May 07, 2015

UK goes to the poll today Page 4

Newspaper of the Year

•Lagos not immune to economic realities, says Fashola •Mark: Comatose PDP heading for self-destruction •Gunmen kill 40 residents in Plateau communities MORE ON •Smokers risk three-month jail in Ekiti State•AND PAGES 4,7,8&59

•Nigeria’s widest circulating newspaper

VOL. 10, NO. 3207 THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

•www.thenationonlineng.net

TR UTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM TRUTH

Buhari: why I became a democrat

P

RESIDENT-ELECT Muhammadu Buhari yesterday made a solemn promise to Nigerians that his administration will not betray them.

Besides, he spoke of his belief in multi-party democracy.

Gen. Buhari, who was receiving a Taraba State delegation, led by the All Progessives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Senator Aisha Alhassan,

From Tony Akowe, Abuja

said the people sacrificed a lot to achieve the success being celebrated across the country.

Acknowledging the fact that some people lost in the process, the President-elect said: “We will never betray the people because they have risked everything. Some even lost their lives in this cause to make sure that APC succeeds and that we have a leadership in place that they trust. That

Minister, rice importers duty row grows

is what multi party democracy is all about.”

Gen. Buhari promised a broad-based government, saying: “I assure you that the government of the APC, when eventually put in place, will be a competent Nigerian government.”

Explaining his belief in multi-partly democracy, the president-elect said: “I will tell you what made me a multiContinued on page 4

N150.00

•Adesina ‘contravened presidential directive’ From Imam Bello, Abuja

M

ORE facts emerged yesterday on the rice import duty waivers row between Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Akinwunmi Adesina and some importers.

Dr. Adesina may have contravened a presidential order by licensing unqualified importers to bring in rice, it was learnt. A source in the Presidency said there was a presidential directive in May to give import licences to existing •Gen. Buhari

Continued on page 4

•INSIDE: CULTISTS KILL FIVE IN EDO P58 TWO DIE IN ILORIN ROAD ACCIDENT P60

•A DEADL Y JOURNEY TO EUR OPE: Migrants wait to disembark from a military ship following a rescue operation at sea as part of the Frontex-coordinated Operation Triton in Messina DEADLY EUROPE: harbour...yesterday. Italy’s coastguard said it rescued 650 migrants yesterday and a total of over 1,700 were landed at various ports as a consequence of what was one of the busiest weekends on record for rescues in the waters off Libya. Many Africans, including Nigerians, are undertaking the tortuous journey to Europe in search of a greener pasture.

PHOTO: AFP

Jonathan okays huge NPA contracts for ghost firms

?

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

Companies not in CAC’s records Officials call for probe

T

WO companies have won multimillion dollars Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) contracts, The Nation has learnt.

But there are questions over the towage contracts. Some of the issues are: •are these companies genuine?

•was due process followed in awarding the contracts? and

By Oluwakemi Dauda, Maritime Correspondent

•who are the people behind the companies?

The award of the contracts to Messrs CTOW Terminal & Marine Services and Ibejige Services Limited, allegedly after President Goodluck Jonathan’s instruction, is causing concern among

port regulators and operators.

Sources close to the Federal Ministry of Transport (FMOT) in Abuja said the award of the contracts by NPA to the two firms did not follow due process. It was also learnt that the companies are not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

The contracts were meant for the

provision of Third Party Towage Services (TPTS) at Warri and Onne ports pilotage districts.

The deals were approved by the President, according to sources, without proper investigation about the status of the companies.

The President’s approval, investigaContinued on page 4

•SPORTS P23 •EDUCATION P25 •NATURAL HEALTH P47 •POLITICS P50 •FOREIGN P61

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

2

NEWS

Insurgents in

• From left: Director, Wema Bank Plc, Abolanle Matel-Okoh; Executive Director, Folake Sanu; Company Secretary, Oluwole Ajimisinmi; Chairman, Adeyinka Asekun and Managing Director, Segun Oloketuyi at the 2014 Annual General Meeting of the bank at Lagoon Restaurant, Victoria Island, Lagos...yesterday.

PHOTO: SOLOMON ADEOLA

hiejina ditor)

The tide has turned against Boko Haram insurgents in the Northest, where they hitherto terrorised residents of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states. The sect members have suddenly lost their invincibility as The Washington Post writes that the “Nigerian troops who fled Boko Haram now have them on the run.”

A

YEAR ago, a dozen Nigerian troops, fighting about 200 Boko Haram militants in Chibok, Borno State, exhausted their ammunition and ran, leaving the road open for the abduction of nearly 300 girls.

Today, Nigerian soldiers are rescuing hundreds of kidnapped girls and women from the Sambisa, Forest, the last stronghold of the insurgents.

Reasons for the swift shift in fortunes •Group Managing Director/Chief Executive, Zenith Bank Plc., Peter Amangbo flanked by the bank’s Executive Director, Ebenezer Onyeagwu (left) and Country Manager, International Finance Corporation (IFC) Nigeria, Eme Essien Lore at the signing of a $100 million loan facility for the bank in Lagos.

• From left: Former Director-General, Ekiti State Bureau of Strategic Communications, Mr. Kayode Akinyemi; President of Association of Advertising Practitioners of Nigeria (AAPN)/Vice President of IAA, Nigerian Chapter. Sir Steve Omojafor; and Publisher/Chief Executive Officer, Marketing Edge, Mr. John Ajayi, at the Marketing Edge National Marketing Summit 2015 in Lagos...on Tuesday.

•From left: Group Product Manager, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Ijeoma Eruchalu; Communication & Engagement Manager of the company, Bolaji Sanyaolu; Founder, Elias Nelson Oyedokun Foundation (ENOF)/Medical Science Liaison, Omolabake Okunubi at a symposium on World Asthma Day jointly sponsored by GSK and ENOF in Lagos...yesterday.

In the last three months, military forces from neighboring Chad, Niger and Cameroon have joined the battle. In addition, Nigerian troops are finally receiving better arms and weapons, as well as hazard pay that they had not received until this year.

As a result, Boko Haram’s supply lines are being cut off, creating conditions for the security forces to deliver a potential knockout blow to the extremists who have created havoc in northeastern Nigeria for years.

The military has announced that it has recaptured all major towns seized by the insurgents and that Boko Haram’s main fighting force is hemmed into the Sambisa Forest, where it is being pounded by air raids and attack helicopters. While the government forces are stronger, Boko Haram is growing weaker by the day.

Women rescued in recent days from forest camps said that now it is the insurgents who are running out of ammunition, along with food and fuel. That could explain why — when the captives refused to follow fleeing Boko Haram members last week — the militants did not shoot them. Instead, they stoned the girls and women, killing several of them.

Last year, Boko Haram fighters were able to escape across Nigeria’s borders to evade capture. Now, they are blocked by the troops from Chad, Niger and Cameroon. With Nigeria’s permission, Chad and Niger have even sent their forces inside Nigeria to pursue the extremists.

The routes used by Boko Haram to transport fuel and ammunition have been reclaimed by the military.

On Sunday, military intelligence officers arrested a man who allegedly supplied fuel and food to Boko Haram, Defence Headquarters’ spokesman Maj-Gen Chris Olukolade said.

Last year’s toll of people killed by Boko Haram was estimated at 10,000 — more than in all the previous four years of the insurgency combined.

The group carried out cross-border attacks with impunity, seized a swath of northeastern Nigeria, the size of Belgium and created a wave of 1.5 million refugees fleeing the self-declared Islamic caliphate.

•Some of the malnourished children rescued by soldiers from the Sambisa Forest stronghold of insurgents at the Malkohi Refugee Camp in Yola...on Tuesday.

PHOTOS: AFP

President Goodluck Jonathan did not take a strong stand until this year — too late to save him from losing re-election in March as disgusted voters in opted instead for Muhammadu Buhari, a former military dictator.

Dr. Jonathan also was slow to act last year when the sect abducted more than 200 secondary schoolgirls from their dormitory in Chibok — initially denying it had even happened and losing precious weeks in the mass kidnapping that sparked worldwide outrage and a campaign for their freedom under the hashtag of #BringBackOurGirls. It is still unclear if any of the Chibok girls are among the 700 freed from Boko Haram in the past week.

Buhari had crushed a similar uprising in the 1980s, and he has vowed “to rid this nation of terror” after he becomes president on May 29. A retired major general, he describes himself as a convert to democracy, and showed it by taking power through the ballot box.

In the war zone, civilians, in selfdefence, patrol markets with homemade weapons, looking out for suicide bombers — but also for strangers buying large amounts of food, indicating they could be Boko Haram members or suppliers. While the sect still has the ability to carry out bombings and isolated attacks, it will be difficult for it to surpass last year’s carnage.

Nigeria and its African partners say they want to eradicate Boko Haram.

A more realistic goal may be to reduce it to what it used to be: a terror group with no control over territory — still able to launch attacks but not on as large a scale as before.

The soldiers on the battlefront, around the hills and caves of Gwoza, which Boko Haram had declared the capital of its caliphate, told The Associated Press (AP) early this week that many improvements have led to the turnaround against the insurgents.

Such improvements include: •Troops this year began receiving the daily hazard pay of 15,000 naira ($75) for the first time.

•Some battle-weary troops who

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

3

ts in disarray as troops get rhythm

had been on the front lines for two years recently have been allowed to stand down.

•The forces have received new weapons and ammunition. Previously, there were reports that troops going into battle had only 30 rounds of ammunition each, with corrupt commanders diverting resources into their own pockets.

Since democracy was restored in 1999, civilian governments have deliberately kept the armed forces weak to ensure that soldiers could not mount any more of the coups that kept the West African nation subjected to military dictatorships for decades. Boko Haram has forced a change in that strategy.

The Federal Government has bought helicopters, drones, Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs), tanks, rocket launchers and other armaments. These include helicopter gunships that are being used in the Sambisa Forest to scatter the militants and drive them away from their captives, according to a video released on Monday by PR Nigeria, an agency that disseminates government information.

“What we never had, we now have,” the Director-General, National

3,000 Nigerians fleeing Boko Haram deported from Niger Republic

N

IGER Republic troops have deported more than 3,000 Nigerian fishermen and refugees who were fleeing from Boko Haram fighters, it was learnt yesterday.

They were forced to undertake a brutal three-day trek during which a dozen people died, an official and witnesses said.

The refugees said they were compelled to return to Nigeria after Boko Haram last week attacked an island in Lake Chad.

The Nigerians said the soldiers arrived at the fishing village of Lelewa and ordered them to leave.

Niger officials did not immediately respond to request for comment.

On Monday, Niger said it was planning a military operation in the area to rout Boko Haram extremists and ordered its citizens to move further inland.

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said it was alerted by Niger and sent trucks to evacuate the exhausted refugees at the border.

The agency’s Director of Search and Rescue, Charles Otegbabe, registered the new arrivals in Gaidam, Orientation Agency (NOA) and the government’s spokesman on the insurgency, Mike Omeri, told the AP in a recent interview.

Yobe State.

“We thought there would be about 2,000 but we have already registered more than 3,000 and there are still more people coming,” he told The Associated Press (AP).

The refugees said there are hundreds more on the way.

“They didn’t even give us time to collect our clothes.

We had to abandon everything,” said Lubabatu Isa, a 21-year-old, carrying a baby strapped to her back.

Isa and Nura Auwal, another refugee, said about a dozen people died during the three-day walk to the border. Auwal said they included a woman and her newborn twins.

“There was no water. It was very hot. They collapsed and died. Nobody had any energy left to help them and we just had to leave them in the bush,” said a distressed Auwal, 22.

Niger is hosting more than 100,000 other Nigerian refugees who have fled Boko Haram and who apparently are being allowed to remain in camps outside the Lake Chad area.

“We have drones, we have aircraft, we have APCs, and so on, and we are getting to where we should be to rebuild the armed forces, returning it

to its glory,” Omeri said.

