living in the past.”

“I have decided to forget whatever they are doing in the committee. For how long will we continue to wait for their assistance? Waiting for government package to me is living in the past. I have carried on with my life, life continues.”

But the state government had restated its commitment to assist the victims to overcome their challenges.

The Chairman of the Bayelsa PostFlood Committee, Chief Francis Doukpola, said the committee was targeting about N20 billion to fix infrastructure damaged by the flood.

He also said the committee had concluded arrangements to visit communities ravaged by the disaster to assess the extent of damage.

According to him, the committee will distribute available relief materials to the affected communities after concluding assessment of the situation.

More than 40,000 persons were displaced during the flood that ravaged six local government areas and parts of Yenagoa.

Doukpola said the N500 million donated to the state government by Globacom Chairman, Dr. Mike Adenuga, was still in the custody of the committee.

He restated that the committee’s intervention plans would alleviate socio-economic, health and other humanitarian impacts of the flood.

The committee chairman enjoined people of goodwill and corporate organisations to support the state government to restore better living conditions of the victims.

In Delta, thousands of persons affected by the September 2012 floods have received relief materials from the state government as part of its efforts to ameliorate their suffering.

Chairman, Delta Committee on management of the Federal Government’s N500 million grant to victims and post-flood rehabilitation, Mr Francis Tabai, announced this to NAN in Asaba.

Tabai also said relief materials were distributed to the 14 local government areas affected in the state on January 31.

The local government areas include Burutu, Bomadi, Patani, Warri South West, Ughelli North, Ughelli South, Udu, Aniocha South and Oshimili South.

Tabai said the items distributed by the committee included mattresses, rice, beans, garri, vegetable oil, cartons of tomatoes and beverage.

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THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

NEWS Construction workers flay kidnapping of members

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•Prelate, Methodist Church Nigeria, His Eminence Ola Makinde (right), speaking with (from left) Archbishop of Ibadan Diocese, Most Rev, Kehinde Stephen; Bishop of Ogbomoso, Rt Rev Olugbenga Fafeyiwa; Bishop Diocese of Lagos Mainland; Rt.Rev. Oladapo Babalola at the opening ceremony of the Holy Communion Synod in Ibadan…yesterday.

PHOTO: NAN

PDP governors in fresh plot to replace Amaechi

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FTER a two-week lull, the Governors Forum crisis is set to return.

The newly formed PDP Governors Forum plans to select a candidate who will replace Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi as the the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF).

A meeting has been convened for today by the Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, Chief Godswill Akpabio, even with Amaechi is out of the country on official duty.

But Northern governors have launched a counterplot, saying PDP Governors Forum cannot dictate to a larger body of the NGF. The Northern governors are also suspecting that the Presidency is behind the plot to crown one of them as the new NGF chair to foreclose power shift to the North in 2015.

Amaechi has, however, said he has not withdrawn from the race to seek a second term in office as NGF chair.

Amaechi, tenure is expected to end in May and no date

Plot against Amaechi thickens over NGF row Continued from page 1

these officials.

“The plot would first involve the circulation in the social media and several dubious websites and blogs of phantom, phony, fake and doctored documents of alleged financial infractions and ‘monumental’ corruption in Rivers State by Rivers State Government Officials and Governor Amaechi.

“This will be followed by sponsored, paid for articles and advertorials in the social media, national media, newspapers and magazines, loudly alleging corruption and corrupt activities by Governor Amaechi and State Government officials and calling for their prosecution by security agencies and anti-corruption From Yusuf Alli, Abuja

has been fixed for the election by the NGF. But since a fortnight ago when the NGF poll was postponed till May, the relationship between the Presidency and Amaechi has degenerated.

Attempts by some pro-Presidency forces to instigate the Rivers State House of Assembly against Amaechi backfired last week, with the Assembly passing a vote of confidence on the governor.

bodies.

“As part of the plot, security agencies and anti-corruption agencies will then move into Rivers State to start arresting state government officials.

“The plot was hatched from the highest level in Government at the federal level. One of our major security agencies has been briefed on the plot and they are deeply involved in carrying the plot out to the letter. “ It is also instructive to note that the whole plot is being covertly funded by a Federal Government commission.

“It is all part of the move by the Presidency, political detractors and the Minister from Rivers State to finished off Governor Amaechi politically, ahead of the 2015 elections.”

Some ministers were implicated in the botched moves to instigate the Rivers State House of Assembly against the governor.

It was also gathered that anti-graft agencies might be deployed in Rivers State as part of a grand plot to check “the Amaechi phenomenon”.

The Presidency also claimed that it had received security reports indicating that Amaechi is planning to launch a media war against

it and some members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

It was alleged that a secret committee has been raised to “deal with President Goodluck Jonathan and a few isolated ministers”.

Today’s meeting to select Amaechi’s successor is said to be the first stage to “displace the governor psychologically”.

The meeting was said to have been deliberately fixed Continued on page 59

HE Federation of Construction Industry (FOCI) has urged government to take drastic measures to tackle kidnapping of construction workers before the sub sector is “killed”.

The group said the ugly trend was posing a serious threat to the prosecution of development projects. It warned that unless the situation is arrested, the country will lose its attraction to foreign investors who rate security of life and property high before deciding on where to invest.

The group said construction companies are finding it difficult to move workers from one part of the country to the other as needed.

In a statement in Abuja yesterday, the President of FOCI, Solomon Ogunbusola, noted that in the last one year, eleven expatriate workers by Setraco Nigeria Limited had been kidnapped in the South.

Seven expatriates were being held in the North with little or no information about their fate. They were killed at the weekend.

Ogunbusola said: “Nigerians will still recall that an expatriate employee of Dantata & Sawoe Construction Com-

From Bukola Amusan, Abuja

pany Nigeria Limited was kidnapped last year and was never released. He was killed months later. We also recall that one Briton and one Italian worker were killed in an attempt to rescue them by security forces in Sokoto last year.

“During the same period, four expatriates working for a Chinese construction sompany were killed.

“As the list of kidnapped victims grows by the day, construction companies are finding it more and more difficult to prosecute their projects, even with the provision of security personnel on some of our sites.

“Pervasive sense of insecurity on sites and in the atmosphere generally is not limited to the fate of expatriates alone.

“Nigerians as well are not totally immune from the danger.

“Companies have lost some of their Nigerian Technical and Support Staff for the same reasons,” he said.

Ogunbusola urged the Federal and State governments to do more in the protection of Continued on page 59

Gunmen kill 3 in Kano

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UNMEN yesterday in Kano launched another attack, which led to the death of three people. Three others were injured while four were arrested.

Spokesman of the Joint Task Force (JTF) in Kano, Captain Ikedichi Iweha, who confirmed the death toll, explained that the attacks occurred in Hotoro and Dakata areas of Kano.

Residents said two victims were shot dead in Hotoro, while three others were hit by bullet. One person was killed in Dakata. A number of others sustained bullet wounds.

Information on the attack, according to Iweha, was cloudy. He said operatives of the JTF have been deployed in the scene of the attack, already cordoned by the JTF. “I can only confirm to you

From Kolade Adeyemi, Kano

that there were attacks in Sharada, Hotoro and Dakata and three persons were killed as we are waiting for JTF personnel drafted to the scene for details. Right now, we don’t have details of the attack.”

The attackers, it was gathered stormed the area in tricycles and opened fire on the victims, while investigations revealed that the attacks were carried out on the heels of the controversial massacre of 13 Christians about a week ago , prompting the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to begin investigation over the killings.

Eyewitnesses and residents of Dakata, who witnessed the attack, said there was stampede as people scampered for safety as gun shots rang in the area.

UK, Italy to join Nigeria’s battle against terrorism The Group Ansaru

Continued from page 1

did not give the victims’d name.

The Lebanese also have not named the victims from their country.

The British Defence Ministry said yesterday that the aircraft were in Nigeria to collect Nigerian troops who were being deployed to bolster the international offensive against Islamists in Mali.

Britain is providing airlift capacity to help the Frenchled mission there.

Ansaru, the fundamentalist group that kidnapped the seven construction workers, said in a statement, “the Nigerian and British government operation” prompted the executions. Both Britain and Nigeria denied that they had launched any such mission.

In a statement, Hague described the killing as an “act of cold-blooded murder”.

“It is with deep sadness that I must confirm that a British construction worker,

A

NSARU, which was formed in January 2012 announced its presence through a video.

Its full name (in Arabic) is Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Bidalis Sudan, which translates to “Vanguards for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa”.

The group claims it is fighting to reclaim “the lost dignity of Muslims of black Africa” and to create an Islamic caliphate covering Niger Republic, Cameroon and Northern Nigeria.

Ansaru is believed to be an offshoot of Boko Haram, but it appears to have a different focus, which is abduction of foreigners.

So far, Ansaru activities portray a wider regional agenda.

The group believes that violence held hostage in Nigeria since 16 February, is likely to have been killed at the hands of his captors, along with six other foreign nationals who we believe were also tragically murdered.

“This was an act of cold-

should be unleashed in “defence” of Muslims.

A French journal, Jeune AfriqueL’Intelligent, reported that Ansaru is led

by Abu Ussamata al-Ansary, who is virtually not known.

Ussamata al-Ansary is believed to be the nickname for Khalid al-Barnawi — one of the purported three Nigerian Islamic fighters’ tagged “global terrorist” — by the United States in 2012.

The U.S. State Department suspects Barnawi has “close links to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb”, and tied to Boko Haram.

Ansaru uses dynamite to penetrate heavily- fortified compounds before taking foreigners hostage.

Ansaru has been linked to several kidnappings, including the May 2011 abductions of a Briton and an Italian working

blooded murder, which I condemn in the strongest terms.

My thoughts are with his family, and the families of the other hostages, who will be devastated by this tragic loss.

“I offer them our deep condolences at this terrible time,

for a construction firm in Kebbi State, near the border with Niger.

The victims were killed in March 2012 in neighbouring Sokoto State during a botched rescue operation.

It also claimed the December kidnapping of a French engineer in Katsina State, bordering Niger. The victim’s whereabouts remain unknown.

The U.K. government blamed Ansaru for taking a Briton and an Italian hostage in early 2012 – shortly after announcing its presence – in Sokoto.

In December 2012, the group is believed to have abducted French national, Francis Colump, 63, following an attack on a well- guarded compound in Rimi, Katsina State.

In January, Ansaru said it carried

and know that the thoughts of people up and down our country will be with them.

“Responsibility for this tragic outcome rests squarely with the terrorists. I am grateful to the Nigerian Government for their unstinting

Continued on page 59

help and co-operation.

“We are utterly determined to work with them to hold the perpetrators of this heinous act to account, and to combat the terrorism which so blights the lives of people in NorthContinued on page 59

•Hague

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THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

NEWS

APC is national pain relief, says senator

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HE Federal Government was at the weekend blamed for the “endemic scourge of youth unemployment”.

Senator Annie Okonkwo, who heaped the blame on the federal authority, lamented that those entrusted with the leadership of the country lack the wherewithal to develop the nation.

According to the senator, the pathetic politics of hate has made Anambra adults and youths the easiest recruits for crimes and criminality hitherto unheard of in the history of the state.

Okonkwo, a national caucus member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and president of the C21 political group, said nothing short of a radical emergency, engineered and spearheaded by Nigerians with a firm commitment to a new order can arrest the decay.

According to a statement by his media manager, Mr. Collins Steve Ugwu, the senator was addressing a massive youth summit at Emmaus House, in Awka, at the weekend.

The event was organised by the youths to reawaken and re-

Osun ACN hails party leadership for new logo, flag

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From Adesoji Adeniyi, Osogbo

HROUGH its Osun State chapter, the Action Congress of Nigeria(APC) has congratulated the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for reaching a consensus on the design, choice and release of the party’s logo and flag.

The ACN state Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, Mr. Kunle Oyatomi, who through a statement described the development as “a positive reassurance that the APC’s leadership is not only serious, but also determined to subsume their individual interests for the collective good of the country.”

The party described what the leadership of the APC had achieved in so short a time as a huge step forward in actualising the dream of Nigerians to develop a formidable alternative to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and save the country from collapse.

The statement reads: “This is the first time in the history of

Nigeria where different political parties will go beyond an alliance to fuse into one powerful entity to confront a ruling class that has a history of leading Nigeria disastrously.

“However, Nigerians are following with keen interest how the new party is evolving and the body language of its leadership which is building confidence in Nigerians that after all, all is not lost yet.”

The party called on the leadership of the co0llaborating parties to intensify their efforts and be prepared to make greater sacrifices, so that “our great country can be saved from the vice-grip of the PDP that has almost turned Nigeria into a failed state.”

In the alliance are the ACN, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria People Party (ANPP) and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

cover their faith in democratic participation.

Okonkwo lamented what he called ‘a progressive and fatal decline in the primacy given to the youths of Anambra State and Nigeria by operators of government under the current political dispensation.

The statement reads: “It is a stark irony that our government which whimsically rue over spiraling criminality in our blessed land, is aggressively indifferent to a clear cut idle youth development and containment policy, be

serial but articulate lamentations of the assembly and resource persons, Okonkwo, however, reassured them that “at the heart of this inglorious facade of governance, lies the cardinal thrust of All Progressive Congress rescue mission in Nigeria beginning with Anambra soon in 2014, and decisively Nigeria in 2015, because the unrepentant apostles of the same order, justifiably deserves to be swept away by the surging currents of change, substance, and character in governance.”

it in sports, agriculture, vocational institutes, technical colleges, trades and crafts, or even basic employment as clerks, messengers, drivers, cleaners with modest dignity.

“This brazen irony becomes awfully sinful when the same people at no qualms to their conscience and constitutional responsibilities, gladly dips into the same army of alienated youths to recruit their thugs and liberally fill the vacuum for their praise singers.”

Visibly overwhelmed by the

A communique adopted at the end of the summit attended by representatives from all the Southeast states, called for: · Increased youth participation at all levels of democratic structures and governance; ·Transparent internal democracy in all the parties; and ·Immediate end to the youth denial and appointment of caretaker committee that has become the defining legacy of the present government in Anambra State.

•From left: Retired Permanent Secretaries; Ministry of Communication Technology, Dr Ibrahim Daudu; Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Anthony Ozodinobi; Aviation, Ms Anne Ene-Ita, and Power, Dr Dare Awosika during at a send-off party for the retired permanent secretaries in Abuja ...at the weekend.

Oyinlola protests withdrawal of suit

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HE sacked National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, has protested to the law firm of Joe Kyari Gadzama(SAN), representing Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and the National Working Committee of the PDP, over alleged unsolicited withdrawal of his suit before the Court of Appeal in Lagos.

Oyinlola said the suit, which had to do with his removal, must run its full course at the appellate court.

The written protest appears to be foreclosing speculations that PDP governors are moving to reinstate Oyinlola.

In the letter dated March 7, the former PDP National Secretary complained that he had been notified that a lawyer from the firm of Gadzama appeared at the Court of Appeal, Lagos to “illegally withdraw” his pending suit without his authorisation.

The letter reads: “I am informed by my Counsel, Otunba Kunle Kalejaye(SAN) that when the above mentioned appeal came up for hearing at the Court of Appeal, Lagos, on Wednesday the 6th of March, 2013, that in spite of an Affidavit deposed to and presented before the Honourable Court

that neither your good self, nor your law firm had my consent to withdraw the appeal, a lawyer from your firm insisted that you remained my counsel with respect to the appeal before the Honourable Court..”You (Gadzama) may please note that the originating action at the Federal High Court was not filed against me in a representative capacity, while the appeal was also not filed by me in a representative capacity. “In fact, I was sued in the originating action as the 3rd respondent, whilst I also appealed personally as the 3rd Appellant in the above mentioned appeal. “It is to be noted that the matter borders on the personal issue of my election as National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, (among others) which remains contentious and on which I desire the determination by the Court of Appeal. “I am sure that you are very well aware that the decision of the National Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Bamanga Tukur and the National Working Committee of the Party (PDP) to remove me

from my office as the National Secretary of the party is based, inter-alia, on the Judgment of the Lower Court in suit No. FHC/L/CS/347/12 and the Judgment is subject of this Appeal. This further underscores the importance of this Appeal to vindicate my personal position. “Neither your good self (Gadzama) nor your law firm, has my instruction to represent me in this Appeal; nor my consent to withdraw same, most importantly, unlike previous times, when I gave my consent for mutual representation of both the party and my humble self by the same lawyers. “In this instance, neither the party, nor Alhaji Bamanga Tukur has my consent to instruct you or your law firm to act on my behalf. “Accordingly, I am requesting that you take necessary steps to withdraw the Notice of Withdrawal that you filed on behalf of all the appellants (including my humble self) without my consent and revert to me immediately with proof of your strict prompt compliance with my legitimate demand’’. The appeal, with reference no: CA/ L/515/12: PDP & Others Vs. Chief Adebayo Dayo and an-

other, filed at the Lagos Judicial Division of the Court of Appeal, is part of the averments

by Oyinlola and two other sacked National Working Committee members of the PDP, Segun Oni and Chief Bode Mustapha to justify their continued stay in office before their removal.

The Court of Appeal had granted the three removed PDP National Officers a Stay of Execution of an earlier Federal High Court Judgment delivered last year, thus legitimizing their stay in office, pending the final determination of the suit. But in a curious twist, the Federal High Court, Abuja, in a ruling delivered by Justice Abdu Kafarati on January 11, 2013, ordered the removal of Oyinlola from Office. The affected PDP chieftain later complained about the alleged irregularity of the exercise, in which the PDP chose to honour the ruling the Federal High Court, and disobey the Court of Appeal which is a superior court of competent jurisdiction. Oyinlola was on January 11, 2013, removed by a Judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which ruled that the suspended national secretary

From Kamarudeen Ogundele, Abuja

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HE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will soon roll out plans for Continuous Voter Registration, it was learnt at the weekend.

The Nation gathered that the commission is brainstorming on the modalities and model to adopt.

Part of the factors being considered are the cost effectiveness, duration and levels of registration, such as wards, Local Government Areas (LGAs), states and nationally.

A source who spoke with The Nation in confidence, said date for the exercise would be announced before month end.

“It could have begun earlier, but delayed because the commission wanted a good job that will address all the fears raised by political parties”, the source added.

Last December, the commission employed no fewer than 1,500 Area Registration Officers.

They would be in charge at designated Registration Area Centres (RACs) created at wards level to capture data.

Confirming the plans, Mr. Kayode Idowu, who is the Chief Press Secretary to the Commission’s Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega, said: “As we speak, we have been updating data captured. We have been clearing it out, consolidating the data. By 2015, we are sure of having a near perfect register”.

In 2011, the commission detected over 870,000 duplicate registration within three weeks of the exercise.

Idowu debunked fears that the exercise would be marred by irregularities, saying the commission is abreast of development in the polity.

“You cannot register twice on the same machine because of the software that is built into them.

In 2011, because the machines were not networked, it was possible to register on one machine and go to another one to register again.

“But at the end of everyday at ward level, all the data from the polling units were consolidated and duplicates were eliminated. The same brought to local government, states and national level.”

Oil theft: Mark alleges international connivance

•Sacked PDP secretary writes Tukur’s lawyer From Yusuf Alli, Managing Editor, Northern Operation

INEC set for voter registration

From Onyedi Ojiabor, Assistant Editor and Sanni Onogu, Abuja

S •Oyinlola

emerged from the South-west congress of the PDP held on May 21, 2012, but which was annulled by a decision of a Federal High Court, Abeokuta, last year.

Gadzama had reportedly similarly withdrawn a motion filed by the PDP for a Stay of Execution of the Justice Kafarati judgment of January 11, 2013, filed by Victor Kwon, the National Legal Adviser of the Party, acting on the instructions of Dr. Bamanga Tukur, after the National Working Committee after Oyinlola’s removal from office. Some members of the NWC of the PDP were said to been irked by the decision of the national chairman to bring Gadzama to the meeting to address the NWC on the court decision against Oyinlola without the national chairman carrying them along through prior discussions.

ENATE President David Mark at the weekend said it was worrisome that some international corporations connive with oil bunkerers in the country to steal the nation’s oil.

Mark spoke at an interactive session with the Netherlands’ Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Ronhaar drs Berend Jan. Chief Press Secretary to the Senate President, Paul Mumeh, in a statement in Abuja, said Mark told his guest that Nigeria is also worried about the conspiracy or connivance by illegal oil bunkerers and some foreign corporations to continue to steal the nation’s crude oil.

Mark said: “You should help us stop oil thieves because if there is no market for them abroad, they will not continue to steal .

“Their market is outside Nigeria. Help us discourage them.

If there is no market, there will be no bunkering. The international community helped to stop stealing of Gold in Liberia, they can help us stop oil thieves by refusing to patronise them.”

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

6

NEWS

Archbishop of Canterbury’s ‘role’ in £6b mission to snap Nigeria’s oil riches The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who once worked for oil giant Elf in Nigeria, is fingered in a mission to rob the country of its oil riches, reports The Mail on Sunday.

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ITH a modesty befitting his holy office, the Archbishop of Canterbury has always played down his past life as a young oil company executive.

But a Mail on Sunday investigation has found that far from working on the margins of Elf Aquitaine, Justin Welby was one of its finance ‘sharks’ – and employed on a morally questionable plan to protect the firm’s oil interests in Nigeria in the early Eighties.

Named Bonny LNG, the plan involved persuading the country’s leaders that Elf and other major oil companies were poised to invest £6 billion in an energy project that had scant hope of being realised.

Throughout this period, the French state-owned company – which later became synonymous with corruption and scandal – was allegedly committing human rights abuses against the people of the oilabundant Niger Delta.

Mr Welby, who made regular visits to the country’s capital for meetings at the time, strenuously denies being aware of the claims – or the true motivation for the Bonny LNG project.

Soldiers paid by Elf seized land from tribesmen in the region, often using violence. And locals say police officers were paid to arrest those who resisted.

During Mr Welby’s five years at Elf he worked under a number of colourful characters, none more so than the Corsican-born oil executive Andre Tarallo, dubbed Monsieur Africa.

Tarallo, who was in charge of African operations, would later feature in a massive fraud inquiry that tore the company apart in the Nineties.

He was jailed for four years in 2003 for paying millions in bribes to African leaders in return for oil contracts.

“Some of my other colleagues had contact with Tarallo and they were caught with their pants down,’ said Mr Welby’s former boss, Kjell Skjevesland.

“Justin would have had direct contact with him. Justin would have been in the meetings with him, probably as the only non-French guy in there.” However, Mr Welby denies meeting Tarallo in person.

Elf’s headquarters was in Paris near the Champs-Elysees. But, for the Bonny LNG talks, Mr Welby usually travelled to the Nigerian capital Lagos as the company’s sole representative. “He made a meaningful contribution,” said his boss.

Mr Welby, 56, now the spiritual head of more than 80 million Anglicans worldwide, insists that, while he was aware of rumours of corruption during his time at Elf, he never encountered evidence of it.

When he joined the company in the late Seventies, the Nigerian government was planning to nationalise the country’s oil fields, something Elf, Shell, BP and others were desperate to prevent.

They attempted to talk the government out of it by dangling a giant carrot – a promise to invest £6 billion between them in a project that involved shipping natural gas from Nigeria to Europe.

But Bonny LNG collapsed before it began, just as the ‘investors’ knew it would. “Everyone was scrambling for crude at the time and everyone

• Archbishop Welby and his wife Caroline

‘

During my time at that company (Elf) I worked in a junior finance capacity on a project in Nigeria, travelling to Lagos from Paris. To suggest that I was in some way responsible for making strategic decisions, or that I was even aware of any alleged dubious confidential strategy by Elf, is absurd given my youth and lack of seniority. “In the case of the Bonny LNG project, Elf only had a five per cent stake, so even the company itself had minimal influence in decision making wanted to please the Nigerians,” said Mr Skjevesland. “This project was way, way off and unrealistic.”

Andre Tarallo, known as Elf’s Mr Africa because of his contracts on the continent, was jailed for four years in November 2003 for corruption Andre Tarallo, known as Elf’s Mr Africa because of his contracts on the continent, was jailed for four years in November 2003 for corruption He said that the oil companies were simply ‘playing games’ with the Nigerian government to ensure they could ‘still get the crude out’.

Thomas Knutsen was another Elf finance executive who worked with Mr Welby. Asked if the project was designed to trick the Nigerian government into believing it would go ahead, when in all likelihood it would not, Mr Knutsen replied: “I think that is a good assumption.”

Asked if Mr Welby was aware of the tactic, Mr Skjevesland replied: “Yes, of course he was.” But the Archbishop insists he ‘believed it to be a genuine project and nothing (he) learned about it at the time suggested otherwise’.

Unlike the Archbishop, Mr Skjevesland has conceded that he himself was ‘probably’ aware of the human rights abuses committed by Elf. After Bonny LNG’s demise, the plan to nationalise the industry was halted, ensuring the oil companies’ Nigerian interests were saved. They enjoyed massive profits, while the majority of Nigerians continued to lead impoverished lives.

Mr Welby left Paris in 1983 and the Elf Group the following year, but returned to the country 20 years later on numerous Anglican peace missions in the Niger Delta. He risked his life negotiating with Al Qaeda and performed countless acts of courage as he sought a reconciliation between oil giant Shell and the Ogoni people.

It is tempting to see the clergyman’s work in the region as a form

’

of atonement for the sins of Elf and the other major oil companies.

These days he rails against huge City bonuses as a member of the parliamentary commission on banking standards. He has written extensively on business ethics, including an academic paper called ‘Can Companies Sin?’ Few would deny that his five years at Elf left him wellequipped to answer that question.

Tellingly, one of the reasons why Mr Welby left Elf for a much smaller company was so that he was ‘better able to both know and influence its culture and practices’.

As a member of Elf’s financial department, Mr Welby cut quite an uncompromising figure. His boss boasted that his team – who earned their ‘sharks’ nickname from a magazine article – dealt ‘on a yes-or-no basis, no short cuts, no maybes, no shaving an eighth of a point’.

Mr Welby, an Old Etonian and a Cambridge graduate, quickly established a reputation as a model employee with a razor-sharp brain.

Mr Knutsen, with whom he shared an office, recalled: “It was very challenging but we were young and the sky was the limit. I don’t think I’ve been more impressed with a brain than I was with Justin’s.”

He was quickly handed responsibility beyond his years. For instance, he was directly involved in an attempted hostile takeover of an American oil company, Kerr-McGee. Hours before it was due to go ahead, the takeover was halted after the intervention of the French prime minister who feared it would damage French-US relations.

Before it was stopped, Mr Skjevesland recalled Mr Welby was instructed by Elf’s group treasurer to transfer $2 billion. “One morning Justin came in to the office and told me. I got a phone call from New York last night. We’re going to go ahead with the acquisition.

“In those days (1980), instead of having huge syndicated bank loans

we went to the biggest banks in the world and borrowed say £100 million to £500 million from each.

“For this root money he (the group treasurer) called up Justin. He didn’t bother to call anyone more senior because he had confidence in him.”

The Archbishop says his role in the deal was exaggerated, but does recall being instructed to draw ‘all the maximum funds... on pre-arranged credit lines’.

Home for Mr Welby and his wife Caroline was a duplex apartment on the banks of the Seine in the French capital’s smartest district, the 16th arrondissement.

Along with the rest of the finance team, Mr Welby often dined at the temples of Parisien gastronomie.

Mr Skjevesland, 67, who now lives in Switzerland, said: ‘The banks invited us out all the time.”

But Mr Welby was modest in nature and deed. “Justin enjoyed dining out but he didn’t drink much,” said his boss. “He wasn’t like some of the other Brits. In those days we were floating in alcohol all day long.”

Mr Welby had been a committed Christian since university yet rarely discussed his faith with colleagues. But some recall him wearing a cross pinned to the breast pocket of his tweed jacket.

Isobel Gil-Noble, the warden of St Michael’s, the English-speaking Paris church Mr Welby attended, said: ‘Justin was a bit of a yuppie – and a real slick professional.’

Mr Skjevesland, who was the company’s assistant treasurer for most of Mr Welby’s time with Elf, also attended the monthly talks in Lagos on the Bonny LNG project.

It was at this time, unbeknown to Mr Welby who only learnt of the allegations last year, that abuses were being carried out in Elf’s name in the Delta.

Dr Alexander Akor, 55, a lecturer in environmental engineering at the local River State University, said Elf had paid the military to remove people from their homes so it could use the land for drilling.

At the time of Mr Welby’s visits to Nigeria on behalf of Elf, corruption within the country’s government reached its zenith. Its people received precious little of the oil profits, despite revenues accounting for four-fifths of the nation’s income.

It is estimated £250 billion has been stolen by corrupt government officials since oil was struck – leaving 70 per cent of Nigerians currently living on less than 65p per day.

Ibama Ibegwuru, 80, has lived for 40 years in the Egi region where Elf had a major onshore operation. He says he was imprisoned

by Nigeria’s military junta after protesting against the alleged human rights and environmental abuses committed by the company.

“When the Land Use Act came in (which allowed the military to seize land) nobody could stop Elf,’ said Mr Ibegwuru. “The military used force and some youths were killed; some had their legs broken to intimidate the indigenous people.”

Archbishop Welby said, in a statement : “During my time at that company (Elf) I worked in a junior finance capacity on a project in Nigeria, travelling to Lagos from Paris. To suggest that I was in some way responsible for making strategic decisions, or that I was even aware of any alleged dubious confidential strategy by Elf, is absurd given my youth and lack of seniority.

“In the case of the Bonny LNG project, Elf only had a five per cent stake, so even the company itself had minimal influence in decision making.”

Dokubo backs amnesty for Boko Haram •Condemns oil bunkering

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Niger Delta activist, Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, has backed amnesty for Boko Haram members.

Asari-Dokubo said since amnesty was given to the Niger Delta militants, it should also be extended to them.

He spoke with reporters in Buguma, Asari-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers yesterday.

He condemned illegal oil bunkering, saying it does not just degrade the environment but kills it.

“Illegal bunkering is criminal; it kills the environment; it kills aquaculture; it does not just degrade the environment, it kills it.”

Asari-Dokubo urged the perpetrators of such act to desist from it, saying that the people in the coastal communities were suffering from such polluted environment He urged the government to fight illegal bunkering with everything at its disposal, including military might, in order to save the environment and its citizens.

“Go to the oil communities and see the devastation caused by the criminal act; the waters are polluted, the lands are destroyed.

“Illegal bunkering is criminal and must be stopped,“ Asari-Dokubo said.

He criticised the amnesty given to the Niger Delta militants by the Federal Government, saying amnesty is for convicted criminals.

He observed that the militants were not tried or convicted before they were given amnesty.

Immigration to tackle passport scam

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HE Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) has adopted tough measures to tackle fraudulent claim of lost passports.

The Acting Comptroller-General of Immigration, Mr Rilwanu Musa, spoke with the Western Europe correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in London on Sunday.

Musa said claims of lost passports would be investigated to ensure that the claumants were not re-applying to avoid the six-month period waiting period of having been denied visa.

“Losing passports most times is an intentional thing as far as most Nigerians are concerned, because we have experience back home where people who are denied visa, throw away the passports and re-apply for a new one.

“Because it takes six months to reapply for visa after refusal, so people feel they cannot wait for six months. So, we have taken a decision that the six months such applicants have to wait, must be complied with.”

He also said any applicant investigated and found guilty, would be charged to court.

“We intend to include tougher sanctions in the future; if we ascertain the loss of passport to be intentional, the applicant will be charged to court. It is a fraudulent act. We have no other alternative than to institute legal action because that is the only way people will learn their lessons, and move away from doing bad things.”

The Comptroller-General, who was in the UK to inspect facilities at the Nigerian High Commission, expressed satisfaction with the quality immigration services.

According to him, the prompt and orderly conduct in the issuance of E-passports and visas as well as the high technology used would be adopted by the NIS .

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THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

NEWS Free ride for Oyo workers, pupils OYO State Governor Abiola Ajimobi will today inaugurate 10 43-seater buses to convey its workers and pupils to and from their offices and schools daily.

The ceremony will hold at the state secretariat by 2pm.

In a statement, the governor’s media aide, Dr. Festus Adedayo, said it would reduce the cost of transportation and make life easier for the people.

Adedayo said the transportation policy, which is the first in the state’s history, is in line with the ongoing reform in the civil service.

The buses, which are part of the 100 buses the government bought recently, would ply eight routes in Ibadan, the state capital and operate in the morning and afternoon.

Thumbs up for APC promoters From Damisi Ojo, Akure •A crowed at the 10th edition of Osun State’s monthly Walk to Live exercise for healthy living in Ede zone...yesterday.

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PDP has failed, says Osuntokun

ORMER Nigerian Ambassador to Germany Prof.

Akinjide Osuntokun at the weekend said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has not fulfilled its promises to the people.

He spoke at the Second Convocation Lecture of the Caleb University, Imota, Ogun State.

Delivering a lecture titled:

By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie

Electoral Democracy and Political Realignment in Nigeria, Osuntokun said after 14 years in power, the PDP appears tired and totally bereft of what to do to advance the interest of the country.

He said: “When the PDP came into power in 1999, we were told that in six months,

Jaji replaces pension chief Maina

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RS. Olabisi Bolanle Jaji has been appointed Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pension Office (CIPPO) in Gwagwalada.

Until her appointment, she was a director in the Federal Ministry of Environment.

She took over from the embattled Acting Director, Alhaji Abdulrasheed Maina, who is being accused of mismanaging pension fund.

Mrs. Jaji was born on December 21, 1956, in IjebuOde, Ogun State. She has a B.Sc in Political Science from the University of Ibadan (UI)

From Gbenga Omokhunu, Abuja

and an M.Sc in Industrial Relations & Personnel Management from the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

Mrs. Jaji started her public career in the Federal Civil Service as an Administrative Officer Grade VIII at the Federal Ministry of Transport in 1980 and became a director in 2007.

Also posted to CIPPO is Mrs. Elizabeth Zenetimi, a Deputy Director in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.

She hails from Abua/Odual Local Government of Rivers State.

SEC advises women to diversify OMEN have been adinvestments vised to diversify

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their investments.

By doing so, they would be mitigating the effects of any shock in the capital market.

The Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Ms. Arunma Oteh spoke in Abuja at the weekend at the commission’s International Women’s Day Seminar with the theme: Enabling Women’s Financial Inclusion.

Oteh urged to embrace collective investment schemes and not put all their eggs in one basket.

She urged women to understand the terms and conditions of any investment proposals they are introduced to before they go into it.

Ms. Oteh said: “You need to be sure of any investment proposal before you make your decisions. If you do not

By Nduka Chiejina, Assistant Editor

understand something, please do not do it. Make sure you understand and accept the terms of an investment before you do it. Even if it is a bank official that comes to you, ensure you understand all the details before you go into it.”

Minister of Education Prof.

Ruqayyatu Rufai said the International Women’s Day celebration is a recognition of the importance of women in the society.

Represented by Ifeoma Agunwah, Director of Policy Planning, Management and Research in the Ministry of Education, Rufai asked for more attention to be given to women health issues as well as stringent punishment for those who perpetrate violence against women.

there would be regular electricity supply and power generation will hit 10,000 mega watts. None of these promises has been met. Our hospitals have remained consulting clinics, our roads have become death traps, our infrastructure have remained backward and almost non-existent.”

Osuntokun lamented that since 1951, elections have not been free and fair, adding that the onus is on education and the adoption of a fullproof electoral machinery to curb malpractices.

He said: “Elections have been held three times since 1999 and all attempts to change course have failed because elections in Nigeria are neither fair nor free. The poorer the party performs, the greater the votes they award themselves at election time. We must build a Nigerian economy in which politics will be a vocation rather than a profession. This was what it was in the past and we must go back to the past to guarantee our future.”

Osuntokun said the coming of APC is a significant

event in the history of the country.

He said: “We cannot continue like this. We must change course, lest the American prediction that Nigeria will disintegrate in 2015 becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. If the APC leadership is selfless, patriotic, self-sacrificing and driven by the desire to rescue and salvage the nation, it would put aside all ethnic, personal, regional and religious consideration in selecting its leaders and in fielding the combination that will challenge the PDP in 2015.”

ROMOTERS of the All Progressives Congress (APC) were hailed at the weekend for providing viable alternative to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which has dominated the political landscape since 1999.

The commendation came from the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Women Leader in Ondo State, Mrs. Modupe Akindele-Johnson.

She spoke in Akure, the state capital, while hosting a group, Youth for Change (YC).

Mrs. Akindele-Johnson hailed the vision of ACN’s National Chairman Chief Bisi Akande; National Leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

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NEWS Governor for Harvard lecture From Sulaiman Salawudeen, Ado-Ekiti

EKITI State Governor Kayode Fayemi will today deliver a lecture at the Harvard University in the United States.

Fayemi, who was the guest speaker at the just concluded Crans Montana Forum for Africa in Brussels, Belgium, at the weekend, would speak on “From the Barricades of Resistance to the Verandah of Power: Personal Reflections on Democracy, Governance and State Reconstruction in Nigeria”.

The lecture will hold at the Weatherhead Centre for International Affairs.

It will be attended by researchers, scholars, activists, policy makers and political scientists.

Harvard University, which celebrates its 377th anniversary this year, is the oldest higher institution in the US. The governor will receive Samsung’s award for “Best Governor in Africa for Outstanding Educational Project” on Wednesday at Samsung’s Africa Forum Conference in Cape Town, South Africa.

150,000 jostle for NIMC jobs

Police, Corps Director: no attack on Ekiti NYSC camp E O KITI State Commissioner of Police Sotonye Wakama and the State Director of the National Youth Service Scheme (NYSC), M. Tunde BabaAhmed, have debunked the rumour that there was a bomb attack on the NYSC Orientation Camp in Ise/ Orun Ekiti.

It was learnt that a robbery was foiled at Orun Ekiti and the hoodlums engaged a vigilance group and policemen in a gun battle for over 30 minutes.

Sources said the robbers snatched a Toyota car and escaped towards Emure/ Akoko.

The shooting made residents assume that the orien-

From Franca Ochigbo, Abuja

From Sulaiman Salawudeen, Ado-Ekiti

tation camp might have been invaded by terrorists and they posted messages on the social media.

This made many parents frantic and they phoned their children to ascertain their safety.

Police spokesman Victor Olu-Babayemi said the Toyota has been recovered.

In a statement, Wakama dispelled the rumour of a terror attack, saying: “The command’s attention has been drawn to the rumour that the Ekiti State NYSC Orientation Camp was attacked by an ex-

tremist group. The news is false. There was no attack or attempted attack by any group on the camp.

“The news may have originated from the attempt by armed robbers to attack a beer distributor in OrunEkiti, a town of about one and a half kilometres from the camp.

“The robbery was foiled as a distress call to the police was promptly responded to. The robbers engaged the police in a gun duel and one of them was shot. The others abandoned some of their arms and fled into the bush.

“Two locally-made double-

barrel guns and a car were recovered from the scene.

Detectives are on the trail of the hoodlums.

“This incident has nothing to do with the NYSC camp.

The camp is being manned by armed policemen, soldiers and other security agents.

Measures are in place to ensure the safety of corps members and Ekiti residents.”

The Commissioner for Information, Tayo Ekundayo, allayed the fears of the people, saying “Ekiti is not a safe haven for criminals.”

Baba-Ahmed said there was no attack on the camp.

Group urges Ondo to give financial account

NSCDC officials destroy illegal refineries in Ondo

From Damisi Ojo, Akure

AN anti-corruption group, the Coalition for Transparency (CT), at the weekend urged Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko to account for revenue that has accrued to the state since he assumed office in 2009 till date.

CT is a member of the National Anti-Corruption Coalition (NACC), which was established by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC).

The group said this in a letter to the state government through the Accountant-General.

The letter was signed by its Director of Research and Strategy Olalekan Obolo, Director of Finance Kayode Ehinlanwo, Director of Administration Fisayo Falarungbon and Director of Publicity Tayo Oloba.

Copies were sent to the governor, the permanent secretary and director of the Ministry of Finance.

