The Nation March 7, 2012

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VOL. 7, NO. 2057 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

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Governors, leaders embrace Southwest agenda

•Aregbesola ... yesterday

•Fashola ... yesterday

•Fayemi ... yesterday

•Ajimobi ... yesterday

•Amosun ... yesterday

•Adeola ... yesterday

•Osun ... yesterday

•Tinubu ... yesterday

•Akande, Tinubu, Adebayo, Akinrinade, Bankole, others at DAWN presentation

S

OUTHWEST governors yesterday reiterated their commitment to the integration of the region. It was at the presentation of the strategic roadmap “Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN)” by the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) to the governors in Lagos.

Governors Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Rauf Aregbesola (Osun) and Babatunde Fashola (Lagos) resolved to implement the agenda as part of efforts to chart a new course of development for the geo-political zone.

Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko, who was represented by

By Emmanuel Oladesu, Deputy Political Editor

his Environment Commissioner Mr Sola Ebiseeni, said the state government had embraced the blue-print. He urged the ARG to include more historical facts about Yoruba, particularly Ondo State, if there is an opportunity for a review of the compendium.

Lagos lawyer Femi Falana, who praised ARG for a job well done, cautioned against making the implementation of the road map an all-comers’ affair.

He advised stakeholders never to forget the ideological dimension Continued on page 2

Angry Nigeria deports 56 more South Africans

Fed Govt issues five conditions to end diplomatic row

F •Ashiru

IFTY-SIX South Africans were barred last night from entering Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.

Twenty-eight were stopped on Sunday – in retaliation for the deportation of 125 Nigerians last Friday – as reported exclusively yesterday by The Nation.

The government may also review the status of all South Africans living in this country to ascertain the validity of their visas and work

so far taken by Nigeria, the South African government has not shown any remorse.

A source said: “It is sad that South permit.

Besides, security agencies have Africa is behaving as if it acted right been placed on the alert to monitor in deporting 125 Nigerian passengers last Friday. the activities of South Afri“We will also push them to cans.

SEE ALSO According to sources, the PAGES 4&5 the wall, until they apologise to the Nigeria.”

Federal Government decided “We are prepared for the worst,” the to bar the 56 South Africans who flew in aboard a South Africa Air- source added.

Nigeria has given five conditions to ways flight SA060 last night from entering because despite the measures South Africa to end the diplomatic row From Yusuf Alli, Victor Oluwasegun, Onyedi Ojiabor, Sanni Onogu and Dele Anofi, Abuja

between the two countries.

South Africa is yet to respond to the conditions, The Nation learnt yesterday.

Foreign Affairs Minister Olugbenga Ashiru was at the Villa last night for a “crucial meeting” with President Goodluck Jonathan, apparently over the face-off.

According to sources, the five conditions are: •unconditional apology to Nigeria over the deportation of 125 Nigerian travellers last Friday from the Oliver Continued on page 2

•CITYBEATS P16 •SPORTS P23 •LIFE P29 •POLITICS P45 •NATION INVESTORS P47

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

NEWS Boko Haram: Lamido, Aliyu, Yayale in North’s committee

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•Minister of Foreign Affairs Gbenga Ashiru (second left) discussing with members, House of Reps committee on Foreign Affairs, Hon Opeyemi Bamidele (left) Yakub Balogun , Ibrahim Gusau and Chairman of the committee, Nnena Ukeje during the meeting with the Minister on the deportation of 125 Nigerians from South Africa, in Abuja ... yesterday. PHOTO: ABAYOMI FAYESE

Governors, leaders embrace Southwest agenda Continued from page 1

and foundation that could sustain the implementation.

He said a line of demarcation is required between the enemies of the Southwest who retarded its progress during the military era and under the Obasanjo administration, and those who had worked tirelessly for the progress of the region.

Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) National Leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who praised the ARG’s initiative, asked stakeholders to move from rhetoric to action by implementing the agenda.

He also reiterated his call for

true fiscal federalism, stressing that the current unitary federalism is counter-productive.

Tinubu, who called for a change of developmental style, added: “You cannot make Awolowo a reference point, if you don’t copy Awolowo and improve on what he has done. You cannot improve today’s farm with yesterday’s cutlass.

Without education, we cannot make progress. We talk about agenda, but we must do it. Can we do it? Yes, we can”.

ACN National Chairman and former Osun State Gov-

ernor Bisi Akande directed the presentation of the 80-page strategic blue-print by ARG to the governors for unveiling.

At the City Hall, Lagos, venue of the ceremony were Mr. Fola Adeola, who was chairman, former Military Governor of the now defunct Western State Major-Gen. Adeyinka Adebayo, former Chief of Defence Staff Lt-Gen. Alani Akinrinade, founder of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) Dr. Frederick Fasehun, Senator Olufemi Lanlehin, Senator Femi Ojudu, Senator Olabiyi Durojaye, Senator Ayo Fasanmi, Chief Idowu Sofola, Bashorun J.K. Randle,

Dr. Olu Agunloye, Senator Sola Adeyeye, Dr. Muiz Banire, Mrs. Jumoke Anifowose, Alhaji Mutiu Are, Mrs. Gbadebo Ajayi, Jimi Agbaje, Mr Layi Oyeduntan, Dr. Tokunbo AwolowoDosunmu, former Speaker of House of Representatives Speaker Dimeji Bankola, Oodua Group chair Safaradeen Alli, Managing Director Adebayo Jimoh, Prof.

Wale Omole, Mr. Tayo Soyode, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Prof.

Adebayo Williams and Prof.

Kayode Familoni.

Continued on page 6

S part of steps to end the Boko Haram menace, a new power bloc in the North - Coalition of Concerned Northerners - yesterday set up security and Borno dialogue committees.

The leaders also set up eight other committees to address constitutional amendments, revenue, fiscal systems and structure of the Nigeria federalism.

Those on the security committee are Governors Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Kashim Shettima (Borno) and Dr Junaid Mohammed. Alh. Mahmud Yayale Ahmed (Chairman); Sen. John Wash Pam; Dr. Shettima Mustapha; Prof. Ignatius Ayua; Alh. Adamu Maina Waziri; Mr. Timaus Mathias; Dr. Ladi Hamalai; and Mr. Solomon Dalung.

Others are Comrade Isa Tijjani; Chief Audu Ogbe; Mallam Mohammed Haruna; Mallam Mohammed Hayatuddeen; Sen. John Shagaya; Prof.

Idris Mohammed; Alh. Lawal Batagarawa; and Mallam Yusuf Abba.

Members of the Borno Dialogue Committee are Niger State Governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, Governor of Borno State Kashim Shettima; Prof. Nur Alkali; Abubakar Mustapha; David Garnva and Kalli Ghazali.

From Yusuf Alli, Abuja

The Convener of the Coalition, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, who spoke with our correspondent, said: “In the course of the discussion at our session last month, the insecurity in the country and the Boko Haram menace were discussed.

“So, we decided to set up a security committee comprising experienced bureaucrats who have been producers and consumers of intelligence.

“We want to address this insecurity in the country, especially in the North. We met with Borno leaders, we asked them to give us a full grip of the situation. We cannot understand how young men are carrying arms and ammunition about without anybody knowing them.

“They gave us a very lengthy insight. We concluded that the issue has been badly managed by the Federal Government.

This fellow called Mohammed Yusuf was captured alive by the military and in good health and handed over to the police.

But he was extra-judiciously killed.

“We traced directly the insecurity in Kano, Yobe, Kaduna, Bauchi, Plateau and other Northern parts to these extrajudicial killings and violation of human rights in Borno. We have set up committees to find a way out of this insecurity. We are hopeful that our leaders can restore peace through dialogue.”

Angry Nigeria deports 56 more South Africans Continued from page 1

Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg; •compensation for all the victims of the harsh treatment; •disciplinary action against all the officials involved in the cruelty to Nigerians; •a review of the Yellow Fever Vaccination Card policy; and •a commitment that such a diplomatic slip will not re-occur.

A top government source said: “We have given all these conditions to South Africa to restore normal diplomatic and bilateral relationship with it. We believe that the action was deliberately targeted at Nigerians.

“We have made our position known to the South African High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Kingsley Mambolo.

“Without an apology and a review of the policy on Yellow Fever Vaccination Card, among others, we are ready to retaliate in whatever way to prove a point that our sovereignty can no longer be taken for granted.”

Asked if South Africa has responded to Nigeria’s demands, the source, who pleaded not to be named because of the “sensitivity” of the matter, added: “Not yet; we are still waiting for them.

“I think they are also consulting in their country, but we are ready for the worst.”

Amb. Ashiru was at the Villa for a “crucial meeting” with President Goodluck Jonathan on the row, it was gathered.

“I think the Villa meeting will be for situation status review,” another source said.

Unknown to many, there has been a “cold war” between Nigeria and South Africa in the last one year over the Libyan crisis, which led to the ouster of the late

Nigeria’s retaliatory action in order, says Akinyemi

F

ORMER External Affairs Minister Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi yesterday endorsed the deportation of South Africans at the Murtala Muhammed Airport on Monday.

The action was in retaliation against the harsh treatment meted out to 125 Nigerians by the South African government last Friday.

Akinyemi said: “Nigeria is finally doing the right thing. South Africa deserves it”.

“I am in support of the Federal Government’s action. Nigeria must demand respect from other countries.

That respect is not forthcoming. NigeMuammar Gaddafi.

Nigeria supported the then rebel-controlled Transitional National Council (TNC). South African President Jacob Zuma backed the late Gaddafi.

The source added: “In the last one year, there has been a cold war between Nigeria and South Africa, beginning with the Libyan crisis. At the time the world was against Gaddafi, Zuma openly identified with the late dictator. He bulldozed his way to head a committee of the AU on Libyan crisis but the report presented to African leaders was wishy-washy and biased.

“Nigeria succeeded in persuading most of the AU states to recognise the TNC. Nigeria’s position was also adopted by the UN. “South Africa has not forgiven Nigeria for making it to ‘lose out’ in international politics. It was a major foreign policy setback for President Zuma, who is gradually being isolated by world leaders for opposing reforms in Libya.

“Also, Zuma wanted one of his wives to become the President of

By Leke Salaudeen

ria should take action to protect its interest.”

To resolve the face-off, Akinyemi said South Africa should apologise and promise that hostilities towards Nigeria will stop.

Nigeria should let South Africa know that there are other steps to be taken that would affect its interest in Nigeria, he said, adding: “My suspicion is that it is the white establishment in South Africa that routinely orchestrates the face-off to punish Nigeria for the support it gave the ANC during the apartheid struggle.

the AU Commission at the last session in Addis Ababa, but the election was stalemated. His wife could not win at the first ballot and this has angered South Africa, which believes that Nigeria wielded enormous power.

“You can now appreciate why the South African government is being harsh on Nigerian travellers.”

Ashiru confirmed the government’s position when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs yesterday.

He said: “No nation should take our brotherliness, maturity and friendly business environment whereby companies, including South African countries, are making more profits from Nigeria than in South Africa for granted.”

The Minister said the government was determined to maintain the dignity of Nigerians everywhere, adding: “When a Nigerian is deported on flimsy excuses, there will be appropriate reaction. It may not be retaliation but it will be reciprocal, one way or the other.

“Let it be known that South

“It is unfortunate that the African National Congress (ANC) does not realise that it is biting the fingers that fed it during its difficult days. ANC is playing the game of white establishment.”

A scholar of International Relations, Dr David Aworawo, also said Nigeria reacted well because the reason given for turning back 125 Nigerians from South Africa was not convincing.

According to Aworawo, South Africa is not in a position to determine the genuineness of the Yellow Fever cards issued by the Nigerian authorities.

South Africa will be more cautious in its dealings with Nigeria, he said.

African officials do not have monopoly of deportation of travellers. Henceforth, any deportation of Nigerians will be met with equal measure of reciprocal measure; we will not let it go unreciprocated.

“It will be measure for measure; we will not let it go unreciprocated. The signal must go out not just to South Africa but to the rest of the world that when you treat Nigerians with disrespect, we also will find a way of treating your nationals with disrespect. No country has a monopoly of treating Nigerians with disrespect; we too can hit back.”

The Minister said relationships between the two countries at leadership level are cordial, but expressed regret that it did not trickle down the ladder to South African institutions.

“It is unfortunate that those fueling discord and hatred are two major institutions of the state - the police and the immigration,” Ashiru said, adding: “Immigration officials are always unfriendly to Nigerians while the police would arrest Nigerians indiscriminately without genuine reasons.”

To buttress the dislike for Nigerians by South Africans, Ashiru said the process of deportation was against international conventions. “It was a shock and I find it difficult to accept that the deportation was on the basis of yellow fever card. Normally, the visa would not have been issued without the yellow fever card.

“Even in the event that the traveller was without the card, normal convention demands that such a person is quarantined and innoculated and allowed to enter after about three hours, if there is no adverse reaction.

“In this case, there was nothing like that. I was not informed of the incident before the deportation and neither was any official from our High Commission informed. Our officials were supposed to witness the deportation process as demanded by protocols.”

Nigerian officials who are meeting with their South African counterparts have been instructed to demand an apology as well as punishment for those involved in the deportation.

But Ashiru stressed that the incident was not premeditated by

Nigeria’s support for the TNC of Libya.

The Chairperson of the Committee, Hon. Nnenna Ukeje, who said the deportation was an embarrassment to Nigeria, asked Ashiru to update the committee on what led to the deportation and the level of the ministry’s intervention.

Ukeje said: “This is an affront on Nigeria’s brotherliness and by that act, South Africa has overstepped its boundary. It is our opinion that the time has come to review, as a matter of policy, how Nigerians are treated by other countries.

“We have all kinds of foreign companies in Nigeria that enjoy concessions, like Multichoice, MTN and a host of others, and of course there have been arguments about Nigerian companies trying to open up in South Africa having serious problems.

“So, I do not think this is an isolated issue. We have to look beyond the brotherly relationships and actually start to look at what is happening to our people in the hands South African institutions.”

Another member, Hon. Opeyemi Bamidele, who cited the xenophobic attacks of 2008 and 2009 where Nigerians suffered more than other African nationals in South Africa, said Nigeria should begin to employ the principle of reciprocity when dealing with other countries.

The Foreign Affairs Minister also appeared before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee where he reiterated what he said at the House of Reps.

The minister said it would be premature to list retaliatory measures being planned against South Africa, but noted that one of such actions was the deportation of 28 South Africans on Monday.

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

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

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NEWS NIGERIA-SOUTH AFRICA ROW

Nigerians angry with a country •Deported Nigerians didn’t carry fake Yellow Cards, says minister

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HE end is not in sight in the diplomatic row between Nigeria and South Africa, which deported 125 Nigerians last week.

Nigerians have urged the Federal Government to end South Africa’s alleged unfair treatment of its citizens.

Minister of Health Prof.

Onyebuchi Chukwu said it was wrong of South Africa to have deported the Nigerians on the excuse that they carried fake yellow fever vaccination cards. Chukwu said the deported Nigerians did not carry fake yellow card, urging the country to stop politicising health issues.

The minister, at a news conference, yesterday said none of those deported held fake yellow cards.

According to him, the Port Health Services under the supervision of his Ministry vaccinate and issue the Yellow Fever cards to travelers at the airports, sea ports and land borders in Nigeria, while Health officials do the same in the states and LGAs. He said Nigeria is not at risk of Yellow fever because the last confirmed case of Yellow fever in Nigeria was in 1995.

He said: “So far, no country, no individual, no group has made any report to the Ministry on the possession of fake Yellow Card by an individual. If there are such cases, the Ministry would like to have reports for necessary investigation.

“Therefore, it is curious that a country that had issued entry visas to intending travellers which issuance was predicated on the presentation of a valid Yellow Card, will then turn around to deport those travellers. If these travellers had fake Yellow Cards, how did they come about valid visas.

“To the best of our knowledge, there was no reason to deport and embarrass these Nigerians. The action of South African immigration towards the Nigerian travellers is against the International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005 Article 32. I am happy this issue is being appropriately handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

On the last confirmed case of yellow fever in Nigeria, he said: “Nigeria is not endemic for Yellow Fever and there is no epidemic right now. However, Nigeria is one of the 44 Countries at risk. The last confirmed cases of yellow fever in Nigeria were in 1995 when 25 cases with one death were recorded.”

He went on: “In the states and LGAs, the Health officers give the vaccination and issue Yellow Cards to prospective travellers. The Port Health Services of the FMOH and the states collect yellow fever vaccines from the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and give Yellow Cards to prospective travellers after the vaccination. A fee of N500 is usually charged for the Yellow Card but the vaccine is given free.

“The Port Health Services which are supervised by the FMOH are located in the following sites: Airports at: Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Nmandi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, Margaret Ekpo International Airport, Calabar and Port Harcourt International Airport, Port Harcourt.”

“Seaports at: Ibaka Seaport(Akwa Ibom), Apapa (Lagos), Tincan (Lagos), Calabar (Cross River), Port Harcourt (Rivers), Onne(Rivers), Bonny (Rivers), Brass (Rivers),

By Olukorede Yishau and Augustine Ehikioya

Warri(Delta), Sapele (Delta) states.

“Land Borders at : Seme (Lagos), Idiroko (Ogun), Shaki (Oyo), Chikada (Kwara), Uyo (Akwa Ibom), Babana (Niger), Ilela (Sokoto), Kambe (Kebbi), Jiby (Katsina), Maigatari (Jigawa), Baga (Borno), Geidam (Yobe), Mubi (Adamawa), Gembu (Taraba) and Ofom ( Cross River).”

He added: “The validity of the Yellow Card extends for a period of 10 years beginning 10 days after the date of vaccination or in the event of a revaccination, 10 years from the date of the revaccination.

“In Nigeria, the approved vaccination centres have been issuing Yellow Cards and we want to advise travellers that where there is any doubt about the authenticity of the Yellow Cards given to them, they should report to the Federal Ministry of Health.”

Other Nigerians have also been commenting. A commentator on this newspaper’s website said: “South Africans have always believed that there are superior to Nigerians and they can live without having any relationship with Nigeria and Nigerians. I was in South Africa in 2010 for a workshop. While on the lift, a South African waitress said to me that they would never come to Nigeria. “We (Nigerians) would be the one coming to them”. I thought of this word deeply and concluded that reasons why we have many Nigerians in South Africa is because of development. The best 10 universities in Africa are in South Africa and better socioeconomic indicators. What is our government doing? What we need to do is to look inward into where we have missed it as a nation and channel a new path for better Nigeria.”

Another commentator said: “Most of the current South African leaders were educated here in Nigeria and precisely at the University of Ibadan and all at Nigeria’s expense and we even bought motorcycle for them to cruise around our country. We also fought alongside them, train them and gave them abode when they were chased out by their white Lord.

What a way to pay us back. These South Africans are ingrates.”

Mr. Emeka Duru, in a comment on the newspaper’s website, said: “I hope we are not engaging in a preventable diplomatic war. The Nigerians who were deported from South Africa were deported based on a protocol: The Yellow Fever Vaccination.

Are we satisfied that those Nigerians were compliant? If not why? We must take the blame to the appropriate authority. If the wrong certificate was used, then those responsible have some explaining to do.”

For Caleb Dagwak, Nigeria should continue to play the big brother role on the continent. He said: “Instead of tit for tat, Nigeria should demonstrate the attitude of a bigger brother to South Africa. We struggled to bring them to where they are today. They may be richer than Nigeria, but a child that was led to walk, after he has grown to adulthood should not fight his elder brother who led him to walk. Instead, he should appreciate him.

Certainly, Dr. Nelson Mandela will not do this.”

Edet Okon, who also commented on the website, said: “The ill- treatment of Nigerians by South African Immigration is to say the least un-

•Oliver Thambo International Airport, Johannesburg: 125 Nigerians were turned back from here last week

Dons: South Africa went beyond bounds

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EACTIONS over the deportation of 125 Nigerians from South Africa on March 1 continued yesterday with more Nigerians expressing mixed feelings.

Speaking in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of History, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Dr Ademola Adeleke, lauded the Federal Government for its approach.

Adeleke said Nigeria has approached the matter the right way, noting that its adoption of the principle of reciprocity in was the way to go in international affairs.

He said reports that Nigeria had also deported 28 South Africans after its nationals suffered the same fate showed its adoption of reciprocity.

Adeleke said: “In a situation like this, the solution is “tit-for-tat“. Government will apply the principle of reciprocity, as has already been done.

“This is what any nation will do in such a situation and it is right for the Nigerian government to have deported 28 South Africans too.’’

Dr David Aworawo, also a senior lecturer in the department, commended the Federal Government for its swift reaction to the deportation of Nigerians.

He noted that the Federal Government in the past would have handled the issue lightly and expressed delight that it was waking up to its responsibility of protecting its citizens.

Aworawo said the World Health Organisation (WHO) has certified Nigeria a yellow fever-free country and the South African government should have taken pains to investigate the matter carefully before the deportafortunate. They should remember that Nigeria fought tenaciously against the apartheid regime and spent so much money for that purpose. The legendary icon Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu can justify this. Let South Africa know that to whom much is given much is expected.”

A businessman, Mr. Sunday Adefila, said South African has always been unfair to Nigerians. He said the country usually treats Nigerians shabbily when it comes to granting visa to Nigerians. His view is shared by Anthony Chike, who complained about how people were asked to stand on their feet for hours in the process of getting the visa, unlike other embassies which provide seats for visa applicants.

He said: “The first thing I observed is that, in other embassies like the

tion.

The lecturer urged all relevant authorities to carry out investigations to ascertain the authenticity of the yellow fever cards that were declared fake by the South African authorities.

He said: “The Federal Government’s response of showing its displeasure over the deportation of Nigerians is a right step. The government reaction will in future make the South African Government to be more cautious when dealing with consular issues involving Nigeria.

“Although the government took a right step, it is not firm enough. I want the government to investigate the genuineness of the cards and if found to be original, it should penalise the South African government.“ A lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, UNILAG, Mr. Peter Osimiri, condemned the action taken by the South African government as “harsh and unfair’’.

Osimiri said the South African authorities should have informed the Nigerian High Commission in Pretoria or should have asked the people to be immunised at the airport since they had a department that could handle it.

He said the relations between Nigeria and South Africa should be a very harmonious one considering the role Nigeria played in dismantling the apartheid system in the Southern African country.

Osimiri said: “Nigeria played a major role in South African history and I think we should be seen as a brother rather than what they have done to us.

“The South African action to Nigerians is very harsh, unfair and not in conjunction with diplomatic peace.“ He urged the Federal Government to improve the country to reduce the number of Nigerians leaving the coun-

Canadian, German and American embassies, they make provision for visa applicants to sit but here, people stand for hours and sometimes they leave eventually without being attended to.

“It is unfortunate that we are treated like this is our fatherland and our government cannot do something about it. If they are not aware, please help us bring this inhuman treatment to the notice of government and well-meaning Nigerians.

Can you imagine that the embassy asked people to buy ticket, deposit N110, 000 before their visa application is processed? Some people have lost their money in the process. This is because if the visa is eventually denied, the deposit will not be refunded and you cannot get the full value for the unused ticket, that is, if you get anything at all.”

Mr. Ejike Okeke, while narrating his experience at the South African High Commission in Lagos, said: “I came from Owerri in Imo State and I have made several trips since I started the visa processing. Each time, I incurred huge expenses because I had to stay in hotel. At the end of the day, they denied me visa after I have bought ticket. Why should they ask me to purchase a ticket when they knew they will not give me visa?”

Mrs. Charles Bosede, who was once at the commission to submit repatriation claim, said: “I was told to come here and when I got here, they said they have closed and stopped attending to applicants. This is the worst embassy I have seen so far and I wished I never had anything to do with them in the first place.”

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

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NEWS NIGERIA-SOUTH AFRICA ROW

they helped liberate I

•South African President Jacob Zuma: Any •Soyinka: Once ‘embarrassed’ by South Africa hidden agenda?

week

Soyinka’s raw deal in Madiba’s country

I

N 2005, Prof. Wole Soyinka was denied entry into South Africa. It took the last minute intervention of Nelson Mandela’s wife Graca Machel to admit the Nobel Laureate into South Africa. Soyinka’s trip to South Africa was in response to an invitation to deliver a lecture in honour of Mandela, an event that drew national and international focus to South Africa, both because of Mandela, whose birthday it was and Soyinka who was the guest speaker.

Soyinka informed the organisers before he travelled to South Africa about his inability to obtain a South African visa and they promised that a visa would be waiting for him at the airport on arrival.

In a letter to explain the situation, Prof. Soyinka noted that “It is true that I did leave Nigeria without a visa, owing to circumstances which I need not narrate at the moment. It is also equally true, however, that I telephoned the organisers of the Mandela event about the situation, and was assured that a visa would be waiting for me at the airport.”

But he was on arrival at the Johannesburg International Airport informed by the Immigration officers “that the regulations which permitted such an arrangement had been overtaken by a new legislation that was two weeks old. Evidently, the organisers were unaware of that very recent impediment. It would require a more senior officer, I was told, to review the situation and take a decision.”

Soyinka had to wait at the airport.

He was later told he would be allowed in on three conditions: payment of the visa cost, a fine, and a refundable deposit. But the story soon changed.

He said: “I agreed to all these conditions. The senior officer who would execute these procedures reported for duty two hours later and I companied her to her office. We went through the preliminaries and a call was put through to the head

‘We need to change our perception of Nigerians’

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SOUTH African travel and hospitality consultant, Elisha Maistry, has said his compatriots need to change their perception of Nigerians.

Maistry, last month, said: “South Africans need to change their perception of Nigerians in South Africa and profile Nigeria as a nation that will add economic value to South Africa. We (South Africans) need to see Nigerians as tourists and businessmen and not opportunists.

“We need to understand what Nigerians are looking for. Is it the sea, mountains or just peace and quiet? Once we know their needs, then we can show them how attractive South Africa is to meet their needs.

“We need to explore both drive and fly opportunities and create packages that are affordable and attractive.”

She said Nigerians have a role to play to make South Africans perceive them in good light. “We need to change the stigma, stop illegal immigrants to South Africa because they are the ones that give the bad name to Nigeria.

We need to find a way to make the Nigerians in South Africa understand that illegal business accord their country a status, there must be some literature to all travellers on this matter.”

Maistry urged Nigeria to also work on its tourism potentials. She said: “As a travel destination, Nigeria needs to drive the flow of business and leisure travels from South Africa to Nigeria. What plans do you have in place to convince more South Africans to visit Nigeria for business and leisure purposes? Create opportunities that are attractive to South Africans, there must be an attraction for people to want to go to Nigeria and we need to explore all the strength of Nigeria and use this effectively.”

By Olukorede Yishau

office in Pretoria. I was handed the telephone, interrogated by someone. I explained what had happened, who had invited me and for what etc. etc. Finally, after an incredible wait of some more hours, I was informed by the same Johannesburg officer that I had been refused entry. This was despite a letter that had been demanded and faxed to Pretoria from the Institute affirming the status of my invitation.”

He waited for over eight hours before he was told that his entry was formally denied. The playwright said that “ is not my idea of decent conduct towards one who is not an unknown to South African officials, has made several ‘regularized’ visits in the past, and has indeed been invited to the country on this occasion to do honour to the founding father of the modern

South African nation.”

He decided to take the next available flight out and was on his way to board a flight out when an immigration official ran after the professor and informed him of the decision to let him in.

Mandela’s wife was said to have been the brain behind the change of heart. Soyinka said: “Regarding how the matter was resolved, it is significant that it took intervention from quite high up, but outside the Immigration setup to compel those officials to rescind their decision to do what they should have done in the first place. In other words, the mechanism - even within the regulations - existed for dealing with an irregular situation, but those who possessed the authority and the responsibility to apply their discretion, chose to exercise it negatively, and only after taking several hours to weigh the merits or demerits of the situation!“

‘Time to call their bluff’

T is astounding how history seems to be cruel to Nigeria both in the sub-region and the whole continent of Africa. Nigeria is in perpetual struggle to be recognised, or appreciated. Those countries to whom Nigeria has been ‘father Christmas’ either in material and financial contribution or in share human commitment have almost all either been indifferent outright or antagonistic to Nigeria’s interests.

The exceptions perhaps are Sierra Leone and Liberia where thousands of Nigerians perished and billions of Nigeria’s tax payers’ money expended. Almost all the others have ganged up against Nigeria in one forum or another.

Nigerians would remember two countries which literally lived on Nigeria in their hours of needs.

Angola was sustained during and immediately after independence virtually by Nigeria. Tons and tons of money are alleged to have been ferried to Angola to aid its liberation struggle and make it stand on its legs immediately the colonialists and their domestic agents were kicked out.

The case of South Africa was more spectacular. How many Nigerians would remember that Nigeria was tagged ‘frontline State’ during the apartheid years?

Referring to Nigeria as a frontline state is a geographical heresy since the two countries are separated by thousands of miles and about ten countries. It is materials, financial and moral support our country gave to South Africa in its years of travails that made imperialists in the west and in the apartheid South Africa referred to Nigeria as frontline.

Nigeria unabashedly and frontally supported South Africa even when Whitehall prevaricated.

Nigeria risked all the support and friendship of key allies in the West to fight the apartheid war.

The ANC (of old) responded by sending Nelson Mandela to Nigeria immediately he was released from prison. Nigeria was the first country the nationalist visited after his twenty six-year incarceration. The

‘

Nigeria deserves correct behaviour from South Africa, not applying oppressive, crude and sly diplomatic antics. I have no idea about the pedigree of Nigeria’s Foreign Minister, but the little l observed from his television news reports, he seems to be firm. By all means let Nigeria get rid of these pretty irritations

‘

By Deji Fasuan

Babangida administration declared a public holiday nationwide to honour the release of Africa’s hero.

The above incidences showed vividly the commitment of this country to the freedom and development of the former apartheid enclave.

Nigeria has a curious love for that country. Apart from the hordes of fortune seekers and hawkers who swarm to South Africa yearly, the elite have considered that country a viable alternative for holiday and relaxation rather than the U.K or even Dubai.

Certainly, Nigeria deserves correct behaviour from South Africa, not applying oppressive, crude and sly diplomatic antics. I have no idea about the pedigree of Nigeria’s Foreign Minister, but the little l observed from his television news reports, he seems to be firm. By all means let Nigeria get rid of these pretty irritations.

•Fasuan, a retired Permanent Secretary, writes from Ado-Ekiti

Lagos speaker: enough is enough

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PEAKER of the Lagos State House of Assembly Adeyemi Ikuforiji yesterday said South Africa must eb called to order.

The speaker spoke against the backdrop of the deportation of 125 Nigerians from the country.

The issue was raised yesterday at the plenary session under matter of urgent public importance by Hon. Rasaq Balogun representing Surulere constituency 2.

According to Balogun, “Nigerians, including a serving senator were deported because they were alleged to hold fake yellow fever cards. This is an embarrassment to us as Nigerians from a country with a high case of HIV/AIDS.” The lawmaker said the action is unacceptable and hostile, saying with their HIV prevalence, their people are still allowed into Nigeria.

Ikuforiji said right from time South Africa has been hostile to Nigerians, saying drastic action needed to be taken to stop South Africa’s harassment of Nigeria citi-

By Oziegbe Okoeki

zens.

He said: “Is it possible for 125 Nigerians in the plane to have fake yellow fever cards? The issue of South Africa is very irritating but I think they have decided at the top level that Nigerians must be humiliated. Are they better than Nigeria in terms of criminal activity?

They get so much from us but pay back with nothing.”

Hon. Sanai Agunbiade (Ikorodu 1) added that the deportation is condemnable, saying Nigerians need to adhere to travel requirements in order to avoid such embarrassment.

However, Hon. Funmilayo Tejuosho (Mushin 1) told her colleagues not to criticise South Africans for their action, calling for investigation on the issue.

“I am not supporting their action but there is need for us to follow their rules and regulations and we should not castigate them until we have found out what happened,”she said.

‘Touts should not handle Yellow Card’ A chieftain of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Alhaji Abdulrahman Baffa, said the deportation of Nigerians by the South African authorities was a call for Nigeria to be more diligent in handling the Yellow Card issue.

He urged all stakeholders involved in the issuance of the document to change their approach and called for

proper screening of Nigerians who wanted to leave the country.

Baffa advised that the card should be improved upon to make it difficult for touts to access.

The National Chairman of the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP), Mr Damian Ogbonna, called on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to dig into the fake yellow card allegation.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

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NEWS Minister seeks South Korean govt’s assistance

‘How to win war against security’ •Israel to collaborate with Nigeria

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From Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin

DEPUTY Head of the Genevabased Centre for Democratic Control of the Armed Forces (DCAF), Dr. Jean-Jaques Gacond has said that the implementation of national security policies would check terrorism in Nigeria.

Gacond spoke in Abuja at a workshop on “Increased Wave of Insecurity in Nigeria”, organised by the National Defence College.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that DCAF is a 61-member organisation, with eight African countries including Nigeria.

Gacond stressed that national security was not only for the President and top military leaders but also for the media, whom he said “are central to the realisation of the objectives of a national security policy.

“The national security policy is an instrument to reinforce the legitimacy and its security apparatus to build confidence of the people in their security providers and to promote human and national development.

He noted that Nigeria had yet to adopt or approve any functional national security policy.

Commandant, National Defence College Rear Admiral Thomas Lokoson, said security was the primary purpose of government Lokoson said that once security was guaranteed, the stage was set for every other thing to be added unto that nation, including economic prosperity.

He explained that the emphasis of security tended to be on physical security, adding that the modern concept of security had gone beyond that.

“Security in its broader perspective is not limited to the military security viewpoint alone, but also covers issues that have the potential of creating casualties, causing damage to property or hampering economic prosperity.

“Security thus include physical, health, food, environmental, job and educational security.’’

The Israeli government may have begun collaboration with Nigeria to check threats to security, it was learnt yesterday.

Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Moshe Ram made this known in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital. It was at a lecture organised by the Centre for International Education of the University of Ilorin.

The lecture was entitled: “Nigeria-Israel Relations: Harnessing Opportunities for Capacity Development in Tertiary Education.”

The envoy that his country had already begun a relationship with Nigeria “which we cannot say more than that here,” to help stem the tide of Boko Haram menace and other terror attacks.

His words: “The most effective weapons against terrorism are intelligence and data collation of the base of the terrorists and the will to fight it. Our hands are always open to our friends and partners, Nigeria is one of them.

Efforts are on the way over this, we cannot say more than that now. It falls under a bilateral arrangement and relationship.”

•Uduaghan (left), Dean, School of Media Communication, Pan African University, Prof. Emevwo Biakolo and Mr. Richard Ikiebe, during the lecture...yesterday

Uduaghan seeks more cash for states, local governments S TATES and local governments should get larger share of the revenue accruing to the country, Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan said yesterday.

According to him, the responsibilities ceded to the Federal Government should be redistributed to the states and local governments in addition to a reduction in the Federal allocation.

Udughan spoke at the Pan African University’s School of Media and Communication when he delivered a lecture entitled: “Media, Democratic Governance and National Development.”

Governors have a right to demand for more money, “but it has to be done within the constitutional provision and the constitutional provision in terms of revenue allocation is that states can demand for more revenue or for higher share of revenue allocation.”

He added: “But right now, I think the Federal Government is getting about 52 per cent of the revenue, while the states and local governments are getting 46 per cent and we have the remaining 2 per cent for ecological issues.”

Uduaghan explained that the Governors’ Forum believes that there has to be a review of the sharing formula of the allocation. He said: “For us as governors, we have come together

Niger governor urges Fed Govt to implement Supreme Court verdict

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HE Niger State Governor and Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum (NGF), Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, has said the revenue accruable from oil drilled 200 nautical miles offshore should be shared by all the federating units and not only by the littoral states.

Addressing the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) led by the National President, Prof Francis Ojaide, Aliyu called on the Federal Government to respect the decision of the Supreme Court on the ownership of oil wells situated 200 miles offshore.

He said he was not against the principle of derivation because it was a constitutional provision, adding that nobody could discard what had been constitutionally approved.

He said the apex court’s decision only ceded and we are looking at this and we are liaising with the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to initiate the review. We think that more funds should be given to the states and the local government councils.

“This must also include the review of the responsibilities of different tiers of government. Some of us do not think that the Federal Government has business in dealing with primary healthcare problems.

Why should the Federal Gov-

From Jide Orintunsin, Minna

the derivation revenue accruable from oil wells within the onshore to the littoral states.

“The Supreme Court has made a pronouncement on this issue. It is wrong for the government at the centre not to honour the judgment of the Supreme Court. I hope one day nobody will challenge this in court,” he added.

The NGF chairman chided the National Assembly for its failure to review the current revenue allocation formula as stipulated by the constitution. He said the revenue sharing allocation should be reviewed every 10 years, but lamented that this has not been done for years.

ernment come and build a primary healthcare centre in your village? It is not just about the building, it is also about who runs it; who equips it and who maintains it.

“The Federal Government has no business with building primary schools or even water projects. These are things that should be left in the hands of the states and local government councils. The Federal Government should be confined to bigger issues like national security, major high-

ways, and seaports. Federal Government has to do away with some of these responsibilities. So in ensuring that states take care of more responsibilities, more money should be given to the states,” he emphasised.

On incessant call for Sovereign National Conference, Uduaghan explained that the call is nothing but a call for trouble. He said: “Everyone in Nigeria has the right to say whatever he or she wants to say, “I don’t know whether you listen to the live coverage of the gathering in Lagos a few weeks ago.

INISTER of State for Education Ezenwo Nyesom Wike yesterday urged the South Korean government to scale up its development programmes in Nigeria, especially in the basic education sub-sector.

Speaking in Abuja when he received the South Korean Ambassador to Nigeria, Jong-hyun Choi in his office, Wike noted that Nigeria was ready to collaborate with South Korea to enhance education.

He expressed satisfaction with the execution of basic education projects by South Korean in Katsina and Kogi states, saying the Federal Ministry of Education was looking to the projects being handed over to it for management.

Wike said: “We are happy with the partnership that we have built with the Korean government especially the training of our education administrators and the projects in Kogi and Katsina states. We appeal that the South Korean government scales up its programmes in the country in the critical areas of basic education”.

The Minister noted that the government would partner with all nations and development partners who are ready to invest in the country’s basic education sub-sector to ensure increased access to quality education for Nigerians.

Earlier, Choi assured Wike that its developmental project in the education sector in Kogi and Katsina states would be delivered in March ending and April.

He said the Korean Republic is satisfied with the efforts of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to increase access to education, pointing out that the Korean government would continue to collaborate with the government to enhance the quality of education in Nigeria.

Governors, leaders embrace Southwest agenda Continued from page 2

Others were Comrade Rotimi Obadofin, Rev. Tunji Adebiyi, Mr. Awodeyi Akinsehinwa-Apata, Prof. Bolaji Aluko, Mr. Bayo Adesanya, Tunde Kelani, Mr Sola Lawal, Chief Ipoola Omisore, Mrs. Derin Disu, Mr. Biodun Sobanjo and Mr. Femi Orebe.

Among the traditional rulers at the ceremony were the Ajero of Ijero, Oba Adebayo Adewole, Elekole of Ikole, Oba Ajibade Fasiku, Oore of Otun, Oba Popoola Adedapo and Onifon of Ifon-Osun, Oba aderemi Adedapo.

The presentation of the blue-print trailed the visit of the ARG delegation, led by its leader, Mr. Olawale Oshun, to the governors and speakers of Houses of Assembly in Lagos, Ekiti, Oyo, Ogun and Osun states.

At yesterday’s ceremony, a minute of silence was observed in memory of the late Yoruba leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, whose posthumous birthday coincided with the presentation of the

agenda.

Adeola, who spoke in Yoruba, lauded ARG and urged the Southwest governors to advance the cause of development in the zone. He evoked passion as he delved into the backwardness of the region when he sang the popular Hubert Ogunde’s song, “Yoruba Ronu”. He advised stakeholders to draw lessons from the tragedy of the Yoruba race.

Foremost economist Dr. Doyin Salami delivered a lecture entitled: “The march of Yoruba into the future of development”. Lamenting the rot in education, as exemplified in failures in the General Certificate of Education (GCE) examination, he said without education, the quality of industry and entrepreneurship would fall below standard.

Salami employed the tragedy of the growing poverty, squalor and misery in Oyo State to explain the backwardness of Yoruba land. He also justified the integration

agenda, saying since most of the states depend on federal revenue, only a few of them are viable.

Salami also alerted the Southwest to the danger of agitating for true fiscal federalism without preparing adequately for its challenges, pointing out that if oil is removed from financial calculations of most states, they would not get anywhere.

He said: “We have retrogressed. Our retrogression is alarming. Ibadan, the seat of government, is the lowest income-earning in Nigeria.

Southwest is the gateway to Nigeria and manufacturing hub. To what maximum use have we put that?”.

Salami called for a re-focused agricultural drive, saying that a synergy is required between agriculture and industry for employment generation for the benefit of the people. He said: “A Southwest agenda that does not encompass productive agriculture is vanity. Despite the constitutional limitations, states can

be creative”.

The economist said he was impressed by the resolve of the Southwest governors to construct the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, adding that infrastructural facilities that support economic activities are required.

Adducing reasons for the soaring unemployment in the region, Salami said a high level of unemployment must coexist with a high level of skill shortages.

He added: “When GSM came in 2001, there were no telecommunication engineers, until South Africans came to Nigeria. There is also the need for information and auditing of assets, opportunities and challenges of the Southwest. We need a vision of where we want the Southwest to be in five decades. We must commit ourselves to the vision, irrespective of political affiliations. We need a consensus built around the vision; an elite consensus. We have lost our values. We crave to be an omoluabi. How many

of us are omoluabi?”.

Ajimobi, who was the first governor to speak, lamented that the apostles of mainstream politics were responsible for the poverty ravaging his state. He said the conservative bloc did havoc because the changing times permitted their incursion.

He said: “In the past, not anybody could mount leadership in Yorubaland. But they have gone now. We will not experience that mess again.

This is not a political gathering. I am not happy that our traditional rulers did not turn out in large numbers. We governors will cooperate for the progress of our region.”

Amosun said: “It is a historic day and a day of truth in Yorubaland, a day of soulsearching. I thank ARG and Yoruba Academy. Yoruba was not like this before. Our region has slipped backward, neglecting agriculture, which was the mainstay of our economy. Proceeds from agriculture were used in those days Continued on page 56

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

NEWS

UK jails Nigerian fraudster who opened 752 accounts for £1.3m scam •Uzoma-Ubani, accomplices get jail terms

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WOMANISING fraudster who hijacked the identities of soldiers and nurses in a £1.3million benefits plot has been jailed for six years.

Chibuikem Uzoma-Ubani, 29, persuaded several lovers to help him launder the profits from the swindle that targeted tax credits and Sure Start maternity grants.

Denisa Camacho, 28, of Godmanchester, Cambridgeshire, and Katrina Papiernikova, 27, of Romford, Essex both had relationships with Uzoma-Ubani, after arriving in the UK from Slovakia and were accused of turning a blind eye to his activities.

Uzoma-Ubani, of Romford, Essex, married Camacho in 2004, then divorced her and had two children by Papiernikova.

The women both insisted they knew nothing about his crooked schemes and were both cleared of money laundering, but a third lover Ornela Miguel, 26, admitted the offence.

Uzoma-Ubani and fellow Nigerian Leonard Nwannenah, 33, of Dagenham, Essex, opened a ‘bewildering’ 752 bank accounts using the names of hard-working medics and members of the armed forces over a six-year period.

The pair were jailed for six years each while Miguel was handed a threemonth sentence, suspended for 12 months.

Nwanneneh’s younger brother Okechi Nwannenah, 30, of Dagenham and Okechi’s wife Jennifer Okonkwo, 29, also allowed their bank accounts to be used to launder the proceeds.

Okechi was conditionally discharged for 18 months while Okonkwo will be sentenced later.

Prosecutor Peter Finnigan QC said the gang netted at least £665,000 and would have made £1.3million had all of the bogus applications for benefit payments been successful.

