March 19, 2015

Newspaper of the Year

...72 D AYS TO GO DA

MORE •UN threatens to prosecute promoters of violence•AND ON PAGES •March 28, April 11 elections dates stand, says Jega 4,5,6&7 •Rumpus in Southwest as Muslims back Jonathan •APC to report Jonathan to ICC over OPC’s Lagos protest

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TR UTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM TRUTH

VOL. 10, NO. 3158 THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

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•INSIDE: OBANIKORO IS JUNIOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER P5 ‘$182B LAUNDERED’ P11

•From left: Senator Babafemi Ojudu, Alhaji Tajudeen Olusi, wife of Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, Abimbola, All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his wife, Senator Oluremi, wife of APC presidential candidate Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, Aisha, wife of Gen. Buhari’s runningmate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Dolapo and Lagos State deputy governorship candidate Dr. Oluranti Adebule during Mrs Tinubu’s 14th Lagos Central Senatorial District Town Hall Meeting and unveling of the book: Stewardship Report at Shell Hall, Muson Centre, Lagos ...yesterday. SEE ALSO PAGE 10 PHOTO: SOLOMON ADEOLA

My problem with Jonathan, by Soyinka

Bad govt worse than kidnapping, terrorism, says Buhari

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OBEL laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has criticised the Federal Government for not moving fast against Boko Haram — the Islamist sect whose activities have killed thousands.

According to him, Nigeria would not have had to cope with Boko Haram on this large scale had the government taken action when the sect’s activities were just taking root.

“This is the biggest problem I have with the Jonathan government,” he said.

Soyinka, who spoke in an interview with German Radio DW said some people were still bent on creating a political crisis in the country by stalling the elections and inContinued on page 4

•Prof. Soyinka

LL Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Gen. Muhammadu Buhari yesterday likened a bad government to armed robbery, kidnapping and terrorism.

He urged Nigerians to avoid such dangerous acts by voting into office a government capable of addressing their needs.

Speaking at a Town Hall meeting in Abuja, Gen Bu-

•APC candidate hails military From Tony Akowe, Abuja

hari said: “I believe that a bad and corrupt government is a much danger to national security as armed robbers, kidnappers and terrorists. I want to commend our armed forces for

their recent successes over the Boko Haram.”

He recalled that as military Head of State between January 1984 and August 1985, he increased Nigeria’s refineries from one with a capacity to refine 50,000 barrels per day to four, with refining capacity of 450,000 barrels Continued on page 4

Jega snubs Oritsejafor

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WILL THE CHIBOK GIRLS KIDNAPPED ON APRIL 15, LAST YEAR EVER RETURN?

CAN boss to electoral agency: Card Readers must function

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HRISTIAN Association of Nigeria (CAN) President Ayo Oritsejafor has spoken of how Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega snubbed him.

“Some people have told me that I am too small to meet with him (Jega),” Pastor Oritsejafor said.

The CAN chief spoke at a oneday interactive session of key stakeholders in the Nigerian project, comprising religious, political organisations and security

‘

I...don’t have access to the INEC Chairman. I could not meet this man to have a discussion with him...We want to give him some solutions, suggestions...

From Gbenga Omokhunu, Abuja

agencies, organised by Think Nigeria Christian-Muslim Movement, with the theme: “Towards a peaceful and purposeful political transition in 2015”.

’

Pastor Oritsejafor said: “The General Secretary of CAN has the INEC Chairman’s number. He text him, saying the CAN President wants to meet with you on some days. The INEC chairman text back, saying

those days were not good. So, Jega gave us two days to choose from and we chose one and he (Jega) accepted. I do not live in Abuja; I live in Warri, and so I had to make my plans to come here. All my plans were made and just as I was ready to come to Abuja, my General Secretary contacted me again that the INEC chairman (Jega) said he cannot meet with us, that he is too busy.

When I asked him then what date did he give? He said no date was given.

Continued on page 4

•SPORTS P23 •EDUCATIONS P25 •POLITICS P45 •N/HEALTH P47 •E-BUSINESS P52

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

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NEWS Countdown to March 28... 9 days to go

Jega, MASSOB, D •Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola (middle), assiting Lagos monarch, Oba Riliwan Akiolu at the inauguration of the Cardiac and Renal Centre at the General Hospital, Gbagada, Lagos...yesterday. With them are: Health Commissioner Dr Jide Idris (left); Chairman, Lagos State House of Assembly Committee on Health, Suru Avoseh (second left); a nurse, Mrs. Abosede Oluwabuyede (second right) and Special Adviser to Lagos Governor on Public Health, Dr Yewande Adeshina.

•From left: Head, Private Banking, Stanbic IBTC, Funke Isichei; Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Yinka Sanni; Head, Personal Banking, Joyce Uredi and Head, Africa Communications, Standard Bank, Kate Johns at the launch of Stanbic IBTC Priority Pass for HNI customers in Lagos...yesterday.

PHOTO: BOLA OMILABU

•From left: Head, Mass Marketing Segment, Airtel Nigeria, Oladipo Jolaosho, Vice President, Airtel Nigeria, Dinesh Balsingh; Chief Commercial Officer, Mourice Newa and Director of Marketing Communications, Obinna Aniche at the inauguration of Airtel Smartconnect in Lagos...yesterday.

•President, Nigerian Liquefied Petroleum Gass (NLPG) Association, Mr. Dayo Adesina flanked by Head, LPG, Oando Marketing Plc, Mr. Ganiyu Azeez (left) and Regional Manager, West, Oando Marketing Plc, Mrs Taiwo Gaji at a forum in Lagos.

ESPITE his public assertions and oath to promote peaceful, timely and orderly elections, President Goodluck Jonathan has done more than any Nigerian leader before him to undermine peace, stability and, in particular, peaceful elections. The electioneering is disgracefully violent, much of it promoted by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers, Kaduna, Lagos, Ekiti, Oyo and other states. There is in fact more likelihood of huger disturbances in the days ahead, during and after the polls, essentially because the President, his wife, Dame Patience, and their aides have done nothing to mitigate the chances of violence. On top of these, the President has not hidden his desperation to win, first by postponing the polls, and also by inducing opinion moulders, sundry political mobilisers and traditional elites in all parts of the country, particularly the South.

The latest of such sinister ploys by the President and the PDP to undermine peaceful and credible polling are the campaigns to discredit the electoral commission leadership, manipulate the processes and procedures of the elections, and perhaps either force another postponement of the polls or envelope them in confusion and disorderliness. All these have come on the heels of other plots to derail the polls, such as interim national government and abandonment of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) usage.

Nearly all the plots have failed, thereby forcing the Jonathan government into yet more desperate measures and tactics, especially compromising the integrity, or whatever is left of it, of ethnic militias and militants and co-opting them into a master plan to either extend the tenure of President Jonathan or force an unpopular outcome.

Were the electioneering to be marked by violence alone or the likelihood of it, the country could endure the malady and possibly learn from the shortcomings of the polls and make amends. Alarmingly, however, the polls are this time around underscored by the most insidious plots ever to divide Nigeria and ensure that whoever wins the presidential election would probably preside over a country with unrecognisable political culture and behaviour. Inspiring those plots is the President himself, who should know better, and whose primary duty is to ensure not only pre-poll peace but post-poll amity.

President Jonathan has instead done more than any of his predecessors to push the country closer to the brink. He has blithely and bitterly divided Nigerians along religious lines, to the point that apart from interfaith animosities, Christendom is battling intra-faith crisis. Together with his wife, whose hate speeches have become more gutsy and dangerously pronounced, and frantic and fanatical supporters such as Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose, President Jonathan has launched the most extreme form of ethnic division and conflict ever in Nigeria, far worse than the ethnic rivalries and suspicions that precipitated the 1967-1970 civil war.

The president’s supporters in the Niger Delta have openly threatened war should his ambition to win a second term be truncated. The problem is not the threats themselves, but that the country’s security agencies which appear allergic to the innocuous statements from the opposition have not even questioned those who promised to levy war on Nigeria. Worse, President Jonathan has openly and financially empowered militants in the Niger Delta in his ongoing usurpation of the functions and duties of the se-

By Adekunle Ade-Adeleye curity agencies in that blighted and restive region. In the name of pacifying the militants, and supposedly in the spirit of the Amnesty Programme, the President has both given militants humongous contracts and made them countervailing power centres. He porobably believes that once empowered, these fringe groups could be cajoled to remain subjugated to national and even regional authorities.

Assured that the tactics of promoting militants as countervailing forces amenable to his reelection ambition was working, the President extended his reach to other ethnic militias which he is also financially empowering and co-opting. In consequence, the Movement for the Actualisation of of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has bought into the scare tactics to compel Independent National Electoral Commssion (INEC) chairman, Attahiru Jega, to resign or be sacked.

MASSOB used to be detested by security agencies; but by campaigning openly against Prof Jega, a campaign at variance with its founding principles and charter, the ethnic militia has suddenly become the darling of the Jonathan government.

In furtherance of the subterranean efforts to subvert the polls or secure a desperate win, and in tune with his divisive tactics to create disharmony within the regions, President Jonathan has swept through the Southwest with the most compromising financial inducements ever seen in the region. Traditional rulers, showing their poor moral mettle, are falling over themselves to bite the president’s baits, the youths have become preys to selected moblisers, a few of them top politicians and governors, and the region’s leading ethnic militia, the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), has completely taken leave of its senses and fallen in a heap before the president’s pipeline surveillance and protection contracts estimated to be nearly N10 billion.

Just as the Southwest monarchs, with a few exceptions, are openly embracing President Jonathan by engaging in esoteric traditional rites to egg the president on, Gani Adams’ OPC faction is not content with just embracing and supporting the president. The militia, which grandiosely claims more members than it really has, on Monday paraded through the streets of Lagos, some of them armed and guided by security agencies.

Fuelled by the pipeline contracts and knocked insensate by federal and security agencies’ support, they also asked for the resignation of Prof Jega and the cancellation of card readers for the polls.

The OPC is emboldened by the fact that a small faction of the Yoruba leadership led by Afenifere politicians such as Ayo Adebanjo, Olu Falae, Femi Okurounmu and others has also openly declared their support for President Jonathan. The Afenifere support is based on nothing but a promise by the President to cause within one year of his second term the implementation of the resolutions of the national conference. The President has no track record of fulfilling his promises, nor of espousing and holding on to lofty ideals and convictions, but to the wooly hairs of Afenifere, that hardly matters.

What is afoot in the Southwest, and which the region’s electorate must contend with as they vote on March 28 and April 11, is the cynical plot by the President to raise a new power bloc in the Southwest to fight the region’s more ideological power elite.

That new bloc is a combination of the factional Afenifere and its new enforcement arm, the OPC. For an eth-

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

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Countdown to March 28... 9 days to go

B, OPC: Pushing Nigeria to the brink

• OPC members destroying an All Progressives Congress (APC) billboard on Ikorodu Road...on Monday._

•OPC members during their protest in Lagos...on Monday. nic militia disdained for its poor appreciation of intellectual matters, the OPC, it seems, is already bidding for power. Should they succeed, and considering the dynamics of power and politics, not even the safety of Afenifere can be guaranteed. With the kind of financial muscle put at its disposal, it is a question of time before OPC becomes uncontrollable, as it crudely indicated on Monday on Lagos highways.

President Jonathan has not been too fortunate in affecting issues and the country grandly and positively. He inherited a country yearning for unity after the late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s post-illness cabal was humbled, but he further divided the country and encouraged and empowered ethnic militias as a counterpoise to the more resolute and intellectual regional elites. He inherited a country trying to overcome the sectarian strife that had sundered the polity, but he has openly and unashamedly encouraged Christians to denounce and denude their own doctrinal ramparts in favour of short-time expediencies and pleasures. He inherited a weak and disorganised Boko Haram menace, but in less than three years, the militants became a fierce fighting force requiring the help of neighbouring West African countries to tackle.

LARMED by Nigeria’s dan gerous drift and its predilec tion for violence, many countries and international statesmen have tried to intervene to restrain President Jonathan from plunging Nigeria into chaos. But he has appeared unable to heed wise counsel.

He is aided by politicians determined to protect the status quo with hate rhetoric.

Few Nigerians are sure what can be done to restrain President Jonathan from pushing the country over the brink. Perhaps a massive determination by the electorate to repudiate him and the tactics he has deployed in the past few months to subvert peace and the constitution could do the trick.

For, should President Jonathan win, not only will the divisions within the country be accentuated to breaking point, even the economy which has been wrecked and is sustained only by propaganda will be plunged into

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Obanikoro’s revival indicates national decline

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ITH his clearance by the Senate and return to the Jonathan cabinet, though as a less significant minister, Musiliu Obanikoro has achieved a remarkable and probably unprecedented revival. He that was dead and awaiting burial is now restored to life. A former Minister of State for Defence, one-time Ambassador to Ghana, and recently defeated aspirant for the coveted stool of Lagos on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Obanikoro has by the grace of a pliant Senate emptied of its will and moral core become, once again, a minister of the Federal Republic. His trajectory could be described as grass to grace, assuming he merited both his meteoric rise and the honour of elevation done him by President Jonathan, notwithstanding his modest talents and insignificant contributions to national discourse and development. More appropriately, however, the more controversial trajectory is that of Nigeria, which, in the feeble and tremulous hands of President Jonathan, has gone from grace to grass, scorned by many nations, and ridiculed everywhere.

The ease with which Mr Obanikoro was again garlanded so soon after resigning from the cabinet and failing at his ambition of ruling a highly cosmopolitan Lagos is not just a reflection of his own indomitability, or of the president’s accommodation, or of the Senate’s notorious lack of rectitude. It is rather symptomatic of the malaise afflicting the country and the depths to which, morally and politically, the country has sunk in recent years. Ministerial positions are by constitutional design the highest and most respected national governing council, one into which admission must be stringent, exacting and reverencing. It should not be one in which an individual, no matter how qualified, could in the space of a few months and in the same government breeze in and breeze out.

But for exhibiting no special moral or intellectual the worst turmoil ever, a turmoil certain to provoke massive revolt.

Given the disquieting fact that the Southeast and Southsouth seem locked in the president’s kitty, and the Northwest and Northeast are with the opposition, much responsibility to swing the votes and keep the peace appears devolved on the Southwest.

That boisterous and implacable region seems to recognise this fact. But so far, rather than that historic responsibility prompting them into very noble aspirations and deeds, it seems that the recognition of their new power and role is prompting them

endowment, Mr Obanikoro has been endued with the honour of turning the Jonathan cabinet into a plaything.

Much more instructively, the Obanikoro redivivus is even more emblematic of the personal failings of the President and confusion enveloping the country. By reappointing Mr Obanikoro, President Jonathan was not thinking of the image of the nation, or of the standards on which he hoped his government would be assessed, or of the future by which his presidency would be judged and the world would in turn judge Nigeria.

The reappointment, just like other such objectionable appointments, to wit, Jelili Adesiyan et al, gave the impression of a calculating president, one perhaps more obsessed with calculating his chances in the March 28 presidential poll. But in reality, if there was any calculation at all, it had none of the exactness of the mathematical sciences, pure or applied. Indeed, the calculation was nothing but an indication of the base and gross permutation involved in shifting the poll date from its original February 14 date, and other such ignoble contrivances to win the elections.

Readmitting Mr Obanikoro is therefore a final indication — as the presence of the unworthy Mr Adesyain in his cabinet, the courting of ethnic militias and militants, the inducement of traditional rulers, and the deliberate and unconscionable vitiation of the force and moral authority of religious leaders — of the country’s precipitous decline under President Jonathan. No amount of political and moral exhortation will persuade him to imbibe the values that make great statesmen to ennoble the high offices they occupy. He will see nothing wrong in courting militants and militias, or in polarising the country along religious and ethnic lines, or in subverting the constitution while sermonising about great constitutional principles, or in promising what he could never hope to de-

very savagely into the grossest display of political mercantilism ever.

Youths, monarchs and politicians are cashing in on the readiness of the President to do business, to trade in votes and support. It is not known just how south-westerners trading with President Jonathan will behave on the day of balloting, whether they are capable of distinguishing between the inducement on their left hands and the historic responsibility placed on their right, moral hands. Whatever they do is, however, certain to affect the destiny of the country, and they will bear responsibility for the choices

•Obanikoro

liver, or in promoting violence and hate speeches.

As the Obanikoro revival shows, the president’s limited vista prevents him from taking a more expansive view of both the country he governs and the principles on which to anchor it. He appears incapable of subordinating his private but obviously now difficult electoral goals beneath the national objectives of building a great, strong, indivisible and prosperous nation that can compete with any in the world, and of projecting lofty ideas and values to distant lands. Given these troubling manifestations, the country and the rest of the world will wait with bated breath to see whether the Jonathan government can be managed like a bull in a china shop on March 28 and April 11.

they make on March 28 and April 11.

INCE a faction of Afenifere purporting to represent the Yoruba has endorsed President Jonathan, all eyes in the Southwest and possibly elsewhere will be on the Yoruba conference being convened today in Ibadan by Alani Akinrinade, a retired general and former Chief of Army Staff. Whereas the pro-Jonathan Afenifere is essentially PDP and is inspired by Ondo State governor, Olusegun Mimiko, the more representative Akinrinade conference, with its reputation still intact, is expected to steer the Yoruba

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back to their senses. The Ibadan conference, which is taking place at the same time as Dr Mimiko’s PDP/ Afenifere final summit in Lagos, is expected to advise the Yoruba to vote as their consciences dictate. If that admonition is given and heeded, the Yoruba are likely to respond loftily and dispassionately in favour of peace and progress, and with a determination that will see them promoting values and principles worthy of the Yoruba, far removed from the crass mercantilism that has hobbled and disgraced both Afenifere and the OPC.

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THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

NEWS INEC: no further shift of polls

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NDEPENDENT National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Prof.

Attahiru Jega yesterday ruled out a further shift in the dates fixed for the general elections.

The March 28 and April 11 dates remain sacrosanct, he said, promising that this year’s election will not only be better than that of 2011, but the best in the nation’s history.

Jega spoke in Abuja at a Dialogue Session held by a coalition of civil society organisations, under the aegis of the Civil Society Situation Room (Situation Room).

The INEC chairman said his agency was fully prepared for the election that “will meet the people’s wish and aspiration.”

•The Cardiac and Renal Centre (CRC) at Gbagada General Hospital, Gbagada, Lagos by Governor Babatunde Fashola...yesterday.

PHOTO: OMOSEHIN MOSES

My problem with Jonathan, First Lady, by Soyinka Continued from page 1

stalling an interim government.

Soyinka told DW: “Ex-military officers and security officers are trying to push aside the political contestants and use the unrest as an excuse to establish an interim government. The nature of the interim government wants to pretend it’s not really a military intervention. A few political leaders, well-known civilians, want to give the veneer of civilian structure, but basically it’s a kind of political intervention.”

He expressed regret that Nigeria “is aspiring very hard to

become a failed state.” Speaking about the more than 200 schoolgirls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram a year ago, he expressed little hope that “the majority of them” will ever be found. Despite military gains made by troops from neighboring Cameroon, Niger and Chad, in collaborating with their Nigerian counterparts, Soyinka believes there’s no chance of a rapid victory over the jihadist group.

“It will take a generation at least to exterminate this phenomenon altogether. The military would not have had to cope with Boko Haram on this level if the proper action had been taken at the right time.

This is the biggest problem I have with the Jonathan government.”

Soyinka said he no longer regards Mrs. Patience Jonathan as First Lady. Soyinka spoke in an interview with DW. He expressed concerns that the military could take over power.

The 80-year-old writer, who has taken an active role in African politics for more than 50 years, says he fears there are “clear indications of a military intervention” .

He lamented the increasingly aggressive direction the election campaign is taking. Recently, the president’s wife

called on her husband’s followers to stone people who demanded a different leader.

Political observers saw this as a call for violence against the main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), which is campaigning on a platform of change.

Soyinka told DW that while he doesn’t support the opposition’s move to file criminal charges against the First Lady before the International Criminal Court (ICC), her comments should not go unchecked. ”What she said was totally unacceptable. I no longer regard her as the First Lady of Nigeria,” he said.

Jega snubs Oritsejafor Continued from page 1

“Till today, I, the leaders of all Christians in Nigeria, don’t have access to the INEC Chairman. I could not meet this man to have a discussion with him. Some of the things bordering us we wanted to share with him.

We want to give him some solutions, suggestions, but that was it. No new date for us to meet with him. So, this is a problem that is why I am saying this now publicly.

This happened a little less than two months ago. That disturbed me. The little people are begging him to look at our suggestions and act on

them.

But Chief Press Secretary to Prof. Jega, Mr. Kayode Idowu, said he was unaware of any request by the CAN chief to see Jega which was turned down. “I’m not aware. I have a fair knowledge of the chairman’s scheduled,” Idowu said.

Dr. Oritsejafor added: “INEC is a necessary organisation that every nation must have. I am concerned about two things. One is on the issue of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs). I have had it said several times that there are many Nigerians who are refusing to collect

their PVCs. I beg to disagree on this because I sample this and the church I pastor in Warri with about 35,000 people and I asked them to show me their PVCs and I was shocked. I tell you and I lie not, probably close to half of my congregation do not have their PVCs. “I sent my pastors, over 100 of them, out to meet them and find out why and I discovered that I felt insulted that anybody would say that they registered and do not want to go and take their PVC. Some of them said the truth is, many of those cards don’t belong to the people in

that location. So the people in that location could not find their cards. And the owners of the cards are also searching for their cards elsewhere.

“I think one of the things INEC can do is to publish the PVCs that they have quickly, so that Nigerians can easily locate them or pass information on it to each other, so that one can go there to collect it. I am not saying this will solve all the problems, but it will go a long way to solve the problem. We charge INEC to please make sure that those Card ReadContinued on page 56

From Eric Ikhilae, Abuja

“As far as we are concerned, we are fully prepared for the elections, and from what we have seen so far, there is no more fear of any further shift in the dates for the elections. So, elections would go on as scheduled on March 28th and April 11th.

“We have identified the gaps that needed to be filed and we have filed all those gaps. All the National Commissioners are now in the field to assess the level of preparedness; they are covering the 36 states of the federation and the FCT. “We are very pleased to note that we used the six weeks period to firm up our preparations. If we had done Continued on page 56

DSS arrests six kidnap suspects in Edo

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EN of the Department of State Security (DSS) in Edo State have arrested six men said to be involved in the kidnap of a former local government chairman Mr. Anselm Adima.

The suspects were also said to be involved in the kidnap of a woman who was raped in the presence of her daughter, with the pictures of the act taken. The daughter, who was also a victim of the kidnappers, was said to have been spared the trauma of the kidnappers’ raging libido.

Another suspect was said to have been a fraudster who impersonates the Chief of Air Staff to hoodwink his unsuspecting victims.

Parading the suspects before Governor Adams Oshiomhole yesterday, Director of the state command of the State Security Service (SSS), Mr. Bello Bakori said: “This group of criminals here pa-

From Osagie Otabor, Benin

raded are those involved in fraud, kidnapping, car snatching and robbery.

He said: “The group was involved in the kidnapping of the former Transitional Committee Chairman of Esan North East Local Government Area, Mr. Anselm Adima, where N3 million was paid as ransom.

“One of these boys is a notorious fraudster who goes about swindling members of the public and even impersonating the Chief of Air Staff. We have this one, Isaac Ogun, collecting money from the public using the name of one Mr. Balogun and just recently, many cases have been established against him in Jos and other places and luckily he was arrested recently based on a complaint from the Airforce that someone is going about impersonating the Chief of Continued on page 56

Fear of exposure of alleged massive corruption grips PDP

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ALPABLE fear has gripped the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over speculations that the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) was plotting to expose some dirty deals involving some high ranking government officials, including President Goodluck Jonathan.

At a media briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, the Director of Media and Publicity of the party’s presidential campaign or-

From Gbade Ogunwale, Abuja

ganisation, Chief Femi FaniKayode, said the APC intends to expose the alleged sleaze through a documentary.

Some of the alleged sleaze transactions under the Jonathan administration, as stated by Fani-Kayode include: $15 million U.S. Private Jet Arms Scandal, N5 trillion stolen under Jonathan, N21 billion Pension funds embezContinued on page 56

Bad Govt not better than kidnapping, terrorism, says Buhari Continued from page 1

per day without borrowing.

He explained how he resisted pressure to devalue the naira and remove subsidy on petroleum products and challenged anybody to dispute his claim of not borrowing money to build the refineries.

Buhari said he used Nigerian money to build the refineries, lay over 300 kilometres of pipeline and built more than 20 depots across the country, adding that if Nigerians must be asked to pay more for petroleum products, the payment must reflect on the state of economy.

He said: “When we came into power in December 1983, we were approached by the world power at some stage to devalue the naira,

remove petroleum subsidy and remove subsidy on flour, but we refused.

“The issue was that of we getting plenty of naira and what we were going to do with it. We even stopped farming and the only thing we got money from then was oil and that was being paid in dollars. If you have excess of groundnut, cocoa, cotton or palm oil, you sell it in foreign exchange. If you devalue the currency, the naira will be affected and Nigerians will get their goods and services “I was told to remove subsidy on petroleum and because I had the honour of being in charge of petroleum for three and half years, I don’t know who is subsidising who?

“To the best of my knowledge then, It is Nigerian

petrol and Nigerian cash was used to develop the refineries up to the time I was there.

“We did not borrow a kobo for that development.

I challenge any Nigerian to dispute this.

The former Nigerian leader said the question of sacrifice as a leader must begin at all levels. “When you are not corrupt, you will not tolerate corruption. Those who dare you; will find out the consequences.”

He said the issue of the Chibok girls had become the greatest embarrassment the Nigerian nation had ever faced, saying that since independence, the Nigerian nation had never been subjected to this type of embarrassment.

He said: “I have said that the APC as a party has iden-

tified three fundamental problems in this country.

They are insecurity, the destruction of the economy and corruption.

“The state of insecurity as we said when the election was extended by six weeks is that if the Nigerian government and the military could not tame Boko Haram for five years, what will they do in six weeks. But I think that some positive moves have been made.

“The first thing they should have done is to make sure that you have a good plan to take care of the welfare of the law enforcement agents. You can’t send someone on an operation for months when his family is living in wants without medical care, no school and no good neigbourhood and you want him to serve the

country.

“So, if you get disappointed now that soldiers on road block have started saying “wetin you chop remain” as many of their colleagues were doing many years ago.

In the good old days, there were barracks with schools, health Centres and when a soldier goes into an operation, he will think about his family and he will know that they are safe.

“I think that the issue of the Chibok girls is really a great embarrassment to this country. Since independence, I don’t think we have been reduced to such a position as a nation as the disappearance of 220 girls between the ages 14 and18 for almost a year and government couldn’t do anything about it and this is the same government that says it

•Gen. Buhari

wants to remain in place” Gen. Buhari also said: “I find it personally embarrassing that a gang of terContinued on page 56

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THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

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NEWS Obanikoro is junior Foreign Affairs minister •Perform ‘injury time’ magic, President tells new FEC members

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RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan yesterday swore in eight ministers and gave them portfolios before the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) in Abuja.

Musiliu Obanikoro (Lagos), who was a former minister of state for Defence before resigning to contest the governorship primary in Lagos State last October, was assigned as the Minister of State II in the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Joel Ikenya (Taraba) was named as the Minister of Labour; Hauwa Lawan (Jigawa) was given the portfolio of Minister of State for Niger Delta Affairs, Kenneth Kobani (Rivers) was named as Minister of State for Trade and Investment.

Also, Patricia Akwashiki (Nasarawa) is now the Minister of Information, Nicholas Ada (Benue) assigned as Minister of State I for Foreign Affairs, Augustine Akobundu (Abia) named Minister of State for Defence while Fidelis

•President Jonathan (middle) with the new ministers...yesterday. With him from left are: Nwankwo, Akobundu, Mrs. Akwashiki, Kobani, Obanikoro, Mrs. Lawan, PHOTO AKIN OLADOKUN. Danlami and Ada. From Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja

Nwankwo (Ebonyi) is the new Minister of State for Health.

Khaliru Al-Hassan, who has been supervising the Health Ministry since the former Minister Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu resigned to contest election in Ebonyi State, was named as the Minister of Health.

The President also swore in Dr. Jonah Madugu as the commissioner representing Pla-

teau, Benue and Nasarawa in the Federal Civil Service Commission and Mrs. Abimbola Hundehin as a commissioner in the National Population Commission.

Jonathan said the ministers were coming in at a challenging time and an ‘injury time’ as in a football match and should do everything to shine.

He said: “For the ministers, this is an ‘injury time.’ It is like bringing a player when you have just five minutes to go

in a football match. So, everyone wants to know what that player will do; the magic the player will perform within that short period. The player himself will be struggling to, at least, kick the ball before the end of the game.

“So, you are coming in at a quite challenging period and I believe that a number of people will not envy you because government is coming to a close. But sometimes, it is even good to come at this time because you are now well ex-

OPC protest in Lagos: APC to report Jonathan to ICC A

PETITION against President Goodluck Jonathan will soon be sent to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCPCO) said yesterday.

APCPCO’s Director of Media and Publicity Mallam Garba Shehu, in a statement yesterday, said the petition followed “the massive terror unleashed on the residents of Lagos by armed proJonathan groups under the cover of a faction of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC)”.

A protest was held in Lagos last Monday by the armed groups on the pretext of demanding the sack of the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) National Chairman, Prof.

Attahiru Jega.

Shehu said the machetewielding and gun-bearing armed pro-Jonathan groups marched on major streets of

By Bola Olajuwon

Lagos, harassing and intimidating motorists, chanting anti-Jega songs in a manner that gave them away as acting the prepared script for the truncation of the general elections.

The statement reads: “There was such disruption to the tranquility of the city that warranted the citizens scampering for safety in all directions, a foretaste of the violence they plan to unleash on election day.

“Our investigations have confirmed that Monday’s show was a dress-rehearsal for the main disruption planned for the general elections. Lagos and the entire Southwest, being a stronghold of the APC, have been marked for massive dishevelling commotion that would involve killings, maiming and kidnapping.

“Our findings have further

shown that the recent N9 billion Pipeline surveillance contract to OPC and some militant groups in southern Nigeria was the elixir for the latest crude impudence of the pro-Jonathan armed groups.

Indeed, the contract award was indeed a subterfuge for the mobilisation of these murderous militant groups for the destruction of life and property to force the desire of the re-election of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan on the Nigerian people.

“As an opposition APC, we are using this medium to serve Dr. Goodluck Jonathan the notice of our formal protest of this extreme show of impunity to the International Criminal Court (ICC). We are aware that Mrs. Patience Jonathan is already on the watch list of ICC. The activities of this President and his wife as regards the elections are not patriotic and very unhelpful for entrenching demo-

cratic values in the nation.

“We recall the bombing of the APC secretariat and the shootings and disruption of the party’s campaign rally in Okirika in Rivers State, where the First Lady hails from, with a muted silence from President Jonathan.

“Whereas the police authorities had denied the opposition party its legitimate and democratic rights to organise one million person march for General Buhari in Kano, it was, however, quick to approve that in Lagos, providing security to the pro-Jonathan armed groups while they unleashed mayhem on citizens in Lagos on Monday - a day that inhabitants of the city consider the most important of the week.

“We are not ready to cower to the intimidation of Dr. Jonathan, ahead of the general elections. We believe Nigerians shall speak eloquently on March 28, 2015, and this brutality on the psyche of the Nigerian people shall cease.”

posed to Nigerians.

“Your dancing steps will be watched by everybody and we believe you will dance well.”

He added: “For the member of the Federal Civil Service Commission, civil service is key; it is the engine room of government.

“The greatest problem that people complain about is the issue of discipline, etc in the service. I believe that with you coming to join others, you will continue to modernise the Federal Civil

IG restores Tambuwal’s security detail From Victor Oluwasegun and Dele Anofi, Abuja

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HE Inspector General of Police (IGP), Suleiman Abba, has restored the police security detail attached to the Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal.

Tambuwal’s security detail was withdrawn on the orders of the IG, following his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The highpoint of the face-off was the invasion of the National Assembly last November 20 by armed policemen in a bid to bar Tambuwal from presiding over a special plenary to consider a request by President Goodluck Jonathan.

Tambuwal and other lawmakers were tear-gassed.

On resuming from recess, House Committee on Police Affairs invited the IG to explain the reasons behind the police action.

At the meeting, he told the lawmakers that he would not recognise and address Tambuwal as the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The lawmakers felt slighted and the meeting ended unceremoniously when the IG refused to withdraw the statement as requested.

But a statement yesterday by Tambuwal’s Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs Mallam Imam Imam said the police security detail was restored a few days after the men of the Department of State Service (DSS) resumed duties.

The statement from Imam reads: “Following various inquiries from the media and other well-meaning Nigerians, we wish to confirm that the security detail (Police and DSS), earlier withdrawn from the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, have been restored.

“The policemen attached to the Speaker resumed duties a few days after men of the Department of State Security (DSS) returned to their duty posts.”

How to get Card Reader to identify your fingerprint, by Tinubu

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ORMER Lagos State Governor and All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has advised voters to wash their hands properly before going out to vote on election day to enable the Smart Card Readers identify their fingerprints.

Asiwaju Tinubu, who spoke at the 14th edition of Senator Oluremi Tinubu’s town hall meeting with constituents of Lagos Central Senatorial District in Lagos yesterday, said: “This is a vote of clean hands; you must wash your hands before you go for the election, so that the machine can be able to identify your fingerprints.

As we did during the period of the Ebola scare, wash your hands very well.”

He berated the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for rejecting the use of Smart Card Readers for the rescheduled general elections.

The APC National Leader said the party was afraid because it knew the verdict of the

By Raymond Mordi, Deputy Political Editor

people would be against it at the polls.

He said resources had been invested in developing the system and in training people for the use of the technology, “but the ruling party wants to scatter everything because it is running away from defeat.”

Tinubu said the economy is in a mess, after 16 years of PDP leadership of the country.

He urged the electorate to vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates, saying the naira, which exchanged for less than N100 to a dollar in 1999, is now over N230 to a dollar and young graduates have no jobs.

Senator Oluremi Tinubu, who spoke on the theme: “Treading the Path to Prosperity”, reviewed the journey that began in 2011 when she was elected into the Senate to represent the Lagos Central District, saying the series of town hall meetings have afforded

‘We‘re addressing food complaints

by IDPs’

‘This is a vote of clean hands; you must wash your hands before you go for the election, so that the machine can be able to identify your fingerprints’ her the opportunity of getting positive feedbacks and consistent support from her constituents.

Mrs. Tinubu said the last 16 years of PDP rule reduced the nation to a state of anarchy and that Nigerians were inundated with reports of horrendous killings and kidnappings.

“There is a progressive failure in Nigeria under the watch of the ruling PDP. In the failed state index of 2013, conducted by the Fund for Peace, Nigeria was ranked as the 16th failed state of the 177 countries surveyed. The survey listed Nigeria after countries as Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Iraq.

“The indicators that were

used in the ranking include: massive movement of refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), vengeanceseeking group, grievance, chronic and sustained human flight, uneven economic development, progressive deterioration of public services, violation of human rights and rule of law, security apparatus and intervention of external actors,” she said.

Senator Tinubu said it was the collective desire of Nigerians for change that led to the formation of the APC. The APC, she said, was aware of the need for change and for creativity in governance, if the country must reverse the tide and restore its economic fortunes.

Service.

“Of course, population is key for the National Population Commission. We are thinking of how to go for another head count. And every country wants to know the exact population for the purpose of planning and all that.

“I believe it is a good team and listening to your citations all of you are eminently qualified to hold any office in this country. And we believe that you will join us to serve our nation.”

T •Asiwaju Tinubu

“This is the opportunity we have. We must continue to fight until our people are liberated. Our people have the right to live in an atmosphere or in a country where everybody can have access to education, access to power (electricity), access to good health and access to infrastructural development. Until we have all that, we don’t have a country,” she noted.

HE National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has said it is addressing complaints of food shortages at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in Maiduguri through weekly intervention.

NEMA’s Northeast Coordinator Alhaji Muhammad Kanar spoke yesterday at an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Maiduguri.

He said the aim of the exercise was to ensure that the materials supplied by the agency get to the IDPs. “We realised that there is a gap in the camps in the area of food supply, leading to persistent complaints by the displaced persons.

“So, we have decided that henceforth, we will be supplying varieties of materials, including foodstuffs to each IDPs camp on a weekly basis,’’ he said.

6

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

NEWS UN threatens to prosecute promoters of violence From Eric Ikhilae, Abuja

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HE United Nations (UN) yesterday warned that it would ensure the prosecution of any Nigerian politician, who promotes violence before, during and after the nation’s elections.

It urged major political actors to remain committed to the Abuja Peace Accord and ensure its implementation by their political parties.

The UN praised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for its preparations so far.

UN’s Under-Secretary for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, spoke for the global body in Abuja yesterday in the company of the UN’s Secretary General’s High Level Representative to Nigeria, Mohammed Ibn Chambas.

Feltman, who completed a twoday official visit to the country yesterday, said after meeting with key stakeholders in the nation’s electoral process, he was convinced that many of them appreciate the need for a violence-free election and pledged to work towards it.

“I encourage the political, electoral and security actors to continue working together to create an environment conducive for a violencefree and credible elections, and ensure that all Nigerians can freely exercise their constitutional right to vote, including those displaced by violence in the Northeast.

“I urge political actors, particularly the candidates, to resolve any electoral disputes through existing legal and constitutional means.

“Especially, given the important role Nigeria plays in the region and globally, the international community is closely watching the elections in Nigeria and that any persons responsible for violence will be held accountable.”

“In the view of the UN, INEC has made noteworthy progress in the preparations for the elections, including the distribution of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and the testing of card readers, despite the tight schedule and logistical challenges’’.

FEC approves National Conference report From Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja

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HE Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting yesterday approved the final report of the National Conference held in Abuja last year.

It also approved recommendations on policy matters for implementation by federal agencies, state agencies and local government areas.

Secretary to the Government of the Federation Senator Anyim Pius Anyim and Minister of Culture and Tourism Edem Duke spoke to State House correspondents at the end of the FEC meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan.

Anyim said: “The National Conference report came to council today.

You will recall that barely one year ago, Mr. President inaugurated the Conference and that at the end of their seating, the Conference came up with a report and submitted the report to him.

“You will also recall that the Conference came up with modalities for implementing their resolutions or recommendations. And I think it is the highpoint of that effort. They not only came up with recommendations, they not only agreed on basic measures, they also recommended to government on how to implement those recommendations and resolutions.

“Let me add that what happened in council today was for the council to approve that those modalities be adopted in implementing the report.”

He also said the President after receiving the report set up a committee under the chairmanship of the attorney general of the federation to look into it.’’

From left: Obi of Onitsha Igwe Nnayelugo Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe, Senator Olabiyi Durojaiye and Mr. Rasheed Adejare Olaoluwa at the 20th Annual Lecture, Awards of Stephen Oluwole Awokoya Foundation for Service Education at the Muson Centre, Onika, Lagos...yesterday.

Guest speaker at the lecture and Head of Department of Hematology, University of Ibadan, Prof. Yetunde Aken’Ova. PHOTOS: RAHMAN SANUSI

Polls: APC raises alarm over booby traps

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RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to summon the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Chairman Attahiru Jega to a meeting that was not attended by other political parties in Abuja on Tuesday was part of moves to compromise the integrity of the electoral commission.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) spoke yesterday in a statement in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

The party said it was wrong for the President, who is also a candidate in the elections, to summon the electoral umpire at will, especially when such meetings were populated by his appointees.

The statement reads: ‘’Without the representatives of other political parties attending such meetings, irrespective of whether or not it is aimed at briefing security chiefs on the preparations for the polls, the ruling PDP and its presidential candidate are seeking to gain undue advantage over others ahead of the elections. ‘’It is like the referee in a football

•Cautions Jonathan against summoning Jega

By Bola Olajuwon

match meeting with key officials of one of the teams ahead of the match.

This is against the spirit of transparency and fairness and must stop forthwith. ‘’Had the representatives of other political parties apart from the PDP (the President is the leader of the PDP) attended the meeting, the widespread speculations that Jega’s life and job were threatened if he fails to drop the use of the card reader, as well as circulating reports that he will be removed before Saturday, would not have happened.”

Whatever briefings must be given by the INEC chairman on the elections, APC said, must have in attendance the representatives of all the political parties to participate in the elections.

The party decried clandestine meetings between some key Presidency and INEC officials with a view to rigging the elections, warning the Presidency to steer clear of the elec-

toral officials if indeed they are desirous of free, fair, credible and peaceful elections.

Also yesterday, the party said the Presidency and the PDP must not be allowed to profit from their sponsorship of ethnic militias, including Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and Odua Peoples Congress (OPC), to create chaos and violence before, during and after the elections.

It said the plot by the two groups was to make the country ‘’so unsafe before the polls that members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), who are supposed to serve as electoral officials, would “simply say they can no longer participate in the elections because they fear for their lives”. ‘’This will simply truncate the elections and trigger a constitutional crisis, the exact scenario being plotted by the Jonathan administration and the PDP to allow them to either perpetuate themselves in office or in-

PDP driving Nigeria into underdevelopment, says Buhari

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From Tony Akowe, Abuja

sive parties for their concern about the fate of the country, saying: “I honestly appreciate how you arrived at this decision to co-operate with us in this election. This decision is very patriotic. We have to appreciate the stage we are in. We have to realise that we can save the system and our country, if we come together.

“We challenge the PDP. Let them account for their stay in power for 16 years, in terms of the fundamental objectives we have been talking about, in the three most important aspects we have been talking about - security, economy and corruption.

“We have been very consistent about these issues. But people who are sitting on the periphery have kept on making noise and wasting our time.

Let them come and defend themselves in what they have done in the last 16 years; with the incredible resources they made within this period, the incredible resources this country realised within this period, which is much more than what the country made since the amalgamation in 1914.

You can get this record from the Central Bank.

“The type of money we made in the last 16 years and yet we have never made it before. We used to have Nigeria Airways, Nigeria Shipping Line, Nigeria Railways etc. But what do we have now? Look at the state of our Naira. Now, you have to get N220 for a dollar. How can we develop under

No vacation for me in politics, says Atiku

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•13 political parties to team up with APC HE All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, said yesterday that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had succeeded in driving the nation several decades into severe underdevelopment.

Speaking when he received members of a coalition of 13 political parties in Abuja, the APC flagbearer said it was an irony that despite the huge money accruing to the PDP government since 1999, it had nothing to show for it.

According to him, the money that accrued to the country in the last 16 years of PDP administration could not be compared to what the country earned since the 1914 amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates by the British colonial masters.

Asking well-meaning Nigerians to rescue the country by voting out the PDP at the polls, Buhari said the funds generated by the country under the PDP-led administration were filtered away due to corrupt practices and wastefulness.

He added that the inability of the government to provide basic amenities as roads, functional railway, shipping line, hospital, schools and the free fall in the exchange rate of the Naira were clear indicators of the inability of the PDP-led government to make effective use of the nation’s earnings over the years.

He praised members of the progres-

stall an interim government,’’ APC said.

It said another booby trap on the path of holding the elections as rescheduled was the pending court cases against the use of the Card Reader by INEC. ‘’Nigerians should note that nothing is yet guaranteed as far as the holding of the rescheduled elections is concerned. The Jonathan administration and the PDP are still shopping for a court judgment to declare the use of the Card Reader unconstitutional, just because they are now painfully aware that Nigerians have rejected them and their party. ‘’We are, therefore, calling on all our compatriots to be more vigilant in the next few days to the elections.

We are also alerting local and foreign observers, and the international community, to the ongoing shenanigans by the Jonathan administration and the PDP to scuttle the polls,’’ APC said.

•Gen. Buhari

this system?

“We appreciate the stage we are in our political development. We have been sentenced to underdevelopment by the PDP. So, we do appreciate the role you are playing right now.

“Our survival as a nation depends on our coming together and I insist that there must be free, fair and credible elections. Anybody who will interfere with this, Nigeria will survive, in spite of what they are doing now.”

Speaking on behalf of the parties, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Movement, Alhaji Yusuf Bashir Ibrahim, said they were ready to collaborate with the APC towards ensuring the conduct of free and fair elections.

Ibrahim, who noted the unsuccessful bid to halt the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from postponing the February 14 election, assured that the group would not leave any stone unturned in rallying Nigerians to exert pressure on INEC not to compromise the integrity of the general election.

ORMER Vice President and All Progressives Congress (APC) leader Atiku Abubakar has said the demands of Nigeria of today cannot afford him the luxury of a vacation from politics.

He spoke in a reaction to the claims by an aide to President Goodluck Jonathan that he (Atiku) was on sabbatical, and would soon return to the ruling PDP. But, Atiku, in a statement by his media office in Abuja, emphasised that “the nature of his politics is full time and leaves no room for a vacation”.

The statement reads: “You know, it’s funny how some people put politics and vacation in the same sentence.

Let me assure you: politics is a serious business, it is hard work, and for me at least, it is more than a full time job.

“I really don’t know how you can seriously think of taking a vacation, in a country as ours, with the politics we have.

“As a patriot and democrat, I’m always seeking what is best for Nigeria. I did that when we built the great assemblage of the finest men and women under the umbrella of the PDP to get rid of the generals; I did that when I left and returned to the PDP, and I did that when I helped to turn the APC into a serious opposition party.

“When I toured our country, and listened to the hopes, fears, and expectations of Nigerians from all walks of life, I said the APC is the final bus stop, and that it is the end of the line.

Because it is, for me.”

Atiku, however, acknowledges that “on the long walk to democracy, you may come to a point where you have to go where no buses have gone.

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

7

NEWS Woman rescued in Ogun

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HE Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Ogun State has rescued a kidnapped woman, Mrs. Abosede Adenuga and arrested one of the suspected abductors, Tunde Akilo.

The victim, abducted on Monday in Lagos at 10:30 pm, was rescued by SARS operatives when the gang was heading to Ijebu in Ogun State.

The gang ran into an ambush laid by SARS at Imodi

From Ernest Nwokolo, Abeokuta

Ijasi on the Ijebu-Ode/Ikorodu Road.

The kidnappers attempted to escape on a bike but were pursued by the police on a motorcycle.

Police spokesman Olumuyiwa Adejobi said a cutto-size double barrel gun, with live cartridges, a Volkswagen car, marked MUS 471 AU and charms were recovered from them.

Police kill ‘cultist’ in Ondo

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HE police in Ondo State yesterday said it killed one cult member and arrested two others in an early operation at Igbokoda, Ilaje Local Government Area.

Police spokesman Wole Ogodo said the deceased, identified as Seun and others, shot at the Special Anti-Cultism Squad (SAS), which responded in self defence.

Ogodo said: “What transpired yesterday was that one of them was arrested and taken to Akure for investigation.

“He led SAS officers to Se-

From Damisi Ojo, Akure

un’s house in Igbokoda.

When the operation leader,ASP Raimi Seidu, knocked on his door, his wife came out.

“He (Seun) ran through the back door and took his AK 47 rifle with double magazine and started shooting at the police and in self defence, they shot him dead.”

Recovered from them were one unregistered Nissan Primera car, 46 inches plasma television, one motorcycle, fan, six mobile phones and AK 47 rifle.

‘Abuja Peace Accord dead’ From Adesoji Adeniyi, Osogbo

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HE All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State has said the “Peace Accord” signed by presidential candidates - President Goodluck Jonathan, Mohammadu Buhari and others - in Abuja is dead.

The party said: “If the serial violence orchestrated by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the East to the North Central and the Southwest are dependable indicators, then that accord is virtually valueless and of little consequence to the peace process being canvassed by international and local peacemakers.

The party’s spokesperson, Kunle Oyatomi, said: “It would appear that President Goodluck Jonathan has completely lost control.

“A President committed to a peaceful engagement would not encourage his supporters to bear arms in the streets of Lagos in support of the PDP. “Besides, he would not tolerate the PDP vandalism against the wives of the APC presidential candidates in Ilorin, while his own wife, notorious for her hate speeches against the APC, gallivants across Nigeria insulting the APC.”

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Islamic leaders disown Jonathan’s endorsement in Ondo

HERE is rumpus among Southwest Muslims as the “leadership” of the Muslim Ummah in Southwest, Edo and Delta states yesterday backed the second term bid of President Goodluck Jonathan.

This appears to be in defiance of the orders given by the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) and the Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria (MUSWEN) not to meet with politicians until after the elections.

The ‘endorsement’was done at an interactive meeting with Vice-President Namadi Sambo in Akure, the Ondo State capital. The meeting was convened by Governor Olusegun Mimiko.