The group demanded for documents relating to the administration’s expenditure, including projects undertaken within the period.

CT said: “We also request your office to furnish us with details of the total revenue that accrued to the State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (OSOPADEC) within the time frame.

“It is our view that government business must be run transparently and accounted for, but this is not so with the Mimiko administration. It is on the basis of this, coupled with the unequivocal provisions of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, that these modest demands are made.”

The group urged the State Accountant General to note that the FOI Act imposes a duty on him to respond to the demand within seven days.

It said: “If you refuse to give us the information, we shall be left with no option than to seek redress in court.”

VER 150,000 Nigerians responded to the recruitment adverts of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), which appeared in six national newspapers.

An aptitude test was conducted at six locations across the country.

The Director of Human Capital Management, Ms. Winifred Ojeih, said: “Nigerians have equal opportunities of working in the commission once they excel in the aptitude test and the oral interview planned for this month.”

NIMC Director-General Chris Onyemenam warned applicants not to offer money to anybody to secure employment.

Onyemenam said: “If anybody is caught receiving or giving money, he/she would be handed over to law enforcement agencies. Employment into NIMC is not for sale. We have set up a transparent process where only the most qualified applicants from each state would be recruited.”

From Damisi Ojo, Akure

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•From left: National Leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; Alhaja Abiola Banire; Ms. Raimot Banire and Dr. Muiz Banire at the 85th birthday ceremony of Alhaja Banire in Lagos...at the weekend.

PHOTO : DAYO ADEWUNMI

Why women die prematurely, by Fayemi’s wife

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IFE of the Ekiti State Governor, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, has blamed the rising cases of premature death among women on the dearth of screening equipment and the poor attitude to health care.

Erelu Fayemi spoke in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, at the weekend during free screening for breast and cervical cancer, blood pressure, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and other diseases common among women.

The screening was organised for the Forum of Women in Leadership and the spouses of Ekiti State government officials by the Ekiti Development Foundation (EDF), founded by the governor’s wife, and the Ministry of Women Affairs.

It is part of activities marking the 2013 International Women’s Day. Erelu Fayemi said superstitious beliefs as well as the patronage of quacks and faith-based healing centres are the major causes of sudden death among women.

From Sulaiman Salawudeen, Ado-Ekiti

She said women, including educated ones, seldom go for screening for hypertension, cervical and breast cancer, diabetes and other diseases that are common among women.

Erelu Fayemi said: “I was alarmed when in a large gathering of women, I could barely find two persons that had gone for PAP smear. We do not go for regular check up.

“When you see someone complaining of constant ‘malaria’ for more than three months, then it could be a symptom of a debilitating disease that may lead to sudden death. It is common to find people blaming such deaths on some supernatural powers or enemies.”

She urged women to go for medical check-up regularly in standard health centres.

Commissioner for Women Affairs Mrs. Fola Richie Adewusi urged women to be

alive to their responsibilities, especially now that the State Gender and Development Policy has been put in place to protect them.

She said gender consideration for appointments is being taken importantly by the administration and urged women to support the government.

Mrs. Adewusi said various trainings are being organised for women in leadership positions to bring out the best in them.

EN of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have destroyed an illegal crude oil refinery and adulterated diesel in Iju-Osun, Irele Local Government Area of Ondo State.

A suspect, Joshua Oluwatosin, was arrested with three flying boat engines, one power generator, 20 kegs of adulterated diesel and a motorcycle.

It was learnt that the illegal crude oil was been refined on the sea shore and stored in Iju-Osun.

Eight loaded flying boats at the sea shore and other items found on the scene were destroyed.

At Ore, Odigbo Local Government Area, an illegal depot allegedly owned

by Akin Olafusi (a.k.a. Ola Super) was destroyed with over 33,000 litres of adulterated diesel in about 500 kegs.

NSCDC State Commandant Alhaji Popoola Bamidele said the agency will rid the state of oil thieves.

He urged residents to cooperate with security agencies and give them information about criminals.

Ex-minister urges Ajimobi to probe burning of church

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ORMER Minister of Agriculture Otunba Bamidele Dada has urged Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi to set up a panel to probe the burning of a church in Sepeteri, Saki East Local Government.

He said the panel is necessary to prevent a break down of law and order in the town, adding that the incident has been linked to the Boko Haram sect.

From Oseheye Okwuofu, Ibadan

The First Baptist Church was set on fire by unknown persons on December 20, last year.

Sepeteri is an agrarian community situated about over 150 kilometres from Ibadan, the state capital.

Dada said: “As an elder in the town, I want peace. We do not want religious war.

We do not want Boko Har-

am to penetrate the South.

That is our prayer.”

It was gathered that there has been a dispute between Muslims and Christians since 2006 when the church was built opposite the Ibaad Rasheed Technical School for Arabic and Islamic Studies.

The Principal of Ibaad Rasheed Technical School for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Alhaji Saliu Anuolu-

wapo, dismissed Dada’s claim that members of the Boko Haram sect were behind the burning of the church.

He said he petitioned the police in 2006 on the danger of having a church opposite a Quranic school.

Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Sepeteri branch, Rev. Bola Oyetunji, said the church has no plan to relocate.

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

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THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

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CITYBEATS T HE crisis rocking the Ondo State chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) deepened at the weekend. Its Deputy Chairman, Apostle Omobomi Ajisafe, was beaten by hoodlums allegedly sent by the Chairman, Chief Oladutele Obayoriade The national executive of the union had invited the state executive to Abuja last Thursday over allegation of ticket racketeering.

Ajisafe, who went to resume work on Friday after the Abuja meeting at the state secretariat at Omolere, Akure, the state capital, was molested.

Ajisafe was invited to a liquor joint bar another unionist, who then allegedly ordered his "boys" to beat him (Ajisafe) up. The 'boys' were said to have injured Ajisafe and his driver.

Ajisafe was hospitalised at the Specialist Hospital, Akure.

Narrating his ordeal, Ajisafe urged the police to investigate the matter.

He said: "After returning from Abuja, I went to our secretariat on Friday, but I was shocked by the attitude of some junior officers who were abusing me. It had never happened before. Their attitude towards me was abnormal; so, I began to suspect a foul-play and decided to leave the secretariat. As I made to leave, I received a phone call from the chairman, asking me to come to a drinking joint beside the office.

"To my surprise, I saw many of our members there. They were armed but I could not turn back at that point. Before I knew what was happening, I was given the beating of my life in the presence of the chairman. At some point, he ordered them to stop beating me and asked my driver who was equally

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CITYBEATS LINE: 07059022999

•Ajisafe...at the hospital after the attack

Hoodlums assault Ondo NURTW deputy chair From Damisi Ojo, Akure

beaten to leave the place. I was immediately rushed to the hospital where I was treated for my wounds."

Ajisafe appealed to the police to

also guarantee his safety.

When contacted on phone, Obayoriade said he was "not ready to react to such an issue."

He said: "I am at a meeting; I am not ready to react to such a baseless issue".

attacked on January 30 on Ondo-Akure Road by some unknown people.

The attackers who were allegedly in a convoy of six cars were said to have pursued him from Ondo town to Owena Junction.

Ladipo market traders plead for reopening

HE National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTS) has appealed to Lagos State Government to reopen the Ladipo Spares Market in the traders’interest.

In a statement yesterday, NANTS President, Ken Ukaoha, said: "Our investigations, including video clips from various visits by government officials, clearly show that apart from the under-

tones of leadership squabbles, the state of the market is absolutely messy.

“While we continue to appeal to the Lagos State governor to temper justice with mercy and kindly consider the poor state of the traders and their dependents, and reopen the market, we as a national body agree in totality with, and

share the objective of the government regarding the state of markets nationwide, not limited to Ladipo spare parts market."

Thanking all those who had intervened in the matter, NANTS, however, explained that it is important for traders, mechanics and the government to put heads together towards ensuring that health standards are not compro-

Ashafa lifts women with N10m

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The spokesman of the state Police Command, Wole Ogodo, said he had not been briefed on the matter.

Such an incident was not new in the state. A former executive member of the state branch of the union, Mr. Ariyo Adetula, was allegedly

HE lawmaker representing Lagos East Senatorial District, Senator Gbenga Ashafa, has empowered some needy women in the five Local Government Areas and 11 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in his constituency.

Not less than 300 women benefitted from the scheme, which the senator held on Saturday to mark the International Women's Day. Ashafa gave the traders about N10 million, which was shared according to the size of their businesses.

Many traders flocked the presentation venues in the council chamber of Epe Local Government Area and Noforija Hall in Eredo LCDA. Dignitaries at the events included the Chairman of Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Chief Henry Oladele Ajomale; Epe division ACN chair, Chief Lanre Rasaq; Chairman, Epe local government, Hon. Jamiu Agbaje; his Eredo counterpart, Hon. Sabiu Adelaja and Alhaji Anifowose Dengel, an ACN chieftain from Kosofe.

Ajomale praised the senator for helping the traders with the financial scheme, noting that empowerment of women was tantamount to empowering the society. He said the scheme was a confirmation that ACN remained a party that cared for the grassroots.

He said: "Nobody gave Ashafa the benefit of the doubt when he approached our party with his inten-

•Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola

Civil Defence destroys illegal oil refinery

By Wale Ajetunmobi

tion to go to the senate. Because of his civil service background, people thought he would not perform as politicians would do. But he disappointed those people. Everywhere in Lagos East, everybody feels the Ashafa's programmes from Ikorodu, Imota, Agbowa, IkosiEjirin, to Epe, Somolu, Ibeju Lekki and all areas that fall under his jurisdiction." Ajomale said the Ashafa had performed beyond peoples' expectation.

Speaking in Yoruba language, Ashafa said he gave because he felt the pains some of the women passed through after obtaining bank loans to start business without success. Recalling his mother's challenges as gold merchant in Sandgross market in Lagos Island, the senator said he knew how disgraceful it could be when traders could not pay back bank loans.

He said: "I made women empowerment as one of my cardinal programmes when I was elected two years ago. In loyalty to the cause and to make our mothers successful in their business, this scheme is organised to celebrate our women in a day such as International Women's Day. I am not saying that the money given out today will be enough to solve all challenges they face, but I believe it will help greatly in changing their condition and help their businesses in one way or the other."

mised.

"While poverty has driven most people into the markets in search of their daily bread, we insist that sanitation and health must not be sacrificed on the altar of such a search," the statement said.

Ukaoha also called on market leaders nationwide to take up the issue of sanitation seriously and find ways of daily contending with refuse.

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•Ashafa Ashafa said he believed in human capital development, which was he embarked on giving scholarships to indigent pupils and empowering women and youth of his senatorial districts.

Mrs Rashidat Ojikutu, a food stuff trader in Ikorodu, said: "This is a lifeline to help my business. Thank God this is not a loan. I will use the money to buy more goods and the profit I will make from it will be used to buy more goods."

Another beneficiary, Mrs Dorcas Ajayi, thanked Ashafa for helping her crumbling charcoal business.

She said: "I will forever be grateful to Senator Ashafa for this. I was thinking of where to get money to save my charcoal business but when the scheme was announced, I put down my name, not knowing that I will benefit from it."

HE Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has destroyed an illegal crude oil refinery in Iju-Osun village in Irele Local Government Area of Ondo State. The Civil Defence officials were said to have acted on a tip-off.

It was learnt that illegal crude oil was being refined on the sea shore and later deposited in Iju -Osun for evacuation to various destinations through Irele-Ore Road.

Eight flying boats were found ready to off-load; many were already on the sea with full cargoes.

Items found on the scene were destroyed; a suspect, Joshua Oluwatosin was reportedly arrested with three fly-

From Damisi Ojo, Akure

ing-boat engines, one pumping machine generator, 20 kegs of 30-litre adulterated diesel and a motorcycle. The suspect, it was learnt, will soon be charged to court.

An illegal depot allegedly owned by Akin Olafusi a.k.a Ola Super at Ore in Odigbo Local Government Area of the state was destroyed with over 33,000 litres of adulterated diesel in about 500 kegs.

The State Commandant of NSCDC, Alhaji Popoola Bamidele, reiterated the agency’s commitment to rid the state of illegal bunkering and all forms of criminalities.

He advised the citizenry to give security agencies information that would help to free the state of illegal bunkerers.

Fayemi gets ALGON's support

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OLLOWING the inauguration of the new leadership of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) in Ekiti State, its new chairman, Dr Adio Afolayan, who doubles as Chairman of Efon Alaaye Local Government, has promised the body's 100 per cent loyalty to the administration of Governor Kayode Fayemi in the state.

Folayan, in a statement signed by the Special Assistant to the Governor on ALGON Affairs, Mr Gbenga Sodeinde, expressed appreciation to Fayemi for endorsing the new leadership of the association, saying that the administration's Eight-Point

Agenda would be the priority of the association.

"We know that the local government is closer to the people and that is where poverty is biting the people. We assure the Governor that we will do everything not to disappoint him by joining hands with him to develop the state," Afolayan stated.

Earlier, the state Commissioner for Local Government, Mr Paul Omotosho, had charged the new ALGON exco to shun actions that are inimical to the principles of transparency and accountability of the Fayemi-led administration, saying that the governor must have seen some good leadership qualities in them before approving of their appointment.

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

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CITYBEATS

CITYBEATS LINE: 07059022999

Arepo survivors relive ordeal •Why we killed NNPC officials, by suspect

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OME survivors of the September 5, last year Arepo killings relived their harrowing experience yesterday, about seven months after the incident.

Three Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) engineers were killed by suspected vandals while repairing the ruptured System 2B pipeline.

Joseph Abua, Shade Eruobodo, underwater engineers with NNPC, and Ayotunde Adekunle said they survived what they called the “movie-like scene by sheer luck.”

Abua, who was injured, said he crawled into a bush where he was saved by a farmer. He said: "I am a casual worker with NNPC and I was posted to the Maintenance Department. On September 5, 2012, Deputy Manager, Maintenance, Engineer Agbako, Ernest Ngene, Ikechukwu Ekeneme, Shade, Tunde and I left for Arepo at about 8am to repair the ruptured pipeline.

A few minutes after we arrived at the spot and started work, we noticed an on-coming boat. The local security man, Taye, popularly known as 'Deadman' told us not to worry as he would handle them.

He spoke to them in Ijaw language, but I was able to hear when he told them in English that they should return, that we were there to repair the ruptured pipeline.

"They started shouting at Taye. At that point, Engineer Agbako asked Shade who was in the water to come out, that there was trouble.

Just as he was about to climb out of the water, the vandals opened fire on us while the security men with us fired back. I was shot at twice before I jumped into the water and swam across to the bank of the river.

"I overheard Engineer Agbako pleading with them to stop shooting. They shouted at him, asking: 'Is it because you are still alive that you have the guts to talk?' They opened fire on them. I crawled in the bush for about eight hours before I met a farmer who took me to

‘We dumped their bodies by the waterside because we knew that other security men could come, but when they did not come, we went back at night and buried them.

Taye's family members came and took his corpse. The NNPC officials got into the way while we were shooting and were killed.

Next time, they should flee’

By Jude Isiguzo

NNPC medical unit at Mosimi.

Those boys were heavily armed; there was no way one would have survived."

Eruobodo said: "I have been with NNPC for ten years at its Mosimi Depot. As usual, Engineer Agbako asked us to repair a ruptured pipeline at Arepo. We were about seven.

He made arrangement with some armed Ijaw men to escort us to the spot. When we got there, I went inside the water and started pegging the ruptured pipeline. Twenty minutes later, a boat approached with heavily armed men who were brandishing their weapons. I wanted to jump out immediately but Engineer Agbako said there was no cause for alarm as the Ijaw men with us would protect us.

"When they got closer, they started shouting in Ijaw language while those men with us responded. Then they started challenging Deadman who was the leader of the local vigilance

group that escorted us to the place. They were all speaking in Ijaw language. Suddenly, they opened fire on us. Everybody jumped into the water. I was hit severally in the head and other parts of my body, but I managed to escape through the swampy river into a nearby bush. I swam to the bank, despite the heavy shooting; I was followed by two other engineers with their bodies riddled with bullets. I was treated at the NNPC/PPMC hospital at Mosimi". Unfortunately, Engineer Agbako, Ikechukwu and Ernest did not survive. I was the only one that came out alive without any bullet wound, though they shot at me severally."

Adekunle said: "I thank God that I survived it; it was more like a war film. They had an argument with Taye, the local security man, before they opened fire on us."

Men of the Inspector-General of Police (IG) Special Task Force on Anti-Pipeline Vandalism Unit have arrested a suspected vandal, Jigo Jiperede aka Tokiwe, said to be involved in the killing of the three NNPC engineers.

The suspect told the police: "We discovered that Taye, the local security man, is a saboteur. We paid him regularly to stop giving NNPC information and at the end of the day, he would inform them. Normally, any part of the pipeline that we opened would be closed and controlled by us without the knowledge of the NNPC. For some time, we suspended operation owing to Taye's constant betrayal. He is the one that alerted them to our operations.

"On that day, he called Timi Koro, his brother, also a vandal, that they were repairing a ruptured pipeline and that they

•Inpsector Police, Abubarkar

•Jiperede were heavily armed. Timi told us and we decided to deal with him for betraying us again. We went after them and opened fire after warning Taye that the end had come for him."

On what became of the bodies, Jigo said: "We dumped their bodies by the waterside because we knew that other security men could come, but when they did not come, we went back at night and buried them. Taye's family members came and took his corpse. The NNPC officials got into the way while we were shooting and were killed. Next time, they should flee. " On how he was recruited, Jigo said: "I joined the illegal

business in 2007 when my business was no longer doing well. I was introduced to it by a friend, Jilo, who died in a fire.

It was in 2009 that they formed an association called the Pipeline Vandalism Union with Jagun as the overall chairman.

The association's duty is to control the sale of the product to our buyers and training of personnel to reduce cases of fire outbreaks.

"If you are not a member of the association, you will sell the

T

From Ernest Nwokolo, Abeokuta

munity, adding that he has no intention of doing so.

The chiefs' spokesman, Hon. Babatunde Tajudeen, the Baale of Okesuna-Ijoko, accused "detractors" of spreading false information within and outside the community that their monarch had fled his kingdom following a court verdict.

Tajudeen confirmed that there was a court verdict over a chieftaincy dispute between Oba Ogunseye and a rival, Matanmi, but said the court did not ask the Onijoko to flee his community.

He said: "We got wind of a court judgment that our king had been sentenced to threemonth imprisonment; that our king ran to Cotonou, although our lawyer was not served a notice. But what we know is that our king has not left his palace aside going to Abeokuta."

According to Tajudeen, who spoke at the gathering attended by the Asiwaju of Ijokoland, Chief Moruf Amodu, and the Amuludun of Ijoko, Chief Jimoh Kasali, among others, "those behind the rumours are mischief makers who are bent on causing disaffection in the commu-

Nursing, expectant mothers redeployed from NYSC camp

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IGHTY-FIVE expectant and nursing mothers posted to Ondo State for the mandatory one-year National Youth Service have been redeployed to their home states.

Ondo State National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) coordinator Mr. Isiaka Kuoye said at the weekend, that those redeployed had been paid their allowances.

Welcoming NYSC Director-General Brig-Gen. Nnanidi OkoreAffia to the Orientation Camp in Ikare-Akoko, Ondo State, Kuoye said 2090 Corps members were posted to the state, adding that 1041 are men and women, 1049.

By Olorunleke Akeredolu

He said the Corps members had been of good conduct since their arrival, praising their active involvement in camp activities.

Gen. Okore-Affia urged the Corps members to respect the cultures of people in their places of primary assignment since the aim of the service is to unite the nation through service and humanity.

He said: "You must be law abiding and obey all rules. Always ensure that you do your best wherever you are posted

to after the orientation programme in the camp. Respect their cultures, do not disrespect elders. Being a Corps member does not give you the authority to misbehave.

"Don't put on clothes that will be against the culture of the areas you are posted to or something that will make the people to be suspecting you. Don't believe that because you are a prayer warrior that you can attack the village shrine of the area you are posted to. Do not go there, don't attack their shrine.

I can assure you that your allowance will be enough for you"

nity."

He lamented the community's three-year-old Obaship tussle, which began on April 27, 2010 when residents ran into an ambush laid in Ota by over a dozen hoodlums who attacked them with guns, cutlasses and other dangerous weapons while they were returning from court.

The Baale said Ijoko people lost no fewer than four persons including a final-year student of University of Lagos, adding that Monsuru, son of Oba Ogunseye, was abducted during the attack.

He appealed to the security agencies, particularly, the Ogun State Police Command, to wade into Monsuru's abduction to ascertain those behind it, where he is being kept, and whether he is dead or alive.

product to it at N1000 per 50 litres. It is easier to avoid arrest; that is why since 2007, I have not been arrested. The association has a strong network with spies everywhere; that is why it has been difficult for security agencies to totally eradicate our activities."

Friday Ibadin, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), in charge of Inspector-General of Police Special Task Force on Anti Vandalism, said his men were gradually closing in on the gang that killed the NNPC engineers.

According to Ibadin, policemen led by Sector Commander, Lagos, Deputy Superintendent (DSP) Onaghise Osayande, are gradually tracking down the fleeing suspects.

He praised the NNPC management team for providing what it takes to fight the vandals.

"The recent mounting of several platforms for a closer surveillance of NNPC pipelines across the country will reduce the activities of vandals to the barest minimum. He promised to end the reign of the notorious group - Pipeline Vandalism Union.

Esiri for burial April 12

Prince's disappearance worries Ogun community RADITIONAL chiefs in Ijoko Kingdom, Egbaland in Ogun State are worried over the whereabouts of their monarch's son, Prince Monsuru Ogunseye, who was abducted by hoodlums on April 27, 2010.

They said their monarch, Oba Abdul-Azeez Ogunseye, the Onijoko of Ijoko, was neither on the run to Republic of Benin nor is his domain in turmoil as being rumoured in some quarters.

The Council of Chiefs and hundreds of indigenes of the sleepy community in Ado-Odo Ota Local Government area of the state, who converged on Oba Ogunleye’s palace on Saturday, said their traditional ruler did not flee his com-

General of Muhammed

•The late Esiri

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HE family of late veteran actor, Justus Esiri, have picked April 12 as the burial date of their patriarch. The date was picked to avoid a clash with the ongoing Christian lent, traditional festivals and market days in Oria-Abraka, the deceased home town in Delta State.

George Esiri, younger brother to the deceased and spokesperson for the family who announced the date, however declined to give de-

tails on the venues for the various funeral events.

According to Esiri, the activities will begin in Lagos on April 9 with a service of songs. This, he said, will be followed by a lying-in-state at his Mafoluku residence and a Mass at a Catholic Church on April 10, also in Lagos.

He said next phase of the rites would be held in Delta State where another service of songs has been scheduled for Warri on April 11, and a lying-in-state and interment in Abraka on April 12.

Late Esiri, popular for his role in the rested television series, Village Headmaster, died of Type 2 Diabetes on February 19. He was an Officer of the Order of Niger (OON), a national honour that was given to him by the Federal Government in 2012.

Police warn of abandoned vehicles’ owners

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HE police authorities in Lagos and Ogun States have warned owners of abandoned vehicles parked at Lafenwa, Sagamu, Agbowa and Bode Thomas Divisions, to remove them or lose them to the public through auction

by March 24.

According to a statement from the information departments of the commands, yesterday, those at Lafenwa division, Ogun state Command are: Unregistered Toyota and Mazda buses; Toyota Corolla car marked DS 22 KJA; three Nissan Sunny cars; Peugeot

505 car marked CM 772 ABJ; Toyota Corolla car marked FY 873 KJA; BMW marked DC 696 APP; Unregistered Datsun car; Honda City car marked BC 854 FST; Volkswagen Golf marked AP 526 NRK; Mazda 626 marked AH 790 LAR; Mazda 323 marked BV 413 KTU; Mercedes Benz car marked AG 603 JGB; Toyota bus marked XQ 829 MUS and two Bajaj motorcycles marked QD 922AKM and QQ 874 EKY. At the Sagamu Division are: A Nissan car marked DL 502 AAA; Layland truck marked XB 414 BD; a trailer

bucket; bus body marked XB 438 LEW; Mack truck marked XQ 527 and two Bajaj motorcycles marked, QT 810 MUS and QL 548 SMK. Also at the Lagos Command (Agbowa Division), are: A Mazda bus scrap (commercial colour), marked XL 514 LND; an unregistered Audi 80, Mercedes Benz 190 marked AH 534 EZA; Volvo (scrap) marked PI 129 KND; and an unregistered Volkswagen Vanagon (dark blue); and at the Bode Thomas Division is a Nissan saloon car marked EI 338 KJA.

THE NATION MONDAY MARCH 11, 2013

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NEWS

I have not resigned, says Imo deputy governor •Agbaso links travail to intrigues over 2015 election •Denies receiving N458m bribe

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MBATTLED Imo State Deputy Governor Jude Agbaso yesterday denied media reports that he has resigned.

The House of Assembly is probing Agbaso, following allegations that he received N458million kickback from a road contractor.

He said the allegation was not only false but also politically motivated to malign his person.

Agbaso said the contractor was introduced by Governor Rochas Okorocha.

The deputy governor claimed that he was a victim of the political games being played by powerful forces over who becomes governor in 2015.

He spoke to reporters in Owerri at the weekend amid the speculation that he was denied access to his office and being pressured to resign as a face-saving measure.

Agbaso denied the stories, saying he was at his desk on Friday and would be there today.

The deputy governor said there was an agreement between his elder brother and chieftain of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Martin Agbaso and Okorocha.

In the agreement, the governor reportedly agreed to serve for only a single term after which power would be zoned to Owerri.

Agbaso said his travail was a result of a carefully-planned political game aimed at breaching the agreement reached with his

The report that nailed Agbaso

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ACTS on how Imo State Deputy Governor Jude Agbaso was indicted in a N458 million contract scam has been released by the Ad Hoc Committee set up by the House of Assembly to investigate the abandonment of road projects by some contractors.

The report, which was made available to reporters in Owerri, the Imo State capital, said the deputy governor received financial gratification of N458million from a contracting firm, JPROS International Nigeria Ltd, to award a 15-kilometre road contract to the firm.

The firm’s Managing Director, Joseph Dina, told the Committee, headed by Simeon Iwunze, that he paid the money to Agbaso in two instalments after receiving an overpayment in a contract, which he later abandoned.

The MD told a bewildered committee that he could not deliver on an existing contract, which he has received full payment for because he was trying to recover the money he paid to the deputy governor.

From Okodili Ndidi, Owerri

Dina said Agbaso reneged on an earlier agreement, by failing to award the contract for which he demanded and received the money for his firm.

The Committee ruled that: “Evidence before us is consistent with facts that Joseph Dina of JPROS International Ltd transferred N458million in two installments to accounts nominated by Deputy Governor Jude Agbaso.

“The Committee thereafter recommends that a vote of no confidence be passed on the deputy governor for acts unbecoming of his person and office.

“Also the state and local governments should black list JEPROS International Nig. Ltd from doing business in the state in future.”

Agbaso has denied it all, challenging the contractor to state account in which he paid the money.

From Yomi Odunuga, Deputy Editor, Nation’s Capital

brother.

The deputy governor described the impeachment threat against him by the House of Assembly as ill-informed and unfair.

Agbaso called on the relevant agencies to investigate the allegation.

He said: “Let me put it straight and, very categorical too, that at no time, have I contemplated resigning as the Imo State deputy governor.

“As I stated earlier, the mandate was freely and massively given me by the people of this state.

“So, I never resigned, I never intend to resign and I will continue to serve the people, until the mandate they gave me elapse.

“I want to also seize this opportunity to state that at no time did I demand N458million or any sum of money from any contractor in Imo State.

“And at no time did the contractor, Joseph Dina of JPRO, pay me N458 million.

“JPRO is the contractor working on the present day Sam Mbakwe road.

“I never knew the construction

company or its owners.

“The company was introduced to the state by Governor Rochas Okorocha, who approved a contract of N1.5billion.

“Since they said the money had been paid to the bank, I think the onus is to call on investigative agents to trace the payment.

N458million is not N458, 000 and it cannot vanish into thin air.

“They should look for the money there (in the account the contractor claimed he paid to). It must be there.

“If it is not there, they can track the money. It can be traced to the last account that it went into.

“With forensics, they can trace

the money into the pockets of those who took it.

“But my dear people of Imo State, I state here one more time, I never asked for the money, I never received the money and I do not have any thing to do with it.

“The other question is why all these things about bribery and impeachment at this moment?

“This whole thing stems from the various players’ agitation as to the situation in 2015.

“I have heard speculations about who runs in 2015 and who does not.

“I know there is subsisting agreement, which is in the public domain in Imo State, between my elder brother, Martin and our dear Governor Rochas Okorocha, to hand over to the people of Owerri Zone in 2015.

“I have heard that this has everything to do with it. But I can tell you it has nothing to do with the person of the deputy governor as we speak.

“And I think that, sooner rather than later, this whole story would be unraveled.

“Let me state that I have maintained a robust, cordial relationship with Governor Rochas Okorocha.”

He also dispelled rumours that Okorocha has promised to prevail on the Assembly to stop the impeachment move. “’I’m determined to clear my name of all the allegations levelled against me and my conduct in office.”

Erosion threatens Ekwueme’s home

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NAMBRA State Governor Peter Obi was in tears yesterday at Umunachi in Dunukofia Local Government Area, following the erosion in Oko and Nanka communities.

The building belonging to the traditional ruler of Oko kingdom, Prof.

Laz Ekwueme, is on the brink of collapse.

The one belonging to former Vice President Alex Ekwueme is not safe either.

Obi who was at the sites with the Presidential Team on Ecological projects, said the issue

From Nwanosike Onu, Awka

had given him sleepless nights.

“I was informed by Igwe Laz Ekwueme about the incident at 1am on Saturday and I quickly told the President about it. This is why he dispatched a team to Anambra for inspection.

“Honestly, the incident has given me sleepless nights and if nothing is urgently done and properly managed, Anambra State will be one of the states affected during the rainy season,” Obi said.

Etisalat chair for Economist Summit

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TISALAT Nigeria’s Chairman, Hakeem Belo-Osagie and the telecommunication company’s Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Evans, are among eminent personalities that would be speaking at the Economist Nigeria Summit 2013 billed to hold from March 19 to 20 at Eko Expo Centre, Lagos.

Belo-Osagie will be speaking on the topic: ‘The Future of Education in Africa’ and the session will be moderated by the Economist’s Middle East and

Africa Editor, Xan Smiley.

Evans, who will be speaking on “Leveraging Technology to Enable Inclusive, Private-Sector Led Growth” is believed to have been chosen for the workshop because of Etisalat’s leading role in deploying innovative and technology-driven products and services in Nigeria.

Mr. Evans’ presentation which comes up on March 19, the first day of the Summit is expected to touch on vital points, such as the import of technology to driving change and why Nigeria is lagging behind East.

‘Ezu River has been defiled’ From Nwanosike Onu, Awka

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RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan’s Special Adviser on Inter-Party Affairs Senator Ben Obi has said those behind the dastardly act at Ezu River must be brought to book.

Over 20 bodies were dumped in the river, which is the boundary between Anambra and Enugu states.

He spoke yesterday at the palace of the community monarch, Igwe Kenneth Okonkwo.

Obi said Amansea which used to be land of peace had been defiled.

He donated 2,400 packets of bottled water and 1,000 bags of sachet water.

“This is the first time such a thing has happened in Anambra State and it made people to wonder why it should be in Amansea, a community known for peace.

“Though, the Commissioner of Police, Bala Nasarawa and Governor Peter Obi had done well since the incident happened, we should not treat it with kid gloves, and our ears should be on the ground from now on.”

•Anambra State Governor Peter Obi (middle) with officials at the kick-off of the immunisation in Umunachi...yesterday

Minister lauds film industry potential at Africa Magic awards night F

OR President Goodluck Jonathan, weekend’s Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA) was a cultural liberation for Africa.

The President, who was represented at the event by Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke, recalled how Nigeria relied on other countries for television and video dramas before the advent of Nollywood 20 years ago, but noted that today, the reverse is the case.

The maiden edition of the event, which held at the Meridien Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, had popular Ghanaian actress,Jackie Appiah and Nigeria’s emerging talent, OC Ukeje winning the Best Actress and

By Victor Akande, Entertainment Editor

Best Actor categories respectively.

But the ovation was overwhelming for Nigerian filmmaker, Akin Omotoso, who did not only clinch the Best Director’s trophy, but also won in three other categories with his film- Man on Ground.

A large number of artistes attended the event that drew who-is-who in the entertainment world. There was also the presence of the corporate Nigeria, led by Nigerian Breweries Plc, through its Amstel Malta brand.

Minister of Culture and Tourism Edem Duke and and

Olusegun Aganga, Minister of Trade and Investment attended the ceremony.

Other winners are Mercy Johnson (Best Actress – Comedy) for Dumebi – The Dirty Girl and Hafiz Oyetoro (Best Actor – Comedy) for House a Part.

Category wins for Best Supporting Cast in drama went to Uganda’s Matthew Nabwiso for A Good Catholic Girl and Kenya’s Maureen Koech for Lies That Bind. The prestigious award for Best Director went to Akin Omotoso for Man on Ground. The Best Movie Overall and Best Television categories were the climax

of the event, with Otelo Burning and The XYZ Show winning the honours respectively.

Rounding off the night, veteran Nigerian actor, Olu Jacobs was named the recipient of the Industry Merit Award while AMBO girl, Ivie Okujaye, was declared the TrailBlazer of the Year.

An excited Olu Jacob while receiving his award said that perseverance and passion has kept him and his wife, Joke going, despite initial alienation by family members and friends.

Aganga praised the award initiative. He analysed the underlying economic potentials of the entertainment industry in the continent. He noted that Africa is described everywhere today as the last frontier.

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COMMENTARY FROM OTHER LANDS

EDITORIALS

Unacceptable lopsidedness •Foot-dragging on PIB leads to opening of can of worms on oil blocs

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ELIBERATIONS on the contentious Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) on the floor of the Senate last week confirmed, once again, the appalling lack of transparency, accountability, justice and equity that has continued to hobble the oil sector, which is the mainstay of the Nigerian economy. Even though the Bill eventually smoothly scaled the Second Reading and proceeded to the committee stage on Thursday, this was not before some very shocking revelations during the debate on Wednesday as regards the lopsidedness in the ownership of oil blocs in the Niger Delta.

Before the dramatic turn of events following the disclosure on the oil blocs, the debate had assumed a North-South dichotomy among the senators. It was not surprising that northern senators vehemently opposed key sections of the PIB, particularly the provision for the allocation of 10 per cent net profit of oil companies operating in the Niger Delta, to host communities. Like other members of the northern political elite who had persistently voiced their opinion on the matter, the senators were not convinced by the argument that the host communities deserved to be compensated for the gross devastation of their environment, livelihood and even health in the process of prospecting for oil.

The standard argument from the north has been that the Niger Delta is already being overcompensated through the 13 percent derivation fund it receives, as well as the establishment of the Ministry of the Niger Delta and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NNDC).

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang, however, introduced a major twist to the

debate on Tuesday when he disclosed that northerners control 83 percent of oil blocs in the country. Urged by the Senate President, David Mark, to buttress his allegation with facts, Senator Enang reeled out names of beneficiaries of oil bloc allocations, their companies and the oil fields they control. His facts have not been controverted since then.

Those named as owners and operators of the oil blocs include Alhaji Mai Deribe from Borno State, owner of Cavendish Petroleum that operates OML 110; Mallam Sanusi Lamido from Kano, a major shareholder and director of Seplatform Petroleum that operates ASUOKPUJUMTU marginal field; General Theophilus Danjuma whose South African Petroleum Limited (SAPETRO) controls OPL 246 in partnership with Total Upstream Nigeria Limited and Brasoil Oil Services Company Nigeria Limited and Alhaji Sani Bello of Kontagora, Niger State, who operates OML 112 and OML 117 through his AMNI International Petroleum and Development Company.

Others are Alhaji Indimi of Oriental Energy Resources Limited that operates OML 115 as well as the Oduok and Ebok fields; former Petroleum Minister and OPEC Chairman, Alhaji Rilwan Lukman who manages AMNI oil blocs. Others include Alhaji Aminu Dantata who operates OML 108 through Express Petroleum and Gas Limited as well as the trio of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua and Alhaji Ado Bayero who own INTEL Oil Services with substantial stakes in Nigeria’s oil exploration in Sao Tome and Principe. Some of the nonnortherners in the industry include Mike

Adenuga, Emeka Offor and Yinka Folawiyo.

It is ironical that the north, whose leaders have vehemently opposed the demand by the Niger Delta for a more just share of oil revenues, actually controls the bulk of the region’s oil business.

Many of these companies reportedly make more profit from their oil blocs than the PIB seeks to pay host communities as compensation.

The Senate should not sweep this issue under the carpet. It should demand full details of oil bloc allocations and take corrective measures to ensure fairness and balance. We do not even know why the oil blocs would be allocated to individuals, with many of them not having the capacity to utilise them optimally. All these underscore the urgent need to pass the PIB that will ensure transparency in the sector and prevent the kind of abuses responsible for the current lopsidedness in the allocation of oil blocs.

‘It is ironical that the north, whose leaders have vehemently opposed the demand by the Niger Delta for a more just share of oil revenues, actually controls the bulk of the region’s oil business. Many of these companies reportedly make more profit from their oil blocs than the PIB seeks to pay host communities as compensation. The Senate should not sweep this issue under the carpet’

Return of ATM charges •This is curious because the banks agreed to cancel these barely three mon ths ago HEN the Bankers Committee scrapped the inter-bank charges on the use of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in November last year, it came as relief to bank customers accustomed to paying all kinds of sundry transaction charges. However, they may have rejoiced too soon with last week’s dramatic re-entry of Card Maintenance Fee courtesy of First Bank, barely three months after. A terse notice from the bank last week informed the customers that effective March, N100 will be charged for all cash withdrawals for the month.

The notice came with the usual bland statement that this was to enable the bank serve the customer better. As a matter of fact, First Bank is not alone in this, a few other banks have slammed similar

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‘Now, if the scrapping of the charge was agreeable to the bankers club three months ago, when did it suddenly become disagreeable, and why at this time? What is the meaning of card maintenance charge when the cost of the cards is charged the customer at points of issue? What is there to maintain in the plastic device that any bank would seek to rake in fortunes in unearned cash for merely keeping it, even when not in use?’

charges on their ATM services.

Is the issue about service? It’s hard to accept. The issue is – First Bank, for instance, considers the maintenance service of N100 per month a paltry amount to pay by their customers for using the ATM service. It could well have denied the cash haul from the hundreds of thousands of customers involved.

Of course, the measure revives the old argument as to who benefits more from ATM services. The conventional position is to see the ATM as affording the customer the convenience of easy access to his cash. That is no doubt true. What is no less true however is that it saves the banks the direct multiples of man-hours (and the associated costs) spent in attending to their hordes of individual customers. Given that service costs are by their nature non-discriminatory in terms of whether the customer is a small or big account holder, and to the extent that the banks cannot legitimately deny their impact on their costs and hence their bottom-line, it is only reasonable to expect that the man-hour cost saved through the use of ATM would set off the so-called costs of maintenance.

We suspect that this consideration may have informed the scrapping of the charges by the Bankers Committee in November. Now, if the scrapping of the charge was agreeable to the bankers club three months ago, when did it suddenly become disagreeable, and why at this time? What is the meaning of card maintenance charge when the cost of the cards

is charged the customer at points of issue? What is there to maintain in the plastic device that any bank would seek to rake in fortunes in unearned cash for merely keeping it, even when not in use?

This newspaper is at a loss to understand the re-emergence of the charges except that the banks believe that it is in their power to do as they like. If there are other reasons behind the measure, Nigerians are entitled to know. At the moment, this has not been satisfactorily explained.

We equally deplore the idea of introducing the charges through the back door. Not only does it go against the grain of the agreement by the Bankers Committee, it has the great potential to spawn other spurious charges by the banks.

