The Nation May 01, 2012

Nigeria’s widest circulating newspaper

News Soyinka calls for protest over Reps subsidy report P2 Sports City beats United in Manchester Premiership derby P63 Business Police quiz Senator Saraki over N9.7 billion loan P5 www.thenationonlineng.net

VOL. 7, NO. 2110 TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

TR UTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM TRUTH

N150.00

For the umpteenth time, workers in Lagos, Oyo, Ekiti, Osun and other states have embarked on an industrial action ... The strikes are now instruments of political diversion, mischief and blackmail ... In the case of Lagos State, doctors that should be committed to saving lives ... have abandoned their calling ... and have become merchants of deaths.

DETAILS ON PAGE 11 ACN Chairman Chief Bisi Akande in a press statement on the state of the nation.

11 die as suicide bomber hits police chief’s convoy Blast injures 20 President: don’t be discouraged

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From Fanen Ihyongo, Jalingo and Vincent Ikuomola, Abuja

ALINGO, the Taraba State capital, was yesterday rocked by an early morning blast – its first experience since the Boko Haram crisis began.

No fewer than 11 persons were killed in the suicide bombing.

The convoy of the Commissioner of Police, Mr Mamman Sule, appeared to have been the target of the attack, which took place around 8.30a.m.

No group has, however, claimed responsibility for the explosion, which sent the city to sleep as soon as it woke up for the day’s activities.

The bombing took place in front of the premises of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), beside the Ministry of Finance.

The suspected bomber rode on a motorcycle and forced his way into the convoy of the police chief. “Before he could be intercepted, there was a heavy bang,” an eye-witness said.

The bomber waited at the road side for an hour, timing when the police commissioner would pass, another eye-witness said.

The bomber was blown up. Among the casualties were an unidentified person, and an employee of the Ministry of FiContinued on page 2

•The Outrider, Police Corporal Usman Suleiman, in the theatre after the explosion ... yesterday

PHOTO: FANEN IHYONGO

SOME BOMBINGS THIS YEAR

•Jan. 20, 2012: 185 killed in Kano.

•Feb. 26, 2012: A car bombing in Jos outside of a church kills at least three people.

•March 11, 2012: A car bomb outside of a Catholic church in Jos kills 10.

•April 8: A car bomb in Kaduna, kills 38.

•April 26: A vehicle crashes into This Day office in Jabi, Abuja. Another car crashes into a building in Kano housing This Day, The Sun and Moment

•Sule ... yesterday

•Corp. Suleiman’s motorcycle on the road ... yesterday

Oshiomhole: NLC demands probe of convoy crash

STORY ON PAGE 10

•Oshiomhole

ACN leaders visit governor, crash victims

•ENERGY P16 •SPORTS P23 •PROPERTY P25 •POLITICS P44 •CITYBEATS P53

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THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

NEWS BUK mourns Prof •JTF uncovers bomb at varsity From Kolade Adeyemi, Kano

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•Edo State Governer Adams Oshiomhle discussing with (from left) Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, National Chairman of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Chief Bisi Akande, Aremo Olusegun Osoba and Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo during the visit to the Government House, Benin ... yesterday. Story on page 10

11 die as suicide bomber hits police chief’s convoy Continued from page 1

nance, Mr. Titus Nuhu.

Sources said Nuhu, who worked in the Accounts Department, had alighted on a motorcycle to cross over to his when the blast occurred.

Pieces of his remains were picked from the street.

The Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jalingo, where the deceased and the injured persons were taken, was crowded.

The Medical Director (MD), Dr. Wiza Inusa, said the condition of 11 injured persons was relatively stable.

“But four persons are in a critical condition,” he added.

Police Corporal Usman Suleiman is among those in critical condition. Suleiman was the Outrider in the commissioner’s convoy. He was groaning in pains when The Nation visited the hospital’s theatre. His left eye had been damaged by the explosion. There were wounds on his abdomen, laps and legs were injured.

The front wind shield of the police commissioner’s official car was damaged.

The wall-fence of the NUP collapsed during the explosion, which shook near-by buildings, including Kataps

President to Nigerians: don’t be discouraged

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HE President has urged Nigerians not to be discouraged by the terrorist attacks in some parts of the country.

He spoke against the persistence of attacks in the last few days – in Adamawa, Kano and in Taraba (yesterday).

In a statement yesterday, presidential spokesman Dr Reuben Abati said: “President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan wishes to reassure Nigerians and foreigners resident in the country once again that his administration is taking every necessary action to end the spate of terrorist atrocities in the country.

“Against the background of the recent upsurge in terrorist attacks, the latest of which occurred in Jalingo earlier today, President Jonathan urges Nigerians and foreigners living in the country not to be discouraged or deterred from going about their regular

and Associates Chambers, located a few metres from the scene of the blast. The chambers, which belongs to the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Gibbons Kataps, also had its window glasses and ceilings shattered. Seats and tables were upturned.

The road-side blast also pounded the branches of the economic trees in the area.

There was panic in the town.

Business and social activities were paralysed.

But Sule denied he was the

affairs by the persistence of the mindless bombings and gun attacks.

“The President wholly condemns today’s assault on innocent citizens in Jalingo and reaffirms his Administration’s unwavering commitment to curbing terrorism in Nigeria and bringing the terrorists and their sponsors to justice.

“Noting, however, that success in the war against terrorism will be more speedily achieved with greater support and assistance from affected communities, President Jonathan calls on all patriotic Nigerians, once again, to promptly report all suspicious persons to national security agencies.

“He extends heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims of the bombings in Jalingo and wishes the injured speedy recovery.”

target. He said: “I am not the target. Definitely, I am not the target at all.”

Sule had just been redeployed to Taraba from Yobe State, which has been rocked by multiple blasts recently.

He said bomb experts were invited to inspect the scene.

The suicide bombing was the first in Taraba, since Boko Haram (western education is sin) began its violence.

Acting Inspector General of Police Mohammed Abubakar insists that the police have done more in the effort to

curb the Boko Haram insurgency.

He also disagreed that the Taraba blast was targeted at the Commissioner of Police.

Abubakar was at the State House alongside the Minister of Police Affairs, Captain Caleb Olubolade (rtd), to brief Vice President Namadi Sambo on the Taraba incident.

Abubakar told reporters: “Yes, we are doing something, as you can see. You cannot compare the situation before we came on board and

now.”

“My CP was not the target.

It was placed on the road and it exploded; nothing has happened to the commissioner and we have made arrests,” he added.

Mr Umar Waziri, the Red Cross Information Coordinator in Taraba, confirmed that 11 people died in the bomb attack.

“We can confirm that 11 people were killed. Ten people died on the spot; one person died at the Federal Medical Centre in Jalingo,” Waziri told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

He said 20 others injured by the blast had been taken to various medical centres in the city.

Sule said the police had only confirmed the death of three persons from the attack.

Sule said he escaped death “by whiskers”.

“The explosives hit the official car I was riding in and shattered the windscreen and front bumpers but I escaped unhurt,’’ he said.

The police commissioner said he was on his way to the office when the bomber struck, just when he entered the ministry’s premises, which was adjacent to the Taraba police headquarters.

Soyinka urges Nigerians to prepare for subsidy scam protest

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OBEL laureate Prof.

Wole Soyinka yesterday urged Nigerians to prepare for a massive demonstration against the fuel subsidy scam.

The literary icon noted that the petrol subsidy saga has brought global embarrassment to Nigeria.

The eminent scholar advised the anti-graft agencies - the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) - to prosecute those involved in the scam.

Soyinka said: “The populace should be ready for another determined march against corruption. The level of thievery is not unrelated to the level of violence we witness today.”

•SNG calls for prosecution of culprits

By Emmanuel Oladesu, Deputy Political Editor

The former university don spoke in Lagos at a media briefing organised by the Save Nigeria Group (SNG), led by its Convener, Pastor Tunde Bakare. At the event were the leader of the Campaign for Democracy (CD), Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, SNG spokesman Yinka Odumakin.

Bakare, who reviewed the House of Representatives probe on the subsidy scam, noted that “the crisis in the oil industry is not about subsidy but about corruption”.

He noted that government officials flouted the guidelines for fuel importation by reeling out controversial fig-

ures to deceive Nigerians.

The preacher said the N3trillion reportedly spent on subsidy last year was questionable, adding that big money was deliberately stolen in the name of subsidy.

The SNG Convener queried the discrepancy between the figures tendered by the Accountant-General of the Federation and the committee, saying two-thirds of the appropriation for this year was stolen by government officials last year.

Bakare said companies involved in fuel importation and unpatriotic auditors are culpable in the scam, adding that they are guilty of economic sabotage and corruption.

According to him, the House of Representatives has endeared itself to Nigerians by proceeding with the probe of the scam.

He said the probe has shown that the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) denied the receipt of the money allegedly paid by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Bakare said those perpetrating fraud in the NNPC should be unmasked.

He added: “The clearance of Gombe State Governor Ibrahim Dankwanbo, who was the Accountant-General of the Federation in 2009 and who was alleged to have issued cheques of N999million

in 128 places in 24 hours - totalling N127 billion - raises another serious matter.

“Passing the buck to the PPPRA does not answer the issue. The impression this gives is that the governor may have been exonerated in a deal to ensure that he does spill the beans, if push comes to shove. These double payments must be traced and the nation must know where the money ended”.

Continued on page 58

AYERO University, Kano yesterday over Sunday’s attack on Christian worshippers and the death of 16 people including Prof. Andrew Leo Ogbonyomi.

It was all gloomy yesterday at the late professor of Library Science’s home.

A family member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the vacuum created by Ogbonyomi’s death will be difficult to fill.

The late professor, who hailed from Kabba-Bunu Local Government Area of Kogi State, was a founding member of the department.

He lectured for 30 years.

His Kabba-Bunu Local Government Area, which is among the five Okun speaking local government areas in Kogi State, will particularly miss him, as well as the university community, mainly for his invaluable contributions in his specialised field of classification, a colleague said last night.

He was described as not only a philanthropist, but also a community leader of repute, who went out of his way to put smiles on the faces of the less-privileged within the university community.

The acting president of his community, Prince Ajayi Memeyitan, described the late Ogbonyomi as an illustrious son of the Okun people, who repeatedly contributed to the development of his community.

One of his ex-students, Mr. Edwin Olofu, described the death of his former lecturer as “shocking and sad”.

Olofu also described the professor as a “God fearing man”, whose teaching methodology is “unique”.

“I have associated with him actively for 10 years. Professor Andrew Leo was an international scholar of repute, who contributed tremendously to the development and growth of the study of Library Science in the country,” he said.

Last night, the Military Joint Task Force (JTF) uncovered and diffused a bomb planted at the Sociology Department of the Bayero University.

Its spokesman Lt. Ikedichi Iweha said the bomb was discovered by the disposal unit sent to comb the area.

According to him, the bomb was diffused adding that there is no more cause for claim on the campus.

•Prof Soyinka

CORRECTION

In the story Convoy crash is attempt to kill Oshiomhole published on page 4 yesterday, the paragraph that reads: “Chief Tony Anenih openly threatened at the palace of the Oba of Benin to deal with me. I am persuaded to believe that the threat is now being carried out”, attributed to Edo State Commissioner for Information Louis Odion was published in error. Any discomfort it may have caused is regretted.

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

THE NATION TUESDAY, APRIL 1, 2012

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THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

NEWS ‘Fed Govt committed to new varsities’

•Former Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Secretary Comrade Morgan Anigbo , Chairman Senate Committee on Labour Senator Uche Chukwumerije, NLC President Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar and former NLC President Comrade Hassan Sunmonu at the 2012 May Day Symposium in Abuja... yesterday

Police grill Saraki over N9.7bn loan • Supporters besiege SFU, as ex-governor gets bail

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ORMER Governor of Kwara State Bukola Saraki was yesterday a guest of the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) at the Force Headquarters, Abuja where he was quizzed by investigators over a N9.7 billion loan.

The loan was said to have been obtained from the defunct Intercontinental Bank by Joy Petroleum Company, a firm which the former governor is said to have substantial interest.

The senator, who is assisting the police to clear certain grey areas in the said loan which was obtained by Joy Petroleum during his tenure as Governor of Kwara State, was released on bail last night.

The Special Fraud Unit had declared him wanted last week over his failure to honour an invitation by the SFU in respect of the loan.

Access Bank, which has taken over Intercontinental Bank, is believed to have initiated the investigation as part of the bank’s loan recovery drive.

It was like a political rally at the Police Special Fraud Unit (SFU)Milliverton Road, Ikoyi Lagos as political associates, party leaders, and supporters of Saraki from Kwara came to show solidarity to the former governor.

Saraki was supposed to appear at the SFU yesterday morning in Lagos. He later appeared in Abuja.

It was alleged that the ex-governor used three of his companies to secure the loan, which was later allegedly fraudulently written off by the management of Intercontinental bank under Mr. Lai Alabi.

His supporters were led by Mr. Ishola Fulani, the Kwara State chairman of the Peoples Demo-

Kwara ACN alleges paralysis of governance

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HE Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Kwara State and the Kwara Freedom Network (KFN) have alleged paralysis of governance in Kwara

State.

The two opposition groups accused the state government of relinquishing governance to the background yesterday in solidarity with Senator Bukola Saraki who was billed to appear at the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) in Lagos over a N9.7 billion loan writeoff.

The Chairman, KFN, Chief Iyiola Oyedepo told reporters in Ilorin, the state capital, that “it is very sad that ex-governor Saraki’s case paralyses governance in the state.

“How can the entire government functionaries be solidarising with somebody alleged to have committed fraud?”

He urged the police to properly investigate and prosecute the fraud allegation levelled against Saraki while he was governor.

His words: “We are in one with the police in this investigation. In fact, we ready to give the police more evidence. We have piles of petitions lodged against him at the ICPC and EFCC.” The state Chairman of ACN, Kayode Olawepo, said: “We denounce in the strongest terms the public show of shame, impunity and the lack of decorum by the PDP-led Kwara State Government which on Monday deployed around 200 government vehicles to Lagos to show solidarity with former Governor Bukola Saraki.

“The decision to deploy government’s vehicles bought with public fund for such a shameful venture indicates that governance is at its lowest ebb in our dear state. It reminds us of similar behaviour by PDP From Gbade Ogunwale, Abuja, Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin and Jude Isiguzo

cratic Party (PDP) . They urged the police to handle the investigation with care and ensure that justice is done.

According to them, Saraki is a transparent man and can never be involved in any fraud.

The supporters, who stormed Ikoyi in over 20 buses from Ilorin, insisted that the police must treat their political leader fairly.

Mrs. Ebun Owolabi, a member of Kwara State House of Assembly

when one of its godfathers was returning from jail over corruption.

“It is apposite to state that one reason Saraki is being investigated is on account of his alleged use of public office, through the Ministry of Finance then occupied by the incumbent Governor Ahmed Abdulfattah, for personal gains.

“Rather than show remorse and bury their heads in shame, the PDP-led state government is again using public fund and properties to side with somebody already fingered in corrupt practices.

“This shows their lack of respect for our law, the people of Kwara State and public sentiment against corruption and abuse of public office, around which Bukola Saraki is currently enmeshed.

“Kwara people deserve public apology from the PDP and Governor Abdulfattah for dragging their image in the mud through this shameful conduct and solidarity with corruption. We urge the police to ignore this shameful show of support and do their work thoroughly because the government clearly does not have the mandate of the people to deploy their resources for antiprogress trip.”

Olawepo added that “Saraki’s personal business transactions are of no concern to us, but we note from the newspaper accounts that the transactions in question took place while he was governor of Kwara State.

“If that is found to be the case, then he has been guilty of a breach of the Code of Conduct law which forbids a public officer from engaging in any personal business activity while holding office. This is punishable under the law. It also shows that rather than Saraki devote his energy and time to uplifting the lives of the people of Kwara he was engaged in pursuing his own personal interests.”

who was part of the protesters warned that police should not allow anyone to use them.

Owolabi said: "I am speaking on behalf of women in Kwara State. Nothing must happen to this man who is a man of integrity and honour. We are not saying that police should not do their job, what we are saying is that he should be treated fairly and that nothing must happen to him.”

Commissioner of Police in charge of SFU, Mr. Tunde Ogunshakin said his command would bring all the culprits in the

alleged loan scam to book.

Chief Press Secretary to Governor Ahmed, Alhaji AbdulWahab Oba, yesterday said Kwara government was not paralysed as a result of the solidarity protest held by the ex-governor’s supporters for him at SFU. Oba said: “We want to place it on record that the Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed was in Lagos on Sunday 29th of April 2012 with some top government functionaries to interact with Kwara professionals resident in Lagos.”

Coalition moves to end breast cancer by 2020

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OALITION of anti-breast cancer organisations, National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC)plans to rid the country of breast cancer by 2020.

Founder/President, Breast Cancer Association of Nigeria (BRECAN), Mrs. Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, spoke at a briefing in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

Anyanwu-Akeredolu said: “Although NBCC is a USA-based grassroots breast cancer organisation ‘dedicated to ending breast cancer through the power of action and advocacy’, its impact in recent times is increasingly being felt internationally through an innovative programme named Project Lead. Project Lead ( an acronym for Leadership, Education and Advocacy Development) is an unprecedented consumer education programme that teaches participants the science of breast cancer and methods of effective advocacy.

“Back home in Nigeria, our case is pathetic. We do not have reliable

By Wale Ajetunmobi

statistics for breast cancer. Having a national statistics is not yet on our radar screen. The little we have is hospital based but also a pointer that the incidence has been increasing in the last two decades.”

She added: “BRECAN identifies with NBCC in this commitment, to end breast cancer by January 1, 2020. We stand by every fibre of this commitment.

BRECAN advocates are attending the summit to learn as much as we can and come back to set our own agenda considering the realities on ground.

These realities include deeply entrenched misconceptions about what causes breast cancer and how it can be treated, broken health care system, lack of research and public policy on breast cancer and cancer in general, cancer not on NHIS, grossly inadequate breast cancer diagnostic and treatment infrastructure, dearth of cancer professionals, lack of safety net for needy patients.”

MINISTER of State for Education Ezenwo Nyesom Wike yesterday said the Federal Government is committed to ensuring that the new nine Federal Universities offer Nigerians quality education.

Wike spoke in Yenegoa during a visit to the Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson. He was in the state to inspect the Federal University, Otuoke in preparation for its commencement of academic activities.

Wike said that all the nine Universities would be provided with the basic facilities to make academic activities worthwhile.

He said the Federal Government would create the enabling environment for the universities to take off smoothly without disruptions.

He said: “The Government of President Goodluck Jonathan is committed to the provision of the necessary facilities for the take off the Federal Universities. We want quality teaching and learning to take place.”.

Dickson commended Jonathan for his investment in education across the country.

At the take off campus of the Federal University, Otuoke, the minister inspected work on the faculty buildings, laboratories, library, Administrative Complex and the students’ hostels.

He expressed satisfaction with the quality of work carried out by the university administration in setting up the facilities. Wike praised the Otuoke community for funding the construction of the library, laboratories and faculty buildings at the take off site.

He said: “I am impressed by the commitment of the Otuoke Community by investing in the direct construction of critical structures at the new university. I can only plead with those who made pledges to the community for the university to redeem such pledges”.

Yuguda condemns Azazi’s comments From Austine Tsenzughul Bauchi

BAUCHI State Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi yesterday condemned and described as a’’betrayal and ungratefulness’’ last week’s statement credited to National Security Adviser Gen. Andrew Owoye Azazi on the insecurity in the country.

Yuguda, represented by his Chief of Staff (CoS), Government House Bauchi, Yusuf Musa Gumli, made the condmenation at the swearing in of executive members of Bauchi State ‘s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) held at the Party’s Zonal Office in Bauchi metropolis.

He said: “It is disheartening to hear a respected member of the party who occupies a very sensitive position in the government, make such aimless and indicting statement that is capable of smearing the name of the party. ‘’A National Security Adviser and a retired Army General, Azazi, should have used his experience, age, and exposure in fashioning his statement in such a way that whoever heard or read him will know he is not happy but there is hope for surmounting the current insecurity in the country.

“Matters that affect the party should first of all, be discussed internally before making any public pronouncement because PDP is a family and as a family, we should and must not wash our linens outside’’.

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NEWS

What Nigeria Terence McCulley is United States (U.S.) Ambassador to Nigeria. In an e-mail interview with Assistant Editor (News) OLUKOREDE YISHAU, the envoy bares his mind on multi-lateral issues.Excerpts:

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•President Goodluck Jonathan introducing Malawian President Joyce Banda (right), to Minister of Housing, Ms. Amal Pepple (during the Malawian President’s visit to Presidential Villa Abuja...yesterday. Watching is Minister of Agriculture Dr. Akinwumi Adeshina.

PHOTO AKIN OLADOKUN

OKO Haram challenge

I think that Nigerian government faces significant challenges and that requires a multifaceted response. We have an ongoing dialogue with the Nigerian government on this matter. Clearly, there is a significant security threat that prevails across the North. It was previously confined to Borno but we have seen attacks in Bauchi, Niger, Kano Plateau and Kaduna. This kind of insurgency requires a response by the security forces but it also requires a lot more, and I think the Nigerian government does understand that. We believe the Nigerian government needs to have a strategy which addresses these acts of violence which reassures the Northern population there is a plan to ensure their security. Our hope is the actions by the security forces will target extremists and perpetrators of violence in a way that does not inflict civilian casualties or damage properties and violate human rights.

It is incumbent upon government to react with a broad-based strategy by addressing security as well as the questions of development and poverty which feed underlying grievances that can promote acts of violence.

Ministry of Northern Affairs

•From left: President, Campaign for Democracy (CD) Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka, convener, Save Nigeria Group (SNG), Pastor Tunde Bakare and SNG spokesperson Yinka Odumakin briefing the media in Lagos...yesterday. Story on page 2

•From left: Head, Compliance Monitoring, NCC, Ephraim Nwokonneya, Senior Manager, Regulatory Affairs, MTN, Oyeronke Oyetunde, CEO, Etisalat Nigeria Steven Evans, Head, Compliance Monitoring & Enforcement Ubale Maska and Publisher, IT & Telecoms Digest Mkpe Abang during the Executive Committee of NCC's Industry Working Group on Multiple Taxation(IWG) visit to Etisalat office on Friday

•From left: Public Relations Officer, Breast Cancer Association of Nigeria (BRECAN), Mrs. Lilian Uzoma-Adesokan, BRECAN advocate Mr. Biyi Adesanya and BRECAN President Mrs. Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu at a briefing on 2020 Breast Cancer Dealine in Ibadan PHOTO: NAN

There are also some who say that Boko Haram is comprised mostly of non-Nigerian foreigners, and that the group is being funded by a handful of resentful politicians nursing their wounds from the last election.

This would be deeply unfortunate if true, but I have not seen any evidence to support either of these theories.

To fix the Boko Haram problem, the government will have to develop a new social compact with its Northern citizens. It will have to develop an economic recovery strategy that complements its security strategy. It will have to draw on the support of Northern governors, traditional Hausa and Fulani leaders and local officials and organisations.

The Nigerian government should consider creating a Ministry of Northern Affairs or a development commission similar to what it did in response to the Niger Delta crisis.

Northern populations are currently trapped between violent extremists on one hand and heavyhanded government responses on the other. They need to know that their President is going to extraordinary lengths to fix their problems.

Achieving this will not be easy.

Although the problems are not the same, it has taken the central government in Abuja nearly a decade to bring the problems in the Niger Delta under some semblance of control. Resolving the problems in Northern Nigeria will require the government to act more swiftly and to make a strategic course correction.

It will need to adopt a comprehensive strategy, and remain disciplined and committed to its implementation, especially at the state and local level where accountability is low and corruption high.

Despite the challenges that Nigeria faces with Boko Haram and other issues, Nigeria is simply too important to be defined by its problems.

Nigeria must be defined by its promise and its enormous potential, as well as the resourcefulness of its people.

Transparency, public funds

We encourage the Nigerian Government to take steps to ensure greater transparency in the use of funds and to prosecute public officials who misuse public funds.

Petroleum subsidy

The United States supports measures by the Nigerian Government to remove the subsidy on gasoline.

Further, we welcome the statements made by the Nigerian Government in January regarding reforms in the energy sector, in particular swift passage of the PIB (Petroleum Industry Bill).

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s bid for World Bank’s Presidency

We supported an open, meritbased, and transparent process for the President of the World Bank. The U.S. has played a major role, and has been very supportive, of reforms in the World Bank, the IMF and other international financial institutions to significantly increase the voice and vote of the major emerging economies in those institutions.

U.S. assistance to Nigeria

As Nigeria consolidates its democratic institutions and rebuilds its economy, the United States stands ready to deploy its programmes and resources in support of the country’s national priorities, from public health to education, from food security to national security, and from the battle to contain malaria to the daily struggles of the millions of Nigerians living with HIV and AIDS. Nigeria is a country blessed with both abundant human and natural resources, and the United States seeks partnership not dependency; we seek to build capacity not undermine local initiative.

The U.S. Government-funded Malaria Action Programme for States in Nigeria is a major health initiative under President Obama, to mention just one example. USAID will provide $82 million to fund this activity for five years. The project will improve the health of women and children in Nigeria by increasing the use of proven malaria prevention and treatment services, and the use and accessibility of malaria products and services. Malaria is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Nigeria. Because it directly affects school attendance and workers’ productivity, malaria can impose a heavy burden on poor households. The mosquito-borne illness causes over 100 million clinical cases, and is responsible for nearly 300,000 deaths in children under the age of five, as well as 11 percent of maternal mortality cases reported each year.

USAID has an agric sector programme in Nigeria called MARKETS which is intended to support farmers who are looking for technical assistance to help improve crop yield - to help them understand better how they can get their crops to the markets and sell at a good price.

There is a commercial sector that looks at improvement in yield of rice production, for instance. We are working in Kano to support a stateof-the-art rice mill which is producing rice for the local market. We are working in Benue State on some other projects. I recently visited Oyo State and while there visited two aquaculture enterprises in Ibadan which have benefited from MARKETS technical assistance.

We are committed to assisting

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

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NEWS

needs to tackle Boko Haram, by U.S. envoy Nigeria’s important efforts to facilitate reform of the power generation and hydrocarbon sectors, including funding technical assistance for renewable energy initiatives.

‘

There are also some who say that Boko Haram is comprised mostly of non-Nigerian foreigners, and that the group is being funded by a handful of resentful politicians nursing their wounds from the last election.

This would be deeply unfortunate if true, but I have not seen any evidence to support either of these theories

Assistance to military

We have trained thousands of Nigerian peacekeepers through the ACOTA programme in the last decade. We are also providing ongoing anti-terrorist training, as well as sharing information and expertise, and stand ready to assist as needed.

Proposal to scrap EFCC, ICPC

As we understand it, the Federal Government may decide to consolidate anti-corruption agencies, rather than eliminate the important functions that they perform. Currently, as in the past, we provide training to investigators and prosecutors. We are very supportive of the EFCC and its work to fight corruption and financial crime in Nigeria and look forward to working with Chairman Lamorde as he rebuilds the agency.

Taming corruption

With sufficient political will and resources dedicated to the effort, Nigeria can effectively control corruption as well as any other country.

How to attract American businesses to Nigeria

If Nigeria can create an enabling environment for investment, including a frontal assault on corruption and lack of transparency, I am convinced you will find American businesses and investors eager to enter the largest market in sub-Saharan Africa, creating jobs here in Nigeria while offering expertise, innovation and some of the world’s finest products.

The United States Energy Trade Delegation led by Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, William Fitzgerald met with President Goodluck Jonathan as well as Energy

•Ambassador` McCulley

Minister Barth Nnaji, in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, on Monday, February 13, to discuss U.S. private sector interests to invest in the energy sector. The delegation, including executives from U.S. EXIM Bank and energy companies also met in separately with officials of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and Independent Power Producers Association of Nigeria (IPPAN). The basic objective of the trade mission is to make significant

progress on increasing U.S. privatesector investment in power infrastructure projects that have the potential to increase overall development in Nigeria.

On October 19, 2011, the EXIM Bank of the United States and the Nigerian Ministry of Power signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) aimed at securing up to $1.5 billion of U.S. exports of goods and services directed at a ten-fold increase in power output in Nigeria

‘

the inspired leadership of Professor Attahiru Jega at INEC to the patriotic diligence of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to the massive, patient and peaceful participation of the Nigerian people in the process, Nigerians came together collectively to reaffirm their aspiration for a democratic country. The hard business of governing has begun, and the greater challenge is to ensure Nigeria moves forward, addressing the challenges in fighting corruption, growing the economy, encouraging investments in agriculture, the energy sector, in manufacturing, in information technology, and meeting the security challenges which threaten Nigeria’s prosperity and seek to sow divisions among the country’s communities.

In America we believe we find strength in our diversity, and I am convinced Nigerians – more than 160 million strong, composed of more than 250 ethnic groups and speaking over 500 languages – will leverage this great country’s diversity to inspire their sense of nationhood and build on April’s electoral success.

Nigeria’s future

by 2020.

Jonathan’s first anniversary

The building of democracy is a hard slog, and it requires engagement, integrity and commitment at once from citizens and from the men and women who aspire to lead. The April 2011 election was arguably the most credible and transparent in Nigeria’s history as an independent nation. From the commitment of President Goodluck Jonathan to preside over a free and fair process to

I am very optimistic about the future of Nigeria. Clearly, this country faces significant challenges in terms of security, in terms of power, of infrastructure and diversification of the economy, but this country has survived greater challenges, including prolonged periods of military rule, and a divisive civil war. It is a country composed of 250 ethnic groups and 500 languages and dialects. I think it is a country that profits from its diversity. I expect Nigeria will play the role we and other friends hope and expect Nigeria to play on the international stage.

Leave vengeance to God, Mark tells blast victims

ACF, JNI condemn blasts

• Christian youths want security agencies overhauled

•Odua group wants terrorists unmasked

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ENATE President David Mark yesterday urged victims of the bomb attacks in Abuja, Kaduna, Kano and Taraba states to avoid recourse to vengeance as enunciated in the teachings of the various religions.

Mark in a statement by his media aide, Kola Ologbondiyan in Abuja said: “I want to urge all the victims of these blasts, including their relations, to pray to God to touch the hearts of the perpetrators of these violent acts.

“They should not think or contemplate vengeance because vengeance belongs to God. “We must continue to pray for peace and unity of our country and pray for the leadership of the nation.”

The Senate President spoke while hosting the Benue State leaders visited in Abuja.

He called on Nigerians who have grievances against the Federal Government, “to come together and dialogue instead of throwing bombs around and killing their fellow Nigerians.”

He added: “Those perpetrating these acts should have a rethink in the corporate interest of the nation.”

Describing the visit of Benue leaders as “humbling,” Mark said the support he has received from his home since he assumed the office as Senate President has always inspired him in the conduct of the activities of the National Assembly.

Delegation leader and Deputy Governor of the state, Chief Steve Lawani, explained the team’s leader.

He said the leaders came to Abuja “to express our open support to you (Senator Mark) for the good work you are doing as the presiding officer of the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Canada, Tambuwal condemn attacks From Augustine Ehikioya, Victor Oluwasegun and Dele Anofi, Abuja

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ANADIAN government and Speaker of the House of Representatives Aminu Tambuwal yesterday condemned the Boko Haram attacks.

A statement by the Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister, John Baird, urged Nigerians to work with the Nigerian government in the fight against Boko Haram.

He said: “I am deeply saddened to see that Nigerians gathered to practise their faith have again become the target of terrorists.

“Canada urges all people in Nigeria to work with the Nigerian government to counter religious extremism and terrorism, and bring to justice those responsible for these reprehensible crimes.

“On behalf of all Canadians, I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to the families and friends of those killed in these attacks, and I wish a speedy recovery to the injured.”

Tambuwal, in a statement yesterday by his Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Malam Imam Imam, reacted to the twin bomb blasts that rocked Bayero University, Kano and Ministry of Finance building in Jalingo, Taraba State on Sunday and yesterday.

He said: “Nigeria is today experiencing its tough challenge. I am however confident that what we are facing will soon be a thing of the past. Our collective resolve as Nigerians who desire peace and stability will triumph over all dark forces in our country.”

From Onyedi Ojiabor, Assistant Editor, Sanni Onogu, and Bukola Amusan, Abuja

“The people of Benue state are very, very proud of you. You have been able to stabilise the polity of Nigeria since you became the Senate President through your ingenuity, resilience and superlative handling of the National Assembly.”

Following the continous killings of Christians in various parts of the country, the Youth Wing of the Christian Association of Nigeria (YOWCAN), has called for an immediate overhaul of all security agencies.

A statement issued yesterday in Abuja by YOWCAN reads: “We have

sounded it loud enough to whosoever wishes to hear that the church is the obvious target of the Boko Haram onslaught. If they are not attacking markets, viewing and social centres in christian neighbourhoods in Jos, Yobe or Maiduguri, they are clearly attacking churches and christians during worship.

“We are doing our best to keep faith with the ability of our security operatives to bring to an end this night mare over the church and Nigeria generally but we are compelled by the reality on ground to say leaving the totality of the armed security watch to the police and special task force will no doubt leave us at the mercy of d boko haram islamic terrorist.

From Tony Akowe, Kaduna

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HE Muslim umbrella body in the north, the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) and the northern socio-political organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) have condemned Sunday’s attack on a worship centre inside the Bayero University, Kano, asking the perpetrators to respect the sanctity of human life.

The ACF, in its statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Anthony Sani, said: “The attacks of innocent people in places of worship in Bayero University which occurred yesterday is worrisome because it conveys some aimlessness on the part of the perpetrators, considering those affected are not part of causes of any perceived grievances.

“ACF therefore submits that time for sheathing of the sword is long overdue; and that whatever may be the nature of any perceived grievances, violence resulting in mindless killing of innocent people can never be the solution.

“This is because, however long any conflict may take, it would still be resolved at peace talks. To that end, perpetrators of violence that kills innocent citizens should embrace constructive dialogue as the only viable path to peaceful coexistence and national security for collective good.

“ACF also condoles and commiserates with all those who lost their lives and properties, and prays to God to provide them with the fortitude to endure what have happened, and in the hope that they will replace the losses many folds.”

JNI, in a statement by its Public Relations Officer, Umar Ahmed Zaria, condemned the suicide attacks in Yola, Adamawa State, Gombe State University and the one targeted at newspaper houses in Kaduna and Abuja.

The statement reads: “Jama’atu Nasril Islam expresses its shock over the unfortunate orchestrated multiple bomb blasts on some media houses in Kaduna and Abuja. Also, the explosion of IEDs in Yola, Adamawa state, Gombe state university and Bayero university, Kano are condemned in strong term.

“Human lives are sacred and it must be treated as such by all. These incidents call for sober reflections as a nation. We, therefore, commiserate with the families of the bereaved and wish their loved ones the fortitude to bear the loss. In the same vein, we wish all those who sustained injuries as a result of the blasts quick recovery.”

A pan-Yoruba group, the Oodua Nationalist Coalition (ONAC), in a statement by it’s Public Affairs Secretary, Alhaji Yinusa Akinkunmi, said it was disturbed by the recent killings of two Yoruba professors, Jerome Ayodele and Andrew Leo Ogbonyomi. The duo were killed in Kano by gunmen.

The statement reads: “We call on the Federal Government to immediately bring these blood thirsty murderers to book. We want to know who killed the two professors. We want to know who bombed Thisday and The Sun newspapers.

“They must be brought to book or face proportional revenge. Though in this heinous game, some Hausa-Fulani Northern Muslims have been killed, however, this is nothing but primarily a continuous target hate killings informed by ethnic and religious considerations. “

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

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NEWS Saka Lawal joins Ondo governorship race tomorrow From Damisi Ojo,Akure

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former Special Adviser to Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko on Planning and Strategy, Mr. Saka Lawal, will tomorrow formally declare his intention to contest the governorship election on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

The event will hold at BTO Hall in Akure, the state capital.

Prominent indigenes of the state at home and in the diaspora are expected at the event.

The Saka Lawal Campaign Organisation (SALCO) has launched a website, www.sakalawal.org.ng, for the campaign.

In a statement, SALCO said: “Lawal is the only aspirant who has deplored so much effort to mobilise people into the party. As a grassroots mobiliser, he has used his political clout to increase the ACN’s fold. Thousands of defectors have said they joined the party because of Lawal.”

Books donation for EKSU •Varsity gets solar power

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Non-Government Organisation (NGO), Advocate of the Rule of Law and Human Dignity, at the weekend donated 100 law books to the Ekiti State University (EKSU).

The organisation was founded by Mr. Adebamiji Dada, a native of Itaji – Ekiti.

Handing over the books to the Vice-Chancellor, Prof.

Oladipo Aina, Dada said they were his contribution to making the school a world-class in-

stitution.

He said government alone can no longer fund university education anywhere in the world.

Aina thanked Dada and urged individuals and organisations to emulate the gesture.

Also, the campus has been illuminated with solar power.

Students thanked the management for the development.

They said it would enable them move around the campus freely at night.

NMA wants free health care for Ondo inmates From Ojo Damisi and Leke Akeredolu, Akure

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HE Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) has urged the Ondo State Government to incorporate prison inmates in its free health care mission.

It said many inmates are infected by various diseases caused by prison congestion.

National Chairman, NMA Committee on Prison Welfare, Dr. Abdulrahman Abubakar spoke while donating drugs, toiletries, Holy Bibles and Qurans to the Ondo State Prisons at Olokuta in Akure, the state capital.

He said: “The high number of inmates awaiting trial is the reason prisons are congested. As a result of this, several diseases are transmitted.

Some inmates are living with tuberculosis and if it is not properly treated, they may die and also transmit the disease to others.

“Our donations are to ensure that they are properly attended to whenever they are sick and to reduce the high rate of malaria in prisons.

“This programme will cut across all the 36 states. We kicked it off in Bauchi, moved to Jigawa and are now in Ondo. We will visit more prisons.”

Abubakar thanked Governor Olusegun Mimiko for building a court at the prison premises and urged the state to build a well equipped clinic there.

Controller of Prisons Mr. Muyili Olayiwola thanked the association for partnering the government to improve prison conditions.

UK ACN warns Omisore over Aregbesola

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HE United Kingdom (UK) branch of the Ogun State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) yesterday told Senator Iyiola Omisore to steer clear of Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola.

It warned that Omisore would face dire consequences, if anything untoward happens to Aregbesola.

Omisore, who represented Osun East in the Senate between 2003 and 2011, was recently reported to have said he would stop and search Aregbesola’s convoy for ammunitions.

Omisore’s comments came on the heels of an alleged security report, which accused Aregbesola of planning to Islamise Osun State and secede.

In a statement by its chairman, Otunba Balogun Ayodele, the group said Omisore’s penchant for violence and the “spoiler role” he played during his tenure as deputy-governor to Chief Bisi Akande in Osun State are still fresh in the mind of Nigeri-

By Adebisi Onanuga

ans.

It said: “The attacks on Aregbesola are a deliberate isolation of the governor for propaganda, because of his style of governance and outstanding performance in the state and the Southwest.

“The statement credited to Omisore that he would ‘attack, stop and disarm’ Aregbesolas convoy is pure desperation and totally vicious.

Based on his antecedent as deputy governor, when he made Osun ungovernable for Akande, we state that we will retaliate if anything happens to Aregbesola.

“We warn the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to stop its vicious propaganda, as the consequences of its actions may result in disastrous effects beyond its control.

“If Omisore has any sense of shame left in him, he should cover his face and cease from taking part in any propaganda against the true son of the land (Aregbesola).”

•Boroffice...yesterday.

•Boroffice...yesterday.

Mimiko has failed the people, says Boroffice A governorship aspirant of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Ondo State, Senator Ajayi Boroffice, yesterday delivered a damning verdict on the Olusegun Mimiko administration. It is a failure, he said.

He said the Mimiko administration is wasting public funds on projects that should be executed by local governments, such as the building of markets and town halls.

Boroffice spoke at the Lagos headquarters of The Nation during a visit to commiserate with the company on the fire, which razed its photo and cartoon sections.

He was received by the company's management.

Boroffice said the Mimiko administration has spent over N3 billion on an events centre called "the Dome" and it is still uncompleted, adding that "the dome has become a doom".

Boroffice faulted an alleged plan by the government to have its Sunshine Football Club partner Arsenal Football Club of England, saying the government is confused and does not know the right thing to do.

He said the government ought to concentrate on building viable industries and institutions that will create jobs for thousands of youths.

"Our people lack potable water and the government is busy building a fountain in the middle of a road. We have had enough; our people are tired," he added.

The senator representing Ondo North District said he has a vision to transform Ondo into an industrialised and socially secure state, where people can

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•'Agagu'll work for ACN'

By Joseph Jibueze, Ayodeji Olaosun and Damisi Ojo, Akure

fully exploit their potentials.

Boroffice said he would focus on the development of infrastructure; ensure good governance, justice and equity; ensure transparency in institutions and harness other natural resources in the state, such as coal, by building an industrial cluster around its location and generating energy from it.

He said: "If we are talking of Vision 20:20, we must begin to work towards it. The ceramic industry established by the late Chief Adekunle Ajasin, the cocoa and glass industries are foundations that should be built on."

The senator said he would move the state away from being an agrarian economy to an industrialised one and would provide affordable housing.

Boroffice said the integration of the Southwest will speed up development in the region.

He said: "A good transportation system is one of the ways to facilitate economic development.

Southwest states can collaborate, as well as partner investors to develop a rail system and other shared infrastructure. That way, rich states can help the poor ones. States will not lose their autonomy and they will all gain a lot."

On his transition from science to politics, Boroffice said it is a continuation of his service to the nation and a way of giving back to the society and hu-

manity.

He said he dumped the Labour Party (LP) on December 28, 2011, for the ACN when he discovered that LP's machinery had become personalised. The senator said: "With many chieftains resigning and many factions emerging in the LP, I needed to join a truly progressive party. I found it difficult to operate as a senator in a party divided against itself."

He said his conscience could not allow him remain in a party where the leaders have been accused of looting the treasury and cited the example of the chairman of the Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (OSOPADEC), who has been accused of mismanaging the commission's funds.

Boroffice said the Nigerian Constitution allows him to switch parties.

He said: "It is a matter of conscience for me, not a moral one.

After due consultation, I feel satisfied that I have taken the right step. People are defecting from the LP in their thousands. LP is gradually going into a coma and it will soon go into extinction."

Boroffice said contesting against an incumbent governor is not a problem for him, nor is he fazed by the high number of ACN aspirants.

According to him, historically, no governor has ever won a second term in the state.

He said: "There is a pattern already, so I am so confident

we are going to win, because the LP has not performed very well. No governor has gone two terms in Ondo State. If it is warfare, we will fight it.

"Ondo is not the first state where a party has many aspirants. All aspirants will rally round him whoever gets the party's ticket."

Boroffice said he has spent over 15 years in public service and understands the bureaucracy involved in governance.

He said his qualifications and experience as a university lecturer, acting vice-chancellor, head of the national space agency and member of various international organisations give him an edge over other aspirants.

Boroffice said he has no personal problems with Mimiko, except ideological differences.

He said: "We are friends and Christian brothers, but I think Mimiko has been avoiding me cleverly. We have not met in a while, but I will love to meet him and register my disappointment on some issues. One of them is the presence of LP thugs at the Fifth Adebayo Adefarati Memorial Lecture."

At the weekend, when former OSOPADEC Chairman Chief Adewale Omojuwa defected to the ACN at Igbokoda, Ilaje Local Government Area, Boroffice said former Governor Olusegun Agagu would align with the party to unseat Mimiko in the October election.

He said Omojuwa's entry into the ACN would compel Agagu to support the party to rescue his administration's legacies.

PDP chief Oni is hallucinating, says Oyo ACN

HE Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Oyo State yesterday slammed the ousted National Vice Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Southwest, Mr. Segun Oni, over his comments against the party.

During a recent visit to Akure, the Ondo State capital, Oni said PDP would capitalise on the alleged nonperformance of ACN and the Labour Party (LP) to reclaim the Southwest in the next election.

In a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Dauda Kolawole, ACN described the eight-year “rule” of the PDP in the Southwest as “years of

the locust”.

It said the ousted Ekiti governor was merely hallucinating on the take-over of the zone.

ACN said Oni had no locusstandi to speak for PDP in the Southwest, having been sacked by a court as the National ViceChairman.

It said: “What moral justification does Oni have to speak for PDP again? This is a man whose position has been declared vacant by a court through the nullification of the Southwest congress that produced him.

“Unfortunately for Oni, this latest blow came at a time he is yet to accept the reality of being ousted as the Governor

of Ekiti State.

“Only Oni and his party, which is populated by people of mean repute, would fail to acknowledge the rapid transformation that is ongoing in the Southwest, after clearing the mess unleashed on the zone by the PDP’s misrule.

“The Onis of the PDP will be shocked in 2015, when the people of the zone, who are just heaving a sigh of relief from the brigandage, violence and high-level corruption visited on them, decide to send the party into permanent oblivion.

“While Adebayo AlaoAkala, who governed Oyo State for five years, is currently facing a N50 billion fraud case

in court, Gbenga Daniel is fighting tooth and nail to escape the anti-corruption agency’s hammer over corrupt practices while he was Governor of Ogun State. Sadly enough, both of them are from the PDP. “Certainly, the people of the Southwest, who had been taken for fools for long, are now wiser and will never allow politicians who have nothing to offer cajole them again. This is the reality Oni must face and stop his grandstanding that will further lead the party into the abyss.

“Oni should go and find out what the problem is with his ori (head).”

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

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NEWS Fed Govt probes polio vaccine funds From Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja

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HE Federal Government has said it would investigate how polio vaccines were distributed and utilised from its outlets to those at the ward level to ensure accountability.

It was learnt that despite government’s huge expenditure on the vaccines and the supports from donor agencies, there is frequent scarcity of the medication in government hospitals. This has reinforced the fear that the vaccines were being diverted.

Reeling out the achievements of the Goodluck Jonathan administration in the health sector in the last one year at the National Press Centre in Abuja yesterday, Minister of Health Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu said all those involved in polio campaign from the federal to the ward level - would be made to account for the medication.

He said: “The Presidential Task Force was inaugurated by Mr. President, under the Chairmanship of the Minister of State for Health. A new Polio Eradication Emergency Plan has been developed and this is totally different from what we used to have. It is a more importantly an accountability framework.

“Everybody, who is part and parcel of polio campaign, must begin to tell us what they are doing in terms of what has been given to them. From the federal to the ward level, there has to be accountability. That is the only way we can kick polio out of Nigeria.

“We just concluded the first international vaccine summit here in Abuja. It was a huge success; everyone was impressed globally. The President has taken the lead and, this year, we are not going to have funding as our problem.

“The Federal Government has doubled its financial commitments, and in this year’s appropriation, N4.7 billion will be spent on polio eradication alone, aside from funds coming from donor agencies.”

Ex-Bayelsa ACN candidate condoles with Fayemi

I held no meeting with Jonathan, says Tinubu •Calls for solution to insecurity

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ORMER Lagos State Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu yesterday said he did not hold any meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan.

He said he was not even in town when the supposed meeting took place.

The frontline politician said there was no meeting between Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fasshola (SAN), the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, and Jonathan.

Asiwaju Tinubu spoke against the backdrop of a report that the trio met in Lagos when the President visited last weekend.

He said he would meet Dr Jonathan, if their discussion would centre on proffering solutions to the lingering insecurity and other national challenges. But he insisted that this should be at the President’s request.

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) National Leader said much as any of such meetings are called by the President without politicising issues, it would enable stakeholders in the Nigerian project to solve the nation’s problems.

Tinubu addressed reporters at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, on his way to visit Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole on the Saturday road crash involving the governor’s convoy.

He was accompanied by ACN National Chairman,

From Isaac Ombe, Yenagoa

By Kelvin Osa-Okunbor

Chief Bisi Akande; former Ekiti State Governor Niyi Adebayo; and ACN National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

Tinubu said: “That report is not correct. To tell you categorically, I did not attend any meeting with the President in company of the Oba of Lagos. I wasn’t even aware that the President was coming to Lagos until after the visit of the Oba at night. So, there was no meeting between myself, the President and the Oba of Lagos. I am very sure that the governor did not attend any such meeting with the President.

“We have all been meeting on national issues. We have met several times. So, if the party leadership across board is invited to a meeting to solve the problems of the country, why not?

“This is a critical time when all hands must be on deck to help solve the security problems of the country. This is the time to get together to develop ideas. All necessary steps that can help the nation’s security should be less politicised. Advice should be solicited in good faith. If ideas are solicited in good faith, we must offer them.

Those in authority should not reject the ideas outright. But these have to come through the political parties’ leadership.”