He said: “This case concerns the sophisticated and professional fraud operation which went on for a number of years.

“This was done by targeting the UK’s benefit system and by cheque fraud.

“They used a bewildering number of post office and bank accounts which numbered in the hundreds.

“Some of the accounts were in the names of the fraudsters themselves, some were in the names of others who were willing to help them, and yet others were in the names of iden-

•CLOCKWISE from top: Uzoma-Ubani, with the mother of his two children, Papiernikova, who was cleared of complicity; Uzoma-Ubani’s third lover Ornela Miguel, who admitted money laundering; Jennifer Okonkwo admitted she had allowed her bank account to be used to launder money; accomplices: Leonard Nwannenah (right) who helped Uzoma-Ubani to open 752 bank accounts, and his younger brother Okechi Nwannenah, who admitted he had allowed his bank account to be; and UzomaUbani’s ex wife Camacho, who insisted she knew nothing about his crooked schemes PHOTOS: DAILY MAIL

tities which had been hijacked by the fraudsters.

“They did not get away with everything they tried because fraudulent applications were weeded out.

In one such instance, a serving member of the army, had his identity hijacked, and not only were cheques diverted to Mr Uzoma-Ubami, but applications for benefits were made in his name, albeit in UzomaUbami’s hand writing.”

The prosecutor added that UzomaUbani had 159 bank accounts, either in his name or an alias, and police seized £200,000 from them.

Leonard Nwanneneh controlled at least 42 accounts and admitted he had used many more after illegally entering the country.

“The total number of bank accounts was 752, used in the identity frauds,’ said Mr Finnigan.

“Of those 752, 282 and were active accounts in that they received the proceeds of the frauds, and during the course of the investigation over £1million had passed through them.

“The remaining 360 or so accounts were being prepared for future frauds.”

Sentencing at The Old Bailey, Judge John Price said: “It was an extremely sophisticated fraud using three different types; intercepting cheques, tax credit fraud, and false maternity grants.

“These required several false identities, and false national insurance numbers.

“In some cases they assumed the identity of nurses, falsifying their pin numbers to potentially have taken £1.3million over a number of years.

“This was a substantial fraud that targeted the benefits system.

“Tax credits are there to help poor people, the money you took, took it away from them.”

Jailing Uzoma-Ubani for six years he said: “I have no doubt that you were a leader of this group, who organised it and kept it running.

“I will sentence you on the basis that it was sheer good luck, that you didn’t manager to acquire the full £1.3 million.

“If you have any money hidden away, the authorities will find it, and you will pay it back, or you will spend more time in prison.’

Sentencing Leonard Nwannenah to six years jail Judge Price said: “The worst thing about you in this case is that you got your brother and his wife involved, and for that you should feel guilty.”

Speaking after sentence a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said:

“Uzoma-Ubani and his co-conspirators had attempted to swindle the Government departments and many individual victims out of more than £1.3m.

“Their sole motivation appears to have been greed; to fund their lifestyles.

“This was a long and complex investigation which involved preparing 5,000 exhibits, analysing more than 100 fingerprints, 800 bank accounts and preparing more than 25,000 pages of evidence.

“The conviction of this gang should act as a warning to others that the UK’s law enforcement agencies will use all the methods at our disposal to root out their corrupt practices and bring those responsible to justice.”

•Culled from www.dailymail.co.uk

‘Why Nigeria must check activities of tobacco giants’

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OREMOST enviornmental rights group, Environmental Rights Action (ERA) has said Nigeria needs to curb the activities of tobacco companies in order to safe-guard the health of its citizens.

The group, which on Monday presented its Shadow Report on implementation of the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in Nigeria, said allowing tobacco giants operate without control amount to giving them right to kill its citizens.

The group urged President Goodluck Jonathan to sign the National Tobacco Control Bill (NTCB) into law.

The Bill, when passed into law, will regulate the industry and save government from spending too much on treating people who fall ill as a result of tobacco use, the group

By Wale Ajetunmobi

said.

It also said tobacco-related deaths would be curbed if Jonathan signs the Bill.

The group said the country stands to gain a lot from the domestication of the FCTC. ERA’s Head, National Tobacco Control Campaign, Mr Seun Akioye, said since Nigeria ratified the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) FCTC in 2005, nothing significant has been achieved.

Akioye said the ban on outdoor/billboard advertising was obeyed by the tobacco industry, but that the ban on Point of Sale (POS) advertising has been ignored. He added that most of the stores and supermarkets advertise tobacco products while some expose cigarette shelves to young people and underage

•From left: Head of Media, Environmental Rights Action (ERA) Philip Jakpor, Director, Oluwafemi and Akioye at the presentation of the Shadow Report on the FCTC in Lagos

persons.

The group’s Director in charge of Corporate Accountability, Mr Akinbode Oluwafemi, said the signing of the NTCB will be the beginning of effective tobacco control legislation in the country.

“Nigeria will not make any progress to-

wards the eradication of the tobacco epidemic and reduction of addiction without the signing into law, the NTCB,” he said.

Akioye said: “During the Shadow Report, ERA/ FoEN wass able to establishe that the country is behind in implementing tax measures to reduce the demand for tobacco.”

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

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NEWS Ekiti to minister: face your job From Sulaiman Salawudeen, Ado-Ekiti

DESPITE distractions and criticisms from the opposition, the Ekiti State Government has pledged to remain focused on its planned development of the state economy and infrastructure.

Speaking through the State Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Funminiyi Afuye said: “The task of bringing about desirable change in the fortunes of the state requires dogged focus and staunch avowals regarding the immediate concerns of the people.”

Reacting to the recent condemnation of the efforts of the Governor Kayode Fayemi administration by Police Affairs Minister Navy Capt. Caleb Olubolade (rtd), especially in the area of road construction, Afuye urged the minister to focus on security challenges facing the country.

The minister had last Friday at a stakeholders’ parley of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), taken a swipe at the state government’s efforts.

But the commissioner said the state, especially the Ado Ekiti, the state capital, has become “a huge construction site “, since the coming on board of Fayemi, adding that such intervention did not exempt the Akure-Ado Ekiti road, neglected by the Federal Government.

Afuye described the statement credited to the minister as most uncalled for and unexpected particularly from no less a person than Olubolade, whose office is facing serious security challenges posed by the Boko Haram menace.

Ajimobi assures protesting youths of deployment From Oseheye Okwuofu, Ibadan

OYO State Governor Abiola Ajimobi yesterday assured protesting members of the newly inducted Youth Empowerment Scheme of Oyo State (YES-O) of deployment at the end this month.

The cadet members of ‘YES-O’, numbering about 5000 stormed the Agodi Governor’s Office Secretariat yesterday to protest nondeployment, unpaid three month arrears and other entitlements by the state government.

But Ajimobi’s media aide, Dr Festus Adedayo said: “the governor attaches serious importance to the scheme and was deploying the beneficiaries by installments so as not to create logistic challenge by assigning all of them in one fell swoop. All those trained will be adequately deployed by month end.

“We do not want to unleash untrained cadets on the society. The state government has fully kitted all the 7,000 trained youths, save for uniforms which they receive on deployment. All the 7,000 should be fully posted by the end of March.

“The multimillion naira investment by government on their training and kitting makes it mandatory that deployment will follow.”

LP leaders, supporters defect to ACN in Ondo

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HERE was a mass defection of members of the ruling Labour Party (LP) in Ondo State to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

The defection took place at the weekend in the oil-rich Ugbo community, in Ilaje Local Government Area.

At ward two in Ayetoro community, no fewer than three thousand supporters of the LP parted way to join the ACN. Their leader, Mr Olasele Ebun alleged neglect of the

From Damisi Ojo,Akure

community by the Mimiko administration. He described the area as the “goose that lay the golden eggs.”

Besides, the coordinator of the Southern Solidarity Forum (SSF), Mr. Goke Ijatuashe, debunked report that the former commissioner for works in the state, Yele Omogunwa was in the ACN. According to him, Omogunwa was a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before decamping to

the LP, a party to which he has retraced his step.

The leader of the defectors said their exit from the LP was in solidarity with a special adviser to the governor, Saka Lawal, whom he eulogised for his steadfastness and contribution to the victory of the LP in the past.

The defectors, who took turns to address party supporters were formally presented to Lawal by the ward secretary, Mr. Ogayemi Muda.

Muda said no single project

has been initiated and completed in the whole of Ilaje community in the past three years.

“It is irritating that the interventionist agency, the Ondo State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (OSOPADEC) failed to use the 40 per cent of the 13 per cent oil derivation accruing to the state from the Federation Account to develop the area,” he said.

Among the defectors are: the chairman of Ayetoro LP, Mr. Ebun Olasele, the Secre-

tary, Ogayemi Muda, Ojajuni Akingbemi, Ajinde Osefatu, Dupe Dede, Obasuwaye Kayode and Obadian Dare, Omogbehinwa Gabriel, Finukonu George, Smagbeyi Omoyemi, Felicia Azikwe, Dadaowo Oke, Dadaowo Orolo, Odusola Silipana and Lemamu Roseline.

On the list are: Biobaku Samuel, Odusola Oba, Odusola Ibimisan, Ilesanmi Megan, Olasele Abodun, Ogayemi Ireoluwa and Ogbolo Mary among others.

Osun ACN hails court judgment From Adesoji Adeniyi, Osogbo

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•Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola (left), welcoming Vice Minister of Foreign Trade and the Director of the Africa Department of the Netherlands, Mr. Simon Smits to the Government House, Marina, Lagos…yesterday. With them are Nigeria’s Ambassador to the Netherlands, Mrs. Nimota Akanbi and Director, Africa Department at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Desiree Bonis

Adeyemi College pensioners protest non-payment of ETIREES from the has deliberately refused to reAdeyemi College of lease these funds as at when arrears by NICON Education, Ondo, Ondo due.

R

State, have cried out over the refusal of the National Insurance Corporation of Nigeria (NICON) to pay their twoyear pension arrears.

The pensioners, numbering about 260, alleged that funds had already been released to the company for disbursement by the Federal government.

They also urged the National Assembly to set up a committee to probe the management of their pensions by NICON. According to them, no fewer than 10 of their members have died in the past two years following the negligence of the insurance company.

Armed with placards and acting under the auspices of the Adeyemi College Pen-

From Leke Akeredolu, Akure sioners’ Union (ACPU), the retirees urged the Federal Government and the National Assembly to prevail on NICON to do the needful.

Some of the inscriptions on the placards read: “National Assembly please probe NICON chairman”; “NICON, enough of this oppression”; “NICON, Adeyemi pensioners are starving/dying, please release our money,” among others.

According to them, NICON owed them over N70 million.

They threatened to mobilise their members and March to Abuja, adding that the names of their colleagues who died due to the hardship, would

soon be published.

ACPU President, Mr. Christopher Ayodele, alleged that the spate of sharp practices by NICON have frustrated the plans of President Goodluck Jonathan, to satisfy its selfish desires without giving a second thought to the consequences of its action.

Ayodele, a former Dean of Social Science at the college, urged the President to quickly intervene to stop their plight.

He said: “We read from various Nigerian newspapers that the Federal Government through the Accountant General’s (AG) office has been releasing pension funds to NICON monthly, but NICON in its own wisdom, and to the detriment of the pensioners,

“We sent delegation to their head office and one of their officers told us that they will disburse the money when the money is given to them and information from office of the A-G claimed that the insurance company had been given the money since last year.

“This insurance giant sits over the millions of Naira meant to quench the pensioners’ thirst. The pensioners are dying by the day whilst NICON, the mandated supervisory agency is doing little or nothing in enforcing the government’s directive to pay up.

“Can it then be assumed that the A-G office is enjoying the game of death and disasters NICON plays with the lives of helpless pensioners in the face of substantial financial provision?”

HROUGH its Osun State chapter, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) yesterday hailed the judgment of a Federal High Court in Lokoja, Kogi State, which found the police culpable of violating the constitutional right of its members to freely assemble.

In a statement issued by its Director of Publicity and Strategy in the state, Mr. Kunle Oyatomi, the party said: “This judgment will go down as a watershed in the desperate struggles of Nigerians against the misuse of the police by the People Democratic Party (PDP)-led Federal Government on critics and opposition parties and their leaders, which in the last 12 years has been a disgusting feature of our democratic experiment.”

Saying the judgment has restored hope into the nation’s judiciary, Oyatomi said: “There is a tiny window of opportunity left for the rule of law to prevail in this country.”

Senate orders probe of ecological funds From Onyedi Ojiabor, Assistant Editor and Sanni Onogu, Abuja

T

HE Senate yesterday mandated its Joint Committee on Environment and Ecology and Special Duties to probe the management of ecological funds by the three tiers of government.

Senate President David Mark, gave the order yesterday during the consideration of a Bill for an Act to Establish the Erosion Control and Prevention Commission.

Mark who summed up contributions of Senators on the Bill said that the joint committee should specifically investigate how state and local governments used ecological funds disbursed to them over the years.

15 years after, Appeal Court dethrones two Ondo monarchs

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HE Court of Appeal sitting in Akure, the Ondo State capital, yesterday nullified the staff of office and the instrument of appointments given to royal fathers in Akure South local Government Area.

They are: the Oralepo of Isinkan, Oba Olu Ojo and Osolo of Isolo, Oba Kayode Oluwatuyi.

The verdict came 16 years after the two monarchs have been parading themselves as custodians of customs and traditions in their respective domains.

The administration of the late Chief Adebayo Adefarati presented the duo with staff of office and instrument of

From Damisi Ojo, Akure

appointments 12 years ago.

Until their sack, they, alongside other monarchs, including the Deji of Akure, Oba Adebiyi Adesida, collected royalty. They also earned recognition at state functions.

However, yesterday’s unanimous verdict of the Court of Appeal presided over by Justices Kudirat Kekere-Ekun stripped the duo all privileges they had being enjoyed. Justuces Chinwe Eugenia Iyizoba and Moore Adumein also sat on the appeal.

The appellate court also set aside the judgment of the late Justice Ayodele Akinwalare,

which recognised the respondents as Obas and the staff of office given to them to function in that capacity.

Justice Akinwalere had in a ruling, acceded to the prayers of the plaintiffs, which sought to be recognised as Obas.

The suit filed on their behalf by Mr. Tunde Olofinsawo, had as defendants, the state governor, the State Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice and the Deji of Akure.

Disatisfied with the judgment of the lower court, the Deji of Akure in council through their counsel, Mr Gabriel Falowo, filed the appeal at the appellate court.

Falowo raised eight points particularly that the lower court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the suit ab initio, that the order granted the plaintiffs was not enforceable as they did not have constituencies to preside on and that their chieftaincy titles did not exist under the law.

He also argued that the lower court erred in giving the declaratory judgment based on a non-existence fact.

According to him, there was no evidence before the court that the two monarchs ever enjoyed the status of Obas, neither was there a gazette or legislation or legal notice giving recognition to their stools.

He contended that the recognition of the duo led to the proliferation of first class chieftaincies in addition to the long existing recognised Deji of Akure.

But counsel to the respondents countered a submission that the lower court had no jurisdiction to entertain the suit and that the court should uphold the judgment of the lower court.

In their judgment, the Justices barred the two monarchs from further parading themselves as monarch henceforth.

The appellate court said the government was wrong ab initio to have given the staff of office to the duo when they did not request for such from the court.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

NEWS Erring NDDC contractors warned From Polycarp Orosevwotu, Warri HE Delta State Chapter of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Registered Contractors Forum has warned contractors executing NDDC projects to avoid sharp practices.

The group’s Chairman, Francis Yiki, called on the commission to tag contractors to avoid embarrassment from security personnel at the headquarters.

He promised to set up a committee to monitor all NDDC jobs in the state.

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Crisis in Cross River PDP

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OME Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members in Cross River State have alleged that last Saturday’s ward congresses were marred by irregularities.

The congresses spilled over to Sunday due to inability to get materials to the 196 wards, party officials said.

It was learnt that party leaders would decide on a consensus list of party execu-

From Nicholas Kalu, Calabar tives at the ward level.

The party’s Publicity Secretary, Abu Eyo, said the consensus method was adopted because the register the party used in the past was not dependable.

But some party stalwarts alleged that this is a plan by a cabal to handpick ward officers, in contravention of the party’s rules concerning party congresses.

IYC gets new officers

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IVE new officers have been elected by the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC).

They were elected on Monday at a special convention in Obuama, Degema Local Government of Rivers State.

They are: Alex Nathan (National Deputy President); Fred Brisibe (National Secretary); Aladiokuma Hart (National Director of Mobilisation); Omangima Harry (National Financial Secretary) and Prince Mac-Aka (National Spokesman) The IYC Parliament had, in a resolution, declared four positions vacant, following the removal of Preye Agama (former Deputy President), Rasaq Amatoru (former Secretary), Bristol Emmanuel (former Director of Mobilisation) and Nengi Jomani (former Financial Secretary).

The position of spokesman was included as a result of the recent activities by the former spokesman Jeremiah Owupele, which contravened the earlier resolutions of the parliament.

IYC President Miabiye Kuromiema urged the officers to brace up for the challenges ahead.

Vice President, World Bank (Africa), Mrs Oby Ezekwesili (second left); former Deputy Governor of Lagos State Mrs Sarah Sosan (right); Mrs. Yinka Ogunde and a student of Grace High School, Gbagada, Lagos singing at the sixth edition of The Voice of the Nigerian Youth at the Ten Degrees Event Centre, Oregun, Lagos…yesterday.

PHOTO: NIYI ADENIRAN

Police corporal shoots colleague in Rivers

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POLICE corporal yesterday allegedly committed suicide in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, after shooting an inspector on the same beat.

The corporal was attached to B Operations in the State Police Command.

It was learnt that at about 9 am, the corporal, while on duty at a company in Trans-Amadi Industrial

•Kills self From Bisi Olaniyi, Port Harcourt

Layout, shot the inspector in the leg and shot himself in the chest.

Police spokesman Ben Ugwuegbulam said “no grievance” was noticed between the two policemen before the incident.

Ugwuegbulam said: “The victims were rushed to

Teme Hospital in Mile One, Diobu for treatment.

“The corporal later died, having refused treatment, by fighting the medical personnel.

“The inspector is responding to treatment. The AK-47 rifle used by the corporal has been recovered.”

The spokesman added that officers of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) were investigating the incident.

The whereabouts of two robbery suspects remain unknown, after policemen killed six of their colleagues at the Government Reservation Area (GRA), Port Harcourt on Monday.

The suspects robbed a businessman of N2.1 million.

Ugwuegbulam said policemen were on the trail of the fleeing robbers. He said they would soon be caught and prosecuted.

Benin monarch refuses to endorse PDP of houses. This is not EADERS of the Peocandidate lition the dream of our state.” ples Democratic

L

Party (PDP) in Edo State were yesterday disappointed after the Benin monarch, Oba Erediauwa, refused to endorse their candidate, Maj-Gen Charles Airhiavbere.

PDP state Chairman Dan Orbih led party faithful to the palace to seek royal blessings.

A palace chief, Amos Osunbor, who prayed on behalf of the monarch, did not pray for the PDP candidate but prayed that God should give the state a governor who will turn Benin to a

From Osagie Otabor, Benin

modern city and provideinfrastructure.

The PDP leaders felt that the prayer should have been for their candidate.

Orbih told the Benin monarch that the PDP dug deep to pick someone who he said “can provide services for the people.”

He said: “We find him dependable. He has respect for our elders, traditions and a burning passion to serve.

“We are concerned about the high taxation and demo-

But the Benin monarch interrupted him, saying: “I will not allow you to use my palace as a soap box.”

Airhiavbere said the state needs rapid development and change. He requested for royal blessings.

Oba Erediauwa said: “I started watching you on television. I will continue watching you on television.”

But Orbih said the party did not visit the monarch for an endorsement.

“We visited him for a royal blessing.”

Two baggage handlers arraigned

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HE Akwa Ibom State Police Command yesterday arraigned two baggage handlers over the N1.5million theft at the Ibom International Airport.

Victor Usenekong and Inyang Sylvester were arraigned before Chief Magistrate Edet Obot on a two-count charge of stealing.

They pleaded not guilty.

Obot, after listening to the argument by their counsel, Ime Ansa, granted them bail in the sum of N300,000.

The magistrate adjourned the hearing till April 2.

The charge sheet reads: “That you Victor Eshiet Usenekong and Inyang Cyril Sylvester on February 26 at Akwa Ibom State

From Kazeem Ibrahym, Uyo Airport premises, Uyo, in the Uyo Magisterial District did steal N1.5million, property of Ebakabasi Etuk and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 408 of the Criminal Code cap 38, vol. 11, laws of Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria, 2000.”

The Nation, had on February 28, exclusively reported that one of Governor Godswill Akpabio’s luggage was tampered with when Ebakabasi Etuk, a protocol officer, arrived with it at the airport.

But the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Aniete Ukpe, claimed that Etuk was not in the governor’s protocol team.

Group urges Britain to keep Delta’s loot

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GROUP, the Forum for Justice and Human Rights Defence (FJHD), has suggested that looted funds recovered from ex-Governor James Ibori be kept in “an interest-yielding account for the benefit of Deltans”.

From Okungbowa Aiwerie, Asaba

Its national coordinator, Oghenejabor Ikimi, in a statement yesterday, urged the British Government to keep the looted funds till June 2015 when a new governor, “who is not

related to Ibori, has assumed office” Ikimi said the plea of guilt

by James Ibori before a London Crown Court to charges of theft and money laundering is an indictment of the weak and corrupt judicial system.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

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BUSINESS THE NATION

E-mail:- bussiness@thenationonlineng.net

Naira heads for two-week high on forex sales

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AIRA strengthened against the dollar, heading for the highest close in almost two weeks, after foreign-exchange sales by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and oil companies.

The naira appreciated 0.2 per cent to N157.4 per dollar, the strongest on a closing basis since February 23 on the interbank market in Lagos.

Dollar sales from the apex bank and oil companies according to Bloomberg news have kept the naira “relatively steady,” Ecobank Transnational Inc. analysts, led by Paul-Harry Aithnard, wrote in a note to clients today. “Ongoing foreign investor inflows to purchase high yielding securities moderated market volatility.”

We are very confident that we would achieve our first quarter forecasts. We have carried out a lot of changes in the bank including top management changes.

We have been investing a lot in Africa.

- Philip Uduoza, GMD, UBA

NNPC blames fuel reserves depletion on Customs, Navy • Customs: it’s incorrect T

HE Nigerian National Petroleum Corpora tion (NNPC) yesterday cried out that the fuel in its reserves is running out.

The shortfall has led to queues at filling stations across the country, especially in Lagos area.

NNPC Group General Manager Public Affairs, Dr Levi Ajuonuma, who disclosed this yesterday in a statement blamed the scarcity on the Nigeria Navy and Nigeria Customs Service.

But the Nigeria Customs Service Public Relations Officer, Mr Wale Adeniyi, told our correspondent on phone that NNPC was wrong. He said the Customs did not stop vessels from discharging its product as alleged. He said after discharging its product, the vessel was de-

From John Ofikhenua, Abuja

tained because of irregularity of not being registered in the country.

Ajuonuma explained that many products-laden vessels, which ought to have discharged, have been detained at the Apapa Port for three weeks by the Customs and Navy thereby causing a hitch in the supply system.

He said: “As you are well aware, we are still importing petroleum products, but the challenge is that a number of the vessels bringing products have been detained by the Customs and the Navy, so they could not discharge. But the most worrisome aspect of this develop-

ment is that they are detained at the berthing point such that other vessels with petroleum products are deprived from berthing and discharging thereby creating an armada while what we have in strategic reserve is depleting.”

On why the vessels were detained, he explained that one of the ships detained by the Customs was alleged to have contravened the rule three years ago when it brought petroleum products into the country without a temporary import permit.

The NNPC spokesman said though the corporation was not against the Customs and the Navy carrying out their duties, they should do

so without impeding the discharge of products.

“We are not saying that they should not detain vessels that contravene our laws. What we are saying is that they should not arrest and detain the vessels at the berthing or discharging point so as not to block other ships from discharging thereby cutting off supplies,” he advised.

He said the management of NNPC and its subsidiary, Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) are engaging the relevant agencies to resolve the issues as soon as possible.

He urged Nigerians to shun panic buying as the corporation still has in its kitty enough petrol and kerosene to last the country for about 24 days.

Lufthansa celebrates 50 years in Nigeria

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N celebration of its 50 years operation in Nige ria, German airline operator, Lufthansa is organising a photo exhibition in Lagos.

The event, billed for April, is to showcase airline’s inaugural flight into the country in 1962.

In a statement yesterday in Abuja, Lufthansa’s Group’s Managing Director for West Africa, Claus Becker expressed his best wishes to the jubilee. He said: “Lagos is an important destination in Lufthansa’s Africa portfolio. We are proud of our ‘50 years’ services to the economic capital of Nigeria and beyond”.

DATA STREAM COMMODITY PRICES Oil -$123.6/barrel Cocoa -$2,686.35/metric ton Coffee - ¢132.70/pound Cotton - ¢95.17pound Gold -$1,800/troy ounce Rubber -¢159.21pound

MARKET CAPITALISATIONS NSE -N6.503 trillion JSE -Z5.112trillion NYSE -$10.84 trillion LSE -£61.67 trillion RATES Inflation -10.3% Treasury Bills -7.08% Maximum lending22.42% Prime lending -15.87% Savings rate -2% 91-day NTB -14.7% Time Deposit -5.49% MPR -12% Foreign Reserve $33.01b FOREX CFA 0.2958 EUR 206.9 £ 245 $ 156.4 ¥ 1.9179 SDR 241 RIYAL 40.472

• From left: Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Nigeria Stock Exchange, Mr Oscar Onyema; CEO, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (TRANSCORP) Plc, Mr Obinna Ufudo and Chief of Staff/Head, Corporate Division, Mr Bola Adeek, during the Bell Ringing Ceremony of Transcorp Plc ... yesterday.

Senate summons Yayale, Pepple over pension funds T

HE Senate Joint Com mittee on Establish ment, Public Service, States and Local Governments yesterday summoned two former Heads of the Civil Service of the Federation, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed and the Minister of Housing, Mrs Amal Pepple to appear before it today.

Chairman of the Committee, Senator Aloysius Etok, said it has become necessary for the duo to explain how they managed pension funds domiciled in their office during their tenure.

Etok also threatened to order the arrest of the DirectorGeneral of the Budget Office, Bright Okogu, for failing to honour an invitation to testify before the panel.

The Committee also suspended the operations of the Task Team on pension reform set up by the Head of Service, Al Isa Bello Sali.

Etok directed the task team

• Threatens to arrest Budget Office DG • Suspends HOS task team

From Onyedi Ojiabor Asst.

Editor and Sanni Onogu, Abuja

to stop its activities pending when the Senate Joint Committee winds up its investigations.

He also ordered the managers of the Task Team to appear before the committee today as well.

On the planned arrest of Okogu, Etok explained: “The Senate has power to invite any individual or corporate institution in any part of the country to facilitate its function.”

He warned that should Okogu fail to honour the panel’s invitation today the Senate may be compelled to

issue warrant of arrest on him.

“We will not hesitate to order his arrest if he fails to come to the hearing tomorrow today. The Clerk of this committee should please communicate this to him.”

The lawmakers also directed the Accountant-General of the Federation to open an Account where all the recovered stolen pension money would be lodged for safe keeping pending the outcome of the investigative hearing.

Two former Heads of Service, Steve Oronsaye and Prof. Afolabi Oladapo, also testified before the panel.

Etuk directed that those managing the Police Pension funds should appear before the committee today to explain the whereabouts of the N21 billion being part of the funds supposedly kept at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

He said there is need to shed light on the money because of the information available to the committee that the N28 billion police pension fund may have found its way to an unnamed account.

Sali, in his testimony, said the Task Team has unravelled a syndicate of six civil servants that allegedly fleeced pensioners of N24 billion.

He added that it was also discovered that instead of 141,000 pensioners on the payroll of the Federal Government, there were only 70,000 genuine pensioners.

Chevron puts out Funiwa gas well fire • Affected communities disagree From Isaac Ombe, Yenagoa

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HE fire at the site of the Funiwa 1A natural gas well offshore Nigeria ceased on Friday, March 2, Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) has said.

In a statement yesterday the company said the well stopped flowing on its own.

It has not detected any natural gas from it since the fire ceased and is monitoring the area continuously, the statement added. The company will continue to drill the relief well to plug and abandon Funiwa 1A. CNL confirmed that 152 workers on board rig were safely evacuated while two missed. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation/Chevron joint venture, own Funiwa field, within oil mining lease (OML) 86.

However, sources from the affected communities of Koloama said the fire, which had continued to emit its flames in the last two months, was far from being over.

An indigene of one of the affected communities, who spoke on phone and pleaded anonymity, countered the statement from Chevron authorities.

The source said the fire was still on and inhabitants of the communities were still going through gruesome health conditions. The angered source noted that “whether the fire goes off or not is never the issue, the issue is, are members of the affected communities well taken care off?”

‘Why Fed Govt did not implement HYPPADEC’ From Sanni Onogu, Abuja

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HAIRMAN, Senate Committee on Fed eral Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Senator Dahiru Awaisu Kuta, yesterday explained why the Federal Government did not execute the Hydro-Electric Power Producing Areas Development Commission (HYPPADEC) Act. He said it was because of a disagreement over the proposed 30 per cent commission from the earnings of any investor operating in the host communities.

Senator Kuta, who spoke to reporters in Abuja, also noted that about N350 million allocated for the Commission in the 2011 Appropriation Act was not released by the Ministry of Power and Steel.

He explained that the National Assembly has reduced the 30 per cent commission to 10 per cent to ensure the smooth take-off of the amended HYPPADEC Act.

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

BUSINESS NEWS

‘Why Fed Govt dumped NEITI audit report’

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HE Minister of Petroleum Re sources, Mrs. Diezani AlisonMadueke, yesterday said the Federal Government decided to raise another audit taskforce in the petroleum sector because the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) audit report is late.

Madueke, who disclosed this to reporters in Abuja, noted that NEITI’s audit is a year behind the fiscal year of the Petroleum sector.

Hear words: “I think the most recent NEITI audit is 2006 – 2008,

From John Ofikhenua, Abuja

we are in 2012, obviously we are talking about looking forward in completely new and aggressive radical ways to make our refineries work at least at 80 per cent installed capacity. Therefore, we must review our recent audits in the profit and loss conversional option of the processes of refineries”.

She explained that it is not sufficient to have a Turn Around Maintenance, (TAM) without ex-

amining the efficiency of the operation.

Her words: “You look at the operational capacities and at the same time you must ensure that your commercial process are very strongly embedded, your profit and loss is one of them to ensure that it meet global standards.

“We are looking at the entire sector and intend to ensure that and we are doing what we consider as an integrated solution.

That means we are bringing in

other stakeholders within the sector and within the ministry that are also in the refining activities such as PPMC and NPDC and who also share facilities with the refineries.”

She explained that following the deplorable state of the nation’s refineries, which has resulted in a shortfall in local production and increase in the importation of petroleum products over the years, the inauguration of a National Refinery Task Force has become expedient.

DPR exposes adulterated diesel sellers T

HE Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) yesterday revealed the companies that sell the adulterated automotive gas oil (diesel).

The oil industry regulator disclosed this to reporters after its inspection and monitoring of filling stations in Apapa, Lagos to ascertain the cause of fuel scarcity. The checks was also to know whether marketers are hoarding and also to clarify the alleged circulation of fake diesel in the market.

DPR had last Sunday chided the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) for crying out over distribution and sale of adulterated diesel.

After the inspection, the DPR Deputy Director, Depot and Jetty Operations, Mr Buraimoh Olarenwaju, told reporters that Waziri Jetty in Apapa has been fingered as one of the firms where unscrupulous marketers discharged the adulterated diesel.

Olarenwaju said the activities that go on in that jetty prompted the Department to suspect it as one of the hotspots of products adulteration. The Waziri Jetty is owned by the Nigerian

By Emeka Ugwuanyi

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HE metering inquiry com mittee set up by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) yesterday in Lagos started the public hearing on electricity metering and other related issues.

The 13-man committee was inaugurated by NERC to find a lasting solution to matters affecting metering and others across the country.

NERC Chairman, Mr Sam Amadi, said the committee will conduct public inquiry and chart the way forward to address metering in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).

House summons Calabar port operators

By Emeka Ugwuanyi

Ports Authority (NPA). It was gathered that some marketers including EuroAfric, Hencemor, Energy Destination and A-Z Petroleum received products from the jetty.

Olarenwaju said the criminals often discharge the product at night from badges into waiting trucks with connivance with some of the naval officers.

He said the depot had been shut several times to deter the criminals from such nefarious activities, but they (criminals) illegally reopened it to continue with the act. The criminals, he added, had several times threatened DPR officials if they persist to discourage them from the act.

Head of Depot and Jetty Operations, Mr Patrick Emordi, said: “We sealed the Waziri Jetty and used chains to tie it and within few hours naval officers came to re-open it. On February 4, this year, we also locked this place but within few hours the naval officers reopened it.”

Public hearing on metering, others begins in Lagos

By Oluwakemi Dauda, Calabar

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•Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, speaking to reporters at a stakeholders’ workshop on National Refineries in Abuja...yesterday.

HE House Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation has summoned the three concessionaires at the Calabar port to Abuja over their failure to comply with the agreement they signed with the Federal Government through the Nigerian Ports Authority(NPA) and the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).

Speaking in Calabar yesterday, the Chairman of the committee, Hon Khadija Bukar Abba Ibrahim,s said the invitation became necessary following the allegations levelled against the concessionaires by the port manager, Mr Ahmed Dandare, that they have failed to carry out some of the core projects in the development plan with regard to civil and capital works contained in the concession agreement they signed.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

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ISSUES

• NSITF cheque

PHOTO: DUPE OLAOYE OSINKOLU

A workers’ scheme under threat • NSITF faces stiff test on Compensation Act The Employees’ Compensation Act, 2010, which requires employers to remit one per cent of employees’ gross emolument as contribution to the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) is under threat as many employers are not complying. DUPE OLAOYE OSINKOLU examines the challenges facing the scheme.

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HE Employees Compensation Act (ECA) was well received when it was promulgated in 2010. But about one year after its commencement, it is being dogged by controversy.

Some private sector employees are complaining of non-compliance with its provisions by their employers.

The ECA provides that the manage-

ment of the compensation fund established under Section 56 of the Act is to be overseen by the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF).

The Empioyees’ Compensation Scheme (ECS) is an innovation on the 2004 Act, aimed at compensating and rehabilitating workers who suffer injury while performing their duty. It, however, goes beyond

paying workers in monetary terms. The scheme provides for the rehabilitation of such workers and ensuring their return to work after treatment.

Expectedly, workers welcomed the idea of not contributing money to the scheme.

Under the scheme, workers are not expected to contribute to the fund; it is strictly the responsibility of employers to

undertake all the injury-related expenses and the remittance of the one per cent of workers’ gross pay.

The Act is a departure from the Workmen Compensation Act, which workers frowned on because of the meagre compensation it entailed.

• Continued on page 14

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

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ISSUES

A workers’ scheme under threat • Continued from page 13

Managing Director, NSITF Alhaji Munir Abubakar said his biggest challenge is for Nigeria to understand the scheme and for employers to start complying by paying, “without us having to use force.”

On how to deal with non-compliance, he quoted the law, saying, “every organisation must be registered so that its employees are protected.”

He explained that the Fund gives out forms and guidelines to ensure that all organisations get registered. “Anytime there is a new scheme, which involves collecting money, you have to do it in a way that people will understand, appreciate and cooperate with you,” he said, adding that the NSITF would not use force, for now, though it has the backing of the law to do so.

“NSITF constantly enlightens employers on the benefit of the scheme. A lot of them are responding and are turning in their forms. It is after this stage that we will begin to apply force. For now, we encourage those who are not paying to pay as and when due.

Abubakar, said the fund is making moves to ensure compliance by sending its inspectors out to ascertain that all registered companies and organisa-tions are paying. If these companies and organisations are not paying, they are cheating their employees,” he stated.

Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, recently at the official inauguration of NSITF Lagos office, presented the first compensation cheque of N557,800 to Cappa and D’ Alberto Plc as reimbursement for money spent for the treatment of its injured workers since the commencement of the scheme last year.

Director-General of the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association, NECA, Segun Oshinowo, said the inauguration was a bold step in the administrative structure required to deliver on the dividends of employee compensation scheme.

He said: “NSITF, on account of Employee Compensation Act, has everything going for it. That is, the goodwill and support of employers, the goodwill and support of the workers and the support of the Federal Government to succeed. What we are asking of NSITF today, is first class performance,” adding that with the take- off of the scheme, Nigeria is on the right track to delivering on decent work agenda.

President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Abdulwaheed Omar, has also urged employers to play their roles towards the success of the scheme by registering with NSITF, and remitting deductions from their employees promptly.

He said social partners, particularly employers in private and public sectors must see to it that the scheme does fail. “This is one scheme in which we must not fail Nigerians. For this scheme to succeed, all hands must be on deck,” he said.

President-General of Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, Comrade Peter Esele, noted that NSITF was expected to deliver

quality service judging from the composition of the board which included representatives of social partners.

He said: “It is our expectations that service delivery would be better and the Nigerian workers would be happier. I do not think of any other board where the interest of Nigerian workers would be better protected than the board of NSITF, especially with labour representatives on the board.

“We expect that when the issue of injury at work comes up, workers would be compensated accordingly. On this aspect, the President of the country deserved to be commended for the Act. We also expect that the government would also release the funds. It is one thing to say we are supporting NSITF, the actual support comes when the funds that are appropriated for this scheme is made available.”

The Labour Minister, however, spoke of better days ahead for workers through the Employee Compensation Scheme. He said the Federal Government was committed to a cleaner, safer and healthier work environment to all Nigerian workforces through factory inspection.

Wogu said the government would guide against factory accidents to reduce cost on compensation funds. The minister hopes to achieve this through his ministry’s factory inspectors who would be expected to carry out regular factory inspections.

“This administration aims at a zero-tolerance on workplace accidents, injuries and fatalities, and is determined to collaborate with all social partners and other stakeholders to guarantee a cleaner, safer and healthier work environment to all Nigerian workers.

“It is, therefore, instructive to note that the extension of social protection floor coverage to Nigerian workers has gone beyond the level of policy rhetoric to implementation and performance space. Our commitment to extend social protection coverage to all Nigerian workers is based on the International Labour Organisation (ILO), 1944 Philadelphia Declaration.”

Chairman, NSITF Management Board, Dr. Ngozi Olejeme, said the ECS was carefully planned to ensure that the welfare of workers was given top priority.

She described the scheme as a silent revolution that was carefully thought out and executed by the Federal Government in order to ensure that the welfare of Nigerian workers is given top pri-

• Wogu

• Mrs Olejeme

Objectives of the ECA • Provision for an open and fair system of guaranteed and adequate compensation for all employees or their dependants or any death, injury, disease or disability arising out of or in the course of employment.

• To provide rehabilitation to employees with work-related disabilities as much as possible; • To establish and maintain a solvent compensation fund managed in the interest of employees and employers; • To provide for fair and adequate assessments for employers; • To provide an appeal procedure that is simple, fair and accessible with minimal delays; and • To combine efforts and resources of relevant stakeholders for the prevention of workplace disabilities, including the enforcement of occupational safety and health standards.

ority in the scheme of things.”

She assured stakeholders that NSITF had human capital to deliver top class service, adding that non-complying employers should come on board the scheme, as NSITF would never disappoint them.

Initially, some employer bodies faulted the then proposed one per cent gross deduction from employees wages as compensation fund.

Executive Secretary, Association of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Employers, Mr Remi Adegboyega submitted that the one per cent compensation fund deduction should only cover basic, transport and housing, leaving other emoluments.

The Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) is now on the management board of the NSITF, that shows its commitment to the scheme.

The question being asked by some private sector workers is why are their employers delaying their registration to the scheme.

Employers in the finance indus-

try are, however, absolved from blame as the employees union said they are complying with the implementation of the act.

President, Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Finance Institutions, (ASSBIFI), Comrade Sunday Olusoji Salako said: “The finance industry is already complying. ASSBIFI was part of the enactment. It was not a big challenge for the sector. The manufacturing sector should not hesitate to comply. For us, it has been a very good development and our employers have keyed into it.

Workers of a plastic factory in Lagos told The Nation that many of their collegues have lost their limbs to machines in the course of production in the past, and that they got no compensation. They said the best the victims got was payment of hospital bills.

They are now appealing to government to enforce full private sector compliance with the implementation of the compensation scheme.

The plastic factory workers are under the umbrella of the Na-

‘It is our expectations that service delivery would be better and the Nigerian workers would be happier. I do not think of any other board where the interest of Nigerian workers would be better protected than the board of NSITF, especially with labour representatives on the board’

tional Union of Chemical Footwear, Rubber, Leather and NonMetallic Products Employees (NUCFRLNMPE). President of the union, Comrade Boniface Isok said the union has not received any complaint from any of the factories. He, however, said he would find out the level of compliance.

General Secretary of the union, Comrade Douglas Adiele enjoined all the employers in the private sector to comply with ECA. He described it as an improvement on the Workers Compensation Act (WCA) in which “workers were shortchanged.” He said WCA came into being when the country’s currency was strong, by the time it was repealed, it was not really beneficial to workers.

Adiele appealed to NSITF not to create bottlenecks that would make it impossible for injured workers or dependants of dead ones to get their compensation when there is need for it.

Comrade Bamidele Busari is the General Secretary, National Union of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employees (NUFBTE). He said accidents occur more in the manufacturing sector, hence private sector employers should ensure full compliance with ECS. He called for empowerment of factory inspectors towards minimising factory accidents. “No matter how much is paid as compensation, it cannot bring a dead worker back to life. No amount can bring back the dead, it a loss to his family for life.

Busari noted the Factory Act states that every worker has to be protected against injury.

Registration with the scheme by the manufacturing sector is very slow. Stakeholders, however, believe that awareness creation will improve the situation.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

15

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

16

CITY BEATS Two housewives Ladipo traders sue govt over arraigned T market closure T WO housewives, Rosemary Okonta, 43, and Ifeyinwa Ndupu, 25, were yesterday arraigned at an Apapa Chief Magistrates’ Court for arson.

The accused, both residents of Festac Town, Lagos, are standing trial on a three-count charge of felony, arson and willful damage.

The prosecutor, police corporal John Iberedem, told the court that the accused, conspired and set ablaze a duplex belonging to Mrs. Rita Ehrabor and Mr Adolphus Duru, a lawyer.

He said the duo committed the offence on January 20 at about 7.00am at House1, H Close, 7th Avenue, Festac Town.

Iberedem said the cost of the burnt duplex had not been ascertained.

The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges and were granted bail in the sum of N200, 000 each with two sureties each in like sum.

In addition, they are to produce sureties, who should show evidence of tax payment to Lagos State Government as part of the bail conditions.

Chief Magistrate E. A. Ogundare adjourned further hearing in the case to March 16.

HE Registered Trustees of Traders’ Association of Aguiyi Ironsi Complex, Ladipo, Lagos, has urged a state High Court, Ikeja to restrain the state Ministry of the Environment from closing the market over leadership matters.

In the suit before Justice Opeyemi Oke, they sought a declaration that the Ministry and the Lagos Attorney-General have no constitutional or statutory responsibility to regulate or supervise the market’s administration.

The claimants prayed the court to hold that the defendants have no statutory power to seal the automobile spare parts market on account of administrative or leadership tussle unrelated to violation of environmental laws.

They urged the court to declare that the sealing of the market on December 23, last year on account of administrative or leadership tussle is unlawful, null and void.

The traders sought a perpetual injunction restraining the defendants from sealing the market due to leadership issues or interfering with its internal management.

E-mail:- ynotcitybeats@gmail.com

•Why market was closed, by govt

By Joseph Jibueze

The claimants said a firm, Paramo Development Ventures, which sub-leased the market to them, was opposed to the leadership of their President, Jonathan Okoli.