Just as there are countless other sources that banks can make money from, we expect our banks to explore more creative ways to make money. In doing this, we expect them to spare the ordinary folk of spurious charges on their hard-earned deposits. After all, the industry cannot claim to be promoting a cashless society on one hand, while pursuing measures that are clear disincentives to its stated goal on the other.

We expect all the banks that are jettisoning the agreement reached at the Bankers Committee meeting about three months ago to withdraw the charges. Otherwise, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should call them to order.

Obama’s drones and laws of war US targeted killings must be put on a statutory footing

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AND Paul should be applauded for his 13-hour filibuster on Wednesday that delayed the vote on John Brennan. Mr Brennan will be confirmed as the CIA chief – as indeed he should be. But Mr Paul performed a service in highlighting Barack Obama’s slipperiness on the ever-expanding lethal drone programme. It was a pity that the Republican senator confined his protest to the legality of killing US citizens on American soil – an outlandish scenario the administration refuses to rule out. The debate ought to have encompassed any noncombatant in any country. But Mr Paul has thrown down an overdue gauntlet. The president would be wise to respond.

There is little doubt that drones have become an effective tool of counter-terrorism in the past four years. Mr Obama may well have been justified in each and every drone approval that he has given. Hellfire missiles have killed scores of al-Qaeda leaders who were beyond the reach of law. But we can only take Mr Obama’s word for it. Neither the US courts nor Congress have regular oversight of an administration that claims the same inherent powers alike as George W. Bush’s. Mr Obama may no longer call it the “war on terror”. In practice he has merely extended its scope.

As a constitutional lawyer, Mr Obama is well aware that his actions and classified justifications will be inherited by successors, who may not be as conscientious in poring over “kill lists” as he has been. The time is past due to put the targeted killing programme on a statutory footing. No constitutional democracy can tolerate an executive that claims unilateral, perpetual and secretive powers over life and death. At the very least the drone programme needs to be subjected to judicial review overseen by Congress.

Any bill will involve a broader debate than Mr Paul’s fatigued meanderings on Wednesday night. And Mr Obama will have legitimate fears about preventing leaks that could undermine the effectiveness of the drone programme. But these can be addressed by confining judicial approval to special courts – as is already the case for warrantless surveillance. Likewise, the circle of those briefed on Capitol Hill can be restricted.

What is clear is that Mr Obama can no longer base his actions on the “just trust me” doctrine. Other powers, including China, are developing drones. It will be in the US interest to restrain them. Unless and until Mr Obama proclaims and follows his own rules, he will have no basis to press them on others.

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

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• Gen. Manager (Training and Development) Soji Omotunde •Chief Internal Auditor Toke Folorunsho •Senior Manager (sales) Akeem Shoge

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THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

CARTOON & LETTERS

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IR: I have always felt that the arguments for homosexuality have been based on a bandwagon effect rather than on the test of the notion against nature’s processes, reason or logic. Counries that fail to adopt or have prohibited same sex unions are branded as backward and unenlightened but we fail to recognise that the fact that popular opinion favours a subject doesn’t make the subject right. Whatever society thinks should be juxtaposed alongside set moral standards or nature or any other established criteria, its weaknesses or strengths extracted and used to form healthy conclusions.

I reckon that the proponents of same sex relationships have not considered this aspect in depth.

Homosexuality and lesbianism are the only human process in nature that do not promote procreation. In elementary biology, we know that some lone cells procreate by binary fission i.e splitting of cells. Some other forms of asexual reproduction require only one body. Usually these bodies are so basic that such processes are not in themselves difficult or unnatural.

We need to face the facts. Most of the fundamental laws of society were extracted from religious books and have been passed down from generation to generation. The frailties and flaws of human nature does not mean that these laws have failed.

I have discovered with a heavy dose of irony that no professional commercial sex worker wants her

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IR: The Yoruba say no sane parent gives a stubborn child to a wild animal to feed-on. The parent would rather pray and work for the transformation of the child. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is a common legacy of all the universities in Nigeria, mounted to protect the interest of the academic staff.

Whenever the Union secures a right, all the other staff unions in the system press for a similar right.

Through ASUU’s pressures, many universities in Nigeria are better funded.

Unfortunately, some administrators use the enormous funds at their disposal to build fanciful structures, and engage in expansionism, while failing to maintain properly the preceding structures. Some retired workers are not replaced. What is worse, some faculties have no suffi-

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Still on same sex marriage child to be one, no matter how legalised the trade stands. Drug peddlers and baron keep their children away from the substance and will not support their consumption or use in spite of the legal stance in some areas. That is simply the evidence of a nature that God has created in man to instinctively and

inwardly know and long for the truth despite being lost in perdition and perversion. No bad man wants a bad man-child. No woman want a bad girl-child. No homosexual except bold-faced liars want a homosexual child.

Let me not be misunderstood here. As unnatural as I consider ho-

mosexuality, I don’t place it as a dangerous social problem. In fact I regard it as a “normal”problem classed with the likes of bad breath or body odour. For these latter groups, we do not create right groups and civil societies to cater for their special needs. We set them up to address their challenges and

advise them on the necessary steps to take to eradicate or at least manage their problems. We do not use perfumes to hide body odour or candies to hide bad breath. Neither can we use laws to hide the truths about this sort of sexuality except we want to deny that we have a problem in our hands. If drug users can be rehabilitated in spite of its legal nature in some areas, if commercial sex workers can be taught to lead better lives, why can’t this group be rehabilitated and re-taught on the correct use of their organs?

• Daniel Taiwo Ogunronbi Surulere Lagos

Fayemi’s EKSU lecture: My generation’s position

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IR: Recently, the Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, delivered a lecture titled “Reflections on Values and the Building of A Successor Generation in Nigeria” at the Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti where he talked extensively about the need to build a successor generation and the values befitting of such a generation.

Going through the text of the lecture, I couldn’t but present the position of my generation - the younger generation. The truth is, my generation is not aware of any successor generation in the making.

My generation knows three (3) generations in Nigeria:. The first is the real generation. This is the first generation of educated and promi-

nent Nigerians, the generation of the likes of Herbert Macaulay, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikwe, Anthony Enahoro, Tafawa Balewa...This is the generation that worked for and witnessed the birth of the entity called Nigeria. This generation loved Nigeria and Nigerians so much so that it gave the next generation free education, first Television station in Africa, Cocoa House Ibadan and many more. This generation carefully planned for its young by ensuring that education became a right and not a privilege. Unfortunately, the military did not allow this generation to finish its good work.

The second is the their generation.

This generation rates itself as the best in everything while shrouding its

Let ASUU be

cient lecture rooms and examination halls.

In universities where ASUU has been compromised, the academic and other staffs become a pawn in the chess of the administrators. They experience such degradations as cut in salaries, illegal deductions, and denial of allowances. I don’t know how else a university academic staff can protect its dignity than through a wellpositioned ASUU chapter. Those who are resisting ASUU have ulterior motives, and the overwhelming majority should shout them down.

ASUU is badly positioned when its executive arm is composed of “academics” handpicked by a dictatorial Vice-Chancellor and his/her kitchen cabinet, surreptitiously im-

posed on the Union. Such a scenario violates ASUU’s Constitution. The handpicked executive members are silenced with unmerited promotions in some universities. Yes, they sell their consciences and neutralize the only protection (ASUU) owned by the academic staff.

The situation is not different from what obtains in the larger Nigerian society: timidity and failure to oppose dictatorship and exploitation.

The saddest question is: If a university community cannot save its union, what contribution can it make to Nigeria’s liberation from neo-colonialism? Those who equate ASUU with incessant strike play the union into the hands of its enemies. They are agents of Mammon; their stomachs are their gods; they commit Boko

activities in secrecy and creating the impression that my generation (the younger generation) is unfit and outof-place. Ironically, this is the generation that the likes of Baba Awolowo gave all to mentor - the generation that goes to class in the morning only to return and find its room swept and its bed laid. This is the generation that enjoyed free education, had enough freedom to indulge in campus politics and from there found their different leanings whether as marxists, capitalists, socialists... This is the generation that Nigeria gave almost all to make comfortable, but is now giving out nothing to the generation after it, save hardships, stifling poverty, mental degradation...

Haram.

Repositioning ASUU is a collective responsibility; the excesses of both ASUU and university administrators cannot be properly addressed simply by removing the word “strike” from Nigeria’s dictionary. Strike must remain in ASUU’s arsenal if university administrators are to fear and respect it at all. Strike is ASUU’s teeth that it must use (sparingly) in encounter with horrible inhumanity. Not all ASUU’s strikes are reprehensible.

What is more, most of its achievements have been through one strike or another.

Those working against ASUU’s existence should remember posterity and nemesis. Let all rise in support of ASUU! • Pius Oyeniran Abioje, Ph. D, University of Ilorin

Reknowned playwright Wole Soyinka tags this generation a wasted one, but I’d rather call it a wasted and a wasting generation.

My generation feels the hard sole of the boots of the members of this generation. Rather than mentor, they are taming my generation to act and think like zombies. My generation remains a boy at 30 because he still stays with his parents and because no one asks his opinions even in matters that solely concern him. Erudite Professor Jide Osuntokun during the lecture noted that the problem with his generation is that it plans for my generation without making us (youth) stakeholders in such plans.

The question is, how would they know what my generation knows when they never ask or involve us?

Instead, they mock us for attending ill-equipped schools which in fact were made so by the several unworkable greedily conceived policies of their generation.

My generation has been left to founder and flounder. While the thugs among us are being rewarded by their generation, we, the good and cultured ones, watch helplessly, hoping hopelessly against hope that someday someone somewhere would remember and honour our talents, potentials and loyalty.

Let us continue to question, challenge and reject the decision of their generation to keep rewarding the thugs among us while the cerebral ones are daily scorned.

• Fola Davies Ikere, Ekiti State

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THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

COMMENTS

Listen to the wise

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ORMER United States President Bill Clinton was in Nigeria few weeks ago and spoke the truth boldly. To him, this nation has failed to properly use her rich natural resources.

“You have not done well with your oil money,’ he declared unequivocally.

One of our editorials last week demanded to know from the nation’s leaders “why oil that has been a blessing to many endowed countries has turned to a curse for Nigeria.” It affirmed that oil producing countries such as Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates have significantly deployed their oil proceeds to good use for the betterment of their country’s populace and to global approbation, but “due to greed, oil has remained a problem to Nigeria when it ought to be a blessing.”

It was not the first time that this country would be reminded by knowledgeable minds why the nation should not be in the slump of poverty and retrogression where it is today. British Prime Minister David Cameron, Baroness Lynda Chalker, Mrs. Clinton among several foreign personages had similarly been to the country to point out our leadership’s mismanagement of revenues from the massive resources. They all disclosed the realities, but because their views are ignored by those in power, the nation keeps dragging since the lost glories would not be recovered.

Like others, ex-President Clinton who impacted positively on his nation declared Nigeria would have done better were her resources well managed and reinvested in meaningful ways by the leadership. Recounting the nation’s great potentials, he challenged those in privileged positions to imbibe wisdom and create opportunities for the majority of the citizens. “You have to somehow bring economic opportunities to people who don’t have,” he was quoted as saying at the 18th Thisday Newspaper Award ceremony held in Abeokuta.

But in reality, do we need Clinton or foreign leaders to tell us that we are where we are because we have been wasting our oil money? Many Nigerians have been saying this for years but those in position of authority will not listen. Just because of selfcenteredness, greed and the tendency to steal from public treasury, leaders will not pay attention to logical reasonings. This is why the world is making mockery of Nigeria today.

He further counseled that the nation’s intellectuals who were scattered all over the world must be brought back home to assist in developing their fatherland instead of using their talents to further enhance the progress of the already developed nations.

“There has to be a way to take the staggering intellectual and organizational ability that Nigerians exhibit in every country in the world in which they are immigrant and bring it to bear here so that the country as a whole can rise.”

For me, this is a sensible advocacy. Any trip made abroad will divulge more and more Nigeria’s enormous talented human resources adding value to nations of value. Many Andrews were forced to check out due to frustrating leadership stances that

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HE issue of revenue allocation has remained a contentious and very volatile subject in Nigeria generating very strong reactions from each side of the divide anytime it is up for debate. Central to the issue is the whole question of over concentration of enormous financial resources at the federal government at the expense of other federating units.

The current revenue formula in use is tilted in favour of the federal government, which takes a whopping 52.68 per cent of allocation from the Federation Account. The 36 states have a combined share of 26.72 per cent, while the 774 local government areas in the country take 20.6 per cent. Oilproducing states share 13 per cent in accordance with the principle of derivation.

However, of late, there have been clamours for a review of the status quo by cutting the federal government’s lion share to make more funds available to states and local governments.

State governors, through the Governors’ Forum, have led the clamour, claiming that development in their domain was being stifled due to inadequate funds. The financial realities in the states and local governments at present had made the need to review the formula very urgent. Without mincing word, the present revenue formula is not realistic.

In fairness to all the states in the country, with, perhaps, few exceptions, most of them are making efforts, despite their limited resources to deliver the dividends of democracy to their respective states. In Lagos, for instance, the state government has continued its relentless pursuit of ambitious projects such as the redevelopment of the Lagos-Badagry expressway into a 10- lane road incorporating light -rail and BRT lanes, the expansion of the Ketu-Ikorodu road, the construction of more inner roads across the state, the Eko Atlantic City project, Independent Power Projects, construction of 16 Mother and Child Centres for easy medical access, environmental regeneration in addition to 1,960 other massive infrastructural renewal projects scattered across the state. This is, indeed, why allusion is currently being made to the evolvement of a new Lagos in many circles. But, in view of the reality of limited capacity to fund capital projects, most of the states in the federation have had to opt for the option of either borrowing from banks or raising bond from the capital market to finance capital projects. This is because the money they receive monthly from Abuja is barely enough to settle the salaries of workers as well as other overhead costs.

Sadly, however, while most of the states are doing all they could to improve the standard of living of their people, same cannot really be said of the federal government which ironically corners the bulk of the country’s resources. This, of course, is not peculiar to the present administration of President Goodluck

continually drag the nation down. Corruption that is drowning the nation could not be subjugated when people themselves would not have a change of attitude by playing their own roles as committed citizens who are devoted to report wrongdoings, demonstrate and even fight against injustices in high and low places. Not only are the leaders corrupt now that Corruption has become a burden from head to toe. It has flowed down to the base of the nation.

As repeatedly stated, people struggle for power to scoop the commonwealth to private pockets rather than serve the people.

As former Foreign Affairs Minister Professor Bolaji Akinyemi recently disclosed, there is hardly any billionaire in Nigeria today who is not a thief. Nobody could dare stand out to challenge him because he spoke the truth. The consequences have been poverty of the masses, infrastructural degeneration, joblessness, criminality and insecurity. For the land to be genu-

inely transformed, let me repeat it that there must be change of peoples’ mindset to live upright and honest life.

Clinton could see the deficiency in the land as the main driver of the terrorist attacks by Boko Haram. He calculated poverty rate in the North three times higher than the situation in Lagos.

In the same sense, Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka also declared last week when receiving Awolowo Leadership Award that insecurity has brought some regions in the country to their knees simply because of the weakness of leadership in those troubled parts. This must be why Clinton believes the nation’s afflictions could be tackled by strong local, states and national government policies that work together.

Whenever our leaders begin to listen to the counsel of the wise and do the essentials, this nation will become truly transformed without desperation to occupy political offices for self actualization but for service to the people.

Nigeria’s telecom system crashing

O

NCE upon a time, telecommunication sector was about the most exciting of Nigeria’s economy. It can be taken as the viable performance landmark under the Obasanjo administration. With more than half of the population connected via mobile phones across the land, communication became consolatory to the devastating poverty. Even if artisans, market women, drivers and farmers had nothing, they would hold functioning mobile phones to show their still being part of the dwindling community.

Unarguably, the telecommunication facilities in Nigeria went through very rapid change and explosive growth bringing forth economic growth potentials for the economy. A research indicated that at independence in 1960, with a population of about 40 million people, the country only had about 18,724 phone lines for use. This translated to a teledensity of about 0.5 telephone lines per 1,000 people.

The installed switching capacity at the end of 1985 was about 200,000 lines as against the planned target of about 460,000. All the exchanges were analogue. Telephone penetration remained poor, equaling one telephone line to 440 inhabitants, well below the target of one telephone line to 100 inhabitants recommended by ITU for developing countries. At this time, the telephone system was unreliable, congested, expensive and customer unfriendly.

In the early 2000s, the Nigerian Telecommunication Plc (NITEL) had roughly half a million lines available to over 100 million Nigerians. NITEL, the only national carrier, had a monopoly on the sector and was synonymous with epileptic services and bad management.

But with the emergence of GSM, telecoms became an integral and essential part of the culture and life of Nigerians. It also created countless opportunities for small and medium businesses in franchises, dealerships, retailerships and value added services within the GSM market. Jobless youths became sellers of recharge cards.

It grew to the level that few years ago, the Nigerian telecom sector received global acclaim as one of the fastest growing mobile market s in the world. Between 2000 and 2004, the total subscriber base for connected fixed and mobile lines rose at an average growth

rate of 125% annually. In 2005, the NCC reported that private investment into the Nigerian telecoms sector has grown to over US$6 billion, from US$50 million in 2001, with the sector becoming the largest generator of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) after the Oil and Gas Industry. Today, many millions of new telephone lines have been taken up to an exceptional increase of about 250%.

But what is the standard performance today? Network failures, dropped calls, unsolicited text messages and arbitrary deductions across virtually all telecommunication networks have now been restored into the system. Evidently, people are experiencing network malfunction and deterioration in the quality of service without the operators taking any meaningful steps to avert the situation.

Unlike the early years when GSM emerged in Nigeria and people enjoyed functioning services, the same cannot be said of what is now being experienced. It is becoming increasingly difficult to make calls especially to other networks. We are even now battling with frequent cases of either dropped or unclear calls on which credits are deducted. To get service in some areas, you might have to move around shouting “hello, hello...” like the days of old. You might have to send a text message more than once before it is delivered to the recipient.

It is as if the operators are imbibing poor services due to capacity problems facing the sector. Little wonder that MTN Nigeria’s recently announced profit dropped by 6.2% because of its worsening services.

The telecom operators will argue that the industry is still plagued with some problems: Poor public power supply; Poor security such that infrastructures are often vandalized; High import duty as duties on telecoms equipment ranges between 30 to 70%; Anti-competitive practices, with some operators alleged to be forming cartels to frustrate the natural interplay of market forces; The type and quantum of funds needed by operators to expand operations is scarce locally and high operational costs.

But is the official regulator, the Nigeria Communications Commission performing its mandated duty? Or has corruption nailed it down the Nigeria way?

Revenue allocation, federalism and state of the nation

By Lateef Aderemi Ibirogba Jonathan. Succeeding federal administrations in the country have always left the country worse than they met it. From the ill- fated Shehu Shagari administration till date, the country has been wobbling and fumbling with no clear -cut sense of direction. Most federal roads are still bad, as they have always been; power remains evasive; major industries are folding up at an alarming rate; federal universities have become sorry sights while federal hospitals are not even good enough for senior government officials who would rather embark on medical tourism abroad at a great cost to the country. The rate at which federal infrastructure across the country rot away leaves much to be desired.

The question then is: what does the federal government do with the huge state resources at its disposal via the favourable revenue allocation it gets from the system? If the federal government gets so much and yet is doing so little, where then is the justification for the current lopsidedness in the revenue allocation system ?After all, to whom much is given, it is said that much is expected but in the case of the federal government, the reverse is the case.

Isn’t it time then for an urgent need to review the current revenue sharing formula in consonance with the needs of the other federating units? It is quite clear that of all the three federating structures making up the federation, it is the states and local governments that are really touching the lives of the people as they are the closest to them. The National Assembly needs to really emphasise fiscal federalism when it comes to the issue of constitutional amendment. The federal government should devolve more powers to the states or regions that make up the federation. Equally, some of the items on the exclusive legislative list of the current constitution such as customs, ports, police etc should go to the residual legislative list. For instance, the current trend of insecurity in the country requires state police that would normally be in a better position to curb crime using the community policing model. How can the governor of a state be held liable for the insecurity being experienced in his domain when the commissioner of police only reports to the Inspector General of Police and not the state governor?

The federal government makes enormous financial gains from the Tin Can Island and Apapa Ports in Lagos and Calabar

respectively from import and export duties but this is not supposed to be the case since these revenues should normally accrue to the Lagos and Cross River states’ governments who should in turn pay taxes of 20% of the revenues to the federal government. The collection of revenue by the Nigerian customs at these ports negates the principles of true federalism because these coastal states own these port resources and thus should not be deprived of the benefits accruing from its exploitation.

True federalism implies a compromise between the extreme concentration of power (the current case in Nigeria) and a loose confederation of independent states, for governing people usually in a large expanse of territory. For instance, if we get rail into the Concurrent List and ensure the amendment of the Railway Act, it will not only be for the benefit of all the states and regions, but the country as a whole. In the same spirit of true federalism, it is also important to decentralize the control of power. Undoubtedly, without energy, every effort at development, including the drive will be hampered.

In the spirit of justice and fairness, we need to reverse the status quo where the federal government holds as much power and influence as it currently does over the revenue sharing formula as well as other critical sectors in the country because it has little to show for it. We need to revert to the practice of true federalism in its true sense as it is being done in other advanced democracies of the world. Indeed, for us to reduce the pressure and tension associated with governance at the centre, this is the time to tilt towards the evolvement of a weak centre with stronger federating units. This is a main feature of a true federation.

The solution to the myriad of problems currently confronting the country is to address the distorted federalism that the country currently runs. For us to move forward as a nation, grow economically, experience peace and attract the necessary foreign and local investments that would ensure real development, the restructuring of the polity to reflect true federalism is non-negotiable. The earlier we put an end to the current brand of federalism which the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, recently termed ‘feeding bottle federalism, the better for the whole country. The arrangement is grossly un-progressive and misleading. It should be discontinued.

• Ibirogba is Honourable Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Lagos State

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

22

COMMENTS

T

HE national publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh stirred the hornet’s nest last week when he bandied curious claims on the quest by the South-east for the presidency.

Hear him “I am not aware that the Igbo are calling for the presidency; you can quote me on that. I noticed that one or two disgruntled persons are saying it. Nigeria has gone beyond the equation of where a person (presidential candidate) comes from”.

He further went wild by asserting that the most important credential for that office is the capacity and capability of whosoever is leading Nigeria and not about where he comes from.

Metuh is entitled to his personal views no matter how infantile they may sound. But since he purported to be speaking on behalf of the Igbo race, it will be inappropriate to allow him get away with the irreconcilable issues thrown up by his claims.

For one, his position on the subject matter is not only vacuous and irresponsible but totally at variance with subsisting realities in the country.

Besides, it is replete with tenuous assumptions that cannot stand the weight of evidence to the contrary.

The first flaw is the propriety of arrogating to himself the conscience of the Igbo and the barometer with which their political temperament can be gauged. He neither possesses such attributes nor is he verily in a position to speak for the race. Apparently, he has been so absorbed by the little trappings of the office of the publicity secretary of a ruling party to the point of now assuming that South-east leadership is all about PDP. It is not so.

At best, he can partly speak for the PDP which has not hidden the fact that there is no

‘Is it not a twist of fate that Jonathan mustered the courage to visit Borno and Yobe states a few days after governors of the opposition were there?’

M

Emeka OMEIHE 08121971199 email: EmekaOmeihe@yahoo.com

Metuh’s misguided claims vacancy in Aso Rock given the high level subterfuge to have Jonathan run for another term.

But he could as well have gone ahead to canvass support for his boss than denigrate his people as lacking in the credentials for the presidency. That is the reading of his claim that the most important credential for the office is the capacity and capability of the leader and not where he comes from. Its logical inference is that the South-east does not have people with such credentials. The other is that if there are agitations from that zone, they are not based on these leadership credentials but solely on where the person comes from. Nothing can be as asinine as this postulation. He is not aware there are demands from his geo-political zone to ascend the highest political office in the country except from one or two disgruntled persons. By his warped calculations, the views of these ‘disgruntled persons’ cannot represent the true feelings of the zone. But he should have gone further to let us into the grounds for the disenchantment of these people.

By the way, Metuh should tell us the ingredients of this capacity and capability to occupy that office. We also need to be educated on the astonishing leadership qualities the late Yar’Adua or Jonathan had that qualified them for the presidency that are not abundant in other parts of the country.

Perhaps also, we require further clarification on the circumstances that threw up Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan into that

Y Lord, Hon. Justice Okanola Akintunde Boade is a worthy ambassador of the Ministry of Justice of Oyo State on the bench. My first contact with Hon. Justice Boade was in 1990 and it was by accident. I was then a first year student of Law at the University of Ibadan. I came to the High Court here to depose to an affidavit. That morning, I saw the legendary Chief Fredrick Rotimi AladeWilliams, SAN of blessed memory alighting from his car and already dressed for court appearance. I followed him quietly to a courtroom to observe the matter he had on that day. The case, I later learnt, was a suit to challenge the removal of Hon. Justice T. A. Ayorinde as the Chief Judge of Oyo State. Chief Williams led others to appear for Justice Ayorinde, while My Lord, Boade, appeared for the Oyo State Government. He was then of the Ministry of Justice.

That day, I was wondering whether My Lord was not attempting the impossible by daring to oppose Timi the Law in court. I marvelled when, at the end of that day’s proceeding, he was commended by Chief Williams for his spectacular performance.

My Lord was a very versatile and very resourceful Counsel in the Ministry of Justice. One can safely argue that he was the most hardworking and most resourceful of his contemporaries at the Ministry of Justice. And if perhaps that assertion is debatable, it is unarguable that he is the most humble of his contemporaries. The perception that was established in the minds of all and sundry about Boade is undoubtedly that of a sincere, thorough, knowledgeable, incorruptible and a workaholic judge.

My Lord does not belong to the category of Judges who attempt, at every opportunity, to mouth their incorruptibility which they themselves know is acutely suspect, rather My Lord Boade epitomizes it by his unblemished conduct, exemplary character and dignified carriage on the bench.

My Lord did not only profess and preach strict adherence to the dispensation of justice to all manners of men without fear or favour, he actually practiced it without slightest deviation.

Although my Lord Boade is retiring from the bench on the attainment of the statutory age of 65, it is evident that he is exiting when the ovation is loudest.

The life of Eso, J.SC. has put it beyond doubt that a judicial officer can be more engaged actively after retirement and thereby put to shame those class of judicial officials who had falsified their age records in order to gain, deceitfully, extra years of service of the bench when it is even obvious to all that they have advanced well beyond the age prescribed by the law for them to give way. My Lord, I thank God for your life because it is not being said in hushed tone that you are over 65 years. And nobody can say that any of your colleagues younger than you in age had retired ahead of you from the bench.

office. Or why the much touted second term ambition of Jonathan is trying to tear the country apart if where ones comes from is irrelevant in the political matrix of this country?

In effect, if the prescriptions by Metuh were the factors that led to the emergence of Jonathan as president, why are such qualities no longer relevant today? Why is the north up in arms against his second term bid? And who stands to benefit in the event Jonathan is intimidated from running?

These posers expose the insincerity in Metuh’s position and cast him as one hired to work against the overall interest of his people. This strategy is not new. It has been the bane of the South-east. It is for the same selfish prompting that he called Rochas Okorocha a regional player who should be ignored at the national level for his scathing remarks on the performance of the PDP in the zone.

Metuh displayed unmitigated arrogance when he boasted he had directed his Southeast publicity secretary to reply Okorocha since his office was too big to do that. And true to type, that reaction came from the vice national chairman of the party, Col. Austin Akobundu (rtd) who ended up making a mockery of himself and the man who prompted him on some of the issues he raised. Akobundu queried the performance rating of Okorocha and the decision of the All Progressives Congress APC to hold their meeting in Borno instead of Imo, as-

serting that it showed they were not comfortable with Imo. This is to say the least childish given the self evident reasons by the APC leaders for the visit to Borno, the epicenter of the Boko Haram insurgency. It was a personal risk the governors took to show sympathy to people of the state who have suffered direly on account of the security challenge. Is it not a twist of fate that Jonathan mustered the courage to visit Borno and Yobe states a few days after governors of the opposition were there?

Yet someone speaking for the same president was denigrating the governors for that well thought out visit which exposed the tepid handling of sensitive national issues characteristic of the PDP government. Instead of taking the blame for lacking in the right ideas, Doyin Okupe had the effrontery to accuse the governors of opportunism for holding their meeting in Maiduguri after their maiden outing in Lagos.

If there is any measure of opportunism and desperation in these visits, it is coming from the presidency which hurriedly amassed the entire security arsenal to ensure the safety of Jonathan. Such show of force contrasted sharply with the prevailing atmosphere when the governors visited.

But then, the opposition governors were not expected to have been there before now, given that they came together just a few weeks back.

The presidency should squarely lick its wounds for thoughtlessness on the matter rather than seek imaginary enemies in the private or public engagements of the opposition governors.

Beyond this however, Metuh is on his own on the right of the South-east to canvass support for the presidency come 2015. It is a right which neither his PDP nor any other body can abridge or circumscribe. The reality on the ground today is that where one comes from is still the determining factor for choosing the president of this country. And until this primordial calculation changes, the Igbo owe nobody any apology to seek their turn.

It is for the same reason that the South-south people are hell bent on Jonathan running. That is also the reason the north wants it by all means. That was the raison d’etre for Obasanjo’s ascendancy to that post in 1999.

Metuh must be called to order for attempting to denigrate the Igbo race. At any rate, what concessions has he got for his largely marginalized and impoverished people to want them give up that inalienable right for now?

An erudite judge takes a bow

By Mutallubi Ojo Adebayo With the exit today of My Lord, Boade from the bench of Oyo State judiciary today, the state is left with 16 judges. This will further increase and compound the workload of our serving judges by almost 100% because our judiciary, by the provision of our High Court Rules, should have a full component of 30 Judges. We plead for understanding of our judges for this undeserved stress and burden which is not deliberate.

The government of Oyo State under the leadership of Senator Abiola Ajimobi has, since assumption of office on May 29, 2011, not neglected any Ministry, Department , Agency and /any arm of the government in releasing to them the funds they require for capacity and infrastructure developments. I make bold to say that our judiciary is no exception.

Allegations of stunted growth and decaying infrastructures at Oyo State judiciary should therefore be directed at the appropriate quarters. If the Oyo State Judiciary had been following and executing her budget strictly and transparently, the story of development here would have been otherwise.

I am in full support of full financial autonomy for the judiciary as being canvassed by the Nigerian Bar Association because it will help to promote the independence of the judiciary. However, it needs to be clearly stated that agitation for that autonomy is not to place the resources of the judiciary in the pockets of Chief Judges.

The current situation whereby some Chief Judges have turned themselves to Purchasing Officers and Contract Awarding organs is not only an aberration but totally against financial regulations and is criminal in nature. Similarly, it is a breach of financial regulations for any Chief Judge to expend, commit, pledge or donate any part of the fund of the Judiciary without the authorization of the Judicial Service Commission.

By law, Chief Registrars are the Accounting Officers of the Judiciary and any practice that is contrary to that is illegal.

Even, save for the day to day running cost, the Chief Registrar too are not empowered by law to expend the funds of the judiciary to execute capital projects without the approval of the Judicial Service Commission first sought and obtained.

Those who framed the law as such are fully aware that judges which include Chief Judges are adjudicating officers before whom crimes of financial infraction and malpractices may be brought if it occurs within the judiciary they are serving and thus devised means of insulating our judicial officers so that the hunter too is not hunted.

The present government is truly committed to embarking

on infrastructural and capacity developments in the state judiciary to complement those embarked by the judiciary itself. We will surely enhance the conditions of service of our judicial officers including the magistrates and the supporting staff of the judiciary. Our target is to make our judiciary a model and indeed return her to her rightful position of the Pace Setter in the country Our retired jurists shall also be fully taken care of as well , as we shall put in place a system that will not deny them the fruits of their years of labour after retirement. Oyo State Government shall implement, upon the passage and assent of the 2013 budget, the provisions of the Judicial Officers Pension Commission Law, 2012.

I congratulate Honourable Justice Boade on his retirement from the Bench. My Lord, you have played your part very glowingly and with distinction and particularly with strict observance of your oath of office. I know that posterity will judge you as having performed excellently. But before the posterity takes account of your good records, we are all gathered here to attest to the incontrovertible fact that you are an erudite and upright judge.

The bench of Oyo State will surely miss you as your exit has created a big vacuum. The Bar will miss you more, but the greatest loser of your dignified bowing out today is the people and the government of Oyo State who did not have the privilege of having you as her Chief Judge to have enabled the state benefit from your wealth of experience and leadership qualities.

I wish My Lord , Hon. Justice Boade a blissful life in retirement and a continuous service to our dear State, Oyo State in particular and Nigeria in general after retirement.

• Being a speech delivered by the Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice of Oyo State, at the valedictory service for Honourable Justice Okanola Akintunde Boade in Ibadan recently.

‘The current situation whereby some Chief Judges have turned themselves to Purchasing Officers and Contract Awarding organs is not only an aberration but totally against financial regulations...’

•Pam (Extreme left) flanked by officials, family and friends

25

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

BUSINESS THE NATION

E-mail:- bussiness@thenationonlineng.net

THE

CEO

How Nigeria can attract more investors - P. 28 News Briefing ‘Market sheds N350b within eight days’ THE capital market lost N350billion within eight days as Market Capitalisation dropped from N10.82trillion on February 28 to N10.47trillion as at March 5, this year.

- Page 26

Lagos to demolish 2,000 houses THE Lagos State Government is gearing up to demolish over 2,000 dilapidated houses in Adeniji Adele to make way for new structures.

- Page 26

Pension operators target 20m contributors

HE increasing produc tion of oil and gas from unconventional sources and terrains especially from shale, may affect Nigeria’s oil export and gas.

This is because it is estimated that liquefied natural gas (LNG) production is likely to remain stagnant at 22 million metric tons per year till 2015, just as the global market share of LNG has continued to drop.

The Managing Director of ExxonMobil upstream operations in Nigeria, Mark Ward, who disclosed this, noted that oil-consuming countries such as China and Japan are looking at alternatives that would ensure steady supply of oil and gas to them as the United States.

According to reports, the

By Emeka Ugwuanyi

United States would soon be self-dependent in oil and gas productions from shale, which may negatively affect Nigeria particularly as the United States has over the years been the major importer and consumer of Nigeria’s oil.

Ward, who was the guest lecturer at the 2013, Aret Adams Lecture held in Lagos, said that although the United States has been a marginal consumer of Nigeria’s LNG, the fear is that shale gas production would soon make the U.S. a net exporter of LNG, which may make it

By Collins Nweze

DATA STREAM

-N7.560 trillion -Z5.112trillion -$10.84 trillion -£61.67 trillion RATES Inflation 11.9% Treasury Bills 7.08% Maximum lending-22.42% Prime lending - 15.87% Savings rate 2% 91-day NTB 15% Time Deposit 5.49% MPR 12% Foreign Reserve $35.8b FOREX CFA 0.2958 EUR 206.9 £ 242.1 $ 156 ¥ 1.9179 SDR 238 RIYAL 40.472

Vocational trade as safety net - P. 37

Banksmullforeign partnership on fraud control

- Page 27

NSE JSE NYSE LSE

JOBS

Nigeria’s LNG may stagnate till 2015, says ExxonMobil boss T

PENSION Fund Administrators (PFAs) are targeting at least 20 million contributors in the next four years through the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), the President, Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp), Dave Udeanu, has said.

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

We want a SONCAP programme that would serve its purpose; a programme that would be dynamic, where all the identified loopholes would be effectively plugged thereby making it difficult for the plaque of substandard products to continue to dominate the Nigerian business space.

-Dr Joseph Odumodu, DG, SON

• CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

L

OCAL banks are con sidering securing inter national partnership, especially with foreign banks to fight rising cases of fraud and forgeries in the banking sector, The Nation has learnt.

The banks are consulting with their counterparts abroad on technology buildup, especially on banking software and new fraud techniques to keep perpetrators on check.

The financial report of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) released showed that the banking sector reported N28.40 billion fraud cases last year, representing 33.4 per cent rise from N21.29 billion reported in the previous year.

The Chairman of the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF), Emmanuel Obaigbena, confirmed that that there is a plan by banks to partner with foreign lenders to fight fraud because of global dimension of the acts.

Obaigbena said: “It is advisable for banks to give accurate data on fraud cases. They

should not be scared of sharing statistics with each other.”

He said the forum has set up a committee to sanction erring banks. The objective for this forum is for banks and the relevant agencies to share data to eliminate fraud in the industry.

According to him, fraud not only translates to operational risk losses to banks’ it erodes the confidence of the public in electronic platforms/systems as a channel for transacting business.

He reiterated that the need to protect customers from fraud cannot be over-emphasised, adding that the electronic payment system is international and requires to be approached from global perspective.

Chief Technical Officer, Digital Encode, Seyi Akindeinde, said internet and mobile banking constitute the most frequent avenues through, which frauds are perpetrated.

Also, the NeFF is collaborating with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the judiciary to fight the scourge. He added that the forum was also working with Nigeria InterBank Settlement System (NIBSS) to enhance the fraud reporting in banks.

According to him, fraud not only translates to operational risk losses to banks, it erodes the confidence of the public in electronic platforms/systems as a channel for transacting business.

Also, the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) said it is taking measures aimed at reducing the volume and value of fraud perpetrated in the banking sector.

difficult for Nigeria to find market for its LNG. The ExxonMobil chief noted that according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), Nigeria exported 17.97 million metric tons of LNG in 2010, making the country the 5th largest LNG exporter in the world and the largest LNG exporter in the Atlantic Basin.

Europe, with 67 per cent is Nigeria’s biggest export market. The U.S. imported 0.86 million metric tons of Nigerian LNG (five per cent), or only one per cent of total U.S. LNG imports.

He said: “So, while we see that the U.S. is not a significant export market for Nigerian LNG, the real danger to Nigeria lies in potential U.S. export of her shale gas to

global LNG market.

“Indeed in 2011, the impact of the U.S. shale gas boom was not felt by Nigeria because more of the country’s LNG exports went to Japan, where Nigerian exports tripled due to increased LNG demand following the Fukushima nuclear accident.

“However, we know that quite a few countries (notably Australia and China) are interested in applying the technology which has allowed North America to unlock unconventional gas,” he said.

Although there are concerns that these countries may not achieve the same success as the U.S., Ward said that while current forecast is that similar commercial production remains some years away, the point to

note is that interest in unconventional production is growing, even in Europe, Nigeria’s biggest LNG market.

He added: “It is worth pointing out that Nigeria’s share of global LNG market dropped in 2011, from 10 per cent to seven per cent, mainly due to lack of recent capacity increase and rising production from Qatar and Australia. Nigeria’s estimated LNG production capacity is currently 22 million metric tons per year, and no major increase is expected to come online before 2015.

“With Nigeria’s proven natural gas reserves put at an estimated 180 trillion cubic feet as of end 2011 - the ninth largest in the world – the country needs to open up her market and focus on being a competitive, low-cost, highreliability supplier to the global market.”

26

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

BUSINESS NEWS Flight Schedule

Stakeholders to CBN: Step up cash-less policy campaign

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

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stakeholders collaborate to step up campaigns about the initiative, many Nigerians will embrace the initiative.

This, they argue, will allow the Federal Government to realise its strategy and encourage use of alternative method of paying for goods and services other than use of cash in the country.

“Part of the major problems (besetting the initiative is that) the banks and CBN need to improve on communication. We are not communicating well; we are not saying exactly what this thing can do; we are not (disseminating the message) well any time we go out. We have seen the change. I was in Gbaja market and saw how people were willing to em-

brace it, but we are not really communicating and I think the banks and the CBN need to communicate well.

This, I think is a major issue (that must be addressed),” Baruwa said.