The Islamic leaders, led by the Secretary-General, League of Imams and Alfas, South West, Edo and Delta states, Sheik Ahmad Aladesawe, decried the neglect of Southwest Muslims in the Jonathan administration.

Reading the resolutions, Mimiko’s Senior Special Assistant on Special Duties Sodiq Obanoyen said after looking at Jonathan’s achievements, the Muslim community agreed that he deserved another term.

He noted that as Muslims, they have the right to dialogue with any person, particular those who seek their support, adding that the invitation gave Muslims the

•No genuine Muslim was there, says MUSWEN WEN’s Executive Secretary From Tajudeen Adebanjo and Leke Akeredolu

opportunity to discuss issues affecting them with the Presidency.

“We, the Muslims in the Southwest, are still largely marginalised in political patronage and appointments.

“Our people are well read, we have political sophistication and we are willing to work for our dear country.

“We, therefore, appeal through the Vice President to Mr. President that political patronage and appointments must be commensurate with the number of people.”

Sambo solicited the votes of the Muslim community, saying the present administration had implemented policies for the benefit of Nigerians.

Mimiko said Christians and Muslims had been living in peace in the Southwest.

At the event were Senator Iyiola Omisore, former Ekiti State Deputy Governor Tai Lawal, Chief Imam of Delta State, Abdul Rasheed Ahmad, Chief Imam of Osogbo, Rabiu Animasaun, Chief Iman of Ekiti, Bello Keulere, among others.

In a swift reaction, MUS-

Prof Dawud Noibi; Chief Imam of Ibadanland, who is the president-general, League of Imams and Alfas Southwest, Edo and Delta states, Sheikh Baosari Haruna and Chairman, Muslim Community of Oyo State, Alhaji Ishaq Kunle disowned the Akure meeting.

They described it as an Ondo affair, which has nothing to do with the leadership of the Muslim Ummah in Southwest, Edo and Delta states.

Noibi, who spoke though the MUSWEN’s Media Consultant, Alhaji Femi Abbas, said MUSWEN leadership decided not to meet any politician or political party because its aware of desperate moves by unscrupulous politicians to break the rank and file of the Muslims in Southwest.

He said: “There was no prominent Imam from the Southwest at the meeting because we all agreed not to be part of such a clandestine move; no Chief Imam from Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun attended the meeting except for the Chief Imam of Owo, who doubles as the Ondo State Muslim Community chairman and as secretary general, League of Imams and Al-

fas Southwest, Edo and Delta states, Alhaji Sheikh Ahmad Aladesawe.

“Aladesawe is only playing Mimiko’s card; he did that for his own interest.”

Haruna described the meeting as politically-motivated.

He denied sending a representative to the meeting.

“I am in Ibadan as we speak. I never asked anybody to represent me. Whoever said he represented me at the meeting is an impostor; he should be arrested and be prosecuted.

“Whatever benefits such person received either in cash or kind will not be useful to him,” he said.

Sanni dared any Imam at the meeting to campaign for President Jonathan on the Minbar, if he will not be stoned.

“Those who went there are dollar-hungry clerics; they dare not come out and tell the public their mission at the meeting, else they will be stoned.

“We understand Sheikh Aladesawe was under pressure from Governor Mimiko to support Jonathan.

“Jonathan has forgotten so soon how he treated the Muslims during the composition of the National Conference, now he is running from post to pillar, seeking our support,” he said.

Ekiti OPC members condemn rally

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EMBERS of the Oodua Peoples

Congress (OPC) in Ekiti State have dissociated themselves from the protest against the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, in Lagos.

The rally was spearheaded by the OPC National Coordinator, Gani Adams, who has endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan.

The Ekiti OPC members also said they boycotted the Lagos rally in solidarity with their leader, Niyi Adedipe, also known as Apase, who is remanded in Ado-Ekiti prisons.

Adedipe was accused of complicity in the killing of former state Chairman of the

From Odunayo Ogunmola, Ado-Ekiti

National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Omolafe Aderiye, last September 25.

The Ekiti OPC Deputy Coordinator, Olowo Oladele, said they were standing by their leader, Adedipe, whom he said Adams had forsaken.

Oladele said Ekiti OPC members could not be lured with a “bogus and questionable” pipeline security contract to attend a jamboree in Lagos when their state leader is languishing in jail.

He said: “Our members are not interested in any pipeline contract or any filthy lucre for that matter.

“What we are interested in is how our leader, Apase, will be released from the prisons.”

Chief judge seeks fiiscal autonomy

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HIEF Judge of Lagos State Justice Oluwafunmilayo Atilade has appealed to the House of Assembly to assist in pushing for financial autonomy for the Judiciary and the appointment of more judges.

She said Lagos State Judiciary was groaning under gross inadequate fund allocation.

According to her, 70 per cent of the institution’s budget was spent on debt servicing.

Justice Atilade made the

By Oziegbe Okoeki

request when she visited the Speaker, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, in his office yesterday.

She urged the Assembly to give the judiciary the privilege of being part of the lawmaking process.

Ikuforiji promised to ensure that the judiciary was fairly treated in its quest for financial autonomy.

He assured the chief judge that the House would look into the need to appoint more judges.

•Southwest coordinator, Buhari/Osinbajo Presidential Campaign, Governor Rauf Aregbesola flanked by former Osun StateGovernor Olagunsoye Oyinlola (left) and Elende of Eko-Endeland, Oba Rauf Adebayo Omoniyi, during an All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign rally at Eko-Ende, Odo-Otin Local Government Area...yesterday.

Medical tourism bad for our image, says Fashola

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AGOS State Governor Babatunde Fashola yesterday decried the practice of flying presidents abroad for medical attention, stressing that the trend diminishes the nation’s image.

Fashola, who spoke at the inauguration of the 60-bed Cardiac and Renal Centre (CRC) within the Gbagada General Hospital Complex, said flying the late former President Musa Yar’ Adua to Saudi Arabia was a low point in Nigeria’s history.

“We could have built one with all the petro-dollars. The Federal Government does not understand that it diminishes our image every time the head of government travels abroad for medical care.

“I’m not saying that all the specialist hospitals should be built here. In most countries, the best hospitals are military hospitals where the President gets treatment. Our military hospitals used to be like that.

•Inaugurates 60-bed Cardiac and Renal Centre

By Miriam Ekene-Okoro and Oyeyemi Gbenga-Mustapha

“What is the ailment that a Nigerian president goes to treat abroad that a Nigerian hospital built by him cannot handle?”

Explaining the need for the centre, the governor said government should stop sponsoring Nigerians, who are ill, abroad with taxpayers’ money.

“There were 42 cardiac cases and 28 renal cases that benefited from the gesture of compassion from the Ministry of Health. There were also 11 patients sponsored for kidney transplant, dialysis and post-transplant immunosuppressants at St Nicholas Hospital in Lagos,” he said.

The governor said the hospital has 24 dialysis bed stations, 20 beds for recovery and general ward use, two

high dependency wards with five beds each, four post-surgery beds, two cathlab beds and two surgical theatres built to the most contemporary standard to cater for the critically ill.

“There are two lecture rooms for students but one of the fascinating facilities is the surgical theatre, where kidneys and hearts can be removed and transplanted.

“There are cameras fitted into the surgical scumps, which project images and voices of what is happening in the theatre to the lecture rooms on the ground floor. The centre is an extension of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH).’’

On managing the facility, Fashola said Renescor Team, a multi-dimensional consortium of Nigerian and American doctors and nurses, had been engaged as concession-

aire, adding that it would manage and maintain the hospital for the next five years with an option of renewal.

“As at today, we have recruited 32 medical workers who are on ground. Seventeen are local; eight are Indians, seven are Nigerians in Diaspora, who returned home full time.

“Twelve other Nigerians in Diaspora have signed on to come home on rotation and 50 Nigerian specialists in Diaspora would be coming on a permanent rotation.

“The negotiations took almost a year but they assured us first that our students and doctors will be able to train here.

“They also assured me that there will be no strikes in this hospital because critically-ill people can never be left alone.”

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

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NEWS Groups seek Mbu’s sack

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WO groups- De Raufs and the Eko Volunteer Campaign Group (EVCG)- yesterday called for the sack of the Assistant Inspector-General of Police Joseph Mbu for his alleged failure to stop the open display of brigandage by members of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) on Monday.

Members of the outlawed group, in a pro-Goodluck Jonathan protest, wielded arms under security cover, harassing motorists and causing traffic jam.

At a media briefing in Lagos addressed by De Raufs’ Lagos State chairman Olaitan Adeniyi, the groups said Mbu, in charge of Zone 2, was unable “to control illegal display and use of firearms” by the OPC members.

They urged the InspectorGeneral of Police Suleiman Abba to check OPC’s activi-

By Joseph Jibueze

ties before it turns to a terror organisation.

De Raufs and EVCG also condemned the award of contracts to militant groups to protect oil and gas pipelines, saying the Armed Forces should be equipped to do so.

They urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to succumb to pressure to abandon the use of Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) and Card Readers, saying only those bent on rigging would kick against their use.

They rejected further postponement of the polls, and condemned the appointment of Musiliu Obanikoro as minister.

Adeniyi praised former President Olusegun Obasanjo for denouncing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Okrika: APC petitions rights’ body, police

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HE All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has petitioned the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Suleiman Abba, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) about plots to attack its members in Okrika and Ogu/Bolo local government areas.

The party accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of plotting to either arrest or eliminate its leaders and supporters in Okrika and Ogu/ Bolo local government areas,

From Eric Ikhilae, Abuja, and Bisi Olaniyi, Port Harcourt

using security agencies.

The petition was authored and signed by Chairmen of the APC in both councils, Christian Asifamaka (Okrika) and Israel Iboms (Ogu/Bolo).

They alleged that 10 party leaders in both local governments might be kidnapped before the elections.

The petition, dated March 17 was titled: “RE: Threat to peaceful elections in Okrika and Ogu/Bolo Local Govern-

ment Areas of Rivers State, Nigeria.”

It said: “Now, the PDP and its Abuja authority have finalised plans to prevent the APC in these LGAs from voting in the elections.

“This they intended by using security agencies to arrest our leaders, party agents and community leaders sympathetic to APC a few days before the elections on false charges.”

They urged the NHRC to investigate their complaints because threats against the

leaders and sympathisers were real and should not be ignored.

They said the police did not respond to their earlier complaints of serial attacks on the party’s offices and rallies.

“Based on the above and judging from the antecedents of the source of these threats, we urge you to take steps to prevent further violation of our rights. We pray you to investigate and bring perpetrators to justice”, the petitioners said.

Nobody can stop Jonathan’s re-election, says wife

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IRST Lady Dame Patience Jonathan yesterday said nobody could stop the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Speaking during the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Women Presidential Campaign in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, yesterday, Mrs Jonathan said Nigeria had witnessed tremendous development under Jonathan.

The rally attracted women from the 23 local government areas. The women filled the Liberation Stadium in Port Harcourt, singing pro-Jonathan and PDP songs.

She said despite the negative propaganda by the All Progressives Congress (APC), the positive contri-

butions of Jonathan in critical areas have enhanced the standard of living of the people.

She urged the people to vote for the PDP governorship candidate, Nyesom Wike and other PDP candidates.

Mrs Jonathan said: “The PDP is the right party for Nigeria and Rivers State.

President Jonathan and the PDP will win the next elections. Nobody can stop the PDP as it is the party loved

by Nigerians.”

Wike assured the First Lady that the state would be delivered to Jonathan and the PDP. PDP National Women Leader Dr Kema Chikwe said the people believe in Jonathan’s ability to continue with his good work.

We’re not biased, say Rivers Police

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IVERS State Commissioner of Police Dan Bature has said his men are not biased against any political party.

Bature, in a statement in Port Harcourt, the state capital yesterday, said: “While I do not intend to dignify the false alarms raised in the recent press briefing by the state government, it is necessary to put records straight.

“The allegation of the purported plan to arrest

From Rosemary Nwisi, Port Harcourt

307 leaders of a political party is nothing but a ploy to whip up public sympathy. The command has no plans to arbitrarily arrest anybody. Anyone who is not planning to cause or foster violence or breach the public peace has no cause to fear or raise false alarm.

“We should be mindful of the fact that security issues are not matters for comic entertainment.”

Community gets maternity centre

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SSO Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited ( EEPNL), an affiliate of Exxon Corporation and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), on Tuesday inaugurated the Maternity Referral Centre at Eruku, Kwara State.

Estimated at over N160 million, the state-of-the-art health centre has modern equipment and will enjoy a 24-hour power, with the installation of a solar system.

The centre, with a brand new ambulance in case of emergencies, was built and equipped by EEPNL and the NNPC. Group Medical Director, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, Dr Mohammed Bello Aliyu said: “The Maternity Referral Centre will support the commu-

nity and the state by decreasing the infant and under-five mortality rate, reducing pregnancy-related deaths, improving the health outcomes of premature and lowbirth-weight babies, decreasing the number of disabilities and increasing lifetime productivity.”

He hailed the state government for partnering Esso/NNPC. Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed hailed EEPNL, NNPC and all partners in the health sector for working with the state to build a beneficial health system for the people.

Founder and President of the Wellbeing Foundation, Mrs Toyin Saraki hailed the EEPNL and its development partners for their selflessness in building the maternity centre in Kwara.

A patient being assisted as he prepares for the free eye surgery.

Emir to the rich: use your wealth to help people

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MIR of Zaria Alhaji Shehu Idris has urged the rich to use their wealth to improve the lives of the poor, as volunteer ophthalmologists conducting free eye treatment in the ancient town yesterday began major eye surgeries.

At the 10-day free eye treatment for 10,000 people, sponsored by the Ramatu Ibironke Babalakin Foundation to mark his 40th anniversary on the throne, the monarch said: “The people are happy be-

•Monarch, Babalakin tackle eye problems cause their lives are about to change. This is a good thing that the rich should emulate to improve the lives of the poor.

Dr Wale Babalakin should continue to use his wealth to help the poor, especially in terms of health care.”

The doctors plan to perform 100 surgeries daily at the Hajiya Gambo Sawaba General Hospital, Kofan Gayan.

Hundreds of visually-impaired persons have been

trooping to the Institute of Child Health, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Banzazzau, where they are being screened and treated.

Those in need of refraction are given glasses free-of-charge.

The medical team is headed

by Dr. Shola Bob-Egbe. Also on the team are Dr. Kayode Ojutiku and Dr. U. U. Iheanacho of the National Institute of Ophthalmology, Kaduna.

At the opening ceremony,

the emir said he felt one of the significant ways to mark his 40th year on the throne was to impact positively on the lives of his people by addressing their health problems.

Thanking RIBF for making the project a reality and the volunteer doctors for their services, the monarch urged his subjects to take advantage of the opportunity and follow the doctors’ instructions.

Oshiomhole urges probe of hotel worker’s death

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DO State Governor Adams Oshiomhole has urged the police to probe the circumstances leading to the death of Chibuike Ede, an employee of a Five-Star hotel in the state, who was accused of theft and died in their custody.

Speaking to the family and friends of the deceased, who staged a protest to the Government House, Oshiomhole said: “Let me thank you for coming to the Government House to lay your complaint in a peaceful manner despite the pains in your heart and the murder of your son, your brother and our comrade. I read about this yesterday and the impression I was given was that he was handed over to the Police.

“Whether or not the young man was a thief, whether or not the money was found on him or he threw it across the wall is not the issue. There is a law; there is procedure to be followed to probe alleged stealing, even alleged murder.

The police can listen to complaint from anyone who has cause to complain or report theft or any crime or suspected crime to the police.

“The responsibility of the police stops at arresting and investigating a suspect.

They do not have the right to kill, to maim, to brutalise and to murder anybody.

That is not acceptable. The responsibility of the police in our constitution is clear; to protect life and property and they are law enforcement agencies, they are not to execute people who are suspected of crimes. They are to arraign suspects in court and ensure that suspects are prosecuted according to our laws.

“Nothing empowers anyone, whether the President, the governor, the police commissioner, the AIG, none of us has the right to order the killing or condone the killing of any Nigerian, even if that Nigerian is a known criminal, only the court can do so.

The spokesman of the family Mr. Tochukwu Ede, said: “Some days ago, this boy that was brutally slaughtered, Chibuike went to work at the hotel. He called around 5 pm that he had been arrested for allegedly stealing N42,000. This is the same boy that has worked in the hotel for two years now and they pay him N40,000 every month of which N10,000 is removed every month as savings for them.

They said the boy stole money, yet they did not deduct the money from his savings with them, which is over N200,000, instead they arrested him.

“On getting to the station, we gathered money to give to the hotel management so the boy could be released and they said it was no longer N42,000 naira but N48,000.

We went and looked for the remaining N6,000 only to return and be told the boy was dead. We went around doing our own investigation, this was a boy that was in-

•Oshiomhole

side police custody but his body was found at Imaguero College.

“The police PRO said the boy confessed to the crime.

This is a boy that worked in the hotel for two years that they gave best staff award, a boy that returned $3,000 in the same hotel; the same boy you said stole N48,000.

They said he was knocked down by a vehicle, yet we didn’t see the vehicle or the driver. We made investigation on Sapele road and gathered that nothing of this nature happened there.

They brutally murdered an innocent boy that had a promising future.”

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

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THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

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NEWS ‘No Southwest votes for Jonathan’ From Bisi Oladele, Ibadan

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HE All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State has admonished President Goodluck Jonathan to dwell more on his achievements, rather than offering gratification to individuals and pledging to implement the report of the National Conference.

In a statement by its Director of Publicity and Strategy, Olawale Sadare, the APC described the development as antics from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) .

The statement reads: “It is on record that the Jonathan conference was hurriedly packaged to calm some frayed nerves, offer patronage to some opportunists and waste the nation’s resources.

“He got the purported reports of the conference and all he did was to set up a technical committee to study it and advise him. Almost a year after, nothing has been done on it.

“It is electioneering period and President Jonathan feels the best bait with which he could use to hook the Southwest is to promise that the conference reports would be implemented, if he is re-elected.

“It is laughable to hear President Jonathan offer creation of new states rather tell the people what he has done in the last six years to qualify him for another mandate of four years. “

Budget defence hearing in Oyo

•Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi (arrowed) acknowledging cheers from party faithful at an All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign rally at Mapo in Ibadan ...yesterday.

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From Tayo Johnson, Ibadan

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YO State House of Assembly will today begin the 2015 budget defence hearing by Ministries, Agencies and Departments.

A statement by the Chairman Committee on Public Account, Finance and Appropriation, Olusegun Olaleye, said all the concerned government agencies should appear before lawmakers with copies of their budgets.

Olaleye implored all invited government agencies to follow the timetable of appearances as earlier forwarded to them.

The venue is the Parliamentary Caucus Room of the House of Assembly, Parliament Building, Secretariat, Ibadan.

‘No romance with Jonathan’

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HE Olu of Ilaro, Oba Kehinde Olugbenle, has denied that he is among traditional rulers who are campaigning for President Goodluck Jonathan.

A statement yesterday by his Personal Assistant, Bolaji Leigh, said it was wrong to include his name without his consent.

“The Paramount Ruler of Yewaland hereby clarifies for the avoidance of doubt and record that he was not aware of such assignment and in fact has never met with the monarchs.

“It is very untraditional in Yorubaland and not in the character of the very revered and respected Olu of Ilaro to accept assignment on the pages of newspaper or by text messages from faceless characters,” Leigh said.

Ekiti APC hails police chief for allowing rally

HE All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has praised the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Taiwo Lakanu, for granting the party the permit to hold its March for Buhari rally scheduled for next Monday.

The party said Governor Ayo Fayose is angry with the police boss for granting it the permission..

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Its Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, alleged in a statement yesterday that the governor was shocked that the police chief granted APC permission to hold its rally.

“We have it on good authority that the governor fumed on learning that the commissioner of police

granted our request to hold a rally for our presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari.

“The governor castigated the man, insisting on disrupting the rally whenever it is held, but we commend the police chief for standing up to the governor that he had acted in accordance with the law,” Olatubosun

explained.

The APC spokesman urged the governor to start learning the democratic culture of tolerance and imbibe conduct expected of a modern man.

“We continue to wonder why this governor is proving to Nigerians daily that he is not fit for a civil and decent society.

Two robbery suspects killed in Ekiti

HE police in Ekiti State yesterday killed two robbery suspects after a shoot-out with operatives of the Special AntiRobbery Squad (SARS) on Ilawe-Ikere-Igbara Odo road.

The bodies were paraded at the state police command headquarters on Iyin Road before they were conveyed to the mortuary.

The suspects, who were four in a car, were stopped

by SARS men for a search but they reportedly opened fire on the policemen.

N

From Odunayo Ogunmola, Ado-Ekiti

From Odunayo Ogunmola, Ado-Ekiti

Two of them fled into the bush; the remaining two continued to engage the policemen in a gun duel.

One of the deceased, whose name was given as Ojo Sunday, allegedly specialised in attacking heavy duty vehicles.

He was said to have killed a trailer driver recently and has been on the police’s wanted list.

Police spokesman Alberto

Adeyemi said Sunday escaped from police custody last year.

Weapons found on them, according to Adeyemi, include a Russian style single barrel pump action, 25 cartridges, Bournvita cocoa drink, and some money.

The spokesman said Ojo recently attacked a trailer driver, but was caught during an investigation.

He added: “Ojo escaped on October 1, last year, by breaking the cell at night

and we have been on his trail.

But it was when the body was brought here that we were able to identify him and his accomplice.

“This year, Ojo and his accomplice, Michael Adedeji, robbed a trailer and sold about 600 bags of cements in Akure.

“We were able to recover them and we have been looking for them and other members of the gang because the vehicle they robbed is here with us.”

Senator Tinubu promises to sustain legacy

O fewer than 800 people attended yesterday the 14th edition of Senator Oluremi Tinubu’s Town Hall meeting at the Shell Hall, Muson Centre, Lagos.

The lawmaker introduced a Town Hall meeting in 2011 when she was inaugurated as a member of the seventh Senate.

These meetings have served as a feedback tactic and mechanism of accountability and responsibility to the constituents.

Senator Tinubu expressed satisfaction with the consciousness of the people, who made out time to attend the meeting.

She described the gesture as “one from true democrats who have the interest of the country at heart. That is the attitude expected of patriotic Nigerians, who deserve a good leader”.

The lawmaker added that the Town Hall meetings were a celebration of democ-

•Unveils book racy and feats that can be achieved if governance was brought to the grassroots and transparency and accountability made watchwords by those who lead.

Highlighting her previous 13 meetings with the themes “Stewardship of Hope”; “Hands on the Plough”; “Confronting our Challenges, Staying the Course”; “Collective Responsibility Catalyst For Development”; “The Elderly Our Society Treasure” to the last one themed “The Elderly in the eyes of Posterity”, she said these themes have been centered on hope, development and team work.

“We have had programmes and constituency initiatives that were designed to make a difference in the lives of our people and ultimately these have culminated into the path of prosperity.”

Senator Tinubu promised

to improve upon achievements launched at earlier meetings, which include “grant of scholarships and bursaries; recapitalisation and empowerment schemes; provision of financial assistance for senior citizens, widows and those at the crossroads of life as well as skill acquisition”.

She also promised in the days ahead, if re-elected, to continue on the path of nation building.

The lawmaker pledged to increase priority on matters relating to youths, public health, widows, prohibition of violence and the environment.

She also promised to sustain empowerment schemes, such as the Petty Traders Empowerment Capital Scheme (PETECS); Elderly Citizens Assistance Scheme (ECAS); Youth Empowerment and Skills Acquisition Scheme (YESAS); Good Boys and Girls Empowerment Scheme

(GBGES); Widows Economic Empowerment Scheme (WEES) , distribution of GCE forms and sponsorship of the Muniru Muse U-15 football competitions.

The high point of the event was the unveiling of her book titled: “Treading the Path to Prosperity”, which was reviewed by Senator Babafemi Ojudu.

The book was launched by a senatorial candidate of Lagos West, Adeola Solomon.

Treading the path to prosperity is a collection of her past town hall meetings.

At the event were the National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu; wife of APC’s presidential candidate Hajia Aisha Buhari; wife of APC’s vicepresidential candidate Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo; wife of Nasarawa State Governor Mrs Salamatu Al-Makura, Halima Buhari, Aisha Garba El-Rufai and others.

“He spent several weeks destroying our posters and billboards, including threats to the lives of our members by thugs,” the APC spokesman said.

The party spokesperson added that his activities had forced the party to petition the National Human Rights Commission and other relevant world bodies.

Schools shut in Ilase From Adesoji Adeniyi, Osogbo

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CHOOLS in Ilase community in Obokun Local government Area of Osun State have been closed down indefinitely by the government.

This followed violent attacks allegedly sponsored by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the All Progressives Congress (APC) supporters.

The attacks, which started last Sunday, have claimed one life and left many homeless and property worth millions destroyed.

At a briefing in Osogbo, the Chairman, APC Ijesa North Campaign Committee, Dr. Wale Bolorunduro, lamented the magnitude of violence being unleashed on APC loyalists.

According to him, many have fled the community “because of the PDP’s terror activities.”

Bolorunduro regretted that despite petitions and reports to the police, they have failed to make any arrest.

He said: “All of these attacks were reported to the police in the local governments where they occurred, it is on record that none of the individuals mentioned at the police stations have been arrested for questioning.

He said the situation has degenerated to a level that many APC supporters are fleeing to neighbouring local governments.

Bolorunduro displayed photographs of brutalised victims.

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

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BUSINESS THE NATION

E-mail:- bussiness@thenationonlineng.net

What does corporate governance do? It ensures that you have set up a structure and a culture within the institution that can drive the business in line with given rules. That’s what corporate governance does.

-Seplat Petroleum Managing Director Mr Austin Avuru

NCC begins 2.6GHz spectrum licensing

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HE Nigerian Commu nications Commission (NCC) said it has started the process that would culminate to the auction of licences in the 2.6gigahertz (GHz) spectrum band.

Its Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Dr. Eugene Juwah, who spoke in Abuja advised interested parties to look up the Information Memorandum (IM) on the Commission’s website and be guided accordingly.

He said the Federal Government would reap a minimum of $224 million from the auction, adding that the minimum slot for bidders would be four, while the maximum would be eight within the various spectrum

• Targets $224m revenue

By Lucas Ajanaku & Olaifa Blessing (Abuja)

chats available.

Juwah said if the business atmosphere is favourable, the Federal Government could reap more revenue from the auction, stressing that necessary arrangements have been concluded for a transparent and hitchfree exercise.

Represented by its Director, Public Affairs, Tony Ojobo, he said interested participants and stakeholders are expected to abide by the provisions of the IM.

Juwah said the spectrum auction was informed by the need to open up the space for the delivery of present and future generations of broadband services to subscribers in line with the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP) of 2013-2018.

He said the commission is determined to achieve 30 per cent penetration in broadband expansion in the country, stressing that the 2.6GHz to be auctioned and 2.3GHz earlier auctioned would operate alongside each other to make the 30 per cent broadband penetration in the country by 2018 a reality.

Federation Account: Govt denies owing states • President, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Mr Chidi Ajaegbu in warm handshake with the Chair, United Kingdom District of ICAN, Ms. Flora Njoku at the second UK-ICAN Conference in London.

Fed Govt okays N48.7b for new NDIC offices

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HE Federal Executive Council (FEC) yester day approved contracts totalling N48.7 billion for the construction of new corporate offices of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) in Abuja and Lagos.

The Minister of Culture and Tourism and outgoing Supervising Minister of Information, Edem Duke, told reporters at the end of the FEC meeting that the corporate head of-

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From Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja

fice annex of NDIC in Abuja would cost N14.7billion; Lagos office will cost N24.7billion; while its training centre in Lekki, Lagos would be constructed at a cost of N 9.3billion.

He said a N472.5 million contract was also approved for the purchase and distribution of tricycles (keke) to beneficiaries in Benue West Senatorial District,

as a constituency project.

The Minister of Works, Mike Onolomemen said FEC approved N23.6 billion contract for the dualisation of SulejaMinna road in Niger State while another contract for rehabilitation of Oshogbolu Oweto in Benue State at a cost of N7.9billion was also approved.

He said another contract of N7.1 billion for the reconstruction of Ningi - Mata road was also approved by FEC.

$182b laundered in nine years, says EFCC

HE Economic and Fi nancial Crimes Com mission (EFCC) has said in nine years, $182 billion was siphoned from the country and laundered.

Its Head, Legal and Prosecutions, Lagos Zonal Office, Kwarbai Latong who spoke yesterday at a media briefing in Lagos on anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism, said the figure was compiled by the United States based Global Financial Integrity, relying on data from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The forum was organised by The Intergovernmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA).

Latong said Nigeria ranked eight out of 20 countries notorious for illicit financial outflows, adding that the proceeds of money laundering are infused into the financial system

By Collins Nweze

and transferred to other locations and/or financial institutions followed by the integration of the funds into the legitimate economy as “clean” money in various business ventures and/or assets.

He said: “Financial crime is prevalent in all facets of the society, public and private, and exists in the political, economic, social, religious and cultural spheres. It has done the greatest harm to Africa’s economic, political and social development, undermining the legitimacy of public institutions. The illicit acquisition of wealth have had damaging effect on society, ethical values, justice, the rule of law and sustainable developments in Africa.”

He explained that money laundering also undermines the integrity of financial institutions and markets as laundered money ultimately flows into global financial systems adding that any country integrated into the international financial systems is at risk.

He added that an estimated $100 billion was corruptly exported from Nigeria between the mid 1980s and 1999 while more than $1 trillion illicit funds flowed into the United States annually through the international financial systems. He said this includes proceeds from drug trafficking and other forms of economic and financial crimes.

GIABA Director General, Adama Coulibaly said the possible social and political costs of money laundering, if left unchecked, are serious.

Jonathan appoints Ogungbesan FIRS acting chair

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RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan yesterday ap proved the appointment of Mr. Samuel Ogungbesan as Acting Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service

From Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja

(FIRS).

A Coordinating Director at FIRS, he replaces Alhaji Kabiru Mashi who has served

as acting Executive Chairman of the agency since 2012.

His appointment, according to a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, takes immediate effect.

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HE Federal Govern ment has denied alle gations that it is owing state governments from the Federation Account thus preventing the states from meeting their statutory obligations like paying salaries to their workers.

Addressing journalists at the end of the monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting in Abuja yesterday, the Mi

From Nduka Chiejina (Asst. Editor)

usher of State for Finance and Chairman of FAAC, Ambassador Bashir Yuguda, said no state is owed a kobo from the federation account.

Yuguda said there is a sharing formula used every month to share accruals into the federation account, adding that the formula is followed religiously.

He stressed that the states even got more than they bargained for this month from the sharing of the N45 billion foreign exchange rate differentials.

Yuguda urged state governments to plug leakages in their states as well as prioritise projects. He, however, commended the states for doing their best under the current challenging circumstances.

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COMMENTARY LETTER

EDITORIALS

For accountability’s sake Nigerians have the right to know how defence ministry spends its security vote?s

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S it proper to jettison transparency and accountability under the guise of managing the affairs of the nation’s defence ministry? That is the message being passed across by the Ministry of Defence that got appropriated funds for security vote but seems not ready to give account of how the vote was spent. But, we consider as cheering the insistence by the Senate Committee on Defence and Army to unearth how the ministry spent over N1.275 billion security vote budget in its 2014 fiscal year.

Senator George Sekibo, Chairman, Senate Committee on Defence, was unsparing as he pointed out discrepancies in the fund appropriated for the ministry, especially under the subhead of security vote, including operations/ration and allowances for Brigade of Guards. He wondered what could account for ‘duplication since Service Wide Vote, which was provided for in the year under review, covered the issue of security vote for Brigade of Guards.’ Sekibo’s committee also discovered the glitch showing that the ministry always brings to the new budget the same items that were budgeted and supplied in the previous year. The committee, ostensibly in the bid to get to the root of the matter subsequently called off consideration of the ministry’s 2015 budget proposal because of disparity in figure as the ones with the ministry was different from the figure with the committee.’

Like the committee, we consider as dis-

courteous, General Aliu Gusau, Minister of Defence’s consistent refusal to appear before the committee to defend his ministry’s budget. Rather, Aliyu Ismaila, the permanent secretary in the ministry was always saddled with the duty. Gusau, as the political head should be bold enough to personally defend how money appropriated for his ministry was spent in 2014.

Otherwise, this might be misconstrued as arrogance against the Nigerian people that elected those legislators on the Senate’s committee.

We consider as equally confounding the fact that the ministry could be in possession of N1.275 billion security vote budget last year alone and would still not be able to procure modern weapons for soldiers fighting against Boko Haram in the northeast.

We ask; what is the rationale behind the provision for security vote that nobody among the recipients at the presidency, among the state governors, local government councils’ chairmen and ministries, amongst others in the land, is willing to share with the public? What does such an obviously uncontrolled fund stand for?

More importantly, we are yet to see a clear constitutional provision in the current grundnorm of the country giving legal cover for such vote. This brings up another salient question: How does the country come about security vote that has become a serious drain on public till?

Could this be assumed to be a fraud, un-

der the guise of tradition, designed by those in authorities to fleece the country of her hard-earned money?

There is need, soonest, for a definite pronouncement from whatever quarters, against this illicit official tradition that has not been of any eventful security advantage to the nation at large. We call on not only this Senate committee, in the discharge of its oversight functions, but also the Auditor-General of the Federation, to commence forthwith, a comprehensive audit of previous budgets of the Defence ministry and other beneficiaries of security vote so as to block bleeding avenues in the nation’s haemorrhaging till.

‘We call on not only this Senate committee, in the discharge of its oversight functions, but also the Auditor-General of the Federation, to commence forthwith, a comprehensive audit of previous budgets of the Defence ministry and other beneficiaries of security vote so as to block bleeding avenues in the nation’s haemorrhaging till’

Technological triumph •Nigeria must begin to avail itself of advances in technology

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NE of the most prominent characteristics of the contemporary era is the speed and comprehensiveness of technological change. The truth of this was asserted yet again when a solar-powered aircraft launched an ambitious attempt to make the first-ever circumnavigation of the globe.

Called Solar Impulse-2, the aircraft took off from Abu Dhabi last week, and will cross India, China, the Pacific Ocean, the United States and the Atlantic before landing in Oman after 25 days later. The significance of a successful journey is hard to downplay. It will demonstrate the increasing relevance of solar power and other clean technologies in an era of global warming, growing environmental pollution and climate change, and will fur-

‘Where does all this leave Nigeria? In the immediate short-term, the country will suffer. Indeed, the sharp decline in the price of crude oil, its main export, has already begun to have negative effects on revenues. Like other developing nations, the emergence of new technologies and processes will upset current policies based on outdated approaches to agriculture, manufacturing and industry’

ther accelerate the adoption of products, services and techniques based on them.

Where does all this leave Nigeria? In the immediate short-term, the country will suffer. Indeed, the sharp decline in the price of crude oil, its main export, has already begun to have negative effects on revenues. Like other developing nations, the emergence of new technologies and processes will upset current policies based on outdated approaches to agriculture, manufacturing and industry.

The irony, however, is that Nigeria is also uniquely placed to take maximum advantages of green technologies if it can comprehensively integrate them into the development process. Unlike developed economies that have had to experiment with nuclear power, for instance, Nigeria can focus its efforts on solar, wind, wave and other forms of renewable energy.

The advantages are even more beneficial when it is realised that the country has an abundance of the sunlight and coasts that are the basis of these new technologies.

To achieve these goals, there must be a wide-ranging change in attitudes. In spite of the obvious benefits of modern technology, it does not seem that Nigerians are mentally conditioned to exploit them to the fullest. A notorious example is the uproar over card-readers in the forthcoming general elections. Even though the efficiency of card technology has been conclusively demonstrated in the banking sector, there appears to be no consensus on extending its benefits to an electoral process in which fraud has been rampant.

One way in which this problem can be adequately resolved is to expand and en-

trench the use of renewable energies to the extent that it is more prominent in development policy. Federal and state governments can begin to insist on solar-powered street lights on all roads currently under construction. The Lagos State government can extend its commendable school solar power initiative to more schools, and to its housing estates and parastatals. Businesses and firms should begin to sponsor research into renewable energy and projects like Solar Impulse-2.

It is especially important that interest in renewable energy increases in Nigerian society generally. Given their travails with public power supply, it is amazing that more citizens have not taken it upon themselves to learn more about sources of power which are almost infinite in their sustainability. The available alternatives are woefully inadequate, and are often limited to the noisy and polluting generators that have become ubiquitous across the national landscape.

Such attitudes are to be contrasted with what is prevalent in other places. The Solar Impulse-2 project is being promoted by Swiss nationals, and is the logical evolution of their enduring passion with extending the frontiers of renewable energy. It has received corporate sponsorship, worldwide publicity, and is leveraging the pioneering spirit of its pilots to the fullest.

The lesson is clear: no nation can make real progress if its citizens do not make concerted efforts to conduct scientific research and ensure that they benefit fully from its fruits.

Buhari’s first 100 days in office

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IR: It is a tradition that leaders of countries from around the world do celebrate their first 100 days in office.

The first 100 days of a new leader of a country is crucial and determines how his administration will be. In Nigeria, the first 100 days of Mohamadu Buhari, if elected, will be celebrated by Nigerians.

In my opinion, the following will likely be among the first major effects of Buhari’s first 100 days in office.First, after his swearing-in on may 29 if he emerged victorious in the March 28 election, petroleum, kerosene and other oil products will stabilise and be abundant in the market. This is because the scarcity of the products is deliberate and unnecessary. Also, filing station owners will be afraid to close their stations for no reason as they are aware that Buhari was once a petroleum minister and he is well conversant with the nature of the market.

Secondly, general availability of products and service will manifest in his first 100 days.

From network services, power providers, civil service, marketers and retailers etc, God willing, everything will start to be doing well as they all fear Buhari because of his anticorruption stand.

Thirdly, there will be relative currency stability, security and discipline. This is due to the fact that, most of the corrupt government officials and business tycoons will run into exile or quickly jettison their corrupt practices.

Corruption is directly related to security. Most of the money budgeted for security in Nigeria is mis-used by corrupt government officials.

Of course, the naira will stabilise against the Dollar relatively.

Fourthly, respect for the office of the President, other official government positions and confidence in governance will greatly increase. This is because Buhari is courageous and will not tolerate controversy and corruption.

Lastly, Nigeria's image and the respect for Nigerians will be redeemed. The world will respect Nigeria because it has good leaders voted in by the people. The world will respect Nigerians for their maturity, peaceful and legal change of a corrupt government. That will be in the first 100 days.

That will not be the only thing to happen God willing. Among some other things to happen are: There will be no office of the first lady, no extravagant spendings in Aso Villa; unity and trust among Nigerians will start to increase, and there will be no claim and counter claim by different government officials and agencies. I can't wait to see Nigeria change.

• Comrade Abdulbaqi Aliyu Jari, jariabdubaqi@gmail.com

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THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

18

CARTOON & LETTERS

IR: It was certainly inevitable that President Goodluck Jonathan, who has, to all intents and purposes, abandoned restraint, would trudge on, like a pilgrim bound for doom. He had to keep chalking up more outlandish blunders until they were sufficient to transfix the Nobel Laureate. The law of inertia, valid in a physics lab as in the corridors of power, had Jonathan for a victim.

Tyranny always had a humble beginning - like promiscuity. One instance of violation stealthily grows in fits and starts, to a consuming routine. And the virgin moves from a first timer to an addicted returner to the forbidden.

You have it when the shy, demure mien gives way to a self-assured, dismissive I-Don’t-Give-A-Damn look. Professor Wole Soyinka just had to do it. The man would have died in him if he had chosen convenient dumbness in this dawning dictatorship. Soyinka was alive alive to his duty as citizen and patriot. He had to rebuke this modern Nebuchadnezzar.

Before, when Jonathan was starting off with seemingly little infractions, we largely excused them as evidences of his fallibility. Those acts of mischief counted, for sure, but were not considered symptomatic of dictatorial tendencies. But the Jonathan of this day has become a threat to the country, inspiring anarchy in the sensitive realms that cannot bear attack. So, Soyinka did

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Soyinka was right on Jonathan the right thing, calling the tyrant, a tyrant. Without the correct christening, Jonathan would be no less ruthless and malevolent - after all, the WS of a bygone era had rhapsodized that a rose called by another name would smell as sweet.

But it was very important to name Jonathan properly.

In pronouncing him Nebuchadnezzar, we do not hallow his name.

Rather, we say, we will reference him only with the repulsion we feel for the oppressor. We still remember this President was so ashamed of one of his names, he buried it. It remained a classified secret until he recognised that the dormant name had potential electoral value.

Then, he promptly resurrected it and instructed that it be appended to his other names, to convey the notion of consanguinity with the East. That was how an approaching election compelled an Azikiwe impostor to introduce himself.

As in that election, this impending one is also introducing another Jonathan to us.

And what you can see is the Nigerian politician at his debauched

best. He was capable of dispensing smooth talk until he faced the dire prospect of a challenging election.

When he perceived that there is a real possibility that a fair contest could throw him off the seat, he made a clever decision to cease relating to his faculty of sanity. That is why he has gone into overdrive, battling to avert this portent that is reasonably worse than biological death. Of course, any shortcut to that end is fair. This flagrant desperation to complete a total conquest of the political space, which is setting the nation on the edge, is rooted in his insecurity. Jonathan nurses a fervent conviction that his re-election rests squarely on his use of state sanctioned terror. So far, his biography is replete with interventions of good luck. He senses that he may have exhausted his credit of fortune and needs to create his luck. His discretion tells him that fate has already given him the power to secure his power.

In his reading of the scriptures, Nebuchadnezzar’s command and terror over Babylon and beyond must have struck President

Patience Jonathan’s excesses IR: I am compelled to write this because of the excesses of Nigeria’s acclaimed first lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan regarding the aspiration of her husband for second term. She threw the first salvo sometime ago in the heat of her campaign for the re-election of her husband, when she condemnably mocked the people of the north saying in pidgin English; “we don’t born shildren, throw dat shildren to the street, we are not like the other side”. Then, Mrs. Jonathan had the audacity to call the major opponent of her husband for the presidential election, General Muhammadu Buhari, “brain death”. This is clearly uncultured for an African woman, to insult another woman’s husband.

Recently, in Edo State, she said;

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“we must get second term”. This statement by the first lady shows the desperation of her getting a reelection for her husband at all cost.

Mrs Jonathan needs to realise the fact that politics entails decency in all ramifications and not gutter language especially at this trying moment for her husband’s second term bid. She also needs to weight her language and the kind of words she uttered especially in campaigning for her husband.

The basis for the vituperations she is pouring left, right and centre does not augur well for the reelection of her husband, who is facing his toughest political journey.

The harsh words that she is pouring can ultimately do great damage to the aspiration of her husband. She needs to exhibit high

moral sense in soliciting support for husband in this great contest of his life.

Mudslinging cannot play any vital role in her quest to still be called the first lady of the nation.

What should preoccupy her now is how to do damage control. Denigrating others by mama peace in the course of securing base for her husband cannot take her anywhere. Though, she has freedom of expression, she ought to exercise it within the dictate of decency as a first lady that is expected to show genuine concern rather than insulting the sensibilities of the people.

• Usman Santuraki, Santuraki Close, Jambutu Ward, Jimeta-Yola.

Jonathan as power as it ought to be. But the strictures of a democratic context, he acknowledged, would not permit him to mimic that fairy bogeyman. So there came the thought that this country of Nollywood might feel indulged to see him acting Nebuchadnezzar, unscripted.

We needed Soyinka to do it. It seemed that we were unwilling to admit that the tally of all we have seen sufficed to prove that a dicta-

tor now reigns. How many more feats of impudence would Jonathan need to enact to qualify? Soyinka, the accomplished man of letters, answered the question, ‘’ is Jonathan the dictator, or should we look for another?’’ He traced the pattern of Jonathan’s trajectory and removed all doubts.

Soyinka’s rebuke could call forth an interlude of reflection. But trust the career sycophants of Aso Rock to dilute the censure’s effect and press Nebuchadnezzar to show his iron fist more often. In the bubble where Nebu lives, a word of caution is hard to come by. Not from a wife who is a terror in her own right.

• Emmanuel Uchenna Ugwu @emmaugwutheman

Is PDP edging for the abyss?

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IR: The dirty happenings in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) cannot bring about a new era in Nigeria’s political landscape.

Having lost many of its top members to the opposition parties with the dramatic exit of PDP’s first presidential flag bearer, Olusegun Obasanjo, being undoubtedly one of the biggest blows to the party. Yet again, greater shocks could emerge in the long run as many more politicians are likely to decamp. But whilst a lot of Nigerians believe it is over for the PDP, it is possible that nature has presented an opportunity for us to rid ourselves of the very cycle of politicians who have led us to this pitiable state.

The issue of corruption is behind the fast evolving collapse of the PDP. Many of its defected politicians have accused the PDP of breeding corruption and encouraging injustice. In a bid to woo voters, the major opposition party, All Progressives Congress (APC), cleverly devised a very appealing slogan, “Change”. It is true that Nigerians want “change”.

But the people in APC should be prepared to guarantee real change when they get to power, otherwise, the whole essence of this electoral struggle would have been defeated.

Coming back to the PDP, one cannot deny that it still remains a formidable party. The recent events in the PDP are indications of a great purge. The party is being sanitized

and its system is gradually opening for credible thoroughbred individuals to participate in its politics in future, not this near general elections.

As the case is, the PDP is presently searching for members to cover for its loss.

And as Prof. Wole Soyinka puts it, “…we cannot continue this cycle of repetitious evil and irresponsibility”. We must not be saddled by the same set of people if we want to prosper.

When Plato wrote, “until Philosophers are Kings or Kings are Philosophers, leadership will never be right,” he meant to say that until selfdeveloped individuals become leaders, nothing will work. Nigeria deserves credible people as leaders. As regards Obasanjo’s exit from the PDP, I would take that as good news for Nigeria because political godfathers have proven to be major hindrances to our national prosperity.

Nigeria needs credible individuals who would rise to the pedestal to move the country to the First World. As a nation, we must make the best use of this opportunity in the political space and bring in the new face of Nigeria’s politics. But can President Jonathan and the PDP provide the opportunity for the new set of Nigerian leaders? We must be patient to find out.

• Prince C. Ifoh, B. A. Hons. Prince Ifoh” <prince.ifoh@gmail.com

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

19

COMMENTS

Professor Ayankanmi Ayandele: A Tribute - 2

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ROFESSOR Ayandele was my teacher at the University of Ibadan and he was a damn good teacher. Those of my generation who came under his tutelage admired him for his hard work and elucidation. If one took his lectures verbatim, one did not have to read any other book because he had a prodigious energy for research and he would have consulted many sources before delivering his lectures. He was given to the use of bombastic language which many of us young people admired and enjoyed and tried to copy. He did not need a microphone because he spoke loudly and when he was lecturing in the Arts Theatre people in the library could follow.

He was dramatic in the delivery of his lectures. Sometimes he would use a simple word say “transformation” if you did not get it, he would change it to “metamorphosis” and students would say what? He would retort “it is an English word”. He did not speak French, so when he said Louis XIV said “l’etat C’est moi”, he will say it as any Yoruba man would “Letat sest maui” and the class will explode into laughter. He would not get the joke but the joke was on us because he would have moved on.

Professor Ayandele was the most prolific of all the historians in his generation. Apart from his book, Missionary Impact on Modern Nigeria which remains a classic, he also wrote a voluminous biography of Bishop James Johnson with the title, Holy Johnson. He wrote The History of the Ijebus which remains a classic. He wrote many chapters in books and articles in referenced scholarly journals including a monograph on David Livingstone but the most enjoyable of his works for me is the book, The Educated Elite in Nigeria which was a compilation of the special university lectures which he gave in the University of Ibadan in the 70s. He was going to write a sequel to this book but unfortunately his health could not bear the exertion and rigour necessary for producing another book.

I remember reading his book, Holy Johnson and feeling that I was reading about Professor Ayandele. Even the photograph of Bishop James Johnson reminds one of Ayandele.

In the late 1890s and early twentieth century, educated Nigerians tended to be bombastic in language to the irritation of the owners of the English language. Bishop James Johnson shared this trait with his biographer who must have enjoyed reading the private papers of the bishop. Bishop James Johnson of course did not call himself holy; this was the perception of his sympathetic biographer. The bishop belonged to the class of educated Nigerians in Lagos that was so totally disliked by the Governor-General, Sir Fredrick Lugard and his younger brother, Major Edward Lugard whose

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ONEY. For this five-letter word, many can do the unthinkable. Some can kill their wives; some their husbands or their children and yet others their siblings or parents for money. It is a good thing to aspire to be rich; to have money in order to stand up to others when it matters most. A man without money finds it difficult to measure up with others, especially his peers. He is tongue-tied when they talk not because he does not know what to say, but because he considers himself inferior to them.