“On the 26th of January, 2012, officers and agents of the Ministry of the Environment invited the claimants’ members and Paramo Limited to a meeting in their office.

“For the first time and to the chagrin of the claimants the ministry stated that the issue was not about sanitation but about the leadership of Mr Jonathan Okoli,” the claimants said.

But the Ministry of the Environment, in its counter affidavit, urged the court to dismiss the application for a mandatory injunction “in the interest of justice.”

It denied meddling in the market’s leadership matters, saying: “Neither

the second defendant (the ministry) nor any of its officers is a member of the traders association and did not and/or could not interfere with the leadership of the association.”

It said the market was closed for sanitation purposes to make it conducive for trading activities.

The ministry said the market was locked so the sanitation could continue, but that Okoli and his team broke the seal on three occasions “The clearing and sanitation of the market could not be concluded due to the incessant unauthorised breaking of the sealing of the market by Mr Jonathan Okoli and his group,” the defendant said.

The ministry said, however, that the market has been reopened since March 1 “to enable traders continue with the sanitisation and cleansing of the market.”

The suit has been adjourned till •Lagosians scooping fuel on Eko Bridge April 3.

163 vehicles stolen in two months

By Jude Isiguzo

N

O fewer than 163 vehicles were stolen in Lagos between January and Feb-

ruary.

According to police records 63 were stolen in January.

A breakdown of the figure shows that in January, 28 vehicles were snatched at gunpoint, 31 were removed from where they were parked while four were driven away by their drivers.

In February, 36 vehicles were snatched at gunpoint, 60 removed from where they were parked and another four driven away by their drivers.

Polices sources said that Toyota brands were mostly affected.

However, the police also recovered 107 vehicles within the period under review.

According to the statistics, about 42 murder cases were reported within the period while 33 firearms and 195 ammunition were recovered.

It was also gathered that 85 armed robbers were arrested while 14 were killed in 11 robbery incidents reported.

The statistics showed that one policeman was killed in action in Feburary.

Command spokesman Mr Jayieoba Joseph said the command and its officers were more poised to ensure that the state is crime free.

He warned armed robbers and other criminal-minded individuals to avoid the state as the police is ready and wellequipped to deal with them.

•A filling station without petrol in Mushin, Lagos...on Monday

PHOTO: RAHMAN SANUSI

Fuel scarcity returns to Lagos

M

OTORISTS across the city of Lagos are coming to terms with the reality of another fuel scarcity as more filling stations remained shut yesterday.

The result was a winding queue of commuters at major bus stops around the metropolis, following the inability of many commercial buses to procure fuel. From Oshodi central terminus, Ojuelegba, Ogba, Ishaga, Ijora, and many other places, commuters were seen stranded as they wait for buses.

The scarcity which became noticeable weekend, began to take its toll Monday, but grew worse across the state yesterday following the failure of more filling stations to dis-

By Yinka Aderibigbe

pense fuel. Some stations that sold fuel to commuters on Monday was observed shut when CityBeats went round the city yesterday.

The reason for the current scarcity could not be immediately ascertained.

A petrol attendant who refused to have his name in print blamed the scarcity on fear of a likely reversal of the pump price of fuel to the pre-January 19 price of N140.

The attendant said; “most Petroleum products dealers including my boss have gotten feelers that there might be a return of the pump price to N140 anytime from now and they did not want to be caught unawares anytime the price

is adjusted by the government.”

A motorist Mr Akin Johnson, said he started observing the return to the fuel scarcity last Saturday.

“I was returning from an outing when I observed that most filling stations I had driven past were not dispensing fuel, while there were long queues on the few ones that were selling. I quickly branched at the next one I saw and filled my car tank and that was what I’ve been using,” he said.

Andrew Samson, another motorist, said he was surprised at the return of the long queue around the state while there has not been any notice to the effect of any increase in price or industrial crisis or delay in lifting of the commodity at the

various depots.

It was also observed that some filling stations that got new stock over the weekend have refused to sell the product to consumers. A Conoil outlet along College road, Ogba, which was seen taking delivery of a trailer load of the product on Saturday, has refused to sell the product.

The Group General Manager, Public Affairs, NNPC, Dr Levi Ajuonuma had on Monday said all the issues leading to the initial hitch in supply have been resolved.

He assured that marketers have resumed importation and “we have enough fuel in our strategic reserve to last until their cargoes start arriving,” Ajuonuma said.

LAGOS EMERGENCY LINES 1. Fire and Safety Services Control Room Phone Nos: 01-7944929; 080-33235892; 080-33235890; 080-23321770; 080-56374036.

2. Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Lagos Zonal Command Phone No: 080-33706639; 01-7742771 Sector Commander Phone No: 080-34346168; 01-2881304

STATE AGENCIES 3. LASTMA Emergency Numbers: 080-75005411; 080-60152462 080-23111742; 080-29728371 080-23909364; 080-77551000 01-7904983

4. KAI Brigade Phone Nos: 080-23036632; 0805-5284914 Head office Phone Nos: 01-4703325; 01-7743026 5. Rapid Response Squad (RRS) Phone Nos: 070-55350249; 070-35068242 080-79279349; 080-63299264

070-55462708; 080-65154338 767 or email: rapidresponsesquad@yahoo.com 6. Health Services – LASAMBUS Ambulance Services Phone Nos: 01-4979844; 01-4979866; 01-4979899; 01-4979888; 01-2637853-4; 080-33057916; 080-33051918-9; 080-29000003-5.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

17

CITY BEATS

E-mail:- ynotcitybeats@gmail.com

Two dead as miscreants go on rampage on Lagos Island

DANGEROUS BUSINESS

By Jude Isiguzo

A

ko Bridge

PHOTO: SOLOMON ADEOLA

Teachers’ union demands justice for brutalised member

T

HE Lagos wing of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) is calling for the prosecution of a parent who sent hoodlums to beat up a teacher at Keke Senior High School, Agege, last Friday.

The attack on Mr Musbau Olubiyi left him in need of medical attention after about 40 thugs were said to have descended on him with a woman hitting him with a charm.

The attack was said to have been a revenge on Olubiyi for flogging an SS2 pupil the previous day.

According to Olubiyi’s colleague, the female pupil was flogged by the Mathematics teacher for an offence and it was alleged that she could not sit down properly afterwards.

He said: “The girl was flogged by the teacher and was said to be unable to sit for three periods afterwards. The mother then sent thugs to our school the next day.

A woman among them hit the teacher with a charm and he fell down; they then started beating him. It took the intervention of the NUT before the hoodlums were arrested by the police.

“But after the police had left, they regrouped and came back to the school to look for the man.

The police had to return. Our students felt insulted that the school was invaded in such a manner.

They wanted to fight but we stopped them. If that had happened, there would have been a blood bath,” the teacher said.

The third NUT Vice-Chairman for Agege, Mr Dayo Okunuga,

•Olubiyi

By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie

who teaches at the nearby Sango Senior Secondary School, said when he arrived the school, he ef-

fected the arrest of some of the thugs who the teachers caught while Olubiyi was taken to the General Hospital, Ifako-Ijaiye.

He also said the mother of the pu-

Gospel singer Kefee remarries

L

ESS than two months after her ex-husband, Alec Godwin tied the nuptial knot; sensational gospel singer Kefee Obaretin has given marriage a second chance.

The singer, whose first marriage collapsed due to what was termed ‘irreconcilable differences’, got married to Radio producer, Teddy Esosa Don-Momoh (popularly known as Da Fresh Prince) of Star FM 101.5.

The secret ceremony took place last Saturday in Sapele, Delta State.

Alec, who was the first to take the bold step four years after their dramatic divorce tale, got married on January 28, in the presence of few family members and friends. He

By Mercy Michael

immediately changed his profile picture on the Facebook to that of his beautiful bride with the inscription: “My Love” while his status has also been changed to “Married”.

The union between Godwin and Kefee collapsed irretrievably in 2008 after about nine years of togetherness following allegations of battery and infidelity among others.

Both had met in a church in Sapele where Godwin was a choirmaster and Kefee, a chorister before they both moved to Lagos. While they were together, Kefee produced two critically-acclaimed albums, Branama and Branama (II) under her ex-husband’s music label.

•Kefee and Don-Momoh

pil was arrested.

He said: “When I got to the school, the teacher could not walk.

His body had to be massaged in the principal’s office before he could even stand up. He was rushed to the general hospital.

Though he has been discharged, he is still in serious pains. We were able to arrest two thugs at first. While they were giving statement at the police station, we received a call that another 20 thugs went back to the school, and the police then went back to make another round of arrests.

“The mother of the pupil came later and claimed to have sent them only to make a report and not to beat the teacher. She was arrested, but I do not know whether she is still in custody.”

Okunuga condemned the parent for taking laws into her hands rather than following appropriate channels to register her complaints. He called on the government to secure schools, and urged the police to ensure prosecution of the woman and the hoodlums to avoid a repeat of the incidence.

“We are asking that the culprits be brought to book, including the mother. I don’t know the level of damage to the child that should warrant such an action. We are not saying the teacher should beat to the point of injuring a child. But even if it happens, there are appropriate channels to follow and the teacher would be sanctioned.

“Government should beef up security in schools. If they get away with this it will happen next time,” he said.

T LEAST two persons were confirmed to have died yesterday following the clash of two rival miscreant groups at Sangrose area of Lagos Island.

The street urchins it was gathered, went on rampage, after the burial of a member allegedly killed by a rival group.

Over 20 persons were allegedly injured while shops and more than 14 vehicles were damaged at Okesuna, Lafiaji and Sangrose.

Some motorists abandoned their vehicles as they scampered for safety, while shops that were abandoned by their owners were looted by the hoodlums.

It was gathered that passersby were not spared as they were robbed by the rampaging hoodlums.

The fracas which started around 1pm, lasted till about 3pm, when policemen led by Deputy Commissioner of Police Tunde Sobulo, arrived the scene.

According to command spokesman, Jaiyeoba Joseph, nobody was killed in the incident.

He described the incident as disturbance of public peace.

He said,”Some miscreants while returning from the Cemetary where they had gone to bury the dead member, who was allegedly ambushed and killed early yesterday, embarked on a reprisal attack in the area, inflicting harm on innocent citizens at Okesuna, Lafiaji and Sangrose areas. ‘’The attack caused pandemonium in the affected areas. The police were quickly drafted to the scene.

“Shops, offices and other business entities that were earlier closed are now opened’’.

Joseph said no arrest was made and he advised people to go about their legitimate businesses in the area The PPRO noted that the Sobulo has visited the area for an on-thespot assessment.

He explained that policemen are still on ground to maintain peace and the area.

Lagos begins audit of projects in local govts

By Miriam Ndikanwu

I

N a move to uphold public trust and accountability at the grassroots, the Lagos State Government has flagged off the inspection and monitoring of capital projects being implemented by the 20 local government areas and the 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs).

Permanent Secretary and Auditor-General for Local Government, Mr. Mubashiru Hassan, who flagged off the exercise at Amuwo- Odofin Local Government Area, explained that emphasis will be made on the process leading to the awards of the projects.

All measures according to him will help to ascertain whether the projects have budgetary provision, the existence of the projects and their quality, among other things.

Besides, he said the audit will hold public office holders accountable to the electorate, adding that more qualified engineers had been drawn from the Ministries of Housing and Local Government & Chieftaincy Affairs; the Lagos State Development and Property Corporation (LSDPC), Lagos State Materials Testing Laboratory and representatives of the council areas to assist in the exercise.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

18

INSURANCE

NAICOM to auditors: be thorough T HE National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has urged external auditors to eradicate errors and wrong computations in the financial reports of insurance, reinsurance and brokerage firms.

NAICOM’s Deputy Commissioner Finance and Administration Mr George Onekhena, said the commission would not tolerate financial accounts that failed to meet the required standard.

He urged the auditors to be more careful in the auditing of financial reports of insurance.

Onekhena said: “Credibility of your firm is at stake here. If you sign and affix your stamp on any account, it is taken that such an account should be credible. But anything contrary to this will impact negatively on your credibility and could put you in trouble.”

He noted that auditors should be professional in their duties as clients look up to them for quality advice, adding that auditors are required to always advise their clients on doing the right thing.

Auditors, he said, are required to play a role in the industry’s transition and implementation of the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS), adding that insurance operators need to leverage on

Stories by Chuks Udo Okonta

the professional competence of their external auditors.

On efforts by NAICOM to ensure the actualisation of the IFRS, the Commissioner for Insurance, Mr Fola Daniel said the commission has been engaging operators, auditors, directors and management of companies on how to seamlessly migrate to the initiative.

He said two main outcomes have been reached by NAICOM and stakeholders on the initiative, adding that first, it was agreed that the market should adopt common approach to IFRS provided that such option will not place any individual company or the market at a competitive disadvantage domestically and internationally. Secondly, it was agreed that an accounting practices committee made up of the representative of NAICOM, insurers/reinsurers and external auditors should be set up.

The function of the committee is to address all accounting issues of concern to the industry including those emerging from IFRS standard setting process.

He said the board of directors of each company is responsible for the issuance of financial statements, and that consequently, both transition and sustenance of IFRS in accounting practices, should be a major item on directors’ agenda at this time.

Daniel noted that NAICOM’s decision to engage stakeholders was informed by the need not only to create awareness of the implication of IFRS for financial reporting responsibilities but also to acquaint them with the scale of change and the sense of urgency in the attention it deserves.

“Our expectation is that at the end of our engagements, the stakeholders will have sufficient level of understanding as to know what critical questions to ask and what steps to take in the bid to ensure that their companies successfully transit to and embed IFRS in their accounting practices within the timelines specified in the Nigerian Roadmap. While saying this, it is important to note that we are committed to supporting the stakeholders in the process. For this purpose, we have set up an IFRS help desk in the commission to address issues that companies may have in the process of transiting to IFRS,” he said.

Experts seek support for health insurance

D

EVELOPING and implementing a sustainable health care financing strategic framework is vital to health sector reforms, the Executive Secretary, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Mr Dogo Muhammed, has said.

Muhammed, represented by the General Manager, Planning Research and Monitoring, NHIS, Dr Kenneth Korve, said implementation of the framework would help to improve the health status of a majority of Nigerians. The Scheme, he added, has continued to perform its roles of co-ordinating and monitoring all the stakeholders under its coverage to ensure that they perform optimally to the expectations and within its operational guidelines.

He said: “Through the NHIS, the

government hopes to achieve more flexible, more innovative, and more competitive response to the health sector in order to : ensure that every Nigerian has access to good healthcare services; that families are protected from the financial hardships of huge medical bills; ensure equitable distribution of healthcare cost among different income groups; maintain high standards of health care delivery services; ensure efficiency in healthcare services; improve and harness private sector participation in the provision of health care services; ensure equitable distribution of health facilities within the Federation; ensure appropriate patronage of all levels of healthcare, and ensure the availability of funds to the health sector for improved services.”

IGI gets nod to underwrite agric

I

NDUSTRIAL and General Insurance Plc (IGI) has received green light of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) to add a range of new agricultural insurance products to its existing portfolio.

The new products, according to the company, include IGI Multiplier Crop Insurance, Plantation Fire Insurance, Bloodstock/Livestock Insurance, Poultry Insurance and Fishery/Fish Farm Insurance.

IGI’s Executive Director, Special Risks, Mr Olusina Elusakin, commended the commission for approving the new products, which, he said, would give farmers a new lease of life in terms of providing them financial support, where losses to crops and livestock arise from economic and natural hazards.

Elusakin said: “NAICOM deserves commendation for this initiative which is another clear demonstration of courage, purposeful leadership and foresight. It is a right step that has been long overdue. The new insurance products will boost agricultural production by encouraging farmers to venture with confidence into large-scale mechanised farming.

“The new products are insurancespecific to farmers. IGI is fully committed to the course of farmers who are exposed daily to uncertainties caused by economic and natural conditions. Farming is no doubt a very risky business, but we will guarantee farmers peace of mind. We will shield them from the crippling effects of adverse conditions that can cost them a season’s harvest.”

IEI donates to orphanages

I • Ms. Runa Alam, Director, GTAssur; Mrs. Olufunke Osibodu, Group Managing Director, Union Bank; Mr. Victor Osibodu, Chairman, GTAssur; Mr Oscar Onyema, CEO, Nigerian Stock Exchange and Mr Olusola Adeeyo, during a cocktail for GTAssur’s new board in Lagos.

Brokers intensify battle against quacks

T

HE Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) is to publish names of qualified brokers as part of efforts to sanitise the profession, its President Mrs Laide Osijo, has said.

Osijo said the council and the industry regulator, were poised to stem the activities of charlatans who give the profession a bad name.

She said: “In view of the need to affirm the provisions of the NCRIB Acts on registration of insurance brokers and eliminate the existence of charlatans from the insurance broking profession, NAICOM has continued to play complimentary roles in this area, which is most commendable. “NAICOM has forwarded a circular to all brokers operating with its licence but without NCRIB registration certificates to normalise their records with the council immediately. The council has also forwarded written circulars to all those affected to comply with the directive to avoid embarrassment as the council would soon public the names of all its members in some national dailies in adher-

ence to the law.”

She noted that the NCRIB law stipulates that “enlistment of an insurance broker with the NCRIB is a condition precedent to licensing by NAICOM”. She expressed misgivings that some companies have brazenly flouted the provision as specified in the law.

Osijo noted that the council has begun empowering its area committee, adding that would only record its expected goal of expanding the frontier of public awareness on insurance broking if the area committee and chapters which are closed to the grassroots are committed and vibrant.

She called on brokers to be committed to professionalism to deepen their businesses, adding that only professionals can withstand the present trend in insurance practice.

Meanwhile, for failure to meet the industry required standard licences some broking firm have been suspended. The public has been warned not to transact businesses with them. They are, ADS Insurance Brokers Limited, APL Insurance Bro-

NTERNATIONAL Energy Insurance has donated to three motherless babies’ homes in Lagos.

In a statement, the company said the exercise is its way of reducing the pains of the removal of fuel subsidy on January 1.

Priced items such as provisions, food and other commodities were donated to Little Saints orphanage at Palm Groove, Red Cross at Yaba and National had quarters and orphanage home at Ajah.

The matrons of the three orphanages expressed their gratitude to IEI. The company promised to make periodic visits to the homes.

Meanwhile, the company said it stands by the vision of Dr Jibunoh’s Fight Against Desert Encroachment (FADE), that is noted for extensive tree planting in the remote parts of Kano state to stem the tide of desert encroachment, which it has constantly sponsored across the Sahara desert.

High profile customers of some insurance firms Companies

Niger Insurance kers Limited, ASO Solid Insurance Limited, Bambi Insurance Broker Limited, CIB Insurance Broker Limited, Cachet Insurance Brokers Limited, Clown Field Royal Insurance Limited, Cobal Insurance Brokers, Col-Val Insurance Brokers, Commercial Marine Brokers and Consolidated Insurance Brokers. Other are International Energy Insurance Corporate Trust Insurance Limited, Delight Insurance Brokers Limited, Fair Deal Insurance Limited, First Cover Master Broker Limited, Goodgate Insurance Limited, Hope equity & Trust Brokers Limited, I B P C Insurance Brokers Limited and In- Leadway Assurance Nigerian land Insurance Brokers Limited, Ma Aji Insurance Brokers Limited. Also included in the last are Mark of Security Insurance Limited, Mbc Insurance Brokers Limited, Mecartend Insurance Brokers Limited, Megatech Insurance Brokers Limited, MultiLateral Insurance Brokers, Risk Guard Insurance Broker Limited and Royal Exchange Assurance others are Royal Trust Insurance Brokers Limited, Shield Insurance Broker Limited, Tulip Insurance Brokers Limited, Uni-Chartered Insurance Brokers, Unimag Insurance and United Modern Insurance Brokers.

Clients Ministry of Health Central Bank of Nigeria Nigeria Customs Chevron Mobil Conoil Oando NNPC Chevron Mobil Conoil Power Holding Company of Nigeria NIMASA NNPC Dangote Central Bank of Nigeria Federal Inland Revenue Service United Africa Company (UAC) Globacom Nigerian Police Nigeria Customs Nestle WAPCO Nigerian Breweries IBBI group Mobil Chevron

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

19

EDITORIAL/OPINION EDITORIAL FROM OTHER LAND

COMMENT

Staying out of Syria’s conflict

Unmanageable petrol price •Federal Government can’t put a handle on the energy situation as high prices, scarcity continue

T

HINGS have never been the same again since the January 1 rude awakening when the Federal Government greeted the nation with a shocking fuel price hike. The price of premium motor spirit (petrol) had been increased to N141.00 per litre at the dawn of this year, from N65.00. Upon a spirited protest by Nigerians, the price had been cut back to the current N97.00. However, apart from a few states like Lagos, it has since been a tale of woes for commuters and motorists alike.

In Akwa Ibom State, a major oilproducing state, it was reported last week that price of petrol had hit N150.00. Apart from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) mega stations which

‘The situation in Nigeria’s oil industry today is a national disgrace, to put it mildly.

Despite the fact that key products like diesel, kerosene and now, petrol, have been supposedly, de-subsidised and deregulated, confusion reigns supreme and nobody seems to be in charge or have a clue as to what to do to get the sector functioning. The gravity of this problem becomes frightening when we remember that this industry is the life wire of the economy’

sold at the recommended pump price, most of the outlets of the independent marketers were dispensing fuel at prices ranging between N120.00 to N150.00.

The major marketers like Total, Oando, African Petroleum and Mobil were altogether, under lock and key, the report from Uyo, stated. It was the same story in all the states of the south-south, the south-east, Abuja and the North.

Ironically, for about five years, from 2007 when the N65.00 price regime prevailed, Nigerians enjoyed a period of availability and price stability. Now it would seem that the increase by a whopping N32.00 per litre has brought an unsavoury augury on the system instead of gearing an improvement. This current situation seems to repudiate the postulations of government that deregulation would engender a proper interplay of market forces which would enhance efficiency, ensure product adequacy while stabilising price.

None of these is happening now and officials of petroleum agencies don’t seem to have any coherent answers for a bewildered populace. And for that matter, there has grown an unwieldy chain of agencies in the oil sector which must be stumbling over each other to get anything done. There is a very large and bogus Ministry of Petroleum Resources, (MPR) which ought to oversee the industry; there is the rotten behemoth known as the NNPC; the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC); the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency, (PPPRA) and the Department of Petroleum Resources,

(DPR) which ought to be the upstream and downstream monitoring and regulatory arm of the oil industry.

As if all these bodies which lug huge bureaucracies in themselves were not enough, the Federal Government, working through the petroleum minister recently set in motion, three large committees which are set to jump into the fray and splash about in the murky waters of Nigeria’s oil industry. The result of all these bodies and ongoing probes in the National Assembly for the populace since the beginning of this year have been pain, scarcity and spiralling inflation. Nobody can explain to Nigerians why it has become impossible now to make PMS available to them in spite of the huge cutback on the so-called subsidy on the product.

The situation in Nigeria’s oil industry today is a national disgrace, to put it mildly. Despite the fact that key products like diesel, kerosene and now, petrol, have been supposedly, de-subsidised and deregulated, confusion reigns supreme and nobody seems to be in charge or have a clue as to what to do to get the sector functioning. The gravity of this problem becomes frightening when we remember that this industry is the life wire of the economy; again, Nigerians after the January showdown are expecting palliative measures promised by the government and not another price hike by stealth.

We had suggested that the President must wield the axe. The solution to this crisis, we insist, may not be too far from a proper cleanout of the oil house.

South West integration •More business, less politics

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R. Kayode Fayemi, governor of Ekiti State, gave the management of Oodua Investment Ltd, the business conglomerate owned by Ekiti, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo states, rave reviews, after the firm’s shareholders’ meeting on February 28. That is good news, given the firm’s rather parlous performance over the years.

But what really captured the headlines was the presence at the meeting of Dr. Segun Mimiko, governor of Ondo State, the only one, of the five governors, outside the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), dominant political party in the South West.

That proved that in the nitty-gritty of naira and kobo, partisan political differences disappear. Mimiko’s government had earlier given the idea a partisan rebuff.

Here is to believe that he is now bornagain. That is how it should be, particularly in the more ennobling and economically beneficial agenda of regional integration, on which there is a practical challenge of how to manage partisan political differences to arrive at an agreed end of regional integration.

Indeed, that all the five governors were present showed they would rather put their mouth where their money is. So, if South West regional integration must successfully take off and eventually succeed, every of the five South West states must regard it as more of business than politics, though it is in politics that the will to make it succeed lies.

Besides, while the integration programme starts with fusing policies and synergising programmes to derive

maximum benefits from economies of scale – all of these steeped in the political plane – the Oodua business template offers a parallel window to let in the private sector into the integration project.

The Oodua holdings paradigm is government-led business. True, that model has not achieved maximum benefits in terms of return on investment, superb work ethics and operational efficiency in the classical sense of the word. But it has at least jump-started businesses and created some jobs, even if on the whole the business could still be better run.

But if Governor Fayemi’s praise for the Oodua Investment management is anything to go by, it would appear the company could be a useful tool for the envisaged South West economic integration, particularly in those ventures where the South West governments hope to pool capital for common projects.

The holding company’s investment in property is said to have hit N76 billion, if property built and managed by Wemabod Estates are factored into the mix. That would appear impressive. But beyond a big figure, it does little to show the real health of the business: the return on investment, profitability ratio, work ethic and even maintenance culture over the years. If this holding firm is to play any part in the integration era, the owner states must ensure the company focuses on these key areas and attain best global practices in each. That is the only way it can be relevant in the scheme of things to come.

But the Oodua model is only government-led investment. For regional economic integration to produce the anticipated results in terms of massive job creation and widespread prosperity, the integration of the private sector is crucial. The South West states should therefore shun partisan motives and pool resources to make laws that would create region-wide investment-friendly environment.

That way, South West regional integration would be driven on three main windows: direct government investment in physical and social infrastructure as in roads, rail, schools, hospitals and the like; government-led investment, of which Oodua Investment is an example; and full-fledged privatesector investments in different economic sectors, that would drive most of the anticipated jobs to be created.

‘But if Governor Fayemi’s praise for the Oodua Investment management is anything to go by, it would appear the company could be a useful tool for the envisaged South West economic integration, particularly in those ventures where the South West governments hope to pool capital for common projects’

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S horrible as the events there are, American intervention is not the answer, at least not now.

The situation in Syria is deteriorating. More than 7,500 people have died in the ongoing conflict between the regime of President Bashar Assad and its opponents.

The government has shown little mercy, brutally barraging cities such as Homs with shells and rockets; on Thursday, activists said that 17 more people had been killed in the Baba Amr neighborhood of the city, where hundreds have died during a massive monthlong onslaught.

As the toll mounts, so do the heart-rending appeals to the world’s conscience: urgent calls for aid, for arms, for military backing to help protect endangered civilians and to assist rebels waging a courageous struggle against a repressive despot.

But as horrible as the events in Syria are, and despite the recurring analogies to genocide in Rwanda and massacres in Bosnia, American intervention is not the answer, at least not now. Whether and when to become enmeshed in another country’s military conflict are among the most difficult questions nations face, and the inclination to move hesitantly and carefully is a sensible one. Even though it is widely acknowledged that Assad is a tyrant and that the bodies piling up are those of victims rather than aggressors, there are plenty of reasons why it might be a mistake for the United States to swoop in with planes or troops, to drop bombs or occupy cities, or even to arm rebels from offstage in an effort to force Assad out of power.

It’s easy enough for President Obama’s critics to describe him as paralyzed or weak-kneed or unable to enforce the nation’s will on its enemies. But the situation is more complicated than that kind of analysis suggests.

Going to war is not a simple matter of identifying wrongdoers and confronting them at any cost. Remember that there was a wrongdoer in Iraq — Saddam Hussein, who imprisoned, tortured and killed hundreds of thousands of his countrymen — yet armed “regime change” in retrospect appears to have been a tragic misstep that came at great cost and yielded questionable benefits. Toppling the Taliban in Afghanistan seemed like a favor to the people of that country when the United States undertook it, yet it too is beginning to seem like a wasted effort. Some say the NATO mission in Libya was more of a success, but frankly, history has yet to judge it.

War is not something to blunder into blithely, and no country — no matter how powerful — can solve all the problems of all the countries in the world. So when is it right to go to war? We’ve said before that we like the formulation of Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, who distinguishes between “wars of necessity” — those prompted by an invasion or other direct threat to vital national interests — and “wars of choice,” which are not inherently good or bad but ought to be rare and ought to be undertaken only if they can be reasonably assumed to accomplish more than they cost.

In the case of a war of choice waged primarily for humanitarian reasons, there are a number of rules that should guide American engagement, in our view. The provocation must be deemed severe enough to justify putting American lives at risk: Genocide, for example, shouldn’t be allowed to continue just because its perpetrator invokes national sovereignty. Before an intervention begins, policymakers should determine that all the alternatives short of war have been exhausted. If the plan is to aid a rebel group, as in Libya or, potentially, Syria, planners should be sure of who those new allies are and what they stand for. Countries should seek the widest possible support before committing troops or resources; Obama was right to insist on the backing of the U.N. Security Council and the Arab League before taking action in Libya.

Where possible, intervention should be undertaken by multilateral organizations rather than individual nations.

Once war is underway, planners should set narrowly tailored, definable and achievable aims.

As the U.S. has been reminded in recent years, there should also be a credible exit plan and a strategy for a war’s aftermath. Nation-building requires a commitment of time and great resources. Though policymakers sometimes forget it, wars pile on debt for future generations to pay.

These conditions have not been met in Syria. This is not a war of necessity for the United States; our vital national interests are not in danger. To justify American involvement — limited or otherwise — policymakers have yet to answer a number of questions. Have all diplomatic alternatives been exhausted? Can Russia and China be won over? What is the objective, the strategy, the end game?

In recent years, the United Nations has enunciated a

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

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EDITORIAL/OPINION

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IR: I write you this open letter as a passionate indigene of the state who places the development of the state far and above partisan politics which seems to be the only thriving business in the state.

I am adequately aware that you have won so many awards from sundry organisations for good performance as governor. That said, I am afraid, some of these awards and the money that went into collecting them could have been used to further develop the state. The awards are your personal accomplishments and do not in any significant way reflect the actualisation of the collective aspirations of the dear people of the state.

Your Excellency, the Mother and Child Hospital in Akure is a welcome relief to mitigating the high rates of mortality cases in Akure and the adjoining towns and villages.

But then, there are so many cities needing such a hospital in the state.

At least, for the sake of even development and the need to strengthen healthcare delivery in other places in the state, Ikare in Ikare- Akoko and Okitipupa in Ikale and Ilaje land deserve to have a hospital of that nature. Ondo State has the money to carry out these laudable projects; you only have to block leakages and streamline the cost of governance in the state.

Sir, your mega school project is a laudable project; it is however an ill-timed and a misplaced priority.

It is ill-timed because, the project is not fundamental to revamping the comatose educational system in the state. It is a misplaced priority because there are numerous primary schools in the state that are not worthy to be called learning centres.

The implication of this is that the

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Open letter to Governor Mimiko leaders of tomorrow you whose future you are so much concerned about is already being mortgaged.

When the rainy season begins fully, you will see what I am talking about. Sir, hurry up to change the ugly faces of these schools. The secondary schools need functional libraries and laboratories. I implore you to check the overall performance of our students in national examinations in the last three years.

You may publish your findings for us to see.

The university in Akungba needs more physical development and capable lecturers to impart knowledge to the students. More should

be done on their academic curriculum so that graduates from the school can compete anywhere in the world. The same thing applies to Rufus Giwa polytechnic. At best, it is a glorified college. The state university of science and technology in Okitipupa is yet to take off in its permanent site. The state is rich enough to maintain and sustain two quality universities to give more access to our people seeking higher education. Education is central to the development of any society. As I write this, primary school teachers are still on strike. Sir, why should this be?

Sir, I am aware you recently got

some 37 billion naira from the Nigerian capital market. We are yet to see the impact of this money in our various localities. Or is it being invested on our behalf? The people deserve to know. This is democracy.

The era of secrecy in government is gone.

What about job creation? Well, I may excuse you that responsibility because it is no longer within the purview of modern governments to create jobs for their teeming citizenry. But I do know that your government can partner with the private sector to bring investments to the state. So many of our youths are jobless and need something to en-

Federal Road Safety Corps and corruption

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IR: No right-thinking Nigerian will not feel dismayed hearing the FRSC talk of issuing new driving licenses.

Indeed I expressed both disgust and objection the very first time I heard about it about a year ago or so. Not long after that, the FRSC decided to issue also new number plates.

The implication is that the FRSC authority was thinking of nothing but how to dip its fingers into Nigeria’s treasury and also extort money from Nigerians by all means. That of course is the order of the day.

I went through the hell of renewing my license. I was asked to pay N500 or go to the FRSC website to generate the form to be filled. I reasoned that I was betteroff financially visiting the website.

On getting there, the form I got was much more difficult than filling a British visa form. A colleague told me what they would generate at the licensing office was different.

At the licensing office, the lady at the counter explained why I had to pay N1000 to get the form. I paid it because I was tired of frustration. I discovered that hardly anybody but

the FRSC agent stationed in the licensing office knew the links to the right form on the website. He/she was the person entrusted with the right links, and so the journey to a new driver-license or its renewal had a built-in corruption.

Otherwise, a four-page form will not sell for N500 or N1000, depending on who you knew or who your guide was.

There was a form I had to collect after payment in the bank, and I was not given; I had to go back, etc. The endeavour was full of potholes and bumps which made me to anticipate

South Africa’s maltreatment of Nigerians

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IR When South Africa was under white minority rule and there was clamour for majority black to have a say in their affairs, Nigerians in their millions were at the fore front of liberating our brothers in that country, hence the moral and financial support extended to them to ensure they were not alone in their struggle for independence.

gage their idle hands and brains. At the last count, at least, we know the number of times you have travelled out of the country to look for foreign investors. I must admit that we are yet to see any appreciable correlation between your numerous travels and development in the state.

Credit must be given to your government for the relative peace we are enjoying in the state.That does not mean there are no occasional breakdown of law and order.

Armed robbers come in and rob easily once in a while. Political violence is on the rise again and fingers are being pointed at your party.

How true is this? We want to see your party preach and practise peace in the forthcoming electioneering.

Ondo state belongs to everybody and in the quest to develop it; everyone is an equal participant. But then, the leader has to show the direction.

• Akinboyo Temidayo, Igbotako, Ondo state.

The recent deportation of some Nigerians from South Africa for not having yellow fever vaccination card is form of ingratitude to a sister country.

South Africa should understand the Nigeria’s important role in Africa and world both economically and politically; they should understand the vast investment they have in Nigeria where they are

monopolising the telecommunications sector and the electronic media with MTN and DSTV having been accepted as household name in Nigeria.

Whatever differences both countries have with each other as regard the problems of leadership of A.U. as regard the issue of the scribe of the continental body should be resolved in mutual

understanding not extending this to their helpless citizens who go about doing their legitimate business.

South Africa and Nigeria should partner together to promote mutual cooperation that would see their citizens lives harmoniously in their different countries without any form of molestation.

• Bala Nayashi Lokoja, Kogi State

that when our big men and women travel through that hell, the road would be closed for being dangerous and hazardous. That is what the National Assembly has done asking the FRSC to stop the nonsense.

I got the new driver-license when the one I had expired, but I thank God I won’t have to get a new number plate for my old car. Why should Nigeria keep distracting herself from focusing on the pressing issues of water, road, electricity, etc?

Why focus on changing passports, licenses, number plates and what have you, as if changing clothes?

I reacted the same way on the talk about new national identity card.

Not long ago, President Olusegun Obasanjo did one, so why a completely new one so soon? Thank God the National Assembly ruled it out. Prof. Maurice Iwu did a voters’ register, and his successor, Prof.

Muhammadu Attahiru Jega got about a hundred billion naira to start a fresh one. When will Nigeria stop doing things the wishy-washy way?

• Pius Oyeniran Abioje, Ph. D, University of Ilorin.

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

EDITORIAL/OPINION

Nigeria1999-2012: the years of failure; To Keep Nigeria One; Third Oil Windfall!

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HAT a burden Nigerians are placed under?

The burden is too high, the price too great, the benefit too little of being in Nigeria under a ‘unity’ Tony without justice. Our Marinho political and economic criminals, like Ibori, have to be exported to London to be convicted. But there are Iboris everywhere in Nigeria, unpunished. Only the Nigerian people pay and are punished for this theft. Instead of taxes, Nigerians deserve ‘citizens’ bonus’ for the stolen money.

Name one benefit of being a Nigerian. O yes, Nigeria buries you well like Dim Emeka Ojukwu-a really great Nigerian.

We praise the dead having oppressed them while alive. Where in Nigeria is Ojukwu Highway or university, named while he was alive? It is a strange country where you have to die to live on, while identified criminals and those of questionable character have boulevards, barracks, banquet halls and stadia abused with their name!

Well, Ojukwu is dead of natural causes, RIP. Will the first Nigerian Civil War be finally declared over? Will the victors finally hands off the strangled federation and allow strong regions with a weaker federal centre run with 25%, not 52%, of the budget? The activities of Boko Haram, bombing civilians and destroying schools, are truly instructive and destructive.

When all the money given to each state and LGA is added since 1999, every state and LGA received far more than audited infrastructure accounts for. Too much money goes back to the political party hierarchy as direct payments and as inflated, often unexecuted, contracts, in mafia style compulsory gratitude party loyalties like ‘party royalties’ for being in power and election engineering.

The poverty in the North has nothing to do with poor budgetary allocations. During the last 30 years the lopsided state and LGA fiscal allocations and PTF and ETF allocations have guaranteed large excess funds for the North from ‘ethnic’ fiscal mischief. The poverty is from systematic

institutionalised theft, not a shortage of funds, with diversion of state and LGA incomes from the federal government by party cadres and government functionaries. Educational, health and agricultural infrastructure and salaries/pensions suffered and they refused to employ and empower indigenous manpower.

Is Boko Haram partly a reaction of this chronic underdevelopment and theft compounded by political mischief? Now schools are now being vengefully destroyed

by Boko Haram. Of course, mega-theft is universal, crossparty and cross-ethnic in Nigerian politics.

National Conference - Sovereign or not-, a return to regionalisation, rewriting the military imposed constitution and even splitting and balkanisation beckon as the centenary of Nigeria’s colonially enforced imposed amalgamation approaches in 2014. Disenfranchised Nigerians ask ‘What is so good about Nigeria and being Nigerian that Nigeria should continue?’ Football? The nearly 500 or so ‘elected’ politicians in NASS, to remain relevant in the renewed political debate, must each engage in this new democracy dialogue as participants and not as political masters listening to the ‘stupid people’ or they may soon have no NASS to go back to.

This is not the time for the routine political arrogance of Nigeria’s political class. If so, they risk being sidelined in the coming ‘evolution’ in Nigeria. The old ways are dead and cannot be resurrected. For every Boko Haram person, there are thousands silent but demanding change. Military unity may have forcibly held Nigeria together but it has failed Nigeria by ruining its economy, education and infrastructure and strangled its potential. Now, 13 years of military-led political monopoly, democracy has also almost failed. There must be a new approach to how ‘To Keep Nigeria One’ using love, justice and anti-corruption, not laws or force. Almost every Nigerian of every age is asking if ‘To Keep Nigeria One’ is really a ‘Task that Must Be Done’ in 2012. Of course, your thieving LGA chairman or state governor is not an ‘ethnic foreigner’, so there is trouble ahead, whether Nigeria stays together or is forced apart. The enemy is within your ethnic group. Most Nigerians encounter corruption not in Abuja but in their LGA and state secretariat by their own ethnic group. So breaking up Nigeria will not kill the corruption

monster in your LGA. But the threat of a breakup may bring about an equitable Nigeria. It takes 13 years to give us just 4,000Mw when Japan got replacement power for its nuclear plant losses in three months. Nigeria is in permanent crisis but is treated with levity by government which reject internationally available short term emergency measures like solar power to alleviate our suffering.

All Nigerians, especially the truly suffering poverty-struck 112m living on less than $1/day, should please note that the current oil price is light crude $108 and Brent $126/barrel.

This is 40- 70% higher than the budget price of about $70/ barrel. At 2.5+mbd that is an extra earnings of $33-51/barrel or $82-127m/day nearly an extra dollar a day per Nigerian.

Assuming a 10% cost of oil extraction/production Nigeria should make an extra, unbudgeted, $70-110m/day or N10.516.5 billion/day. Nigeria is not poor. If it was poor could Abacha, Ibori, the N16b pension thieves and 10,000 others ‘thieving Fellow Nigerians’, all sworn to service, steal or mismanage 50% of the budgets at all levels and Nigeria still survive? God keeps making us wealthy but the ‘Thieving Fellow Nigerians’ keep us poor. So why is Nigeria borrowing from the WB or IMF? Let Nigeria lend itself this new ‘Third oil windfall’ money before the money disappears again.

‘Now, 13 years of military-led political monopoly, democracy has also almost failed. There must be a new approach to how ‘To Keep Nigeria One’ using love, justice and anti-corruption, not laws or force.

Almost every Nigerian of every age is asking if ‘To Keep Nigeria One’ is really a ‘Task that Must Be Done’ in 2012’

Sharing the ‘Cake’

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OVERNOR Babangida Aliyu of Niger State is an interesting personality.

Since he became governor in 2007, he has remained consistently vocal on national issues even if it means that his views could sometimes be contrary to what the conservative North holds. Whatever anybody thinks of him, Aliyu is one governor who cannot be gagged as it were. But the recent outburst of the governor on the issue of a new revenue formula for the country is one controversy that will subsist for God knows how long.

Aliyu fired the salvo at the recent inauguration of the Advisory Council of the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation. In his speech, the governor, who is the chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum, lamented what he described as a skewed revenue formula that favoured the Southsouth at the expense of the North.

He also called for a review of the consideration of the assignment of oil revenues in the continental shelf.

Aliyu’s demand for a review of the country’s revenue allocation is in tandem with earlier insinuation made by the petite and equally controversial Lamido Sanusi Lamido, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Lamido had linked the ongoing senseless massacre in the North by the Boko Haram Islamic group to poverty. According to him, this poverty arose from the alleged lopsidedness of revenue to the South. If you do not want to refer to Aliyu and Sanusi as “two of a kind”,

there is no doubting the fact that the two highly-placed northerners may have spoken the minds of their brethren up north.

Expectedly, these views, particularly the ones expressed by Aliyu, have ignited an inferno in the form of condemnations, accusations and counter-accusations by people who felt that such comments were unfair to the South-south region of Nigeria where 90 per cent of the country’s revenue is derived from.

Currently, the revenue allocation formula favours the Federal Government which takes over 50 percent while the state and local governments share the rest with 13 percent allocated to the oilproducing states as derivation.

Going by the ranging arguments on this issue, it is safe to conclude that nobody is against the review of the nation’s revenue sharing formula; the main point is how such a review would be effected. Those who feel that the North needs more money are right. So also are those who feel that the South-south, a region considers as the goose that lays the golden egg, deserves more.

But it is regrettable that the whole arguments boil down to cake sharing while nobody is actually talking about cake baking.

For several years now, the arguments in the country have been skewed in favour of cake sharing to the detriment of efforts directed at baking the cake in the first instance.

I personally believe that over 50 percent revenue that is currently cornered by the federal government is unthinkable and no longer

‘Going by the ranging arguments on the issue, it is safe to conclude that nobody is against the review of the nation’s revenue sharing formula; the main point is how such a review would be effected’

justifiable in view of recent realities.

For quite some time, the federal government has operated like a “Father Christmas” of a sort with the stupendous and scandalous wealth at its disposal.

I quite agree that the federal government should shed some financial weight by increasing allocation to states and local governments. But then, can the states and local governments properly account for what has been disbursed to them in the past? Not quite. Past allocations to states and local governments have either ended up in private bank accounts or spent on many elephant projects that are in turn inflated to give room for embezzlement of funds.