Speaking on charges, he said people should not be made to pay for using alternative method of carrying out transaction as this will be a disincentive to them. “PoS (Pont of Sale) terminal is taking time for several factors. One of this is the charges you put on it. One of the things the CBN should do is to remove the fee on POS and encourage the merchant, (so that) if somebody wants to use the phone with the merchant, merchants will allow him to use it rather than the charges coming to them. If that is taken away, a lot of people will be encouraged to use it,” he said.

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By Lucas Ajanaku

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O ensure that the cash less and financial inclu sion strategies of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) are achieved, Union Bank of Nigeria and eTranzact, an electronic card payment company, have charged the apex bank to step up awareness campaign about the benefits of the programme. They also urged the apex bank to remove spurious charges on customers to encourage uptake of the programme.

Head, E-Business, Union Bank, Fatai Baruwa and Chief Technology Officer, Etranzact International, Richard Omoniyi, spoke in separate interviews during the sealing of partnership deal on Pocket Moni and Union Money at the bank’s head office in Lagos. They said if the apex bank and other

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

• From right: Head, Regulation and Monitoring, National Lottery Regulatory Commission, Mr Jude Ogaga Ughwujabo; Chief Finance Officer, Sterling Bank Plc, Mr Abubakar Suleiman; Grand prize winner, Sterling Bank Savers’promo, Homa Amadi-Nna and Regional Business Executive, Sterling Bank Plc, South South 2, Mr Emmanuel Ekpenisi, at the presentation of the grand prize to the winner of promo in Lagos at the weekend.

‘Market sheds N350b within eight days’

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HE capital market lost N350billion within eight days as Market Capitalisation dropped from N10.82trillion on February 28 to N10.47trillion as at March 5, this year.

The development was the outcome of drop in prices of certain blue-chip stocks, which affected market capitalisation and the AllShare Index.

Speaking on the issue, the Managing Director, BGl Securities Limited, Mr Sunday Adebola, said the market performance decreased to 16.5 per cent from its previous level of 20.41 per cent in February. He said the problem was caused by fall in prices of major stocks in the consumer goods segment of the Exchange.

He said: “There has been a drop in prices of Nestle, Nigerian Breweries, Cadbury and Guinness in re-

By Akinola Ajibade

cent times. Nestle has fallen from its unit price of N1000 to N800, ditto Nigerian Breweries, among others.

These are highly-valued stocks, experiencing a slowdown in trading in recent times.

“Also, oil and gas stocks have experienced drop in values. One of them is Forte Oil. Because these stocks are highly valued, they cause a slight setback in the market anytime there is untoward reactions on them,” He said the companies released results that gave a kind of dividend yields to investors, while at the same time, affected transactions. He said the stocks are over-valued, and therefore needed corrections to allign with their respective fair values.

He said the banking sector still ac-

counts for 21 per cent of the market, while oil and gas takes 22 per cent, as is reflected in the sectoral index.

He however said banking stocks like Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), UBA, Sterling Bank, among others, are still under-valued.

“The reason is because the values they are trading in the market are still below their intrinsic values. Despite this, confidence is returning to the market going by the interest shown by local and foreign investors,” he said.

On market markers, Adebola said the appointed firms have boosted activities in the market, explaining that the major market indices have increased since last year when they were appointed to improve transactions.

He said the market would recover fully, if the growth level that started last year is sustained.

Restrictions on technology import ’ll hurt economy, say experts

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S United States and Euro pean Union ban solar power technology import from China, stakeholders said it would not be in the interest of the economy for the government to take protectionist measures that could harm the economy, the President, National Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI), Chief Chukwu Nwachukwu has said.

He said restricting the panel products would not only hurt the interests of the Chinese industry, it would wreck the healthy devel-

By Daniel Essiet

opment of the local solar and clean energy sector.

Nwachukwu said what the government ought to look at it is whether dumping is taking place and whether it is damaging the local industry.

He said the government should allow entry of foreign players in the solar panel manufacturing market only if they set up local facilities in joint ventures with domestic manufacturers.

Nwachukwu, however, warned the government not allow the market to be flooded with low quality finished

solar panels.

He said Nigeria should not become a dumping ground of solar panels, which are not durable due to their poor quality.

To meet the energy requirements of the economy, the DirectorGeneral,KadunaBusiness School, Dr Dahiru Sani, said there was need to encourage developers of solar power plants.

He suggested that the government look at tax incentives and subsidies that would encourage foreign players to build manufacturing facilities without banning their exports.

Lagos to demolish 2,000 houses

By Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie Asst. Editor

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HE Lagos State Government is gearing up to demolish over 2,000 dilapidated houses in Adeniji Adele to make way for new structures.

The Commissioner of Physical Planning & Urban Development, Mr. Toyin Ayinde, told The Nation that the administration is interested in the well-being of residents and will do everything to achieve it.

On the demolished Ijora Badia, another slum in the metropolis, he said that only a fifth of the area, which is also the least resistant, has been taken over by the state.

He said the same area was cleared by the state in 2005, but before the government could take possession, illegal occupants took it over.

He regretted that these illegal occupants were the same people who were moved in 1973 from the site of the National Theatre Iganmu and were given a temporary occupancy of one year in Ijora Badia.

He maintained that as far as they remained in an informal settlement, they would continuously be moved. He said the government needed to also move them to allow the contractor to move in to site and began the construction of 1,008 housing units in the site.

On the housing model that the government intends to build, Ayinde said it is a mixture of wet and dry construction, adding that the units will be assembled at theh site.

He said the construction would be a pilot scheme for contractors to prepare them for the units planned for Adeniji Adele on Lagos Island which would be completed in 18 months.

On the cost of the units after completion, he refused to mention a figure, but rather insisted that there would be consideration for those who were evicted.

NEXIM lends N70b to exporters From Nduka Chiejina (Asst. Editor)

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HE Nigerian Export Import Bank (NEXIM) gave N70 bil lion loan facility to exporters last year, the Managing Director, Mr Roberts Orya, has said.

Orya, who spoke through the Assistant General Manager/Head, Projects, Mr Ifeanyi Nwade,in Abuja last week, said the bank grants short, medium and long term fixed rate loans to exporters directly under co-financing arrangements with eligible banks.

Orya added that direct loans were made available to assist exporters complete their export sales by providing working capital, facilities and funds for procurement of equipment.

The NEXIM boss said such loans were granted directly to Nigerian exporters in both local and foreign currencies and up to 80 per cent of the total project costs, adding that items that are not eligible for financing from NEXIM, "include, armaments, ammunition and other military equipment; psychotropic drugs, narcotic as well as all items prohibited by the international conventions or environmental constraints; pornographic and obscene materials and items prohibited for importation by prevailing government policies and guidelines."

Orya said banks interested in co-financing export projects with NEXIM, will have to "be in good financial health as evidenced by three years audited accounts, as well as meet additional criteria set by NEXIM from time to time."

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

27

INSURANCE

Pension operators target 20m contributors P ENSION Fund Administrators (PFAs) are targeting at least 20 million contributors in the next four years through the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), the President, Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp), Dave Udeanu, has said.

Udeanu said they would leverage on the integration of businesses in the informal sector to increase the number of contributors.

He told The Nation that the operators are looking forward to boosting the figures from the current 5.5 million to 20 million by

Stories by Uyoatta Eshiet

2017.

He said several additional incentives are being proposed to make the pension scheme more beneficial to persons working in the informal sector that account for over 60 per cent of the working population in the country.

He disclosed that the National Pension Commission (PenCom) has released the the framework for the participation of persons operating in the informal sector, stressing that the draft is currently being finalised, adding that once the framework is re-

leased, it would ensure the participation of persons working in the informal sector and effectively increase the coverage of the scheme.

PenCom, he said, will incorporate a multi-fund structure for Retirement Saving Accounts (RSA) funds into the amended investment guidelines before the end of the first quarter.

"The decision to introduce the multi-fund structure in the first quarter of this year, is to allow enough time for public education and sensitisation by the commission and also allow operators enough time to be ready to imple-

ment the structure.

"The multi-fund would be primarily differentiated by their overall exposure to variable income instruments and a contributor's choice of funds may be limited based on the age of the contributor. Also the multi-fund structure would likely allow for the introduction of a non - interest or ethical fund," he said.

On the issue of misappropriation of pension contributions, the PenOp chief said the contributors in the CPS have nothing to worry about the safety of their retirement savings, assuring that the

scheme is robust, safe and poised to help the retirees to live peacefully after their active employment years.

Udeanu said the new pension scheme is a very simple antidote to the complexities of the old scheme and will ease the problems of retired workers going through hell to get their retirement benefits.

Under the new scheme, fraud and delay in payment of benefits are almost non-existent due to structures and controls put in place for securing the funds and the fact that the accounts are always fully funded, he said.

CIIN takes insurance to schools

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• From left: UcheErobu, senior partner, Akintola Williams Deloitte, Nadu Denloye, director, Ecobank, AdeniyiObe, CEO, Akintola Williams Deloitte, NechiEzeako, legal luminary, IjeJidenma, CEO, Leading Edge Consultant, and BosedeOdeloye, functional leader, financial advisory, Deloitte West & Central Africa, during the Deloitte International Women’s Day 2013 celebration in Lagos. Pic by UdoOgbonna.

Nigeria has 112m potential microinsurance customers

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EGULATOR of the risk-bearing industry, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), has said that there are at least 112 million potential microinsurance customers in Nigeria, adding that it has begun the process of fine-tuning a policy framework for micro-insurance services designed to cater for the low income earners and vulnerable poor of the rural areas.

Commissioner for Insurance and CEO of NAICOM, Fola Daniel, said micro-insurance was specifically designed for the protection of low-income earners against specific perils in exchange for regular premium payments proportionate to the likelihood and cost of the risk involved.

Giving further perspective on the evolvement of microinsurance, he said the Commission in its continuing drive to deepen the Nigerian insurance market, collaborated with a German Firm, GIZ/MFW4A and some other agencies, to conduct a nation-wide diagnostic study on the potentials of micro-insurance in Nigeria.

“One of our goals was to generate at the end of the exercise, a document that will enable us take evidence based decision on the issue of micro-insurance in Nigeria and also serve as public resource in its own right.”

The General Manager, Business Development, Union Assurance, Mr Okanlawon Adelagun, said micro-insurance is aimed at getting the people who cannot afford to take insurance at the commercial level get insurance cover. He said it is like providing the covers without any paraphernalia.

“It is an insurance scheme with its own peculiarities that deals with people who live slightly above poverty level.”

Adelagun said while compulsory insurance is aimed at providing cover for a third party that may suffer loss or injury as a result of one’s activity, microinsurance on the other hand is a cover targeted at the peson and not the third party, he explained.

“Micro insurance is recognised as a useful tool in economic development.

As many low-income people do not have access to adequate risk-management tools, they are vulnerable to fall back into poverty in times of hardship, for example when the breadwinner of the family dies, or when high hospital bills force families to take out loans with high interest rates. Furthermore, micro insurance makes it possible for people to take more risks,” he said.

According to him, when farmers are insured against

a bad harvest (resulting from drought), they will be in a better position to grow crops which give high yields in good years, and bad yields in year of drought, adding that without such cover, they will be inclined to do the opposite.

“Since they have to safeguard a minimal level of income for themselves and their families, crops will be grown which are more drought resistant, but which have a much lower yield in good weather conditions,” he added.

On the current drive in most parts of the world towards microinsur-ance, Adelagun said it was as a result of the increasing level of poverty worldwide and the need by world leaders to do something to assuage the sufferings of the poor. ” I n t e r n a t i o n a l organisations like the International Labour Organisation (ILO),UNESCO and others, felt that majority of the people in the world live below poverty level and they are unbanked, uninsured and un-catered for by the commercial insurance.

He said the need for the world leaders to address these issues brought about the current drive to microinsurance. It is more or less a social business that caters not so much for profit but towards the well being of the masses, he added.

ETERMINED to continue with its efforts to encourage and ensure insurance awareness and penetration, the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), the education arm of the industry in the country, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Education are working out ways to get states' ministries of education enforce the introduction of insurance curriculum in secondary schools.

President of CIIN, Dr. Wole Adetimehin, who disclosed this in an interview, said as part of the institute's strategic action plans, it intends moving round all ministries of education across the nation to canvass the implementation of the policy.

He said: "In our favour, the Federal Government has made insurance as one of the subjects to be examined by West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and National Examinations Council (NECO), students have to offer in-

surance from Senior Secondary one to three.

"As part of our strategic action plans, we intend moving round all ministries of education across the nation to canvass the implementation of this policy. We have been to the Federal Ministry of Education and we have gotten the entire curriculum for the schools, now we are partnering the Federal Ministry of Education in enforcing or compelling all the states' ministries of education to implement this new agenda."

He said the institute is already commissioning people to write text books on insurance in line with the curriculum, adding that the effort would at the same time create jobs for members of the institute.

The Federal Government in a bid to deepen insurance awareness, last year, introduced a curriculum that would enable students acquire insurance knowledge at the secondary school level.

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

28

THE CEO

‘How Nigeria can attract more investors’ Mr. Michael Andrew, Global Chairman, KPMG International, a renowned audit, financial and tax advisory firm, has concluded his maiden visit to the country.

Before he left Nigeria, Andrew, who has spent about 30 years at KPMG, with a tour of duty in Asia Pacific and Australia, spoke on power privatisation; what foreign investors are looking for; the preferred investment destinations - Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, Turkey – and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Nigeria, he says, must diversify its economy and improve security as well as infrastructure, adding that there is a negative global perception about Nigeria.

Group Business Editor AYODELE AMINU was there.

• Andrew

HAT is your perception about the global economy?

I will like to start from the global environment of banking and relate that to Nigeria. I think this is the first time in a number of years that we are not facing any crisis moment. The mood in the international business community at the moment is that we are probably going to get back into a growth pattern in the latter half of this year and that has largely driven the soft-landing in China and the regeneration of Chinese growth. The very fact that we are seeing a re-industrialisation of the United States, where the existence of shale gas is moving tremendous investment in manufacturing back into the US; we also seeing stability in Europe; there is no immediate risk of a currency implosion and the social and political risk that we sure in the Middle East are probably more manageable now than they have ever been. So, businesses are actually looking to where they can find growth and how they can diversify their business model to take advantage of the new opportunities that the emerging world presents.

Interestingly, because of the lack of confidence in the global market at the moment, there is a huge amount of cash, which will be moved into several asset classes. Initially, they are going to be moved into the stock

W

market, afterwards they will move into the property market, and then they will move into real business investments in economies such as Nigeria. So, everyone is watching where this cash goes and the real question is what are the factors that will drive this growth? People are looking for a growing middle class, predictable regulatory environment and stable and transparent corporate governance economies. In the last few weeks, I have been to Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey and their similarities are remarkable. The countries are attracting a lot of interest. In the last few years we have talked about BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India and China) as the area of focus. But if you talk to international investors, their view will be that the BRICS with the exception of China has been quite disappointing. They have found it difficult to invest in these countries (Brazil, Russia and India), their regulatory environment is unpredictable and investors have not been able to get return on their investments. People now talk about the MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey). They are the four countries that the international investors really focus on for growth and investment. The offers are intense and we are getting a huge amount of enquiries about these countries. People want to know how to do business in these coun-

tries, how to access the markets and how to take advantage of the long-term growth that is coming. The markets are putting pressure on the CEOs to try and find new markets where they can find growth, particularly in consumer markets, financial services, food and energy in these emerging economies.

So, investors are actually studying the market entry plans for these countries. These are the macro trends that we are actually seeing in economies around the world. For companies such as KPMG, we are focused on making sure that we participate in these high growth markets. We have to make sure we have the right expertise and services that are actually required by international and local investors who are starting to look beyond their country borders. One thing that interests me about Nigeria is the amount of panAfrican investments that I have seen in the country that are based outside Nigeria. We have seen also a lot of Indian investments where our business models have worked very well.

Most times when global CEOs go into a market, they don’t just give a pat on the back to those managing these economies domestically. What is the biggest ambition that has brought you to this market as a global CEO? •Continued on page 29

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

29

THE CEO

‘How Nigeria can attract more investors’ •Continued from page 28

Well, it is probably a broader perspective on Africa. We see Africa as the engine of growth of the global economy for the 30 years. We actually regard the Nigeria practice as the best practice in Africa so if we can replicate what happens here and leverage the skills that we have across broader Africa. That is a smart business strategy for us to employ. We have been here (in Africa) telling international investors about project Africa and that we can actually tap skills, talents and business models here into other markets. So what we are doing is more broadly across Africa.

People see Africa as the engine of growth and agriculture is one of the major areas of focus because they say Africa is going to provide food for the world. So, are you looking at investing in agriculture?

Certainly, I think 43 per cent of people here (Africa) are employed in the agricultural sector and there is going to be a tremendous capacity to be more efficient and productive over time. It is one area we are looking at.

We are also looking at consumer markets, financial services and energy (downstream).

We will also see how we can assist in converting petrochemicals into fertiliser for agriculture. We are also looking at manufacturing because if you have a fit and competitive energy base, then you have the ability to start to utilise the substantial population that you have here. Agriculture is just a small part of what we are looking at. We are looking much more broadly at the services and the financial markets in particular.

You just mentioned the financial system.

If you look at the stock market that is just coming up, does it pose any challenge to the international community or will the current growth continue?

Part of the growth of any economy entails that you have to have access to capital. You are going to be constrained locally if your market is not liquid or if there is no efficient governance and capacity. The pleasing thing today is that in the international markets, there is a great appetite for companies with good exposure in the high growth economies. The ability to be able to list in London and Singapore for example, show that a stock is attractive. Nigerian companies must convince investors in other Exchanges that they have the governance and capacity to attract investments.

What is your opinion on the power sector reform in Nigeria, particularly the recent sale of the distribution companies (DICOS) and generation companies (GENCOS)?

Philosophically and fundamentally, I am in support of a compressed public sector. So, anything that compresses the public sector and expands the private sector is what I like to see in Nigeria. I think that at the end of the day, our salvation is going to lay in that direction. You can say what you want to say about the private sector, but we know especially with a country such as Nigeria that the private sector is much more efficient and effective than the public sector. So, whatever we can do to privatise the government’s assets is okay by me. I welcome the sale of the power assets. What we have to ensure is that we sell these assets at the right valuation, and that the process for doing it is very transparent. From what I understand, the process is being handled by someone I have a lot of respect for - Mr Atedo Peterside. The process has been very transparent; you are not going to satisfy everybody in this particular deal. My own opinion is that we move forward. We need to move forward because if we don’t, we are going to have a real problem. It has been shown quite clearly that the public sector cannot deliver the amount of megawatt that we need to form an effective industrial base in this country. We need the resources and the expertise of the private sector. So, on overall bases I will like to say it’s something that I welcome, the process has been fair, valuation from what I understand has been fair. Let’s move on and deliver the power objective that we say we want to deliver.

Still on the power sector reform, there is this impression that the Federal Government set up a body, which did a very fantastic job.

It disbanded and put it up again even with the new power minister and the private sector is uncomfortable. What is your take on this?

I will tell you this without going into why this task force is being disbanded. We all know how the government works, but I have been in functions and interacted with

• Andrew

‘The reality is peoples’thinking out there is very different from what is happening here. What strikes me also is the need for investment in infrastructure and some other things that need to be put in place. There is a need to invest in rail, seaports and airports to attract more international investors. But having come from India, Indonesia and Mexico, I can tell you that you are at the same level, these countries are also fighting for investments in these critical sectors’ very senior people in the government. The conclusion is that deregulation and privatisation are the way forward. The government has no business in business, that is the reality. We have priority sectors such as education and health sectors, which are major sectors for this country. The kind of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contribution from those sectors is very minimal, so the thrust of the reforms is that we change the way we use to do business. The key thing is that proper due diligence has been done, and liabilities are properly accounted for because all these agitations are coming from unions and pensioners. When this is done and the liabilities are settled properly, there will be no problem. The reality is that we are generating just 4,000 megawatts; there is a company that has just been set up in Dubai, where they are getting coal for aluminum smelting from Australia. That company alone requires 6,000 megawatts for operation. Here we are talking about 4,000 megawatts for the entire country. It is time to move forward. Let’s face it, there will be vested interest from the government, public and private sectors that will not want us to go ahead with the reforms in the power sector. These vested interests are very strong. We have seen them in the pension and petroleum subsidy saga. I think the most important thing for us as a nation is to focus on the goal we want to achieve for the common good. What is good for all of us is to have enough power so that we can generate the middle class that we want to generate and develop the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), that should be the focus. Let’s say to the government - deliver on your promise - deliver the deliverables in the energy sector and let us move ahead.

The government cannot deliver, they have

been there for so many years, let’s try something else.

Given what you must have read about Nigeria and what you have seen, can you juxtapose these and tell us your candid opinion about the country?

What I see is a very vibrant economy, very good class and sophisticated business people. I see a very large population that is very nationalistic and focused on the direction of the country. I see unity, and I see huge potential having studied the amount of oil reserves, the agricultural sector and the stability in the banking system and the entrepreneurial ability of some of Nigeria’s large companies. What I have seen so far is very positive. I think you have a brand image that is still negative, there is still this global perception about security and corruption issues, which are largely been addressed. The reality is peoples’ thinking out there is very different from what is happening here. What strikes me also is the need for investment in infrastructure and some other things that need to be put in place. There is a need to invest in rail, sea ports and airports to attract more international investors. But having come from India, Indonesia and Mexico, I can tell you that you are at the same level, these countries are also fighting for investments in these critical sectors.

Looking at Nigeria, which earns 90 per cent of its revenue from oil and the US that was a major buyer of Nigeria’s oil developing its own energy, very soon the US will become energy self sufficient. Europe is also facing sovereign debt crisis, if you were to advice Nigeria, what will you tell our government to do?

Let me cover the energy sector first. I think the very disruptive force in the energy sector now is the discovery of shale gas in the

United States, which is basically providing the US with a huge competitive advantage over the rest of the world because it now can produce gas for $4 while in the rest of the world it is $15. Oil costs 15 times more than the shale gas and if you get the US to reduce its import reliance and become an exporter, that changes the focus on oil in the world economy. But this will take a long time to happen. There is going to be environmental and safety issues and the US needs to satisfy its local market before it starts to look at the global economy. But over the long-term when shale gas is efficiently exploited around the world, you would see a long-term adjustment in the oil price downwards. So, my advice is for Nigeria to diversify her economy and to make she does not put her risk on any particular commodity and use the competitive cost advantage of other economies to drive other sectors of the economy. You do this by making sure that other sectors in your economy are competitive - using the advantage you have to access to low cost and efficient amount of oil reserves.

Government has virtually moved away from the airline business and the companies we have in that sector, locally and internationally, have huge debt overhang. From your understanding of that sector, how can we salvage the situation there?

I can tell you that you are not going to solve the problems in aviation with the government being a top player, with the government buying 30 aircraft and saying: “We are going to have Nigerian airways and so on.”

We have all gone through this before; when I was growing up I knew that we once had Nigerian Airways. We all knew what happened. What has to happen is that you have to empower and trust the private sector so that people can put their money there and make sure that it works. Richard Branson came and made an investment into Virgin Nigeria, the only thing he asked for was “let me use MM1 as a regional hub and the Federal Government of Nigeria agreed to this, then we had a change in regime and vested interest decided to frustrate the agreement.

They guy walked away and we handed the industry to people who do not have experience in that sector. What do you expect? The whole thing collapsed and we are in a situation where we are in now. If the government goes back there that will not make it work, if they set up a company in the next 10 years, it is going to fail. What the government has to do is to put incentives in place for people to go into the aviation industry, which is not an easy investment to do. They say if you are a billionaire and you want to be a millionaire, go into the aviation industry.

The world aviation industry will be dominated by the Middle East airlines. We know the advantage that they have, regional hub, access to finance and new fleet of aircraft. It is better to leverage on their experience to help your local industry and setting up new companies, which may end up a bad business model.

In all your interventions you keep saying vested interest. How do we deal with these interests as a consultant advising the government?

It is not only my responsibility; it is the responsibility of all of us. If you look at the track record of KPMG, for instance, you know what we did with pension, the issues that we raised as regards to pension and fuel subsidy. We have done our part not only as a firm but as individualS wherever we find ourselves. As journalists you have a responsibility to educate people responsibly. I respect a lot of you because of what you write in your columns. We need to clean up the judiciary and I am happy with what has happened in recent time in that area. What I am saying is that the fighting of the vested interest is the responsibility of all of us and you as journalists are also included. It is a battle that we can win if all of us say enough is enough. Just like Michael said, if you go to Indonesia and Malaysia they are facing the same problems. The key issue is how do we ask for accountability?

Even the private sector companies in the aviation sector are not effective. What is the solution?

We’ve got to have a regulator that is effective. Not the one that is on holiday all day.

You must have a regulator that will say I am standing above the frail and I am going to insist on standards. But you and I know what has been happening in that industry.

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

30

MONEY LINK

‘Reserves accretion hits $1.4b in Feb’

T

HE foreign exchange reserves added $1.4 billion last month, raising the figure to $47.4 billion, FBN Capital, an investment and research firm, has said.

In an emailed report, the firm said the reserves have grown in each of the seven past months other than December. It said reserves added $10.9 billion since the end of July when the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) raised cash reserve requirement for banks by 400 basis

Stories by Collins Nweze

points.

FBN Capital said the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) sales of forex in the Wholesale Dutch Auction System (WDAS) amounted to $1.15 billion in February, compared with $830 million the previous month. The rise, it said, could be traced to the softening of offshore inflows to the interbank market in buying naira-denominated Federal Government of Ni-

geria (FGN) debt.

It said an easing of that demand would oblige the CBN to increase its offer at auction.

The reserves include the balance in the excess crude account, for which the latest available figure was $9 billion.

“We would expect the distributions from the account to the tiers of government to pick up as the FGN strives to reach an agreement with the state governors on the full functioning of the sovereign

wealth fund. Draw downs in the run-up to the elections in 2015 w o u l d a l s o n o t b e surprising,” it said.

The firm said reserves at end of last month provided cover for more than nine months’ imports of goods, and over six months when services are included. The level of reserves is now the highest since January 2009, and rests on appropriate monetary policy and the comfort of a high oil price.

Sterling Bank gives SUV to star prize winner

S

TERLING Bank Plc has rewarded one of its loyal customers with a brand new Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) for being a devoted customer.

Miss Homa Amadi-Nna (Trans-Amadi Branch), Port Harcourt, the star winner in the Sterling Bank’s just concluded Savers’ Promo, drove home last Friday a brand new SUV. Speaking after taking possession of the car, she said the bank has “by this gesture, delivered on its promises to its customers.”

Winning the car, according to Miss Amadi–Nna, came to her as a surprise. She advised customers of the bank and prospective ones to continue to bank with the lender “because there is reward for such loyalty.”

She said: “I am happy and overjoyed by this gesture. The bank has kept its promises. I will market the bank to my friends, co-workers and fam-

delight over the conduct of the promo. She said the council had been following the promo from the registration point to the last draw to ensure that the highest standard is maintained. She applauded the bank for ensuring that the legality, conduct of the promo and its objective were adhered to.

Head, Regulation and Monitoring, National Lottery Regulatory Commission, Jude Ogaga, said the body wants banks’ customers to have faith in savings promo. He said the promo was well regulated and transparent.

Meanwhile, the lender has opened a branch at its Adeola Odeku, Victoria Island Lagos.

The bank’s Regional Channel Co-ordinator, Mena Sidahome, said the lender would build 40 of similar branches in line with its improved service quality and commitment to surpassing customers’ expectations.

•Opens model branch ily members. I will tell them that if they are loyal, they will receive good rewards from Sterling Bank.”

Sterling Bank’s Group Head, Retail Products,Gbenga Adegoke, said Amadi–Nna was one of the nine outstanding winners who won special prizes. Four customers won N500, 000 each while four other won N1 million. Also, 84 others customers won home theatres and refrigerators as consolation prizes in the promo that started in May last year.

Chief Finance Officer of the bank, Abubakar Suleiman, said Sterling Bank is taking a long-term view of its customers, to ensure that they get the best out of every single transaction. He said the bank will continue to take steps that guarantee its service to its customers.

Suleiman said that the promo presents an opportunity for prospective customers to come and subscribe to the bank’s services by opening new accounts. He said that those customers that have been with the lender will always be remembered through quality services and tangible benefits such as the cash and gifts.

Group Head, Bancassurance, John Akingbade, said the promo has enhanced Sterling Bank’s balance sheet and substantially raised awareness on the need to bring the unbanked into the financial system.

He said some of the winners that won cash were able to use the funds to boost their financial flow, while others used the money to start new businesses.

Representative of Consumer Protection Council,Mrs Ngozika Obidike, expressed

FGN BONDS Amount N

Rate %

M/Date

3-Year 5-Year 5-Year

35m 35m 35m

11.039 12.23 13.19

19-05-2014 18-05-2016 19-05-2016

INTERBANK RATES 7.9-10% 10-11%

Amount 30m 46.7m 50m

Rate % 10.96 9.62 12.34

Date 28-04-2012 “ 14-04-2012

PRESTIGE ROYALEX PZ OANDO NNFM NAHCO BERGER MANSARD LEARNAFRCA NEIMETH

O/PRICE 0.08 0.73 38.02 16.90 21.26 7.71 9.50 2.32 1.94 0.91

C/PRICE 0.88 0.80 40.40 17.94 22.32 8.09 9.96 2.43 2.03 0.95

CHANGE 0.08 0.07 2.38 1.04 1.06 0.38 0.46 0.11 0.09 0.04

DNMEYER FIDSON MAYBAKER JOHNHOLT EVANSMED IKEJAHOTEL AFRIPRUD WEMABANK JAPAULOIL LIVESTOCK

O/PRICE 2.66 1.77 2.46 1.90 1.75 0.90 1.83 1.25 0.75 2.30

C/PRICE 2.40 1.63 2.34 1.81 1.67 0.86 1.75 1.20 0.72 2.21

Amount

Amount

Exchange

Sold ($)

Rate (N)

Date

350m

150m

150m

155.2

2-7-12

350m

138m

138m

155.8

27-6-12

350m

113m

113m

155.7

22-6-12

CAPITAL MARKET INDEX Year Start Offer

Current Before

C u r r e n t CUV Start After %

NGN USD

147.6000

149.7100

150.7100

-2.11

NGN GBP NGN EUR

239.4810 212.4997

244.0123 207.9023

245.6422 209.2910

-2.57 -1.51

149.7450

154.0000

154.3000

-3.04

Bureau de Change 152.0000

153.0000

155.5000

-2.30

154.0000

156.0000

-1.96

NSE CAP Index

27-10-11 N6.5236tr 20,607.37

28-10-11 N6.617tr 20,903.16

% Change -1.44% -1.44%

NIGERIA INTER BANK (S/N) (S/N)

MEMORANDUM QUOTATIONS Name

Parallel Market

153.0000

DISCOUNT WINDOW Feb. ’11

July ’11

July ’12

MPR

6.50%

6.50%

12%

Standing Lending Rate ,, Deposit Rate ,, Liquidity Ratio Cash Return Rate Inflation Rate

8.50% 4.50% 25.00% 1.00% 12.10%

8.50% 4.50% 25.00% 2.00% 12.10%

9.50% 5.50% 30.00% 2.00% 11.8%

LOSERS AS AT 8-3-13

SYMBOL

more people signing on to the Fidelity Bank account. All that we are after is to make our customers happy by offering them delightful services and to help their businesses grow,” he added.

He explained that promo was in celebration of the bank’s anniversary. The Fidelity Bank boss urged potential customers of the bank to participate.

At the promo held about a fortnight ago, the bank gave out five Hyundai Accent cars to five winners while 21 other winners also won cash prizes ranging from N100,000, N500,000 and N1 million.

EXHANGE RATE 6-03-12

(S/N)

GAINERS AS AT 8-3-13

SYMBOL

G

ROUP Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Fidelity Bank, Mr Reginald Ihejiahi, has said the lender will continue to offer services to satisfy their needs.

He said this during the presentation of cars and cash won by some customers at the third draw of “Cars and Cash Savings Splash,” promo to mark its 25th anniversary at the weekend.

According to Ihejiahi, Fidelity Bank will continue to create products to support its customers. “We will continue to make our customers happy especially as our business continues to grow with more and

Offered ($) Demanded ($)

Price Loss 2754.67 447.80

PRIMARY MARKET AUCTION (T-BILLS) Tenor 91-Day 182-Day 1-Year

Fidelity pledges customer satisfaction

Amount

Currency OBB Rate Call Rate

prepaid card. The card, which can be pre-funded in naira or dollar denominations, is ideal for students, corporate accounts expense cards, estacode, and corporate travel and travel cards among others.

The card, the bank added, also eliminates the burden of carrying cash around just as it allows its holders to spend more than their approved daily spend limits since both the Personal Travel Allowance (PTA) and Basic Travel Allowance (BTA) are loadable on it.

“With the product, holders of the Mastercard prepaid do not need to carry huge amounts in foreign currencies for foreign trips because money loaded in the card is already available, secure, safe and can be used anywhere in the world,” it said.

WHOLESALE DUTCH AUCTION SYSTEM

MANAGED FUNDS

NIDF NESF

E

NTERPRISE Bank customers will, henceforth, enjoy additional convenience with the introduction of the lender’s dual purpose prepaid MasterCard used locally and internationally.

In a statement, the bank said the new addition is a multipurpose chip and pin debit card that can be pre-funded with cash. The card can then be used to effect cashless payments (like a bank debit card) on the internet, Point of Sale (POS) terminals and cash from Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).

It said that the unique benefits of the card, which is open to both customers and noncustomers of the bank alike is that the individual would have no need to open or have a bank account in order to have the

DATA BANK

Tenor

Initial Current Quotation Price Market N8250.00 5495.33 N1000.00 N552.20

Enterprise Bank rolls out prepaid MasterCard

ARM AGGRESSIVE GROWTH KAKAWA GUARANTEED STANBIC IBTC GUARANTE AFRINVEST W.A. EQUITY FUND LOTUS CAPITAL HALAL BGL SAPPHIRE FUND BGL NUBIAN FUND FBN MONEY MARKET FUND FBN FIXED INCOME FUND NIGERIA INTERNATIONAL DEB. PARAMOUNT EQUITY FUND CONTINENTAL UNIT TRUST CENTRE-POINT UNIT TRUST STANBIC IBTC NIG EQUITY • ARM AGGRESSIVE

Offer Price

Bid Price

9.17 1.00 137.90 147.01 0.80 1.13 1.02 100.00 1,000.00 1,756.93 14.66 1.39 1.87 10,695.04

9.08 1.00 137.47 146.64 0.78 1.13 1.00 100.00 1,000.00 1,753.94 13.95 1.33 1.80 10,397.87

• KAKAWA GUARANTEED

CHANGE 0.26 0.14 0.12 0.09 0.08 0.04 0.08 0.05 0.03 0.09

• STANBIC IBTC GUARANTE • AFRINVEST W.A. EQUITY FUND

NIBOR Tenor 7 Days 30 Days 60 Days 150 Days

Rate (Previous) 4 Mar, 2012 9.0417 9.6667 11.2917 12.1250

Rate (Currency) 6, Mar, 2012 10.17% 11.46% 11.96% 12.54%

Movement

OPEN BUY BACK

Bank P/Court

Previous 04 July, 2012

Current 07, Aug, 2012

8.5000 8.0833

8.5000 8.0833

Movement

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

31

MONEY MARKET REPORT

CBN mops up N190b via T-bills T

HE Central Bank (CBN) last week issued treasury bills (TBs) worth N190 billion as part of monetary control measures to help banks manage their liquidity. The apex bank said it plans to raise N917.76 billion from TBs in the second quarter of the year. The is N40 billion more than it had initially offered at the auction, data from the CBN showed.

The demand for Nigeria's local debt since the beginning of the year has been high due to attractive yields. Yields on the 91-day and 182day notes were broadly unchanged while the returns on 364-day paper edged up marginally compared with the previous auction on February 20.

The bank sold N32.97 billion in 91-day paper at 9.2 per cent, same as at the previous auction on February 20, N40 billion in the 182-day bill at 9.44 per cent, compared with 9.45 per cent at the previous auction.

A total of N117.12 billion of the 364-day bond was sold at 9.98 per cent, higher than the 9.45 per cent at the previous auction on February 20. Nigeria had originally planned to sell N50 billion in 182-day notes and N67.12 billion in 364-day paper at the auction.

FGN Expenditure (N’b)

•Sources: CBN, FBN Capital

By Collins Nweze

Interbank rate The inter-bank rate remained steady on March 7, reflecting CBN's effective/aggressive liquidity management efforts. Call overnight rate remained steady on 10.25 per cent, the seven-day money market rate fell slightly to 10.6 per cent. The three-month Nigeria Interbank Offered Rate (NIBOR) fell to 11.66 per cent though fewer activities are done on the tenor.

The CBN liquidity management remained active and supported by the circular issued on 1 August, which reviewed guidelines on how banks access its Standing Lending Facility and forex auction.

Naira The naira depreciated for the third time in four days after the CBN paid out maturing Treasury bills, boosting money supply and freeing up local currency for buyers to seek dollars. The currency of Africa's biggest oil producer declined 0.1 per cent to 157.85 per dollar, paring a weekly gain to 0.1 per cent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

CBN settled maturing bills amounting to N263.93 billion ($1.7 billion), the Financial Markets Dealers Association, said on its website. The institution sells bills to help manage currency supply within the market. "The maturities boosted money supply as they hit the market, making dealers more able to seek dollars," Sewa Wusu, an analyst at Lagos-based Sterling Capital Ltd., said.

The regulator held the benchmark interest rate at a record high 12 per cent for an eighth time on January 21 to control inflation and stabilize the naira. The nation's inflation rate fell to 9 per cent in January from 12 per cent in December the statistics bureau said February 18.

Yields on Nigeria's $500 million of Eurobonds due January 2021 fell 20 basis points to 4.08 per cent. The yield on the country's 16.39 per cent domestic bonds due January 2022 rose 24 basis points to 11.1 per cent, according to data compiled on the FMDA website.

Forex inflows Provisional data on foreign exchange (Forex) flows through the CBN showed that inflow during the fourth quarter of 2012 amounted to $11.17 billion, representing a decline of 16.9 from preceding quarter, according to data obtained from the CBN website.

Outflow amounted to $7.82 billion, showing a decline of 3.3 per cent in the preceding quarter and resulted in a net inflow of $3.35 billion, compared with a net inflow of $5.36 billion in the preceding quarter.

The report said decline in inflow relative to the preceding quarter was attributed largely to the 9.6 per cent fall in crude oil sales, while the fall in outflow was attributed to the 35.2 per cent decline in Wholesale Dutch Auction System (WDAS) utilisation.

Meanwhile, the invisible sector accounted for the bulk (32.9 per cent) of total forex disbursed in the fourth quarter of 2012, followed by mineral and oil sector (18.7 per cent). Other beneficiary sectors in a descending order included industrial sector (18.2 per cent), food products (15.5 per cent), manufactured products (10.1 per cent), transport sector (10 per cent) and agricultural products (0.2 per cent).

Estimated forex demand by the authorised dealers in the fourth quarter stood at $4.28 bil-

lion, indicating a decline of 35.2 in the preceding quarter. The sum of $4.27 billion was sold by the CBN during the review period, indicating a decrease of 36 in the preceding quarter.

Microfinance banks The CBN said that the National Microfinance Development Strategy will soon be released.

The document is expected to outline modalities for developing the subsector and rules that operators will follow to achieve improved performance s well s sector's stability.

The apex bank is also working on consolidating on the achievements recorded so far by the country in the development of MfBs by strengthening the regulatory frameworks and other guidelines. This also includes formation of National Microfinance development Strategy with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the recent signing of a major agreement with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

Besides, the CBN is considering the establishment of a Microfinance Development Fund (MDF) as a further step to deepen the financial market. The MDF when established would assist in addressing teething challenges of underfunding for microfinance institutions in the country.

It will further complement past and current efforts aimed at strengthening the microfinance sub-sector of the financial system, improve financial inclusion and by implication, improve the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rate significantly, the statement indicated.