It is a good thing to be rich; to be able to acquire all that we desire in life. But affluence does not come easy. It takes a lot of hardwork; though some get rich by luck; society is not interested in how people make their money.

What it is interested in is seeing you as rich or poor. So, it is common to hear people say with glee, ‘’see, that is that rich man coming’’, or with hiss, Abeg make you no let that poor man see me. Society does not respect the poor, but it revers the rich. The rich are demi-

339 DAYS AFTER

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WHERE ARE THE ABDUCTED CHIBOK GIRLS?

critics described as the so called political secretary of the Governor-General with a fat salary and who in return described educated Nigerians as “trousered niggers dressed in Bond street attires who send their laundry to England every other week.” Professor Ayandele had prickly relations with his white colleagues in the department of History at the University of Ibadan. Perhaps this was due to his experience of racism while studying in England. His commitment to African culture shorn of the pretentions to western way of life was amply demonstrated in his book, The Educated Elite in Nigeria in which he described the Lagos westernised Nigerians as “deluded hybrids” who were neither Africans nor Europeans or as “wind sowers” because their downfall at the height of the nationalist movement was predictable unless they were ready to go native and become real Africans.

Many of them later changed their names.

Many of the European lecturers at the University of Ibadan in the late 1960s left in droves to go to Ahmadu Bello University where they felt more appreciated and far away from the fire brand nationalism of the people like Ayandele.

Ahmadu Bello University was later to become the final resting place of European academics who lost out at the end of the British Empire and who were not ready to compete with uppity Africans of the like of Ayandele.

Professor Ayandele was a serious scholar and a painstaking researcher but whatever he wrote was from the perspective of the African and he took license for generous interpretation of historical data to express his ideological commitment to African nationalist historiography. For this, we owe him a debt of gratitude. Professor Ayandele wrote history in the classical mode of literature. History to him was to be enjoyed and his use of flowery language was deliberate and to take historical scholarship from the compilation of dry data with little or no soul. He wrote like S.T. Bindoff, one of his teachers in England.

I am surprised that professor Ayandele never won the national merit award. Of course, one is aware of the fact that sometimes, consideration of federal character unnecessarily creeps into what is supposed to be, an award for academic excellence. Be that as it may, Professor Ayankanmi Ayandele’s place in Nigeria’s academic history is settled. He was largely the founder of two academic institutions- the University of Jos and the University of Calabar. It is therefore surprising to me that when he died, neither the University of Ibadan nor these two institutions that he was closely connected with mourned him in death. Neither were there any editorials in the newspapers nor obituary comments from the federal government. This is not good enough for a life of service.

Professor Ayandele had no hobbies but work. He had no family as such but the family of humanity and he was above ethnic prejudices and he was so totally loyal to one of his mentors, Professor J.C. Anene an Igbo man that when he died, he adopted Jide Anene’s family as his own and took care of Osuntokun them. Ayandele was an eccentric academic but he was a good man and a good Christian. He would be remembered by those of us whose lives he touched. Adieu, great scholar, prolific writer, a man of ideas and letters and a prodigious builder of academic institutions. Ayandele was a good Baptist who before the advent of the current wave of Pentecostalism was given to paying his tithe and living modestly. He was a teetotaller and avoided the company of women of easy virtue. One hopes that the University of Calabar would immortalise this selfless man by naming one of the halls of residence or preferably the University Library just as the University of Ibadan named its library after Kenneth Dike its first Nigerian Vice Chancellor.

‘He was largely the founder of two academic institutions- the University of Jos and the University of Calabar.

It is therefore surprising to me that when he died, neither the University of Ibadan nor these two institutions that he was closely connected with mourned him in death. Neither were there any editorials in the newspapers nor obituary comments from the federal government. This is not good enough for a life of service’

The havoc money does gods who are treated like royalty anywhere they go.

Money has become the god that society worships. Whether old or young, we share the same attitude when it comes to money matters.

Our family members expect the world from us once we are fortunate to hold an important office, whether in the public or private sector. To them, that office should be a passport to our wealth. No matter how much or how little the office pays, it must be enough to take care of the need of every member of our family. If it isn’t, God help us. The next best thing is to steal. And many have done that to their peril.

The most unfortunate thing is that those for whom many dipped their hands into the public till will be the first to disown them when the chips are down. Yet, we never learn from the downfall of those who preceded us in office.

We tend to believe that they were caught because they were not smart. We see ourselves as smarter and in that wise will never be caught. In our country, public service is the easiest way to making it big. This is why many jostle to become president, governors, lawmakers, ministers, commissioners, local government chairmen or councillors and so on and so forth.

The Presidency is the highest office in the land and whoever occupies the exalted office has the power of life and death. He can make or mar people. With a stroke of his pen, he can turn an ordinary man into an extra-ordinary

person; though he is not our Heavenly Father, he is god on earth because of the enormous powers of his office. The president, if he so wishes, can make you rich - all he needs do is to give you a juicy appointment or get you a mouthwatering contract. It is because of this that some presidents have come to see themselves as deities who must be worshipped, forgetting that it is God that lifts up some and brings down others.

Presidents may have the power of life and death, but it will do them well to remember that they are not God. So, they cannot give what they do not have. They only have the power of life and death to the extent that they can sign or refuse to sign the warrant of those sentenced to death; they cannot create life. But many of us tend to forget that in our desperate search for wealth. So, if anything is thrown at us, we grab it with both hands, without considering the repercussion. Today, President Goodluck Jonathan is spending money as if it is going out of fashion all in his bid to win the March 28 election.

As president, Dr Jonathan lacks nothing. The treasury is in his pocket; the security agencies are in his hands. In fact all institutions of government are in his palm. At a snap of his finger, the Central Bank will empty its vault for him. So, for this election, cash is not his problem; it is how to spend it that is giving him sleepless nights. The president and his men have been spending our

money for his political campaign, while many Nigerians are groaning under the crushing weight of naira devaluation. At a time naira is exchanging at over N200 to the dollar at the black market, he is busy using the greenback to woo key members of the society to his side.

Since he knows the power of money, he has been using it to the utmost to boost his chances at the poll. He believes that by buying some religious and traditional leaders, artistes, students union, outlawed ethnic militias, and former militants, among others, he is on his way to winning the election. He may yet be disappointed. If he likes, let him spend all the dollars in this world that may not guarantee his victory at the poll. What is the point in giving N7billion to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)? Is it to build a cathedral on the eve of a major election? What is the point in giving N9billion pipeline protection contracts to former militants’ leaders? To rehabilitate them? hat is he up to in giv ing millions of dol lars to traditional rulers across the country? To renovate their palaces? Nigerians are no fools; they know why their president is doing all this. In a land bursting with hunger and

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Lawal Ogienagbon lawal.ogienagbon@thenationonlineng.net SMS ONLY: 08099400204, 08112661612

poverty, many are outraged over what is happening and they have resolved to make their anger known at the poll. They are annoyed that the money now being shared by the president could have gone a long way in creating jobs for the teeming unemployed youth.

They also see through his latehour job offer and N75milion gift to family members of those who died in the Immigration recruitment stampede across the country last year. To many, it was a little too late. The question they are asking is why wait until the eve of an election before relieving these families of their pains one year after the incident? The president and his men believe that this is the way to win the forthcoming election. Is it? Let’s wait and see.

‘Nigerians are no fools; they know why the president is spending money as if it is going out of fashion and are waiting for him at the poll to make their anger known’

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

20

COMMENTS

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RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan seems to have taken personal abode in the southwest in the last three weeks. With little or nothing to sell to a people he has treated with absolute contempt in the last six years, he has, according to his political detractors, been distributing loads of naira and dollars to youth, religious and women groups, and even traditional leaders. And for his pains and despite his abysmal record of performance, is counting on these groups to win the coming presidential election with farcical endorsement after endorsement.

We have seen him surrounded by traditional rulers receiving blessing with royal walking sticks menacingly pointed at him. Last Monday, of all days, his paid supporters, led by OPC leaders, alleged to have received N9b contract along with others, visited untold sufferings on Lagosians as they ‘wielded broken bottles and knives; destroyed bill boards while walking, on foot and in about 100 buses on the ever busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ikorodu Road to Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere’.

Penultimate Tuesday, PDP governors had complimented the president’s desperate efforts. They assembled in Eko Le Meridian hotel; Victoria Island where, as an answer to PDP’s six years of baleful legacy, ditched out hideous lies, told horrific tales and made odious comparisons. They spoke of Jonathan and PDP commitment to democratic values. They claimed: “PDP abhors corruption in all its ramifications”. They insisted: “PDP has done a lot in the fighting of corruption since the inception of democracy to date.” They therefore sought Yoruba support to ensure the “Sustenance of Democratic Values and National Development”. These PDP governors seem to have forgotten they were not addressing Nigeriens, Chadians or Cameroonians but the direct victims of 16 years of PDP mismanagement; of documented PDP mindless looting of our common wealth through such self serving policy thrusts as PPPRA and fuel subsidy regime, privatization programme described by the House of Representatives’ report as ‘giving away of national assets at next to nothing”, and monetization policy that allowed the sharing of our national patrimony dating back to the colonial period by few members of the governing elite and their friends.

At the head of PDP governor’s team was Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom, the generous giver who has acquired all professional honours and chieftaincy titles money and influence can buy. Others include Reverend

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Jonathan and PDP’s desecration of Yoruba Land Jonah Jang of Plateau who lost the original Governors Forum election by 16 to 19 but lacking the grace to concede defeat, crowned himself winner and proceeded to church to thank God for giving him victory. There was Babangida Aliyu of Niger, the self styled ‘Chief servants of the people,’ who talks more from both sides of the mouth; Sule Lamido of Jigawa, Obasanjo anointed successor to Jonathan whose ambition collapsed following EFCC arrest of his two sons for money laundry. Also on the team was Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo, the serial defector who is often attracted by the highest bidder and of course there was Ayo Fayose, a former impeached governor of Ekiti who has found his way back to the Government House through a flawed election as shown by the ongoing ‘Ekitigate’ and who is yet to establish his innocence after 53 appearances in court over his EFCC charges of mismanagement of N19b Ekiti state fund.

Speaking at the event, Governor Akpabio talked vaguely about what he termed the president and PDP achievements on war against corruption. But for Babangida Aliyu, the Chief ‘servant of the people’, probably realizing Jonathan is a bad product, chose to attack APC and Buhari, its flag bearer. APC, a party he once hobnobbed with, he said was ‘a product of hate, frustration and anger’. He accused some of its leaders of ‘corruption’.

He alleged money was used to influence the emergence of Buhari as APC candidate. And finally, he mischievously claimed Buhari was

SIWAJU Bola Ahmed Tinubu has contributed, more than any other politician in the last 22 years, to strengthening and sustaining Nigeria’s fledgling democratic culture. His contributions have come in kind, and I hear from the grapevine; in cash as well. These sacrifices are common knowledge to many Nigerians. But let us begin in 1994.

After General Sani Abacha assumed maximum dictatorial powers, detaining and assassinating dissenting voices, Tinubu and other pro-democracy citizens teamed up to form NADECO. They mobilised Nigerians to oppose Abacha. They harried the regime through the press, rallies and demonstrations. This line of action soon put their lives in danger and Tinubu had to flee into exile.

And even with all the deprivations of living in cold foreign climes, Tinubu continued to inspire and mobilise Nigerians at home and abroad, as well as foreign governments to sustain the pressure on Abacha’s dictatorship. And when, thankfully, Abacha expired in 1998 and democracy was re-introduced in 1999, Tinubu was elected the governor of Nigeria’s most populous state – Lagos.

This was where his leadership attributes and capacity for organising people began to assume legendary status.

He began the renewal of the spirit of Lagos, which had been suppressed by long years of military dictatorship. It was a time when excellence was re-introduced into the public lives of Lagosians. And it became evident in the quality and span of roads and other public infrastructure constructed at the time. It was also evident in the changing attitude of Lagosians. They began to re-develop a high sense of pride, dignity and confidence. And they began to have very high expectations of themselves and their governments. But this did not happen very smoothly.

In the 2003 general elections, P.D.P, with General Olusegun Obasanjo presiding, decimated the political territories of the main opposition party, the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and “captured” most of the Yoruba states of southwestern Nigeria. Only Lagos, with a resolute and resilient Tinubu, stood firm like the Russian defenders of Stalingrad in the Second World War, against the crude and abrasive tactics of Obasanjo. In the general elections of 2007, Obasanjo retained control of these captured southwestern states and tried; using every trick and tool in the game to take Lagos from Tinubu; but with equal cunning and blinding sophistication, Tinubu resisted, won his re-election and held Lagos.

Then he counter-attacked, inspiring and bankrolling challenges to the illegal victories of P.D.P governors in the southwest. And he began to win back territories. Ekiti, Osun, even Ondo with the chameleonic Mimiko challenging from the Labour Party, was recovered from P.D.P through the moral and financial support of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. His actions at this juncture in the history of our nation, saved Nigeria from degrading into a one-party state, with the attendant lack of choice and ultimately lack of freedom.

However, Tinubu was not satisfied with just improving the southwestern states, being a nationalist, he longed to see a bettergoverned Nigeria. So, towards the general elections of 2011, he

planning to spend only one term and this according to him will amount to shortchanging the north that should ordinarily be entitled to two terms.

I think Nigerians and northerners in particular should be ashamed of leaders like Babangida Aliyu. Here is a northern leader who is unwilling to confront President Jonathan he had accused of reneging on an agreement with northern governors but now wants northerners to believe he is fighting their battle by fabricating lies to stop Buhari, another northerner contesting on the platform of another party. Groveling Babangida Aliyu not too long ago told Nigerians that he was the custodian of the secret document allegedly signed by President Jonathan to spend only six years. If he needed help, Obasanjo who publicly accused Jonathan of reneging on an undertaking to spend six years has strengthened Aliyu’s case.

But curiously, Aliyu, who was part of northern governors who sold out in 2011 when Jonathan secured PDP ticket by default, Aliyu who is the leader of today’s incoherent Northern governors; and who like all PDP leading light, are dealers and wheelers, now says they and Jonathan, their nemesis, are the true friends of the north while Buhari who most Nigerians today are counting on to rescue our nation is the enemy of the north. He is saying the interest of the north can only be protected by stopping Buhari a northerner from becoming president and not by stopping Jonathan he had claimed betrayed an agreement he

signed with northern governors. With friends like Aliyu Babangida and the groveling northern governors, the north doesn’t need enemies.

Just like incoherent Aliyu Babangida, Sule Lamido avoided dissipating energy on a bad product which will be a hard sell among enlightened people of Lagos and south west. He chose to introduce a game of mischief instead.

He accused Buhari of keeping quiet as chairman of PTF while Abacha looted the nation’s treasury. But Nigerians know Buharis’s oversight functions, as chairman of PTF did not cover the CBN. In any case, it is now facts of our history that the then CBN governor and Abacha’s minister of Finance, Chief Michael Ani aided Abacha in looting the CBN. Lamido avoided the painful fact that today, our country is adjudged one of the most corrupt nations on earth and that he has been part of PDP’s 16 years of locust. If we needed any proof of that, the politically motivated arrest of his two sons for money laundering at a time he expressed interest in the presidency was all president Jonathan needed to remind Nigerians that Lamido is a loyal member of PDP family that lives on the blood of Nigerians.

As for Ayo Fayose, he has never been interested in selling Jonathan. He is haunted more by the prospect of a Buhari presidency. And we can understand his apprehensions. It is only under a Jonathan presidency we can have an Ayo Fayose with his liabilities, who but for the slow pace at which the wheel of justice grinds in our country,’ -apologies to President Jonathan, could have been behind bars, pontificating over how and who rules Nigeria.

And Olusegun Mimiko, his Ondo state counterpart, whose attempt at dragging Yoruba Obas to partisan politics is a reflection of his lack of understanding of Yoruba culture, has nothing he holds sacred. If Buhari wins the coming election, as a survivalist who believes in nothing, he will crawl back to APC. On March 28, President Jonathan will reap the wages of investing on miscreants and those the Yoruba describe as ‘akotileta’ (seller of clan for a pot of porridge). As Awo observed in his autobiography, the Yoruba will not vote for you just because you are Yoruba if you have no manifesto that maps out strategies to address their future fears and anxieties. Those miscreants who are accomplices in today’s desecration of our land must remember Yoruba have a way of ensuring those who sow the wind reap the whirl wind, no matter how long it takes.

Asiwaju Tinubu: Nigeria’s Political Benefactor

By Onyeka Ibe began to reach out to other like-minded Nigerians. His grand vision was to form an opposition party capable of wresting power from P.D.P. He expanded AD to AC then to ACN. But when the politically naïve and puritanical General Buhari, (I love him for this though) sitting on a high horse and thumping his nose at his erroneously perceived “impurer” politicians like Tinubu, failed to see and take advantage of the opportunity, Tinubu recruited Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the internationally acclaimed anti-corruption prosecutor and activist, to be the presidential candidate of ACN. Ribadu was never going to win that election; the euphoria of having a minority Niger Delta president was too strong across the country for a disjointed opposition. But lessons were learnt.

The first of such lessons is that Asiwaju Tinubu means well for the country. The second lesson is that he is not an ethnic jingoist.

The third is that the good of Nigeria comes far ahead of his personal ambition. The fourth is that he is always ready to sacrifice his personal ambition and resources to advance the course of our nation. The fifth and perhaps the most important lesson is that he will go to the ends of the world to recruit the best, least-corrupt and most capable brains to run governments in Nigeria. From Raji Fashola and Prof Yemi Osinbajo in Lagos, Kayode Fayemi in Ekiti, Rauf “Ogbeni” Aregbesola in Osun, to his support for Nuhu Ribadu as ACN presidential candidate in 2011, and his foresighted, astute and relentless pursuit of the merger of ACN, CPC, ANPP and others to form APC, and the total support extended to General Buhari to emerge as the presidential candidate of the APC, Tinubu has proven himself to be a true Nigerian patriot and has nothing more to prove to anybody. Action speaks louder than words (not that Tinubu is staying quiet). But his actions have demonstrated beyond question that he truly and completely believes in a less corrupt and better-governed Nigeria.

Now, one cannot objectively assess a person or an issue without examining the other side of the argument. So, let’s consider the cases against Tinubu. A lot has been said about his wealth and these gossips have been followed up with allegations of corruption. From all indications, he seems to be a man with very deep pockets. But a very rich politician does not necessarily translate to a very corrupt politician. Tinubu is a smart man, and I believe, when it comes to personal financial matters, he thinks like a businessman, taking advantage of emerging opportunities to make profit. This is the hallmark of successful business people. But what has Tinubu been doing with his massive wealth? From all

indications, he has deployed, at least some of it, to the development of a viable opposition party, sponsoring younger and competent political leaders like Fashola, Yemi Osinbajo, Aregbesola etc, and building a strong A.P.C that has reinvigorated our democracy. And in all these, he never ever allowed his personal political ambition stand in the way of the progress of our dear country.

The big question is; would a very corrupt politician be taking the risk of fighting governments that could easily jail him? Take a second to consider that Tinubu was a consistent voice of opposition to all-powerful and vindictive President Obasanjo, and has continued to harry President Jonathan, weaken P.D.P, and has led the formation of A.P.C, which from all current indications, is developing into the strongest opposition party in Nigeria’s political history, capable of defeating President Jonathan in the coming presidential election.

And after all the money and time invested by EFCC, ICPC et cetera, in investigating Tinubu, the most grievous criminal charge they could bring against him was possession of a near-empty dormant foreign account. And they couldn’t even get a conviction. If Tinubu were a corrupt man and the government in power, with all the instruments of arrest and prosecution at their disposal has failed to find evidence against this man, then it stands to their eternal shame.

And if after writing this, Asiwaju were to be convicted of corruption in the future, I will only feel a sense of sadness at the falling from grace of a man who has given so much for the development of a functional democracy in our nation. But for now, he will continue to enjoy my respect and admiration, and Nigerians of democratic inclination should be genuinely grateful, and should regard him as our number one political benefactor in this democratic dispensation.

• Onyeka Ibe, a writer and politician can be reached through onyezibe@yahoo.com .

‘If Tinubu were a corrupt man and the government in power, with all the instruments of arrest and prosecution at their disposal has failed to find evidence against this man, then it stands to their eternal shame’

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

21

COMMENTS

N

IGERIA’S presidential election campaigns of 2015 have developed into unprecedented confrontations. People holding extreme positions insist that their positions are irreconcilable, whip up the language of war, brutalize one another on the campaign trail, and accumulate sophisticated weapons for a final showdown. In the history of mankind, the accumulation of weapons has an almost irresistible logic and finale of its own: those who accumulate weapons almost always end up having to use them.

Nigeria seems now to be about to reach the absolute bottom of the filthy slope that she has been descending determinedly and uncaringly since independence. Countless Nigerians at home and abroad, and countless citizens of a world that is increasingly worried about the impending disaster in Nigeria, have spoken, counseled, entreated and begged. But the captains who guide Nigeria have defiantly insisted on more concentration of power, and more concentration of resource-control and management – all in a country of heterogeneous nationalities. They are hurrying to construct more and more structures that are designed to minister to, and that do excite, the greed and other ignoble passions of man; they are designing more and more interference in, and pollution of, the basic processes of governance. For Nigeria, the hens are now about to come home to roost.

I fear that those who are now beating the drums of war in Nigeria will soon stand condemned before the court of history for the rivers of blood they will soon cause to flow, for the families they will cause to lose loved ones, and for the mothers they will cause to weep for the loss of their children.

As the feared storm gathers, Nigerian peoples will be hit in different ways. I have seen, and I have been part of the struggle through, many of Nigeria’s self- brewed storms since 1960, but I have never been as fearful as I am today for my Yoruba nation. By providence, history and culture, we Yoruba are a large and strong nation. By the time we were forced into Nigeria in 1914, we had had an enviable 1000 years of urban civilization, with a rich and sophisticated economy, and eminently well-structured, enabling and stable governance. We have therefore had, as a nation in a Nigeria of many nations, a lot to impart towards orderly, stable and successful govern-

T

HE organised labour in this country will recall with nostalgia the enactment of the Employees Compensation Act otherwise known as ECA, 2010. The Act, which repealed the Workmen Compensation Act, represents the legal instrument for the running of the Employees Compensation Scheme otherwise known as the employment injury scheme. The ECA, 2010 also saddles the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) management board with administering the scheme in such a way that an average injured employee with injury in the course of work or even at work will enjoy rehabilitation or compensation as the case may be.

But so far, the scheme is yet to meet the yearnings of the Employees because of serious “Nigeria factor”. Immediately the Act was signed and ready for implementation, the first move by the board was to engage a consultant for recruitment. The consultant charged hapless prospective employees N1, 000 each. It was quite strange to see a social security organisation like the NSITF displaying such crude mercantilist tendency.

Till date the millions of naira collected from the unfortunate jobless Nigerians in the name of providing jobs for them remain guesswork. What even makes the whole thing more grating to the ear is the alleged

‘The NSITF board is allegedly the board of Trustfund pensions plc- a pfa established by NSITF with other social partners. In the wisdom of the founding fathers the board of Trustfund pensions plc was to be chaired by the MD of NSITF, to be supervised by the board of NSITF as appointed by government. But today it is no longer the case. With the alleged connivance of PenCom, the NSITF board is also the board of Trustfund pensions and of course every Nigerian knows that over N50 billion worth of pension assets is in the custody of Trustfund’

The Yoruba and the impending Nigerian situation ance. And in fairness, we can proudly say that we have done quite a lot – to persuade Nigeria to tread the path of orderliness, sustainable federal structure, modernization, and focused dedication of rulers to the improvement of the quality of Nigerians’ lives. In my younger years in Nigerian politics and government, my kinsmen and I used to serve with untainted pride, motivated by the realization that we had, as a nation, the duty to help our multi-nation country to walk in the path of decent governance. None of that has really worked – and Nigeria goes its own way towards its own destiny.

But, at this critical juncture, I seem to perceive that my strong Yoruba nation is caving in to the deleterious afflictions of Nigeria, and appears to be becoming incapable of even holding itself together and defending its own.

The sheep has kept the company of the dog too long. In all directions in our nation, weakness whimpers pathetically. The once glorious guides and guards of the 1000-year excellence of Yoruba political culture, disregarded and neglected by their own people of today, have abandoned the parapets. Service to the self reigns – with the result that the rich now say “I am poor”, and the strong say, “I am weak”, all because they all are unwilling to give towards the strength and dignity of their Yoruba nation. Little groups mushroom to march out, but nearly every one quickly degenerates into a self-serving cabal, builds a meaningless wall around itself, and then masquerades as too sanctified to touch, or to work with, any other group.

Lone rangers dictate the tune of our national political life, and by their excessive and unYoruba presumptuousness, they provoke the emergence of detractors that become bent on fighting them to the death. In every political party, many influential Yoruba say, “We seek power, influence and wealth in Nigeria now; we will think of our Yoruba nation later”.

The eagle that was fashioned to soar the heights now waddles in the mud ponds. The

up-and-coming generation of bright youths is offered no vision or noble direction to hold on to.

This is our day of weakness. But, it is the way of nature and of human society to experience times of weakness. What is more important, and what we need to grab, is the certainty that our inherent strength, nurtured over a thousand years, is alive and intact, that out there, everywhere, the men and women imbued with that strength are countless, and that the immediate need of the moment is to prod those elements of our culture and fundamental philosophies that can waken and accentuate their strength. Coincidentally, I hear that a large conference of Yoruba leaders is meeting in Ibadan this day, and I hope that they will regard this column today as a message addressed to them.

First and foremost, we need to reawaken our common consciousness as one people – one people with a common national character and a common destiny – no matter what becomes of Nigeria. No matter what political party or group any of us may belong to, our membership of it is chosen by us, and is evanescent and changeable – whereas our membership of the Yoruba nation is God-ordained, unchangeable, and passes automatically to our offspring. And, thankfully, our Yoruba nation is an enormously proud possession.

Secondly, in the shifting sands of Nigerian politics, our only sensible and sustainable option is to revive and reemphasize our national ways and philosophies. From wisdom gathered for over a thousand years in our wellordered communities, we know that it is not sensible or realistic that all of us should belong to one persuasion, either religiously or politically. The recognition of the right to choose is deeply ingrained in our culture; no Yoruba person disrespects the other because of difference of choice; and no Yoruba person, no matter how high, should claim that his partisan choice is the choice of all Yoruba.

Impunity is killing NSITF

By Lanre Akerele agreement by the NLC president, a member of the board of directors, to the job scam.

With this loss of proper conception in the early morning hours of the scheme, the agency completely lost touch with what it is projecting to people and has since been mired in one mess or the other. The Federal Ministry of Labour that should provide the necessary supervision by ensuring that the activities of the agency pass the litmus test of public service rules abdicated its role for alleged fear of losing face with the presidency.

The recruitment that the consultant did was littered with anomalies so much that the inhouse union was alleged to have cried blue murder. The in-house union was alleged to have complained to Management that contrary to the practice in NSITF and Public Service Rule; officers above the age of 50 years were given fresh and permanent rather than contract appointment. And from what we gathered some pensioners were recruited fresh and have even been allegedly confirmed. Quite a number of former retired or retrenched staff of NSITF receiving monthly pension were given fresh appointment and fresh confirmation of their appointments.

The in-house union was alleged to have also complained that the post-qualification experience for the advertised vacant positions in national dailies in April 2011 was at variance with scheme of service of NSITF and Public Service generally as there was no explicit requirement for cognate experience.

After the 2011 recruitment exercise, subsequent recruitments were allegedly carried out without interview as letters were just being issued either in churches, mosques and various cultural organisations. The recruitments are done without planning. Not even the top executive management made up of the MD/CE and three Executive Directors know the number of staff currently in the service of NSITF. The board has

completely appropriated the functions of management. It was even alleged very recently that claims from employers in respect of their injured employees that is aboveN100, 000 have to be approved by a committee of the board. In the end, what members of the committee would take as sitting allowances would far exceed the figures they would be sitting to vet and approve. And you say NSITF is not in a mess.

How else would any sane Nigerian describe what is happening?

While government appointed the MD and three executive directors to run the scheme, the board allegedly stripped them of their executive management functions and put the same in the hands of a serving police officer with power to fire and hire and transfer to “Siberia” without transfer allowance. In Abuja alone, there are four branch offices of NSITF in addition to the head office. The branches are in FCT, Mararaba, Kagini, and Gwagwalada with an average of 200 staff.

Some of the staff allegedly sit on plastic chairs procured by themselves. Tell me how one branch manager can effectively manage over 200 staff in an atmosphere where there are alleged inadequate furniture and fittings?

The medical histories of the staff are not known. In the good old days when any of the agencies of government recruited, such workers were referred to government hospitals for their medical reports.

Between 2011 and 2014, well over N12 billion was alleged to have come to the agency from the Federal Government as the ECS contributions for their staff. This is different from the alleged take off grant the agency received from government.

Meanwhile, the ECS contributions from government have no accompanying payment schedule for the purpose of ascertaining the identity of the staff. The executive management team is not in charge and so the team is watching from the sidelines. And it is not because there are no experienced staff members in the agency. The few ones remaining are alleged not to be anywhere

Gbogun gboro Even if (or rather, when) we come to have our own sovereign Odua country, we will have different political parties with members across our land.

Very importantly, neither of the two leading presidential candidates has ever been formally given the Yoruba agenda for Nigeria.

We should appoint a delegation of leaders to put it in the hands of the two candidates now – and demand formal responses without fail.

Then, we should urge all parties and candidates to respect the non-partisanship of our Obas, and to relate to our Obas with utmost respect.

Finally, we must explore all means to ensure that if, as is widely feared, violence happens to cap the coming elections, no part of Yorubaland, and no Yoruba person, will be involved or hurt in it. On the contrary, we must close ranks, turn such a situation around, and make it the dawn of our day of strength.

‘I fear that those who are now beating the drums of war in Nigeria will soon stand condemned before the court of history for the rivers of blood they will soon cause to flow, for the families they will cause to lose loved ones, and for the mothers they will cause to weep for the loss of their children’ near where their input would matter.

Now the same agency has been given additional mandate to provide unemployment benefit and benefit for the aged. The board as presently constituted is not technically sound to run this additional mandate. Modalities to determine the age bracket of the aged and employable unemployed are technical in nature and above the technical competence of the present board.

The NSITF board is allegedly the board of Trustfund pensions plc- a pfa established by NSITF with other social partners. In the wisdom of the founding fathers the board of Trustfund pensions plc was to be chaired by the MD of NSITF, to be supervised by the board of NSITF as appointed by government.

But today it is no longer the case. With the alleged connivance of PenCom, the NSITF board is also the board of Trustfund pensions and of course every Nigerian knows that over N50 billion worth of pension assets is in the custody of Trustfund.

Finally, another point I wish to stress is the issue of the recruitment of collecting agents by the board. The collecting agents are paid commission for their collections. Now in the face of the unplanned massive recruitment of staff still going on, is there any need for such collecting agents? The monthly wage bill of NSITF is allegedly close to N1 billion.

How does the agency meet the cost of industrial hazards? Each time some of the pressmen on alleged monthly “brown envelope” sing the praises of an individual who in their thinking brought NSITF to life, it’s funny. The same individual is alleged to be choking the NSITF to death. Nepotism, mismanagement, vindictiveness and lack of corporate governance remain the new face of NSITF. If Nigerians know how much was allegedly invested on computerisation they would marvel. Such expenses are secretly guarded. But one thing is very sure, the figure is not known to the Executive management team of the agency. The reign of impunity is killing NSITF. Yes, the Jonathan administration has signed ECA, 2010, but are the right people managing it? Let an independent auditor look into the books of NSITF, and we shall see how much that place stinks.

• Akerele sent this piece from Abuja.

22

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

25

THE NATION

EDUCATION

THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) conducted the 2015 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) fully on the computer, for the first time, throughout the country. It was a mixed grill for candidates - some feel disappointed about what they call delays and system failure; others are happy with the ease of the Computer Based Test (CBT).

•Candidates in the e-library of Abia State Polytechnic.

Cheers, jeers for JAMB’s CBT

B

Y Saturday the 2015 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), written fully for the first time online in Nigeria will end.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) introduced the Computer-Based Test (CBT) option for writing the UTME in 2013 as a pilot option for candidates that sat for the examination that year. Few candidates chose the CBT, preferring the conventional Paper and Pencil Test (PPT) or the Dual Based Test (DBT) in which the questions were on the computer but the answers were shaded on a physical answer sheet.

Last year, JAMB reduced the number of PPT centres, leading to an increase in the enrolment for the DBT and CBT options.

In November 2012, JAMB Registrar Prof Dibu Ojerinde said the exam would be written fully

By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie, Oluwatoyin Adeleye, Jane Chijioke, Chris Oji (Enugu), Jide Orintunsin (Minna), Sunny Nwankwo (Aba), Nicholas Kalu (Calabar), Clarice Azuatalam (Port Harcourt), Kolade Adeyemi (Kano), Odunayo Ogunmola (Ado-Ekiti), Gbenga Omokhunu (Abuja) and Adekunle Jimoh (Ilorin)

‘

How can you ask UNIPORT that is not ICTcomplaint to host JAMB exams when the federal government has not even provided them with the basic infrastructure they need; how much more computers? The whole arrangement is a mess and it shows that JAMB is not prepared for this exams

online completely from this year. True to his words, the exam, which began on March 9 ends on Saturday.

It has been a mixed grill for candidates who

INSIDE

Proprietors, Ondo Govt row over taxes

MEMBERS of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) in Ondo State are in a row with the state government over alleged hostile policies against them.

-Page 27

Fashola to provide 24-hour electricity in schools -Page 39

’

took the examination in 156 CBT centres nationwide. For some, it was a wonderful experience; for others, it was woeful.

Many of the accredited CBT centres are in

CAMPUS LIFE Community groans as ASUU goes on strike -Page 29

tertiary institutions (the ICT laboratories or elibraries of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education). Also, JAMB equipped its offices in the states to serve as centres; others are run by individuals.

Two issues stick out as sore thumb in the conduct of the examination - scheduled time for the examination and equipment failure.

Timing of Sessions JAMB scheduled candidates to write the examination for three sessions each day. The first session is 6am; the second, 10am; and the third, 1.30 pm. However, in most centres, the timing has not been sacrosanct. Candidates scheduled to write at 6am have found that after braving the odds to get to their centres, they •Continued on page 26

•A 10-page section on campus news, people etc

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

26

EDUCATION

Cheers, jeers for JAMB’s CBT •Continued from page 25 end up waiting for about four hours to take the examination.

This was the experience of Mr. Uwakwe Abugu, whose daughter wrote the examination at Agbani in Nkanu West local council centre, of Enugu State.

He said he was satisfied with the process but frowned at the timing.

"I am particularly not satisfied with the 6am session. That 6am session should be stopped. I came all the way from Nsukka to Agbani. My daughter was scheduled for the 6am session and we left Nsukka as early as 4.30am. At last the 6am session could not hold until 9am.”

Another candidate, Esther Esom, who wrote at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) centre, also pleaded that the 6am session should be dropped.

"My father and I left Enugu as early as 4am to Nsukka in order to meet up as I was slated for the 6am session.

It was risky driving on the lonely road by that time. My consolation is that the conduct of the test went well and without hindrance," she said.

A candidate, who simply identified himself as David, wrote the exam at the e-library of the University of Calabar (UNICAL). He said some candidates could not meet up with the time and missed the examination.

"The exam put at 6am is something I do not understand.

Since the centres were not adequate, most people had to write outside their domain, even in other states.

So how do you expect someone who does not have any accommodation where he or she is writing the exam to be at the venue by 6am? Some people missed the exams because of this in my centre," he said.

At Electronic Testing Centre on Oba Akran Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos, many parents complained to have waited from morning till evening for their wards, because the examination started late.

One bitter parent, who chose to remain anonymous, said his son, whose test was slated to be done by 1pm, was not allowed into the hall until 4pm.

Angrily, he said: "They spoilt all my plans for today. I have been making calls to cancel all my meetings and appointments for today. Can't anything just work right in this nation?"

The situation was similar at Cham City, Maryland, Ikeja, another CBT centre. A parent, Mrs Bridget Akpos said the time lag tired the candidates, accusing JAMB of not being fully prepared to run the CBT. "When you are not capable to handle CBT, I wonder the need for it.

Look at the children, they (are) already looking exhausted. Most of them have not even eaten and some are yet to write. I think this CBT should have been test-run for five years before it was made compulsory. How can you initiate a sensitive law like this and this year you are already making it a must? It is a welcome idea but I think it should be done in a gradual process."

In Niger State, particularly the Hajiya Jumai Aliyu Babangida ICT centre in Minna as well as three other centres visited, many candidates complained to The Nation, worried about their inabilities to commence their exams at the exact regulated period by JAMB. Mrs. Chidinma Ndukwe, Director of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and coordinator of the centre at the Abia State Polytechnic, Aba in Abia State, explained that the three sessions was to avoid the examination extending into the elections.

"The three sessions per day are very stressful. Two sessions per day is okay if we are actually to consider

the stress; but because of the election, they (JAMB) don't want it (UTME) to run into the election, we are having the three sessions. Last year, we had only two sessions though some people in Lagos did three sessions, at least, we didn't stay here beyond 6pm. We stay here up till 8pm," she said.

System Failure Though the CBT centres in use were inspected before being accredited for the examination, in reality, it seems their accreditation seemed to have been a smokescreen given the number of systems that failed in the course of the examination.

Centres were told to provide at least 150 computers, generators or inverters to provide alternative power, thumbprint scanners, internet access, and security. However, in many parts of the country, the problems of server/network failure, computer breakdown, and power failure disrupted the examination and caused the candidates discomfort.

The failures also contributed to the delays and inability of many centres to follow the schedule for the examination.

Complaints about system failure were rife in Rivers State. At the time of this report, Happiness Ele, whose centre was at Federal Government College of Education, Omoku, said she had not been able to write the examination for two days since she had been going to the school to wait her turn because the computers were insufficient.

"I am not the only one in this mess because some who were even booked before me have not taken the exams because the college does not have enough computers to go round and their servers are not working well," she said.

Power was not much of a problem at Omoku because the oil companies supply electricity regularly.

However it was a big issue at the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) centre. A candidate, Favour Chinda, told The Nation that there was no light on March 17 and the university was battling with its generator to restore light by 11am of that day when the second batch ought to have started writing.

The same power outage was noticed during our reporter's visit to the school and the candidates were waiting for the light to be restored.

Even at that, many of them lamented that the systems they were given were not very active.

A parent, Mrs Grace Akpor whose daughter wrote at UNIPORT decried the trouble her child passed through for two days to write the exams.

"How can you ask UNIPORT that is not ICT-complaint to host JAMB exams when the federal government has not even provided them with the basic infrastructure they need; how much more computers? The whole arrangement is a mess and it shows that JAMB is not prepared for this exams," she said.

At the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, some of the candidates complained that the systems given to them were neither working well nor sufficient for all.

"The systems are doing off and on magic," said Johnson Masi, a candidate.

At the Port Harcourt office of JAMB, many candidates and parents were seen complaining of one thing or the other. But their complaints seemed

• Candidates whose computers went blank at eTC centre, Ikeja.

JAMB runs into crisis over result printout

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HOUGH JAMB assured candidates that their results would be released in less than two hours, after writing the exam, it was not so for all.

While some got text messages bearing the aggregates of their results in hours, others waited days for theirs.

Another issue presently causing anxiety is the inability of candidates to print out their results, which shows the breakdown of their performance in each subject they took, their school and course choices, names, photographs, and examination numbers.

Even when the JAMB management told candidates they could print out their full result from the website, www. jamb.org.ng, many could not access the results.

According to findings, at times the website would open and request for a PIN which does not exist.

Most of the affected candidates are at a crossroad on what to do next.

One of the candidates described the development as unfortunate and called on the JAMB management to urgently remedy the situation.

All efforts to speak with the JAMB

to be like water poured on stone as there was no JAMB official to attend to them.

One of the complainants, Mr Basone Dimma, wondered whether JAMB inspected the centres before accrediting them.

"JAMB did not inspect the centres they have chosen for the examination. They are supposed to test-run the exams properly but JAMB did not do that and this is why the candidates are accusing JAMB of lack of preparedness for the UTME," he said.

In Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, many candidates complained about system failure as well. One who pleaded anonymity told The Nation that they could not finish because of the problems encountered.

"Again, in my centre in the metropolis, some of the candidates could not finish the papers due to delay, machine malfunctioning and insufficient time. The exercise was not tidy at all. May be this is because this is the first time it will be conducted nationwide," he said.

Mrs. Kemi Amure, a parent in AdoEkiti, expressed disappointment about the problem her ward encounterd at the Crown Polytechnic centre which led to the rescheduling of the test.

She said the hitch should be blamed on JAMB which she accused of not putting its house in order before coming out with the CBT. "JAMB should not use innocent students as guinea pigs. The frustration of candidates at the centre would discourage them and affect their morale," she said.

But a Deputy Director of JAMB, Mr. Abdulwakil Isamotu, disagreed that the situation was so bad, saying of

the 11 centres in Ekiti State, only Crown Polytechnic had issues.

He said: "There will be some teething problems, I am a Supervisor in Ekiti State. The only place we have problem is Crown Polytechnic Centre. The test could not start on schedule; we had to reschedule it for Friday and Saturday."

In Kano, one of the problematic centres was MS World Technology Limited located at No. 26 Audu Bako Way, where candidates openly protested irregularities surrounding the exercise.

One of them, Sultan Mohammed Usman, an 18-year old who travelled all the way from Gamboru-Ngala Local Government Area in Borno state, said, he spent three days without writing the examination.

"As I am talking to you, I am frustrated. I have been here for the past three days; I have been unable to secure a session to write my examination, but I have been promised that my own session will come up at about 3:30 this afternoon (last Friday). What we observed that is causing this delay is the weak server at the centre and the coordinator has no option than to break the sessions to enable us write our examination," he said.

Another candidate, Adamu Suleiman, who was lucky to write, had the examination disrupted by network failure.

He said: "During the examination, the network got hooked. At the end, the computer came up by itself but showed the message: "you have submitted your examination script" without me concluding answering the questions. The worst of all is that my result is not out up till now, while those who sat with me have

From Gbenga Omokhunu, Abuja

‘The CBT remains the best because it has helped to eliminate examination malpractices. Everything was well organized when compared to previous UTME. This is my second attempt and I'm confident that I will pass’

•Ojerinde

Registrar, Prof Ojerinde, and the Public Relations Officer, Fabian Benjamin were futile as they did not pick their calls nor respond to text messages on the issues. already gotten their own result. In this type of situation, what will I explain to my parents who spent their hard-earned money to ensure that I follow my school mates to participate in the examination?"

In Lagos, over 60 candidates who wrote at the ETC centre in Ikeja last Tuesday, complained about the same problem. They were told to stand aside and wait because their computers went off while they were taking the examination. One of them, Yetunde Sulaimon, said: "We were writing the examination and the computers suddenly went off. When we put them on and tried to reregister, they said we have already registered, refusing to give us access to continue our exam. We informed the officials and they said we should wait that they would do something and we have been waiting for more than five hours now."

There were other victims like Ogechi Cynthia, Adeleke Oluwatosin and Adenike Abibat, who proclaimed their desire for the "old method" of taking JAMB with pencils.

The wait was not over that day as further enquiries revealed that their examinations may need to be rescheduled.

Computer illiteracy This may be the age of technology, but some candidates, particularly those living in rural areas found it difficult navigating the simple technology required for the examination. To answer questions using the CBT mode, candidates are required only to use the mouse to click the right answers and the "next" button to progress. However, those will little or no prior knowledge of computer literacy found these seemingly simple tasks difficult to follow, which affected their composure and performance.

In the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), candidates said those who had problems navigating the system got a lot of support from JAMB officials.

One of them, Esther Onu said: •Continued on page 27

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

27

EDUCATION

Proprietors, Ondo Govt row over taxes

Cheers, jeers for JAMB’s CBT

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•Continued from page 26 "One of the challenges was the fact that some of the candidates are not computer literate and had to ask some of the invigilators to put them through. But over 70 per cent of us are computer literate. The JAMB officials really helped us a lot, even those that didn't go for the pretest on use of computer didn't find it difficult at all. Like me I didn't go for any computer lessons but I operated the computer well."

Another candidate in Abuja, Winifred Okoh, said it was a perfect examination and that even though some of the candidates found it difficult to operate the computers but were assisted by the officials.

However, that support was lacking in some other states. In Kano, many candidates, particularly those from the northern hinterlands could not come to terms with the level of sophistication surrounding the technology being used for the exercise. According findings by our correspondent, the exercise, from that part of the country, faced grave challenges, which may affect results of the candidates. Extensively, greater percentage of candidates that wrote in Kano was not computer literate.

Ope Oyeleye, who wrote in Ekiti State, said coming from a poor background, she would have loved Paper to Pencil Test since she was not very familiar with the computer.

But Mr. Abdulwakil Isamotu, a JAMB official, said using the computer for the CBT only required the use of the keyboard and the mouse, not so much ICT knowledge.

"On the keyboard, you must know how to use keyboard, how to press the letters. You don't have to be a computer guru. Use your mouse and press the keys," he said.

A candidate who wrote in Aba, Abia State, Omorukpa Gregory, said although it was his first time writing the CBT, he did not find it difficult to operate the system because he had enrolled in a computer lesson at his place, in Boki, Cross River State some months before the examination.

Praises for the examination Despite the hitches in some centres, some others were relatively problem free. In such centres, the candidates were happy and noted they preferred CBT mode.

Nosike Oscar, who wrote in Abuja, said the CBT eliminates examination malpractice, which was the bane of the PPT. "The CBT remains the best because it has helped to eliminate examination malpractices.

Everything was well organized when compared to previous UTME. This is my second attempt and I'm confident that I will pass," he said.

Another candidate, Faith Oluwamuyiwa, said it reduces stress and the timing was perfect.

JAMB can take courage in success reports from other UTME centres in Lagos, including the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Federal College of Education Technical (FCE-T), Akoka, and Digital Bridge Institute, Cappa, Oshodi, where the process was smooth and successful.

At UNILAG, the candidates took their test in due time and with minimal technical challenges.

Deborah Bello, Jessica Chijioke and Ayinde Rashidat, gave similar testimonies of the computers and server at their centres being in perfect condition, hence, they started and finished their examinations with no disruption.

The principal technologist at the UNILAG ICT Centre, Mr Jonathan Ogungbe, said he ran the centre with utmost expertise and experience,

•Candidates being screened at the Abia State Polytechnic centre.

Centre demands N1,000 from candidates

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COMPUTER-Based Test (CBT) centre in Aba, Abia State, demanded N1,000 from candidates before they wrote the examination.

The Nation gathered that candidates were asked to pay the money inside the exam hall by the centre’s operators.

According to candidates, who asked not to be named, though the examination went without hitches, which contributed to the success of the UTME CBT exam.

He said: "You can see that the hardware is working perfectly, because the students will start having issues the moment the system is not working fine. So we are the ones to make sure that they are all working. I have almost 30 years working experience as a technologist, so the experience is there and the competency is also there. Arrangements are also important, that is why we do not have any issue here. It is now left for the students and the machine.

As far as Unilag is concerned, we have all the facilities we need to perform the job successfully."

At UNILAG, physically challenged candidates also enjoyed constant supervision from the jamb official, who hovered over them, ready to attend to every call for attention.

At FCE-T, Clara Okosa, a candidate at the centre, said save for lateness, there were no other hitches.

"My exam was good; I did not experience any difficulty, although we started a bit late. Then two boys were caught with their phones in the hall and they were apprehended," she said.

Adebayo Jimoh, who took his exam at FCE-T, said: "The exam was fine. My computer did not have any issue, neither did I hear anybody complain of any computer difficulties."

An invigilator at the centre, Nkiru Ndubuisi confirmed that competent technicians were available to take care of any difficulties although only minor issues were recorded. She said: "as you can see, the exam is going on fine and they are well organised. Technicians are around to cater to the candidates' technical difficulties, but they have not really had any problem."

In Enugu, many candidates the conduct of the examination was a success, except for a few pardonable lapses.