Today, it is quite easy for the North to call for a review of the present revenue sharing formula, but have they forgotten that they have benefited more than their counterparts in the southern part of the country? Let us consider the spread of local governments. It is obvious that the creation of local governments in the country has been skewed in favour of a particular section of the country. That is why each time population census is carried out in the country, the figures are manipulated to favour that particular section. This is one way to justify the huge allocation of local governments to this part of the country.

Let us also look at the issue of Value Added Tax, otherwise known as VAT. It is obvious that VAT revenue collection is far higher in the southern part of the country than the North. The reason is simple.

Whereas in the South all manners of business, including hotels, bars and others are allowed to flourish without hindrance, such things are alien to the North through the instrumentality of the Sharia law.

Consequently, the consumption tax that is paid in the South is very high,

while in the North, it is too little. At the end of the day, the revenue accrued through VAT all over the country is pooled together and shared equitably without due regard to those whose areas have contributed more.

Closely related to VAT is the issue of Internally Generated Revenue, IGR. Lagos, with its ever-increasing population, has 20 local governments and 36 Local Council Development Areas, LCDAs. The idea behind the LCDAs arose from the insistence that the state cannot create local governments as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution.

As a way out of the logjam, the state had to revert to the original 20 local governments, out of which 36 LCDAs were then carved out for administrative convenience. Sadly, while such a densely populated state as Lagos has 20 local governments, Kano State has 46 local governments. Even Jigawa State, which was carved out of old Kano State, currently has 26 local councils.

So in any case, while a state like Lagos generates something in the neighbourhood of N14 billion as monthly IGR, none of the states in the North can match it or even generate half of that. The only major source of revenue to these states is the monthly handout in the form of allocation from the Federation Account to the states. Some of the states have got used to this monthly ritual that they are no longer looking inwards to boost their IGR. That is source of the problem.

Besides, while the South is growing its economy, and paying attention to the education of its populace, the North seems contented with ploughing their energy into religion and ‘breeding’ Almajiris. It is these Almajiris that have become foot solders for Boko Haram insurgents.

The fact is that even if the present

Dele Agekameh revenue formula is reviewed and the states have more money to spend, the economic gap between the North and the South will still be there. For one, nobody can abrogate the 13 percent derivation. It can only increase. It is in this vein that I align myself with the argument of those who are calling for fiscal federalism as a way out of the perennial agitation for a review of revenue sharing formula.

True fiscal federalism means that whatever resources are found in any state or region will be the property of such state or region, which will then control the revenue from such resources and only pay tax to the federal government. If this is put in place, then the onus will be on the states to scamper to develop their revenue base or IGR instead of waiting to share a dwindling cake via the Federation Account every month. I am sure, if this comes into force, many of those now falling over themselves to contest for such elective office as governors or local government chairmen will do a rethink as many of them are only interested in what they get from the common wealth rather than what they can bring to the table!

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

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EDITORIAL/OPINION FROM THE CELL PHONE ‘I read your so-calld eulogy on Ojukwu. It is a pity that you see the sacrifices of the people’s General through the eyes of opportunism.

Ojukwu’s candour and selflessness as a leader are only surpassed by Mandela in Africa. You may accuse great leaders like Zik or Awolowo of opportunism, but not this Crusader for Justice. For your information, Ojukwu foiled the January 1966 coup as Governor of Northern Nigeria but later recognised it because the most senior officer took over.

From Ugochukwu C. Kanu, PortHarcourt’

• Jonathan

For Segun Gbadegesin I want to thank you for the article in The Nation of 27/1/12. Today, inflation is up 40% after subsidy removal. Subsidy advocates like Ngozi Okonjo, Diezani AllisonMadueke and Sanusi Lamido are supposed to be thrown out. Please, continue to use your column to fight for the people. From Peter Re: “Who is afraid of regional integration?” The present unitary system is not working to the advantage of the majority because the constitution, on which it runs, was concocted! Now, if we are afraid of talking, why should a matter so simple as regional integration attract such bizzare and acìdic verbal scrimmages from diverse and obviously ambiguous minds? What is salient is that those afraid of integration are afraid for their political and business lives, for the status quo, built and managed in fraud, guarantees a good and easy life for them. Any other option sends them into oblivion and their politics and businesses into extinction. You will agree with me that a person facing this kind of future needs to be afraid or won’t you? From Kayode A., Abeokuta.

Let it not be said that Nigerians cannot identify good heads; when we do, with excitement we say “that is a good head, let’s crush it”. That is the reality of our nation.

Anti-integration crusaders are doing so for the same reason they are against true federalism and sovereign national conference. From Dr. Cy. Nwanodi, PortHarcout, Rivers State.

Forget the so-called ultra-nationalists, Prof.

They are ultra-hypocrites! Check-out their pedigree. They fester issues of disintegration more than any group in the nation depending on where the ‘food’ is. For them, Nigeria must be together by all means to guarantee their unfettered access to the dirty lucre they live on. And the provider? Oil revenue which must go to the centre in Abuja where it is ‘shared’. That will stop if the regions or states take charge of their resources. So, let them cry their eyes out.

They can do nothing when the ‘show’ begins, because it’s not going to be in the Southwest only. From Olu. We should appreciate the coming together of Southwest governors rather than criticise them, if other regions can also come together they will be able to solve one problem or the other because an adage says united will stand divided we fall. Anonymous Those who oppose progressive ideas like regional integration are the enemies of Nigeria. They are professional looters of National treasury so they will resist such ideas. So long as Nigeria exists only on a map and not in the minds of Nigerians, they are happy. From Odom Desmond, Okija, Anambra State Re:“Who is afraid of regional intergration?” I must commend you for this fine article. Every rational being should condenm the stand of the ultra-nationalists who do not see anything good in the efforts of the Southwest Governors in the intergration of the region. They can say whatever they like, the summit has come to stay as long as the ACN is still in power in the region. You see, the human tongue is a

beast only a few can master. It strives constantly to break out of its cage, and if it is not tamed, it will run wild and cause a lot of grief. To those who are criticising the summit, I mean the opposition, they are envious and jittery of the giant strides, progress and benefits that await the people of the region. Power cannot accrue to those who squander their treasure of words. The people of the region must not allow a political party that is antagonistic to the economic and political development of the region to come to power again, by default in future because, any progress made economically now will be abandoned by these conservative brigands in politics. As a matter of fact, the progress we had made in the educational sector since 1955 to date, should be sustained and extended to other sectors, especially power, water resources and intergrated rural development. Poverty is rendering our people useless and hopeless. Efforts should be made through the provision of employment to reduce the poverty level of our youths who are massively unemployed. From Prince Adewumi Agunloye.

Your article “Who is afraid of regional integration?” is a very wonderful piece. The matter is as clear as you put it. America with its size has just 50 states. Not just that our states are not economically viable, they divide people who are culturally and linguistically one. The political structure as it presently exists is an affront to right reason, it is founded on injustice, averse to economic progress, and programmed for cultural annihilation, and is unsustainable.

Restructuring along the line you have outlined is ultimately inescapable. I commend the Southwest Governors who are here, again, setting the pace. The criticisms and objections can never be as strong as those that faced stronger revolutions that eventually prevailed in history. From Sylvester Okwudili, Abuja Prof, contrary to anti-developmental views of the reactionaries in the Southwest, integration will bring development and progress to the region and foster unity among the people of the region. Those opposed to integration are bereft of ideas and should be ignored. From Alh. Adeboye Lawal, Felele Ibadan.

We have been busy through the week because of Ojukwu’s burial. Sir, what you said remains the only solution to our nation’s problems. Having a weaker centre and stronger regions or states will bring to an end the problems of this nation. But, sir, my question is: is there any difference between what you and your people are agitating for now and what was agreed in Aburi, Ghana in 1967 by which your people joined hands with Boko Harams from the North and came to the East and slaughtered nearly three milion of my kinsmen. Will you be happy if I greet you good morning by 4pm? With tears, I say God bless you. From Chii, Kano For Olatunji Dare Re: “Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu”. A man who joined the Nigerian army as a recruit, with an Oxford degree is no mean man. A man who threw away opulence for servitude is a remarkable legend. As a great man, he made great mistakes but putting his people above himself is the story that made his life worth it’s verve; a story our rapacious rulers should learn from. I, therefore, salute his spirit with the following tribute, ‘rest in the light, Ikemba; sleep tight, Eze Gburugburu; good night, Christopher Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu’. From Kayode A., Abeokuta.

Ojukwu did not die a Biafran. The truth is that Nigeria harbours Biafra in the shape of

oppression of her people. And since Biafra still exists, does it matter whether Ojukwu is dead or not? From Amos Ejimonye, Kaduna Re: “Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu”. Election rigging denied Ojukwu a seat in the Second Republic Senate and perhaps a chance for Nigeria to practise true federalism since 1983.

Election rigging is a cancer every Nigerian must fight to eradicate in our polity. The dreams of Ojukwu for Nigeria will come true sooner than the riggers of elections think. Ojukwu lives on. From Effi, Calabar Your article is a pride for the black race which Ojukwu gave a scientific opportunity under Biafra; and we need to revist those feats. From Gerry Thank you, sir, for your piece on Ikemba.

It is a balanced short piece. For the benefit of some of us who have no access to historical materials, could it be possible for you to publish the Aburi conference speeches?

Anonymous From what I have read about Ojukwu, I am sure that his wish is that his people join or at least vote for the party (APGA) he so believed in while he was here. Anonymous Please, educate me on how the attempted invasion of Lagos was a great mistake by Ojukwu? What else do states at war do if not seek to subdue the other? From Ifeanyi.

In fact, Ojukwu was a great man. The man who believed in truth and action. So what Ojukwu did for the entire Igbo people, nobody can do again not only in Nigeria but in Africa as a whole. From Roger Milla.

I read your so-calld eulogy on Ojukwu. It is a pity that you see the sacrifices of the people’s General through the eyes of opportunism. Ojukwu’s candour and selflessness as a leader are only surpassed

by Mandela in Africa. You may accuse great leaders like Zik or Awolowo of opportunism, but not this Crusader for Justice. For your information, Ojukwu foiled the January 1966 coup as Governor of Northern Nigeria but later recognised it because the most senior officer took over.

From Ugochukwu C. Kanu, PortHarcourt.

All of you conveniently decided to forget the plight of ex-Biafran soldiers permanently abandoned at Orji River Camp by Ojukwu.

Selfless service my foot. Anonymous Your erudite article is incisive. Ojukwu was an enigma, an amazing icon and a celebrated legend who drew joyous ululation and jubilation in his homegoing. His funeral crowds were as unprecedented as it was when he returned in June, 1982 owing to his life of dedication to honesty, sacrifice, courage, justice and fairplay; the sublime virtues that still elude Nigeria! Like Moses, Ikemba dumped his oppulent pedigree for the truth. From Evang Ora Okechukwu.

Re: “Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu-1933 to 2011”. The late Emeka Ojukwu, no matter what any one thinks about having done things, was a frank, intelligent man and one who saw tomorrow. Nobody is infallible, so his mistake was common to all human beings. I respect him. May his soul rest in perfect peace, Amen. He was never a pretender. From Lanre Oseni, Lagos Your article on the late Dim Ojukwu will be incomplete without one of his major errors - the execution of Major Victor Banjo of blessed memory. In fact, both of them had common ideal and principle. From Omotayo Emma, Lagos Why write negative things about a dead man who is not there to defend himself? Any Yoruba man who died in Biafra died a useless death because he had no reason to be there then, and now they want Southwest unity and a true federal structure after selling their birth rights to the North in their greed to grab positions in FederalGovernment and the Military! Tinubu and Fashola are trying to rectify your positions with the Igbos and

• Ojukwu

you are here talking about Ikemba. What he fought against 45 years ago are still happening today. It is not only Igbos who are being killed, Yoruba corpers too in Bauchi and Jos! From Nnamdi, Owerri.

Thanks for your eulogy on Ojukwu. your words have become one of the sharpest these days! There is no doubt you were very cautious on your choice of words because that was not all you wanted to write if you had your way. Gowon was unleashing terror on the Igbos from Lagos, the seat of power then. It pleased you that the Igbos were being eclipsed by the Federal might.

You are just singing your victory song as anybody in your shoes would. History wrote it that way and that is the irony of life. From Gideon Ogbuke.

For Tunji Adegboyega Well done on your comment and analysis on “You be thief? I no be thief. Yes, I be thief” published in The Nation of March 4. It was a masterstroke. Was it not a big national shame for Ibori and the rest of them to bring a whole country that is the acclaimed ‘giant of Africa’ to ridicule in the international community? Yet, our law enforcement agencies still have the guts to talk about rearresting Ibori who is being prosecuted in far-away United Kingdom. What about the other ‘rats’ already in Nigeria? Ghana today is a haven for the super rich, it is where they send their wards for qualitative education.

By the time we add together whatever the Iboris of this world had embezzled, we’ ll discover that it is more than enough to give us good education, power, etc. But, what do these criminals need the money for? Can it be used to buy eternal life? Would they still die like you and I, with all this money? So, why the stress? Is it not better for Ibori and co. to die than continue living in shame?

God help us! I thank you so much, for your write-ups. From Chief Nwagbo, J. I like your write-up on Ibori; but I want to correct you: James Ibori is not from Asaba, he is from Oghara. Anonymous.

Well done. I like your write-up on Ibori. I am proud of you. From Yahaya.

Tunji, what should be done now is for the authorities to investigate the veracity of the information provided by James Ibori in his governorship form. If he is found to have lied, he should be stripped of everything pertaining to the position he held. From Musbau Etti.

You forgot to mention Olabode George, NPA Board chairman. Anonymous Your write-up titled “You be thief …” is good but I just want to note that it is not only the PDP that has corrupt governors. If the accused were of another party, you probably would have defended them vehemently. Many of us see you guys at The Nation as ACN spokespersons. From Dr. Silvanus.

The judiciary is yet to get out of the embarrassment of the Ibori saga. Another judge has freed Gbenga Daniel of 43 counts of corruption. Where do we go from here?

From Alhaji Adeboye Lawal, Felele, Ibadan.

I agree with you, things are terribly bad.

The neo-colonial capitalist economy has come to the end of the road. It is now posed to destroy Nigeria unless it is abolished by the oppressed. From Amos Ejimonye, Kaduna.

Nigerians in FIFA,CAF meet over state of country’s football

Pg. 24

Nation

MOURINHO TO CHELSEA

Pay me

£12m a year, sign

Pg. 41

•Mourinho

PAGE 23

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

CAF ‘B’ LICENSE COACHING COURSE

Keshi goes to school Pg. 24

•Keshi

Oduamadi seeks Torino stay Pg. 24

•Oduamadi

NFF:SanctionsonKwaraUtd,SunshineStarstemporary

Falconetsshop foZambabwe’s videotapes Pg. 41

Pg. 41

ADMONITION

CAPACITY

REWARD

Govt urged to invest in children’s sports

Aliyu seeks support for girl-child education

Eight honoured for community development

Lagos

26

Niger

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

A

S the present security situation in the country persists, Nigerian women have been urged to work together in a bid to curb the current unpleasant spate of violence, even as they have been advised to promote peace that would engender sustainable development.

The wife of the ControllerGeneral of Prisons and the National President of the Prisons Officers’ Wives Association (POWA), Mrs. Ruth Ibrahim gave the advice in Abuja recently while speaking at the POWA’s 5th Na-

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Benue

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Email: news_extra@yahoo.com

Women urged to preach peace From Bukola Amusan, Abuja

tional Conference whose theme was “Alternative Conflict Resolution” with focus on role of women as agents of peace.

To achieve the much-needed peaceful environment, the leadership of the association which urged the members to preach to their male counterparts against engaging in violent conflicts and wars, said it has three schemes

for the year which are economic empowerment of its members, educational development, and humanitarian services.

The three month-old leadership of POWA, said it decided to focus on peace and conflict resolution based on the current chal-

We are doing everything within our reach to ensure peace in this country. As you are aware, women and children are the worst hit whenever there are crises

lenges confronting the country and the people’s belief that as women, they certainly have significant roles to play in the peace and stability of the country.

She said: “We are doing everything within our reach to ensure peace in this country. As you are aware, women and children are the worst hit whenever there are crises. “ Even the present bombings •Continued on Page 26

Help for the needy on the Plateau NGO trains over 500 teenagers Stresses need for freedom, rights

F

OR 30 years, she was crawling literally sweeping the streets of Jos, hoping for help from public-spirited individuals or corporate entity, but none came.

But when all hopes seem to have been lost and she seemingly resigned to fate, a hand of support has unexpectedly come the way of Hawa Dazam, a physically challenged lady in tin city, Jos. Her situation changed like that of Jabez when wife of Plateau State Governor Ngo Mrs. Talatu Jang donated wheelchair to her and others when her non-governmental organisation (NGO) Women in Agriculture and Youths Empowerment (WAYE) brought succour to the needy on the Plateau.

In ecstasy she exclaimed: “I have got my legs, I can now go places. I will no longer ‘sweep’ (crawl) the streets of Jos or crawl like animal anymore.”

The joyful exclamations from Hawa Dazam after she had received a wheelchair from Mrs Jang, is a manifestation of long years of suffering and an eventual hope rising resulting from a gesture that is seemingly uncommon.

Hawa said she had been crawling since all her 30 years on earth and she has been craving for somebody to donate a wheelchair to her. “Today, the wife of the governor has graciously provided the leg I needed. She has changed my life,” she said in excitement.

Hawa is just one out of many

From Yusufu Aminu Idegu, Jos

beneficiaries of the gesture from Mrs Jang. The blind, the deaf; the lame in Plateau State had reason to celebrate as that day marked a turning point in the lives of a good number of them. The turning point in their lives began the moment Mrs. Jang WAYE donated wheel chairs and crutches to the lame, White Cane to the blind and electronic learning aid to the deaf.

Project coordinator of WAYE Mrs. Grace Dowyaro said that one of the major challenges confronting the country is the high incidence of poverty occasioned by the alarming rate of unemployment particularly among women and youths.

“This informed the initiative of this NGO founded by the wife of the governor. Rather than sympathising with these victims of poverty, Mrs Jang decided to do something to alleviate their plight through this NGO,” she said.

“WAYE, she continued, “has the singular objective of liberating Plateau women and youths from the shackles of poverty. This will be achieved by focusing attention on the target groups, believing that it is better to teach someone how to fish than to always give him fish to eat.”

Mrs. Dowyaro said: “Since it was founded in 2007, WAYE has trained and graduated over 500 teenagers and women in vocational skills and with over 200 of them undergoing similar training at the WAYE Training Centre in Doi Village of Du, Jos South Local Gov-

ernment Area.”

Mrs Jang, founder of WAYE, said during the presentation that the United Nations Conventions on the rights of persons with disability motivated her establishment of the NGO. She said: “The United Nations charter reaffirmed the universality, indivisibility, inter-relatedness of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and the need for persons with disability to be guaranteed their full enjoyment without any discrimination.”

Mrs. Jang disclosed that the items donated to the beneficiaries were put together by the First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan and the WAYE Foundation Jos. The items donated were artificial legs, wheelchairs, reading aids for the blind, hearing aids for the hearing-impaired persons, among others.

•Mrs. Talatu Jang presenting white stick to the blind at the occasion

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

26

Govt urged to invest in children’s sports

T

HE need to invest in sporting activities among young children has been unanimously recommended by parents, school owners and teachers as it has been described as the best way to give Nigeria a place in the sporting world.

This recommendation was made at the 20th annual inter-house sports competition of Pampers Private School, Surulere Lagos which was held at the sports complex of University of Lagos (UNILAG) recently.

According to the Proprietress of the school, Mrs. O.O Odulami, the government should take sport among young people very serious,” even as she expressed the view that “the Nigerian sports superstars of today started as young people and that the young people of today will end up as the superstars of tomorrow.”

The Director of Studies and Administration of the school, Miss PhylOjudoh who corroborated the proprietor’s views said that the school is working very hard to produce the next generation of sport stars.

She said: “We are working towards producing the next set of Modupe Osikoyas.”

This vision of the school as expressed by Miss Ojudoh was aptly summed up by the school head teacher for low and high grades, Mrs.Yemi Ladeinde as the “catch them young” formula.

Mrs. Ladeinde, in the same man-

By Alofun Oluwatayo Victor

ner said that there was the urgent need to start building the future sports talents from childhood. She also noted that not all the children will end up pursuing a career in the academics or settling for a white collar job, as some of them, according to her, may have to develop other talents outside these areas of human endeavours.

She noted that it was in view of this that Pampers Private School is putting in more effort to ensure an all-round development of the pupils, both in curricular and extra-curricular activities.

She, however, expressed her happiness in the fact that the little children are doing very well with the various track events including the competitive match past.

Parents were not left out in the issue as they expressed similar views. They noted that the development of future sport stars will be guaranteed if there are conscious efforts to make children develop the spirit for sports.

Mr. Ayobami Oyelowo, a parent who said one of her daughters is in the school said the-catch-themyoung system is not a new innovation. “If you look at the western nations, they adopt this system.

The government, parents and the school invest in the children and groom them in the various sporting activities until they grow up to become professionals in such fields.”

Women urged to preach peace •Continued from Page 25

across the country affect women and children more because we lose our husbands and children.

“POWA, as a body, intends to empower officers’ wives, especially wives of junior officers, with entrepreneurial skills and micro-credit facilities to start up small businesses in order to support the efforts of their husbands.”

Mrs. Ibrahim further said: “POWA will equally build a standard school to cater for the educational needs of our children

from Daycare to Secondary school levels. It is also our plan to unify and elevate the standard of POWA schools across the country.

“We are going into humanitarian service. This programme, in collaboration with all relevant organisations, will cover areas like OVC, HIV/AIDS counseling and testing, de-worming programme, free eye testing and treatment, prison inmates’ welfare and provision of modern medical equipment and drugs to the NPS clinics, cancer screening, malaria awareness programme, among other plans.”

•The wife of the chairman, Mrs Duopanu Obomanu handing a trophy to the winner during the march past at the 20th inter-house sports competition of Pampers Private School held at UNILAG sports complex

Mr. Oyelowo, who took the 3rd position in the 100 meter race for parents said he was an athlete while he was growing up, noting that among many other things, sport helps to ensure good health and total vitality. He also noted that through sports, the spirit of sportsmanship and competition are promoted. He, therefore, advocated the need for sports not just for competition alone but also for recreation.

The event featured many sporting activities including march past among four different houses- blue, red, yellow and green. The Yellow House took the first position in the march past event. Other activities were short and long distance races, dressing for school competition, running with daddy’s big shoe, Fanta drinking competition and parents’ race.

Two events that really caught

Sport helps to ensure good health and total vitality. He also noted that through sports, the spirit of sportsmanship and competition are promoted. He therefore advocated the need for sports not just for competition alone but also for recreation people’s attention were the dressing for school competition and the running with daddy’s big shoe.

The dressing for the school competition featured four female pupils on track with a set of uniform and a school bag each. The winner of the event was the pupil who was able to correctly put on the dress in the shortest possible time ahead of others.

According to the officials, the aim of the competition is to check how much of home training the pupils have received on how to put on their dresses independently.

Running with daddy’s big shoe, on the other hand, involved using an over-size shoe to run a 25 meter race without falling. All manner of shoes in different colours and sizes were employed by the pupils.

Varsity union elects new executive

A

N Accountant and veteran unionist, Comrade Iliyasu Abdulrauf Bello has been elected as the new chairman of the Ahmadu Bello University branch of the Senior Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (SSANU).

Bello, who emerged winner with 703 votes in the keenly-contested

•Wife of the chairman, Ojodu Local Council Development Area, Mrs Bolanle Oloro (standing at the middle) and wife of the vice-chairman, Mrs Esther Ayileka with beneficiaries of Spelling Bee competition at the secretariat

election was a two-term branch treasurer and two-term national treasurer of the union. His opponent, Rev. J.F. Baku polled 357 votes.

Elected with him to pilot the affairs of the union in the next two years were Shuaibu H. Ahmed, Salihu A. Musa and Nuhu Shuaibu who were elected as Vice-Chairman, Secretary and Assistant Secretary respectively. They won with 506, 550 and 418 votes respectively.

Other elected members of the union’s EXCO included Nuhu Ishaya, Iro Katsina, C.O. Okereke, Halima F.O. Abubakar and Muhammed Ali who emerged as treasurer, financial secretary, publicity secretary, women leader and trustee respectively.

I.A. Bello was born on June 25, 1964 to the family of Alhaji and Hajiya Abdulrauf Bello Babamba in Okene Local Government Area of Kogi State.

He started his early education at Local Government Education Au-

thority (LEA) Primary School Agassa in Okene in 1971 and later proceeded to St. Barnabas Kabba, Kogi State, where he graduated in 1983.

Comrade I.A. Bello, who is an alumnus of the Ahmadu Bello University, has a B.Sc degree in Accounting and a Master’s degree in Business Administration. He is a member of several professional bodies such as Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM), Nigerian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (ICPA). He is married to Hajiya Maryam and they have three children.

Commenting on the new chairman of SSANU and the election, secretary of the Independent Electoral Committee Ms Janet M. Jatau described the chairman as a man of vision whose experience, intelligence, serene and age-long interest in the union were his strongest selling points in one of the freest and fairest elections the union ever conducted in the university.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

27

Stakeholders meet over polio eradication

By Paul Oluwakoya

•Mrs Okoli

T

O have complete polio eradication, Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) should be incorporated into the immunisation programme.

This was the view of a cross section

of Nigerian health practitioners at a stakeholders’ forum in Lagos after a presentation by an international pediatrician on ‘Need to Initiate Use of IPV with OPV in Nigeria’ towards achieving a Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).

The Chief Executive Officer, Emzor Pharmaceutical Dr Stella Okoli said: “The incorporation of (enhanced) Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) in the polio eradication regime across the globe has led to the sustenance of polio eradication thus leading to polio-free communities in other countries.

“Nigeria is one of the most entrenched reservoirs of wild polio-virus in the world. It is the only country with ongoing transmission of all three serotypes: wild poliovirus type 1, wild poliovirus type 3, and circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus

type 2.

“As at 1st January this year, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s (GPEI), there were four countries referred to as ‘PAIN’ countries- (Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nigeria) where polio is still a major health risk.”

Okoli, who was the chief host stated that: “On January 13, India completed one year without polio since its last case on January 13 last year. India was once recognised as the world‘s epicenter of polio. If all pending laboratory investigation return negative, next week, India will officially be deemed to have stopped indigenous transmission of wild poliovirus.

“Thus, the number of polio-endemic countries, which have never stopped the transmission, will then be reduced to a historic low of three: Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.”

Okoli said the forum would take

a decision that would make Nigeria a polio-free country despite the country’s worrisome polio status as at last year.

She said: “When we took up the fight to reduce maternal mortality arising from preventable and needless deaths of expectant mothers from post-partum hemorrhage, it was a lone and unpopular path. But we were encouraged by the support of stakeholders.

Today, misoprostol and magnenesium sulphate have been adopted by the Federal Ministry of Health as essential drugs. This was possible through the stakeholders’ advocacy and intervention.

“A four–fold increase in polio cases was also reported in Nigeria last year, with the disease spreading to other countries (Niger, Mali and Ivory Coast) as a result of importation of the virus from Nigeria, thereby making the success

of the endemic eradication in Africa rest on Nigeria. That is, curbing the virus in Nigeria is a key to eradicating the crippling disease in Africa.”

However, the Vice-President; Global Medical Affairs Panacea Biotec Limited India Dr. Shafi Kolhapure in his presentation said the IPV and OPV vaccination in the right order and proportion would ensure protection against contamination until a definitive eradication of the disease among Nigerian children.

“The initiative of IPV along with OPV will limit transmission of endemic WPV type 1 and type 3 and will totally overcome inherent limitations of OPV like ‘Vaccine-Derived Polio Virus (VDPV), Vaccineassociated Paralytic poliomyelitis(VAPP) and Variable Vaccine Efficacy (VE),” Dr Kolhapure added.

Mr. Dzungwe has, singlehandedly mobilised the community with personal funds, and contacted well-to-do individuals who have donated cash and materials for the ongoing electricity project in Logo 1 Settlement.

Senator George Akume had donated a transformer to the community since last year which has been in the custody of Ahule Catholic Church. Efforts by the community to install the transformer were hindered by lack of funds.

Happily, very soon, Logo1 Community would enjoy electricity as work is now at an advanced stage.

Speaking to Newsextra, Dzungwe said when it became obvious that government was not coming to the support of the community; they decided to take a census of each person in the area and imposed a levy on all those who have houses in the area.

“The people were excited. Some paid more than what was imposed

on them, others donated poles and cables for the electricity while some gave cash donations,” he said.

When Newsextra visited the community, poles were being erected and members of the community were offering various forms of assistance to ensure speedy completion of the project.

Apart from the electricity project which Tyodzua Atim said would

bring development to the community, they would also embark on the construction of streets which are in terrible shape, especially the main streets that linked Logo1 to the Makurdi-Enugu highway.

For Logo1 Community in Makurdi, they can no longer wait on government but take the development of the community in their own hands.

Benue community embarks on self-help projects

T

HEY were in need of certain basic social amenities. They trusted that government, whose responsibility it is to provide all that the people need would come to their aid, at least to make life worthwhile for them. For four decades, they waited in vain.

When they realised that they would continue to suffer should they go on Waiting for Goddot, the Ahule Settlement, Logo 1, a suburb of Makurdi, Benue State capital has taken up the responsibility of providing basic amenities for itself.

In the circumstances, they resorted to contributions through self-imposed tax in order to actualise the much-needed development.

From the funds generated from the contributions, they have embarked on construction of roads, provision of transformers for electricity and water projects.

Even though Logo Settlement is located in the heart of Makurdi, and one of the fastest growing suburbs, essential amenities like roads, water and electricity are not available and there is no hope they would be provided by either state or local governments.

Though it is sandwiched between Commissioners’ Quarters and owner-occupier housing estate with well-paved streets and modern architectural buildings, all constructed by Benue State government, development has over-taken Logo1 community, unfortunately.

The Settlement has no motorable roads. Even the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) Makurdi Business headquarters is located within the community but for years, the settlement has not en-

•Community’s electrification project From Uja Emmanuel, Makurdi

joyed electricity. Yet, they accused PHCN of distributing bills on monthly basis.

The self-help projects are being spearheaded by a former Chief Press Secretary to former military administrator of the state and Governor George Akume, Mr Tyodzua Atim Dzungwe.

When it became obvious that government was not coming to the support of the community; they decided to take a census of each person in the area and imposed a levy on all those who have houses in the area…The people were excited

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

28

Aliyu urges support for girl-child education

N

•Aliyu

IGER State Governor Babangida Aliyu has called for support for girl-child education in the country.

Aliyu made the call when the outgoing German ambassador to Nigeria, Mrs Dorothy Janetzke-Wenzel, and World Bank country director in Nigeria, Mrs Marie-Nelly Francoise, paid him a courtesy visit.

“As a father, I will prefer having girl-child because once you educate them properly, they are the best social security you can get.

“The woman pays more attention to her parents than the man because she can go hungry to take care of her parents while the man cannot do that. So, we have to put our girl-child in school and treat them excellently well.’’

Traders lament continued curfew

T

RADERS in Kano State have expressed concern over the continued curfew in Kano, put in place since the deadly bomb attacks in Kano City on January 20.

Some of the traders who spoke to newsmen in Kano on the security situation in the state, said that the curfew had adversely affected their business and other social activities.

The traders said the prevailing situation had prevented many people from coming into the state to do business and that the development had also forced many Kano residents to restrict their movement for fear of being attacked.

One of the traders at Dawanau Grains Market, Alhaji Aminu Mohammed, said that the security situation in the state had prevented a lot of traders from other states coming to the market.

Mohammed, who is also the secretary of the traders association, said a number of traders from other parts of the country now prefer to send the commodity to their business partners with weigh bill and their account number to deposit returns after sales.

“Many traders who used to come to the market from far and near, including neighbouring

Kano Niger Republic have stopped coming here.

“In fact, the market has since the incident witnessed serious reduction in business activities”.

According to him, the curfew and various security check points in Kano have continued to scare away many traders and other customers from coming to the state.

“Now you can spend between two and three hours from the metropolis to go to Dawanau Market as against the 30 minutes when things were normal” According to him, there are lot of drivers who do not want to come to Kano now, due to the security situation.

“Most of the drivers who are avoiding the state are doing so because of the number of security check points mounted by the JTF, especially in Kano metropolis.

“These check points are not helping matters as they are causing a lot of traffic congestions, thereby making human and vehicular movement very difficult.

Plateau Fadama III gives N135m

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HE Fadama III Office in Plateau disbursed N135 million as grants to 1,215 farmers between 2009 and 2011, according to the state Coordinator, Mr Gideon Dandan.

Dandan told journalists in Jos that the programme also funded 615 sub-projects worth several millions of naira during the period.

“Fadama III has given a total of N135, 421,950 million as at December 2011 to 1,215 Fadama Users Group in the 17 local government areas of Plateau State.

“The 1,215 Fadama Users Groups are made up of 18,077 farmers, who have benefitted directly from the programme, aside other household beneficiaries and generalised communities that are using Fadama projects such as roads, culverts and water.”

He said that the grant was meant to address three major areas of the programme’s objectives, including assisting farmers in input support and advisory services, asset acquisition, and providing rural infrastructure.

According to him, the 615 sub-projects were executed in that areas of crop production, poultry, cow fattening, agro-processing, fishery, piggery, bee-keeping and every aspect of

Makurdi water plant ready soon

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HE ultra modern Makurdi water plant will soon be commissioned.

This was disclosed by Mr Michael Dzungu, the General Manager, Benue State Water Board.

Dzungu told journalists in Makurdi that the project, when operational, would supply water to Makurdi residents and environs.

According to him, the plant has an underground water storage capacity of 100,000 cubic litres and is capable of meeting

Niger He said that in some developed countries, 60 per cent of the workforce are females who had excelled in their fields of endeavour.

“You can see that the outgoing German ambassador to Nigeria and the World Bank country director in Nigeria are women. So, we don’t need any other evidence that the girl-child will do well if given the opportunity.’’

Earlier, Janetzke-Wenzel said the German government had a long-term development cooperation plan with Niger government on grassroots development.

She said the government would partner the state government in the area of vocational training and youth education.

The World Bank country director, said she was in the state to assess the state’s benchmark programme as it strived to be one of the top three economies in the country by the year 2020.

She said she was also to review ongoing World Bank-assisted community development projects .

Dressing allowance for teachers Niger •Chairman, Agege Local Government Alhaji Jubril AbdulKareem and the council’s Medical Officer, Dr Abiola Adekunle-Bankole (right) during immunisation exercise

Yobe awards N19.7b road contracts

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HE Yobe S t a t e government has awarded road contracts worth N19.7b across the state in the past nine months, Alhaji MaiMala Buni, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Political and Legislative Affairs, has said.

He told journalists in Damaturu that government was poised to intervene in critical areas of need.

Buni said that as a democratically elected regime, the government had introduced stakeholders’ interactive forum to promote the participation of stakeholders and to ensure accountability and good governance.

Yobe He said the forum would also avail government with information on peculiar needs of individual communities from their representatives.

“The essence of this is for government to intervene directly in areas of urgent need of the communities with a view to improving the lives of the people and fast-tracking development in the rural communities.

“Government places much emphasis on accountability and prudence. So, the governor took time to explain how funds were expended on visible projects across the state and gave

everyone the opportunity to make comments.”

Buni said that government deliberately introduced the forum “for people to participate, make contributions and be part of governance in the state.

“Government also received first hand information directly from beneficiaries of its programmes, including the free drugs programme in the health sector, payment of school fees and scholarship, quality and pace of work on road projects in their areas.”

The special adviser urged the people to reciprocate the gesture by assisting government with honest advice that would help in fast-tracking socio-economic development of the state.

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HE Edati Local Government Area in Niger State has introduced dressing allowance for primary school teachers in the area “to restore the glory of the teaching profession.”

Alhaji Isah Kantigi, the Chairman of the council, disclosed this in a statement made available to newsmen in Minna.

He said that N1,020,000 has been voted for the payment of the allowances to the benefiting 102 primary school teachers.

Kantigi said that a committee has been set up to execute the exercise and urged the beneficiaries to cooperate with the body to ensure its success.

He said the teachers would be verified first before they would benefit from the scheme and warned that the committee would not accept any proxy during the verification exercise.

Kantigi also warned staff of the local government against laxity, noting that his administration would not hasitate to sanction any staff found wanting.

Benue the entire water needs of the growing population in Makurdi.

He said that the water plant, built in 1978 with an installed capacity of 18,000 cubic litres of water, could no longer meet the water needs of the capital city and that it outlived its life span by 12 years.

He disclosed that the water needs of the city surpassed the supply, necessitating rationing.

“At the moment, the water needs of Makurdi is 47,000 cubic litres per day while the current water plant, installed in 1978, has the capacity of supplying only 18,000 cubic litres per day.

He, however, gave assurance that with the new mega water plant, the board would pump 50,000 cubic litres, 3,000 cubic litres more than the required 47,000 cubic litres.

Dzungu said that the board planned to spend N20 million to replace some of its old water The water plant was started by the George

• Suswam Akume administration and has installed the latest water purifying gadgets, designed to last for more than 30 years.

Sokoto to sustain payment of registration fees for indigenes

Plateau

HE Chairman, Sokoto State Scholarship Board,Alhaji Abdulkadir Jelani says the government will sustain payment of registration fees for its indigenes studying in tertiary institutions within and outside Nigeria.

A statement issued by Mr Isa Shuni, Information and Public Relations Officer of the board, in Sokoto, said that “the government would continue to bear full responsibility over individuals registration demands to ensure accessibility to education.’’

According to the statement, the state government is currently discussing with the authorities of the Usmanu Danfodiyo

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agriculture that can give farmers income.

The coordinator explained that the programme delivered more than 24,000 bags of NPK and Urea fertilisers to farmers at half the cost and other farm inputs to farmers within the period.

He said that the fertilisers were delivered directly to farmers to ensure availability and prevent the control of middlemen.

“Fertiliser is a major input in high yield.

Apart from delivering the fertilisers directly to the farmers, we ensure that they get the commodity at a subsidised price of N2,000 per bag as against N4,500 in the open market.

“The middlemen usually hijack fertilisers from the suppliers and transporters and sell to farmers at cut-throat prices, thereby making it difficult to get the commodity at the government-controlled price.”

The coordinator said that the programme also distributed improved varieties of rice and maize which led to bumper harvest for farmers in the state.

Briefly

Church holds programme • From left : Mr. Kofi Akyea, Marketing Executive, MoneyGram Anglophone/ West Africa taking participants through the MoneyGram Safe Hands Online Virtual Game during the just concluded AFCON competition.

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•Deputy President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Knut Ulvmoen, flanked by Council member, Dr. Kolawole Olayinka (left), Director General, Mr Muda Yusuf, both of the Chamber, and Head of Delegation of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Japan, Mr. Hideharu Sasaki, who visited the chamber

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Cleric condemns bomb blast

HE General Overseer of Christian Pentecostal Mission (CPM), Rev Obiora Ezekiel has condemned the recent suicide bombing in Jos that hit a church, destroying lives and properties.

According to him, the bombing of a church headquarter is uncivilised and criminal, as it affected innocent souls that could spared for positive purposes.

Cleric spoke to journalists during introduction of the forth coming programme, Back to Bible Conference in Lagos.

He said:‘’ It is unfortunate that this group of people do not realise the implications of what they are doing, I tell you, Boko Karam elements are being controlled by the devil, whose mission is to kill, steal, and destroy, but most importantly human life is unplaced.

The cleric added that by bombing

churches in the northern part of the country,” the attackers are declaring war against God as Christians being targeted,maimed and killed are worshipping God. He reminded the sect that God will surely defend and fight for his people.

He advised President Jonathan Goodluck to r e s u s c i t a t e m o r i b u n d industries and provide more jobs for the masses so that there will be less crime in the country so that dividends of democracy can •Rev Ezekiel spread.

DIVINE Appointment Ministry International will hold its bi-annual interdenominational programme tagged: “Night of war against Satanic manipulation.on ” on March 9.The Senior Pastor and founder of the ministry, Rev. Ben Eragbai disclosed this in a chat with journalists .

“The programme is bi-annual for everybody no matter the religious affiliation. This can be attested to by the invitation extended to all and the neutrality of the venue of the programme,” Rev. Ben explained.

He further stated that the programme is a prayer war to liberate the people from Satanic manipulation. “It is also aimed at enhancing protection, provision and promotion of the people. In this period of our history, there is the need for prayer on security issues with reference to kidnapping, robbery and most especially the Boko-Haram insurgence,” “There must be peace and progress in this country. It belongs to us all and we have no other place we can call our country. We should therefore ensure our mutual coexistence, peace and progress – Rev Eragbai said.

Ministers of God within and outside Lagos are expected to grace the programme at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos by 8.00 pm.

Sokoto University, Sokoto, on its newly-introduced policy of online registration and “cashbased’’ registration.

The statement said that the university would no longer register students on the strength of letters of intents in lieu of direct cash transaction.

It said that the institution had mandated individuals to conduct direct payment of their registration fees to the bank to automatically enable them to register their courses.

• From left: Wife of Chairman, Mushin Local Government Area, Mrs Rachael Adepitan; Master Abass Afeez of Igbo Owu Senior Secondary School; Supervisor for Education, Hon. Rafiu Olowonyo, Mrs Kemi Olawe at the presentation of gift to the overall winner of the “Spelling Bee” Competition in Mushin

Gombe to train journalists,others

HE Gombe State government would soon embark on training information officers in the state to keep them abreast of current happenings in the media and information management.

The state Commissioner of Information and Orientation, Rev. Habu Dawaki, told newsmen in Gombe that the training programme would involve staff of his ministry.

He added that journalists in the two state-owned broadcast outfits, the Gombe Radio and Gombe Television stations, would also be part of the training.

“All our information officers, reporters, newscasters, announcers and others will be trained.

I believe this is basically what we need to be able to move forward.

“We can’t continue doing the same thing always, especially when there are new developments all over.

“Of course, we have to be ICT-compliant. We have to see how we can measure up with the best global practices, including the management.

“This is because training is what we should do on a • Chairman, Ikeja Local Government Area, Hon Wale basis, as Odunlami with some paramedics during the Aids Test and constant continuous learning and Control programme at the council secretariat . continuous improvement

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Gombe should be part and parcel of us.

“So, I believe every person who is part and parcel of the ministry and who has a role to play will undergo one form of training or the other,” Dawaki said.

The commissioner further said that the ministry would be restructured to ensure that it functioned effectively in its duties of information dissemination and publicity.

He disclosed that plans were underway to provide modern equipment for effective information dissemination, adding that the ministry had met the contractor handling the projects at the radio and television stations with a view to completing it.

Dawaki also announced that the ministry would establish an Ethics and Disciplinary Committees at the state, local government, ward and village levels to ensure reorientation and moral upbringing of the youths.

“This is to ensure that they can contribute meaningfully to the development of the state,” he said.

The commissioner said the committee would organise town hall meetings, lectures, produce and air documentaries and jingles as well as print pamphlets to reorient the minds of the citizenry.

“This is especially for the youths to contribute responsibly to the development of the state.We are known for our core values such as neighbourliness, love, responsiveness, and what have you.

“These are what we need because I believe if we are able to restore these values, and some of the challenges we have that have to do with peace and others will be overcome,” he said.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

Life

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Text only: 08023058761

•African Hut

This Art House is falling – SEE PAGE 30

Ebedi is toast of foreign authors – Page 32

The naked truth – Page 34

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

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The Midweek Magazine E-mail:- ozoluauhakheme@yahoo.com

This Art House is falling

•African Hut

PHOTOS: OZOLUA UHAKHEME

African Hut, hitherto a choice event centre for artists, has continued to deteriorate – no thanks to poor maintenance and the recent Lagos rainstorm, reports Assistant Editor (Arts) OZOLUA UHAKHEME.