On Boko Haram and insecurity, the ACN leader said: “You have touched on a critical issue

A FORMER governorship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Bayelsa State, Mr Kemela Okara, has commiserated with Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi on the death of his mother, Mrs. Mrs Dorcas Aina Fayemi.

In a statement in Yenagoa, the state capital, Okara condoled with the governor’s family, the government and people of Ekiti State on the demise of the governor’s mother.

The ACN chieftain prayed God to give the governor and his family the fortitude to bear the loss.

•Asiwaju Tinubu...yesterday

confronting the nation. It is reaching a phenomenal dimension that we all cannot afford to sleep with our eyes open or ignore the national security.

“The President, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, is the first person who probably should begin consultations with the people and must not politicise this problem.

“Since 1999, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been ruling this country. It claims to have the wisdom and the apparatus, but each time it reacts to this question of national security, the tragedy confronting the country, it has not gone without blaming one

political party or the other.

That is passing the buck.

“Those in the PDP are the ones saying they are in government; they are in power. So, if they cannot solve the problem of security, why blame it on others?

“Now, there is a clear line and ideological difference between us. But Nigeria belongs to all of us. The best is the PDPled Federal Government should do is to cry for help and, if they do, they will get it, instead of putting blames or categorising one party as oneman party. They are running around like headless chickens,” Asiwaju Tinubu added.

PDP to ACN: you’re wrong on Nigeria’s debt From Gbade Ogunwale, Assistant Editor, Abuja

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HE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said Nigeria’s external debt was not rising as alleged by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

The ACN had cautioned the Federal Government against dragging the nation into a debt trap.

In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, the PP argued that “Nigeria is still one of the least indebted countries among comparative growing economies with a debt/GDP ratio of 17.45 per cent as at 2011, compared with countries, such as Indonesia, at 24.5per cent; South Africa at 35.6per cent; and Ghana at 38.7per cent”.

The party said the approved external borrowing of $7.9billion in this year’s budget covers expenditure over a threeyear period, ending in 2014, and that the money would be applied to specific projects.

•Wife of the Vice-President, Hajiya Aminat Sambo (right); House of Representatives Leader, Mrs Mulikat Akande (middle) and Hajia Halima Alfa, at the Faith Meets Fashion Show in Abuja...yesterday PHOTO: ABAYOMI FAYESE

‘There’s no law against mobilisation rallies for parties’

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FORMER Chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Ondo State, Mr. Sola Iji, has faulted the directive by the police command banning political rallies and campaigns until July.

He said it is unfortunate that Police Commissioner Edgar Nanakumo could give such an order in an election year, especially when the ACN is repositioning and attracting members on a daily basis.

The governorship aspirant, who addressed reporters after his mobilisation tour of the six local government areas in Ondo North Senatorial District, said there is no law against political parties mobilising for new members.

Iji said: “The police coommissioner’s statement is being targeted at the opposi-

From Damisi Ojo, Akure

tion, particularly the ACN, that is daily attracting huge numbers from the ruling party.

“It seems the police chief has handed down a riot act dictated by those in authority, which is not acceptable since there is freedom to associate politically.

“We are not campaigning; we are only meeting our people. We will continue with our mobilisation rallies. The CP or even the electoral body cannot stop us from mobilising more people into our party.”

On the aspirant’s entourage were former State Treasurer, Basorun Wale Oyewole; former State Secretary, Otunba Okunade Adeniran; Chief Ogunlaye Sidney; Ikudaisi Oyekanmi, a retired Assistant

Commissioner of Police; and Iwarere Iji. They visited Ose, Owo, Akoko North West, Akoko North East, Akoko South East and Akoko South Local Government Areas to mobilise members.

At each of the local governments, scores of party supporters, mostly members of Sola Iji Campaign Organisation (the Sunshine Mandate Group), received the aspirant with fanfare.

ACN Chairman in Akoko North West, Dayo Bello, noted that the former chairman built the party structures that other aspirants are now building on.

He hailed Iji for his courage and perseverance, particularly when ACN was in political jungle in the state.

Bello said it is high time loyalists were compensated for their tenacity, urging the

party’s national leadership to pick an experienced and marketable candidate like Iji. “The former ACN chairman has remained constant and consistent with the party, even in its gloomy days. It will be much easier to have somebody like him to send Governor Olusegun Mimiko packing.”

Iji thanked Ondo North Senatorial District residents for reposing their confidence in him. He promised to implement the party’s cardinal programmes if chosen to carry the ACN flag and elected governor.

Other five party chairmen in the local governments under the Ondo North Senatorial District expressed support for Iji’s candidacy.

The tour will take the team to Ondo South Senatorial District.

TV coverage stalls Reps’ capital market probe From Victor Oluwasegun and Dele Anofi, Abuja

THE House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee investigating the near collapse of the capital market yesterday postponed its scheduled hearing till tomorrow.

The committee, headed by Ibrahim El-Sudi, said the failure of the panel to beam the public hearing live to Nigerians on television necessitated the shift in the hearing date.

Stakeholders at yesterday’s aborted public hearing were disappointed when they were told the hearing had been postponed.

They include the Minister of State for Finance, Yerimas Lawan Ngama; Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Deputy Governor (Financial System Stability), Dr Kingsley Moghalu; and DirectorGeneral of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms Arunma Oteh.

Others invited were banks’ managing directors, heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), as well as prominent players in the Nigerian capital market.

El-Sudi said: “We were supposed to air today’s (yesterday’s) public hearing live, but there was a communication chasm with Channels Television; hence, our inability to carry the probe live. Nigerians are interested in knowing what is happening so that confidence can be restored.”

Ngama, who addressed reporters after the postponement, said: “Many people have invested and we are trying to restore confidence in the market. Whatever we say has to be covered.

Information is the key thing in the capital market.

Investors take decisions based on information available to them. Any attempt to tamper with the flow of information will not actually help the market.

“So, I support the move and accept that everything we do in this panel must be aired live for everybody to see. The investors will know that the problems in the Nigerian capital market are being looked into.”

Ms. Oteh was silent when reporters prodded her to comment on the development.

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THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

NEWS Catholic priest released From Clarice Azuatalum, Port Harcourt

A WEEK after he was abducted by gunmen from St Mary’s Catholic Church, Onne, in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers Rev Fr. Nwika Gbinu, has been freed.

The elder brother to the Catholic Priest, Ledum, said he was released on Sunday at Eleme-Oyigbo with no ransom paid.

Ledum said the gunmen had demanded N50 million ransom, which was later reduced to N5 million.

“But we told them we don’t have that kind of money because my brother is not a politician and a businessman.”

The Port Harcourt Diocese confirmed the church did not pay to secure his release.

The Director of Social Communications, Rev Chris Anyanwu, said no ransom was paid.

Police spokesperson Ben Ugwuegbulam confirmed the release.

Commissioner greetsThisDay THE Delta State Government have commiserated with the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) over the recent tragedies that befell the media industry.

A statement by the Commissioner for Information, Chike C. Ogeah, expressed sadness over the loss of three reporters in an accident involving the convoy of Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole.

He condemned the bombing of the offices of ThisDay, The Sun and The Moment in Abuja and Kaduna.

Ogeah prayed God to grant eternal rest to the souls.

NLC demands probe of Oshiomhole’s convoy crash

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RGANISED Labour yesterday condemned last Saturday’s ‘attack’ on the convoy of Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole.

The Labour’s call came on a day Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) leaders, including former Lagos State Governor Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and National Chairman Chief Bisi Akande, visited the governor.

Three reporters in the travelling party were killed and several others injured.

In a statement in Kaduna by its Vice President, Issa Aremu, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) called for an investigation into the incident.

Aremu said the ‘attack’ on the convoy is coming after what he called “cyber-orchestrated personal attack” on the governor as well as open threat to him by the opposition party in the state.

The statement entitled: “Attack on Comrade Oshiomhole: We must de-militiarise our polity” reads: “We read with great shock an unprovoked seeming orchestrated attack on Governor Oshiomhole.

“His convoy was attacked on the Warrake–Auchi road.

Three reporters were reportedly killed with many others injured, including security details.

“We condemn personalisation of political discourse. We need contestation on policies and issues rather than attack on persons.

“In a related development, there was also alleged threat by former Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Iyiola Omisore, to “attack, stop and disarm” the convoy of the Osun State Governor , Rauf Aregbesola.

“All these call for urgent and

•ACN leaders visit governor, accident victims •NUJ declares one-week mourning •Fayemi, Alaafin condole with reporters

PDP denies involvement

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HE EDO State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has denied involvement in the accident involving the convoy of Governor Adams Oshiomhole and a lorry on the Afuze-Auchi road.

Three reporters were killed in the accident, which occured on Saturday.

State Chairman Dan Orbih, who addressed reporters yesterday, said the allegation by Oshiomhole was a sign of “timidity”.

Orbih said a time like this called for prayers and for politics to be put aside, pointing out that the government decided to politicise the incident.

From Osagie Otabor, Benin

He noted that Oshiomhole should have waited for the outcome of the investigation before jumping to conclusion.

The chairman urged the police to investigate whether it was the governor who drove.

His words: “The police should find out whether or not Oshiomhole has a valid driver’s licence and whether he was not under the influence of alcohol while driving.”

He said his party called off its rally at Ekiadolor in Ovia North-East with a plan to visit the Government House .

Orbih said they were surprised that the government accused the PDP for being responsible for the accident.

From Tony Akowe, Kaduna and Osagie Otabor, Benin

thorough investigation by the security agencies.

“We call on all political actors to play to the rule. We need battle of ideas and not personal attacks.”

The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Edo State has declared a week of mourning for its three members.

It directed its members to wear a customised wristband throughout the period.

Besides the three reporters who died in the accident, another reporter, Chukwudi Ogu, was killed by unknown gunmen three weeks ago.

The victims are: Olatunji Jacob and George Okosun both of the Independent Television and Radio Benin and Fidelis Ohani, a camera man with the Africa Inde-

pendent Television (AIT).

A statement by the chairman of the council yesterday, Friday Obanor, said a mass will be conducted by Rev. Angel Nwankwo today at the NUJ Press Centre.

Prayers will also be offered for the protection of reporters in the state.

At the NUJ Press Centre, sympathisers called yesterday to condole with the union.

Those who visited included a member of the House of Representatives, Rasaq Belo-Osagie, Speaker of the House of Assembly Uyi Igbe and the Coalition of Save Nigeria and Youth Coalition Bodies for Oshiomhole.

Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi commiserated with his Edo counterpart,

over the accident in which some reporters died.

Fayemi in a condolence letter issued in Ado-Ekiti, urged Oshiomole not to lose faith in God or be discouraged by the incidence.

The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, also commiserated with Oshiomhole and the NUJ. A statement by his Media Assistant, Azeez Fehintola, quoted the monarch as describing the incident as unfortunate and a big blow to the government of Edo and the NUJ. The Alaafin said: “I use this medium to commiserate with the governor and the NUJ on the unfortunate auto crash.

In the ACN team were former governors of Ogun and Ekiti states, Chief Segun Osoba and Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo as well as the par-

Edo NUJ to boycott rally From Osagie Otabor, Benin

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Okonjo-Iweala hails Asaba airport FINANCE Minister Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has described the Asaba International Airport as a phenomenon.

She spoke in Asaba, the Delta State capital, where she hailed Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan for conceiving and implementing the project.

According to her, Uduaghan and other governors in the Southsouth have done well in delivering the gains of democracy to their people.

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala said the airport is poised to be one of the viable airports in the country, given its location.

The minister, a native of Ogwashi-Uku, said the airport has reduced the travel time between Abuja and Asaba to less than an hour from over six hours.

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, who spoke at the Southsouth Economic Summit, said although region still has some challenges, the governors have done well and therefore should be enrouraged by the people to more.

ty’s National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed. They were conducted round the wards at the Central Hospital, Benin City, where some of the victims are being treated.

Oshiomhole and the ACN leaders asked the medical personnel doctors and nurses on the state of health of the victims. Other patients, who were elated at the visit of the governor used the opportunity to present their own litany of demands.

The governor thanked his guests and told them the incident smacks of foul play and a premeditated plan to harm him.

His words: “Just a little over eight minutes after leaving the Afuze venue of the rally, where many PDP members joined ACN, a lorry suddenly emerged, heading straight for my car.

"Only providence saved me from being hit. The lorry hit the vehicle conveying security details, which immediately somersaulted and then hit the bus conveying the press crew.

“It’s unfortunate that we have lost three young men with young families. We are determined to get to the root of the matter. Our opponents will expect that we’ll be frightened by this incident but we’ll take our report card to every village and every hamlet to ensure that the reporters do not die in vain”, he said.

Akande said: “We see democracy as a thing of joy but we now see that the other side is resorting to killing and maiming. We pray that the good work you are doing in Edo State is not allowed to come to nought”.

•Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi being shown a section of the Port Harcourt/Owerri Road which is been reconstructed

by Banham Zeadan of Setraco... yesterday.

We’ll implement subsidy report, says Tambuwal

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PEAKER of the House of Representatives Aminu Tambuwal has pleaded with Nigerians to be patient on the implementation of the Fuel Subsidy Probe Report.

He said the lawmakers have resolved to end the corruption that characterised the Petroleum Subsidy Fund (PSF) scheme. He promised the report would be implemented.

His words: “We are rounding up on the report of the committee, except for a few areas where some companies have not been given opportunity to be heard.

“The report has received the

•Speaker: Amaechi a role model approval and commendation by the House.”

He called on the public to understand and reason with the parliament, especially its role in governance.

Tambuwal said the legislature has limitations and responsibilities, but assured that it would do its best to carry out its responsibilities.

The speaker described Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi as a role model for other public officers.

He spoke after a project tour in Rivers state, shortly after

attending the burial of Eze CC Nwuche, father of former House of Representatives deputy speaker Chibudom Nwuche in Port Harcourt.

Tambuwal said there is huge transformation in the state.

He said: “You could see clearly that the government is at work and what is being done is not only just work but quality work.

“And I believe that the governor deserve commendation to justify the resources the government is receiving.”

Tambuwal said the state has

been transformed.

The Speaker said: “I have been here several times, several years back and I am impressed with what I have seen. “ Clearly there is a challenge to other governors and indeed to all of us who are in public service.

“Public service is a call to duty, transparency, accountability and selflessness. It is not all about luxury or to be in cosy environment of your office or home.”

“For me, it is a challenge for every public officer to go out and work for the people that put you there and I believe the Governor is doing that.”

HE Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Edo State has asked its members not to participate in the today’s May Day rally, being organised by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC).

It said the NLC took an unprogressive stance on the issue of implementation of the Weigh-in/Hardship Allowance recently approved for practicing reporters by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The NUJ position was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of its monthly congress and signed by its Chairman and Secretary, Friday Obanor and Uche Olisah.

The communiqué urged the government and other media organisations to implement the 22 per cent Weigh-in/Hardship allowance for reporters working in their organisations.

The communiqué reads: “The NUJ Edo State Council frowned at the poor attention given to the Weighin/Hardship allowance by the Edo State Council of NLC. “We call on the Federal Government to walk the talk in providing adequate security to media practitioners across the country.

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

11

BUSINESS THE NATION

E-mail:- bussiness@thenationonlineng.net

India, Nigeria trade hit $16.4b

By Tony Akowe, Kaduna

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HE Indian High Com missioner to Nigeria, Mahesh Sachdeva, has said his country’s bilateral trade with Nigeria peaked at S16.4 billion in 2011, making the country the second highest trading partner.

Speaking during a visit to Thelish Eye Hospital managed by Dr Agarawal Eye Institute of India, Sachdeva said his country has strong confidence in Nigeria despite its state of insecurity.

He assured that Indian investors would continue to invest in the economy, pointing out that the High Commission would do everything possible to ensure that the continuous flow of such investments by Indian entrepreneurs is not hindered.

He commended the partnership between Nigerian and Indian doctors in providing quality eye treatment to Nigerians. He said India has remained a destination of choice for Nigeria businessmen in the last three years.

He explained that the partnership between Thelish Eye Hospital and Dr. Agarawal Eye institute is aimed at bringing health care delivery closer to the Nigerians, stressing that it is better to remain in Nigeria and treat Nigerians rather than going to India for the treatment and follow-ups.

He said the High Commission is determined to support new initiatives aimed at bringing Nigerian and Indian businessmen, pointing out that Indians have always allowed their action and successes speak for themselves.

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

Fed Govt wage bill hits N150b I

MPLEMENTATION of the 53 per cent salary in crease by the Federal Government has raised the wage bill to about N150billion yearly, the Minister of Information and Communication, Labaran Maku, has disclosed.

He said: “In the first one year of President Jonathan, he gave a salary increase of about 53 per cent, that increase brought the wage of the Federal Government to close to N150 billion per annum.”

Also, the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, added that there are 2.5 million civil servants in Nigeria. They spoke Abuja during the Ministerial Platform in Commemoration of the National

From John Ofikhenua, Abuja

Democracy Day, and First Anniversary of President Goodluck Jonathan’s Administration.

In his breakdown, Wogu said of the 2.5 million workers, 1.3 million are engaged by the Federal Government, while 1.3 million are employed by states and local governments.

He said there were 113 industrial disputes which the ministry addressed in accordance with the Labour Law, explaining that 96 cases, representing 85 per cent were completely and successfully resolved, while 17, representing 15 per cent, are at various levels of remediation and negotiation.

He said: “From May 2011, 113 industrial trade disputes were apprehended in line with the labour law. During that period, 96 of such disputes, representing 85 per cent were completely and successfully resolved. With 17 representing 15 per cent at different phases of remediation and negotiation.”

He said in the last one year, the government treated 53 cases that were referred to the International Arbitration Panel, stressing that 43 of such cases have been concluded, while three are pending.

He recalled the Federal Government addressed the issue of relativity in the salaries of workers from 40 per cent to 53 per cent. Wogu said

the Federal Government signed the National Minimum Wage Bill implementation with the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress.

He stated that the Ministry and workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria have been at logger head over the privatisation of the power sector, adding that the privatisation is on course.

He said the ministry was able to train 2,599 persons at the Michael Imodu Industrial Institute in Ilorin.

According to him, workers who sustained injuries in workplaces have all been compensated.

On gender, the minister said 90 per cent of the directors in the Ministry of Labour and Productivity are women.

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 -12.6% Treasury Bills -7.08% Maximum lending22.42% Prime lending -15.87% Savings rate -2% 91-day NTB -14.18% Time Deposit -5.49% MPR -12% Foreign Reserve $34.6b FOREX CFA 0.2958 EUR 206.9 £ 245 $ 156.4 ¥ 1.9179 SDR 241 RIYAL 40.472

• From left: Katie Waxman, Director BBC Africa; Kayode Akinyemi, MD/CEO, Powerlight Communications receiving appointment letter from Sean O' Hara,Regional Director British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), at the agreement signing ceremony on the appointment of Powerlight Communication as BBC official representative in Nigeria in London ... yesterday.

NIMC gives conditions for banks to manage its N30b allocation T HE Nigerian Identity Management Com mission (NIMC) has given banks some conditions before they will be allowed to access its N30billion budgetary allocation.

One hurdle they must scale is that they must give financial support to the consortia of firms appointed by the Federal Government to source data for the national identity management system.The Federal Government has allocated N30billion for the operations of the commission in its N2012 budget.

Speaking to The Nation yesterday, the Director-General, Nigerian Identity Management Commission, Chris Onyemenan, said the Deposit Money Banks would only be considered to take custody of the money, if they

By Akinola Ajibade

are ready to do business with the firms the Federal Government appointed to collect data for the operations of the identity card management scheme.

Onyemenan said the government has appointed two consortia- Charms and Onesecured Card - to handle the project, adding that the banks need to provide financial support for the two concessionaires to enable them to serve as the Front End Partners to the project.

His words: “ These concessionaires need huge financial support to succeed in the task of collecting, and analysing data needed for the implementation of the national identity card

projects. That support can only come from the banks.

When the Federal Government approved N30billion for our activities in the 2012 budget, the banks wanted us to open accounts with them, but I told them that we can only do business with them if they do business with our concessionaires.”

He said the concessionaires were required to bear the risks in relation to the design, financing, construction, maintenance, operation, management and development of the project, as well as the registration of centres for the purpose of the national identity card project. He said they need strong financial support from the banks.

He said the concessionaires are responsible for the

management and operations of the assets, collection and returning of certain proportion of the services that would accrue from the use of the data acquired in the course of providing National Identity Database(NID), adding that when banks are ready to support the concessionaires, they would definitely get business to do from the commission.

The NIMC’s boss said the government engaged the two private companies because it believed that the idea would enhance growth.

“The hiring of the concessionaires is part of the Public, Private-Partnership (PPP) arrangements of the government. Primarily, the project is supposed to be handled by the Infrastructural Regulatory Construction Commission (IRCC), but it was later given to the consortia to encourage growth,” he stated.

Banking recovery lures funds back to stocks

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IGNS of a sharp recov ery in bank earnings for the first quarter are drawing investors to Nigerian shares after several years of turbulence in local stock markets following a 2008 banking crisis that wiped 60 per cent off their value.

Africa’s second biggest index, according to Bloomberg news, soared to a seven-and-ahalf-month high last week, passing the psychological hurdle of 21,000 points for the first time this year, driven largely by gains in the banking sector.

Banking stocks have started to perk up after a torrid 2011, which saw them fall 30 per cent, reversing an an earlier recovery, and underperform the overall index, which lost just 17 per cent.

Analysts say they still look inexpensive relative to their earnings and other sectors in the wider stock market, which leaves room for further growth.

“Nigerian banks are the cheapest... trading on 2012 forward P/E multiples of 5.2x,” said Soji Solanke, banking analyst at Renaissance Capital, adding that he expected them to outpace emerging market peers by a third this year.

Lenders in Africa’s top oil exporter are expected to bounce back in the first quarter of 2012, recovering from losses in 2011 that were caused by the writing down of bad loans left over from the 2008/ 9 banking crisis.

That crisis saw the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) bail out nine banks to the tune of $4 billion, but recovery since then has been rocky.

Diamond Bank, one of the first lenders to report first quarter earnings, set a positive tone with a three-fold increase in pre-tax profit, while United Bank for Africa (UBA) said its profits rose two-fold.

More first quarter earnings are due in the coming weeks, which if they are as good as they’re expected to be, could provide support for equities, analysts say.

Airtel money the ‘best’ in Ghana

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IRTEL Money has been adjudged the ‘Best Mobile Money Service’ in Ghana at the Mobile World Ghana Telecoms Awards.

Airtel Money has been expanding over the past few months incorporating more banks and business outlets in the process.

The organisers of the awards, said Airtel Money was found to be the best among similar services deployed on the market, and provided a seamless, simpleto-understand mobile based experience for users, while at the same time, it is reliable, consistent and providing value to the user.

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

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

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

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

LAGOS – KADUNA Aero 08.00 Chanchangi 10.00 Arik 10.00 Arik 15.10

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

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

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

08.40 08.40 14.55 15.10 17.40

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LAGOS – WARRI 08.15 11.50 11.55 14.55

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

08.50 09.45 09.40 14.00 15.45 19.55

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LAGOS – OWERRI 07.20 14.00 16.30

08.30 15.10 17.40

LAGOS – UYO 10.35

11.35

LAGOS – MAIDUGURI 1. IRS 11.15 13.15 2. Arik 15.50 18.00 LAGOS – ILORIN 1. Overland 07.15 2. Arik (M/T/TH/F) 17.30

08.00 18.00

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

• From left: Deputy Governor, Economic Policy, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr Sarah Alade; CBN Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi; Coordinating Minister for the Economy/Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Anambra State Governor Peter Obi and Executive Director of the World Bank, Dr. Mansur Murthar; during an interactive session with the media at the World Bank/ International Monetary Fund (IMF) spring meetings in Washington D.C. PHOTO: AYODELE AMINU

Forex reserves hit over one-year high N

IGERIA's foreign exchange reserves rose by 2.96 per cent on the month to $36.52 billion on April 27, the highest level in more than one year, data from the Central Bank released on Monday has showed.

Forex reserves in Africa's top oil producer stood at $35.42 billion a month earlier and were at $33.09 billion a year ago.

Currency traders said rising dollar flows from offshore investors buying local debt and large dollar sales by local units of multinational oil companies had washed onto the market in the past few weeks.

That has taken pressure off the official supply window for the dollar by the central bank, allowing reserves to recover in Africa's sec-

• Naira gains on planned oil firm dollar sales

ond biggest economy.

Nigeria relies on crude exports for more than 95 per cent of its foreign exchange earnings. Investors watch reserve data closely to gauge the strength of its defences against a potential dip in oil prices.

Analysts say $36 billion is roughly enough to cover import bills for six months.

The naira firmed against the US dollar on the interbank market on Monday, supported by speculation of planned dollar sales by two units of multinational oil companies and some banks selling down their position in anticipation of large month-end dollar flows.

Traders said the local currency

strengthened to N157.40 to the dollar, 0.25 per cent firmer than the 157.80 to the dollar at Friday's close.

The naira firmed to N157.20 to the dollar last week on the back of large dollar flows from oil companies and offshore investors buying local debt, but later in the week eased on the back of strong corporate demand for the hard currency.

"Demand for the dollar was very strong last week from some importers, driving the naira to its weakest in weeks. But people are anticipating large dollar flows this week from oil companies monthend sales, that was why the naira appreciated today," one dealer said.

Traders said the market reacted

‘Broadband Internet not feasible until 2015’

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HE Nigerian Communica tions Commisison (NCC) has said it will take another three years, until 2015 when sufficient frequency spectrum is freed up from migration to digital broadcasting, before wireless broadband deployment would become a reality.

Presenting a keynote address at a broadband discussion forum in Lagos, yesterday, the Executive Vice-Chairman, NCC, Dr Eugene Juwah, said: “Nothing much can happen in the wireless arena until 2015 when broadcast frequencies are freed up.”

He stated that not much can be achieved in providing broadband Internet access to Nigerians via wireless infrastructure, because the radio frequency spectrum required for such is not available.

Juwah said the frequency resources were being used by broadcasting entities and Code Division Multiple Acess (CDMA) operators, adding that repeated demand that

By Adline Atili

the CDMA operators migrate to the Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, to free up required frequency spectrum for broadband services had been unsuccessful. He said the band occupied by the operators was a major frequency band for wireless broadband deployment.

He explained that wide scale extensive broadband development would not take place until 2015, the deadline for migration from analogue to digital broadcasting services.

Consequently, Nigerians will continue to be challenged in all areas of broadband access-coverage, speed and cost, according to industry stakeholders.

In her keynote address at the forum, Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson, said despite having 45million Internet users in the country, only nine per cent (14.5million) are actual Internet subscribers, while

broadband penetration is at a mere six per cent.

She said: “Even though access to broadband using smartphones is increasing thereby increasing the number of subscribers, what this statistics tell us is that most Nigerians still access the Internet through public venues, such as offices, cyber cafes and computer labs. This is as a result of not only the lack of ubiquity of the broadband network, but also the cost of access.”

“Today, we have one of the highest costs of access in the world at approximately N8 to N10 for 5Mbs of data. The average speed of access is still very low. In fact, recent statistics that I looked at, have us as one of the lowest speeds in Africa,” she said.

She assured that the ministry would achieve a ‘one national network’ capable of delivering broadband speeds of not less than 50 per cent of the average speeds available worldwide in the next five years.

UNIPORT, NOTAP to build oil and gas HE University of Port- technology park and boost innovation, creativity and Harcourt (UNIPORT), Riv research through the Intellectual

T

ers State, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) for the building of Nigeria ’s premier oil and gas technology park.

The MoU was signed at the UNIPORT Campus, when a delegation from NOTAP led by the Director-General,Umar Bindir, visited the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ajienka, as part of activities marking the school’s Annual Research Fair and Conference.

By virtue of the MoU, according to a statement signed by Head of Public Relations, Adoiye Dagogo-George, UNIPORT and NOTAP are to evolve efficient methodologies for the development of the park, as well as en-

From Gbenga Omokhunu, Abuja

courage the development of other technology corridors that may be identified within the sub-region.

UNIPORT has, therefore, accepted to act as the co-ordinator of NOTAP in the Southsouth for the actualisation of the mandates of the agency in refocusing Research and Development (R&D) results in universities, institutions of higher learning and research institutes in order to meet the entrepreneurial needs of the people.

UNIPORT is also expected to facilitate the promotion of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), link R&D results to industry and create opportunity for the establishment of technology based Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) from start-up,

Property and Technology Transfer Office (IPTTO) established by NOTAP in the university.

The two collaborating institutions agreed to create a Southsouth Zone for technofair/exhibition, where universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and private institutions could showcase their respective technology advancements and innovations.

They agreed to build awareness on IPR in the zone through the organization of workshops and seminars, increase the number of patents, inventions and innovations, copy rights, trademarks and trade secrets, as well as attract more funds for R&D and boost innovation and creativity, especially among the youths.

to speculation that units of Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil plan to sell dollar this week, coupled with some dollar inflows from offshore investors in local debt.

"We see more oil major companies coming into the market this week and the naira should settle within the present band in the coming days," another dealer said.

Most oil multinational oil companies operating in Africa's top energy producer sell dollars to banks on a month-end cycle to obtain naira for their local obligations.

On the bi-weekly foreign exchange auction, the Central Bank sold $120 million at 155.70 to the dollar on yesterday compared with $110.50 million at 155.65 to the dollar last Wednesday.

South African investor takes over Ikogosi Resorts

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SOUTH African in vestor, represented by the Mantis Collection Group are to manage the Ikogosi Resorts for Ekiti State Government.

The initiative would assist in bringing the Ikogosi warm springs and resorst into the national and international limelight.

A five-man delegation of the group was in Ekiti State last week to inspect the resorts, after holding a meeting with Governor Kayode Fayemi, the Special Adviser on Tourism, Segun Ologunleko and other key government officials.

Fayemi described the step of the Mantis Group as “a leap of faith and a hidden surprise,” to the state, saying the measure came as a relief.

Water supply to increase by 75 % From Franca Ochigbo and Roseline Joseph, Abuja

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HE Federal Government is planning to increase water supply by 75 per cent in the next three years, the Minister of Water Resources, Mrs Sarah Ochekpe, has said.

She gave the assurance in Abuja during the ministerial platform for the democracy day celebration and first anniversary of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Mrs Ochekpe said boosting water supply would assist the government to reduce infant mortality rate, enhance better social and human development indices, as well as boost its objective of achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

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TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

ENERGY THE NATION

E-mail:- energy@thenationonlineng.net

Sand mining threatens WAGPCo’s pipeline HE West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAGPCo) has cried out over the continued sand mining along the IworoAjido- Bagagry coastal area, saying the practice poses grave threat to the pipeline that cuts across the West African sub-region.

Also, the company said it would amend its Shippers policy to allow for more shippers to come on board the project considering the growing energy needs of the subregion.

The Managing Director, Charles Adeniji, who briefed the press, stresed the need for the relevant government agencies to intervene by stopping the sand miners from further mining activities “We have been reporting to government but these activities are continuing. The Ministry of Environment, Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency and National Inland Waterways Authority, are aware of this development.

“They have been there to inspect it and they appreciation the challenges that we are facing. If they continue mining sand from the communities in the coastal region, it will affect the livelihood of the residents and as a company, it will also affect the stability and integrity of our pipeline.

“So we are calling upon the relevant arms of the government to provide resources because these agencies had told us that they don’t have enough resources to implement measures that will control and eliminate sand mining.

“So we are calling on the government to provide appropriate resources, necessary capacity and empowerment for relevant responsible officers in Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency, the Ministry of Environment, National Inland Waterways Author-

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•Company revisits shippers’ policy Stories by Emeka Ugwuanyi Assistant Editor

ity, empower them so that they can implement measures to put a stop to it. Because if they don’t, there is a possibility that ocean water will break through and mix with the lagoon water that the coastal residents depend upon.

“When that happens there will be an imbalance in the ecosystem and the livelihood of the residents will be adversely impacted,” he stated.

On the shippers’ policy, he said: “Currently we have only one shipper on the line. It is the foundation shipper and the inter-nation project agreement allows the foundation shipper to be the only one until it is able to ship about 200 million standard cubic feet per day (scf’d), for the next 10 years after declaration of commercial operation.

“But in view of the gas supply situation and the rising demand for gas in the sub-region, all the gas stakeholders that are party to the commercial agreement and the committee of ministers, have decided to revise certain provisions of the inter-nation project.” .

Adeniji, said they would now allow other shippers, other than the foundation shipper to ship on the line, effective July 1 .”There are prospective shippers that have come to talk to us and we have given them brochures, pro forma gas generic, gas transportation agreement for them to look into. We have also given them documents that would update them with the eligibility requirement for shippers.

This requires that they must

have assets to buy gas and must have customers also that must buy the gas. They should also have appropriate credit ratings. This document contains all these and other requirements for them to be eligible shippers on the West African Gas Pipeline, Adeniji, stated.

He said the company has spent

over $4 million (N620 million) on corporate social responsibility in the four countries through which the pipeline passed with Nigeria getting 50 per cent of the investment.

“WAGPCo has so far invested approximately $2 million in community development programmes (CDPs) in Nigeria, while other countries like Togo, Ghana and Benin had $2 million.

“One of WAGPCo’s main corporate objectives is to partner with communities to contribute to the enhancement of living standards of host communities,” he noted He said in 1995 leaders of Nigeria, Ghana, Togo and Benin signed agreement for the development of the West African Gas Pipeline based on private investment and commercial principles.

•From left: Mrs. Harriet Wereko-Brobby, General Manager, Corporate Affairs, West African Gas Pipeline Company; Adeniji and Rotimi Adefarasin, Operations and Maintenance Superintendent (Western), during the briefing in Lagos.

Shell disagrees with Amnesty International on Bodo oil spill

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HELL Petroleum Development Company Limited (SPDC) has condemned the report by Amnesty International on discrepancy in figures on oil spills in Bodo community of the Niger Delta region by Shell.

The Director of Global Issues at Amnesty International, Audrey Gaughran and the Co-ordinator, Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD), Patrick Naagbanton, in the report, said new evidence obtained by Amnesty International and CEHRD about the 2008 Bodo oil spill, showed that more than half of the oil spilt in the Niger Delta in 2008, was due to operational failures – and possibly as much as 80 per cent, and not as a result of sabotage.

The report entitled: ‘Shell’s wildly inaccurate reporting of Niger Delta oil spill exposed,’ noted that the spill in 2008 was caused by a fault in a Shell pipeline, which resulted in tens of thousands of barrels of oil polluting the land and creek surrounding Bodo.

Shell in a statement issued by the Corporate Media Relations Manager, Tony Okonedo, said: “We do not agree with Amnesty International’s assessment of the spill investigation process. We have recently had the investigation process, which is common to all operators in the Niger Delta, in-

dependently verified by Bureau Veritas – a global leader in conformity assessment and certification services. All oil spill incidents are investigated jointly by communities, regulators, operators and security agencies.

“The team visits the site of the incident, determines the cause, and volume of spilled oil and impact on the environment, and signs off the findings in a report. This is an independent process – communities and regulators are all involved.”

Shell said under Nigerian regulations, oil spill incidents are investigated by a joint team of operators, communities, security agencies and regulators. A similar team investigated the spills in Bodo, and we stand by their findings. The spill volume was ascertained on the ground by experts at the time and agreed by all parties, who signed-off on the joint investigation report. As has been stated previously, SPDC admitted liability for two spills of about 4,000 barrels in Bodo caused by operational failures, as soon as their cause had been verified in late 2008 and early 2009.

Shell noted that it is deeply regrettable, that both before, and since those two operational spills occurred, much more oil has been spilt as a result of illegal activity – sabotage, illegal refining and theft,

which blights the delta generally.

“Our clean-up teams were able to deal with the initial operational spills, but subsequently they have been prevented by local communities from reaching sites that were re-impacted by this illegal activity to begin clean-up and remediation work. This could be because those communities hold a misguided belief that more spilt oil, irrespective of the cause, equals more compensation,” the statement added.

Okonedo said SPDC provided relief materials to the Bodo community, as promised, adding that while still discussing issues around the spills, including the amount of

compensation, with representatives of the Bodo community, SPDC received several letters of claim from different lawyers, each claiming to be acting for the Bodo community. The challenge for SPDC was to try to identify which of these lawyers to deal with. This severely slowed the process and was further worsened with the introduction into the matter of a longstanding dispute between Bodo Council of Traditional Rulers and the paramount ruler and his faction of the Council of Chiefs. There was and still is pending litigation between these two groups. It was while discussions were still on-going to resolve these challenges so that ne-

gotiation of compensation could proceed that the letter of claim written by Leigh Day on behalf of the Bodo community was served on Royal Dutch Shell in April 2011.

The matter remains unresolved therefore.

“SPDC is committed to cleaning up all oil spilt from our facilities, no matter what the cause, where we have access and staff and contractors can work safely in a secure environment. In Bodo, we were unable to proceed with clean-up as quickly as planned because of lack of access. Amnesty International knows that we were denied access – indeed one contractor was kidnapped during the process.”

Mobil, UBA, Case & White, for ESQ oil summit

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XXON Mobil, UBA and Case & White, UK, will join other leading oil and gas, finance and legal institutions from across Nigeria, the United Kingdom and South Africa to discuss major issues surrounding the oil and gas industry in Nigeria at the ESQ Oil and Gas 2012 Summit holding in Lagos, this month.

In support of the summit, the Executive Director of ExxonMobi, Ibe Kachikwu, said: “Your conference is apt and I am happy to participate.” Kachikwu, will also lead the discussion on ‘Enhancing Nigeria’s institutional, legal and regulatory

framework to support optimal oil production at the event, alongside the former Minister for Petroleum Resources, Odein Ajumogobia.

While affirming her participation at the Infrastructure and Nigerian Content session, Deputy General Manager, UBA Metropolitan Insurance Limited, Mrs. R.V. Emenike, noted: “I believe that ideas from forums like this are required to fully harness the huge potential in this critical sector of our economy” The Chairman, NBA Section on Business Law, Gbenga Oyebode, who will be delivering a keynote

speech at the summit, said: “This conference is coming at the best time when the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is being re-drafted. I believe the last minute intervention will assist the government in the ongoing reforms.”

Dr. Bayo Adaralegbe, Partner at Babalakin & Co, also said: “This is the first time leading experts in oil and gas law from the major international and national oil companies, government officials, banks and insurance companies will be gathering to discuss issues relating to their future closer inter relationship.”

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ENERGY

‘Oil, gas projects should support linkage industries’

By Emeka Ugwuanyi Assistant Editor

•Mr Nwapa

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HE Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development & Monitoring Board, Ernest Nwapa, has said.major oil and gas projects to be executed henceforth, must leave behind legacies in facilities and infrastructure that would employ Nigerians and support the life cycle of the project, Speaking when he met with the leadership of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, in Abuja, last week, Nwapa explained that such legacies should also contribute to capacity in other linkage industries, even after the key projects had been completed.

He said the gas infrastructure projects like the forthcoming Gas Master Plan and Trans Saharan Pipeline will be expected to generate pipe mills, while LNG and FPSO projects must develop dock yards, integration yards and engineering centres of excellence to support project activities.

While admitting that setting up legacies on the back of major projects might increase costs, Nwapa stressed that about 20,000 persons that will be employed directly and indirectly even after the completion of the project would make the additional costs worthwhile.

He also clarified that such costs and slight delay that may result from executing projects in Nigeria will normally be aligned when subsequent jobs are executed in-country.

He said, “That is how to keep our facilities and manufacturing plants open and employ people.

When you do a job repeatedly, the cost will come down and the expertise will mature. If we insist on local manufacture, we will gradually achieve industrialisation.”

Nwapa dispelled the age long belief that the oil and gas industry cannot employ large numbers of Nigerians, tracing it to the now discarded total reliance of the industry on importation for all of

•Petroleum workers back Nigerian Content Implementation its requirements.

On the role of the unions in the implementation of Nigerian Content Act, Nwapa explained that provisions of the Act promoted the goals and aspirations of labour, some of which include improvement in welfare of members, training opportunities, creation and retention of jobs and ensuring career growth.

He told the union leaders that structured implementation strategies adopted by the Board focused on creating facilities where industry work can be performed in-country, spend retained and jobs created for Nigerians.

The Executive Secretary maintained that this strategy also creates productive employment, which he described as more critical to national development as against social employment, whereby companies and some government agencies are forced to employ workers they do not need.

These facilities used in executing industry work in-country, he further stated, will also provide locations for practical on the job training for professionals and vocational skills development.

He explained that most operating companies did not have ca-

pacity to employ many people, having outsourced most of their primary activities to service providers who can now employ large numbers of staff if patronised.

He also said the Board’s Equipment Components Manufacturing Strategy seeks to promote local manufacture and assembly of equipment and systems required for oil and gas industry, including parts and components.

The strategy will also help to create employment opportunities for Nigerians in the industry by insisting that Manufacturers of Equipment used in the industry begin local manufacture of some components, thereby ensuring that substantial value of oil industry work is domiciled and spend is retained incountry, he said.

The Executive Secretary further charged leaders of the unions to rise above their traditional concerns and support the

FirstBank hosts Nigerian petroleum professionals in Diaspora at OTC

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•From left: Adamu Awulu, Deputy General Manager, Human Resources and Administration, Integrated Oil and Gas Limited; Captain Emmanuel Ihenacho, chairman, during a briefing in Lagos.

Schneider Electric unveils services unit CHNEIDER Electric has launched a portfolio of services to optimise the efficiency and lifecycle of its customers’ electrical installations.

This new business unit is in line with Schneider Electric’s mission to be a dynamic and innovation-driven energy management specialist.

The Services offered include an asset management programme aimed at optimising the functionability of industrial sites and their facilities. The program will cover preventive maintenance, emergency or routine spare parts delivery as well as emergency or planned on-site intervention.

Other services on offer are installation audit and assessment, training, modernisation and

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electrical upgrade, lifecycle solutions for energy efficiency as well as customer international support.

Speaking about the new business unit, Schneider electric country president, Marcel Hochet stated that the creation of the services business unit will guarantee that Schneider electric does not only support its customers with innovative products and solutions but truly accompanies them throughout the lifecycle of of their installations.

He said: “Our mission as the global specialist in energy management is to ensure that our client’s investments in energy efficient solutions and energy management software are supported with a management plan

and robust services that secures optimal performance of equipment thereby delivering on Schneider electric commitment of up to 30 per cent energy savings for customers,” Mr Hochet added.

According to Obinna Uche, Services Sales manager for Schneider electric, “The Services are tailored to fit the exact need and budget of the client. Our wide range of MV and LV products and solutions allows us a lot of flexibility in preparing and responding to customers’ request. The speed of our reactivity to emergencies on site is also unrivalled in the industry and the Services business will really serve to reinforce our leadership position.”

implementation of the Act, which will help create and secure jobs for Nigerians in the industry and support sectors.

They should also insist that their management to comply with provisions of the Nigerian Content Act and encourage the establishment and patronage of facilities in Nigeria.

In his comments, President of PENGASSAN, Comrade Babatunde Ogun commended the Board for the strides it had made in the implementation of the Act. He assured the Board of the Unions’ support and promised to educate their members on the provisions of the Act and the implementation strategies.

Secretary General, PENGASSAN, Comrade Bayo Olowoshile charged the Board to be steadfast in the enforcement of its expatriate quota guidelines and to compel companies operating in the Onne Free Trade Zone to abide with the extant labour laws.

He requested the Board to involve the unions in the implementation of the Act and when engaging stakeholders with respect to regulations that border on the industry.

IRSTBank of Nigeria Plc is set to host a forum of Nigerian petroleum professionals abroad in line with its commitment to promoting platforms targeted at outlining growth initiatives for various sectors of the economy.

The forum which holds from today and tomorrow in Houston, Texas is jointly organised by the Association of Nigerian Petroleum Professionals Abroad (ANPPA) and Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) as one of the highlights of the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) 2012.

According to First Bank’s Head, Marketing & Corporate Communications, Folake Ani-Mumuney, amongst other important issues, the forum will focus on the following themes: “Leveraging Nigerian Content for greater opportunities in the offshore sector” and “Emerging Oil and Gas Development Opportunities for Marginal Operators, Opportunities for small and large scale business ventures in the Nigerian Domestic Gas Market.”

Describing the bank’s involvement with the forum as a thought leadership initiative, FirstBank’s Executive Director, Corporate Banking, Mr. Kehinde Lawanson, said the event would throw up meaningful strategies for maximizing the potential that abound in the sector.

According to Lawanson, the aspect that highlights opportunities for small and large scale business ventures in the nation’s gas market would enhance local capacity building and foster collaborations for expansion through partnerships with offshore organisations.“As a leading player in infrastructure financing in Oil and Gas sector, FirstBank remains committed to driving far-reaching entrepreneurial and capacity building activities through support for players and regulatory authorities in the sector,” he said.

Lawanson said the communiqué and partnerships

expected from the forum would deepen professionalism, expertise and capacity development in the sector in Nigeria. “The ANPPA PETAN OTC 2012 Forum will address local and global issues and identify ways of positioning Nigeria to play a frontline role in the sector’s competitiveness regionally and globally. FirstBank is particularly proud to be sponsors of this year’s edition,” he said.

FirstBank has over the years remained a major player in infrastructure financing in the oil and gas sector. Some of the Bank’s activities in the sector are: Vessel finance facility of $52.0million for the purchase of two jack-up badges to be leased to Mobil Producing for the execution of a Mobil contract.

The U.S. Exim Bank provided fund for $36,021,786.55 (guaranteed by FirstBank). The bank provided a US$15.15 million term loan to finance the acquisition of two vessels to service a five year charter party contract awarded by Chevron Nigeria Limited to Fymak Marine and Oil Services Nigeria Limited, a wholly indigenous company The bank undertook a $29.04million asset finance facility for the procurement of a field maintenance vessel for Broron Oil and Gas Limited. The facility enabled the company procure a 78m - DP2 multifunctional field support / maintenance vessel with State of the Art equipment. The vessel named DSV Avianna was built in Ghuangzou China in 2001.

FirstBank also extended a $20million contract finance facility to execute the laying of umbilicals to hook up well heads of OK 23 and OK 24 in the OKWORI subsea by Broron.

FirstBank financed the importation of marine equipment required to execute a $207million contract from one of the oil majors to lay 24inch high pressure pipes across Nembe-Cawthorne Channel Trunk Line (NCTL), a distance covering about 44km consisting entirely of swampy terrain. The pipeline traverses six major rivers and about 44 minor rivers and creeks.

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THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

ENERGY

Total begins repair of damaged well T

OTAL E & P Nigeria Ltd has started repair operations on its Ibewa well (IBW 16), OML 58 by reopening the well to a temporary installation to reduce the flow of gas into the intermediate geological layers.

The OML 58 is a concession operated by the company on behalf of the NNPC/Total E &P Nigeria joint venture in the Ogba/ Egbema/Ndoni Local government in Rivers state.

In a statement, the company said: After taking the necessary time to secure the affected area,our engineers have reopened the IBW 16 well to a temporary installation,

By Bidemi Bakare

thereby reducing the flow of gas into intermediate geological layers. These operations are continuing with safety as the top priority.”

It further stated that in order to permanently stop the gas release, well intervention equipment has been flown in from Europe and the U.S by wide-body aircraft.

It added that a snubbing operation is being prepared on the damaged well to stop the gas leak within a few weeks. This operation according to the statement consists installing a concentric pipe in

the well to pump in heavy fluid and stop the flow of reservoir fluids as well as simultaneously mobilizing drilling rigs locally for relief wells as a precaution.

The statement added that the company’s team is continuing to monitor the area daily by helipcopter and on the ground while the safety perimeter is being maintained.

The statement hinted that no new water or gas resurgence areas have been observed within the last two weeks as 20 domestic water wells supplying the area are being analyseddaily.

Besides, it said no hydrocarbons

or toxic compounds have been detected, except on a single well near the resurgence area which has been fully secured.

The statement concluded that regular contacts are being maintained with the nearby communities while the company’s senior management also meets regularly with representatives of local and federal authorities including the Governor of Rivers State, Hon RotimiAmechi ,the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), the Rivers State House of Assembly committees on Environment and Energy as well as the commissioner for Environment.

•Guy Maurice,MD/CEO,Total E & P Nigeria Ltd.

US LNG potential buyers seek contract options

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SIAN companies interested in buying US LNG are seeking ways to lock in supply securityand price stability through some form of long-term contract, yet the highly liquid US gas market means producers shy away from such deals, an executive with Chesapeake Energy Marketing Inc said.