Candidates who sat for the test and their parents were of the view that the conduct was not bad as expected.

At the various centres visited, candidates were cheerful as all the computers working and there was no issue of network failure.

A word from JAMB In a chat with our correspondent, the JAMB Registrar, Prof Ojerinde,

From Sunny Nwankwo, Aba

the proprietor collected N1,000 each from them.

This reporter was kept at the gate for over 30 minutes by some Man 'O' War personnel before being introduced to a man who said to be the proprietor.

When he was confronted about the levy, he denied the allegation and declined to comment further. preparation and conduct of CBT was capital intensive at the moment but expressed optimism that in years to come the mode would be cheaper than the proscribed PPT. He disclosed that more Examination Centres would be secured before the conduct of next year examination, adding that about 530 owners of Computer Centres applied to take part in this exercise "but we are only able to take 400 because they have been judged to have met our criteria".

He also gave clarification that what the Board is doing was purely computer based test but not Internet based test as wrongly speculated in some quarters.

Ojerinde, said it was misleading for some candidates to come out from the examination and said they had challenge of frequent shut down of server during examination in their centres.

He said: "There are two ways of testing. Internet based testing and Computer based test. We are not using Internet to test. Here we send our questions straight to the computers from the Engine House and it reaches the Examination Centres in one and half minutes or three minutes maximum. So, we are using Internet for now. You know how erratic our internet facilities are.”

On security report from the volatile states, the JAMB Registrar said the examination was going on well in all the states including Yobe, Yola and Maiduguri.

However, efforts to get Ojerinde to respond to the hitches across the country proved abortive as he refused to respond to phone calls and text messages.

Though admitting there were hitches, the Chairman of the Board of JAMB, Mr Peter Eze, said the examining body has achieved 90 per cent success in the conduct of the CBT. Eze, said he was glad to have seen candidates were very enthusiastic and well prepared for the examination. "We have not seen anybody complaining because it is Computer Based Test.

"If we say we have achieved up to 100 per cent success that will not be true. But we have achieved to a large extent up to 90 per cent success. We have few problems in a few of our centres nationwide which we must admit. But we don't have problems in Abuja," he said.

EMBERS of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) in Ondo State are in a row with the state government over alleged hostile policies against them.

Consequently, they have been staging protests over what they called heavy taxation imposed on them by the state government.

Members of the association who expressed their grievances by marching from Igbatoro road to the state secretariat last Thursday were however prevented from proceeding to the governor's office by armed policemen.

The Union had earlier given a seven-day ultimatum (which elapsed last Tuesday) to the state government to reverse its policies and reduce the taxes or risk issues that could negatively affect the education sector in the state.

Addressing reporters during the protest, NAPSS President, Goke Orimoloye, said the taxes collected from schools by the government was affecting the smooth development of private educational institutions in the state.

Orimoloye said the government is collecting an aggregate tax of N3 million annually from an average private school.

He complained that the schools pay huge sums of money to the state government, Ministry of Education and the local governments on the same form of taxation.

The NAPPS President said, "The Board of Internal Revenue collects N2,000,000 yearly, we pay the Ministry of Education a renewal college fee for (college) N125,000 and N80,000 for Primary.

"We pay N30,000 to the local government on Business Premises.

The Ministry of Education also collect N90,000 for JSS 3 Examination for 60 Students, while SS 2 Examination we pay N55,000 for 55 students.

"For the Primary six School examination, the ministry of education also collects from us, N50,000 for 50 pupils. Our Tenement rates which we pay to the local government is between N50,000 to N120,000 yearly. Local government vehicle document (mobile advert) is N20,000. Signage to the Board of Internal Revenue is N15,000.

"Rebranding of vehicle in FRSC colour (per bus) N150,000; we are also

From Damisi Ojo, Akure

paying re-accredication fees for Colleges to the Ministry of Education for N50,000 and Primary for N30,000.

For Sanitation we pay N50,000. In total, the ministry of education is collecting N480,000 yearly from us, local government, N50,000, Board of internal revenue, N2,015,200; FRSC, N150,000 and Ministry of Environment, N50,000."

Orimoloye condemned the tactics the government agents employed in collecting the taxes, saying sometimes they would lock up the schools and chase away their students.

He also flayed the government for not listening to their complaints.

"Rather than given us an audience, they have resorted to threats, intimidation and harassment of our members. The meeting that was held was a ploy by the government to frustrate our protest rally and those that attended the meeting are in government pay-roll or officials of the government.

He noted that the issue of reaccreditation fee for secondary schools came up few weeks ago when the government directed them to pay N50,000 for accreditation to serve as WAEC centres - including schools that had been accredited before.

Orimoloye said it was only in Ondo State that private school proprietors were charged heavily when compared with other states in the south west.

"For instance, we are paying N125,000 for renewal fee, while other states like Ekiti pay N39,000, Edo, N11,000, Osun, N30,000 and presently Ogun is not collecting renewal fees from proprietors," he said.

He also said that all attempts by the association to dialogue with Governor Olusegun Mimiko had failed as they were denied access to see him unlike their counterparts like NURTW, ACCOMORON among others.

Orimoloye said the government had failed to realize that private schools were providing unemployment to young graduates, urging the government to stop treating them like a prisoners in their own state.

Reacting, the Commissioner for Education, Jide Adejuyigbe said that the state government would constitute a seven-member committee, including NAPSS, to deliberate with a view to resolving the conflict amicably.

Minister to reshuffle Unity School principals, others

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RINCIPALS, teachers and other non-academic members of staff of the Federal Government Colleges, also called Unity Schools, should brace up for redeployment as the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Viola Onwuliri, has said that a major shakeup is coming soon.

The Minister, who disclosed this in Abuja when she met with Principals of the 104 unity schools, added that the reshuffling exercise would be immediate.

"For learning to be effective there must be changes. Those who have stayed in a particular position will have to go elsewhere. Over staying of staff will not be encouraged," she said.

Prof Onwuliri also ordered the principals to submit the results of the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the National Examinations Council (NECO), as well as the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) of the schools in the last five years for appraisal.

She also urged the principals to officially inform the Federal Ministry of Education (FME) of abandoned or completed projects in their schools.

The Minister vowed to ensure that schools are not attacked before, during and after the forthcoming general

•Prof Onwuliri From Gbenga Omokhunu, Abuja

elections, saying adequate measures have been taken to avoid crises.

She said: "We have a lot of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and we are moving them to the government colleges. Our problems are that many of them could not fit into the system so we are doing extra job to further teach them.

"We have been talking to the children, teachers, the states and it is part of what we are doing here today.

A lot of efforts are ongoing and many states are cooperating with us to ensure that the schools are safe before, during and after the elections.

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

28

EDUCATION Alumnus donates books to dept N alumnus of the Department of English and Literary Studies of the University of Calabar (UNICAL), Mr Ekom Itauma, has donated textbooks worth over N5 million to the department.

Itauma, who is the Managing Director of Alrange Limited (Books and Library Consultants), said that the idea behind the donation was to give back to the department after many of years of graduation.

“I feel obliged to come and give these books to the department for the upcoming ones. And we will be doing it from time to time hoping that this will bring a more robust relationship between the department and my company and the university community in general. Most of the books here are for references and it costs about N5.3 million,” he said.

He enjoined students of the department to take advantage of the books to improve on their academics. Head of Department, Prof. Francis Mogu, expressed appreciation for the gesture.

Mogu said the best thing anyone

A

•Executive Director Personal Banking, Access Bank Plc, Victor Etuokwu (4th right); Head, Corporate Communications, Access Bank Plc, Olubusola Osilaja (2nd right); with students of Greensprings School, Anthony Campus, Lagos during the Financial Literacy Day in commemoration of the 2015 Global Money Week recently.

Proprietor advises on pedagogy

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ROPRIETOR of Excellent Kids Field of Learning, (Excellent Child Academy), Mrs Olubunmi Jesuleye, has advised schools to inculcate methods of teaching that would effectively curb truancy and hooliganism from the society.

She gave the advice at the school's second Inter-house Sports competition, which held at Federal Ministry of External Affairs, Air Field, Ibiye, Lagos State.

Mrs Jesuleye said this advice is operational in her school.

"Our mission is to curb truancy and hooliganism and that is what we inculcate into our teaching. This entails the training and teaching of our pupils morally, spiritually and mentally to make them useful to the society and their immediate environment in later days," she said.

The proprietor said her desire to rid society of anti-social behaviour and reduce illiteracy informed the school's practice of charging affordable fees as well as supporting the less privileged.

She said: "The school has the mandate to reduce, or if possible, totally eradicate illiteracy from the society, which is why we work as a team in compliance with the State Govern-

From Nicholas Kalu, Calabar

could do for a child was to give books.

He said one of the greatest problems facing education in Nigeria was lack of reading culture.

“Our children today have taken to internet and reading culture has been relegated to nothing; so, it is interesting to see somebody trying to revive the situation.If students cultivate the habit of reading, their future will be brighter. We appreciate this innovation and on behalf of the department I thank you so much, ‘’ he said.

Speaking, Dr Nkoyo Edem, Deputy Chief Librarian of the university, advised other alumni of the institution to emulate such gesture for the development of the school.

“We are encouraging other alumni of this university to come in from time to time and do things like this for the development of their Alma Mata, ‘’ Edem added.

She advised both students and researchers to make good use of the books to serve the purpose it was meant.

By Oluwatoyin Adeleye

ment Programme of Education, 'Education for All', by making our school fees affordable for all. We also provide educational materials for the less privileged and finance children from poor homes. We open school gates in order to close prison doors."

Mrs Jesuleye said the name of the school, which used to be Excellent Child Academy prior to registration, was given to her in a vision in 2003.

However the school did not start until 2010 with five pupils and two workers - herself and Mrs Agatha Ozazuwa.

Today, the school has 150 pupils and 10 teachers.

Her words: "I am happy that the school which was established on the firm foundation of excellence in all ramifications is already graduating from strength to strength. And hope to improve very soon on a secondary school level."

Also speaking at the event, a physical and health education officer, Mrs Eunice Omoyemi advised parents to maintain cordial relationship with their children by engaging in sports activities together.

•Mrs Jesuleye (middle), Rev Jesuleye (second left), with the sports officials (from left): Mrs Mary Isijola, Mrs Omoyemi, Mr Oshoko and Mr Ayodeji Oyenuga. Inset: the winners, Bishop Okunola House.

Co-proprietor of the school, Rev. Gbenga Jesuleye, said: “Sports in the world over have become practicable instruments of self actualisation, absolute source of income, sure means of aiding mental alertness and strong tools of mutual consistency among people of different tribes and nationalities and therefore, parents

should manage these activities with their children."

Despite a heavy downpour, the coach Mr Michael Oshoko was able to manage the programme such that it turned out well.

After the match pass, the pupils of the school, parents and youth of the community participated in races, re-

lays and track and field events, coconut race, filling the bottle, popping of balloons, among others.

Bishop Okunola (Yellow) House won the competition, followed by School (purple) House. Golden Crown (white) House came third, while Aluko (Blue) House was fourth.

Honour for OGITECH Rector

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LTHOUGH Dr Olufunke Akinkurolere finished from, Yewa College (now Egbado College) 24 years ago, she still keeps close ties with her alma mater, contributing her widow's mite whenever the need arises.

Dr Akinkurolere, who earned her PhD in Structural Engineering from the University of Ibadan in 2008, before she clocked 40, was appointed the substantive Rector of the Ogun State Institute of Technology (OGITECH), Igbesa in Ogun State, last July.

Her achievement less than a year in the saddle, a product of her passion, earned her a special recognition award from her former school.

The ceremony provided a platform for Dr Akinkurolere and other old students to reminiscence about the good old days. They addressed themselves and their former teachers by their nicknames.

National President of LACOSA, Noah Ola Iyanda, admonished members to proudly hold their heads high for having passed out from the 64 year-old school.

Referring to Dr Akinkurolere, Iyanda, who was represented by the vice president, Mr Tunde Olugbwesa, urged members to pray for her success.

"Some of us don't know that the

By Adegunle Olugbamila

position Dr Akinkurolere is occupying in OGITECH today is not mere Rector. That position is a target for empowerment and I want some of our members to leverage on that position. OGITECH is not just a mere school but institute of technology. So, we need to team up and pray for her so that she can succeed in her new task.

The Olu of Ilaro, Oba Gbadewole Kehinde Olugbenle, described Dr Akinkurolere as a rallying point and an asset to Ilaro.

"Akinkurolere is an asset and a rallying point because it is on her behalf we are all here. Today, we are all celebrating excellence. Let me also say that it is not only Funke that you have come to celebrate but me because she's my daughter," he said.

In her response, the rector thanked the gathering, grateful she met them through the school.

"Our gathering today would not have been possible if the founding fathers of this great college failed to bring their vision of establishing this school to reality. All the products of this school including the 1991 old students would not have passed through the system. Our young Olufunke would not have also been

•From left: Mr Samuel Atanda; the rector's father, Mr Sesan Olatunji; Dr Akinkurolere; Oba Olugbenle, Prof Popoola, and a retired teacher in the school Rev Olusiji Adegboyega.

a beneficiary," she said.

Though convivial, the occasion brought to the fore the need for LACOSA to support their alma mater, and the state of education and its future. In this regard, an alumnus Tope Popoola, a professor of Microbiology from FUNAAB, spoke on the essence of basic education as a foundation for other levels.

Popoola lamented that the value

system that used to be the norm in those days has depleted and in its wake social vices that are considered un-African.

He advocated leadership training which according to him, should follow the home-school-home tripod, as it was in the days of old.

"We also need quality and affordable education particularly our youth. Statistics available to me show

that in Lagos alone, there are about three million unemployed youths.

“This simply means there are three million youths that may be used as political thugs by various contenders for various public offices in Lagos.

“If these youths are gainfully employed or introduced into formal or informal skill acquisition, their hands would not be idle for politicians to use," he said.

Behold the First Class pharmacist

‘The future we want’ Page 34

Page 31

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CAMPUS LIFE 0805-450-3104 email: campusbeat@yahoo.com THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

Website:- http://www.thenationonlineng.net

email:- campuslife@thenationonlineng.net

Community groans as ASUU goes on strike •The ever-busy Faculty of Social Science classrooms deserted as the strike continues

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of the Kogi State University (KSU) has begun an indefinite strike, following an alleged delay in paying its members’ allowance as contained in the 2009 agreement between its national body and the Federal Government. MOHAMMED YABAGI (300-Level Mass Communication) reports.

W

HEN should workers go on strike to press home their demands? This is the question begging for answer.

Each time the Kogi State University (KSU) chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) goes on strike, Anyigba, a sprawling Igala community, becomes a ghost town; commercial activities are paralysed because the university makes the town tick.

The ASUU strike is over the nonimplementation of earned academic allowances as contained in the 2009 agreement between its national leadership and the Federal Government.

ASUU chairman Dr Abdullahi Musa Yusuf, confirmed that lecturers were on strike over the allowance, noting that the amount owed them is over N1 billion.

The Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof Hassan Isah,

refuted the claim, saying the inability to implement the agreement was not the management’s or the government’s fault, but ASUU’s.

He said the computed earned academic allowances submitted to the management and forwarded to the government, was done last November. The management, Prof Isah said, forwarded the document to the government in January after it confirmed its accuracy.

The VC said the institution was one of the first to implement the 2009 agreement after it was signed, appealing to the lecturers to go back to the negotiating table with the government rather than embarking on a strike.

But, Dr Yusuf said the strike became imperative after the government allegedly reneged on its promise to pay the allowance.

He said: “We have made efforts to dialogue with government on this matter but we are

getting cold shoulders from them. Those who held talks with us on behalf of government did not seem to take us serious. As I always say, strike is always our last resort. In as much as we are humans, we are also parents who would not be happy to see our children sit at home. But our hands are tied.”

Prof Isah said the government is committed to resolving the issue in the shortest time. “I appeal to the ASUU members to evaluate the cost of the strike. Management has not been resting on its oars in ensuring that the issue is addressed harmoniously.

They should consider that Governor Idris Wada is an education-friendly governor. He just got the computed document and he would implement the agreement,” the VC said.

ASUU also claimed that its members were overtaxed between November 2011 and Sep-

tember 2012, to the tune of N104,934,709.99.

In a letter with reference number KGS/BIR/ PIT/VOL.I/317, ASUU wrote the Kogi State Board of Internal Revenue, seeking a refund.

But in a reply, the Internal Revenue Board said: “After careful study of your request, we discovered that, contrary to your claims, staff of Kogi State University were never over-taxed, particularly during the period of November 2011 to September, 2012 as claimed in your letter.

“Kogi State, during the period, including your counterparts in the state civil service were made to pay 2.5 per cent of their gross salary as tax, whereas, you (the lecturers) were paying tax based on the concession earlier granted (waiver of Peculiar Allowances). This did not translate to being over-taxed.”

•Continued on page 30

•Student drowns in River Ethiope-P32•NYSC honours 29, sanctions 10 -P33

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

30

CAMPUS LIFE

Environmental pangs

W

E live in a rapidly changing world where new technologies keep coming up and if we don’t want to be left behind, we must keep pace with the world. Without education it will be really difficult for us to adapt to all these changes.

An educated person is much more aware of the latest technologies and all the changes that are taking place in the world. For example, an uneducated person may not know about the benefits of the internet whereas an educated person uses this gift of technology regularly for work as well as for entertainment.

Education is however more than reading, writing, and arithmetic. It is one of the most important investments a country can make in its people and its future, and is critical to reducing poverty and inequality. If education is this important and governments around the world – developed and developing – know this, why do we only pay lip service toward education?

Knowing its importance, one of our neighbours, Ghana spends 27 percent of its public expenditure on education while Nigeria, the 9th largest petroleum producer in the world, spends a mere 10 percent. As a result, Ghana has a per capita income that is twice that of Nigeria. It is therefore not surprising that the country is now a popular education tourism destination for Nigerians.

While serious nations are making remarkable progress, our schools only teach students how to read and write and earn what one analyst describes as “worthless certificates.” Meanwhile, schools in the United States of America (USA) and Europe lay serious emphasis on teaching students moral and character values, critical thinking and good citizenship.

Due to the lacuna, many Nigerian youths now detest hard work and the path to legitimate riches. They see “rich men” as their role models and develops a compulsive urge to make money by any means necessary, including acquiring human body parts for black magic or smuggling drugs. It matters little if the “rich man” is a drug pusher, human trafficker, corrupt politician or treasury looter.

It is quite instructive that Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil and South Korea were at the

‘We have made efforts to dialogue with government on this matter but we are getting cold shoulders from them. Those who held talks with us on behalf of government did not seem to take us serious. As I always say, strike is always our last resort. In as much as we are humans, we are also parents who would not be happy to see our children sit at home’ The strike is biting residents of Anyigba hard. They are appealing to the lecturers to return to work.

A resident said: “Without the university, our commercial activities crumble. In fact, commercial activities suffer whenever the school is on strike or students go on vacation. Since this action is internal, we appeal to the lecturers to use other means to push their demands.”

Mohammed Isah, the vice chairman of the university’s Okada Riders Association, said their business has been affected. He said: “Anyigba is a university town and our businesses here largely depend on stu-

Pushing Out

same economic level as Nigeria when the latter became independent in 1960. By prudent management, these nations have a per capita with income that is 40 times greater than that of Nigeria. From all indication, Nigeria’s problems will be around 08116759750 for many decades and can only be (SMS only) eradicated by properly educating the •aagboa@gmail.com next generation of close to 100 million young Nigerians.

There’s something about our environment that would make this task daunt- of the youngest students to ever attend the ing, it is what keeps holding citizens back, university. She is expected to graduate in preventing them from unleashing their tal- May. ents and creativity. There are countless inEsther Okade is another wonder kid. At stances of Nigerians leaving our shores and just 10, she is already studying mathematmaking the best of their lives beyond imagi- ics in Open University, a United Kingdomnation. based distance learning university and alDo these names, Saheela Ibraheem, Esther ready top of her class having recently Okade, Peter and Paula Imafidon, strike a scored 100 per cent in a recent examination. chord? If they did you are probably monitor- The array of British newspapers that deing the feat of Nigerians abroad. These are voted prominent portions of their papers smart Nigerian kids making waves in the USA to celebrate the prodigy, lends credence to and Great Britain. The story of these bright the magnitude of the feat.

Nigerians reads like something from a ficThe London Telegraph relayed the story tion novel. After monitoring their develop- this way, “Mathematics prodigy, 10, enrolls ments, I often wonder if they would have on degree course,” “Ten-year-old prodigy made progress had their parents remained in begins college courses for mathematics deNigeria. The answer my friend is blowing in gree,” was how online medium, the wind. blackamericanweb.com announced Okade’s Thursday February 26, 2015 was a very spe- feat. The Mail Online preferred to render cial day for Miss Saheela Ibraheem as the 19- its headline like a question, “Is this Brityear-old Harvard University undergraduate ain’s cleverest girl? Ten-year-old is accepted made history when the US President, Barack on university course to study mathematics Obama and his wife, Michelle honoured her degree despite not going to school.” with an official reception in the White House.

In these reports by the British papers and She was admitted into Harvard at 15, where others, the writers spare no words in edushe is currently studying neurobiology- a cating their readers that Esther Okade looks branch of science that studies the brain. It is and acts her age. However, what makes the her feat that made Obama and his wife to in- youngster stand out is the fact that she is vite her to the White House. also a university undergraduate, and one of Prior to her entering Harvard, 13 other top UK’s youngest college freshmen. universities in the USA, including the famous The story of Peter and Paula Imafidon - a set Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), of twins - made international headlines for Princeton University, Columbia University, their educational exploit following in the footUniversity of Pennsylvania, Cornell Uni- steps of their older sisters, Anne-Marie and versity, Brown University, University of Samantha. Nicknamed “the Wonder Twins,” Chicago, Williams College, Stanford Uni- Peter and Paula, in 2013 were named Great versity, University of North Carolina at Britain’s highest achievers. At only nine, they Chapel Hill, and Washington University in made history as the youngest children in BritSt. Louis among others, offered her admis- ish history to attend high school. In 2013, they sion. In choosing Harvard, she became one

Agbo Agbo

were in their third year.

It is on record that the twin are the youngest to ever pass the University of Cambridge’s advanced mathematics examination after participating in the Excellence in Education programme. They set world records when they passed the A/AS-level mathematics papers.

Achieving such feats in Nigeria would be difficult because our environmental pangs are compounded by deep seated issues. The most critical is a leadership crisis which has affected all sectors of the economy. The problem of corruption and weak institutions are also there. But of the myriad of problems confronting Nigeria, leadership is at the top of the chart, it is capable of uplifting any human society or holding down the wheel of progress. It is the foundation that determines progress or the absence of it. So our environmental pangs may continue until we get a grip on our leadership crisis.

In Nigeria today, leadership across the board from local to national level is all about the well-being of the leaders and their cronies and the entrenchment of their rules by whatever means. Their misrule is also manifested in the spate of onslaughts against perceived opponents while in this process, the interests and well-being of the society is undermined or even ignored. This ought not to be so, as the purpose of leadership is about the well-being of the society.

I will like to close with the words of Joseph Stiglitz, one of the world’s best-known economists and former chief economist at the World Bank. In a chapter of his book “Making Globalization Work,” he said: “And there is a striking difference between the riches that arise from hard work and creativity and those that come from grabbing hold in one way or another of a nation’s natural resources. The latter is particularly enervating for national cohesion… It is not surprising that discontent seethes beneath the surfaces of these countries.”

Those familiar with the affairs of natural resources endowed nations like Nigeria, Venezuela, Angola, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and others know that Stiglitz hit the nail on the head. In Nigeria, all our state officials do is to fly to Abuja and collect their cheques from the federation account thereby killing all forms of creativity in the process. All because of easy oil money.

Journalism lecturer slumps, dies

N •Prof Yusuf showing documents to back ASUU’s claims

dents’ patronage. Without them, commercial activities are paralysed.

We urge the interested parties to reach an agreement and call off the strike.”

Yusuf Mustafa, a business man, bemoaned the action, saying there had been no patronage for his trade since the strike started.

He said: “The effect of the strike cannot really be described in words.

If I want to describe it, I can say that it is devastating. Our business has stagnated and we don’t know what to do about it. This strike is affecting us seriously.”

A recharge card vendor, Kenny Ayinde, said she used to sell more than 14 packs of cards of different networks when the school is in session. This is no longer the case. She hardly sells four packs of cards daily now.

“Business is no longer moving.

•Isah speaking to our reporter

You can see that some of our colleagues have also closed shops (points at some lock-up shops). We hope we won’t suffer hunger before the strike is suspended.”

IGERIAN Institute of Journalism (NIJ) was, on Friday, thrown into mourning, following the death of a lecturer.

Mr Christian Ogochukwu Ogbodo was said to have slumped on Thursday evening but died the following day.

CAMPUSLIFE could not confirm the cause of the death but a family member, who did not want her name in print, said Mr Chris, as the deceased was fondly called by students, died of high blood pressure.

The school campus in Ogba, Lagos was gloomy when the news hit the deceased’s colleagues. Staff and students gathered in group, discussing in hush tones. Some students, who described the late Ogbodo as their best lecturer, expressed shock.

A student, Ayodele Bandele, described the late lecturer as nice and friendly, saying: “We will miss Mr Chris.”

Sandra Nwokocha, a HND II student, said: “I saw him in the radio studio about two weeks ago. I did not know it would be the last time I would see him. This is shocking.”

Another student, who simply gave his name as Charles, said it was painful to learn the death of his mentor. “Mr Chris’ death is a devastating blow to the Institute,” he said.

A lecturer, Ifedayo Akinwalere, said he felt sad when the news hit him. “I felt sad when I heard the

•The late Ogbodo

From Samson Iwala NIJ bad news this morning. I am still looking for words to describe what happened. The late Ogbodo was such a young and promising teacher. He was jovial and likable.

I pray God gives the family the fortitude to bear the loss,” he said.

The late Ogbodo was full-time Broadcast lecturer. He joined NIJ in 2010.

‘I felt sad when I heard the bad news this morning. I am still looking for words to describe what happened.

The late Ogbodo was such a young and promising teacher. He was jovial and likable. I pray God gives the family the fortitude to bear the loss’

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

31

CAMPUS LIFE The Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) has held its 30th induction. Hiqmat Abdulahi Odunayo emerged valedictorian among 137 other graduands. MIFTAUDEEN RAJI (100-Level Mass Communication) reports.

‘This achievement would not have been possible without the help of Allah, and the support of my family and friends. I congratulate my fellow graduating students, and also remind them that our journey has just begun in discovering who we really are’

Behold the First Class pharmacist

I

T is not a mean feast to graduate with a First Class. With a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 4.80, Hiqmat Abdulahi Odunayo emerged top of her class at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Lagos (UNILAG). The feat brought glad tidings and rekindled memories of her challenging times in school.

Hiqmat beat seven of her colleagues, who finished with distinction, to emerge overall best graduating student. The success story of Hiqmat’s six years academic sojourn, which saw her bagging the B.Pharm degree, started in December, 2009.

Last Thursday, she, with 137 others, was inducted a pharmacist by the officials of the Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria (PCN). She won the Pfizer Science Prize and other academic prizes for her feat.

The 30th induction was held in the institution’s main auditorium; it attracted dignitaries from all walks of life. It was remarkable, because of the eight graduands with distinction, seven were women.

On what motivated her, Hiqmat said she was moulded by her environment and peers. “I cannot say that I am more intelligent than my colleagues. I could not have achieved this without them. It was all of them, who were my com-

•Hiqmat after taking the oath

petitors and also my backbone. In that way, we are all valedictorians

to have graduated from the faculty.

She added: “This achievement would not have been possible without the help of Allah, and the support of my family and friends.

I congratulate my fellow graduating students, and also remind them that our journey has just begun in discovering who we really are. I encourage everyone all to protect the lofty image of this institution as we go into the world to practise the discipline we have been studying.”

Addressing graduands, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Rahamon Bello, advised the inductees study further, noting that the induction signified another journey and not the end in their profession.

He assured that the university would continue to nurture students to attain excellence, adding: “This is a special profession in the society and we see it as our responsibility to produce competent manpower to uphold its values and eth-

ics of practice.”

Prof Bello, represented by his deputy for Academics and Research, Prof Babajide Alo, said the inductees had obligation to be good ambassador of the school when they start to practise. He added: “You will have some responsibilities to play in your profession. Whichever area you may specialise, you must realise that your potentials are limitless.”

The Dean, Faculty of Pharmacy, Prof Olukemi Odukoya, noted that the vision of pharmacy discipline offerered leadership development, rather than career continuity.

She said: “A huge responsibility would be entrusted to you, but the ones ahead are even greater. This is by far most exciting and challenging time for the profession. You will be faced with many obstacles, but from these obstacles come opportunities to write your name in gold.

You must ensure that patients receive quality pharmaceutical care, using your clinical skills.”

The chairman of the occasion, Mr Ike Onyechi, a pharmacist, urged the graduands to be committed to ethics and determined to make good impact on the lives of the people.

He said: “As you are leaving, I want you to be determined. The environment is not easy. The more it becomes tougher, the higher you can go.”

Colourful activities marked the occasion. The highpoint was the oath-taking conducted by Mr N.A. Muhammad and presentation of prizes and certificates to the inductees.

The ceremony was attended by members of the university Senate and other officials of management. There were PCN officials led by the president, Mr Olumide Akintayo, Dr Adepoju Bello.

social activities are also banned.

Students who violate this order will be sanction.”

The Dean, Students’ Affairs Unit, Mr Omobayo Raheem, in a telephone chat, said some students resorted to violence when they became desperate and wanted their wishes at all cost, thereby disturbing the peace on the campus.

He added that the suspension of the union became necessary to restore calmness to the school. He advised students to comply with

the directive, adding that the incident would be investigated.

Asked about the condition of the gunshot victim, the Dean said the student was recovering and “will be discharged soon”.

Unconfirmed reports say the student has been transferred from the Nigerian Army Reference Hospital to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital in Idi-Araba. But, Raheem refused to comment on this. The victim was said to be a Mass Communication student.

The Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH) has suspended the Students’ Union Government (SUG), following the violence that marred its election penultimate Monday. MUBARAK SALAUDEEN (ND II Student) reports.

YABATECH axes SUG

T

HE Students’ Union Government (SUG) of the Yaba Col-

lege of Technology (YABATECH) has been suspended. Its suspension followed the violence that marred its election penultimate Monday.

The campus was thrown into disarray few minutes before the results of the six-hour election were to be announced. It was gathered that a fight broke out among students while the election outcome was being awaited.

The fight, CAMPUSLIFE gathered, led to shooting by a group of gunmen suspected to be secret cult members.

The electoral committee members scampered for safety; students ran helter-skelter. In the commotion, a student whose name could not be confirmed was hit by stray bullet on the shoulder. Another, a women, fainted as guns boomed.

The timing of the election seemed unsuitable, given that it came two days before the second semester examination.

The election started peacefully at 9am in all faculties, with accreditation of students. By 3pm, voting ended and collation of ballots followed.

But, a few minutes before the announcement of results, there was pandemonium, following a brawl among students.

The election was keenly contested. The post of president had four contestants - Olawale Shebiolegebe (Office Technology Management) and Oladele Lawal (Accountancy), Akeem Adeniyi (Hospitality Catering Management), and Emmanuel Awoleye (Electrical Engineering).

Other offices also had more than two students contesting to occupy them.

It was gathered that there were signs of violence during the exercise but the school security personnel did not act fast enough to contain the threat. At 8pm, sporadic gunshot rented the air. The arrival of policemen from Sabo Police Station restored normalcy to the campus.

Students chided the college management for poor security arrangement during the election, saying the authorities only invited the police when havoc had been wreaked.

CAMPUSLIFE learnt that the gunshot victim was taken to the nearby Nigerian Army Reference Hospital. The unconscious lady was revived at the college’s medical centre.

Eyewitnesses said the election was rowdy at the faculties of Engineering, Management and Business Studies, Science. A student in the School of Management and Business Studies, who pleaded for anonymity, said he could not vote

•Students before the violence

because of the fight.

The following day, the college management rose from an emergency meeting, announcing the suspension of students’ union activities on the campus.

The Registrar, Ms BIekoroma Amapakabo, signed the memo which placed the ban on unionism indefinitely.

The memo reads: “Students unionism in the college is suspended with immediate effect and till further notice. All form of protest and

2015 polls: Nigerian students meet in London THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

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CAMPUS LIFE

Kaduna students welcome freshers

T

HE Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS) chapter of Kaduna State Students Union (KADSSU) has held an orientation for freshers.

The event, which held at the Faculty of Arts and Islamic Studies Lecture Hall was attended by some lecturers, including Mallam Ismaila Jaafar, who was the guest speaker.

Other guests included representative of the Librarian, Mallam Bayero; Director of Information Management System (IMS), Ibrahim Aminu, and Chairman, Students’ Union Caretaker Committee, Al-Amin Musa.

Ismaila urged the students to be law-abiding and be good Samaritans to their colleagues from other states. He advised them to work hard to achieve excellence in their academics.

The freshers were also taken

•Mallam Ismaila

•Freshers at the orientation

From Olawumi Yasin UDUS through some methods for calculating their Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA), noting that there is no more “E” grade in

exams. The minimum pass grade in all courses, they were told, is “C” and score below 50 per cent is “F”.

Aminu advised them to approach the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) department if they encounter registration chal-

lenges, assuring that IMS staff would be willing to help them.

Bayero urged the freshers to work hard to enable them get good grades. He urged them to imbibe the habits of using the library all the time.

The President of the association, Ahmed Musa, assured them that the union would protect their interests, advising them to be good ambassadors of the state.

The event was round off by a cultural dance by the union’s troupe.

Student drowns in River Ethiope

A •The outgoing executive members displaying their certificates

T

HE Press Club of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) members have sworn-in new lead-

ers.

The event, which started at 4pm, held at the Common Room of Jaja Hall.

The former president of the club, Oluwatosin Adesile, represented the club’s Staff Adviser, Mrs Rita Joy, at the event.

The Chairman, Electoral Committee, Adeyemi Olalemi, described the ceremony as a new beginning for the association. He advised the new officers to embrace the principle of openness and truth in discharging their duties.

He said: “This is not a destination, but a journey. You input today will determine your output tomorrow.

You must imbibe the principle of

Press Club gets new leaders From Taiwo Ekeleme UNILAG truth and transparency to promote the ideals of the club.”

The outgoing president, Modiu Olaguro, said his administration recorded unprecedented successes, saying the group was able to reach out to students in all faculties through its press statements.

Modiu advised his successor to amend the club’s constitution to encourage members in discharging their duties.

Adesile hailed the outgoing executive for their efforts to deepen the foundation of campus journalism in the school. He advised the

new leaders to increase the membership of the club to make improve its activities and create more awareness.

The oath of office was administered on members of the new executive by the Electoral Committee chair, after which they received certificates of return and copies of the club’s constitution.

Temitope Ojedele, a 400-Level English student, is the president; Taiwo Ekeleme, general secretary; Ifeoma Nwalisi, public relations officer and Anselem Anonyuo, welfare secretary.

In his acceptance speech, Temitope sought members’ support to achieve the objectives of the club.

IMSU inducts 200 medical scientists

N

O fewer than 200 graduating students of the Department of Medical Laboratory Science of the Imo State University (IMSU) have been inducted.

The event held during the department’s 11th induction at the university auditorium.

The Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof Ukachukwu Aloysius, represented by his deputy on Academics, Prof C. I. Ubochi, congratulated the inductees on the successful completion of their degree courses, saying the occasion was the beginning of their service to humanity.

The VC said graduates, who have have been found worthy in character and learning, must promote the ideals of the profession and show good qualities in practice.

From Deborah Uzoma IMSU The Head of Department (HOD), Dr Ambrose Opara, reminded the inductees of the importance of the oath, saying it was an acceptance into the profession’s hall of fame. He advised the Medical Laboratory Science graduates to uphold the ethics and use it to guide their conduct.

He urged them to be good ambassador of their alma mater and make their parents proud by conducting themselves in responsible manner.

The Dean, Faculty of Health Science, Prof. J. N. Nnadozie, in his speech titled: Many were called but a few were chosen, said the inductees must preserve the tradition of excellence for which the school is known.

He said prayers for the graduates,

advising them to be good members of the profession.

The Registrar/Chief Executive Officer, Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCON), Prof Anthony Emeribe, said the induction was not about an individual but the well-being of the profession and its future.

He said practitioners must uphold the core values of the Medical Laboratory Science, advising the graduands to show humility and respect to their senior colleagues.

Emeribe said the quality of service delivery made the council to be first member of the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) in West and Central Africa, with a mandate to accredit and regulate medical laboratory schools in Africa.

200-Level student of Delta State University (DELSU), Abraka, Henry Ozowe, has drowned.

The Microbiology student was drowned in River Ethiope on Saturday while swimming. The river, which is known as Igbe, is close to the campus.

A resident, who discovered the deceased’s body floating on the river, said the body was found the following day. “I went to the river on Sunday about 10am when I saw a body floating on the water and I drew people’s attention to it. After a while, some people came with a boat and took the body to the river bank. It was discovered that the victim was a student,” he explained.

Faith Edafe, 200-Level Social Studies Education, said the late Henry told her he was going to swim in the river, adding that she did not call him to know if he was back.

CAMPUSLIFE learnt that the university management had warned

Union sensitises students on dress code

S

TUDENTS of the Federal Polytechnic, Auchi (AUCHI POLY) have been urged to dress decently.

The insitution’s Students Union Government (SUG) Vice President, Blessing Onyenwenu, gave the advice at a seminar by the association.

She advised his colleagues to use the pedestrian bridge when crossing the highway for their safety.

Addressing participants, Chairman of the polytechnic’s Dress Code Committee, Dr Helen Uhunmwhagho, said students must dress properly and avoid exposing their bodies in the name of fashion.

She said: “You are addressed the way you are dressed. It is impor-

•The late Henry

From Ese Okoduwa DELSU students several times on the dangers of going to the river to swim.

Another resident, who simply gave his name Mr. TJ, put the cause of the death on the water goddess, saying there was something mysterious about the river. He said: “When a person gets drowned in the river, the water will throw the victim up three times. If there is nobody to rescue the victim, he will get drowned. The next day, the victim’s body will float at the spot he gets drowned.”

It was learnt that the late Henry went to the river alone. He hailed from Aniocha East Local Government Area of the state.

From Sampson Unamka and Richard Obote AUCHI POLY tant for students to dress neatly and morally at every occasion.

The Head of Department of Mass Communication, Mrs Clara Ogbiti, advised students to engage social media responsibly, urging them not to copy everything they see online.

She admonished students to use the pedestrian bridge for safety.

“When you dress indecently, you expose yourself to rape and portray yourself as a prostitute. By implication, you cannot be seen to be a morally-upright human being. You must be good ambassador of your family by dressing decently,” Ogbiti said.

Blessing said the seminar was to complement management’s effort to curb vices on campus. She said: “Some of our colleagues dress shabbily to classes without considering the immorality of their act. It is not limited to girls alone; guys also sag their trousers with no reason. There is need for sensitisation for students to know the kind of conduct they are expected to put up. This campaign will help to inform them better.”

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

33

CAMPUS LIFE Computer Science gets NUC accreditation

T

HE National Universities Commission (NUC) has accreditated the Department of Computer Science of Obong University in Obong Ntak, Akwa Ibom State.

This followed the NUC pre-accreditation visit to the institution in September, last year. With this development, the university can now admit freshers into the department in the 2014/2015 session.

In a letter signed by the NUC Executive Secretary, Prof. Julius Okojie, the commission said it was satisfied with the academic standards in the institution.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Moses Udoudo, said the NUC’s nod to the department was an indication of the high quality curriculum and staff

•Dr Onyeke speaking to the Corps members

NYSC honours 29, sanctions 10 •‘Invest your allowance in entrepreneurship’

C

ORPS members have been advised to desist from cutting corners during their service year.

The Enugu State Assistant Director Corps Discipline and Reward of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Ella Williams gave the advice during the passing-out for Batch “A” Corps members in Enugu.

He said 29 Corps members were honoured for their performances, which had impact on their host communities.

Of the 29 awardees, four received Governor’s Award, four the Governing Board Chairman’s Award, while the others received Commendation Letters.

Williams added that 10 Corps members were penalised for various offences, including absconding

From Emmanuel Ahanonu NYSC ENUGU and truancy. He said one of the 10 youth got two months’extension in service, while the rest were asked to repeat the year.

He urged Corps members to follow the right channel of communication to get permission if they have good reasons to be absent from their place of primary assignment (PPA). He also urged them to put in their best.

Patrick Ifedilichukwu emerged the best Corps member by erecting a sculpture and arts library at Idaw River Secondary School. Dr Nneoma Sibigam, another recipient of the governor’s award gave out hundreds of free eyeglasses to residents of his host communities.

Both have been nominated for the Presidential Award.

In a related development, the NYSC Inspector in Enugu East Local Government, Dr Nkechi Onyeke, advised the outgoing Corps members to invest their last two months’stipend on Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneur Development (SAED).

She cautioned the youth against spending their allowances on material things, advising that they must consider their well-being after the service year.

She said: “White-collar jobs may not come instantly and in such circumstance; it would be challenging for graduates who did not have entrepreneurial skills to survive. So, I urge you to save money for the rainy days.”

JCI inducts members

J

UNIOR Chamber International (JCI) of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS) has inducted 10 members.

During the screening, the members were trained in leadership, entrepreneurship, public presentation, social etiquette and corporate dressing. They were also taken through the history and structure and parliamentary procedure of the

From Borono Bassey UYO provided by the management, saying the feat would enable the institution to achieve its vision of turning the school to high-quality tertiary institution.

He said management had been recruiting high-grade teachers and non-academic staff to promote tradition of excellence.

CAMPUSLIFE learnt that the management is preparing to host another set of NUC team for accreditation in seven programmes, including Business Administration, Public Administration, Marketing, Political Science, International Relations, Sociology, Peace and Conflict Management.

From Olawumi Yasin UDUS JCI. The screening was conducted by the induction committee. The new members, who included eight men and two women students, took the oath after the screening.

The Dean, Students’ Affairs Unit, who was represented by the Students’ Union Government (SUG) Caretaker Committee Chairman, Al-Amin Musa, urged the club members not to relent in their efforts to inspire the youth in creativity and entrepreneurship.

Take your place in politics, women urged

A

500-LEVEL Law student of the Delta State University (DELSU) in Abraka, Martha Eguono, has urged women to participate in politics, from the grassroots to the national level.

She made the call at a seminar for students’ leaders at Eboh Hotel and Conference Centre in Oleh.

Guests at the event included Hon. Oliseh Metuh; Chairman, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Iweazer Kanebi; National President, National Association of Isoko Students, Thomas Obaro and Diamond Bank Youth Ambassador, Ovie Akpoyibo, among others.

Speaking on Politics and elections: Who decides?, Metuh stressed the

•Some of the graduating students after their final examination

From Ese Okoduwa DELSU need for students’ leaders to be responsible in carrying out their duties to their colleagues, urging them play politics without bitterness.

He also advised the students on tolerance and selfless service.

Some of the participants, who spoke to CAMPUSLIFE, described the seminar as an eye opener.

Ebenezer Oyichi, NANS welfare director in Delta State, said the event would change the mindset of ladies towards understanding politics and how it should be played.

Best Iboye, a 500-Level Civil En-

OOU students celebrate after final exams

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•Martha

gineering student, said the seminar was timely because DELSU students are preparing for their union election.

DELSU beats Warri Wolves in a friendly

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TUDENTS of the Delta State University (DELSU) in Abraka were recently in jubilation when the school’s football team beat Warri Wolves in a friendly match by 1-0.

The match was one of the friendlies the Warri Wolves played in preparation for the new season of Globacom Premier League. Hundreds of students trooped to the Sport Centre of the institution to watch the match.

The Warri Wolves were expected to dominate the match, given their array of star players but the varsity team proved to be a difficult side, matching their opponents in skills

From Ese Okoduwa DELSU and tactics.

In the first 25 minutes, Anthony Obiorah, a 200-Level Industrial Chemistry student, scored a goal to put the varsity team on the lead.

The spectators almost invaded the pitch after the goal in joy.

Efforts by the Warri Wolves to equalise were rendered useless by the varsity team, who held sway throughout the 80-minute event.

At the end of the encounter, the DELSU team Coach, Tosan Blankson, said he was proud of his boys, saying: “The objective of this

match is to groom our players to be professional footballers.”

The Warri Wolves team Coach, Goddan Ogbe, said the match was a challenge for his side, adding that the club would go back to the drawing board to make corrections on the lapses noticed during the match.

From the Sport Centre, students matched to other parts of the campus to celebrate the feat. The goal scorer, Anthony, was carried on the shoulder amid the excitement. He said his side won because of the spirit of cooperation embeded in the team.

RADUATING students of the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago Iwoye in Ogun State went into celebration after completing their final examinations.

As the students came out of the examination hall clad in uniformed white shirts, they were stopped by their junior colleagues, who marked them with ink as part of the ‘graduation rite’.

The ritual, however, took a different dimension when the students gathered in the scorching sun for hours several minutes, praising God. They remembered challenges they faced before their final examination.

Some of them, who spoke to CAMPUSLIFE, described the feat as the Lord’s doing. Damilare Araoye, a graduating Law student, said: “I

From Sanya Boluwatife OOU praise and adore almighty God for seeing me through. My academic journey to OOU is much more of an interesting one. I feel happy, lucky, privileged, grateful and fulfilled. I have countless experiences in school, but finally, everything has ended.”

Another graduating student at the Department of Sociology, Muyiwa Olatubi, said: “My journey in OOU began with the Diploma programme in 2009 and I remember that our names were written in pencil because we were not seen as bonafide students.

With faith, fasting and prayer, I am a graduate today. Having passed through stress, I feel happy I have seen the end.”

‘My journey in OOU began with the Diploma programme in 2009 and I remember that our names were written in pencil because we were not seen as bonafide students. With faith, fasting and prayer, I am a graduate today. Having passed through stress, I feel happy I have seen the end’

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

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CAMPUS LIFE Google Students’ Club of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) has organised a digital marketing contest to hone the entrepreneurial skills of its members. AMINAT AFOLABI (400-Level Chemistry) and IFEOLUWAPO AKANO report

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OW students can hone their entrepreneurial and digital marketing skills were the focus of Google Online Marketing Challenge, a contest held at the main auditorium of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) on Monday.

Google is an online search engine and Internet firm, which renders wide range of services to users, including personalised blog sites and advert interface.

Participants were given a $250 advertising budget, which they must use to advertise any business and non-profit organisation of their choice for three weeks.

The contestants would use Google products and features, such as AdWords and Google+ to create online marketing interface with the aim to attract online traffic to the page and advertise its content to Internet users.

Each contestant is expected to create his interface, after which it would be launched by Google Student Ambassadors, Patience ItodoEne and Abideen Olasupo. They would be rated based on their level of traffic they attracted to the page within three weeks.

The Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof Abdulganiyu Ambali, was represented by his deputy for Research, Technology and Innovation, Prof Nahimat Ijaiya. Prof Ijaiya said

Challenge for digital minds •Members of Google Students’ Club after the event

the university would support interested students to improve their knowledge in technology and entrepreneurship.

Prof Ijaiya advised the participants to use the opportunity effectively as, noting that Information Technology (IT) was becoming a platform supporting the youth to be self-reliant after school. While encouraging them not to entertain laxity in their academic pursuits, Prof Ijaiya said the student must also develop their IT skills for their own benefit.

Abideen said the contest had the objective to provide a unique opportunity for graduates and un-

dergraduates to experience and create an online marketing using Google Adwords and Google+.

He said: “The goal of the challenge is to target young people to improve their skills in advertising and helping clients who do not have experience in online marketing to advertise their products, help them build service database and make them self-reliant.”

Abideen added that the participants would benefit from the challenge, which he said required dedication, interaction, co-operation and collaboration spirit. He enjoined the contestants to take the contest seriously to learn skills

that could turn them to employer of labour after school. He urged the management to give its support to the contest.

Highpoint of the event was the launch of Google AdClass, a series of interactive lectures aimed at introducing students to online marketing through Google advertising platforms.

Jelil Adedoyin, an Adwords certified digital marketer, engaged the participants on the history and importance of gains of online marketing, noting that the rapid rate of internet usage made it imperative to use online medium to advertise wide range of products.

Adedoyin, a graduate of Ladoke

Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), urged the contestants to take the challenge seriously, saying: “It would be an added advantage to individuals participating in the contest.”