The task ahead Buhari will be tested on whether he

can revive the economy in the northeast, which has been decimated by the uprising. Hundreds of thousands of farmers have been driven from their lands, some of the biggest cattle markets on the continent no longer exist and many investors have abandoned the region. Rebuilding the hundreds of thousands of structures razed by Boko Haram will cost many millions of dollars.

The stakes are high for landlocked Chad as well, since many of its trading routes have been closed by the insurgency.

Economic strife has been one of the root causes for the rise of Boko Haram, which has exploited the feelings of exclusion among the unemployed and disaffected men in predominantly Muslim North.

Buhari has also promised to address corruption, another reason for the sect’s growth. Corruption sapped the military of its strength and has deprived front-line troops of weapons and vehicles. Unless Buhari can root it out, it will affect the military’s capability to prevent the rise of another group like Boko Haram.

•Associated Press reporter Ibrahim Abdulaziz contributed to this article from Yola. Culled from The Washington Post

Soldiers destroy seven Boko Haram camps in Sambisa

T

HE Defence Headquarters yesterday said troops have destroyed seven more camps of Boko Haram in the Sambisa

Forest.

But four soldiers were wounded in the encounters with Boko Haram insurgents.

It was also learnt that troops have been directed to dismantle all hideouts of the terrorists on or before May 29.

A statement by the Director of Defence Information, Maj-Gen. Chris Olukolade said additional 25 women and children were rescued by troops.

The statement said: “Seven additional terrorists camps were yesterday destroyed as more terrorists also died in the ongoing onslaught to flush them out of Sambisa forest.

“An additional 25 women and children

•May 29 is deadline to clear hideouts •25 women, children rescued •Sambisa Forest pregnancies Editorial P 17 From: Yusuf Alli, Abuja

were rescued in the process.

“The troops who scaled series of land mines in continuation of the assault on the forest bases of the terrorists, captured camps which include the four notorious Alafa camps as well as those in Rogo Fulani, Laraga and others used as training camps in the forest.

“Various weapons including Rocket Propelled Grenades, Anti-Aircraft Guns and a number of vehicles were either captured or

destroyed during the operation.

“Four soldiers were wounded and have evacuated for treatment.” “ The operations are continuing with troops demonstrating high morale and fighting spirit as they search the forests for terrorists, arms and hostages.”

A military source confirmed the May 29 deadline given to troops to dislodge insurgents and dismantle their hideouts.

The source said: “We have a target to clear all the hideouts of the terrorists on or before May 29 handover date and we are working round the clock to achieve this.

“We have ordered the troops to make sure that they rid Sambisa Forest of all the camps

•Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh

and cells of Boko Haram before the set date.

“We are confident that we will be able to meet this target.”

4

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

NEWS Minister, rice importers duty row grows Continued from page 1

•Oba of lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu speaking during the launch of a book titled: ‘my stewardship - 8 years of delivering excellence’ written on Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola’s administration in Lagos…yesterday. With him (from Left) are: Chairman, Editorial Board of The Nation, Mr Sam Omatseye; Former Deputy Governors of Lagos State, Mrs Sinatu Ojikutu and Mrs Sarah Sosan; Vice President, Institute of Directors of Nigeria, Mr Yemi Akeju; President of the institute, Mrs Eniola Fadayomi and Fashola.

STORY ON PAGE 8

Buhari: why I became a democrat Continued from page 1

party democrat. In 1991, after coming out of detention, I was sitting at home and the Soviet Union collapsed.

“They were the world power fighting the western world.

In technology, they were the first to go to space and they had intercontinental war heads than NATO. They had more sophisticated weapons, but something happened.

There was confusion.

“Today, there’re 18 countries in the former Soviet Union. That was when I believed that multi-party democratic system is a superior form of governance and that is why I joined democracy.

“We have made a big stride

this year and I assure you God willing, if we survive the next four years, Nigerians will be in a position to confidently raise their heads up and elect their own representatives and leaders.

“They will choose those they want as their representatives from local government, states, to the centre. I will fight for free, fair and credible election because that is why I remained in politics. I thank you very much for the sacrifices you have made to make sure we succeeded.”

Gen. Buhari went on: “I think that 2015 will go down in Nigeria’s political history as a glorious year. Nigerians have deliberately understood

what is multi party democracy. But we thank God for technology-PVC and card reader.

“If not this, luck we had with technology and the insistence of constituencies to make sure they are used, in two political zones where they were subverted, the people wanted to vote, but hey were not allowed to vote.

“They continued with what they used to do; retun to their party offices or their siting rooms, write the results, go to radio house and television house and announce the result and say whoever does not want the result should go to court.

“How many people can go to court when they are strug-

gling to get the next day’s meal? Where will they get the millions to give to those Senior Advocates of Nigeria? I was able to do it because of the goodwill of Nigerians, which again demonstrated itself this year.

“People agreed that I am not a very rich man, but I was lucky that Nigerians believe in me and they put their strength together, voted and made sure that their votes count. I say thanks to the technology. Please continue to support those among you that you feel will go and work for your state and for the country.”

On the battle for Taraba Continued on page 60

Jonathan okays huge NPA contracts for ghost firms Continued from page 1

tions revealed, was contained in an August 11, last year letter to the NPA through the Federal Ministry of Transport on August 14, 2014 – in three days (a record, said a source, considering the bureaucracy that slows down normal transactions.

The four firms approved for the contracts at Rivers, Calabar, Onne and Warri ports are: Messrs Slowater Nigeria Ltd,

Port Harcourt, Messrs Global Spectrum Energy Services Ltd, Messrs Cyow Terminal & Marine Services, Have 1025Scheldedijk, Belgium and Messrs Ibejige Services Ltd, which is said to be at Lekki Peninsula Scheme I. The letters of award of contracts to the four companies were signed by the NPA General Manager, Procurement, T.S Izokun, an engineer, on behalf of its Managing Director, Habib Abdul-

lahi.

The firms, it was learnt, won the contracts after the payment of N100,000 registration fee and $20, 000 licence fees to the NPA. But, the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), acting on a request made by The Nation, said it had no records of two of the four firms.

The Nation also discovered yesterday that Messrs Ibejige Services Ltd, which claimed to be on plot 16, Block 128B, New

Creation Street, Lekki Peninsula Scheme 1, has no physical presence in the area.

The address does not exist at Lekki Peninsula Scheme 1. But there is New Creation Street, off Remi Olowude Way, which is buried inside another location opposite Lekki Peninsula Scheme 1.

Plot 16, Block 128B, which the promoters of the company claimed to be its address does not seem to exist.

Continued on page 60

rice millers following a meeting among the Ministers of Trade and Investment; National Planning; Finance and Agriculture to that effect.

The purpose of the directive, the source said, was to augment the shortfall in the local rice production capacity.

Consequently, a letter dated July 8, 2014 from the office of the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, gave the directive to relevant government agencies and bodies, including the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation; Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment; and Budget Office of the Federation.

Others were Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria; FedContinued on page 60

Britons choose new govt today

P

ARTY leaders and candidates yesterday made last-ditch pitch for votes on the final day of campaigning before today’s British polls open.

Prime Minister David Cameron of Conservative Party said the country was “stronger than it was five years ago” but there was “more to do”.

Opposition leader Ed Miliband of Labour Party urged people to vote “to reward hard work in our country again” while Nick Clegg said the Liberal Democrats would offer “stability and decency”.

Polls suggest no party will win enough seats for an outright majority.

Politicians, pollsters and the media were struggling to read the election, leading many to focus on what might happen if there is an uncertain result.

Some of the pollsters suggested that the Conservative Party and Labour Party tie at 34 points apiece.

The main party leaders were criss-crossing the country in their battle buses to drum up support.

After starting the day in Mid Wales, Mr Cameron stopped off in the west Midlands before heading to Chester and Lancaster. He ended the day by visiting Carlisle and Dumfriesshire, where the party

holds its only seat in Scotland.

Mr Miliband visited a succession of Conservative-held marginal seats in Lancashire and west Yorkshire such as Colne Valley, Pendle and Elmet and Rothwell.

Mr Clegg, who set off from Land’s End on Tuesday, headed for John O’Groats through Scottish constituencies his party is hoping to retain such as East Dunbartonshire and Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey.

The Conservative Party won 307 seats in 2010 while Labour Party won 258 seats. The Lib Dems won 57 seats.

Mr Cameron insisted a Conservative victory was “within reach” but insisted that he would put “the country first” whatever the outcome ofThursday’s poll by working to provide “strong and stable” government.

The Conservative leader said he had achieved a lot since 2010 but was “not satisfied” with current levels of deprivation and educational under-achievement in parts of the country and wanted to push harder on welfare and schools reforms.

Mr Miliband, who is looking to improve on the number of seats Labour won in 2010 Continued on page 60

Comatose PDP heading for self-destruction, says Mark

S

ENATE President David Mark warned yesterday that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is headed for extinction unless warring members sheathe their swords.

He described the party as comatose and “already hemorrhaging”.

Also yesterday, the National Working Committee (NWC), which has been battling with elements who are asking it to dissolve itself because of the party’s electoral misfortune, said President Goodluck Jonathan had ordered the warring sides to hold their fire.

Mark issued the warning when he received Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, the chair of the committee set up by the NWC to probe the election failure.

Ekweremadu visited mark to get his input into the com-

From Onyedi Ojiabor, Gbade Ogunwale and Sanni Onogu, Abuja

mittee’s job – which also includes making recommendations on the way forward for the party.

Reporters were not allowed into the session between Ekweremadu and Mark, but Mark’s Chief Press Secretary Paul Mumeh quoted him as warning that “unless we halt the bleeding and find the necessary therapy, we may be heading for the final burial of the party.

“The party (PDP) is already comatose and we should do all we can to resuscitate the party rather than this unnecessary rancour and buck passing. ”The emerging factions (in PDP) are absolutely unnecessary. The combatants must sheathe their swords and embrace dialogue. My appeal is that we should not do any-

thing that would damage the already fragmented house.

“Everybody should come together and rebuild the party. We have got enough bruises. We need not inflict further pains on ourselves, with continuous bickering.

“Enough of this blamegame; we should return to the drawing board and need not wash our dirty linen in the public, anymore.

“I believe a useful lesson has been learnt from the PDP electoral misfortune. As for me, it is time to put on our thinking caps and chart a new course.

“I trust Senator Ekweremadu that he and his team will do a good job and unearth the remote and immediate causes of our misfortune and make recommendations that will enhance the future of the party.

“I have worked closely with the Deputy President of

the Senate over the years and I know his capability and capacity to handle issues.”

He said the new status of the party as an opposition is a challenge which “we must face with all honesty, sincerity of purpose and dedication to duty”.

Mark believed that democracy and the country would be better for it, “if we play credible opposition to ensure good governance and delivery of dividends of democracy to Nigerians”.

The NWC said post election trauma arising from defeat in the last general election was responsible for the internal bickering among leaders and key stakeholders in the party.

A statement by National Publicity Secretary Olisa Metuh said President Jonathan on Tuesday handed down a directive ordering all combative parties to sheathe

their swords to save the future of the party.

Metuh said: “The National Working Committee will absolutely abide by the counsel and has instructed all the executives of the party at all levels to comply accordingly. ”The leadership of the PDP regrets any embarrassment the avoidable skirmishes may have caused the members of our great party, especially our founding fathers and teeming supporters across the country. ”We are aware that this unfortunate development is a consequence of post election trauma arising from our first ever defeat. We however note with relief that we have now overcome this challenge.

“The National Working Committee assures that in the new spirit of harmony in the PDP family, the reengineering process which began on Tuesday with the inaugura-

•Mark

tion of the Post Election Review Committee will be vigorously sustained to restore the lost glory of our great party.