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ROM a distance, the conical shaped thatch roof of African Hut, Aina Onabolu Studio Complex, National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, evokes images of mud houses found in a typical traditional African settings. It stands out among the other structures. Though the interior might contrast the exterior, the homely nature of the hut protects guests against the scorching sun. That was in the early years of the 10-year-old events centre.

Today, the poor state of the hut is best captured by the works of Chinua Achebe and German author Karl Maier: Things Fall Apart and This house has fallen. The hut was built by the pioneer director-general of the National Gallery of Art, Dr. Paul Chike Dike, as part of the facilities at the studio complex that provides residency for artists.

In the last 10 years, African Hut has hosted top-flight arts events, such as the yearly international K-12 Art workshops co-ordinated by Prof. Okechukwu Odita of the Ohio University, USA; the 70th birthday of Prof. Bruce Onobrakpeya in 2002, a memorial lecture of the late Peter Areh of Pendulum Gallery in 2011 and the solo art exhibition, Shadow, Mountain and Valley by Uche Nwosu in December, last year.

Poor maintenance remains the undoing of the hut, but the situation turned worse in the morning of February 13. The sudden early morning rainstorm, which blew off the roofs of many houses in Lagos also affected the choice art events venue. The thatch-roofed African Hut has since been closed to all arts events.

Before the rainstorm, most of its thatches had wornout, exposing the underlying corrugated iron sheets to harsh weather. Also, the tie-rods made from raffia that serve as interior linings of the ceiling have been failing and dropping off the roof.

Director-General of National Gallery of Art (NGA), Mr Abdullahi Muku, who was in Lagos recently, did not hide his feelings at what he saw. “The poor state of fa-

ART cilities at the Lagos office of NGA, is a big headache, and it is not giving us the ideal environment to hold regular art shows. There are old artists we wish to document and hold their art exhibitions, but I am afraid the environment is not just there.” These were the lamentations of Muku at an interactive session with arts editors in Lagos. Muku, who is not deterred by this development, said despite all odds, NGA would execute most of its programmes for the year. He regretted that Nigeria still finds it difficult to believe that arts and culture are capable of generating revenue.

‘The poor state of facilities at the Lagos office of NGA, is a big headache, and it is not giving us the ideal environment to hold regular art shows. There are old artists we wish to document and hold their art exhibitions, but I am afraid the environment is not just there’

•Maku

He explained that NGA is determined to execute all its programmes for the year, depending on what the budget can cover. He said the on-going renovation at the Lagos •Continued on page 32

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

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Renowned professor of Chemistry Prof. Steve Okecha and author of Ojukwu–The Rebel I Served, Mr Uche Ezechukwu, were recently guests at the monthly Abuja Writers Forum.

They reflected on the state of the nation.

‘To hell with oil’

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ROFESSOR Steve A. Okecha came armed with his book entitled: The Nigerian University- An Ivory Tower With Neither Ivory Nor Tower. Okecha is a world renowned professor of Chemistry at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria before he moved to former Bendel State University, Ekpoma now Ambrose Alli University. He is a man whose name rings a bell in science faculties across the nation, and, without informing him, faculties even smuggle his name on their list of staff to get over the accreditation hurdles; he is also one of the few Nigerians in Who’s Who in the World.

Also in the house with his book; Ojukwu–The Rebel I Served, was Uche Ezechukwu. Ezechukwu has been a journalist for over 30 years, having chosen to read a course in the university that would allow him enjoy himself, because, according to him, journalism is a profession he enjoys most. Fresh from the university, he joined the stable of Satellite Newspapers established by the Jim Nwobodo administration in September 1981, and later Triumph Newspapers owned by the Kano State Government, from where he became Ojukwu’s Media Assistant and Speech Writer.

The professor as a critic “To my generation of home-based academics – a wasted generation, capable of doing world class research ... only to be denied midway into their career…” is on the dedication page of Prof. Okecha’s book. “We were doing world class research in the university,” he said as he sat before the audience at Pen and Pages Bookshop, Abuja, on February 25.

“We thought we were working for the progress of the country, but it didn’t end up that way,” he said. His book details how his generation arrived at that point, and with an insider’s eyes, he identified what he thought needed to be done to solve the problems. With the best Nigerian university taking a distant 5, 834th position in world university ranking, as well as poor facilities and quality of staff, he felt justified to posit that Nigerian universities are neither with ivory nor tower. “This is a poor outing for a country that prides itself as the giant of Africa,” he stated. His book is itemised such that it takes a historical peep into the Nigerian university system, Nigerian universities among other world universities; the accreditation process, and the sale of PhD degrees, while he bemoaned the poor welfare of academics as well as the nation and the Intellect Industry.

While Okecha recommends solutions in his book, participants at the event wanted to know how he intends to get them implemented. And did he think the problem in education can be solved as a sector without resolving the problems with the nation as a whole? The don, it was suggested, ought to do more than writing a book about the problems with the nation, because “history will judge you if you don’t do something.” And what would the professor recommend as the way out of the environmental problems, especially in the face of fossil fuel pollution in the Niger Delta area? Yet, there was a salvo that

•Abuja Writers

By Tunji Ajibade

READING

‘History will judge you if you don’t do something ... I want oil to run out, so that we can have our lives back.

To hell with oil’ touched on the political angle to the problem of the Nigerian universities: If you were a Minister of Education, what would you do? The professor, who had been a guest of the Nobel Prize Committee at its annual award ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, thought many of the questions were interrelated, and they had one answer. A good leader, he stated, one leader, who would lead others, is all that the nation needs to resolve many of its hydraheaded challenges. but the nation’s education sector is in such a dire state that it would need to declare a state of emergency if it must revamp it. Also, a clean technology is necessary to overcome the fossil pollution that has changed the face of the Niger Delta forever. In the face of irreversible consequences on human lives in that part of the country, “what is compensation?” The Japanese have made a car that runs on water, if this becomes commercially viable, there will be no need for crude oil. “I want oil to run out, so that we can have our lives back. To hell with oil.”

The Journalist and Ikemba’s image maker Uche Ezechukwu talked to his book when he faced the audience, pointing out interesting aspects about his former boss, Odumegwu Ojukwu. He captured the attention of his listeners, that time, talking about a man everyone knew so well, but hardly knew. General Gowon was granted pardon in 1981, a few days after Satellite was founded, and so the newspaper had its work cut out; it championed the call for Ojukwu to be pardoned, too. That came in March 1982, only for Ojukwu to return and join the ruling party, National Party of Nigeria (NPN). Many were disappointed, disillusioned. The journalists at Satellite, who took the credit for the pardon,

quickly started to attack him for that singular, unpopular decision; Ezechukwu was at the forefront.

Ojukwu later contested a senatorial seat and lost. He established a newspaper and he closed it four weeks later. The man was picked up and sent to prison along with other politicians when the military struck in late 1983. Ojukwu was humbled by that prison experience, Ezechukwu said, and by his failure at sustaining a newspaper. He wanted someone to run the paper, the Satellite journalist was recommended. Ezechukwu didn’t want to take up the appointment, because of the negative things he heard about the former Biafran leader. But he was proved wrong when he eventually succumbed to pressure from ABC Nwosu. “Ojukwu has never been a Nigerian” in the sense of being a poor Nigerian. He lived in Lagos and was later trained at Oxford. He was a man who, by the reason of having a millionaire father that talked with the high and mighty in the land, grew up on the laps of Nnamdi Azikiwe, and those of colonial Governors-General. So, he wanted to be a real Nigerian after his experience in prison, and he needed counsel, the help of a media man, the reason Ezechukwu worked for him for two years. And the day he walked in, Ojukwu had shook his hand and said, “I learnt you are a stubborn man, and I will tell you that I am stubborn too.” Did he and Ojukwu have a shouting bout, disagree over anything in those years? “Ojukwu never shouted at people,” Ezechukwu said, “if he doesn’t like you, he will not associate with you again.”

The author wrote in his book things that Ojukwu told him about some prominent Nigerians including Olusegun Obasanjo, the secrets of Murtala Mohammed, and the reason he, Ojukwu, chose to join the army – his ambition was to become the Head of State of Nigeria one day, not even Biafra. “Ojukwu wanted to get to Lagos, remove Gowon, and rule Nigeria. He didn’t just want to be the leader of Biafra.” Did Ojukwu have his regrets about the civil war? “I think so, he has his regrets, because he only wanted to rule Nigeria.” When Ojukwu died, Ezechukwu said, people called him and said all sort of things, but to put the records straight, he wrote the book. He would point out that the grand celebration of the life of Ojukwu across the nation as is the case at the moment, cannot but be so because, people can still see the things Ojukwu wanted to avoid, and which led to the civil war. And as for some of the things that are not so complimentary that he wrote about Ojukwu in his book, Ezechukwu counselled that every reader should count his teeth with his tongue.

•Ajibade writes from Abuja

This Art House is falling •Continued from page 32

office was in response to the challenges, adding that but for budgetary hitches, the Aina Onabolu complex would have since 2010 been restructured to meet the new challenges. He said the African architecture hut, which is fast collapsing, would be restructured for proper hosting of art exhibitions.

“The exhibition hall at the complex has since been converted to offices as the old offices/library are under renovation. That made us to move Uche Nwosu’s last solo exhibition, Shadow, mountain and valley to the failing hut, which was still not conducive,” he said. He disclosed that talks are on-going between NGA and NLNG to set

up a hall of awardees that will host all the past yearly NLNG awards recipients’ photographs.

When asked which of the programmes would not be affected by the outcome of the budget, he identified about four which includes the opening of NGA Enugu and Kano offices, the hosting of the yearly distinguished lecture, the NIVATOUR and Saturday Art Club. He said the NIVATOUR event, which is an exhibition of modern Nigerian art will hold in Spain this year and that the Spanish Embassy in Nigeria has received images of the selected paintings for the international exhibition.

These, he said, are priority programmes that must be executed come rain or shine. He said the proposed NGA offices in Gombe and Lokoja are part of gallery’s conscious efforts at increasing the awareness of art and its

appreciation in the Northern part of the country. “But we don’t intend to build galleries in all the state offices, but in zonal headquarters for effective art promotion across the federation,” he added.

On how to improve the quality and quantity of art teachers in primary and secondary schools, Muku said the rested K-12 art workshop (an NGA-Ohio University, USA collaboration) would be reviewed to involve these classes of artists to have a strong base for the growth of art education in schools. According to him, K-12 from its conception was a one-way traffic workshop that did not impact the wider spectrum of the artists’ community. “We are, therefore, discussing with the Federal Ministry of Education for curricula review that will make fine art compulsory in primary and secondary school levels,” he added.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

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The Midweek Magazine My Behind is Emah’s debut

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ATHERINE Equere (aka Emah), an Akwa Ibom born rapper/singer, songwriter and performer, has released his single, My Behind, produced by Kandy Beat. Born in Calabar and exposed to the media at a young age, Emah started performing at NTA Calabar’s Children’s show at the age of five. In her school days at Command Secondary School Abakaliki, she started writing songs with her best friend then, Patricia Allison. The duo was known for performing regularly at social nights and organising end of the year get-togethers. Her first professional contact with music was with Freestyle, former member of Trybesmen.

Through Zulutag of African roots Enterprise, she met Freestyle and recorded her first song. “He’s Mine’’. She gained admission into University of Uyo to study Communication Arts and dedicated 70 per cent of her time to her education. While in school, she was also polishing her skills and working with producers such as Sunky and Jamix of the Styl-Plus fame.

In 2009, she graduated from University of Uyo and moved to Lagos for her National Youth Service. In Lagos, she met with Kaycee Oguejiofor, Question Mark’s manager at the time who is also her friend and they planned her journey through music. In 2010, she recorded a couple of songs with SoSo and consulted some professionals in the entertainment industry such as Shola Thompson, Djinee and others, who vetted her songs and put her in the right direction.

Last year, she took a back seat to study the map of the entertainment industry while working as a television presenter for Infinity Television. Finally, Emah, is back full time with her official single, My Behind, produced by Kandy Beat and just in case you think she may be a ‘one hit wonder’, there is more where that came from.

E-mail:- ozoluauhakheme@yahoo.com

The Ebedi International Writers Residency Programme in Iseyin, Oyo State, has become the destination for writers within and outside Nigeria. Hosting the winner of the 2009 Commonwealth Prize for First Book, Africa Region, Doreen Baingana and the award-winning film script-writer Dr. Dul Johnson, have again placed it on the international literary scene. The experience was memorable for the residents, writes EVELYN OSAGIE.

A bird book for children out

By Evelyn Osagie

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ASSAVA Republic Publishers is out with another exciting book on birds entitled: Birds of Our Land: A Child’s Guide to West African Bird by Virginia Dike. It is the first in a series of reference books that will not only increase children’s knowledge, but enhance their understanding of the natural world around them.

Through its rich, poetic descriptions Birds of Our Land offers children a gateway to the natural world by introducing them to the basics of bird watching. It explains the basic features of birds and key things to note in observing them. The book is accompanied by beautiful paintings by illustrator Robin Gowen of 25 birds representing the major species in the region. Most are birds that children are likely to come across in their own yards, while a few are less familiar but amazing in some way. This book also comes with a wall poster of all the birds and a guide for teachers and parents.

One special feature of the new revised edition is that it features each bird’s name in the three main Nigerian languages: Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. Children, especially those in urban centres, will be introduced to indigenous terms showing that English is not the only language for naming things in the natural environment.

Birds of Our Land is more than a great read. It is the perfect tool for parents and educators encouraging children to spend more time outdoors exploring the world of nature and giving them an appreciation of the beauty and interdependence of all forms of life.

The author Dike is the Head of the Department of Library and Information Science at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). She has a BA in History from Harvard University, an MA in Education and an MSc in Library Science, both from Columbia University. She is also a founding member of The Children Centre Library at the UNN. Though not an environmentalist, Dike has had a lifelong passion for nature.

“I believe that if we want Nigerian children to know and appreciate the gift of nature, we need to provide books that will foster that knowledge and appreciation by reflecting the natural world around them,” she said.

She notes that non-fiction literature is a much-neglected area in Nigerian children’s books and that what is available – to some extent – are textbooks.

“Yet, children need information books written as literature to satisfy their curiosity,” Dike said. “I believe that if we want Nigerian children to know and appreciate the gift of nature, we need to provide books that will foster that knowledge and appreciation by reflecting the natural world around them.”

The book is part of a broader drive by Cassava Republic to change the way children’s literature in Africa is regarded. Others books in the series will focus on trees, flowers, the seasons and many more.

Cassava Republic is also passionately committed to ensuring that affordable, beautifully-made books are available to the market.

•From left: Johnson, Doreen and Odeh at the residency

Ebedi is toast of foreign authors RESIDENCY

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T had started like any other discourse... argument ... laughter ... debate. It was not the usual debate associated such literary discourse. The day Ugandan writer Doreen Baingana took on Dul Johnson over Nollywood and his book entitled: Why Women Won’t Make It to Heaven at the Ebedi International Writers Residency, Iseyin, Oyo State. The place has become a haven for writers aspiring to write and finish their manuscripts.

The residents had been there for over five weeks from January 13 writing. They were accommodated in a fourbedroom bungalow in a serene environment and provided with free board, meals, medical and local expenses. It was their last days at the residence and they had achieved over 60 per cent of what brought them. They shared the residence with the News Magazine correspondent, Nehru Odeh, who was there to work on a novel. As time ticked on, they chatted about their experiences and works freely, among other things.

“But why not men, why women?” Doreen asked Johnson about his choice of title.

“Because men do not waste the kind of time women do on those things,” he replied, adding: “But there are some other reasons why I think some men won’t make it to heaven. Unfortunately, the book has refused to write itself.”

His answer did not satisfy Doreen, a true feminist. But for the quick intervention of another question, the debate would have lasted longer and perhaps ended with blows.

Born in Langtang, Plateau State, Johnson is an award winning scriptwriter and director. He began his working career in television production with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), and later moved to the University of Jos and the Nigerian Film Institute where he taught African Literature, Creative Writing and Film Production. He holds a doctorate in African Literature. He worked on fictional representation of the Jos, Plateau State crises through the eyes of a young boy. His wealth of experience came to play as he fielded questions. And as one vast in the knowledge of the Nigerian Film Industry popularly called Nollywood, Johnson was asked about the creative prowess in the industry.

He said: “There is no doubt that the film industry does not really know yet the difference between a story and a script or a screenplay, and that’s where the problem is. It takes me three to four years. Why would anybody think they can cook up a story within three weeks and it makes a good film? That’s another problem. We were told that we were the third largest film producing nation; how many awards have we won internationally with those films produced?”

‘I loved the isolation; and having everything provided for me here. I was able to work without friends, relatives and children interrupting me. It gave me the opportunity to concentrate because we were so removed from our own lives, worries, responsibilities, duties; and there was not much to do to distract one’ Doreen had a different view. “Nollywood films, to me, are like the Brazilian, Mexican, Philippine’s soap operas. They are operating on a different level. Yes, they may not win award but they satisfy a particular audience – more popular perhaps, maybe less artistic but there is a niche there. It is now all over Africa. I live in Uganda but when I got here, I realise I could recognise things because of these Nollywood movies. It just like how we feel we know America even though we have never been there. Now people in Uganda are speaking in Nigerian accent. People now put ‘o!’ and jo!’ in whatever they are saying.

“Whether it is a negative or positive perception of Nigerian culture that they have, both things are exported. Some would think Nigerians are obsessed with witchcraft because many of the Nollywood films are witchcraft films. The films have put the African experience in a more popular media, whereas, literature is a bit too highbrow. We don’t really write a lot of popular fiction. We are trying to write a literary work that would last forever. There should be a space for a work that is appreciated by many more. From my observations right now, I realised that when one goes to a place one recognises it from the information that is in one’s head already. I see how people dress in what they call Africans dress, it just may be Nigerian dress. The movies are helping to promote your culture too to the point that those things are no longer foreign. That was impressive,” she said.

Doreen, who grew up in Entebbe, Uganda, started off •Continued on page 33

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

33

The Midweek Magazine NGO moves against sex abuse

E-mail:- ozoluauhakheme@yahoo.com

F

OR quite some time now, sexual crimes against children have been on the increase, experts have said.

To solve the problem in Nigeria, a non-governmental organisation working on the prevention and response to sexual violence, especially against children, Media Concern Initiative (for women and children), has urged the government to domesticate the United Nations Convention on the Right of a Child.

According to it, sex abuse against children is a major human rights violation recognised as a crime under international, national and state laws with provisions for punishment of perpetrators. “However, despite the existence of these laws meant to uphold the rights of child victims, many of them still encounter great difficulties in obtaining justice,” it said.

This inspired the media parley by MCI last Thursday in Lagos. It had as theme: National law versus state laws: Implication in the criminal justice prosecution of sexual offences against children at state level.

The forum highlighted the challenges in obtaining justice encountered by children who are victims of sexual offences as a result of the legal instrument employed in prosecution.

According to MCI Executive Director, Dr. Princess Olufemi-Kayode, “it has become a norm that the police insist on charging sexual offences against children using the Nigerian Criminal Code rather than the Child Right Law (CRL) and other available State legal instruments”.

The outcome of the cases and how the provisions have worked for the magistrates who try the matter were also examined.

The former Governor of Zamfara State, Sanni Yerima, who married a minor, was

•From left: Mrs. Onio, Mrs. Effah-Chukuma, Dr. Olufemi-Kayode and Mrs. Egboka

By Evelyn Osagie

CAMPAIGN named as a case of violating the provisions of the Child Rights Act. Thus, it was asked: “whose responsibility was it to ensure that childs right was upheld in this case?”

Another issue highlighted at the event was the awareness of all role players in

‘Despite the existence of these laws meant to uphold the rights of child victims, many of them still encounter great difficulties in obtaining justice’

the Criminal Justice System (CJS) about the National Child Right Act, which is a national legal instrument for protecting the child. How popular is this Act in the community? To what extent is this awareness?

How accessible is this law to users within the CJS? among others, were some of the questions raised.

The speakers at the event included Director, Office of Public Defender, Mrs. Omotola Rotimi; Mrs. Yinka Adeyemi, of the Office of the Public Defender, who represented the Attorney-General/Commissioner of Justice Lagos State; Mrs. Nneamaka Onio, who represented Southwest Zone Co-ordinator, National Human Rights Commission, Mrs. Mausi Segun; Executive Director, Project Alert on Violence Against Women, Mrs. Josephine Effah-Chukuma; Executive Programmes Manager, Legal Defence Assistant Project Nigeria, Mrs. Adaobi

Egboka; Child Dignity Foundation, Mrs. Amaka Awogu, and Dr. Princess Olufemi- Kayode.

They proffered solution on better prosecution in promoting justice for children who experience sexual abuse. They called on the government to domesticate them at the state level.

“The provisions of the Act supersede all other legislations that have a bearing on the rights of the child. Having been enacted at the national level, the states are expected to adopt and adapt the Act for domestication as state laws. This is because issues of child rights protection are on the residual list of the Nigerian Constitution, giving states exclusive responsibility and jurisdiction to make laws relevant to their specific situations. State laws inimical to the rights of the child are also to be amended or annulled as may be required, to conform to the Act and the CRC,” the experts urged.

Toast of foreign authors •Continued from page 32 early writing poetry, but realised she wasn’t as good as a short story writer.

She bagged a law degree from Makerere University, Kampala, and an MFA from the University of Maryland, US. She has won several awards such as the Commonwealth Prize for First Book, Africa Region, the Award in Short Fiction, the Washington Independent Writers Fiction Prize, and has twice been a finalist for the Caine Prize for African Writing. She is based in Kenya. She had attended other international residency. However, this was her first in another African country.

“It is a very great that there is a residency like is in the continent. The international ones give you food for thought because they are so foreign from our own experience. Here I am actually inbuilding another culture that makes me think a lot about my own. So, in the conversations we have been having, the food we are eating, walking around the little village - I have been learning a lot about myself as a Ugandan. My eyes are open to many of the problems and good things that we share. I am sure there are some also in South Africa and Kenya. We have not yet set up one in Uganda.”

She praised the organisers for their efforts, saying she enjoyed her stay. The five weeks at the place was her opportunity to get away from busy her schedules.

She said: “I loved the isolation; and having everything provided for me here.

I was able to work without friends, relatives and children interrupting me. It gave me the opportunity to concentrate because we were so removed from our own lives, worries, responsibilities, duties; and there was not much to do to distract one. From morning through night,

it was up to us to create something from our mind and heart.”

While praising the affordability of the food, the Ugandan writer complained about the spicy nature of Nigerian food.

“Your food is good. But it was quite difficult because they are so spicy. (Laughs).

Still, I had to cope with that. But I enjoyed myself.”

The experience, for Odeh, was a getaway from the hectic schedule of his work as a journalist. According to him, he has gone deep into his novel, after writing 1,000 words daily. He was educated at the University of Ibadan and Benin where he studied sociology and Sociology/Anthropology respectively.

He called on the support of corporate organisation, saying it would help sustain the project. “Dr Wale Okediran, the founder, and his team are doing a marvelous job. At present, the residency is at Dr Okediran’s personal building at Iseyin. If corporate organisations could support this project, I think the residency will move to its permanent site quickly. It also needs a library so that residency can use it while they are there.”

On Johnson’s part, the experience was like “It is moving away from the maddening crowd.” He said: “It has been wonderful. I sat here for 12 hours. Sometimes I forget and sit long and then I realised my back is aching and I get up.

If it is not for the environment, I don’t think I would have been able to sit for that long to work. The food was wonderful. The environment is serene and beautiful.”

The three writers, the Chairman of the Ebedi Board of Directors, according to Mrs Maryam Okediran, were selected from a long list of applicants for their rich literary portfolio and lofty potential of their works in progress.

•The Chairman, Ikeja Local Government Council, Lagos, Wale Odunlami, welcoming the Commissioner for Works, Lagos State, Dr. Kadir Hamzat, during the inauguration of Guinness Road.

34

THE NATION WEDNESDAY,MARCH 7, 2012

The Midweek Magazine E-mail:- ozoluauhakheme@yahoo.com

The naked truth

I

N women’s performance art, the allure of erotic forms remains a regularly cultivated and articulated aspect of indigenous and contemporary feminist reflection. This practice dates before colonial times in Africa. It was an important item of anti-colonial activities, and in democratic Africa, it continues to be a potent resource for women activism.

On a warm afternoon in April 2009, an irate group of women stripped themselves half-nude in Ado Ekiti to protest political fraud in the state. The capital city of the state combusted and time stood still as the women deployed the mystery of their nude bodies to claim a voice and register their concern over what they described as the failure of democracy. They boldly marched in nudity against alleged blatant acts of official election manipulation and voting scams.

In aesthetic terms, the Ado Ekiti event is a choreographed performance artwork that enabled the women to organise and express themselves with their bodies as the object and subject of public spectacle. It is also an old indigenous artistic strategy that recognises and deploys the irresistible power of the female body to captivate public and private audiences. They explored the overt power of visual gravity within the undeniable presence of natural maternal nakedness. The nude female body is a time-tested effective instrument for expressing rage, protest, and indignation. It is equally a captivating tool and strategy for projecting pleasure, desire, and the outflow of feminine libido.

In contemporary African women’s art, the performance, installation, and portrait of the female body as a nude vehicle of creative communication has prominently featured in the works of feminist artists as diverse as Unoma Giese from Nigeria, Wangechi Mutu from Kenya, Ghada Amer from Egypt, and Zanele Muholi from South Africa. These artists have joined a global band of body-based artists, notably Carolee Schneeman, Marina Abramovic, Ana Mendieta, Renee Cox, and Maria Magnalena Campos-Pons.

The contemporary feminist artists are inheritors of an ancient craft that locates its power within the bargaining stalls of the marketplace. In Yoruba performance traditions, the market domain is an amphitheater that also serves as the breeding ground for the simmering of local rage, and the organisation of articulate activism to speak truth to power. As wrath and outrage stew among women in the market, they organise themselves into fluid conduits of information, strategies, and tactics for absorbing the pain and healing the injury by proactively engaging in strategic subversion. Before matters degenerate to the point of combustion, led by the Iyaloja (the head of the traders), the woman would send representation to the king to address the problem and negotiate compromise. But if the authority ignores them or refuses to negotiate, while the injury remains untreated and the situation continues to degenerate, the women would raise their activism to the second level. This involves a march by respected and elderly women, in full ceremonial regalia, to the king’s palace. At this point, wise monarchs always find the means to assuage the matter, soothe the angry women with cool words, and take effective actions to address their injuries. But at various times, some ill-advised monarchs prove adamant, and, at their own peril, refuse to meet with the representatives of the women, or decline to care for their concerns. Such careless acts precipitate disaster. Now enraged, the women might threaten to conduct a nude procession to the palace of the king, to protest their displeasure and demand equity. If the threats were not handled with appropriate seriousness and caution, the women would move to the final stage of the creative drama with a body art performance.

Such a performance in the nude may start from the central market, a shrine, dedicated to a female divinity, or any designated meeting point announced by the head of the women. Depending on their decision, they may be fully naked, or tie a white wrapper around their waists to expose their breasts, as they did in Ado Ekiti. When fully naked, they may paint their bodies white with kaolin, or limit the body painting to only a few leaders, usually the priestesses of prominent female divinities, such as Oshun, Oya, Yemaja. On special occasions, a virgin may lead the procession, with a load filled with curses, incantations, herbs, and

•Sun Child

•Chip of the old block.

By Moyo Okediji

ART other semiological items concealed in a terra cotta pot, gourd, or wooden tray, balanced on her head.

As the procession heads toward the king’s palace, the women usually chant a few songs and incantations in the pattern of lead chanter and chorus voices. In other instances they simply hold leaves plucked from specific plants, and march in silence. As soon as the ruler and his chiefs learn that such a march is headed in the direction of the palace, the kingmakers would send the king a message that his tenure was over, that he either had to move into exile, or commit suicide by imbibing poison.

Nowadays, because the hierarchy of political leadership has changed, and the king is usually not the head of government, the grievances are often directed at the governor of a state, chief of the police, a military officer, or any ruling administrator. In the case of the Ado Ekiti march, which witnessed the women partially nude and without body painting, the state commissioner for women’s affairs organised the protest procession, which did not lead to any specific abode. The women, carrying placards, forcefully marched through the central streets of the capital city, in the company of thousands of sympathisers. Their placards read, among others, “Fayemi Won the Election;” “Ayoka Adebayo Heroine of Democracy;” and “Vice President Jonathan, Stop Imposition on Ekiti Rerun Election.” Some of the placards were also directed against the Director of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Iwu, charging him to “fear God.” This indigenous tactics of using performance art to protest political, economic and social issues has migrated into contemporary aesthetics under the term of “artivism.” In a recent definition of the term, Molefi Kete Asante Jr. an African American cultural theorist, defined the term in the specificities of resistance art: “The artivist (artist +activist) uses her artistic talents to fight and struggle against injustice and oppression—by any medium necessary. The artivist merges commitment to freedom and justice with the pen, the lens, the brush, the voice, the body, and the imagination.”

Artivism belongs within a larger practice of Conceptual Art, a creative genre driven by ideas, rather than the desire to make art for the sake of producing images. The object or images that the conceptual artist produces is, therefore, not as important as the

PHOTO: BY UNOMA GIESE

notion that the artist wishes to highlight and emphasise. As a matter of principle, the ultimate conceptual art practice is one in which there is no object at the end of the artivism, which encourages the artist to explore mediums such as ephemeral performances and installations. The event or location may be documented photographically for the sake of wide distribution, especially in the age of electronic world wide web connectivity. Any art work produced by women artists in Nigeria may qualify as a form of artivism, because of the patriarchal setting, homophobic orientation, and religious extremism that has defined cultural productions within recent years. “The repressive context of art making in Nigeria and other parts of Africa has made it difficult for women to produce art,” remarked Etso Ugbodaga-Ngu, who is clearly the matriarch of contemporary Nigerian art. “It adversely affected my work, because women are expected to marry, raise children, and become domesticated and subordinate partners in marital relationships.” The list from active Nigerian women artists is still painfully short: Peju Alatise, Victoria Udondian, Nike DavisOkundaye, Aderonke Adesanya, Peju Olowu, Nkechi NwosuIgbo, Veronica Otigbo-Ekpei, Lucy Azubuike, Amysara Bunmi Gansallo, Angela Japhet, Akin Bisola, Didi Kama Emefiele, Juliet Ezenwa, Stella Ubigho, Rasaq Abosede Adepeju, Helen Idehen, Regina Agu, Folasayo Ogunrinde, Marcia Kure, Temitayo Ogunbiyi, Tinuomi Afilaka, Dele Campbell, Marcia Kure., and Chinwe Uwatse.

A Nigerian woman artist, who would wants her name withheld because of the recent passage of homophobic legislation in Nigeria, lamented that, “Lesbian women are forced to remain in the closet in Nigeria. They marry men and remain in unhappy relationships. From time to time, they escape from the trap of their matrimonial homes to meet secretly with their lovers. Some of us make art works that do not directly engage issues of lesbianism. But we focus on the woman’s body as a point of reference.”

Photographer Unoma Giese, who blatantly states that she is not a lesbian, admits that some of her friends and fellow women artists are closet lesbians. Giese, whose work usually explores the nude female figure, is in the process of organising an exhibition of works by women artists, in collaboration with Ndidi Dike, an established artist in Nigeria. The exhibition will highlight the Nigerian women’s body of artistic works as a representation and equation of the Nigerian woman’s body.

• Okediji writes from Texas, US

The Nation’s man releases album

T •Okonta

HE NATION’S Senior Reporter Mr Chuks Udo Okonta has released a gospel album entitled: It is well.The five-track album, which is enjoying air play, consists of tracks such as It is well, Baba Igwe, Hallelujah, Johovah and You are Lord. It is marketed and distributed by Dapat Music Company.

Okonta, who is also an author, said he is inspired to draw people close to God through his songs. He noted that he opted for gospel music to inform the public of God’s promises, adding that his songs were composed to encourage people to have deep believe in God. He noted that music has remained one of the best channels to connect man to God, stressing that there are enormous opportunities in the gospel music industry that are untapped.

He said: “To the glory of God, this album this is my first album. God has been so good to us. The production of the album was a great

miracle as things turn out beyond our expectations. My sojourn into music started when I was young. I was a member of my church choir, though I was not playing a major role. I give the glory to God for calling me at this time and season. Though I love music, I never dreamt of having an album at this time. My passion in the past eight years has been on book writing. I really never paid attention to music, but God who knows us better that we understand ourselves pull a surprise when suddenly I began to get songs while asleep.

On several occasions I woke up singing unfamiliar songs. Then it dawned on me that God wants to do something through me. I discussed the strange occurrence with my wife who has more insight music wise. She gave me the needed support and we began to pray for God’s directives and connections to faithful music directors. God heard us and linked us with an artiste Femi Andrew, who helped

refined the the songs I got through inspiration.”

He said he would start work on his musical video soon, adding that the music industry has tremendously transformed. As a result, he would give more attention to the video to make it appeal to music lovers.

He said he would remain focus to enable him to achieve God’s mandate, stressing that many artistes have derailed due to lack of focus. He said the gospel music industry needs more artistes as God seeks those who will worship him in spirit and true.

He said the numerous challenges in the industry would be overcome soonest as more professionals come into the industry. He noted that Nigeria is blessed with enormous potential, adding that having conquered Africa, the world would be the next place. He called on people to be involved in issues that would help promote God’s work, people’s lives and the nation.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

35

The Midweek Magazine

E-mail:- ozoluauhakheme@yahoo.com

BOOK REVIEW Title:

Bond of Three

Author:

Emeka Obi

Publisher:

iUniverse Inc. Bloomington; 2010

Reviewer:

Chuka Nnabuife

T

HE 19th century poet and essayist, Jose Marti (1853-1895) lived a relatively short life but he left a remarkable punch line on the universal nature of his genre of art. “Literature,” he wrote, “is the most beautiful of countries.” And one adds that literature, a very high art, has a very unique appeal in the way it responds to the reportage or idealisation of life even when it dwells on existing or nonexisting situation.

Nostalgia, for example, can haunt in psychology but it never hurts in literature. Rather, in the hands of a bard recourse to history, no matter how groggy is a rich fountain of tropes. Even those who would argue on grounds of absence of novelty in the reportage of events that have happened in known history and claim that fiction is better when novel and original cannot fault the freshness of nostalgic novels, particularly when the narative is robust and told in engaging manner.

Bond of Three comes as a reminisence with healthy memoirs. For anyone who experienced the kind of life it captures, it reminds of when boys were boys and girls real girls. Those days of high school nuances when principals weilded authority akin to kings’ and prefects were as powerful and proudly authoritative as confident governors with all the pecks of office including immunity and fringe benefits. Those were years when naughty junior students still found their way of wangling through the heavy tangle to exercise their, should one say, ‘poetic licence’, to rock the system with their juvenile delinquence.

Author Emeka Obi takes his reader back to those days to such steeped extent that one needed not to read his novel’s blurb to understand that the author was born somewhere in the eastern region of Nigeria in an era that afforded him the historical luxury (yes, luxury for any story teller) of passing his childhood in the fresh years that follow the end of the Nigeria-Biafra civil war (1967 – 1970). In the East (now south-east and south-south of Nigeria) those years of the 1970s through the 1980s – coming on the heels of the huge loss of a war and millions of lives at their prime – were seasons of anomie, desperate years of national misanthropy and socio-economic confusion. But culturally, it was a blissful period when people in the area were very collectively knit in a general suffrage that highlighted communal living. Generally, everyone had some losses or gains to count, if not being happy for surviving the war it would be brooding over loosing loved ones or property during the war or the several crises that preceeded or followed it. Re-examination of inherited indigenous ethos and acquired foreign religious values (in this case, mainly Christianity) was the norm as well as a desire among young generation to get better than their parents were. Though the author did not state the period of his writing, the school system he anchored his story on was direct offshoot of this period of radical sociological change. Hence, for a storyteller with rich memory, like Mr Obi (who curiously studied Mechanical Engineering), passing through that era with the impressionable mind of a child was like being in a diamond mine with hands full of tools and freedom to scoop as much as possible. And Bond of Three, though fiction, clearly shows a writer who mined a lot of intellectual treasure from the era of his childhood.

Obi’s book succintly captures slices of the lifestyle in secondary schools in the area around the 1980s, highlighting salient elements of the culture of a certain small community named Umuagu and its environ, somewhere near Onitsha. The novel connects how the lives of three pre-teen youngsters over there stretched like a web to touch salient developments across Nigeria. The major characters – a lad Onyekachi and two girls, Nneoma and Njideka – are all intelligent class-toppers and assertive children of cash-strapped hard-struggling families with big hopes of bright future.

The author, an emergent entrant into the literary circle serves his neatly packaged book in a manner the entices both aesthetically and literarily. The reader therefore just had to sit quietly and read leisurely through. His lucid language makes the reader not really swot up but savour his tale which is written in an enjoyable prose – all flesh without knotty bones to crack in the form of big words and expressions that would prod one to keep the dictionary handy.

Here, Obi writes for a high school audience. His story is about an interesting high schools trio – Nneoma, Onyekachi and Njideka. Opening his narative with the puzzling discovery of two different academic worlds by Onyekachi who attends his first morning assembly as a

Bond of buoyant tropes new JS2 (Junior Secondary, Class Two) pupil in Umuagu Secondary School (USS), the author takes his reader through connecting developments that effectively situate his tale – geographically, culturally and politically – without belabouring the issue with distinctive subthemes and pulses. There are no titles for chapters in the book.

Through this mode of freely connecting narrative, the novelist exhibits his gift in creatively, plying divergent developments in several settings into one another in subtle detours that buoy his story and enrich the vista. Somehow, it becomes evident that Onyekachi is a city-groomed brilliant boy who used to attend a top-grade all-boys secondary school with boarding facilities in urban Kaduna of the northern part of Nigeria. An unstated development led to the sudden death of the boy’s father and the radical slide into hard times by his family and the forced return to his native town in eastern Nigeria to enroll into a village school for both boys and girls. It was a cultural shock and radical social class adjustment for the boy.

Yet he still radiates a determination to excel notwithstanding the radical change of environment and situation around him. Hence from that kicker on resilience and thirsty desire to conquer odds, the writer sets the pervading thrust of his novel – excellence and determination to win despite debilitating fate.

Somehow, an event at the assembly ground in USS establishes the theme of the book. The highly reverred principal of USS, Mr Dibia had thrown the question: “what is a parable?” to all pupils in the rally. None of the students was confident to step out and offer an answer.

Moreover, everyone in the school knew the dire consequence of offering a Dibia a wrong answer. Though he was attending the school for the first day and only a form two pupil, Onyekachi, being a bright boy with balls “surmoned courage and raised his right hand. The principal looked at his direction.

“Yes?” “A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning,” he answered.

“Good son! Oh... the new student?” the principal said.” (p 2) From that subtle signposting the writer subtly offers hints of the prongs of the tale in an unassertive way.

Thereafter, the story moves in a conscious pace that is not too fast but not never slow, pulsating through the boy’s eventful stay in the USS where he connected with his childhood playmate, kindred girl and classroom competitor, Nneoma who also introduces him to her bosom friend, Njideka – another assertive bright girl.

Hence ensued a chain of events that highlighted the trio’s academic brilliance, deep bond of love (p 33 – 34) individual leadership qualities and hidden strength of character. In page 35, while in their JS3 class Onyekachi, to the surprise of the school squares up to, and even beats up a dreaded bully, Goddy, to save Njideka even at the risk of getting a suspension from school.

Like a wave spreading in broader circles from a drop on still river Obi’s story evolves from one issue and with some linking traits brings in more and more related tales.

The author uses the three chaps and events around them like a block of magnet placed somewhere in the middle

of a box of metal knots and screws. Somehow, everything addressed in the fiction relates directly to the youngsters. As they grow up the realities of the economic difficulties of their area and the entire country rubs off heavily on them.

All through the 131 pages, spread across 15 chapters, the novel dwell on the challenges young ones of contemporary Nigeria, particularly those with brain and drive, face in their toil against fate, poverty and cycles of headless governments and policies, in their zeal to actualise their goals. The somewhat evident insensitivity to the need to prop young Nigerians with deep endowments, irrespective of where they hail from governments tend to hit those of them with talent and hard work with heavy punch. The trio in Bond of Three fully experienced such heavy blow of the society. The result is a separation between Onyekachi and Njideka whom he, over the tale grew to love and desired to have as live partner. Same Onyekachi whose childhood dream was becoming a civil engineer ended up an accountant working in a bank (p117).

Nneoma whose desire was to be a graduate had to first settle for early marriage to Mr Max before heading back to campus. Events turned a once friendly Onyekachi into a cocooned, still-unmarried introvert who trusts none and entertains no guest in his Lagos home notwithstanding his having become relatively successful as a banker.

Though at the end of the tale the straying Njideka reappeared the story ended in a manner that establishes the eventual triumph of will and hardwork over hard fate.

And the author left it suspending whether Onyekachi and Njideka would reunite and wed (p130 – 131) as they had planned in earlier days.

Technically, Obi writes like an author who plans his narrative, plots its length and pays good attention to even the etymology of names among other implied tropes. For example the Igbo name Onyekachi means ‘who is more powerful than God’. And events around the character buttressed the relevance of that identity. Of simillar relevance is the motherly heart of the character, Nneoma which syncs with her beautiful name. It is the same with the pragmatic, if material, traits in the Njideka character.

Remarkable here is the narrative in page 51 through page 52. Particularly: “In our culture, a name helps to determine a child’s destiny” (p 51).

For an emerging novelist, Obi’s literary faculty in Bond of Three is noteworthy. The art needs more works from this engineer whose gift in writing is immense. His book is well proof-read and served in beautiful graphical cover and page layout. However, the editor of subsequent reprints should prune off some occasional windy sentences.

POEM

Mirror of the miracle

By Akewusola Habib

Soyinka, Poetry’s harmonica Kerosene that never shivers Cousin to Anikulapo’s river.

Nobel skull full of experience Ransom is beyond your existence, The white bears are rich in Poetry’s dividend.

You look good in a broken mirror With those messages full of inner Circle humor.

Righteous tongue, He despise insults, The ink who doesn’t sleep, I desire your skills even in politics.

The process of writing this piece I had a deep think, searching for Soyinka’s limit, Zero hours middle of the high sea Deep in night shift is where I could Predict, what you know read As lyrics.

Number two in short list of all Time great, Never been a victim of defeat.

Argument is stress, you write and Refill your pen.

Bless me with the power of letters, Loyalty is all I know Soyinka, father Africa.

36

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

The Midweek Magazine

E-mail:- ozoluauhakheme@yahoo.com

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Royal Dance Steps The Alaafin dancing during the anniversary celebration at his palace in Oyo •The Alafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi

Celebrating the Queen

A

• Queen Elizabeth II

N anachronism to some, keeper of a precious heritage to others, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has inspired a surprising diversity of artists. To mark the Queen’s diamond jubilee, celebrating her 60th year on the throne, the National Portriat Gallery in London has brought together some 60 iconic portraits by photographers and artists ranging from Lord Snowdon and Andy Warhol to Ivan Freud and Kim Dorg-Yoo. The exhibition, The Queen: Art and image, which opened at the National Museum, Cardiff on February 4, will move to the National Portrait Gallery on May 17. Through representations of Elizabeth, it charts a course across recent British history and arts, against a backdrop of the realm’s shrinking empire, social upheaval and the internet revolution. “It’s about how changing images of the Queen act as a kind of lens through which to see changes in our society and changes in artistic values,” says curator of the exhibition, Paul Moorhouse.

The show moves from majestic portraits by Pietro Annigoni and Cecil Beaton of the young queen in her regalia to more relaxed domestic scenes from the 1960s. With Gerhard Richter’s blurred 1966 portrait, the depictions become more questioning. But it was Jamie Reid’s 1977 poster defacing the Queen’s image for the sex pistol single, God save the Queen, that shattered the deference forever.