The series was scheduled to run for eight weeks and it will familiarise students with Google advertising tools, such as AdSense, AdMob and Analytics.

Other guests at the programme included the Dean, Students’ Affairs Unit, Prof O.A. Omotesho, and the Sub-dean, Dr A. Yusuf, Dean of Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Prof Y.A. Jimoh, represented by the Sub-dean of the faculty, Dr T.K. Ajiboye.

The outcome of the plan by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to switch from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was the subject of discussion at a seminar organised by a Corps member in Taraba State. TOLULOPE BANJO (NYSC Jalingo) reports.

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CORPS member in Taraba State, Nathaniel Efik, has held a seminar to educate the public on the proposed transition from Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the end of the year.

Nathaniel, a Batch “B” Corps member and a graduate of Environmental Science from the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), tagged the seminar as National Preparatory Youth Summit on the Post 2015 Agenda.

It was held at the Federal Science and Technical College (FSTC) in Jalingo, the state capital and it had in attendance, Corps members, secondary school pupils and other interest groups, including officials of the Ministry of Environment.

Nathaniel emphasised the need to educate youths and community leaders on the transition from MDGs to SDGs at the end of the year and some of the possible outcomes of the action. He said the seventh goal of the MDGs, which is environmental sustainability, remained key issues that must be accomplished if the transition must be meaningful.

He urged participants to be environmentally-conscious, pleading that human activities altering the nature of environment must be stop. He

‘The ‘The future future we we want’ want’ •Saidu with some of the participants after the summit

said with the help of the MDGs, a sizable percentage of people now know the importance of planting trees in their environments.

The Corps member described sustainable development as meeting the needs of the contemporary time without compromising the capacity of the

future generation to meet their own needs.

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) co-ordinator, Mr T.K. Freeman, represented by Jahphet Saidu, advised Corps members and students to focus their attention on knowledge about goals that would replace the

MDGs. He urged them to work tirelessly in bringing positive changes to their host communities and places of primary assignment.

FSTC Vice Principal, Mr J.O. Ohene, told the pupils to learn about MDGs and the provisions could be sustained in 21st cen-

tury. He hailed the organisers for hosting the event in the school.

Dan Eseimokai, an official of the NYSC Public Relations Unit, encouraged the audience members to emulate good organisational skills of the organisers, advising them to key into the SDGs’ provision for youth development and good governance.

Highlight of the summit was the division of participants into four groups to brainstorm on different key issues affecting sustainable development in agriculture, urban development, good governance and health. Participants were asked to produce workable recommendation that could be used to tackle various impediments against the sustainable development.

At the end of the summit, participants came up with resolutions tagged: The future we want, which, according to the Nathaniel, will be sent to relevant agencies for action. The convener ended the session with a plea to the youth to contribute voluntarily to making Sustainable Development Goals a reality and work towards a smooth transition from the MDGs to SDGs. Also at the summit included the representatives of the Permanent Secretary of the State Emerg e n c y M a n a g e m e n t A g e n cy (SEMA).

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

35

CAMPUS LIFE

A

LFRED Adler could not have been more right when he said: “Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power are feared but only men of character are trusted.”

One would wonder who men of character are when it comes to politics in Nigeria.

No doubt that the polity has been messed up by people who can be referred to as political merchants with no modicum of morality, sanity and humanity. In forests where plunder is the order, one should not expect that he would be accorded respect. Everyone wants to survive, no matter how crude their tactics could be.

The impunity that has marred the process of political succession has turned the system to a jungle of sort, where the kingmakers are locked in a duel with a prospective king and the opponents. At least, two parties are always in confrontation.

The phenomenon of godfatherism in our body politic fits into what Richard Joseph persuasively described as “prebendal politics” where primitive accumulation is exalted far and above the interest of the people. Therefore, the relationship that exists between the godfather and the godson can be described as exploitative and total subversion of the will of the people. It is a game.

While the fictional concept of godfather portrays a shadowy and dare-devil recluse, who combines immense financial muscle with near mythical powers of enormous

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proportions to attain control of an empire, the Nigerian-type has the added conceit, ego, loquacity, pettiness, envy, strife, crudity, and confusion.

We have the yoke of godfatherism in all political parties. The godfather in the Nigerian politics is a political slave merchant, while the favoured godson is the political serf. Whether or not he is fit for the task does not matter. His acceptance is forced on the masses. Politics has been converted from a civil engagement to an enterprise where only the moneybags benefit.

Let no one make no mistake about it, godfatherism could be employed as a vehicle for development in a decent political setting. In such circumstance, the godson is deemed an intelligent neophyte who cannot grow all on his own. He has to be bred under the tutelage of the experienced and the skilled for societal growth.

For instance, the late Premier of the defunct Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, mentored many gifted young people who rose to political eminence to pursue his philosophies. To Bola Iges, Abraham Adesanyas and Lateef Jakandes of this world, Awolowo was a godfather.

We saw what the Yoruba land became with their brand of politics and intellectualism. Of course,

these aforementioned figured rose to prominence with the backing of Awolowo.

Most of the public servants being thrown up today are products of godfatherism. But, the philosophies and modus operandi of today godfatherism have changed from what they were in the first republic.

The evidence of the reality is the inexcusable backwardness the godfathers have done to us despite the country’s enviable resources.

My major concern here is based on two major actions by two men who people regarded as godfathers. The action of one of them is having effect on us right now and the youths must learn to avoid such mistake in politics.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, as a grand political merchant, got the opportunity more than anybody else to provide good leadership for the coming generations and recruit leaders who should project the potentials of the country for good.

As president for first eight years in democratic Nigeria, one would expect him to know the exact type of leader that we deserve.

Obasanjo is a typical godfather who did not use his privilege to give us a versatile leader. He used his powers as a sitting president to foist Jonathan and Yar’Adua on us. The incumbent president is a

product of Obasanjo’s godfatherism.

It was never our vote who brought Jonathan to office in 2011. Even if it was our votes, Obasanjo played big roles in ensuring his favoured godson emerged at the polls. Many voted not based on antecedents but based on those behind the Jonathan.

After six years in power, the country has been moving with speed of a snail. Because of the president’s lacklustre performance, Obasanjo – the godfather – became impatient and estranged with his godson and strategise for replacement.

At the absence of another godson, we can decide whether we want to continue with the status quo or we want a change of guard.

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is another godfather whose politics has affected our lives either for good or bad, depending on where we stand. But for former governor of Lagos State, political leadership must be the best. The good work of his successor, who he handpicked, shows can create a platform for excellence.

The bottom line is, we have seen where godfathers have failed to support people that can bring about a dynamic leadership which would serve as a template for

By Habeeb Whyte healthy politics and development. We have also seen where godfathers deployed their resources to enthrone leaders who earn praises of the people for their uncommon achievements.

But then, the bad memories of godfatherism we may have should afford us another opportunity to choose wisely. The decision of a godfather gave us sandy rice in our plates. The action of another presents an alternative; which is fairly better? If the need for an alternative is premised on the wishes drive out underperforming forces, I would suggest that ours is not yet a hopeless situation. Circumstances change people more than sermons.

•Habeeb writes from Abuja

Licensing more varsities is needless

HE approval of operational licences for nine private universities by the Federal Government to increase the numbers of private tertiary institutions in the country to 60 is one decision that ache my heart so much. And I begin to have a rethink whether the government is serious about elevating university education to standards obtainable in developed countries.

It came as a surprise watching the government of the day flaunting the establishment of 12 new universities in the last four years as achievement to boost quality education. But, it has not told the public how viable and competitive the new universities are.

At least, some people will still praise the government for “transforming” our economy to the biggest in Africa even though many will still argue standard of living still remains what it is used to be in the last 16 years. But what is the achievement about our new universities?

The last time I checked, none of our universities is ranked among the 1,600 best in the world according to Webometrics – the world ranking system, which rates qual-

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Their aims, our will

ESPITE being a nation of multi-ethnic, diverse cultural and religious groups, Nigeria has survived for more than 10 decades. Its people have lived as a nation after the ruinous civil war. But, some unsavoury happenings in recent times have threatened the peace we have enjoyed after the war. There has never been a time when we are more divided as a nation than now.

The nation is facing many challenges from all directions. While terrorism is ravaging the Northeast, kidnapping and organised crime are the order of the day on Eastern flank of the country. People living in communities in the Middle Belt region face extinction over the destruction of their villages by roving herdsmen.

The gradual annihilation of human communities is fast becoming a normal life, because the government

ity of the content and teaching in universities and publishes on the web.

How many Nigerian universities are considered for rating by the British QS ranking - a system which evaluates quality content, data citation and quality of graduates of world universities? And most painfully is that, our universities do not enjoy good rating in Africa where Nigeria prides itself as giant. All these best summarise how bad our universities are.

It is as if the government is playing to the gallery in reviving the falling education standard. Today, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is still battling the government for its failure to implement the 2009 agreement reached by both parties to improve the standard of education and research.

The union maintains that it is only a total implementation of this agreement that can arrest and reverse the decay in the university system. The union has at several times accused the government of not showing commitment; what the government has so far been doing, according to ASUU, is no more than a repeat performance of its

By Ibrahim Jatto action, using deception, lies, propaganda, mischief and other shenanigans to whip lecturers into line.

Given the parlous state of education, one feels sorry for the future of this country. The state of infrastructure and teaching facilities is the most perilous. It is normal to see students of Chemistry using kerosene-stove for practical experiment, instead of Bursen burner. The decay of public universities’ labo-

ratories may provoke tears from patriotic citizens.

Yet, the Federal Government gave scholarship to students who managed to have a First Class to any best 25 universities around the world. One will wonder if it is a crime for the government to also develop our universities to be ranked among the elite school of the world.

No serious government will continue to build more universities when the existing ones are in a dismal state. The popular mantra “the more the merrier” is not applicable in a terrible situation.

Most of the licensed private universities are no better than glorified high schools in the true sense of word. In reality, they are nowhere near our decayed public universities in term of infrastructures, researches and manpower. Even, some of the proprietors of the private varsities have been asking for government’s support to survive.

Apart from the fact that they are parasites that is endangering and threatening to kill the public universities, hardly can some of these private school pay salaries of qualified lecturers and professors; they relied heavily on lecturers of pub-

lic varsities that work on part-time basis.

In 2012, I watched the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Pius Anyim, analysing the many challenges facing Nigeria’s public universities during the 36th Convocation Lecture of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS). He listed the challenges to include funding, inadequate research, infrastructure and suchlike; it is needless to say the government is not unaware of the situation of our universities but why is it that, almost three years down the line, no serious action has come from the government to reposition our varsities?

The consequence of the present trend is that, while the government continues to encourage and even build more universities for the sake of scoring political points or to appease the ‘friends of government’, the system will continue to sink and we will continue to produce halfbaked graduates. At the end, other people from other land will have to run our affairs and we may later end up as slaves on our land.

•Ibrahim has just finished from Zoology, UDUS

How bad can it get?

By Sunday Adah seems to be helpless. People moved on each time it happened and like a film, we wait for the next episode to happen and again count losses of innocent lives and property.

The November 2014 attack on Didan Dogo village in Nasarawa State and the Agatu attack of December 2014 in Benue State are some examples of such senseless destructions which we have counted as normal occurrence.

The south has also become a theatre of absurdities, where most heinous crime against humanity habiting this space is committed.

We have heard the news of kidnapping and bare-faced thuggery.

With these happenings, one cannot help but console himself: “e go

better” like an average Nigerian would say. But then, one may wonder how worse it could get when the government, which is supposed to lead the battle against moral failure, embraced corruption as official norm and wants us to believe that prison walls are no longer strong enough to hold back convicts.

When our soldiers are not motivated enough to protect the lives and property of law abiding citizens, we ask how we get to this juncture. Our soldiers seem to have concluded their task at the country’s borders; they are now mercenaries for reprehensible act of election rigging.

The standard in education sector is nothing to write home about. Students now spend more years than required in school because of teach-

ers’ strike. Unemployment has become an embarrassment to the country. It is like a disease whose cure is yet to be known. Official statistics put unemployment rate at 38 per cent and this includes youths under age 24.

The World Bank’s estimate is beyond the figure released by Nigerian officials. In March, last year about 500,000 desperate job-seekers, who applied for less than 5,000 vacancies were packed in stadia across the nation, leading to the death of 16 youths. Nobody has been held responsible for this tragedy, yet we are made to believe Nigeria is moving forward.

The hypocrisy of being highly religious is, perhaps, a factor destroying Nigeria. These days, it is difficult to differentiate religious leaders from politicians. A situation

where our so-called religious leaders are unable to tell politicians the truth because of money is disheartening.

It is said that there is hope for the living. This year’s elections offer another opportunity to correct some of the abnormalities that have been going on in the country. The onus rests on the government to provide adequate security of lives and property and to ensure a level playing ground for all political parties contesting in the general election. If Nigeria must achieve real growth in its politics and economy, we must ensure we use our vote to re-write our destiny by electing leaders with good moral and leadership values.

•Sunday, HND II Mass Comm., BIDA POLY

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

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CAMPUS LIFE

How govt can stop child blindness, by don T

O reduce infant blindness, the Federal Government and non-governmental organisations (NGO) have been urged to increase advocacy and public enlightenment on the disease.

A Consultant Paediatric Opthalmologist of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Prof Oseluese Dawodu, gave the advice while delivering the 152nd Inaugural Lecture of the institution.

She spoke on the theme Childhood blindness: A changing picture with changing challenges.

Dawodu said the rise in the number of blind children could be attributed to poverty and superstitious beliefs that a child with an eye problem would overcome it. She said it was wrong for illiterate people with eye problems to use unorthodox medicines instead of the hospitals.

Lamenting the growing rate of the condition and stigmatisation of blind children, Dawodu said traditional institutions and miracle churches have done more harm than good to blind children taken to their centres for care.

She said: “Rather than bring the children to the hospital for care, their parents visit miracle centres which promise to restore the sight.

After much harm has been done, they approach hospital. This can be attributed to illiteracy. An educated parent would know where to seek

•Prof Dawodu (middle) with some of the department’s staff after the lecture

From Eddy Uwoghiren UNIBEN eye care when the need arises.

Sadly, many persons are in the habit of using borrowed eye glass and using wrong lenses. This is

pathetic.”

In curbing the menace, Dawodu urged the government to establish Opthalmological centres in all parts of the country, to bring treatment closer to the poor. She also called for ban of unregistered

On and Off Campus By Solomon Izekor 08061522600

practitioners from treating eye patients.

“If we can effectively tackle poverty, then the disease will reduce. If people have job, they will be willing to seek treatment because there will be money. Also, there should be an introduction of Rubella virus vaccine in the national immunisation policy for children and proper funding of the health sector as this will reduce the cost of treatment,” she added.

Dawodu thanked the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH)

Chief Medical Director, Prof Michael Ibadin, and Emeritus Professor of Opthalmology Joseph Ayanru, who founded the department in the Teaching Hospital.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Farady Orumwense, hailed the lecturer for her service to the varsity. He urged audience to spread the message to the appropriate quarters. He said the university’s inaugural lecture would remain an avenue where scholars would educate the public in various areas of research.

Students elect leaders

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TUDENTS of the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) in Ago-Iwoye have elected their Students’ Union Government (SUG) leaders.

The election, conducted by a committee led by Uthman Quadri, followed a debate for candidates and manifesto. The post of the president was keenly contested between Ayoola Faranmi , a 300-Level Philosophy student, and Adenola Adegbesan, a 400-Level Law student.

After the election, Adenola was announced as president.

Ayoola conceded defeat, saying: “It was a privilege to have this opportunity to contest SUG election.

It was an interesting experience for me.”

Adenola said: “The electioneering

•Adenola

From Sanya Boluwatife OOU was not an easy task. I sincerely appreciate all students for their support and I promise to serve well.”

Speaking with CAMPUSLIFE, Uthman, a final year Animal Production student, said the election was challenging, but hailed the contestants for conducting themselves peacefully throughout the process.

•Board member, International Students for Liberty (ISFL), Emeka Ezeugo (second left) with some participants of Liberty Forum organised by African Students For Liberty (ASFL) at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State.

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

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EDUCATION

Don laments erosion of varsity culture

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HE Deputy Vice Chancellor [DVC] of the University of Port Harcourt [UNIPORT], Prof Bene Willie Abbey, has lamented the erosion of the university culture through unethical behaviours of administrators in the system.

She said environmental factors and lack of commitment on the part of university administrators, workers and students have militated against the return of the culture, which was once prestigious and envious, and the reason universities were called ivory towers.

Delivering a lecture titled, "University Culture: Meaning, Scope and Imperatives" at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU), Prof Abbey said the university culture of research through cooperation with

From Ugochukwu Ugoji-Eke, Umuahia

industries was gone.

This erosion, she said, has become a serious concern for university managements, especially as the declaration made in Keffi, Nasarawa State, to restore the agelong best practices of university culture, was yet to be done.

She said unethical behaviours in universities were undermining the very foundation of higher education in the country, adding that unethical behaviour has to do with what is morally wrong, "Or when an individual or organisation gains an advantage at the expense of the larger society".

She listed some of the unethical behaviours to include cultism which she attributed to long years of military rule and its attendant

brutalization of the universities, and the situation where students who are less brilliant are admitted leaving out the brilliant ones.

Prof Abbey frowned at the situation whereby lecturers have refused to complete their course outline and instead depend on selling hand outs, sorting which is the situation where students offer lecturers either their bodies or money for marks.

She said: "When a lecturer takes money or sleeps with his female student for marks, such a lecturer has lowered his esteem before such student and it will also be difficult for such student to have the moral to come back and offer any helping hand to the institute as alumnus of the university".

Prof Abbey said that the only way forward for the restoration of

UNILORIN FILE

Seminar on religion

•Prof Abbey

the valued university culture is to advocate for a strong commitment on the part of university administrators, staff and students, to uphold institutional core values for a sustainable university culture.

Fed Govt to hire more Ph.D holders

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ORRIED by the serious unemployment in the country, the Federal Government has announced plans to employ more Ph.D holders to address the shortfalls in the Nigerian University System (NUS).

Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) Prof. Julius Okojie disclosed this in Abuja while presenting provisional licences to nine new private universities approved by the Federal Executive Council, (FEC).

He said:"I was amazed when some Ph.D holders came to my office, saying they had no jobs; so if you know any Ph.D holder let them come to us".

The new universities are: Augustine University, Ilara, Lagos State; Chrisland University, Owode, Ogun State; Christopher University, Mowe, Ogun State; Hallmark University,Ijebu-Itele,Ogun State; Kings University, Ode-Omu, Osun State; Michael & Cecilia Ibru University, Owhrode, Delta State; Mountain Top University, Makogi-

From Gbenga Omokhunu, Abuja

Oba,Ogun State; Ritman University, Ikot-Ekpene, Akwa-Ibom State; and Summit University, Offa, Kwara State.

They bring the number of universities to 138 - 40 owned by the Federal Government; 39 by various state governments; and 59 by the private sector.

Okojie cautioned the universities to adhere strictly to the guidelines and procedures set out by the regulatory body, stressing that owning and running a successful university goes beyond providing an excellent academic brief.

Minister of Education Ibrahim Shekarau, who presented the licenses, said the need to open up more admission spaces for the swelling population of candidates seeking university education informed the establishment of additional universities.

"Prior to this approval, Nigeria had 129 universities, serving a

•Mallam Shekarau

•Prof Okojie

population of over 170 million people, in comparison to countries like Brazil and Mexico which have 1,648 and 1,250 universities to service populations of 203 million and 120million respectively. The gross inadequacy of this figure in relation to population size becomes glaring," he said.

Also speaking, the Minister of

State for Education, Prof Viola Onwuliri, criticised Nigerians who send their wards abroad to acquire university education, saying they were contributing to negative image of Nigeria.

She said many Nigerians who studied in the country up to their Ph.D have proved themselves at local and international fora.

Use computers to learn, Auchi Poly Rector urges students

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HE Rector of the Auchi Polytechnic, Dr. Phillipa Idogho, has advised newly-admitted students to adopt the correct use of computers for learning.

Speaking to the over 12,000 new students gathered at the school's sport complex for the 32nd matriculation last Saturday, Dr Idogho said education is now going the way of electronic learning, therefore, students should be prepared, adding that the polytechnic has four electronic learning centers.

She said: "As much as we have encouraged staff to be computer literate, it is also necessary that students begin to imbibe the correct use of computers for learning. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Nigeria Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) project has developed instructional materials in seven disciplines that can be downloaded.

"These materials are available in building technology, computer science, quantity surveying, civil engineering technology, science laboratory technology and mechanical engineering technology. Please visit their websites at www.unesconigeriatve."

Dr Idogho congratulated the freshers on their admission and enjoined them to be conversant with the rules and regulations operating in the school.

She, however, frowned at students that present fake credentials.

"It is forbidden in this institution, the polytechnic has verification mechanisms for ensuring that students with fake credentials are detected. Know that when caught, the

By Sampson Unamka

sanction is expulsion for presentation of fake credentials and rustication for examination malpractices," she said.

She assured the students that the management is determined to make the learning environment conducive for them so they can optimize their time for learning.

"I urge you all to take full advantage of this priviledge of admission

by working studiously to attain your goals and ambition in this institution. On our part, we will do all we need to make you men and women of character "she advised.

Also at the event, the Student Union Government (SUG) led by the President, Comrade Sanni Kafeel, presented an educational award of excellence to the rector.

"This award is being presented in appreciation for the laudable achievements you have made in

the infrastructural, academic and human development of our great institution. Auchi Polytechnic under your leadership has reached tremendous goals.

"On behalf of the executive members of the SUG and the entire Nigerian students of Auchi Polytechnic, I present this award for your contribution not only to Polytechnic but the development of education in Africa," said Kafeel.

•From left: Mr. Thomas Jacob, Akure Area Manager, Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Registrar, Elizade University Ilara-Mokin, Mr Omololu Adegbenro, and the Dean, Faculty of Basic and Applied Sciences, Prof. Adetunji Oyelana, during the 2015 SIWES Orientation at the university.

THE Director, Institute for French Research in Africa (IFRA), Dr. Xavier Moyet, will present a doctoral seminar on religion and peace in Nigeria next Monday at UNILORIN. The seminar, which holds at the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies (CPSS), will be chaired by the Acting. Director, Dr. Mahfouz Adedimeji.

Highlights of the seminar will include the inauguration of IFRA research fellows and professional interactions with European Union (EU) election observers who are coming with Moyet to the university.

Law Faculty hosts lecture THE 8th edition of the Annual M.M. Akanbi Public Lecture of the Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) holds today at the auditorium.

The lecture titled: "Of Women Law and Gender Justice: The Rhetoric, the Realities and the African Perspectives", is to be delivered by Prof Ademola Popoola, a former Dean, Faculty of Law, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife. A book, titled "Hallmark of Justice - Commentaries on Selected Judgments of Hon. Justice M.M.A. Akanbi", will also be presented on the occasion.

The UNILORIN Vice-Chancellor, Prof AbdulGaniyu Ambali, will be the Chief Host while the Governor of Kwara State, Dr. Abdulfattah Ahmed, is the Special Guest of Honour.

Don to present two books TWO books, written by Prof Samuel Babatunde Agaja of the Department of Surgery, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, will be presented on Saturday, March 21, 2015 to commemorate the 65th birthday of his wife, Dr A. M. Agaja.

The books, "More than Conquerors" - an autobiography - and "Twenty Years of Service to Humanity", will be presented at the Spot Rendezvous Events Centre, Tanke, Ilorin.

Fed Govt pledges more funds THE Minister of National Planning, Dr. Abubakar Suleiman, has praised the management of UNILORIN for the judicious use of funds provided by the Tertiary Education Tax Fund (TETFund) to improve its facilities.

Suleiman, who made the observation at a special interview programme on UNILORIN 89.3 FM, also assured the university that the Federal Government would commit more resources through TETFund to help the university expand its facilities even more.

The Minister, who was on an unscheduled visit to the university to inspect some projects, said: ''You have done so much at the University of Ilorin by committing the resources allocated to you judiciously.

“I assure you that we shall do more; we shall give you more resources in the next coming calendar 2015. We, the executive and the National Assembly, shall commit more resources to the University of Ilorin,” he stated.

Among the projects inspected are the Researchers' Village, the Central Research Laboratory and the Entrepreneurship Centre.

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

38

CAMPUS LIFE ACE FILE

Centre’s screening at college IN commemoration of this year’s World Kidney day the Ondo State Kidney Care Centre, has organised a one-day screening exercise for staff and students of Adeyemi College of Education (ACE), Ondo.

The exercise conducted on Thursday, March 12, a day set aside to mark the global celebration in Nigeria. The programme coordinator Dr. Damola Akintaderin, said the programme was organised to screen people for risks factors that are likely to lead to kidney diseases later in life.

He noted that the risk factors which include high blood pressure, diabetes among others indicators if discovered early, could easily be managed properly and prevented from degenerating into kidney problem.

He added that the Kidney Care Centre came with all its health care personnel including consultants, pharmacists, clinical psychologist, nurses, dieticians and medical records personnel to take care of each stage of the screening exercise.

During the screening, the Medical team examined the height, weight, blood and urine of each participant after which they are further referred to medical doctor, dietician or clinical psychologist as the case maybe.

Provost seeks cooperation THE Provost, Adeyei college of Education (ACE) Prof Olukoya Ogen, has assured members of staff of better times during his regime.

He gave the assurance on Monday during the quadrennial delegate conference of the Non- Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), held at the Olusegun Obasanjo auditorium of the college.

During the conference, members of the College chapter also elected new executives. Mr. Akinseye Dominic emerged as chairman, Mr Babatunde Reuben as secretary, while Mrs. Jumoke Obadofin became the treasurer.

Addressing the conference before the election, Ogen said: “My administration would do everything as much as possible to better the lots of NASU members because we hold you in high esteem.”

He reiterated his belief in democratic practice and urged members of the union to support the kind of leadership that inspires, encourages and has mutual respect for one another.

“Management remains neutral as far as election of Executive Officers into Unions is concerned,” he stressed.

SCHOLARSHIPS APPROACHING DEADLINE Mo Ibrahim Foundation MSc Scholarship at University of Birmingham in UK, 2015 APPLICATIONS are invited for Mo Ibrahim Foundation scholarship to undertake MSc in Governance and State-building, with a one year internship being integral to the programme. The internship will consist of six months with IDD and six months with the Mo Ibrahim Foundation in London. Applicants must have the equivalent of a first class UK bachelors degree and be African nationals domiciled (or permanent residents) in an African country. Preference will be given to scholarship candidates living in SubSaharan Africa. The application deadline is 18 May 2015.

Study Subject(s): Scholarship is awarded in governance and statebuilding programme.

Course Level: Scholarship is available for pursuing MSc programme at University of Birmingham.

Scholarship Provider: Mo Ibrahim

Foundation Scholarship can be taken at: UK Eligibility: The entry requirements consist of: •1st class Honours degree or equivalent from an approved university.

•Adequate capacity in written and spoken English. For those whose first language is not English, evidence of this capacity is required. -Applicants should reach at least level 6.5 in the IELTS. •Experience in economics and statistics, demonstrated through a good mark received for at least one course at undergraduate level.

•Applicants must be African nationals domiciled (or permanent residents) in an African country.

Preference will be given to scholarship candidates living in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Scholarship Open for International Students: Students of Africa including Nigeria, can apply for this Mo Ibrahim Foundation scholarship.

Scholarship Description: The International Development Department is pleased to announce an

exciting opportunity to undertake the MSc in Governance and Statebuilding, followed by a six-month internship at IDD and six months with the Mo Ibrahim Foundation in London with a full scholarship.

Applicants must have the equivalent of a first class UK bachelors degree and be African nationals domiciled (or permanent residents) in an African country. Preference will be given to scholarship candidates living in SubSaharan Africa.

Number of award(s): One Mo Ibrahim Foundation scholarship is available.

Duration of award(s): The scholarship is provided by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and is for a twoyear programme, with the successful candidate undertaking the full MSc programme, with a one year internship being integral to the programme. The internship will consist of six months with IDD and six months with the Mo Ibrahim Foundation in London.

What does it cover? This Mo Ibrahim Foundation scholarship includes: •Full tuition fee

•Air fare to and from the United Kingdom and visa •Monthly stipend of £920 for 18 months •Arrival allowance of £920 Selection Criteria: Not Known Notification: Not Known How to Apply: Applications must be received through the University online application system. In addition to the normal University requirements for supporting documents, candidates must also upload a 500 word statement and CV. This statement should set out why the applicant is the best candidate for the scholarship. Candidates must also send an email to Mrs Debra Beard (d.l.beard-at-bham.ac.uk) informing IDD of their wish to be considered for the scholarship. Please include 'Mo Ibrahim Scholarship' in the subject line of the email.

Scholarship Application Deadline: The application deadline is 18 May 2015.

Read more: Mo Ibrahim Foundation Scholarship for Africans in UK, 2015 Scholarship Positions 2015 2016 http://scholarship-positions.com

I have improved learning environment for students, says VC

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HE Vice-Chancellor of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU), Prof Hilary Odo Edeoga, has reiterated its mission to improve learning conditions of students.

Edeoga said his love for them, and passion to ensuring conducive academic environment and accommodation compelled him to apply for the top job.

Speaking during the 2015 Commonwealth Day Celebration at the university auditorium, Edeoga said the ceremony had afforded students from other schools to come and appreciate the little his administration had done in the institute.

"The improvement of the education landscape of the country will ensure that the youths who are leaders of tomorrow have a good stand," Edeoga said.

He praised President Dr Goodluck Jonathan for upholding university autonomy which forbids government's interference in the selection of a vice-chancellor. "If it was when people must know the President, I would not have been a VC", Edeoga noted.

He told the students to think of the country first before themselves which is the basis of the founding fathers of the Commonwealth anchored on unity of countries.

He said: "Commonwealth is about unity of the people of this country which is why we should think first

From Ugochukwu Ugoji-Eke, Umuahia

about our country, then ourselves, because without a country we would not have a home.”

The VC said with the creation of more federal universities in the country, "more youths will gain admission into universities and this will also open up more job opportunities after graduation.”

He said Mr President should be commended for opening up Almajiri schools in the northern part of the country, stressing that the schools have taught the average Hausa man that there is no dignity in begging.

In her goodwill message, Queen

Elizabeth of England who is the head Commonwealth said since the commencement of the union, there have been benefits.

Represented by the wife of the VC, Georgina Edeoga, she said the amount of benefits that have accrued for the countries which are members of the union have been enormous, as they have protected themselves.

She said the protection the Commonwealth members enjoy see them through dangers that could have arisen from failure to talk or to see other person's point of view which could have always been handled in a proper way.

• Prof Edeoga

Firm woos investors for tertiary institutions

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O enable investors make the best of investment opportunities available across the nation's tertiary institutions, Campus Alive Initiative, a campusbased marketing communications and consultancy company, has listed a number of projects, which investors are being sought in some Nigerian universities.

Speaking with reporters on some aspects of its consultancy, which include providing linkage programmes to help individuals and corporate organisations increase their bottom-lines, the firm's Managing Director, Oyinwola Don

By Jane Chijioke

Babatope identified the projects to include hostels, space for outdoor adverts, banks, telcos, fast food, lecture halls, general supply of stationery, computers, diesel, petrol, among others Oyinwola added that since its incorporation, one of its subsidiaries, Campus Logistics has facilitated diverse investments for a good number of investors in the highlighted areas.

"Through campus logistics, we give ideas that would make you smile to the bank; and this is what

NPC underscores financial literacy

T

• A cross section of Regular and Part-Time students of the Michael Otedola College of Primary Education (MOCPED) Noforija, Epe, Lagos, during their matriculation at the college premises on Friday.

we have been helping our diverse clienteles to achieve over time. At the moment, we still have a list of universities looking for investors to come and invest in various projects within their campuses.

"This is, therefore, a subtle invitation to discerning organisations, individuals and investors to catch in on these opportunities and make the best of them," he stressed.

Campus Alive Initiative Limited has been operating since 2005, providing campus services for different corporate organisations.

HE National Pension Commission (NPC), has stressed the need to educate children on the importance of financial literacy.

Director-General of NPC, Mrs Chinelo Anohu, said this at a sensitisation programme organised for students of Duke Town Secondary School, Calabar.

The programme was organised to markthis year’s Global Money Week Celebrations of NPC'.

Represented by Dr Faruk Aminu, NPC's Head of Research and Corporate Strategy, Anohu said the programme was organised to create awareness on the various financial services being offered in Nigeria. ``The goal of this programme is to promote financial literacy among the future generation of our country with the view to increasing uptake in these services for economic development.

“The idea also is to inspire and educate young people to become conscientious business leaders of tomorrow

From Nicholas Kalu, Calabar

through the development of right attitudes necessary for success and social responsibilities,” she said.

According to Anohu, catching the students at a young age is key in building a society that harnesses its full potential in its journey to success.

She said the current pension scheme has been re-structured in ensuring that everyone who works receives his or her retirement benefits as at when due.

“The pension reform is a collective national endeavour and therefore every stakeholder, including individuals, youths, corporate organisations and agencies should be part of the vanguard of its implementation,” she said.

Principal of the school, Mr Ayi Ita, said it was important to sensitise youths on pension matters as it is critical to human existence.

Ita thanked the management of NPC for choosing his school for the exercise.

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EDUCATION

Fashola to provide 24-hour electricity in schools

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OVERNOR of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has unveiled plans to provide uninterrupted power supply to every public school in the state.

The governor spoke last Thursday at the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Awards Breakfast Meeting to honour individuals and corporate organizations that contribute to the "Support Our Schools" initiative at City Hall, Lagos Island.

He said the plans, which are already underway in some schools, would be achieved by providing alternative means of power supply, such as solar panels.

Fashola said the first phase of the project entails distribution of 172 solar panels to power the schools during the day and even night for boarding schools.

His words: "We now want to ensure that every school, secondary and primary in Lagos, has regular, uninterrupted electricity supply.

We are putting solar panel powers

•Rewards 424 corporate bodies

By Oluwatoyin Adeleye

in 172 schools in the first round."

He said the project has commenced already in about 20 schools, including the Government Secondary School, Iperu, Alimosho, which was inaugurated recently.

Listing other plans, the governor said his administration has issued 600 maintenance contracts worth N2-4 million per year for the schools that would include repainting of structures, repairs of classroom furniture and other maintenance activities. He said some of the contract was awarded to students of the government technical colleges upon graduation.

"If you train people to acquire certain skills, you must develop the end gain from where they would proceed. So we have thought about that and as a graduate, they will

become our maintenance contractors," he noted.

At the event, Fashola presented 424 awards to corporate bodies and individuals for their contributions to the development of education in the state, attesting to the positive effects of philanthropic on the lives of the children.

Of the corporate bodies awarded, 17 organisations, including Seatana Energy's, Access Bank Plc, Oando Foundation, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc and Budhrani Charitable Trust made category A. Thirty-four organisations were in Category B, 112 in Category C and 261 in category D. Responding to the award, Tokunboh Durosaro, Director, Oando Foundation said it would spur the organization to do much more.

"We are truly honoured to receive this award. At Oando Foundation, we recognise that investing in public primary schools has long term benefits and a multiplier

•Fashola right presenting a category A award to Ms Durosaro on behalf of Oando Foundation.

effect. This is why we will continue to do our best to provide conducive learning environments and

create access to quality education for children of school age in Lagos State and Nigeria at large," she said.

Red House lifts school’s trophy

R

•Some of the pupils writing the first stage examination at Immaculate Heart Secondary School, Maryland.

Cowbell Maths classes now on radio •50,000 write first stage NASSMAC exam in 184 centres

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OR thrice weekly, secondary school pupils can tune in to 15 radio stations nationwide for five minutes mathematics classes.

Called Cowbellpedia, and powered by Promasidor Nigeria Ltd, makers of Cowbell Milk, Category Manager, Dairy, Mr Abiodun Ayodeji, said the classes started airing last month.

Ayodeji, who spoke while monitoring the first stage examination of this year’s Cowbell National Secondary School Mathematics Competition (NASSMAC) last Saturday in Lagos, said the three radio stations the maths classes air in Lagos are Rainbow FM, Radio Continental, and Star FM. He said the classes teach various topics in Mathematics or even solve questions of past public examinations.

"Cowbellpedia radio started five minutes maths classes, which airs three times weekly - Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; and we have received positive feedback. The topics are drawn from the syllabus. It airs on 15 radio stations. It is a product of efforts we made to reach out to stakeholders on how to improve the NASSMAC competition," he said.

At the Immaculate Heart Senior Secondary School, Maryland, Lagos, where Ayodeji monitored the first stage NASSMAC examination, over 500 secondary school pupils turned up for the examination. The centre was one of the 19 centres in Lagos where the examination took place.

About 50,000 pupils wrote the examination in 184 centres nationwide.

Except for candidates who were turned away for not coming with

By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie

their registration forms or passport photographs, the examination took place without hitches.

Ayodeji expressed satisfaction with the level of organisation and quality of invigilation, which he said upholds the integrity of the competition that is now in its 15th edition.

He said the second stage of the competition, which has now been transformed into quiz format, will be serialised into 30 editions and aired on television during the long vacation.

Top three winners of the first stage examination would in each state be rewarded with between N25,000 and

N15,000. They will get a chance to win much higher amounts if they make it to the last 10 of the quiz stage.

The top prizes this year have been increased by 62 per cent - from N300,000 to N750,000 for the best overall in the senior secondary category. The second placed winner will get N500,000 (from N250,000), while the third will get N250,000.

Competition Coordinator at Caleb British Academy, Magodo, was Mrs Adaobi Nnonagor, said she was hopeful that her school, which is participating for the second time, would make it to the second stage because of the level of preparation for the competition.

ED House has emerged winner of the maiden Inter-House athletics of the Baptist Group of Schools, Ipaja.

The Agofure House (Red House) captained by Emmanuel Ajayi carted home eight gold, three silver and four bronze medals at the Lagos State Youth and Vocational Training Centre where the event held.

Green House came second with four gold, four silver and four bronze medals, while Blue House poached three gold, three silver and eight bronze medals to clinch the third position.

The competition started with a march past with each house displaying its kings and Queens decked in glamorous attires to the endless applause from parents and invited guests.

Both king and queen that represented Yellow House wore Yoruba traditional attire, boosting its mark to the second position with 37 points trailing Green house who won with 48 points.

Ajayi said Red House won out of humility and felt pleased that his

By Jane Chijioke

house had set the pace at the maiden competition.

The school Principal, Mr Jacob Awolola, said the primary aim of the competition was to create awareness of the secondary arm (Baptist Comprehensive College) of the school which started three years ago in the area.

He said the school, which had its primary school over 20years ago, is owned by First Baptist Church, Ipaja.

Awolola noted that the sport helps expose pupils' inherent talents.

"There are many talents here," Awolola said, adding: "This will expose them (athletes) to the outside using inter house sport as a platform. These children have got great talent and I am really impressed with what I have seen today.” This inter-house sport will continue to expose children's' ability.

"We teach the children to have sportsmanship behavior and we thank God for taking charge of today's activity," he added.

Baptist Girls Academy celebrates sports day

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HE Baptist Girls Academy, Obanikoro, Lagos, has celebrated her 25th Annual Inter-House Sports, at the school's expansive ground.

The sporting event, according to the Principal, Mrs Eunice Akanji, is a platform for children to develop a sound and physical body which gives a sound mind.

This year's Baptist Girls Academy, Inter-house sports featured a myriad

• Pupils of ChildVille School, Ogudu, Lagos during their Cultural Day celebration.

By Paul Ukpabio

of sporting activities such as track race, shot put, javelin, long jump, high jump, basket ball and relay races. The pupils were divided into four houses with Blue, Green, Red and Yellow as their colour identity.

Mrs Akanji explained that sport as a psycho motor domain of education means that the more a child exercises the body, the more he becomes smart and sharp.

She added that sport has correlation with academics, as sports give a child retentive memory.

She encouraged pupils to engage in sport activities to keep their body healthier and lighter.

"I encourage students to do sports.

Apart from the annual inter house sports, there are always sports activities every Wednesday in the school.

Doing this helps them become lighter instead of carrying heavy bodies.

"There is a correlation between sport and academia, it brightens their memory and brain, gives room for better retentive memory.

That's why we shouldn't overlook the sport. Student should participate and bring their best in academics.

“Parents should also encourage their children to do sports, such as jogging in the morning to make them look healthy and smart because when the body is light you will not feel drowsy in the class.”

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

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EDUCATION

Pharmacists counsel students on drug production

M

ANAGING Director of Mopson Pharmaceuticals, Dr Paul Oyebanjo, said he is sad that despite producing pharmacists yearly, Nigeria still depends on imports for simple drugs like cough syrup.

Oyebanjo, said this while delivering a paper titled: Industry "Pharmacy" at a lecture organised by the Nigeria Association of Pharmacists in Academia for 300, 400 and 500Level students of the faculty at the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

The paper was drawn from the theme: "Practice grand rounds".

The pharmacist lamented that cough mixtures still come from China and India - with the only raw material that comes from Nigeria being water.

By Everistus Onwuzurike

"Nigeria imports everything. If we still import all these products, it shows that we have benefited nothing from people who have graduated from this field," he said.

Oyebanjo challenged the students to do beyond seeking ready-made jobs after graduation and embrace entrepreneurship. He shared how he started producing drugs with them.

Other lectures delivered at the event included "Hospital practice: teamwork, The future" by Dr Casmir Amadi; and "Community Pharmacy" by the Chief executive Officer of Dlightsom Mount pharmacy, George Okon, Okon advised those interested in going into drug production to first

practice community pharmacy, which he described as the backbone of the pharmacy profession. He said there is a lot to learn as a community pharmacist because of the multiple roles they play.

"The backbone of the pharmacy profession is actually the community pharmacy: you are a pharmaceutical care provider, you are a counselor not just to the patient but to the other health care providers," he said.

Amadi said health professionals in the hospital must realise that they are working to achieve a common goal: the wellbeing of the patient.

He called for cooperation among the various professionals that work in the hospitals.

• Primary six (Omole Phase I) pupils (in space suits), who won third place, with their parents.

Science fair thrills pupils, parents

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ARENTS defied the scorching sun to visit almost all 36 stands on display at the third Mind Builders School Science Exhibition last Saturday.

Pupils from the three branches of the school located in Omole Phase 1, Central Business District (CBD), and Omole Phase II, all in Ikeja axis of Lagos, displayed various scientific projects they embarked upon to prove various scientific phenomena.

Projects on display at the event hosted by the Omole Phase II branch included model of a volcano and how it works, water purification system using sand filter, electromagnet, string telephone, simple electric circuit, how the parachute works, distillation and separation, water sprinkler or irrigation system, and the solar system among many others.

Some classes also produced shoe polish, liquid disinfectant, liquid soap, and talcum powder (mutilated and perfumed).

The pupils were excited about their projects and demonstrated how they worked to the panel of judges, made up of PTA executives

By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie

and others that visited their stands.

Education Director of the school, Mrs Bolajoko Falore, said the fair is a way of stimulating the children to use science and technology to solve local problems.

"Science and technology is the bedrock of the economy of any nation. Without that you cannot move. A lot of things have changed as a result. Let me start with the television we watch. In our own days it was one big box; now we have the flat screen. The latest is even the curved screen. It is still the effect of technology. It is the application of what we learn in science. I believe that children at this level must have an enquiring mind - to move out of their boxes. I believe these children have a lot in their head that they can put together and come up with something. I want them to move out of the box and do something extra," she said.

Mrs Falore also commended parents for their support.

"This edition, the commitment is a lot better. I want to thank the

‘ I believe that children at this level must have an enquiring mind - to move out of their boxes. I believe these children have a lot in their head that they can put together and come up with something. I want them to move out of the box and do something extra’

parents for their support," she said.

Mr Tayo Adegbohungbe, father of Oluwayemisi, a primary five pupil, said the programme would boost the confidence of the pupils in undertaking new initiatives.

"I think it is a confidence booster for the children. When you see them around doing things, they gain confidence; and it spurs them on to greater challenges," he said.

Another parent, Mrs Funmi Ibrahim, said she was happy to support the programme.

"My daughter is in the class that produced the talcum powder. I was happy to support morally, financially, to make it successful," she said.

Wife of the Lagos State Governor, Mrs Abimbola Fashola, praised the school for the initiative.

Mrs Fashola, who was represented by Mrs Arinola Shodipo, said: "It is quite impressive. When you see our young scientist, I think they have this sense of accomplishment. I am so impressed with what they have done."

At the end of the competition, Primary Four pupils in Omole Phase 1 won with 90.75 per cent for their project titled: "The logic behind the Themometer." In second position with 90.5 per cent was Primary Four, Omole Phase 2, for their work on Construction of Door Bell; while Primary Six, Omole Phase 1 came third for their project on the Solar System, which garnered 89 per cent.

In the inter-school competition, Carol School, Ogba, came first, Value Plus School, Ikeja, was second, while Tripple-Cross School, Ogba, came third.

EDUTALK

with

JAMB oh JAMB!

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OR an examination written just once in a year, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) ought to do more to address the anomalies registered during the course of the 2015 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

The examination was migrated to the online platform completely Kofoworola this year. Unlike last year, when candidates had two other options - the Paper and Pencil Test (PPT), Kofosagie@yahoo.com and the Dual-Based Test (DBT), 08054503077 (SMS only) this year, only the ComputerBased Test (CBT) mode was available.

When the JAMB Registrar, Prof 'Dibu Ojerinde announced in November 2012 that the country would migrate to the CBT platform by 2015, few thought it possible. The CBT mode was first used for the UTME in 2013. Then, just a few thousands, who were compelled by the 'unavailability' of PPT centres, registered for the examination.

Last year, a larger number had to register for the CBT and DBT because the numbers of PPT centres were drastically reduced.

Ahead of this year's examination, which is a landmark year given that the examining body plans to bid farewell to PPT forever, JAMB assured Nigerians that the 400 centres it had accredited for the CBT mode had all it takes to deliver the examinations hitch free. It even de-accredited cyber cafes from registering candidates for the examination. The CBT centres took care of the registration. To be accredited, they had to provide up to 150 computers, alternative power supply, security, thumbprint scanners, and internet access, among others. Alas, when the examination started last Monday, the rate of system failure showed that JAMB's accreditation process must have been faulty.

In many centres, the computers suddenly went off; and when they came on minutes later, the candidates were told they had submitted when in reality they had not finished. Another scenario was for the computers to come back on and the candidates found that their time had been running all the time it took for the technicians to figure out what was wrong.

Another problem was with the three-sessions-per-day schedule that JAMB prepared to complete the examination for over one million candidates in 10 days. It was a very unfriendly schedule. When I learn that the first session was for 6am, I thought that was not just possible - that the time was rather for arrival so the examination could start by 8am. However, JAMB actually expected the examinations to take place by that time. It did not work. For many centres, the examination was delayed for up to four hours. This was sad because after candidates must have made so much sacrifice to get to the centre so early, their effort was not rewarded but punished with a long wait.

What of the problem of computer illiteracy? This is the ICT age, we know, but what percentage of our populace is ICT-literate? In the cities, computer literacy is not such an issue. Young people have access to the internet because cyber cafes dot the metropolis and browsing time is quite affordable. There are also more opportunities for ICT training in the urban centres than in the hinterlands where funding, power, and facilities are almost non-existent, or where they are, moribund. Investigations by our correspondents revealed that many candidates from the north were greatly disadvantaged because of the CBT. Though simple to use, their lack of exposure to ICT posed a challenge for them. It must have been quite intimidating for candidates to use the computer for the first time to write a major examination.

Frankly, JAMB should have waited a few more years to go fully online. Like one parent noted, it is not just about releasing results early but also ensuring that the candidates had the opportunity to write the examination to the best of their ability in a conducive environment so they can perform well. Indeed, what is the point releasing results in two hours and the performance is unimpressive?

JAMB has to do something about all the complaints that have been recorded nationwide, which are not the fault of the candidates. One year is a very long time to wait to write another UTME. These candidates deserve greater respect than they got. They are not just a statistic; they are humans - with dreams and hopes. Those candidates who were forced to stop the examination before time, or write under duress after waiting for days, or not write at all because of distance and the like deserve a second chance.

Sadly, JAMB's record of responding to complaints is not too good.

The examining body exists to make the conduct of the UTME flawless. The welfare and concerns of each of the over one million candidates should matter to the authorities. I implore JAMB to act fast and act right!

Belo-Osagie

‘JAMB has to do something about all the complaints that have been recorded nationwide, which are not the fault of the candidates. One year is a very long time to wait to write another UTME. These candidates deserve greater respect than they got.