As an example, Bill Wince, vice president of business development for the Chesapeake Energy affiliate, mentioned a fertilizer producer in India who asked that Chesapeake "sell me gas at a fixed price for 20 years, and I'll build a plant."

The request was turned down by CEO Aubrey McClendon, Wince said during a question-and-answer session at CWC's Americas LNG Summit. McClendon suggested the buyer should instead purchase US gas long term on the spot market, Wince added.

Noting that most Asian LNG buyers sign contracts running 20 years or more due to concerns over security of supply, Wince said such companies are exploring various ways to nail down deals for US LNG that mitigate both price and sup-

ply risk.

He said the options being explored for US gas focus on longterm contracts based on either: fixed prices; US Henry Hub prices; regional prices in global markets, such as the UK's National Balancing Point; or oil-indexed prices.

Such potential customers also are looking at tolling models for US LNG exports, he said, explaining the buyer would pay a fixed cost for the right to use a liquefaction plant and would get their own feed gas.

The US export project that is furthest along in development, Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass in Louisiana, is not using a tolling model, but instead would buy gas for customers and sell LNG to them at 115% of the Henry Hub price, in addition to fixed costs that the buyers would pay for liquefaction capacity.

But the proposed Freeport LNG export project in Texas and Sempra's proposed Cameron LNG project in Louisiana are looking at tolling models. Some potential buyers from the proposed tolling facilities want long-term contracts for feed gas, Wince said.

Shell says high prices eroding fuel demand

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IL demand is being curbed by high prices, Royal Dutch Shell said on Thursday as it

reported first-quarter earnings, adding to signs of weaker global oil consumption growth so far this year.

Shell, Europe's largest oil company by market value, said its firstquarter sales of fuels such as gasoline and diesel fell about 3 percent from the same period of 2011 including the impact of asset sales.

"In oil products, our underlying volumes were flat," Shell Chief Financial Officer Simon Henry told a news conference. "Demand is being eroded by high prices."

He noted flat volume in Europe and the United States, along with firm demand for branded fuels in Asia-Pacific.

Shell's comments follow reduced estimates by the International Energy Agency and other forecasters for oil demand growth in 2012.

Shell sells fuel through a network of about 43,000 service stations in more than 80 countries.

Crude oil prices surged in March to $128 a barrel for Brent, the highest since 2008, because of concern about possible supply shortages as Western sanctions target exports from Iran.

Shell believes the crude market is "fundamentally well supplied," Henry said, echoing the view of other players such as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting

•Peter Voser, Shell CEO

Countries that there is no shortage and geopolitical tensions - such as over Iran - were supporting prices.

Retail fuel prices are rising in many markets. In the UK, pump prices have set new records in 2012, according to motorists' group the AA, which said in a report this month the cost of gasoline had climbed to 142.5 pence ($2.30) per litre.

Earlier on Thursday, Shell said its first-quarter net income rose 11 percent to $7.66 billion on higher crude prices and a ramp-up of new projects.

But earnings excluding items from Shell's oil refining and marketing and chemicals division - its secondlargest unit after producing crude oil and gas - fell 32 percent to $1.12 billion.

•Prof Sabiru Adesanya, Deputy VC,Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife, Dr Mayowa Afe, President, Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) and Dr Wasiu Odufisan, NAPE-University Assistance Programme during the NAPE mini conference for tertiary institutions at OAU at the weekend

Oil advances in last hour of trading, reversing IL rose to the highest level decline ficult to make a case for $110, $115 in more than three weeks crude oil,” said James Cordier, port-

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in New York as the biggest gain in U.S. consumer spending in more than a year and better-thanprojected earnings overshadowed lower-than-forecast economic growth.

Futures climbed 0.4 percent after the Commerce Department said household purchases increased 2.9 percent, exceeding the most optimistic projection by economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Gross domestic product grew at a 2.2 percent annual rate, missing the 2.5 percent projection. Equities increased after Amazon.com Inc. posted earnings per share that quadrupled.

“The market has shrugged off some of the negative news and is closing higher,” said Jason Schenker, president of Prestige Economics LLC, an Austin, Texasbased energy consultant. “The government data is being interpreted as modestly positive and corporate profits have been healthy.”

Crude oil for June delivery climbed 38 cents to $104.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest settlement since April 2. Futures gained 1.8 percent this week and have increased 6.2 percent this year.

Brent oil for June settlement slipped 9 cents to end the session at $119.83 a barrel on the Londonbased ICE Futures Europe exchange.

The rise in U.S. household consumption followed a 2.1 percent gain in the prior quarter and exceeded the 2.3 percent median forecast in the Bloomberg survey. Purchases added 2 percentage points to growth.

GDP expansion slowed from a 3 percent pace in the fourth quarter.

Corporate spending on equipment and software climbed at a 1.7 percent pace, the weakest level in almost three years, after advancing at a 7.5 percent rate in the previous quarter.

Spain’s sovereign credit rating was cut for the second time this year

by Standard & Poor’s. Spanish debt was reduced to BBB+ from A, with a negative outlook. The country’s short-term rating was reduced to A2 from A-1, New York- based S&P said in a statement yesterday.

The European sovereign debt crisis that began in Greece and then moved to Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Spain has reduced economic growth in the euro region.

“With a 2.2 percent GDP in the U.S. and Europe slowing down, it’s dif-

folio manager at OptionSellers.com in Tampa, Florida.

The countries using the euro accounted for about 12 percent of global oil demand in 2010, according to BP Plc (BP/)’s Statistical Review of World Energy. The U.S. was the biggest crude user, responsible for 21 percent of world consumption.

Oil output in April by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries climbed to the highest level in more than three years, a Bloomberg survey showed. Production increased 305,000 barrels, or 1 percent, to an average 31.405 million barrels a day from a revised 31.1 million in March, according to the survey of oil companies, producers and analysts. Output rose to the highest level since October 2008.

Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s biggest producer, bolstered output by 115,000 barrels a day to 9.82 million this month. The gain left production at the highest level since August.

Electronic trading volume on the Nymex was 290,144 contracts as of 3:30 p.m. Volume totaled 417,413 contracts yesterday, the sixth straight day under 600,000 and 33 percent below the three-month average. Open interest was 1.56 million.

Iran to tap local banks for petrochemical projects

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RAN’S National Petrochemical Co. plans to borrow from local banks some of the $50 billion it needs to develop 60 projects by the end of 2015, the Oil Ministry’s news website Shana reported.

The state-run company seeks to broaden its output to 85 products

from the current 25 and wants to build production hubs in the northeastern city of Sarakhs, the port of Chabahar, and the Persian Gulf islands of Lavan, Qeshm and Kish, Managing Director Abdolhossein Bayat said in the report today.

Iran is trying to expand petro-

chemicals-making capacity to 51 million metric tons a year in 2015.

State media last year said output was about 4 million tons. Iran, the second-largest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, faces economic sanctions over its nuclear program.

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

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EDITORIAL/OPINION EDITORIAL FROM OTHER LAND

COMMENT

The myth of deterrence

Subsidy protest fears •The way out is to prosecute fraudsters, not deployment of troops or police

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S peaceful assemblage now outlawed in the country? This question becomes pertinent in view of the sudden deployment of a team of battle-ready policemen to the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park in Ojota, Lagos State. The park hosted last January’s anti-fuel subsidy removal protest that reverberated in the country.

Curiously, Lagosians reportedly discovered the emergence overnight of an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) manned by policemen in combat gear that was stationed close to the park. Also, two patrol vans with stern-looking armed personnel were stationed on the other side of the park, along the road leading to Olusosun Landfill Site.

The attempt to turn Lagos into a police state under a democratic setting stands condemned. The other time when people engaged in peaceful protests against inimical removal of fuel subsidy and increment in pump price of petrol, the Federal Government, for no just cause, deployed soldiers on roads in the ‘Centre of Excellence’.

The current siege is ostensibly a preemptive move by the Federal Government to prevent Nigerians from peacefully protesting against the financial sleaze emanating from the probe of fuel subsidy management by the Farouk Lawan-led Ad Hoc committee of the House of Representatives. An alleged fraud of N1.070 trillion waiting to be officially addressed was exposed by the committee.

A conglomeration of civil society groups and the Labour movement have threatened to mobilise Nigerians in an action code-named operation “Occupy Nigeria” to protest against the fraud except the culprits behind the sleaze are promptly prosecuted. Indeed, the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) reportedly announced that it has served on the Federal Government a mass protest notice, and the only thing that can change that is demonstration of readiness to ensure that justice is done in the matter.

The attempt to turn Lagos into a police state should be deprecated because such is uncalled-for. Moreover, it should be made clear that the peace and stability that has been the hallmark of the state over time can be threatened by the overzealousness of the Federal Government to lay siege to it.

The government and its agents responsible for the deployment of police to the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park must realise that such action is antithetical to the promotion of democratic values. Nigerians’ right to peaceful assemblage must at all times be respected once such does not in any manner threaten the stability of a state or that of the country.

The proposed protests against the fraudulent mismanagement of fuel subsidy will not in any way violate the country’s constitution. The ones that took place in Lagos and later spread to other parts of the country in January never did.

The President Goodluck Jonathan ad-

ministration is worried apparently because it knows that the fuel subsidy scandal has injured the feelings of the entire country. Whenever Nigerians are aggrieved and outraged, especially on matters that directly impact on their wellbeing, we would not object to their standing up to remedy the situation. No government, more so one that is not faring better in managing the affairs of a country, can fetter the human mind.

The deployment of police to the freedom park is like postponing the evil day.

The anger of the people against phantom fuel subsidy removal that some highly placed individuals are feeding fat on has almost reached boiling point.

What can save the situation is not the use of force by government but the return of sanity to the oil sector.

‘The deployment of police to the freedom park is like postponing the evil day. The anger of the people against phantom fuel subsidy removal that some highly placed individuals are feeding fat on has almost reached boiling point. What can save the situation is not the use of force by government but the return of sanity to the oil sector’

Still far from there •FMBN’s N188m profit in Q1 is good but it doesn’t call for celebration yet

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T’s not often that public corporations rise –phoenix like – from their ashes.

Well, the management of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) did– or at least claimed they performed the feat. Rising from a deep hole of N256.4 million deficit in 2011, the bank is said to have posted a profit of N188 million in the first quarter of the year –the first in 20 years. The picture of comeback is perhaps best illustrated in quantum operational losses in the preceding four years: in 2010 it posted N4.4 billion in losses; in 2009, it was N8.8 billion; the figures of losses in 2008 and 2007 were N6.5 billion and N5.9 billion, respectively.

Presenting the latest scorecard of FMBN’s activities, its managing director, Gimba Ya’u Kumo, disclosed that a total of 61,193 housing units were funded under the FMBN- administered National

‘It goes without saying that the government needs to move swiftly to overhaul the mortgage finance sector ... Not until government unlocks the vast opportunities in the housing sector, particularly given its promises in opening up vast linkages in backward economic integration with spin-offs in employment generation, can the FMBN rightly claim to have returned from the land of the dead’

Housing Fund – spread across the country’s six-geopolitical zones. He also disclosed that the corporation introduced the Informal Sector Cooperative Housing Scheme last December to cater for informal sector participants like farmers, traders, mechanics, etc., in its bid to deepen its activities. The strategy, he said, was to use their network to mobilise and make affordable housing available to them.

The numbers are important, no doubt.

If anything, the trend somehow indicates that the corporation is on the way to recovery. But positive trend aside, we must say that the issue of celebrating what is clearly a non-event does not arise at all.

To start with, under the law establishing the NHF, every Nigerian earning a minimum of N3,000 per month is expected to contribute 2.5 percent of his or her income on monthly basis. In today’s economy, that minimum has become something of a joke going by the rate of inflation and the general cost of living.

Even at that, an excess of N100 billion is said to be owed by employers – representing monies deducted but not remitted by them. The result is that the bank is said to realise an average monthly collection of N900 million from the 3.6 million workers registered under the NHF scheme. It does appear that not even the states are immune from the culture of non-compliance, with only 26 states – including the Federal Capital Territorymaking contributions to the NHF. We expect a report on how much of the funds it has pooled in next time around – and

what it intends to do about states and corporate bodies scorning the NHF. No doubt the management of the FMBN has been less-than-creative in pushing to overhaul the mortgage finance sector. We recall that only last year, the FMBN chief executive gave what amounted to a status report showing that Nigeria required 720,000 units yearly to meet the Millennium Development Goals. In the same vein, the nation’s housing deficit was estimated to be 16 million while the estimated mortgage financing gap is put at over N56 trillion.

Among the other highlights in the paper was that the nation’s real sector contributes only a measly 0.5 percent of the total GDP; whereas in developing countries, the contribution is said to be about 60 percent while for emerging economies, this is said to range between 30-40 percent. With the scenario painted above, it would seem understandable if we insist that there is little to cheer in FMBN’s first quarter performance.

It goes without saying that the government needs to move swiftly to overhaul the mortgage finance sector. Unfortunately, there is nothing on ground to suggest that the government appreciates the need for a fundamental rethinking of the nation’s mortgage policy at this time. Not until government unlocks the vast opportunities in the housing sector, particularly given its promises in opening up vast linkages in backward economic integration with spin-offs in employment generation, can the FMBN rightly claim to have returned from the land of the dead.

NE of the most frequently made claims about the death penalty is that it deters potential murderers.

That was the claim when the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. It is the claim today after a revival of research about the topic in the last decade.

But a distinguished committee of scholars working for the National Research Council has now reached the striking and convincing conclusion that all of the research about deterrence and the death penalty done in the past generation, including by some first-rank scholars at the most prestigious universities, should be ignored.

The committee found that the research “is not informative about whether capital punishment increases, decreases, or has no effect on homicide rates.” No study looks at what really matters, by comparing the deterrent effects of capital punishment with other penalties, like life without parole. A lot of the research assumes that “potential murderers respond to the objective risk of execution,” but only one in six of the people sentenced to death in the last 35 years have been executed and no study properly took that diminished risk into account.

“Nothing is known about how potential murderers actually perceive their risk of punishment,” said the criminologist Daniel Nagin, chairman of the committee.

The committee was careful to say what it did not examine, including the proven risk that an innocent person could be sentenced to death and the fact that the administration of capital punishment could well be discriminatory.

On Wednesday when Connecticut’s governor, Dannel Malloy, signed the state’s new law abolishing the death penalty, these problems were on his mind. As a former supporter of capital punishment, he said that he “came to believe that doing away with the death penalty was the only way to ensure it would not be unfairly imposed.”

The 33 states that retain the death penalty should follow that lead.

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– New York Times

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THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

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IR: For three days, some students of University of Ibadan (UI) capitalized on the poor electricity situation on the campus, to embark on a protest, thereby disrupting academic, social and economic activities within and around the campus. The climax of the protest was the shutting down of the university for two weeks to douse tension, and to enable the Prof. Isaac Folorunso Adewole-led management team fast-track its on-going power restoration and stability efforts.

It is an open secret in this country that electricity is a national embararassment to which Nigeria is yet to find a lasting solution. All our national institutions including airports, seaports, stadia, hotels are either run on private power gen-

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That power supply protest in UI erators or in total darkness as Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) has failed constantly to provide light, despite whooping sum of money expended in the sector.

It could therefore be argued that the UI students were somewhat justified in their protest.

In truth, the power situation on campus was bad in recent times due to some renovation work and technical

hitches, but not as worst as the students portrayed it. Indeed, the situation was not beyond bearing.

Upon his assumption of office as the Vice-Chancellor in December 2010, Prof. Adewole had identified poor power supply as one of the major problems his administration would tackle. He has since not left a stone unturned in his search for a lasting solution. In fact, his administration which has just purchased

two brand new generators from abroad at the cost of N249million has spent over a billion naira just to fix the energy problem. The power situation in UI is compounded by the old facilities. The underground cables are over 60 years. Adewole has just changed some critical phases with the sum of N61million. He has also procured what is called Fault Locator, costing N53million. Contract has been

Re-‘Musdapher’s parting gift’

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IR: My erstwhile senior colleague, Sam Omatseye, to his last Monday Column’s main title, ‘Osun State and its enemies’ (April 23) -and in which, as usual, he demonstrated highfalutin prowess as the unquestioning defense enthusiast of the ‘infallible’ Action Congress of Nigeria-, closed that piece with a one-paragraph addendum of sort, titled ‘Musdapher’s Parting gift’. The piece berated the Chief Justice of Nigeria for not interfering with the recent ruling of the apex Court on Bayelsa’s Timipre Sylva’s nomination. The entire paragraph read: “The speculation spread online that Chief Justice Dahiru Musdapher had resigned and then came the rebuttal. The fear was that he resigned to protest pressures prior to last week’s verdict on Bayelsa. But it was clear he gave an establishment verdict and the top court in the land affirmed impunity over justice. That is the legacy, one of the big ones, of the Musdapher era. Not much different from his predecessor.”

This is as factually uncharitable as it is professionally disingenuous.

It is not difficult, even in those few detracting lines, to discern some kind of resentment for the CJN,

borne probably of a malicious state of mind that may have lurked in bated wait for an opportunity at last to assail the hymn of public praise around the achievements of the reformer-Chief Justice.

And Omatseye’s odium for the CJN seemed so hard pressed in its search for a vent, that he was even willing to risk exhibiting ignorance of the due judicial process -by a wacky, erroneous apprehension of justice delivery as synonymous with the personal whim or the judicial caprice of the Chief Justice.

Omatseye’s piece conjured a laughable presumption of judicial ‘discretion’ or ‘benevolence’ that it thinks should reside especially in all departing Chief Justices, as they prepare to leave, to influence judicial rulings in the direction, supposedly, of ‘popular consensus’. This ‘opinion’ sounds to me to be culpably more intellectually sinful than it is simply ‘legally lay’. It should thus be within the grasp even of laymen to know that the terrain of judges, as J. Hart would say, is strictly the ‘law’ and “not selfish conformity to… popular consensus”. Or so said Justice Niki Tobi, that “Courts of law do

not give judgments according to public opinion… unless such opinion represents or presents the state of the law.”

My ‘informed’ senior colleague said he saw nothing commendable in the ‘legacy’ of Musdapher. Or at the most what he saw, as he said, was “Not much different from his predecessor”. In that he does not surprise! He only helps to define the difference between genuine criticism and cynical journalism.

Genuine criticism truly leaves no stone ‘un-turned’. Cynics alone never leave any turn ‘un-stoned’. Or so Oscar Wilde said, that a cynic “knows the price of everything and the value of nothing”.

By the way the view that a Chief Justice, whether or not he is a member of a panel of judges delivering judgment on a matter, owes any politically-motivated interest groups the judicial duty to command court rulings to swing one way or another is, to say the very least, utterly ridiculous. And coming, especially, from such acclaimed ‘informed’ pinnacle of journalistic opinionation in Nigeria, it becomes not only inexcusable but it simply does not add-up. Knowledge of the due judicial process especially by

us journalists, who arrogate to ourselves the right to publicly adumbrate upon it, is not an option. It is a Hobson’s choice. To trivialize this requirement is simply to ennoble and to purvey ‘ignorance’. It is culpable enough that we are ‘lay’. But to add ‘ignorance’ to ‘laity’ is double jeopardy.

Ironically the only ‘knowledge of law’ commonly possessed by both lawyers and ‘laymen’, is the saying that ‘ignorance of the law is not an excuse’. It is as well a common ‘expression’ of ‘everyday people’ as it is, by itself, a ‘law’. It derives from the Latin expression: ‘ignorantia juris non excusat’ and it has been a universal maxim of law since the Roman days of old. We can plead ignorance of the ‘fact’ of a matter but not ignorance of the ‘law’ concerning that matter! My senior colleague, more than any opinion columnist, should know this.

He has to remember always that being the ‘numero uno’ of opinion molding in Nigeria, carries with it a lot more than a worded mast-head, a gleeful portrait and an index finger standing in erectile solitude symbolizing he is ‘the best’!

• Mohammed Adamu Abuja

awarded installation of inverters to all Halls of residence to the tune of N100million.

But in this “microwave” generation which cannot endure a rigorous process of thorough baking, every facility must be in place before they can study! In the tough process of knowledge acquisition, there is a big space for stoicism and perseverance. Our children are not given to hard work, but to learn a little, dance so much, drink alcohol like fish and engage in immorality till the kingdom come. Shamefully, this is a generation that has been over-indulged and over pampered.

The poor power situation in UI to which rascality of a minuscule minority feasted on, was not a kind of helplessness that could not be endured by a serious minded set. Unfortunately, some illegal students who had been expelled, but refused to go home infiltrated and hijacked the protest. A few frustrated ones were pulling the strings, and, like unthinking puppets, some of the lazy ones who were home-sick, were dancing. At last, the school was shut down.

Interestingly, when the management asked them to vacate the hostels, they began to beg. They did not want to go home.

Some said the VC should give them transport fare! No illustration of academic laziness can be more vivid than this!.

On a flipside, is there no way of protesting without locking the gate, thereby punishing innocent souls?

I think when next these students have a cause to protest, they can simply sing and dance round without necessarily disrupting the system. There must be a creative way of protesting without punishing innocent people. Good enough, the VC is a unionist, who is sensitive to people’s agitation. By singing around, Prof. Adewole will get the message and respond. Anyway, one hopes there will not be any other protest after this, as Adewole is good enough to be respected with dialogue.

• Saanu Sunday University of Ibadan

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

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too apparent in this current UST as well no perceptive mind anti-Aregbesola campaign, by is buying Iyiola Omisore’s recant federal-backed political of his threat to stop-and-search scavengers, who had lost it on Osun Governor, Rauf Aregbesola’s the plane of cutting-edge ideas. convoy, for alleged thugs. This is not Take this drudgery of an because his Saul cannot turn Paul, in interview by one Bola Ajao, the modern day political equivalent of an Osun Peoples Democratic the Biblical Pauline conversion.

Party (PDP) spokesperson, It is rather that his all-too-established Olakunle headlined “Security report on reputation for sinister political battling lordbeek@yahoo.com, 08054504169 (Sms only, please) Abimbola Aregbesola well grounded”, makes such reckless threat from him as and reported in the Saturday natural as fish in water. That same Sun of April 21. To Mr. Ajao, unflattering political persona would that Aregbesola introduced a make any right thinking person conclude State of Osun anthem is that denial was a mere after-thought; after the full insanity of it all had hit him, reading it in cold print. enough proof Osun is a republic within a republic! Whatever at the Ooni of Ife’s palace in Ile-Ife. He must have laughed the Treason, after all, is no child’s play! hyena laugh that few weeks later, more than Ige’s cap was happened to the federal principle?

To be sure, that threat was insane. On what basis might Then, the laughable security reports were “well grounded” finally removed! If everyone thought he had talked himself Mr. Omisore, a former senator of the Federal Republic in into trouble (as he indeed faced trial), he had the last laugh. simply because a “change” of name from “Osun State” to those best-forgotten locust years of mainstream “capture” That last laugh seems to have emboldened him for this latest “State of Osun”, according to Ajao “means something is of the political South West, be carrying out his threat? wrong”! And as the grand sympathiser of the unfortunate sinister threat! Nigeria, we hail thee!

As the guardian angel of subversive national security?

Indeed, there is a sense of the déjà vu in all of these, as far as Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (O’YES) volunteers, Ajao As special mob enforcer of the legal rights of the federal the political battle for the soul of the South West is concerned. has this to say: “...to send out university graduates to be security agencies to “protect” Governor Aregbesola? Or Omisore, like opposition quislings before him right from the cutting grass everyday and direct traffic is most unfair.” simply as self-appointed illicit presidential viceroy in the But pray, what did the Olagunsoye Oyinlola PDP 1st Republic, get ultra-reckless only when they luxuriate in South West to implement a dubious presidential agenda government, in almost eight years, offer these darling the illusion of some illicit federal cover.

2015, with concurrent letter of credence to cause freeBut as history has always shown, their victories are at best graduates, now cutting grass and directing traffic under the wheeling mayhem, en route to and during Osun 2014 pyrrhic, for the Yoruba ultimately triumph over their scorching sun? Was it not abiding hopelessness? gubernatorial election, to ensure a complete and total It is this penchant to confound with subversive sentiments traducers, no matter the number of political or military tanks political pacification of the state, in time for a Goodluck they claim to command. That should be food for thought for that have morphed into the so-called intelligence report Jonathan presidential encore of 2015? Ah! the present federal occupiers of power, if truly they are which clearly did not grant the people any measure of If all of these seem far-fetched, everyone is entitled to their complicit in an alleged plot to destabilise the South West for intelligence. Of course, the specific attack and demonization doubts. But when a core security agency like the SSS appends partisan gain. Those who did it in the past were consumed by of O’YES is understandable: at least 20, 000 is out of the its name to some pepper-soup hotchpotch that wouldn’t even their own plot. So, let them be warned, lest they end up wretched of the earth always available for election-time qualify for a dumb old wives’ tale, and some desperate lobby mugging, killing, maiming and allied crimes. You can grant tragically in history’s ravenous belly! was brazenly reckless enough to leak that “intelligence Still, inasmuch as Omisore might be the unrepentant poster the loser his hurting yelp! report” to the media, then the alarm bells must start clanging!

With the evil trinity of a sinister political battler and two boy for unedifying political conduct, he is only the surface of Besides, save the Chris Ngige kidnap as sitting governor an ingrained Osun heart of darkness, to parody Joseph failed gubernatorial usurpers, the Osun heart of darkness of Anambra under Olusegun Obasanjo’s imperial Conrad’s famous novel, Heart of Darkness, which portrayed has merged with the PDP national heart of darkness, in presidency on 10 July 2003, it is doubtful if anyone had pursuit of a power journey to nowhere in the South West. the colonial opacity of the spirit in Belgian Congo. essayed such dare-devil gambit as threatening to waylay a That unthinking poverty of the spirit, that desperation to pooh- With the downed gubernatorial duo annexing key party gubernatorial convoy, as Omisore was yakking. pooh, no matter how senseless or asinine, any effort to lift that positions, the party’s power cynicism sits in bold relief. But But if a governor was successfully kidnapped under the longsuffering state from the artificial poverty decreed for it by what decent Yoruba man or woman would schmooze with apparent cover of illicit ‘federal might’ (but fell through political reactionaries and that penchant to come up with wild judicially confirmed and punished electoral robbers? only by the fortuitous counter-order by then Vice President Still, Governor Aregbesola must credit these political rumours, no matter how brainless or ludicrous, have been all Atiku Abubakar who apparently was not in the know), rejects with some strategic thinking. In the governor and saying such a move was “impossible in this country”, to his ambitious programmes, they see clear and present ‘The last time Omisore whooped so use that cliché, is living in a fool’s paradise. political death, should the governor pull off these Besides, the last time Omisore whooped so triumphantly programmes. Hence, the clear emotional games of triumphantly in the media, the nain the media, the nation’s attorney-general and minister confounding the Osun citizen and distracting the governor. tion’s attorney-general and minister of Justice got despatched – right in his bedroom! That was But the governor must confirm their worst fears by shelling 23 December 2001. Till now, no one has been convicted of them with superlative performance. That way, their dead of Justice got despatched – right in that gruesome murder. would stay buried! As for the president, he would do well to his bedroom! That was 2001.’

He boasted back then – as he is boasting now – that the beware of his political friends, in gratitude to God for taking late Bola Ige was lucky it was only his cap that got removed care of his political enemies!

epublican ipples

Osun heart of darkness

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NE of the interesting asides at the just concluded BRACE Commission meeting in Asaba at the weekend which, surprisingly, failed to hit the headlines was the spat between the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, Governor Rotimi Amaechi and Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on the contentious Sovereign Wealth Fund.

For a summit which sought as its ultimate objective, the re-configuration of the federal arrangement along more productive, functional lines, it was perhaps expected that the Rivers State Governor would not less pass the opportunity to draw attention to yet another symptom of that federal arrogance: the insistence that states plough their excess crude earnings to shore up the SWF. The governor’s grouse was understandable: the federal government which grabs 52.4 percent of the entire accruals into the federation account has no business dictating where the other benefitting tiers plough their money. The governor was of course reacting to the latest road show mounted by the federal government to convince the 36 governors on the need to halt the spate of withdrawals from the excess crude account now said to be down to barely $3.6 billion.

Trust an equally furious Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala not to let pass the opportunity also to call the governor to order. Short of saying that the governor was talking nonsense, she let it be known that there is only one economy in the country which the federal government – and not the states – was better placed to handle. The country, she claimed, needed a strong buffer against external shocks – buffer, which in her view, would be best served by channelling the funds in the excess crude account into a SWF. She didn’t fail to remind also that the nation was actually saved from the harsh effects of the global crisis of 2008 because of the excess crude account buffer!

Whatever arguments that may be made for keeping a fraction of the current earnings for the proverbial rainy day, positions such as the minister’s, which reinforce existing orthodoxies while shutting out alternative pathways is clearly dangerous as it is untenable. The point has been made, that even when the serious legal and constitutional issues thrown up in the attempt to coerce the 36 states into the federal government pet SWF project are overcome, there still remains the question of the efficacy of the SWF option in addressing the roots of the problems of the Nigerian economy. I say this because much song has been made of the so-called global economic crisis of 2008, particularly the ensuing

Policy Sanya Oni sanyaoni@yahoo.co.uk 08051101841

Amaechi Vs federal Leviathan meltdown in the credit markets from which European economies are still reeling from its aftermath as compelling the SWF option. It’s hard not to recognise deliberate distortions, exaggerations if not outright misreading of symptoms of the Nigerian economic malaise in the wake of that crisis –hence the ultimate pandering to the same fixations that have created the current situation in which the domestic economic lacks depth.

Now, the trouble with the economy dates back – not to 2008 as some prefer to suggest – but way back into the late 70s and early 80s when the federal government went on a spending binge based on oil-induced superpower economic status. The same symptoms are back: uncontrollable expenditure amidst rising crude prices. The only lesson is that not much has changed in terms of our preparedness to absorb the shock in the event of the inevitable happening. I actually had cause to warn on the danger of oil prices taking a sustained plunge to say sub$50 barrel on this page only few months back. Even without the latest anxieties from the ministry regarding the possibility of an early depletion of the excess crude account, the worries that the right things are not being done to lay the groundwork of infrastructure as a basis for future sustainable growth have always been there. Moral arguments about non-renewable nature of crude added to the fact that generations yet unborn deserve no less benefit from current earnings only serves to reinforce the argument about the imperative to use the proceeds wisely to diversify the economy. Adding the spendthrift culture at all tiers of government to the mix, if anything, merely compound what indeed a grave national tragedy with serious implications for the future.

But then, the honourable minister for the economy seems determined to settle for the easy part. In the first place, nothing of the SWF idea is entirely novel. As for savings – to what end? The argument that other oil producing nations have a portfolio of SWF merely begs the question about the desirability of the SWF idea. As for the federal government role as champion of the SWF, the trouble is that not many Nigerians would accept that the federal government is any less culpable in the grievous sins that it is wont to heap on the other tiers of government. A way to put the matter is to state that the federal government hasn’t quite done a good job of marketing the SWF. Moreover, given the poor state of the nation’s infrastructure – and the disposition of the state governors at this time, I do not even pretend that the federal government stands any good chance of growing the fund beyond the initial seed fund of $1 billion. And they would be right!

This obviously leaves us with the hanging question of where to go in the circumstance. The idea of putting any portion of the excess crude in charge of the federal government for management is out! That leaves the option of how to get the funds to deliver value to Nigerians. That, to me, is the crux of the matter. Here is one idea which I think the federal government should consider. Good thing that more and more regions are embracing the regional integration idea as catalyst for national development. It would not be a bad idea for the federal government to dismount from its iron-horse of orthodoxy, by considering the option of using its share of excess crude to provide federal guarantees for projects conceived under regional initiatives. That would be a creative way to manage the funds – were it to happen.

‘Good thing that more and more states are embracing the regional integration idea as catalyst for national development. It would not be a bad idea for the federal government to dismount from its iron-horse of orthodoxy, by considering the option of using its share of excess crude to provide federal guarantees for projects conceived under regional initiatives’

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1 2012

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ODAY, workers the world over are being celebrated. Their contributions to national growth and development are also being appreciated even though transiently. It is in recognition of their significance in wealth creation that the United Nations set aside May 1 to commemorate worker’s contributions to global economy.

Sadly, despite these enormous supports for the country’s development, the average Nigerian worker is sunk in long-term and even unending poverty. They are the impoverished Nigerians who are best described as victims of social violence. They are the hardup Nigerians whose day we are celebrating today.

In this our impious world where the pursuit of materialism tends to trivialise our spiritual, social, psychological and moral sensibilities, poverty has been scorned as a negative index of non-fulfilment.

From the religious viewpoint, poverty results from that yoke generated by demonic forces in the life of man, probably because of man’s profane disposition. This view is open to question as poverty as a condition cannot wholly be as a result of spiritual feebleness.

Contrary to this puritan view which attempts to situate man’s destitution as an af-

‘This form of violence suffered by the poor workers is well articulated by Idemudia the principal character in Festus Iyayi’s Violence when he fumed “what kind of life is this?

A man gets a job and he cannot protest, he cannot ask for higher wages, his period of leisure is put down arbitrarily and he must come out to work when he was told…This was violence.”’

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HILE Nigerians were recently celebrating Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the undisputed leader of the Yoruba, two things were running through my mind. One was that the well deserved pan-Nigerian acknowledgment of Tinubu and by extension the entire Yoruba collective, was coming at a time when a section of my people, the Igbo, had began a debate over who would replace the Late Chief Chukwuemaka Ojukwu, who had just been similarly celebrated by Nigerians a few weeks earlier. For me, the two developments, coming close to each other the way they did, was quite significant.

While the Igbo were worrying over who would emerge as their new rallying point, as many of us saw Ojukwu, the Yoruba were consolidating on the fact that not only had they found a new leader in Tinubu but also, indeed, one that they can proudly and present before the rest of Nigeria. To be sure, this uncommon flair among the Yoruba to effortlessly throw up a leader is not entirely new but it is reasonable to argue that Tinubu’s ascendancy to a pan Nigerian prominence is the first time Yoruba’s are presenting another widely acknowledged leader after the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

The other thing that ran through my mind was that Tinubu became what he is today after serving only for eight years as Governor of Lagos State. Agreed, his stint as Senator during the days of diarchy, coupled with his involvement in pro-democracy activism gave him the initial exposure but by far what finally sold Tinubu to Nigerians was his gubernatorial outing.

I am not reluctant, at all, to admit that while I am very happy for Senator Tinubu and his Yoruba kinsmen for what God has used him to accomplish for them, I have been agonizing over the fact that though Tinubu’s contemporaries of Igbo extraction where among the few that showed early signs of pan-Nigerian acceptance at the beginning of the current Republic, my people are today wallowing in another wild guess or search of a rallying point, let alone one to export to the rest of Nigeria.

Whereas the Yoruba are making another Tinubu in Babatunde Fashola by contrast my

Poverty and the Nigerian worker

By Chinaka Okoro termath of spiritual deviation, God has made adequate provisions for man to live in comfort and abundance all days of his life. We are convinced that it is not God’s plan that man should experience poverty which is prevalent in Nigeria and more pronounced among Nigerian workers.

It is therefore obvious that, poverty as has been the lot of many a Nigerian worker, cannot be described in terms of the attitude of those that are poor. It cannot be a moral issue but a structural one; the structures of our national economic order.

This should also be appreciated from how society is organised. How wealth, power, privileges, rights and responsibilities are distributed among the members of a given society.

Conspicuously, our national economic order has uncanny and retrogressive injustice built into it; for there is obvious disparity in the bargaining power between the rich and the poor. Apparently, those that are poor are in an intimidating majority especially among those who work.

We reason with Bessie Head, the Botswana short story writer who, in “Village People” in her Tales of Tenderness and Power was convinced that “poverty has a home in Africalike a quiet second skin. It may be the only place on earth where it is worn with an unconscious dignity-Poverty here has a majority backing. Our lives are completely adapted to it…”

This postulation would have been more apt had she concluded that poverty has a comfortable fortress in the home of an average Nigerian worker. A succinct summary of this argument is that a study of the life of a Nigerian worker is a study in poverty.

The Nigerian worker is enmeshed in the kind of poverty described by Marie Corelli in her Sorrows of Satan which is “downright, cruel and hideous. It is poverty that is graceless, sordid, and miserable. It is the poverty

that compels you to dress in one piece of clothe till it is worn threadbare, poverty that denies one of one’s own self-respect.”

There is no better way of depicting the discourteous situation most Nigerian workers find themselves in. Aptly described as the living dead, an average worker in Nigeria slinks along the streets vaguely abashed instead of walking along erect among his fellowmen in independent ease.

Having a hand-to-mouth existence, the worker who receives peanuts as salary considers a replacement of his threadbare clothes with an Okirika type a luxury. This is not because he doesn’t long for it, but because his take home pay, cannot, literally take him home. He remains grateful to the roadside cobbler who ensures that the worker’s soles are encased in a pseudo-pair of shoes from which his toes peep out.

Regrettably, this is the situation in a state where results of probe panels reveal that few barefaced individuals who take advantage of the endemic corruption in the land line their private pockets with billions of naira.

Fears are that soon, those who steal in billions would be regarded as small thieves.

By then stealing would be in trillions of naira.

The situation in most families has become so critical. A more grim reality of poverty experienced by workers is such that their children would be crying and they have nothing to feed them.

Most families lack food that they suffer malnutrition. They have become hopeless causing their children to be out of school, thereby rendering their future bleak. These are results of acts of violence meted out to the poor worker. Violence should not be construed only from the physical perspective. This, rather, should be appreciated from the Fanonian viewpoint of social violence.

Frantz Fanon, the great social crusader from Martinique in his The Wretched of the

T.A Orji and the Igbo dilemma

By Ethelbert Okere people, Ndi Igbo, are routing each other. The crab (Nshikor) mentality is growing by the day. The Igbo bungled theirs between 1999 and 2007 when they failed to exploit the innate qualities of a few of those that served as governors during that period, like Tinubu.

Yet, the opportunity that offered itself again in 2007 is being mismanaged. That year, both Ikedi Ohakim, former governor of Imo State and T. A. Orji, the incumbent governor of Abia State, were elected governors under circumstances that instantly made them the cynosure of keen watchers of the Nigerian political terrain.

But it wasn’t long when both their people and the rest of Nigeria discovered that the two gentlemen had qualities that were suggestive of some unseen hands that were out to inevitably ensure that the collective destiny of the Igbo remained in their hands and not subject to the caprices of outsiders whose only political expertise is on how to turn every Igbo politician into a “Yes” man.

Soon after, however, these Igbo traducers discovered in Ohakim the bad boy of this new consciousness. And he was marked out and shoved aside in a style that was methodically executed in active collaboration and connivance of Igbo elements themselves.

With Ohakim out, T. A. Orji is naturally the next target, what with the vibrancy and profound sense of purpose that he has manifested since 2007. And as usual, his own people, our own people, are the foot soldiers in yet another attempt to ensure that the Igbo remain the proverbial colony of crabs which remains in a basket from where none of them could ever climb out until their captor returns. This article is not about who is doing what among serving governors in the South East geo-political zone. But one would not shy away from acknowledging that Governor T. A Orji of Abia State has accomplished things that set him aside as a man of uncommon courage who is ready to do his best for his people

even if it means standing entirely alone.

I was not opportune to comment on the non-indigene saga in Abia State some time ago but I was quite amazed at the choreographed condemnations that greeted that policy which, I make bold to say, was well thought out, given the circumstances the good people of Abia State found or find themselves. What amazed me most was that Abians allowed outsiders to dictate the tone of the ensuing debate on that issue that, in all intents and purposes, neither went against any democratic norm nor made other sister states a haven for their own indigenes who were being displaced from the Abia Civil Service by that policy. Here was a man who came to the stark reality that among what was needed to bring sanity to the state was to reduce a bloated civil service. And he took a simple, scientific rule of the thumb approach. Disengage non-indigenes. And some people were quarrelling with that? So, what would he have done? Sack Abians and leave non-indigenes in the state civil service?

Now, if T. A. Orji did the unthinkable, what of his colleague in Imo State who sacked 10 thousand civil servants, indigenes of the state, from the civil service the moment he took over as governor? Did Abians see that or not?

That was the same question many Nigerians asked the day some hired miscreants attempted to shout down the governor during the funeral of the late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu at the Aba Stadium. The same Aba residents who once fled the city after kidnappers had made life hell on earth for them? The story is well known all over the country that Aba or indeed Abia state was at a point seen as the major headache of Nigeria, as it was trying to grapple with the problem of criminals. If nothing else, Abians should beat their chests to say that they were able to repudiate the characterization of their

Earth identified social violence as the most grievous of other forms of violence.

This form of violence suffered by the poor workers is well articulated by Idemudia the principal character in Festus Iyayi’s Violence when he fumed “what kind of life is this? A man gets a job and he cannot protest, he cannot ask for higher wages, his period of leisure is put down arbitrarily and he must come out to work when he was told…This was violence.”

This state of violence manifests itself in the lack of freedom of expression and the right to determine and demand improved working conditions. For an average Nigerian worker to survive is becoming a miracle.

This situation is not as a result of lack of commitment on the part of the worker or due to lack of profit accruing to his employer.

It is because the employee is at the mercy of the employer.

The average Nigerian worker lives in the present. He neither has a gladdening secure tomorrow nor could he be proud of his yesterday.

The plight of the Nigerian worker, especially those in the employ of private entrepreneurs, would remain agonisingly perilous if their employers remain perpetually egocentric.

With the present alarming level of poverty, deprivation and disparity in a survivalist political economy where life is short and brutish, there might be a dangerous regression to parochialism.

‘Having a hand-tomouth existence, the worker who receives peanuts as salary considers a replacement of his threadbare clothes with an Okirika type a luxury.

This is not because he doesn’t long for it, but because his take home pay, cannot, literally take him home’ state as a den of criminals. That happened under T. A. Orji and it was not a tea party.

It is a well known fact that Governor Orji confronted the biggest challenge over insecurity so far in the current dispensation. It was in his domain that six journalists were kidnapped some time in 2009. That incident put him and Abia State at the center of world attention because of the caliber of the people involved. For over one week or so, Orji and Abia state were the only news in the land and beyond. But it is to his eternal credit that all the journalists were rescued without any of them having a scratch. Were that feat accomplished elsewhere, we would still be reading about it in the news papers today. That was an opportunity for the rest of the south east to rout kidnappers by borrowing the Orji formula. But that did not happen because of the crab mentality.

In my view, Abia citizens have a duty to take advantage of the uncommon qualities of their Governor to restore dignity unto themselves. There was a time when the mere mention of the fact that one comes from that part of the country conferred on one instant prestige and recognition. The reason was simply that Aba was then seen as the home of geniuses of sorts who perfected copy technology to make goods that were comparable to those made in any other part of the world.

That was how and why Aba got the sobriquet, “Japan of Africa”. Such a characterization of a part of Igbo land was a pride for every Igbo but what else are we known for today, after the fall of Aba as a citadel of indigenous technology?

‘While the Igbo were worrying over who would emerge as their new rallying point, as many of us saw Ojukwu, the Yoruba were consolidating on the fact that not only had they found a new leader in Tinubu but also, indeed, one that they can proudly and present before the rest of Nigeria’

25

PROPERTY

Tuesday, MAY 1, 2012

Website:- http://www.thenationonlineng.com

* The Environment * Mortgage * Apartments * Security * Homes * Real Estate

email:- property@thenationonlineng.net

Sustainable cities aim to change the old order for the benefit of future generations by being environmentally and economically beneficial to their residents. Experts at the 6th Lagos Economic Summit (Ehingbeti 2012) agreed that cities are built the way they are financed and called on governments to develop a housing and infrastructure model premised on long term funding, OKWY IROEGBU-CHIKEZIE reports

•Luxury flats in Ikoyi, Lagos

Developing a sustainable city model

W

HEN people talk about a sustainable city, they are talking about a place suitable for human habilitation. It is a city with basic amenities unlike an unsustainable city, which lack such facilities, which are schools, hospitals and good roads, among others.

One of the goals of such a city is to be economically beneficial by creating dynamics in markets and providing rental and very low cost housing to enable migrants move up the income ladder in the city.

At the 6th Lagos Economic Summit held in Lagos, experts in the housing sector, who spoke from different perspectives on Housing & urban

renewal-developing a model for a sustainable city, said well-managed cities do not happen by chance but are achieved with clearly articulated targets and right incentives where the government stays at the policy level and allows the private sector to drive the vision.

The lead speaker for the session and Senior Private Sector Development Specialist at the World Bank, Dr. Michael Wong, who spoke on Urban renewal through sustainable housing and infrastructure, said urbanisation, if properly harnessed, serves as a catalyst for development, especially, development centres that •CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

•VC: varsity got N8b projects •Aregbesola combats flood with •Telecoms mast: Minister pure water nylon buy-back scheme defends NESREA in five years - PAGE 26

- PAGE 39

- PAGE 39

26

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

PROPERTY/ENVIRONMENT

VC: varsity got N8b projects in five years T

HE Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun State, completed 25 new projects within five years, its Vice-Chancellor, VC Prof Oluwa Femi Balogun, has said.

Speaking with The Nation, he said the projects including several kilometres of road, 1,000- capacity auditorium, hostels, staff quarters, industrial park, lecture rooms and offices were completed within the period.

These, he said, were achieved through his determination to make a difference and improve the skyline of the university.

He said since the establishment of the university in 1988, it had no identifiable building for its principal officers. According to him, what they had as a semblance of accommodation was substandard and an aberration to what the officers represent.

Balogun said the quest for infrastructure upgrade in 2007 necessitated the upgrading of the dilapidated guest house from a miserly five-bedroom to 10 rooms all ensuite which not only accommodate the principal officers and visitors but also rakes in N1 million every year.

On the VC’s building, Balogun said: “The era of a Vice-Chancellor living in a Government Reserved Area (GRA) and having 24-hour electricity and water supply while the students are left with nothing is gone.

If the scenario is allowed to go on, he will never be able to appreciate the challenges and sufferings of students as he is remotely located from them. Besides, the students will not allow him to enjoy his privileged position.”

He said in the last five years students had never clamoured for electricity or water or any infrastructure as the school authority has always met their needs with the best in terms of infrastructure provision and delivery. The whole idea, according to him, is for the Vice-Chancellor to

•Vice-Chancellor’s Lodge, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State

By Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie Asst. Editor

live among the students and appreciate their living condition. This, he said, was the only way he would get firsthand information of what the situation is as his lieutenants may not be able to tell him the whole truth.

“Indeed, the truth is that without students and other workers there will be no Vice-Chancellor,” he added.

On the idea behind the building christened ‘Unity building’, he said, on arrival in the school he met a factionalised university, with all sorts of crisis ranging from ethnic, financial and lack of cooperation between the academic and non-academic staff.

“The academic staff unfortunately

felt superior to the non -academic staff and it brewed friction. I concluded that part of the reason behind it was the apparent and high level of discrimination, especially in office space where the academic staff had over 99 per cent of available space against their non-academic counterparts.

This development created too much bad blood and segregation and l reasoned that the best way to smoothen the ruffled feathers will be to bring their offices under one roof to make for wholesome interaction while checking segregation and discrimination.

On how he raised funds for the building, he said the two-winged building was partly built by the uni-

PHOTO: OKWY IROEGBU-CHIKEZIE

versity through its internally generated revenue while the other wing was donated by the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Dimeji Bankole.

He estimated the cost of the capital project since 2007 when he came on board to N8 billion.

On how he sourced funds for the projects, he said: “ We had four major sources for all the projects we executed such as Federal Government annual capital funding allocation, annual intervention by Tertiary Education Trust Fund formerly Education Trust Fund (ETF), University Extra Government Earning or Internally Generated Revenue and lastly endowment from philanthropists.”

Furthermore, he said the break-

through success recorded in infrastructure development was also made possible through the policy of the institution to invest 40 per cent of their IGR to capital project development.

The Vice-Chancellor berated the Federal Government for not living up to its billing in funding institutions of higher learning.

He said: “It’s really unfortunate the Federal Government has not lived up to its responsibilities in terms of the full release of infrastructure capital grant to universities since the end of the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo. One needs to be ingenious to generate enough IGR to execute the needed infrastructure in the various institutions of learning.”

Developing a sustainable city model •CONTINUED FROM PAGE 25

can be the gateway to national development.

According to Wong, there is a strong casual connection between urbanisation and economic development. He said: “No country has ever grown to high income without vibrant cities”.

Noting the challenges inherent in urban development in the developing nation, he said because government borrowing is high it culminates in high interest rate, making it difficult to retail money to the housing sector. He called for the reduction of planning, building, titling and registration costs.