“We therefore urge all our Continued on page 60

ADVERT HOTLINES

08023006969, 08052592524

5

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

NEWS Soyinka disowns report

Drama as Jonathan marks fifth year as president From Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja

P

RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan yesterday marked his fifth anniversary as a substantive leader at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, with a touch of drama.

Jonathan, following the death of former President Umaru Yar’Adua and his declaration as Acting President through the doctrine of necessity introduced by the National Assembly, became substantive president on May 6, 2010.

Jonathan, when he arrived for the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting yesterday, took all the ministers in attendance by surprise.

After the national anthem and national pledge have been rendered, Jonathan threw a poser at the ministers that one of them was marking his birthday and the national prayer would be replaced by prayers by Christian and Muslim members.

Jonathan said: “Today, we will not say the national prayer. Somebody is celebrating birthday. So, we will offer special prayers for him. Two very Godly people will pray, Nebo and Yuguda. Do you know the person?”

When they could not answer, he said: “On May 6, exactly five years today, I was sworn-in as substantive president.”

They all responded by clapping their hands before the Minister of Power, Prof.

Chinedu Nebo said the Christian prayer. The Minister of State for Finance, Bashir Yuguda said the Muslim prayer.

Anyaoku blames Nigerians for execution in Indonesia From Tony Akowe, Abuja

F

ORMER Secretary General of Commonwealth Chief Emeka Anyaoku said yesterday that Nigerians, who travel abroad and disobey the laws of their host countries, are responsible for any fate that befalls them.

Speaking with reporters after a meeting with President-elect Muhammadu Buhari refused to blame the Indonesian government for executing four Nigerians.

He said: “The debacle in Indonesia is not a foreign policy issue, but an issue of the behavior of Nigerians.

Nigerians will go to Indonesia and other countries like Malaysia, Thailand, they have a law that if u gets involved in drug promotion, the penalty is capital punishment.

“The president of Indonesia will tell you that every drug pusher is responsible for the ruination of 200 families and that’s why his country has taken that cue. So, it’s a matter of the behaviour of Nigerian citizens abroad, rather than foreign policy.”

On his meeting with Buhari, he said: “I had useful discussions with the president-elect, congratulated him on his victory and told him he is coming in as president with a very high wave of expectations throughout the country.”

President Goodluck Jonathan (left), receiving from the Minister of Education, Malam Ibrahim Shekarou, an Award of The All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools in Abuja...yesterday.

PHOTO: NAN

Controversy trails payment of Federal workers’ April salaries C

ONTROVERSY yesterday trailed claims that Federal workers’ salaries have been paid upto-date following reports that the Federal Government borrowed N473 billion to effect payment this year.

It started with a statement from the Federal Ministry of Finance that “staff salaries at the Federal level are up to date; workers have received their April salaries.”

The statement by the Special Adviser to the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Paul Nwabuikwu, dismissed allegations by some state governors that Federal workers are being owed salaries. He described such allegations as incorrect.

According to Nwabuikwu, “regarding difficulties in salary payment, certain governors are trying to blame

•Okonjo-Iweala shuns committee again

From Nduka Chiejina Assistant Editor, Abuja

the Federal Government for their predicament. This is wrong.”

He said state governors “had been told through the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) to prioritise salaries, but chose not to do so; hence the backlog that some states are experiencing.”

The 50 per cent drop in revenues, Nwabuikwu added, “simply means that salaries should be prioritsed by the states and the Federal Government should not be blamed for avoidable mistakes made at state level.”

But, as at the time of writing this report, investigations revealed that not all federal ministries and agencies have received their April salaries.

According to investigations, workers of Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB), National Environmental Standard and Regulation Enforcement Agency (NESREA) and the Code of Conduct Bureau among others told The Nation they have not been paid their April salaries.

Employees of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and the Federal Ministry of Defence have, however, received their April salaries.

In an interview with The Nation yesterday, a state Commissioner of Finance confirmed that the continued drop in the monthly allocations from FAAC was affecting federal, states and local governments’ abilities to meet their financial obligations, especially payment of workers’ salaries.

She added that the drop in revenue to the Federation Account has been a source of heated debate at the monthly FAAC meetings with the states, urging the Federal Government to come clean on the state of the economy or device an acceptable means of boosting revenue to ensure that basic financial obligations are met.

Presidency to APC: Jonathan not running economy aground T

HE Presidency yesterday fired back at the All Progressives Congress (APC) for saying the outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan government has crippled the nation’s economy.

Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs Prof.

Rufai Ahmed Alkali described the allegation as ”immature, reckless and out of tune with the President’s desire and patriotic commitment to a peaceful transfer of power”.

He added: “Nigerians will recall that shortly after the results of the presidential elections were announced, Presi-

dent Jonathan inaugurated a high powered transition committee to plan and organise a hitch-free transition programme for the inauguration of the incoming administration.

“Surprisingly, it took the APC more than three weeks to wake up to its responsibility to constitute its own transition committee. How then can they turn round to accuse the government of frustrating the transition programme?

“Since the setting up of the

committee, the president and the entire machinery of the Federal Government have been put on the transition mode and all government officers have been giving maximum cooperation to the incoming transition committee.

“By the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Jonathan remains in office up till May 29, 2015, when he formally hands over to the incoming President. The machinery of the

government cannot be put on hold or frozen because the country is in transition.”

Prof. Alkali added: “Governance is a serious business.

Their recent, frequent and unnecessary attacks on the President clearly shows that they are losing their nerves and are beginning to lay foundation to justify their failures in the near future and we want to remind them that Nigerians are not ready to accept any excuses for their failure.

“They promised to bring change. So, they must bring positive change to the well-being of Nigerians and urgently too.”

Buhari blames slow growth in oil sector on politicians

P

RESIDENT -ELECT Muhammadu Buhari has blamed politicians for the slow pace of development in the nation’s oil and gas sector.

Buhari, who spoke when he received delegation from Total Oil Exploration and Production Group, said the slow progress recorded in the development of the country’s gas production and distribution infrastructure could be attributed to sheer sabotage by politicians and inefficiency by the officials.

However, the Chief Ex-

From Tony Akowe, Abuja

ecutive Officer of Total Group, Mr. Patrick Pouyanne, assured that his company has directed its downstream subsidiary to ensure all-round supply of petroleum product to its 500 distribution outlets throughout the country.

He told reporters after a congratulatory visit to the President-elect that the management of the company has discussed the way

forward with the Federal Government and that some of suggestions were being implemented.

“We have discussed and I think some solutions are being implemented. Our downstream subsidiary, Total Nigeria Plc, is doing its best in order to supply its 500 outstations throughout the country with fuel to help check the scarcity.

“Nigeria is an important nation in our business outlook. It presently accounts

for over 10 per cent of Total Group’s investment worldwide. We are not just involved in the Upstream and natural gas production, but in the downstream operations.

“We are deeply concerned on the current challenges being witnessed in Nigeria and global oil market.”

Pouyanne, who was accompanied by the Managing Director, Total Nigeria Plc, Elizabeth Proust, said they came to congratulate the president-elect and Nigerians on the on-going smooth transition of power.

N

OBEL Laureate Prof.

Wole Soyinka has disowned a report credited to him by an internet media organisation.

Prof. Soyinka, in a statement yesterday, said: “I have just read a statement attributed to me on something called The CABLE, a news outlet, evidently one of the Internet infestations. My lecture at the Hutchins Centre, Harvard University, was video recorded. Anyone who believes what I am alleged to have said must be a moron - repeat, a moron.

“It is demeaning, sickening and boring to have to deal with these cowards who cannot fight their own battles but must fasten their imbecilic pronouncements on others. Only the mentally retarded will credit this comment attributed to me regarding the Ndigbo voting pattern in the last elections.

“I strongly suspect the author of this despicable concoction, and may make a further statement, once the source is verified.”

The Nation’s Kusimo shines at Citibank’s awards

T

HE Nation’s Insurance Correspondent, Mrs. Omobola Kusimo, has emerged second runner-up at the 7th edition of the prestigious Citi Journalistic Excellence Awards in Nigeria.

Mrs Kusimo was selected in the keenly contested awards for her human interest story entitled: ‘10 Years After, Retired Policemen Yet to Get Pension,’ published in The Nation on July 30, last year.

At the awards presentation held at Citibank Nigeria Ltd Lagos office yesterday, the bank’s managing director, Mr. Omar Hafeez, said three finalists were chosen from 28 entries received from different media organisations.

Hafeez said the three finalists were selected by a distinguished panel of judges.

He announced Mr. Olowe Peter of BusinessDay as overall winner. Mr. Francis Ezem of National Mirror emerged as first runner-up.

The winner got an eight-day Citi-sponsored all expense paid trip to the prestigious Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism for international journalists’ seminar.

According to the company’s boss, the award was the bank’s engagement aimed at adding value to journalism. He said the bank was already thinking of taking the education aspect of the engagement seriously.

The Economic Officer, United States Consulate General, and head of the distinguished panel of judges, Mr. James Plasman, described this year’s entries as “really impressive”, urging Nigerian journalists “to keep up the good work.”

6

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

NEWS

Reps seek comprehensive rehabilitation for rescued women

T

HE House of Representatives is seeking a deliberate policy backed by law that will ensure speedy rehabilitation of victims of insurgency.

The policy will also ensure that the children of victims will be monitored with a view of molding their integration into the society.

The lawmakers have, therefore, mandated the Committee on Disaster Management to liaise with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to ensure the speedy rehabilitation of victims of Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast.

The decision followed the adoption of the prayers of a motion of urgent national importance by Friday Itulah (APC, Edo), who regretted that the psychological trauma the rescued girls and women from Sambisa forest were going through could only be imagined.

Itulah said the motion became necessary as a result of conflicting figures being

NEMA, UN officials, others visit victims

T

HE Director General of the National Emergency Man agement Agency (NEMA), Mallam Sani Sidi, has visit ed victims rescued from Sambisa Forest, who are receiving treatment at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Yola.

He was accompanied by the United Nations Coordinator in Nigeria, Mr. Dauda Traure, and Adamawa State Deputy Governor Saad MC Tahir.

Sidi sympathised with the 22 victims who were in critical conditions and donated drugs for their treatments.

The FMC officials, led by Prof Auwal Abubakar, who received the drugs, said nine of the victims were in serious conditions.

The medical team said the patients have been operated upon because of wounds from bullets and bomb blasts, adding they were responding to treatments.

The NEMA and UN delegation also visited the Malkohi camp, where the NEMA DG also donated drugs.

He urged the Sambisa returnees to remain calm as the From Victor Oluwasegun and Dele Anofi, Abuja

thrown around about the number of the rescued victims and how the rehabilitation process was being handled.

“There’s a need to know what steps have been taken so far in rehabilitating these

women to know what else to do to alleviate their suffering.

Their wellbeing should be of utmost importance to all,” he noted.

In his contribution, Abdulrahman Terab (APC, Borno) said the timing of the motion was apt, noting that some of the pregnant women would soon start to give birth to chil-

From Barnabas Manyam, Yola

Federal Government was determined to salvage their situation through adequate feeding and treatment.

Sidi told the 275 women and children that NEMA had contracted tailors to sow clothes for them.

He said the Federal Government required assistance from people around the world to take care of the Internally Displaced Persons in all the 4,000 camps in the country.

The UN Coordinator directed United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to begin sanitation exercise at the Malkohi camp because of the open defecation by children to avoid an outbreak of diseases.

He assured the victims that the UN would do everything possible to ensure that they were resettled after fully recovering from the trauma of been kidnapped and tortured by Boko Haram. dren conceived during their sad ordeal.

“What we have now is a time bomb because if care is not taken, this is an insurgence in waiting when these children start to grow without a deliberate plan to monitor their growth.

“We have to adopt a deliberate strategy that will

Ex-Speakers decry impeachments in Houses of Assembly

Bayero assumes office at NPA

F

By Oluwakemi Dauda

T

HE new Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Ado Bayero, yesterday assumed office in Lagos.