They are not just a statistic; they are humans - with dreams and hopes. Those candidates who were forced to stop the examination before time, or write under duress after waiting for days, or not write at all because of distance and the like deserve a second chance’

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THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

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THURSDAY MARCH 19, 2015

POLITICS THE NATION

E-mail:- politics@thenationonlineng.net

Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State was in Niger Republic on a two-day working visit last week. He met with over 200,000 indigenes, who fled Abadam, Mobbar, Kukawa and Monguno local government areas in the wake of attacks by the Boko Haram sect, before military assistance came from the joint Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger Republic military forces. The governor spoke with reporters in Diffa, headquarters of Diffa Region, shortly before he departed the West African country. Excerpts:

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OU have come here and seen the plight of your people who fled their homelands due to insurgency, what is your assessment?

All of us are highly traumatized by what is happening to our people, who are uprooted from their ancestral homes and made refugees in foreign land. I am personally touched, but the good side to all these is that there is silver lining in the horizon. The current effort by the Nigerian, Nigerien, the Chadian and Cameroonian troops has indicated that respite is on the way and very soon the insurgents would be overcome and our people would be coming back home soon.

Your Excellency, some of the refugees we interviewed here in Niger said they have spent up to seven months, some less.

Why did it take you long to come?

This is not the first time a delegation from Borno State Government is visiting Niger Republic to meet refugees. We set up a high powered delegation comprising stakeholders in the affected local government areas and they have visited here three times. But, in my case, this is my first visit like you indicated and the reason is mainly due to security activities along the routes to Niger. My visit was delayed to avoid obstructing security operations along the routes because a governor’s movement is always different because of diplomatic and other factors. I came as soon as the coast became clear for me. We came for two main reasons; first to express our profound appreciation to the Government of Niger Republic and the Government of Diffa Region for their uncommon support for our people. They have done so much for our people. We are very grateful. Infact, they take all the credits for supporting our people and meeting their welfare needs, it will be wrong for us to claim we have been responsible for our people’s welfare in Niger. The Government of Niger did so much. We only offer support. Whatever we bring, we handover to the Nigerien authorities to manage our people. We came now with money, drugs especially to fight malaria and hundreds mosquito nets but we handed them to those who are the real people taking care of our people. With all of you, we have visited different camps and met our people. We have seen not just the officials from Niger, we also saw officials from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the WHO, doctors without borders and a host of others. We are grateful for their respective efforts and we will forever remember their support for us at our most difficult moments in history.

Definitely, Niger is not the only country where they have fled into. Do you have a plan to visit others countries where they have fled into and do you think you can ever convince all of them to return back home?

Obviously, there is a lot of clamour by the refugees to go back home for there is no place like home. I have the intention of visiting Cameroon for there we have refugees from KalaBalge, Ngala, Gwoza, Marte and Dikwa local governments.

We are going to go and sympathise with them and assure them of unflinching empathy and support. Believe me, once our communities are totally liberated and clear of possible land-mines buried by insurgents, once infrastructural facilities are repaired or fixed up, once the pockets of insurgents in the countryside are cleared up, a lot of them are willing to go back home. But, for now, there is a lot of apprehension because there are still some insurgents in some of the villages. There are over a thousand insurgents in some villages between the Abadam, Mobbar axis. They are still wreaking havoc in villages. But, very soon, we believe our military authorities will extend their reach beyond the local government headquarters to the nooks and crannies of the local governments to clear out the insurgents once and for all. But for now the job is more than half done, however if they are allowed to roam the countryside they will continue to wreak havoc. To be fair to the military there has been major developments especially in the context of the recapture of the major towns.

You were once a passionate advocate of dialogue between the government and the insurgents. At what point did you have to modify approach to this?

Well, unless we want to engage in an endless war of attrition, dialogue is an inescapable option. I have always been an advocate of dialogue and I will always remain one. As JFK Kennedy has rightly said, “let us never negotiate out of fear but let us never fear to negotiate.” So along that line I believe dialogue is the only way out. The most intractable of global problems are solved on the negotiating tables, the Irish question, the Israeli/Palestinian quagmire, most of the problems of this world, in Colombia, the rebels are talking to the government of Colombia. And in the Boko Haram sect, we have the moderate element, underline the word moderate element, those that were forcefully conscripted into the sect, those that are willing to lay down there arms, are we averse to embracing them? We just have to embrace them and give them re-orientation and introduce them back into the society. But the nihilist among them who are on murderous part will never dialogue with us, that is the truth of the matter.

But along this line I believe the moderate element among the Boko Haram far supersede the extreme elements but because of fear the newly conscripted Boko Haram were being forced along not of their own volition. They are not ideologically Boko Haram, but forcefully conscripted young boys and sadly

‘A generation has almost been wiped out in Borno’

•Shettima

In terms of physical ‘attributes, in terms of infrastructure, we can fix those things back in a year or two, but the damage to the psyche of our people will take decades to fix; because almost a whole generation has been wiped off

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they are the ones they push to the battle front to die a very un-glorifying death.

How do you quantify the destruction the insurgent has done to Borno State, the Northeast and the nation?

It preposterous for one to start putting figures, but the destruction they have wrought have passed physical infrastructure. Our people are psychologically damaged. And most importantly what we can do now is how to rehabilitate our people in terms of psychology, in terms of physical infrastructure, in terms of mans of livelihood. Because a lot of our people are artisans, farmers, and the poorest of the earth; and Boko Haram has further pauperized them. So, we start taking stock on how to fix the system and assist our people. Let

us just get all our land back.

Sir, do you think Borno State has what it takes for the rehabilitation and reconstruction, or perhaps it might be an heavy load for even the FG? I believe there should be a global effort, a kind of Marshall Plan of action towards rehabilitating the infrastructural facilities, towards rehabilitating the lives of our people, making our educational system work again, towards enhancing and strengthening our health care. It is beyond the resources of the state and, to a large extent, beyond the resources of the Federal Government because there are other competing demands for the meagre resources. The price of crude oil has plummeted to less than $60 per barrel. There has to be a global effort towards the rehabilitation and reconstruction and to arrest the system. The way they mobilised millions of dollars in the rebuilding of Syria, Libya and other communities.

We do not have much oil or either are we important in context of our territorial location, but we still need the support of the international community. For oil, we have in Lake Chad, but I do not think we are of strategic location to the global powers. It is in the enlightened self interest of the rest of humanity to come to our aid.

What are you doing to rehabilitate the victims?

We are spending hundreds of millions of naira every month on the welfare of our displaced people. Within Maiduguri metropolis alone, we have 17 refugees camps and a new one was just added to it and we now have 18 camps for internally displaced persons. In these camps, we have 276,000 refugees as at last count. This is beside over one million people that are hosted by the host communities; some are in rented apartment, some are in the houses of their close relations. Mind you, we extend hands of gesture even to those living in rented apartment and houses of their relations. Honestly, in a single meal we expend as much as a truck-load of rice, a truck-load of maize and we are slaughtering a cow in each of the refugees camp on a daily basis. I do not want to put figure, but, all we are concern about is the welfare of our people and no amount is too much for this. And this goes beyond politics because Borno belongs to all of us; it belongs to PDP, it belongs to APC, and all other parties, it does not really matter for it is for us to bring our people together and solve their problems.

About three years ago, when the destruction by Boko Haram was less than half of what it is today, you said it will take 50 years to recover. Now, how many years do you think it will take to need to recover?

What is happening is that, in terms of physical attributes, in terms of infrastructure, we can fix those things back in a year or two, but the damage to the psyche of our people will take decades to fix; because almost a whole generation has been wiped off, the generation of youths between the ages of 15 and 16 and 25 years, a chunk of them have been wiped away.

If anybody tells you that 15,000 people lost their lives since Boko Haram insurgency, this is a cock and bull story. The 1,000 estate along Damaturu road in Maiduguri up to Maisandari ward, in a month, up to a thousand lives might have been lost. They are talking about the Syrian tragedy, believe me ours supersede it because probably between 300,000 and 500,000, might have been in this tragedy. Every single day, we are witnessing countless lost of human lives.

In terms of infrastructure, in terms of building we can get over it very soon, Insha Allah with or without the intervention of the federal government, we will use whatever resources we have to see that we react to the needs of our people. But the damage to the psyche, the social structure, while a whole generation has been literally wiped out, then we gave a great task ahead of us.

There are agitations by PDP leaders and candidates that the March and April elections should only hold in liberated communities. What are you doing to ensure that?

Let me place it on record that I am absolutely in support of elections holding in local government areas. After all, I was elected with popular mandate in 2011 with elections taking place across more than two-thirds of the 27 local government areas of Borno State. One who has won elections and has kept fate with his people and is doing his best to meet his obligations has no reason to fear elections. The voters are the same, whether they vote in local government areas or anywhere else. However, I think it will be irresponsible on our part as a government to hurry our citizens back to liberated communities now mainly to go and vote because that will be very callous. We have pockets of insurgents in some villages. We have had attacks that are very recent on some routes, we all know that these liberated communities are still not fully safe and habitable. The military has recaptured lost territories but we have one ot two to go. Then, some insurgents fled to villages and they are still posing problems, how safe will our people be if we force them back today? How safe will it be to send people to Gamboru, Baga, Monguno, Malamfatori, KalaBalge, Mafa and other places, what about the issue of landmines possibly planted there that everyone knows the military has been contending with? All those politicians that stay in Abuja and cause all manner of confusion for Borno, if • Continued on page 46

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THE NATION THURSDAY MARCH 19, 2015

see this as a daring provocation and an outright call ‘ We for war, in a bid by the PDP and its hired OPC mercenaries to scuttle the elections because it is clear that it cannot fraudulently have its way with Nigerians

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9D AYS TO GO ...9 DA

PDP can’t win by brigandage, says APC

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AGOS State All progressives Congress (APC) has condemned the wanton vandalisation of its billboards, banners, posters and other campaign materials by factional members of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) during its anti-Jega protest in Lagos on Monday.

The party lamented that the group led by Otunba Gani Adams behaved as paid mercenaries acting the script of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), adding that its display of violence and crudity underscored the party’s penchant for brigandage and intimidation.

The APC Publicity Secretary, Comrade Joe Igbokwe, alleged that OPC is in league with the PDP in its desperation for power.

He said the PDP cannot win power in Lagos through brigandage, repression and intimidation of prospective voters.

Igbokwe condemned the protest by the group, recalling that it disrupted socio-economic activities in the metropolis for hours.

He added: “Particularly outrageous was the unprovoked attack on the APC, whose campaign post-

...Party flays OPC for vandalisation of campaign materials

By Emmanuel Oladesu Group Political Editor ers and materials were destroyed by this rampaging purchased mob and people bearing insignia of the OPC. Cars bearing flags, stickers and posters of the APC were attacked violently by agents of a party now gasping for breath after woefully failing Nigerians for sixteen years.

“We see this as a daring provocation and an outright call for war, in a bid by the PDP and its hired OPC mercenaries to scuttle the elections because it is clear that it cannot fraudulently have its way with Nigerians.” ”We see the disgraceful outing on the streets of Lagos as a show of desperation and frustration. No party can try that brigandage in an area where it claims it has support.

The shameful protest was a syndicated plan by the PDP to scuttle the elections and is a hallmark of President Jonathan’s relocation to Lagos to dispense patronage and induce voters.”

Igbokwe said it is worrisome that President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP could instigate militias and outlaws to visit violence and mayhem on Nigerians out of desperation for power, thereby disrupting the peace of Lagos.

He also berated the Presidency and the PDP for hate campaigns, propaganda, lies and fabrications, stressing that it underscored the frustration of a ruling party heading towards electoral defeat.

Igbokwe faulted the protest by the OPC, saying that it is illogical for the group to demand for the sack of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, who has insisted on credible elections.

He said: “The election cannot be won by brigandage. Why is the PDP against card readers? What is their grouse with Jega? What do they The Publicity Secretary emphasised that the PDP has jeopardised national security by inducing ethnic militia to create mayhem in its bid to grab power through the back

door.

He added: “What surprised us was that these outlaws, who were wielding dangerous weapons and visiting violence on the streets of Lagos, were being serenaded throughout their violent voyage by fully armed policemen, who provided them shield as they were destroying APC banners, billboards and posters and attacking anybody with APC insignia.

“We note that the police never acted or restrained these purchased mercenaries throughout the period they were destroying APC materials. We wonder whether the Police was part of the violent demonstration.”

Igbokwe urged Lagosians to remain calm, saying that judgment day is at hand. He urged them to revenge on the election day by rejecting the PDP. He added: “We call on all to resist the evil plot of the PDP to plunge Nigeria into violence as a way of sabotaging the critical election but treasure their PVCs as a

• Igbokwe

weapon to send home a bad, failed and corrupt government on March 28. ”While we call the police and other security agencies to do their legal duties of prosecuting the vandals sponsored to unleash violence in Lagos and destroy APC campaign materials. Lagos APC strongly warn that nobody should test the will of Lagosians as a people that have withstood arrays of bad governments and this government will not be an exception.

Clerics declare seven days prayer for Buhari/Osibajo

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GROUP of clerics under the aegis of ‘Christian for Good Governance’ have urged Christian to hold seven days prayer for the success of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and his running mate, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, at the poll on March 28.

The group’s National Coordinator, Bishop Kayode Williams, said the vigil should be kept between March 20 and March 26.

Williams, who addressed a press conference in Lagos, said: “We make this clarion call to all men and women of God who truly believe that the time for change in the leadership of our nation is now to observe these days of prayers in support of Buhari and Osinbajo and in support of our people and our nation.

“If we all together, call upon the Lord at this critical hour as we approach the final countdown to the election of March 28, we believe our God, in His infinite mercies will hear us and give victory to Buhari and Osinbajo, who are men of in-

By Leke Salaudeen tegrity and capable of wiping out corruption in the country.

“In the last several years, Nigeria and Nigerians had hope for improvement in our national infrastructure and basic necessities of life with high expectations for stable and uninterrupted power supply, employment for the youths, significant reduction in infant and maternal mortality. But what we have in the last 16 years of democratic governance is quite opposite.

The priest added: “We are using this opportunity to call on all pastors who believe that the time has surely come for change in Nigeria to exhort, mobilize, instruct and direct all our members from our 186,000 churches in the Southwest zone to adhere to this divine instruction from God. “We shall intensify our intercessory prayers to God so that there will be peace in the country; there will be no bloodshed and that the election itself will be free, transparent and peaceful.”

‘It ‘ll take long time to recover • Continued on page 46 from insurgency’ they are so certain that liberated communities are now safe, let them go and live in Gamboru like the ordinary people. Why have they moved their entire families and their cats, out of Maiduguri that is relatively safe not to talk of the local government areas? Why do they want our citizens to go to liberated communities and put their lives at risk, knowing fully well that there is so much to be done. Apart from the issue of safety, there are decomposed bodies. We need to do so much fumigation and environmental cleansing. We need to rebuild homes destroyed, markets, schools, hospitals. Many have been destroyed. We need to fix things because our citizens are human beings and they deserve to be treated as such. Why should we push our citizens to live where we can’t send our wives and children to live? We are concerned about our people. We

cannot allow them to take unnecessary risks. We are confident all will be well eventually insha Allah, but, we need some careful planning.

We want to set up a Task Force on Evaluation, Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Re-integration of Victims of the insurgency and the Task Force will have representatives of all stakeholders. It will be a multifaith and multi ethnic based so that every segment of the affected population is concerned be it citizens, associations, government or institutions from security to all others. We have a serious work before us. It is not child’s play that some people are advocating for mainly for their selfish and dehumanizing interests.

We must learn to put politics aside where the existence of our citizens are involved. Power should not be our only concern at all points. There is more to life than desperation to access power.

•Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola (3rd left) presenting the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the House of Assembly in Obokun Constituency, Olatunbosun Oyintiloye (2nd right), during the campaign , Ibokun, Obokun local government headquarter. With them are, Deputy Governor, Titi Laoye-Tomori (left); Osun East Senatorial District Candidate Senator Babajide Omoworare (2nd left) and House of Representatives candidate for Oriade/Obokun Constituency, Hon. Nathaniel Agunbiade (right).

APC protests violence in Ife/Ijesa

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HE All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ijesa-North Federal Federal Constituency, Osun State, has resolved to drag the Ife/Ijesa senatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Francis Fadahunsi, before the International Criminal Court for allegedly sponsoring violent attacks on its members.

The party frowned at the “provocative” violent attacks, saying that thugs could not be stopped by security agents.

Addressing a press conference in Osogbo the state capital, Chairman, Ijesa-North APC Campaign Committee, Dr Wale Bolorunduro lamented that security agent have not acted on petitions sent to them on the attacks by thugs in Ilase, Ijeda, Ibala-Ijesa Ibokun and Ilahun the Oriada and Obokun local governments.

Bolorunduro alleged that many APC members and supporters have been brutalized, while the billboards of the APC have been destroyed.

According to Bolorunduro, the APC members and supporters in Ilase, the hometown of Fadahunsi, have been subjected to consistent attack and intimidation by the PDP chieftain.

The former Commissioner for Finance maintained that the hoodlums have attempted to attack a female member of the APC in a church in Ilase.

He said: “Fadahunsi’s terror act now knows no bound. Last Sunday, March 15, there was a failed attempt by the Fadahunsi’s thugs to attack a woman member of the APC, Mrs Ogundipe during church service at a catholic church in Ilase.

“All the schools in Ilase have been closed by the state government because of the terror activities of Fadahunsi’s hoodlums who have engaged in consistent sporadic shootings around Ilase community and environ since.

“On Friday March 13, we had a rally in Ilase. Before the rally, our banner tied around the rostrum had been de-

stroyed. Several members of our party could not return home on the fear of being attacked by the Fadahunsi’s thugs. Those that returned home were attacked and brutalized.

“Some other APC members who were returning from the Ilase rally to Ibala Ijesa were attacked at Eleke Junction and they were left with various degrees of gunshot and machete cut wounds by the Fadahunsi’s hoodlums.

Bolorunduru added: “Some of the victims are: Bukola Agunbiade, Bode Ogunleye, Adedeji Omotosho and Banji Fadairo. Mr Bukola Agunbiade is currently receiving medical attention at a government hospital where the doctors are battling to remove five bullets in his body.

“Also, while returning from the same campaign, various vehicles conveying the APC members were attacked between Iponda and Idominasi by Fadaunsi’s thugs. The vehicles were riddled with bullets and so many people sustained gunshot injuries.”

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

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THE NATION

NATURAL HEALTH E-mail:- health@thenationonlineng.net

How diet, exercise can tackle arthritis P EOPLE with arthritis have been advised to always eat balanced diet. According to a phytotherapist, Dr Francis Elegbuo, by eating a well balanced diet, “sufferers will not only be receiving critical nutrients, they will also be either maintaining or arriving more quickly at a healthy bodyweight that will not aggravate the joints”.

Phytotherapy is the study of the use of extracts of natural origin as medicines or health-promoting agents. Phytotherapy medicines differ from plant-derived medicines in standard pharmacology. While standard pharmacology isolates an active compound from a given plant, phytotherapy aims to preserve the complexity of substances from a given plant with relatively less processing. Phytotherapists use herbs from around the world.

Dr Elegbuo said: “If you are overweight you will be adding extra pressure on weightbearing joints. Through the many patients that I had attended to, I have found that losing just a few calories made a significant difference to their quality of life.”

He continued: “Arthritis affects the musculoskeletal system, specifically the joints.

It is the main cause of disability among people over 55 years of age in industrialised countries, but in developing countries, musculoskeletal pains is common, and its built up largely result in arthritis, due to wear and tear on the joints. The word arthritis comes from the Greek arthron meaning “joint” and the Latin itis meaning ‘inflammation’. The plural of arthritis is arthritides.”

Dr Elegbuo said: “Arthritis is a term that covers over 100 medical conditions. The most common forms of arthritis are osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, infectious arthritis and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

Most types of arthritis are caused by a combination of factors. These include genetic make up, a physically demanding job, previous injury, infection or allergies, certain foods such as red meat, obesity and autoimmune disease.

“Most types of arthritis are caused by a combination of several factors working together.

These factors may contribute towards a higher arthritis risk-your genetic makeup; a physically demanding job, especially one with repetitive movement; a previous injury; some infections or allergic reactions may cause short-term arthritis. When it is caused by an infection it is known as ‘reactive arthritis’; for a number of people, certain foods can either bring on arthritis symptoms, or make existing ones worse; obesity, which places extra strain on joints.

Arthritis may also be caused by autoimmune disease.”

Having arthritis is not the end of the road as, “phytotherapists and nutritionists are frequently advising arthritis patients to keep sugary and/or fatty foods consumption low So also are the consumption of red meat, cream and cheese. “They should ensure that they eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, as well as whole grains. Omega-3 essential fatty acids, have been shown to relieve to some extent the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis,” Elegbuo said.

According to Elegbuo, a common source of Omega-3 fatty acids is oily fish, such as Sardines, Herring, Titus and Salmon. “Many Nigerians tend to place large portions of food on our plate. If you reduce the size of the portions you may lose weight more effectively. Make sure that vegetables and fruit make up a large part of your portion,” he said.

Dr Elegbuo said: “Although arthritis can make daily tasks more difficult and exhausting, there are many techniques and therapies, which added together, can give an arthritis sufferer much better quality life, com-

•An arthritic hand

By Oyeyemi Gbenga-Mustapha and Wale Adepoju

pared to no therapy at all. It is important that people with arthritis seek medical health and treatment. Although there is no cure for arthritis, there is a lot you can do to minimise its overall effects on your everyday life. You may wish or have to continue working, and with the right techniques and help from an occupational therapist you may find it not as daunting as you first thought.”

Meanwhile, a traditional medicine practitioner, Dr. Lambo Adebisi, has recommended exercise, lifestyle changes and healthy diets for the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA) known as a joint disease.

According to him, OA is the most common type of arthritis. He said ginger, garlic and vegetables have healing properties that can help sufferers overcome the problem.

“Eating a balanced, healthy diet can help reduce inflammation in people’s body. They may also help in losing weight or stay at a

proper weight,” he said.

Dr Adebisi also recommended regular consumption of garlic and onions.

Moreover, anti-inflammatory oils, which are found in nuts, seeds, and cold-water fish, may also help. The disease, he said, is caused by “wear and tear.”

He said: “Healthy cartilage—the firm, rubbery tissue, which cushions bones at joints by letting bones glide over one another, while cartilage,absorbs energy from the movement.

“In OA, cartilage breaks down and wears away. As a result, the bones rub together causing pain, swelling, and stiffness.”

The disease, he said, often makes it difficult for sufferers to move the affected parts, which can be the hands, knees, hips and spine.

OA, he said, is not limited to men as it also affects women.

“It affects people more as they get older.

People in their 50s and 60s are more susceptible. An injury to a joint or overuse, as some athletes might have, can cause OA when people are younger,” he said.

Some symptoms, he said, are joint pain and swelling, stiffness and weakness of joints, among others.

“Joint pain, often a deep, aching pain that gets worse when you move and better when you rest the joint. In severe cases, the pain may be constant. Stiffness in the morning or after sitting or lying down for more than 15 minutes, joint swelling and joints that are warm to the touch as well as difficult in movement,” he said.

According to him, the causes are unknown and are associated with ageing. However, metabolic, genetic, chemical, and mechanical factors can play a role in getting OA. He identified risk factors for OA as being older, heredity, being overweight and injury to the joint.

Others are history of inflammatory joint disease, metabolic or hormonal disorders, bone and joint disorders present at birth.

He said athletes or construction workers might have the disease because of the rigour of their professions.

He said a combination of conventional and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments may be most effective.

People, he said, should change their lifestyle to curb the disease.

He said when people lose extra weight; it helps relieve the pressure on joints, and may slow down the loss of cartilage as well as relieve pain.

“Anybody suffering from OA, who is overweight, should lose weight to help their condition,” he said.

Regular exercise, he noted, is another good thing people can do when they have OA because it strengthens the muscles to support the joints.

“Regular daily 30 minutes of brisk walking can help suppress the pain. Also, hydrotherapy can be initiated. This can be in form of warm-water exercise,” he said.

He charged people suffering from joint pains to avoid refined food, such as white breads, pastas, and sugars.

“They should eat lean meats, cold-water fish or beans for protein. Fruits, vegetables and whole grains are highly beneficial. Besides, they should avoid caffeine and other stimulants, alcohol, and tobacco,” he said.

Adebisi said turmeric (Curcuma longa), cat’s claw (Uncaria tomentosa) devil’s claw (Harpagophytum procumbens) and ginger (Zingiber officinale) can be used to manage the problem.

Signs your body needs to detox urgently

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ETOXIFICATION is the process of eliminating harmful or toxic substances in the body. When you’re frequently fatigued, experiencing indigestion, and getting constipated a lot of times, these could signal that your body is screaming at you for a full body cleansing. Your body will tell you whether or not it is in dire need of detox; you just have to look for the following signs:

• Insomnia: If you can’t sleep at night, this may mean the time for you to get a full body cleansing.

• Lethargy: Since you can’t get enough sleep, you may be lethargic throughout the day. It may have been days since you last went jogging because it has been difficult for you to get up every morning. You can regain the lost energy by detoxification.

• Stress: Sometimes stress hinders your ability to sleep soundly. It can also be a sign that you need a full body cleansing. Remove toxins, such as alcohol, caffeine and sugar to start reducing stress from your system.

• Mental Fog: If you can’t seem to concentrate and you can’t seem to keep up with a conversation, you’re probably experiencing brain fogginess.

• Weight gain: If you are overweight, this could signal that you have a toxic body. This is because you may have loaded it with preservatives, junk food, and alcohol. Start detoxifying to eliminate these harmful toxins and get back into shape.

• Body Odour: You pass gas more frequently than normal; you have bad breath and you stink. These are signs that you need to detoxify, especially if you take care of yourself, but it does not seem to help.

• Indigestion: If your stomach is bloated and you feel like you are pregnant, this could be a sign of indigestion. Frequent indigestion problems call for detox help.

• Depression: if you’re not happy and you can’t explain why, your body may be telling you it is full of toxins. Note that your mood can change when you eat the wrong kinds of food.

You can start detoxification by means of juice cleanses where you use fruit juices and vegetables. You can also use nut milks, seasonal soups, and warm teas for your juice cleanse. There are many of these juice cleanses that you can buy at your favorite stores today and you can choose the number of days for cleansing.

Another way is through DIY full body

•A stressed up body

cleanse where you give up meat, dairy, caffeine, alcohol, soy, and processed foods for three days at the very least. If you think your body has too much toxins, go for a twoweek detoxification process.

•Source: www.organicmedic.com

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THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

NATURAL HEALTH

A 2015 review of Nature’s Friends (9)

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E live in a world that is not ours alone. With us on this earth are not only cockroaches, ants, lions, and snakes but also germs that we cannot see with the unaided eye. We still cannot tell why we have to co-exist with them, except the knowledge that some, if not all of these germs, help to facilitate the decay of any form of life from which life is draining away or has drained. Candida, a member of the fungi/yeast family does this. It is plentiful in breast cancer tissue that is decaying, a signal that the life force is draining from the rest of the body as well. When the tongue is gray, that is a mirror, warning us that candida is overgrowing its population in the intestine. Happily, Mother Nature gives us in the Plant Kingdom enough weapons to protect our bodies against these undertakers, as Dr. Robert Young calls them. This series has been featuring many of these natural weapons. The feature continues today.

Maharani Non-Indians who cherish Indian food should be no strangers to Maharani. In India and in the United Kingdom, it is the name of great Indian restaurants which claims to offer the best in Indian cuisine. In Nigeria, I do not know if a Maharani restaurant exists. We hear, always, of Mandarin restaurants.

But for some years now, Maharani has been featuring in the Alternative Medicine market as a proprietary herbal blend recipe for many female problems especially those which involve the ovaries. Many women who have heard about it or are using it for health reasons link it with the elimination of uterine fibroids. For this purpose, it is often prescribed along with systematic enzymes such as Serrapeptase, which helps to dissolve unnatural growths.

Maharani has about ten benefits for a woman’s health, according to its product literature.

These are: ONE: It combats menstrual pain, excessive white discharge and flatulence.

TWO: The menstrual cycle is balanced through a regulation by this product.

THREE: Some women take a long time to recover from the strains and rigours of pregnancy. Maharani is said to shorten recovery time.

FOUR: Women cherish healthy, youthful, supple and radiant skin, Maharani is said to help them achieve them.

FIVE: For women who have uterine challenges, including uterine fibroids and prolapsed uterus, it should be good news that Maharani helps strengthen, support and align the uterine wall.

SIX: Also important for a woman’s fertility is healthy blood circulation. Many women sight heavy black cloths of blood in their menstrual blood. This is deoxygenated blood. It means the blood got “hooked” up in the uterus for longer than it should and lost its oxygen content. As fresh blood sluggishly comes to the uterus, oxygen and nutrient deliveries are delayed. This makes uterine cells sick, and germs take advantage of them. Any wonder then, that candida, bacteria, viruses etc are found in uterine fibroid tissue. Maharani literature says “it improves blood circulation prior to the menstrual cycle”.

SEVEN: Every woman wishes to be fertile, for as long as possible. Female fertility involves many factors, including hormonal balance, clear and open fallopian tubes, healthy ovaries aid a functional uterus and cervix among others. It is not stated in the literature how Maharani helps with these.

But there is no doubt that it has a positive impact on the ovaries, which are crucial for the attainment of these factors.

EIGHT: For women whose tummies continue to bulge after child birth due to slack abdominal muscles, Maharani is presented as an agent which helps to “contract the uterine muscles after childbirth”.

NINE: What are women without estrogen and progesterone, the two major female hormones? They give a woman her delicate curves, bosom breasts, supple skin and hair and skin and voice. When the hormones are out of balance, a woman’s health is jeopardised. Too much estrogen, for example, has been implicated in breast cancer, period pains, uterus fibroids, elevated blood prolactin levels, which cause nipple discharge and block the ovaries from producing and releasing eggs. If Maharani balances female hormones as promised in its literature, that should be great news for women beset with hormonal imbalance. I have no reason to doubt its capacity for this to call the hormones to order. For Maharani is a compendium of herbs targeted at female reproductive organs and fertility.

If a woman who lived in the Shomolu area of Lagos a few years ago reads this, she should see herself in a mirror, and laugh. She was in her early thirties and had been married about three years without a child. She was not menstruating.

She sought help for her menstrual cycle, and she was advised to try Maharani. She requested other hormone-balancing herbs as well, against advice. When her period came, it was in a flood and ran for more days than normal. The bleeding had to be stopped. Today she is a happier woman with fruits of the womb.

TEN: What about menopausal women who suffer from hot flashes and other change of life- discomforts, including oesteoporosis? When hormones are not balanced, calcium does not fixed properly in the bones. Many women suffer from deposition of calcium in wrong places, including the joints (arthritis), shoulders (frozen shoulders), eye lens (cataracts) etc. Maharani is said to help this class of women as well.

Bellaco Capsi

W

E live in an age of mycoplasma diseases. Going by the germ theory of disease, we believe diseases are caused by germs. Therefore, mycoplasma disease would be

muscles.

About three or four years ago, I suggested Bellaco Capsi to a woman who faced the challenge of bilateral Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (POS)! she could not ovulate and had no child. She had taken many pharmaceutical drugs prescribed by her gynaecologist, to no avail. Suspecting mycoplasma bacteria and candida at work, I informed her of the need to detoxify not only the blood but the plasma and the lymph as well. In those days, there were no systemic detoxifiers as we have today... for example, there were no Diatomaceus, Zeolyte AV (for viruses) and Zeolite pure (for heavy metals, toxins etc) Serrapeptase (to dissolve growths), etc she took the ones available and in addition Bellaco Capsi. Soon, her pains subsided, her ovulation came and she became pregnant. Unfortunately, the pregnancy turned out to be ectopic and was evacuated in the hospital to protect her life. We were in touch for a while, and lost touch afterwards.

Biotrust R Yemi John, a safety engineer full of life and meticulous about naturalness in all things, deserves the credit for inviting my attention to BIOTRUST group of product. They’ve always been around us, but I’d always taken no more than a passing interest in them until I sighted them with this gentleman. In the BIOTRUST groups are such products as:•Biotrust low carb, a milk and whey protein in concentrate mixed with fibre and digestive enzymes including prohydrolase. Prohydrolase is believed to facilitate maximum delivery of protein to the muscles than other protein digestive enzymes. It is recommended that it be taken within ten minutes of mixing with water because prohydrolase immediately sets to work digesting the protein.

•BCAA Matrix. The acronym means Branched Chain Amino Acids, since a few years ago become one of the latest words in natural medicine. With lots of leucine, an amino acid present in it, this products is suggested for dieters who do not wish to lose muscle mass while losing body fat to a sliming diet. This products pride itself as being better than other BCCA products because, as the producers say, it employs a three-pathway delivery system, instead of one in other products, to deliver nutrients to the muscles during a diet fast. It is said that, in other BCCAs, Leucine, Valine and Isoleucine occur in a 2:1:1 ratio. But in Biotrust’s BCCA Matrix, Leucine occurs in a 4:1:1 ratio to the other two because, says BIOTRUST, Leucine has been found by researchers to be the most anabolic amino acid. At this Leucine concentration, it is believed that this BCCA product can melt “Spot Specific belly fat” •IC-5. This is a blood sugar balancing supplement which is reported to stop insulin resistance. In insulin resistance, the cells shut their doors against insulin which, accordingly, cannot help sugar burning in the cells and, so, makes blood sugar concentrate in the bloodstream. Improved insulin sensitivity increases fat burning, decreases fat storage and supports blood sugar management. Some of the ingredients include known sugar burners such as (1) Cinnamon (2) Burmannii (3) Berberine (4) Pterocarpus Marsupium (5)Alpha Liopic Acid (ALA) •LEPTIN – BURN: Leptin is the dominant fat–burning hormone in the body. Many people have a deficiency of it or are resistant to insulin. To burn fat, high amounts of Leptin are required as are leptin receptors in the cells highly sensitive to Leptin. Leptin levels may drop by half within one week of a fat burning diet. This may be why many people return to status-quo-ante after ending a fat burning diet. In LEPTIN BURN, irvingia gabonensis increases leptin sensitivity while oleanotic acid increases leptin output and effectiveness. Brown sea wool extract also increases leptin production and Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) which increases body metabolism. There is also Panax Notog Inseng, which decreases appetite and improves leptin sensitivity. Yerba mate and Green tea extract compliments the ingredients to curb appetite and increase energy and alertness.

M a disease caused by myco (small germs) in the plasma. Blood plasma is a pale yellow fluid part of the blood, one of the functions of which is to hold blood cells (red or white) in the bloodstream. About 55 percent of the blood volume, blood plasma is, that part of fluid in blood vessels which can migrate outside the blood vessels to, again, form part of the extra cellular fluid, that is fluid outside the blood vessels (interstitial fluid) which surrounds the 100 trillion or, more cells in an average adult human body. Blood plasma is largely water in which are dissolved nutrients such as proteins, glucose, and clothing factor, electrolytes, hormones and antinutrients or wastes such as carbon dioxide. In interstitial fluid, plasma supports osmotic forces which send nutrients into the cells and bring out their wastes for evacuation.

The plasma can be inhabited by mycoplasma and ureaplasma.

Mycoplasma and ureaplasma belong to the family of smallest free living bacteria. They do not have cell walls and live inside the cells or in cultures outside of cells. This explains why organs of the body can become infected, especially by mycoplasma and ureaplasma (a cause of working pneumonia) if the blood plasma becomes infected by them.

When I hear of conditions such as Polysystic Ovarian Syndrome (POS) for example, my mind immediately races to mycoplasma travelling through the blood to the interstitial (extra vascular) fluid into the cells of the ovaries where they can be reached by a special class of antibiotic and antiviral herbs.

Some of the symptoms of mycoplasma and ureaplasma germs in the body may include discharge, burning, urinary urgency and pain.

Laboratory tests fail to fish out the culprit. Germs are difficult and expensive, and only a few pharmaceutical antibiotics successfully deal with the germs. Even then, they may have to be taken for months. Patients may become tired of taking the medicines, thereby given the bacteria respite and increasing their leg room.

About 16 species of mycoplasma have been identified. Three have been linked to human infections such as working pneumonia, atypical pneumonia, urinary and genital infections, including vaginitis, sexually transmitted diseases (STD), and chronic diseases in people with weakened immunity. Some doctors believe that more than 50 percent of sexually active women are colonised by a specie called urealyticam, which they may pass on to the new babies. This should strike a note of warning to men who indulge in oral sex.

According to a tropical plants data base authored by LESLIE TAYLOR, Bellaco Capsi... “...reduces pain, reduces inflammation, kills bacteria, kills fungi/candida, kills cancer cells, heal wounds, prevent ulcers, aids menstruation, cleans lymph glands, reduces fever, calms coughs, cleans blood and expels worms” Leslie taylor says different countries which are familiar with Bellaco Capsi use it for different purposes, although there are common uses. He says: “In Brazilian Herbal medicine, Bellaco Capsi is considered analgesic, anti-inflamatory, anti-tumoral, anti-fungi, anthelmintic, (against worms), aphrodisiac, emanogogue (menstrual stimulant), emollient, febrifuge (reduces fever) purgative, tonic, fermifuge (kills parasites) and vulnerary (heals wounds).

Practitioners and herbalists in Brazil recommend it for lymphatic gland disease and inflammation, female disorder such as endometriosis, uterine fibroid, tumours, menstrual irregularities and pain, ovarian cyst and ovarian inflammation, cancerous tumours and skin cancers, digestion problems such as indigestion, stomach ache, bowel inflammation and gastric ulcer, general pain and inflammation (arthritis, rheumatism and fractures), cough fevers, headaches, asthma and other lung diseases and various skin issues such as wounds, ulcers, and rashes”.

In Peru, Bellaco Capsi enjoys similar reputation. The Peruvians add hernias to the list. The guyaness add liver disorders to the lists.

In 1998, Brazilian researchers reported that Bellaco Capsi bark exhibited greater antifungal effect than control drug that was used (Nistatin)”.

In 2005, a Brazilian researcher suggested that Bellaco Capsi’s anti-asthma action may be due to its relaxation of smooth

e-mail: femi.kusa@yahoo.com or olufemikusa@yahoo.com

Pro – X10 A few decades ago, the Royal College of Surgeons issued a health or death alert in which it said death begins slowly but surely in the intestines. The intestine of many people is rotten and a breeding ground for killer germs. Sometimes, these germs escape into the bloodstream from where they may colonise some organs, causing organ failures. BIOTRUST reminds us that about 80 percent of the immune cells in our bodies are resident in our intestine (gastro-intestinal system).

The 25 feet long system houses about 100 trillion bacteria species. That, says BIOTRUST, is about ten times the number of cells in some human bodies. But the population of bacteria is not the crucial issue. The critical issue is how many of them are friendly bacteria, that is harmless bacteria, and how many, being unfriendly, are dangerous bacteria. The ideal ratio of good or bad bacteria is about 9:1, according to BIOTRUST. But unfortunately, many people have a much, lower ratio of good to bad bacteria. BIOTRUST says: “Due to lifestyle and environmental factors, the majority of the population is severely lacking when it comes to good probiotic bacteria. There are more than 200 studies linking inadequate probiotic levels to more than 170 diseases and health issues ranging from gut specific issues to mental health disorders to allergies to obesity. As you may have guessed gut health and the proper ratio of bacteria in the gut flora are extremely important for overall health and play a critical role in immune function, prevention of many diseases, and optimising body composition. In fact, research is now suggesting that supplementing with probiotic every single day is even more important to your health than taking a daily multivitamin”.

Tel: 08116759749, 08034004247, 07025077303

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

49

THE NATION

BUSINESS LABOUR

Intrigues as new NLC president emerges T HE botched 11 th Delegates Conference of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) was finally concluded last Saturday at the Eagle Square, with Comrade Ayuba Wabba emerging as President.

Three groups slugged it out in the election. They are the Restoration Group, led by General Secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) and a presidential candidate in the election, Joe Ajaero; Redemption Group, led by the new president and immediate past Treasurer of the Congress, Wabba; NLC Secretariat, made up of mostly members who conducted the election.

The election was however, not devoid of intrigues. For instance, the restoration group, led by Comrade Ajaero alleged that what was supposed to be a single item agenda and therefore not expected to last for more than one day, sadly, lasted for two days.

According to him, just like the previous failed election, there was an unacceptable disregard for rules and regulations in the election that produced the new president. “Rules were changed midway into the elections. It took two working days for an election fixed for only one day to count the votes of 3,119 delegates from the 43 industrial unions affiliated to the Congress. Due to poor elec-

Stories by Toba Agboola

toral arrangement, sorting of ballot papers turned to be cumbersome and open to manipulations and distortions with non-members of the Credential Committee dictating the patterns of counting,” he said.

Ajaero and his group also alleged that there was an unacceptable direct involvement of former NLC President, Abdulwaheed Omar in the election, particularly in the sorting and counting of votes well after the dissolution of the former National Administrative Council (NAC) he headed against the best practices of the past.

The group was said to have issued invitations immediately to the 23 affiliates allegedly sympathetic to the decision to reject the result for a special delegates’ conference in Lagos this weekend to elect a parallel executive.

The group said they have resolved to forge ahead under the banner of NLC and in line with the provision of the NLC Constitution. “New members of the national administrative council of NLC will be elected at the Special Delegates Conference as it was done in the past credible delegates’ conferences of NLC. A Conference Organising Committee has therefore been duly con-

The man Wabba

Comrade Aliyu Wabba is a former president of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria(MHWUN).

He was born October 22, 1968. A native of Askira Uba Local Government in Borno State, he attended the School of Health Technology, Maiduguri and the Imo state University.

He also underwent several courses at the Beeshiba Institute of Peace and Development, Israel, Royal Institute of Public Administrators, London, Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, USA and National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, KuruJos. stituted,” the group added.

But, the outgoing national executive, led by Omar, in a statement distanced itself from such an action, saying it is aimed at destabilising the Congress.

The statement signed by the

General Secretary, Peter OzoEson, warned those he called “group of individuals driven by inordinate ambition and vainglory” to desist from being used as agents of destabilisation of the labour movement.

While urging affiliate unions of the Congress to ignore any invitation to such a conference, Mr. Ozo-Eson reminded them that its 11th Delegates Conference was successfully concluded.

At the end of the exercise, he said the National Executives of the Congress were elected in a free, fair and credible election under the watchful eyes of unions, delegates, invited guests, veterans and members of the media.

Mr. Ozo-Eson said the processes that led to the elections and the elections were “manifestly transparent, incontestable and unimpeachable”, with all the contestants and their delegates voluntarily lending and submitting themselves to the electioneering/voting processes.

The unions that attended the meeting include NUEE, National

•Wabba

Union of Petroleum and National Gas (NUPENG), National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institution Employees (NUBIFIE), among others.

Not withstanding the intrigues and disaffection that trailed the election, the Supervising Minister of Labour and Productivity, Kabiru Turaki has congratulated Wabba.

TUC urges workers to defend democracy

T

HE Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has tasked workers to defend the nation’s democracy by collectively making necessary sacrifice to ensure that the forthcoming general elections hold as scheduled by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) without chaos.

The Congress also called on Nigerians to resist the temptation of exchanging their Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) for money as some politicians are said to be buying PVCs as a way of disenfranchising them.

TUC’s President, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama spoke during an interactive session with reporters in his office while sensitising workers on the need to participate in the coming rescheduled general elections by INEC. He said: “We call on Nigerian workers to do everything possible to defend the nation’s democracy by collectively making necessary sacrifice to support the government to ensure the coming general elections hold as scheduled by INEC without chaos.

“We use this opportunity to call on Nigerians to resist the tempta-

tion of exchanging their PVCs for money as some politicians are said to be buying PVCs as a way of denying them their right to vote,” the TUC chief said.

In a related development, TUC has appealed to the Federal Government and the military authority to temper justice with mercy on the soldiers that were condemned to death by a military court marshal.

In a statement, its President, Comrade Kaigama and Secretary General, Comrade Musa Lawal, said: “Justice, they say, serves a better societal purpose when tempered with mercy. And indeed, the quality of mercy is not strained. It is twice blessed. It blesses he that gives and he that takes.”

The Congress also commended the Nigerian Army for its recent victory in reclaiming the country’s soil from the Islamic terrorists group, Boko Haram.

The Congress, however, charged the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant-General Kenneth Minimah, to reward soldiers as promised during his recent visit to Baga town in Kukawa Local Government Area of Bornu State.

•From left: Head M&A, Standard Chartered Bank, Yemisi Bejide; Executive Director, Elephant Group, Akin Ogunbiyi; Managing Director, Elephant Group, Tunji Owoeye (FCA) and Managing Director, Afri-Invest Capital Partners Nigeria Limited, Abiola Ojo-Osagie, at the signing of an MoU in Lagos.

Labour vows to paralyse Defence Ministry

O

RGANISED labour, acting under the aegis of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), has vowed to paralyse activities at the Ministry of Defence if urgent steps are not taken to pay its civilian employees their allowances, including promotion arrears outstanding since 2011.

In a statement endorsed by its Secretary-General, Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, the union expressed

Delayed PIB passage derails foreign investments

T

HE Rivers State Chairman of Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Comrade Chika Onuegbu has warned government and politicians to stop politicising the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) into law. To him, the delay in its passage has derailed foreign investment in the sector that accounts for over 90 per cent of the nation’s foreign exchange earnings.

Onuegbu, who spoke at a media briefing in Lagos, noted that investors have continued to adopt wait-and-see attitude, refraining from making any new investment pending the passage of the bill into

law.

He said: “The non-passage of the PIB into law has derailed foreign investment in 2014 in the sector that accounts for over 90 per cent of the nation’s foreign exchange earnings.

“The irony of the delayed exercise was when President Goodluck Jonathan administration was advised to re-start the whole process over again when the administration in January 2012 set up the Special PIB Task Force led by Senator Udo Udoma to work with relevant government bodies to produce a new version of the PIB for presentation to the National Assembly.”

According to Onuegbu, the dangers in the current dispensation

is that Nigeria, therefore, cannot afford the luxury of time, while politicians indulge in unnecessary bickering over such an important bill in a sector that is the main stay of the economy accounting for over 90 per cent of foreign exchange earnings, about 40 per cent of the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) and 80 per cent of government revenue.

The labour leader, who noted that the PIB represents a great opportunity for Nigeria to ensure a solid foundation for the future of oil and gas operations in the country, added that the petroleum resource, which Nigeria is endowed, should work for and benefit Nigerians and not a few individuals.

surprise that an institution, which prides itself as an epitome of discipline, equity, and fairness could choose to oppress and dehumanise thousands of its civilian workers by denying them their entitlements.

The union said efforts to bring the management of the Ministry to the negotiation table to discuss labour issues have been frustrated.

It, therefore, gave the Ministry of Defence 14 days, with effect from March 12, to convene the meeting or face industrial action.

“It is necessary to emphasise that if within this period the meeting is not called, the national leadership of the union should not be held responsible if thousands of civilian employees in the Ministry of Defence decide to resort to self-help to resolve the impasse,” the union warned.

ASCSN regretted that though the national leadership of the union and the management of the ministry had agreed that there should be quarterly meetings to address the labour issues and new ones that might emerge, no meeting had been held since the agreement was reached on December 16, last year.

The issues in dispute, according to Lawal include, non-payment of

promotion arrears since 2011 to date, non-placement of staff after their promotion, short-payment/ non-payment of salary arrears, non-payment of hanging salaries.

Others are neglect of Lagos and other outstations in training programmes, non-payment of death benefits and package/repatriation allowance and delay in conversion/upgrading of staff.

The union recalled that the first quarterly meeting was fixed for February 5, but was subsequently re-scheduled for February 10 on the excuse that the Permanent Secretary, who chose to be part of the meeting, was out of the country.

He said: “On the 10th of February, when the national leadership of the unions arrived at Ship House, Abuja to attend the rescheduled meeting, no management team of the Ministry of Defence was available for the parley.

All efforts to get information on why the meeting could not hold proved abortive.

“The Deputy Director, Staff Welfare, however, promised that he will liaise with the Permanent Secretary with a view to getting a new date for the first quarterly meeting. Unfortunate, no meeting has been fixed up-till now.”

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

50

THE NATION

BUSINESS INDUSTRY

industry@thenationaonlineng.net

About 70 per cent of raw materials used in the paint industry are imported. With the slide in exchange rate of the naira , coupled with lack of infrastructure and rising insurgency, local paints manufacturers are in a quandary, fearing that many firms in the sector may be forced to fold up, reports Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA.