Wong listed the challenges of a city that is not sustainable to include infrastructure, water supply, transportation, waste disposal, water pollution, inadequate schools, hospitals and other related amenities.

He said four-million houses are needed annually in Africa. Nigeria, he said needs 720,000 of it with approximately 60 per cent in Lagos at about N30 billion to meet the Nigerian target annually.

“The irony is that there is 20 per cent demand for housing annually, but the demand is being hampered by lack of infrastructure, credit risk, extremely low income, high interest rate and financial illiteracy by the people who ignorantly take loans from financial institutions without understanding the clauses.”

He listed other problems inimical to housing supply to include non-availability of developer finance, high cost of infrastructure, access to land and others.

Similarly, the CEO, Asset and Resource Management Company Limited, Mr Deji Alli, who spoke on Developing a model for sustainable city, de-

•From left: Former GM, Lagos State Physical Planning and Urban Devt Board,Yusuf Alli; FCT Minister Bala Mohammed and Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Mrs Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, at the Event.

PHOTO: OKWY IROEGBU-CHIKEZIE

scribed a sustainable city as one that its resources are designed to meet current needs. Such city, he said, must ensure that adequate resources are available for future generations.“A sustainable city must be able to improve public health and better quality of life for all its residents,”he said.

According to Alli, while the world population would increase by 2.8 billion, between 2010 and 2050, 94 per cent would be from emerging economy. This percentage, according to him, is the population of France.

On the influx of people from different places to Lagos, he advocated for combined and maximum support for

the state government to resettle majority of people who come to the city, not only in Lagos, but also in places such as Kano and Port-Harcourt. He said: “Until new cities are built we cannot decongest Lagos and probably cannot have a sustainable city.”

To create sustainable cities, Alli canvassed articulated targets, need-based resource allocation, reviewing existing development guidelines, development of integrated infrastructure and encouragement of private sector participation (PSP).

The planning process should focus on requirements for at least, 10 to 15 years. Besides, he said, the private and

public sectors should have input in the final document, adding that resource allocation should focus on addressing needs that would stimulate growth, or enable the private sector to address other infrastructure challenges.

The Director, Global Monitoring and Research Division, UN-HABITAT, Nairobi, Kenya, Prof Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, who spoke on Embracing sustainable cities model, told the gathering that Lagos faces the problem of dual city. One, a large port city serving as a window into all regions for the world and secondly, a congested centre of opportunities for migrants.

He said: “Lagos’ largest resource is human capital and this must be targeted through diverse educational channels - formal and vocational.”

He listed three benefits that a sustainable city achieves to include ecological sustenance, social harmony and economic growth. “Depending on the level of development, focus shifts amongst all three; a successful plan is one that ensures that whichever aspect is made pivotal, all three benefits and the city advances competitively.”

He cited Singapore which made successful efforts at developing its cities with an educated population; Dual policy: welfare targets vulnerable as well as groups, rewards promising youth, incorporating equity and efficiency official policy promoting equity amongst all groups and targeting incorporation and employment of youths while instituting rule of law in all facets of public engagement Oyeyinka said: “The key to sustained competitiveness is to put one’s development in a global context, go beyond localisation and overcome the constraints of the rise and fall of local economies,” adding that there are three legs in the sustainable model. He said given the size and stage of development of Lagos, it behoves of planners to look at the Shenzhen model.

Manging Director, UPDC Hakeem Ogunniran said collaboration is the panacea to a sustainable city.

He advocated collaboration between the government and the private sector and advised the government to de-emphasise revenue generation and concentrate on planning cities for sustainability.

Ogunniran called for the re-definition of city values, liberalisation of land acquisition, land titles and registration to check scattered developement.

TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

27

violence will pass. It will pass ‘ This faster if the people can partner the government in eradicating it ’

E-mail:- law@thenationonlineng.net

• SEE PAGE 31

Last week’s attacks on two media houses by the Boko Haram sect have continued to attract condemnation locally and internationally. ADEBISI ONANUGA, ERIC IKHILAE, JOSEPH JIBUEZE and PRECIOUS IGBONWELUNDU, relying on opinions of lawyers, write that the heightening insecurity in the country can only be reversed through the state’s commitment and appropriate application of laws.

T Lawyers seek stiffer measures against terrorism • Urge overhual of intelligence agencies

HE attacks by the destructive Islamic sect, Jama’atu Ahlus Sunnah Lid Da’awati Wal Jihad (Boko Haram), on the media has brought home the point that no one is safe in a troubled society.

With its successful attacks on two media houses last week, the sect has effectively made the point that no sector of the society is beyond its reach.

The situation is made worse as the state and its plethora of security and intelligence agencies seem helpless and lack the initiative to build on clues by foreign intelligence agencies, as was the case before the attack.

Amid this seemingly helplessness on the part of a clueless state and its agencies, the question then is: Can

Inside: Osun commissioner fails to stop... - P.29

the law be deployed to curtail the Boko Haram menace and other violent tendencies?

What role can the law play in the face of eroding national security?

How adequate is the nation’s legal framework in the light of the urgent need to restore peace in the countr?

By its nature, law as a system of guidelines and rules, enforced through social institutions, governs behaviour and shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways. In so doing, it serves as a social mediator of relations between people and ensures social justice.

Social justice refers to the design of creating a society based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values

human rights, and recognises the dignity of every human being.

By the above it becomes obvious that a society that attains social justice through effective application of its laws is devoid of violence, a development that informs why most states strive to ensure that their laws are applied as against the case in the country.

Critics are of the view that effective application of the nation’s law will effectively curb the insurgencies being witnessed in the country. They blamed the escalation of insecurity generated by the activities of Boko Haram and similar groups to the unwillingness of the state to apply the law.

•See story on page 28

Banker sues drug firm for N400m over ‘adverse ...- P.30

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

28

LAW COVER CONT’D • Continued from page 27 Law experts argued that the law will only achieve its purpose of ensuring social justice if the government puts it to work. They are of the view that the law will remain lame in the hands of a weak state and institutions.

Former President, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), Chief Niyi Akintola (SAN), Joseph Nwobike (SAN), Emeka Ngige (SAN), Obi Okwusogu (SAN), rights activist, Bamidele Aturu, former Legislator in Ogun State, Segun Otayemi, Ike Ofuokwu, Chairman, NBA, Badagry Branch, Bode Oyeyemi and Jonathan Iyieke contended that the nation’s existing legal framework was adequate to curb any crime, if well deployed.

To them, the problem is really not with the law, but the willingness of the state and its institutions to confront the challenges plaguing the country.

Agbakoba suggested a complete overhaul of the Intelligence policy to involve all Nigerians. He noted that the last time the government discussed in detail issues concerning national intelligence was in 1982, when Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi was Director-Generalof the National Institute of International Affairs (NIIA).

To him, there is no way that intelligence can be based on just the agencies trying to combat crimes and terrorist organisations, who carryout violent attacks in the country.

Agbakoba said government should reorganise national intelligence legal framework and ensure that there is awareness and a conscious effort to involve everybody.

“The Nigerian government needs to overhaul its outdated intelligence policies and agencies. It is not just about law, it is about awareness, advocacy. Once this is done, every Nigerian becomes conscious of the need to report suspicious behaviours. But because the government is isolating the issue, it is so limited in what it can do because Nigerians are not carried along.

“In developed countries, intelligence is provided mostly by observation of the public, if there is no awareness by government to make Nigerians conscious of the need for surveillance, then there is no way the country can combat terrorism.

“It is not enough to say that we have a National Security Adviser.

But, how does the Security Adviser link with members of the public to gather intelligence reports? If we must solve these issues, then our dependence on the country’s intelligence agencies has to stop, and the involvement of every Nigerian introduced.

“The nation’s intelligence agencies should also develop a coherent policy to blacklist terrorist activities from being reported in the media.

This is because the incentives terrorists receive are media reports of their atrocities. If their activities are not reported, we will discover that there will be a great change.” Agbakoba said.

For Nwobike, “the truth is that we do not have dearth of laws to combat terrorism and other related crimes. What we have is dearth of committed men and officers of the various security agencies to tackle the menace.

“We also have dearth of political and religious leaders ready and willing to assist the governments at all levels to confront the men and sponsors of these criminal activities. I also believe that the political will on the part of those in the leadership of this country at all levels is lacking. And this is very dangerous.”

Akintola argued that what the nation requires was attitudinal change among the people. He said to tackle the security challenges, the President should work with gatekeepers of every community in the country.

“He should come down from his high heavens and meet people, because that is the only way to tackle these issues”. Akintola stated that those around the President have de-

• Agbakoba (SAN)

• Akintola (SAN)

• Nwobike (SAN)

• Ngige (SAN)

• Okwusogu (SAN)

• Otayemi

Lawyers seek stiffer measures against terrorism ceived him a lot.

“He surrounds himself with jesters and sycophants who cannot tell him the truth about issues in the country. We are yet to build a nation because every body is a local champion. People owe more allegiance to their tribes and ethnicity than to the nation as a whole.

“That is why we have called for Sovereign National Conference to address our differences. But unfortunately the National Assembly (NASS) does not want the conference to see the light of day. People, who before joining the NASS supported a Sovereign National Conference, are now speaking from the other side of their mouths, forgetting that they will still come back to the same society and meet the same issues.

“Nigeria has never been so divided as we have now and President Jonathan is not confronting it. Instead he surrounds himself with his kinsmen and people who do not even know the political arithmetic of the country,” Akintola said.

Chief Ngige (SAN) said the bombing is a continuation of the group’s acts of intimidation against innocent Nigerians and the Federal Government. “It’s an assault on free speech,” he said.

He added: “Yesterday, Christians living in the North were the victims of this deadly group. Later on, they targeted Southerners particularly Ndigbo living in the North. Now they have turned their attention to media houses so that they can be silenced.

“Even the notorious Al-Qaeda with all its sophistication spared media houses and journalists but Boko Haram will stop at nothing including the very media houses that give them coverage. What an irony!

“Journalists and media houses should remain resolute, objective and fair in their reportage of events

in the country. They should not allow any body or group of terrorists, Boko Haram inclusive to intimidate them into shirking their sacred obligations to Nigeria.

“Like I said elsewhere Boko Haram is passing phase in our national life.

Sooner than later they will fizzle out like their predecessors in crime, Maitatsine, Izalla and the like.

“May I use this medium to I extend my heartfelt sympathy to the staff and management of Thisday, Sun and The Moment newspapers on the attack on their persons and offices. May the souls of the departed and other faithful rest in peace.

Amen.”

Mr Okwusogu said: “The crazy rats cannot gag the media, rather their cowardly acts will embolden the press. Our sympathies go to families and friends of the victims.

“God will grant the deceased eternal rest.”

Ofuokwu said: “The bombing of newspaper offices is terrorism of the highest order and an ambush tactics to intimidate and cow the press. It’s a violent rape on the Constitution which guarantees free speech.

“I consider it the greatest threat to our democracy, or what is democracy without free speech? The press and the entire Nigerian people should rise in unison and condemn this brazen barbarism in one voice.”

To Oyeyemi, the aim of the bombers is cause for concern. “Analytical minds, by now and on the face of things, can reasonably point to the quarter and the brains behind the dastardly act of bombing the media houses.

“We should, however, be careful in this regard, more so when the Islamist group did not swiftly claim responsibility. We should look beyond our nose, even now that political gimmick towards 2015 has kick started.

“We should however be bordered by the aims of these evil perpetrators which of course, is the gagging of the press and curtailing if the freedom of expression. It has been said umpteenth time that when people are restrained from expressing their minds through speech, they do it through other means which may be fatal than through speech.

“Whoever is behind this stupid adventure should know that no single person or group has the monopoly if violence. Thus, the need to nip in the bud the likely conflagration they are courting. It has the effect of backfire.

“The truth should be said that this present government of Nigeria has not confronted the monster.

Jonathan administration though has the capacity to do so but has been treating the enemies of this great nation with glove hands.

“That is why an average well-informed Nigerian is saying that this administration is culpable. This government should wake up from its slumber of maladministration.”

Aturu acknowledged the existence of sufficient legal framework to effective deter terrorist activities, but argued that the problem rests with the law enforcement agencies, most of which lacked the professional competence to check terrorism.

He maintained that they do not put intelligence into their work, noting that in most cases security personnel chase shadows.

Aturu condemned the practice where most intelligence officers, who would have helped the agencies fight crime, have been deployed to guide the ‘VIPs’. He called for the withdrawal of such security personnel from those in authority and reassigned to serve the society.

He advised the media to remain courageous and go about its lawful duty fearlessly, saying “we need a

free press to develop this country”.

Instead of being proactive, using intelligence, our law enforcement agencies always react to crimes. It shows we are not committing enough resources to fighting crime”.

To Otayemi, contended that the problem of insecurity has much to do with the willingness of the state to take practical steps at containing the problem rather than the law.

“When you are talking about the law, the moment anybody is doing something that is against the interest of any other person, not to talk of journalism, the person is a criminal. It is not because it has to do with security that they are criminals. It is because they are affecting the lives of other Nigerians negatively.

“The moment they do that, they are criminals. As it is, the issue is about our capacity to fight terrorism, unfortunately, we were caught napping. Our nation is not like Israel that has a history of fighting to get everything they wanted. They were used to being on their toes and things like that. We have always had a relaxed country.

“The only thing that came close to jolting us was them insurgence in the Niger Delta that kind of created some problems apart from the civil war, which was actually a war. But in terms of terrorism, the truth is that we are ill prepared in handling it. I think we need to hit the ground running when it comes to reacting to how to handle the emerging terrorism tendencies “When it comes to issues that bother us at the national level, I have always told people that bit is not just about our leader, it is not just about our institution. It is about our thinking as Nigerians. We have an orientation in this country that allows almost anything to happen. Our orientation allows bribery and corruption to thrive.

“There is hardly anybody out of government or in the opposition who would get into position of authority and power that would not mess up along the line when it comes to maintaining corruption free administration. So as things are , the things we need to do as Nigerians is to see the experience of this Boko Haram thing is to question ourselves as Nigerians as to our conduct, our orientation and to wake up.

“We are too relaxed, waiting for things to happen. We don’t make things happen. All of us, we need to make things happen ourselves. All of us, we need to see something about ourselves. May be this Boko Haram thing would serve as a catalyst.

“What bothers me about people who are in the system in the various arms of the security apparatus and who do less than their best is that do they ever wonder that a family member could be a victim some day?

“Somebody they love could be a victim along the line. If every one of us thinks that what we are doing, somebody could be doing a lot more somewhere, we would be more careful with our actions. If I, as a security person, know that if I don’t tackle this issue properly, somebody may suffer.

“If my relations are not here and somebody is doing what I am doing somewhere else, where my relations are, my relations too can be victims. If we had that at the back of our minds, we would make things happen. People are just lackadaisical about it. I think there is need for us to wake up,” Otayemi said.

Iyieke said: “The bombing is an unwelcome development to democracy and freedom of speech in our nation. The worse is that it does not only pose a threat to Nigeria, but the world all over.

“When the press is in fear of feeding the society the happenings within and outside its environment, that society is at best considered extinct. The bombing is Nigeria is generally therefore condemnable, anathema, archaic and quite uncivilised.

“Until we deal with this ugly situation the independence of Nigeria is better imagined that lived.”

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

29

LAW & SOCIETY

Osun commissioner fails to stop trial over rent arrears

O

SUN State Commissioner for Youth Development, Mr Stephen Kola-Balogun, has failed in his bid to stop his trial for non-payment of arrears of rent owed his former landlord.

Justice Ojikutu Oshode of a Lagos High Court, Ikeja has dismissed a motion filed by the Commissioner seeking to set aside proceedings in a suit instituted against him and his wife, Taiwo over alleged refusal to pay for the rent and arrears of a rented apartment.

The said apartment is situated at No. 51C, Oduduwa Crescent in the Government Reserved Area (GRA), Ikeja, Lagos.

By Adebisi Onanuga

Justice Oshode, ruled on Friday, that the motion filed by the commissioner was not only unmeritorious, but also frivolous.

The owner of the property, Justice Adeniyi Francis Adetokunbo Ademola, had sued the Commissioner and his wife for allegedly refusing to vacate the property in spite of the issuance of quite notice on them.

According to the statement of claims, the claimant averred that the commissioner and his wife have been living in the said apartment since August 1, 1997, and that the yearly

rental value of the property was N2 million.

Out of the N2 million rent for 2007, the claimant said the commissioner only paid N1.3 million, and failed to pay the balance of N700, 000.

Besides, the claimant stated that the commissioner had never paid the house rent on time since the first payment resulting in substantial rent arrears over the years.

The claimant is, therefore, seeking an order of the court mandating the commissioner to give up the possession of the property as well as payment of arrears until possession is given up.

The suit had already start before

Justice Oshode before the commissioner filed a motion to set aside two proceedings in the matter.

But in a counter-affidavit to the motion, the claimant urged the court to dismiss the motion on the ground that it was not only an abuse of court process, but also a deliberate delay strategy.

According to the counter-affidavit, the claimant said that since the suit was filed in 2008, the defendants had failed to show good faith throughout the proceedings held so far, but instead filed a preliminary objection after two years.

The claimant accused the commissioner of not attending court

for pre-trial conference, and that the preliminary objection he (KolaBalogun) filed was also struck out when he did not argue it.

The judge, in the ruling, identified only one issue for determination, and which was whether the commissioner was entitled to the relive sought, and that issue was resolved against the defendants.

It was also gathered that the commissioner had already given up possession of the property, while the issue of outstanding amount to be paid, is expected to be sorted out between the parties.

Justice Oshode has, however, adjourned the matter till May 10, 2012 for a report of settlement.

Law firm appoints new partner

O

LISA Agbakoba and Asso ciates (OA&A) has ap pointed Mr Chijioke Emeka, as Partner, Litigation.

In a statement, the Law firm states: “In order to further its corporate objectives of delivering quality legal services to a wide spectrum of clients on the core values of excellence, commitment, integrity, service and dedication, Olisa Agbakoba &Associates has added a new Partner to its management team”.

Emeka, until his recent appointment, was a senior associate and head, litigation at the law firm.

His appointment took effect from February 9, 2012.

Emeka, a litigation lawyer, has practised in different parts of the country Nigeria. He studied law at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka and the Nigerian Law School Abuja, before his call to the Nigerian Bar. He has 12 years post-call experience.

Young and dynamic, his areas of specialisation include election petitions, commercial and insolvency Law, maritime law and constitutional Law.

• Chijioke

He has a passion for human rights, constitutionalism, law reform and development through Public Interest Litigation.

He is also regular guest on television programmes where he discusses law and makes contribution to wide range of national issues.

He has written several articles in newspapers and has also published in academic journals.

He is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association and the International Bar Association.

• From left: Aniedi Akpabio, Marc Enamhe, Iniabasi Udobong and Ebere Eke, at the regional conference of Commonwealth Lawyers Association in Sydney, Australia.

NBA holds justice reform conference

T

HE Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) will hold its second National Criminal Justice Reform Conference from June 3 to 5 at the Delta Convention Centre, Asaba, Delta State, beginning 9 am daily.

It has the theme: Effective Nationwide Anti-Crime and Security Cov-

erage through the Justice System in Nigeria.

NBA President Joseph Daudu (SAN) said those who attend will gain Continuing Legal Education Points and receive Certificates of Attendance. The conference fee is N25,000.

Group to celebrate 10th anniversary

A

HUMAN rights advocacy group, the Crusade for Jus tice, (CJ) will on Tuesday May 8, 2012 celebrate its 10th anniversary.

According to a statement signed by its founder/President, Mr Odogwu Richard Nwankwo, the event sched-

uled for Sheraton Hotels and Towers, Ikeja, has as its theme: abuses on our roads:The way out.

Crusade for Justice was founded in 2002. Since then, it has been in the vanguard of human rights protection, defence, awareness creation and interventions.

• Abubakar Danso Sodangi (left) and former General Secretary, NBA, Ibrahim Eddy Markat the National Executive meeting of the NBA in Akure, Ondo State.

Ikeja Bar election: NBA disqualifies three

B

ARELY a week to its election, three out of the 18 contes tants in the May 7 elections of the Nigerian Bar Association(NBA), Ikeja Branch have been disqualified by the Electoral Committee.

The Committee has rolled out a new guidelines and a Code of Conduct, which would guide the conduct of the elections.

Although details were not provided, sources disclosed to The Nation that the lawyers were disqualified for failing to meet the conditions set in the guidelines.

It was learnt that at the first screening of the nominations by the electoral committee, more than two-thirds of those who filed nomination papers were penciled for disqualification and would have been disqualified based on the new guidelines that was put in place for the election and released during the weekend.

By Adebisi Onanuga

As a result, the committee was forced to go back to the drawing board to review its exercise because the conditions in the guidelines and code of conduct are new and a departure from what the lawyers have been used to.

“We intend to achieve candour and respect from the outside for the bar, which the present mode adopted for campaign eroded,”he said.

Sources told The Nation that almost all those who filed nominations went about their campaigns “in most unethical ways not befitting us as lawyers”.

“We are no politicians. We are professionals and we expect them to limit their campaigns and do it with utmost decorum and in manners befitting the status of lawyers,” he said.

It was gathered that the commit-

tee has decided to enforce the aspect of the guidelines, which stated that anybody owing membership and practice fees, paid to the NBA and Supreme Court, would neither be allowed to contest or vote.

The decision, it was learnt, was to checkmate those who may want to engage in ‘’importation of fake lawyers” like some desperate contestants did the last time”.

It was learnt that a time limit was also set for payment of these fees to prevent a situation where those seeking votes would go and pay for their supporters.

“How do you determine who is a lawyer? It is those who pay practicing fees and bar dues and levies as at when due that would be qualified to vote and be voted for” the source said adding,” all those who rushed to pay for their colleagues so that they could vote for them are in for a surprise on the day of the election”

Under the new guidelines and code of conduct that would guide the election and future ones, qualifications would be determined on five major factors.

It is expected that any body seeking elective positions must have been a registered member of the branch for at least three years before nomination, must be fully paid up as at date and must have attended the general bar meetings for a minimum of 14 times in two years.

It is now an offence to sponsor newspaper articles in the print or electronic media vilifying or extoiling a candidate’s virtues during campaign, to underwrite practicing fees or bar dues or levies for other members among other rules.

The code of conduct, among others, prohibits material inducements of members in whatever manner, limit where campaigns could be carried out and established a candi-

• Omole

dates forum which must hold a week before the election is held to enable contestants sell their programmes.

It also fixed 6.00 p.m., Sunday, May 6, for closure of campaigns.

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

30

FROM THE COURT

Banker sues drug firm for N400m over ‘adverse reaction’

A

BANKER, Mr Charles Oben, has sued a pharmaceutical company, Glaxosmithkline Pharmaceutical Nigeria Limited, at the Federal High Court, Ikeja, for N400million after he allegedly suffered adverse reactions from a drug manufactured by the company.

He joined Glaxosmithkline Plc UK in the suit.

He sought an order directing the defendant to stop manufacturing and distribution of its Zyloric drug, until it satisfactorily establishes that the drug can no longer result in adverse reactions with the propensity to cause death or permanent disability.

Oben said he would contend at trial that the failure of the defendant to properly inform consumers about the adverse effect of its drugs is negligent and has resulted in grievous body harm to him.

He sought special damages of £2,000, $13,000 and N400million for permanent loss of good health and dependence on drugs.

The claimant, who is Head of Human Capital at the Burkina Faso office of the United Bank for Africa, said he went for regular medical consultation with his physician in September 2009 and was given a prescription of Zyloric, produced

by Glaxosmithcline.

According to him, not long after taking the drug, he developed high fever, spots and swellings on his body, which resulted in severe skin erosions.

After days of non-improvement, he was taken to an intensive care unit of a hospital and later transferred to a London hospital by air ambulance.

By this time, he claimed he was in constant pain, and had lost about 75 per cent of his skin and could neither see nor talk.

Oben said prior to taking the

F

with

By Joseph Jibueze

drug, he had a very healthy medical history, adding that his present predicament is caused by the adverse reaction to the defendant’s Zyloric drug.

The claimant said in February 2010, he observed a deterioration of his vision, and a corneal transplant was subsequently done on him.

He now suffers from StevensJohnson Syndrom and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis “as a result of an adverse reaction to Zyloric…,” he said.

But Glaxosmithkline Pharmaceutical Nigeria denied the allegations, saying it had never manufactured any pharmaceutical product or drug by the name Zyloric.

It said though the Zyloric trade mark was formerly owned worldwide by Glaxo Group Limited, a member of the GSK Group, the trade mark was assigned to Aspen Global Incorporated on June 30, 2008.

The defendant said the Zyloric drug purchased by the claimant may have been marketed by a member of the GSK group, but not it.

“The defendant denies that it is liable for any act of negligence of any person, company of legal entity other than itself which might have caused any injury allegedly suffered by the plaintiff following his use of the drug, Zyloric,” Glaxosmithkline Pharmaceutical Nigeria said.

It added that it denies that the claimant is entitled to any of the reliefs claimed.

The defendant challenged the court’s jurisdiction to entertain the case because it is claim of tort of negligence. It also raised the issue of territorial jurisdiction.

gabriel AMALU email:gabrielamalu1@yahoo.com

National security adviser on PDP and insecurity

T • Chief Judge of Federal High Court, Ibrahim Auta

But the presiding judge, Justice Steven Adah, ruled that his court can entertain the case.

He said: “The plaintiff is seeking the intervention of the court to stop the defendant from producing this drug. There is no other court allowed to do this other than this court, so it is obvious that this court is seized of the jurisdiction for this case.

“I believe the plaintiff has every competence to originate this action before this court and at this location as the forum conveniens, particularly since the second defendant has its regional office in Nigeria.

“I hold therefore that this court has jurisdiction to hear and determine this suit.”

Meanwhile, Glaxosmithkline has appealed Justice Adah’s assumption of jurisdiction at the Court of Appeal on the ground that he erred in law.

It wants the appellate court to set aside the ruling and hold that the lower court lacks jurisdiction.

Atuche accuses EFCC of selective prosecution ORMER Managing Director of Bank PHB(now Key Stone Bank) Mr Francis Atuche has accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of selective prosecution.

He faulted the investigations conducted by the anti-graft agency into the financial crime for which he is being tried before a Lagos High Court, Ikeja.

Atuche, through his counsel, Chief Anthony Idigbe(SAN), during cross examination asked the EFCC whether it took time to study the title of the shares of Caverton Helicopters allegedly sold by the defunct Bank PHB as well as its terms of offer before it arrived at the conclusion that the y were sold without authority.

The defence counsel also asked why the EFCC failed to tender the statement of the Managing Director of Caverton Helicopters and why he was not charged before the court.

“I put it to you that the reason you have failed to produce the statement of Makanjuola or bring him to court is that Makanjuola knows the truth and you too know the truth”, Idigbe said.

While cross-examining the EFCC female detective, Miss Nam Kappa, the defence counsel, Chief Idigbe stressed before the court that the alleged unauthorised sales of Afribank shares owned by Caverton Helicopters by the defunct Bank PHB was ‘a transaction on a non-recourse basis.’

He stated that in spite of strict regulations by the CBN, banks also engaged in other transactions under Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), which he said enabled them to give out loans under special arrangement.

“In a margin loan transaction, the

LAW AND PUBLIC POWER

By Adebisi Onanuga

bank bites the bullet, that is, the bank takes the business risk”, Idigbe stated, pointing out that the transaction between Bank PHB and Caverton might have come under a special arrangement as alluded to in the statement of one Francis Maduka, a staff member of Bank PHB. Idigbe disclosed that four companies benefited from the margin loan facilities, saying that Caverton only complained because it was asked to pay the bridge loan, another loan facility it took from the defunct Bank PHB. The senior advocate picked holes in the decision of EFCC not to present the statement taken from the Chairman of Caverton, Chief M.A Makanjuola, as well as the refusal to bring him to court.

According to him, Chief Makanjuola was one of the strategic shareholders of Bank PHB, who was also involved in the acquisition of Afribank.

He said while the transaction to acquire Afribank failed to sail through, the defunct Bank PHB was successful in the acquisition of Springbank.

He told the court that the defence was interested in establishing the veracity and credibility of the investigation done as well as the extent of knowledge of the investigators in banking matters and stock market operations.

The trial of Atuche became stormy as the prosecuting counsel, Mr Kemi Pinheiro (SAN) tried several times to prevent the defence from questioning the witness, Miss Kappa.

Each time Idigbe attempted to cross examine the witness, Pinheiro would stand up to raise

• Atuche

objection such that it became a shouting match between them.

Justice Okunnu restored peace when she overruled the objections raised by the prosecution.

She ruled that the defence has a right to ask the questions to bring out the truth in the matter.

Kappa had earlier told the court that EFCC investigation was based on petitions written to the commission by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and management of Caverton Helicopters on alleged misuse of a margin loan of N60billion.

She said the Caverton petition was just a part of the issues being investigated by the EFCC against the bank.

Further hearing into the matter was adjourned till June 20 and 21.

Atuche is standing trial alongside Mr Funmi Amosun before Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo over alleged financial impropriety and fraudulent conversion of shares in a suit filed by EFCC.

HE assertion by the National Security Adviser, General Owoye Azazi, that the internal political dynamics of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) may have aided the state of insecurity in the country is substantially correct. While the retired General and a kinsman of President Goodluck Jonathan choose to situate the ricocheted national security crisis as a backlash of the loss of power by the Northern political elites, many including American diplomacy rather see it as a consequence of the poor leadership and the resultant poverty ravaging the country. In my view, it is a miasma of the unprecedented grand scale poverty of a people brought about by a historical poverty of leadership.

I have no doubt that the birth of the current Nigerian security crisis while aided by the sudden emergence of yet another President from the Southern Nigeria was already a matured pregnancy awaiting a natural birth. So while historical corrupt leadership and large scale expropriation of a people had implanted the seed for the present security challenges, the ongoing tragedy euphemistically called political leadership across the country may be responsible why the midwives are impatiently wagering between a caesarian operation and a prolonged natural birth.

As long as the present political leadership across the divide has no qualms like their forbearers about the welfare of the country, so long will Nigeria continue to constitute a modern world nightmare. For example, how many Nigerians can correctly guess how much a member of a National Assembly, a minster or other high ranking public official is able to pillage from the system? While the Senators can quietly share billions of naira quarterly since they make the law, albeit unlawfully, they forget that they cannot make the law to banish hunger and the disquiet by the hungry. So while the political class can turn Nigeria to a bazaar of sorts, they pretend there will be no consequences.

That is why I hold the view that General Azazi was substantially correct in his thesis, when he locates the current crisis to the type of leadership that the PDP has foisted on hapless Nigerians. But of course if he goes further back, he will realise that like politicians like the military, leadership and corruption in Nigeria has continued to go from bad to worse. In the First Republic, the military adventurers had struck to stop politicians from stealing 10 per cent of contract sums and other allegations.

But subsequently the same military summarily convicted their colleagues for greater corruption as they battled one another. This heightened level of corruption increased by the next civilian regime under the watch of Shehu Shagari, while the later military governments under Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha are credited with more ingenious approach to large scale sleaze. The stealing from the commonwealth continuously increased further from the second coming of President Olusegun Obasanjo to the present regime, and now the magnitude of depravity in the public service has only got worse.

For instance under the watch of President Jonathan a whooping N30 billion was allegedly appropriated through the bank account of a Clerk in connivance with the henchmen in charge of the country’s pension scheme. This is despite the clear mandates of banks on deposits and depositors and the braggadocio of the hyper active Governor of Central Bank, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi; not to talk of hapless internal mechanism that remained dormant while the looting went on. Also, under the leadership of this President and his party, the House of Representatives has uncovered over a trillion naira fraud, euphemistically called fuel subsidy. This national corruption characteristic has reached a height under the current political leadership hitherto unheard of in the country, and of course one by products is the increased security challenges which General Azazi has correctly located as a bye product of President Jonathan’s emergence.

So while it is correct to say that the country’s security challenge has increased with the emergence of President Jonathan, it will be wrong to situate it merely to his being from the southern Niger Delta. The current security crisis epitomised by the northern based Boko Haram is much deeper than the circumstances of President Jonathan’s tribal affiliations. So though the northern political leadership may correctly bear the major responsibility for the security crisis, that responsibility, in my view, is not because as the General postulated, they are using it to fight the President, but because they have held power for about 40 years of our country’s independence and so have greater responsibility for the post-independence haemorrhaging of our country’s resources.

The security situation in our country will most likely continue to deteriorate unless there is a change in the notion of governance. I can guess with high certainty that unless President Jonathan and the political leadership across the country pause to internalise the provisions of Section 14 subsection 2(b) of the constitution, which provides that: “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”; no amount of ethnic card will be able to save the corrupt Nigerian state.

But may be the international midwives are test-running a new birth formula, with the conviction and sentencing to 13 years imprisonment of former Governor of Delta State James Ibori by the British court; when our own court had declared him free of similar charges. The jailing of Ibori and the threat to take in more former governors may just be a prelude to a suggestion I had made on this column sometime ago: an International Criminal Court on Economic Corruption; since it is becoming evident that Third World countries are incapable of bringing their national economic rapists to justice all by themselves.

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

31

LAW PERSONALITY

‘Nigerians must partner govt to resolve our security challenges’ Prof. Mike Ikhariale is a visiting professor of Constitutional Law at the Nigeria Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS).In this interview with the Legal Editor, John Austin Unachukwu, he speaks on the security challenges facing the country, frequent amendment of Nigerian Constitution, call for Sovereign National Conference and quest for true federalism in Nigeria.

H

OW can we use the law to resolve the security challenges in the coun try?

I think that the security challenges are the outcome of bad governance, bad process of governing people. We have to go by social justice. If we employ social justice to our process of governing process, justification for riotous behaviour, justification for criminal behaviour may not be there. It is true that some people are terrorists by nature, they see nothing good in the society and they enjoy doing evil but we can make this people less successful, less popular if we can provide a society where everybody has hope, has aspirations, has trusts, but I think that the trust between the people and the government over the years has been tampered with.

The insecurity in the society is there because Nigerians have learnt over the years not to trust the government. If people were to do their jobs, inform government about the situation on ground, this situation would not be like this. But people have tried to walk away from the government. They don’t report anything to the government.

We have to be our brother’s keeper. If Nigerians fail to report to the government about criminal tendencies, this situation will not change.

But this situation was brought about by the government that has over the years made the people to see the government as an agent of terror.

A government that throws tear gas at its citizens at the slightest provocation is an agent of terror. It is also encouraging criminality in the society since the government as the leader, is the father of the people, it must lead by example.

If you look at the way we run our government, a government official is moving on the way. He goes with a retinue of soldiers and policemen driving everybody out of the streets- that amounts to the militarisation of an otherwise decent people’s mentality. This kind of mentality trickle down to everybody. So people now settle quarrels with guns and bullets.

That should not be so. The power of persuasion has given way to the force of gun but we all know that force can hold on temporarily, it cannot hold on forever. So, this violence will pass. It will pass faster if the people can partner the government in eradicating this because the government can do very little if does not enjoy the support of the people as far as eradicating this violence is concerned.

So, if we can restore that linkage between the people and the government, restore that confidence, create the hope that we all belong to the same system and that there is hope for that system, then people will be more like their brothers’ keepers and that will minimise the present success rate which criminals are enjoying in Nigeria. Criminals are criminals. They should be isolated and sanctioned because there is need to clean the system of deviants so that those who are law abiding may thrive.

In spite of several amendments to the 1999 constitution, we are yet to address the basic problems of the Nigerian state. What are your views about this?

I think that first and foremost, we have to understand what is a constitution is.

What is a constitution?

The constitution is just a set of principles or rules by which a people have agreed to be governed. In the case of Nigeria, we have a constitution that is said to the reflect the way we ought to be governed, but to whether indeed the people of Nigeria can say that they have an intellectual connection with the principles set out in the constitution and the way they are governed.

What do you mean by this?

I mean to what extent can we say that the constitution is legitimately the handiwork of the people. S, that is one hurdle we have to pass in describing our constitution otherwise, if the constitution meets the fundamental requirement of being the will of the people, it follows that whatever is contained therein are in the best interest of the people or as stipulated by the people themselves.

And if the people in their wisdom think that they want to change those things, they have the right to change whatever they had agreed on before by way of amendment, we are

lucky to have in Nigeria, a constitution that has provided for itself the process of its amendment.

What are the advantages of this provision?

It is better to amend the constitution than to be writing new ones every time. However, I don’t think that amendment of the constitution is what you should do everyday. It is either that we have not yet fully conceptualise what we want as a constitution or we that we are still groping in the dark as to what our constitution should be.

That is the very reason there is the need for amendment almost on a daily basis because if the constitution has sufficiently taken into account the interest of this generation of Nigerians, it would be very unlikely that the same generation of Nigerians should be having reasons to change it as it were by way of amendments.

Are you saying that the constitution did not provide for this generation of Nigerians hence the frequent amendments?

There is the possibility of a disconnect between what the constitution provides and what the people really want, and in an attempt to seek the connection between this two that we are talking of amendments.

How would you describe the amendments? Are they giving us the desired connection between the constitution and the needs of the people of this generation of Nigerians?

I am not here to discuss whether the amendments are good or bad. The question is, why do we have them frequently amended. I think that the necessity for amendment came up because even though there is a very casual declaration that we the people of Nigeria gave ourselves the constitution, there is a concrete doubt on ground as to how much knowledge do Nigerians have as to the constitution that was proposed for them, how much of their consent went into the building of the social contract which that constitution represent because as a contract, the will of the contracting parties ought to be one of the fundamental requirements whether as the offers of the offered , acceptance, or come in by whatever means possible to terms with the expectation of all the parties to the deal. What do we expect from this contract, to what extent are we bound by it, what did we contribute to it as our input, practical questions ought to be answered very well before we can correctly situate that document as the will of the people and therefore give it some sense of stability this our present constitution does not enjoy.

There is this renewed call for Sovereign National conference, especially after the protests that followed the removal of fuel subsidy. What is your view on this?

I think that the call for a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) predates the subsidy crisis. For many years now, a lot of people have been clamouring for a revisit of the social contract that brought about the Nigerian state. People are looking at the way the state evolved.

Does it sufficiently reflect an aspiration of peoples to live together? Or it is just like a compulsory amalgam of unwilling participants in a Union? Many of us had hoped that after several years of living together, we have come to assume that we agreed to live together but everyday we get symptoms of a disease that seek to stem from the fact that there are certain Ingredients in the making of a nation that were not put in the Nigerian process and that had led to a gap between the aspiration of the peoples of Nigeria and the actions of the state that we call Nigeria. I think there is a serious disagreement between the will of people and the role the state is playing and it is that discrepancy that had led people to say hey, it could will be that this union is not working, only not we come

• Ikhariale

and re-discuss, renegotiate the fundamentals of the our federalism so that we can say that we truly want to live together on these terms, so that we don’t have to quarrel almost every day or by way of religion or by way of ethnicity as to what we really want.

Do you think that we can get a perfect country through such discussion?

I am not suggesting a country where every thing is really perfect. As long as we came from diverse backgrounds, there would be diverse perspectives, but there must be a meeting point at which federalism is set to play, which is a reconciliation of the various interests in the nation with a national value. My worry is that there is nothing yet in our polity that suggests there is a convergence of interest in what constitutes our national value.

So, people see it and put it differently whereas some other federated societies, while they retain their individual separateness, while they preserve their regional interests, they have a common meeting ground at which federalism come to play but I don’t think we have that one here. That is what people are asking for by calling for a SNC. Now relating that to fuel price hike, what really had happened is that the stability that the strike generated was so strong that it affected the foundations of our state.

People are saying that the state seems to be falling because there is a monumental evidence on ground suggesting that many people in Nigeria do not accept the way they are being governed.

Why do we have this state of affairs?

This is because we have a succession of leadership that is not sufficiently ingrained or did not successfully key into the Nigerian process. So, they were working contrary to the goals and aspirations of a united Nigeria, rather than being builders or unifiers. They were just creating confusions here and there, cashing on ethnic or primordial interest as a ladder to achieve national goals. But when you do that, you cause other people to go back and all that will provide tendencies that are inimical to unity.

I remember a statement credited to the Queen of England the other day when she was speaking of the power of togetherness.

What was the statement?

The power of togetherness ought to be

‘The insecurity in the society is there because Nigerians have learnt over the years not to trust the government.

If people were to do their jobs, inform government about the situation on ground, this situation would not be like this. But people have tried to walk away from the government; they don’t report anything to the government’

deployed to make sure that our federalism works.

How do we do this?

For that to happen, it means that we, first of all have to recognise ourselves and that can give us a basis to begin to fight for togetherness. It will always be better if we work together. It will always be better if we unite. We are always stronger and much more viable if we all come together, because the world in which we find ourselves today does not support micro states or weak states, the bigger the better. And Nigeria is endowed with a huge and diverse population that ought to be deployed to the advantage of the country. It is just, as I said at the beginning, that we have not had leaders who were able to see the big picture.

They were only seeing sectional pictures as ladder or strength to get into national platform. That is not very good. We should see ourselves first as Nigerians. It is then that we can suggest how to bring every person into this fold. But to have your freedom out of this fold, is to set a time bomb which will then begin to tickle and count very badly. That is why everybody is asking hay, has the Nigerian state failed or is it failing? It is the culmination of this honest query that has given rise to the call which we now see as calls for Sovereign National Conference (SNC). I would have thought that we have gone past all of those things if we had managed our affairs properly, but, unfortunately, we were not lucky to have statesmen. They were just politicians angling for their sectional interests or sectarian interests to the detriment of the national interest and that is why we are talking national conference today, if things were properly managed. Nigeria has passed that stage.

Recently, during the protests that trailed the removal of petroleum subsidy, some eminent Nigerians including Prof Ben Nwabueze, Dr Tunji Braithwaite were teargased. What is your reaction to this?

Those are very nasty developments, very regrettable, because what is democracy if you do not encourage the right to dissent, democracy provides a platform, a market place for ideas where everybody contributes his own ideas, but for one to say no to the other, by force or by guy is to misunderstand the essence of the Nigerian society or democratic process, it is a fundamental human rights that all of us have been endowed with, to express our grievances in the most peaceful way we can.

But teargasing our senior citizens the way it was done, to me, is very unfortunate and I think that was not a good way to express our democratic principle.

Nwabueze, you must not forget, is the foremost constitutionalist not by writing alone, but by practice. So, he couldn’t have meant anything subversive other than how to advance the best interest of Nigeria. So, if overzealous state officials took it upon themselves to seek to suppress those people violently, by throwing teargas on them, they are missing the point. Because what we have seen all over Africa including North Africa, is that states that seek such means to suppress people often invite greater insurrections to themselves. You just create more enemies for yourself because people are going to fight back and say hey, we didn’t put you into place to teargas us. We want an end to this. But we don’t want to go the way of the North African nations to sort out ourselves, I prefer a much more peaceful and democratic ways of correcting things rather forcing people to go to the streets, because when the chips are down and people take to the streets, the government cannot deal with it.

What do you mean by this?

Yes, because the government derives its powers from the people. The government cannot be bigger than the people. It doesn’t have more power than the people. Even if it does, on the long run, the will of the people will overcome the worst arsenal in the world, so military might may hold sway for a while, but it cannot stop a determined population from getting what they want. What happened was very unfortunate and I hope that in due course, the government will apologise to them and make adequate compensation to assuage their feelings, it is very unconstitutional if we look at what happened.

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THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

LAW & SOCIETY AT THE COMMONWEALTH LAWYERS ASSOCIATION (CLA) CONFERENCE IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

• From left: CLA President, Boma Ozobia; Secretary, Clair Martins and Treasurer, Charles Russel

• From left: Key note speaker, James Spigelman QC and Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN)

• Lawyers on the front line: President, NBA, JB Daudu (SAN) and President, Malaysian Bar Council, Lim Chee Wee

• From left: General Secretary, NBA, Olumuyiwa Akinboro; Omoua Alonge Oni-Opaku and Executive Director, NBA, Osita Okoro

• From left: Council member CLA, Yusuf Ali (SAN); Hugh Rebertson and Dr Cyrus Das • From left: Mrs Ranti Daudu, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo and his wife Victoria

• Demeji Sofowora (left) and Ola Omasanyi

• From left: Hakeem Bello, Mrs Badejo Okusanya and Muyiwa Omololu

• From left: Jibrin S. Okutepa (SAN), Rilwan Umar and Mrs Boma Ozobia

• Kingsley Ejiofor (left) and Adetunji Oyeyipo (SAN).

PHOTOS: JOHN AUSTIN UNACHUKWU

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THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

LAW & SOCIETY AT THE FOUNDERS DAY LECTURE OF THE NIGERIAN INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED LEGAL STUDIES (NIALS) IN LAGOS

• NIALS Director-General, Prof Epiphany Azinge (SAN) and guest lecturer/Director, Centre for Criminal Justice, University of Leeds, United Kingdom, Prof Sussane Karstedt

• Dr Nkoli Aniekwu and Institute Librarian, Ufuoma Lamikara

• Mrs. Eunice Erhagbe and Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye

• Prof. Paul Idohnigie, Dr. Emmanuel Okon and Dr. Adebisi Arewa

• Mrs Hajara Goniri and Mrs Bilikisu Mani

• Itiza Ukpi and Dr. Nwudiego Chinwuba

• Prof. Nathaniel Aniekwu and Sena Jerry Imahiagbe

• Mr John Iwelumo and Mrs. Meg Ekpe

• Alex Muoka and Mrs. Morenike Obi-Farinde

• Idowu Folawole and Farombi Olatunji.

PHOTOS: DAVID ADEJO

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Lawyers score CLA conference high Lawyers, who attended the just-concluded regional conference of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA) in Sydney, Australia, have scored the conference high for its organisation.They praised the efforts of its President, Boma Ozobia. Legal Editor, JOHN AUSTIN UNACHUKWU, who was at the event, reports.

By John Austin Unachukwu

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James Spigelman The keynote speaker, and former Chief Justice of the New South Wales Supreme Court Australia, said: ”The thrust of my keynote speech is that international human rights law makes provision against violence; in particular, violence against women. This also extends to freedom from fear. That is physical violence and threats of violence.

“The commercial aspect of it is the rapid development of international commercial arbitration and the challenge that now arises about the extent to which international investment credit law has imposed itself on the sovereignty of nations.”

Mohammed Hussein HE former President of CLA said: “It has been a success ful conference. We had some excellent sessions on the rule of law. We had sessions on commerce.

Of course, this is a regional conference with focus on Australia-Asia Area. When it comes to Cape Town next year, it is going to be a focus on a broader Commonwealth and since it is going to be in Africa, we are going to obviously focus on issues affecting the continent as well.”

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HE regional conference of the Commonwealth lawyers in Sydney, Australia has provided the platform for lawyers from over 30 Commonwealth countries to rub minds on the state of the law, the legal problems and how to use law to advance the development of their countries.

After three days of intensive legal brainstorming and cross fertIlisation of ideas, lawyers who participated in the conference said that it was, indeed, a successful outing.

President, Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA), Mrs Boma Ozobia, said: “In my opinion, this is a successful conference. It is a regional conference. It was smaller conference. Even then, we had excellent an international attendance.

Thirty-one countries were represented here even though in smaller numbers.

“I am proud of the support and the number of people that came from Nigeria. We had about 105 Nigerian lawyers who attended this conference out of about 350 paying delegates.

“All in all, it was well-attended.

The papers were excellent. The presentations were really made by experts in their fields. The topics were very much in tune with the needs of our today’s world and really touched on relevant issues bordering on commercial practices, issues bordering on the rule of law, arbitration, access to justice etc, all of these are what the CLA planned for.

“Yes, of course. You cannot have a Commonwealth lawyers conference without some form of excitement. So, we had one with the Attorney-General of Australia here Hon. Nicola Roxson. We had demonstrators picketing our conference.

We also had the incidence of one of the lawyers, Jenny Robinson, who ironically narrated how one of the lawyers on the front line was intercepted at Heathrow Airport, London on the way to the conference. That is how it occurred at CLA conferences because we did not shy away from political issues. We want to ensure that in these Commonwealth countries, standards are maintained, rule of law, democracy are sustained.

“All in all it was a good conference. The dinner was excellent. Nigerians had a sing song, after the Attorney-General of New South Wales led the way and it was a very interesting evening followed by a group photograph in our national dress.”

Joseph Bodunrin Daudu (SAN) he President, Nigierian Bar Association (NBA), said: “The conference topic is a beautiful synergy of two different platforms of the law. The first one being in respect of socio-political issues of the law, the other one commercial issues. Therefore, it is always difficult for many of them, but the CLA at the conference, had beautifully formed a synergy of those two different platforms and to their credit, you could see that the keynote speaker, effortlessly built a bridge on the two platforms and discussed the topics very admirably.