Moorhouse says “It does seem to unleash something in the response of contemporary artists, who are also more critical from that point.” Warhol’s glitzy silk screens from 1985 and Hiroshi Sugimoto’s 1999 photo of a wax work Elizabeth imply

a lack of substance behind the regal veneer. And royal supporters took umbrage at Justin Mortimer 1998 painting showing her Majesty’s head floating above her body, as well as Freud’s lumpen 2001portait of the Queen.

Among the more controversial work is Kim Dong-Yoo’s Elizabeth vs Diana (2007), which made from 1,106 tiny pictures of Princess Diana. British-Guyanese artist Hew Locke says traditional ‘sycophantic’ images of the Queen make him physically sick. His sculpture, Medusa (2008), is composed of beads, bugs, trash, and toys. “Obviously it is a portrait, but it is something much more than that. It is a kind of dark talisman, it’s about the state of the nation,” Locke says.

As a portrait of the nation, the exhibition captures seminal moments in British consciousness like Princess Diana’s death, encapsulated in a press photo of Elizabeth and Prince Philip surveying floral tributes outside Buckingham Palace.

Chris Levine’s haunting helographic portrait of the Queen resting her eyes, lightness of Being (2007), is on the show’s promotional poster. Levine explains that it was inspired by meditation. “I was trying to create that sense of stillness,” he says of his photo shoot withy Elizabeth. The historian David Cannadine, who contributed an essay to probably the most usually, represented human being ever to have existed in the entire history of the world,” if one includes coins, stamps, and media imagery. Yet, her real persona remains an enigma, and the exhibition makes no pretence of solving it. “All you really have of the Queen is images,” says Moorhouse. “You never have an intimation of what she’s like as a person.”

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ESIDENTS of Basawa Community in Sabon Gari Local Government Area of Kaduna State have pleaded with the Federal Government to ensure that the Nigerian Armed Forces pay them the compensation for acquiring, compulsorily, land on which the Basawa Military Police Barrack was built.

Members of the community, in a statement signed by their chairman Alhaji Suleiman Muhammed, decried the Nigerian armed forces decision to take over the land from the community 38 years ago with the promise to compensate them immediately but have not done so till now.

Alhaji Suleiman regretted that apart from the Armed forces’ refusal to pay the compensation at least for the land on which the barrack was built, they have constantly denied IMEON Onasanya, Managing Director and CEO of IMS Computer Institute, one of the foremost computer training centres in the country, unarguably stands out among Nigerians who have distinguished themselves in the IT sector.

He became popular in the United States in the 80s when he successfully carried out a research and experimental projects in the area of artificial intelligence and robotics in connection with robot recognition of objects through picture analysis.

Following his breakthrough in the research, the then young Onasanya proceeded to work for the internationally-recognised International Business Machine (IBM).

For those who might not know, while in the United States, Onasanya was a member of the team that produced and manufactured the automatic teller machines (ATM), Denver products, which is now being used in the banking sector throughout the world.

While at IBM, he was also the staff engineer of the company and was responsible for the operation of over 50 robots in the company.

Having garnered enough experience with international recognition in the IT sector, he decided to return to Nigeria in 1986 to establish his own computer institute and impart his rich knowledge on others.

With assurances of support from IBM, the company he was working for at that time in the US, Simeon began the process of establishing IMS. However, his hope of a successful take-off of the institute in Nigeria was met with brickwall.

“I have trained many students in the US in those days who have become presidents of organisations and leaders of industry,” he said.

“When I came to Nigeria in 1986, I was sad to see Nigeria lagging behind in the IT sector. Before coming, I had arranged with IBM to bring certain equipment to Nigeria. When I was coming back to Nigeria for the second time, the company (IBM) told me to bring the picture of the environment where I wanted to establish the company, which I did. When they saw the picture, they asked me a question that why all these walls around the building. They said the country was not safe and were not willing to risk the lives of their

Community seeks compensation over land original owners of the land use of the remaining land which they used to rely on for subsistence farming for several decades, thereby plunging them into serious hardship and

poverty “We have made several attempts to reach out to the top military officers in the Army to lodge our complaints to them, but that had always

We, however, learnt that the money for our compensation was paid through the Kaduna State Government, but we did not receive any of the money since over 30 years now

met with failure, a reason why our present resolve is to send this saveour-soul appeal to the president of the Federal Government of Nigeria hoping that he will come to our rescue”, the chairman lamented.

“It is interesting to mention that the farm land originally belonged to three different communitiesJama’a, Bomo and Bassawa, but while the people of Jama’a and Bomo were said to have been compensated since the early days of the Federal Military Government through the Kaduna State Government, our Bassawa Community remained uncompensated,” Alhaji Suleiman said.

The leader of the Bassawa Community also alleged that: “We, however, learnt that the money for our compensation was paid through the Kaduna State Government, but we did not receive any of the money since over 30 years now.

“It is against this backdrop that we are writing a petition to President Jonathan-led Federal Government to set up a powerful committee comprising elderstatemen and patriotic Nigerians to ascertain what happened to the money and to ensure its immediate release to us to save us from the age-long hardship that arose from forceful takeover of our lands which used to be our main source of business and survival.

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•Some graduands at the ceremony

Man empowers 50,000 on ICT

By Muyiwa Omobulejo

staff. They were willing to come with machines and their technicians to train our people but because of the security issue they were discouraged,” he added.

Though sad with the situation, Ogun State-born Simeon was not discouraged. “I knew how much I had contributed to the educational sector in the US. I made up my mind that if I could make people in US to become head of companies, and software programmers, then I can use the same skill to train people in Nigeria. I am an automation engineer. I wanted Nigerians to catch up with the western world so I went ahead with my plan on my own and today, I am fulfilled,” he explained.

His perseverance paid off as the institute has, over the years, trained over 50,000 Nigerians in the computer sector.

However, if you think that his success is a reflection of his financial background while growing up, you are wrong.

Simeon was born without the proverbial silver spoon. His father was a barber while his mother was a petty trader who sold cooked rice to augment the father’s income.

This year, we have developed our own software locally at IMS where all our students now write their exams on the computer. There is no need of using pen or paper. It is you and your computer. Once you write your exam, within two hours the result will be sent to your computer •Engr. Onasanya

Though not educated, his parents struggled to send the children to some of the best schools at that time.

Reminiscing on his childhood he said: “I was not born into a rich family. My father was a barber and he never went to school. My mother used to sell rice while we were in school. If you say it was rough for us growing up, I didn’t know what it meant because then, we felt it was normal. I believed that was how life should be. I didn’t know what poverty meant. I can say my father was very wise. He believed we must be educated so he put us in best schools. Glory be to God, all of us (children) are now educated.”

Now a successful man, Simeon said he is fulfilled as his dream and ambition have been realised following the success of IMS. “I am fulfilled because my dream of training Nigerians in computer operation has been realised. We just had our 9th graduation and award-giving ceremony this year and the institute is now 25years old.

Our children are now enjoying the facilities. “This year, we have developed our own software locally at IMS where all our students now write their exams on the computer. There is no need of using pen or paper. It is you and your computer. Once you write your exam, within two hours the

result will be sent to your computer. Though it has taken us this long to develop the software, I can now understand why it was so.”

Asked about the secret behind the success of the Institute which is now regarded as one of the best in the country, an elated Simeon replied: “It is consistency. Once you are consistent, there is nothing you cannot do. Honesty is another thing, honesty to a direction you want to go and honesty to a worthwhile goal. In spite of all the ups and downs in the country, we have gone far. The children of this country matters to us because these are the children of the poor. I used to be in that position a long time ago so I know what they pass through.

“These children are not from wealthy homes. I have wealthy friends but I don’t tell them to bring their children to my school because their children go to schools abroad.

I am for the poor because that was where I came from. The motivation is to help people to be somebody in life. I know people that come from England to IMS for computer training. So God has been our strength. All enemies that have tried to destroy IMS have not succeeded.

During Abacha time, when there was no petrol and there were crisis, people supported us. We never closed for one day. The enemies were always appearing from nowhere but God is helping us. I am just human being. Once you have God, you don’t need to be afraid of anybody.”

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Council chief reels off achievements

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HE chairman of Ojodu Local Council Development Area, Lagos Hon. Julius Olumuyiwa Oloro has presented his account of stewardship in the last 100 days he has spent in office. He said his administration is determined to transform the council area and improve the living condition of the people.

He said: “It is our mission to touch the lives of the people in positive ways. It also our belief that God has given us the mandate to make marks on the sands of time.”

He praised the efforts of Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola in transforming the state.

Reeling off the achievement of the council since inception, the council chief said the legislative arm, secretary to the LCDA, supervisors and council advisers have been inaugurated.

He disclosed that meetings were held with stakeholders at the six wards of the community where some requests were made by members of the community, even as he stated that at “the year 2012 retreat, all demands were incorporated into the budget for implementation.” He noted that there was consolidation and improvement on the achievements of the last administration. He further disclosed that that informed the tag of this year’s budget as “Budget of Consolidation.”

It signifies that the team of Ojodu Local Development Area believes in impacting positively in the lives of people by ensuring that dividends of democracy get to all.

Continuing, Oloro said: “The objective of 2012 budget was to

•Alhaji Bakare Street, Ojodu inset: Transformers distributed

By Duro Babayemi

harness the resources of the council in order to develop the communities and empower the people. We organised programmes for free healthcare.

“Health is wealth. It is in the realisation of this that the council has acquired and installed a machine that will detect about 25 ailments in the human body.”

On poverty alleviation, Mr Oloro said that over 100 widows

Health is wealth. It is in the realisation of this that the council has acquired and installed a machine that will detect about 25 ailments in the human body

and widowers will receive donations of food and other items. The items to be distributed to them include packed rice, elubo, groundnut oil, semovita, and garri.

“Aged people above 55 years are not left out. About 65 of them will be given N5,000 just for assistance. This is to show that we care for them,” he said.

Expressing his desire to give the people quality education, the council chief said that the existing vocational training centres would be given a face lift.

He pledged the council’s commitment to youth empowerment.

He said: “The youth will be empowered through these training centres.”

Noting that an idle hand is a devil’s workshop, the council chief disclosed that “there will not be a lazy youth in this community. We are targeting 384 youths for empowerment. Currently, 100 JAMB forms were distributed to indigent students to assist them secure admission

into Nigerian universities to further their education.

“In the next 100 days, equipment and tools needed for the students who graduated from the training centres will be provided.”

Some of the projects inaugurated were staff clinic, National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) office at the secretariat, Alhaji Bakare Road, and six classrooms at Oke-Ira Primary School.

Some of the streets that are under construction with drainage system are Gbadamosi, Muyibi, Oyatogun, Abdullahi, Ondo, Shobowale, Odusami and Muibi.

These projects will be completed before the end of the year for smooth movement, according to the council chief.

Oloro said: “There are five primary health centres while the sixth which is under the Federal Government-assisted MDG project at Oke-Ira is still under construction.

•Hon. Oloro

“Gbadamosi health centre is receiving a face lift while Akiode and Aguda primary health centres are being rehabilitated.”

‘Maintain clean environment’

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•From left Hon Ariyoh, Mrs Longe and Hon Adesanya during the monitoring of the environmental sanitation.

S part of his administration’s plans to ensure a cleaner environment, the Chairman of Oshodi-Isolo Local Government Area, Hon. Bolaji Ariyoh has urged residents of the council to always participate in the environmental sanitation exercise.

Hon. Ariyoh stated this during the last environmental sanitation where he and other members of the executive monitored the exercise in the council.

The chairman stated that it is only through a clean environment that good health can be guaranteed.

Other members of the executive in the chairman’s entourage were the Council Manager Mrs Olufunke Longe, Leader of the Legislative Chamber, Hon. Abdul Azeez Shobayo; Supervisor for the Environment, Hon. Felix Adewale and Supervisor for Health Hon. Yusuf Adesanya.

The areas visited were the Kairo Market in Oshodi and other streets like Oshodi Road,

By Amidu Arije

Igbehinadun Street, among others areas in the council area.

Hon. Ariyoh participated actively in the exercise by cleaning drainage.

The council chief urged all residents to ensure that they participate actively in the cleaning of their environment.

“We will make sure that there is no place for dirt and that no drainage system is blocked within the council. We will continue to monitor the environmental sanitation exercise to see that people take part actively and regularly,’’ he said.

Hon. Ariyoh urged residents not to wait for environmental days before they clean their environment.

He also advised them to stop dumping refuse on drainage to avoid flooding especially during the rainy seasons.

Hon. Ariyoh assured the citizens of the council’s commitment towards making life easy for the people.

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

As we rejoice and celebrate with these people, we call on Mbaivende people in positions of authority to work out ways of collaboration with government and development agencies to bring development to us

•Wergba, fourth from right, with the others, chiefs and children

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HE Mbaivende Community in Ushongo Local Government Area of Benue State has honoured the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Conrad Wergba and seven others who are indigenous to the community.

Prof. Julius Ashiko of the Benue State University, Dr. Timothy Utile, Registrar of the institution, Mr. Godwin Anya, state chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers and Mr. Julius Shaukpar were also honoured.

Others were Messrs Sylvester Jijingi and Sylvester Avishigh, engineers, and directors in the Federal Ministry of Works, as well as Mrs. Esther Dzungwe, supervisor for Works and Housing of Ushongo Local Government Area.

Chairman of the central planning committee, Mr. Tarkaa Stephen Ability, explained that the community took the initiative to honour some of its prominent sons and daughters because, according to him, “they are men and women of high integrity and distinction who have broken barriers in their

Eight honoured for community development From Uja Emmanuel, Makurdi

chosen fields to rise to the top, touched lives and made a difference in the life of the community.”

He, however, noted that the list of prominent individuals honoured at the occasion was not exhaustive as a result of constraint of time and other limitations, even as he added that the process was a continuous one.

“The foremost aim of this occasion is to bring home Mbaivende people and collectively strategise on how best to develop the community.

“As we rejoice and celebrate with these people, we call on Mbaivende people in positions of authority to work out ways of collaboration with government and development agencies to bring development to us,” he said.

Mr. Ability listed the problems of the community as lack of basic infrastructure like good roads, elec-

tricity, education, and healthcare.

Guest speaker at the occasion, Mr. Iornamtsav Shirsha, stressed the need for unity and co-operation among members of the community.

Other speakers including chairman of the occasion, Mr Sam Tar Iyornumbe, Dooshima Agur, as well as the District Heads of Mbaaka, and Mbaawe, Chief George Mbachilin and Foga

Igbazenda also maintained that co-operation and peace were the way forward for the community.

They appealed that the occasion should be an annual event in the community.

Responding on behalf of recipients, Mr. Wergba expressed appreciation to the community for the honour and pledged that the state government would address some of their pressing problems

within the next three years.

He appealed to them to endeavour to choose candidates for the forthcoming local government elections through consensus, assuring that the state government would respect their sensibilities.

The commissioner said he had noted the popular calls for the transition chairman, Mr. Shaukpar, to be retained as chairman following his effective performance.

Boko Haram: Lawmakers praise Jonathan

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HE Abia State House of Assembly has disassociated itself from the calls for the mass return of Ndigbo from the crisis-ridden northern part of Nigeria, describing it as unnecessary. It maintained that it has confidence in the ability of the Federal Government to resolve the Boko Harm insurgency.

Speaking with newsmen on the

•From left: Chairman, Kosofe Local Government, Hon. Afolabi Babatunde Sofola; Mr. Tunde of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs; Vice-Chairman, Hon. Omotuyi Awoshola and Supervisor for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Hon. Olajumoke Dairo during the environmental sanitation held at the secretariat

From Ugochukwu Eke, Umuahia

activities of the Abia State House of Assembly for the past one month, the Deputy Speaker who is also chairman House Committee on Information and Strategy Hon. Allwell Asiforo Okere said the lawmakers deliberated on the Boko Haram insurgency extensively.

Okere said that it took them a lot of time before coming to the conclusion that the activities of the group has not gone beyond the ability of President Goodluck Jonathan, even as it urged him not to relent in his bid to put a stop to the group’s insurgence.

He further said that the lawmakers had gone down memory lane to discover that in the past such groups as MEND, OPC, Maitatsine and others like them had surfaced, but were eventually subdued, saying that so far, Mr President has demonstrated the ability to handle the problem resolutely.

The Deputy Speaker also said that the mass arrest of suspected members of the sect by security agencies has reinforced the stand of the lawmakers that the crisis will soon be a thing of history like other insurgent groups in the past.

Okere described the actions of the new Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar as one of the signs that the end of

the sect is not far, adding that the lawmakers believe in the indivisibility of the country.

The House, however, advised Ndigbo wherever they may reside to continue to pursue their legitimate means of livelihood without fear, adding that security measures have been put in place to ensure the protection of lives and property.

He said: “We believe in the corporate existence of Nigeria. We have the confidence that Mr. President has the capacity to deal with the problem and that was why we passed the resolution.

“If it gets to the point that people must return to their states, everybody will notice it because nobody will see war and stand.

But it has not reached that stage and we may never get to that stage before it is stopped.”

Okeke, representing Ukwa East State Constituency also said that the Abia State High Court law has been amended so as to empower the Chief Judge of the state in consultation with the governor to redeploy a Judge of the State Customary Court of Appeal to the High Court of the state.

He said that before now, there was no such provision and which had affected the dispensation of justice; adding that with the amendment, the Chief Judge of the state can now push a Judge from the Customary Court of Appeal to the High Court without any inhibition, where the need for more Judges becomes necessary.

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

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POLITICS THE NATION

E-mail:- politics@thenationonlineng.net

Contrary to the view that all government, political and social activities have been suspended in Yobe State since the Boko Haram menace seized the Northeast, Governor Ibrahim Gaidam recently held a town hall meeting ostensibly as a feedback mechanism. Correspondent JOEL DUKU who was there reports the proceeding and its political significance.

Gaidam raises stakes in Yobe F

EBRUARY 28 started like every other day at the Damaturu Government House as nobody, not even inquisitive journalists, had a hint that a mere town hall meeting would turn out to be a big political show. For Governor Ibrahim Gaidam, the chief host to 170 elders of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), it was more than a political rendezvous. Each of the 17 local government in the state was represented by 10 elders at the summit, the first since the 2011 general election. The meeting which was put together by the office of the Special Adviser on Political and Legislative Affairs, was, according to the organisers, aimed at bringing the elders and the governor to rob minds on issues affecting the state, the party and a general appraisal of government activities.

The mood was expectedly relaxed, but mien of the visitors indicated that it was serious business. Attendance was strictly by invitation; thugs known to mill around such political gathering were missing, even as delegates were subjected to thorough checks at the main entrance gate of the Government House and accordingly issued tag before gaining access to the venue of the meeting.

Security, press and protocol men were asked to leave the venue as soon as the introduction of the occasion was concluded.

Gaidam, who was dressed in his usual free Babanriga and a Zanna cap, elicited loud ovation as soon as he sauntered into the Wawa Hall, venue of the confab. With a big smile, one could hazard a guess that he was satisfied with the huge attendance.

It was believed that the Town Hall meeting with the elders was to oil the governor’s political machinery and have a grip on the party and his teeming supporters across the state. However, his Special Adviser on Political and Legislative Affairs, Alhaji Mai Mala Buni dismissed the claim, maintaining that it was “myopic, mischievous, weak, and trivial than things that occupy the mind of Governor Ibrahim Gaidam.”

Buni noted that “building a feed- back mechanism between the leaders and the led would bridge the gap between the two and create a smoother relationship, adding that the forum would also avail the elders the opportunity to interact face- to -face with the chief executive of the state and pour out their minds on certain issues which could be crucial to the develop-

ment of the state, but which, along the line, have been truncated by bureaucracies.”

He said politicians who cherish good legacies like Gaidam need the support of everybody to succeed, stressing that “this is a governor who takes promises very seriously. He has not derailed from his campaign promises since he came on board.”

Also, Gaidam’s Special Adviser on Press and Information, Abdullahi Bego, had a sharp reaction. “The Town Hall was called for direct interaction by the governor with people at the grassroots. The last such major forum was during the campaigns. At that time, the governor had an earful of the problems and needs of the various communities; about roads they wanted built, schools renovated or hospitals upgraded.

They spoke about their frustrations with promises made by previous regimes in the state and not fulfilled.

“Tuesday’s Town Hall was a free exchange of ideas between the governor and those in attendance. For elected officials, the Town Hall drives home the message that whether they represent their people well or not, the governor can and does continue to hear directly from the people.

“Gaidam used the forum to add to the list of services he vouched to provide - the dredging of parts of the Kumadugu-Yobe River that traverses Jakusko, Bade and Nguru Local Government areas to increase water flow and support farming and fishing activities, and provision of more solar-powered boreholes to improve water supply and the resuscitation of the government-owned Dofarga Spring Water Company in Gulani Local Government area, clear markers by which the administration would be assessed in years to come,” Bego informed.

But more than these, The Nation gathered that the meeting also provided an opportunity for Gaidam to explain some of his policies like the drive against ghost workers which some people consider as anti people. At different forums in

•Gaidam

the wake of the minimum wage saga, the governor had emphasised his commitment to purging the public service of ghost workers, especially at the local level, just as he lamented the constant rise of the state wage bill, way above Kano and Borno states that have more local government areas than Yobe.

“Yobe State, with only 17 local government areas has the largest population of workforce of 46,200 at the local government level in the whole of northern Nigeria; even more than Kano and Borno.

“I think it is only in Yobe that you have a situation where even infants receive salaries.

We must sieve our local government service and I believe God will protect me in my duties for ensuring a better Yobe”, Gaidam was quoted as saying.

To underscore the significance of the meet-

‘What is the place of 2015 in all this? Has Gaidam arrived as political leader of Yobe? What about other forces in ANPP and PDP? The institutionalisation of the forum, following last year’s total victory at the poll, suggests that the governor is looking ahead’

ing, Gaidam noted that: “I have great hope and expectation that at the end of this session, the state would benefit immensely from its outcome. This is because the words of elders are words of wisdom. May I therefore welcome you and enjoin you to feel free to interact with me with a view to contributing your opinions and views in the best interest of our dear state”.

Characteristic of politicians, the governor did not allow the opportunity slip without rolling out his achievements spanning education, healthcare delivery, water, agriculture, tourism and commerce, housing, youth empowerment, civil service reform and local government sectors. He announced that his administration had expended about N19 billion on road construction to boost economic activities in the state, while the sum of over N700 million has so far been paid as school fees to the state students studying at home and abroad. Water supply and health, according to the governor have equally received a massive boost, stressing that the Damaturu Regional Water Supply Scheme has been awarded at the cost of N1.145 billion, just as the 200-bed ultra modern hospital and the 40-bed capacity amenity ward at the Specialist Hospital Damaturu at the cost of N1.1 billion and N140 million respectively are completed and awaiting commissioning.

The Vice Chairman of ANPP, Alhaji Bakura Jibril, described the meeting as “significant to the growth of the state”. He described the general outcome, both for the elders and the government, as satisfactory. “Everyone was happy and the elders lauded the openness and forthrightness of the governor on burning issues affecting the state.

“If all leaders are like Governor Ibrahim Gaidam, then leadership would be demystified and made easy. When a leader has nothing to hide, his conscience will be clear, therefore, nothing will distract him. This is what Gaidam is demonstrating in Yobe”, Bakura said.

Buni expressed confidence in the sustainability of the forum. “Governor Gaidam will continue to meet with groups, associations, individuals and NGOs to cross-fertilize ideas for the development of Yobe state. It is something he would never shy from and the tempo of development in the state will continue”, Buni said.

What is the place of 2015 in all this? Has Gaidam arrived as political leader of Yobe?

What about other forces in ANPP and PDP? The institutionalisation of the forum, following last year’s total victory at the poll, suggests that the governor is looking ahead.

For sometime, the news from the state have been about booming guns and destruction. It is doubtful if anyone outside the state knew anything about government activities. The outing showed that despite the crisis, Governor Gaidam who demonstrated his political sagacity at the poll last year, maintains his focus.

‘Eight-point agenda on course in Ekiti’

By Emmanuel Oladesu Deputy Political Editor

•Fayemi

E

KITI State Governor Kayode Fayemi has articulated an eight-point agenda for transforming the state. In spite of the challenges the administration inherited, people across the 120 towns and villages now testify to a clean break from the past. In all the sectors, there is no lull in development.

Last week, in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, Fayemi added another feat as he launched an Integrated Digital Media Channels, which is a case study of digital transformation in the public sector is expected to bridge the communication gap between the administration and Ekiti in the Diaspora.

At the ceremony were Deputy Governor Funmilayo Olayinka, Secretary to Government Dr. Ganiyu Owolabi, Chief of Staff Yemi Adaramodu, Special Adviser on Infrastructural Development and Public Utility Kayode Jegede and Political and Legislative Adviser Karunwi Oladapo.

Through the channels, the governor and other members of the State Executive Council can be contacted for explanations on any aspect of governance. There is no hiding place for indolent aide, since the administration is now an open book, said one of Fayemi’s aides. To ensure that commissioners and special advisers respond swiftly to public enquiries, Fayemi gave them blackberries. He has also been leading by example by

staying glued to his laptop. On daily basis, the governor responds to questions and makes clarifications on government activities on demand.

Information and Civic Orientation Commissioner Funminiyi Afuye said the new technology would boost information processing and enhance input-feedback mechanism.”This is the first state in the country that passed the Freedom of Information Bill. Now, there is the expansion of access to the government and all its agencies.

This will give room for our people at home and abroad to effectively participate in governance through constructive criticisms, assessment, suggestions and contribution of ideas”, he added, hailing the governor for the accomplishment.

The Chief Executive Officer of Dymore Vision Consulting Limited and Digital Media Director, Ekiti State Digital Transformation Project, Dr. Anderson Ovie-Emegho, noted at the ceremony which held at the Council Chamber, that the state has become the number two most visited state website in the country. He observed that the recent move had assisted the governor in driving a widely participatory and all-inclusive governance.

The technical expert said, apart from fostering transparency in governance, the device has also

assisted Fayemi’s team in building a brandthought leadership, adding that the state is also being promoted as a destination. Other crucial elements of the digital media channels include branded facebook, mobile website, branded email newsletter, branded you tube channel, branded facebook canvas page, branded twitter handle and branded flicker account.

Emegbo said: “We have not created a website.

We have created Ekiti 3.0; a set of robust integrated multimedia digital media channels; online, social, and mobile media; backed by a strong governance strategy. It is the first of its kind within the public sector in Nigeria”.

Jegede described the launch as a major achievement in the transformation of governance in Ekiti. He said the new device would foster efficiency, connect citizens to government and affect economy, education, commerce and lifestyle.

The governor was delighted at the formal launch of the new face of Ekiti in the media world.

He said: “This is not the first outing of Ekiti on the web. But this is a fastidious government always seeking for improvement. We learn new •Continued on page 46

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

POLITICS

Duty of Nigerian citizens in these times A notable historian, BANJI AKINTOYE, points out the rationale for regional integration in the Southwest and the need for Nigerian patriots to support the call for restructuring of the federation.

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LD folks let most things pass. I find it difficult, however, to let pass the article

by Ishaq Modibbo Kawu, which was published the February 23 Vanguard under the title: The Southwest, An Anthem, A Flag And The Justification . I believe that the current predicament of our country demands of us Nigerians to rise above certain kinds of our traditional mindset.

From all appearances, our country seems to be tottering towards some enormous – perhaps even terminal – disaster. Nigerians are killing Nigerians with a persistence unusual in our history. Large numbers of our citizens are forced to flee from places where they have long lived and done business and return to their native homelands. We all know that the growing intensification of poverty and hopelessness in our country is a cardinal driver of these troubles.

Many men of goodwill in the world are putting other preoccupations aside and hurrying to offer proposals for the solution of what is becoming known worldwide as “the Nigerian problem”.

These times should call on us Nigerians to rise above our usual inter-ethnic baiting in order to seek together for meaningful solutions to our country’s ills. With influential entities in the international community telling us that our country could break up in a few years, should we not make efforts to shame them by rising higher in our dealing with the problems of our country? Should we simply continue to bash one another and stumble along in the same paths that have led us to our present verge of disintegration?

Without any doubt, one significant positive in our present situation is that many Nigerians, especially persons speaking for various Nigerian nationalities, have been coming forward with ideas, proposals, and demands which they believe can make our country operate more harmoniously and prosperously. Apart from notable citizens speaking out in their own right, we have heard from many persons speaking for groups, meetings or caucuses of various nationalities – like the nations of the Delta, the Igbo nation, some of the nations of the Middle Belt, the Hausa-Fulani nation, the Yoruba nation, among others. Of the various suggestions emanating from all these voices, the commonest seems now to be that we should restructure our federation and thereby make it more rational, more workable, and more supportive of socioeconomic development and progress. Many have proposed that we should do this through a National Sovereignty Conference. Others do not want a National Sovereignty Conference. At least one prominent citizen, speaking for a nationality, made the suggestion that, as part of restructuring our federation, we should include the right and processes of peaceful secession in our constitution. Even the National Assembly has been giving consideration to steps towards constitutional changes with a view to solving our problems. And the President himself has said again and again that constitutional change is a part of his agenda for our country. Our love for our country demands that we should hope and pray that this debate, this search for answers, will lead us to workable solutions.

Very obviously, the summit held in Ibadan from February 13-15 by elected officials of the states of the Southwest is a piece in this evolving national debate and search for solutions. Given

the realities and the demands of these times, one would not expect to see the kind of spiteful response that Ishaq Modibbo Kawu chose to give to that Ibadan summit. It is common among us Nigerians to think (and Ishaq at least implied it in his article) that the Southwest is better off than the rest of Nigeria, but we must look carefully at that supposition these days. The Southwest has the largest number of unemployed educated youths in our country, and the largest number of highly educated citizens fleeing from the hopelessness of Nigeria to other countries in the world. Some weeks ago, even the president of Nigeria felt the need to speak out and say that the people of the Southwest are living with a dangerous kind of poverty – namely, an almost total lack of food production. One highly informed foreign observer wrote recently that the Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria are living today in a level of poverty that they have never experienced in their known history. The truth of our existence as Nigerians is that we have somehow succeeded in bequeathing absolute poverty to the overwhelming majority of our people in all parts of our country, though it is true that the poverty is deeper in some parts than in others. The elected rulers of the Southwest are under desperate pressure from their people to turn things around. The elected rulers are seeking solutions. And one of the solutions that look attractive now, a solution that many of their citizens fervently propose, is economic integration in the Southwest – to make for the pooling of resources, energies, and development assets in their region.

Ishaq insinuated that secession was at the bottom of that summit in Ibadan. If he had done a bit more of investigative journalism he would have easily found that those elected rulers of the Southwest who were gathered in the summit at Ibadan did not have the luxury of time, or any kind of luxury, to consider distant things like secession. They were, and are, under pressure to produce socio-economic results now, and they are under pressure from the most educated citizenry on the African continent – and educated people are difficult people. In fact, he would have discovered that it was not these elected rulers that wrote the formal, and very impressive, programme of regional integration – that it was written by a group of our young intellectuals, who worked on it independently on their own and without any remuneration for doing it. The rest of us who have read their work are proud of them, and believe their ideas can work, and so we are joining our voices to the voices of all in urging our elected rulers to put these proposals into action without delay.

Very many, perhaps most, Nigerians who have spoken up seem to agree today that the way to restructure our federation is to make our nationalities, as much as possible, the basis for the making of the constituent units of our federation. That means that a distinct nationality should be a constituent unit of the federation, provided that very small contiguous nationalities in any part of the country may freely agree to form one constituent unit. Let us illustrate with India’s experience. India has about 2000 ethnic nationalities (compared to Nigeria’s 300), and at India’s independence in 1947, there were fears that India would break up into very many countries. The northern peoples immediately broke off and created Pakistan and

Bangladesh. But many citizens began to propose that the nationalities be used as basis for forming the states in the Indian federation. The Prime Minister, Pandit Nehru, rejected that proposal immediately, out of fear that it would lead to the breaking up of India; he even threatened to resign rather than touch it. But the idea got more and more popular, until even Nehru became willing to try it. By 1966, the process of restructuring India in this way was completed.

The nationalities of India felt more comfortable with the new structure, and the threat and fear of disintegration essentially vanished.

This idea is becoming more and more popular in our country today. It is accepted by large numbers of citizens among probably all our nationalities. Very many Yoruba accept it too. In fact, the Yoruba have some history of attachment to this idea. When the Richard’s Constitution was made public in 1949 and comments on it were invited from the public, the Yoruba leadership (in Egbe Omo Oduduwa) proposed exactly this idea. Since then, it has manifested again and again in Yoruba thoughts about how to achieve a stable Nigeria. So it should not be seen as new that many prominent Yoruba, representing different political parties and persuasions, advocate this idea now. The writers of the Programme of Regional Integration do not seem to have thought of it while doing their write-up, but many other Yoruba groups have since brought up the thought that Regional Integration would stand on very weak footing unless it has the proper constitutional framework. A restructured Nigeria in which the nationalities form the basis of the constituent units, and in which more powers and resources would belong to the constituent units, would provide the proper framework for the operation of Regional Integration – not only for the Yoruba but for all the peoples of Nigeria. It is an idea that can benefit every Nigerian nationality and transform our country.

If Ishaq had looked beyond the surface, he would have found that there were many at least around that Ibadan summit and in the rest of Yorubaland who were urging that attention be also given to the restructuring of the Nigerian federation. Long before the summit at Ibadan (specifically on August 8, 2011) a large crowd of placard-carrying youths had marched through the streets of every capital city of the Southwest and presented to their governor and legislature the demand that the Nigerian federation be restructured and the Regional powers of the 1950s be restored to the states of Nigeria.

Apparently, many Nigerians today do not remember that each Region in those times had its own flag, coat of arms, and even a representative (called Resident Commissioner) in London – all of which contributed to the Regional confidence that powered each Region’s economic progress. And on Sunday February 26, some days after the IIbadan Summit, another group addressed a press conference in Ibadan, urging the restructuring of the Nigerian federation, and proposing very precise details for the process of restructuring. The elected rulers of the Southwest are facing very tough and informed demands indeed.

Naturally, we have all tended to focus on happenings like the Boko Haram bombings, but we need to take note too that the same factors that are propelling their kind of revolution (growing poverty and hopelessness) are also propelling

•Akintoye’s most recent work

different kinds of revolution in all parts of our country. Our people’s rejection of poverty, excessive use of power, insensitive governance, corruption, and destructive over-centralisation of power and resources, is mounting to a peak. Its expression will differ from area to area of our country. In most places, the big actors would use anthems and flags and music to mobilise support or to impress constituencies. It is the responsibility of those charged with the duty of monitoring the voices of our national society to endeavour to hear those voices correctly and report them faithfully.

A lot of Nigerians know the roots of the harsh conditions of their lives. Many know that the excessive concentration of power and resources in the hands of our central authorities has robbed us of the regional and local energies that advanced our country’s economic development in the 1950s and early 1960s. For instance, take a hard look at the root factors of the very harsh poverty in our Northern Region.

Our three Regional governments of the 1950s and early 1960s had carefully managed our humble economic pillars of those years – cocoa in the West, palm produce in East, groundnuts in the North. In the course of the late 1960s and 1970s, under the centralizing zeal of successive military governments, and under policies which shifted all attention to petroleum, the support systems for the farmers who produced our export crops all collapsed. Unfortunately, a terrible drought also ravaged our far North at the time when these destructive policies were beginning to have effect. As a result, while we were still able to export 675,000 tons of groundnuts by 1968, we could export only 25,000 tons by 1973.

By 1979, we were no longer a serious exporter of groundnuts. What this means is that this source of income to our farmers and their families, and to our country, was wiped out within a few years. It is not difficult to imagine the contribution of this economic disaster to the making of poverty in our North. And that is only one of countless examples - affecting all parts of our country. Even today, rather than change course, our rulers have continued to intensify those kinds of policies.

The struggle to revive our regional and local energies is already on. Misrepresenting that struggle as something else is unfair to our poor people and to our country. Our common desire to be citizens of a stable, progressive and prosperous country should, in these hard times, supersede other political and sectional considerations.

•Akintoye, a Professor of History, was a Senator in the Second Republic.

‘Eight-point agenda on course in Ekiti’ •Continued from page 45

•From left: Governors Idris Wada (Kogi), Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo) and Deputy Governor Mukhtar Shagari (Sokoto) at the Governors’ Forum meeting in Abuja ... Monday

things and want to do things in a new way”.

Fayemi recalled that, following the Governors’ Forum assessment of state websites, Ekiti came third, trailing Cross River and Lagos, adding that, with the new channels, Ekiti now has the best presence on the web in Nigeria.

He added: “This is not fashion or symbolism. It is substance. The goal is effectiveness and efficiency of government. Governance is central in our eight-point agenda and we are doing everything to ensure that the people take leadership and ownership of governance. Criticisms on the facebook should not deter us from doing the right thing”.

Fayemi had campaigned on the premise of turning Ekiti into a wireless state. He said, gradually, the vision was being fulfilled with the fibrotic table now in the state capital.

He stressed: “We want to bring communication to the doorsteps of every worker. The e- payment has assisted us from moving from N109 million internally generated revenue to N600 million. We also want to know those who really work in Ekiti. That is why we are introducing bio-metrics.

“The one laptop per child in secondary school is on The solar laptops would come this week. The Infrastructure Special Adviser has been working with the Ekiti State University to ensure that the university can effectively make use of the ICT. We will intensify the integrated management system in the health sector.

Fayemi said transformation of Ekiti is a task that must be done. His words: “We want to ensure that we remain focused on our transformation agenda and development priorities. No amount of distraction will deter us from the achievement of our vision and mission”.

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THE NATION

INVESTORS ‘Success of banks’ mergers doubtful’ B

ANKS which acquired others for growth and higher returns may not meet their targets and investors’expectations, a major investment research report has stated.

In its latest 175-page report on banks, Renaissance Capital warned that investors should be wary of the forecasts made by the acquiring banks as there might not be immediate momentum to achieve such targets within the specified period.

The firm is a leading emergingmarket investment bank with focus on Central and Eastern Europe, Africa and Central Asia, among others. A member of the Renaissance Group, it was founded in 1995 as a Moscow-based investment bank, which has interests in investment banking, asset management, merchant banking and consumer finance.

Citing a study that found that only 12 per cent of acquired companies showed significant growth in the immediate period while the acquirers performed below their peers, analysts at Renaissance Capital said there were no concluded rationale to suggest a different scenario in Nigeria.

Renaissance Capital stated that it has looked at the profit forecasts published by the trio of Access Bank Plc, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated and First City Monument Bank (FCMB) Plc for their targets for 2012 and the numbers were “at the high end” and “delivery on these 2012 targets may spill over into 2013.”

“In conclusion, we believe the sector merger and acquisition is unlikely to be seamless. We expect slower progression on bottom-line benefits than management guidance would indicate. Without solid strategies and a focus on execution and delivery, we believe the full benefits of scale are unlikely to be felt.

However, we concede there are some benefits to be reaped from scale,” Renaissance Capital noted.

Although it acknowledged that economies of scale could lead to some benefits, Renaissance Capital noted that many of the touted benefits were only good in theory, they don’t come through as several studies in developed markets have

Stories by Taofik Salako

shown that about two-thirds of mergers fail and do not add any value to shareholders.

The report questioned the real essence of size in the return mix in the Nigerian market pointing out that banks with smaller but efficient size have historically delivered better returns than the bigger banks.

“Looking back over the past eight or so years, the bank with the highest average returns and the lowest average CIR has been Guaranty Trust Bank which is not the largest bank by total assets or by branch network. The bank’s ability to collect deposits does not appear to have been hampered by the size of its branch networks,” the report noted.

According the report, the correlation between branch network and the sought-after deposits, while it would appear to exist, seems weaker than generally accepted.

It outlined that the

underperformance and low immediate success rate of mergers and acquisitions lie in management failures and soft cultural and behavioural issues that acquirers might tend to underestimate.

The report noted that management has been found to have a tendency to overestimate its capabilities and skills when it comes to mergers and acquisitions while feelings of hostility, resentment and mistrust which may appear to be the softer issues in a merger can derail the process through high rates of turnover, absenteeism and low productivity.

According to the report, over the past three years, the failed banks have lost customers and deposits that have moved to perceived strong banks. The challenge now will be to win these customers back and any perceived drop in service levels will also likely deter a return.

It warned against massive sack and cost cutting methods that might un-

dermine the growth potential of the acquired banks, urging that for the mergers to be successful, the focus should be more on revenue generation as opposed to cost reduction.

The report expressed worry that in an effort to grab low-hanging fruit of reduction in overheads, management may cut too deep too soon, and negatively impact revenue growth.

According to the report, deposit mobilisation, loan book growth and generation of high fees and commissions should be the primary consideration as empirical evidence has shown that it is revenue and not cost, that determines the outcome of a merger.

“Studies have shown that beating forecasts for revenue growth rates by a mere two to three per cent can offset a 50 per cent miss on the forecasts for costs. For banks, we add that ensuring loan book quality remains high is just as important.

Again, we would urge investors to

look at management’s historic track record in managing its own loan book,” Renaissance Capital noted.

The report, however, acknowledged that economies of scale could add some benefits in terms of access to bigger market and reduction in costs.

“Scale also has implications for non-interest revenues. One, the larger retail platform and hence higher customer numbers, bodes well for fees and commissions earned from customer transactions.

Second, scale gives a bank a seat at the table for most corporate deals.

This allows further fee income to be earned from corporate banking, advisory work, structuring, treasury and trading, among other things.

The next benefit of scale is on the cost line. Economies of scale should result in lower cost to income ratios, as fixed overheads are shared over a larger income base. This should, with the higher income achieved, result in a more profitable bank that generates higher returns,” it added.

•From left: Chief Executive Officer, Dalewares Ltd, David Babalola; Divisional Managing Director, UAC Restaurants, Derrick Van Houten; Executive Secretary, Nigerian International Finance Association, Olayinka Babalola and Chief Executive Officer, Business Franchise Solutions, Chimaobi Oji at a franchise seminar organised by Business Franchise Solutions in Lagos.

NSE affirms March 31 deadline for 2011 audited reports

T

HE Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has said all quoted companies that run the usual 12month Gregorian calendar business year are expected to submit their audited reports and accounts on or before March 31, 2012 in line with extant post listing requirements.

In a notification to quoted companies and other stakeholders by the listings enforcement and regulation department of the NSE obtained by The Nation, the Exchange said all quoted companies must adhere to post listing requirements and submit their annual reports and accounts by the final due date of March 31, 2012.

There are currently 199 companies on the two equities boards at the NSE. However, NSE said there were 119 active listed entities on the main board whose financial year end is December 31.

“In accordance with the post listings requirements, the audited accounts are due for filing on or before March 31, 2012,” the notice stated.

Post-listing rules of NSE states that audited annual accounts of companies should be submitted within three months after the year end while quarterly financial statements are expected to be made available 45 days after the end of the quarter.

NSE noted the commendable self practice by Nestle Nigeria Plc to always release its audited report well ahead of deadline noting that the food and beverages company was “the first quoted company in this category to release its 2011 audited accounts as its financial information was presented to the market on February 21, 2012.”

Other companies which results and expectedly dividend recommendations are being expected include Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB), Zenith Bank, First Bank of Nigeria, Dangote Cement, and Oando among others. Both GTB and Zenith Bank have held their board meetings on the 2011 audited reports and are expected to lead the next batch of release.

Also, Okomu Oil Palm Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc have notified

that their boards of directors have scheduled meetings to consider the earnings reports for 2011 business year.

Directors of Okomu Oil Palm are scheduled to meet on Wednesday, March 14, 2012 to approve the audited financial statements and also consider possible cash or scrip dividends The board of Unilever Nigeria would meet on Thursday, March 15, 2012 to consider and approve the declaration of dividends payable to shareholders in respect of the year ended December 31, 2011.