Paints manufacturers’ tale of woes A

FTER two decades of uninterrupted operations, achieving 20 per cent market share, Chemstar Industry Nigeria Limited, manufacturer of Finecoat and Shield Paints, should be celebrating its success.

The company, which began operation in a room in 1996 with three workers and two distributors, boasts of over 1,000 workers and 2, 000 distributors spread across the country.

It has also established factories in Johannesburg, South Africa; Accra in Ghana and Turkey. However, despite achieving between 60 and 65 per cent capacity utilisation, the company marked its 20th anniversary with measured excitement. Its turnover in the previous year, The Nation learnt, was low and, perhaps, did not warrant a loud anniversary.

“Because of rising insurgence in the North, our turnover has plummeted, especially in the previous year from what it used to be,” Group Managing Director, Aderemi Emmanuel Awode, declared at the company’s 2014 Customers Forum in Lagos, as part of activities marking its anniversary.

He said the company’s turnover plummeted as a result of rising cases of insurgence in the Northern part of the country, including Abuja, where about 65 per cent of the company’s turnover was realised.

He also said high duties and tariff on imported raw materials were not healthy for business growth.

Awode echoed the frustrations of other paint manufacturers, as well as other operators in the manufacturing sector whose businesses have been badly hit by ceaseless bombings by the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents in the north.

Since 2009, when the crisis started, manufacturers whose businesses are located in the Northeast and Northcentral – the epicenter of the sect’s activities – have been recording unprecedented low turnover. Because of the bombings and kidnappings, manufacturers, including paints manufacturers, are unable to distribute their goods to the affected states in the North, a situation that eats into their profit margins.

The Nation learnt that many people no longer want to go to the North for any reason, and this is affecting the distributive trade sector of the economy. Operators in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sector, are worse hit by this restriction in movement due to their limited space, branch network and available funds. “The tempo of economic activities in the North has declined, access to markets by companies in the South has reduced, resulting in loss of sales; while many enterprises have relocated,” says Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Alhaji Remi Bello. He lamented that it had become difficult to attract investors because the risk of long-term investments had become enormous.

The Chamber’s Director-General (DG), Muda Yusuf, also noted that the insecurity had become a major challenge for investors, stressing that the economy of many of the affected states is on the verge of collapse with implication for investments and job losses.

•Bello

Yusuf, while explaining the outcome of an evidence-based account of experiences of members of the Chamber and the larger business community on investment climate in the second quarter of last year, said the challenges of the operating environment for business intensified in the second quarter across all sectors, and there were concerns over weak consumer demand reflecting the downturn in the economy.

He said while the hospitality industry in the volatile states has been paralysed, many operators, especially SMEs, were relocating to other states with the attendant challenges.

The DG also said many firms have lost about 30 per cent of their sales, as they could no longer access most part of the northern market. “Our report shows that manufacturing firms sourcing raw materials from the North are facing serious challenges, while projects funded by banks in the affected states are now at risk,” Yusuf said, adding that serious perception problem has been created for the country, as many bank branches have been closed, while sales representatives of many companies have fled the affected states, and many projects under construction in the North abandoned.

Although Awode expressed optimism for a quick end to the Boko Haram insurgence for business to thrive, his optimism may have been short-lived following the threat of the slide in the naira exchange caused by sharp drop in the price of crude oil. He said that most of the raw materials used in the paint industry are imported.

“About 70 per cent of our raw materials are imported, while payment for the raw materials is done

• Yusuf

in dollars. Import duties or tariff are on the high side. These and other challenges are confronting the growth of paints industry,” he lamented.

The Chemstar GMD is not alone in his lamentation. Chairman of DN Meyer Plc, another major paints manufacturer, Sir Remi Omotosho, decried the trend where over 70 per cent of raw materials for paints and other products’ manufacturing is sourced from abroad despite that some of the raw materials for paints are available locally. He regretted that the drive for local substitution embarked upon in the country in the 1980s was abandoned and replaced in the 1990s by the import syndrome, with people relying heavily on imports.

Sir Omotosho recalled that the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) was set up to explore alternative sources of raw materials for the local industries, regretting that all of a sudden, RMRDC disappeared from the radar. “That agency ought to be revived,” he told The Nation, in an earlier interview.

While emphasising that a lot of materials used in the production of goods are available locally, the industrialist regretted that those who should be developing local raw materials would rather go and import them for sell.

“There is need for the government to get RMRDC back in place in a purposeful, focused manner, visionary in its approach by collaborating with manufacturers to get a lot of the input produced locally,” he insisted, adding that there is need to employ a carrot-and-stick approach in the drive for local substitution. “If you rely on local raw materials,

• Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Olusegun Agaga

manufacturers will be compelled to contribute to a research fund for that body because we are going to benefit at the end of the day. If, however, you want to rely upon imported raw materials, tariff should be able to take care of that,” he said.

Indeed, the paints industry is heavily raw materials import-dependent. And for paints manufacturers, already weighed down by skyrocketing cost of production due to dearth of infrastructure, the prevailing high exchange rate is overkill. First, it means that paint makers who borrow to import raw materials will do so at higher interest rates. Secondly, with the naira devalued, paints manufacturers now pay more naira for each unit of goods they import.

While some of them now find it extremely difficult to finance their import bills, those who manage to do so contend with shrinking margins of profit. The toll is heavier on small scale paint manufacturers.

According to experts, paint is composed of the following raw materials: pigments, solvents, resins, and various additives. While pigments give the paint its characteristic colour, solvents make it easier to apply. Resins aids dispersion; and additives serve as everything from fillers to anti fungicidal agents.

Hundreds of different pigments, both natural and synthetic, exist.

The basic white pigment is titanium dioxide (TiO2), selected for its excellent concealing properties while black pigment is commonly made from carbon black.

Other pigments used to make paint include iron oxide and cadmium sulphide for reds, metallic salts for yellows and oranges, and

‘About 70 per cent of our raw materials are imported, while payment for the raw materials is done in dollars. Import duties or tariff are on the high side. These and other challenges are confronting the growth of paints industry’

iron - blue and chrome - yellows for blues and greens and even calcined kaolin, which the Chinese produce and export for the paint industry.

Most, if not all these raw materials, are imported with huge foreign exchange despite that some of the agents can be produced locally.

This was why Omotosho insisted that developing local substitute for imports by reviving RMRDC in line with the local content initiative is necessary if Nigeria must realise her dream of becoming an industrialised nation. “After satisfying her local needs, Nigeria may even export to other countries,” he said, noting: “If we are compelled to rely on our own internal resources I can assure you that those who are importing will begin to see the need to develop local substitute for the imports.”

He said the government could encourage the drive for local substitution for raw materials through some sort of incentives since the government is mostly affected by the problem of import syndrome. “If we are producing the raw materials here, you know that people will be employed in those outfits manufacturing those raw materials. They will also be paying income tax and a lot of benefits will accrue to government,” he pointed out, adding that by doing so, Nigeria will stop creating employment for others, particularly in a country where the rate of graduate unemployment is very high.

Besides, the Chairman of DN Meyer said those who are selling to local manufacturers are not producing them here; they import and sell to us.

“Even when some of them say they have their own factory, they bring the raw materials and add some additives and sell to you. You can still do better than that because some of those basic things they are using to which they add some other agents can be produced here if we are dedicated and organised,” he stated.

However, raw materials import with its attendant foreign exchange burden is not the only factor responsible for the less than sterling performance of paints manufacturers.

Other challenges facing the industry include dearth of infrastructure, especially stable electricity supply, poor road network, multiple taxation, and high import duties and tariff, among others. For instance, almost two years after the privatisation of the power sector, manufacturers are yet to see any appreciable improvement in electricity supply, forcing them to rely heavily on in-house power supply at huge cost. Yet, power constitutes the single critical infrastructure to rev the manufacturing sector and create jobs These factors contribute to the high cost of production, which is said to be responsible for the high cost of goods produced locally compared to imported ones. The cheaper price of imported goods is blamed for the penchant of Nigerians to patronise imported goods to the detriment of locally produced goods. This is why many local industries, including paints manufacturers that could not stand the heat of the competition in the same market with imported goods are fast disappearing from the industrial landscape.

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INDUSTRY

Preference for foreign BoI disburses N780 billion as loans, intervention funds goods threatens local brands’ T

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XPERTS and operators in the manufacturing sector have iden tified consumers’ lack of confidence in local items as being responsible for the sector’s poor growth.

The Director-General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Mr. Muda Yusuf, lamented that the challenges of indigenous manufacturers who are competing unfavourably with imported products arose because Nigerians prefer imported products more than locally made ones though they are of the same quality.

“This has made local manufacturers resort to engraving foreign labels on their products to satisfy the local consumers who just love products with foreign labels,” he said.

Also, Chairman, MOMAS Electric Meters Manufacturing Company Limited, Kola Balogun, regretted that Nigeria’s preoccupation with importation was doing a lot of harm to the local manufacturing sector.

Balogun, who declared that the company is a strong believer in the local content policy of the Federal Government, said that Nigeria can no longer be dependent on other countries for its technological requirement and should, through a systematic approach and strong belief in the ability of Nigerians to develop and create value, come up with appropriate policies to encourage indigenous companies.

He revealed that his firm is almost 100 per cent local content in human resources and materials, by employing young and enterprising Nigerians and equipping them adequately with requisite training locally and internationally.

“We have invested a lot of resources in our people through training and retraining. Some of our engineers have been trained in India and in the US to ensure they compete favourably with their counterparts anywhere in the world,” Balogun said He said that with tenacity of purpose and appropriate technology, including smart technology and ruggedness, the company has become the manufacture of integrated circuit and silicon conductors. Noting that it is a bold step in the sector for an indigenous company because of its high technology value, he expressed concerns that the country was too comfortable importing items while the zeal to support local industry was waning.

He said his company had developed world-class products to provide post-paid and prepaid electricity meters using the latest technologies in design and production. According to him, all the raw materials and personnel were locally sourced while young Nigerians were employed and trained to handle sensitive operations in the metering company.

“We have invested a lot of resources in our people through training and retraining. Some of our engineers have been trained in India and the United States to ensure that

By Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie Assist. Editor

they compete favourably with their counterparts anywhere in the world,” Balogun said, noting that it remains a challenge competing with foreign firms who had been given the necessary support by their home governments.

He said: “We find it hard to compete favourably in the area of pricing if we have to go by international pricing index. When it comes to exports, most countries subsidise most companies that export products from their countries but we have a peculiar case in Nigeria.

“If electricity passing through this area is used on our equipment, most of them will be damaged. So, we don’t depend on public power supply. We spend a lot generating power and that adds to the cost of production. The devaluation of the naira has also made it impossible for us to be at par with our foreign counterparts in terms of pricing.”

He said what needs to be defined in the Local Content Act is that priority should be given to Nigerian companies that are good.

Group Managing Director, Western Metal Products Company Limited, Robert Tung called for increased tariff on imported products as a way of discouraging imports and also protecting local content. Tung, who said his company had been in existence in Nigeria for the past 50 years, added that his products are of the highest quality but distributors usually insist that he puts foreign names on them.

Tung urged Nigerians to be proud of goods manufactured locally, advising the government to discourage people from always looking for imported goods, as some of the imported items are of low quality. He also charged the government to embark on an advocacy campaign that emphasises the ‘made-in-Nigeria’ brand.

Tung, whose company produces high quality tiles, wire rods and all sizes of nails, said the former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, had insisted on writing “made- in-Ogun State, Nigeria” on bags containing nails. But some Nigerians did not like that, so he added some Chinese inscriptions on the bags.

Managing Director, Bank of Industry (BoI), Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa, also frowned on the practice of Nigerians who are obsessed with foreign products. He attributed the attitude to inferiority complex, saying, “I think we need to get over this inferiority complex among our citizens. A product that is made in Nigeria to the highest standard should make us proud, as opposed to longing for a made in China product.

“It is an orientation that we need to change and I am hopeful that as more and more companies begin to try some of these products and realise that they are made in Nigeria, more and more people will feel comfortable.”

Business confidence index dips

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HE first quarter of the year ag gregate Business Confidence In dex (BCI) dropped from the 30 per cent it posted in fourth quarter of last year to 22.3 per cent.

This represents a 7.7 per cent slack of the confidence level among business operators over the last three months, says Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) latest report.

The report said it represents the largest quarter on quarter point drop of the BCI score over the last three years.

The report signed by LCCI DirectorGeneral, Mr. Muda Yusuf, said conven-

tionally, movement of the BCI score by up to five points indicates the presence of significant positive or adverse development in the country’s economic and business environment.

He, however, regretted that the drop of the BCI scores at this time suggests that business leaders are largely pessimistic about expanding their business and investment spending over the next few months.

It is worse with indigenous manufacturers as growth in the sector shrank by 19.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, according to data by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN).

HE Bank of Industry (BoI) yesterday said it disbursed a total of N780 billion last year as loans and intervention funds to the nation’s real sector and other key sectors of the economy.

Its Managing Director, Rashid Olaoluwa, who spoke at the yearly conference of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers in Osogbo, Osun State, said the bank has also increased its intervention to critical sectors of the economy within the last five years, specifically between 2010 to 2014.

He said: “BoI has become impactful within the last five years and at least 1.8million jobs have been created through such efforts.

Before 2009, the level of intervention was below N30 billion but we have been able to improve access of customers to the funds as well

By Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie Assist. Editor

as increase their capacity in the utilisation of such facilities.

“We are doing a lot of things to ensure that we can provide that comprehensive support to our small and medium enterprises. We are reviewing our regional status to state offices in order to be able to serve our customers better.”

He also tasked members of the institution on the need to adhere to strict professional ethics adding that valuation of assets remained a critical aspect of financial intermediation that is often fraught with malpractices.

According to him, it is often discovered that false values are placed on assets, adding that

this practice is prevalent in an industry where professionals have decided not to adhere to ethical guidelines.

He said: “Development and financial institutions most times discover that the value placed on some assets does not represent the reality and this is affecting financial intermediation by development finance institutions. Estate valuers play a critical role in the society as they are at the centre in placing value on assets. As a bank, we depend on their judgment. The institute needs to task its members on the need to embrace fair and ethical practice while performing their duties.

“Similarly, professionals in the estate valuation industry cannot afford to ignore the place of technology in the discharge of their duties in other to be globally recognised and competitive.”

• Group Corporate Service Director Vitafoam Nigeria Plc, Mr Tunji Anjorin; Product Group Manager, Mrs Ogolo Rachel; Ajiga; Finance Director, Mr Bras Ogun and Group Head, Sales, Mr Sola Owoade, at the event in Lagos.

PHOTO: OKWY IROEGBU-CHIKEZIE

Vitafoam eyes auto industry

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ATTRESSES and pillows, maker Vitafoam is gearing up to become a key player in the auto industry by tapping into the newly- introduced auto policy, its Group Managing Director (GMD), Mr. Joel Ajiga, has said.

Ajiga, an engineer, told The Nation that the company plans to play in the low injection part of the auto industry through its subsidiary, Vita Visco, to manufacture vehicle parts, such seats, dash boards and others.

The GMD, who spoke in his office in Lagos, however, said his company was faced with myriad of challenges, such as infrastructural deficit, especially epileptic electricity supply and bad roads, which affect the company’s manufacturing and supply chain and eats into its bottom line.

He said bad condition of the roads means bad business for the company as goods are transported across the country by road. He therefore, called on government to work on the road infrastructure to reduce the cost of transportation of finished products and repairs of damaged vehicles.

Ajiga also said over 60 per cent of the energy utilisation in the company’s factory is self-sourced at huge cost, urging the Federal Government to ensure that Nigerians and the industrial sector get the full benefits of the unbundling of the power sector.

By Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie Assist. Editor

According to him, manufacturers can only key into the government’s Transformation Agenda if the policies are beneficial to their operations.

He further stated that because of the dwindling disposable income of most Nigerians, there is a limit to how much cost manufacturers can transfer to consumers as part of inward-looking, cost-cutting strategy to stay afloat.

The company’s Finance Director, Mr. Bras Ogun, said that for the company to play effectively in the auto sector there was need to revive the nation’s petrochemical industry. He regretted that the devaluation of the local currency increased the price of base materials from the petrochemical industry, which are unfortunately imported into the country despite the fact that Nigeria is an oil exporting country.

“The devaluation has caused a price differential of about N35 in our base material. It will affect the bottom line for this year. Our plan is to start producing some of the chemicals locally and also look at other cost cutting measures. This singular policy has made negative impact, but we are trying to keep the cost of operation as low as pos-

sible.

“We want to cushion our pricing model through our reserves, which acts as shock absolvers. In that scenario, we will not need to pass the cost to our consumers because our creativity and innovativeness will always put us on the leading edge of the nation’s economic growth and development,” Ogun added.

Corporate Service Director, Vono Products Plc, one of the company’s subsidiaries, Mr. Tunde Anjorin, said the firm has since transformed into a vibrant company manufacturing hard furnishing, conventional and security doors for schools, hotels for basic and luxurious comfort, satisfying all segments of the society.

The company’s Head of Sales, Shola Owoade, said the firm is exploiting polymer to produce most of its products such as prefabricated buildings and insulated structures, which conserves energy and reduces cost.

He said the company is also building pre-fabricated structures for mass housing already in use in Osun State to build classrooms using polymer as base material.

On the export arm of the business, the Vitafoam boss said that the company has built a-state-of–the-art production complex in Sierra Leone, which will soon start operation. The company also has a trading outfit in Ghana.

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e-Business

Etisalat urges public private partnerships in broadband devt

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HE ChieF Executive Officer of Etisalat Group, Ahmad Julfar, has urged the adoption of public private partnership (PPP) approach to broadband development, arguing that access to broadband is a basic right for everyone who could be served smartly, where needed.

He lamented that artificial policies of long pay-back on infrastructure investments and diminishing returns impact ability of carriers to invest and innovate Addressing global leading figures in telecoms at this year’s Mobile World Summit (MWS) by Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Mr. Julfar said public internet needs to evolve further, stressing that it requires investment in capacity, new solutions, technologies and innovative business models.

He argued that the carriers will not be able to drive this alone, as they face the risk of a big disruption due to the shifts across the value chain, necessitating the PPP approach.

He said: “Etisalat believes that access to broadband is a basic right for everyone and it can be served smartly, where needed. But providing universal access to

Stories by Lucas Ajanaku

broadband poses a challenge for telcos because network investments not only have long pay-back periods and capex (capital expenditure) on infrastructure today yields diminishing returns.”

Mr. Julfar said “new investment models based on semi-public funding from governments or infrastructure-sharing models defined by regulators, are urgently needed and should be encouraged”.

Speaking on Connecting Billions Across the Developing World, Mr. Julfar said: “The benefits of increasing connectivity are clear to see in economic, social and environmental fields, but there is a clear digital gap. Some 60 per cent of the world’s population remains unconnected, the majority of which is in rural areas of the developing world.”

By 2020, approximately 3.8 billion men and women, or half of the world’s population will be connected to the internet through mobile and a vast majority of the new users will be in developing countries.

“Telecoms revolutionises everything we do; it is the industry that changes all other industries; governments know it. That is why,

over the past 10 years, more than 150 governments have developed or are developing national broadband networks. The primary goal is to make the country benefit from the economic impact of broadband. And we share a common interest to keep investing in the future internet,” he said.

He proposed a number of changes in the telecoms ecosystem comprising governments, regulators, internet companies and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs). He urged all to embrace new competitive models to allow telcos focus on market value creation through collaboration between private and public sectors to distribute more choice, affordability and welfare to citizens.

“Some of the most innovative models today come from emerging countries. Etisalat Group takes a different approach in various developing countries that it operates in, and not one size fits all. Our ability to be flexible to meet individual market need drives our growth across the region. This flexible approach has enabled Etisalat Group to extend service provision for millions of people,” he said.

MTN launches proposition for Christian subscribers

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S part of its effort to ensure that its Christian subscribers get connected to their faith on daily basis, especially during the Lenten period, MTN has rolled out various life-enriching and spiritfilled Christian Value Added Services (VAS) offerings.

These offerings according to MTN will enable Christian faithful have easy access to daily devotionals, Bible quotes, children prayers, sermons, songs, prayers, prayer points, hymns, callertunez and other spiritually uplifting content, that will keep them connected to their faith on a daily basis.

Its Chief Marketing Officer, Mr. Olubayo Adekanmbi, explained in a statement that the strategic crux of the initiative is aimed at uplifting and encouraging subscribers to get closer to God through the company’s bold new digital Christian VAS. He said: “We are committed to the total well-being of our customers as we strive to make their lives better through our propositions, products and valueadded services.

“The MTN Christian Service provides subscribers with lifechanging prayers and prayer

points from anointed men of God; prayers for children, inspirational messages from spiritual leaders, daily bible verses, praise and worship songs, hymns, Christian Callertunez and other spiritualenriching contents to keep us intune with God every day.

Subscribers can access these offerings by dialing 797 on their mobile phones and follow the voice prompt.”

On its importance, Adekanmbi said: “This is a way of showing our commitment to our esteemed customers of Christian faith, by connecting them at this period of spiritual reflection and appreciation for the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on the cross of Calvary (laying down his life for mankind).

He went further to state that the company will continue to go the extra mile in providing exciting innovative initiatives geared at enhancing its customers’ whole new digital experience, while encouraging them to be better in their various fields of human endeavour.

MTN Nigeria, last year sponsored 20 of its Christian subscribers across the country to Jerusalem on pilgrimage. This is as a result of their subscription to various MTN Christian services.

UNILAG, Douala varsity best computer students honoured

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•From left: Nigerian Idol Presenter, Olowu Bardia Adebola (Illrhymz), Nigerian Idol Celebrity Judge and renowned Vocalist, Yinka Davies, Executive Director, Optima Media Group (OMG), Ugochi Pedro, and Head of Youth Segment, Etisalat Nigeria, Elvis Daniel Ogiemwanye at the Nigerian Idol Season 5 Auditions preview in Lagos.

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Nigeria needs $3.7b to cover underserved areas

BOUT $3.7billion is needed to bridge the digital divide existing in the country inspite of the progress recorded in the telecoms sector.

Communication Technology Minister, Dr (Mrs) Omobola Johnson, who disclosed this, said the money would be needed to reach the various underserved people in different parts of the country.

Already, the government, through a study, has identified about 207 communities, which are yet to benefit from the telecoms revolution. These communities have been grouped into subsidy clusters across the six geo-political zones for the government to through the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) design projects and strategy to bridge the gaps and ensure that everyone, irrespective of locality, is connected.

According to her, each cluster has the requisite attributes of sizeable

population, major towns, main economic activities, institutions and others, adding that these gaps are expected to be filled by 2018 and would allow about 40 million Nigerians to gain access to voice services.

On the challenges to government’s efforts at creating digital citizens through pervasive spread of broadband, Dr Johnson, who spoke during the presentation of the report of a study carried out by the USPF in Lagos, identified the challenge of right of way (RoW), multiple taxation/regulation, encouraging the demand side by ensuring that people adopt technology, cost of access to infrastructure, and the challenge of local content among others.

In her opening remarks during a sideline gathering facilitated

by Ericson and a4ai at which a report was presented by Alliance

for Affordable Internet (a4ai) during the Mobile World Congress, she said the $3.7billion funding will be required to provide the requisite infrastructure that will take services to the un-served and underserved areas of the country.

Dr Johnson said the Federal Government’s decision to create Communication Technology Ministry underscored the importance the administration placed on the ICT sector as a veritable driver of the economy.

Executive Director, a4ai, Sonia Jorge, said the success recorded in the country’s telecoms sector was driven by strong leadership and regulation of the industry, robust broadband strategy, effective competition, efficient spectrum allocation, 4niversal access to rural and underserved population, and infrastructure sharing, among others.

OMPUTER Warehouse Group has rewarded best graduating students of the Computer Science Department of the University of Lagos and the University of Douala, Cameroon, as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme. At two different ceremonies, its representatives presented gifts to the students in furtherance of its bid to extol the essence of attaining academic excellence.

At the presentation ceremony in Lagos, UNILAG’s Vice Chancellor, Prof Rahman Bello observed that if the focus of CWG’s CSR initiative is sustained, it is capable of aiding universities in Nigeria to attain desired greatness.

He said: “This award presentation has been an annual event.

Since inception, CWG has lived up to their promise of rewarding the best graduating student in Computer Science Department every year, for five years now. On behalf of the management of the university, I thank your organisation for your commitment to this partnership. Your commitment to promot-

ing academic excellence will help us in going forward.

“I tell you that your contributions have been helpful. At the moment, University of Lagos is the 20th best school in Africa and the first in Nigeria, according to the 4icu rankings. Going by our consistent progressive performance, we look forward to being the first in Africa anytime soon. This is our target. And, we believe that the input of corporate partners like CWG will see us through to the point we aim to get to,” he said.

CWG’s Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Phillip Obioha, said the annual award presentation underscores CWG’s emphasis on hard-work and qualitative education. He said: “Our business scope covers a range of sectors; from banking to telecoms and recently SMEs. Our business is all about the quality of our workforce. We boast of an array of professionals whose expertise has formed the bedrock of service providers in the telecoms sector, for example. Our premium on quality workforce explains our emphasis on quality education.”

eProcurement portal makes debut

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N indigenous information technology firm, Bids Online for You Limited (BOLFYNG) has launched a new electronic procurement solutions aimed at bridging the vast gap between purchasers and suppliers enabling the process of tendering, pre-qualification and contract bidding to be done electronically.

BOLFYNG operates as an e-procurement solution company, which provides web based portal enabling purchasing organisations manage and streamline procurement processes from bid creation, publishing, prequalification, submission and evaluation, document distribution and management to instant tender notification to interested bidders.

Speaking during the unveiling of the e-procurement solution, its Business Development Director, Mr. Yinka Sorinwa said the online portal connects suppliers providing various goods and services to purchasing organisations from the local, state and

By Alvin Afadama

federal government, education, consulting, engineering, financial institutions, construction, healthcare sectors, public and private companies and many more across Nigeria and beyond.

Sorinwa said the main objective of BOLFYNG is to provide a platform where up-to-date information is made available to end users with the aim of becoming the most used and frequently visited web portal for bid publishing, e-prequalification and ebidding.

“The traditional manual process of procurement is now obsolete, making the bid tendering and application process very slow, frustrating and time consuming with very tedious process for payment and bid document pick up. Many advanced countries have replaced this with e-procurement and this solution is what BOLFYNG offers.”

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55

MONEYLINK

CBN to disburse 50% of N220b MSMEs’ fund by year-end

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HE Central Bank of Ni geria (CBN) is target ing 50 per cent disbursement of the N220 billion Micro, Small, and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) fund by year-end.

CBN Head of Relationship Management, MSME Development Finance Department, Tobin Jonathan who disclosed this yesterday at an MSME workshop in Lagos, said the apex bank is jolted by operators’ low access to the fund.

He said that the apex bank is particularly worried that since the fund was launched last August only N40.3 billion has been disbursed to operators because of the stringent conditions attached to accessing the funds.

He said: “As we speak, N40.3 billion has been dis-

Stories by Collins Nweze

bursed to state governments, commercial banks, Micro Finance banks, and financial Co-operatives. We have disbursed to 19 state governments, some of them have taken first tranche of N1 billion”.

He disclosed that complaints from the MSME operators suggested that the criteria were too strict and difficult to meet, hence the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele decided to relax the criteria across board to make the funds more accessible.

He added that the CBN has also addressed all other complaints raised by participating financial institutions including the spread of profit to cover their cost of operations.

“So they can collect the forms at two per cent and give it out at five per cent. So they have seven per cent spread which is good enough. That has encouraged so many of them to begin to apply,” Jonathan said.

Also, the Project Manager, Financial Infrastructure Project to the CBN, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and a resource person at the workshop, Ubong Awah, said:“We are collaborating with the CBN to establish the National Collateral Registry which will be launched by June”.

He said it is important as part of effort to stimulate financing to the MSME sector in Nigeria stressing that collateral registry will provide part of the infrastructure for pushing the initiative ahead.

How to build sustainable wealth, by UBA chief

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ROUP Managing Di rector and CEO of United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, Phillips Oduoza has said that people who go through life with a high level of financial literacy usually make good and informed choices that make them richer.

The bank chief disclosed this yesterday while teaching students of Girls Secondary School, Amenyi Awka, as part of the celebration of financial literacy day organised annually by the Bankers Committee and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The event witnessed participation from over 200 students from seven different schools in Anambra State including Community Secondary School, Agulu, Ezi Awka Community Secondary School, Community Second-

ary School, Okpuno, Community Secondary School, Umuokpu and Capital City Secondary School, Awka.

Oduoza noted that financially smart people make financially smart families, communities and country, which leads to a higher standard of living for everyone.

He took the students through the basic concepts of making money, savings and investments while letting them know that their capacity to make informed financial decisions will make them better adults in future.

The Principal of GSS Awka, Lady Winnie Ibezim, thanked the bank for choosing the school to celebrate the financial literacy day event. She said the school readily accepted to host the programme because of her strong believes that the

•Oduoza financial literacy education will turn the students into good financial managers.

Senior Special Assistant, Finance, Mr. Tony Oli, who represented the Anambra State Governor Chief Willie Obiano said UBA’s decision to celebrate the financial literacy day in the state is highly appreciated and ties in with the governor’s efforts to promote education in the state.

Sterling Bank rewards customers

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HE six winners of the Sterling Bank Gun ners Promo who emerged at the fourth Gunners Promo held at the weekend will have the opportunity of an all-expense paid trip to watch the home match involving Arsenal Football Club and Chelsea on April 26.

Disclosing this to newsmen after the fourth draw of the promo held over the weekend, the bank’s Group Head, Strategy & Communications, Mr. Shina Atilola said this was in line with the promise made by the Bank at the commencement

of the Promo last September.

This, he said, brings to 24, the number of lucky winners that have emerged in the four draws held. The next draw holding in April will produce another set of six winners bringing the total number of winners to 30, even as he disclosed that the Bank came up with the promo to reward customers for their loyalty.

The promo, which kicked off in September 2014, runs till May 2015, with winners emerging on monthly draws to be held during the duration of the promo. The promo is designed to reward cus-

tomers for their patronage and loyalty to the brand over the years in keeping with the Brand’s promise of putting customers first The six lucky winners are Kehinde Abdullahi Ademola, Sakariyau Adeleke Mustapha, Ignatius Peace Nnah and Adeleke Zainab Idowu.

Others are Chinyere Okechukwu and Eludinni Taiwo Kemi. An elated Kehinde who spoke with the “Femi & The Gang” crew that covered the event live for Nigerian Info commended the Bank for keeping to its promise.

Citibank Nigeria marks ‘Global Money week’

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ITIBANK Nigeria Lim ited joined the rest of the world to commemorate the annual Global Money Week. The event, which held at Aunty Ayo Girls’ Comprehensive Senior Secondary School, Lagos, featured an interactive session on financial literacy, titled “Growing Your Money”.

The programme, the bank said in a statement, focused on educating Nigerian youths on the economic environment and the importance of savings, entrepreneurship and financial value creation.

The event was organised in partnership with Junior Achievements of Nigeria (JAN), a financial education non-governmental organisation.

The bank’s Executive Director and Head of Global Subsidiaries Group, Mrs. Nneka Enwereji encouraged the students to be accountable for their financial health, and prioritise their needs over their wants.

She also stressed the need for the students to be financially aware and empowered to save and make monetary de-

cisions.

JAN’s Programme Officer, Ms. Efe Adefulu, at the event, also reiterated the need for the students to cultivate savings culture. Ms. Adefulu expounded on the significance of financial literacy to the fiscal independence and economic sustainability of Nigeria.

Global money week is a yearly celebration commemorated across the world in honour of empowering the youth to be involved in reshaping their finances and their future.

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THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

NEWS Fear of exposure of alleged massive corruption grips PDP Continued from page 4

zled, N10 billion private jet scandal, N1.6 trillion oil subsidy scandal, and much more.

But an All Progressives Congress (APC) top official last night denied the claim, saying the opposition party “will not go into the gutter with them”, he added that the PDP is afraid of losing the election, “that is why they are desperate as seen from this allegation.”

Fani-Kayode said: “As we are addressing you, a scurrilous and utterly baseless documentary and video has been commissioned and compiled by them. It is titled ‘’Nigerians…What Is Going On’’. In the documentary, the opposition has listed some areas which they claim reflect the corrupt nature of the Nigerian people, the nature of the President and the nature of the government that he is heading.

“All manner of lies, deceit, fabrication, slander, falsehood and misrepresentation of the basic facts are in thedocumentary. The whole thing is simply an attempt to denigrate the Nigerian people and bring it into disrepute and opprobrium before the International community.

“Two million dollars was

budgeted for this irresponsible and shameful project and the services of no less than three specialists and well known international spin doctors from two western countries were procured.

“These specialists are now in Nigeria to put finishing touches to their project. The whole idea is to perfect the work and then release it to the international television networks and the Nigerian public three days before the elections.

“They have targeted the oil and gas sector in a particularly brutal and shameless manner and they seek to tarnish the name and image of Mr. President and those that run that sector with sleaze, dirty lies, disinformation and unsubstantiated allegations”.

The PDP campaign spokesman said the objective of the planned documentary is to incite the people, to destabilise the country and to bring the President into utter disrepute.

“This documentary, which we consider to be very dangerous, is full of false and irresponsible postulations about what is going on in this country and if it is released in its present form, it is capable of setting Nigeria on fire.

“We are letting the Nigerian people know about this in good time in order to pre-empt it and we want the opposition to be fully aware of the fact that we know what they are doing, what they are planning, when they were planning it and who is involved. We also know the amount budgeted for this project, who is disbursing the money and what their real intentions are.

“We also want them to be fully aware of the fact that even if General Muhammadu Buhari, Bola Tinubu, Rotimi Amaechi or any of them are in their toilets, in their bedrooms, in their covens or anywhere else they may choose to hide and hold their secret meetings, we know what they are doing.

“This document was passed on to us by a loyal and patriotic Nigerian who is working with them and who is a key officer in one of their most sensitive and secret cells and covert intelligence units”, FaniKayode added.

The PDP campaign organisation also said it has uncovered the existence of an illegal radio station, “APC Radio or Radio Chanji” which it said has been broadcasting falsehood, propaganda and incit-

INEC: no further shift of polls Continued from page 4

the elections on February 14th, we would have done it with a collection rate of 67 per cent of PVCs. But as at now, we have 11 states that have attained over 91per cent collections while most have attained over 80per cent and

above collection rate.

“We believe that the 2015 elections would be much better than that of the 2011. In fact we believe it would be the best elections ever conducted in this country.

“Yesterday I was able to brief the National Security

Council on the remaining concerns, particularly as it affects protecting our staff and providing adequate security for the elections, and we were able to receive assurances that the security agencies are doing all they can to ensure that adequate securi-

ing comments periodically over the last few days.

The PDP accused a former Nigerian Ambassador to Spain, Yusuf Mamman of being the brain behind the radio station and called on the security agencies to arrest Mamman and other APC leaders.

“We seize this opportunity to call on the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) to set its house in order while ensuring that its rules are followed. We call on them to use all means available to stop this illegal radio station from operating and if necessary to block its illegal transmissions.

“The objective of the radio station is to serve as a propaganda tool to fight the government after they lose the elections on March 28th. The brain behind the operation is the former governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi who equally founded Radio Kudirat during the days of NADECO when the government of General Sani Abacha was being fought by a number of people in Nigeria.

“The opposition know that they would lose the election and after this happens it is their intention to begin to use this illegal radio station to incite Nigerians against the government. ty is provided.

“We were told that it is only about three local government areas that are still being held by the insurgents. We are in collaboration with the security agencies to arrest known political thugs across the states to avoid a reoccurrence of the post election violence that occurred in 2011.

“This time around, we have planned to use a better facility for the collation of election results in Abuja. We have secured the International Conference Centre for that purpose, as it would be more spacious and conducive for that purpose. On the deployment of sensitive and non sensitive materials, we have no problems at all as we have done that successfully.”

The INEC Chairman added that public officers will not be allowed to move around during elections.

“We are going to insist that ministers and governors would not be allowed to move around with their retinue of security agents in the name of election monitoring.

“We did a comprehensive screening of electoral officers and we even dropped some.

We have always insisted that electoral officers should not serve in their states of origin.

We have tried to reduce the incidence of rigging.”

The Executive Director of Policy Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) and Coordinator of the Situation Room, Clement Nwankwo, said Nigerian were eagerly awaiting the election which is the only legitimate means of effecting leadership change.

“We are aware of the pressure the INEC chairman is going through, with calls for him to proceed on terminal leave when he is not terminally weakened,” Nwankwo said.

Clara Barnett of the British Department for International Development (DFID), who commended INEC for its efforts so far, assured of his agency’s continued support and collaboration with the Commission to ensure that democracy is deepened in Nigeria.

DSS arrests six kidnappers in Edo Continued from page 4

Air Staff.”

The DSS Director said: “Prince Nwanze, Osagie Oriarevbu, Oziegbe Akhimien, Kenneth Okosun, Ehizojie Okha were involved in the kidnapping and snatching of a car belonging to a woman who was kidnapped along with her daughter at Uromi.

The victim was not only kidnapped but raped by the suspects and the car later sold in Jos.” While commending the SSS for a job well done, Governor Oshiomhole said, “these people we see here are very normal human beings. When people tell you their experiences, you think that they are people made in hell and listening to them, it is also clear that it is all about greed.

“Some of them are students who want to live like the boss. They want to own cars, wear the most expensive clothes. So those are apparently what have lured

them into this very unfortunate thing. I think each time we are able to apprehend criminals like these, at least the point is made that the culture of impunity, is stopped, they know that something can happen and something is happening.

“It may take time but as they say, time does not run against the state. Eventually nobody commits crime and goes scot free so my appeal to our young people is you cannot be too smart as to be able to run away from your own shadow. The more you run, the more the shadow will chase you and eventually it will catch up with you.”

He appreciated the Director, officers and men of the Command for the risk they have been taking in combating crime and ensuring peace and security in the state and assured the Command of the government’s support in the fight against crime.

Jega snubs Oritsejafor Continued from page 4

ers work. They should work, they must work, and they were bought with money.”

Pastor Oritsejafor said for the election to be successful, Christian and Muslim leaders must sign a peace pact ensuring that Christians and Muslims are safe before, during and after the general elections.

Besides, in his view, for a successful election, there must be confidence building. And one of the things that will build confidence is that Christians and Muslims must resolve that we will protect each other.

“Christians who live in predominantly Muslim areas should not be afraid to remain there. Many are running away. They shouldn’t.

After all, they are Nigerians.

And our Muslim brothers must make a commitment to say Christians will not be killed in predominantly Muslims areas while Christians should also say Muslims who live in their area will not be killed.

“We must make that commitment to each other. And we must make it publicly.

Let the nation know that nobody is going to be victimized based on his or her religion. Everyone must and should be free to go out and vote freely, believing that who they are voting for will help them. That is what democracy is all about. Many of us here today are preach-

ers; some are politicians and other aspects of life. But the most important ones are the preachers because if you are politicians you will either go to the church or the mosque.

“The preachers here must also make a commitment to go to the churches and to the mosques to begin to preach that Christians are save everywhere and Muslims are save everywhere and we must begin to teach our people to believe in Nigeria. We must begin to emphasise to our people that we are all Nigerians.”

He advised leaders of both religions: “We must begin to tell our leaders, our followers to begin to think Nigeria. Nobody is superior to the other.”

The CAN leader also urged all to encourage the military for their fight against Boko Haram.

The President General of the Supreme Council of Islamic Preachers in Nigeria (SCIPIN), Sheikh Muhammed Nourayn Bn-Ahmad, said the two major problems “currently threatening the corporate existence of the Nigerian nation are that of religious extremism/intolerance, as well as subterranean forces working to breakup Nigeria into those previous pieces and ethnicities that were amalgamated in the past 100 years.”

A minute silent was observed for Boko Haram victims.

Bad Govt not better than kidnapping, terrorism, says Buhari Continued from page 4

rorists have better equipment and better motivated than our military. Under an APC government, this will not be allowed to happen.

We will equip our military and provide them with the right incentives to ensure that they are very firm in the defence of their country. We will also ensure and refocus our internal security structure.

“The total security concept reflect directly on improving the quality of the lives of our people and rebuilding the

economy.

“Even if we have the best police, we will not be able to guarantee total security as long as 53 per cent of our youths remain unemployed and 70 per cent of our people are living below the poverty line.

“These are all the issues that my party and myself are committed to. It is along this line that we have promised a regretting plan for the Northeast and it is based on ensuring that never again will our country experience the type of human tragedy currently going on in that part of the country”.

THE NATION THURSDAY MARCH 19, 2015

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NEWS Court voids ex-Abuja CJ’s indictment by NJC

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•From left: Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brig.-Gen. Johnson Olawumi; Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) National Commissioner for Bauchi, Borno and Yobe states, Col. Hamanga Mohammed and Resident Electoral Commissioner for Bauchi State, Prof. Hamman Tukur, during the Director-General’s sensitisation visit to corps members ahead of the general elections in Bauchi... yesterday

Court replaces PDP governorship candidate in Borno

FEDERAL High Court in Abuja has faulted the choice of Mohammed Imam as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Borno State.

Justice Ahmed Mohammed, in a judgment yesterday, declared illegal, the decision by the party’s leadership to nominate Imam as against Gambo Lawan, who won the primary election.

The judge declared the plaintiff as the authentic standard-bearer of the PDP for the April 11 governorship election.

He ordered the PDP to replace Imam with Lawan as its candidate.

Justice Mohammed ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission

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From Eric Ikhilae, Abuja

(INEC) to recognise Lawan as the PDP’s candidate.

The judge, who dismissed the objection raised against the suit by Imam, PDP AND INEC, held that the plaintiff proved that he contested and won the primaries conducted on December 11 last year at Arewa Suites in Abuja.

He further held that Section 87(4) of the Electoral Act provided that a party was under obligation to forward the name of the aspirant with the highest votes at its primary election to the INEC as its candidate for an elec-

tion.

Justice Mohammed, who faulted the party’s claim that its choice of Iman as a consensus candidate was because of the security situation in the state, which prevented a proper primary election, held that the plaintiff was right to have approached the court on PDP’s failure to forward his name to INEC as its candidate.

He held that the PDP failed to support, with documentary evidence, showing the resolution of the party members, that a consensus candidate be chosen in place of the plaintiff because of the security situation.

The judge noted that the

plaintiff tendered before the court, the date and results of the primary election of the party conducted in Abuja and endorsed by the PDP’s National Chairman, National Secretary, National Organising Secretary and the Returning Officer.

He said the evidence produced by the plaintiff were sufficient to persuade the court to ignore PDP’s submission that there was no primary election for the purpose of electing the governorship candidate.

“In view of the above, I find merit in the plaintiff’s suit and I hereby grant all the reliefs in the originating summons of the plaintiff,” Justice Mohammed said.

First Lady shuns Kaduna rally

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HE First Lady and wife of President Goodluck Jonathan, Dame Patience Jonathan, was yesterday absent at the Northwest Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) women rally in Kaduna.

The Nation learnt that the First Lady was absent for fear of attack by hoodlums who

From Abdulgafar Alabelewe, Kaduna

might want to revenge the attack on Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s wife’s convoy in Kwara State on Tuesday.

However, wife of the Vice President, Hajia Amina Namadi Sambo, told the crowd of PDP supporters that Mrs. Jonathan could not

make it to Kaduna due to other important national assignments.

In her speech delivered by Mrs. Sambo, the First Lady said her husband has performed well to earn victory at the polls.

She said President Jonathan has given women priority in all sectors and accord them

their rightful places even in federal appointments.

The First Lady said President Jonathan’s administration has provided empowerment to women across the country, stressing that it was time for the women to reciprocate such gesture by voting him and other PDP candidates.

Yero: wealthy indigenes have killed North’s economy

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ADUNA State Governor Muhktar Ramalan Yero has lamented that wealthy northerners have left their region empty without investing in it.

He said the North is dead economically.

The governor advocated the split of the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF) into the three geopolitical zones that make up the defunct Northern Region, arguing that the split would allow effective management of the resources than the way it is done at present.

He was answering questions from members of the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) at a dinner organised

by CITAR-NGO on Tuesday night.

Yero said: “We must tell ourselves the truth. Myself, Yobe State governor and one other governor at the last northern governors meeting held in Kaduna came up with this idea that the forum should be divided into Northwest, Northeast and

From Abdulgafar Alabelewe, Kaduna

Northcentral.

“This is because these three areas have different peculiarities; the peculiarity in the Northwest is different from the peculiarity in the Northeast, so also the peculiarity in the Northcentral is different from the other two zones.”

He said the split of NSGF would bring effective control and management of the north-

ern region where the three zones would pull resources together and direct them to what he called a central body of the North.

“The governors in the Southeast and Southwest have such meetings, and they are progressing because they have a common peculiarity in their respective zones,” Yero said.

The Kaduna State governor, who is contesting the April 11 election, stressed that

northerners had destroyed themselves politically, economically and educationally as they failed to invest in the region.

“We northerners have completely destroyed ourselves, we have missed the road to investment, and Southwest, having been in control of education over the years, the same Southwest is gradually taking over the political power that the North used to control.

Military men shot at my car, says Ango Abdullahi

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POKESMAN for the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Prof Ango Abdullahi, yesterday narrated his experience after his car was shot at by soldiers driving in a convoy.

Abdullahi, a former Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria said he was on his way for an official assignment at the Bauchi State University in Gadau, where he is the chairman of the Governing Council.

He said: “It was in the morning. I was travelling in my official car with my driver. I was going to Gadau for a meeting. We had just passed the Awala Hotel roundabout when I saw a military convoy moving very slowly.

“I was trying to catch up for the meeting, so my driver overtook the military convoy. The

next thing I knew was that they opened fire at us, with bullets sprayed on the car.

“The bullets damaged the engine of the car.

It damaged the car and we had to park by the roadside. The soldiers came out and were shouting angrily at us.

“They demanded to know why we wanted to overtake them, asking if we didn’t know that they were exporting sensitive materials.”

According to him, “they just left us there and continued their movement. I have never seen such a reckless act.

“I called the Commissioner for Higher Education and told him. The commissioner called the security agencies’ chiefs to inform them of what happened.”

USTICE Abdulkadir Kafarati of the Federal High Court, Abuja yesterday voided the indictment of a retired Chief Judge of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Justice Hassan Gummi, by the National Judicial Council (NJC).

The NJC in July 2013 found Gummi guilty of gross misconduct after investigating petitions against him. The council found among others, that Gummi, now the Emir of Gummi community in Zamfara State, interfered with the execution of a judgment delivered by another judge of the FCT High Court, Justice Jude Okeke.

The NJC, however, refrained from recommending punitive measures against him on the grounds that he retired in May 2013, months before its verdict was ready.

Gummi retired shortly before the NJC began investigation on the petitions written against him by individuals and groups.

He later sued the NJC, chal-

From Eric Ikhilae, Abuja

lenging its powers to investigate his official conduct when he was no longer a judicial officer.

In his judgment on Tuesday in Gummi’s suit, Kafarati held that the investigation conducted by the NJC after the ex-CJ’s voluntarily retirement as a judicial officer, was null and void.

He upheld Gummi’s argument that the NJC was without powers to conduct such investigation when it did because, two suits -FHC/ABJ/ CJ/27/13 and FCT/HC/ CV/2558/13 - were pending before the Federal High Court and High Court of the FCT on the same issues raised in the petitions on which the NJC acted.

Defendants in the suit are NJC, the Chairman of the NJC investigative panel, Justice P.O Aderemi, its members - Justice V.N. Nebo, Justice Olatokunbo Olopade Nestello Gateway Group Ltd, Mike Mbanefo and the Secretary of the NJC.

‘I ‘ll complete Zaria water project’ From Abdulgafar Alabelewe, Kaduna

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HE All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Kaduna State, Malam Nasir Ahmad ElRufai, said yesterday that he would complete the Zaria water project if voted into office.

El-Rufai, who spoke in Zaria, his home town, at a town hall meeting with youth leaders of Kaduna North Senatorial Zone, said he would break the jinx and make water available to Zaria town and its environs.

He said: “I stand here to tell you nothing but the truth and I will say it for all to know. By the special grace of God, we will complete the Zaria water project that has been going on endlessly. We keep on hearing billions upon billions being spent without an end.

Chibok community insists on return of girls EPRESENTATIVES of

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the Chibok community have insisted that their priority is the return of their children abducted by members of the Boko Haram almost a year ago.