MSMEs The Federal Government disclosed plans to launch a new policy on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country. The proposed draft policy document-the National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP) is expected to be formally inaugurated by the presidency after inputs by various stakeholders have been accommodated.

Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga said the programme, which is aimed at creating a more robust and stronger SMEs sector is estimated to cost N10 billion annually and targets to create about 3.5 million direct jobs in 2013 as well as 5 million indirect jobs by 2015.

Speaking in Abuja at a stakeholders' meeting on the NEDEP, which was being spearheaded hosted the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment and the Bank of Industry (BoI) in collaboration with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEADAN), and the Industrial training Fund, the Minister said NEDEP was the solution to the currently loose and uncoordinated rela-

tionships among the various SMEs initiatives in the country.

GDR The admission of Zenith Bank's Global Depositary Receipts (GDR) to the official list of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and trading same on the LSE is expected to take place within the month, Renaissance Capital (RenCap), an investment and research firm has said. "Our understanding from management is that the listing of the instruments should happen in March 2013," it said in an emailed report obtained by The Nation.

It said the objectives of the GDR issuance are to increase the bank's visibility and trading in its securities, as well as to expand and diversify its investor base. "Given that Zenith Bank is the most highly capitalised Nigerian bank with a capital-adequacy ratio of 29 per cent as at last September, and does not require any capital injection, it makes sense to us that the GDRs are non-capital-raising," RenCap said.

The GDR issuance, it added, simply gives existing shareholders the option to convert to an LSE-traded instrument. The conversion ratio is 50 common shares to one GDR.

Economic growth Nigeria economy grew 7.1 per cent in the fourth quarter, the CBN has said. Growth was 6.9 per cent in the previous three months and 7.7 per cent in the same period the previous year, the bank said in a report on its website, citing figures from the National Bureau of Statistics.

The pickup was largely driven by industrial growth, with the non-oil sector expanding 8.2 per cent and accounting for 87 per cent of all output, the bank said. Agricultural "areas adversely affected by the floods during the second half of 2012 were yet to recover fully from the impact."

The fiscal deficit of the country rose to N420.8 billion or 3.9 per cent of economic output, in the fourth quarter. That compares with a targeted deficit of N284.1 billion for the period and a gap of N489.5 billion in the previous three months, the bank said. "The deficit was financed mainly from domestic sources, particularly through the issuance of additional Federal Government of Nigeria Bonds," it said.

Bank to bank report Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) revenue growth forecast for fiscal year 2013 has been pulled down to 16 per cent, from initial 19 per cent by Renaissance Capital (RenCap), an investment and research firm. The forecast is higher than management 15 per cent revenue growth target for

The demand for Nigeria's local debt since the beginning of the year has been high due to attractive yields. Yields on the 91-day and 182-day notes were broadly unchanged while the returns on 364-day paper edged up marginally compared with the previous auction on February 20.

•CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

the year.

RenCap, in an emailed report obtained

by The Nation, said that even if there is little improvement in the bank's Net Interest Margin (NIM), management's revenuegrowth target implies a slower progression in non-interest revenues than it had previously assumed.

Leaders of the African Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Inter-American Development Bank, International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank Group have pledged close collaboration to support development and growth.

In a statement, the institutions said there is need for coordinated efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, which aim to end poverty and hunger, increase access to education and health care, improve gender equality, and ensure environmental sustainability.

"Nothing could be more important than ensuring young people get the right start in life. We aim to make 2015 the year in which children no longer negotiate access to basic education, mothers to the most basic health care, households to water and sanitation, or girls to the most fundamental opportunities for schooling, work, or voice in their communities. And we aim to ensure these gains are permanently sustained in the post-2015 era" Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank said.

A one story building comprising six classrooms, a multipurpose hall and other facilities financed by First City Monument Bank (FCMB) Plc at Baptist Model High School in Ikola-Ipaja, Lagos State has been commissioned. The construction, which began in middle of the year 2012, was financed by the bank to the tune of N20 million.

Speaking at the commissioning of the school building, FCMB's Zonal Head for Ojo-Alaba in Lagos, Mr. Endwell Brown, explained that, "FCMB is committed to supporting developmental projects and programmes that will benefit the larger society".

Skye Bank Plc said it had granted facilities amounting to $500 million to operators in the maritime industry in recent times. The bank's General Manager, Corporate Banking (Maritime and Aviation sector), Mr. Segun Opeke, explained that the loan was part of its commitment to the development of the maritime industry in the country.

He said the amount represents money provided to indigenous ship owners and other stakeholders for the acquisition of ships and other critical work tools needed to strengthen operation o the sector. Speaking at a forum of maritime stakeholders, Opeke said the bank was prepared to expand its credit lines to the operators to further develop the industry. According to him, the bank was responsible for the provision of credit facilities to indigenous ship owners for the acquisition of an estimated 50 per cent of the entire fleet in the country.

32

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

33

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

34

EQUITIES NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 8-3-13

Investors jostle for banks’ shares

T

HE trio of Zenith Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) Plc and United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc emerged the most active stocks at the stock market last week as investors continued to focus on prospective earnings from audited reports and accounts for the last year, which are expected to be announced in the next few days.

The three banks were the main volume drivers during the week accounting for 30.79 per cent, 24.12 per cent and 43.28 per cent, of the turnover recorded by the banking subsector, financial services sector and total equity turnover for the week.

UBA was the most active stock with a turnover of 172.71 million shares worth N1.39 billion in 1,472 deals.

Zenith Bank trailed with a turnover of 169.06 million shares worth N3.6 billion in 1,684 deals. GTB was the

By Taofik Salako

third most active stock with 123.15 million shares valued at N3.06 billion in 1,883 deals.

Total turnover at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) slowed down to 1.93 billion shares worth N20.99 billion in 28,832 deals as against 2.28 billion shares valued at N24.63 billion traded in 28,170 deals two weeks ago.

The banking subsector accounted for 55.4 per cent of total turnover with 1.07 billion shares worth N11.23 billion in 11,333 deals. Altogether, the financial services sector accounted for 1.51 billion shares valued at N13.53 billion in 17,688 deals. The conglomerates sector staged distant second with a turnover of 121.134 million shares valued at N299.812 billion in 1,210 deals.

The market ended up negative with a week-onweek decline of 1.01 per cent.

Aggregate market value of all equities dropped from its opening value of N10.618 trillion to close the week at N10.512 trillion. The All Share Index (ASI), the main index that tracks prices of all equities on the NSE, followed the same trend, dropping from 33,183.20 points to close the week at 32,849.11 points.

Most equities witnessed price depreciation with 44 losers against 36 gainers.

Nestle Nigeria led the decliners with a drop of N50 to close at N836.

Guinness Nigeria followed with a loss of N11.50 to close at N265. Dangote Cement lost N5.49 to close at N142.50. Mobil Oil Nigeria dropped by N3.50 to close at N125 while Total Nigeria lost N3.42 to close at N148.11 per share.

On the upside, UAC of Nigeria led the gainers with a gain of N4.10 to close at N54.10. Oando rose by N2.96 to close at N17.94.

Unilever Nigeria added N2.14 to close at N52.14.

GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria improved by N2.04 to close at N50 while Lafarge Wapco Cement Nigeria chalked up N1.50 to close at N69 per share.

NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 8-3-13

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

35

EQUITIES WATCH

Email: taofad2000@yahoo.co.uk

FBN Holdings Plc, the holding company for First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) and its previous subsidiaries, is riding high on anticipation. Strong demand has sustained FBN Holdings’ market consideration above market average.

TAOFIK SALAKO reports on the underlying expectations as the financial services-holding company prepares to announce its audited report and accounts

What yield for First Bank?

BN Holdings Plc has shown considerable momentum in recent period.

Against the background of 76.6 per cent capital appreciation in 2012, the holding company’s share price has continued to outperform average market performance.

With a year-to-date return of 27.2 per cent, FBN Holdings opens today with more than 10 percentage points ahead of the average market return so far this year. The All Share Index (ASI), the main value-based index that measure changes in prices of all quoted companies at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), opens today with average year-todate return of 16.99 per cent. It had closed 2012 with a full-year return of 35.45 per cent, the second highest return in Africa and one of the world’s top 20 returns. The performance of FBN Holdings, and the resultant positive overall market position, indicates major recovery and significant gains for new and previous shareholders. The bank has in the past 12 and a half months rallied to recover substantial points it had lost in the previous three years. It had ended 2011 with a full year return of -35.2 per cent, a worse performance than -2.3 per cent recorded in 2010. The worst performance in recent years was in 2009 when the share price fell by 66 per cent. For shareholders that had held on to their fundamental valuations and instinctive judgement and new investors who had seen through the emotional cloud of the burst-era recession, recent share price rally appeared to have compensated all.

But determining appropriate valuation in a sustained bullish market is relatively tedious than in a down market. The situations in both bullish and bearish markets tend to exaggerate, with every stock somehow taking the colouration of the market trend.

Share prices had in several instances dropped below net assets values in previous down market while inactive companieswith no operational results or positive fundamentals, had rallied significant gains in previous boom. That’s the nature of the market trend-the herd instinct, the bandwagon effect, the whistling psychological state of ecstasy and the natural behavioural tendency to lower the guard in a consistent winning streak.

F

One for all, all for one While the market obviously exerts influence on FBN Holdings’ pricing trend, the performance trend of FBN Holdings is also an important factor in the dynamics determining the overall market position. Sixth most capitalised company on the NSE, FBN Holdings accounts for more than 6.2 per cent of total equity market capitalisation. At opening value of N653 billion today, FBN Holdings holds more than 17.4 per cent of sectoral value of the financial services sector, which altogether accounts for about 36

per cent of total equity market capitalisation.

Besides the importance of the banking subsector to market trend, FBN Holdings on its own holds significant influence more than all subsectors on the NSE excluding the banking, food products, breweries, building materials and its other financial institutions subgroups. With capitalisation nearly four times the size of entire populous insurance subsector, its pricing trend will exert more influence on the market than the collective trend in several subsectors. These underline the anticipatory transactions on the stock.

In this earnings month, FBN Holdings has been one of most active financial stocks. lenultimate week, it accounted for 20 per cent of total market turnover. For FBN Holdings and most other stocks, this month will see the most anticipatory transactions on their shares. FBN Holdings and other banking stocks, as well as most other stocks, are expected to release their audited reports and accounts and dividend recommendations within the next 20 days. Post-listing rules at the NSE require quoted companies to submit their reports, not later than three months after the expiration of the period. Most quoted companies including all banks, major manufacturers, oil and gas companies, breweries and cement companies use the 12month Gregorian calendar year as their business year. The business year thus terminates on December 31. The deadline for best practice and full compliance for the immediate audited period ended December 31, 2012 is therefore March 31, 2013. Most analysts expect FBN Holdings, and other predictable stocks, to meet the deadline. What would the earnings be? What would the dividend be?

What would the yields be? And how would the market respond to the earnings? These are underlying factors behind the current pricing scenario for FBN Holdings.

Window of expectation The immediate consideration of investors is the fundamentals-overall earnings outlook and dividend recommendation. While medium to long term investors want to see a reassuring stable growth trend that delivers relatively good yield, speculative investors want to see a yield that could jumpstart immediate rally. As the company tidies up the fourth quarter and full-year reports, the pricing scenario has been built largely on recent earnings trends and reasonable assumptions.

Interim report and accounts of First Bank for the third quarter ended September 30, 2012 showed that profit after tax rose by 48.5 per cent to N66.26 billion in 2012 as against N44.64 billion in comparable period of 2011.

Gross earnings rose from N225.02 billion to N267.69 billion. Profit before tax also jumped from N51.02 billion to N75.72 billion. With the third quarter net profit, distributable earnings per share stood at N2.03 in third quarter 2012 as against N1.37 in correspond-

ing period of 2011. At the same rate, probable operational full year earnings per share for 2012 could conservatively be around N2.71. This assumption that earnings would remain stable to close the fourth quarter better than previous position is rooted in the performance trends in recent periods.

The bank has seen continuous improvement in earnings all through 2011 till September 2012. Half-year report ended June 30, 2012 had shown that net profit doubled by 124.6 per cent to N46.01 billion as against N20.48 billion posted in comparable period of 2011. Gross earnings had grown by 25.6 per cent to N182.30 billion compared with N145.09 billion in corresponding period of 2011. The first half report was a significant consolidation on the first quarter performance, where gross earnings rose by 42.5 per cent to N92.3 billion as against N64.8 billion in comparable period of 2011. Profit before tax stood at N28.9 billion in first quarter 2012 as against N14.3 billion in 2011, an increase of 101.6 per cent. The performance trend last year supported the growth outlook indicated by the last audited report and accounts for the year ended December 31, 2011. The report had shown a 27.6 per cent growth in gross earnings to N296.3 billion as against N232.1 billion recorded in 2010. Profit before tax closed 2011 at N50.07 billion as against N33.77 billion in 2010 while profit after tax rose from N29.18 billion to N44.79 billion. With earning per share rising to N1.40 for 2011 as against 95 Kobo in 2010, the bank increased cash dividend by 33.3 per cent to 80 kobo for the 2011 business year as against 60 kobo distributed for the 2010 business year. All assumptions indicate that the bank would again follow earnings growth with dividend increase. Where FBN Holdings follows its average earnings-dividend payout rate of 60 per cent in the past two years, imminent dividend payout could more than double the previous payout. This could scale forward where the 2010 rate of 63 per cent is adopted and moderated to about 94 per cent increase where the last rate for 2011 is adopted. All these revolve around eight per cent dividend yield at current market value. This is relatively significant compared with average dividend yield for the market and yields for most other highly capitalised stocks, which trail below 4.0 per cent. This, in tandem with overall earnings outlook, may be encouraging for speculative late adopters who are currently taking positions. But it will definitely be rewarding for medium to long-term investors, mostly buy and hold institutional and retail investors, which tend to dominate FBN Holdings’ structure. For these, double-digit dividend yield would provide positive inflation-

•MD, FBN Holdings, Mr Bello Maccido

adjusted returns, putting their investments as hedges against economic loss of value.

Besides, there is possibility of higher dividend due to distribution of non-operational earnings. As part of the restructuring into holding company, First Bank had sold First Registrars, its share registration business.

The board of the bank has indicated it would distribute the net proceeds to shareholders alongside the 2012 operational earnings. This implies that the bank might adopt a compound lump-sum distribution or special dividend distribution to transfer the net proceeds from the sale of First Registrars to shareholders. Under the compound lump-sum distribution, the net proceeds would be cumulated into operational earnings and distributed as a one single payment to shareholders while the net proceeds could be distributed separately as special dividend alongside normal operational cash dividend. Such distribution, alongside the write-backs that may arise from improvements in market values of previously down assets and recoveries, further strengthens the earnings and dividend outlook.

Beyond immediate gains Several investors would look beyond the immediate earnings and dividend yields.

They would want to see how the restructuring into holding company has impacted, and will impact, on the earnings potential of the bank. Supporters of the holding company structure had touted its abilities to enhance competitiveness of associated units, streamline costs and overlapping resources, enhance synergies and ring-fenced each unit from risks from other associated units. Managing director, FBN Holdings Plc, Mr. Bello Maccido has said its new structure was designed to align the ownership and operation of the company’s subsidiaries with the overall strategy of creating an operating model that will profitably grow the group’s presence in the market for commercial banking and non-banking financial services in order to achieve the aspiration to be the dominant financial services group in Sub-Saharan Africa. Managing director, First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Plc, Mr. Bisi Onasanya said the new structure fits perfectly into the management plan for the bank, assuring that FBN Holdings would lead to additional value creation for the shareholders.

With 11 subsidiaries and operations across the financial services industry ranging from pension custodian, asset management, investment banking, insurance, and microfinance banking entities, FBN Holdings is arguably the preeminent holding company. While it may be somehow early to evaluate the holding company, which was consummated in September 2012, there would be early success indications. FBN Holdings’ relative immunity to policy somersault- the biggest threat in the financial services sector; will come into play in future consideration. These are what mediumto-long term investors would also look out for.

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11 , 2013

36

DUE DILIGENCE

Pharma Deko: Delicate recovery

P

HARMA Deko Plc muffled its negative performance last year with write-backs, but the overall outlook for the healthcare company remained delicate.

Write-backs from previous loan liability and tax gains substantially propped up the bottom-line and avoided what could have ended as top-down decline in profit and loss performance. Audited report and accounts of Pharma Deko for the year ended December 31, 2012 indicated 13 per cent decline in turnover, but a whopping write-back of N670.8 million from previously recognised loan liability and additional tax gain of N54.2 million leapfrogged pre and post tax profits by 604 per cent and 868 per cent respectively.

While profit before tax would have dropped by 83.6 per cent from N97.6 million in 2011 to N15.98 million in 2012, addition of the derecognised loan liability pushed profit before tax to N686.8 million.

With addition of tax gains, net profit after tax increased from N77 million in 2011 to N741 million.

The improved profit and loss position impacted positively on the balance sheet. Improved equity base reduced the high financial leverage and provided a more amenable structure to the recovering profit and loss accounts.

With relatively higher costs, reduced productivity and cost efficiency and lower operational margin, the company remains on a delicate balance, a realisation that probably accounts for the decision of the board not to announce dividend in spite of 867.5 per cent increase in earnings per share.

Financing structure The balance sheet structure of the company improved considerably in 2012, although it remains precarious and delicate. Equity funds accounted for about 34 per cent of total assets in 2012 as against negative position of 25 per cent in 2011.

Debt-equity ratio improved from -333.9 per cent in 2011 to 90.9 per cent in 2012.

Total assets stood at N2.78 billion in 2012, a slight increase of

By Taofik Salako

8.3 per cent on N2.57 billion recorded in 2011. Fixed assets had risen by 60 per cent from N1.33 billion to N2.13 billion while current assets conversely dropped by 47 per cent from N1.24 billion to N655 million. However, total liabilities dropped by about 43 per cent from N3.22 billion to N1.84 billion. While the paid up share capital remained at about N49.8 million, equity funds recovered from deficit of –N651 million in 2011 to positive net assets of N943 million in 2012.

Efficiency The company witnessed significant reduction in its average productivity and cost efficiency. Although there were no details to pinpoint actual average reduction per head, other related variables suggested considerable declines in both indicators. Total cost of business- excluding financing charges, in relation to total turnover worsened to 96.3 per cent in 2012 as against 87.9 per cent in 2011.

Profitability Pharma Deko showed outward improvement in the bottom-line in 2012 but the improvement was driven mainly by non-operational earnings. Total sales dropped by 12.6 per cent from N1.19 billion to N1.04 billion. Cost of sales meanwhile dropped by 10.3 per cent to N547 million as against N610 million recorded in previous year.

Gross profit however declined by 15 per cent from N579 million in 2011 to N491 million in 2012. Selling and distribution expenses stood at N131.34 million compared with N141.69 million while administrative expenses increased from N290.86 million in 2011 to N321.06 million. Total operating expenses thus stood at N452 million as against N433 million, representing slight increase of 4.6 per cent. Operating profit declined from N168.3 million to N94.6 million. Interest expense inched up

from N70.7 million to N78.6 million.

But with derecognised loan liability of N670.8 million and increase in non-core income from N22.09 million to N56.23 million, profit before tax jumped from N97.6 million in 2011 to N686.8 million in 2012. As against tax deduction of N21.1 million in 2011, the company added N54.2 million in tax gains to boost profit after tax to N740.95 million in 2012 compared with N76.5 million.

Other comprehensive incomes, probably from revaluation of fixed assets, stood at N853.6 million in 2012, pushing total comprehensive income for 2012 to N1.59 billion as against N16.11 million for 2011.

With these, earnings per share increased from 77 kobo in 2011 to 745 kobo in 2012. Net assets per share also recovered from deficit of 654 kobo to positive earnings of 948 kobo per share. The nonoperational earnings impacted positively on the underlying profitability indices of the company.

While gross profit margin dropped from 49 per cent in 2011 to 47 per cent, pre-tax profit margin jumped from 8.2 per cent in 2011 to 66.2 per cent in 2012. Re-

Fiscal Year Ended December 31 Nmillion

2012 12 months

2011 % change 12 months

Profit and Loss Statement Main Business Segment Total turnover Cost of sales Gross profit Operating expenses Interest and other incomes Finance expenses Pre-tax profit(loss) Post-tax profit (loss) Basic earnings per share(kobo) Gross dividend (Nm) Cash dividend per share (kobo) Net Assets per share (kobo)

1,037 1,037 547 491 452 747 79 687 741 745 0 0 948

-12.6 -12.6 -10.3 -15.2 4.6 3280.1 11.2 603.7 868.5 867.5 0.0 0.0 -245.0

Balance Sheet Assets: Fixed assets Total long term assets Trade debtors Current assets Total assets Liabilities: Trade creditors Bank loans Current liabilities Long-term liabilities Total liabilities Equity Funds Share capital Total Equity Funds

1,186 1,186 610 579 433 22 71 98 77 77 0 0 -654

2,128 2,128 89 655 2,783

60.1 60.1 -9.3 -47.2 8.3

1,329 1,329 98 1,240 2,569

342 857 1,673 166 1,839

9.0 -60.6 -43.7 -33.2 -42.9

314 2,174 2,972 249 3,221

50 943

0.0 -244.9

50 -651

turn on total assets stood at 24.7 per cent as against 3.8 per cent in previous year. Return on equity recovered from -11.7 per

cent to 78.5 per cent.

Liquidity

The financial resilience of the company remained delicate as it continued to struggle with negative working capital and a shortfall in easily available finances relative to similar liabilities. Current ratio, which measures easily convertible assets against likely emergent liabilities, dropped from coverage of 0.42 times in 2011 to 0.39 times in 2012. Working capital/turnover ratio improved from -146 per cent in 2011 to -98.2 per cent in 2012. Debtors/creditors stood at 26 per cent in 2012 compared with 31.3 per cent in 2011.

Analyst’s opinion The performance of Pharma Deko indicates an encouraging foundation that it could build on to jumpstart its recovery. However, in spite of the positive net earnings, the company still faces tough top-line and bottom-line challenges. The firm needs to emplace appropriate strategies to break new markets and grow sales while curtailing costs. The financial leverage still poses substantial challenge and the company needs to explore further opportunities to reduce dependence on loan and improve liquidity and working capital.

Governance and structures Pharma Deko engages in manufacturing and distribution of pharmaceutical products.

The company’s business is structured into three segments- pharmaceuticals, consumer business and contract manufacturing. It is a leader in its business segments. Its cough and vitamins brands is reported to control more than 50 per cent of the market share while the company’s non-Sugar based carbonated soft drink controls more than 70 per cent of the market. It is reputed as the first company to introduce locally canned drinks in Nigeria.

Mr Folarin Williams chairs the Board of Directors while Mr Adekunle Abibu leads the executive management team as Managing Director.

Fiscal Year Ended December 31

•MD, Pharma Deko Mr Adekunle Abibu

2012 %

2011 %

Financing structure Equity funds/Total assets Long-term liabilities/Total assets Current liabilities/Total assets Debt/Equity ratio

33.9 6.0 60.1 90.9

-25.3 9.7 115.7 -333.9

Profitability Gross profit margin Pre-tax profit margin Return on total assets Return on equity Dividend cover (times)

47.3 66.2 24.7 78.5 0.00

48.8 8.2 3.8 -11.7 0.00

Efficiency Pre-tax profit per employee (Nm) Staff cost per employee (Nm) Cost of sales, operating exp/Turnover

NA NA 96.3

NA NA 87.9

Liquidity Current ratio Working capital/Turnover Debtors/Creditors

0.39 -98.2 26.0

0.42 -146.0 31.3

JOBS THE NATION

Website:- http://www.thenationonlineng.com

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

37

• Workers at a forum

Vocational trade as safety net With the army of unemployed rising, the government is constrained to provide employment to ensure a stable polity. But since the government alone cannot solve this problem, management experts believe that there is a way out in selfemployment. The vocational field, they say, can provide millions of jobs, if the unemployed are ready to try it. AKINOLA AJIBADE reports.

H

OW can the unemployment challenge be best tackled? Many have proffered various ways of addressing the problem, but one appears to stand out because of its practicability self-employment. But how do those interested in self-employment get the startup capital? The proponents of self-employment believe that the capital hurdle can be claimed with ease. They submit that opportunities abound in vocational fields, such as tailoring, barbing, hairdressing, carpentry, catering, crafts making.

In developed countries, such as Germany and China, emphasis is placed on

vocational jobs. The sector has created jobs for millions and also contributed to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Nigeria toed that path by establishing the National Directorate of Employment (NDE). Through NDE, the government has been empowered Nigerians to be job creatprs.

NDE Director-General Mr Abubakar Muhammed said vocational job is the way to go in Nigeria, considering the high rate of unemployment.

He said millions of Nigerians have acquired skills to create job since the scheme started decades ago, urging the unemployed to also tap into the scheme. The informal sector would record growth when the coun-

try creates enough jobs. He said the entrepreneurs would increase productivity, and boost the country’s GDP. To some experts, since white collar jobs are hard to come by, the unemployed should embrace self-employment.

The Chief Executive Officer, Okibx Nigeria Limited, Dr Okey Ibekwe, said there is no limit to the number of jobs people can create in the country. Okibx is a consulting firm which specialise in manpower development and jobs creation.

He said there are ideas that can be developed to reduce unemployment. Citing Germany, United States and China, among others, Ibekwe said vocational jobs have helped

in developing those countries. He said economy gets better when people are more productive, advising people to create jobs through vocational means. He said certain processes must be followed when creating vocational jobs, noting that they are sequential in nature.

Ibekwe said: “People must discover their potential, have self-confidence, list their proposed occupations, choose the ones with high commercial values, get the required skills, and start working.”

He said academic qualification is immaterial when its comes to vocational jobs, •Continued on page 38

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

38

JOBS

Vocational trade as safety net •Continued from page 37 stressing that what is needed is the ability to do the jobs well.

The human development expert said millions of such jobs can be created in Nigeria, once people are committed.

According to him, the tendency to earn a living through vocational jobs is high if people can do the right thing.

“Findings have shown that the work rate of people that provide vocational services is high now.

People are improving on their vocational skills, packaging themselves well, and getting good results. In Nigeria, many people are making more money from such jobs. People should try and acquire skills in area in which they are proficient if they want to survive. It is high time the unemployment faced the reality since white-collar jobs are not forthcoming. Though the beginning will be rough, the ability to succeed is needed,” he added.

Also, the Managing Director, First Publishers Limited, Dr Dan

Obidiegwu, said people should create jobs for themselves in Nigeria.

Obidiegwu said unemployed can provide vocational services, irrespective of their backgrounds. He said cases abound where graduates veered into areas, such as furniture making, craft making, tailoring among others, to earn a living. He said this helps in providing value-added services, advising graduates to create jobs.

He said: “Nigeria’s economic potential are huge. Being one of the biggest markets in the continent, people stand a better chance of creating vocational jobs.There are many organisations looking for people who can provide one form of vocational services or the other.

This means that there is a huge market for anybody who is not lazy, committed and enterprising.”

Obidiegwu, the former managing director, Longman Nigeria Plc, said companies do employ people that have vocational backgrounds to survive. He said the services of carpenters, tailors, and welders are required in foam making industries.

“Job opportunities exist for peo-

•Ibekwe

• Minister of Labour Emeka Wogu

ple who have vocational experience. First, they are recruited by companies. Secondly, they can work on their own. There are cases whereby they do two or more jobs together. Globally, semi-skilled workers are needed to grow the economy. This makes their services important to individuals and organisations,” he said.

He advised people against wait-

ing for paid jobs, stressing that they need to conceive ideas and implement them to survive.

A former member of staff of Association of Advertising Practitioners of Nigeria (AAPN), Mr Akinwunmi Dickson, said graduates should stop relying on their academic qualifications.

He said when graduates learn a trade, they can set up their own

business and make money.

“In advertising, workers with vocational backgrounds do get jobs to do. Though their jobs are seasonal, they are well paid. This is in addition, to other jobs they are doing. They are better for it.”

He said many have abandoned their professions for vocational jobs, because of certain values in them.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

DHL Nigeria appoints new officers

D

• Inegbedion

HL Nigeria Limited has appointed Stephen Inegbedion as the new Country Operations Manager for Nigeria.

Inegbedion, a Systems Analyst, according to a statement, joined DHL International Nigeria Limited over 17 years ago.

He started his career in DHL as Fleet/Data Executive. He became Operations Analyst and later combined the two roles as Fleet and Operations Analyst Executive. In 2004, he was appointed Operations Performance Manager – Nigeria and until recently the Ground Operations Manager

LOS & Western Nigeria.

Inegbedion is an experienced express logistics manager whose training and development cut across DHL’s vast global network.

The company also appointed Mrs Olayemi Olusona as the Head, Customer Service.

Mrs Olayemi was the Customer Enquiry Manager and was responsible for the management of daily operations of the Contact Centre, ensuring adherence to processes, systems and schedules, to drive Service excellence, quality, productivity and maximise revenue generating opportunities.

She Joined DHL Express Customer Service in 2004 and has held various positions in the CS Department. She has good experience and knowledge of the various processes in the department.

In her position she has a responsibility to design, develop and execute Customer Service initiatives and strategies that will ensure Service Excellence and best – in – class service is delivered to DHL Customers.

Mrs Olayemi holds a BSc (Ed) in Economics and an MBA in Marketing from Ladoke Akintola University in Oyo State.

• Mrs Olusona

CAREER MANAGEMENT

T

HE interview is one of the most important elements in the job search process. When an employer invites you to an interview, he/she is indicating an interest in bringing you on board. The interview gives both of you the opportunity to exchange enough information to determine if you are a good “fit” for each other. Think of an interview as a highly focused professional conversation. You should use the limited amount of time you have to learn about an employer’s needs and discuss the ways you can meet these needs. In many cases, you will interview at least twice before being hired for a position. Once in a brief screening interview and at least once again in a more serious meeting when you may also speak with many of your potential coworkers.

The job interview is a strategic conversation with a purpose. Your goal is to show the employer that you have the skills, background, and ability to do the job and that you can successfully fit into the organisation and its culture. The interview is also your opportunity to gather information about the job, the organisation, and future career opportunities to figure out if the position and work environment are right for you.

Most employers do not hire people based on merit alone. Personality, confidence, enthusiasm, a positive outlook, and excellent interpersonal and communication skills count heavily in the selection process.

After your cover letter and résumé, the interview is your best opportunity to wow the employer - regardless of your background and experience. To do this, use every possible

Making a success of job interview

By Olu Oyeniran

strategy to develop effective interviewing skills. The best way is to prepare a selective presentation of your background, thoughtful answers to potential interview questions, wellresearched questions about the organisation, and an effective strategy to market yourself.

Also consider your career goals and what the available job offers so that you can discuss both of these topics with employers. Interviewing is a skill that improves and becomes easier with practice. Check with your school career center or your local Employment Service office to see if it offers workshops and individual videotaped mock interviews for practice.

Research It is to your advantage to carefully research the job and the organisation. There are many ways to do this. You can request printed materials from the employer, such as annual reports and job descriptions. This is an entirely appropriate request, so don’t hesitate to make it. Use your library and career center resources.

Ask colleagues, friends, and faculty about the organisation, and about any contacts at the organisation they might have. Look at the organisation’s home page. Knowing about the job will help you prepare a list of your qualifications so that you can show, point by point, why you are the best candidate.

Practice, practice, practice Prepare a succinct, clear answer to each of the questions in the interview questions section.

Practice answering questions with a friend, or in front of a mirror. Ask your friend to give you constructive criticism on your speaking style, mannerisms, and poise. As you practice, avoid colloquialisms, such as “like” and “you know.” Make sure you don’t script all your answers - you’ll sound as though you’re reading cue cards! It’s important to prepare yourself for talking with complete strangers.

Logistics of the interview The more you know, the more focused your answers will be. Find out when the interview is scheduled, what to expect during it, and how long you will be there. Also find out if you will be talking to just one person, or to several.

Be prompt, professional Always arrive early. If you don’t know where the organisation is located, call for exact directions in advance. Leave some extra time for any traffic, parking, or unpredictable events.

If you are running late, call right away and let someone know. The best time to arrive is about five-10 minutes early. Give yourself the time to read your résumé one more time, to catch

your breath, and to be ready for the interview.

Once you’re at the office, treat everyone you encounter with respect. Be pleasant to everyone as soon as you walk in the door.

Dress for success Wear a professional business suit. This point cannot be emphasised enough. First impressions are extremely important in the interview process. Women should avoid wearing too much jewelry or make up. Men should avoid flashy suits or wearing too much cologne. It is also important that you feel comfortable. While a suit is the standard interview attire in a business environment, if you think it is an informal environment, call before and ask. Regardless, you can never be overdressed if you are wearing a tailored suit.

Be organised Carry a portfolio notepad or at least a manila file folder labelled with the employer’s name.

Bring extra résumés and have the names, addresses and phone numbers of references, in case the employer asks. Also, bring a list of questions for the employer. You may refer to your list of questions to be sure you’ve gathered the information you need to make a decision. Do not be preoccupied with taking notes during the interview.

•Oyeniran is the Lead Consultant, EkiniConsult & Associates & author.

Jobsearchguru’s Job-Hunting Manual. He can be reached on Jobsearchhow.com.ng Tel 08083843230 (SMS Only).

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

39

International Business Steady job gains bolster economy

J

OB growth likely advanced at a moderate pace last month, which would suggest the economy has enough momentum to withstand the blow from higher taxes and deep government spending cuts.

Employers are expected to have added 160,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, picking up slightly from January's 157,000 count, according to a Reuters survey of economists.

While that would only be enough to hold the unemployment rate steady at 7.9 per cent, it would be another sign of the economy's fundamental health, which has already propelled the Dow Jones industrial average DJI to record highs.

"Even though it doesn't necessary mean an acceleration in growth momentum, it suggests the economy is able to absorb the fiscal austerity," said Millan Mulraine, senior economist at TD Securities in New York.

A two per cent payroll tax cut ended and tax rates went up for

•Job seeker meets with a prospective employers at a career fair in New York

W

ORLD shares hit their highest level since June 2008 and the dollar touched a fresh 3-1/2-year high against the yen on Friday, ahead of United States’ jobs data expected to point to a continuing pick up in the world's biggest economy.

China also gave markets a boost as official data showed February exports grew 21.8 per cent versus a year ago, more than double the expected rise.

European shares .FTEU3, which have rebounded strongly after last week's Italian election and U.S. spending cuts-related wobble, were up 0.5 percent by mid-morning and on track for their biggest weekly gain since the start of the year.

Japan's Nikkei hit a 4-1/2 year high in Asian trading and 0.3, 0.7 and 0.5 rises by London's FTSE 100 .FTSE, Paris's CAC-40 .FCHI and

World shares hit highest since June 2008 Frankfurt's DAX .GDAXI helped MSCI's world share index .MIWD00000PUS to its highest level since late June 2008.

"There appears to be a strong riskon mood in the market at the moment," said Ken Wattret, co head of European market economics at BNP Paribas.

"The negativity from the Italian elections was shrugged off pretty quickly, the Fed has made it clear that its policy will remain accommodative. If we get a get a good set of payrolls numbers, that will further fuel that sentiment."

Investors have been returning to stocks and other riskier assets over the last eight months as slowly improving world growth has been bol-

stered by the European Central Bank's pledge last August to prevent a break-up of the euro.

Friday's U.S. payrolls report, due at 8.30 a.m. ET is expected to show U.S. employers added 160,000 jobs last month, picking up slightly from January's 157,000 count.

It is key to gauging the Federal Reserve's policy course following the central bank's promise that as long as inflation doesn't pose a threat it will keep U.S. interest rates near-zero until unemployment falls to 6.5 per cent.

In the currency market, the sudden spike in tensions on the Korean peninsula added to the more dominant U.S. growth-led demand for the dollar.

Having said earlier in the week it was scrapping its armistice with South Korea, North Korea threatened the United States on Thursday with a preemptive nuclear strike after accusing it of warmongering.

The dollar .DXY was up 0.2 percent against a basket of major currencies but most of the focus was on its continued rise against the yen as it hit a 3-1/2 year high of 95.53 yen.

If the Bank of Japan's new leaders expand its stimulus program next month as expected, the dollar could trade in the 95-98 yen area or even open the way for a test of 100 yen, said Ronald Ip, Director of Wealth Solutions Group for HSBC Global Markets.

Hurdles slow China's shale power ambition

C

HINA'S fast-track plans to replicate a United States’ success in exploring shale gas seem to suffer temporary setbacks that need far more years to overcome: technologies and costs.

"It will take at least 10 more years for us to realise the commercial production of our shale gas exploration, because we have some hurdles in our shale gas drilling technologies and deep-well equipment," Fu Chengyu, chairman of Sinopec, China's second-biggest oil producer, told Xinhua.

"The shale gas sector will remain in its infancy in China in the coming decade," Fu said on the sidelines of the annual session of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's top political advisory body.

In recent year years, China has awakened to a technology revolution that has unlocked massive re-

serves of gas trapped within shale rock formations in the United States.

Some experts estimated that technically, China has the world's biggest recoverable shale gas resources.

The State Council, or China's cabinet, listed shale gas as an independent mineral for mining in 2011. The Ministry of Land and Resources, which is in charge of resource registrations and management of mining rights, has so far auctioned the rights of prospects and exploration and development for about 20 shale gas blocks in Sichuan, Guizhou provinces and Chongqing Municipality in southwest China, as well as in Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan and Henan provinces.

Although deemed too costly to extract, shale gas has been viewed as an important supplement for China owing to the country's soaring demand for energy amid rapid economic growth.

The world's second-largest

economy relied on imports for about 58 per cent of its crude oil consumption last year, data from the National Development and Reform Commission showed. Its crude oil imports in 2012 stood at 280 million tons.

"China has broad prospects for shale gas mining but it takes time to commercialise because we need to bring down the cost first and then raise the output," Fu said.

The market widely expects China to follow a path similar to the United States, but the Sinopec chairman insists that huge risks are stalling the shale gas industry at the moment.

He said the US, home to mostly shallow and broad basins, has much better shale gas exploration conditions than China, where a more complicated geological mix of mountainous structures results in a much higher exploration costs.

According to Fu, it will take more

time for Chinese explorers to perfect their shale gas technology, because US companies need only to drill wells 3 km at their deepest level, while Chinese explorers have to drill over 4 km to 6 km deep.

To cover about 70 million-yuan (about $11 million) cost for drilling each shale gas well in China's mountainous blocks, Chinese companies need to extract about 40,000 cubic meters of shale gas in daily output, Fu said.

"But our daily output for a well now stands at about 20,000 cubic meters," he said.

Moreover, China faces huge costs to pump the shale gas to the market, which requires sharp increase in gas pipeline grids to bring gas suppliers online.

Sinopec aims to have combined production capacity of 2.5 billion cubic meters of shale gas and coalbed methane gas by the end of 2015.

J

boost to consumer sentiment. Japan's economy had been in a shallow recession, and the more positive data should bolster hopes that the country's economic outlook is brightening.

The report also provides some political cover for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is pursuing an aggressive set of policy changes in a bid to boost growth.

Abe has argued forcefully that the central bank is not moving quickly enough to stimulate Japan's flagging economy. He favours aggressive monetary easing, and made that the centerpiece of his election campaign.

The idea is that further easing, combined with fiscal stimulus, could end years of deflation and coax the world's third largest economy out of stagnation.

The strategy got a boost last week as Abe nominated Haruhiko Kuroda to succeed Masaaki Shirakawa as Japan's top central banker.

Kuroda has deep ties within the international finance community.

He has been a vocal critic of the central bank's timidity, and his policy prescriptions largely mirror those of Abe. Even without much concrete action thus far by the central bank, markets have responded strongly in the hope that words will be turned into deeds under the new leadership.