The sacked managing director, Mallam Habib Abdullahi, handed over to Bayero at a brief ceremony at the NPA headquarters, Marina.

The new NPA boss, who is a lawyer, described his predecessor as a brother, friend and schoolmate, who would be missed by NPA workers and stakeholders.

Bayero said he was aware and conscious of the enormity of the responsibility bestowed on him as the new managing director.

He urged the authority’s management and workers to give him their unalloyed support to promote the organisation and boost the nation’s economy.

He thanked God and President Goodluck Jonathan for appointing him to serve the nation and Nigerians.

He also thanked the

take accurate data of the victims and the children to be born and how to train them,” he added.

The Minority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, who supported Terab’s submission, said management of future occurrence should be a priority.

He advocated for a bill that will spell out how to go about

the rehabilitation of victims of insurgency.

The Deputy Minority Leader, Leo Ogor stressed that the government should be able to monitor the progress of rehabilitating the rescued. Mohammad Monguno (APC, Borno) said the Northeast region needs a Marshal Plan.

According to him, the N2 billion allocated to the region by the Federal Government for rehabilitation was inadequate. “What we need is a Marshal Plan that will address all issues raised by Boko Haram,” he said.

Nicholas Ossai (PDP, Delta), however, opposed the idea of a separate law to address the issue since NEMA was empowered by law to do what is required.

The motion was unanimously adopted after an amendment to its prayers.

The Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, referred it to House Committee on Disaster Management for further legislative input.

•Bayero (right) and Abdullahi at the handing-over in Lagos...yesterday.

PHOTO: OLUWAKEMI DAUDA

Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar, and Chief Tony Aneinh for believing in him, and being a pillar of

support and motivation before and after he was appointed.

The out-going MD, how-

ever, advised the management and workers to give Bayero their maximum support.

ORMER Speakers of the State Houses of Assembly have decried the unconstitutional gale of impeachments in the state legislatures.

At a meeting at the National Assembly, Abuja yesterday, the speakers under the aegis of the Conference of Former Speakers of State Houses of Assembly condemned the actions of some state legislatures, in which Speakers and other principal officers were removed with frivolous claims, saying it was giving the legislature a bad name.

A member of the association and two-term member of the House of Representatives, Friday Itulah, noted that impeachment processes for the removal of speakers and other principal officers have been abused.

“During our executive session, we intend to address this.

The removal of a governor is rigorous. That of speaker is not close to that. We should strengthen the law,” Itulah said.

He said lawmakers would continue to be seen as rubberstamps, “if we make it difficult for governors to be removed and easy to remove speakers.”

However, Pally Iriase, a former Speaker in the Edo State House of Assembly and returning member of the 8th House, was unequivocal in his condem-

From Victor Oluwasegun and Dele Anofi, Abuja

nation of the trend.

He said: “We should be on record as condemning the impeachments that are done without recourse to the provision of the constitution. In a situation where there are 24 members and seven will sit somewhere and say Mr. Speaker has been removed is not proper.”

He said nowhere in the country should a speaker be removed without following the provision of the constitution.

Members of the association also gave the National Assembly kudos for putting the Speakers of the State Assemblies on the retirement scheme in the just-concluded constitution amendment, saying “what is good for the goose, is good for the gander”.

A former Speaker in Abia State legislature and former member of the House of Representatives, Stanley Ohajuruka, decried the high turnover of lawmakers in the National Assembly.

He said: “We should allow legislators, who have experience to remain in the legislat Kogi, Nassarawa, Niger, Ondo and Sokoto states in attendance amongst others.

Senate set to save 40 million from desertification

T

HE Senate yesterday set the machinery in motion to save over 40 million citizens threatened by rampaging desertification.

Those mostly affected are in 11 states - Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Jigawa, Sokoto, Zamfara and Yobe.

This is contained in a bill on establishment of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall (2015), which scaled second reading yesterday.

Senate Leader Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, who sponsored the bill, said in his lead debate that it seeks to establish the National Agency for the Great Green Wall for the

From Onyedi Ojiabor, Assistant Editor and Sanni Onogu, Abuja

implementation of the provisions of the Convention on the Great Green Wall programme, including management of drought, desertification and afforestation control.

Ndoma-Egba said about 43 per cent of Nigeria’s total land area is under the threat of desertification, with the resultant deleterious effects on food security, sustainable livelihood and social security of the affected communities with over 40 million people.

He noted that the threat posed by rampaging desertification led to the Great Green

Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative (GGWSSI) proposed in 2005 by Nigeria and adopted by the African Union in 2007.

Nigeria, he said, signed the GGWSSI Convention in 2010.

He said the specific goal of the Initiative was to address land degradation and desertification in the Sahara and Sahel Region, enhance food security and support communities to adapt to climate change.

He noted that 11 countries Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan and Chad - are involved in the programme.

Ndoma-Egba said the thrust of the bill was to provide a green wall of trees or shelter-

belts from Kebbi State to Borno State, a distance of 1,500 kilometres and 15 kilometres width to wedge the southward expansion of Sahara desert and improve land productivity.

He added that the phenomenon of desertification was affecting an area of about 393,168sqkm (about 43 per cent of the total land area of Nigeria) and threatening the livelihood of over 40 million people.

The lawmaker noted that it was estimated that about 2,168sq km of rangeland and cropland is lost each year, obliterating settlements, inducing forced migration, exacerbating rural poverty and social conflict.

He said that the frontline states support about 90 per cent of the cattle population, about two thirds of the goats and sheep and almost all the donkeys, camels and horses found in the country.

He warned that if the rampaging desertification is not checked and controlled, the socio-economic consequences to the country would be disastrous.

Apart from Ndoma-Egba, many senators, including Mohammed Ali Ndume, Ita Enang, Atai Idoko, spoke in favour of the bill.

Senate President, David Mark, who summed up contributions by senators, said that it was high time the country returned to modern meth-

od of grazing.

Mark also bemoaned the slow pace of enacting a legal framework to back the GGWSSI Convention.

He said: “Not only 43 per cent of our land area, but also 40 million Nigerians are threatened by desertification.

“We initiated the Great Green Wall proposal in 2005 and 10 years down, we are just bringing the bill for a legal framework to back it.

“It is only a clear indication of our fire brigade approach to almost everything.

It is a pity that we are doing this late.

“But like it has been said, it is better late than never.”

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

7

NEWS

Amosun: blame NNPC for pipeline vandalism

O

GUN State Governor I b i k u n l e Amosun has blamed the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for the routine vandalisation of its pipelines.

Amosun said the ineptitude of the NNPC and its inability to secure pipelines in the state are partly responsible for the attacks on the facilities by vandals.

The governor spoke yesterday when he visited the scene of vandalised pipelines on Iperu-Ogere Road in Ikenne Local Government.

From Ernest Nwokolo, Abeokuta

He said vandalism is also a reflection of the state of the economy.

Amosun lamented that two cases of pipeline vandalism have occurred in the state this week.

A similar one at Arepo, last week, left an expectant mother dead.

He recalled that when he drew the attention of President Goodluck Jonathan to the problem in 2012 and also suggested ways of combating the menace, the President

I still maintain that NNPC is part of the problem because it is the agency assigned to ensure that things like this do not happen did nothing about it.

Amosun said: “Vandalism is a daily occurrence which

shows the state of our nation.

“I still maintain that NNPC is part of the problem because it is the agency assigned to ensure that things like this do not happen.

“This is either dereliction of duty or neglect on the part of the agency.

“I don’t know how as a nation we can prevent a recurrence.

“I mentioned some solutions in 2012 when I visited Arepo and when President Jonathan invited me to his office but nothing has been done about it till now.”

He said there is likely complicity of influential Nigerians, adding that governors should be involved in checkmating the vandals.

Amosun said it is unbelievable that the Federal Government could assign the task of securing pipelines to a group of people “in this age and time when technology and relevant security agencies are in place”.

He urged the Federal Government to employ the services of credible stakeholders and security agencies to protect the facilities.

LASU crisis: Students deny complicity

By Oluwatoyin Adeleye

T

HE Lagos State University Students Union (LASU-SU) has refuted allegations that the union is responsible for the continued closure of the institution.

The Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Education, Fatai Olukoga, on Tuesday, said workers’ and students’ unions are to blame for the continued closure of the university.

The university, which was shut on March 25, is yet to be reopened for academic activities.

The union’s spokesman, Adebanjo Fatai, said: “Over 400 students attended the congress on March 20, where it was agreed that we should not support the VCmust-go mantra as that cannot solve the problem.

“The union was deceived into believing that the institution would be reopened

by April 27, in a meeting we had with Otunba Olukoga in his office.

“Unfortunately, the school was not reopened and all we saw on the university website was that the declared recess is still very much in force.

“This shows that the government and the university management are not ready to listen to our yearnings.

“We appeal to the government to reopen the university.”

•From left: Former Minister of Finance and Agriculture Adamu Ciroma; Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola; former Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor Gbenga Adebusuyi; Former Special Adviser to the Governor on Federal Matters, Mrs Idiat Babalola and others, when Aregbesola visited Ciroma's Abuja residence...yesterday.

Smokers risk three-month jail in Ekiti

A

NYONE who smokes in public in Ekiti State now risks going to jail for three months.

This followed the inauguration of the Smoke-Free Law Enforcement Committee.

The Committee, chaired by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Dr. Bolanle Fakunle, was inaugurated yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.

The Anti-Smoking Enforcement Panel was to give legal backing to the Prohibition of Smoking in Public Places Law passed by the House of Assembly on September 26, 2012.

It was signed by former Governor Kayode Fayemi on December 31 of the same year.

Security agencies, such as the police, civil defence corps, environmental health officers,

From Odunayo Ogunmola, Ado Ekiti

have been empowered by law to arrest culprits and ensure their prosecution.

The advocacy was driven by a non-governmental organisation, the New Initiative for Social Development.

Delivering his address, the Executive Director of NISD, Abiodun Oyeleye, said the tobacco epidemic has adverse impact on public health of developing countries, including Nigeria.

Oyeleye said awareness has been created among various stakeholders, such as religious and political leaders, hoteliers, drivers’ unions, youths, women, senior government officials, ministries, departments and agencies.

Punishment for contraven-

tion of the law is found in Section 6. Any person who contravenes any of the provision of the law other than Section 3 shall be liable on conviction to a fine of N10,000 or to an imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or both.

A fine of N25,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or both awaits any offender who contravenes any of the provision of Section 3 of the law.

The law further prescribes a punishment of N250,000 for the violation of sub-section (1) or (2) stated above, if it be a corporate offender.

Dr. Fakunle said the move was not targeted at smokers but to prevent smoking in public places to safeguard public health and protect non-smokers from inhaling cigarette

fumes.

Members of the Committee are Mr. Lawrence Ojo, Permanent Secretary/Solicitor General, Ministry of Justice; Mr. P.A. Bankole of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Mr. M.T.Olowolafe, president of the Environmental Task Force in all the 16 Local Government Areas and Mrs. O.O. Kayode-Ojo, Director of Administration and Supply, Ministry of Environment.

Others are Kunle Olofintuyi of the National Orientation Agency, Taiwo Omoniyi of Ekiti State Hoteliers Association, Tope Babalola of the Ministry of Information, Youth and Sports, Tunde Balogun, the Director of Environmental Health and Sanitation, Oyeleye of NISD and representative of the Ekiti State Police Command.

Why I want to be Speaker, by Jibrin From Victor Oluwasegun and Dele Anofi, Abuja

•Jibrin

T

HE Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Finance, Abdulmumin Jibrin, has said his experience and age have positioned him as the most qualified candidate for the Speaker of the House in the eighth Assembly.

Other contestants include the Minority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila; Agriculture

Committee Chairman, Mohammad Monguno; Pally Iriase and House Services Committee Chairman, Yakubu Dogara, among others.