Although NSE was silent on sanctions for default, it had in recent past variously placed defaulted companies under technical suspension, full suspension and in some extreme level of inactivity, outright delisting from the stock market.

With technical suspension, trading is allowed on the shares of the company although its share price shall remain static. Full suspension is a state of total inactivity wherein nei-

ther transaction nor price movement is allowed.

The NSE had in July 2011 placed 48 companies on technical suspension and subsequently upgraded this to full suspension for 24 companies that failed to submit their reports at the expiration of the deadline for the technical suspension.

While some companies have since complied and submitted their reports, several companies remained under full suspension, a state of inertia between listing and delisting.

Companies that remain under full suspension include Premier Paints Plc, PS Mandrides Plc, Union Dicon Salt Plc, Lennards Plc, W.A. Glass Plc and Afroil Plc. Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Stock Exchange, Mr. Oscar Onyema said the NSE has been taking proactive measures towards encouraging compliance by alerting companies ahead of their filing dates.

He noted that there has been marked improvement in compliance level by quoted companies and

expressed optimism that this trend would continue in order to enhance investors’ confidence in the market.

According to him, at the time the NSE started the alert initiative in June 2011, the compliance level was about 64 per cent and by December it rose to 96 per cent after a series of regulatory actions.

He noted that a review of the unaudited nine months accounts for 119 first-tier companies with December year end showed that about 87 per cent of active companies on the main board filed on time leaving default filings to seven per cent while six per cent are outstanding.

“To enhance the disclosure process, we are in the process of automating company reporting processes and developing a reliable calendar of reporting activity,” Onyema said.

NSE noted that the investing public and the market need timely financial information from listed companies in other to facilitate stock transactions that are based on market fundamentals.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

48

THE NATION INVESTORS

Fresh mergers, acquisitions in insurance coming

T

HERE are indications that the insurance industry may undergo further consolidation to reduce the fragmentation in the industry and create domestic operators with big finacial muscle for large national and international risks.

Sources said the industry was anticipating further mergers and acquisitions as a stepping-stone to its next phase of consolidation.

There are 51 insurance firms in the country including 28 general insurance companies, 15 life insurance companies and eight composite insurance companies. Composite insurance companies combine

Stories by Taofik Salako

general and life insurance businesses.

Sources said the large number of operators in the relatively low insurance market is antithetical to the development of the insurance industry. They cited sharp practices by operators, low premium rates, overcapitalisation and low profitability as reasons for the fragmentation of the industry.

Insurers were, however, split into two groups with one canvassing self-induced mergers and acquisitions while the other saw the necessity of what has been de-

scribed as a regulatory jolt to consolidate the industry.

Both groups were said to be lobbying the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), which has also been under peer pressure to follow the general line of the financial services reform being led by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and which emphasises a relatively small number of highly capitalised operators.

Banking reforms in recent years have led to reduction in the number of banks from more than 80 banks in 2005 to 20 banks. Analysts expected the number to go down furtther below 20 after the

sale of the three nationalised banks.

Fifteen banks, which are listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), account for more than half of total turnover and nearly onethird of total equity market capitalisation.

Insurance subsector, the most populous subgroup with 30 listed firms, accounts for some two per cent of market capitalisation.

Sources said the push for consolidation grew as companies become overcapitalise and unprofitable.

They blamed the share price performance of the insurance sector, where nearly 80 per cent of stocks

are trading at nominal value of 50 kobo, on the low returns from insurance businesses caused by the fragmentation and investors’ perception of insurers as motley crowd of small firms.

According to a source, the gross premium of many insurance companies is lower than the capital of the company, which in the face of low insurance penetration usually leads to low returns to investors.

Official figures indicated that total gross premium for the industry stood at N180 billion while industry capitalisation was N550 billion in 2008. Insurance penetration was estimated at about seven per cent.

Market recovery, SEC and restoration of investor’ confidence

F

ROM being one of the fastest growing among the capital markets in different parts of the world, the Nigerian capital market has declined by a cumulative 70 per cent from its peak in March 2008.

When measured against comparable markets, the Nigerian capital market still consistently falls short of the benchmark as shown by several key market performance indicators like market depth and breadth, liquidity, sector concentration and transaction costs.

At the root of this decline in the capital market is the eroded confidence of investors. This is because capital markets thrive on the interest of investors in investment opportunities that the market has to offer. To realize its full potential, Nigeria must have a world class capital market that is strong, sustainable, well functioning, plays a central role in the economic development and serves as the benchmark for the continent.

The Nigerian capital market must become an enabler for the transformation of the Nigerian economy, by becoming the first port of call for domestic savings and for international investors. It must be able to finance the nation’s huge develop-

ment needs. It is against this backdrop that the current efforts being made in the last two years by the regulator and stakeholders with the aim of building a solid foundation and restoring investor confidence by eliminating the sharp practices that had characterized the market must be sustained.

According to the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Arunma Oteh, sharp practices in the market led to the erosion of investor confidence. It is this decline of confidence that the reform agenda which the SEC is currently implementing hopes to upturn.

“To restore investor confidence, we must tackle the recent challenges that investors faced resolutely and painstakingly, lay a solid foundation so that what happened in the recent past never happens again” Oteh said.

SEC has the dual role of effective regulatory oversight and capital market development. These two roles reinforce each other as adequate regulatory oversight fosters a well-functioning capital market.

On her assumption of office, Oteh pledged to join hands with other stakeholders with the aim of fulfilling the commission’s mission state-

ment of developing a capital market that is fair, transparent, and efficient – one that is comparatively the best in Africa and can stand comfortably on a global pedestal.

According to Oteh, the roadmap for rebuilding the Nigerian capital markets is anchored on five agenda items which include increased depth; improved disclosure; transparency and accountability; restoration of confidence in the market; and building institutional capacity.

She said that the SEC was determined to eliminate sharp practices, deter malpractices and change behaviors by ensuring that both the institutional and personal costs of wrongdoing were extremely high.

“SEC will ensure high standards in regulatory oversight and enforcement and will name and shame where necessary. We will continue to strengthen inspection and investigation and any operator found erring will be suspended, issued a warning, or fined depending on the gravity and nature of the violation.

We hope that the various enforcement actions against erring operators, including their suspension from participating in capital market activities will deter other operators from breaching the rules.

FACTS COA (Nigeria) Plc and Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) Plc are conglomerates with diversified business interests. Incorporated in 1969, Scoa is one of the oldest surviving conglomerates. The company has extensive business interests including automobile sales, leasing, power generation and general merchandise. Transcorp has interests in oil and gas sector, agriculture and hospitality among others.

Latest operational reports of the two conglomerates showed varied levels of growths but the companies maintained positive outlooks.

Scoa is harnessing internal cost management to improve actual returns while Transcorp’s profitability was boosted by tax holiday.

Sales Generation Scoa recorded a marginal growth of 0.42 per cent in sales during the third quarter ended September 30, 2011. Transcorp meanwhile grew sales by 10.2 per cent during the same period.

Profitability Scoa witnessed a mixed performance in profitability during the period but it fell on appreciable internal cost management to increase net profit performance. Gross profit had dropped by about 20 per cent just as gross profit margin slipped from 35 per cent in 2010 to 28 per cent in 2011. However, profit before tax rose by 39 per cent in 2011 as pre-tax profit margin improved from 3.3 per cent in 2010 to 4.6 per cent. This also translated into 40 per cent increase in profit after tax.

Transcorp grew profit before tax by 50 per cent, the same rate re-

S

TO

We will also continue to strengthen all the processes related to investigation, enforcement, prosecution and publicity of outcomes in line with international standards and ensuring that messages are well communicated to the market, “Oteh said.

SEC’s reform agenda has taken root. The regulatory body has made concerted efforts to re - energize the e-dividend policy and drive down the profile of unclaimed dividends.

The commission focused on consolidating on the achievements recorded so far. It has also unfolded plans for a new complaints management framework to the public.

The framework entails a systematic and well articulated education of the investing public on ‘where to go, what to do and what to expect in lodging and following up on complaints related to capital market transactions. Oversight responsibility, the apprehension and punishing of misdeed by operators are being dutifully discharged.

SEC has also commenced the process that will lead to the demutualisation of NSE in consonance with the best global standards.

With demutualization, the NSE would be exposed to robust corpo-

rate governance; enhanced efficiency and transparency associated with publicly quoted companies. Strict corporate governance compliance, which is a key factor in restoring market confidence, has received due attention. SEC has introduced a new code of corporate governance to improve corporate practices in listed companies.

SEC as a matter of priority is developing the skills of its workforce and operators in the market. There has been a shift to a risk management supervision approach in the commission’s oversight of market operators such that there is alignment between the risk carried by such operators and their capacity.

Besides, the commission is also leading the charge to ensure successful migration to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by all listed companies by closure of fiscal 2012 in line with the directive of the Federal Executive Council.

As part of the human capacitybuilding effort of the apex regulator of the Nigerian capital markets, SEC in collaboration with United States of America’s Securities and Exchange Commission organized workshop for regulators and operators.

FACTS

Scoa vs Transcorp: Waiting for the returns FACTS TO FACTS Turnover growth Gross profit growth Pre-tax profit growth Gross margin Pre-tax profit margin Net profit growth Return on Assets Return on Equity

SCOA 2011 % 0.42 -19.7 38.9 28.1 4.6 38.9 1.4 2.0

Q3 2010 %

35.1 3.3 0.9 1.5

Transcorp Average % 0.21 -9.85 19.45 31.6 3.95 19.45 1.15 1.75

Pre-tax profit margin (SCOA)

By Taofik Salako

ported for net profit as the company did not make provisions for taxes.

Transcorp’s pre-tax profit margin had increased from 36 per cent in 2010 to 49 per cent in 2011.

Actual Returns Both companies indicated im-

provements in underlying returns on shareholders’ equities and total assets. Scoa returned 1.4 per cent on total balance sheet in 2011 as against 0.9 per cent in 2010, representing an average return of 1.15 per cent over the two quarters. Return on equity improved from 1.5 per cent in 2010 to 2.0 per cent in 2011.

Turnover growth Gross profit growth Pre-tax profit growth Gross margin Pre-tax profit margin Net profit growth Return on Assets Return on Equity

Q3 2011 % 10.2

2010 %

50.4 48.8 50.4 4.0 6.0

35.8 2.8 4.0

Average % 5.1 0.00 25.2 0 42.3 25.2 3.38 5

Pre-tax profit margin (Transcorp)

In the same vein, Transcorp improved on return on assets from 2.8 per cent in 2010 to 4.0 per cent in 2011. It increased return on equity from 4.0 per cent in 2010 to 6.0 per cent.

The Bottom-line The third quarter reports reflected the general sluggish top-line that

has characterized the luxury and capital-intensive good sectors of the economy. Both Scoa and Transcorp need to unlock new markets to drive sales and provide headroom for further improvement in profitability. Given that there were no provisions for taxes; Transcorp’s profitability is still susceptible.

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

50

MONEY

• Kramer

• Mansur

• Osindero

• Ulu

• Akande

Dick Kramer leads new Union Bank’s board U

NION Bank of Nigeria (UBN) Plc has further consolidated its widely applauded seamless recapitalisation with the inauguration of a new high-profile board of directors to support the Funke Osibodu-led executive management team.

The new Board of Directors, according to a statement from the bank, is chaired by Dick Kramer, chairman of African Capital Alliance and a long-standing finance and economic expert on Nigeria.

Other non-executive directors that were appointed at the meeting of the board of directors held at the bank’s head office in Lagos recently included Dr. Yemi Osindero and Dickie Agumba Ulu. Earlier, Mr Mansur Ahmed and Mrs. Nike Akande had been reappointed unto the board at the last board meeting of the bank last year during which all non-executive directors retired with effect from December 31, 2011.

The retirement of the prerecapitalisation board and constitution of a new board followed the successful conclusion of the recapitalisation of Union Bank.

Union Bank received $500 million capital after fulfilling all regulatory processes and approvals.

With the injection of Naira equivalent of $500 million, Union Bank emerged with a capital adequacy ratio of 19 per cent, well above the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) minimum requirement of 10 per cent.

The conclusion of the recapitalisation makes Union Bank one of the most capitalised banks and enhances the bank’s competitiveness in the banking industry.

The new board with its rich blend of international expertise and domestic knowledge is expected to greatly influence the growth of the bank. This would serve as additional impetus to the globally ac-

• Bank concludes seamless recapitalisation

By Taofik Salako

claimed performance-driven of the executive management led by Mrs Funke Osibodu as group managing director and chief executive.

Other members of the executive management included Adekunle Mickey Adeosun, Philip Ikeazor, Ibrahim Abubakar Kwargana and Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi.

Dick Kramer comes on board with a long track record of achievements in Nigeria and the international markets. Kramer came to Nigeria 34 years ago to launch Arthur Andersen & Company as Managing Partner, following similar roles in Brussels and Buenos Aires. He trained in Accountancy and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School before joining Arthur Andersen in 1958, where he worked in all areas of the firm’s practice and in the US, Latin America, Middle East, Europe, India and Africa.

Following his retirement in 1994, Kramer stayed back in Nigeria to consult, invest and continue community service activities. He helped to found the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG), where he served as pioneer ViceChairman; the Harvard Business School Association of Nigeria (HBSAN), where he served as President; the Lagos Business School, where he is a member of the Advisory Board and Faculty; and more

recently, the American Business Council.

Dr. Yemi Osindero, who is from Standard Chartered Private Equity- a shareholder of Union Global Partners Limited, is a dynamic and inspiring business leader, with several years of experience in international investment banking, foreign direct investment and venture capital, coupled with emerging market operational and business development experience.

He is the Head of West Africa Private Equity, Standard Chartered Private Equity. Prior to this, he cofounded Virgin Nigeria Airways in 2005 and was Chief Operating Officer and member of its Board of Directors. Before that, he was an Investment Manager with Virgin Management, the holding company of Sir Richard Branson, where he was responsible for financial advisory, mergers and acquisitions, strategy and new business initiatives for various existing Virgin Group companies globally, and the investment evaluation of numerous new ventures to extend the Virgin brand.

Also, Dickie Agumba Ulu comes on board with management experience of more than 30 years cutting across professional and industrial experience. He is the Development Consultant to Global Utilities Management Company.

He was General Manager, UK,

Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation, London; Managing Partner at DKU Associates, London; and Special Assistant to the Presidential Adviser on National Orientation and Public Affairs, among others.

He had also undertaken many national assignments, including Member, Presidential Initiative on National Rebirth Campaign; Zonal Leader (North-West, South-South & South-East), Presidential Forum on Stewardship, Accountability and Youth Development; Chairman, Presidential Review Committee on Streamlining the Functions of Nigerian Film Corporation.

Ulu earned a HND (Business Administration) from Farnborough College, Farnborough, Hants, UK; Diploma, Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK; Advanced Certificate (Human Resource Management) from London School of Economics, London; as well as postgraduate Marketing Management (Strategic Planning & Control for Crisis Management) from University of Greenwich, Business School, West Mailing, Kent, London, UK. Mrs. Nike Akande is a former Minister of Industry and President of the Harvard Business School Alumni Association of Nigeria. An Accountant by training, she is a management and business consultant. She attended University of North London (formerly North

‘With the injection of Naira equivalent of $500 million, Union Bank emerged with a capital adequacy ratio of 19 per cent, well above the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) minimum requirement of 10 per cent’

Western Polytechnic, London), where she studied Accountancy.

Later, she did her post-graduate programme at the prestigious Harvard Business School, Boston, US, and also attended management courses at Oxford University, UK and International Institute for Management Development, Lausanne, Switzerland.

She is a Board Member of NEPAD Business Group of Nigeria, a foundation member of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) and a Member of the African Business Roundtable (ABR). Akande is a Director, PZ Cussons Foundation, Board Member, Bank Directors Association of Nigeria (BDAN), Chairman, Entrepreneurial Studies (AES) Excellence Club, Vice-President of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Honorary Life Vice-President, National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), and President, Pan-African Organisation for Women Recognition.

Mansur Ahmed is currently the Director-General and Chief Executive Officer, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC). Prior to this appointment, he was the Director General and Chief Executive at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), a position he assumed in 2004 following his retirement from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

He has a first degree in Mechanical Engineering from Nottingham University and a Masters degree in Industrial Engineering and Administration from Cranfield Institute of Technology (now Cranfield University), both in the UK. He also has a post-graduate certificate in Investment Appraisal and Management of the Harvard Institute of International Development.

CBN to sanction banks for e-clearing breaches

B

ANKS fond of transmitting data not in agreement with the image of the cheques being processed for payment will, henceforth, be sanctioned by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

In a fresh guideline to assist banks clear their cheques electronically, CBN said such defaulting banks may be suspended after three warnings.

The CBN said it acted after due consultation with the banks and the increasing need to reduce the timeline for clearing transactions.

A circular from the apex bank said financial institutions which present cheques with alteration/ erasures, that are visible under the ultraviolent light, thereby leading to fraud will also be sanctioned.

Also, presentation of cheques with irregularity such as stale, postdated, amount in words and figures differ, the presenting and paying bank would be jointly liable to equal loss sharing between the par-

By Collins Nweze ties, where it occurs.

However, failure to return an unpaid instrument within the clearing period/window without notice to the presenting bank, paying bank shall be fully liable among other rules.

The apex bank said it acted based on powers conferred in it in section 47 of the CBN Act No. 7 of 2007.

Here, the CBN was charged with the duty of facilitating the clearing of cheques, credit instruments for banks and for this purpose to organise in conjunction with other banks, clearing houses in such places as it may consider necessary.

The regulator said the policy is expected to provide for the regulation and management of cheque truncation (electronic clearing) in the country with the view to reducing cost and days of clearing instruments. It was also meant to articulate the rights and responsibilities of presenting and paying banks

in the Cheque Truncation System.

It said the policy will provide minimum technical and operational standards for cheque truncation as well as facilitate the implementation of an effective and efficient payment system in the country.

The rules apply to clearing and settlement activities in the Nigeria Bankers Clearing Houses, which practice cheque truncation system. However, where there is a conflict between the provisions of the cheque truncation guidelines and revised Nigeria bankers’ clearing house rules, the former would prevail. e-clearing otherwise known as cheque truncation involves stopping the physical movement of the cheque and replacing the physical instrument with the image of the instrument and the corresponding data contained in Magnetic Character Ink Character Reader (MICR) line. The cheque details are cap-

tured, typically by the bank presenting the cheque or it’s clearing agent and electronically presented in an agreed format to the clearing house for onward delivery to the paying bank for payment.

Unlike the more common form of presentment where a cheque is physically presented to the paying bank, a truncated cheque is typically stored by the presenting bank electronically.

The cheque is dematerialised by the bank where it was initially presented under a set time. Also, the clearing house acts as an intermediary for data and image flow between the presenting and the paying bank while the Nigeria-Inter Bank Settlement Payment System (NIBSS) is the Central Image warehousing Agency (CIWA) for storage and certification of cheque images.

“The paying bank may request for any image from CIWA for the purpose of proof of payment. All

cheques are eligible for cheque truncation subject to value limits that may be imposed by the CBN from time to time. Besides, the minimum retention period of physical cheques is five years.

The electronic image shall be retained for a minimum period of 10 years,” the apex bank said.

Also, truncation would be mandatory for all banks at a particular centre from a cut-off date as may be determined by the regulator.

Also, the cut-over date would be announced well in advance and the participating banks are required to undertake a formal certification test to demonstrate operational readiness for the conversion to cheque truncation.

Clearing period under the new rule would allow cheques clear on a T+1 basis such that customers receive value in the morning of T+2 even as the clearing house is also expected to operate three sessions.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

51

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

52

SMALL BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Cocoa trade not only for the rich, says expert T

RADING in cocoa is a multimillion naira business. It is a major commodity in the booming worldwide trade and has shown how an export-led growth can be a powerful antidote to rural poverty.

Even with the millions of naira spent by big time merchants yearly, the industry still accommodates thousands of small-scale farmers. The growth of the industry has been so successful that more Nigerians are going into the sector. Majority of cocoa production worldwide is by smallholder farmers. Unlike coffee, cocoa has not been a source of wealth creation for farmers. Cocoa is typically a cash crop for subsistence farmers who cultivate relatively small plots of cocoa alongside other food staples grown for their own consumption.

The industry has enabled local companies to sell ever-increasing volumes of cocoa produce. Some small scale firms have taken their place at the heart of an industry that has gained international recognition, notably for the quality assurance required of the produces. The business is worth more than N500 million yearly.

Agro-industry Specialist, Mejabi Ekundayo, said the cocoa industry provides opportunities for an increasing number of households in a variety of sustainable activities that generate auxiliary incomes.

The success brought government attention and the critical decision

Stories by Daniel Essiet

that the public authorities would support the industry’s growth.

He is been involved in the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) sponsored programmes in the cocoa industry and seen the sector has grown to include new farmers and areas, partners.

Ekundayo has trained and worked with some players from Ondo,Cross River, Osun and Edo states.

Working with other consultants, they have provided decent livelihoods for many farmers.

International trade consultant, Tola Fasheru, said there are opportunities for small and medium enterprises to invest in the industry, and encouraged other investors to back the industry.

He said small investors can start with N3.5 million and can turn over the money in a month.

They don’t need to start as merchants. They come into the business as local buying agents (LBA) liaising directly with the farmers.

They will buy the produce and sell them to export merchants. What they need is sufficient understanding of the markets, logistical issues; and technical challenges related to the introduction of new varieties.

Over time, knowledge, network and access to expertise, will deepen understanding of how to sell into complex and increasingly competitive markets and to learn from the experiences of their counterparts.

• Faseru

He said young Nigerians can act as local buying agents connecting farmers in the plantations.

Cocoa is grown by many small scale farmers (two hectares or less).

As new entrants, the challenge is in finding ways to move significantly into the markets.

For him, the number of small scale enterprises involved in the sector is a success story for poverty reduction, with thousands of Nigerians now gaining a decent livelihood where previously they had none.

From grassroots beginnings, the

farmers are linked with the international market.

A combination of entrepreneurial spirit, close attention to quality through the supply chain, and a willingness to embrace foreign partners, have seen the industry thrive.

Faseru said cocoa business in areas with favourable climatic and soil conditions mean big money even for small buyers. They sell their cocoa through private, free enterprise channels into the world market. He said the industry provides an opportunity for rural traders, business people and domestic food processors to participate in the global cocoa trade, which exceeds $6 billion yearly.

His advice is to focus on cocoa quality. Faseru is involved in the export of cocoa and cashew .

Once the local buyers can make good purchase during harvest, they can anticipate good earnings per year. With this, their family will enjoy increased financial stability.

Faseru believes in training designed to help the farmers share experiences and business opportunities with each other.

After some time, the volume will increase.

Faseru said prices mostly reflect weather conditions. He cited job creation and economic transformation inherent in agriculture, particularly with cottage indus-

tries and agro-processing firms that are operated.

Most local buying agents work with Olam International, a Singaporean company, involved in processing of agricultural products and food ingredients. A lot of Nigerians have become familiar with international standards demanded by the company from local buying agents. Olam buys from agents in countries, such as Nigeria and Ivory Coast.

The company has established cocoa bean quality standards and provided monitoring and training assistance to ensure farmers meet and maintain a level of cocoa bean quality that is required by the global market.

Last year, earnings by cocoa farmers in the country rose tremendously. The farmgate price was N535,000 ($3,490) per metric ton - an all-time high, up from about N460,000 a month ago, according to Neji Abang Neji, secretary-general of the Nigerian Cocoa association.

Nigeria ranks behind Ivory Coast, Ghana and Indonesia in cocoa production, according to the International Cocoa Organisation.

Increase in the price of cocoa was largely driven by speculations in the global market, events in Cote d’Ivoire, and the unregulated cocoa market structure in the country. Prices were as low as N400, 000 before the Cote D’Ivoire political crisis.

ing companies .

According to her, the business has its own challenges. One is how to source the waste polythene. She advised the entrepreneurs to source large quantities to reduce transport cost.

Getting a space as a temporary

site to keep the materials before processing is another constraint.

Operating costs such as electricity bills are high and could impact on those running recycling plants.

The other issue is that companies they supply would to use the product before paying suppliers.

Waste recycling as money spinner

T

HE potential of the private sector to reduce poverty is well-recognised. This is evi-

dent in the waste polythene recycling industry.

Chief Executive, Deaops Concepts and Consultancy Services, Princess Sijuade Dada, said the recycling industry is vast. All activities are concrete, practical and result-oriented; involving a broad spectrum of operators including suppliers, operators, recycling plant owners, suppliers, industrial users, petty traders and treatment hands. It is opened to small and big time investors.

She is spreading the message that there’s money in collecting and recycling waste. Several businessmen have started recycling plants and they are working to improve the collection system.

Most are small ventures who own polythene recycling factory employing some 15 people.

Recycling of polythene is a profitable business because it provides materials for the production of pure water sachets, black, white poly bags, packaging materials for

H

AIRCUTTING is a thriving business. It provides steady income with job security. Most operators are looking for ways to meet customers’ specific needs. Young people, from 20 to 35, are anxious to make their marks and are driving change in the industry.

Johnny Nwodo runs a hair salon in Shomolu, Lagos. His successes have come with tackling several challenges. While other barbers have increased the cost of hair to N250 and more, Nwodo still collects N200. Nwodo said one of the most important things while cutting men’s hair is to maintain a positive attitude at all times.

electronics and for rubber slippers. She listed, the materials needed for busines to include pure water sachets, bread wrappers, laundry bags, yoghurts/rolls, shopping bags, soft polybags, strides shopping bags, hospital drip bags and popcorn wrappers.

A lot of people in her company has been trained in the business.

Dada said one can source waste from pure water packing companies, hospitals, food packing outfits, provision shops, retail outlets among others. The industry has prepared young people for work and inspires entrepreneurialism.

She said people can ventured into recycling polythene waste with less investment Dada said one can recoup his investment in the first year of operation. For instance, if one invests N75, 000 in the business, after one month, one can make N35, 000 profit. There are plenty of opportunities in it. One can come into as an operator of grinding, extruder, palletising, cutting and sealing machines. There are opportunities for entrepreneurs to own recycling

• Waste collection

plants. She said grinding polythene waste is between N12 and N15 per kg, while extruding ranges for N25 to N30 per kg.

She said the market is there for waste polythene because recycling waste materials are raw materials for poly and plastics manufactur-

Surviving with barbing For him, the fastest way to succeed in barbing is to treat people respectfully and friendly.

Nwodo has learnt how to build a clientele. The bigger one’s clientele, the more money one will make. He tries to build a rapport with people in daily routines and activities.

Young barbers like him are learning that saying goodbye to the customer is just as important as welcoming the customer into the shop.

Nwodo makes customers feel appreciated as they felt when they came into the shop.

For the duration of the haircut, he tries to make them feel very important. He offers customers who want to charge their phones free service while barbing and after the service.

His mission is to help people look and feel their best at affordable prices.

Nwodo said the hair salon market is easy to get into. As a result, a salon’s overall worth may decrease due to market penetration and saturation.

For new entrants, he said the major issue is securing a room to start

the salon. Then pick up a few things. One can open a neighbourhood shop or an exclusive upscale salon.

A good barbing salon provides quality services with experienced professionals. The customers, whether male or female, leave the barber salon satisfied with their cut.

Many will return to the salon for more services in addition to recommending the barbing salon to friends.

To attract new clients, salons are differentiating themselves from

their competition.

One way is to choose a location within a high-traffic area that has plenty of parking. This encourages walk-in customers, as well as customers within the identified target market.

Nwodo has furniture and equipment. The ever-evolving hair trends and styles present many opportunities for the hair salon. Opportunities include introducing new hair styles and styling methods to attract a new client market.

So far, the industry is dominated by small, single-owner neighbourhood establishments. However, there are standard hair salons located in shopping malls.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

53

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

54

EQUITIES NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 6-3-12

UACN Group targets N6b Q2 profit

C

OMPANIES under the UAC of Nigeria (UACN) Group will pool about N6 billion in pretax earnings for the second quarter ending June 30, 2012, according to estimates made available yesterday.

The boards of the three companies under the UACN Group including UAC of Nigeria (UACN) Plc, the parent company; UACN Property Development Company (UPDC) Plc, the real estate and property business and CAP Plc, the paint and chemical company presented the second quarter forecasts for the companies.

According to the forecasts, the three companies are expected to pool total sales of about N39.6 billion while pre and post tax profits could be N5.8 billion and N4.02 billion respectively.

In terms of figures, UACN would contribute about 65 per cent of total pre-tax profit but in real terms of profitability, it is the least profitable company within the group with a pre-tax profit margin of 12.1 per cent. CAP is the most profitable company with average profit per unit of about 30 per cent while UPDC trailed with

•Bulls gather momentum

By Taofik Salako and Tonia Osundolire

21.5 per cent pre-tax profit margin.

UACN is projected to earn profit before tax of N3.75 billion on turnover of N31.01 billion during the period. Profit after tax is estimated at N2.63 billion.

The board of UPDC estimated that turnover will be N6.27 billion while profits before and after tax will be N1.35 billion and N920 million respectively.

CAP is projected with net profit of N468 million from total sales of N2.30 billion.

The paint and chemical company estimated that profit before tax would be N681 million, 8.1 per cent above operating profit of N630 million.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian stock market sustained its recovery yesterday as aggregate market capitalisation of all equities rose from N6.498 trillion to N6.595 trillion.

The benchmark index, All Share Index (ASI), which tracks all equities, also rose from 20,619.05 points to

20,926.31 points, representing a gain of 1.49 per cent.

Consequently, the year-todate return at the stock market turned positive at 0.94 per cent.

Dangote Cement led the rally with a gain of N5.30 to close at N113.80 per share.

Nigerian Breweries rose from N1.38 to close at N94.90. Forte Oil gained 50 kobo to close at N10.60.

Cadbury Nigeria added 45 kobo to close at N9.62 while Cement Company of Northern Nigeria chalked up 24 kobo to close at N5.12 per share.

However, Guinness Nigeria led the slackers with a loss of N1.01 to close at N209.10. Lafarge Wapco Cement Nigeria lost N1 to close at N40. First Bank of Nigeria dropped 34 kobo to close at N11.25. Union Bank of Nigeria lost 31 kobo to close at N6.06 while Access Bank and Unilever Nigeria dropped 30 kobo each to close at N7.30 and N29 respectively.

Total turnover stood at 381.87 million shares valued at N2.89 billion in 4,052 deals. Banking subsector topped activity chart with a turnover of 280.5 million shares worth N1.62 billion in 2,283 deals.

Insurance subgroup recorded a turnover of 47.73 million shares valued at N24.87 million in 73 deals.

NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 6-3-12

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

55

MONEY LINK

Banks’ credit to private sector rises to N12tr

B

ANKING system’s credit to the private sector rose 1.7 per cent to N12.4 trillion in November last year, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed.

According to the apex bank’s Economic Report for November, this figure reflected wholly the rise in banks’ claims on core private sector.

Also, total assets, liabilities of deposit money banks hit N19 trillion within the same period. The figure represents an increase of 0.6 per cent above the level at end of October 2011.

A circular from the apex bank said these funds were sourced mainly from the disposal of unclassified assets, increased claims on other financial institutions and Federal Government deposits.

Also, banks’ credit to the domestic economy rose by 0.6 per cent to N12.1 trillion, the report, which analyses developments in the financial, fiscal, real and external sectors of the economy, as well as international economic issues of interest said.

CBN’s credit to the banks rose by 1.2 per cent to N243.4 billion while specified liquid assets of the banks stood at N4.7 trillion, representing 33.9 per cent of their total current liabilities.

The regulator said the level of liquid assets was 0.9 percentage point below the preceding month’s ratio and 3.9 percentage points above the stipulated minimum ratio of 30.0 per cent for fiscal 2011. But loan-to-deposit ratio was 47.9 per cent and was 32.1 percentage points below the stipulated maximum target of 80.0 per cent.

Total assets and liabilities of the discount houses stood at N331.17 billion, showing a decline of 1.4 per

billion recorded in October.

The report added that inflow fell by 18.4 per cent below the level in the preceding month, but showed an increase of 92.6 per cent above the level in the corresponding period of 2010.

“The decline in inflow during the review period reflected the fall in receipts from crude oil sales. Similarly, outflow fell by 3.4 per cent below the level in the preceding month due to the moderation in demand at Wholesale Dutch Auction System (WDAS) and other official payments,” the report said.

A breakdown of foreign exchange outflow showed that WDAS sales accounted for the bulk 35.9 per cent of the total, cash sales to Bureau-deChange (BDC) operators, 16.3 per cent, Interbank sales, 19.8 per cent

•Lenders’ assets, liabilities hit N19tr Stories by Collins Nweze

cent below the October figure. The development was accounted for, largely, by the fall in claims on Federal Government and fixed assets.

Correspondingly, the decline in total liabilities was attributed, largely, to a fall in money at call and other liabilities.

Meanwhile, discount houses’ investment in Federal Government securities of less than 91-day maturity rose to N61.7 billion and accounted for 27.2 per cent of their total deposit liabilities.

“Investment in Federal Government Securities was 32.8 percentage points below the prescribed minimum level of 60.0 per cent for fiscal 2011. At that level, discount houses’ investment on treasury bills increased by 146.8 per cent above the level at the end of the preceding month.

Foreign exchange inflow and outflow through the $4.26 billion and $4.88 billion, respectively, resulted in a net outflow of $0.62 billion. The outcome in the review month contrasted with the net inflow of $0.34

Mainstreet Bank to collect land use rates

M

AINSTREET Bank Limited has been authorised to collect Land Use Charges for Lagos State Government. Land Use Charge is a levy imposed on owners of properties in Lagos State which is expected to be remitted to the state government.

The land Use Charge Law is a new parliamentary instrument, which replaces all existing state and local government taxes on real estate in the state.

A statement from the bank said the mandate comes on the heels of a recent one from the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), which enabled the bank to take advantage of its branches across the country in receiving funds from payment of taxes and other revenues.

All properties in Lagos State are subject to Land Use Charges with the exemption of government

T

HE Financial Institutions Train ing Centre (FITC) has com menced offering its core services to both regulators and operators within the West African sub region.

A statement from the firm said that it has over 30 years of its operation, built viable alliances and partnerships aimed at delivering quality services to its stakeholders, in line with global standards.

This has earned FITC the International Arch of Europe (IAE) award in the Gold Category, based on client recommendations and due diligence.

The presentation of the award is expected to take place during the 38th Annual International Arch of Europe Quality Convention, scheduled to hold on April 29 and 30, 2012 at the InterContinental Frankfurt Convention Hall of Frankfurt in Germany.

Amount N

Rate %

M/Date

3-Year 5-Year 5-Year

35m 35m 35m

11.039 12.23 13.19

19-05-2014 18-05-2016 19-05-2016

WHOLESALE DUTCH AUCTION SYSTEM Amount

Price Loss 2754.67 447.80

7.9-10% 10-11%

PRIMARY MARKET AUCTION (T-BILLS) Tenor 91-Day 182-Day 1-Year

Amount 30m 46.7m 50m

Rate % 10.96 9.62 12.34

Date 28-04-2011 “ 14-04-2011

AIRSERVICEL FO CCNN CADBURY ETERNAOIL DANGCEM LIVESTOCK CUSTODYINS BAGCO JAPAULOIL

O/PRICE

1.61 10.10 4.88 9.17 4.09 108.50 1.23 1.52 1.62 0.74

Current Before

C/PRICE

CHANGE

1.69 10.60 5.12 9.62 4.29 113.80 1.29 1.59 1.69 0.77

0.08 0.50 0.24 0.45 0.20 5.30 0.06 0.07 0.07 0.03

SYMBOL

O/PRICE

1.02 6.37 3.12 2.75 3.30 7.60 2.39 4.30 11.59 41.00

C/PRICE

CHANGE

0.97 9.06 2.97 2.62 3.15 7.30 2.30 4.15 11.25 40.00

0.05 0.31 0.15 0.13 0.15 0.30 0.09 0.15 0.34 1.00

Date

150m

150m

150m

155.8

29-2-12

138m 113m

138m 113m

138m 113m

155.8 155.7

27-2-12 22-2-12

147.6000

149.7100

150.7100

-2.11

NGN GBP

239.4810

244.0123

245.6422

-2.57

NGN EUR

212.4997

207.9023

209.2910

-1.51

149.7450

154.0000

154.3000

-3.04

(S/N) Bureau de Change 152.0000

153.0000

155.5000

-2.30

154.0000

156.0000

-1.96

NSE CAP Index

27-10-11 N6.5236tr 20,607.37

28-10-11 N6.617tr 20,903.16

% Change -1.44% -1.44%

NIGERIA INTER BANK (S/N)

MEMORANDUM QUOTATIONS Name

153.0000

DISCOUNT WINDOW Feb. ’11

July ’11

Dec ’11

MPR

6.50%

6.50%

12%

Standing Lending Rate ,, Deposit Rate ,, Liquidity Ratio Cash Return Rate Inflation Rate

8.50% 4.50% 25.00% 1.00% 12.10%

8.50% 4.50% 25.00% 2.00% 12.10%

9.50% 5.50% 30.00% 2.00% 12.6%

Offer Price

Bid Price

9.17 1.00 120.93 98.43 0.76 1.04 0.88 1,642.73 8.24 1.39 1.87 7,276.62 193.00

9.08 1.00 120.79 97.65 0.73 1.04 0.87 1,635.25 7.84 1.33 1.80 7,088.65 191.08

ARM AGGRESSIVE KAKAWA GUARANTEED STANBIC IBTC GUARANTE AFRINVEST W.A. EQUITY FUND THE LOTUS CAPITAL HALAL BGL SAPPHIRE FUND BGL NUBIAN FUND NIGERIA INTERNATIONAL DEB. PARAMOUNT EQUITY FUND CONTINENTAL UNIT TRUST CENTRE-POINT UNIT TRUST STANBIC IBTC NIG EQUITY THE DISCOVERY FUND • ARM AGGRESSIVE • KAKAWA GUARANTEED • STANBIC IBTC GUARANTE

LOSER AS AT 6-3-12

STERLNBANK UBN UBA MAYBAKER UPL ACCESS REDSTAREX FCMB FIRSTBANK AWPCO

Rate (N)

C u r r e n t CUV Start After %

NGN USD

Parallel Market SYMBOL

Exchange

Sold ($)

CAPITAL MARKET INDEX Year Start Offer

(S/N)

GAINERS AS AT 6-3-12

Amount

EXHANGE RATE 6-03-12 Currency

INTERBANK RATES

Amount

Offered ($) Demanded ($)

MANAGED FUNDS

OBB Rate Call Rate

The statement said the recognition was based on the criteria of the QC100 Total Quality Management Model, implemented in over 100 countries, and is being sponsored by ImarPress with 26 publications.

It explained that companies from 72 countries are expected to gather to receive the International Arch of Europe Award this year. During the award ceremony, business leaders will present their companies to an international audience and will participate in conferences regarding quality case studies in companies in search of quality and excellence.

Business Initiative Directions (BID), organisers of the award, said it is targeted at recognising firms in different countries that further their reputation and position by implementing and promoting quality culture.

DATA BANK

Tenor

NIDF NESF

• CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido

and WDAS-forward contract 11.2 per cent. Other official payments accounted for 15.0 per cent, while drawings on letters of credit and external debt service, accounted for 0.8 and 1.0 per cent, respectively.

FITC extends service to West African sub-region

owned properties or those owned by the public, religious or charity organisations.

So far, the bank has stepped up arrangements to ensure that everything is in place to facilitate collections.

“We are offering reliable infrastructure and other resources to ensure quick, efficient and instantaneous issuance of e-receipt on all payments,” volunteered a source within the bank who spoke under anonymity.

According to him, all branch offices of the bank in Lagos State have been adequately prepared on how best to handle enquiries related to the completion of the IGR forms that have been customised for this purpose. The charges are reported to vary from land to land depending on the expert views of the Lagos State Land Use Authorities at any given point in time.

FGN BONDS

Initial Current Quotation Price Market N8250.00 5495.33 N1000.00 N552.20

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• AFRINVEST W.A. EQUITY FUND NIBOR Tenor 7 Days 30 Days 60 Days 150 Days

Rate (Previous) 4 Mar, 2012 9.0417 9.6667 11.2917 12.1250

Rate (Currency) 6, Mar, 2012 10.17% 11.46% 11.96% 12.54%

Movement

OPEN BUY BACK Previous

Current

04 July, 2011

07, Aug, 2011

Bank

8.5000

8.5000

P/Court

8.0833

8.0833

Movement

56

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

NEWS PRESENTATION OF DEVELOPMENT AGENDA FOR WESTERN NIGERIA (DAWN) BY AFENIFERE RENEWAL GROUP

Governors, leaders embrace Southwest agenda Continued from page 6

•Gen. Alani Akinrinade, Senator Ayo Fasanmi and Group Capt. Bola Latinwo

•Chief Akande

•Traditional rulers

•Senator Sola Adeyeye (left) Falana, Senator Ojudu and Prof. Bolaji Aluko

•Mrs Toke Benson

•Gen. Lawrence Onoja

•Mr Sola Ebiseni

•Prof. Williams

•Dr. Tokunbo-Awolowo Dosunmu

for free education, health, roads, stadium, Cocoa House.

We will promote education.

We are going back to the basics. We have started that in Ogun State. Now, students are moving from private schools to public schools.”

Fayemi said: “What is happening today is not strange to me. I knew the beginning. I have been intimated with the processes which led to the roadmap. Those who left power have spoilt the Southwest, but we are ready to make Yoruba proud, through the support and cooperation of our leaders and royal fathers. I was happy when I saw a newspaper and there, Ooni of Ife and Alaafin of Oyo were talking about Yoruba progress. This is commendable.

“Our father, Gen. Adebayo, called a meeting of Yoruba in 1966 to brainstorm on the problems of the race. It is time to do the same again. The governors of Southwest are ready. Yoruba extends beyond the six states to Ajase, Sobe. We must rise for action. Ijafara lewu.”

Fashola said: “Lagos State is in support of the integration agenda as outlined by this roadmap. At a time states are thinking about how to share the oil money, ARG has sensitised us to the fact that it is not the route.

“Southwest governors are ready to work. But the people have a role to play. We must unite and be loyal to the vision. If a party is against our development, our people should leave it and come back home.”

Aregbesola said: “PDP President and governors spent eight years in power destroying Yorubaland. No Yoruba in power can work for Yoruba welfare, if he is not serving on a progressive platform. Obasanjo took over the Southwest by force, except Lagos, where people, led by Asiwaju Tinubu, used all means to avert their incursion.

“I want all the states to adopt this blue-print by ensuring that they appoint commissioners for regional integration. I want the local governments to also subscribe to the adoption. I want the Lagos State Government to create a conducive market where farm products from Yoruba hinterland can be sold.”

Gen. Adebayo said: “We need unity and understanding as we can only achieve success in an atmosphere of peace and cooperation”.

Gen. Akinrinade said: “There is need for commitment and loyalty to the vision to achieve progress and I believe that, with the calibre of people at the helm of affairs, we can do it”.

Chief Akande said: “We have started the race and journey for the implementation of the agenda and we must not look back. I commend ARG for its commitment and hardwork”.

Bankole enjoined those in power to realise the limitation to their tenure, saying that power is transient. He added: “In 2009, I was summoned by the ARG to explain myself.

They asked questions. They complained about development in Yorubaland. I asked for their agenda and solution.

After three or four months, we

started getting ideas from ARG. Power is transient. Nobody can be in power forever. Things can always change.”

Fasehun said: “Let us embrace the roadmap to get good results. God has made Yoruba a model in Nigeria. We must live to this destiny”.

Falana said: “If there are people here who supported the killing of our people, we must not allow them to mingle with us.

Yoruba is suffering. Some people killed Abiola and his wife.

We have not gained anything from Abuja. What we are doing here is about ideological value. A line of dichotomy should be drawn between the enemies of Southwest and those who love us.”