The yen has weakened significantly, falling more than 20 per cent against the U.S. dollar since the beginning of October. The Nikkei has been on a tear, adding more than 40 per cent since the middle of November.(From BBC)

The euro, meanwhile, eased 0.1 percent, but clung to the bulk of the gains made the previous day, after the European Central Bank wrongfooted investors who had positioned for a more clear-cut signal on rate cuts from its head Mario Draghi.

Data from the euro zone continued to support the calls for a rate cut that some of the ECB's members had been pushing for at the bank's monthly meeting.

Although it was slightly better than had been expected, Spain's industrial output fell five per cent yearon-year in January, the 17th month of declines. France's central bank also maintained its view that its economy will only just dodge recession in the first quarter of the year.

Motorola Mobility to cut 4,000 jobs

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OOGLE'S Motorola Mobility Unit has said it is cutting 1,200 jobs, or more than 10 per cent of its workforce.

It follows a 4,000 jobs cut last August as Google aims to turn around the loss-making business it acquired last year for $12.5billion (£8.3billion).

The layoffs are expected to affect the United States, China and India, according to a company email. The Motorola unit was bought for its Android-operating mobile devices and access to more than 17,000 patents.

"These cuts are a continuation of the reductions we announced last summer," Google spokeswoman Niki Fenwick told the Reuters news agency. It's obviously very hard for the employees concerned, and we are committed to helping them through this difficult transition," she added.

Barclays Bank pays 428 employees over £1m

Japan's economy grows again APAN'S economy performed better in the fourth quarter than previously thought, according to revised data released Friday that could embolden the government in its drive to stimulate growth and end deflation.

The data showed that Japan's economy grew at a yearly rate of 0.2 per cent in the final three months of 2012 -- much better than the negative 0.4 per cent rate initially reported

by Japan's Cabinet Office. On a quarterly basis, Japan's gross domestic product was unchanged compared with previous data showing a fall of 0.1per cent.

The upward revision was not exactly a surprise, as other economic indicators have pointed to stronger activity in recent weeks.

But the report could provide a

wealthy Americans on January 1. In addition, $85 billion in federal budget cuts that could slice as much as 0.6 percentage point from growth this year started on March 1.

The Labor Department will release the February employment report on Friday.

While February's anticipated pace will be below the 177,000 jobs per month average for the six months through January, there are other hints that the labour market's tone is improving.

First-time claims for jobless benefits fell significantly in February and a report on Wednesday showed private employers hired more workers than expected that month, which led some economists to brace for an upside surprise on Friday.

A snowstorm that buried the East Coast during the survey week for the report could also have kept some workers at home, temporarily depressing the jobs tally in February.

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ARCLAYS (BARC.L) paid 428 bankers more than one million pounds ($1.5 million) in 2012, a torrid year for the British bank after its fine for rigging Libor interest rates.

According to Reuters, the number of staff paid over one million pounds was down from 473 in 2011, according to new disclosures in its annual report released on Friday.

Barclays said five staff were paid over five million pounds last year, down from 17 people in 2011. A further 50 were paid between 2.5 million and 5 million pounds in 2012, and 373 staff were paid between one million and 2.5 million pounds.

The pay included salary, bonus

and the value of long-term share awards.

Chief Executive, Antony Jenkins was paid 2.6 million pounds, including 1.8 million for his time as CEO from August 30.

He said last month he would forgo his bonus after the bank's tough year, when it was fined $450 million for rigging Libor interest rates, prompting former CEO Bob Diamond and its chairman to quit.

Jenkins had previously been the head of retail and business banking.

The bank revealed the pay bands for all its 145,000 staff, following through on a promise by new chairman David Walker to provide greater transparency on pay.

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POLITICS THE NATION

E-mail:- politics@thenationonlineng.net

Mixed reactions by politicians, lawyers and rights activists have trailed the clamour for amnesty for the members of the Boko Haram sect by the northern leaders. Group Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU captures their optimisms and reservations.

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HOULD the Federal Government grant amnesty to the members of the Boko Haram sect? There is no agreement on this vexed issue.

Many Nigerians have supported the recommendation by the prominent northern leaders, including the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Saa’d Abubakar, that the Federal Government should end the carnage in the region through amnesty to the rebellious sect. But other stakeholders have called for caution, saying that it is wrong to reward murder with an unearned pardon.

Those who opposed the extention of the amnesty to the sect said that, unlike the Niger Delta militants, who protested against the environmental denigration of the oil-producing states, the Boko Haram sect members are not known. Besides, they believe that the claims of the invincible group are neither valid, justifiable nor verifiable.

In Damaturu, Yobe State capital, President Goodluck Jonathan apparently ruled out the possibility of holding dialogue with unidentified people. It is another way of asking the sect members to remove their masks. However, those who perceive the amnesty as a likely solution to the killings have submitted that the option should be explored for the sake of peace and security.

A political scientist, Prof. Kunle Ajayi, who reflected on the grievous security situation in the country, submitted that the amnesty should be given a trial. He urged the government to embrace the reality that it lacks the power to overcome the current predicament. “I believe the agitation for amnesty is a welcome development, particularly if it will translate into the laying down of arms by the sect and giving peace a chance”, he added.

But Ajayi, who teaches at the Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, emphasisded that the politics of the amnesty should be investigated. He feared that the agitation may be borne out of the desire by the North to achieve ethnic balancing in the amnesty policy. The university don warned that amnesty may therefore, translate to national resource allocation by another means. Noting that a lot of money has gone into the amnesty programme and ex-militants are enjoying foreign training to the envy of the other geo-political zones, he said that “the fear is that, before long, other militants such as the Oodua Peoples Congress and Bakassi Boys may request for amnesty”.

“All the same, I support the amnesty for Boko Haram sect as it will make them come to the open for camping and registration as it was done for the Niger Delta militants. This way, their identities will be known”, he maintained.

Former National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Chief Victor Umeh aligned with the pro-amnesty stakeholders.

Although he doubted how the government will identify the sect members, he said any method that can bring peace to the troubled nation should be encouraged. “It is an amorphous organisation. They have used their tactics to wreak havoc on the country.

I don’t know how they can come out.

Government should investigate them, if they can be identified. If they are sincere, it should be pursued as an option to avoid the waste of lives and resources”, Umeh added.

House of Representatives member Hon. Morouf Akinderu-Fatai is ambivalent about the advice by the northern leaders. He called for a wholistic approach to the security challenge, urging caution against resolving intransigency through amnesty. In his

•Dr Jonathan

•Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Abubakar

Boko Haram and politics of amnesty

view, the government and elite have failed to uncover the den of the troublers of the national peace. The legislator said, although all possibilities should be explored, not all the routes will lead to the solution.

“We must encourage those of them that decides to retrace their steps and come forward. However, we should be careful to avoid the kind of situation in the Southsouth whereby young men in the creeks were regarded as militants, thereby encouraging corruption”, he submitted.

Like Ajayi, the legislator alluded to the challenge of granting amnesty to faceless rebellious youths whose demands are offensive to the commonsense. Akinderu-Fatai re-echoed the national question, saying that the Boko Haram threat has made its resolution more compelling. He pointed out that the sect’s onslaught has implications for national unity. “We must sit to discuss, if we really want to be together and design how we want to govern ourselves”, the legislator added.

This line of thought is supported by the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) chieftain, Mr. Kunle Famoriyo. He lamented that certain people are encouraging people to behead innocent Nigerians without provocation and justification and go scot free. “How do we bring back to life those who have been wasted senselessly under whatever guise”, queried Famoriyo, who said that the murderous sect should not be treated with kid gloves. Stressing that criminals should be made to face the wrath of the law, he said, since Boko Haram members are not licensed to kill, they deserve no amnesty.

To Comrade Joe Igbokwe, Lagos State Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Publicity Secretary, amnesty is being politicised in the country. He opposed the North’s suggestion, saying that it is counter-productive to reward crime with special favours. In his opinion, the sect members are murderers and international terrorists waging an inexplicable war against their fatherland. “We

may be setting a dangerous precedence.

Such groups may rise up tomorrow, murder many people as possible, and before you know it, their people will be asking for amnesty, citing previous ones as templates.

“But, if the Federal Government feels hopeless and helpless in dealing with the insurgency, if they do not know what to do any longer and granting amnesty remains their last card, let them do it to stop this carnage. But what happens to the victims of Boko Haram? Will they just go home to lick their wounds?

Would they be compensated?”, he queried.

The Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, shares these views. He described the amnesty programme as a big scam, which gave rise to a number of emergency billionaire-thugs in the Niger Delta. He said granting pardon to killers is unimaginable, adding that the amnesty being proposed may amount to another freeloads to criminals. He said, even if dialogue is contemplated, the those who have killed innocent people should be brought to book. “We must combine dialogue and law enforcement, but the most enduring thing is to use the resources given to the thugs in the creeks to build infrastructure and create an enabling environment for economic opportunities for the impoverished people. We need to invest seriously in social security”, he added.

A psychologist, Dr. Soji Aremu, said that, since amnesty is a state pardon for taking arms against a state by those who have been convicted by the law court, the prerogative can only be extended to the Boko Haram sect, if it shows remorse. “The question is: have Boko Haramists shown remorse? Have they laid down their arms and ammunitions against the state? Have they restituted the serial killings of innocent children and foreigners?.

“So, asking for amnesty is putting the cat before the horse. It is a misplaced call in the context of the crime committed by the sect. Amnesty presupposes a

change of mind not to take arms against the state again. It is on that condition that amnesty can be given and there after, members of the sect will be rehabilitated”, he stressed.

Observers believe that no calamity of enormous proportion has befallen the fledgling nation-state more than the horror unleashed by the dreadful sect, since the end of the civil war in 1970. Many lives and property have been destroyed. Targets of the attacks include government officials and buildings, traditional rulers, police and military formations, and church worshippers. The invincible agitators’ projected demands are inexplicable and indefensible Many have argued that the political undertone of the curious war by the bombers may have been inadvertently ignored. Also, it is curious that the sponsors of these destructive have escaped the detective lenses of the intelligence agents. Critics have also submitted that the failed attempts at curbing the activities of the sect have created a hollow in the record of President Jonathan in the critical area of national security. At a time, there was confusion in the government as the Commander-In-Chief cried out that Boko Haram had invaded the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

In recent times, Boko Haram sect decided to raised the hope of Nigerians about ceasefire. A faction of the group announced that it was tired of killing.

But two weeks after, the hope was dashed. More callous killings were reported. The camouflage surrender only paved the way for more panic in the North. Soon, the faceless fighters started to demand for the release of their members who are in detention.

According to analysts, an important component of the amnesty being suggested by the northern leaders is dialogue. Stakeholders who have objected to dialogue insist that the approach is defeatist. Their argument is that dialogue with similar organisations in many African and

‘It is an amorphous organisation. They have used their tactics to wreak havoc on the country. I don’t know how they can come out. Government should investigate them, if they can be identified. If they are sincere, it should be pursued as an option to avoid the waste of lives and resources’

Asian countries have never yielded the expected dividends. Others have canvassed the option of daring the arsonists by tracking them down and bringing them to justice.

Government has exercised caution in its response to this emergency. Apart from rejecting the pressure to label the members of the sect as terrorists, President Goodluck Jonathan has not relented in urging the sect to embrace peace. . This approach, many agree, is conciliatory. Ajayi said that dialogue may also be explored for the purpose of unveiling the power brokers sustaining the onslaught, the strength of the sect, the identity of its financiers, arms suppliers, links with terrorist organisations and the real motivation for the affront.

However, dialogue has limitation and it requires more political and professional skills. Although Aremu described it as the language of democracy, he warned against its misuse. Supporting him, Igbokwe said that the option smacked of timidity.

Ajayi however, reminded the antiamnesty crusaders that dialogue is critical to crisis resolution and peace making. He recalled that peace returned to the troubled Niger Delta, following the dialogue between the government and the militants. “ Dialogue with the sect will enable the government to know the real grievances of the sect, the reasons behind their actions and what can be done to appease it and elicit from them solution possibilities. It will also bring the two sides to a negotiating table. The advantage is that it will make the government to know the actual members and leaders of the group, who cannot ordinarily be disclosed under normal situation”, he explained.

Ajayi urged the government to shun the fear of being labeled “ a government that hold talks with terrorists” by foreign powers. He said that the expected dividend of peace overrides the stigmitisation that may follow the dialogue.

Another human rights activist, Lanre Suraj, advised the President to employ all the constitutional and legitimate means to ensure security. He said dialogue is not bad, if it is properly managed. “Dialogue with any disgruntled stakeholder is in the collective interest of the system. This is not limited to Boko Haram. If every war and conflict ends with a dialogue or discussion, why not avert the cost of a violent conflict and start embarking on the resolution of the disagreement with dialogue? This is better”, Suraj added.

Igbokwe disagreed. “They have murdered children, mothers, fathers and youths for a cause that is not only laughable, but stupid. To engage them in a dialogue is to celebrate criminality”, he said, maintaining that other groups may spring up to terrorise the trembling country. He said government should come out to tell anxious Nigerians that the dialogue and amnesty are the last options.

Former Rector of Lagos State Polytechnic, Olawumi Gasper, said it would be a sad day in Nigeria when government officials sit with faceless people carrying dangerous weapons and threatening the collective peace of the society. He urged the President to rise up to the occasion as the CommanderIn-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces.”The nation requires a sound and effective local and community intelligence framework. This should further be complemented by military action. Our actions must be non-political, brutal and forceful within a short span of three months, with all the borders closed during the operation period. We must commence these military actions before the beginning of political activities leading to the next presidential election,” he said.

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POLITICS Correspondent UJA EMMANUEL writes on the intense lobby for executive council positions in Benue State by politicians and other stakeholders.

Politics of exco composition in Benue S INCE Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam sacked the Secretary to the government and 11 commissioners, there have been intense lobbying for cabinet positions by many politicians. Anxiety has also gripped the remaining five commissioners who were no were not affected by the sack, following feelers that they may be re-assigned to new portfolios.

It was the first major cabinet shakeup since 2007 when the governor assumed office. Suswam issued a stern warning that nobody should lobby him or his deputy ,Chief Lawani, for appointment. He said the sacked commissioners had served the state and should come to terms with the reality that they cannot be in the cabinet for ever.

Many believe that the dissolution was long overdue. However, the criteria for the sack and retention of four commissioners was strange to them.

There is also disquiet in the various political camps over the fate of the affected commissioners because they were very close to the governor.

Some influential political leaders are already mounting pressures on Suswan to re-appoint them. Some of the commissioners involved in the intense lobby to bounce back are Hon. John Ngbede( Water resources and Environment), Hon. John Tondo( Lands and survey) and Hon. Benjamin Ashaver(Works and Transport).

Those mounting pressures on the governor on their behalf are of the opinion that, apart from performance, they are tested and trusted.

There is also the feeling that Governor Suswam is very unfair to the

•Suswam

trio of Ngbede, Ashaver and Tondo, who worked hard to ensure that he was re-elected for a second term and remained loyal when he was defending his mandate at the tribunal and court.

Besides, the three of them command large followers, especially among the youths who are the strength of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the state.

Others have reasoned that their premature departure from the cabinet may likely affect the chances of the party in the future electoral contests. Some party leaders felt that the former commissioners may team up with the opposition to wreck havoc on the PDP.

“John Ngbede is forced to reckon with in his Apa/ Agatu area and the entire Zone C,while Bejamin Ashaver is the only man from Sankera in the PDP who could check Professor Daniel Saror, his uncle, who contested the election against Suswam on the ticket of All Nigeria Peoples party (ANPP. John Tondo is the toast of the PDP youths as he has empowered many of them”, said a PDP chieftain in Makurdi.

A youth leader in Gboko local government, Comrade Terwase Akure, told The Nation that those sacked from cabinet are incidentally the ones supporting Suswam to build the PDP and those retained have not added much value to the party. “The end of the PDP may be near becaue those sacked from the cabinet are popular and they may team up with the APC”, he added. But those retained disagreed with this view, saying that they are loyal to the party and the administration.

To avoid any political calamity, Akure appealed to Governor Suswam to reappoit Asahver, Ngbede and Tondo in the interest of the party.

It is not clear whether the governor will yield to these appeals. Lask week, he read a riot act to the PDP chieftains. He said that any political appointee who engages in 2015 campaigns would be sanctioned. They grumbled at this threat.

For now, the ruling party and other stakeholders are waiting for the new list of commissioners. Many believe that the composition may shape the political calculations ahead of 2015 in the state.

Ogun PDP crisis deepens

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HE crisis rocking the Ogun State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has escalated as the pro-Obasanjo faction led by Senator Dipo Odujinrin has distanced itself from the activities of the Adebayo Dayo-led executive committee.

Although Dayo, an engineer, has waved the olive branch to the faction, reconciliation nhas not taken place.

The faction is said to be irked by the victory rally held at Ijebu-Igbo by the Dayo executive committee, where a party chieftain, Prince Buruji Kashamu, warned party members to be wary of “gerontocratic politicians masquerading as elder statesmen.”

Since the court affirmed Dayo as the authentic party chairman, the other faction has been meeting, but its members have shunned the party activities organised by the state executive committee.

The party chairman, sources said,

From Ernest Nwokolo, Abeokuta

has appealed to the Southwest Caretaker Chairman of the party, Chief Isola Filani, to broker peace between his exco and Obasanjo camp.

Kashamu had fired salvos at the old PDP chieftains in Ogun State, saying that they should yield the space to younger elements and serve as their advisers.

Sources said that he was reacting to Obasanjo’s warning to the party to beware of money bags, who he said, were bent on deceiving the people with the view of depriving them of a better future.

Kashamu said that it was laughable that Obasanjo could denounce those he described as money-bag politicians, wondering whether they were not the ones that made him politically.

“Was it not moneybag politicians that bankrolled his elections the

first and second time? Was it not the same people he hobnobbed with when it was convenient for him to wrest the party structure from the immediate past administration in the state? Was it not the same set of people that he used to work for his candidate in the governorship election? This is the sort of inconsistency that Presidential spokesman Reuben Abati recently noted concerning Obasanjo,” he said.

He noted that is a wise thing to re -unite the PDP family, but said that the former President should not pontificate on the re -union or how it should take place.

Kashamu said: “it was not in Obasanjo’s place to set the parameters for such because he has continually shown his bias for imposition, do-or-die politics, injustice and illegalities – the very issues at the roots of the Ogun PDP crisis.

‘APC will tackle Nigeria’s problem’ From Damisi Ojo, Akure

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HE Special Adviser to Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola on Environment, Hon.Bola Ilori, has expressed optimism that the All Progressive Congress (APC) will rescue the country from its present precarious situation.

Ilori, who is a chieftain of the Action Congress of Nigeria(ACN), spoke to reporters at the High Court premises,Akure,the Ondo State capital when on a solidarity visit to the party supporters at the tribunal.

He said the merging of the parties underscores the collective resolve aimed at rescuing the people of the country from the ‘’ruderless Peoples Democratic Party government”.

Ilori emphasised that the merger is not to advance the political interests of the two leaders; Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), adding that it is in the national interest.

The former Chairman of the Alimoso Local Government Area of Lagos State predicted success for the APC at the general elections.

Ilori said the political leaders have overcome the problems that undermined the previous alliances, urging Nigerians to brace up for change at the centre.

He described the PDP as a divided house assailed by a protracted civil war, adding that a house divided against itself will fall.

Ilori stressed: “PDP has over the years used billions of dollars to produce darkness and poor quality of education. There is mass unemployment, particularly among the youths. The opposition is concerned. APC will soon flow down to the state level when all the necessary things are sorted out at the national level. Nigerians will reject PDP in 2015 and embrace the APC because they are tired of the inept PDP administration”.

On the electoral litigation involving the ACN and Labour Party (LP) in Ondo State, Ilori said that, with the unprecedented evidence before the panel about all the illegalities that characterised the last governorship election, the case would be addressed in favour of Akeredolu.

The politician urged the party supporters to remain steadfast and pray to God for the panel to uphold •Ilori truth and justice.

‘Lagos PDP will fail in 2015’

By Jeremiah Oke

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HE Chairman of the Lagos State Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Chief Henry Ajomale, has said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will build on its electoral failure in the next general elec-

tions.

He urged Nigerians to support the All Progressive Party (APC) in its bid to dislodge the party at the centre and offer a credible leadership to the country.

Ajomale, who spoke in Lagos, said the PDP had destroyed crippled the economy and extended the national lean years.

The party leader said that God had heard the voice of the masses who are struggling to overcome poverty, adding that they would be liberated by the APC in 2015.

Ajomale said: “The Poverty Development Party will fizzle out. They have misused the wealth of the nation. Nigerians are tired of the PDP. That is why they are waiting to support APC in the future elections. PDP is already jittery because the masses have accepted APC. The end of the PDP is near”.

The politician described the Jonathan Administration as a national burden, pointing out that its transformation agenda has collapsed.

Ajomale added: “It is time for all Nigerians to support the APC to send PDP out of the Nigeria in the 2015 elections. PDP has failed Nigerians and they should be sent parking. They cannot intimidate any of us. They are just spreading lies all around.Whether they like it or not, APC has been accepted by the people and people continue to troop in everyday. “ People are tired of the PDP and they are ready to get involved. We must rededicate ourselves to the task of liberating ourselves from the PDP, which has destroyed our economy and increased poverty in the land”.

Internal crisis will consume PDP, says Afenifere spokesman

By Musa Odoshimokhe

A

•From right: Lagos State Chairman, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Chief Henry Ajomale, Chairman, House Committee on Legislative Compliance, Mr. Moruf Akinderu-Fatai and Representative of Lagos State government, Mrs. Idris Timi, at the constituency empowerment programme of Oshodi-Isolo federal constituency.

FENIFERE Publicity Secretary Mr Yinka Odumakin has said the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may be consumed by its internal crisis, ahead of the 2015 general elections.

He said that more attention and energy would be deployed by President Goodluck Jonathan to crisis management, instead of governance.

He told The Nation that the sudden emergence of the PDP Governors Forum, which recently selected Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio as sitting chairman, has tilted the balance of power in favour of some vested interests.

Odumakin, who spoke with our reporter on the state of the nation in Lagos, said: “The PDP Governors Forum and the Amaechi’s Governors Forum do not have the interest of Nigerians at heart, but they were founded for power struggle. There is none that is about the interest of the people of Nigeria but the power that be. The fora have nothing to do about the welfare of Nigerians.

“The two groups are for themselves . It is the night of long knives; the wolves are out and they want to devour us. What is going on in the PDP is a personal fight between the wolves and the masses often pay for such internal crisis.

“Those who take the people’s patient for cowardice, and when they protest they can use guns to chase them off the streets should know that, one day, the situation will change. We can actually see what is going on across the country today when the people are pushed to the wall. They confront the authorities force for force.”

Speaking on the recent merger of the opposition political parties, Odumakin said the most important issue is practical leadership. He recalled that political parties, which had merged in the past lacked the courage to fulfill their vision.

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88th KANO STATE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEETING

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he 88th Kano State Executive Council Sitting was held Today Wednesday 6th March, 2013 (24th Rabi'ul Thani, 1434 AH) under the Chairmanship of Governor Engr. Rabi'u Musa Kwankwaso, FNSE. Ten (10) MDAs submitted twenty eight (28) memoranda for deliberation by the Council. Fifteen (15) of the submitted memoranda were approved for execution with ten (10) of them having monetary implications to the tune of Two Hundred and Twenty Three Million, Six Hundred and Eighty Two Thousand, Three Hundred and Seventy Five Naira, One Kobo (N223,682,375.01) while the remaining five (5) were on policy issues as presented below: 1. MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT Request for funds to facilitate the production of 1,000,000 seedlings:Since inception, this Administration has been doing everything to create the enabling environment that will empower its citizenry, whose major occupation is farming. The State has been the food basket of the nation and the leading centre of agricultural exports. However, with environmental degradation and encroaching desertification arise the need for the establishment of shelterbelts in the State. The belts are expected to contain and curtail desertification and provide the rural community with other economic activities through the harnessing of economic trees, such as gum Arabic. The long-term interest of this policy is to improve rural earning, encourage farming, and discourage rural to urban migration.

Kano Afforestation Project (KNAP), a parastatal of the Ministry of Environment was established to improve agricultural production and reduce threat of desertification in the State. This has been its major engagement and every support is being given by the Administration to the Agency to achieve such a laudable objective. Council recalled that in 2012 more than N10 million was released to the Agency to produce seedlings for afforestation program. The seedlings were produced for the reinvigoration of seven (7) shelter-belts, establishment of one plantation and distribution to interested individuals for farms and homestead planting.

The success of this program explains the present request by the Ministry of Environment for the need to produce one million (1,000,000) seedlings by the Agency. The seedlings are to be utilized in the establishment of the 8-Kilometer new Shelter-belt at Saye Village, reinvigoration of the existing 35- Kilometer Shelter-belts, 30 hectares of Industrial plantation of Gum Arabic and 30 hectares enrichment plantation scheme of deforested forest areas in the State.

This time around, the Ministry of Environment requested for the release of the sum of N9,875,000.00 to enable KNAP facilitate the production of yet another 1,000,000 units of seedlings for use as stated above.

Council approved the release of the requested sum of N9,875,000.00 to the Ministry of Environment to enable KNAP undertake the project of producing yet another 1,000,000 units of seedlings for use as stated.

3. MINISTRY OF LAND AND PHYSICAL PLANNING Request for funds to enable the payment of compensation for properties affected in the course of upgrading/expansion of Sheikh Ja'afar Road:The contract awarded for the Construction of Sheikh Ja'afar Road was approved via Council resolution number SSCA/CA/EX/7/1/57 dated 8th March, 2012. This contract is amongst the major contracts awarded by this Administration for the opening up and expansion of Kano metropolitan roads worth over N40 billion. Amongst the roads under construction are the Hadejia Road, Zaria Road, and Gwarzo Road. These roads are the major access roads into and out of Kano metropolis. Their upgrading from single lines to dual carriageways indicates Government commitment towards the improvement of communication/transportation and the modernization of the State. Improved road networks are critical to the modernization process of the State because of their direct impact on the social, political, and economic development. Such roads channel the flow of persons, commodities, and facilitate access to remote and new areas for future development in addition to reducing vehicular congestion.

As Kano metropolis is facing facelift, the rural areas are not left unattended. Contracts for the construction of five (5) kilometer roads were awarded in each of the 44 Local Government Areas worth around N80 billion.

In the process of construction and expansion of these roads, private individuals or public facilities or structures are affected either for relocation or for compensation. This explains the basis behind the contents of this memorandum. The Ministry of Land and Physical Planning, KNUPDA and the Water Board have identified some structures to demolish in order to relocate and lay public water supply pipelines. The structures identified include storied dwelling/ shops and a mosque on the right hand side of Bayero University Old Site fence, which are assessed and valued at the total sum of N29,667,605.00. The Ministry of Land and Physical Planning requested for the release of the sum of N29,667,605.00 to enable the payment of the compensation for the demolished structures mentioned.

The request was approved by the Council to ensure the completion of the project according to schedule.

4. MINISTRY OF EDUCATION Request for funds to enable the purchase of a private House (Building) adjacent to the one donated to the Ministry of Education at Koki quarters, Municipal Local Government Area for the establishment of a Junior Secondary school:If there is any Administration that gives education the attention it deserves in Nigeria of yesterday and today is the present administration of Eng. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. The only State Government sponsored over 500 postgraduate students to study overseas, 100 graduates to study piloting in Jordan and sponsored 100 students to study medicine and another 100 to study Pharmacy overseas. The Government also established the Northwest University, which is now in session after admitting 1000 students. Citizens may recall that, Eng. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso was the person who established the Kano University of Science and Technology, Wudil during his first term. In the same vein, over N5 billion was expended on the construction of classrooms, staff quarters and the provision of laboratory equipment and instructional materials to the schools. Through these, the Administration is setting up a stage for the development of human capital in the State. The State youths being trained in and outside the State in particular and the country in general will develop engineering, medical, legal and/or other specialized skills thereby increasing their capacities to contribute to the gross national product. Thus, the Nigerian societies will benefit in the end from their education. It is true to say that it is very difficult to identify, quantify and measure the benefits of this Administration's policy on education.

In addition to these efforts, Government has been encouraging private individuals to contribute their quota towards the development of education in the State. Seeing what has been happening in the State, individuals such as Aliko Dangote, have been encouraged to support the Government in executing its laudable education program. This was the basis of this memorandum. Council was notified by the Ministry of Education, through contents of this memorandum, that a Philanthropist, Alhaji Sa'idu Muhammad Koki has donated a house (building) to the Ministry of Education for conversion into a Junior Secondary School at Koki Quarters, Municipal LGCA. On inspection during the handing over exercise, it was established that the donated building (house) would not accommodate a School, which made the Ministry of Education to recommend for the purchase of the house (building) adjacent to the donated one to enable the establishment of a standard Junior Secondary School.

The sum of N9,200,000.00 was requested for release to enable the purchase of the adjacent house by the Ministry of Education to actualize the purpose intended.

Approval was granted for the release of the requested sum of N9,200,000.00 to the Ministry of Education, as verified by the Ministry of Land and Physical Planning, to purchase the house

stated for the purpose presented.

Council was gratified by the gesture of the philanthropist and call on people of goodwill to emulate.

5. MINISTRY OF HEALTH Request for funds to facilitate furnishing/ equipping of New School of Health Technology, Bebeji:This Administration realizes that the major problems of healthcare delivery services are those of lack of healthcare personnel and the efficiency in the supply of health services to the teeming populace.

In trying to tackle these problems, this Administration has approved and Rabi’u Musa Kwankawaso established new School of Nursing at Madobi, School of Midwifery at Gezawa, and School of Health Technology at Bebeji to train healthcare personnel to complement the existing ones that are incapable of admitting hundreds of youths seeking admission. The development so far achieved towards the establishment of these Health Institutions led to the reason behind the submission of this memorandum.

Contents of this memorandum referred Council to the approval granted for the construction of Administration Block, Demonstration/Laboratory Block and Electricity Generator room at the site of the new School of Health Technology, Bebeji to the tune of N49,905,898.64. The approval was granted via Council Extract Number SSCA/CA/EX/13/1/29 dated 23rd February, 2012.

The work has been satisfactorily completed awaiting provision of furniture, equipment and landscaping to enable the immediate take-off of academic programs at the Institution within the 2012/2013 Academic Session. So, the Ministry of Health requested for the release of the sum of N52,246,268.16 by the Council to facilitate the provision of furniture, equipment and landscaping at the site of the new School of Health Technology, Bebeji. Thus; SN i.

Items Landscaping works

Amount (N) 19,770,096.00

ii. iii.

Equipping/Furnishing of Administrative Block Equipping/Furnishing of Female Hostel

7,815,910.00 5,490,334.91

iv. v.

Equipping/Furnishing of Classroom Block Equipping of Practical/Demonstration room

5,294,700.00 4,039,925.00

vi. vii.

Laboratory Equipment/Instruments/Reagents Equipment/Furnishing of School Clinic

4,201,174.32 3,634,127.93

viii.

Pre-Accreditation/Accreditation Total

2,000,000.00 52,246,268.16

Council noted, considered and approved the release of the requested sum of N52,246,268.16 to the Ministry of Health to execute the stated purpose so as to actualize the immediate take-off of the new School of Health Technology, Bebeji.

7. OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY TO THE STATE GOVERNMENT This Office submitted sixteen (16) memoranda on behalf of some MDAs for deliberation by the Council. Four (4) of them were approved for execution as follows; a. Request for funds to facilitate the purchase of one unit each of brand New Sunny Excavator 310 and a Pay-loader 2L 50f for use by Kano Urban Planning and Development Authority (KNUPDA):KNUPDA is the agency reposed with the responsibilities for urban planning and development.

Executing these, responsibilities require the procurement of modern earth moving machines for road constructions, drainage excavation, and demolishing of illegal structures amongst others. The struggle of this Administration towards the modernization of Kano State led to the provision of equipment worth over N200 million to the Agency since inception. Kano metropolis is now wearing a new face due to the commitment of this Government in seeing that the State Capital becomes a modern city worth emulating. This memorandum was also for the procurement of working equipment by the Agency.

Council noted, considered and approved the release of the sum of N57,400,000.00 to the Office of the Secretary to the State Government to procure and allocate one brand new Sunny Excavator 310 and a Pay-Loader 2L 50F to KNUPDA for use in the delivery of its services. b. Presentation on "Waste to Fuel" as proposed by Affordable Energy Solutions Ltd:The State Ministry of Science and Technology along with that of the Ministry of Environment were directed to study a proposal submitted by Affordable Energy Solutions Ltd on "Waste to Fuel" for which details were presented. The two Ministries studied the proposal and submitted their findings for Council's consideration. The Company claims to have developed a prototype machine capable of converting waste plastics and other related materials to fuel. The company also stated that: i. The machine can process at least 5 tons of waste plastics per day. ii. A ton of processed waste plastic will produce 600-900 litres of fuel. iii. The Company requires financial support to the tune of N60,000,000.00 to develop the technology in collaboration with the Ministries of Science and Technology and that of Environment.

Council appreciated the presentation and directed the Ministry of Science and Technology to invite the Company to assess the viability, maintenance and reliability of the machine, discuss the grey areas inherent in the design of the machine and establish sustainability of source of material to be supplied to the Company. The decision of the Council was because waste contains resources that are usable in the production of goods and services such as the generation of electricity. This proposition by the company may be economically beneficial and may open up other possibilities. In fact, the metropolitan centers are presently facing huge refuse of waste from production and consumption of finished products. Recycling this waste will be of great interest to the State. c. Request for funds to facilitate the procurement and allocation of 18-Seater Bus to the Office of the Special Adviser on Metropolitan Affairs:The Office of the Special Adviser on Metropolitan Affairs requested for the allocation of 18Seater Bus through the Office of the Secretary to the State Government. This will be used as an official vehicle to facilitate easy movement/shuttle in coordinating/monitoring activities on the training of 10,000 butchers selected from the 44 LGCAs as approved by the Executive Council.

Council agreed on the relevance of the request and approved the release of the sum of N7,500,000.00 to the Office of the Secretary to the State Government to purchase and allocate a Toyota Hiace 18-Seater Bus to the Office of the Special Adviser on Metropolitan Affairs. d. Presentation on a report submitted by the Kano Renaissance Think-Tank (KRTT):-

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

55

The Office of the Secretary to the State Government presented/introduced the Kano Renaissance Think-Tank (KRTT) as a Committee composing public spirited individuals who have the conviction and sense of responsibility of identifying the challenges facing Northern Nigeria.

The individuals in the Committee are professionals in their respective fields of endeavours.

Council was further intimated of the fact that the KRTT selected Kano as a case study due largely to its cosmopolitan nature and leading role in the socio-economic development of Northern Nigeria in particular and the Country in general. As such, the suggestions and solutions of meeting identified challenges for Kano State are therefore adjudged applicable, with some modifications therein, to other States in the North.

The report submitted by the KRTT Committee evaluated the problems of development facing Kano State in four areas-education, energy, healthcare and public transportation. The current situation in these major sectors was analyzed, problems identified and solutions/ recommendations for rectitude made phase one of which is summarized as follows; i. Establishment of an Independent Curriculum review Committee to oversee all issues relating to the periodic review, modernization and implementation of educational curriculum in Schools. ii. Establishment of Teachers Quality Assurance Board and Teachers' Code of Conduct Board to handle matters relating to the hiring, training and retention of quality Teachers as well as setting up of highest Standards of ethics in the educational system. iii. Imbibing the Culture of research excellence in our highest Institutions of learning by way of creating and funding centers of excellence in some key areas relating to socioeconomic needs of the State. iv. Establishment of an Independent Kano Electricity Company v. Formation of Kano Electricity Regulatory Commission vi. Fostering closer strategic partnership with Niger Republic in the area of gas supply. vii. Exploring and setting up Research Centers for alternative forms of energy. viii. Establishment of World-Class Medical Center and Diagnosis Center in the State. ix. Facilitate regular media coverage of State-owned Hospitals by Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital. x. Introduction of courses in Medical Health related disciplines by Kano University of Science and Technology (KUST), Wudil and Northwest University, Kano. xi. Formation of Road Network Maintenance Board. xii. Creation of Kano Mass Transit Authority to oversee the development of a modern "State of the art" Public Transportation System (which include double decker buses, metered taxi cabs and light rail transportation system. xiii. Designing and managing effective vehicle registration as well as licensing system.

Council appreciated the presentation and agreed that some of the suggestions either were identified by the Government and are being implemented or are in the pipelines for implementation. Nevertheless, MDAs are directed to peruse suggestion(s) relevant to their organizations and apply. This Administration is eager to receive viable suggestions from either individuals or organizations that will be of assistance in the development of the State.

Already, suggestion boxes are stationed in strategic places such as the Local Government Headquarters and the Offices of the District/Village Heads for the use of individuals desirous of submitting their suggestions and recommendation. e. Presentation on the allocation of 180 metric tons of agricultural lime to Kano State by the Office of the Honorable Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development:The Office of the Secretary to the State Government presented the actual allocation letter from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources involving 180 metric tons of agricultural lime. Specifically, the allocation was said to be in line with the on-going reform in the Agricultural Sector under Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA). The lime was allocated to Kano State so as to enhance productive capacity of the abundant agricultural land available in the State.

Further, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development communicated that; i. In order to rehabilitate the degraded agricultural soils caused by acidity, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development intends to liaise with KNARDA and establish Pilot Demonstrative Farms in some selected areas of the State. This is in response to the demand to improve farmers' livelihood and ensure food security through rehabilitation of some affected areas. ii. Also, the Train the Trainers (TOT) Technology will be scaled up to ensure proper adoption and sustainability among farmers in the targeted communities. iii.Emphasis is placed on the creation of awareness to farmers and Extension Agents, which leads to opening up of more land for Agricultural production, generation of income and creating of job opportunities for the teeming youths.

Council appreciatively acknowledged the presentation and directed the Hon. Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources to prepare and submit a comprehensive sharing formula for use in the distribution of the fertilizer stated. f. Presentation on Awards by the Governor Engr. Rabi'u Musa Kwankwaso, FNSE to Players and Athletes and request for the release of the pledged Cash Reward:The Ministry of Information, Internal Affairs, Youths, Sports and Culture submitted a reminder letter through the Office of the Secretary to the State Government on the pledged Cash reward made to players and athletes for winning laurels for the State during a reception held in their honour at the Government House on 6th October, 2012. The sum of money pledged was to the tune of N7,800,000.00 to be disbursed to forty six (46) people, thus; SN i. ii. iii.

Beneficiaries

The Pledges

Amount (N)

15 Kano Pillars Basketball Players 7 Technical Crew/Officials

N250,000 each x 15 N100,000 x 7

3,750,000.00 700,000.00

12 Para Soccer Players 3 Officials

N150,000 each x 12 N100,000 each x 3

1,800,000.00 300,000.00

7 Scrabble Players 2 Officials

N150,000 each x 7 N100,000 each x 2

1,050,000.00 200,000.00

Total

7,800,000.00

Release of the pledged sum of N7,800,000.00 was approved by the Council to the Office of the Secretary to the State Government for onward payment to the Ministry of Information, Internal Affairs, Youths, Sports and Culture for disbursement to the 46 beneficiaries as presented. The gesture was in cognizance of the fantastic performances of the beneficiaries and the good name they bring to the State.

8. MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES Request for funds to facilitate civil works on sample wind turbines installed for irrigation at Pada Dam in Gwarzo LGCA:A Company called the New Era Energy, introduced to the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, a new technology that utilizes wind energy for pumping water for irrigation purposes. The fact that wind blows all year round in Kano, the technology enables utilization of free energy for irrigation. In the long run, this more than compensates for the initial cost of installation as it makes recovery of investment within two (2) years possible. Confident in the suitability of the technology to the type of agricultural techniques utilized in Kano State, the Company offered to install a free sample to demonstrate the applicability of wind turbines for surface water pumping for irrigation. Indeed, the sample installed has already been commissioned on 1st April, 2012 and only awaits civil works for surface irrigation so as to commence farming.