On the advantages of the conference to the participants, he said: “We are going home with a sense of what we have seen. We have seen that it is possible to organise conferences and have a moderate attendance. They are paying a good price for it. Therefore, the era where you had over 20,000 people attending a conference, was no longer a conference, but a market.

“I hope we will also learn that conferences are not a bazaar; that people should really come to conferences, pay their way through and benefit. The quality presentations and learning curve that we have seen here is wonderful”.

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Ayo Olukanni igerian Ambassador to Australia, Ayo Olukanmi said: “I feel honoured to have the Nigerian delegation to this conference. It is also a pleasure, am very happy that a Nigerian is the President of the CLA at this time in the person of Mrs Boma Ozobia. She has done our country very proud.”

Olukanni stated that the world is becoming a small place, as a result of those developments and globalisation, the world is trying to reinvent itself.

He said: “Those commonwealth has a very important roles to play in this, you remember what happened during the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGHM) , Nigeria played a very important role to resolve it . Also, this particular conference which is looking at how you can strengthen democracy in the world of globalization, especially including developing countries.

The programme is an opportunity for us to be able to learn lessons, share experiences and see how developed democracies in the world flourish and be able strengthen our own democracies for the good and benefit of our people.”

Yusuf Ali (SAN) CLA Council member, said: “The conference is unfolding and from what has happened since we arrived here, we have seen signposts that the conference will be successful. There has been adequate planning and as a privileged council member of CLA, we have come to the settled conclusion that the twopronged areas of the conference, one dedicated to the rule of law and human rights, the other one dedicated to commercial aspect of law are very good grounds to propel us forward.

“Every participant will have something to take home in terms of new contributions to his or her knowledge about the law.”

Tunji Oyeyipo (SAN) e said: “I must com mend the organisers of this conference. As you must have observed, they adhere strictly to time and it is amazing at how much you can achieve if you keep to time and you have little time. It is not the amount of time you have that matters, but being able to put in what you have within the little time you have.

“We have enjoyed the conference a lot. The only regret I have is that there were always two sessions going at the same time apart from the keynote address and it was very difficult thing to choose which of those sessions to attend. I have also been impressed at the extent of the knowledge of the speakers they had assembled from across the Commonwealth countries. They were obviously knowledgeable about the topics they had treated.

“I have gained a lot. I have also interacted with some of the speakers. I am now thinking of what I can do with what I have learnt.

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John Olusola Baiyeshea (SAN) said: “The conference is an eye opener, in the sense that though it was a regional conference, for AsiaPacific region, but we came here and saw a cross-pollination of ideas. Like we had in the keynote address, the world has definitely become a global village and we have cultural differences, traditions are different. We have a Commonwealth. We have a common heritage. We have a common background, which is rooted in the Common Law. “To that extent, whatever maybe the differences here and there, everything can be put together in cooperation between jurisdictions and we can always find a common ground in the laws that we practice, so that we can borrow from here and there like we had in the keynote address. They gave a judgment in Fiji on the issue of Nolle pro sequi. This is a provision that some Attorneys-General in Nigeria have abused in the past, not in the present anyway. They gave a judgment, which has been quoted in differentCommonwealth jurisdictions;places like this help to broaden your scope, horizon and knowledge of the law. It also helps in quality service delivery, because if you have a matter that you think is complicated, novel or complex.

You can always find a way round it by making reference to some other jurisdictions in the Commonwealth, that is what we have been doing, but there is always room for improvements.”

Jibrin S. Okutepa (SAN) “The conference is really rich. By large, the quality of papers being presented here will definitely enrich not only the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth, but will also enrich the global legal perspectives.

“Every lawyers’ experience being • Continued on page 35

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Lawyers score CLA conference high • Continued from page 34 shared here, from Nigeria to Malaysia, to other Commonwealth countries is going to impact so much and improve the law greatly.

As someone said, I think that what it takes evil to triumph even in our country and other Commonwealth countries, is for good men like you and I to keep quiet. Now that we are talking, I believe that sooner than later, we would attain the quality of justice that we deserve. “ I must commend the President of CLA, our own Boma Ozobia. She has done well and is a pride to many women. She deserves a kudo,.

She has done very well. Many Nigerian women, rather than concentrating their energies on fighting for the right of women, should come out like Boma and lead the world. I am happy for her.”

have been exceptional. I am thrilled.

I have attended the human rights sessions. The Attorney-General of Australia came delivered her papers. This was great and showed us what is happening in the country.

“Then the issues, topical issues around the Wikki likes owner, Julian Asunje and his solicitor who was also here to deliver her paper on her recent experiences and so on. some current issues were discussed and dealt with. That tells you the quality of the conference.

Definitely, human rights, recognising and respecting the rights of minorities are issues that are global in nature they affect almost every country.

“We saw when the locals, the Aboriginos came to make their presentation. They sensitised the conference to the issues that were even here in this location. We knew that those issues are not peculiar to Australia, they are found all over the commonwealth countries”.

“The CLA, Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) said, should be able to rise for the rights of the people wherever they were being trampled upon. It had been really enlightening and very thought provoking.”

tralia would be better for it instead of being scared of terrorists. That is why I said that I am happy that our Law Reform Commission was with their chairman and some of their members. If they went back and amended our laws to comply with best international practices, that would be better for us, especially now that the NBA motto is promoting the rule of law. Wherever there is a right, the Bar is there to promote the rule of Law without minding who is the authority or whose ox is gored.

Dr. Nechi Ezeako he said: “This conference was well-organised, especially the quality of delivery. They

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Marc Enamhe “For the organisation, the conference is ok, the topics are both of international and domestic importance, most conferences are full o much talks and less action, but the world has become a global village , things are beginning to change and we only hope that whatever we learn here, the special delegations will carry it back home and incorporate them into our laws.”

We have seen a full compliment of the Nigerian Law Reform Commission here for example, if they can appreciate some of the topics and amend some of the laws so that we meet up with best international standards, that will be god for us.”

Enamhe said: “For example, the police in Nigeria are used to abusing most of their powers, and going by some commonwealth examples which we see now, in particular, the topic on the rule of law and the commonwealth principles, terrorism, emergency laws and human rights. It is a fact that in Nigeria, a terrorism suspect could be kept in detention indefinitely whereas what should really happened, is to take him to court immediately and let him know his fate just like we have seen in some commonwealth jurisdiction.”

Australia had their own challenges, but from what the Attorney-General of Australia has told us, it is before their parliament now to review some of those indefinite interrogation of suspects, so that those who come into Aus-

Omoua Alonge Oni-Opaku he said: “The CLA has de cided to expand its scope to the issues that have to do with globalisation. And those issues predominantly, but not relegated only to African countries, seem to be rising up even in first world countries these days. Such issues include the rise problems of gangsters from different types of issues that threaten the rights of people we have seen such issues in agenda, Libya etc. It is now time for lawyers to stand up and speak with one voice, to be able to say no, to these issues and allow the rule of law to prevail.

“We are lucky to have someone with the calibre of Mrs Boma Ozobia leading the CLA at this time. She has a wealth of experience having been with the Law Society of England and Wales.”

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Aniedi Akpabio e said: “The conference was, indeed, very rich. It was really necessary for lawyers to come together like this to cross feterlise ideas.

“Here, you meet lawyers from over 50 countries that make up the Commonwealth coming together to exchange ideas on how the law should be used to move a nation , forward; how the law should improve the society; how the law should invariably improve the quality of lives and secure the property of citizens. It is, indeed, great.

“I attended a number of sessions on arbitration, intellectual property, access to justice, lawyers in the frontline etc and they were very rich.

“The CLA should do much to encourage lawyers from all over Commonwealth countries to participate actively in these conferences.

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Prof O. A. Osunbor said: “First of all, the opening ceremony has been quite eventful and I am impressed by the array of renowned lawyers that gave short addresses, including the keynote address, which was delivered by a former Chief Justice of this part of Australia. It was quite insightful. I was equally impressed by the quality of delivery by other speakers among which was the delivery of the Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN). I was proud to listen to him.

“I am particularly interested in the topics listed in Group A side of the conference, which is mostly the commercial areas - looking at the issues of arbitration. Those are my special areas of interest, commercial Law. I am also interested in access to justice which came up under Group E. I believe that it is a very rich conference and I am taking away with me from this conference, much knowledge and information that will enrich me as a lawyer and, most importantly, as a law reformer in Nigeria.”

of the topics I had experienced with the International Bar Association (IBA). I think that we should tend more towards the CLA than the IBA.”

Iniabasi T. Udobong “Interestingly, most of the papers presented and discussed, were very relevant to our economy and our people.

“For example, the access to justice topic discussed disclosed that it is not enough to build courts and judicial infrastructure, but, also, to enlighten the people, to let them understand that this structure is for their benefit.

Are the people aware of these structures and optionally use them for their benefits, that will enhance access to justice? The enlightenment of the beneficiaries of the judicial structures is access to justice.

“Again, we dealt with the issues of Islamic Banking; also, issues were raised and canvassed. When you give somebody a loan to do business without an interest, how would you run and maintain the structure itself?

Who pays the salaries of the banking staff? Who pays for the structures and facilities?

“Well, the issue of taking minimal interest was also canvassed, but how do you structure it to fit into the structure and the environment. It is, indeed, very interesting. We looked at the lawyers in the frontline and concluded that time had come for lawyers to take a front seat.”

Ebere Eke e said: “The issues raised and canvassed at the con ference were quite germane to the development of the legal system, especially issues such as access to justice, commercialisation of the legal practice, lawyers on the frontline and so on. There were a lot to learn, which we could equally take home because from the examples, we are seeing here, we had seen that their systems were much more developed than ours, like that of Canada and the United Kingdom (UK) That was one good lesson for us to go home with and see how we could develop our on legal system in Nigeria.

Emmanuel Tam E. Hart “The conference had the intention of linking all areas of law that were available to mankind. But we only consider each of the areas. We have to tailor it to the context of the country to which that was applied. So, that is the determinant factor. It was not necessarily the information, which we were getting here, which was important in addressing all the things that we understand from the speakers. But how we were able to use them when we got back to our respective countries to apply them for the benefit of our clients and, therefore, improve our society.”

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M. A. Abubakar He said: “So far, so good. I have attended a quite a few of the sessions. The only misgiving I have with respect to the way the conference was put together was the emphasis on the regional aspect of it because it tended to be restrictive.

I have attended sessions where paper presenters tackled issues from regional points of view. But there were others such as the arbitration session in which the presentation tended to be global. But, generally speaking, the topics treated and the presentation were more nearer home to us in Nigeria and the rest of the Commonwealth than some

Kenneth Odidika e said: The conference is well- organised. So far, so good.

On how the lessons of the conference will benefit Nigerians, Odidika said: “The comment by Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) will go a long way in helping Nigeria if only he would carry that message to his contemporaries and colleagues in Nigeria.

“The common citizens ought to have rights that should be protected and actually enhanced. To that extent, I would say that this conference would go a long way towards helping the generality of Commonwealth citizens.

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‘How to solve oil and gas problems’

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HE problems of the oil and gas sector came to the fore last week at the Punuka Attorneys annual lecture entitled: making a petroleum-based economy an engine for growth; the realities of the resource curse.

Its Managing Partner, Chief Anthony Idigbe (SAN), said the theme was selected as a result of development in the country’s oil and gas industry. He said Nigeria is at crossroads in her petroleum resources management, which has made her oil and gas endowment a problem for it.

Among the participants or their representatives at the lecture were Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim; Prof Pat Utomi; United States Regional Director, Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN), Mr Stephen Otillar; Chairman, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Ltd., Dr. Bryan Orjiakor and former Legal Adviser, Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), Prof.

Yinka Omorogbe.

They attested to the fact that Nigeria is an example of a nation whose resources are well managed, noting that some of its citizens are suffering in the midst of plenty. They lamented that the nation’s petroleum was yet to be exploited to the benefits of the ordinary Nigerian and called for a change in the policies and regu-

By Precious Igbonwelundu

lations to ensure that petroleum resources translates to blessing for its people.

Otillar, who was the guest lecturer, suggested the need for consistent enforcement of regulations by the government as well as the provision of a common playing field for both national and international operators.

He noted that the greatest challenge facing the petroleum industry is finding a way to translate oil wealth into individual wealth for the citizens.

He said managing Nigeria’s petroleum resources for the benefit of the masses requires a true, strong respect for the rule of law, adding : “If commercial parties cannot have confidence that contracts they enter into will be honoured and enforced, then major projects are very difficult if not impossible to develop”.

He advised that the nation should focus on maintaining the export of refined petroleum products, higher value products and chemicals rather than exporting crude oil. He said the government should borrow a leaf from nations such as Botswana, Angola, Germany, and Brazil, among others, who have been able to eradicate the corruption from their systems.

“Every country has corruption; every country has political

• From left: Chief Idigbe (SAN); Senior Special Assistant to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Ferdinand Agu, who represented the SGF; Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Power, Mr Fuad Animashaun, who represented the Governor of Lagos State and Partner, Punuka Attorneys and Solicitors, Mrs. Elizabeth Idigbe, during the lecture.

agenda that get in the way of economic growth and prosperity.

However, if the situation is such that there is a lack of confidence that business can get done, then companies unwilling to bend the rules will eventually leave, and transformational change can be accomplished,” he said.

Anyim said the oil and gas sector has a comparatively suboptimal impact on employment, value addition and diversification, despite that it has dictated the country’s economy in the past decades.

“The oil and gas sector’s relative contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in

real term has remained less than desirable with estimates at 17 per cent in the last three years,” he stressed.

He attributed the under maximisation of petroleum resources benefits to high level of foreign content, focus on export of unprocessed crude and low refining capacity. He expressed the hope that investments would be stimulated in both the upstream and downstream sectors as the President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration will, as part of its transformation agenda, encourage local and foreign investors.

He said efforts were being made to reinvigorate the local content

initiative in the sector through the fiscal regime regulatory framework of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

He further noted that deregulation, privatisation and other institutional reforms ongoing, as well as forwards towards the installment of new refineries and increased capacity of existing ones would stimulate the petrochemical industries.

To tacckle problems in the sector,Utomi calls for is a paradigm shift in resource management. If this is done, he said Nigerians would benefit from the sector, rather than the present arrangement that benefits only those in power.

Institute seeks comprehensive intellectual property policy

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HE Intellectual Property In stitute (IPI) Nigeria has called for a comprehensive Intellectual Property (IP) policy.

It made the call during the Word IP Day celebration in Lagos.

Its Director, Mr Folarin Aluko, said a national IP Policy will set out the framework for consistency and harmonisation between the creation, exploitation and management of IP on the one hand, and Nigeria’s development agenda on the other hand.

“As we celebrate the contributions of national innovators, we need to consciously create a platform for the innovators of the next generation,” Aluko said.

According to him, while there is no specific figure on how much piracy costs the economy, the Nigerian Copyright Commission estimates a loss of N6billion to the activities of pirates.

“This amount is regarding only as aspect: Copyright. It does not include patents, trademarks, and others,” he said.

He added that the institute is working to integrate IP consciousness into different segments of society.

“Under the Intellectual Property system, original and innovative creations of the mind, when expressed in concrete forms, are regarded by law to be property that can be owned, transferred and sold like physical property.

“The institute has set up a panel of experts that are available to any Nigerian at all. We have lawyers, engineers and scientists on the panel.

“It was set so that owners of intellectual assets can be heard, because a lot of people do not even know the nature of the rights.

“We’re also organising a series of seminars and workshop to sensitise stakeholders on on their IP rights.

We’re positioning ourselves as an

•Lawyers want law to control intellectual property

By By Joseph Jibueze and Precious Igbonwelundu

interface between regulators and other stakeholders,” he said.

Chief Executive Officer, XLR8 Limited, Mr Caliztus Okoruwa said his communication firm partnered with IPI to help propel Nigerians into better understanding of IP rights and get it entrenched in their minds .

He regretted that prolific writers such as Cyprian Ekwensi died poor due to the problem of piracy.

According to him, when intellectual property is protected, it translates to value to everyone.

“We want Nigerians to appreciate the impact of intellectual property,” he added.

Also, lawyers have urged the government to put in place policies to control intellectual property.

They stated this at the World Intellectual Property Day the Intellectual Property (IP) organised by the Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA. At the event entitled: Visionary innovators: unsung heroes in Nigeria, the lawyers said the need to include intellectual property as a subject in the nation’s schools could not be ruled out, because many Nigerians were not aware of the benefits of protecting their inventions and innovations.

Chairperson of the Committee, Mrs. Chinyere Okorocha, said if the government understood the importance of IP, it would have long included it in its schools and institutions circular.

She said the country has different Acts such as Trademark, Copyrights, Patent or Design, as well as Ancillary Laws, but no policy linking the various stakeholders

them.

“The IP Committee is trying to bring the various agencies involved in IP business such as the university, the research and development institutions, the Customs, among others, into one umbrella to develop an IP policy for Nigeria that will be a guide in protecting or commercialisng IP rights,” she said.

She also said NBA was working towards upgrading the IP laws to be in line with international best practices, adding that the commit-

tee engaged on sensitisation to educate Nigerians on how to protect their intectual property, as well as respect others’ rights.

Vice-Chairman, IP committee, Mr Afam Nwokedi, said an effective IP system is essential to technological and cultural development, and indispensable to economic growth and social welfare.

He said: “There is, indeed, a correlation between the quantity of investments a country can attract from abroad and domestically and the quantity of its IP system. In

‘The institute has set up a panel of experts that are available to any Nigerian at all. We have lawyers, engineers and scientists on the panel’

an economically active nation such as Nigeria, creativity and ingenuity in intellectual property is the corner stone to achieving a sustainable and healthy growth of the economy.”

Listing Philip Emeawali (CM-2 massively-parallel computer for oil reservoir), Jelani Aliyu, who designed Chevrolet Volt and Yemi Adesokan’s the next generation sequencing to clinical diagnostics innovator, Nwokedi regretted that most Nigerians who have received world recognised prizes for their inventions or innovations are “off shore assets”, wondering if“we have to be in the Diaspora to make an impact”.

He called on Nigerian movie producers to invest in the translation of Chief Hubert Ogunde’s movies to English language, saying that understanding of the vast and rich culture that is part of the nation’s proud heritage lies in such movies.

NBA-SBL introduces new Council, plans conference

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N furtherance of its policy of im pacting Commercial Law prac tice in the country, the Nigeria Bar Association Section on Business Law (NBA-SBL) has announced plans for its yearly conference scheduled for Lagos between June 17 and 20, this year.

The section’s Chairman, Gbenga Oyebode and its Vice-Chairman, Asue Ighodalo, said the conference with the theme: “Global legal regime – Prospects and challenges,” is part of efforts by the new executive of the section to sustain the tradition initiated by SLB’s founding fathers.

They spoke in Lagos last week while introducing the Section’s 15member new Executive Council to the media. Oyebode assured that his Council would sustain the

By Eric Ikhilae

section’s culture of promoting continuous legal training for lawyers and maintenance of ethical standard, among members.

He hinted of plans by the new Council to rebrand and restrategise the section’s internal policies with the intention of gaining “nationwide acceptance and support.”

The Chairman, Conference Planning Committee, Soji Awogbade, said the conference, which has as sub-theme, “Trends in global legal practice,” will examine the general concept of globalisation, its challenges and consequences, to enable the country to effectively prepare for it.

He noted that the problems created by globalisation are not pecu-

• Oyebode

liar to the country as other nations were grappling with the impact of globalisation.

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LAW & SOCIETY AT THE COMMONWEALTH LAWYERS ASSOCIATION (CLA) CONFERENCE IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

• From left: CLA President, Boma Ozobia; Secretary, Clair Martins and Treasurer, Charles Russel

• From left: Key note speaker, James Spigelman QC and Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN)

• Lawyers on the front line: President, NBA, JB Daudu (SAN) and President, Malaysian Bar Council, Lim Chee Wee

• From left: General Secretary, NBA, Olumuyiwa Akinboro; Omoua Alonge Oni-Opaku and Executive Director, NBA, Osita Okoro

• From left: Council member CLA, Yusuf Ali (SAN); Hugh Rebertson and Dr Cyrus Das • From left: Mrs Ranti Daudu, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo and his wife Victoria

• Demeji Sofowora (left) and Ola Omasanyi

• From left: Hakeem Bello, Mrs Badejo Okusanya and Muyiwa Omololu

• From left: Jibrin S. Okutepa (SAN), Rilwan Umar and Mrs Boma Ozobia

• Kingsley Ejiofor (left) and Adetunji Oyeyipo (SAN).

PHOTOS: JOHN AUSTIN UNACHUKWU

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THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

LAW & SOCIETY AT THE FOUNDERS DAY LECTURE OF THE NIGERIAN INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED LEGAL STUDIES (NIALS) IN LAGOS

• NIALS Director-General, Prof Epiphany Azinge (SAN) and guest lecturer/Director, Centre for Criminal Justice, University of Leeds, United Kingdom, Prof Sussane Karstedt

• Dr Nkoli Aniekwu and Institute Librarian, Ufuoma Lamikara

• Mrs. Eunice Erhagbe and Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye

• Prof. Paul Idohnigie, Dr. Emmanuel Okon and Dr. Adebisi Arewa

• Mrs Hajara Goniri and Mrs Bilikisu Mani

• Itiza Ukpi and Dr. Nwudiego Chinwuba

• Prof. Nathaniel Aniekwu and Sena Jerry Imahiagbe

• Mr John Iwelumo and Mrs. Meg Ekpe

• Alex Muoka and Mrs. Morenike Obi-Farinde

• Idowu Folawole and Farombi Olatunji.

PHOTOS: DAVID ADEJO

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

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LAW & SOCIETY

Lawyers score CLA conference high Lawyers, who attended the just-concluded regional conference of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA) in Sydney, Australia, have scored the conference high for its organisation.They praised the efforts of its President, Boma Ozobia. Legal Editor, JOHN AUSTIN UNACHUKWU, who was at the event, reports.

By John Austin Unachukwu

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James Spigelman The keynote speaker, and former Chief Justice of the New South Wales Supreme Court Australia, said: ”The thrust of my keynote speech is that international human rights law makes provision against violence; in particular, violence against women. This also extends to freedom from fear. That is physical violence and threats of violence.

“The commercial aspect of it is the rapid development of international commercial arbitration and the challenge that now arises about the extent to which international investment credit law has imposed itself on the sovereignty of nations.”

Mohammed Hussein HE former President of CLA said: “It has been a success ful conference. We had some excellent sessions on the rule of law. We had sessions on commerce.

Of course, this is a regional conference with focus on Australia-Asia Area. When it comes to Cape Town next year, it is going to be a focus on a broader Commonwealth and since it is going to be in Africa, we are going to obviously focus on issues affecting the continent as well.”

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HE regional conference of the Commonwealth lawyers in Sydney, Australia has provided the platform for lawyers from over 30 Commonwealth countries to rub minds on the state of the law, the legal problems and how to use law to advance the development of their countries.

After three days of intensive legal brainstorming and cross fertIlisation of ideas, lawyers who participated in the conference said that it was, indeed, a successful outing.

President, Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA), Mrs Boma Ozobia, said: “In my opinion, this is a successful conference. It is a regional conference. It was smaller conference. Even then, we had excellent an international attendance.

Thirty-one countries were represented here even though in smaller numbers.

“I am proud of the support and the number of people that came from Nigeria. We had about 105 Nigerian lawyers who attended this conference out of about 350 paying delegates.

“All in all, it was well-attended.

The papers were excellent. The presentations were really made by experts in their fields. The topics were very much in tune with the needs of our today’s world and really touched on relevant issues bordering on commercial practices, issues bordering on the rule of law, arbitration, access to justice etc, all of these are what the CLA planned for.

“Yes, of course. You cannot have a Commonwealth lawyers conference without some form of excitement. So, we had one with the Attorney-General of Australia here Hon. Nicola Roxson. We had demonstrators picketing our conference.

We also had the incidence of one of the lawyers, Jenny Robinson, who ironically narrated how one of the lawyers on the front line was intercepted at Heathrow Airport, London on the way to the conference. That is how it occurred at CLA conferences because we did not shy away from political issues. We want to ensure that in these Commonwealth countries, standards are maintained, rule of law, democracy are sustained.

“All in all it was a good conference. The dinner was excellent. Nigerians had a sing song, after the Attorney-General of New South Wales led the way and it was a very interesting evening followed by a group photograph in our national dress.”

Joseph Bodunrin Daudu (SAN) he President, Nigierian Bar Association (NBA), said: “The conference topic is a beautiful synergy of two different platforms of the law. The first one being in respect of socio-political issues of the law, the other one commercial issues. Therefore, it is always difficult for many of them, but the CLA at the conference, had beautifully formed a synergy of those two different platforms and to their credit, you could see that the keynote speaker, effortlessly built a bridge on the two platforms and discussed the topics very admirably.

On the advantages of the conference to the participants, he said: “We are going home with a sense of what we have seen. We have seen that it is possible to organise conferences and have a moderate attendance. They are paying a good price for it. Therefore, the era where you had over 20,000 people attending a conference, was no longer a conference, but a market.

“I hope we will also learn that conferences are not a bazaar; that people should really come to conferences, pay their way through and benefit. The quality presentations and learning curve that we have seen here is wonderful”.

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Ayo Olukanni igerian Ambassador to Australia, Ayo Olukanmi said: “I feel honoured to have the Nigerian delegation to this conference. It is also a pleasure, am very happy that a Nigerian is the President of the CLA at this time in the person of Mrs Boma Ozobia. She has done our country very proud.”

Olukanni stated that the world is becoming a small place, as a result of those developments and globalisation, the world is trying to reinvent itself.

He said: “Those commonwealth has a very important roles to play in this, you remember what happened during the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGHM) , Nigeria played a very important role to resolve it . Also, this particular conference which is looking at how you can strengthen democracy in the world of globalization, especially including developing countries.

The programme is an opportunity for us to be able to learn lessons, share experiences and see how developed democracies in the world flourish and be able strengthen our own democracies for the good and benefit of our people.”

Yusuf Ali (SAN) CLA Council member, said: “The conference is unfolding and from what has happened since we arrived here, we have seen signposts that the conference will be successful. There has been adequate planning and as a privileged council member of CLA, we have come to the settled conclusion that the twopronged areas of the conference, one dedicated to the rule of law and human rights, the other one dedicated to commercial aspect of law are very good grounds to propel us forward.

“Every participant will have something to take home in terms of new contributions to his or her knowledge about the law.”

Tunji Oyeyipo (SAN) e said: “I must com mend the organisers of this conference. As you must have observed, they adhere strictly to time and it is amazing at how much you can achieve if you keep to time and you have little time. It is not the amount of time you have that matters, but being able to put in what you have within the little time you have.

“We have enjoyed the conference a lot. The only regret I have is that there were always two sessions going at the same time apart from the keynote address and it was very difficult thing to choose which of those sessions to attend. I have also been impressed at the extent of the knowledge of the speakers they had assembled from across the Commonwealth countries. They were obviously knowledgeable about the topics they had treated.

“I have gained a lot. I have also interacted with some of the speakers. I am now thinking of what I can do with what I have learnt.

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John Olusola Baiyeshea (SAN) said: “The conference is an eye opener, in the sense that though it was a regional conference, for AsiaPacific region, but we came here and saw a cross-pollination of ideas. Like we had in the keynote address, the world has definitely become a global village and we have cultural differences, traditions are different. We have a Commonwealth. We have a common heritage. We have a common background, which is rooted in the Common Law. “To that extent, whatever maybe the differences here and there, everything can be put together in cooperation between jurisdictions and we can always find a common ground in the laws that we practice, so that we can borrow from here and there like we had in the keynote address. They gave a judgment in Fiji on the issue of Nolle pro sequi. This is a provision that some Attorneys-General in Nigeria have abused in the past, not in the present anyway. They gave a judgment, which has been quoted in differentCommonwealth jurisdictions;places like this help to broaden your scope, horizon and knowledge of the law. It also helps in quality service delivery, because if you have a matter that you think is complicated, novel or complex.

You can always find a way round it by making reference to some other jurisdictions in the Commonwealth, that is what we have been doing, but there is always room for improvements.”

Jibrin S. Okutepa (SAN) “The conference is really rich. By large, the quality of papers being presented here will definitely enrich not only the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth, but will also enrich the global legal perspectives.

“Every lawyers’ experience being • Continued on page 35

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LAW & SOCIETY

Lawyers score CLA conference high • Continued from page 34 shared here, from Nigeria to Malaysia, to other Commonwealth countries is going to impact so much and improve the law greatly.

As someone said, I think that what it takes evil to triumph even in our country and other Commonwealth countries, is for good men like you and I to keep quiet. Now that we are talking, I believe that sooner than later, we would attain the quality of justice that we deserve. “ I must commend the President of CLA, our own Boma Ozobia. She has done well and is a pride to many women. She deserves a kudo,.

She has done very well. Many Nigerian women, rather than concentrating their energies on fighting for the right of women, should come out like Boma and lead the world. I am happy for her.”

have been exceptional. I am thrilled.

I have attended the human rights sessions. The Attorney-General of Australia came delivered her papers. This was great and showed us what is happening in the country.

“Then the issues, topical issues around the Wikki likes owner, Julian Asunje and his solicitor who was also here to deliver her paper on her recent experiences and so on. some current issues were discussed and dealt with. That tells you the quality of the conference.

Definitely, human rights, recognising and respecting the rights of minorities are issues that are global in nature they affect almost every country.

“We saw when the locals, the Aboriginos came to make their presentation. They sensitised the conference to the issues that were even here in this location. We knew that those issues are not peculiar to Australia, they are found all over the commonwealth countries”.

“The CLA, Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) said, should be able to rise for the rights of the people wherever they were being trampled upon. It had been really enlightening and very thought provoking.”

tralia would be better for it instead of being scared of terrorists. That is why I said that I am happy that our Law Reform Commission was with their chairman and some of their members. If they went back and amended our laws to comply with best international practices, that would be better for us, especially now that the NBA motto is promoting the rule of law. Wherever there is a right, the Bar is there to promote the rule of Law without minding who is the authority or whose ox is gored.

Dr. Nechi Ezeako he said: “This conference was well-organised, especially the quality of delivery. They

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Marc Enamhe “For the organisation, the conference is ok, the topics are both of international and domestic importance, most conferences are full o much talks and less action, but the world has become a global village , things are beginning to change and we only hope that whatever we learn here, the special delegations will carry it back home and incorporate them into our laws.”

We have seen a full compliment of the Nigerian Law Reform Commission here for example, if they can appreciate some of the topics and amend some of the laws so that we meet up with best international standards, that will be god for us.”

Enamhe said: “For example, the police in Nigeria are used to abusing most of their powers, and going by some commonwealth examples which we see now, in particular, the topic on the rule of law and the commonwealth principles, terrorism, emergency laws and human rights. It is a fact that in Nigeria, a terrorism suspect could be kept in detention indefinitely whereas what should really happened, is to take him to court immediately and let him know his fate just like we have seen in some commonwealth jurisdiction.”

Australia had their own challenges, but from what the Attorney-General of Australia has told us, it is before their parliament now to review some of those indefinite interrogation of suspects, so that those who come into Aus-

Omoua Alonge Oni-Opaku he said: “The CLA has de cided to expand its scope to the issues that have to do with globalisation. And those issues predominantly, but not relegated only to African countries, seem to be rising up even in first world countries these days. Such issues include the rise problems of gangsters from different types of issues that threaten the rights of people we have seen such issues in agenda, Libya etc. It is now time for lawyers to stand up and speak with one voice, to be able to say no, to these issues and allow the rule of law to prevail.

“We are lucky to have someone with the calibre of Mrs Boma Ozobia leading the CLA at this time. She has a wealth of experience having been with the Law Society of England and Wales.”

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Aniedi Akpabio e said: “The conference was, indeed, very rich. It was really necessary for lawyers to come together like this to cross feterlise ideas.

“Here, you meet lawyers from over 50 countries that make up the Commonwealth coming together to exchange ideas on how the law should be used to move a nation , forward; how the law should improve the society; how the law should invariably improve the quality of lives and secure the property of citizens. It is, indeed, great.

“I attended a number of sessions on arbitration, intellectual property, access to justice, lawyers in the frontline etc and they were very rich.

“The CLA should do much to encourage lawyers from all over Commonwealth countries to participate actively in these conferences.

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Prof O. A. Osunbor said: “First of all, the opening ceremony has been quite eventful and I am impressed by the array of renowned lawyers that gave short addresses, including the keynote address, which was delivered by a former Chief Justice of this part of Australia. It was quite insightful. I was equally impressed by the quality of delivery by other speakers among which was the delivery of the Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN). I was proud to listen to him.

“I am particularly interested in the topics listed in Group A side of the conference, which is mostly the commercial areas - looking at the issues of arbitration. Those are my special areas of interest, commercial Law. I am also interested in access to justice which came up under Group E. I believe that it is a very rich conference and I am taking away with me from this conference, much knowledge and information that will enrich me as a lawyer and, most importantly, as a law reformer in Nigeria.”

of the topics I had experienced with the International Bar Association (IBA). I think that we should tend more towards the CLA than the IBA.”

Iniabasi T. Udobong “Interestingly, most of the papers presented and discussed, were very relevant to our economy and our people.

“For example, the access to justice topic discussed disclosed that it is not enough to build courts and judicial infrastructure, but, also, to enlighten the people, to let them understand that this structure is for their benefit.

Are the people aware of these structures and optionally use them for their benefits, that will enhance access to justice? The enlightenment of the beneficiaries of the judicial structures is access to justice.

“Again, we dealt with the issues of Islamic Banking; also, issues were raised and canvassed. When you give somebody a loan to do business without an interest, how would you run and maintain the structure itself?

Who pays the salaries of the banking staff? Who pays for the structures and facilities?

“Well, the issue of taking minimal interest was also canvassed, but how do you structure it to fit into the structure and the environment. It is, indeed, very interesting. We looked at the lawyers in the frontline and concluded that time had come for lawyers to take a front seat.”

Ebere Eke e said: “The issues raised and canvassed at the con ference were quite germane to the development of the legal system, especially issues such as access to justice, commercialisation of the legal practice, lawyers on the frontline and so on. There were a lot to learn, which we could equally take home because from the examples, we are seeing here, we had seen that their systems were much more developed than ours, like that of Canada and the United Kingdom (UK) That was one good lesson for us to go home with and see how we could develop our on legal system in Nigeria.

Emmanuel Tam E. Hart “The conference had the intention of linking all areas of law that were available to mankind. But we only consider each of the areas. We have to tailor it to the context of the country to which that was applied. So, that is the determinant factor. It was not necessarily the information, which we were getting here, which was important in addressing all the things that we understand from the speakers. But how we were able to use them when we got back to our respective countries to apply them for the benefit of our clients and, therefore, improve our society.”

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M. A. Abubakar He said: “So far, so good. I have attended a quite a few of the sessions. The only misgiving I have with respect to the way the conference was put together was the emphasis on the regional aspect of it because it tended to be restrictive.

I have attended sessions where paper presenters tackled issues from regional points of view. But there were others such as the arbitration session in which the presentation tended to be global. But, generally speaking, the topics treated and the presentation were more nearer home to us in Nigeria and the rest of the Commonwealth than some

Kenneth Odidika e said: The conference is well- organised. So far, so good.

On how the lessons of the conference will benefit Nigerians, Odidika said: “The comment by Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) will go a long way in helping Nigeria if only he would carry that message to his contemporaries and colleagues in Nigeria.

“The common citizens ought to have rights that should be protected and actually enhanced. To that extent, I would say that this conference would go a long way towards helping the generality of Commonwealth citizens.

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AVIATION

Why Nigeria needs a national carrier, by expert A

GROUP of aviation professionals led by the Managing Director of AirGold Aviation, Ifeanyi Okocha, has said that with N985 billion Nigeria can establish a national carrier that will generate 19,500 jobs.

He spoke to journalists at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Terminal 2(MMA2) while contributing to the debate on the establishment of a national flag carrier.

Okocha, an aeronautical engineer, said his team of aviation professionals have carried out a feasibility study which will soon be submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan, adding that the study carried out showed it would require N985 billion to kick start the project.

Okocha said when the carrier is established ,the name will be called ‘Nigeria Airlines’, adding that the proposed carrier by the group will not be managed by civil servants with civil service structure, but professionally by professionals.

He said the civil service mentality was one of the reasons why the liquidated Nigeria Airways Limited(NAL) died “If Nigeria Airways Limited was managed professionally, the national carrier would still be op-

Stories by Kelvin Osa-Okunbor Aviation Correspondent

erating till today. But it was run in a civil service manner,” he said He said at the time NAL was liquidated, the national carrier had four large maintenance departments, which according to him should have been converted to Maintenance Overhaul and Repair (MOR) facilities.

Okocha regretted that instead, they closed down, thereby denying the Federal Government opportunity of generating revenue.

He said if the conversion was done, airlines in Nigeria and other international airlines would have been doing their C and D checks in the country.

He said the feasibility study the group carried out indicated that the national flag carrier when established with loans estimated at N985 billion from the Federal Government is capable of generating 19,500,000 jobs, adding that out of this number,16,000 will be graduates while 8,000 will be aviation professionals.

He added that 2,960 will be junior staff, management staff 400, 20 top management staff and 120 expatriates.

The proposed national flag carrier, he said, will begin flight

operations with 48 airplanes, adding that 12 months after the carrier will introduce an aeronautic industrial section, which will employ additional 10,000 which will bring the figure to 29,500.

He said the group is relying on the Federal Government to fund the project which will be in form of loans, while it directs the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to supervise the project.

“What the Federal Government has to do is to invite the Minister of Aviation, Finance and the Central Bank Governor to look at the project.”

On how the money will be repaid by the group if the Federal Government keys into the project, Okocha said: “We will pay back within 10 years and within three years of operations the carrier will be taken to the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE).”

The group, he said, will bring in aircraft manufacturing bases to Nigeria, adding that the bases will be located in Ibadan, Kaduna and Abuja On why Lagos is left out considering the fact that it is the headquarters of aviation, Okocha said Lagos is congested and they want where they can get expanse of land.

Air Nigeria relaunches intercontinental operations Air Nigeria will on May 16 begin scheduled direct flights from Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos to London Gatwick with affordable fares for a return economy ticket.

Air Nigeria will also on May 17, 2012 commence flights to Oliver Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa, using a modern Airbus A330-200 aircraft to service both routes.

The development is coming just as Air Nigeria is implementing a growth phase strategy initiated by Jimoh Ibrahim, who acquired the airline two years ago.

The recommencement of the long-haul flights, according to the Chief Executive Officer of Air Nigeria, Mr Kinfe Kahssaye, marks a historic moment for Nigerian aviation and in the West African sub-region as passengers now have a wider array of choice and more than ever before, can conveniently connect onwards to London and Johannesburg and points beyond.

Commenting on the commencement of both services, Kahssaye said: “After the successful turn-around of the airline over the last two years, the airline is now well positioned to compete favourably on the international market.”

He further noted that the recommencement of the long-haul flights confirms Air Nigeria’s commitment to boost business and tourism travels through regular growth and innovation that will meet the aspirations of passengers. Passengers will have distinctive onboard experience on the flights as indigenous meals and variety of movies will be offered as the airline is committed to delivering quality services at an affordable price.

IATA: Sustainable aviation requires govt cooperation THE International Air Transport Association (IATA) has called on governments to work together and with the aviation industry to maximise aviation’s ability to sustainably drive global economic development and job creation. ”Governments and industry share a common interest in aviation’s success. Aviation is a business and a driver of economic and social development that is vitally important to governments.

“About three billion people fly annually. And the nearly 50 million tonnes of cargo transported by air represents some 35 per cent of the value of goods traded internationally” said Tony Tyler, IATA Director General and CEO while speaking at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) International Air Transport symposium.

Aviation is a highly regulated industry at the national, regional and global levels. “Sustainability depends not only on what airlines do for themselves but also the policies adopted by governments,” said Tyler.

“Regulation that is neither coordinated nor mutually recognised brings a high cost of compliance without corresponding benefits, while maintaining restrictions on airlines’ access to global capital and to markets has kept airlines financially weak,” said Tyler noting the important role of ICAO in delivering solutions to ensure aviation’s sustainability in the broadest of terms.

BAA sells Edinburgh airport for £800m

•L-R: Chairman, League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAA), Mr Chucks Iwalumo, Group HeadCorporate Communications, Dana Group, Mr Tony Usidamen and Snr. Media Executive, Mr Eze Anyanwu at an event.

PHOTO: ISAAC JIMOH AYODELE

‘Calabar Airport lacks power supply’

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HE Margaret Ekpo International Airport Calabar is in dire need of dedicated electricity power lines from the national grid to boost operations at the airport, the airport manager, Alhaji Mahmoud Sani, has said.

Sani said the airport’s main power source is the generating plant which ought to be the secondary power source.

He said electricity supply to the airport has remained a nightmare to the management of the airport for a very long time.

Sani called for dedicated KVA lines from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to the airport to reduce the financial burden of purchasing diesel. “We cannot afford to leave the airport in darkness, we have been running on generator and we have been buy-

ing diesel and we make sure the airport is on through out the operational period” He praised the Cross River State government for coming to the aid of the airport through the provision of a 500 KVA generating plant and the overhauling of the old 500KVA on ground at a time the airport was going through remodeling.

He said:“If I could have a dedicated line to the airport, the state government has tried to do it. On two occasions the transformers collapsed and that is why we revert to the 11KVA generators. If the dedicated lines can be revisited, I am sure a lot of our challenges will be sorted out.”

On the remodeling of the airport, Sani said it was the best thing that has ever happened to the airport

adding that it has been upgraded to a storey building as the halls will accommodate 1,500 passengers as against the 200 after the remodelling.

Sani further revealed that there will be 30 airline check-in counters stressing that two major airlines in the country have signified interest to begin operations into Calabar airport that operates seven flights daily.

The airport manager said the upgrading of the airport building to a storey building, will provide opportunities for business activities.

He said it has been very challenging managing the airport due to the neatness of the city and as a tourist centre adding that the airport cannot be left untidy being the gateway.

EDINBURGH airport is to be sold by BAA to the owner of Gatwick and City airports for £807.2million. The sale was forced by the Competition Commission, which ruled in 2009 that BAA’s monopoly position needed addressing by selling one of its Scottish airports as well as Gatwick and Stansted.

The buyer, Global Infrastructure Partners, a $5.6bn (£3.5bn) fund based in London and New York, said it hoped to complete the deal by the end of May. Adebayo Ogunlesi, chairman and managing partner of GIP, said: “Edinburgh Airport is a high-quality infrastructure asset. Its acquisition is a landmark deal for GIP. “We see significant opportunity to apply our tested and successful operational expertise and our knowledge of the global airports sector to develop and enhance the performance of Edinburgh Airport in years to come.”

City analysts, however, raised eyebrows at the value placed on the airport. Douglas McNeill of Charles Stanley Securities said: “It’s a price well in excess of initial expectations and represents an outstanding piece of business for BAA. It vindicates their decision to sell Edinburgh rather than Glasgow. Edinburgh’s got an attractive catchment area; there’s a medium-term possibility of adding a runway. But it’s more than half what GIP paid for Gatwick, which is about four times bigger in passenger and revenue terms.”

Group completes BMI deal INTERNATIONAL Airlines Group has formally completed its takeover over British Midland from Lufthansa, but the British Airways parent will now have to deal with the disposal of BMIbaby and BMI Regional.

IAG agreed to buy BMI’s mainline operations for £172.5 million (•207 million) and will integrate parts of it into BA. But after Lufthansa failed to sell BMI’s low-cost and regional subsidiaries before the transaction completed, the German carrier will now have to accept a significantly lower price for the sale.

IAG did not want to take over BMIibaby and BMI Regional and arranged a price reduction that will reflect the “costs associated with exiting these businesses”. This would “include the impact of operating them in the short term”, IAG says. “BMIbaby and BMI regional are not part of IAG’s long term plans and will not be integrated into British Airways”, the company reiterates.

Lufthansa says the acquisition price will be finalised by the end of June.

This will be “clearly negative”, but the loss would be amortised “within a year”, the German airline adds.

German turnaround specialist Intro Aviation, which had emerged as possible buyer of the BMIbaby, earlier this month said negotiations had ended after Lufthansa rejected its non-binding offer for the budget carrier.

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MARITIME

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OLLOWING the spate of bombings in some parts of the country, new licences for the establishment of tank farms in Apapa would no longer be issued, the Federal Government has said.

A source told The Nation on Saturday that the Federal Government was disturbed by the location and proximity of tank farms to the ports and communities around it.

The source said as a result of insecurity in some parts of the country, the Federal Government has directed that no developer should be allowed to construct tank farms in the area.

The situation, the source said, is causing both marine and land congestion.

The source said the options available to the government is to stop the construction of new tank farms and relocate some existing ones.

The senior government official insisted that the area from Ibafon to Coconut and to Ijora, which hosts over 22 tank farms, need to be decongested to save the lives and property of those who do business or live in the area.

He said the government is looking at Iwopin-Ijebu a waterside area of Ogun State. He said the Federal Government has started discussions with the Governor Ibikunle Amosu because Iwopin has a draught of about 11 metres and can be dredged to about 15 metres.

The Executive Director, Engineering and Technical Services, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mr Sonny Nwobi, confirmed the directive.

He said the indiscriminate location of tank farms in Apapa is worrying the agency.

“Judging by the way tank farms are located very close to the ports, it is obvious that if the Federal Government does not act fast, lives of the residents and the business

Fed Govt stops building of tank farms in Apapa

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By Oluwakemi Dauda, Maritime Correspondent

THE Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) is to classify boats operating in the state’s waterways. Already, the management of the authority has met with ferry service owners and boats operators on the new move.

Its Director of Operations, Mr Segun Adekoya, said the exercise is important, adding that not all boats have the same capacity.

He explained to boat operators that the government is aware that they are working under very stringent conditions, but assured the water transporters that the government is working out a relief package for them.

He disclosed that the government has planned to legalises insurance cover for both the boat, crew and passengers. He urged operators to key into the new proposed law when it is passed.

Operators, however, complained of the double taxation by the agency, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) and called on them to harmonise their charges to ease their operations.

‘Stop paying duty for importers’ • Lagos port

•Nwobi

By Oluwakemi Dauda, Maritime Correspondent

community operating in Tin Can and Apapa may be in jeopardy if there is a serious fire outbreak.

“Though these tank farms have brought some respite in terms of petroleum products supply, they could be a disaster in time to come if the Federal Government does not take the necessary decision on their construction and location. That is why the directive by President Jonathan is good and

•Akinderu-Fatai

timely because it is in the best interest of the country and its people,” he said.

At the Elders’ Support programme he organised last week, a member of the House of Representatives from Oshodi Constituency 1 in Lagos State, Maroof Akinderu-Fatai, said the Department of Petroleum Resources has the powers to regulate the industry to ensure safety at the ports. He commended President Jonathan for taking a good deci-

sion.

His words: “According to the act of the National Assembly, the agency is vested with the powers to supervise petroleum industry operations being carried out under licences and leases in the country to ensure compliance with the laws and regulations in line with good oil producing practices.

“It was set up to enforce safety and environmental regulations and ensure that the activity and operations of tank farms and other oil and gas outfits conform to national and international industry practices and standards.

“But the huge number of tank farms located very close to the ports showed that the agency and the operators are operating without recourse to the consequences in the nearest future. This development does not only threaten the entire port community, but also the lives of people living in Apapa, Ajegunle and Festac Town in the state,” Akinderu-Fatai said.

NIMASA to extablish maritime institute in UNILAG HE Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) is partnering with the University of Lagos (UNILAG) to establish an institute of maritime studies.

The initial take-off grant of the institute is N1 billion.

The Director-General of the Agency, Mr Patrick Akpobolokemi, disclosed this when members of the UNILAG Committee for sourcing for funds led by its Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Hussaini, paid him a courtesy visit last week.

The NIMASA boss said UNILAG was selected as a beneficiary of one of proposed institutes because it is located in the commercial nerve centre of the country, in a coastal state and has a long and impressive history in the development of human capacity in the country.

“We have, therefore, decided to partner with the University of Lagos to further develop manpower, especially in the maritime sector,” he said.

He also said the partnership was part of the transformation agenda of the administration to reposition the maritime sector and make it a hub in Africa.

The NIMASA boss told the committee that allocation has been put in the 2012 bud-

Lagos to classify boats

get to cater for the establishment of the institute and that the management of the agency would soon liaise with the university authorities to work out modalities for the take-off of the institute.