Jibrin said the contest for the office of the Speaker should not be seen as an ethnic issue as being promoted by some contestants from the North.

The Finance Committee Chairman, who spoke yesterday in Abuja, said his chances of being elected are brighter because he has the requisite capacity to manage the office.

The lawmaker said the intensity of the activities of the Committee has been contributory to his legislative development.

“I came into the House four years ago and I have been chairman of the Finance Committee since then. I have

participated in a lot of parliamentary investigations.

“I’ve served in a lot of adhoc committees and I have been in the centre of everything that has happened in the last four years.

“I’ve mastered the rules of the House. I understand the dynamics of working and leading equals,” he said.

Jibrin noted that his educational background has also prepared him adequately for the job.

He said: “I attended a lot of public schools in Nigeria from primary school to university. I went abroad and combined it with my vast local experience in Nigerian educational institutions.

“I passed through major institutions of learning from London Business School to Harvard and to the Swiss Business School. I graduated with an MBA. I think a combination of both my local educa-

tional pursuit in Nigeria and of course my exposure outside the country gives me different perspective about the issues of governance and economies of different countries.

“Before coming to the parliament, I have had a very wide experience in the private sector. I ran a company very successfully. I’ve also had a stint in the university where I lectured.

“I believe that my age also places me at advantage; I’m the youngest of all the contestants. Perhaps you may want the youth representative within the government so that we will complement the older people.

“I believe that my energy, drive and other things will also come to bear if I’m elected speaker”.

He, however, noted that if the All Progressives Congress (APC) does not zone

the position to the North, it should not be seen as a gang up against the North.

“Right now, the contest is being run on ethnic ground.

Northern members are being chased from place to place, organising themselves and making it look like a Northern agenda.

“At one of the meetings that I was invited, I had raised that issue. The North is not under threat. If anything, the country has been very gracious to the North at this point in time. Anybody who wants to run an election base on ethnic agenda I will never be a party to it”, he added.

He added that he is open to whatever decision the party might come out with.

Monguno said he is not desperate to become the next Speaker.

He said he would respect the decision of the party.

OAU law student die in accident From Adesoji Adeniyi, Osogbo

A

200-Level Law student of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Mary Ibitolu, was killed yesterday morning, when a private school bus hit her.

The victim was on a commercial motorcycle, which was conveying her to an unknown destination.

It was gathered that the bus which belongs to the Muslim Girls Model College, Onibu Eja, hit the motorcycle in front of the gate of Osogbo High School, Osogbo, the Osun State capital.

An eyewitness, who pleaded for anonymity, said the accident occurred at 10am, when the school bus developed a fault and passers-by supported the driver to push the bus.

The eyewitness, a satchet water hawker, said after the bus started working, the driver jumped inside but lost control.

The girl died instantly. The motorcyclist was injured.

The victims were rushed to a nearby hospital but Ibitolu was pronounced dead on arrival.

The deceased, who was a member of the Nigeria Federation of Catholic Students, OAU chapter, was expected to resume the new semester on May 31.

The bus and the motorcycle have been impounded at the Dada Estate Police Station, Osogbo.

Fake policeman arrested in Ondo From Damisi Ojo, Akure

A

middle-aged man parading himself as a police officer has been ar-

rested.

The suspect, whose identity was not disclosed, claimed to be a traffic police officer in charge of Yaba junction in Ondo town.

The suspect was allegedly extorting money from motorists and commercial motorcyclists.

A source said the suspect was always dressed in police uniform.

He was, however, arrested on Tuesday at 7pm as he was trying to carry out his “business” around Iyalaje area of the ancient town.

A source said the suspect stopped a commercial motorcyclist, claiming that he was riding an unregistered motorcycle.

“He collected his key and requested for the particulars of the motorcycle but the cyclist refused to hand them over.

“The motorcyclist demanded for the ‘policeman’s’ identity card but his inability to produce his identity card aroused suspicion.”

It was gathered that members of the Bike Owners and Riders Association (OSBORA) invited the police from Yaba division.

The police arrested the suspect and detained him at the police station.

It was learnt that the suspect later confessed that he was a security guard in a tertiary institution.

A police source said the matter would be transferred to the Criminal Investigative Department (CID) in Akure.

Police spokesman Wole Ogodo said he had not been briefed.

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

8

NEWS

Lagos not immune to economic realities, says Fashola

L

AGOS State Governor Babatunde Fashola has said the state is not insulated from the economic realities that have made it impossible for some states to pay workers’ salaries.

Fashola spoke yesterday at a public policy lecture organised by the Institute of Directors, with the theme: “My Stewardship: Eight years of delivering.”

The event, held at the Muson Centre, also featured the presentation of a book titled: The Example: The Era Of Babatunde Raji Fashola as Governor of Lagos State, edited by The Nation’s Editorial Board Chairman, Mr. Sam Omatseye.

To Fashola, Lagos remains a paradigm for good and corporate governance because of the foundation laid by his predecessor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

He said his administration effectively harnessed Lagos' abundant human resources and materials to further lift the state to become a yard-

‘APC’ll reclaim Ekiti in 2018’ From Odunayo Ogunmola, Ado Ekiti

T

HE All Progressives Congress (APC) will reclaim Ekiti State in 2018, four members of the House of Representatives have said.

Bamidele Faparusi, Ifeoluwa Arowosoge, Robinson Ajiboye and Oyetunde Ojo have floated a political platform, Ekiti APC Restoration Group (ERG), to make the dream a reality.

They vowed to pool resources and manpower and begin mobilisation early to reclaim the state from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

In a statement yesterday, the group said there was need to mobilise resources towards strengthening the party and motivating stakeholders.

It expressed deep concern over the political crisis in the state, saying it was time to rescue Ekiti from the pit.

By Miriam Ekene-Okoro and Wale Ajetunmobi

stick for development and service delivery.

The governor said while some states owe several months salaries, Lagos was insulated because of the dedication and commitment of the team, which worked to deliver qualitative service to the people.

His words: "When we came in 2007, we met a good foundation but the first challenge we faced was to maintain and improve on the social infrastructure we inherited.

“To this end, we raised N275 billion in bonds to build more social infrastructure.”

The governor told the colourful audience of business owners and technocrats that the monthly Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and allocation from the Federation Account is unable to meet the demands of the over 21 million residents.

"My predecessor raised the IGR from N600 million in 1999 to over N7 billion in 2007.

“When we came, we increased the tax database to further increase the state revenue to over N21 billion.

“This enabled us to repay our bonds and it has also made Lagos State to be credit worthy."

The governor punctured the insinuation that his administration and that of his predecessor had mortgaged the state for 50 years in debt.

Fashola added that all bonds raised during the Tinubu administration were

paid back before the 2011 elections.

He listed some of those obligations fulfilled to include the payment of the first bond of N15 billion, and the second bond of N50 billion, adding that government will comfortably pay the next bond that will mature in 2017.

“Another benefit is that Lagos has worked from a budget of under N20billion in 1999 to a budget of under N300billion in 2007, and it has grown to a budget of almost half a trillion Naira this year.

“Its GDP is the largest of all the states.”

The governor said the state will continue to wax stronger.

Fashola added that the government has left a development plan for 2012 – 2025, to address the challenges of rail, water supply, waste water and sewage treatment, tourism expansion, residents’ registration, technology development and many more.

“Therefore, I can only say that in the journey of excellence, the best days of Lagos are still ahead.

“My successor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, will inherit an effective civil service that would help the incoming administration to coordinate its programmes and policies.

“He will not be burdened by repayment of the bonds raised by the outgoing administration because we have set a system in place to enable the incoming government pay back the bonds we raised."

The governor urged Ambode to sustain the legacy of

credit worthiness and culture of corporate governance.

The Oba Of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, made the audience laugh when he made a comment about the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Mr. Jimi Agbaje.

He said: "When I said that Ambode would be the next governor, people said this Oba has come again.

“They started holding clandestine meetings against me and my family.

“I said Jimi Agbaje will never be governor and I still maintain that stance."

He went on as the audience responded in laughter: “Fashola came and watered the seed planted by Tinubu and it started germinating in geometrical progression. We have just started.

“On May 29, Ambode will be sworn in as the 14th governor and the first citizen of the state, though the Oba of Lagos was formerly the first citizen before the treaty of succession was signed.

“I have no doubt in my mind, with the cooperation and prayers of everyone, he will perform very well.”

Omatseye said the decision to write the book was informed by the good work of the governor.

“After I saw the good work of Governor Babatunde Fashola, I felt that it was important that the world should understand what actually happened during his tenure.

“And I felt that it was important that those people who saw it, experienced it and are insiders will be able to tell

their stories and that is the reason I started this project.

“I knew that after two or more years into his tenure, people started to see him as an example. I started calling him ‘the governor of example’.

“I had to ‘pursue’ all the contributors. It was a great exercise. I learnt in the process. I understood what governance was, the vision and energy of the man.”

The Institute's president and Chairman of Council, Mrs Eniola Fadayomi, said the lecture was for public office holders to present their scorecards.

She said the theme was to highlight Fashola’s eight years of “excellent” performance.

Reviewing the book, a member of The Nation's Editorial Board, Mr Olakunle Abimbola, said the book has 36 contributors, who include present and past members of the State Executive Council and admirers of Fashola's style of governance.

Dignitaries at the event included former Deputy Governors Sinatu Ojikutu and Sarah Sosan; Head of Service Mrs Folashade Jaji, Ojora of Ijora, Oba Fatai Aromire and a constitutional lawyer, Prof Itse Sagay, Fashola’s law teacher who was called onto the high table where he and his former student were locked in a long embrace that sent photographers clicking away.

There were also members of the Executive Council, permanent secretaries and professionals.

By Miriam Ekene-Okoro

T

HE Lagos State government has spent N100 million on stipends to 5,000 secondary school leavers engaged for two-month vacation jobs.

Head of Service Mrs. Folashade Jaji said this yesterday at a briefing at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre, Alausa.

She said the beneficiaries received N20,000 for the two months they were engaged, adding that the initiative was meant to inculcate values, such as dignity of labour and work ethics in the pupils.

“The vacation jobbers were deployed to MDAs, parastatals, local governments and local council development areas to experience what working life entails and more importantly to appreciate the dignity of labour and imbibe good work ethics.

“I must note that this programme was applauded by many of the participants and their parents while testimonies abound as they used the money to buy the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) forms to facilitate their admission into tertiary institutions.”

The Head of Service said the Staff Housing Board, an arm of the Head of Service Office, granted housing loans of N94, 341, 740.00 to civil servants.

She said: "The Staff Housing Board has continued to within available resources, satisfy the housing needs of workers either through the granting of loan advances for purchasing land, building residential houses and renovating existing residential accommodation.

"I wish to inform you that between June 2014 and April , N94,341,740 has been disbursed to 551 officers and staff as housing loan facilities.”

UNILAG students protest

A

Why Oyo budget is delayed, by lawmaker From Tayo Johnson, Ibadan

T

HE Oyo State House of Assembly Committee Chairman on Public Account, Finance and Appropriation, Olusegun Olaleye, has said the passage of the state’s budget was delayed because of the elections.

He said the lawmakers were busy campaigning and could not attend to the budget defence.

Olaleye said this yesterday while declaring his intention to contest for the speakership position in the eighth Assembly.

“The budget will be passed soon. We have called on Ministries, Departments and Agencies to come and defend their budget.

“But unfortunately, we could not take all of them, but we were able to take only 70 per cent of the budget defence.

“The performance of the budget has been impressive, but the cash crunch has really affected the level of implementation.”

Lagos spends N100m on vacation jobs

•UNILAG students protesting on campus...yesterday.

T

PHOTO: SOLOMON ADEOLA

Ondo APC files two petitions at tribunal

HE All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State has filed two petitions challenging the victories of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidates in Ilaje II and Akure I. Gbenga Edema (Ilaje II) is contesting the return of Coker Malachi as the winner of the April 11 House of Assembly election, arguing that he did not score the majority of lawful votes cast in the election.