In any case, the civil works is to be borne by the State Government for which the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources requested for the release of the aggregate sum of N4,895,000.00 to facilitate the surface water irrigation civil works at the sample wind turbines installed at Pada Dam in Gwarzo Local Government.

Approval was granted as requested by the Council to enable the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources ascertain the applicability of the sample wind turbine installed at Pada Dam Gwarzo Local Government.

9. MINISTRY FINANCE Presentation on the formalization of the appointment of temporary staff of the Kano State Pension Fund Trustees:The Honorable Commissioner for Finance submitted a report on behalf of the 3-Member Committee mandated to look into the issue of formalization of the appointment of seventeen (17) temporary Staff of the Pension Fund Trustees to permanent and pensionable. The Committee comprised the Head of Civil Service, the Accountant General and the Honourable Commissioner for Finance.

Notably, the Committee submitted the following summary on the 17 people affected; i. Two (2) NCE holders among the Staff though found hardworking and dedicated to work were recommended for formalization and deployment to KSSMB where their services are suitably re quired. ii. Eight (8) National Diploma holders were recommended for formalization and retention by the Pension Fund Trustees. iii. One (1) National Diploma holder was disqualified for formalization due to his weakness in the discharge of duties assigned to him. iv. Two (2) SSCE holders were recommended for formalization and retention by the Pension Fund Trustees. v. Four (4) Primary School Certificate holders recommended for formalization and retention by the Pension Fund Trustees.

This brought the number of staff recommended for formalization to sixteen (16), which Council considered and approved.

10.

MINISTRY OF WORKS, HOUSING AND TRANSPORT Presentation on report on the construction of Diggol-Dausayawa road in Dambatta LGCA:The Honorable Commissioner for Works, Housing and Transport reminded Council, through the contents of this memorandum, of the construction of farm access road at the site mentioned above by Commercial Agriculture Development Project (CADP) under KNARDA. Reflectively, the Ministry of Works, Housing and Transport was instructed to inspect the project and report back on findings at the site. The site was visited and the following observations were made. * The road is 3.5 Kilometers long and starts from a junction on Dambatta-Diggol-Gwada road and link to Dausayawa settlement. * There are indications of farming activities in the area. * The project has been completed.

Nevertheless, the contractor was directed to make good all the defects observed within the defect liability period pending settlement of the retention money. The Ministry of Works, Housing and Transport requested for the release of the sum of N40,430,898.85 by the Council to enable settlement of Final Certificate submitted by the contractor.

Council noted, considered and approved the release of the requested sum of N40,430,898.85 to the Ministry of Works, Housing and Transport to effect payment of the final claim submitted by the contractor that executed the project.

UPDATE ON ACTIVITIES OF THE 88TH EXCO SITTING 1. CONDUCT OF MONTHLY ENVIRONMENTAL SANITATION EXERCISE Council acknowledged the successful conduct of the monthly sanitation exercise held on Saturday 0203-2013 in the State and extended its gratitude to all stakeholders and the public for their untiring support to ensure clean and healthy environment.

2. GOODWILL MESSAGE TO HIS HIGHNESS THE EMIR OF KANO Council expressed its delight on the safe return of his Highness, the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Dr. Ado Bayero from a medical treatment to the United Kingdom as a result of the unfortunate attack on his convoy by some unknown gunmen.

3. FLAGGING-OFF OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS SPORTS COMPETITION Council acknowledged the flag-off of the Kano State Secondary Schools Sports Competition and distribution of 370 footballs on Monday 04/3/2013. Declaration of Government support to resuscitate sports and also ensure its revival across all the Secondary Schools in the State and also create an avenue where students will excel in sporting activities was reinstated.

4. DISTRIBUTION OF CAR LOAN CHEQUES TO TEACHERS Council acknowledged the issuing of car loan cheques to teachers on Tuesday, 5/3/2013, which is in tandem with the desire of the present Administration to improve the welfare and lives of the teachers by providing them with car loans to ease transport difficulty. Council also recalled its approval for the release of another N100 million for the teachers' vehicle loan scheme.

5. GRADUATION OF 400 YOUTHS OF FARM MECHANIZATION INSTITUTE Council acknowledged and appreciated the graduation of 400 Youths of Farm Mechanization Institute, Bagauda. This was considered a laudable legacy of the present administration.

6. GRADUATION OF 126 YOUTHS OF LIVESTOCK INSTITUTE, BAGAUDA AND 150 WOMEN TRAINEES FROM A 3-DAY WORKSHOP Today, Council acknowledged the graduation of 126 youths of Livestock Institute, Bagauda and the graduation of 150 women trainees from a 3-Day Workshop held in collaboration with Bayero University, Kano State Government and other Agencies.

7. PRESENTATION OF AWARD TO GOVERNOR ENGR. RABI'U MUSA KWANKWASO, FNSE

BY NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SMALL SCALE INDUSTRIES (NASSI) Council witnessed the presentation of an award to His Excellency the Governor by the National Association of Small Scale Industries (NASSI), which was presented by the National President, Chief Chukwu Nwachukwu for his tremendous support in developing Small-Scale Enterprises. His Excellency was identified as "the Most Entrepreneur Friendly Governor in Nigeria''.

8. PRESENTATION OF AWARD TO GOVERNOR ENGR. RABI'U MUSA KWANKWASO, FNSE

BY THE ASSOCIATION OF NORTHERN NIGERIAN STUDENTS (ANNS) Council witnessed the presentation of an award to Governor Engr. Rabi'u Kwankwaso, FNSE by the National Association of Northern Nigerian Students, which was presented by the President, Comrade Musa Usman as the ''Best Performing Governor for the Educational Sector in Northern Nigeria''. This was attributed to the viable legacies and achievements recorded by the present administration towards improving and reviving the Educational Sector.

9. DONATION TO FAMILIES OF THE VICTIMS OF D7 POLIO ATTACK Council witnessed the presentation of donation by the Federal Government to the victims and families of the polio vaccinators who were attacked by unknown gunmen during the D7 Polio mop-up exercise.

During the attack, ten (10) people lost their lives and four (4) others were injured. The Federal Government donated the sum of N1,000,000.00 each to the families of the deceased and N200,000 each to those who were injured in the unfortunate incidence. This is in addition to the earlier donation made by Kano State Government and Dangote Groups.

USEFUL PHONE NUMBERS ON ANY EMERGENCY Council endorsed the under listed phone numbers submitted by the security agents for easy access in case of any emergency on the metropolitan roads. Accordingly, the public may easily contact KAROTA for: Breakdown of Vehicle, Traffic Congestion, Accident, Illegal / Wrong Parking through the following numbers on - 08091626747. Similarly, the State Police Command could be contacted on - 08032419754, 08123821575. In addition, the State Fire Service may also be contacted on - 07051246833, 08191778888 for the public to note and make use of it.

For further information on Government activities visit us at: www.kano.gov.ng/new

Signed: Hon. Commissioner, Ministry of Information, Internal Affairs, Youth, Sports andCulture

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

56

MOTORING

Toyota Dream Car winners emerge

T

HE third edition of the Toyota annual Dream Car Art Contest for Nigerian children has been held.

The initiative, organised by Toyota in Nigeria, has aimed at availing the children an opportunity to give expression to their budding creative talents.

Over one thousand children, who enlisted in the contest held in Abuja and Port Harcourt.

Participation in the contest spanned primary and secondary school students cutting across three different age categories of 10-15.

Renowned art teachers and professionals converged in each of the centers to carefully select three win-

•The winning pupils with Toyota officials

By Nneka Nwaneri

ning entries from each category.

From the 27 winning entries selected from the three centers, nine winning entries were finally selected using environmental friendliness, futuristic and originality as criteria. These entries will be forwarded to Japan

to represent Nigeria at the global contest.

While Abdulsalam Abdulbasit led in the first category of children of about 10 years.

In the second Category, Idusogie Osarhuguemwen emerged winner. And so did Ulasika Ifeanyi Stanley.

At the awards presentation held in Toyota Nigeria head office held in Lekki, Lagos, the Managing Director Mr Chandrasheker Krishnadas Thampy congratulated the winners who emerged from the competition, Mr Thampy also thanked the parents and teachers of the win-

ning pupils for encouraging their wards to participate in the laudable project. He added that Toyota will continue to identify with such projects that will give needed boost to the mental growth of the Nigerian child as this will go a long way in securing a great future for the country.

Lagos MVAA bags customer service award

By Miriam Ekene-Okoro

L

AGOS State Motor Vehicle Administration Agency, MVAA has been given award as the most Re-engineered for Service Agency for 2012 by Servicom in Abuja.

The agency was selected among five other service-oriented government agencies in the country considered to have effectively engineered its internal processes and sustainably delivered its service right to the customers.

The agency was awarded for creating a database vehicle registration, automated vehicle registration and licensing procedures and vehicle license renewal alert via Short Message Service, SMS. Permanent Secretary, MVAA, Mr. Akin Hanson, who represented Governor Babatunde Fashola at the

•Obriki (left) presenting the award to Mr Hanson

occasion, commended the state government for pace-setting achievement and the development initiatives it had continued to record in its effort to raise the quality of life and safety of the people.

The MVAA boss stated that the automated vehicle registration and licensing, as well as other services would serve as veritable motivator for the agency to strive to raise the bar of exceptional service delivery and become a truly global player in modern vehicle administration.

National Coordinator, Servicom, Sylbriks Obriki charged Nigerians to speak out anytime they were not satisfied with services rendered to them as that was the only way there would be improvement in service delivery in the country and urged all to ensure they perform the services for which they were employed.

SAFE DRIVING

Teacher training, students performance and road safety education

I

N RECENT times, there has been revelations in some States that majority of the Teachers are not qualified, failing Primary four examinations woefully. Steps were taken to verify how qualified the Teachers were because of the increasing failure of the Students in NECO and WAEC examinations.

In a particular State, 1,599 Teachers sat for the Primary 4 examination and out of this figure; only one Teacher scored 75percent, 250 Teachers scored between 50 to 75 percent while 1,300 Teachers scored below 25percnt. It was later found out that out of the 36,000 Teachers in the same State 15,000 were not qualified.

In another State, the Primary 4 examination was administered to 19,125 Teachers and it was discovered that out of the 259 Teachers that scored zero, ten of them possessed University degrees.

In yet another State, it was found out that out of a total of about 17,000 Teachers, only 7,000 are qualified.

There are similar reports in virtually all the States in Nigeria.

What then do you expect of the Students performances in examinations? The Teachers cannot give what they don't have. How then will the Students be groomed enough to pass their examinations in flying colours. This is one of the reasons why some wise and opportuned Parents have been making arrangements for out-of-School Coaching programmes for their Children to fill the gap created by incompetent Teachers. Meanwhile, there are hundreds of thousands of qualified potential Teachers still searching for

jobs because they did not have the godfathers, godmothers, long legs or the cash to get the jobs.

Today, it is the incompetence of Teachers that is the talk of the Town now. I implore you to go to the Federal and State Ministries, Departments and Agencies as well as the Local Governments and you will be shocked with the high level of incompetence you will see.

Go to Banks and you will see several Staff greatly lacking in Customer Relationship Management skill among other relevant skills. Go to several other Private Sector Organisations and you will see unbelievable number of Staff lagging behind in the basic knowledge and skills required for efficiency and effectiveness in their jobs. Have you noticed the volume of typographic and grammatical errors in the Print and Electronic Media today? Have you taken time to listen to deliberations on the floors of the National and State Houses of Assemblies? You will be flabbergasted by the rate at which the Honourables murder English Grammar and work ethics.

It is an undeniable fact that the halfbaked Students of today will become the half-baked Teachers, Workers, Honourables and V.I.Ps of tomorrow.

I therefore suggest that the following should be done.

•The recruitment of Teachers should be based on merit and not on religion, culture or tribe. When I was in the Secondary School, we had some competent Ghanaian Teachers recruited to teach us in the subjects they were more competent to handle than the local Teachers.

•Everything possible must be done

to Guarantee Security and peaceful coexistence in every part of Nigeria so that the competent Staff will be free to work and give their best in any part of Nigeria without fear.

•Teachers must be exposed to series of relevant on-the-job Training programmes to further boost their capacity.

•Schools and Teachers should not compromise standard for filthy lucre.

What can you say of the 10 Teachers with University Degrees that scored zero in Primary 4 examinations?

Many Students are ready to pay their way to get the Certificates but we must all be committed to quality for the benefit of the present and upcoming generations.

•Teachers should stop taking the easy way in teaching the Students.

What can you say of a Teacher, teaching Biology or Chemistry in Hausa, Yoruba or Igbo language? Will the students write the WAEC exam in their local Languages?

When I was in the Primary and Secondary Schools, vernacular speaking was prohibited. You either speak English or keep your mouth shut in the class. For us to be able to communicate with our fellow students in the school, we were compelled to learn English language and today, we are better for it.

Some parents and Teachers are of the opinion that English is a foreign language and not compulsory for their children or students. They have forgotten that English is a global language and the fact that the brain of children becomes more functional when they learn new and challenging things.

Now to Road Safety Education, the

incompetence of Teachers of Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Institutions does not lead to loss of lives but the incompetence of Drivers can lead to loss of several irreparable lives and valuable properties.

As an Employer of Drivers, how many times do you send your Drivers for on-the-job training programmes in a year? Today, many Employers see capacity building training programmes for Drivers as a waste of time and money.

Sometimes ago, we carried out a Need-Assessment for an Organization and recommended that the Drivers should be released for a 5-day comprehensive training programme. The Human Resource Manager of the Organization bluntly told me that he cannot release his Drivers for any training beyond one day. This means he is ready to continue running the Company with half-baked Drivers.

Many Drivers were not exposed to the right training programmes before they got their Driver Licence. Hence the high rate of accidents in Nigeria today.

With the new National Driver Licence scheme of the Federal Road Safety Commission, a lot of Drivers (Private, Commercial and vehicle Owners) still prefer the short-cut that will not expose them to the right comprehensive Road Safety Education.

Many of them do complain of time but when there is an accident, nobody talks about time again.

The government Agencies responsible for the processing of Driver License must decide not to be part of the problem but a solution by discouraging Driver License Applicants from seeking the short-cut to obtain their

Jide Owatunmise •Registrar / Chief Executive, Professional Driving and Safety Academy

Driver License.

Driving schools must not compromise on the set Standards in the training of Learners and those seeking the renewal of their Driver license. Proprietors and instructors of the driving schools must also vow not to be part of the Road Safety problems but a solution.

Drivers and Learner must also avoid looking for short-cuts to obtaining the Driver License.

Sometimes ago, a Learner told me that he was not interested in the theoretical aspect of the training but the practical only. I told him clearly that a Driver that knows how to move vehicles without having good knowledge of the theoretical aspect is half-baked because it is the theory that you will be applying to your driving to ensure effective and safe control of the vehicle.

Our Lense should not be focussed on the Teachers and Schools alone.

Every sector of the Nigerian System needs to be effectively overhauled and sanitized to ensure the right level of competence and productivity.

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

57

NEWS

Sambo visits Bayero •Emir urges Nigerians to fast, pray for peace

•Sambo (left) greeting Bayero ... yesterday

T

HE Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Abdullahi Bayero, yesterday in his palace received VicePresident Namadi Sambo, one week after his return from London.

He appealed to Nigerians to seek God’s intervention in the insecurity in the country.

Bayero, who travelled to

From Kolade Adeyemi, Kano

London on January 20, a day after his convoy was attacked in Kano after returning from a religious programme at Massalacin Murtala, urged Nigerians to remain patriotic and positive, adding that with fasting and prayer, the country would overcome in-

security.

He said insecurity is not peculiar to the country alone, adding that if Nigerians unite and work together, the problem will be surmounted.

The monarch enjoined Nigerians to be steadfast and seek peace at all times, noting that with prayers and patriotism, the country would

overcome its difficulties.

Emir Bayero said the attack on his convoy by gunmen suspected to be members of the Boko Haram and other problems bedevilling the country was an art of God, adding that the solution was for Nigerians to embrace God and be more concerned about the peaceful co-existence and development of the country.

He thanked Nigerians and political leaders within and outside Africa, who showed concern while he was away in London, adding that their prayers contributed to his quick recovery.

Vice-President Sambo said he was in Kano with a delegation from the Presidency to commiserate with the Kano Emirate Council, government and the people of Kano State on the January 19 attack on the Emir’s convoy.

He extended the greetings of President Goodluck Jonathan to the Kano Royal Father, saying the Presidency remains grateful to God for saving the life of the Emir.

Sambo described the incident as unfortunate. He said the Federal Government is doing everything to ensure that peace and stability are restored to the North and Nigeria in general.

Security was tightened during Vice-President Sambo’s visit.

Yerima’s supporters to sue police for arrest

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UPPORTERS of former Zamfara State Governor, Ahmed Sani Yerima, under the auspices of the Yerima Network, have threatened to sue the Kaduna State Police Commissioner for last Saturday’s arrest and detention of the senator.

The National Coordinator of the network and Commissioner for Water Resources in Zamfara State, Abubakar Tsafe, an engineer, told reporters in Kaduna that they had contacted a lawyer to challenge the constitutionality of the arrest in court.

Senator Yerima was on Saturday arrested by the police in Kaduna after appearing on Hanu Dayawa, a Hausa live phone-in programme on Radio Nigeria Kaduna, where he said leaders of the All Progressive Congress (APC) would embark on a peaceful protest at the Eagle Square, Abuja if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) refused to register the party.

They alleged that for arresting the senator, the Police Commissioner must be acting a script from Abuja, adding that whoever ordered the arrest must be afraid of the rising profile of the senator and his political weight in Zamfara, the North and Nigeria.

The group also alleged that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the powers that be in the country were afraid of the rising pro-

Arrest sign of PDP’s plan to rig 2015 poll, alleges ANPP

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HE All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) yesterday decried the arrest of former Zamfara State governor, Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima, by the police in Kaduna.

It described the incident as a sad sign of things to come from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), “as they are patently jumpy over the coalition of the progressives in readiness for the 2015 elections.”

ANPP in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Emma Eneukwu, supported Yerima’s comments and vowed to prevent the PDP from carrying out its plans not to allow the registration of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The statement reads: “To start with, ours is a democracy wherein free speech is paramount; and Senator Yerima was exercising his rights without breaching public peace by any means. Moreover, peaceful demonstration is also legal. If Senator Yerima expresses doubts about the sincerity of the ruling party in supporting democratic best practices, and calls for a future peaceful demonstration, it is only a government, which has malicious agenda that would take offence at such opinion.

“As a party, we throw our weight behind the distinguished senator and support his views and convictions in this matter. So far, the PDP-led government has telegraphed the signs of a jumpy regime; and if anything, From Tony Akowe, Kaduna

file of the APC and wanted to do everything possible to truncate the rise of the party.

They asked INEC not to hesitate in registering APC

From Gbenga Omokhunu, Abuja

we are worried that it might, out of its signature malevolent edginess, start acting undemocratically. The Kaduna affair is a signpost to this.

“We wish to remind democracy lovers in Nigeria that dictatorship does not happen overnight; it starts in trickles, with seeming unremarkable actions, until it culminates in a breaking point when the silent rivulets of evil break the dam of reason, and everything comes tumbling down. History records that the German dictator, Adolf Hitler, began his career of turning his nation upside down by muzzling the opposition at the minutest excuse and installing Nazi supporters to control the critical aspects of the national life.

“At the end, the powerless German legislature signed the Enabling Act, without knowing they signed away the rights of the whole nation into the hands of a few ‘mad men’.

“Therefore, the ANPP wishes to express its unflinching belief in the rule of law and democratic best practices. We are devoted to the coming together of progressives in the emerging APC. No intimidation can rattle us. And as a party, we shall not waver in playing the part history has reserved for us in the ranks of other like-minded progressives. We believe that Nigeria has all it takes to stand tall in the comity of nations.”

once it meets the constitutional requirements.

They threw their weight behind the resolve of the senator not to join the presidential race if Gen. Muhammadu Buhari decides to contest the

2015 presidential election, adding that for the record, Senator Yerima has given his unalloyed loyalty to Gen. Buhari and has promised to support him if he signifies his interest in the poll.

‘Punish killers of Nasarawa varsity students’

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PROBE should be instituted into the killing of Nasarawa State University students last month, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has said.

The management of the university has also been urged to be democratic in resolving the crisis.

The Grand Patron of NANS, Dr. Jide Adeniji, said in a statement made available to The Nation that it was wrong for students’ views to be neglected.

He hailed the new leadership

From Gbenga Omokhunu, Abuja

of NANS for its mature handling of what he described as an unfortunate incident.

Adeniji, who is also the Chairman, Governing Board of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), lauded President Goodluck Jonathan for donating N20million to the university to sink boreholes to solve water scarcity on the campus.

He said: “It is with a heavy heart that I express my heart-

felt condolence to the families of the deceased. Let me assure you that my prayers and thoughts are with you at this trying moment.

“The situation, which led to the untimely death of the students is regrettable. Contrary to the old practice during the dark era of the military, approaches to resolve the dispute by the school management must fall within the basic norms and tenet of democracy. The school authority must know that their capacity to negotiate and dia-

logue with students to forestall this kind of ugly incident is what defines the strength and character of their stewardship.

“I hail the new leadership of NANS for its mature handling of the incident. It is encouraging to note that the new leadership of NANS has departed from the path of violent protest. The new approach has yielded a commitment from the military authorities to conduct an investigation into the killing of students and prosecute the culprits.”

Prison in darkness for one year

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ANDALA Maximum Prison on the outskirts of Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, is in darkness.

The prison has been without electricity for over a year, the Comptroller of Prisons in the state, Mr. Olarinle Bolanle, has said.

He said the prison officials have been using lanterns at night.

The comptroller of prisons attributed the situation to a faulty transformer, which supplies electricity to the prison and neighbouring villages.

Mr. Bolanle said officials of the prison, which has 135 inmates, found it difficult to carry out vocational activities for the inmates since the be-

From Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin

ginning of the blackout in January last year.

He said he had reported the matter to the government and the House of Assembly.

The comptroller of prisons, who described the absence of electricity in the prison as a security risk, appealed to the federal and state governments to assist the prison.

He said: “The essence of imprisonment is to reform and rehabilitate before the inmates are integrated into the society. The aim is defeated with the current situation at the prison.” Bolanle solicited the assistance of organisations and agencies to complement government’s efforts in prisons’ reformation.

Govt must borrow to execute projects, says Ahmed From Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin

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NY government desirous of development must borrow, Kwara State Governor AbdulFattah Ahmed has said.

He added: “So long as there are development projects to be executed, government, especially at the state level, cannot do without borrowing.”

The governor spoke at the weekend in Ilorin during this month’s interactive programme, tagged: ‘The governor explains’.

He cautioned on the extent partisan politics should be played so that states are not denied the development they ought to attain.

Governor Ahmed said politics, in a way, hinders development.

He said it is difficult to find neighbouring states ruled by different parties executing projects, which are desirable for the mutual benefits of the people.

The governor said this is so because “you can hardly find a platform for cooperation because of partisan colouration.”

Explosion in Lokoja causes blackout

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HE recent explosion at the Lokoja power substation has thrown the state capital into a blackout and worsened the heat in the city.

The Business Manager of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) in Lokoja, Ameen Shakur, told reporters that the problem was caused by a major explosion at the Lokoja sub-station.

He said the explosion damaged vital components of the sub-station, which supplied over 70 per cent of electricity to the Lokoja metropolis.

Shakur said the combined team of engineers in Lokoja and experts from the PHCN headquarters in Abuja are working to restore electricity.

He appealed to consumers

From Muhammad Bashir, Lokoja

in Lokoja and its environs affected by the blackout to be patient, saying measures are being put in place to cushion the effect of the power outage.

The four days blackout in the state capital has crippled business activities. Traders are counting their losses.

Operators of business centres, who rely on the PHCN for electricity, have shut down their premises, while others use generators to power their electrical appliances. This has resulted in increase in the prices and costs of goods and services.

The situation is not different in homes as people groan under excessive heat.

Residents, who have generators, said they use them all day because of the heat.

IN THE MATTER OF COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATERS ACT 2004 PRIVATE COMPANIES LIMITED

BY SHARES STIRLING BEVERGAES LIMITED – (RC 47569) (MEMBERS VOLUNTARY WINDING- UP) NOTICE OF FINAL GENERAL MEETING (PURSUANT TO SECTION 468(2) NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN to the General public/members of the company that pursuant to section 468 (2) of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2004, the final General Meeting of the above mentioned Company will be held at 3, Oyefeso Avenue, Obanikoro, Lagos on 11th April, 2013 at 12:00pm if it thought for purpose of laying before the meeting the final account of the Company and of giving explanation thereof toward the final dissolution of the Company.

By the order of the Liquidator MS. OLAYINKA OREDELE ALABI, LLB, FCA Note: A member entitled to attend and vote at the meeting may appoint a proxy to attend and vote in his stead by completing and sending in a proxy Form in the usual form to the liquidator, Ms Olayinka Oredele Alabi, LLB, FCA of 2A Montgomery Road, Yaba, Lagos, at least 48 hours before the meeting. A proxy need not be a member of the company.

THE NATION MONDAY MARCH 11, 2013

58

NEWS

20 militants surrender arms in Akwa Ibom

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WENTY militants in Ibeno Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State have surrendered arms to the Federal Government’s Inter-Agency Task Force on Militancy.

The leader of the Task Force, AirVice Marshall Jim Gbum, spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Eket yesterday.

AVM Gbum said the committee received the militants at the Ibeno Jetty.

He listed the arms surrendered as six browning machine guns, rocket launchers and AK-47 rifles.

The chairman said the militants responded to the Federal Government’s second phase of the amnesty programme.

He alleged that the group had been responsible for crimes in the high sea between Akwa Ibom and Cross River states.

The state Chairman of Artisan Fishermen Association of Nigeria, Samuel Ayadi, has praised the Federal Government for extending the programme to those who did not embrace its first phase.

He said the group’s action would bring peace to the state’s waterways.

The disarmament record and documentation of the ex-militants would be done today at the stadium in Eket.

•Arms surrendered by militants

Group threatens showdown over oil blocks

Navy parades nine suspects

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HE Commander of Nigerian Navy’s Forward Operating Base (FOB), Bonny Island, Rivers State, Capt Chukwuemeka Okafor, has paraded nine suspected illegal bunkerers and crude oil thieves.

It also impounded a vessel, EP Divine Favour, which was handed over to the Nigerian Maritime Administration Safety Agency (NIMASA).

Okafor said the men were

From Bisi Olaniyi, Port Harcourt

arrested on January 28 on board the vessel, during a routine patrol.

It was discovered that the vessel, loaded with 820 tonnes of diesel, was operating without any certified document and permission from the regulatory agency.

The vessel was intercepted around Fairway Bouy, Bonny Channel.

Oko seized by kidnappers

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IDNAPPERS have laid siege to the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra State.

A former officer of the institution was abducted on Saturday at Nkpor near Onitsha.

Another unidentified victim was on Sunday night abducted around the main gate of the polytechnic.

Board generates N9b in Feb

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HE Rivers State Board of Internal Revenue generated N9.59 billion last month.

The board’s Executive Chairman, Mrs Onene Obele-Oshoko, who announced this in Port Harcourt, said this amount is the highest since the board was set up.

The chairman said the amount generated includes PAYE of staff in the Civil

From Clarice Azuatalam, Port Harcourt

Service.

Mrs Obele-Oshoko said the renewed commitment of the staff of the board, tax payers’ enlightenment, creation of awareness, improved processes helped to achieve the feat.

She promised that the board would put in strategies that would improve on the IGR.

Pupils win writing competition From Kazeem Ibrahym, Uyo

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OUR pupils of Akwa Ibom State origin have won 2012 short stories competition organised by Julius Berger Plc. The pupils are Menyere Etim of West Itam Secondary School, Ekit Itam emerged second overall winner and Glory Edet of Community Secondary Commercial School, Ikot Okubo, came third.

The Public Affairs Manager of the company, Clement Iloba, read the winning entries of the students.

The students were presented with items such as plaques, dictionaries and notepads by the company’s Head of Corporate Communications, Angela Shmidt.

Ms Shmidt said the company will award the first place winner, Maimunah Zakari, from the Government Secondary School in Jiwa today in Abuja.

PHOTO:NAN

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HE Niger Delta Indigenous Movement for Radical Change (NDIMRC) at the weekend threatened a showdown, following a report that 83 percent of oil blocks are owned by northerners.

The group urged President Goodluck Jonathan and the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-

T

From Polycarp Orosevwotu, Warri

Madueke, to revoke and reallocate the oil blocks.

A statement by the group’s President, Nelly Emma, Secretary John Sailor and Public Relations Officer Stanley Mukoro urged the President and the minister to address the issue with urgency.

The group said the percent-

age of oil blocks owned by northerners was unacceptable to the people.

It lamented that urgent steps must be taken by the President and the minister to investigatethe report.

“The oil blocks should be revoked and reviewed or any other block to be given out from today should be given to the people from the region.

“The owner of the re-

sources must be respected and we may be forced to ask for total control of our resources.

“We are set to control our God-given resources by ourselves and nobody will drill any oil in the Niger Delta, if this situation is allowed to continue.

“We are demanding that the President revokes all oil blocks in the country.”

I’m not a product of zoning, says Akpabio

HE possibility of any aspirants from Eket Senatorial District succeeding Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio in 2015 is slim.

Governor Akpabio announced yesterday that he was not a product of zoning.

Akpabio told the crowd at the Banquet Hall, Government House in Uyo, the state capital, that zoning is in the hands of God. His words: “If you ask me, I will tell you that I am not a product of zoning. I am a product of the people.

“In 2007, 58 people from Uyo, Eket and Ikot Ekpene Senatorial districts all contested the primaries.

From Kazeem Ibrahym, Uyo

“After the people had spent five days on the street, they finally voted who they wanted and said let’s God’s will be done.

“For 2015 elections, zoning is in the hands of God.” Akpabio’s comment elicited mixed reactions from those agitating for zoning to Eket Senatorial District.

It is now clear that the 2015 governorship position would be an open contest.

The governor had earlier said he was not opposed to

zoning.

This situation prompted the elders of Eket Senatorial district to praise him for supporting zoning and power shift in the state.

The Eket Senatorial District Assembly (ESDA) said in a statement that: “We stand by the governor’s pronouncement that he was not averse to zoning.

“We call on the indigenes of the zone to rally round the governor on this landmark pronouncement on zoning which is the spirit of fair play, equity and justice to ensure that the 2015 governorship

•Akpabio

dream for Eket Senatorial is realised.”

The senatorial district made up of Eket, Oron and Ikot Abasi Federal Constituencies had endorsed the position that the 2015 governorship ticket should go to Eket senatorial zone.

Firm seeks probe of commissioner’scertificate claims

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CALABAR law firm, Okimasi Ojong & Co, has petitioned Cross River State Governor Liyel Imoke, demanding an investigation into the certificates the Commissioner for Information, Akin Ricketts, claimed to have received.

In a March 5 petition, the firm, which said it was acting on behalf of Abubakar Efoli of Yakurr Local Government Area, said an investigation is necessary because it has evidence that the certificates being paraded by Ricketts may have been forged.

According to the petition,

the Institute of Mass Communication Technology, Plateau State, from where the commissioner claimed to have obtained his National Diploma and Higher National Diploma does not exist.

“Akin A. Ricketts as a public servant did not graduate nor did he attend any school as he claimed during his screening and credential submission.

“He claimed to have graduated from the Institute of Mass Communication Technology, Jos with a Diploma and Higher National Diploma in 1986-1989 as contained in his attached credentials.

“This prompted immediate investigation wherein the Plateau State Government through the Ministry of Education quickly refuted his claim by a replied letter dated March 1.”

“In the letter attached to the petition, the Plateau State Ministry of Education claims no such institute exists in the state.”

The petitioner also challenged Ricketts to present his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate or an exemption letter.

The firm also wants the riddle surrounding the second-

ary school the commissioner purports to have attended resolved.

“This is because the commissioner claims to have attended Akpor Grammar School, Port Harcourt, Rivers State but his name was not found in any of the school’s documents.

“The commissioner also claimed to have been born in 1964 and said he finished his primary school education in 1968, when he should have been barely four years old.”

The petitioner also said the Uwie Primary School Port Harcourt, the Commissioner purports to have attended does not even exist.

59

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

NEWS Falana to govt: publish list of oil block owners Continued from page 1

Section 44 of the Constitution.

“In other words, oil and gas should be nationalised in the interest of the Nigerian people.

“Instead of empowering either the President or the Minister of Petroleum Resources to dole out oil blocks to serving ministers, party members, personal friends and business partners, the National Assembly should ensure that all blocks are owned by the Federal Government in trust for the Nigerian people.

“This demand accords with section 16(1) (c ) of the Constitution which states that the State shall ‘manage and operate the major sectors of the economy,’” Falana said in a statement.

According to the lawyer, the list published last week following a Senate debate on the Petroleum Industry Bill was outdated and grossly misleading.

Senator Ita Enang alleged that 83 per cent of Nigeria’s oil blocks are in the hands of Northerners. He spoke during the debate on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

Falana said the list contained only the names of those who were allocated oil blocks under the defunct military junta but not names of the other traders who have been allocated oil blocks by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government since 1999.

Equally missing from the list, he said, are the names of multinational companies otherwise called “Oil majors” which control the share of the oil and gas industry.

Falana said: “For instance, I have a suit pending at the Federal High Court against the Ministry of Petroleum Resources over the renewal of the expired 40-year old licences of three oil blocks (which produce 580,000 barrels of crude oil per day) for Mobil Producing last year for the sum of $600 million notwithstanding that a Chinese oil company had offered to pay $5.8 billion for the same oil blocks !

“Apart from Mobil, there are about 17 other foreign oil companies which are the major key players in the oil industry while Nigerians are forced to operate in the marginal fields.

Hostages killing: UK to battle Ansaru

Workers flay kidnapping Continued from page 4

construction workers before the construction industry grinds to a halt and throw more than 250,000 workers into the unemployment market, while development projects are shut down.

“The negative effects of the deteriorating security situation on inflow of foreign investments should also not be down-played,” he said.

leum Resources should, without any further delay, publish an up-to-date list of all local individuals and foreigners who have been allocated oil blocks by the Federal Government.”

Niger Delta Coalition demands oil blocs scrap, re-allocation Meanwhile, a Niger Delta group, the United Niger Delta Energy Development Security Strategy (UNDEDSS), urged the Federal Government to scrap ownership of all oil blocs.

It said the government should begin at zero point to re-allocate them in the spirit of fairness and equity.

“Oil blocs should now be allocated based on federal character principle since the nation is reluctant to give us either total control or make sure the Niger Delta gets what it deserves,” the group said at a press briefing in Lagos.

Its Secretary-General, Mr Tony Uranta said: “Whilst we talk of derivative principle of 13 per cent to the Niger Delta, we must remember that over 60 per cent of the federal allocation to councils in Nigeria goes to the North.

PDP governors in fresh plot to replace Amaechi

Continued from page 4

ern Nigeria and in the wider region.”

The Greek and Italian governments separately said yesterday that their intelligence services had new information that suggested the allegation was correct.

“Our checks conducted in co-ordination with the other countries concerned lead us to believe that the news of the killing of the hostages seized last month is true,” the foreign ministry in Rome said in a statement.

“This is a horrific act of terrorism for which there is no explanation except barbaric and blind violence.” Several Nigerian news websites carried versions of a story that first appeared on February 23 claiming that the British aircraft seen at Abuja were on their way to Bauchi State, where the kidnapping took place.

They were there, one report stated, “to prepare the ground for the eventual release of the foreigners”.

Britain’s High Commissioner to Nigeria was quoted in the article denying this, saying the aircraft were part of “routine military-to-military engagement”.

But in its statement saying it had executed the hostages, Ansaru included links to some of the stories online, as part of its justification for the executions.

“The said foreign companies or Oil Majors own 80 per cent of the oil blocks and as such they are completely in charge of the oil and gas industry.

“Incidentally, the disclosure in the Senate last week coincided with the death of President Hugo Rafael Chavez of Venezuela who nationalised the oil industry which enabled his government to generate enough revenue to fund a comprehensive welfare programme for the hitherto improverished people of the Latin American country.

“But the enomous commonwealth of the Nigerian people have been cornered by a few rent collectors and other members of the parasitic ruling class.

“A few of them who raked billions of dollars from the illegal sale of the oil blocks have openly confessed that they do not know what to do with the huge fund! Because such wealth has been privatised Nigeria cannot, like Venezuela, meet the eight Millenium Development Goals by 2015.

“In view of the confusion caused by the partial information released by the Senate last week the Ministry of Petro-

•Amaechi Continued from page 4

for Monday, following security reports that Amaechi is out of the country on an official assignment.

A source said: “They know that Amaechi is away. They summoned a meeting of PDP Governors Forum to select a candidate for the Forum for NGF election.”

Three governors are believed ot have been short-listed for consideration as Amaechi’s successor.

The governors are Gabriel Suswam (Benue); Ibrahim Shema (Katsina); and Isa Yuguda (Bauchi).

According to sources, two of the three governors may be selected for NGF and the Chairman of the Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF).

It was gathered that while Isa Yuguda may be tipped as Amaechi’s successor. Suswam may emerge as the chairman of the Northern States Governors Forum to replace Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu, who spark the controversy on “four-

year agreement” which President Goodluck Jonathan had allegedly with PDP governors in 2011.

A governor, who spoke in confidence, said: “A meeting of PDP Governors Forum will hold on Monday with the sole agenda of choosing a candidate who will replace Amaechi as the next chairman of the NGF. “The candidate will be presented by the PDP governors to others in the Nigeria Governors Forum as their preferred choice. They also want to compel all PDP governors to endorse the said candidate.

“There is, however, a problem as most governors from the North are querying why the PDP Governors Forum will dictate to the NGF, which is a body of all the 36 governors.

“We are likely to have a stormy session because Amaechi is officially away and his successor cannot be chosen by PDP Governors Forum in his absence. At least, commonsense dictates that Amaechi should exercise the Right of First Refusal in this instance.

“That is why some Northern governors have launched a counter-plot to prevail on PDP Governors Forum to shelve moves to select a candidate as its nominee for NGF chairman.

“We need to hear from Amaechi whether he is interested in second term or not.

Those planning this seem to have a pre-determined agenda. Why should they decide to shave a man’s head in his

absence?

“They have even restricted the PDP Governors Forum’s choice to three candidates considered loyal to the President.”

Another source added: “I think these forces have made up their mind on Isa Yuguda for NGF and Gabriel Suswam for Northern States Governors Forum chair. They have decided to dump Shema because of the row his candidacy has generated in the last few weeks.

“Some had even claimed that after becoming the NGF chairman, Shema might be the vice-presidential candidate to President Goodluck Jonathan. All these issues have worked against Shema.

“These anti-Amaechi forces are trying to present Yuguda as a neutral candidate but all the governors are aware that he is pro-presidency.

“They have started talking to governors one by one as if they are school boys.

“The opposition governors will not accept imposition by the PDP Governors Forum at all. This may have implications for the survival of NGF.” As at press time, a reliable source in Amaechi’s camp said: “Well, as we are talking, the governor told me as follows: ‘I have not withdrawn from the race; I will contest in May.’ It is unfortunate that they want to meet in Abuja to select a candidate to replace Governor Amaechi.

“Al I can tell you is that they cannot go far; their plot will not succeed at all.”

The Group Ansaru Continued from page 4

out an attack that killed two soldiers in Kogi State as they prepared for deployment in Mali. Ansaru said it attacked the troops because the Nigerian military was joining the French-led military campaign to “demolish the Islamic empire of Mali”.

On Saturday, Ansaru announced it had killed the abducted seven European and Middle Eastern nationals working with the Lebanese construction company, Setraco, in Jama’are, Bauchi State.

Ansaru said the kidnap was to avenge “transgressions” by European nations in

Mali and Afghanistan, where Western forces are battling Islamist insurgents.

The sect is listed by the U.K. government as a “terrorist organisation” aligned with alQaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, AQIM. United States’ intelligence also suggests Ansaru has strong ties with AQIM.