In his address, the leader of the delegation, Alhaji Adamu Hussaini, said the

UNILAG was desirous in working with NIMASA for the provision of a maritime vocational centre, a modern jetty and five ferry boats, among others.

He said the institution has adequate professionals that can collaborate with NIMASA in technical and human capacity develop-

ment. He solicited support for the institution’s 50th anniversary billed for later this year.

NIMASA has proposed the establishment of institutes of maritime studies at IBB University, Niger Delta University, University of Nigeria Nsukka and the University of Lagos.

Akwa Ibom to link seaport to rail lines

T

HE Akwa Ibom State Government has con cluded plans to link the new deep seaport jointly constructed by the state government and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to rail lines in the country. It is aimed at facilitating the movement of goods out of the ports to the other parts o the country.

NPA Managing Director,

Stories by Uyoatta Eshiet

Mr Omar Suleiman, disclosed when he was receiving the European Union (EU) Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador David Macrae, who paid him a courtesy visit in his office in Lagos.

The NPA boss pointed out that the Ibaka project is a collaborative efforts between Akwa Ibom and the NPA,

adding that the government has put in place the necessary infrastructure to fast-track the take-off of the port.

Macrae commended Suleiman for improving the infrastructure at the Lagos Port Complex (LPC) and the Tin-Can Island Port Complex (TCIPC), Apapa, Lagos.

He pledged the EU’s support to promote maritime in Nigeria.

Again, stakeholders fault cargo inspection

T

HE 100 per cent physical examination of cargoes policy of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has again been faulted for its inadequacies.

Stakeholders have called for a review of the policy, noting that it impeded prompt cargo clearance.

The latest criticism came from the Managing Director of NPA, Mr Omar Suleiman

while addressing stakeholders who visited him in his office in Lagos.

He said the Nigeria Customs review of the policy is not okay.

Stakeholders said the 48hour cargo clearance target time aimed at bringing the ports in line with what obtains in other ports in West African countries.

He urged the Nigeria Cus-

toms Service to acquire hitech equipment that are capable of examining cargoes to fast-track the delivery of consignments to consignees.

He also urged the Service to improve on its information-tracking system where containerised cargoes can be known without subjecting them to 100 per cent physical examination.

WORRIED by the way some members of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) are implicated in the clearing of goods, its National President, Alhaji Olayiwola Shittu, has warned members of the association to stop paying customs duties for their clients.

The ANLCA chief told The Nation that the agents were often blamed for the wrong doings of importers, noting that this has been the major problem between the Customs and clearing agents.

He said many policies of the Nigeria Customs Service failed to achieve their set goals because clearing agents were not carried along when making the policies. He, therefore, called for a synergy between the service and clearing agents.

“The missing link between Customs and agents is confidence. For Customs to draw up any policy there is the need to hold discussions with the clearing agents to get their input.

“If we hold meetings regularly, some of the issues mitigating cargo clearance would have been tackled. Revenue target and trade facilitation cannot work together and that is why cargo documents are being delayed by some Custom officers in the interest of revenue,” he said.

MWUN gets nine buses

By Uyoatta Eshiet

THE President-General of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), Comrade Anthony Emmanuel Nted, has donated nine 18-seater buses to some branches of the union.

He said this was to facilitate the movement of members in and around their work environment.

He said the donation was part of his campaign promises to members of the union aimed at giving them a sense of belonging.

He disclosed that the donation was the first step, adding that more would be distributed to other units.

President-General, MWUN, Dockworkers Branch, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju, said the donation was a testimony that the leadership of the union has the interest of the members at heart.

He urged members to desist from inimical activities, warning that some unscrupulous members were causing disunity in the association because the union’s election was fast approaching.

He advised members to disassociate themselves from those members, who he described as people who do not have the development of the ports and the leadership at heart.

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

39

PROPERTY/ENVIRONMENT Building Issues

Why everybody cannot own a house

N

•Oba Elegushi Estate, Ajah, Lagos

Aregbesola combats flood with pure water nylon buy-back scheme

A

S part of his administration’s strategy to combat flood and filth caused by blocked drainage, Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has introduced a pure water nylon buy-back scheme.

The scheme, spearheaded by OCLEAN led by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Environmental matters, Mr Bola Ilori, was designed in partnership with producers of sachet water across the state.

Impressed with O-CLEAN, the pure water producers have demonstrated their readiness to partner with the state government by removing pure water sachets from gutters and drainages in major towns and cities in the 30 local gov-

ernments and area offices in Modakeke.

The pure water sachet buy-back programme is expected to mark the first phase of Governor Aregbesola’s waste-to-wealth empowerment scheme.

Pure water producers are to be involved in the collection of disused sachets and plastic cans that have been blocking drainages and water ways.They will be taken to designated centres approved by the state government.

The programme is expected to further boost the drive by the government to combat filth, flood and blockage of drainages in view of heavy rain fall pattern expected from this month.

It is also designed to create em-

powerment and wealth as well as engendering clean development mechanism in the fight against global warming as well as protect animals from ingesting nylon that is capable of killing them.

Speaking during the environmental sanitation exercise, the state chairman of the Association of Table Water Producers of Nigeria (ATWAP) in Osun State, Prince Olasunkanmi Bamidele, praised Aregbesola for introducing the laudable programme that has cleaned Osun State of filth in the last one year.

While donating vests, brooms, rakes and parkers, Bamidele called on all members of ATWAP to join hands with O-CLEAN to ensure the success of its programmes.

Telecoms mast: Minister defends NESREA

T

HE National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) has been empowered to enforce all environmental laws, according to the Minister of Environment, Hajiya Hadoza Maifalia.

The Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) and NESREA have been quarrelling over which law should apply in the citing of telecommunication masts.

While NCC stressed that its Act stipulated five-meters distance between any telecommunication mast and buildings, NESREA insisted that its laws provided for 10 meters.

For not meeting the standard, NESREA two weeks ago sealed off the MTN base station at EFAB Estate, Abuja. Last Monday, NCC unsealed the base station while NESREA went back the following day to re-seal it.

Speaking on the development dur-

•Flays report seeking NOSDRA dissolution From Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja

ing the Ministerial Platform in commemoration of President Goodluck Jonathan’s one year administration, Hajiya Mailafia, insisted that NESREA had the backing of the administration to enforce all environmental laws.

She said: “The Federal Government has empowered NESREA to enforce all laws that has to do with the environment. We have petitioned such citing of mast because of health reasons. In places like the US, such masts are sited faraway from buildings and if it eventually falls it will only fall on empty ground.”

Faulting the Oronsaye report which recommended scrapping of National

Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), she said: “Nigeria is a signatory to many international conventions. The Ministry does not support that NOSDRA should be scrapped. We need such agency to ensure clean up of oil spills among other functions.”

She also disclosed that effective waste management is one of the greatest environmental challenges facing Nigerians. The Minister disclosed that sanitary inspectors will soon be re-introduced to help keep the nation clean.

She listed the environmental challenges facing the nation to include climate change, deforestation, erosion and flooding, pollution, waste management, desertification and oil spillage.

Firm to construct 100,000 housing units

A

SO Savings and Loans Plc has unfolded plans to construct 100, 000 housing units in four years to reduce the country’s huge housing deficit.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Primary Mortgage Institution(PMI), Mr. Hassan Usman made this known during the ground breaking ceremony of its Social/Affordable Housing scheme in Lugbe, Abuja.

He said the scheme is intended to facilitate the acquisition of inexpensive houses by low income earners by discounting the cost of land as well as reducing the cost of construction of

From Franca Ochigbo, Abuja

the project through an Estate Development Loan window to be provided by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria(FMBN).

He said, “Aso Savings is determined to partner with the ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development and the FMBN to accelerate the provision of affordable housing in the country.

“Working in partnership with the ministry, we expect to finance the development of at least 100,000 affordable houses over the next four years.

“This will require the passage of supporting laws to enable seamless force

closure of devastated properties, allow faster consent for property transfers as well as a more stable macro-environment with lower interest rates.”

Also speaking at the event, the Minister of LHUD said, Ms Amal Pepple praised the bank for the initiative saying the Federal Government put in place enabling laws to support affordable housing.

For instance, she said the national housing and urban development policies which was recently adopted by the National Council on Land, Housing and Urban Development will be presented to the National Economic Council(NEC) on May 7.

O doubt there is prestige and honour attached to being a house owner-landlord but the truth is that not everybody can achieve that ambition in a lifetime. A lot of factors are responsible for this scenario, while some can never come near to owing one.

The poor and those who neither had plans or priority when it mattered most will probably never own a house of their own but this in no way suggests homelessness as they may be probably be able to rent the kind of home they desire while others may not.

Currently, reports have it that only 25 per cent of Nigerians live in their homes. Since the collapse of the capital market, investors have turned their attention to the real estate sector. The sector has been charecterised by all kinds of people and activities.

As desirous as people are to own their personal houses they should also be cautious and mindful to avoid being indirectly exposed to sharp practices either by land owners or developers. To own a house requires careful planning and commitment, you don’t own a house by wishful thinking it takes a lot more than that. You need to consider what kind of house you need or can afford and where it will be located.

The Holy book asked rhetorically ‘how many of you will want to start a house project without first counting the cost’? Many people actually over design and end up not being able to see to its comple-

system where everybody with a steady stream of income will be able to access it and own a house based on their contributions.

World Bank reports said over 70 per cent of Nigerians live below poverty line, with this kind of assessment it’s left to be seen how majority of Nigerians who can hardly feed themselves can attempt at owning houses of their own. Daily people are thrown out of jobs and the few that have jobs, majority are not receiving ‘living wages’.

Before now it was fanciful to work in a bank, because they were paid well and had all sorts of allowances but daily we witness them lose their jobs, it’s not just restricted to the financial sector but in almost every sector and for people in this category the last thing on their mind is owing a

World Bank reports said over 70 per cent of Nigerians live below poverty line, with this kind of assessment it’s left to be seen how majority of Nigerians who can hardly feed themselves can attempt at owning houses of their own.

tion because they probably didn’t sit down to count the cost and come up with what they can afford to build.

I have seen people who built a house for the sake of it in a location they will ordinarily not be able to cope with because of the scarcity of necessary infrastructure such as school for their children and wards, hospital, recreation areas, places of worship and even markets.

What usually happens in this scenario is that they react to their current predicament of either having issue with their landlords or the craze to own their personal houses.

In the light of that pressure they give little consideration to what should come first in terms of their comfort and at the end may not be able to take possession of the houses and still remain as tenants.

But for all that, some people no matter how they wish or try will never be landlords at least in Nigeria of today except the government institutes a virile mortgage

personal house, the key thing for them is survival.

To these set of people their immediate need is not to own houses of their own but to be able to feed their families. At the last count there is a record 17 million housing gap which increase per day but the income stream of the people is yet to increase even as people daily lose their means of livelihood. Amazingly some other people believe that owing a house is well beyond them and they don’t even consider its possibility.

They are comfortable to see it ‘as after all not everybody can own a personal

house ‘and may also not be able to relate house ownership to any of their friends, colleagues or family members. So not wanting to be different, they blank out on the idea and remain tenant for life!

For those who may be desirous to owning one they will almost be discouraged by the tedious process involved in acquiring land. It is not only cumbersome and odious but the cost associated with it remains very high especially in commercial cities such as Lagos, Abuja and Port-Harcourt.

In a situation that a prospective land owner gets through the hurdle of acquiring land and obtaining registration, he may still face the challenge of the high cost of construction, which currently is well above the reach of most people as the building sector is not liberalised enough to explore opportunities in alternative building materials in order to crash the prices of building materials and consequently make for cheap housing.

‘They are comfortable to see it ‘as after all not everybody can own a personal house ‘and may also not be able to relate house ownership to any of their friends, colleagues or family members’ •Contributions, questions? e-mail: quichi3cities@yahoo.com

THE NATION MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2012

40

With ekpoita :funtreatsvilla@yahoo.com / 08022664898

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

ACROSS 1. Finalised (9) 7. Employ (3) 8. Tear (3) 9. Succeeded (3) 10. Consumed (3) 12. per Unit (4) 13. Bird (4) 14. Beer (3) 16. Imitate (3) 18. Bed (3) 19. Resort (3) 21. Justly (9)

DOWN

1. Correspond (9) 2. Pinch (3) 3. Sexual Desire (4) 4. Ourselves (2) 5. Moisture (3) 6. Discourage (4) 10. Expression of Surprise (3) 11. Get with Difficulty (3) 15. Enumerate (4) 17. Bird (3) 18. Taxi (4) 20. Father (2)

MISSING LETTERS All the words in the columns below have lost their first letters as indicated by the blank spaces above them. You are required to find and affix them. When done, all the first letters will form a 9-letter, sexually offensive word or action. Happy Puzzling!‘

SHOWbLitzz Rihanna’s dad okays Chris Brown

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Eliminate Fuzzy Thinking “Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”

Alexander Graham Bell

Rihanna’s dad won’t be getting any father of the year awards, judging from a new interview. Not only is Ronald Fenty taking credit for Rihanna’s sleek physique, saying that he prodded her to workout by calling her “fat,” he also revealed that he would be fine if Rihanna were to rekindle her romance with Brown, who plead guilty to assaulting the singer in a lover’s quarrel turned physical in 2009.“Chris is a nice guy and everybody’s entitled to make mistakes in their life. God knows how many I’ve made,” Fenty tells the new issue of Heat magazine, when asked about the singer collaborating with her ex on two songs. “She’s her own woman now.”“I actually thought she was a little fat the last time I saw her,” he said. “When I saw her at this year’s Grammys, I thought she was back to her normal size. I used to joke with her, ‘Robyn,you’re getting too fat.’ But I think she’s fine. I think she looked excellent, as everyone saw, at the Grammys. She’s dieting, she’s working out.”After two years of not speaking, Rihanna and Fenty only started communicating again in 2010. At the time of their reunion, Fenty said, “Maybe we’re not as close as we were when she was growing up here … But we are blood, we do not stay angry.”

Pep Talk

Lacking confidence...

Feeling unsure about what you should do next...

Jumping from one marketing strategy to another...

Being unclear about when you’ll reach your business goals...

All of these issues (and many more) can be traced back to one of the biggest challenges struggling entrepreneurs face: lack of focus.

It is called fuzzy thinking.

Fuzzy Thinking Stems From Neglecting to Acquire Critical Information Too many entrepreneurs are missing critical information. Not having this information inflicts incredible damage on their chances of success.

Because it keeps the path to achieving their dreams out of focus, fuzzy.

And you can’t follow a fuzzy path. So they bounce around, get confused, become overwhelmed and attempt to copy what other people are doing... But the path that’ll lead them to success still remains out of focus.

What’s worse is that most entrepreneurs are not only unaware that this information is absolutely essential... they don’t realize it’s missing. So they never track it down.

In order to go from fuzzy thinking to focused thinking, you need to know the answers to three questions...

1. What, exactly, do you want?

2. What’s the absolute minimum necessary to have it?

3. What’s the fastest and easiest way to get it?

Think about it for a moment...

HUMOUR True Believers The two thousand member Baptist church was filled to overflowing capacity one Sunday morning. The preacher was ready to start the sermon when two men, dressed in long black coats and black hats entered thru the rear of the church.

One of the two men walked to the middle of the church while the other stayed at the back of the church. They both then reached under their coats and withdrew automatic weapons. The one in the middle announced, “Everyone willing to take a bullet for Jesus stay in your seats!”

Naturally, the pews emptied, followed by the choir. The deacons ran out the door, followed by the choir director and the assistant pastor.

After a few moments, there were about twenty people left sitting in the church. The preacher was holding steady in the pulpit. The men put their weapons away and said, gently, to the preacher, “All right, pastor, the hypocrites are gone now. You may begin the service.”

Getting Into Fights A young couple drove several miles down a country road, not saying a word.

An earlier discussion had led to an argument, and neither wanted to concede their position.

Now don’t be fooled by the simplicity of this solution. As they passed a barnyard of mules and pigs, the husband Answering these questions - especially question three sarcastically asked, “Are they relatives of yours?”

- requires some heavy-duty thinking. Nobody can “Yes,” his wife replied. “I married into the family.” give you the answers.

Our ideas like orange plants, spread out in proportion to the size of the box which imprisons the roots.

– Edward Bulwer Lytton

OTHER SPORT...OTHER SPORT...OTHER SPORT...OTHER SPORT...OTHER SPORT...

Robben’s

43

TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

POLITICS THE NATION

E-mail:- politics@thenationonlineng.net

After an appraisal of the unfolding developments in some parts of the country, especially the spate of bombings in the North and the activities of members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Southwest, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) warns of the consequences. Its National Chairman, Chief Adebisi Akande, accuses the PDP of attempting to create instability in the Southwest where it was rejected at the polls by the people after eight years of waste. He identifies the phoney security report in Osun and the incessant industrial action in Oyo, Lagos and Ekiti states as some of the ploys of the PDP to slow down the pace of progress in the region.

ACN leaders warn of looming dangers in Nigeria W

E welcome you to this unusual but important press conference on socio-political and economic developments in Southwest, the state of security in Nigeria and the incessant and worrisome spate of industrial unrest particularly in the Southwest. We have watched with consternation and a deep sense of foreboding developments in Osun and Ondo states particularly over the past few weeks – itself a carryover of the culture of relentless assault on the legitimate governments of our progressive states from times past. We are convinced beyond any shadow of a doubt that all that we are witnessing in Osun and Ondo is not unconnected with a well-oiled, carefully orchestrated plan to destabilise Western Nigeria – a train which is now moving in the direction of Oyo, Ekiti, Ogun and eventually Lagos State. Ordinarily, we could have easily dismissed the sabre-rattling of the past month in the newspapers as the usual ranting of political lepers, already out-rightly rejected by the discerning people of Western Nigeria. Whilst it is not unexpected that the political jobbers of the West, otherwise known as the ‘mainstreamers’ , still smarting from their ignominious exit from the various government houses in the Southwest remains aggrieved, we know that they are not alone in this quest to destabilise the governments and therefore the piece of the Southwest.

For eight years, these reactionary elements, otherwise known as ‘mainstreamers’ held the South Western part of the country by the jugular and justified their forcible entry into our government houses by the false claim that joining their party in the centre is the most assured vehicle for development in our region. Alas, eight years down the line – 2003 – 2011, the region is worse off in all indices of development – infrastructure, security, education, healthcare, industrialisation, employment, gender equality and Agriculture. All that was left in their wake was empty treasury, pharaohnic fraud and gargantuan indebtedness in the whole of the Southwest. Except for Lagos that became the beacon of hope with meteoric progressive development in the last thirteen years of civilian rule, the present nadir to which the Southwest had been plunged was precisely under the watch of these political ‘mainstreamers’, stripping bare of all pretences the false claim that progressive politics was detrimental to the development and well being of our polity. To further confirm the ludicrousness of this claim, there is independently verifiable evidence that the golden years of growth and development on the contrary were the years the progressives were in charge of the Southwest – 1952 – 59; 1979 – 83 and 1999 – 2003.

While we are not in doubt as to the wisdom imbued in the generality of our people to detect and discern the political undertones of many of these actions, we are also not unmindful of our history right from colonial times. Every time anything good comes collectively to the Southwest by the sheer dint of our people’s hard work, reactionary forces within are always available to be used by external forces determined to arrest development in Yorubaland. Consequently, the febrile efforts by the PDP reactionaries who are hell-bent on disturbing the current peace and tranquillity that is being enjoyed in the Southwest is aided by official sleight of hand from the Centre and is aimed at distracting the leaders of government in Western Nigeria and thus undermine their current effort towards accelerated development in the region. All manner of subterfuge and opportunistic methods are being employed to achieve this singular objective of destabilising the region for purely partisan political motives and also as a cover-up of the fraud and looting perpetrated by their disgraced governments and this is most evident from current developments in Osun, Ogun and Ekiti states, but also being promoted in other parts of the region.

Osun State The media has been awash in the past weeks with the unfounded and highly disturbing allegations that Governor Rauf Aregbesola is intent on removing the state from the Nigerian union to which it legitimately belongs. As proof of this phantom claim, puerile justifications such as his use of the State anthem at public functions, the design and use of official flags with the state crest and his so-called renaming of Osun State as State of Osun, a distinction without a difference. Tonnes of newsprint were used to sell this claim to an unsuspecting public in the hope that a lie repeatedly told would gain credibility and acceptance among the generality of our people. If this story were being peddled unofficially, it wouldn’t have attracted any serious attention of Federal complicity. The fact however that a national security agency was the producer of this alleged plan at secession by Governor Aregbesola should worry any discerning observer of current developments in the Southwest. Even curiouser was the seeming choreographed coordination between the release of this phoney intelligence report and the parroting of same by the leaders of the PDP in Osun and the Southwest in general. Although the media is now better informed about what is going on in Osun and the collusion between some security agents acting in concert with the discredited elements in the

nable manner in which this has broken the social contract between the Nigerian people and their government. Corruption on a scale never before unearthed in our short history marks the headlines of the newspapers and electronic media daily. We commend the House of Representatives and its leadership for its courage in tackling the filth and scam and we expect that they will continue in the path honour. What is important now is not just the drama but a determined effort to reach the root of the matter, to expose all those involved in the years of rot. Particularly, we are concerned that those at the helm of affairs still act as sacred cows. The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke with her team in NNPC, who presided over the activities of the industry while the rot lasted, is still shielded by the president and the People’s Democratic Party. It is the same attitude that maintains some sacred cows that ignores some fundamental questions: Who are these beneficiaries that have turned out to be paper companies collecting billions of Naira as subsidies without actually importing fuel to the country? We want to know on what basis they secured the licences and authorisations and carted away the people’s commonwealth.

There is widespread belief that the firms used the money for the last campaign season, and some of these paper companies were conduits to funnel funds for political use. We want to know what the President knows about this and when he knew it. This is not a matter he can simply ignore any more. This is the time for moral leadership and so far his party has not been held to account on the role the so-called subsidy beneficiaries in the PDP campaigns in 2011 presidential campaigns.

Incessant strikes

• Chief Akande

mainstream party to not only paint the government of Osun in a bad light, but also give the governor a bad name in order to hang him. Having failed to turn the ordinary people against the Government of Osun since he could not be accused of non- performance in terms of promoting the people’s welfare, they have resorted to all manner of unsubstantiated allegations and threats.

We in the Action Congress of Nigeria would like a judicial notice of this threat to be taken by all. The leadership of our party expresses complete and total confidence in the leadership of Governor Aregbesola in the State of Osun and would like to underscore that an injury to one will be treated as an attack on all.

Ondo State Now in the case of Ondo, recent developments in the state known for men and women of honour and decency have not portrayed the Southwest and Yoruba race in good light. Political campaigns are rituals of politics and in no where in the world are they canonised as rites of violence. What the Labour Party under the leadership of Olusegun Mimiko has done in the few months fits into a historic trend of South West quislings who have fallen out of touch with the soul and stirrings for decency in the land. Opposition sometimes descends into acrimony, even at that it’s condemnable. But for it to become avenues of blood and death and wielding of guns and machetes harks back to a barbaric past that we abhor in the 21st century. Elections are designed to anoint the choice of the people, but not to foist of theatre of ominous bitterness. What Mimiko and his Labour Party have fomented at the Memorial Lecture of a former Governor of Ondo State under whom he served as Commissioner falls into a pattern of renegades. It is a desecration at a memorial for a man of peace. Such renegades pretend to flower but in the end flounder and become part of the Southwest traitors and abusers of the people’s trust. The Action Congress of Nigeria stands for truth, progress and decency in Ondo State and the better angels of the people see through the grand subterfuges and celebrated lies of the Mimiko administration. No amounts of awards purchased would whitewash the perfidy and stench of his character. Elections are opportunities for the people to judge and vote. The LP and its foot soldiers are voting in the fashion of the military of by gone era: guns and cudgels. Very soon, the people know better. Friday, April 20, has come and gone. Let this be the last. And Nigeria should be put on notice that no amount of weaponry deployed and thuggery employed in Ondo State would deter us from the cause of progress and change that we have embarked upon in the interest of the people.

Oil Subsidy and Pension Scams As a party, we are equally alarmed by the shenanigans surrounding the oil-subsidy and pension scams and the unconscio-

For the umpteenth time, workers in Lagos, Oyo, Ekiti, Osun and other states have embarked on an industrial action that portrays them as putting the interests of self over the sanctity of lives and the Hippocratic oaths they swore at the beginning of their practice. It should be noted that doctors are exploiting their peculiar position as the saviours and preservers of life to blackmail the system. There are two important issues related to this strike. One, it is a symptom of the federal government’s undue intervention in what should be exclusive preserves of the states.

The job of the Federal Government is to fix the minimum wage, and the review of various remunerations above minimum wage is within the purview of the states based on the ability and prevailing environment of those states. The state governments have increased the salaries in harmony with the resources of the states.

No national government is entitled to impose an obligation on any of its component states without providing the resources to meet the obligation. It is therefore illegal and therefore unacceptable. It is also not realistic and fair to expect less than 1 percent of the population to demand more than 50 per cent of the resources. The fact that the strikes persist reflect a strong political overtone. The strikes are now instruments of political diversion, mischief and blackmail. The Southwest states are focused on development with landmark work in infrastructure, water provision, education, health care and agriculture for all. It is therefore inimical to the growth and development of all for less than 1 per cent to use the instrumentality of strikes to agitate for more than 100 per cent of the states’ resources. In the case of Lagos State, doctors that should be committed to saving lives in accordance with their Hippocratic oaths have abandoned their calling to put their patients above their interests and have become merchants of deaths. Therefore, we urge all our Governors to stay focused on providing the greatest good for the greatest number of the people, and not just for the greedy few, consistent with our manifesto and party ideology. Consequently, if all persuasive methods fail, our governors are free to take appropriate measures to restore health services to the people.

Bombings We have received the sad news of the bombings at ThisDay headquarters in Abuja and Kaduna and the avoidable loss of lives underscore the increasing volatility of our country and vulnerability of citizens to attack. We condemn unreservedly the perpetrators of the violence and the merchants of death while we sympathise with the families of the victims. We believe that the resolution of whatever the problem is should not be by violence, but by reasoned negotiation, rooted in justice, equity and fairness..

We appeal to all Nigerians to be vigilant and provide information on any suspicious movement in their vicinity to the security agencies immediately.

Finally, we must stress that the use of religion as a tool for political manipulation as currently used in Osun and other parts of the country is highly condemnable.

Being text of a statement by Chief Adebisi ,National Chairman, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

44

POLITICS

Okorocha calls for spiritual rejuvenation

A dark day for democracy in Nigeria The incessant killing in some parts of the country and other socio-political breaches have become major challenge for the authorities. The Resident Electoral Commission, Cross River State, Mr Mike Igini reflects on the situation.

M

OHAMMED Yusuf, the late head of Boko Haram is credited to have started his propagation of Salafism, a branch of Islam- widely regarded in Saudi Arabia as Takfiris, if they subscribe to extremist violence- by appealing to the suffering that ordinary Nigerians endure in Yobe state and other parts of the North, hence he easily won some appeal. On Wednesday April 26, that grundnorm, that hypothetical construct of appeal for social repression lost its essence in the attack of his sect followers on the very foundation of free speech in Nigeria; media houses the main bastion against repression in Nigeria.

When Mohammed Yusuf died under conditions that negated the values that we promote in our fledging democracy, it was the Nigerian media, which took the Nigerian authorities to task, despite the glee in many quarters that the bloodletting of Yusuf sect was deserving of even extra-judicial impunity. The Nigerian media questioned the degradation of our democratic values in the exercise of the powers to accuse, judge and execute judgment from the barrel of the gun of security officials.

That act, for which the followers of Yusuf had advanced much grouse, has been repeated by them on so many occasions now too many to recount. But on Wednesday 26th April, any pretension they may have had for association with the basic laws and charter of respect for human rights and the obligations of one free citizen to others, has been thrown to the dogs, for the bombing of newspaper houses in Abuja and Kaduna is an exceptional nadir, the lowest any group, association or sect has ever gone in actualizing any cause on our fcheckered

• Dr Abayomi

A

CTION Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governorship aspir ant, Ondo State, Dr. Tunji Abayomi has urged the leadership of the party to pick a credible candidate acceptable to electorate.

Abayomi, a lawyer spoke while meeting the elders of the party at the residence of the former Secretary to the State Government (SSG) during late Adebayo Adefarati’s regime, Chief Wumi Adegbonmire in Akure, the state capital.

He noted that the party leadership must ensure that the party candidate is be a person who is very consistent.

Abayomi recalled that in 2007 general election, 11 of the party as-

From Emma Mgbeahurike, Owerri

T

By Mike Igini

The Nigerian media has borne a disproportionate burden in the fight for freedom of expression in Nigeria.As president James Madison, said ‘’the media despite its chequered challenges, the world is indebted for all the triumphs of humanity over oppression’’. Dele Giwa lost his life for daring to write the truth, Senator Anyanwu lost full vision in an eye, Nduka Irabor and Tunde Thompson lost their liberty over an extended period. But in all these cases, like the fight of the people against the Ordonnance Moulins of 1566 in France, they fought the hegemony of the state, and like all states evolving from the dependency of coercion and force, the Nigerian people have won growing freedom of expression through the endurance of the Nigerian media against sustained onslaughts.

In addition to the endurance of the Nigerian media, the Nigerian state apparati, under democratic governance have come to gradually accept the correctness of the assertion of Gugliemo Ferrero, that ‘a legitimate government is a power that has lost its fear as far as possible because it has learned to depend as much as it can on active or passive consent and to reduce proportionately the use of force’, thus ‘a government is legitimate if its power is conferred and exercised according to principles and rules accepted without discussion by those who must obey’.

It is therefore a dark day for democracy in Nigeria, that as we retreat from the mindset of military era under a democratic government that exercise power without force to assert legitimacy, we are now witnessing, the rise of non-state actors that now repress the press and freedom of expression by exacting indiscriminate violent attacks on media houses.

It is very easy to loose the essence of a cause, such that the collective aspiration of a group, or a collective of people, becomes the dangerous and narcissistic project of a few people intent on only interminable pyrrhic victories, which worsens the human

•Igini

condition, for which the cause, assuming it was noble ab initio, was advanced. In instantiating this point, it must be pointed out that most of those ordinary Nigerians who were counted as expendable collaterals by the recent and past violent attacks and killings perpetuated by Boko Haram, have no grievances with anyone, their only aspirations were to leave in a peaceful country, prospering at peace with their neighbors, but their lives were taken from them, because a few people, sat in a conclave, and decided that their lives were not worth anything, in that respect, Boko Haram might have killed Yusuf Mohammed without trial, because their actions are not dissimilar.

There is no cause too grave or profound that it cannot abide negotiations and reason with other men, and there is no war that has been won by a perpetual battle, worse still, no man or cause have ever fought against the right of men to express themselves freely, and won ….by attacking media houses, Boko Haram has embarked on a dangerous journey against one of the pillars of democracy, it is a journey against the zeal of mankind to freely express themselves…it is time to reassess their cause and the course it has now taken to ask the fundamental question… how does this course of action advance its goals and the progress of Nigeria?

Mike Igini is the REC, Cross River

Aspirant counsels ACN elders on party candidate’s selection pirants defected from the ACN immediately the leadership of the party reached a consensus agreement to pick the party candidate and pith their tent with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He also added that the party candidate, Prince Demola Adegoroye left the party after the election which he eventually lost.

He stressed that the issues brought set back to the party despite its strength in the state.

The stated that he had been financing the party since 2006 till date in order to ensure the party remained relevance in the state politics.

He said: “Our leaders must ensure that the party candidate must be the man of principle, someone that will be well known among his kinsmen, a person who has world connections, who can bring rapid development to the state through his relationship with international bodies.

“Ondo State people are groaning over poor potable water, good roads, no jobs, but ACN must ensure that its candidate must be able to fulfill all these when voted in. I will always remain progressive, I have been a progressive since Awolowo’s days and nothing can change my mind from working

with the progressives.”

The party leadership in the state commended the aspirants on his efforts to build the party, stressing that the party leadership are already working on how to produce a credible candidate.

HE Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha has called for stronger spiritual re-awakening among Christians as a panacea to rid society of all vices.

Governor Okorocha who made the call while declaring open the divine service and opening of the 2012 National Board meeting organised by the Bible Society of Nigeria (BSN) in Owerri, explained that it is imperative for the Christendom to read and recite the Holy Bible daily for proper guidance and counseling.

Assuring them of the power in reading the Bible, the governor stated that Christians might become a rolling stone that gathers no moss if they neglect it.

He commended a former Head of state and patron of the BSN, General Yakubu Gowon (rtd) for his consistent contribution and support towards the sustenance of the organisation BSN and pledged to bring the aims and objectives of the society to the Southeast governors’ forum.

Archbishop of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province and Bishop of Orlu Diocese (Anglican Communion) the Most Rev. Bennet Okoro in a sermon described the Holy Bible as the only source of redemption, reconciliation and communication means for mankind, adding that protection could only be obtained from God. The Prelate recalled the genesis of the BSN and paid glowing tributes to those who translated the Bible into Hebrew, Yoruba Igbo and English.

While calling for participation in the activities of the organisation by the entire Igbos, the bishop praised Okorocha for his result-oriented Rescue Mission programmes and war against corruption.

The ceremony featured the dedication of the national officers of the BSN, spe• Okorocha cial prayers and benediction.

Obi sacks commissioners • Four retained From Nwanosike Onu, Awka

S

IX years after keeping the people of Anambra state on their toes concern ing the reshufflement of his cabinet, Governor Peter Obi during an emergency executive council meeting told his commissioners to prepare their hand over notes.

Only four of the commissioners according to a top government official were retained, while the rest had been shown the way out.

Those retained by Obi, included Prof Stella Okunna, (Economic Planning and Budget), Emeka Nwankwu (Public Utilities), Peter Afuba (Lands) and Calistus Ilozumba (works).

The new commissioner for Information and culture, The Nation gathered will be Chief Martins Uzodike, who replaces Chief Maja Umeh.

The state governor had said that there was need to retain what he called a winning team when the pressure became so much from the people of the state including his party members on his cabinet.

He had used the same set of commissioners since he took over the reins of governance in the state in 2006, which had not gone well with the leadership of his party, All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA).

According to the source, “we thank God that the governor has finally decided to change his cabinet after a long time and it is a very big relief to so many people now.”

“This thing has been over due and there had been so many speculations concerning it and when he summoned an emergency meeting, he openly told them to prepare their hand over notes” the source said.

As a result, the state commissioner for Health, Prof Amobi Illika addressed a press in his office at the state secretariat in Awka, where he reeled out his scored card.

Though, he said it was not the reason for the conference but to assess the Ministry’s score card.

• Chairman House of Reps Committee on Public Accounts, Solomon Adeola (left) his Deputy, Anwal Jatau and a member Hon. Raphael Igbokwe during the submission of audit queries responses by the Ministry of Agric to Public Accounts Committee at National Assembly, Abuja.

PHOTO: ABAYOMI FAYESE

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HEALTH THE NATION

E-mail:- health@thenationonlineng.net

700,000 Nigerians live with HIV/AIDS N

O fewer than 700,000 Nigerians between ages 15 and 32 are living with HIV/ AIDS, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/ AIDS ( UNAIDS) Executive Director Mr Michel Sidibe has said.

Speaking in Paiko community in Gwagwalada, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Sidibe said Nigeria risked the danger of new HIV infections if the youths are not well sensitised.

He said: “If we don’t engage young people as actors of change, we will not stop the infection, ”adding that about one-fifth of people living with HIV worldwide are in Nigeria.

“It is also estimated that only 24 per cent of young people have accurate knowledge that could help them

•Nigeria revives vaccine research against killer-disease From Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja

adopt behaviours to reduce the risk of HIV transmission,” he added.

He called on the Federal Government to speed up the passage of the bill prohibiting stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS. “People are suffering more from stigma, discrimination and exclusion than even from the disease,” he added.

At the event, participants under the aegis of CrowdOutAIDS listed six recommendations to guide UNAIDS dealings with youths until 2015.

These are strengthening young people’s skills for effective leadership of AIDS response at all levels; ensuring that youths participate in AIDS response at country, regional and global levels and improving the access of young people to HIV information.

Others are diversifying networks among the UNAIDS secretariat, youth networks and other key players; increasing the outreach of the secretariat to networks of young people and increasing young people’s access to financial support.

Meanwhile, after over 10 years of inaction, Nigeria has started a new

move for the research and development of vaccines against HIV/AIDS. Speaking at the National HIV Vaccine Plan workshop in Abuja, the Director-General, National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Prof John Idoko, said preventive vaccines are the “ultimate tool”to end the HIV pandemic in the country.

According to him, Nigeria’s first HIV vaccine plan in 2001 did not make progress because of “poor road map and non-implementation.”

He said a second chance at making plans for HIV vaccine should be “realistic, implementable and something we can advocate for in terms of funding.”

‘How

to treat heartburns’

N

•First Lady Mrs Patience Jonathan (centre) flanked by wife of the Vice-President, Mrs Amina Sambo (left); Prof Idoko (2nd right) and Dr Emmanuel Alhassan, during the inauguration of the call centre on HIV/AIDS and related diseases in Abuja.

Expert seeks laws on haemophilia

A

N expert has urged the Federal Government to make laws that will protect people living with haemophilia.

Haemophilia is a genetic disorder characterised by profuse or excessive bleeding from slight injuries.

Dr Edamisan Temiye, Medical Adviser to the World Haemophilia Federation (WHF), said Nigerians should be sensitised on the danger and management of the condition because it is often misunderstood or misrepresented by the public.

Temiye said those living with the condition in advanced countries have tags and codes for easy recognition so that they can enjoy prompt treatment during an emergency.

Treatment for the condition, he said, was too expensive, adding that

By Wale Adepoju

to stop bleeding from a haemophiliac case, it would require about N1million. “The patient usually takes a dose of Factor 8, which is an injection to stop the bleeding and a patient may requires as many as 50 doses before the bleeding can stop.

This puts a huge burden on the parent, who may not be able to pay out of pocket. A dose costs about N75, 000. Factor 9 and 11 may be required depending on the severity of the condition. These two are more expensive than Factor 8,” he added.

He said people living with the condition live a normal life when they are not threatened by it.

He said the major symptoms they have are bleeding and swollen body, adding: “Any part of the body

where the patient gets smacked swells. Even an ordinary touched can make his body swell.”

He said about one million Nigerians are living with the condition, noting that it can be prevented.

“There are 50-50 chances of preventing the condition, which can also be detected during pregnancy.

Some parents, who are aware of the dangers often posed by the condition usually stopped their children from being circumcised,” he said.

He said the disease was more common in male than the female.

For example, it occurs in one out of 10, 000 males while that of female is one in 100, 000, he added.

“This uncommon health disorder doesn’t really develop in females because they are mere carriers,” he added.

Tips on hypertension treatment The main goal of treatment for hypertension is to lower blood pressure to less than 140/90 - or even lower in some groups such as people with diabetes, and people with chronic kidney diseases.

Treating hypertension is important for reducing the risk of stroke, heart attack, and heart failure.

High blood pressure may be treated medically, by changing lifestyle factors, or a combination

of the two. Important lifestyle changes include losing weight, quitting smoking, eating a healthful diet, reducing sodium intake, exercising regularly, and limiting alcohol consumption.

Medical options to treat hypertension include several classes of drugs. ACE inhibitors, ARB drugs, beta-blockers, diuretics, calcium channel blockers, alphablockers, and peripheral vasodilators are the primary

drugs used in treatment. These medications may be used alone or in combination, and some are only used in combination. In addition, some of these drugs are preferred to others depending on the characteristics of the patient (diabetic, pregnant, etc.).

If blood pressure is successfully lowered, it is wise to have frequent checkups and to take preventive measures to avoid a relapse of hypertension.

Idoko said an estimated 500,000 people living with HIV/AIDS are receiving antiretrovirals drugs while at least a million more are still in need of the drugs in Nigeria, adding that a vaccine for the disease is “still very far off.”

“We cannot afford not to be part of the global initiative because the number of subtypes we have are numerous and we don’t have a definite answer as to whether we need a polyvalent or monovalent” vaccine,” he said.

The African AIDS Vaccine Partnership (AAVP) Executive Director, Chidi Nweneka, said the new effort will require political will, leadership, enabling law, targeted dissemination to the right people and funding.

He warned that petty politics over

IGERIANS have been warned not to treat heartburns with levity because they cause discomfort.

Eminent gastroenterologists, who gave the warning at the Golden League meeting and prelaunch of Gaviscon by Reckitt Benckiser, Central African Region, said the disease is dangerous than people think.

A Professor at the Department of Therapeutic and Clinical Pharmacology, Royal Infirmary Edinburgh, Scotland Robert Heading said though the disease is common, people who are under 40 rely more on self-treatment.

A Consultant Gastroenterologist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Dr Funmilayo Lesi, said heartburns have physical and psychological effects on the sufferers.

Lesi, who was a keynote speaker at the event, said though heartburns are over-diagnosed in other parts of the world, they are under-diagnosed in the country.

She said a heartburn or gatroenterology reflux disorder (GERD) patient usually experiences acid damage of the oesophagus with a hot sensation at the upper part of the body as part of its

By Wale Adepoju

symptoms.

On diagnosis, Lesi, who is a Golden League ambassador for the company, said endoscopy which is an advanced x-ray, cannot be the gold standard for diagnosis of the disorder. “When we use endoscopy on patients, 70 per cent of the patients do not have scars, but 15 to 25 per cent have scars which indicate they have ulcer. “ GERD is a condition which develops when reflux of the stomach contents causes troublesome symptoms and complication, she said.

“Reflux doesn’t kill but affect the quality of life. It affects productivity in terms of physical functioning and social interactions,” she added.

Lesi said in a survey, 25 per cent of 15, 314 experiences sleep disorders.

She identified drug, alcohol, coffee and stress, among others as factors causing reflux.

Reckitt Benckiser’s Central African Region, General Manager, Mr Ashok Bhasin, said the meeting was aimed at discussing the therapeutic challenge in reflux disease and optimising the control of reflux in the country.

Stakeholders demand policy for aged

T

O make life easy for the old, some stakeholders have called on the Federal Government to evolve a national policy for them.

They made the call at the World Health Day organised by the International Federation on Ageing-Nigeria (IFAN) in Abuja with the theme: ‘Ageing and health: Good health adds years to life.’

A representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr. Andrew Mbewe, stressed the need to cater for the elderly.

According to him, every nation must protect the wealth of experience of the elderly and this can only be achieved if proper policies are initiated to accommodate their needs.

He said as the physical strength of the elderly dwindles, they are neglected in the society.

The Special Adviser to Presi-

From Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja

dent on Inter-Party Affairs Senator Ben Obi, said good health could help older persons to lead full and productive lives.

He said: “Health of an individual lies not just in the absence of infirmity or disease, but the optimal function of all the organs that build up to form the individual’s working system.”

Good health programmes promote a healthy population and contribute to increased productivity and development of any nation, Obi said.

Mr Ike Willie-Nwobu of Plus Factor International said it was how one prepares his body at youth that determines what happens when he is old.

He urged governments to come up with an elaborate and enduring ageing policy for the nation.

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THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

HEALTH

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AGOS State may be free of malaria by next year, the Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris, has hinted.

Idris said the government is targeting 2013 to make the state free of malaria.

He spoke at an awareness programme on malaria control and prevention jointly organised by his ministry, Mortein, Reckitt Benckiser PLC and National Malaria Programme to mark the World Malaria Day at Ikorodu General Hospital.

He said malaria is prevalent in the state because of to its location on a coastal area where mosquitoes, the disease’s causative organisms thrive, stating that Ikorodu Local Government Area is the worst hit.

This, he said, a study showed is because of behavioural and non-behavioural factors, including dirty environment and the failure of the population to use effective technologies such as Long-Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs) that could discourage mosquitoes from breeding.

He said government has embraced an advocacy communication and social mobilisation strategy plan that would be broadcast in various languages to orientate the public on the importance of malaria prevention.

“Malaria, although a preventable and treatable disease, accounts for over 60 per cent of outpatients.The topography and population of Lagos State make us prone to malaria infection and transmission. It is endemic here, but we will employ all means possible to make Lagos malaria free by 2013,” Idris said.

Omawumi Megbele, the Campaign spokesperson for Mortein, Reckitt Benckiser, urged nursing mothers to always spray their rooms with the company’s insecticide and put on long sleeve wears for their children any time they sit outside their rooms to avoid malaria. ‘’Many lives are lost daily to the disease, especially among children.

•From left: Kemi Saliu, Marketing Manager, Mortein, Reckitt Benckiser; Megbele; Dr Idris, Dr Adeshina and Mrs Mary Lawal with her baby at the presentation of the 1st baby born on World Malaria Day, at the Maternal and Child Care Centre, Ikorodu, Lagos State.

PHOTO: ABIODUN WILLIAMS

Lagos to be free of malaria by 2013 •ECOWAS, Cuba to end malaria in West Africa by 2015

By Paul Oluwakoya and Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja

We believe that one of the contributory factors to the spread of the disease is ignorance. Many people don’t know what causes it. They don’t know that they unwittingly provide the enabling environment for mosquitoes by their activities.

Some don’t even know how best to prevent the disease,” she said Earlier, the Special Adviser to Governor Babatunde Fashola on

Health, Dr Yewande Adesina, said the fight against the disease requires a concerted effort in which stakeholders must play a prominent role. While appreciating the support of Mortein, Reckitt Benckiser Plc programme, she urged other corporate bodies to partner with the state to eradicate the disease.

“Malaria is still the major cause of public health problem in Nigeria. Despite all efforts and processes undertaken to reduce the bur-

den, it remains the leading cause of death for children under 5, pregnant women and the incidence of 50 per cent episode of malaria among the population each year.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health showed that malaria leads to 25 per cent of infant mortality and 30 per cent of childhood mortality. Malaria continues to rob the country of substantial investment, growth and development”, she stated adding that the fight against the disease required a concerted ef-

fort in which stakeholders must play a prominent role.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Republic of Cuba have agreed to adopt new measures to revive their collaboration towards stopping malaria infection in the region by 2015.

The new method, according to a statement by the Communication Unit of ECOWAS Commission, is through a control and elimination programme.

The measures are contained in a framework agreement signed after the visit of a high-level ministerial delegation led by the VicePresident of the ECOWAS, Dr Toga Mcintosh, in which both parties reiterated the viability of their mutual objective of achieving the eventual elimination of malaria by that date.

The delegation included the health ministers of Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria.

The collaboration is anchored on the elimination of mosquito larvae through the spraying of biolarvicides on their habitats, a product of LABIOFAM S.A. of Cuba.

Under the agreement, Cuba agreed to continue to engage bilaterally with member-states, particularly Ghana, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, where pilot implementation has started for the Malaria elimination programme, which leverage on the multilateral platform created by the ECOWAS Commission and Cuba for the implementation of the programme.

Both parties agreed to develop a plan to import the product from Cuba for use in these three countries during the first phase prior to roll out in other member-states followed by local production in Ghana and Nigeria by the middle of 2014 and then Cote d’Ivoire between 2015 and 2016.

The agreement also calls for the development of a joint plan of action for a two-phased training of personnel in West Africa on the effective application of biolarvicides.

Global Fund initiative makes impact in Nigeria, Ghana, others

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•Lawal and Director of Administration, Federal Neuro-phychiatry Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, Mr Razak Oyetola.

N initiative by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to promote affordable and effective anti-malaria medicines in remote communities in Africa, is progressing in Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda.

The initiative, called Affordable Medicines Facility for Malaria (AMFm), managed by the Global Fund, allows people to buy lifesaving malaria treatment in private stores and pharmacies for less than $1; comparable malaria medicines outside the programme cost up to 10 or 20 times more.

“The innovation is working, bringing relief to millions of people who need quality anti-malaria drugs at affordable prices.

‘Occupational therapists crucial in health care delivery’

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HE Medical Director, Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, Dr Abdulrahman Lawal, has urged outgoing students of the Federal School of Occupational therapy, Lagos to contribute their quota to health care delivery in the country, saying that they are crucial in the sector.

He stated this at the Seventh Convocation of the institution owned by the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital.

He told the 24 fresh graduates of the institution that they would increase the number of professional occupation therapists in the country, noting that despite their role in the healthcare sector, their number is small.

“When we started, there were no fewer than six occupational therapists in Nigeria and there was only one school and department of occupational therapy in one of our universities. Yet,

•24 graduate from psychiatric hospital

By Wale Adepoju and Paul Oluwakoya

occupational therapists are required in hospitals in Nigeria that one university cannot satisfy their request,” he added.