From Damisi Ojo, Akure

The APC and its candidate, Festus Aregbesola (Akure I), averred that they won the election with 12,239 votes as against 11,871 votes of Adesanya Kemisola, who was declared the winner.

The party said the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Segun Agbaje, had admitted at a media parley that there were widespread violence, irregularities and subversion of the electoral process.

It alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) admitted that its returning officer was forced to declare a winner in Ilaje.

The petitioner averred that 9,879 voters were disenfranchised in Ilaje and the margin between APC and PDP was 5,806 before thugs invaded the collation centre at Igbokoda.

The party contended that the votes it won at Ijo Mimo High School was not collated

by INEC. The party further averred that INEC collated 14 Units results in Akure I, where over voting and inflated votes in favour of PDP were recorded, thereby giving the PDP candidate the marginal votes of 485.

The APC urged the tribunal to restore its votes which was not collated by INEC, cancel all over voting and inflated votes recorded for PDP and declare Aregbesola the winner.

CADEMIC activities were paralysed yesterday at the University of Lagos, Akoka, following students’ protest.

The aggrieved students, it was gathered, demanded a shift in the date of their examinations as well as an improved supply of electricity and water on campus.

Though, the demonstration was largely peaceful, the action prevented early morning classes in some of the departments.

The students, who were to begin their examinations, next week, alleged that the poor water and electricity provision would affect their performance.

A student, who pleaded for anonymity, said the protest started at 7am at the Jaja Hall.

According to him, the action would have escalated but for the timely intervention of the Dean of Students Affairs, Prof. Tunde Babawale, who promised to look into their demands.

The Assistant Registrar, Information, Mr. Olagoke Oke, told our correspondent that the crisis had been resolved.

He blamed the action on “some boys” who he said did not want to sit for the examinations.

•

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

9

CITYBEATS

CITYBEATS LINE: 09091178827

Police nab kidnappers in Lagos

T

HE Lagos State Police Command yesterday arrested a teacher and two others for allegedly kidnapping a 62-year-old woman, Kudirat Adeboye.

The teacher, Ifeanyi Chukwuleta, Kolawole Alani and Rasheed Adetunji were arrested while their gang leader, Niyi Omosola, was shot dead as he tried to collect N3 million ransom.

The command also said it recovered one double barrel pistol, two expended cartridges and six live cartridges from the suspects.

The Commissioner of Police in the State, Mr Kayode Aderanti, said a complaint was received by the Divisional Police Officer, Akodo Division that the sexagenarian was kidnapped on Eleko/Epe Expressway.

According to him, on receiving the information, he directed the officer in charge of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), DSP Abba Kyari, to fish out the hoodlums.

He said when the kidnappers contacted the victim's family, they ini-

•The suspects...yesterday

By Ebele Boniface

tially demanded N50 million but later agreed to collect N3million after six days of negotiation.

Aderanti said the OC SARS led two decoy operatives to Epe where the kidnappers re-directed the victim's son to Ijebu Ode road.

He said: ``One of the kidnappers came out from the bush and col-

lected the ransom but was pursued

by SARS decoy operatives. ``When he noticed the presence of operatives, he opened fire on them and the police fired back at him and he sustained gunshot injuries. ``The wounded kidnapper, Omosola, led operatives to the forest where we rescued the victim.

Omosola died later, but we arrested

three more members of his gang'', Kyari said.

Blaming poverty for his foray into kidnapping, Chukwuleta said: ``I joined kidnapping because of poverty. ``I am a teacher and a teacher is supposed to be an exemplary figure but when the chips are down, what can a man do? ``My salary as a teacher is too paltry. I start begging for transport money in less than one week after receiving it. ``Whether you believe it or not, I am a good guy who was pushed into crime by poverty. ``My journey into crime was when I met our leader who has been killed by the police. ``My duty was to watch victims in the bush. I will be armed with cutlass and threaten victims that I would kill them if they tried to escape. ``I have watched over three victims, but I wept in the last one, that of the 62-year old woman who put us in this mess. ``When the woman was crying, I just knew she was old enough to be my mother and I started weeping too. ``I now unbound the woman and assisted her to escape. ``May God bear me witness, I did not know that our leader had gone to collect ransom and he was shot dead by the police,'' he said.

Man, 19, ‘defiles’ girl, 6

A

19-YEAR-OLD man, Tunde Ahmed, who allegedly defiled the six-year-old daughter of his neighbour, was yesterday arraigned at an Apapa Magistrate’s Court in Lagos.

Ahmed is standing trial on a twocount charge of indecent treatment of a child and defilement.

Prosecuting Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Soji Ojaokomo told the court that the accused committed the offence on April 7.

Ojaokomo said the accused, who lives in the same building with the girl’s parents, lured her into his room, where he inserted one of his fingers into her private parts.

“Ahmed also forcefully had unlawful carnal knowledge of the child without her consent,” he said.

Ahmed pleaded not guilty.

Senior Magistrate Patrick Adekomaiya ordered that the case file should be forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for advice.

He granted the accused N50,000 bail with two sureties each in the like sum and adjourned the case to May 14.

Okada riders, hoodlums clash with police

P

•The damaged bus ...yesterday.

•The accident scene...yesterday

PHOTOS: OMOSEHIN MOSES

One injured as container falls on three vehicles

O

NE person was injured yesterday when a 20-foot container fell off its truck, destroying a commercial bus popularly called Danfo marked XZ 334 EPE, a black Nissan Xterra Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) with number plate LA 30 A06 and a tricycle popularly called Keke Marwa at Olosha Bus stop on Agege Motor Road, Mushin.

Passersby and commercial bus drivers rushed to rescue the injured.

The container was loaded with vehicle parts.

The accident, which occurred around 10am, caused heavy traffic, which lasted for over five hours.

The traffic, which affected the Lagos bound lane, stretched to Moshalashi Bus stop.

Hoodlums initially prevented Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) officials from evacuating the container, demanding to see the truck owner because the damaged Danfo belongs to one of them.

By Ibrahim Adam and Elawure Queen

They wanted assurance that he would repair the bus before the container could be removed.

It took police intervention to restore normalcy.

LASTMA officials strive to keep traffic moving.

There were repeated announcements on Lagos Traffic Radio, urging motorists to seek alternative routes A presenter said the road was blocked around Moshalashi Bus Stop to pave the way for easy evacuation of the container.

Motorists heading to Mushin from Ojuelegba, Yaba axis were diverted to Ikorodu road to Oshodi and back to Mushin.

A woman at the rear of the commercial bus was injured; she was given first aid.

According to a LASTMA official, the elderly woman refused to wait for Lagos State Ambulance Service

(LASAMBUS) officials despite being told that she would not pay for the service.

“The woman asked to be taken home; some people contributed money to get her a cab,” he said.

An eyewitness blamed the accident on the bad portion of the road at Olosha Bus stop.

“The only cause of this accident is the bad road you are looking at.

If the road is not bad, there won’t be any accident here and this road has been like this for years. All we want is to rehabilitate the road,” he said.

Another eyewitness told The Nation: “At first, there was a traffic caused by the bad road. It was the time that the container got to that spot and fell off the track. If the road is good the container won’t fall.

Two containers fell at this same spot last year and this year, we have recorded the second one. Government should repair this road for us; else more of these accidents should be expected.”

The Nissan SUV driver, Mr Akeem Fagbemi thanked God for sparing his life.

“I was on my way to deliver a letter from work and all I saw was the container falling on us but I thank God it is not more than this,” Fagbemi said.

Benjamin Nwachukwu, the tricycle driver said the truck driver was in a hurry.

“What I can say is that accident has been happening here because I remember one happened two weeks ago and now today again.

Trucks carrying containers pass here every day but their drivers are very careful but this particular one was not. He was in a hurry and you can see the gap I gave him. I thank God that no life was lost except one woman who was injured but she has been taken to the hospital,” Nwachukwu said.

The commercial bus driver looked depressed; he refused to speak with reporters.

How Pastor absconded with member’s N10m

F

OR a 43-year-old businessman (names withheld), the past four months have been hellish after his pastor, Timothy Gabriel absconded with N10 million loan he obtained from a bank.

The victim, a resident at Ejigbo, a Lagos suburb, who trades in ‘tokunbo’ vehicles at Apapa area of the state, was lured by his pastor to bring the money for ‘anointing’.

It was gathered that the victim had obtained the serviceable loan to invest in his car business to enable him purchase more cars at cheaper rate at the Wharf.

He was said to have hinted his pastor of his plans, who prayed for him for a successful obtainment of the bank loan.

Having received the money from the bank,

By Precious Igbonwelundu

the victim it was gathered took the money to the pastor on the latter’s instruction.

The dubious pastor was said to have told the victim that the money he was given by the bank was ‘blood money’, which would need three days prayer and fasting for cleansing.

Gabriel, it was learnt, told the victim to bring the money to his Jakande Estate, Isheri residence, where the money would undergo the three days cleansing before he can invest same in his business.

Although the incident occurred in January, The Nation gathered that the victim who now feels ashamed and stupid at his gullibility, only summoned courage and reported the matter at the

Ejigbo Police Station last week.

The Nation gathered that it took the combined efforts of his wife, three children and sister to persuade him to report the matter at the police station, as well as the Igbo community in Lagos.

He was said to have contemplated suicide after he repeatedly went to the pastor’s residence, which doubled as his church but the place was deserted.

Although both the victim and his pastor are from Anambra State, (Nnewi and Ihite respectively), efforts by the victim to track the pastor on his own has been unsuccessful.

It was also gathered that he has since commenced payment of the loan, while furnishing the police available information to aid in the arrest of the pastor.

ANDEMONIUM broke out yesterday at the Lekki Phase 1 area of Lagos as no fewer than 30 motorcycle riders and hoodlums with dangerous weapons went on a rampage.

Armed with cutlasses and axes, the motorcyclists stormed the Lekki-end of the Ikoyi/Lekki toll gate roundabout on Admiralty Way for a face-off, making it practically impassable for both motorists and pedestrians alike.

The Nation learnt that the riot was staged by commercial motorcycle riders to protest the ban prohibiting them from riding within the Lekki Phase 1 axis.

According to an eyewitness, Toke Makinwa, an on-air presenter, the riders were protesting with machetes.

Tweeting from @tokstarr she wrote, “Gosh, just witnessed the scariest thing ever... Gun shot, Okada riders with machetes, what is happening in Lekki?

“Cars are reversing; trying to get away, a woman jumps out of her car and starts running.

“This police man brings out his gun ready to shoot while there is traffic and pandemonium. Who trains these people?”

Another eyewitness tweeted: “It is happening live; about 40 men with red bandana with guns and matchet on rampage.”

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the demonstration which began around 2p.m. had paralysed commercial activities at the area.

The demonstration started when the residents of the area said they no longer needed the services of the commercial motorcyclists.

The angry Okada riders took to the streets, barricading the Lekki/ Ikoyi bridge.

Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Kenneth Nwosu, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the force on getting the report deployed its men to quell the demonstration.

According to him, it’s a demonstration by Okada men who decided to take the law into their hands.

“There is a demonstration by some members of the Okada riders group after the Lekki Residents Association said they don’t want Okada to operate in their neighbourhood,” he said.

Nwosu said normalcy had returned to the scene .

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

10

CITYBEATS

CITYBEATS LINE: 09091178827

Brothers seek probe of magistrate’s ‘threat to life’ claim

T

HERE is a twist in the allegation by a Lagos State Chief Magistrate, Mrs Adeola Adedayo, that two brothers standing trial before her wants her dead.

The accused - Sulaiman Sanusi and Kehinde Sanusi, have petitioned the Chief Judge, Justice Funmilayo Atilade, asking that the matter be probed.