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

60

NEWS Dangote begins bulk cement export to Ghana

ACN decries Yerima’s arrest

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HE Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has decried the arrest of the former governor of Zamfara State, Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima, by the police for allegedly making an ‘inciting’ comment on the radio. It said the arrest might signal an impending clampdown on the opposition by the Federal Government.

In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said: “Yerima’s arrest after a radio interview that there would be a mass protest if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) refuses to register the All Progress Congress (APC), after it would have met all legal requirements, is nothing but a budding fascism.”

The party said Yerima did

By Precious Igbonwelundu

not say anything extraordinary by threatening a protest, because protests are an integral part of a liberal democracy and cannot be wished away or banned by anyone. ‘’We will like to say, in support of Senator Yerima, that if INEC refuses to register APC, when all the legal requirements have been met, the protest in Tahrir Square in Egypt will be a child’s play compared to what we will do at the Eagle Square. ‘’We say this because we are aware that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which is mortally afraid of the rise and rise of the APC, is behind the phantom.

“African Peoples Congress, which has applied to INEC for registration, in an

effort to instigate an acronym crisis and give INEC a reason, if it needs any, not to register the All Progressives Congress. ‘’But we will like to warn that if indeed INEC has not merged with the PDP, as one of our leaders, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari has brilliantly said, then we do hope that the electoral body - which by the way is not unaware of the All Progressives Congress as the authentic APC - will not succumb to the evil machinations of the apprehensive PDP,’’ ACN said.

The party said it expects more arrests, investigations by the pliable anti-corruption agencies and other acts aimed at intimidating its leaders in the weeks and months ahead. ‘’After all, it is generally believed that the recent rede-

By Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie Asst. Editor

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•Senator Yerima

ployment of police commissioners in the states was done in readiness for the pre-2015 clampdown on the opposition. We know the arrest of Senator Yerima is just a tip of the iceberg, as the PDP-controlled Federal Government gets ready to bare its fangs. But we must warn that fascism can never prevail over liberal democracy,’’ it said.

CPC to Jonathan: match your visit to Borno, Yobe with action

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HE Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) yesterday said President Goodluck Jonathan’s two-day tour of Borno and Yobe states may be a show-off if nothing is done to rehabilitate the displaced and bring normalcy to the socio-economic life of the people.

CPC also accused Jonathan of visiting the troubled states because the All Progressives Congress (APC) governors had earlier visited.

In the last three years, the opposition party said hundreds of Nigerians in the affected Northern states have been killed with many suffering disabilities, adding that countless Nige-

From: Gbenga Omokhunu, Abuja

rians in the areas have been caught in a cross fire of the crisis.

All these, CPC said, are desirous of succour from the leadership of President Jonathan.

A statement issued in Abuja by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Rotimi Fashakin, said: “The President’s tour of Borno and Yobe states: another meretricious expedition? On Thursday, 7th March, 2013, President Jonathan began a two-day tour of Yobe and Borno states, ostensibly to observe the relics of the unabated insecurity emblazoned on the residents of these states in the last three

years. Though the spin doctors at the nation’s power corridor have, in their usual inimitable deceptive style, told the country that the guided tour had been in the plans for a long time; it is difficult to believe that the real reason was not a very infantile desire to match up the progressive governors’ tumultuous visit to Borno State in the preceding week!

“The unanswered question remains: what has changed between the serial postponements of the President’s visit to these states in the last two years because of the predictable reason of unfavourable security reports and the decision to visit last Thursday? Was it the feat of the

Progressive Governors in freely interacting with the people on the streets of Maiduguri (with minimal security presence) that made the President believe a trip to these hot-beds is possible, albeit with the aid of a 3,000-strong police force ably led by the Inspector General of Police (IGP)? It was obvious that the knee-jack response of the Presidency to the Progressive Governors’ visit did not consider the necessity of a meaningful interface with the traumatised citizenry as an integral part of such a visit!

“The antecedents of the President in courageous crisis management leave much to be desired.”

ANGOTE Cement has officially begun export of cement from its Ibese Cement Plant in Ogun State to Ghana. The commencement of the export is coming on the heels of the meeting of the national demand for cement by Nigerian cement manufacturers.

Last week, 50 silo trucks laden with bulk cement were packed at the Idiroko border town waiting for clearance to proceed towards Ghana through Benin and Togo.

The cement company will be exporting 50 silo trucks of cement or 5,000 tons of bulk cement from the Ibese Cement plant on a weekly basis to Ghana and at the completion of all logistics, about 50 trucks will be leaving on a daily basis.

Alhaji Aliko Dangote in an interview recently in London said the company would begin the export of cement to some ECOWAS countries in view of its envisaged excess local capacity of more than 20 million metric tons and the huge demand for the product in the sub-region.

As part of its strategy of capturing the ECOWAS market, he said Dangote has a cement terminal with a bagging capacity of 1.5 metric tons per annum in Ghana, noting that there are good market opportunities in other neighbouring countries, such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote D Ívoire, which lack limestone, one of the basic raw materials used in the production of cement.

“The only thing we need to do is create that avenue of exporting cement rather than importing cement,” he said.

Dangote Cement inaugurated its first overseas cement terminal in 2011 in Accra Port, Ghana with a bagging capacity of 1.5MTPA. The terminal also enables Dangote Cement supply to the neighbouring land lock nations, which pay very high cost for cement due to transport cost.

The export to Ghana will provide an avenue to sell surplus cement resulting from excess local capacity in Nigeria and at the same time meet high demand for cement in Ghana.

Dangote Cement has three operating plants in Nigeria at Obajana, Kogi State, Ibese, Ogun State and Gboko, Benue State.

Customers hail owners of SGBN for payment of depositors’ funds From Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin

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EPOSITORS of the rested Societe General Bank of Nigeria (SGBN) have hailed the management of Heritage Bank Company of Nigeria Limited (HBCN), the new owners of SGBN, for repaying their trapped funds.

The customers also praised the new owners of the bank for living up to its promise on the verification exercise for the customers of the moribund bank.

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

61

SPORT EXTRA NIGERIA PREMIER FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Nembe stuns Heartland 2-1 •Sunshine, 3SC secure first season's wins too From Tunde Liadi,Owerri

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EARTLAND of Owerri has put its aim of winning the 2012/ 2013 Nigeria Premier Football League(NPFL) title in jeopardy after suffering a surprise 1-2 defeat at home to Nembe City of Bayelsa on Sunday.

Goals from Brown Braye and Samuel Akinbinu in the 48th and 73rd minutes gave Nembe City their first ever victory in the top flight in their first match and away from home.

The club owned by the former NPL boss, Victor Baribote, only got promoted to the NPFL this season after spending a season in the Nigeria National League (NNL) last season.

The first half was very drab, that it left many fans who abandoned their businesses to witness Heartland's first match of the season, fuming at why the players couldn't lift their spirits and give them their money’s worth.

But the second half was action packed with Nembe City at the middle of everything

good that happened in that half.

Nembe City's first goal scorer in the top flight, Braye about three minutes of the restart of the second half lobbed a high ball into the vital area of the Naze Millionaires and the ball landed in the back of the net.

It went over a badly positioned Daniel Akpeyi who was out of his goal post area before the ball was played.

Heartland level scores about 23 minutes later through Olusesi who replaced not too effective Obinna Nwachukwu some minutes earlier.

The young striker latched unto a beautiful pull out from diminutive winger Jolly Osas in the 71st minute with his head after a howler from Nembe City's goalkeeper, Opubo Japhet put the ball in his way.

The Owerri fans that thronged the stadium in spite of the European league and Cup games going on as at that time had hardly settled down to celebrate the equaliser when enterprising forward Samuel Akinbinu capi-

talised on a defensive lapse from their hosts to get the back-breaking second goal about two minutes of Heartland's equaliser.

The result thus put the dreams of Heartland to start the season on a good note that would herald the league triumph at the end of the season, in tatters.

The Imo State sponsored club must overcome their internal strife before their home game in the CAF Confederation Cup first round first leg tie against threaded US Bitam of Gabon next week.

In the other matches played across the country,ABS and Kwara United fired blank in their derby at Ilorin as it ended goalless, while El Kanemi Warriors of Maiduguri got a valuable away point against Nasarawa United in Lafia.

Sunshine Stars steeled their nerves to record a 1-0 win over stubborn Kaduna United in Akure while Shooting Stars ended Gombe United's three years unbeaten record in Ibadan with a 2-0 drubbing.

ENGLISH FA CUP QUARTER FINAL

Chelsea’s comeback earns United replay

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HELSEA came from two goals down to earn a 2-2 draw with Manchester United at Old Trafford in the FA Cup quarter-finals.

Goals from Javier Hernandez and Wayne Rooney put United in a commanding position before the break, but substitute Eden Hazard and Ramires replied for the Blues to take the tie to a re-

play at Stamford Bridge.

The home side went ahead with five minutes on the clock when Hernandez's looping header found the net following Michael Carrick's searching pass.

Their advantage was doubled six minutes later as a Rooney free kick out on the left evaded everyone to fly in at Petr Cech's back post.

Chelsea cut the deficit on

58 minutes through Hazard's curled finish from the edge of the area.

They were level 10 minutes later when Ramires was allowed to surge forward before sweeping a left-footed shot past David de Gea. Juan Mata had a chance to win it for the visitors in the 90th minute, but his effort was saved a point-blank range by the leg of De Gea.

Zone 2 wins Police Games 2013 •Amaechi congratulates Force

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OLICE ZONE two m a d e up of Lagos and Ogun states emerged the champions of the 2013 Police games edition hosted by Rivers state in Zone 6.

Zone two led the medals table with 86gold, 70silver and 64 bronze. They were followed by the Force Headquarters with 72gold, 66silver and 46 bronze and Zone Eleven had 47gold, 46silver and 56bronze in the second and third positions respectively.

At the Police games closing ceremony, it was not just

From Florence Nkem Israel, Port Harcourt other security agencies within the country on invitational relays but also some West African Police teams from Ghana and Benin republics.

While reading his address, the Rivers state governor, His excellency, Governor Chibuike Amaechi represented by his deputy, Engr.

Tele Ikuru commended the Police for having been in the fore front of producing athletes for the country and hopes that more would be produced from these events for 2016 Rio olympics.

•Barrister Ayo Olanrewaju (Left), Mrs Ogbeche and Mr Gabriel Ogbeche, the sponsor, at the just concluded 5th Annual Rainoil Tennis Tournament, staged at the Lagos Country Club Ikeja

"The Nigerian Police has been the main powerhouse of the nation's international sporting hope from CSP Chioma Ajunwa , Nigeria's first Olympic gold medallist and the former world heavy weight champion, DSP Samuel Peters and the many talented sports men and women that have been produced by the Police.

The Nigeria Police has remained the nation's leading international medal-winning event.

"As the curtain is drawn tonight on the 10th biennial Police games, no doubts we are sure to get sports athletes that would feature in the 2016 Olympics in the various sports events that the nation would participate in".

He also noted that there is the hope that the members of the force had learnt a lot about Rivers state within their short stay and wished the force the best as they fight to maintain peace and security within the nation.

"We believe that the men and officers of the security forces has learnt a lot about the people and government of Rivers state".

Zone ten came last with one gold, one silver and two bronze medals.

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

62

FOREIGN NEWS

LENTEN TALK

Papal conclave: Ancient ritual and high-tech security T

HERE will be no tweeting the results of the papal election from inside the secret conclave: cardinals withdrawing to choose a new pope enter a world apart where ancient ritual meets high-tech security.

Red-robed cardinals in all their finery chant to invoke God’s guidance as they process into the Sistine Chapel, which will be swept for bugs in a bid to keep would-be spies from spilling conclave secrets to the world.

The conclave, named after the Latin phrase meaning “with key”, comes eight centuries after the first lockin, when protesters angry at nearly three years of indecision fed cardinals bread and water until they had made up their minds.

While many things have changed since then, the element of secrecy has not.

Under rules to make sure that not even the merest hint emerges from the cardinals’ deliberations, those who betray the conclave face excommunication.

The cardinals too are cut off from any information filtering in from outside until the conclave is over.

The centuries-old bid to eliminate the influence of meddling outsiders like the Roman nobility on papal elections was strengthened by pope John Paul II. “Careful and stringent checks must be made… in

order to ensure that no audiovisual equipment has been secretly installed in these areas for recording and transmission to the outside,” the pope ordered in his 1996 document.

Benedict XVI may have revolutionised the Vatican’s communication approach by opening a Twitter account and encouraging mediasavvy cardinals to tweet, but here the language is Latin and the tool the humble pen.

A system is installed under Michelangelo’s magnificent fresco of Christ delivering the Last Judgement to scramble any mobile phone communications with the world outside: no Twitter, no Facebook, no smartphone conclave apps.

A system designed to regulate moisture in the chapel is removed, for fear bugs could have been planted at a previous moment.

The Renaissance chapel, one of the most visited sites in the world, is lined with rows of cloth-draped tables and electors draw lots to see who sits where.

The “Princes of the Church” swear oaths of secrecy, before the master of Vatican liturgical ceremonies intones “Extra Omnes” (“Everyone Out”), and all non-voters leave while the cardinals hear a spiritual

meditation on their task.

Even Vatican staff, from doctors to elevator operators, must swear oaths, and the lifts and nearby bathrooms will be swept for bugs.

To vote, cardinals write their choice on a piece of paper, often under the Latin heading “Eligo in Summum Pontificem” (“I elect as Supreme Pontiff”).

When casting his ballot, the cardinal slides the folded paper into a specially designed urn while invoking God as his witness in Latin.

At the end of the vote, counting can begin once the scrutineers have checked that the number of votes conforms to the number of electors.

There is no electronic voting machine or risk of efraud: as the votes are counted, a scrutineer calls out the name and a needle and thread is passed through each ballot. At the end of the count, the thread is knotted.

The electors vote four times a day until a two-thirds consensus emerges.

Historical methods intended to speed up the vote have been ditched, and the cardinals will not be forced to remain holed up each night in the ballot room.

They have been given an upgrade on the previous spartan lodgings given to electors within the Vatican, where they shared toilets and

other facilities.

Now they enjoy hotel-like accommodation — with individual bathrooms — in a purpose-built residence, but even there security is tight: they have no radios, televisions, newspapers or any means of communicating with the world outside.

There will be no Internet either and smartphones are strictly off limits — on pain of excommunication for breaking the secrecy of the conclave.

Should any of the cardinals be ill and unable to attend the vote, they can drop their ballot through a slit in a locked box brought to them in their rooms at the Vatican by selected “infirmarii” cardinals, trusted not to peek.

Once the vote is in, the ballot papers are burnt: black smoke curling from the Vatican’s chimney means no decision has been made, white means a new pope has been elected.

The smoke was traditionally blackened by adding damp straw to the fire, but following confusion over several instances of grey smoke, the Vatican now adds a chemical to the fire to make sure the smoke emerges the correct colour.

And just in case even modern chemicals prove unreliable, the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica will peal to tell the world “Habemus Papam” — “We have a pope” before the chosen one emerges onto a balcony over St Peter’s Square.

Rev. Henry O. Adelegan

God will remember you!

Text: Isaiah 49:15-16 T is not news that not every blessing and privilege that are the rights of people have come to the rightful beneficiaries. Some are forgotten to be given, some are denied outrightly by powers that be while some are given to other people for personal reasons. It is equally not out of place for people placed in privileged positions to forget the people they ought to recommend for recognition and elevation.

One of the inalienable rights of a suckling child from his mother is compassion as to ensure the baby is breastfed.

The Bible however confirms that a mother can even deny her baby this right. He however promised that He will never forget His children.

Joseph was a man who interpreted the dream of the Chief butler and just as he said, the man gained his freedom from prison and was restored to the King’s palace. Before he was released, Joseph pleaded with him to show kindness to him and mention him to Pharaoh after he had been set free. When the Chief butler was restored to his position from the prison however, he did not remember him- in fact, he forgot ! ( Genesis 40:14, 21-23).

Two years later, God remembered him, He orchestrated a frightening dream that was devoid of clarity and needed only the spiritual expertise of Joseph to unravel. At that stage, the Chief butler remembered Joseph and he was promoted from the prison to the highest position in the land (Genesis 41:8-10,38-40).

When David too remembered the household of Jonathan and decided to honor anyone left of that family, the story of the lame Mephibosheth changed. He was promoted from the pathway of a dead dog life to the highway of eating at the King’s table (2Samuel 9).

That human beings have forgotten you is not the end of life because when God remembers you, man does not have a choice. When He remembered Hannah, the problem of long years of barrenness was solved immediately and she became the mother of children ( 1 Samuel 1:19-20,2:21) During this season of lent, God who remembered Hannah at Shiloh will remember you, all your privileges and blessings shall be restored to you, yoke of barrenness shall be destroyed, garments of reproach shall be destroyed and you shall be promoted beyond your imagination in Jesus’ name.

Prayers: Father, remember me during this season of lent and put an end to my shame, lack, fear, regrets and disgrace in Jesus’ name.

Tunisia PM unveils new cabinet

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•Residents of Tanjung Labian in Malaysia leave their village near where Filipino gunmen were locked down in a stand off in the surrounding villages of Tanduo in Sabah ...yesterday. Malaysian police said at the weekend they arrested 79 people in Sabah state on the island of Borneo as skirmishes to end a month-long incursion by armed Filipino Islamists left one more PHOTO: AFP dead.

UNISIAN Prime Minister-designate Ali Larayedh says he has presented the line-up of a new coalition government to President Moncef Marzouki.

The new cabinet will be led by the Islamist Ennahda party, backed by two secular parties and some independents.

Ennahda has ceded control of key ministries, including foreign affairs, defence and the interior.

Tunisia has been in turmoil since the killing of opposition leader Chokri Belaid on 6 February.

The assassination provoked mass protests and resignations from Tunisia’s coalition government.

The new line-up will remain in place until an election due to be held before the end of the year, Mr Larayedh said.

There was little in the announcement from Prime Minister-designate Ali Larayedh to inspire

Ennahda’s many critics to drop their opposition to the Islamist-led establishment in Tunisia.

Ennahda came out of the post-revolution elections in 2011 ahead of the field but not strong enough to rule alone. Since July last year, it has been trying and failing to broaden its narrow governing coalition by drawing in opposition parties, which accuse it of trying to dominate the political arena and Islamise Tunisian society.

The three main secular opposition groups which took part in intensive negotiations over the past two weeks all pulled out. This left Ennahda back where it started, with two small coalition partners and a slight majority in the constituent assembly.

Mr Larayedh and his team will have to work hard to stabilise the country after recent disturbances shook its politics, economy and security to their foundations.

Afghan leader alleges US, Taliban are colluding

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FGHAN President Hamid Karzai on Sunday accused the Taliban and the U.S. of working in concert to convince Afghans that violence will worsen if most foreign troops leave an allegation the top American commander in Afghanistan rejected as “categorically false.”

Karzai said two suicide bombings that killed 19 people on Saturday - one outside the Afghan Defense Ministry and the other near a police checkpoint in eastern Khost province - show the insurgent group is conduct-

ing attacks to help show that international forces will still be needed to keep the peace after their current combat mission ends in 2014.

“The explosions in Kabul and Khost yesterday showed that they are at the service of America and at the service of this phrase: 2014. They are trying to frighten us into thinking that if the foreigners are not in Afghanistan, we would be facing these sorts of incidents,” he said during a nationally televised speech about the state of Afghan women.

U.S. and NATO forces

commander Gen. Joseph Dunford said Karzai had never expressed such views to him, but said it was understandable that tensions would arise as the coalition balances the need to complete its mission and the Afghans’ move to exercise more sovereignty.

Karzai is known for making incendiary comments in his public speeches, a move that is often attributed to him trying to appeal to those who sympathize with the Taliban or as a way to gain leverage when he feels his international allies are ignoring his

country’s sovereignty. In previous speeches, he has threatened to join the Taliban and called his NATO allies occupiers who want to plunder Afghanistan’s resources.

Karzai also denounced the arrest of a university student Saturday by Afghan forces his aide said were working for the CIA. It was unclear why the student was detained.

Presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi said the CIA freed the student after Karzai’s staff intervened, but that Karzai wants the Afghan raiders arrested. The president issued a decree on Sunday banning all

foreign forces from universities and schools unless they obtain prior permission from the Afghan government.

The Karzai government’s latest comments and actions come as it negotiates a pact with the U.S. for the long-term presence of American forces in Afghanistan and just days after an agreement to transfer the U.S. prison outside of Kabul to Afghan authority fell through. They also came during U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s first visit to Afghanistan since becoming the Pentagon chief.

Karzai said in his speech

•Karzai

that any foreign powers that want to keep troops in Afghanistan need to do so under conditions set forward by Afghanistan.

THE NATION MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

63

FOREIGN NEWS

Falklands: Islanders vote on status

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HE people of the Falkland Islands have begun voting in a twoday referendum on whether to remain a British overseas territory.

Argentina has constantly reiterated its claims to the islands, 30 years after it was repelled by a British task force in a 74-day conflict.

The islanders decided to hold the vote in response to Argentine pressure for negotiations over sovereignty.

Some 1,672 British citizens - out of a population of about 2,900 - can vote.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has said the inhabitants’ wishes are not relevant in what is a territorial issue.

Most Argentines regard the islands, which they call Las Malvinas, as Argentine and their recovery is enshrined in the national constitution.

While the 1,600 or so eligible Falkland Islanders vote in the referendum, the government here in Argentina calls it both “illegal” and “utterly meaningless”.

Their position is clear - this is an issue of sovereignty between the two countries, and that the people on the island do not have the right to selfdetermination.

The result, expected to be a resounding yes to remain a

British overseas territory, will not affect the government position that Las Malvinas, as they are known here, belong to Argentina. It’s a view reflected by the majority of people - -in a recent poll, 75% of Argentinians took this position.

It’s been suggested domestic pressure on President Kirchner has led to increased diplomatic rhetoric over the islands,- a request for the UN to look at the issue and sanctions on companies working there.

He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show he hoped the result would reaffirm the principle of self-determination and send a message to both the international community and to Argentines.

“I would hope that whilst the government of Argentina may not listen to us, I hope the people... will listen to us, because I think there are many people within Argentina who are not in tune with their government.”

He rejected President Kirchner’s suggestion they were an “implanted” population, saying the Falklands had been settled throughout history in the same way as South America, but with no indigenous population to displace.

•JAPAN, Tokyo: Residents pray before the start of an anti-nuclear rally in Tokyo ...yesterday. Anti-nuclear rallies were held across Japan on the eve of the second anniversary of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster which triggered a PHOTO: AFP nuclear crisis in northern Japan.

Rioters torch buildings to protest ruling in Egypt

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GYPTIAN protesters torched buildings in Cairo and tried unsuccessfully to disrupt international shipping on the Suez Canal, as a court ruling on a deadly soccer riot stoked rage in a country beset by worsening security.

The ruling enraged residents of Port Said, at the northern entrance of the Suez Canal, by confirming the death sentences imposed on 21 local soccer fans for their role in the riot last year,

•Court okays death for 21 soccer fans when more than 70 people were killed.

But the court also angered rival fans in Cairo by acquitting a further 28 defendants whom they wanted punished, including seven members of the police force, reviled across society for its brutality under deposed autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Security sources said two people, a man in his 30s and a young boy, had died in

Cairo from the effects of tear gas and rubber bullets. A total of 65 people were injured.

Saturday’s protests and violence underlined how Islamist President Mohamed Mursi is struggling - two years after Mubarak’s overthrow - to maintain law and order at a time of economic and political crisis.

Islamist groups and parties backing Mursi warned

North Korea: Pulling the Armistice plug

A

S we wake up to yet another day on planet earth, whatever your circumstances, it might well turn out to be the last day of human existence for some parts of the world as we presently know it. This is not a prophetic predilection from a latterday apostle of doom.

This worrisome headache is again coming out of a well-known script from North Korea, an often erratic, somewhat peripatetic and generally eccentric member of Les Nations Unies which it joined in the summer of 1991.

Last week Pyongyang again vowed to shred the 1953 armistice agreement between itself and its southern neighbour, South Korea and threatened to send nuclear bomb to the United States of America, in a rage reaction to the new range of UN sanctions against the belligerent nation, spearheaded by US and China.

The UN action under Resolution 2094 was in response to Pyongyang’s defiance, latest on February 12, of three earlier resolutions of the world body, prohibiting nuclear missiles testing. The main import of the resolution includes sanctions against three individuals, one corporation and one organisation among other trade and financial sanctions, as well as wide ranging travel bans.

The resolution condemned “in the strongest terms” for violating and flagrantly disregarding council resolutions, bans further ballistic missile launches, nuclear tests “or any other provocation,” and demands that North Korea return to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

This threat also came at the heel of a joint military drill between the South Korean and U.S. military, slated to start today. It therefore came out roaring at this act which it deemed as provocative.

‘

‘North Korea, which is officially called Democratic Peoples Republic of North Korea (DPRK) has always been a pariah and an isolationist state and everything but democratic.’

By Dayo Fakuade, Foreign Editor

The threat of the nullification of the Armistice Agreement is fraught with many implications, it has been noted. The agreement itself is the culmination of a war between the two Korean War of 19501953, which committed both to cease-fire, but the two remain officially and technically at war.

The armistice signed on July 27, 1953, by Lt. General William K. Harrison of the United States Army on behalf of United Nations and General Nam Il on behalf of the Democratic Peoples Korea Republic set up an apparatus meant to govern a cease-fire ending the war. It can be seen most clearly at the Demilitarised Zone between North and South which is at the 38 parallel.

The armistice called for the creation of a military demarcation line and the DMZ around it - a 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) -wide “buffer zone,” with one side controlled by the American-led U.N. Command and the other side by North Korea.

The armistice prohibited “hostile acts” within or across the zone.

As a hotline between the sides, it set up a military truce commission at the Panmunjom village that straddles the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ).

By scrapping the armistice,

North Korea would be effectively refusing to recognize the DMZ, which has been noted a violent place even with the rules of the armistice in place: Hundreds of troops serving under the U.N. command have died in the buffer zone over the years.

As it were, both sides have accused each other of violating terms of the armistice by deployment of heavy weapons in the DMZ, however the treaty has maintained a fragile peace albeit a tentative one.

Also among the implications, is the threat of stopping the Korea People’s Army (KPA) from participating in all activities at the DMZ as well as cutting off the phone lines between Pyongyang and Washington.

North Korea, which is officially called Democratic Peoples Republic of North Korea (DPRK) has always been a pariah and an isolationist state and everything but democratic. Democratic only in name but run under a totalitarian, personality-cult like structure based around the late Kim Il-sung, the nation’s founder and his scions.

According to Wikipedia, North Korea, weapons are manufactured in roughly 180 underground defense industry plants in Jagang-do.

The plants are responsible for producing; 200,000 AK-47 rifles annually, 3,000 heavy guns, 200 battle tanks, 400 armored cars and amphibious crafts in addition to several other weapons.

Back in 2005, it agreed to having nuclear capabilities but agreed to comply with proliferation requirements. Nevertheless in the 90s, it sold medium –sized nuclear capable missiles to Pakistan in defiance of its moral global obligations at the UN. Therefore it is reasonable for the world body to maintain a strict regimen of containment on Pyonyong nuclear missiles pro-

grams given its desperation and economic incentives to make available such materials to fellow rogue nations and terrorist groups.

In January 2002, North Korea was named by U.S President George W. Bush among other nations as belonging to “axis of evil” and “outpost of tyranny”. The country has the worst human rights records of any nation.

It has also made threats on its southern neighbour before but its capabilities at reaching the U.S. with long range nuclear enriched weapons is unclear. But this is a nation that thrives on extremities and absurdities, even as it flounders state scarce resources on frivolities at the expense of the welfare of its largely malnourished populace.

With a GDP of $4,058 and growth of 0.8% in 2011, it has major issues of growth to deal with other than its penchant for theatrics.

North Korea made similar threats in the past (1994, 1996, 2003 and 2009, which it later withdrew but this time around it is generally believed that it might be going beyond noise-making and attention seeking to seeking direct aid for armament talks with Washington as well as pushing for the withdrawal of the 28,500 strong U.S. troops stationed in Korea since the cessation of hostilities in 1953.

Whether Pyongyang will get away with another set of concessions from the west this time around without toning down its rhetoric and polishing its bad boy image in the global arena, is yet to be seen.

In the mean time, it is note worthy that China who is a co-sponsor of this resolution has it’s work cut out for itself as the only nation which can put teeth to the actualisation and effective implementation of this latest resolution on North Korea.

against a looming security breakdown and called on their followers to form popular protection committees to guard the streets and public property should police fail to do so.

The presidency said in a statement that the protests had not been peaceful and condemned violence against property. The cabinet issued a similar statement and called on Egyptians to unite and respect court rulings.

Mandela leaves hospital NOBEL laureate and former South African President Nelson Mandela returned to his Johannesburg home on Sunday after spending a night in a hospital for what presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said was a “successful” medical exam.

Maharaj said Mandela was “well.”

The 94-year-old, however, has grown increasingly frail over the years. In December, he spent three weeks in a hospital, where he was treated for a lung infection and had a procedure to remove gallstones.

The revered leader’s brief hospitalisation comes at a time when South Africa is struggling to live up to the promise that Mandela has come to symbolize.

Though he withdrew from public life years ago, Mandela is seen by many compatriots as a hero, a symbol of hope, even a psychological refuge from the social ills and uneven leadership that prevail in South Africa.

29 face fraud charges in Sierra Leone THE head of Sierra Leone’s Anti-Corruption Commission says that 29 government health officials will appear in court on corruption charges for having allegedly defrauded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s vaccine programme.

Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara told The Associated Press that the government’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kisito Sheku Daoh, six other medical doctors and 22 health officials are charged with defrauding the Gates Foundation’s Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation Fund of $523,000.

He said all those charged are out on bail and scheduled to appear in court on March 18.

WHO SAID WHAT

MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013 TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

VOL 8 NO 2,425

‘I never resigned, I never intend to resign and I will continue to serve the people, until the mandate they gave me elapse’ JUDE AGBASO

C OMMENT & D EB ATE EBA

I

AM sure not a few Nigerians flew into the fury of the righteous when the roll call became news. We heard the names of Nderibe, Dantata, Atiku Abubakar, Folawiyo…these are the princes of oil.

But if you examined their minds deeply enough, many Nigerians would know that they were lying who cried foul. They were guilty of the perfidy of hypocrites. They might have had a moment or two of envious resentment against the princes. It might have lingered or flashed across their minds in the form of these words: “why was I not in their shoes? What would I not do with all that bloc of oil!” They might have dreamed of the life of the big, bright Babylon, the palaces, the cars, the decadence of leisure, the trips of the fantastic as well as the choice toy of the wellheeled among us, both secular and pastoral: the private jet.

We all know that the fabulously rich in our midst are casino merchants, those who reap bountifully where they did not sow.

They are the Jay Gatsbys of our generations, those who never sweat except from the exalted exertions on golf courses or the whirligig of the dance floor. We have never as a people condemned unearned showiness.

Rather we praise them at parties, honour them with traditional titles, give them national honours, devote monuments to them.

If 83 percent of the oil blocs go to the North, why is Boko Haram festering in that same region? Unlike in saner societies, the Nigerian elites have not factored any sense of responsibility into their acquisition of wealth.

Our primitive rich do not know value of money. For them, wealth is to donate token buses to church or throw huge parties to the poor on Friday afternoons. But wealth is responsibility.

What writers, columnists and sundry commentators have said over the news is serious, if predictable: that the North should keep quiet over the Niger Delta states’ allocations.

They own the oil, but others enjoy it. Others who enjoy are those who say they don’t have it. But that argument, true as it is, undermines the greater point. The northern wealthy are feudalists in the age of capitalism. They see wealth as their royal rights, and the people as their subjects who should be grateful to God for any crumbs delivered on Friday afternoons. What is also forgotten in the narrative is that even the oil firms have not favoured the indigenes in jobs such as engineers, salesmen, managers, accountants, etc.

Other ethnic groups, from both the Southwest and Southeast, dominate those jobs in spite of qualified people from those states.

The so-called local content policy is more mantra than practice.

If we want to understand the story of Nigeria, we need to understand the story of oil.

SAM OMATSEYE

IN TOUCH

intouchsam@yahoo.com 08054501081(sms only) •NMMA Columnist of the Year

Princes of oil

•Uduaghan Its malignancy is pervasive. It has dazed us into all the vices known to corruption. In the oil states, those who are wealthy are errand boys, they do the dirty jobs, like bunkering, stealing of pipes and equipment, etc. These same errand boys become the oppressors of their own people. They corral weapons, form cults of violence, flaunt money in obscene defiance and entrench a culture of indolence.

Oil does not only attract oppressors from outside but recruits servile tyrants within.

Have we asked why the issue of amnesty was “resolved” in the Niger Delta without the question of oil bloc allocation ever raised as a matter of economic justice in the region?

Why did the bloc go to individuals and not firms according to best practices everywhere?

Why did the Niger Delta not get its share?

We did not address it because the amnesty, at bottom, was not about economic justice but about appeasing a cult of greedy and disenfranchised youths. We wanted to let the oil flow for the rich.

The news also throws up the question of

capitalism as an ideology of the rich for the many. The recent crisis of the ideology has made some to sound the death knell of capitalism. The crisis of Spain, Portugal and Greece and the struggles of the epicenter of dollar have shown how a few greedy individuals can entrap everyone else. But we cannot forget that a few men like Carnegie, Vanderbilt and Rockefeller, whose doings birthed what historians call the Gilded Age, triggered capitalism as we knew it in the 20th century. In spite of their excesses, the same society gave us the progressive era, where they were checked with several legislations including anti-trust laws. It was capitalism checking itself. The present age was birthed by the technological and mercantile geniuses, including Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. What these men did was to show that they could conquer the world. What the system showed was that law could chasten them.

The wash of derivatives and other insanities drove the system to excess and ruined everyone’s pocket. But we can say that this was a society that worked with money.

Ours is a society that does not understand that wealth is not for consumption alone but to empower the society for more wealth. In his book, The Theory of the Leisure Class, Thorsten Veblen showed that wealth can be used to build a life of leisure that can percolate from the top to the bottom. Harvard Professor John K. Galbraith demonstrated that if we don’t handle wealth properly we will have an affluent society but a mass of the poor with decaying social services and infrastructure.

That is the society we have today in Nigeria. We have affluent persons with the poor everywhere. That is why the irony is potent that where we have the most oil blocs have thrown up the most vicious threat to

HARDBALL

I

T is not clear what Nigeria thinks it stands to gain by speedily congratulating Uhuru Kenyatta on his election as President of Kenya. But hours after the Kenyan Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) announced the result of last Monday’s presidential election, the Nigerian government rushed out a statement congratulating the winner and applauding the peaceful nature of the poll and the appeal for calm issued by Kenyatta’s main opponent, Raila Odinga.

Waiting till today to issue a statement would not have hurt relations between Nigeria and Kenya. In the poll marred by equipment malfunction and slow and laborious counting procedures, Kenyatta won by 50.07 percent of the votes to Odinga’s 43.31 percent. Turnout was estimated at 86 percent, amounting to some 12,330,028 votes shared between Kenyatta and Odinga as follows: 6,173,433 and 5,340,546 respectively.

Nigeria was among the first few countries to congratulate Kenyatta. But even if it felt the sanctity of the poll had been upheld, and Odinga’s promised court action would not affect the final outcome, Nigeria still ought to have been mindful of the di-

the society.

The death of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez has raised question on what to do with a nation’s oil wealth. He is a man as god today to his people. He redistributed for most part the oil wealth and reduced poverty by about 20 percent, with free education and health care, among other social services. The point has been raised whether that policy is sustainable where the money is distributed rather than used to stimulate more wealth as their Latin American counterpart Lula in Brazil did with capitalism. Lula brought 30 million people out of poverty.

Either system is better than ours where a few people acquire the wealth primitively and flaunt them as though they are the blessed of the Lord. It is oil that brought Boko Haram. Before oil, the North developed thriving agricultural and textile cultures. The Niger Delta had palm produce, groundnuts, fishes, lumber, etc. That is the wisdom in the Delta beyond Oil programme initiated by Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan.

Oil suffocated all. That is why the princes eye the gold of the creeks. Without oil or its abysmal use, the North would be quiescent with prosperity.

In Charles Dickens’ A Tale of two Cities, a big vat of wine cracks open by accident on a French street and everyone helps themselves with cups, hands, even handkerchiefs, and all are merry, holding hands and dancing.

When it is finished and the effect dissipates, everyone remembers what they are doing before the revelry. The farmer to farm, seamstress to shop, butcher to the meat, all to their default suffering in pre-revolutionary France.

Maybe we are waiting for our oil wells to dry up before our liberation from the dazzle.

A fearful Jonathan

W

HEN Jonathan went to Maiduguri, he did exactly what I predicted he would do. Rather than show love, he extracted debt. And without grace or finesse. But from the rhetoric of the urbane Governor Kashim Shettima, Borno will not go to the bank for Jonathan. Jonathan imposed an army of occupation instead of an embrace. He closed down the city. But it was because he was afraid. Like a snake, he masked it with braggadocio, dripping with venom. He said he would not negotiate with ghosts. So if they are ghosts, it means he cannot find the militants. Of course, he has surrendered. He should employ exorcists and withdraw the soldiers. He did not learn anything from the 11 wise men who visited before him. Of course, the governors were not John the Baptist because Jonathan is not their anointed one.

•Hardball is not the opinion of the columnist featured above

Nigeria too hasty congratulating Kenyatta lemma Kenyans will be facing in the coming months as their president-elect and his running mate, William Ruto, go on trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague next month. The two leaders had been indicted by the ICC for crimes against humanity following accusations they had either instigated or fuelled the ethnic violence that racked Kenya immediately after the 2007 elections. Kenyatta and Ruto had backed the outgoing president, Mwai Kibaki, against Odinga, while more than 1,000 people were believed killed in the mayhem.

Before last week’s election, Western nations had subtly hinted Kenyans would face a moral dilemma by voting Kenyatta as president in spite of knowing he would be facing charges at the ICC. Kenyatta and his supporters, however, felt the hints were an attempt to influence the course of the election. But whether there were attempts to influence the poll or not, there is absolutely no doubt that Kenyans failed to take into cognisance the embarrassment it would cause the country for their president to be put on trial in The

Hague. That sort of humiliation had been exclusive to former presidents, top officials of governments, and private individuals.

The trial of Kenyatta and Ruto may be the first time a president and his deputy will be facing the indignity of ICC trial.

After failing in their quest to influence Kenyans to vote appropriately, Western nations have acknowledged they will squirm even more in the coming months in their relations with the Kenyan government under Kenyatta. By yesterday, none of them had issued a definitive congratulatory message to Kenyatta. It is not certain how they would word their messages when they get round to issuing them. Much worse, it is not only Kenya that will be embarrassed when their president goes on trial, even friendly nations will also be embarrassed. Why Nigeria does not indicate it feels queasy about the outcome of the election is hard to say at the moment. But perhaps it imagines Western fuss is merely an indication of the rampaging and seemingly inextinguishable forces of neo-imperialism. Or perhaps it considers

that Kenyatta would probably be freed of all charges at the ICC trial, the sort of fait accompli the president-elect hopes his presidency would present to the court.

It speaks volumes about the integrity of many African countries, Nigeria and Kenya in particular, that they are not discomfited by the kind of moral questions and moral dilemma the Kenyan presidential election has thrown up. More worrisomely, Kenya’s moral dilemma may in fact be a reflection of Nigeria’s sickening romance with postelection violence and the sanguinary indifference with which its leaders accommodate it. Kenya may have had a fairly peaceful election, but the election is not free of moral blemish. Indeed, the election is deeply and humiliatingly compromised by the upcoming ICC trial. By hastily congratulating Kenyatta, Nigeria once again shows how unprepared it is for African leadership; for leadership is not just a function of population or economic size, it is more importantly a function of the ennobling values a country projects.

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