He said people might not appreciate the effort of the school aimed at producing graduates who would become lecturers in the department of occupational therapy in the school and other universities. “And it is not going to be long to achieve this. We already have graduates going for their masters. The important thing to me is that our school is going to produce the future professors in occupational therapy in Nigeria.”

Registrar of the school, Mr Peter Akeredolu, said occupational

therapy is a promising profession.

He said the institution was a child of circumstance because it was established to train professionals when Nigeria had only three occupational therapists.

On the running of a degree programme, he said: “A degree programme required affiliation with universities, but the University of Lagos is not running the programme.”

He said the school would partner with either a university in Nigeria or one abroad to do a degree programme. “We are corresponding with some universities in India and the United Kingdom. Some of our students study in these universities and they are doing fine,” he said.

The services of occupational therapists, Akeredolu said, are required in major hospitals’ sections such as paediatric, psychiatric, orthopaedic or neurological rehabilitation centres, special schools, industrial set-ups, addiction centres and educational institutions.

In his projection, he said, there would be employment opportunities for occupational therapists.

“A psychiatric hospital requires about 10 occupational therapists from federal universities. So, with that you can estimate the number of occupational therapists required nation-wide,” he said.

At the event, Osuwa Isaac emerged the overall best student; six had upper credit; 12 lower credit and nine had pass.

The AMFm is a game-changer in financing access to malaria treatments,” says Dr Olusoji Adeyi, who heads the AMFm initiative at the Global Fund in Geneva.

About 216 million people fall ill with malaria yearly and 655,000 die from it, mostly children in Africa.

AMFm is making anti-malaria drugs, called artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), available as widely and cheap as possible to those who need them.

It allows people to obtain effective drugs without having to travel long distances to reach public health facilities.

AMFm is also helping to drive out ineffective medicines off the market, making effective ACT treatment available and accessible to millions of people.

Although the World Health Organisation recommends ACTs as treatment for uncomplicated malaria, the most deadly form of the disease, the drug accounts for only about one in five of all treatments taken for the disease. Until recently, it has only been available for free or at low cost in public health facilities.

Reduced prices are possible because the Global Fund first negotiates a discounted price for ACTs with drug manufacturers and pays most of the reduced price on behalf of importers from the private, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and public sectors. Private wholesalers then sell ACTs to retailers at reduced prices allowing pharmacies and stores to sell the drugs to patients and caregivers with an additional mark-up, while keeping the retail price affordable.

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EQUITIES NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 30-4-12

FCMB, Stanbic IBTC record N8b Q1 profit F IRST City Monument Bank (FCMB) Plc and Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc recorded a profit before tax of about N8 billion within the first quarter, according to interim reports released by the lenders yesterday.

The three-month report for the period ended March 31, 2012 showed appreciable improvements of the banks with Stanbic IBTC growing pre-tax profit by 126 per cent to N3.44 billion in 2012 as against N1.50 billion in comparable period of 2011.

Stanbic IBTC Bank also doubled profit after tax by 136 per cent to N2.50billion compared with N1.06 billion in March 2011. Gross income also rose by 19 per cent to N14.69 billion as against the N12.38 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2011.

FCMB witnessed a significant recovery during the period with a profit before tax of N4.39 billion during the period as against a loss of N9.0 billion in first quarter 2011.

Profit after tax stood at N4.09 billion compared with net loss after tax of N7.63 billion in 2011.

FCMB’s share price rose by 4.97 per cent yesterday at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), adding 26 kobo to close at N5.49 in a trading session that saw the key benchmark value indices closing on the negative.

FCMB shares have gained 31 per cent ytd (ASI: 6.7 per

•Stock market slips 0.3%

By Taofik Salako and Tonia Osundolire

cent) they are he best performers this year among the banks.

Consequently FBN capital yesterday rated FCMB shares as “Outperm”.

Commenting on the first quarter performance, Chief Executive Officer, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Sola David-Borha, said the report reflected continuing improvements in the group’s operations as the bank maintained its highly disciplined approach to risk management and progressive investments in capacity building.

According to her, after recording resilient performance in 2011, the group has continued to report good profitability and it has continued to witness a strong growth in its business as evidenced by growth in the balance sheet and increase in transaction.

Further analysis of Stanbic IBTC’s report showed that the bank’s net interest income stood at N8.3 billion, a growth of 25 per cent over the N6.6 billion in March 2011. Non-interest revenue grew by 12 per cent to N6.4 billion as against N5.8 billion in 2011. These resulted in operating income increase of 19 per cent to N14.7 billion as against N12.4 billion in the

same period in 2011.

On the balance sheet, Stanbic IBTC’s total assets grew by 20 per cent to N667.4 billion from N554.5 billion in December 2011. Gross loans and advances went up to N276.5 billion as against N207.2 billion in March 2011 while deposits and current accounts also rose to N270.6 billion from N202.6 billion in March 2011.

Meanwhile, aggregate market capitalisation of all equities slipped from N7.051 trillion to N7.031 trillion while the All Share Index dropped from 22,109.44 points to 22,045.66 points.

The negative overall market position was due to losses suffered by some highly capitalised stocks including Dangote Cement, Oando, Ashaka Cement, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Flour Mills of Nigeria, Dangote Sugar Refinery and Dangote Flour Mills.

Oando led the decliners with a loss of 79 kobo to close at N16.20. Stanbic IBTC Bank lost 23 kobo to close at N6.92 while Ashaka Cement dropped 20 kobo to close at N10.01.

On the positive side, Okomu Oil topped the gainers’ list with a gain of N1.50 to close at N34.50. Cadbury Nigeria followed with a gain of 72 kobo to close at N15.12.

GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria gained 70 kobo to close at N20.

Total turnover stood at 669.36 million shares valued at N6.3 billion in 4,141 deals. Banking subsector accounted for a turnover of 468.77 million shares worth N4.02 billion in 2,113 deals.

NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 30-4-12

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Damaged womb: Navy to pay woman N100m for negligence

Driver charged with manslaughter

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26-YEAR-OLD trailer driver, Sulaimon Rasaki, was yesterday arraigned before a Surulere Magistrate’s Court in Lagos, for allegedly causing the death of a 10-year-old pedestrian.

Rasaki, a resident of 25, Itaoba St., Oja-Oba, Ibadan, Oyo, pleaded not guilty to a two count charge of dangerous driving and causing death. Prosecuting Inspector Akeem Raji, told the court that Rasaki committed the offence on April 25, on Mile 2-Oshodi Expressway, by First Rainbow Bus Stop, Orile. He said the defendant drove his Mack Trailer, with registration number XT 129 BDG, in a dangerous manner causing the death of Salamatu Adamu.

According to the prosecutor, the defendant drove the vehicle dangerously and hit Adamu, who was crossing the expressway.

He said the offence contravened Sections 27 and 28 of the Road Traffic Act of Lagos State.

May Day : Lagos NUJ to workers, be security conscious

By Dupe Olaoye-Osinkolu

T

HE Nigeria Union of Journalists , (NUJ) , Lagos State Council , has urged workers to be security conscious as they celebrate this year's Workers' Day'.

In a statement by the Council Chairman, Comrade Deji Elumoye, and Secretary , Comrade Sylva Okereke , the union felicitate with workers nationwide, urging them to have a hitch-free celebration.

The Council also urged workers to be mindful of happenings within their environment and not be carried away by the euphoria of the celebration in view of recent bomb attacks on media houses.

"On this occasion of Workers' Day, we ask you to enjoy every bit of the celebration. It will also not be out of place to implore you to be security conscious on this joyous occasion.

F

OR the negligence of its personnel, the Nigerian Navy has been ordered to pay a woman, Mrs Joy Bassey, N100 million compensation.

Justice John Tsoho of the Federal High Court, Lagos, awarded Mrs Bassey the compensation for the damage done to her womb during ante-natal care by a naval medical doctor, Commander C.T.Olowu, a consultant Gynaecologist/Surgeon.

Mrs Bassey, who was pregnant, had gone to the Nigerian Navy Medical Centre, Lagos, for antenatal but during treatment, she lost her pregnancy and also suffered permanent damage to her womb.

Following the development, the Lagos branch of the International

By Eric Ikhilae

Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), filed a suit on her behalf.

Named as defendants were the Nigerian Navy, and Commander Olowu.

The plaintiff contended that the defendant’s negligence led to a medical condition referred to as dysuria which made Mrs Bassey to frequent the rest room because her bladder size/capacity had decreased.

Mrs Bassey said she developed "a cervical stump which was leaking of urine, while her foetus was also lying completely outside the uterine cavity and the placenta, completely detached from the uterus."

The defendants failed to enter any defence despite being served with court processes.

Justice Tsoho, in his judgment held: "It is beyond denial that the unmitigated negligence and most unprofessional conduct of Commander Olowu have ruined the plaintiff's marriage, destroyed her fertility and deprived her of peace and happiness.

"In short, all attributes of womanhood in the plaintiff have been ruined and her humanity generally, grossly diminished for life."

The judge awarded the N100m damages against the defendants, along with five per cent of the judgment sum to be calculated from the day of the judgment till when the Navy and Olowu pay up.

•Vice-Admiral Saad Ibrahim

Justice Tosho held that there was no amount of monetary damages that could adequately compensate Mrs. Bassey for the trauma she will live with for her life.

Adamant Lagos doctors demand withdrawal of query • We won’t withdraw query, says govt

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TRIKING Lagos State doctors yesterday gave the withdrawal of their query as a condition for suspending their strike.

But the Lagos government is insisting that they must face the Personnel Management Board (PMB), panel and answer the query.

The strike is biting harder with scores of patients reportedly dead.

At a congress in Lagos yesterday, the doctors insisted on the full implementation of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) by the government.

Their other demands are the unconditional withdrawal of query, sack threats and security personnel and the dissolution of the disciplinary panels.

According to the Medical Guild Chairman, Dr Olumuyiwa Odusote, the problem between the government has festered for

By Wale Adepoju

three years without any solution.

He said: "We have used all kinds of method to reach the government without success. We appeal to Lagosians to plead with the government to listen to us. We want dialogue."

On efforts to end the strike, Odusote said some senior consultants in the state have approached the Head of Service (HoS) in an unofficial capacity without any resolution.

Also, some elders in the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) also approached the Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris.

He added: "The government said we should suspend the strike, answer the query and face the Personnel Management Board of the Health service Commission (HSC). And we said that was the reason we went on strike in the

first place. What have you offered? Nothing, so that cannot be a negotiation.

“The government position has not changed and ours hasn't too."

He said doctors' resorted to strike as the last option.

Odusote berated the government for going back on its promises to doctors, saying any intention to suppress the workforce from getting its dues should be discouraged. He said workers and employers were supposed to be partners and not enemies to move forward. We should have mutual relationship that is beneficial to both parties, he added.

He said the government has not called us but we have made efforts to reach it. On the on-going doctor’s recruitment, Odusote said it was welcomed because the state was short-staffed, adding that doctors jobs were not in any way threatened by the development.

On why the congress was called, he said: "Our gathering is to let our colleagues know what efforts we have made and to let them

know they are not alone in the struggle."

Yesterday, The Nation visited some hospitals and found that they were not admitting patients.

Some patients were asked to access care at private hospitals.

A patient, Miss Chinyere Nbakwe, 26, could have her physiotherapy session at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), because of the strike.

Nbakwe, in excruciating pain, said she was involved in an autocrash four weeks ago.

Nmbakwe, left with the hospital tears.

Another patient, Mrs Tolu Adeleke, was to have a caesarian section (CS) on April 16. She has not been attended to because of the strike. Mrs Adeleke urged the government to do something to end the strike.

At Gbagada General Hospital, an unidentified patient with haemorrhage, was asked to seek care in a private hospital despite bleeding profusely.

Govt seals off eight distressed buildings

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• The Ikoyi Lekki bridge under construction... yesterday

PHOTO: OMOSEHIN MOSES

FFICIALS of the Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority (LASPPPA) have sealed off eight distressed buildings at Olufon Close, Off Memudu Street, Orile Iganmu in Coker-Aguda Local Council Development Area (LCDA).

The measure is part of plans aimed at preventing building collapse.

The structures, erected on 1,200 square metres, include a three two-storey building; two threefloor buildings; a four-storey building, a five-floor building and a four-floor building under construction.

LASPPPA’s Director of Physical Development and Stage Certification, Mr. Durojaiye Rufai, who led the demolition team, said the move followed distress calls from the public on the state of the structures in the area, adding that the buildings had to go because his agency discovered that the addi-

LAGOS EMERGENCY LINES STATE AGENCIES 4. KAI Brigade Phone Nos: 080-23036632; 0805-5284914 Head office Phone Nos: 3. LASTMA Emergency Numbers: 01-4703325; 01-7743026 080-75005411; 080-60152462 5. Rapid Response Squad (RRS) 080-23111742; 080-29728371 Phone Nos: 070-55350249; 080-23909364; 080-77551000 070-35068242 01-7904983 080-79279349; 080-63299264

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

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.

By Miriam Ndikanwu

tional floors were being constructed on distressed structure.

He said: "We decided to probe, only to discover that all the eight buildings have structural defects and they all failed the necessary integrity test to determine whether part of the buildings can still stay. Despite these, the owner went on with the construction, neglecting all the contravention notices served."

Apart from the inaccessibility of the buildings, Rufai said where they were being constructed is unconducive for human habitation. "Besides, there were visible defects that we couldn't ignore.

All the staircases were poorly constructed, there are noticeable horizontal and vertical cracks on the structures and narrow escape routes in case of disaster," Rufai added.

He said since the structures were demolished because they did not conform with the Physical Planning Regulations of 2005 and 2010.

Rufai noted that the four floor structure was tagged as distressed in a 2011 survey by the defunct Lagos State Physical Planning and Development Authority (LASPPPDA) and the owner was one Morufu Baderu, a security officer with the Coker - Aguda, Local Council Development Area.

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

54

CITYBEATS

08033054340, 08034699757 E-mail:- ynotcitybeats@gmail.com

Man, 55, in court over Blackberry fraud

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• Governor Fashola (2nd left) fielding questions from reporters shortly after an inspection tour of Apapa, Tin Can, Mile 2. With him are: Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Aderemi Ibirogba (left), his Environment counterpart, Mr. Tunji Bello (2nd right) and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Mineral Resources, Mr. Taofiq Tijani (right).

PHOTO: OMOSEHIN MOSES

Fashola leads fresh drive to restore law, order • Issues quit notice to under-bridge squatters, tankers, trailers

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AGOS State Governor Babatunde Fashola has given a seven-day quit notice to squatters under bridges and drivers of tankers and other articulated vehicles parked on roads.

Worried by the degradation and environmental nuisance of public assets in Apapa and AmuwoOdofin, he said the wanton disregard to law and order by people who want to earn a living at all cost, was causing the state much.

He said the onslaught was a necessary clean-up devoid of religious, ethnic or other sectional considerations but which must be carried out to save the state from further degradation and imminent chaos. This, according to him, was why all the heads of security agencies are involved in the re-

By Miriam Ndikanwu

newed drive.

He warned the squatters to quit or face the wrath of the law because the government would not give up the fight until the state is rid of people and interests who allow their selfish needs to jeopardise the collective goal of developing the state.

Fashola advised those who have nowhere to live to quit the state.

He expressed concern that many owners have abandoned their properties and businesses due to the level of damage done to Creek Road, Apapa, because of the concessionaire handling the Apapa Port.

He called on the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and other Federal Government agencies to be more

concerned about the well-being of people living in Apapa.

He deplored the nuisance that tanker drivers and tank farm owners have constituted along the corridor, promising to engage them till they drop their selfish tendencies to make money at the expense of others.

Accompanied by members of the State Security and Executive Councils, Fashola, warned that his administration would no longer condone lawlessness urging those who would not obey laws and regulations to quit.

The governor frowned on commercial motorcyclists who have turned the under-bridge of the Apapa Road into homes, advising them to go to their states and farm.

Fielding questions from report-

Senator explains probe of GSM operators

S

ENATOR Gbenga Ashafa yesterday explained why the Senate directed its communication committee to investigate poor services by GSM operators in the country.

Ashafa, who represents Lagos East Senatorial district, said the directive was taken because subscribers no longer get value for their money.

The lawmaker also expressed concern at the arbitrary deployment of telecommunication masts by GSM operators, pointing out the grave effects on the health of people.

He said: “The Senate committee on Communications has been directed to investigate the effectiveness of the GSM services provided in the country. Also, the committee is to examine the hazardous effect the arbitrary deployment of masts is having on the health of Nigerians.”

He explained that the committe was mandated to investigate why the collocation policies introduced by the government, were not being enforced. He said despite all GSM licenses issued "to improve telephony density, subscribers are extremely disgruntled over the poor quality of Services being provided."

By Miriam Ndikanwu

Ashafa said the public complaints "include persistent drop calls; resultant loss to the users that were billed for calls not utilised; interconnectivity problems arising from congestion and poor quality network; and calls between networks are hardly audible and sometimes distorted."

He lamented that despite the poor quality of service; operators "are still flooding the market with promotions of all kinds in order to boost their revenues, but failing to ensure customer satisfaction."

Ashafa explained that the burgeoning clientele of the GSM revolution "has not been matched with equal re-investment by the service providers. Due to consistent public outcries, the National Communication Commission (NCC) has made efforts to monitor network performances based on certain Key Performance Indicators (KPI)."

According to the lawmaker, the indicators "include call set up rate, call completion rate, stand alone dedicated control channel, handover success rate and transmission rate.

“It has been reported that the average performance is still below 65 percent. This is unacceptable.”

He said subscribers "are being de-

frauded by GSM operators due to the poor quality of service. It can be seen from the rewards of their promotions and advertisement drives that they are smiling to the bank while the subscriber feels short changed.

He said the subscribers should enjoy good services "are expected to be commensurate with their money. The state of the mobile phone services in the country is no longer acceptable.”

ers, Fashola blamed the problem on the disregard for law and order, adding that the solution to the problem is to restore law and order.

Describing the fresh drive as a joint effort between the government and all the security agencies to enforce law and order, Governor Fashola said: "That is why you see that not only do I have members of the State Executive Council with me, I also have all the Service Commanders, Brigade Commander, the Commander Beecroft, Commander of Air Force Base in Lagos, Director of State Security Services (SSS), in Lagos, the Commissioner of Police.”

"You have seen from Ijora, right through to Apapa to Mile 2 and Amuwo Odofin. You see the impact of the activities of tank farm owners, port concessionaires, tanker drivers and trailer drivers, all in the name of doing business.

But in doing business, they have hurt other businesses," the governor said.

He expressed dismay that so many businesses had collapsed as a result of the activities of the aforementioned people on Creek Road and other adjoining roads where businesses have folded up.such as Mr. Biggs, Umaco House which, according to Fashola, used to be a major office complex in Apapa, the Development House and a bank branch now overgrown with weeds as examples.

55-YEAR-OLD man, Emeka Obadiah, yesterday appeared before an Ikorodu Magistrate’s Court, for alleged fraud.

He was alleged to have obtained N30, 000 from Emmanuel Ozobodo under the pretext of selling him a Blackberry phone.

Prosecutor, Sgt. Iyabode Johnson told the court that the defendant was arrested thrice in the past over similar fraudulent activities.

"He has accomplices and they have their base at Dagbolu, near Ikorodu," she said.

Magistrate Olufunke Hamzat said she had wanted to strike out the case against the defendant because she was moved by his plea for mercy.

"But, now that the prosecutor had revealed that you are lying.

I find it hard to release you," said the magistrate.

The defendant had been in prison custody since he was arraigned on December 2, because he could not perfect his N30,000 bail with two sureties in like sum.

"I have never been charged to court over 419 offences. I have nobody to take my bail. My people have deserted me," Obadiah pleaded. Mrs Hamzat adjourned the case to May 24.

Sexagenarian accused of duping shop seekers

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60-YEAR-OLD estate agent, Olusegun Aina, was yesterday arraigned before a Somolu Magistrate’s Court in Lagos, for allegedly obtaining money under false pretence from shop seekers.

The defendant pleaded not guilty to a two-count charge of obtaining money by false pretence and stealing.

The prosecutor, Inspector Ajala Ebi, told the court that Aina collected money from one Mrs Olusola Adenuga and Mrs Ijeoma Orji, with a promise to secure two shops for them.

The defendant he said, committed the offence between February 4, and March 12, at No. 97, Community Road, Bariga, which doubled as his office and residence.

"On the same date, time and place, the accused unlawfully stole the sum of N300,000 from the complainants," Ebi said.

He said that the offence contravened Sections 312 and 313 of the Criminal Code, Laws of Lagos State, 2011. Magistrate Titus Abolariwa granted the defendant N100,000 bail with two sureties in like sum, and adjourned the case till May 16.

Genevieve, others in cast of Half of a yellow sun

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-LIST actress Genevieve Nnaji will join the starstudded cast of Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anika Noni Rose and Thandie Newton in the much-anticipated film adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's best selling novel: Half of A yellow sun.

She will play Ms Adebayo, another professor who develops flirtatious relationship with her colleague, Mr Odenigbo (Ejiofor).

Set during the Nigerian-Biafran War of 1967 – 1970, the novel, which won the Orange Prize for fiction explores the impact of this conflict

By Mercy Michael

through the twisting story of a university professor (Ejiofor) and his lover (Newton) her sister, a British ex-pat, and a young houseboy.

After Bello, which will see her feature alongside US actor Isaiah Washington, Vivica A Fox and Jimmy Jean-Louis, this is the second major role Genevieve is involved in.

Filming of Half of a yellow sun will however begin next month and will be released in 2013.

• Genevieve

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

55

MONEY LINK

Regulators drill MfB directors on risk management ISK management and corporate governance abuses in microfinance banks (MfBs) which recently, led to recent Police probe of N7 billion bad loans in the sector, has attracted the attention of regulators. In their effort to rid the sector of those unwholesome practices, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and Financial Institution Training Centre (FITC) have slated

R

charge their developmental role in the national economy, going forward.

Financial Malpractice Investigation Unit (FMIU) of the Nigerian Police is probing the N7 billion unpaid loans in 103 microfinance banks (MfBs). Managing Director, NDIC, Umaru Ibrahim, said there is no way the country will have a virile banking system if the perpetrators of financial crimes are not brought to book.

skill horning is compulsory for all microfinance banks in the country.

The programme, which is a follow-up to the recent certification of some of the staff of Microfinance banks is aimed at exposing these directors to microfinance fundamentals and in the process, equip them with essential skills needed to operate their institutions efficiently.

Besides, these institutions will be well positioned to effectively dis-

From Odogwu Emeka Odogwu, Nnewi

T

HE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has relocated from its temporary office at Nnamdi Azikiwe Avenue in Awka to its Permanent site along Enugu –Onitsha expressway also in Awka.

This will ease some traffics always caused by the bank in its day to day operations inside town as the new edifice is most suitable for staff and its customers.

Efforts to speak with the Awka Area Manager failed as change of environment is still so fresh for them to adjust for interviews.

When The Nation visited their temporary site it was under lock and key but there was flurry of activities at the Permanent site.

Against expectations there were no ceremonies as anticipated for the relocation.

Access Bank’s Q1 profit hits N15.5b

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CCESS Bank Plc has recorded a N15.5 billion profit before tax for the first quarter eneded March 31, 2012.

The results showed that the bank’s earnings are recorded significant improvements - just one quarter into the acquisition of Intercontinental Bank Plc. Access Bank’s first quarter result for 2011 was N5.6 billion.

Analysts at FBN Capital said Access

E

By Collins Nweze

a compulsory training programme for all the banks’ directors.

The exercise, which holds in June, will consider issues bothering on introduction to microfinance, managing microfinance banks, financial statement analysis and planning, risk management, corporate governance, and regulatory issues and management of microfinance banks.

The Nation’s finding show that the

CBN relocates to permanent site in Awka

Bank is extracting significant synergies this early into the acquisition.

“One line drove Access Bank’s betterthan-expected results: the interest income line.

Interest income of N52.2 billion beat our N38.9 billion estimate by some margin and explains why our N7.3 billion estimate in PBT fell well short of the N15.5 billion Access report. The implied interest on earning

‘Taxation will assist govt’s transformation agenda’

FFICIENT and reliable tax system will assist government in realising its transformation agenda in key sectors of the economy, The Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), Chukwuemeka Eze, has said.

Speaking yesterday at a press briefing ahead of the 14th Annual Tax Conference holding at NICON Luxury Hotel, Abuja, on May 9 to 12, 2012, with the theme: ‘Taxation as a tool for Economic Transformation’, Eze said taxation has a way of complementing government revenue drive, and making more resources available to provide social amenities for the people.

The tax expert and lawyer said the

conference, which is billed to be declared open by President Goodluck Jonathan, will bring under one roof tax policy makers, tax administrators, tax consultants, tax academicians, and taxpayers; with participants coming from Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Cote d’lvoire, Kenya, South Africa, U.S.A., U.K., among other countries.

On the relevance of taxation in terms of revenue generation, Eze stated that funds realised from taxation can be deployed into key sectors of the economy like power, agriculture, the real sector and creation of jobs to reduce growing unemployment rate in the country.

cial year ended December 31, 2011.

The shareholders are also entitled to 50 kobo as dividend per share which they have described as impressive and acceptable. “With the volume of activities executed by the Bank in the out-gone financial year, payment of dividend of 50 kobo per share is excellent. We take this gesture as a demonstration of the bank’s commitment to its shareholders”, the shareholders said at the bank’s 23rd Annual General Meeting held last weekend.

assets was north of 15 per cent, which is too high and suggests that other factors may have played a part,” FBN Capital said in an emailed statement.

According to the research firm, the interest income also helped offset a weaker-than-expected non-interest income result of N10.5 billion compared with analysts N14 billion estimate.

Meanwhile, Shareholders of the bank have approved a total dividend payout of N8.944 billion for the finan-

ANAN, ICAN settle rivalry

T

HE President of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), Maryam Ladi-Ibrahim has said that the rivalry between the association and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) had become a thing of the past.

Speaking during the 30th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the association held in Jos, she said that the group had made a scheduled visit to ICAN, “which was hitherto unthinkable, considering the bitter rivalry between the two bodies’.

She said the disagreement between the bodies is now a thing of the past’.

According to her, the aim of the visit was to foster better relations with a senior professional colleague for the interest of accountancy profession in particular and the nation at large.

Ladi-Ibrahim said the association under her leadership had continued to contribute to research and development by establishing research centre for leadership, accounting development and investigation at the Kogi State University, Ayangba.

She said the association had inaugurated several projects at its permanent site of the Nigerian College of Accountancy (NCA), its postgraduate college at Kwall, near Jos.

FGN BONDS

DATA BANK

Tenor

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 Amount Offered ($) Demanded ($) 150m 150m 138m 138m

MANAGED FUNDS Initial Current Quotation Price Market N8250.00 5495.33 N1000.00 N552.20

NIDF NESF

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

GAINERS AS AT 30-4-12 SYMBOL

CADBURY FCMB UBA OKOMUOIL CUSTODYINS RTBRISCOE UAC-PROP NEIMETH JAPAULOIL GLAXOSMITH

O/PRICE

14.40 5.23 3.57 33.00 1.55 1.38 10.28 0.75 0.54 19.30

C/PRICE

15.12 5.49 3.74 34.50 1.62 1.44 10.71 0.78 0.56 20.00

113m

NGN USD NGN GBP NGN EUR NIGERIA INTER BANK (S/N) (S/N) Bureau de Change (S/N) Parallel Market

Current Before

O/PRICE 16.99 1.52 0.97 3.64 7.15 4.05 10.21 2.14 4.35 1.36

C/PRICE 16.20 1.45 0.93 3.51 6.92 3.95 10.01 2.10 4.28 1.34

CHANGE 0.79 0.07 0.04 0.13 0.23 0.10 0.20 0.04 0.07 0.02

29-2-12 27-2-12

113m

155.7

22-2-12

C u r r e n t CUV Start After %

147.6000 239.4810 212.4997

149.7100 244.0123 207.9023

150.7100 245.6422 209.2910

-2.11 -2.57 -1.51

149.7450

154.0000

154.3000

-3.04

152.0000

153.0000

155.5000

-2.30

153.0000

154.0000

156.0000

-1.96

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%

NIBOR Tenor 7 Days 30 Days 60 Days 150 Days

NSE CAP Index

27-10-11 N6.5236tr 20,607.37

Date

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%

28-10-11 N6.617tr 20,903.16

% Change -1.44% -1.44%

MEMORANDUM QUOTATIONS Name

LOSERS AS AT 30-4-12

SYMBOL OANDO CUTIX LIVESTOCK DANGSUGAR IBTC UBN ASHAKACEM HONYFLOUR DANGFLOUR FIDELITYBK

Exchange Rate (N) 155.8 155.8

CAPITAL MARKET INDEX Year Start Offer

CHANGE

0.72 0.26 0.17 1.50 0.07 0.06 0.43 0.03 0.02 0.70

113m

Amount Sold ($) 150m 138m

EXHANGE RATE 6-03-12 Currency

INTERBANK RATES OBB Rate Call Rate

She said that from next session it would be compulsory that all students of the college must attend their lectures with their laptops. LadiIbrahim also said that the association had evolved an e-learning process where students of the college could get their lectures through the college directly.

The ANAN president, however, expressed concern about the state of security and corruption in both public and private sectors in the country. Ladi-Ibrahim said, “the nation is going through teething period both in security and corruption in public and private sectors.”

Offer Price

Bid Price

ARM AGGRESSIVE 9.17 KAKAWA GUARANTEED 1.00 STANBIC IBTC GUARANTE 122.59 AFRINVEST W.A. EQUITY FUND 102.03 THE LOTUS CAPITAL HALAL 0.74 BGL SAPPHIRE FUND 1.08 BGL NUBIAN FUND 0.89 NIGERIA INTERNATIONAL DEB. 1,701.51 PARAMOUNT EQUITY FUND 8.13 CONTINENTAL UNIT TRUST 1.39 CENTRE-POINT UNIT TRUST 1.87 STANBIC IBTC NIG EQUITY 7,259.48 THE DISCOVERY FUND 193.00 FIDELITY NIGFUND 1.67 • ARM AGGRESSIVE • KAKAWA GUARANTEED • STANBIC IBTC GUARANTE • AFRINVEST W.A. EQUITY FUND

9.08 1.00 122.48 101.48 0.72 1.08 0.88 1,695.51 7.74 1.33 1.80 7,071.36 191.08 1.62

Movement

OPEN BUY BACK Previous 04 July, 2011

Current 07, Aug, 2011

Bank

8.5000

8.5000

P/Court

8.0833

8.0833

Movement

56

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

NEWS Fed Govt, NGO fight cultism

By Eric Ikhilae THE Federal Government has concluded will sensitise students of higher institutions on the need to avoid membership of cult groups.

The government has said it would collaborate with a non-governmental organistion (NGO), Peace on Campus Initiative (PCI), to campaign against cultism in tertiary institutions.

PCI has been on anticultism campaigns on campuses in the past 18 years.

In a letter by the Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Ethics and Values, Mrs Sarah Jubril, the government hailed the NGO and its sister organization, Initiative for Education Against Cultism in Nigeria (ICEACN), for ensuring ethical revolution among Nigerians.

The letter, which was signed for Mrs Jubril by Abraham Harrison, expressed delight in the activities of the PCI and ICEACN. The letter reads: “The Office of the Special Adviser considers the PCI and ICEACN a major objective in achieving its proposed duties in furtherance of the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Ethics and Values being in tandem with its mandate of ethical revolution. This is foundational to the Transformation Agenda of the present administration.

“The office hereby accords PCI provisional recognition and hereby mandates you to carry out sensitisation campaigns in all institutions in Nigeria on anti-cultism activities and also recommends your organisation to any individual, corporate organisation, heads of institutions, ministries and agencies for any support that you may require in carrying out this enormous task.”

Police to invite governor, deputy over property T HE police Special Enquiry Bureau (SEB) will invite Zamfara State Governor Abdulaziz Yari and Ebonyi State Deputy Governor David Umahi Nweze on their alleged involvement in two property in Abuja, it was learnt yesterday.

The police said Yari, in 2010, bought a house in Asokoro District, Abuja, from an “unauthorised agent”. They alleged that the transaction was fraudulent.

The agent, Obinna Kanu, is said to be on the run and has been declared wanted by the police.

Nweze reportedly rented the property in Maitama District from the same agent in 2008 but has refused to vacate it, despite the expiration of his rent in 2010.

The owner of the two property, Sir Ernest Elochukwu, petitioned the SEB to recover the two houses. But Yari and Nweze have said they are pro-

From Gbade Ogunwale, Assistant Editor, Abuja

tected from investigation by the immunity the Constitution confers on them.

Suspecting that Yari might have bought the house with forged documents, Elochukwu urged the governor to produce the papers on the property. The governor has reportedly refused to honour the request, though he was said to have paid the agent N200 million cash for the property.

Nweze is demanding to be paid N12 million by the owner of the house before he would vacate the property. He is asking for the money as the cost of renovating the property. But Elochukwu described the claim as spurious, because the deputy governor allegedly rented the property at N4 mil-

•Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi (middle) with the Adesina (left); Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Value Chain, Mr. James Awoniyi (second right); and board Ogunrinde (right), at the flag-off of the Youth Commercial Ido-Osi, Ekiti State...yesterday.

lion per annum.

Elochukwu said Nweze could not have spent N12 million to renovate a property he rented for N4 million per annum, adding that that Nweze did not have his (Elochukwu’s) consent before the renovation.

An Abuja lawyer, Mr. Nnodu Okeke, under whose watch the property was said to have been “fraudulently” sold to Yari, is to be questioned on the property.

Okeke acknowledged taking over the property from the agent in 2009 but told investigators that the property was sold in 2010.

It was learnt that the police may also invite the proprietor of Premier Academy, an Abuja-based private school.

The school allegedly bought one of Elochukwu’s property

at House 421 (A) Road, FHA, Lugbe, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), about the same period.

The property was allegedly sold by Kanu without the owner’s consent. The school proprietor is said to have resold the property to a third party, an Army General.

Police investigators are to drill Yari and Nweze. They also want to know whether or not the immunity clause they are claiming is applicable in the circumstance, especially where a private person’s property is involved.

A source at the SEB told our correspondent yesterday that Chris Ezike, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), who headed the initial investigation team, has been redeployed to the Special AntiRobbery Squad (SARS). A new team has been constituted.

The source did not elaborate on the new team.

Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Resources, Mr. Babajide Arowosafe (second left); member, Cassava member, Ekiti State Agricultural Development Programme, Mr. Yomi Development (Y-CAD) programme and this year’s farming season, at

We can’t afford disunity against Boko Haram, says Fed Govt

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ITH the controversy surrounding the remarks of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Gen. Andrew Azazi, still raging, the Federal Government yesterday urged Nigerians to continue to stand together to fight the Boko Haram insurgency.

Gani Azazi, at the weekend, blamed the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the creation of and upsurge in the sect’s activities, which he said led to the death of over 1,000 persons.

But speaking at the Ministerial Platform, in collaboration with this year’s National Democracy Day and first anniversary of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, Information Minister Labaran Maku called for the cooperation of all Nigerians against Boko Haram.

He said: “Let me reassure the people of Nigeria that the purpose of the attacks is to discourage us; it is to sow a seed of discord; it is to sow confusion among the citizens. It is to create confusion so that Satan and its agents would demoralise those of us who

From Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja

trust in God. Let me call upon Nigerians to stand together.

We must all stand together Muslims, Christians, Northerners and Southerners.

“I want to use this opportunity to remind Nigerians that we are going through very difficult times. There are people among us that are determined to set back the clock of progress.

Such people go out to murder fellow citizens for no reason.

We need to stand up; we need to show courage. The war

against terror is a war by all Nigerians to defend their properties and lives.

“We have made the point all over again that there is no war in Nigeria between Christians and Muslims. What is going on in our country is that there are few networks of people, and these are people that have set God aside. They are people that no longer worship God. “And it is not only here. We have a situation in Pakistan, where people are being killed, and Pakistan is almost 100 percent Islam. We have a situation

in Yemen, we have a situation in Algeria, and we have a situation in several countries. The world today is standing up together against terror.

“We are working in our various ways: the security forces, the police, the Army.

Recently, there have been greater levels of successes.

We will continue to work hard to deliver our country.

At this moment, we call on all Nigerians to continue to pray for peace, to pray for our security forces, to pray for the government and to pray for the people of Nigeria.”

On the attacks in the North, the minister noted that the region would be affected in development in the long run.

Maku said: “The North today is in danger of being left behind. Kano is a commercial city, and if you attack Kano today, you are attacking every northerner; you are attacking the economy of the people of the North and the people of Nigeria.

“Let us cooperate with the security agencies. These people are not spirits; they are human beings. They live among us.”

Jonathan demands for copies of Azazi’s ‘controversial’ speech

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RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan yesterday demanded for a copy of the speech delivered by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj.-Gen. Patrick Owoye Azazi, and video recordings of same, at the Southsouth Economic Summit.

Azazi met with Vice-President Namadi Sambo yesterday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He did not address reporters on the controversy surrounding his indictment of the ruling Peoples Democratic

From Vincent Ikuomola, Abuja

Party (PDP) in the Boko Haram insurgency after his meeting with Sambo.

President Jonathan is attending the Lake Chad Basin Commission summit in Chad.

Though details of their meeting were not made public, The Nation learnt that it was not unconnected with the NSA’s controversial statement.

But President Goodluck

Jonathan disagreed with Gen. Azazi, challenging him to explain what he meant.

Jonathan said: “I read in the newspapers some journalists quoting the National Security Adviser. Until I read the script myself and listen to him….

One thing I do know, like philosophers would say, human beings disagree because people use different words to mean the same thing and use one word to mean different things.

“That is the primary rea-

son for disagreement. That is why public officers like us are extremely careful because words are extremely elastic. So, sometimes, you have something in your mind you want to communicate but the way you communicate it, different people would give different interpretations.

“That is why some human beings who don’t think are quarrelsome. When they hear something, they only understand it in one way.

There ‘ll be no peace without SNC, says Makinde From Okodili Ndidi, Onitsha

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HE Prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, Dr Sunday Ola Makinde, has said Nigeria’s security challenges will persist until the Federal Government endorses the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC).

The cleric noted that only genuine dialogue, which will involve all stakeholders, could enhance Nigeria’s peaceful coexistence and guarantee security.

Rev. Makinde addressed reporters in Onitsha, the Anambra State capital, at the end of the 30th Council of Bishops held at St. Andrew’s Methodist Cathedral.

The Prelate said the refusal of some politicians to convene the SNC amounts to postponing the evil day.

“We must come together and discuss the future of Nigeria. Religious leaders, politicians, militants and separatists must come together and discuss how we can live together as a people,” Rev. Makinde said.

According to him, the excuse that the National Assembly can replicate the SNC is deceitful and diversionary.

The cleric noted that members of the National Assembly do not represent the interests of majority of Nigerians but are politicians noted for self-enrichment.

He recalled that it was high rate of killings and insecurity that led to the civil war in the early 1970s, adding that the causes of the war have not been addressed 40 years after.

Rev. Makinde said: “The government should act fast to avoid another war that is looming. Nigeria has over 260 ethnic groups and they should come together and decide their future and destiny.”

Daily Times: Court strikes out theft charges against Anosike brothers

By Bisi Onanuga

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EPRIEVE came the way of the Anosike brothers - Fidelis and Noel - as a Lagos High Court yesterday struck out the charge of theft of Daily Times property preferred against them.

Fidelis and Noel, who are directors of Folio Communications, are on trial for allegedly stealing N1.7 billion, property of Daily Times of Nigeria Limited.

When the trial came up yesterday before Justice Habeeb Abiru, the prosecutor, Mr. L.A. Sanusi, of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), requested for a twoweek adjournment to enable his team conclude its study of the file on the matter.

Sanusi said there was some information his team needed to check for it to prosecute the case.

On March 27, the prosecution had requested for a month adjournment to enable it study the case file, which had just been transferred to the DPP by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN).

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

57

NEWS Imo to build Diaspora Village From Emma Mgbeahurike, Owerri

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HE Imo State Government has entered into partnership with an American firm Jesus, Mary and Joseph Holdings - to develop an estate with 500- housing units.

The estate will be christened Diaspora Village.

Speaking with reporters at the Government House in Owerri, after a meeting with Governor Rochas Okorocha, the Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr. Timothy Barton, said the 500 buildings would be of the same standard with similar estates in Texas, United States (US).

Barton said his company would provide 200 units in the first phase of the project and the reamining units would be built in subsequent phases.

Three kidnap suspects killed in Anambra •Acting IGP’s visit shifted to Friday T

HREE suspected kidnappers were killed on Sunday night during a gun battle with the police at two locations in Anambra State.

The incidents occurred at Otuocha, Anambra East Local Government Area, and Abatete, Idemili North Council, during the midnight patrol of the Special Patrol Team of the Inspector- General of Police (IGP) and the State Operational Service (OPS) unit.

Nwanosike Onu, Awka

The vehicles - a Peugeot 505, a Nissan Primera and a Toyot - , arms and ammunition were recovered from the gang.

It was learnt that some of the suspects were injured.

Police spokesman Emeka Chukwumeka confirmed the incident.

He said it was a warning to criminals that their time

was up.

Chukwuemeka said: “We are battle ready. This is just a little of the good things to come to Anambra on security.

“The new Police Commissioner, Bala Nasarawa, is not sleeping over security issues and he is equal to the task.”

The visit of Acting IGP Mohammed Abubarkar to the state, earlier scheduled for

Abia exco reshuffled

From Ugochukwu Eke, Umuahia

A

BIA State Governor Theodore Orji yesterday reshuffled the State Executive Council.

Six commissioners were moved from their ministries and three persons have been appointed to fill some of the vacant positions.

The three new commissioners and two transition committee chairmen for Aba South and North local government areas were sworn in yesterday by the governor in Umuahia.

Orji said governance is a continuous process that is always evolving.

He urged the new officials to be securiy conscious.

Orji said: “Security should be paramount to you. Security agencies should not be left to handle it alone.The must be assiated with information.

“We do not want to go back to the old days of kidnapping and violent crimes in the state. Anybody found wanting would be dealt with.

Orji signs Appropriation Bill into Law Ugochukwu Eke, Umuahia

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BIA State Governor Theodore Orji has signed the 2012 Appropriation Bill into Law. He pledge to implement the budget to the letter The governor presented a N122,390,433,920 budget to the House of Assembly late last year, but the lawmakers raised it by N7 billion to N129,959,325,170.

Signing the bill into law in Umuahia, the state capital, Orji said the budget, christened: “Budget of Transformation”, was articulated to tackle the need of all sectors.

He said one of the acievements of his administration is the sustenance of peace in the state.

The governor said security will always remain a priority of his government.

He said: “After what we went through some few years ago, we are not ready to go back to the dark ages of insecurity in the state again.”

Anambra gets education panel Nwanosike Onu, Awka

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HE ANAMBRA State Ministry of Health yesterday inaugurated a six-man committee on what it called “continuous Medical Education as approved by the Nigerian Medical and Dental Council (NMDC) of Nigeria”.

The inauguration was performed by the HealthCommissioner, Prof. Amobi Illika.

Members of the committee, which has Dr. Paul Obiegbu as its Chairman, are: Dr. Ezeobi Ifeanyi, Dr. Innocent Okoye, Dr Umebika Chinedu, Dr. Nelson Onyejimbe and Dr. Geoffrey Ugboe.

Illika said the members are consultants in their chosen fields.

He said continuous medical education is for doctors in Anambra and beyond.

security measures ordered by the Acting IGP. This, he said, was not peculiar to the command headquarters, but to all formations in the state.

Chukwuemeka, however, denied knowledge of the alleged letter by Boko Haram.

Hoodlums have been laying siege on city centres, such as Nnewi, Onitsha and Awka, where they have been killing and abducting people.

yesterday, has been postponed till Friday.

The Nation learnt that the proposed visit is not unconnected with the alleged letter sent to the command by Boko Haram.

Nasarawa had ordered the closure of one part of the only major road in the Awka, Zik’s Avenue, close to the Police Headquarters at Amawbia.

Chukwuemeka said the closure of the road is part of

•Cross section of new appointees taking their Oath of Office...yesterday.

20 injured in tricycle operators/revenue collectors clash in Onitsha

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O fewer than 20 persons were injured yesterday in Onitsha, Anambra State, dring a violent clash between tricycle (popularly known as Keke NAPEP) operators and some revenue collectors.

The tricycle operators said they were not given prior notice by the revenue collectors, who they alleged were on illegal duty.

They said they have been paying the levies until February, when it was stopped.

One of them, Francis Onue-

T

From Okodili Ndidi, Onitsha

gbu, said the collectors arrived at 8.30am and demanded that each operator should buy three tickets amounting to N250.

He alleged that the collectors divided the city into four areas and demanded that the operators must buy the tickets at the various areas.

Onouegbu said: “This means that the operators will buy the same set of tickets at the four points bringing the bill to N1000 per operator each day.”

The tricycle operator, who sustained machete cuts, said: “Our refusal to comply infuriated the stern-looking revenue collectors and they descended on us with sticks, machetes and other weapons.”

He said their tricycles were seized and dumped at a nearby police station, while some were damaged.

Another operator, who escaped being beaten by the collectors, John Nzeocha, urged the government to intervene.

He said they are ready to pay any approved levy to the appropriate authorities and

lamented the fees often imposed on them by illegal agents.

Nzeocha said: “We cannot pay N1,000 daily to the collectors, pay the owners of the tricycle and still have something to take home.

“We urge the government to address this issue urgently before more damage is done.”

Onitsha Area Police Commander Mr. Roland Omatoje said he would meeting with the operators to resolve the issue.

He urged the parties to be law abiding.

Gunmen kill vigilance group chief in Anambra

HE commander of a vigilance group in Ojoto, Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State, Innocent Onwuazor, was killed at the weekend by gunmen.

From Okodili Ndidi, Onitsha

It was learnt that Onwuazor was trailed to Ojoto-Uno and shot dead by his assailants.

According to a source, the deceased was patrolling the Ojoto axis about 9.30pm when

he noticed he was being trailed by unknown persons in a vehicle. The source said the victim stried to hide, but his assailants shot him.

It was gathered that he died immediately.

The source said the gunmen set Onwuazor’s patrol van ablaze before fleeing the scene.

Some villagers, who rushed to the scene, tried without success to put out the fire.

A

From Ernest Nwokolo, Abeokuta

Amosun to aid growth.

They spoke in Ijebu-Igbo, while receiving Amosun, who was on a working visit to the council.

Durojaiye said there are over 36 professors from Ijebu North and a vast landmass, which could be put to economic use by the government.

He urged the governor to be attentive to the needs of the people.

The Ebumawe of AgoIwoye, Oba AbdulRazaq Adenugba, who spoke on

behalf of other monarchs, said if investors take advantage of the land, the area would be opened up for development and jobs would be created.

The people urged Amosun to intervene in the lingering crisis over the Orimolusi vacant Stool of Ijebu Igbo.

The community spokesman, Otunba Toyin Abass, said the stool has been vacant in the last 18 years while all efforts made to pick a candidate for the traditional office were bogged down by endless litigation among contenders to the stool.

From Odogwu Emeka Odogwu, Nnewi

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HE office of the Rector of the Federal Polytechnic, Oko on Anambra State, Prof. Godwin Onu, was saved from being gutted by fire by the combined efforts of workers and security operatives.

T he Nation learnt that the fire started from the stabiliser of a air conditioner that was not properly switched off. But before the fire could do much harm, it was put off with fire extinguishers.

Confirming the incident , the institution’s spokesman, Obini Onuchukwu, said it was a minor incident.

He said: ‘’It was a minor incident and we thank God it was put out on time.’’

Students have continued to return to the polytechnic, even though the management has not announced a resumption date.

Fed Govt flags-off projects in Ondo

Senator, Ijebu monarchs back Amosun chieftain of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Senator Biyi Durojaiye, and traditional rulers in Ijebu North Local Government Area of Ogun State, yesterday pledged their support for the administration of Governor Ibikunle Amosun.

They said they would align with it to develop the area.

Durojaiye, a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from 1999 to 2003, and the monarchs said the area is blessed with human resources and arable land, which they were willing to release to

Rector’s office saved from fire

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HE Federal Government has flagged-off the implementation of the Micro Project Programme in nine Niger-Delta states (MPP9) in Ondo State.

The programme involves 60 communities in the state.

MPP9 is a European Union intervention programme in association with the Federal Government. It covers the nine oil producing states of Bayelsa, Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Cross River, Delta, Ondo, Edo, Imo and Rivers.

It was inaugurated yesterday at the Ondo State Governor’s Office in Akure, the

state capital.