Adeyeye spoke on the challenges ahead for the governors, urging them to learn from the lessons of the Awolowo era. He said: “It was not easy for Awolowo. He ruled the Western Region in a time of hostility. The establishment and British government were opposed to the establishment of the University of Ife. Awolowo sought the cooperation of the Soviet Union. Before his delegation to the Soviet Union came back, the Federal Government supported the establishment of the university.

“Our governors are not Jesus who fed a multitude with 12 loaves of bread and two fish.

We should insist on fiscal federalism. Why should workers across states receive the same salary? Our governors should not even receive the same salary.”

The Ajero of Ijero-Ekiti, Oba Adewole, said: “We traditional rulers are happy. We need patience, peace and perseverance to succeed.”

Welcoming the guests, Oshun said Southwest’s journey to development should start now, irrespective of political, social, constitutional, sentimental and economic barriers.

He explained that the region cannot run away from the fact that Nigeria is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious entity, stressing that only true federalism can salvage it.

Oshun said: “We must not be hoodwinked into believing that Nigeria’s unity can only be assured by a strong central unit that doles out money to surrogate states and stifles the initiatives of these states from breaking the barriers of poverty, which militant capitalists in the cloaks of socialists continue to force on us.

“Unity is not a condition for development, especially our economic, infrastructural and human attainment. Rather, the development and wellbeing of the citizens is a pre-requisite for the unity of a co-habiting people.

“A true federal Nigeria will encourage productive competition, in which the federating units optimise their respective economic activities and aspire to a self-fulfilling citizenry.

Optimising job creations, reducing poverty among our people and making our states places to live in will mean our governors working together to make our states safe, managing just and stable tax system, ensuring quality in all public schools, developing a transportation that supports employment and goods, encouraging small businesses and laying emphasis on shared interests, rather than direct unhealthy competition”.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

57

NEWS Ojukwu’s burial: Obi denies rift with Ngige From Okodili Ndidi, Onitsha

A

NAMBRA State Governor Peter Obi has denied the allegation that he stopped Dr. Chris Ngige and other members of the National Assembly from speaking at the funeral of Chief Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu.

In a statement yesterday, Obi’s Media aide, Mike Udah, described the allegation as “a deliberate attempt to discredit Anambra State Government by mischievous politicians.”

Udah said the allegation was sponsored by “mischief makers bent on undermining the good works of the Obi administration.”

He said: “At no time did Obi or any other government official prevent anybody that was accredited to make a presentation from doing so. The event was devoid of politics. When you look at the criteria for the choice of speakers, you will understand what I mean.

“Chief Alex Ekwueme spoke as the Chairman of the occasion; Igwe Peter Ezenwa was the Royal Father of the day; Igwe Chukwuemeka Ike spoke on behalf of the Traditional Rulers’ Council, while Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife spoke for former governors.

“The Abuja event was planned to accommodate our people there. Even after Senate President David Mark had spoken, his deputy, Mr. Ike Ekwerumadu, also spoke on behalf of our people in the Senate.

“Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha spoke on behalf of our people in the House of Representatives. Secretary to the Government of the Federation Pius Anyim spoke on behalf of ministers and the Presidency. At no other venue in any part of the country did they speak again.”

Udah regretted that while Obi was being praised for organising a befitting funeral for Ikemba, some people are playing politics with the ceremony.

‘Governors should honour Ikemba’ From Adesoji Adeniyi, Osogbo

S

OUTHEAST governors have been urged to declare March 2 of every year a public holiday in honour of the late Chief Dim Ojukwu.

The Association of Ohanaeze Ndiigbo Presidents in Diaspora made the suggestion yesterday after its inaugural meeting held at the Africa House in Ogwashi Uku, Delta State.

It urged the governors to remember how the late Ikemba of Nnewi fought to liberate the Igbos.

In a statement signed by its President Chief Oliver Akubueze and General Secretary Chief Iheonunaekwu George, who is the leader of Igbo in Osun State, the association urged Igbo leaders to start mobilising people for an Ndiigbo candidate for the 2015 presidential election.

Supreme Court upholds Elechi’s election

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HE Supreme Court yesterday upheld the election of Ebonyi State Governor Martin Elechi.

It dismissed the petition of the governorship candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Senator Julius Ucha, which challenged Elechi’s election.

Elechi praised the judiciary for ensuring that justice prevailed.

He said throughout the period of the legal tussle at the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, the Appeal Court and the Supreme Court, the judiciary maintained a high level of integrity, transparency and fairness.

Elechi said: “The electorate of Ebonyi State made their choice on April 26, 2011. With the co-operation, hard work

•Ucha: God is the ultimate judge From Ogbonnaya Obinna, Abakaliki

and sincerity of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), their mandate was pronounced, their decision was made manifest, but it was challenged by our adversaries.

“They took us to the tribunal, the Court of Appeal and the apex court, all of which confirmed INEC’s verdict, which was a confirmation of the wishes of the people. My question now is: “Where next will they take us to?

“I thank the people of Ebonyi State for their mandate and support. I also thank INEC for improving on its task, so much so that the last general election was ad-

judged one of the best in Nigeria’s history.

“I thank the judiciary. People’s confidence in them has been re-established, even though they have their challenges. I thank all churches, because so many prayers and masses were offered on my behalf. I also thank all those who encouraged me during my travail.”

Advising politicians to shun violence, the governor said: “The age of banditry, hooliganism is over. You can no more win election in Nigeria, especially in Ebonyi, if the people do not give you their support. No amount of terrorism can change the people’s wish.”

Elechi said with the legal tussle over, his administra-

tion can now concentrate on developing the state.

Ucha urged his supporters not to be discouraged by the judgment.

He said: I thank the people who voted for me, prayed fervently and have supported me all these while. They have always been part of the struggle for their emancipation and I remain grateful to them.

“God’s time is the best and only God knows when to raise a king among his people. Yesterday’s judgment is a human judgment, but God, the ultimate judge, has the best judgment. I thank the media and all who have toiled in our resolve to regain our mandate. They must remain resolute because I

•From left: Dean of Student Affairs, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Prof. Kayode Amund; three recipients of the Huawei Technologies’ Information Communications Technology (ICT) schorlarship, Ike Ifeanyi, Kesa Oluwafunmilola and Olatunji Titus; and President of Huawei Technologies, Western Africa Region, Mr. Wei Chengmin during the company’s award of ICT scholarships to 15 UNILAG students.

I won’t be distracted, says Orji

A

BIA State Governor Theodore Orji has said his administration will not be distracted by the opposition’s criticisms.

Speaking with reporters yesterday in Umuahia, the state capital, Orji said: “My administration will not be distracted by any political party. We are focused on developing the state and improving our people’s lives.”

He said his administration has invested over N5 billion in the repair of infrastructure, adding that the government, with the collaboration of the Federal Government, will soon revive the Aba Regional Water Scheme.

On the suspension of some government officials, Orji based his action on security reasons.

He said: “As the chief security officers in their different local government areas, government expected a lot from them. Security is paramount and we have to take measures to correct lapses.”

The suspended officials appeared before the House of Assembly yesterday.

Seventeen local government chairmen, 10 commissioners, the chief of staff to

the governor and his deputy, security advisers and heads of some parastatals were suspended over security issues.

The state’s Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the burial of Chief Dim Ojukwu, headed by Prof. Joshua Ogbonnaya, also appeared before the Assembly.

The suspended government officials and members of the LOC appeared before an Executive Session of the Assembly for questioning.

They were accused of not mobilising people at the grassroots for the funeral and causing a security breach.

The invited persons were at the Assembly Complex as early as 9am, wearing long faces. They refused to speak with reporters. The closed door meeting, which started at 10am, ended at 3pm.

Speaker Udo Oko Chukwu and other members declined to comment on the meeting.

Clerk of the House JohnPedro Irokansi said the press

would be addressed on the outcome of the meeting later.

Security operatives had a hectic time controlling a crowd of youths at the Assembly entrance, who were in support of the governor’s action.

Singing solidarity songs, the youths carried placards with inscriptions, such as, “TC chairmen, disappointment to PDP”, “Wayo chairmen, we fire all of you by fire by force”, “Greedy TC chairmen, carry your loads and go”, “Ochendo go ahead and chase them away, they are greedy”.

Other inscriptions were: “Sidon dey look commissioners, bye bye for now” and “Suspension not enough for them, we need their expulsion from both the party and the government”, among others.

Speaking on behalf of the youths, Coordinator, Abia Youths Movement, Uche Ogbusuo said: “The action taken by the governor by removing and suspending

still have a strong believe in the providence of God. “Yesterday marked the end of the human judgment on the injustice meted to me and Ebonyi people, but it is just the beginning.”

Ucha urged his supporters to remain calm and conduct themselves peacefully.

MAN holds AGM tomorrow THE 24th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN), Southeast Zone, will hold tomorrow at the Tourist Garden Hotels in Awka, the Anambra State capital.

The zone is made up of Anambra, Enugu and Ebonyi states.

The former Chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Mr. Sam Ohuabunwa, is the Guest Lecturer.

Ohuabunwa will speak on: ‘Manufacturing in Turbulent Times - Opportunities and Strategies for Survival in the Southeast’.

Governors Peter Obi (Anambra); Sullivan Chime (Enugu); and Martin Elechi (Ebonyi) are the special guests of honour.

Over 500 participants are expected at the meeting.

The Planning Committee Chairman, Dr. Emma Nwankpa said Made-inNigeria products would be exhibited at the venue.

The private session for manufacturers will begin at 9am, while the public session is slated for 11am.

200 workers made permanent

•Suspended officials at Abia Assembly •Youths back governor From Ugochukwu Eke, Umuahia

•Elechi

From Ugochukwu Eke, Umuahia

•Orji

some political office holders is a welcome development.

He has shown that he has the zeal to sanitise the system.

“We cannot just fold our arms and watch our governor, who has exhibited a high level of dynamism in leadership in the past years, be undermined by the carefree and nonchalant attitude of some political office holders.

“We salute Orji for taking this bold step. It is high time he probed the political theories of this state. What he has done, though a tip of the ice berg, shows we are in for a change.

“Youths are tired of hearing thesame names since the inception of this regime. We thank Ochendo for this bold step and are solidly behind his action.”

FOR 200 casual workers at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, Abia State, all is well that ends well.

They have been converted into members of the staff.

The Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof. Hilary Edeoga broke the news during celebrations marking his one year in office.

Edeoga said: “Casualisation is modern day slavery. I cannot stand seeing workers treated like slaves in this modern day when people should be treated equally.

“The casual workers have been toiling for 18 years without getting the benefits accruing to permanent staff, even though both categories of workers make equal sacrifices for the growth of the institution.

“Like permanent staff, casual workers have family responsibilities and I cannot watch them suffer endlessly.“

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

58

NEWS

Al-Makura, Ahmed win at Supreme Court HE Supreme Court yesterday upheld the victories of Governors Umar Al-Makura (Nasarawa) and AbdulFatah Ahmed (Kwara) in last year’s poll.

The apex court held that the cancellation of election in

T

From Kamarudeen Ogundele, Abuja

some polling units in Doma Local Government of Nasarawa State did not substantially affect the final result of the election that brought Al-Makura of the

PUBLIC NOTICE CHANGE - -OF - -NAME ALO

GOODNESS I formerly known and addressed as Miss Uloma Enyinnaya Goodness, now wish to be known and address as Mrs. Uloma Dauda Abdulmalik.

All former documents remain valid.

NYSC and the general public please take note.

I formerly known and addressed as Miss Alo Temitayo Olufunmilola, now wish to be known and address as Mrs. Afolabi Temitayo Olufunmilola. All former documents remain valid general public please take note.

EHIRIODO

I formerly known and addressed as MRS AKINOSI MOJISOLA AMINAT now wish to be known and address as MRS KUSA MOJISOLA AMINAT. All former document remain valid. Badagry Local Government and general public note.

AKINOSI

I formerly known and addressed as Miss Obioma Ehiriodo, now wish to be known and address as Mrs. Obioma Joy Wali. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

PUBLIC NOTICE THE CONVENANT DISCIPLES CHURCH, NIGERIA This is to inform the general public that the Above named church has applied to corporate affairs commission, Abuja for registration under part C of companies and Allied Matters Act 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE. 1.

PASTOR ADETAYO ABEL. A. 2.

PASTOR OGUNNOWO ISREAL BOLU. 3.

PASTOR ADEFESO DAVID .A. 4.

DEACONESS ODIFA MARY.O. 5.

PASTOR ADETAYO EZEKIEL 6.

ELDER IBITAYO JOSEPH. O. 7.

DEACONES AROYEHUN RUTH. O. 8.

ELDER YAKUBU SAMUEL SINA 9.

ELDER ADEBANJO ABRAHAM A. AIMS & OBJECTIVES a. To preach the Gospel of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ b. To form and establish assemblies in and outside Nigeria. c. To expose the particular beliefs of the covenant disciples church to the outside bodies as requested by them. d. To establish and govern such Assemblies according to the constitution and guiding principles.

Any objection to the Registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, Abuja within 28days of the publication.

Sign: TRUSTEES

Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) to power.

It dismissed the appeal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, former Governor Akwe Doma.

In the lead judgment delivered by Justice Afolabi Fabiyi, the five-man panel held that Doma failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that there was multiple thumb-printing, ballot box stuffing and other alleged electoral malpractices.

“I therefore resolve all the issues against the appellant, except issue six which does not affect the result of the election. The judgment of the Court of Appeal, Makurdi Division, delivered on January 7 is hereby affirmed.”

Ahmed has described as a call to greater service, the Supreme Court judgment which yesterday reaffirmed his election as the duly elected governor of Kwara State.

Ahmed, in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Alhaji AbdulWahab Oba, noted that the judgment has affirmed, beyond any doubt, that the 2011 elections in the state reflected the popular wish and aspirations of the people.

‘Quest for better Kwara continues’ From Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin

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HE governorship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Kwara State in the last general elections, Mohammed Dele Belgore (SAN), yesterday said the struggle for a better life in the state continues, urging indigenes to remain steadfast, irrespective of the position of the Supreme Court.

He said he and his party have accepted in good faith, the verdict of the apex court, which dismissed his petition and upheld the election of Governor AbdulFattah Ahmed of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Belgore had asked the Supreme Court to set aside the decision of the Appellate Court and nullify the election of Ahmed by declaring him the duly elected governor of the state.

He told the court that the election was marred by irregularities and did not comply with the Electoral Act 2010 as amended.

But the apex court affirmed the concurrent judgments of the lower courts, noting that the appeal lacked merit and dismissed it without cost.

In a statement by his media aide, Rafiu Ajakaye, the Lagos-based lawyer said “as law-abiding citizens and members of a political party with profound respect for the rule of law and public peace and order, we accept the decision of the Supreme Court, which is the highest court in the land.”

The statement added: “While the legal battle is over, the quest for freedom and fight to bring meaningful and good governance to the people of Kwara continue.”

Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki has hailed the verdict.

Saraki, the immediate past governor of the state, in a statement by his media aide,

Akintoba Fatigun, praised the panel for discharging its duties creditably, honestly and courageously despite media intimidation.

Urhobo youths fault Northern governors on derivation

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HE Urhobo Youth Assembly yesterday faulted calls by governors from the North for a review of the revenue formula.

It advocated upward review of the 13 per cent derivation

From Okungbowa Aiwerie, Asaba

fund to at least 25 per cent, for equity, justice and fair play.

The governors had through their Chairman and Niger State Governor Mu’azu PUBLIC NOTICE ODUDARE I formerly known and addressed as Odudare Adenike Omotayo, now wish to be known and address as Odusanya Adenike Omotayo. All former documents remain valid.

General public please take note.

Babangida Aliyu, said the present revenue formula does not favour the North, especially the 13 per cent derivation fund allocated to governors of the Niger Delta states.

Urhobo Youth Assembly, in a statement signed by its president, Jude Akpore and secretary, Frank Onagagamue, said since the 13 per cent derivation fund was never part of any state’s consolidated revenue, it could not have been a part of the consolidated revenue of the oil producing states.

Fed Govt soft on Boko Haram, says Oritsejafor From Gbenga Omokhunu, Abuja

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HE President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, yesterday accused the Federal Government of pampering members of the Boko Haram.

Oritsejafor said the development, among others, is the reason the Federal Government has failed to confront the Boko Haram insurgency.

Speaking in Abuja at the National Christian Centre on the state of the nation, the CAN boss, who further expressed sadness over the handling of the Boko Haram issue by the government, said the purpose is to exterminate Christians from Nigeria, adding that “it is being done according to their plans. We refuse to believe that this is a clash of interest and mode of worship.”

He warned the Federal Government, Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, leading political figures in Nigeria and stakeholders in the Nigeria project about the consequences of the latest threat by the Boko Haram.

But the greatest danger, Oritsejafor said, is that “government has failed to confront the nature of the threat Nigerians are dealing with. What we have so far witnessed in the few months of the first threat is enough for CAN to warn that if the so-called Boko Haram makes good its latest threat, Nigeria may never be the one and united country that we know. Our concern is not just about the terrorists’ methods, but their views. Our concern is also not just their barbaric acts, but their barbaric ideas. This is why we call on the majority peaceful Muslims to rise up against Boko Haram in their midst as a demonstration of their love for one Nigeria. To the Federal Government, we say the time for action is now. Stop the foot dragging and pampering of the Boko Haram members. This is the hour for courage.”

‘Plateau attack planned from outside’

G

OVERNOR Jonah Jang of Plateau State said yesterday that

the recent attack on COCIN Church headquarters in Jos was carried out by forces outside the state.

Jang said this when he received the COCIN President, Rev. Soja Bewarang, who led the Executive Committee members of the church. He said Plateau indigenes have resolved to live in peace.

“The people of Plateau are eager to reconcile and live in peace. We definitely want peace which we have started enjoying until the recent bomb blast.

“The crisis in Plateau is no more among the people; the state is under siege and is being attacked from outside.

I am speaking, based on security reports.

“But government is committed to tracing and unmasking those behind the destruction of lives and property in Plateau and all over Nigeria.”

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

59

NEWS

•Oshiomhole (left) receiving the nomination letter from Boss... yesterday PHOTO ABAYOMI FAYESE

Edo women buy nomination form for Oshiomhole HE battle for July 14 governorship election in Edo State took a new dimension yesterday as Edo women bought an Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) nomination form for Governor Adams Oshiomhole.

They presented a N4.7million draft to the governor at the ACN National Secretariat in Abuja.

The representative of the women, Edo South Women Leader, Mary Iyengunmwaena, said the procurement was a demonstration of the people’s support for him.

Her words: “On behalf of the Edo ACN women, I present this draft of N4.7million to Governor Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole to buy the governorship nomination form.”

ACN Deputy National Chairman Mustapha Boss presented the form, manifesto, constitution and guidelines to the governor.

Oshiomhole thanked the party leadership for steer-

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From John Ofikhenua, Abuja

ing it to success. He added that ACN represents the alternative platform for service delivery to the people.

He said: “As my leader prefers we call the party, rather than talking of opposition, we are not opposed to any man.

“We are just in business to acquire power and use it for the good of our people, to make a difference in the quality of life of Nigerians at all levels.”

The governor said he has been privileged to use the platform of the party to contest, win and preside over the state for the past three years.

He said following the schedule of the governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)and the ACN timetable for nomination for the election, he was in the party secretariat to obtain the form.

The governor said: “I have come today with both national leaders who are part of you and people who are our leaders in Edo State. I came with my brothers and sisters from Edo State to collect the form.”

Oshiomhole told the party leaders that Edo ACN has made a difference in the lives of the people after 10 years of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rule.

Boss assured him of the party’s support, stressing that the governor’s achievements are testimonies of what the party stands for.

He said Oshiomhole has transformed the state from a slum-like quarter to an enviable city.

The delegation of the party led was by the former Foreign Affairs Minister, Tom Ikimi.

Those present at the ceremony were Senator Ehigie Uzamare, Senator Domigo Obende, Momoh Abubakar, Patrick Obagiagbon, Peter Akpatason and others.

EFCC, ICPC close ranks as Lamorde warns against failure by anti-graft agencies

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CONOMIC and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chair Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, yesterday said the war against corruption is a battle that must be won.

Also, the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Barrister Ekpo Nta, a lawyer said it was time for the EFCC and ICPC to close ranks to win the anti-corruption battle.

Lamorde and Nta spoke at a at a three-day workshop in Abuja, a joint initiative of Justice for All (J4A) organized by Department For International Development (DFID) on the “Development of an Organisational Strategy” for EFCC. Lamorde said: “The war on corruption is a battle that must be won. This workshop

From Yusuf Alli, Managing Editor, Northern Operation

is significant and timely because the Commission needs a new focus.

“As far as I am concerned, failure is not an option. I am prepared to do whatever it would take to ensure that the commission we will leave behind will be the agency of our collective dreams and aspirations, one that all Nigerians and friends of our nation would be proud of.”

“At the end of the day, something very useful will come out of this. I can assure you that it will be implemented Lamorde blamed various strands of influences in the last nine years of EFCC existence for not allowing it “to carve and stick to one organizational model in implementing its mandate”.

Nta said synergy among anti-corruption agencies was necessary to send a strong message to Nigerians that there was no hiding place for corrupt elements.

He said: “I know that we are being trained today for sustainability. The challenge is for all of us to take the fight as part of our normal routine.

“I am happy to be associated with this synergy. The door of ICPC is permanently open for collaboration with all our sister agencies, especially the EFCC” Also speaking at the workshop, the Chairman of Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).

Mr. Sam Saba disclosed that CCB had developed its portal which would make it easy for public officers to file the assets declaration form on-line and “return the form same way”.

Itesiwaju Baptist holds quarterly meeting

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HE first quarterly meeting of the presided over by the Moderator of the associaItesiwaju Baptist Association holds tion, Rev. Gbenga Ojo of Araba Baptist Church, on Saturday at Victoryland Baptist Ilasamaja, Lagos and the Consultant, Rev. Femi Ajayi of Victoryland Baptist Church, Isolo, LaChurch, Isolo, Lagos from 9am. It will be gos.

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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

61

FOREIGN NEWS

‘Return of Putin setback for Russian foreign relations’

By Leke Salaudeen

•Vladimir Putin

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HE return of Vladimir Putin of Russia is a setback for Russian

Nigerian scholar in International Relations has observed.

Dr David Aworawo of the University of Lagos noted that given the antecedents of Putin, his foreign policy would continue to antagonise the West.

He said Russian under Putin would become more isolated; Russia relations with other world powers will be adversarial. “Even at home, the controversy that trailed his emergence as presidential candidate and

thestrong opposition against his return were unprecedented in the history of Russia said Aworawo.

He didn’t hide his contempt for the opposition when he described protesters as rascals at political rallies.

“Putin has become a colossus in Russia. His administration will not improve Russia relations with the western world. The emergence of opposition groups will not have impact on Putin’s programme.

On the conduct of election which observers said was

skewed in favour of Putin, Aworawo said there was no where in the world where election is 100 per cent free and fair. The gap between Putin and his closest rival was so wide that whatever shortcomings observed in the conduct of the election will not affect the overall result, he explained. President Putin scored 63.7 per cent while Gernady Zyuganoiv came second with 17 per cent.

Aworawo said the opposition should have come up with a consensus candidate that would have made the contest very stiff.

Eastern Libya declares autonomy

IVIC leaders in eastern Libya have declared semi-autonomy for their oil-rich region at a meeting in Benghazi.

They say the move is necessary as the region, once known as Cyrenaica, has been neglected for decades.

But the move has caused tension with the governing National Transitional Council in the capital Tripoli.

The declaration has no force in law but is a declaration of intent by the local leaders, the BBC’s Gabriel Gatehouse reports from Benghazi.

It also has significant popular support among people in Libya’s second city, he adds.

The NTC denounced the move as “dangerous” and “a blatant call for fragmentation”.

“We are against divisions and against any move that hurts the unity of the Libyan people,” Fathi Baja, head of the NTC’s political committee, told the Associated Press.

Hundreds of people attended the Congress of the People of Cyrenaica, held in a hangar on the outskirts of Benghazi.

Tribal leaders in traditional dress alongside military men were among the delegates who danced, waved flags and chanted songs about federalism, our correspondent reports.

Hundreds of people crowded into a hangar on the outskirts of Benghazi.

There were tribal elders in traditional costume, military officers in a multitude of uniforms, and militia leaders in the patchy camouflage fatigues of the revolution.

ECOWAS Parliament decries insecurity in Sahel-Sahara

M

EMBERS of the E C O W A S Parliament have raised the alarm over the worsening security situation in the Sahel-Saharan region.

The sub-regional parliamentarians also raised concern over the possible adverse consequences of the Libyan crisis on the West African sub-region.

This was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of a seminar on “The Role of the ECOWAS Parliament in the West African Integration Process” held in Accra, Ghana for Members of the Community Parliament.

The apprehension came just as the Speaker of the Parliament

From Onyedi Ojiabor, Assistant Editor

and Nigeria ’s Deputy President of Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu also reiterated the resolve of Community parliamentarians to play greater roles in freeing the peoples of the West African sub-region from poverty, ignorance, corruption, and security.

Rising from the seminar, the parliamentarians in the communiqué read by the Secretary-General of the Parliament, Mr. Muhamesd Diakete however lauded the ECOWAS position on the skirmishes in the Sahel-Sahara zone, especially on the rebel

activities in northern Mali.

On economic integration, participants at the workshop deplored the very low intraregional trade profile of West Africa and “the pressure brought to bear by the European Union on trade liberalization between the two zones” which they complained as having adverse effects on the West African region’s economy and the financial autonomy of on its institutions”.

Underscoring the consolidation of peace and good governance as the major challenge facing the sub-region, participants did not also hide their concerns

over the obstacles to the progress of integration process and the lacklustre implementation of Community programmes.

It said Ekweremadu explained that members of the Community Parliament were being inspired by the inferences they draw from other regional parliaments in the course of the sub-regional deliberations and “we are now better motivated to emulate their good examples.”

“We pledge to our people to follow the best examples and practices to bring home those roles and more which the European Parliament render to its great nations”, Ekweremadu stressed.

NEWS THISDAY Editor Kolawole named ‘Young Global Leader’

T

HE Editor of THISDAY, Mr. Simon Kolawole, has been selected as a Young Global Leader (YGL) 2012, a prestigious honour bestowed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) each year to recognise the most distinguished young leaders from around the world.

The letter announcing the honour was signed by Founder of WEF and Executive Chairman/Founder of The Forum of Young Global Leaders, Klaus Schwab, and Senior Director, Head of The Forum of Young Global Leaders, David Aikman.

The letter read in part: “The Selection Committee, chaired

by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, chose you after carefully screening the profiles of thousands of young leaders from every region of the world and from a myriad of disciplines and sectors. Your nomination is in recognition of your record of professional accomplishments, your commitment to society and your potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world through your inspiring

leadership.”

Past YGLs include UK Prime Minister, David Cameron; Anchor and Managing Editor, Wall Street Journal Report, CNBC, USA, Maria Bartiromo; Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, Esther Duflo; Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Google, USA, Larry Page; and Chief Executive Officer, SOHO China, People’s Republic of China, Zhang Xin. Kolawole was appointed Editor of the Saturday newspaper of THISDAY in August 2002. He became Editor of the daily newspaper in June 2007.

The columnist is a graduate of Mass Communication from the University of Lagos and holds a Master’s degree in Governance and Development from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK. In 2008, he conducted a study on the governance structures and socio-political management of the oil industry in five countries – Venezuela, Qatar, Saudi

Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Norway – on a comparative scale with Nigeria. He was the first Nigerian journalist to embark on such an extensive investigative study.

The following year, he was named among Africa’s next generation of leaders by The Banker, a publication of the Financial Times, UK. Kolawole, a 2005 British Chevening scholar, is a 2010 Mo Ibrahim Governance for Development Fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where he did some work on the role of New Media in governance and development.

For 2012, the World Economic Forum selected 192 YGLs from 59 countries and all sectors of society, including business, civil society, social entrepreneurs, politics and government, arts and culture, and opinion and media.

The 2012 class originates from East Asia (38), South Asia (19), Europe (46), Middle East and North Africa (15), sub-Saharan Africa (18), North America (37) and Latin

Anti-Putin protesters released

R

USSIAN police have released about 250 opposition activists who were detained in Moscow after a rally against Vladimir Putin’s election victory.

Protest leader Alexei Navalny said the rallies would go on “until we win”.

Opposition election monitors have reported large-scale fraud in favour of Mr Putin, who was elected president for a third term on Sunday.

Especially in St Petersburg there appears to be evidence of severe fraud - more than in Moscow.

The BBC’s Daniel Sandford in Moscow reports that fresh evidence of election cheating is emerging all the time.

Nikolai Belyaev, from the website Svodny Protokol [consolidated list of results], said “so far we’ve seen a huge number of violations in St Petersburg”.

“In some individual polling stations we’ve seen candidates getting half the number votes on the final election commission website than were recorded on the original lists of results”.

Syrians flee to Lebanon

M

ORE than 1,500 Syrians have crossed into Lebanon in recent days, the UN’s refugee agency says, amid reports of troops committing atrocities in Homs.

A UNHCR spokeswoman said 170 families had sought refuge in the village of al-Fakha and 50 others in nearby Arsal.

The agency and other local groups are sending food, blankets and other aid.

The UN’s human rights commissioner has meanwhile described as “truly shocking” video appearing to show torture victims in the Military Hospital in Homs.

The footage, filmed by an employee at the hospital in the past three months and broadcast by the UK’s Channel 4 News on Monday, shows wards full of wounded men, blindfolded and shackled to their beds.

Funeral for man

T

HE death has occurred of Prince Durojaiye Adesanmi.

He died on February 20. He was 90. A wake will be held in his honour on May 11 and funeral service on May 12 at St. Paul Anglican Church, Ayegbaju, Ile-Ife, Osun State. Entertainment of guests follows at Oduduwa College, Ile-Ife. He is survived by children,

•The late Adesanmi

grandchildren and great grandchildren

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America (19).

Those named from subSaharan Africa include Jasandra Nyker, Chief Executive Officer, BioTherm Energy, South Africa; Amadou Hott, Chief Executive Officer, Dangote Capital, Nigeria; Clare Akamanzi, Chief Operating Officer, Rwanda Development Board (RDB), Rwanda; Cina Lawson, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications of the Republic of Togo; Isis Nyong’o, Vice-President and Managing Director, InMobi, Kenya; Fred Swaniker, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, African Leadership Academy, South Africa; and Ashish Thakkar, Managing Director, Mara Group, Uganda.

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CHRIST LOVE GLOBAL CHRISTIAN MISSION The general public is hereby notified that the above Mission has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for registration under part C of the Companies and Allied Matter Act 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1.

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Dr. (Mrs.) Loghayin Bosede Ola AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 1) To collaborate with others for Christian activities and programmes.

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Signed: MR. ADEWUMI OLAJIDE OGUNSOLA.

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

62

NATION SPORT

Gallant Arsenal bow out with heads held high A RSENAL produced a stirring effort, but fell agonisingly short of turning their Champions League tie with AC Milan around.

The Gunners trailed 4-0 from a horror show in the first leg, with manager Arsene Wenger claiming there was a five per cent chance of survival. That percentage looked bigger at the break as they led 3-0 through goals from Laurent Koscielny, Tomas Rosicky and Robin van Persie, but they were unable to find the fourth and bowed out 4-3 on aggregate.

The Arsenal faithful arrived more in hope than expectation, but they were

fired up on seven minutes as Koscielny lost his marker at a corner and nodded the ball home.

Milan produced some very un-Italian defending and they were picking the ball out of their net for a second time on 26 minutes. Thiago Silva produced a shocking clearance from a Theo Walcott cross and was made to pay as Rosicky calmly stroked home.

Arsenal poured forward in search of more goals and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain won a penalty shortly before half time. Despite being asked to move the ball by referee Damir Skomina, Van Persie kept his nerve and slammed

•Christian Abbiati of AC Milan saves Robin van Persie of Arsenal's close range effort on goal during the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 second leg match

the ball beyond Christian Abbiati.

Milan rarely threatened, although Stephan El Shaarawy somehow fired into the side netting with only Wojciech Szczesny to beat.

A better chance fell Arsenal's way at the start of the second half, with Van Persie presented the ball three yards out. He seemed surprised and attempted to lift the ball over the keeper rather than powering home and Abbiati gratefully gathered.

Arsenal threw everything at Milan, but ran out of legs in the final ten minutes and they were unable to find the goal that would have forced extra time.

RESULTS England - FA Cup Birmingham 0-2 Chelsea Champions League Arsenal 3-0 AC Milan Benfica 2-0 Zenit

NATIONS CUP QUALIFIERS

Keshi to bank on home-based players From Andrew Abah and Patrick Ngwaogu, Abuja

S

UPER EAGLES’ Head Coach Steven Keshi has revealed that he would now lay more emphasis on developing the home based players towards subsequent AFCON qualifying matches.

Speaking exclusively to NationSport from Benin on Tuesday, the former Eagles’ captain, said he was ready to step on toes to ensure that the once top-rated team in Africa regained its most enviable position.

"My emphasis now is on the players based at home. They are going to be the bedrock of my team. I have told the foreign based players that everyone should be ready to play for the country, or forget been called subsequently."

"I am only going to invite those that are hungry to play for the country. The players should be ready to fight on the pitch of play. That is why I am laying my emphasis on the local players. I have directed my assistants to go round and watch the various league matches both at the premiership and other leagues, to fish out those budding players that are eager to die for their fatherland," Keshi stated.

He confirmed that he would not invite more that 5 foreign based players in the next Eagles match.

•Keshi

THE NATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012

63

www.thenationonlineng.net

TOMORROW IN THE NATION

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012 TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

VOL.7 NO.2057

‘We may yet in this country adopt the measure proposed by the late Professor Adeoye Lambo, Deputy DirectorGeneral of WHO (World Health Organisation) and a world class psychiatrist that our leaders need to be examined to JIDE OSUNTOKUN find out if they are sane or not.’

COMMENT & DEB ATE EBA

I

N his 1982 hagiography of Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, EMEKA, the famous British novelist Fredrick Forsyth (Dogs of War, Odessa File, Day of the Jackal, etc), said he never knew of an African who had charisma “Till Emeka.”

The publishers, Spectrum Books based in Ibadan, described Forsyth in the book’s blurb as a “friend and confidant” of Ojukwu but still asserted that EMEKA was “a straight forward objective account about a human being with all his strengths and weaknesses.”

Spectrum’s claim that EMEKA was a straight forward objective account of the life of Ojukwu was obviously stretching it a bit; friends and confidants are much more likely than not to be subjective in their assessments of each other.

In the case of EMEKA this was clearly so if only because Forsyth’s claim that Ojukwu was the only African with charisma he ever met was either sheer propaganda or he never met enough Africans to make a tenable judgement on the subject.

Without doubt Ojukwu was hugely charismatic; the widespread killings of Igbo in the North, first in May and then in July 1966, may have provided the push for them to seek for safety in their own Eastern Region for which he had been appointed military governor following the first military coup in the country on January 15, 1966, but without his power to inspire admiration and enthusiasm in his Igbo compatriots his rebellion against his country might never have lasted as long as it did. Without his charisma it might even have suffered stillbirth.

Even then Forsyth could not have been right to suggest that Ojukwu was the only charismatic African leader. So on that ground alone one could say that EMEKA was more propaganda than fact. That, however, was not the only ground to question the claim that the book was “a straight forward objective” account of the man’s life.

Another ground was the timing of its publication. EMEKA was published in December 1982, barely six months after Ojukwu received his unconditional pardon by the Federal Government over his leading role in the country’s civil war between 1967 and 1970, a war which reportedly claimed at least two million lives, mostly in the rebel enclave of the Republic of Biafra which he had declared on May 30, 1967.

That unconditional pardon by the government of President Shehu Shagari sparked one of the biggest political controversies in the country. Most Nigerians had no quarrel with the pardon as such. What they quarrelled with was its unconditional nature which many saw as a ploy by the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) to tap into Ojukwu’s charisma and thus secure the Igbo vote ahead of the general elections that had been scheduled for late 1983.

The timing of EMEKA’s publication was obviously meant to secure a leading role for Ojukwu so soon after his return from selfexile in Cote d’Ivoire. The military establishment, among them many retired generals like T. Y. Danjuma who had fought in the

People and Politics By MOHAMMED HARUNA ndajika@yahoo.com

Ojukwu: The man died but his spirit lives on

•The late Ojukwu

civil war, thought this was in bad taste – and said so.

The NPN remained undeterred. The man grabbed the offer with both hands and plunged straight into politics. Predictably, he soon made it abundantly clear that he had only returned to reclaim his position as THE pre-eminent Igbo leader; in a speech under the auspices of the Political Science Department of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, (UNN), barely five months after his return from self-exile, he said: “Today I stand before you humble and bowed by the heavy responsibility which our entire people have thought fit to impose on my modest frame. Fifteen years ago, in this very campus, you urged me to lead the brutalised and intimidated Igbo people out of Nigeria. I accepted. Today I return to you this time to urge you to return to Nigeria.

The war is over, let us work together to ensure peace.”

What these words clearly showed was that the one thing you could never accuse Ojukwu of was modesty; obviously along with his charisma the man possessed a huge ego.

It can be argued that this, perhaps even more than the Igbo pogrom of mid-1966, led to the three-year civil war that nearly broke up Nigeria.

In paying tribute to the great man sev-

eral Nigerians, more specifically the governor of Niger State in which lies the railway town of Zungeru where Ojukwu was born in 1933, have said Ojukwu had no option but to rebel against his country. I am not so sure.

True, when a country does nothing while a section of its citizens are being killed, as happened to the Igbo in 1966, it might justify rebellion based on the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR) and also based on the recurring section of all our constitutions since before independence in 1960 which says the primary responsibility of government is the security and welfare of the people.

The fact, as opposed to the propaganda, however, was that neither the authorities in the North nor those at the centre looked away while Igbo were being killed. For evidence I refer the reader to the 2010 autobiography of Malam Magaji Dambatta, a veteran journalist and diplomat who was involved in the critical events of those trying times as they unfolded.

His account of how the authorities in the North tried to stop the July killings of Igbo showed clearly that the authorities in the region risked their lives to stop it and eventually succeeded.

According to Malam Magaji the July killings started in Kano and were instigated by, among other things, Ironsi’s Unification Decree 34 which many in the North saw as an attempt to permanently subjugate the region. There was also the general’s appointment of a judicial panel to look into the May riots in the region while he took no action against the officers who virtually wiped out the entire military leadership from the region and killed its premier and the country’s prime minister.

The July riots, said Malam Magaji, became worse when soldiers of the 5th Battalion mutinied, killing one, Captain Audu Auna, and another, RSM Abdulmumini, both of them Northerners, in the process of their attempt to stop the mutiny.

Shortly after the riots started, the regional governor, then Lt.Col Hassan Usman Katsina, the regional commander, then Lt.Col Muhammadu Shuwa and the secretary to the regional government, Alhaji Ali Akilu, drove all the way from Kaduna, the capital, to Kano.

On arrival they held a meeting at the residence of the provincial commissioner on how to bring

HARDBALL

D

EEPLY worried that the criminal justice system was heading in the wrong direction, the Chairman, Governing Council of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Professor Chidi Odinkalu, thought it urgent to condemn what he believed was a huge effort to “normalise abnormality” in Nigeria. He wasn’t playing with words. He was angry enough to openly accuse the Nigeria Police of extrajudicially murdering an estimated 5,000 persons annually without fear of judicial or official retribution. Odinkalu made this frightening observation of how badly we have sunk in the index of normal, civilised and rational behaviour at a workshop on the Nigerian Criminal Justice System in Abuja on Monday.

The NHRC chairman painted a horrid picture of a criminal justice system gone appallingly bad. It is a system that is unable to catch real culprits, he says plaintively, and it oppresses, humiliates and routinely tor-

an end to the riots.

Thereafter Shuwa dispatched some loyal troops to round up the mutineers who had joined the rioters in various parts of the city.

Eventually the loyal troops succeeded and assembled the rioters at Bukavu Barracks parade ground.

They were then addressed first by the governor and then by Shuwa, both of whom upbraided the mutineers for unbecoming conduct. Present along with the top government officials and military officers was the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero.

After upbraiding the mutineers, Shuwa instructed the most senior sergeant major to order them to disarm. The sergeant major did but they refused to disarm. A furious Shuwa took over and asked them to disarm. Again they refused. Three times he asked them to disarm and three times they refused.

Shuwa then reverted to Hausa and abused them as being unworthy soldiers. He then asked them one more time to disarm. To everyone’s great relief they obeyed this time.

“Slowly, reluctantly,” said Malam Magaji in his autobiography, “they started laying down their rifles on the ground, one after the other, to the relief of everyone, especially those of us ‘bloody civilians’ who throughout the proceedings were frightened to death about the possible consequences of such wilful disobedience under the circumstances.”

Such rare act of courage by the region’s military and civilian leadership showed clearly that the authorities in the North did not look the other way when Igbo were being killed in the region.

However, by then Ojukwu had apparently made up his mind to take the Igbo out of Nigeria. All attempts to assure him of their security and safety in Nigeria, including negotiations in Aburi, Ghana, failed to persuade him. He went to Aburi, he said: “(not) to seek power for myself...I went to save Nigeria from disintegration.”

Needless to say, he did not try enough, at least from the point of view of the Nigerian authorities. Fifteen years after he failed to divide Nigeria and after he jumped the sinking ship of his Republic of Biafra, he was given an unconditional pardon to return and contest for the country’s leadership.

He tried several times and in spite of his great charm he could not win an election until he died on November 26 last year. However, in spite of his failure the man remained one of the greatest and most influential leaders in the country.

It is perhaps a mark of his influence in Nigeria’s politics that today, twenty two years after his rebellion ended, for which he remained unrepentant right up to his grave, the spirit of Biafra has refused to die. Instead the spirit seems to be alive and kicking, and with the Boko Haram and MEND insurgencies, not to mention the threats of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Nigeria may yet succumb to that spirit and breakup.

•For comments, send SMS to 08054502909

•Hardball is not the opinion of the columnist featured above

Normalising abnormality with 5,000 deaths tures suspects. Even if he was uncertain about the actual number of people extrajudicially murdered every year by the police, there is no doubt that he conveyed the full sense of the trouble we have got ourselves into as a country. Nor, given the almost daily media reports of the malfeasance of policemen, does anyone think Odinkalu was unnecessarily being sensational. Before he made this disturbing disclosure on Monday, Nigerians had always suspected that the criminal justice system had become weak, ineffective and disorganised.

It will be recalled that Amnesty International (AI) periodically reports horrifying law enforcement practices that set at nought all efforts by well-meaning individuals and activist groups to civilise and modernise the security agencies. Only last

month, the NHRC appealed to the government to investigate human rights abuses perpetrated by the military and the police operating under the aegis of the security task forces battling civil unrest and insurrections in various parts of the country, particularly in the North-eastern part of the country. Before the NHRC became autonomous in 2011, the Justice ministry had sacked at least two executive directors of the commission for drawing attention to some of these abuses and also criticising the government’s human rights record.

Odinkalu must be commended for the courage to unambiguously denounce the criminal justice system. Before perpetrators of rights abuses drag the country further down into the whirlpool of horror, it is necessary to encourage the NHRC to firmly stay true to its founding act. In spite of the difficulties of prosecuting high-profile offenders, it needs to go be-

yond the general by specifically indicting some of the perpetrators of rights abuses. It must function at the domestic level in much the same way as the International Criminal Court functions at the international level. It needs to publicise its activities widely, especially regarding how aggrieved citizens can file their complaints with the commission and assemble relevant evidence to help prosecutors.

The torrents of human rights abuses reflected in Monday’s NHRC accusation indicate not just how precipitously the country is falling apart, they also give a worrying peep into just how beastly the minds of many of those managing our criminal justice system have become. We must urgently stop the horror show and go beyond the tokenistic show the police always put up when one of their officers is exposed for villainous acts.

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