The leader of the group, Mallam Dunoma Npur, said the community eagerly awaited the return of its daughters.

They said they also wanted the government to re-construct the Chibok Secondary School destroyed by the Boko Haram insurgents.

According to Mpur, “our priority is the rescue of our daughters. Please bring them back safe. We are here to dispel the reports of rejecting

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By Nduka Chiejina, Assistant Editor

the building of the school.

We parents who are at home, we need the reconstruction of this school. We welcome it wholeheartedly.”

Leading 17 community leaders of Chibok on a visit to the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, yesterday in Abuja, Mpur thanked the government for taking steps to rehabilitate the burnt school, adding: “It is very significant in returning normalcy to the community.”

‘Sambo is a failure to North’

N All Progressive Congress (APC) stalwart in Jigawa State and a member of the Buhari/Osibanjo Presidential Campaign Organisation, Faruk Adamu Aliyu, has described Vice President Namadi Sambo as a failure to the North and the country.

He spoke yesterday in Kiyawa town at an APC rally.

Aliyu said “There is nothing the Vice President and PDP have offered to the North.”

He advised northerners to vote out the ruling PDP “because it has failed to solve the country’s problems.”

Fulani association endorses Jonathan From Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja

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RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan yesterday reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to find a solution to the clashes between herdsmen and farmers.

He spoke at a meeting with leaders and members of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, a Fulani socio-cultural association, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Members of the group were at the Villa to endorse him as their “sole candidate” for the March 28 presidential election.

The association also invested President Jonathan as its life patron.

Speaking after his investiture and endorsement, the President thanked the association for the honour and hailed the Fulani for their contributions to the development of the country.

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THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

NEWS got it wrong on car Ngige: APC govt’ll review confab loan,Ekitisaysgovt former deputy governor recommendations F T HE senator representing Anambra Central, Chris Ngige, has said the All Progressives Congress (APC) is not averse to the implementation of the 2014 National Conference, since APC governors nominated three candidates each to the dialogue.

He said those alleging that APC did not recognise the National Conference were mischievous, stressing that “if APC comes to power, it will finetune mo-

dalities for the implementation of the recommendations of the National Conference in addition to the creation of a state in the Southeast, for equity, justice and fair play.”

Senator Ngige, who was on a campaign tour of wards in Awka, hailed the people for voting for him in 2011.

He inaugurated five of the over 13 500KVA trans-

formers in the three wards visited.

The member representing Awka South and Awka North, Chief Chukwuemeka Nwogbo, who is re-contesting on the platform of the APC, which he defected to from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Emeka Chukwuemeka, who is recontesting a House of As-

sembly seat, unveiled their programmes for the constituents and appealed for support.

A traditional title holder, Chief Chinweze Nwobu, speaking on behalf of the people, praised Senator Ngige for the scholarship awards.

He recalled his determination, which saved Anambra State from godfathers and said time had come when people should vote for personalities and not parties.

•From left: Former Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi; All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Chief John Oyegun and presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, at the APC Security Summit in Abuja...yesterday

ORMER Deputy Governor of Ekiti State, Prof Modupe Adelabu yesterday reacted to claims by the Governor Ayodele Fayose-led administration that she and 53 former political appointees owe the state government N109 million as outstanding debts on their monetised official vehicles.

Prof Adelabu said the incumbent government got it all wrong by compiling the list of those who served under the administration of former Governor Kayode Fayemi and feeding members of the public with lies.

According to her, she and many of those mentioned on the list paid for the vehicles allocated for their use when they were in office.

Accusing the government of mischief, she said the government denied her constitutional entitlement to two cars as parting gifts for being a former deputy governor.

In a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Idowu Adelusi, the government asked the former political office holders to immediately pay the money for their monetised to avert a forceful recovery by the police.

But Prof Adelabu said the government was only playing to the gallery, saying that she, like some other officials, got clearance letters from the Ministry of Finance and got the go ahead ahead to change the vehicle’s ownership of the vehicles after paying for them.

Her words: “It is an embarrassment. I do not owe as they claim and this applies to many of us who served under the immediate past regime. On the contrary, the governor is the one sitting on the entitlements of former political office holders. As a former deputy governor, I’m constitutionally entitled to at least two cars but I was not given.

“So, it is indecent and immoral of the present administration to portray the past officials in bad light before members of the public.”

The former deputy governor said the final payment of N691, 791 she made on the ash-coloured Toyota Camry with engine number: 2AR0570437 and Chasis number: JTNBF4FKX03003702 was paid into a government account domiciled at the First City Monument Bank (FCMB).

“I am directed to inform you that your outstanding indebtedness on monetised vehicle........ as at 30th September, 2014 has been paid into the designated Government Bank Account number 0147171011 in FCMB (EKSG Motor Vehicle Loan Political Office Holders) with Teller No. 0280538, representing the outstanding indebtedness,” the government wrote in a clearance letter addressed to her by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance as the Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB). The letter was signed by Mr. Olagoke M.O. She was subsequently issued with a further clearance signed

by Mr. Remi Obaparusi , informing her that the ownership of the vehicle had been fully transferred to her.

The former deputy governor wondered how the government turned around again to say she was owing N1, 393,789.00.

Jonathan not involved in OPC protest, says PDP

T •From left: Chairman of Etisalat, who is also the chairman of the occasion, Hakeem Bello Osagie, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Udom Emmanuel and Senator Udom Udo Udoma, at a luncheon by Committee of Friends at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.

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Multi-modal transportation can reduce poverty, says Fashola

FUNCTIONAL multimodal transportation infrastructure remains the only panacea for the reduction of poverty in the society, Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola has said.

He spoke when he received a photo compendium of the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority’s (LAMATA’s) activities in the last one decade from its Managing Director, Dr Dayo Mobereola.

The governor said the commitment to the war against poverty is contingent on how far it could go with delivering functional cheap means of transportation to the people.

He described effective public transportation as the only system that could define the quality of lives of the people.

The governor maintained that his administration’s con-

By Adeyinka Aderibigbe

sistent investment in the sector stems from his belief that transportation is the catalyst that would define the speed of the state’s economic transformation.

He said the challenges of urbanisation and population growth has heightened the need for a functional multimodal transport system that would be safe, affordable and reliable.

Fashola said: “I have always believed that transportation is the backbone of our civilisation and would define largely the quality of our lives.”

He said the adequacy of public transport infrastructure and services had been heightened by the urbanisation and a rapidly growing population put at

six per cent per annum, significantly higher than the national average of 3.5 per cent.

He said the congestion, with the inherent management weaknesses, means that successive administrations, especially before the millennium, struggled with the challenges of growing road congestion, environmental degradation and total decline of the public transport service delivery.

In 2000, Fashola said the government decided to review the state’s transport sector policy with the overall objective of improving the provision of transport services, especially for low income earners and the development of appropriate institutional mechanism for managing public transportation.

The step, he added, led to the establishment of LAMATA in October 2003, noting that the Authority has steadily developed into a strong, renowned and internationally acclaimed transport institution with an awesome record of successes and milestones, achieved within a relatively short period, including successful preparation of a strategic long term plan for the transport sector in Lagos.

“The Strategic Transport Master Plan (STMP) is the blueprint for developing urban public transportation in Lagos as it strives to manage rising travel demand expectations of a rapidly growing population.

The STMP also identifies traffic management measures, transport infrastructure and services required for meeting travel needs of residents and businesses for the next two decades,” he stated.

HE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has berated the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) for linking President Goodluck Jonathan to Monday’s protest by members of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) in Lagos.

PDP National Publicity Secretary Olisa Metuh, in a statement described the allegation as cheap blackmail and part of the mind game being

played by the APC in their spirited effort to discredit and scuttle the electoral process.

The PDP said it was absurd for anybody to attempt to link President Jonathan to a protest and disagreements involving rival factions of an organisation such as the OPC, adding that the President has proven himself to be a peaceful, humble and forthright leader with unparalleled inclination for political accommodation.

Polls: Cleric urges prayers CLERIC with the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), Pastor James Olufemi Alabi, has urged Nigerians to pray, to avert the plans of the enemies to destabilise the country.

He said some people have perfected plans to derail the electoral process, adding that through prayers God would nullify their plans and Nigeria would regain its lost glory.

Pastor Alabi advised those jostling for elective positions to rely on God, who has the power to enthrone and dethrone.

“Nigerians should pray and allow Jehovah himself to have the final say on the issue. The people should pray that God will give leaders that will have the fear of God at heart in decision-making and administering of people and resources,” the cleric said.

Speaking on the rescheduled elections, the cleric said that those planning to scuttle the process have been unrelenting “in using various means including inciting statements and broadcast, sidetracking the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and promoting fake protests.”

He warned that the architects of the plots and their cronies may st ablaze their own vehicles and turn around to label their opponents as masterminds.

His words: “To make the situation worse, they ordered their supporters at large to attack the opposing camp everywhere, leading to commotion, breakdown of law and order, and wanton destruction of lives and properties across the nation.”

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THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

FOREIGN NEWS Japan investigates death threats to U.S. envoy

19 tourists killed in Tunis museum attack

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UNMEN killed 17 tourists and two others — one of them a Tunisian security officer yesterday at a museum in Tunisia’s capital in what the North African nation’s Prime Minister called a “cowardly” terrorist attack.

Tunisian security forces managed to kill two attackers and end a hostage siege at the Bardo Museum in Tunis, Prime Minister Habib Essid said.

But the bloodshed isn’t necessarily over, with Essid saying that authorities are looking for three other gunmen.

“It’s a cowardly attack mainly targeting the economy of Tunis,” the Prime Minister

•Three gunmen sought said. “We should unite to defend our country.”

The scene played out in the heart of Tunisia’s capital, in a building linked to where the nation’s parliament meets and in an area frequented by tourists.

At least two cruise ships were docked in Tunis at the time.

The Costa Fascinosa carried more than 3,000 passengers, said Costa Cruise, its parent company. And some guests of the MSC Splendida were on tours at the Bardo Museum on Wednesday, said MSC, its parent company.

Polish, Italian, German and Spanish tourists are among those killed, Essid said, with another 20 tourists plus two Tunisians wounded in the attack. He suggested that the terrorists wanted to hurt Tunisia’s economy by going after tourists.

While Essid didn’t specify where the attackers came from, Interior Ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui called them Islamists in remarks on national radio.

The museum is housed in a 19th century palace and describes itself as “a jewel of Tu-

nisian heritage.” Its exhibits showcase Tunisian art, culture and history, and boasts a collection of mosaics, including one of the poet Virgil, as well as marble sculptures, furniture, jewels and other items.

As much as its place in Tunisian culture, the museum is significant for its location — right next to the building that houses the North African nation’s parliament.

That government building was evacuated shortly after noon Wednesday, Tunisian lawmaker Sayida Ounissi said on Twitter.

Israel poll: Netanyahu claims victory

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ENJAMIN Netanyahu appears poised to keep his job as Israel’s Prime Minister, declaring victory yesterday following a bitter campaign punctuated by his last-minute appeals to rightwing voters.

For weeks, Netanyahu’s Likud party trailed in opinion polls to the Zionist Union alliance that characterized him as a divisive leader not up to the task of making the lives of ordinary Israelis better.

Yet those polls turned out to be wrong.

Instead, the Likud party grabbed at least 30 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, according to unofficial numbers from the Israeli election committee based on 99% of the vote. That gives its leaders the first chance at forming a coalition government.

The Zionist Union came in second, with at least 24 seats.

“Against all odds, against all odds, we achieved this huge victory for Likud,” Netanyahu told jubilant supporters not long after the polls closed Tues-

Chad wants UN action on Boko Haram

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HAD has circulated a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council that would endorse military action by a five-nation African force against Nigeria’s Islamic extremist group Boko Haram.

Chad’s U.N. Ambassador Mahamat Zene Cherif said Wednesday he hopes for a council vote this month.

The draft would endorse the decision of Chad, Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria and Benin to establish a force for a period of

12 months to take “all necessary measures” against Boko Haram, which killed an estimated 10,000 people last year.

It was circulated as the Nigerian military, bolstered by forces from neighbouring countries, has regained towns and cities held by Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria.

The draft resolution asks U.N. Secretary-General Ban Kimoon to establish a trust fund to help finance the military operation.

Sierra Leone president sacks deputy •For seeking asylum in U.S. embassy

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IERRA Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma has sacked Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana for seeking asylum in a foreign embassy, a statement from the president’s office said yesterday.

Koroma said in the statement that Sam-Sumana had abandoned his duties and office as vice president by seeking refuge in a foreign embassy, adding that he would appoint a new deputy shortly.

“Alhaji Samuel Sam-Sumana is no longer a member of a political party in Sierra Leone and therefore does not have the continuous requirement to hold office as Vice President of the Republic of Sierra Leone,” the statement said.

Sam-Sumana had requested asylum at the United States embassy in Freetown after soldiers surrounded his residence on Saturday following his expulsion from the ruling party this month.

His sacking could stoke political tensions in one of the three West African countries hardest-hit by the worst outbreak on record of the Ebola virus that has killed over 3,600 people in Sierra Leone.

Following an investigation by Koroma’s All People’s Congress (APC) party, Sam-Sumana was accused of creating his own rival political movement and fomenting violence in his home region of Kono, in diamond-rich eastern Sierra Leone.

Sam-Sumana who was not immediately available for comment, has rejected calls to resign and denied the accusations against him, which also included charges of lying about his academic credentials and his Muslim faith.

Anti-euro protest turns violent in Germany

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MASSIVE anti-austerity rally in Germany turned violent yesterday when protesters clashed with police at the opening of the new European Central Bank headquarters.

Frankfurt police said they used water cannons to disperse protesters after attacks on officers, firefighters, a police station and the Old Opera House.

At least 94 officers have been wounded, police said. Some suffered injuries when stones were thrown at them, and about 80 were hurt when they were attacked with a substance similar to pepper spray, police said.

day. “We achieved the huge victory for our people. And I am proud, I am proud for the people of Israel that in the moment of truth, knew to make the right decision and to choose the real material things over immaterial things.”

Rather than courting voters in the middle, Netanyahu pivoted more to the right with appeals concerning Israel’s security.

Two weeks ago, he made a controversial speech to the U.S. Congress warning of any deal with Iran on its nuclear program. Then, a few days ago, he declared there would be no Palestinian state so long as he’s Prime Minister — reversing an earlier position and putting him at odds again with the Obama administration’s support for a two-state solution.

•Ambassador Kennedy

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APANESE police are investigating phone calls threatening to kill U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and another American envoy, authorities said yesterday.

Tokyo police are investigating calls to the U.S. Embassy threatening to kill Kennedy and similar ones targeting Alfred Magleby, the U.S. consul general based on the southern island of Okinawa, an Okinawa police official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on an investigation by Tokyo authorities.

Tokyo police declined to comment. The embassy also did not comment, citing policy regarding the ambassador’s security.

Syria says it shot down U.S. drone

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HE Syrian military claims to have shot down a U.S. drone, state media reported Tuesday.

“Syrian Air Defense systems shot down a U.S. UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) north of Latakia Province,” the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said.

The U.S. military lost contact with a MQ-1 Predator drone over Syria, a U.S. official said Tuesday. Claims that the drone was shot down by

Syrian forces are still being investigated, the official said.

The drone was believed to be conducting a reconnaissance mission near the Port of Latakia.

The United States has used drones for surveillance and targeted killings, allowing missions to be carried out without risking the lives of U.S. military personnel. But it’s not alone. More than 70 countries now have some type of drone, according to The New America Foundation.

LENT

Theme: Best to be deaf to comments Text:”..... Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men” (John 2:24)

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NCE upon a time there were a bunch of tiny frogs who arranged a running competition. The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower. A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the contestants. The race began and in all honesty no one in the crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower. Consequently, the audience started to make comments such as, “Oh, its a difficult assignment”, “They will NEVER make it to the top”, “Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high!” and “ Get down or you’ll fall and die!!”

Quite prophetically, the tiny frogs began collapsing one after the other except for those, who in a fresh tempo, were climbing higher and higher. The crowd continued to yell, “It is too difficult!!! No one will make it!”. Unfortunately, more tiny frogs got tired and gave up but alas ONE continued higher and higher and higher. The last frog refused to be daunted by the comments of the audience and eventually reached the top. Then all of the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog managed to do it? A contestant therefore asked the tiny frog how he had found the strength to succeed and reach the goal and he replied him, “what did you say?”. It turned out that the winner frog was deaf and consequently didn’t hear the negative yell of the audience which facilitated the failing and falling of the other contestants. On his own, he assumed that they were encouraging him to continue.

Like the frogs, it is habitual for human beings to speak idle words of support, praises and comradeship, like it is happening currently in our political space, when it is believed that one is either in a position of influence or very likely to get into power. On another hand, human beings naturally use discouraging and de-limiting words when a person is struggling to achieve a seemingly impossible feat. To succeed in this world, partnership with the Holy Spirit, and not the words of men, to lead, guide, direct and guard is very principal (John 14:26, 1 Cor.2:10-11; 2 Cor. 3:17).

Jesus Christ had a similar experience at Jerusalem when He entered the temple and found “....those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables (John 2:14-15).

Against this background, many believed in Him because of the miracles which He did. But, Jesus Christ did not commit Himself to them because He knew what was in man.

Beloved in Christ, for you to get to where God has destined for you, you need to know and follow only the voice of the Holy Spirit and be deaf to the “musicians’ praise notes” and the pessimistic cum defeatist counsel of your advisers. Human beings will naturally discourage you from achieving extraordinary feats or massage your ego with choruses of sonorous

music that is sweet in your ears and not the ones you are supposed to hear for their selfish ends.

Blind Bartimaeus, according to Mark 10:46-52, was not only blind but he assumed the position of deafness too when he heard that Jesus Christ was passing by. The people shouted him down when he cried out “Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me”; instead of heeding to their counsel, he shouted yet again but this time like that frog, he cried the more. It was that position of deafness that made Jesus Christ to stand still for him, asked him to come and healed him.

Have you been informed that you can and will never make it in life; are people saying that there is no hope for you to move to that great height or that you have gone past the age of marriage or conception? Are you being shouted down by some people around as a result of a disability or are people discouraging you from worshipping God because they seem to be more blessed than you are? Are people ganging up to pull you down, demean or run you down? Like that frog you must be deaf to them and remain focused on Jesus Christ, who is the author and finisher of your faith (Hebrew 12:2). You must also ensure that you are not discouraged by their talks because all powers are in the hands of the Almighty God (Psalm 62:11), no person has the final say but Him (Lamentations 3:37) and will surely raise you up at His appointed time (Habakkuk 2:3; Ecclesiastes 3:1).

The Almighty God who turned things around for Sarah after she has gone past childbearing age, destroyed the yoke of delay, frustrated medical counsel and did what eyes had not seen, ears had not heard and the miracle that was yet to come to human understanding or imagination shall do same for you (cf Genesis 21:1-3; 1 Corinthians 2:9). Whatever the embargo that has been placed on your life shall be removed and where others are failing or have failed, you shall have a testimony of awesome experiences in the name of Jesus.

It is instructive to note that when Jesus Christ stood still for the blind and ‘deaf’ Bartimaeus, the people that gathered earlier to shut him up were the same set of people that returned to announce his appointment. By same token, you can be rest assured that the people that are turning their backs on you now and yelling that nothing good can come from you shall return to attest to the reliability of your God (Isaiah 60:15). The promise of God in Isaiah 54:15 is that, “ Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake”.

During this Lent season, may the Holy Spirit of God continue to lead you in the right path, close your ears to flattering words that will put you into trouble and terrible words that will discourage you from the chosen path, in Jesus’ name Prayer: Father, give me grace to be open to leading of the Holy Spirit and be deaf to human praises, in Jesus’ name.

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

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CITYBEATS

CITYBEATS LINE: 09091178827

Lagos blames NNPC for road neglect

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AGOS State Government has blamed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for the non-completion of the Ipaja road expansion.

The wwork, it said, is being stalled by some underground NNPC pipelines at Abesan Estate gate in Okunola, a Lagos suburb.

Mosan-Okunola Local Council Development Area (LCDA) Executive Secretary, Princess Opeyemi Akindele told The Nation that Governor Babatunde Fashola has invited NNPC management to a meeting on how to handle the pipelines.

The NNPC management has not honoured Fashola’s invitation.

Commuters on Ipaja road face heavy traffic daily, with many wondering what has been delaying the completion of the job.

•The abandoned Ipaja road

By Tajudeen Adebanjo

Akindele said if NNPC had collaborated with the government, the road would have been completed long ago.

“People are using it against us that we did nothing and the governor made me to understand that NNPC is the one not cooperating with the government,” she said.

She urged the residents and

outbreak. You and I know that the Governor is not interested in the death of people rather their safety is his priority,” she said.

According to her, the essence of expanding the road is to ease traffic.

‘Cultists’ kill man at UNILAG

‘I can’t wait to start walking again’

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HO is the young man killed by suspected cultists at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) Amphitheatre on Tuesday night?

His identity remained a mystery yesterday as police intensified investigation into the incident.

Lagos police spokesman Kenneth Nwosu, a Deputy Superintendent (DSP), told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the body has been deposited in a morgue.

Eyewitnesses said the victim was trailed to the Amphitheatre near UNILAG’s first gate, where he was shot dead.

Although it was not clear if the victim was a student, he was reported to have come to have “fun” at the spot.

An eyewitness said the victim was with his gang when the gunmen arrived, shot him severally and left him in a pool of his own blood.

The gunmen, he added, shot into the air to scare people as they made good their escape.

“The security men, who later arrived on the scene could neither move near the body nor carry it off the ground. It took the intervention of some students to pack the remains off the ground. The body was deposited at the mortu-

A

REPORTER whose legs were crushed by a trailer last month is back on his feet – but in crutches.

Rasheed Abubakar, who works with a soft sell journal, Encomium, was discharged from hospital on February 23, some 19 days after the accident.

Lamented the charges at the Gbagada General Hospital, where he was on admission, he said: “I paid for everything. It was awkward knowing I had to pay for accommodation for the weeks I spent at the hospital. So being discharged gladdens my heart because I was already tired of the vicinity and also, I was grateful my legs weren’t amputated. I was told my check-up days will be once a week but on my first visit after I was discharged, it was changed to once a month because the doctor’s report revealed my legs are healing fast.”

According to him, a nurse comes every Monday and Wednesday to dress the wounds. “I hired a physiotherapist from Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), IdiAraba, Mushin, who comes thrice a week and collects N5000 after every therapy because I don’t know how the crutches is used and I feel pains since I have not been able to lift my legs,” he said.

His Physiotherapist, Mr Taiwo Alabi, said Abubakar, should be able to walk soon.

“With the constant exercise he has been doing, his legs have greatly improved. There are no more swollen feet. He has really made my job easy because he is trying his best possible to be on his feet again,” Alabi said.

Abubakar said three weeks after he left the hospital, there have been positive changes.

“I walk round my compound 10 times daily and within the house with my crutches. I can now do some things myself. I am overwhelmed because I can now feel my legs. I am hoping to be on my feet again without crutches. I am tired of been idle. I miss the streets; I miss my job,” he said.

“Before the accident, I was looking forward to my book launch on May 3 which falls on World Media

commuters to prevail on NNPC to cooperate with the government to complete the road, noting: “If the contractor handling the project decided to dig the road, it can result to leaking of the fuel and fire

By Tajudeen Adebanjo

ary of the University medical centre,” he said.

There are conflicting reports that the deceased was from the Faculty of Environmental Science.

He was said to be gunning for Sports Director in the forthcoming Students Union Government elections.

Another eyewitness said it was a well-coordinated attack.

According to him, one of the assailants came back to ascertain that the victim had died.

Nwosu told NAN it could not be immediately ascertained if the victim who might be in his 20s was a student-cultist.

He said policemen rushed to the scene to stop the fracas that led to his death.

“We rushed immediately to the scene and took him to the university’s medical centre where he was confirmed dead, and then we took the body to the morgue.

“Investigation is ongoing at the moment and we are working with the university’s security department; I assure you that we will get to the bottom of it,’’ he said.

Some members of the university community said the man was killed in what they suspected was a clash between rival cult groups.

‘I remain Iyaloja of Iponri Market’

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•Abubakar on crutches at the hospital (INSET) the autographed cast

By Basirat Braimah

Day. I hope to be on my feet for the launch Insha Allah,” he added.

On why people are signing autograph on the plastered left leg,

he said: “I refuse to brood over what has happened, that is why I decided anyone who comes visiting will sign an autograph on the Plaster of Paris (POP) on my left leg for memoir.”

EOS Iponri Market in Surulere Local Government Area of Lagos State have a new Iyaloja? No, says the Iyaloja, Alhaja Mulikat Ajaga, who insisted yesterday that she is still in office.

She was reacting to claims that she had been replaced with a new leader.

Denying the claim at a press briefing at the market, Alhaja Ajaga said: “You only install a new market leader when the incumbent is no more alive.”

She said she is still the Iyaloja, as she was crowned by the late Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji and given a certificate of authority.

Alhaja Ajaga said: “It will be against tradition for anyone to try what they are saying. You will recall that the market was shut down in February last year, following a crisis, which was looked into, even before the death of Alhaja Mogaji.

“Mama Mogaji waded into the crisis before she passed on. That was when some traders protested at the Lagos State House of Assembly. Mama kicked against the action and asked the market board, led by the present market leader, Mrs Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, to take over the matter.

“The matter continued until she passed away and the new Iyaloja-General is handling it. She constituted a committee and told me I should step aside and allow the committee to coordinate things till peace is restored.

“I stepped aside, as advised by Mrs Tinubu-Ojo, and allowed the committee to run. The arrangement was for them to work for three months, but three months passed, there was nothing, even eight months passed, there was nothing. There were provocations during this period, but I kept quiet.

“I was in hospital last Wednesday when the traders called me on the phone that armed policemen had invaded the market and that some people were meeting and planning to remove me. I dismissed the information, because I know it’s not possible. But I thank God that I was not around. They thought I would cause crisis, so they brought police to arrest me.”

She appealed to Oba Rilwan Akiolu of Lagos and the state government to intervene.

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

61

CITYBEATS •Protesters return bills to IKEDC

CITYBEATS LINE: 09091178827

Lagos residents protest poor power supply

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HE residents of Papa Ashafa and Alagba in Orile-Agege Local Government Area of Lagos State, were a bit relieved as the Lagos Business Manager, Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC), Mr Chris Lawal, ordered an inquiry into their complaints on power failure.

The residents marched in hundreds to the company’s headquarters at Alausa on Monday, to protest the company’s poor condition of service.

They were chanting: “Solidarity forever, we no go gree and all we are saying, give us constant light.”

They held placards with different messages such as: “Ikeja Electric + crazy bills = fraud, no prepaid metre, no money; enough of epileptic power supply; Ikeja electric extortion = terrorists, no light, no money, Agege people are calling for equity and justice, failure to provide constant electricity, no money for IKEDC and Ikeja virus is dangerous to Nigerians.”

The residents demanded “outright cancellation of power shedding, bills amnesty, stoppage of crazy billing, immediate circulation of prepaid metres, poor maintenance of transformers and electric cables.

They equally complained the nonchalant attitude of the IKEDC officials.

The aggrieved residents had on February 23, marched to Dopemu Distribution Centre to protest IKEDC poor condition of service where they held meeting with the company’s branch officials.

The crisis deepened when the residents noticed that the company is still distributing the outrageous bills.

Last Friday, the residents gathered all the bills circulated by IKEDC and returned them back, threatening court action for breach of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and agreements signed by both parties.

President, Youth Alliance for Better Nigeria, Mr Adegoke Moruf Niniola, who led the protest told IKEDC management that the residents are tired of epileptic power supply and outrageous billing.

He demanded for prepaid metre to checkmate fraud.

He said the IKEDC must stop metre reading through coded or estimation, sourcing for transformer and cable’s maintenance from residents, giving bills to the disconnected houses, nonchalant attitude of their officers and making profit at the expense of the residents.

One of the residents, Mr Adeola Ajani, described IKEDC as one of the biggest enemy to the nation’s economy. He said the company contributed poorly to the growth of the country due to the poor power supply.

Ajani said 78 per cent of Nigerians are living with poor health due to inhaling of generator fumes.

According to him, the

•The protesters

•IKEDC management staff while addressing the protesters

•The packed bills returned to IKEDC office

By Olalekan ayeni

company had been giving him a constant bill of N11, 000 at the end of each month for over three years, noting that he had sent several letters and emails to reverse the outrageous bills, yet nothing was done.

Ajani said the high level of corruption and extortion by the IKEDC became apparent when no information was given by the company when tariff increased from N13.21 to N22.65, including the increment of residential maintenance charges.

With all these extortions, he said the company still unable to deliver good service.

He wondered how 15 houses in about six streets have same bill of N19, 382.72 each for February, saying the company just cooked up figures without reading metres.

The residents demanded

an answer on how they got same round figure.

A shop owner, Mrs Akerele Adesola told The Nation that she had been paying N2, 500 for electricity bills every month for selling soft drinks and sachet water, despite the poor electricity supply.

She demanded for prepaid metre and vowed not to pay the outrageous bills again until IKEDC revisit her issue.

Chris apologise for the embarrassments the power failure might have caused the residents, including the nonchalant attitudes of the officials.

He said the company is working to put an end to staff’s untoward attitude to customers.

He urged the residents to report erring staff and avoid giving them money in the course their duty.

He said it is the duty of the company to maintain transformers, cables and other relevant materials accrued in dispensing service.

Ex-education administrator dies

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FORMER education administrator in Lagos State, Deaconess Olugbani, is dead, aged 73.

The late Olugbani, who hailed from Ode-Remo, Ogun State died on March 10.

A retired educationist and head teacher in various primary schools in Lagos, she is survived by her husband, Justice Moshood Olugbani (rtd.) and children, among whom is Chief Bolanle Olugbani.

Burial arrangement will be as announced by the family.

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

62

SHOWBIZ

Actress Funke Adesiyan under attack for supporting OPC

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OPULAR Yoruba actress and lawmaker in the Oyo State House of Assembly, Funke Adesiyan, has been getting flaks for saying the march on Monday, by hoodlums under the aegis of the Coalition of Concerned Nigerians (CCN) and the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) was peaceful.

According to organisers, the rally was to ask for the sack of Prof. Attahiru Jega, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Adesiyan, who plans on seeking re-election as a lawmaker in the Oyo State House of Assembly, noted in a BBM group chat, naijahottestgist.com that, contrary to the reported violence which took place during the march, no violence was recorded.

“Good morning Parliamentarians, I was part of the walk

by Coalition of Concerned Nigerians (CCN) led by Otunba Gani Adams,” she said, Tuesday.

According to the actress, who is running for the Ibadan South-East Constituency under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the protest was not politically motivated and not sponsored by anybody. “We are only asking for an explanation on the allegation against Prof. Jega saying that under-age youths were registered to vote in the north. We say NO to postponement of elections because of shortage in PVC collection. We say NO to creation of 30, 000 illegal polling units in the North. We

By Joe Agbro Jr • Funke Adesiyan

ask for equity in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. We are one great nation and we don’t need Prof. Jega to divide it for us,” she addressed the over two hundred members and supporters of the APC and PDP of the group, who cut across Nigeria and the Diaspora.

“On this premise,” the thespian continued, “we call on Jega to go on his break due on the 24th of March, 2015 and allow another credible officer from INEC conduct this election. We broke nothing, touched no one, and maimed no one. It is the most peaceful rally I’ve witnessed in recent times. It was sponsored by no one. All of us that got involved did it voluntarily based on our passion for equity, justice and unity of Nigeria. It’s unfair that APC is trying to frame us. Nigerians know propaganda is APC’s style and we shall not lose focus on achieving our aim peacefully.”

However, some fans of the actress and pro-APC members on the forum were quick to take her on, in what soon generated in a hot debate, counter accusations and resentment.

“I have pictures of vandalized cars and stuffs by the OPC goons unleashed on Lagos by GEJ, Fasheun and Gani Adams. Guys please stop defending the indefensible,’ a Prof Chris Nwaokobia Jnr, responded.

A member named KJV also berated Adesiyan for being

part of Monday’s controversial protest.

“The issue of the 30, 000 additional polling units has been put to rest by INEC,” KJV wrote. “Where are your facts that under-age youths were registered by INEC and if you do have them, is Ikorodu road the headquarters of INEC? How has INEC divided Nigeria exactly? On the issue of six geo-political zones, how is the removal of JEGA going to help with actualising that? Okay, let us say your intents are pure, how come 70% of the people I saw at Motorways yesterday are wearing OPC T-shirts instead of CCN? How come flyers litter the entirety of the street instead of your association speaking to and handing

same to people? You didn’t see the matches, charms and guns brandished by some hard looking boys yesterday?

How come Channels TV and AIT showed pictures of billboards demolition in the midst of the “peaceful” walk?

My sister, it is better to keep quiet considering that you are running for elective office now.’

Another respondent, by the name TW expressed surprised at Adesiyan’s post.

“I will not join issues with you on the misplaced issue of the suspended polling units

by INEC. But take very strong exception to the lies on what happened yesterday on Ikorodu road. As an Attorney, your right and that of other members of the OPC to

protest is inalienable and protected by the laws of the land (The 1999 Constitution of the FRN, as amended). But my dear sister, that right does not allow you brandish guns, machete and other dangerous weapons and destroying properties...’

Another poster, Mr. Porsche, however, saluted what he termed Adesiyan’s ‘civil approach’ but went ahead to pose some questions for the actress.

“Did you guys notify the Commissioner of Transport to assist in traffic control on Monday morning?” He asked. “If yes, what was the official response and, is it detailed and can we as Nigerians read or see it? Did you guys consider the plight of those who would get queried yesterday by their bosses or organisation heads for coming to work late? Did you guys think having such a rally on a Monday morning and locking down Ikorodu road which is the most reasonable alternative route to 3MB (Third Mainland Bridge) is the right way to go? You mentioned the Jega issue and him embarking on his leave on the 24th of March, 2015. Permit me to ask you truthfully, how will our democracy not get truncated if Jega leaves office four days to the Presidential Elections? Will the new man understand the system within four days? If you want Jega out four days to the election, so why keep him till 24th?’

Although supporters of PDP on the forum also added their voice, claiming Adesiyan couldn’t have lied by saying she didn’t notice any violence,

another member, Kabaat, has a contrary opinion.

Obviously bitter, Kabaat said, “Playing Politics with issues as sensitive like what you guys did, is not only condemnable but treasonable to say the least.

No matter the Party, such show of brutish brigandage, wanton destruction, violence and intimidation, should have no place in our polity. When you claim it was the ‘most peaceful’ protest, I am wondering if you were talking about that or another because images, facts coming from so called ‘walk’, tells the contrary.”

Kabaat then advised politicians not to repeat history.

“History is replete with instances like this, except if you don’t appreciate history. Boko Haram started like that, so did the Niger Delta militants. An OPC unleashed in the South west like BH in the North East, will not be an interesting proposal, I believe you agree. I personally was disappointed yesterday when I saw my ‘egbon’ Uncle Alex Osifo, in the company of these misfits and traducers who do not give a damn if this country burns. Are there no better modes or formats to express yourselves rather than the wanton destruction unleashed on the citizenry of Lagos? What happened to peaceful walk or press conference or an artistes’ jamboree to spread your message? Look here...anybody who tells me it’s about Jega, needs to have their heads examined. Jega is not our problem. We are our own problem. If going to the streets and destroying public properties is your solution to get Jega out of office, then... I will reserve my comment.’

Adesiyan however insisted that there was no violence at all.

“I do not speak from both sides,” she said. “I stand by what I believe in and I stand tall. I was there. There was no iota of violence all through the rally. I still drove back home on Ikorodu road where the rally took place and I repeatNo Vandalised vehicles.”

It was, however, widely reported that the protesters wielded weapons and harassed Nigerians as they went about on Monday, causing traffic jams in some parts of Lagos.

Also confirming the chaos, a Bosun Osifowora wrote of his wife’s experience at Mushin.

“Someone beside her had pellets removed from her body from the shooting,” Osifowora noted. “We need to condemn the act of the president; things are degenerating into base levels with this campaign. Police was protecting OPC members wielding guns and machete. It took me three hours to drive from Isaac John to Police Command (within Ikeja). Things are getting worse, the president should dissociate himself from these things. He is creating a monster which he may not be able to tame all in the name of second term. These things will come back to haunt him. I guess u still remember the mayhem that these OPC guys caused during Obasanjo’s tenure. Now that they have the backing of the president, I guess you can’t imagine what will follow. We have only one country and if things disintegrate because of one man’s ambition, we will pay for it.”

It will be noted that similar rallies had taken place by the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) last week.

THE NATION THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

63

THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015

TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

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TEP aside stock market. You are no longer the darling of investors. Move over, fuel merchants; years of amazing subsidy windfall are coming to an end.

Generator dealers and proprietors of other cash machines must now watch it. A new money spinner is in town.

Even for the most inattentive of citizens, the ones who usually do not give a damn about new trends in business and social life, the new bonanza seems so real. Why not?

The President is the one personally driving it–with strange passion and energy.

Dr Goodluck Jonathan has visited the Southwest several times since the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was coerced into postponing the presidential election from February 14 to March 28.

With every visit have come stories of bountiful rewards for his hosts and guests who visit the State House, Marina.

To be candid, such stories were not common when the sorties into Lagos and the other parts of the Southwest began. No. But, I recall that Governor Babatunde Fashola alleged that huge funds were being shipped into town to induce various groups to line up behind the President in the coming elections.

Jonathan met with various ethnic groups.

Some of the meetings were never publicised.

But we saw on television the interactive session he had with youths, some of who were dressed as if they were heading for the night club down the road, the one in which he danced Shoki. There was also the one with Nollywood stars and other entertainers where we were let into the secret of His Excellency’s musical taste.

He loves reggae, we were told. Dr Jonathan didn’t disappoint those who let the cat out of the bag. Smiling like a seductive Lagos girl, His Excellency jumped up and down to the rendition by three veterans of the genre, who, by the way, seemed to have been hauled out of hibernation to join the new bonanza. A source told me they were not disappointed.

None of these sessions generated so much argument as the President’s visits to traditional rulers. He was said to have unleashed a dollar rain that caused commotion in some palaces.

Some of these custodians of our culture are said to have got as much as $250,000. It all depends on the grade, I am told. A grade one king got $250,000. Others got between $100,000 and $200,000. Ah! The fruits of royalty.

Some are said to have ordered new cars to boost the royal fleet. Others, I am told, are getting set to take on new oloris to add some colour to the royal harem.

So excited are the royal fathers over the new bonanza, which is mind-boggling in comparison to what they get settling endless land squabbles in which they eventually become parties rather than fair adjudicators, that they have allowed themselves – crowns, beads, horsetails and all – to be suborned into committees to campaign for Jonathan. But this is the rather unfair view of some idle fellows, who hide under the nomenclature of social critic to slander respectable people.

Among such idlers are those who do not wish our revered kings well, those who believe that obas should have no role in this democracy, those who insist that palaces should remain symbols of what some people define as our primitivism and all those who advocate that royalty should

VOL. 10, NO. 3158

TODAY IN THE NATION ‘He was largely the founder of two academic institutions- the University of Jos and the University of Calabar.

It is therefore surprising to me that when he died, neither the University of Ibadan nor these two institutions that he was closely connected...’

JIDE OSUNTOKUN

COMMENT & DEB ATE EBA

GBENGA OMOTOSO

EDITORIAL NOTEBOOK

gbenga.omotoso@thenationonlineng.net

•Editor of the Year (DAME)

A presidential bonanza

•Dr. Jonathan and Yoruba monarchs not move with the times. They are lashing the kabiyesis for being part of the bonanza. I disagree.

Haven’t their royal and imperial majesties been grumbling that what they get from the local governments can no longer match their huge responsibilities? If Jonathan is trying to – in the true spirit of the Transformation Agenda (TA) – correct this, what is wrong with that?

But, again, to be candid, the royal fathers are not the only exciting beneficiaries of the presidential bonanza. Just on Monday, crowds of youths – bloodshot eyes, foaming mouths, guns, knives and cutlasses – rampaged through Lagos streets, calling for Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Attahiru Jega’s sack and rooting for Jonathan.

They were led by Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) Coordinator Gani Adams and some Nollywood stars, who abandoned their locations for the pirates they so much dread, to join the rush for the bonanza. A colleague said he was not surprised at the protest. “How many people will get that kind of money and still remain sane?” he asked me. By the way, he was reminding me that Adams got a slice of the cake, the contentious N9b pipelines surveillance contracts, the one that OPC founder Frederick Fasehun confessed to bidding for alongside some former Niger Delta militants.

To be fair to some of those lampooning the presidential bonanza as a vote harvesting gimmick, they don’t detest the idea; what irks them is the irony of it all. An idea that is supposed to bridge the inequality gap, an ingenious wealth redistribution initiative, is sectional and divisive. In other words, many are exempted from the bazaar.

Their argument is that even in the renewed onslaught against the Boko Haram, the new bonanza has been pressed into service – effectively. Some South African mercenaries are

fighting on our side for $400 a day. The government has dismissed this as a rumour (why won’t it? Aren’t these security matters that should be highly confidential, never to be revealed in beer parlour and pepper soup joint banters?), which has no place in military operations. The foreigners, said a report quoting government sources, are mere technical advisers as we have them in our soccer teams.

Besides, said the critics – I’m sure by now you know them very well: those who never see the transforming powers of the administration’s TA- even fuel subsidy tricksters who are believed to have had their fill are to be paid N30bn for the cash they lost because of the sudden crash of the naira against the dollar – in the spirit of the bonanza that we are talking about.

Not left out of the jackpot, said the grumblers, are mushroom rent-a-crowd companies, the type that got some loafers to carry antiBuhari placards in front of Chatham House in London. They were handsomely rewarded in hard currency, the angry critics said.

The other day in Abuja, a group of people posing as politicians called the media to announce that they were kicking against INEC’s plan to use the card reader in the elections. The plan, they insisted, was inconceivable because, according to them, they were not conversant with the workings of the machine. I do not remember what they called their party – nobody seems to – but the popular belief, which they never disputed, was that they were being bankrolled by the Villa to scupper the process and portray INEC as an inept body. It was all part of the bonanza, I learnt.

Just last Friday, the families of the youths who died in the unprecedented Immigration death-for-jobs tragedy got a N75m payout.

Even before the cheques could be cashed or deposited at the nearest bank, the critics, those

A song for Fani-Kayode

I

STILL remember the old man with a husky voice. He was blind, but he always knew whenever a prominent client arrived at Links Bar on Lagos Street in Ebute-Metta, Lagos Mainland.

He knew every family and had a special song for all. May his soul continue to rest in peace.

What kind of song would Baba Osa have sung for Femi Fani-Kayode, the voluble spokesman for the Jonathan Campaign Organisation, son of the famous Chief Remi ‘Fani-Power’ Kayode, the deputy premier in the defunct Western Region? I can take a bet. Baba would have crooned: Omo o le jo baba, ka maa binu omo Omo o le jo baba, ka maa binu omo Femi yi jo baba e ju Omo o le jo baba ka maa binu omo.

I

(You don’t begrudge a son for resembling his dad) (You don’t begrudge a son for resembling his dad) (This Femi resembles his dad so much) (You don’t begrudge a son for resembling his dad.)

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HARDBALL N Lagos on March 16, President Goodluck Jonathan and Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) factional leader, Ganiyu Adams met each other in a festival of mud, which smear scandalised friends and further alienated foes.

It was (un)presidential desperation taken too far!

And, as just desert for cynical opportunism gone awry, what the president harvested, next day, in newspaper headlines, was the notoriety of the shameful display in Lagos, and not the truly edifying news of the recapture of Bama, after six unholy months of Boko Haram occupation.

Indeed, the president and Gani Adams would appear two of a kind. President Jonathan, congenitally unable to rise to the dizzying dictates of his high office; and Adams, unable to tear himself off the lowly life of a humble carpenter, apprenticed in neighbourhood Mushin, a Lagos suburb of toughs.

But don’t get Hardball wrong — nothing wrong

•Hardball is not the opinion of the columnist featured above

Jonathan’s mud festival with being a carpenter. Artisanship is honourable business. Even in developed economies of Europe and America, artisans form the hub of micro- and small-scale enterprises, which form the soul of the economy. Even in the Bible, the earthly father of Christ Jesus was Joseph the carpenter. So, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a carpenter.

What is wrong with Adams, however, is forgetting his humble beginning; and playing on turfs where he is out of depth. Besides, which self-respecting Yoruba embarks on dubious campaigns — what the Yoruba call Ija ebi [wrong causes], perhaps the most socially excoriated in pristine Yorubaland — and after, emerges a hero?

What has Attahiru Jega done, aside from insisting on cleaning up Nigeria’s notoriously dirty electoral system, to deserve misguided and brainless demonization from Adams and his gross street muggers? And what does Gani know about poli-

unrepentant and ever disgruntled people of whom I had earlier spoken, had gone to town to scorn the gesture. Must one die for his family to get money? Must the government wait for somebody to die before awarding his family member a job? Why this now on the eve of a major election, which the government seems to be set to lose? What manner of justice is this? Where are the organisers of the bloody scam? The questions were many.

But, a perceptive fellow saw it all as part of the bonanza.

I was driving on Ahmadu Bello Way on Victoria Island, Lagos last weekend when a strange noise hit my ears. It was as if the ocean had angrily torn through the multibillion naira barriers that had kept it in check or that a huge market was in session. It was neither of the situations. The noise, I learnt later from an “area boy” offering me a parking space a few metres away from the beach, was coming from a meeting of the army of necromancers and wild-bearded veteran prophets who dwell on the beach. They were planning a march on the State House on Jonathan’s next visit. Reason: what they have described as their unconscionable exemption from the bonanza and interactive sessions.

Poor Jonathan. See how a scheme his hard working strategists have projected to be a vote hauling machine is being turned into an acrimonious object by some indolent officials to whom every simple assignment is like breaking a rock. Now there is disquiet in the land as many feel either neglected or cheated in the bonanza.

Ajegunle DJs Association. Oko-Oba butchers.

Ebute-Metta Beggars League. Area Boys Forum.

Ex-Yaba Psychiatric Hospitals Patients Union.

Ex-Kirikiri Inmates Club. Bus Conductors Association. Nigerian Drivers Welfare Association. And many more are now threatening to tear their voter cards, unless they are enrolled in the new Amnesty Programme - Ah! An error there - in the current bonanza.

At the Villa, however, it is eureka. In fact, a source told me last night of how the World Bank has been begging to be allowed a few weeks to understudy Dr Jonathan’s efficacious anti-poverty weapon, the bonanza or the new wealth distribution system, to free the Bank from many years of fighting poverty with little result.

But, trust the idle critics, who have nothing but disdain for research and scholarship; they have been sneering at the ingenuity of the presidential bonanza as a vote harvesting machine.

Let’s wait till March 28, they keep saying derisively. Yes; the countdown is on. March 28.

tics, its intricacies, its dynamics and its delicate temper, that he would be blabbing, like a machine out of control, about sacking Jega, and replacing him with a fairer person? Doesn’t he know the joke is on him and his reckless presidential enforcer, who though passionately wants to cheat, pitiably lacks the guile to do it, smooth and suave?

Which brings back the matter to what is wrong with the president. Hardball, this morning, writes with visible anger: against a president that has a terrible habit of standing on the dignity of his high office; thus always bringing into disrepute, the high office we all cherish and revere. Still, Hardball is clear: he has issues with Jonathan but still retains highest regards for the Presidency, hoping that on March 28, that high office would find the high mind it deserves.

Still, the Jonathan romance with the mud, even as president, is mind-boggling. Patience Jonathan,

the presidential spouse, is an unfazed study in concentrated crudity and vulgarity. Hardball doubts if the First Lady’s office would ever recover from her assault and battery of unmitigated coarseness!

Nigeria’s Ox-Brigde tribe (famed graduates of Oxford and Cambridge universities) may trot and kid themselves on their supreme genteelness. But in Femi Fani-Kayode, and his vocal distemper, for and against the president, is ample evidence that even Ox-Bridge is not averse to breeding sophisticated thugs!

Then look at the Goodluck Jonathan zealous electoral canvassers, and hoped for enforcers: Niger Delta militants (giving Niger Delta agitation a bad name after the ultra-high moral Ogoni campaign of Ken Saro-Wiwa), MASSOB (no friend of sovereign Nigeria but fried of Jonathan’s dubious project) and OPC (which just committed the class suicide of training its guns, for filthy lucre, against its creator, its own people)!

How low can the presidency sink under Jonathan?

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