Minister of National Planning Shamsudeen Usman said the MPP9 was designed to work with “reform-minded local governments, where the authorities are interested in cooperating and implementing the micro-projects in a transparent and consultative way”.

Usman said 60 micro projects would be built in the state. They include solar powered boreholes, health posts, school blocks, civic centres and market stalls, among others.

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

58

NEWS

Subsidy Probe Report: War against M cabal total, say Reps

EMBERS of the House of Representatives yesterday gave a condition to a harmonious relationship between the lower chamber of the National Assembly and the executive.

It is the implementation of the report of its ad-hoc Committee on the management of the Petroleum Subsidy Funds (PSF) by government agencies and oil marketers.

The condition came on the heels as one of the indicted marketers - ASCON Oil Company Limited absolved itself of any wrong doing in the fuel subsidy scam.

A member of the House, Robinson Uwak, who called for the resignation of Petroleum Resources Minister, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke on the floor of the House, also defended his action.

He spoke yesterday on an Africa Independent Television (AIT) programme mon-

•Firm denies involvement in subsidy scam •Why I call for Alison-Madueke’s resignation, by Uwak itored in Lagos.

Uwak said the House leadership was aware the cabals are already fighting back.

He said; “The 7th House of Representatives under the leadership of Right Honourable Aminu Waziri Tambulwa, which from its inception made a bold statement that it was ready to serve Nigeria, is ready for this fight this war to the end. We will demystify the cabal.”

On why he called for the minister’s, Uwak said: “I made the call as a matter of privilege not as a motion.

A call for her resignation is to save the presidency from embarrassment. The minister who was overseeing the

ministry when the scam took place cannot be a judge in her case, ethically she should step aside.”

The Lawan committee also recommended that a whooping N1.07 trillion be refunded by various agencies of government and marketers to the public till.

But ASCON, one of the indicted marketers denied being part of the oil cabal allegedly engaging in shady deals and milking the nation dry.

Its position was contained in a statement issued by the company’s management.

The company, according to the statement, never violated the laid down rules for participation under the PSF

Scheme managed by the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).

The company said for the avoidance of doubt and to put the records straight, “it is pertinent to explain succinctly the nature of this petroleum subsidy which has and is still generating heated debate.

The statement described as unfortunate a situation where over 75-80 per cent of the Petrol (PMS) consumed in Nigeria is imported due to the limited and inadequate production from the nation’s refineries.

It also noted that there has always been a correlation between the high cost of

crude oil and the refined petroleum products and that it was an open secret that throughout 2011, crude oil prices were very high.

As a result, the imported PMS was high, pricewise, and coupled with gradual devaluation of the Naira the cost of this product kept an upward trend throughout, the firm claimed.

Since the country had no alternative and in order to meet demand, the PMS sold ex-pump at =N=65 per litre had to be heavily subsidised.

It said the difference between the higher cost of the imported PMS as verified by PPPRA and the lower regulated pump price of =N=65 per litre was the subsidy that was repaid to legitimate importers including ASCON after being subjected to very stringent audit by government appointed auditors in conformity to the process highlighted about.

•Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola (seventh left); Chairman, Ilesa West Local Government, Alhaji Azeez Adesiji; Coordinator, Joint Muslim Action Forum (JOMAF), Alhaji Kola Uzamot; the JOMAF Secretary, Kazeem Odedeji, a lawyer and the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, during the JOMAF solidarity visit to the governor at the Government House in Osogbo

Soyinka urges Nigerians to prepare for subsidy scam protest Continued from page 2 Bakare said the investigation should be comprehensive, emphasising that the ministers of Finance and Petroleum, who served during the period of the scam, should be prosecuted. He said since President Goodluck Jonathan claimed ignorance about the circumstances surrounding the scam, he is unfit for the highest office in the land.

The cleric added: “The country has been stolen broke by mindless looting.

The states are yet to receive their allocations for March. It portends great problem for

the economy.

Bakare warned that rolling out tanks by government at the Gani Fawehinmi Park, Ojota, was meaningless, stressing that that venue is not the only area of protest.

He stressed: “Given the low confidence the people have in the anti-corruption agencies in dealing with political corruption in Nigeria, we are demanding the appointment of a private prosecutor to deal with these prosecutions.

“The counsel to be so appointed must be a man or woman of proven integrity

with a team of lawyers recommended by the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) working with such private prosecutor. Civil siciety organisations should be allowed to appoint their own counsel as observers”.

Soyinka, who said he was overwhelmed by the disclosures, chided the government for insensitivity to the plight of the public. He declared that the current administration has disdain and contempt for Nigerians.

He said: “When you are robbed in this way, you are dehumanised with insults

and arrogance. There is a material assault on the resources of Nigeria”.

Soyinka said the populace should be ready for another determined march against corruption, insisting that those found culpable in the scam should be probed and brought to book.

He said Nigerians who travel abroad are alarmed at the report of criminality and lack of conscience in Nigeria.

He warned anti-graft agencies to learn from the Ibori saga by doing a thorough work to avoid ridicule and making Nigeria a laughing

stock in the international community.

Urging Nigerians to be vigilant, Soyinka added: “Nigerians must be prepared to prepare to march and halt the trend of corruption”.

Dr. Okei-Odumakin decried how corruption has killed the nation and caused the collapse of infrastructure, wobbling health sector and high mortality rate.

She added: “Nobody is above the law. The ministers of finance and petroleum who served during the period of the scam should be prosecuted and brought to book.”

Alao-Akala, Ladoja, Akinjide meet in Ibadan

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OME chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in Oyo State met on Sunday at the Ibadan home of the immediate past governor, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala.

The meeting held behind closed doors was attended

by Alhaji Rasheed Ladoja, a former governor and the head of Accord Party.

Although there was no briefing after the meeting, which ended at about 6.30pm, Alao-Akala, who saw Ladoja to his car, said it

•Ex-governor reconciles Akala, Akinjide, Arapaja From Bisi Oladele, Ibadan

was a family meeting.

Speaking on his relationship with Ladoja, Alao-Akala said, “you used to know us together and now we are back. ’’ The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that many of such meetings had been held with the view to reconciling warring parties within the PDP and to bring back Ladoja to the party.

Ms Olajumoke Akinjide,

the Minister of State for Federal Capital Territory(FCT), Akala’s former Deputy, Alhaji Taofik Arapaja and Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, former minister of sports, attended the meeting.

It was learnt that Ladoja appealed to the politicians to sheathe their swords and embrace peace to allow the party breathe fresh air in Oyo State. Ladoja, it was learnt, asked the politicians to look at the overall interest of the party in taking de-

cisions. A source told The Nation that the idea of the meeting was moved by some party leaders at the national level who believe that the current factionalisation will lead the party to nowhere in the 2015 election. The source explained that the Ladoja/ Akinjide/Arapaja faction was able to prevail on AlaoAkala to return to the original sharing formula adopted at the ward and local government congresses such that Ladoja would be al-

lowed to become the leader of the PDP based on his performance in thelast year’s governorship election.

The source said: “The majority of the councils in Ibadan fell into his hands. In essence, Ladoja will get about 1/3 of the local governments or that he will get the majority of the councils in Ibadan with appreciable number in other areas of the state. What the party is driving at is to make councils executive allinclusive so that we can win election. That will be better for us.”

Northern governors condole with Oshiomhole NINETEEN governors under the Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF) has expressed sadness at the death of three journalists from different media organisations in an accident during an official assignment with Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State. They described the death as a great loss to the journalism profession in particular and the nation in general.

In a condolence message to Governor Oshiomhole, the families and employers of the deceased reporters, Niger State Governor and Chairman of the forum, Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu said members of the NSGF were pained by the sudden death of the well-groomed professionals, especially that the incident occurred few days after many lives were lost in an attack on the offices of the Thisday and Sun newspapers.

“We can only pray God to grant the deceased eternal rest and their families, friends and employers the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss,” Aliyu said in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Danladi Ndayebo.

The forum supported Oshiomhole’s call for an inquiry into the incident, even as it urged all concerned, especially those associated with the highly mobile official convoys to take precaution, including strict adherence to safety rules and regulation in order to prevent a reoccurrence.

INEC arraigns corps members in Cross River THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Cross River has arraigned three youth corps members for their involvement in electoral offences allegedly committed during the last election in Cross River State. They were arraigned before Magistrate Court sitting in Effraya, Etung Local Government Area, Cross River State.

The corps member, Joseph Nwobi and Akpometi Talani, who served as Presiding Officer and Stanley Oko, who served as an Assistant Presiding Officer as Ajassor Ward 4 in Etung Local Government were alleged to have, among other things, collaborated in altering accreditation figures and results in their polling units during the elections.

The arraignment follows the collaborative effort of INEC and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) legal teams, in their zeal to ensure that all electoral offences are prosecuted. The action followed field reports received from Etung Local Government during the election, which resulted in cancellation of results in the affected ward to ensure that it did not affect the outcome of the election.

The case has been adjourned till May 21.

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

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NEWS

Boko Haram kills 45 policemen in Adamawa

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NKNOWN gunmen suspected to be members of the Boko Haram have killed 45 personnel of the Adamawa State Police Command and seized their arms and ammunition in shootouts since January this year.

A source at the police headquarters told reporters that an average of five policemen are being killed every week in the state in

From Barnabas Manyam, Yola

shootouts by gunmen.

The source said: “In the Jimeta metropolis alone, we have lost over four personnel in the last three days while engaging in shootouts with gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram members.”

The command’s spokesman, ASP Nemuel Yoila,

quarters were asked to take another route because of a bomb scare.

The bomb scare, which made many people to run, occurred about 8:20am when a Honda accord car parked adjacent to an area court at the roundabout leading to the police headquarters, was suspected to have been parked by Boko Haram terrorists.

The car was said to have

attracted the attention of a patrol team, which immediately cordoned off the area and diverted vehicular and human traffic on the busy Galadima Raji Road for over three hours.

Confirming the incident, the police command spokesman Yoila said it was later discovered by the bomb disposal squad that the car did not contain Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).

Hoodlums attack Suswam’s convoy

Jonathan mourns death of Sokoto PDP chairman

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From Vincent Ikuomola, Abuja

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RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has expressed sadness over the death of the Sokoto State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Tukur Bodinga.

He died after a brief illness.

The President, according to his media aide, Dr. Reuben Abati, described the late Bodinga as an inspirational leader.

His demise, the president further said, has robbed the party of a strong pillar at both the state and national levels.

President Jonathan also commiserated with the family of the late Alhaji Bodinga, the government and people of Sokoto State as well as the leadership of the party in the state and at the national secretariat.

He urged them to take solace in the fact that the late chairman bequeathed a worthy legacy.

The President prayed that Almighty God should console the bereaved and grant the deceased eternal rest.

admitted that the Nigeria Police was losing men to suspected Boko Haram members, but declined to state the exact figure, saying he needed time to ascertain the figure. But sources put the casualty figure at 45.

Yesterday morning, federal and state civil servants as well as policemen heading for the Adamawa State Police Command head-

•Suswam

OVERNOR Gabriel Suswam of Benue State yesterday narrowly escaped death as his convoy ran into armed hoodlums at Abinse town on the Makurdi-Gboko Federal Highway.

An eyewitness said Governor Suswam and his entourage were returning from Anyiin, his country home, where he had gone to

From Uja Emmanuel, Makurdi inaugurate a church built and donated to The Redeemed Christian Church of God by his wife, Deaconess Yemisi Suswam, as part of the activities to mark her 45th birthday.

The source said the hoodlums, who were armed with assorted weapons, on sight-

ing the governor’s convoy, mounted a roadblock and started shooting.

However, his security guards were said to have fired back and overpowered the hoodlums who escaped into the bush.

Governor Suswam later reportedly ordered that the roadblock be removed before he continued his journey to Makurdi.

Police kill Nigerien robber From Adamu Suleiman, Sokoto

THE Nigeria Police in Sokoto yesterday killed a Nigerien armed robber during a shootout with an eight-man gang at the Gundumi village forest on Isa-Goronyo Road.

It vowed to tackle border incursion and infiltration by bandits from the Niger Republic.

The leader of the robbers, Haliru Mamman, who hailed from Maradi in Niger Republic, was killed after sustaining injuries during the shootout that lasted over 30 minutes.

Seven others, three from Nigeria and four from Niger Republic, fled into the forest.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Kudu Nma told reporters that the bandits attempted to attack a councillor yesterday morning and that the victim escaped and alerted the police at a check point.

According to Nma, “our men swung into action by attacking the bandits.”

He said the robbers later ran out of ammunition, sustained injuries and fled.

“Our men chased them and arrested Mamman who was already injured.”

Mamman, who was found with an AK47 rifle, reportedly confessed having 30 rounds of ammunition, but was left with nine after the shootout. He also confessed that they are eight in number, five are from the Niger Republic while three are Nigerians.

“Mamman has given us information which will assist us in arresting others,” Nma said.

Abuja CJ Gummi to open centre

By Adebisi Onanuga

Teenager jailed for theft From Samson Ademola, Ilorin

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N Ilorin Magistrate’s Court in Kwara State has sentenced a teenager to one year and six months imprisonment for theft and criminal conspiracy.

The accused, Jamiyu Lamidi, 18, was accused of attempting to steal a Jincheng motorcycle on the premises of a commercial bank in Taiwo Road area of Ilorin.

The prosecutor, Jubril Alhassan, told the court that the accused and one other now at large had already disconnected the ignition wire of the motorcycle before he was arrested by the bank’s security men.

Jubril further told the court that the accused has a similar case pending in another magistrate’s court.

The accused pleaded guilty to all the charges and was tried under Section 157 of the Criminal Law. He was not represented by a lawyer.

Magistrate Ibrahim Dansuki sentenced him to one year and six months imprisonment. He is to serve his jail term at the Oke-kura Federal Prison in Ilorin.

The magistrate said the ruling is subject to appeal within the next 30 days.

•Newly appointed High Court judges during their swearing-in ceremony in Bauchi…yesterday

PHOTO: NAN

Policeman dies in gunmen’s attack in Nasarawa

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UNMEN yesterday at Akwanga in Nasarawa State attacked a mobile police base, killing one policeman.

The gunmen were said to have emerged from a nearby bush and entered the mobile base. The motive of the attack is still unknown, even as police authorities said they are investigating the incident.

Police Public Relations Officer Cornelius Ocholi who gave the name of the slain officer as Corporal Madaki Yusuf, said the gunmen were

•Bomb scare in Abuja From Johnny Danjuma, Lafia and Bukola Amusan, Abuja

unable to wreak further havoc because the police repelled them.

He said initially Yusuf was injured, but he died before he was taken to hospital as a result of the injuries he sustained.

Ocholi said the situation is now under control as more policemen have been deployed in the area.

He said nobody has been arrested and the number of the attackers is unknown.

Police Commissioner Ademola Akeremola has visited the scene of the attack. He said the hoodlums would eventually be arrested and made to face justice.

Security was tightened yesterday at the Development Control office of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, Abuja, following a letter circulating on the premis-

es of an impending bomb attack by the Boko Haram sect.

A source in the office said although all is now calm following the deployment of security operatives, workers are still afraid as they are not sure if the content of the letter is true or not.

The Public Relations Officer of the unit, Josie Mudasiru, said she is not aware of any impending attack by the Boko Haram.

She said business activities are going on in the unit.

Shagari urges Christians, Muslims to live in harmony

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ORMER Executive President of Nigeria, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, has urged Christians and Muslims to eschew bitterness and live in harmony.

Shagari, who spoke in Kebbi State at the foundation laying ceremony of a multipurpose hall in honour of former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Alfa Belgore, said Nigerians should live in unity.

At the event, the Emir of Gwandu, Alhaji Eliyasu-Bashir, conferred the chieftaincy title of Garikuwa Bunza on Justice Belgore.

The event, which was organ-

•Former CJN Belgore bags chieftaincy title From Khadijat SaiduBrinin Kebbi

ised by Citar, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) last weekend, was held in Bunza, Kebbi State.

The District Head of Bunza Local Government, Dr. Muhammed Mustapha, said Belgore has contributed immensely to the development of the community, Kebbi State and Nigeria.

“Belgore did not forget the people of Kebbi State. He has assisted them in various ways,” he said.

Justice Belgore said the proposed hall was a good venture that would serve many purposes.

The National Coordinator of Citar, Mohammed Lawal, said they have been planning for the event for a long time, adding that the mission of the NGO is to promote political awareness among Nigerians and attain development.

He said the multipurpose complex would be made up of meeting halls, theatres, offices, catering facilities, primary/nursery school, clinic, chil-

dren recreation centre, parking lot, etc.

Over N30 million was realised at the event. Sokoto State Governor Makataka Wamako, who was represented by the Commissioner for Religious Affairs, Prof. Musa Garba, donated the highest sum of N10 million. Benue State donated N5 million, Kogi, N3 million, Kwara, N5 million, Katsina, N1 million and Abia State, N1 million.

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar donated N3 million, Minister of Defence Dr. Bello Haliru, N500,000 and Senator Atiku Bagudu, N2m.

THE Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja), Justice L.H. Gummi, will next Tuesday open the new International Centre for Arbitration & Mediation (ICAMA) in Abuja.

ICAMA, built with first class facilities and located in a prime location in the heart of Abuja, also boasts of a 60-seat theatre, hearing and retiring rooms with multi-media, flip chart board, video conferencing and Internet services.

Former Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN) who is the proprietor of the centre, said ICAMA seeks to provide arbitrators and their clients with exquisite and elegant facilities, impeccable services at reasonable costs and value-added professionalism.

He said facilities at the ICAMA are adaptable to the needs of clients.

Designed to function as an international conference hub, ICAMA will focus on training, workshops and seminars, corporate retreats, annual general meetings(AGMs), business meetings, arbitration hearings and mediation.

Ojo said the centre could boast of a unique niche in its alluring setting, stylish and luxuriously-crafted furnishing as well as the serenity and ambience of its congenial environment.

He said these facilities make the centre the ideal place for first-class functions.

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

60

NEWS

Why there is electricity disruption, by minister

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INISTER of Power Prof. Barth Nnaji yesterday blamed disruption in power supply on inadequacy of gas, insufficient system synergy, seasonal hydrowater shortages and inadequate human capacity.

Nnaji spoke at a stakeholders’ meeting in Lagos.

The minister said the challenges are being addressed, saying within the next two months, there would be improved power supply.

He said: ”Within the next two months, nationwide, there will be moderately improved power supply and a renewed distribution model which will allow the Distribution Companies in their various areas of distribution to promote planned distribution and have citizens informed. Over the next seven months, there will have been completion and operation of some new power generating plants, transmission lines and a more developed distribution pattern. Equally, the reconstituted NERC will provide the implementation of

By Olukorede Yishau, Assistant Editor (News)

a tariff review that will commence on June 1, 2012.”

Nnaji said the new tariff would give rural dwellers opportunity to pay N4 per kilowatt, instead of N7 they currently pay.

He said between next year and 2015 the reform in the power sector would have been completed.

Nnaji said: “The reform will allow the privatisation of the generating centres and the distribution centres, which will then give higher efficiency and have input of high funding levels to increase power supply to the people. The ongoing strenghtening of the operations of the regulatory agency and the corporatisation of the bulk trader will fast track the medium term plans.”

The minister promised that the privatisation of the power sector would be done transparently.

Nnaji said between 2015 and 2020, the government would pursue diversification into renewable energy

•Prof. Nnaji

sources.

He said: “ This will include small and medium hydropower, solar, biowaste to energy, coal, e.t.c.

Equally, the bulk trader becomes very prominent in his operations at this stage.”

The minister also launched the Electricity Customer Service Web Portal, which is opened to customers to lodge their complaints about power issues.

Group decries bombing of media houses

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HE Yoruba Ronu Leadership Forum has described the bombing of media houses

by Boko Haram as a soulless gift.

The organisation’s General Secretary Mr. Akin Malaolu said: “The recent bombing of media houses by the Boko Haram sect is a demonstration of bitterness arising from venomous and evil conclusions by the perpetrators. “This soul-less and hellish brigandage and terror shows that the masterminds of these dastardly acts lacked the gesture for the expression of admiration and love. “This gift is too unkind to the media who have remained very neutral in the fray and sensible in its duties to the people.

It is high time that a new etiquette rule be proclaimed for our security agencies in their fight against Boko Haram sect, while government should not listen to those who preach compromise with Wrong and Evil in its pursuit of Right and Good, but only to those who repent deserves room for reconciliation, while those who remain unrepentant and persist in wrong doings deserves no compromise at all.”

PUBLIC NOTICE I Patrick Sunday Anene hereby notify the general public of loss of Allocation Letter of Plot 2365,186 Road, 6 th Avenue Festac town. Issued to me by the Federal Housing Authority.

The said document got missing in transit. All effort to trace proves abortive.

Please if found report to the nearest police station.

Signed: Patrick Sunday Anene

THE NATION TUESDAY, APRIL 1, 2012

61

FOREIGN NEWS White House explains drone policy

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•PRESIDENTS ALL: From left: Issoufou Mahamadou (Niger); Jonathan; Idriss Deby Itno (Chad) and Francois Bozize (Central African Republic)...yesterday

Jonathan seeks LCBC’s support on national security

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RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has called for a more potent action in dealing with security situation within the Lake Chad Basin.

The president made the call in N’djamena, Chad, at the opening session of the 14th Summit of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC).

LCBC comprises of Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Libya, Niger and Nigeria.

Sudan has an observer status.

Jonathan arrived N’djamena yesterday to join the five other Heads of States and Government to discuss security situation, among other issues.

Jonathan expressed concern at the spate of insecu-

From Vincent Ikuomola, Abuja

rity and the threat to the peace around the borders of the lake.

The security challenge, he said, has necessitated the need to have in place restrategised security plans to address the spate of violence in individual national territories.

Jonathan advocated for the expansion of the mandate of the existing multinational joint task force around the lake.

“It has become urgent to give a new mandate to the multi-national joint task force to include cooperation in dealing with such crossborder insurgency within its area of coverage.

“Our approach should be

holistic and robust to address the general security issues around the common border areas,’’ he said.

Citing Nigeria security situation, Jonathan noted that the perpetrators of the terror attacks, were taken advantage of the freedom of movement around the borders.

The President, therefore, urged the member states to see the security threat beyond the confines of particular member state, but as a wider threat with sub-regional implications.

He also called for a new lease of life to the activities of the LCBC as a way of moving the organisation forward.

He noted that after 48 years of existence, there was the need to equip LCBC secretariat to enable it function as

103 killed in Indian ferry capsize

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T least 103 people have died after a ferry capsized during a storm in north-eastern India, local police say.

The vessel was reported to be carrying at least 300 passengers on the Brahmaputra river in Assam state.

Reports say more than 100 people are missing, while dozens of others either were rescued or made it to safety.

Poor safety standards mean ferry accidents are common on the river but that this is one of the worst disasters in recent memory.

Police officials said it happened in the remote district of Dhubri during heavy winds and rain.

Dhubri is about 350km (215 miles) west of Assam’s main city, Guwahati.

The vessel capsized and broke into two pieces during the storm, police said.

“I could see people being swept away as the river current was very strong,” a witness to the accident, Rahul Karmakar, told AFP news agency.

Assam state Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said emergency teams were in place but nightfall and bad weather were hampering rescue efforts.

The ferry carried no lifeboats or life jackets, and was overloaded with people and goods, with passengers sitting on the roof, according

to a police officer quoted by the Reuters news agency.

In a statement, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he was “shocked and grieved” by the incident.

Singh has “given instructions for all possible assistance to the government of Assam in relief operations”, the statement added. Boats are a common mode of transport in the area, which is dotted with small islands and villages along the banks of the river, reports the BBC’s Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi.

Many of the boats are overcrowded with poor or minimal safety features, our correspondent adds.

ECOWAS sanctions for Guinea Bissau leaders

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EST African regional bloc Ecowas has imposed targeted sanctions on Guinea-Bissau’s military junta after talks to restore civilian rule broke down.

Coup leader General Antonio Indjai “is not willing to negotiate and clearly prefers to face the consequences,” an Ecowas statement said.

The country has seen many coups since independence from Portugal in 1974.

Meanwhile, the deployment of regional peacekeeping troops, due on Sunday, has been delayed.

Ecowas mediators said the junta rejected key demands including that elections be held within 12 months, Reuters reports.

The military leaders - who took power on 12 April be-

tween the two rounds of a presidential election - had previously said polls to return the country to constitutional rule would take place within two years.

At an April 26 summit in Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, Abidjan, Ecowas gave Guinea-Bissau’s junta 72 hours to agree to a return to constitutional order and to allow in up to 600 regional troops or face targeted sanctions.

West Africa’s heads of state are due to meet on May 3 to discuss “all other necessary measures, including the use of force to enforce the decisions of the summit,” the Ecowas statement added.

Soldiers, led by GuineaBissau’s army chief of staff, General Antonio Indjai, toppled the government over its

alleged plans to reduce the size of the army.

Gen Indjal became the army chief after staging an army mutiny in April 2010.

Interim President Raimundo Pereira and former Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior, who were arrested during the coup, were released over the weekend and flown to Ivory Coast.

Gomes was the only candidate in the second round of presidential elections scheduled for 29 April, called after the death in January of President Malam Bacai Sanha following a long illness.

Opposition candidate Kumba Yala pulled out of the poll, claiming fraud.

No elected leader in nearly 40 years of independence has finished their time in office in Guinea-Bissau.

a modern organisation.

Jonathan also demanded for more commitment from member states to save the lake from the unabating trend of climate change.

He re-affirmed Nigeria’s commitment to meet up its financial obligations and called on other member states to fulfill their financial promises.

To ensure equitable sharing of the resources of the basin, Jonathan said the commission should adopt the “Water Charter’’ initiative by the organisation.

He also said that if LCBC charter is adopted , it would also set the basis for the international development partners and friends to participate in donating to the project in saving the basin from extinction.

RESIDENT Obama’s counter-terrorism adviser has given the most detailed explanation so far of America’s use of drones to kill members of alQaeda.

In a speech to a Washington think tank, John Brennan said the strikes were helping to win the war on the militant network.

President Barack Obama wanted to be more open about the practice, Brennan added.

The comments come in the week marking a year since Osama Bin Laden’s death.

BBC Washington correspondent Paul Adams says this is not the first time the Obama administration has

confirmed the use of drone strikes.

In January, the president did it himself, during a webchat.

But our correspondent says Brennan has gone further than anyone so far in laying out the rationale for a policy that remains controversial.

Brennan said unmanned drone strikes were legal, ethical, necessary and proportional, overseen with what he called extraordinary care and thoughtfulness, especially when the target was an American citizen.

In his speech at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, he said al-Qaeda was losing badly.

New York gets tallest building

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NE World Trade Centre has become New York’s tallest building, overtaking the Empire State Building, after a steel column was lifted into place.

The installation of the girder on the 100th floor of the skyscraper makes the structure at the site of the 9/ 11 attacks 1,271ft (387m) high.

The building, construction of which began in April 2006, will be 1,776ft tall when completed.

The World Trade Center’s twin towers were destroyed on September 11, 2001.

The skyscraper, dubbed Freedom Tower, became the tallest building in New York a day before the one-year anniversary of the operation

that killed Osama Bin Laden.

The rooftop parapet of the building, often referred to as Freedom Tower, will be 1,368ft - exactly the same height as the original One World Trade Center.

But when all 104 floors of the new skyscraper are finished, including the antenna, One World Trade Center will be slightly taller than its predecessor.

On top of the roof, a 408-ft (124-m) cable-stayed spire will be added, making the total height of the structure a symbolic 1,776ft (541m).

With the spire, it will also surpass the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower) in Chicago as the tallest building in the US.

THE NATION TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012

62

NEWS Today, the Publisher of Leadership, Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah, clocks 50.

In this interview with our Managing Editor, Northern Operation, Yusuf Alli, Sanni Onogu and Yomi Fayese, he speaks on his life, challenges and how he ventured into journalism.

‘It’s not good for a leader to fight the media’ W HICH aspect of your life do you think has been outstanding? Which particular moment of your life can you say has been touching in the last 50 years?

I will not be able to point to any particular time in my life. I have had a full life in the last 50 years right from when I was born 50 years ago in Minna. I grew up with my grandparents first. I was in Minna until I was five years before I went to Kaduna to join my father. I started primary school in Kaduna . I did my Secondary School in Government College, Kaduna. When I graduated I went to the University of Ife where I read Pharmacy. When I finished, I went back to Minna to do internship.

I did my National Youth Service Corps in Ondo State Baptist, College.

I started working in Pfizer. I worked between 1985 and 89 when I resigned to start business.

How did you come into journalism?

I have always had a flair for writing. When I was in the university I was the National Editor- in-Chief of the Student Pharmacist, which is the magazine for the entire pharmacy students in Nigeria . Then it was not called Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), it was called the University of Ife . It was renamed after Chief Obafemi Awolowo died. I graduated from Ife in 1983. I was also one of the promoters of the Torch Campus Magazine together, I remember, with Sam Omatseye who was also one of the promoters then. I was a year ahead of Sam. In fairness, I have always had flair for writing. Even in school when I felt very strongly about anything I want to say I put it in writing. I don’t think that anything that is wrong should be allowed to pass.

When I graduated I wrote a lot for the defunct Citizen Magazine. I also contributed a lot to Candido in New Nigerian in those days, including responses to Candido. Eventually, I became a member of the Editorial Board of Daily Trust when it was established. I maintained a column every Monday until Leadership was established and I transferred that column to Leadership.

Were you really born with a silver spoon in your mouth?

Not a silver spoon but my father has always been a middle class person. My father was a newspaper editor with New Nigerian. Of course, I have always known my father in the media business. I did not know him in any other business. It was all media. He started off with the Citizen of those days and became a pioneer staff of New Nigerian where he started as Sports Editor, then News Editor, Associate Editor and I think he became Deputy Editor. He left New Nigerian to go and also start The Triumph in Kano . Then, The Triumph was a national paper; he was the pioneer Managing Editor. So I have always known my father in the newspaper business.

Did your father inspire you to start a newspaper business or did you naturally inherit the trait?

No. I did not want to be a journalist and as I keep saying I am not a journalist. I have never worked as a journalist. I never aspired to be one and I am still not one. I am a writer. I have always been in the media without being a journalist. I think the closest I have been to being a journalist was during my undergraduate days.

When I was in the university my vacation jobs were in New Nigerian. You know they kept us somewhere where we were doing proof reading in New Nigerian. I came very close to the

media when I was a member of the Editorial Board of Daily Trust. I have never really worked as a journalist but I have always been around the media. Of course, from being a writer I became a newspaper proprietor and a publisher because of my interest and flair.

Were you inspired by Baba?

Of course, every child wants to be like his father but my father never encouraged me to be a journalist.

Why? I don’t know. But he never encouraged me.

What informed your love for writing? Is it because you want to change the society?

I believe the society can be influenced through what I am writing.

That is why I decided to start a newspaper. I believe very strongly in changing the society but unfortunately I don’t think I have done a lot in that respect.

You may not think so…

(Laughs) I say this dispassionately because when you look at how Nigeria was on the day that we started Leadership compared to now, it has been worse all through and it is very sad. It is very, very sad. It is very, very sad. But I believe…

Is it because the media has failed?

It is not the failure of the media. It is not a failing of the media. I think the media has done well. I will say it even if I do not belong to it. Of course there are challenges. There are also some bad eggs and so on but the media like I keep saying has done well. I have said it on other occasions, Nigerians cherish press freedom.

Even under the military, the media did well. The military tried to muzzle the press but they did not succeed.

Go and take the newspapers during the days of the military and you will see the way they were writing. You can’t try to suppress the press, no matter who you are. If you think you are a soldier or a military dictator or a civilian dictator as we have had, you cannot tamper with the freedom of the Nigerian press.

Are we free enough?

Nigeria? I think we are free. The media is free. We can be as free as we want to. Of course, you can see the government. You remember when the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua wanted to curtail press freedom, he did not succeed. The calculation of Yar’Adua when he took us to court or told the State Security Service (SSS) and the Nigeria Police to invite us, was that he will create panic in other media establishments but he failed because he now opened a new flank of war with the media. And I don’t think he was better for it. He did not succeed because if you take Leadership before he decided to fight us and now and after we responded in kind, I think he would have wished he didn’t. It is not a good idea for any leader in this country to think that he can fight the media. It won’t work.

You have a good network of friends. As a publisher how often do you come under pressure from your friends?

As a publisher you are going to have friends. I think this is true everywhere not just here and if you are going to remain in that business you

must have a set of principles deliberately that will enable you to be able do the job with fidelity or else you will not even be able to write any story. Of course, if you are going to have many friends then almost every day there will be stories in the paper that will be against some of your friends. My friends know that as much as possible especially when the editors are doing their job well or successfully, I don’t interfere. When you call me as they always do, almost every day, ‘ah, have you seen page two?’ The first question I ask is, ‘is it true?’ There is a way that they talk and you will know whether it is true or not. You will know which one to ignore or which one to take up.

Of course, there is a lot of pressure but for me I don’t have any problem about it.

Do you mean your friends do not fix anything in your paper or force you to compromise?

No. I think when people want to compromise they don’t come through the publishers because almost every publisher wants what is good for the paper. Some of my friends actually ignore me and go to the editors. I know that. Some of them actually do it because they know that Sam is busy and it is better…

Sir, why did Leadership refuse to apologise to the late President Yar’Adua?

As a matter of fact we did. Let me tell you what happened because to say that would mean that you missed a few things. When Yar’Adua was campaigning, he came to Leadership about three times. All the others he went to once. But I think he came to us at least two or three times and he wanted to develop a close relationship. He even told me that ‘look I like what you are doing’ and encouraged us a lot. Even as a person he encouraged me and joked the normal jokes of Katsina and Nupe which we were always doing by occasionally threatening to withdraw my wife who is from Katsina. It was fun and it was all interesting. When he came I advised him that his greatest problem was ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s support. Obasanjo was very unpopular, he had just finished a third term wahala; people don’t even trust that he will conduct a free and fair election. If there is any way he can distance himself a bit, I told him he will succeed. But I said I understood why he will not be able to do it. I advised him against rigging because I said with the stand that Leadership has taken it would be very difficult for me, even if my father is involved in a rigged election, to condone. The election came and it was the worst election ever and of course, I have no regrets. We didn’t recognise the elections. We said it as it was. We said it was the worst ever.

He also admitted...

Good. So when he now gave his speech on the day he was sworn-in, he admitted tacitly that the elections were not credible and that he would do something about it. Fine! I was encouraged by some of my people there to see him in the Villa and I did.

I fixed an appointment with him first then we fixed another meeting for Sunday. I went to him on Sunday and

‘I believe the society can be influenced through what I am writing. That is why I decided to start a newspaper. I believe very strongly in changing the society but unfortunately I don’t think I have done a lot in that respect’

•Nda-Isaiah

he was alone.

For two hours we were alone together. Then he was still strong and he could argue (laughs). One of the funny things I did was when I said sir, ‘Mr President’ and he laughed because it was the first time I was calling him Mr President because I didn’t recognise the election. He laughed and we continued joking and then when it came to serious talk, I told him that ‘you didn’t win the election but that we are going to support you for two reasons. One you said you are going to look into it. You acknowledged it. Secondly, Obasanjo was out so that we can start to rebuild the nation.

A second opportunity came and I said Yar’Adua didn’t win the 2007 poll but by the time I said it a third time, he said ‘what do you mean I did not win?’ ‘Are you saying that Buhari won or Atiku won?’ I said ‘no sir. ‘Nobody won the election. There was no election so we didn’t know who won but like I said we are going to support you but nobody won.’ There was never a time when I or Leadership said Buhari won or Atiku won. Nobody won and we would never have known. He said that is your problem (laughs) but now I am your President (more laughter).

Let me also answer more on your first question on how I cope with pressure from friends. Not long after that scandalous Oath of Secrecy thing that he did in Aso Rock, I got a report from an insider in Aso Rock, not a politician, not even a civil servant; one of the keepers of Aso Rock that doctors have been imported from Egypt to come and be resident and to take care of him. So I called the most senior editor and gave him the story and I said ‘do the story, background it and if it is the top story for the day use it as your lead story.’

When the report came out, I was sleeping on Saturday. The first person to wake me up was a former Minister of Information, Mr. John Odey.

He said ‘Sam, Sam, Sam what is this entire thing that your reporters were writing that the President was too sick to receive the German President yesterday?’ I said ‘no, I saw the German President with the President on TV yesterday.’ He insisted but I did not get up. I just continued sleeping. It was around 7am. Around 8am I was called again by Tilde, the CSO to the President who was very angry. I stood up, went downstairs in my house, saw the paper, I read the lead story and then started reading all these… and I said ‘what is this rubbish?’ I called the editor and said who gave you these? I saw the President on TV. He just sat down and concocted it? I was depressed. I now went back to the office, called everybody and told them we should apologise for those parts and we will carry it

like a story. So we apologised for the part that we were wrong.

What informed the court action then?

Then the former Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Mike Aondoakaa, now called me. He said ‘Sam come let’s resolve this thing because I don’t like the friction that this thing is about to cause because I know how you helped us. I even joked and I said ‘blessed are the peacemakers.’ I now went to his house he said I don’t like this your apology because we are saying some parts are right that I should just write that everything was wrong. I said why?

He said ‘what is it nowjust write it?’ I did and that is what he took to the court.

So that is what happened. We apologised where we needed to. Where we didn’t need to it was a good story.

That was how he went to court and since he decided to fight us we also paid him in kind.

When you look at Leadership, you are investing in some other ventures?

No, we are expanding…

Is the media business not rewarding? Is that why you are expanding into other areas? You have a restaurant…

Leadership Holdings is a business which manages our land resources and some companies that are not media related. We have educational outfit.

Is the media not rewarding enough?

No, no, no. Newspaper is just a platform to use to do so many other things. I mean if you take all the newspapers, let’s say abroad for instance those that are 100 years old; they are into certain other businesses that will eventually even fund the main newspaper. For instance, The Washington Post, the one that we are taking after.

They have the Kaplan which is the education company, the type we are trying to do. I think last year they made about $6billion in revenue and about 50 per cent of that came from the Kaplan. It is not that newspapering is not rewarding enough. You know the challenges of a newspaper.

Newspaper is a service even though you must operate it as a business for it to continue to remain on the newsstand. I mean the kind of money that we are putting here, if I put it into the production and sales of sachet water, I would have probably been competing with Dangote and Abdulsalmad Rabiu.

Having attained 50 what is your plan looking at the next 50 years?

For myself or for Nigeria …?

For yourself…

That means that you think I will be 100 years. That is a third term which is not desirable. (general laughter).

www.thenationonlineng.net

TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012 TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

VOL. 7

NO.2,112

WHO SAID WHAT ‘I made the call as a matter of privilege not as a motion. A call for her resignation is to save the Presidency from embarrassment. The minister who was overseeing the ministry when the scam took place cannot be a judge in her case, ethically she should step aside.’

ROBINSON UWAK

COMMENT & DEB ATE EBA

“I

CAN tell you,” my friend, a Lagosbased official of a member-nation of the European Union, wrote in her plain but engaging English, “that too much is going on.”

I had asked her in a February 2000 e-mail how she was coping with the new order launched by General Olusegun Obasanjo, who had taken office as president seven months earlier.

To restore public faith in government that had been severely eroded by the depredations of the Babangida-Abacha years, Obasanjo had launched a programme of reform so sweeping that Gbolabo Ogunsanwo, the celeb rated editor and columnist, compared him to a hurricane.

Nor was Obasanjo the only one shaking things up. Zamfara Governor Sani Ahmed Yarima, now remembered largely for taking an Egyptian child as bride, had proclaimed sharia law in his domain.

In Borno and Kebbi and Yobe, the question was no longer whether sharia will be adopted as state law, but when. But for the death of a brother of the emir, Kano would have adopted the code just one week after Zamfara. Niger State was set to follow, and deliberations on the matter were at full throttle in Kaduna.

All over the muslim heartland of northern Nigeria, seminars and workshops and learned conferences were being staged to expound the strategies and tactics for its comprehensive application. Thousands upon thousands of the faithful converged on state capitals and petitioned the governors and the state assemblies to institute sharia law without further delay.

Not since Usmanu Danfodiyo had the North witnessed such ferment.

Even in overwhelmingly Christian Anambra State, sharia resonated powerfully.

Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju served notice on the rampaging gangs that they would no longer be prosecuted in those courts notorious for their dilatoriness and high susceptibility to unhealthy influences, but in sharia courts where proceedings would be short, swift, sharp, and conclusive, and justice would be seen to be done.

“Too much” was definitely going on, as my correspondent had remarked.

I was reminded of that pithy summation by the madding march of events in Nigeria this past fortnight, well before a posse of unidentified gunmen cut down 16 worshippers, among them two professors, at an improvised church on the old campus of Bayero University, in Kano, last Sunday, leaving more than a dozen others with serious injuries.

The attacks occurred while the nation was still counting the losses from the bomb explosion that tore through the offices and plant of ThisDay newspapers in Abuja, and from another bomb that destroyed the office building in Kaduna that ThisDay shared with two other newspapers. The combined casualty at this writing officially stood at eight dead and 14 injured.

Before that attack, two policemen were killed in the city by gunmen.

Earlier, an explosion had rocked Gombe State University, where two policemen had

RIPPLES NIGERIANS CELEBRATE MAY DAY–News

Yes... on EMPTY STOMACH

OLATUNJI DARE

AT HOME ABROAD olatunji.dare@thenationonlineng.net

A nation in ferment

•Dr Jonathan

been killed by gunmen. Five persons were killed in Jos, reportedly by herdsmen.

Adamawa passed through a bloody weekend during which gunmen went on what one newspaper called “a killing spree.”

One of the casualties was identified as an inspector of police.

In Yobe, the authorities called for more patrols and searches to stem a rising tide of insecurity In Enugu, a divisional police officer was killed by gunmen.

Just as I was finishing this piece yesterday, the online journal Citizen Confidential reported that an early morning attack on a police convoy in front of Taraba State Ministry of Finance, in Jalingo, had claimed seven lives.

Northern Ireland in the time of what the locals called “the troubles” could not have been more dangerous.

National Security Adviser Owoye Azazi, in a rambling speech at the South-South Economic Summit, has blamed the spate of bombings and killings on the process by which the rul-

ing party chooses candidates and officials, and on disaffection among those who believe that their geo-political zone has been deprived of their entitlement to rule.

What Nigerians would like know is just what Aziza and his team have been doing, and why there has been no let-up in these terrorist attacks.

Instead of carrying out the surveillance, intelligence and infiltration the job demands, they have been confecting infantile tales about secession plots and clandestine islamisation programme just to create the illusion of momentum in protecting “national security.”

The explosions in Abuja and Kaduna practically swept off the front pages and the headlines the story that had kept the nation riveted for the better part of one week: the syndicated fraud in the oil industry through which trillions of Naira was paid out to companies fronting for well-connected officials as “subsidy” for imported gasoline that was never supplied.

No sooner was the report of the Farouk Lawan committee released than rented crowds took to the streets with elaborate banners denouncing it and insisting that under no circumstance must Petroleum Minister Diezani be removed, even though it was on her watch that many of the criminal acts documented by the committee were perpetrated.

Subsidy-gate itself must have come as a perverse relief to the end of Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister for the Economy Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s quixotic bid for the top job at the World Bank, spurred on by journals of international finance and the local media.

They said her 25-year stint at the Bank, in the course of which she rose through the ranks to managing director, plus the wonders she had wrought for Nigeria’s economy, made her the best candidate for the post. She came to believe it herself, declaring with an uncharacteristic touch of petulance when she finally

HARDBALL

I

T never rains but it pours, say the English.

With some 25 people dead from terror attacks on the campus of Bayero University Kano (BUK) and the town of Jalingo, and the smoke yet to clear from the media war declared by the Islamist sect, Boko Haram, in Abuja and Kaduna, President Goodluck Jonathan must find himself despairingly agreeing with that English saying. He must be wondering when the country would hit rock bottom, for every attack now seems to be worse and more egregious than the previous one, not only in severity, but also cynically in choice of victims. Apart from the connotative objective of muzzling free speech, the terror attacks in Abuja and Kaduna on media establishments must rank as one of the lowest points for a government struggling to assert itself in the face of criticisms of incompetence.

The attack on This Day Abuja office in particular has concentrated the attention of the world, like nothing else before it, to the imminent danger faced on all sides by Nigeria.

As disagreeable and dangerous as al-Qaeda is, it has generally restrained itself – even under Osama bin Laden – from drawing the notoriety of attacking free speech upon itself.

Boko Haram has done that and promises to do much more just to compel newspapers, as it says, to stop misrepresenting the activities of the sect. The Abuja attack doubtless has propaganda value, but much more, it also sug-

Have we ever had it so bad? gests that Jonathan’s nightmare has just begun. While the import of the attack on media houses was still being analysed, the merchants of terror struck in Kano three days later killing some 15 worshippers conducting Christian services, among whom were professors and students, and yesterday in Jalingo killing 10 people.

If anyone thought we were about to turn the corner on terrorism, these three incidents must have put paid to such thoughts. If the attacks were political, as the National Security Adviser (NSA), Gen Owoye Azazi, suggested last week during the South-South Economic Summit, or socio-economic, as many analysts in the North and elsewhere say, they were also probably sectarian, as the choice of victims prove. Both the attack on This Day premises and the threat to attack other media establishments will no doubt have effect on the boldness of newspapers to do both speculative and investigative journalism, especially as it concerns terrorism.

Much more, the attacks, their ferocity, and the villainous and mindless disregard for the lives of assailants and victims may finally persuade the Jonathan presidency to either nego-

realised that she had been chasing a will-othe-wisp, that merit was not a consideration in the appointment of Dartmouth president Dr Jim Yong Kim to the position.

This is an election year in the United States, and Dr Okonjo-Iweala for one should have known that President Barack Obama, whose bona fides as an American are still denied by sections of the population, cannot afford to concede to a foreigner, whatever her qualifications, a post that the United States has traditionally occupied in a global organisation in which it holds the majority stake.

That would be political suicide.

To return to the troubles: While Aziza has at least offered a diagnosis and warned that there are no quick fixes, President Goodluck Jonathan has been assuring audiences abroad — especially those elusive foreign investors – that the Administration will achieve complete and permanent victory over the terrorists in a matter of months.

Lately, Dr Jonathan has seemed like a man in a trance. In the midst of the mayhem, the blood and tears, he has chosen to launch his cassava bread project. To make cassava bread the nation’s favourite breakfast item just as he had made it the pièce de resistance on the presidential menu, and to discourage the consumption of bread as we know it, he plans to raise tariffs on wheat grain and what flour.

In yet another instance of counting the chicks before the eggs are hatched, Dr Jonathan says the measure will “save” N250 billion in the annual import bill, and generate 1.3 million jobs in four years By way of preparation, 18 huge cassava-processing plants, to be installed in the main cassava-producing areas, are being procured from abroad.

Did he learn nothing from the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Program (SURE), a beautiful theory battered almost beyond recognition by a gang of brutal facts?

The “subsidy” was a chimera; consequently, there is little to invest, and only a few stand any chance of being empowered.

Why not organise and mobilise for massive cassava production on a sustainable scale before buying processing machines? Why not carry out a pilot project first?

Whatever may be the long-term prospects, in the short term, bread prices will rise. Is Dr Jonathan is prepared for the social upheaval that is sure to follow?

In whatever case, why this presidential fixation on cassava bread?

The nation is in ferment, and all that Dr Jonathan can think about is cassava bread and 2015? * •For comments, send SMS to 08057634061

•Hardball is not the opinion of the columnist featured above tiate with terrorists or go for broke. None of the choices will be pleasant. Already, going by the thinking in the South-South, a thinking reinforced by Azazi’s controversial summation last week, it is felt that the gale of insecurity must have something to do with the president’s Niger Delta origin. Every terror attack anywhere in the North and against any person or group is bound to reinforce that fatalistic conclusion.

It is doubtful whether we have ever had it so bad. Indeed, the auguries are not good at all. And whether we like it or not, the intensity of the attacks, the inadvertent polarisation of the country along ethnic, regional and sectarian fault lines must make many Nigerians begin to suspect that the situation may no longer be salvageable.

Things may look so bleak now, but this is precisely the time for Jonathan to reach deep into his soul to fashion a way out of the morass, a time to play the statesman rather than the sectionalist, a time to conciliate his adversaries, many of whom have left him to his own devices, a time to project a new identity and meaning for the country he leads, and if he can take it, a time to sanctify himself, put on sackcloth and seek the face of God. The demons unleashed by Boko Haram will not go away by themselves. They will stay to haunt him, and possibly haunt the country to fragmentation. This is time for Jonathan to pull a rabbit out of his hat to save the union.

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