The brothers are accusing Chief Magistrate Adedayo of using instruments of state to deny them of their rights, adding that the lawyer, Charles Nwadiani whose petition to the police led to their arrest, detention, and arraignment is her acquaintance.

Sulaiman and Kehinde, who are children of the late business and steel merchant, Chief Abdul Razak Sanusi, are being tried by Chief Magistrate

By Ibrahim Adam

Adedayo for alleged possession of firearms. They are also accused of disrespecting court order, in what started as a family dispute over inheritance.

Last April 13, Chief Magistrate Adedayo raised the alarm that her life was under threat, claiming that she received letters at home from the suspects.

She said in open court: “Let the world know about it so that if anything happens to me and any member of my family the whole world will know who to hold. Somebody is alleged to be in possession of firearms and he wrote letters to threaten my life, analysing my marital status, my family background, where I live and who I live with and how I move in and out daily”.

In their petition, the brothers said these “weighty allega-

tions” must be investigated by the Judicial Service Commission and Office of the AttorneyGeneral of Lagos State.

The petition, signed by Kehinde reads: “We are sad and distressed over these baseless accusations as they are calculated to paint us as criminals to the public. Unless this charge is transferred to and heard by another magistrate, we stand convicted by Mrs Adedayo even before the trial starts before her”.

The petitioners said they sent an October 29, 2014 petition to Justice Atilade, wherein they accused the chief magistrate of acting the script of one of their siblings, Ms Tola Sanusi, a Deputy Director in the Ministry of Justice, currently on posting to Lagos State Safety Commission.

The petitioners accused Mrs Adedayo and Ms Sanusi of using their positions to oppress

them, claiming that their last year’s petition was ignored. “If our petition had been treated, the accusations of the chief magistrate would not have happened,” they said.

In the 2014 petition, the brothers accused Ms Sanusi, of using her position to “unlawfully oppress, intimidate and compel us to relinquish the management of our father’s company to her”.

They alleged that Sulaiman was arrested and detained by officers of the Zone 2 of the Police over allegations that he defrauded their father’s company, which he manages, of N6billion.

“On October 17, 2014, he was arraigned before Chief Magistrate Adedayo at Igbosere, Lagos, on a charge of showing disrespect to a court order and possession of firearms,” the petition said.

The police were said to have searched his office and taken

away a dane gun, which the brothers described as “a family relic” displayed in their late father’s office.

Sulaiman accused Chief Magistrate Adedayo of “deliberately” denying him bail by leaving the court through her private door.

The petitioners accused Chief Magistrate Adedayo of bias, claiming that before their arraignment last October 17, Ms Sanusi, Afusat Bunmi Ibraheem and their mother, Alhaja Rashida Sanusi, were spotted leaving her chambers at Igbosere.

They said the police ballistic report described the dane gun as “unserviceable” claiming that the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) advice said it was a “shot gun in order to persecute us at all costs”.

The case comes up on Monday.

Court jails American for ‘pinging’

By Precious Igbonwelundu

J

USTICE Rita OfiliAjumogobia of the Federal High Court, Lagos, yesterday jailed an American for operating her mobile phone in court.

Megan Chapman, Co - executive Director, Community Legal Support Initiative, was kept court’s waiting cell for about 20 minutes, after an angry Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia walked her out.

The American, who was seated on bench, directly facing the judge, did not know that Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia was watching her while fiddling with her phone.

Others on court got to know what was happening when the judge scolded her.

After ask her to leave the court, Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia directed her support staff to escort the American to the waiting cell, where she stayed for about 20 minutes.

She ordered her release following lawyers plea.

Reacting, Chapman said she has learnt her lessons, adding that her action was not intentional.

She said: “I was replying an urgent message. It was not like I intentionally disrespected the court but I have learnt my lessons. I have apologised to the court for my action. The prison officers were kind and treated me well in the short period I was there.”

Communities protest ‘crazy’ electricity bills

F

OURTEEN communities in Ikorodu, Lagos, have protested against what they call “billing irregularities” by the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC).

The communities, which stormed the company’s office in Alogba Estate, Ikorodu, displayed placards bearing complaints, ranging from crazy bills, irregularity of power supply despite constant billing to absence of meter readers.

Their representatives from Maya Jaiyesinmi, Olori Ijo, Abaku, NPA Estate, Itele, Liadi, Idafa and Enyiogbe, among other communities, told the Business Manager Mohammed Abdullahi, that they wanted pre-paid meters urgently.

Their spokesman Olusoji Daomi, a lawyer, asked the manager to explain the reasons for exorbitant bills when there were no meters in the area.

He said: “For about two years now, we have been paying excessive bills here in the name of estimation. I use a fan, a television and a bulb in my room-and-parlour apartment and pay the same amount as the person who uses televisions, air conditioners and other appliances in his house.

“If there are inadequacies in the system, should it be on the people? I believe the IKEDC should be able to reach a compromise and a fair way of reaching a sharing formula that will not affect the people.”

Responding, Abdullahi said on power outage, their firm’s feeders have not indicated nonusage, adding: “If there have been such issues and they are just lodging their complaints on the day of protest, they are not being fair to themselves.

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

11

BUSINESS THE NATION

E-mail:- bussiness@thenationonlineng.net

Shell declares force majeure on Forcados crude exports

S

HELL has declared force majeure on exports of Nigeria’s Forcados crude oil.

According to Reuters, Shell declared force majeure on the evening on May 5 following “a series of leaks” in the Trans Forcados pipeline that brings oil to the export terminal. The pipeline is operated by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Several cargoes of Forcados for May loading were still on offer, with around 189,000 barrels per day (bpd) scheduled for export in six cargoes.

The June export programme, with a total of 158,000 bpd, had not yet started trading, sources said.

An overhang of light sweet crudes in the Atlantic Basin has depressed differentials to dated Brent and limited the impact of recent supply disruptions on some West African crude oil grades, the report added.

NCC, governors to partner

Commercial banks are not manufacturing-friendly as their interest rates are usually very high; therefore, commercial banks remain a major challenge to the sector. Even the Bank of Industry’s (BoI) framework, which pegs interest rate at nine per cent, only finances machinery acquisition; it does not cater for working capital.

-MAN President, Dr Frank Jacobs

Minister advises against reversal of power privatisation P

OWER Minister, Prof.

Chinedu Nebo yester day advised the incoming administration not to reverse the sector’s privatisation.

Doing so, he warned, will not be in the interest of the country as it will bring the nation backwards.

Nebo spoke with State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan.

He was accompanied by the Minister of Information, Senator Patricia Akwashiki.

Nebo said: “On privatisation, I think the incoming government will be ill-advised to reverse privatisation and liberalisation of power generation, transmission and distribution because any attempt to do that would be to set Nigeria back many many many decades.

“The gains of privatisation are very obvious. If we can solve the problem of gas like we are talking about energy mix, we are not just going by gas we are doing hydros. It was this same administration that flagged off Zungeru hydro power plants for 750 megawatts (Mw) and its a bid to flag off Mambilla 3,050 Mw,

• FEC approves renewable energy policy

From Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja

Shiroro has been improved, revamped, Kanji revamped and improved, the same as Jebba.

“So, there is a lot of work being done by the government, however to turn back on privatisation would mean stopping all of these companies and then reversing the massive inflow of investments coming into the power sector.

“Nigeria’s power consumption per capita is one of the lowest in the world and that is part of the efforts of government to reverse that. So, I don’t think it is in the best interest of the country.”

The minister said he does not share the beleif that there is frustration with post-privatisation power situation.

He said: “Every month, the Nigerian Gas Company spends a minimum of N120 million to fix gas pipeline.

Every two weeks, the western axis pipelines are vandalised

and that is pure sabotage, the eastern axis pipelines are vandalised and that is oil theft. At the end of the day, the gas that is suppose to go to the turbines don’t get to the turbines to generate electricity.

“As I speak to you today, we have now installed capacity which is more, but available if you give us gas right now we will produce 5,500 Mw. “But when the pipelines are in the state of disarray as there are now, in fact the recent thing they are doing is testing the integrity of the entire system. And when you have broken something over and over again, you have to really look at the entire spectrum to make sure whether the rest of the pipeline has integrity to bear gas.

“The four major joints they are working on is going to cost them N1.5 billion. Is that the way to give light to the country? But again, that underpins the problem of planning and putting all our eggs in one basket which this administration has done everything to re-

verse.”

Nebo said he felt like crying sometimes because the damages to the pipelines keep coming as soon as repairs were carried out.

He said: “The past three weeks have been horrible because both the east and the west are affected and as a result, gas that is available is too small, many of the turbines are sitting there idle.

Many of the power companies generating are 30 per cent capacity.

“It is not that this government has not done much, it has.

Available capacity exceeds 5,500 Mw, willing capacity exceeds 5,000Mw but today we are down to 2000, 3000 because of these repairs which we were hoping by that by yesterday (Tuesday) we would have finished to shore up 4,000Mw. Again, more discoveries are being made.

According to him, the overall policy objective of the policy is to increase access using renewable energy mix, create new business opportunities and new jobs, support global efforts towards green economies and addressing climate change problems.

He said: “In addition, the policy will also promote and encourage efficient use of energy and energy conservation in Nigeria.”

From Blessing Olaifa (Asst. Editor), Abuja

T

HE Nigerian Commu nication Commission (NCC) said it will open discussions with in-coming state governors with a view to developing telecoms infrastructure across the country.

Its Executive Vice Chairman, Dr Eugene Juwah who spoke to reporters in Abuja yesterday lamented that it was sad that most of the governors failed to sign the deal brokered by the National Economic Council (NEC).

Juwah said the new partnership has become necessary with the new governors for the smooth implementation of the guidelines approved by the NEC for accelerated improvement of telecoms infrastructure in the country.

The NCC said it was regrettable that most of the out-going governors refused to sign the guidelines approved by the NEC for the development of infrastructures, especially base transmission stations (BTS) and underground cables due to misconceptions on the matter.

Represented by the Director, Public Affairs, Mr Tony Ojobo, he said the NCC alongside other stakeholders in the telecoms industry are prepared to engage the state governments on the issues of multiple taxation, infrastructure outlay, and investments which are capable of boosting the development of the states in various fields of human endeavours.

• From left: Deputy Director, Research, University of Calabar, Prof. Austin Obiekezie; CEO PZ Cussons Nigeria, Christos Giannopoulos; Vice Chairman, PZ Cussons Nigeria, Tunde Oyelola; Vice Chancellor, Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola, Prof Kyari Mohammed; D-G, NOTAP, Dr. Umar Buba Bindir; and Deputy Director, Research, National Research Institute for Chemical Technology (NARICT), Zaria, Dr Nurudeen Yusuf, during the MoU signing for the upgrade of chemical laboratories in the institutions at the PZ Cussons Nigeria office, Lagos.

Nigeria needs $20b to develop gas infrastructure

N

IGERIA will require at least $20 billion to bridge its gas infrastructure deficit, the Vice President and Head, Energy and Natural Resources, FBN Capital, Rolake Akinkugbe, has said.

Akinkugbe who spoke at the luncheon/panel session organised by the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) at the ongoing Offshore Technology Conference in Houston Texas, said the investment would also provide the infrastructure required to adequately meet the gas needs of the nation’s 21 gas-fired power plants including the 10 power stations constructed by the Niger Delta Power

Storie by Emeka Ugwuanyi Houston, Texas, US

Holding Company (NDPHC).

In her presentation titled Global Gas Outlook and Implications for Nigeria, Akinkugbe said Nigeria’s gas-fired power plants require over 2.2 billion standard cubic feet per day (bscf/d) of gas. She also projected that the nation’s gas demand will reach 8bscf/d from the current 2.2bscf/d by 2020. She however, noted that making gas available to service domestic requirements will be a key challenge in the shortterm.

On the global arena, she said Asia’s top three consum-

ers require 14.4 trillion cubic feet (tcf) by 2020, which still provides market for many of Africa’s exporters, adding that attraction of Henry Hub as a cheaper alternative has waned in Asia as oil prices have fallen.

Exporting Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to Asia from United States, according to her is more expensive than from Africa, Europe & Australia. In 2012, she said the US did not import any LNG from Nigeria but imports resumed in 2013.

On costs, she stated that gas is unlikely to compete with petrol in the short-tomedium term in Asia despite cost and environmental benefits. “But the cost of

developing and extracting, transporting and distributing this gas is tremendous.

Price distortions undermine gas products advantage over oil, particularly in the downstream. Implications are different for producers and consumers.

“Offtake security challenges make gas less attractive for producers at upstream entry point. Infrastructure bottlenecks limit producers’ options. Producers want competitively priced gas-to-power pricing because consumers naturally want cheap fuel sources,” she said, stressing the urgent need for a regional gas pipeline network.

Ecobank urges court to jail DMO chief

By Precious Igbonwelundu

A

FEDERAL High Court in Lagos has been urged to commit the Director-General, Debt Management Office (DMO), Abraham Nwankwo to prison for contempt of court.

DMO is the government agency saddled with processing fuel subsidy claims by oil marketers, as well as the issuance of sovereign debt notes.

Ecobank Nigeria Limited made the appeal before Justice Mohammed Yunusa after accusing the DMO of frustrating its effort to recover debts from an oil firm, First Deepwater Discovery Limited (FDDL).

Justice Yunusa had in a ruling on February 25, directed that the DMO should transfer the outstanding fuel subsidy sum due FDDL into the company’s account with Ecobank.

The bank alleged that the oil firm has a cumulative subsidy claim of about N1.8 billion with DMO, with N845 million due for payment, prompting Justice Yunusa to rule that the agency should transfer with dispatch, the said sum into the defendant’s account with Ecobank, in order to offset part of FDDL indebtedness to the bank.

The judge ordered that the DMO should “communicate the PEF/Admin Charges on the balance sum of N1,020, 451,733.22 to the plaintiff/applicant via the receiver/manager and to pay forthwith, remit or otherwise transfer the entire sum to the first defendant’s account with the plaintiff/applicant.”

But addressing the court on Tuesday, the bank through its lawyer, Kunle Ogunba (SAN), also prayed that one Umaru Abubakar, who is the DMO’s officer in charge of processing fuel subsidy claims by oil marketers, be jailed for contempt.

He claimed that despite being served through the agency’s principal officers on February 27, DMO was yet to take the necessary steps to transfer the said funds, thus, frustrating the bank’s effort at recovering its customers’ money allegedly held by FDDL. Ecobank, in an affidavit in support of the contempt charges deposed to by a lawyer in Ogunba’s law firm, Ajibola Ajiboye, stated that in spite of alleged contemnors with Forms 48 and 49 (contempt charge) they had refused to buldge.

The applicant urged the court to commit Nwankwo and Abubakar to prison, adding that disobedience of court orders should not be treated with levity by any court.

However, the DMO officials have filed a counter-affidavit through their lawyer, S.E. Omoraghon, praying for a dismissal of the contempt charge.

The court adjourned to May 13 for hearing on the contempt charge.

12

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

13

END OF AN IMPRESSIVE REVOLUTIONARY ERA ll-good things, the adage says, must come to an end. The flower that blossoms must wither, the day that breaks in the morning must end at dusk. The beautiful innocent child must age and die.

A

So it is with the Fashola administration, which came with promises upon promises on the development and transformation of the centre of excellence and kept faith with his promises.

Thisadministration will certainly linger on in the minds of appreciative Lagosians for among other things, building Akute, Lagos Island, Alausa, Ikeja and Lekki Independent Power Plants, Maternal and Childcare Centres across the state, re-constructing Ayinke House, Oluwole, Tejuosho and Oyingbo markets, of Way and Kodesoh roads in Ikeja, Agiliti road in Mile 12 and lighting-up Jibowu to Idumota with street lights.

They certainly will not forget the visionary administration that turned their lives around for the better with the provision of countless ambulances and positioning them in strategic locations in case of emergencies, institutionalizing emergency management with the strengthening of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, constructing the Imota and Alimosho emergency relief centres, and transforming the education sector with Eko project among numerous other lives transforming projects and programmes.

In the last hundred days, the Fashola administration constructed and commissioned Glover Road in Ikoyi, with Governor Babatunde Fashola, SAN, stating that the completion of the road was a promise he made to the community when the Government opened the Lekki – Ikoyi Link Bridge. He told his audience that then, he specifically stated that it was the beginning of efforts by his administration to reduce travel time, bring greater connectivity and choice for commuters in the community and Ikoyi generally.

According to him, with the road in place, residents would no longer have to drive all the way down through Alexandra- Gerald roads if they were going to another part of Ikoyi. He justified the choice of Glover road as the first road in the axis to be commissioned, because of its length, 1.2 Kilometres, interception of Kingsway road and helping to disperse and distribute traffic up to the other side of Ikoyi and easing traffic for citizens going through Obalende and Ikoyi to link the Third Mainland Bridge.

The Governor said the State Government put a bicycle lane in place, to fulfil its intention to encourage cyclists, as its use will reduce fuel consumption while accelerating its health importance to the body.

Handing over the Maidan-Aina-Agiliti road network to residents of the communities, including adjoining Oniyanrin, Adeyeye, Oremeji and Ajanlekoko streets in the Ikosi Isheri Local Council Development Area, Governor Babatunde Fashola SAN, told the jubilating residents that government in further fulfillment of its pledge to ease transportation challenges in the state, has added 3.1 km to its existing stock of roads.

He described the epoch event as an evidence of change and good governance and recalled that when he visited the area in 2007, records have it that it has been separated from Kosofe in the past 50 years.

What the people clamored for was a box culvert or jetty, and he told them that if they exercised patience, cooperated with government and pay their taxes, they would be rewarded with not just the jetty but also a bridge, as It was their right and there was no basis for pleading. The road project is a classic example of slum regeneration and would end flooding in the axis.

Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, stated that the completion of the road has made it possible for the construction and upgrade of other inner roads such as Oremerin, Oniyanrin, Ajanlekoko-Oluwo, Adeyeye and By-Pass.

He said the road is constructed to international standard with the bridge itself measuring 300 metres, and strengthened with 364 piles, which guarantee it for 300 years. With a total road network of 3, 078 meters or 3.1 km. It also has service ducts, drainages; outfall drains along with fully

serviced streetlights backed up with a generating set.

The Fashola administration in the last 100 days, also commissioned the fully equipped and life saving Cardiac and Renal Centre at the State’s University Teaching Hospital Annex, Gbagada. He told the capacity audience that with the establishment of the hospital, many Nigerians working abroad have either returned or signified their intention to take up appointment at the hospital, adding that it represents a big step in reversing the human capital flight from the nation’s health sector. He said aside the Consortium Managers of the hospital, made up of Nigerian and American Cardiac and Kidney Specialists, the 32 medical staff already on ground include seven Nigerians hitherto based abroad who have returned permanently while another twelve also in the diaspora, have signed to come to the hospital in rotation, in addition to fifty other Nigerian specialists in the diaspora, who have also agreed to be coming on rotation to the hospital. The facility has 24 dialysis bed stations, 20 beds for recovery and general ward use, two high dependency wards with five beds each making a total of 10 beds for patients who have come out of intensive care, five beds for patients in intensive care and four post surgery beds for patients who have just finished surgery. Other facilities according to him, are two post canthal beds and two surgical theatres built to the most contemporary standard to cater for patients who are critically ill. Fascinating is the surgical theatre where kidneys and hearts can be removed and transplanted. The Governor also stated that provision had been made for teaching of medical students while cameras have been fitted into surgical scumps, which, according to him, project images and voices of happenings in the theatre to the students in lecture rooms on the ground floor. This ensures that students can learn by seeing and hearing what is going on in the theatre, without actually being in there, which ensures the sterility of the operating theatre area and protects patients from secondary infection.

It equally fulfilled yet another electoral promise, as it handed over the completed and strategic Wempco road to residents of the community.

Governor Babatunde Fashola, SAN, said the road would substantially ease traffic congestion in Ogba and Agege areas and called on the numerous industries situated along the road, to join resources in training and re-training their drivers at the Drivers Institute at Oshodi, in order to stop endless misuse of roads. He equally enjoined them to take responsibility for the road’s maintenance, disclosing that he had been informed that if properly maintained, it would last another twenty-five years.

While handing over the Shogunro Housing Estate, Schemes 1 and 11, a Lagos Home Ownership and Mortgage Scheme (LagosHOMS) project in Ogba and named in honor of late Pa Anthony Enahoro, a renowned elder statesman, Governor Fashola said each block contains 12 flats of 1, 2 and three bedrooms that are delivered on a 10-year mortgage with not more than 9.5 percent lending rate. He said government was engaged in building houses and giving to residents on mortgage with affordable lending rate. He noted that the Lagos Housing Model was not only about building the homes and giving beneficiaries mortgages but also creating jobs in the process. According to him, while the construction of the Chief Anthony Enahoro Estate was on-going, 1,620 direct jobs were created by the 13 construction companies that got the contracts. These, he said, included 30 engineers, 670 artisans that worked on the site, 780 casual workers, 120 suppliers of wood, granite, cement, wood tiles and 20 food vendors that sold food on the site. These were in addition to other consequential jobs, which included that of supplier to supplier during the construction.

The Governor explained that the naming of the estate after late nationalist, was because he was one of those who fought, agitated and struggled for the country’s democracy and the freedom being enjoyed now.

In continuation of its provision of dividends of democracy, the State Government made available fifty one (51) transformers to rural, riverine and semi-urban communities across the 57LGAs/LCDAs of the state, to boost electricity generation and distribution in those communities. Commissioner for Rural

purchase new cabs to be used as yellow taxis and would not insist on the use of only new vehicles. Fashola identified merits of the uniform license scheme to include usage of the license in obtaining loans, in addition to the fact that though the vehicles could get old, the license would not. He, however, emphasized that only such vehicles that have passed the road worthiness certification of the Vehicle Inspection Service, would be authorized to operate as licensed taxis. Furthermore, government also endorsed the decision of the stakeholders to allow unpainted taxis that have collected the uniform license to be part of the scheme while they would be painted in the approved black and yellow colour later.

Development, Pastor Cornelius Oyefolu Ojelabi, said the transformers were made possible because from series of meetings held with Eko Distribution Company (EKDC) and Ikeja Distribution Company (IKDC) , it was clear they are not capable of providing the electricity needs of the people. According to him, the two companies disclosed that they are in short supply of transformers to effectively distribute power in the state.

Government equally handed over four newly constructed Solar-Powered Modified Type A Water Scheme to Oriokuta Community in Ikorodu West Area of the state. The communities are Ariya, Sapele Onovbo, Efunlaroja (Ajose Close) and Musade IdiOrogbo (Ori field). Head, Water and Sanitation Department in the Ministry, Engineer Adisa Yinusa, said government’s decision to give Oriokuta four water schemes were because of its population and choice of Solar-Powered Water Scheme was because of the incessant and erratic power supply in the country. He noted that with solar power, the communities would not need to spend additional funds on diesel to fuel generators for the water plants and when it rains , the solar power will still work with little available lighting.

It was also joy unlimited recently, when the State Government handed over an 8 kilometer rural electrification project to Oriba, a riverine community in Epe Local Government Area of the state. According to the traditional ruler of the community which has been in existence since the 17th century, it had been a story of darkness, until the Federal Rural Electrification Board stepped in 18 years back, but the project was abandoned until the State Government came to its rescue in 2014.

Handing over the project, the Commissioner for Rural Development, Pastor Cornelius Ojelabi, said the project which was part of its rural electrification of Elerangbe to Oriba project covering an area of 24 kilometers and serving over 18 communities, is its ministry’s longest rural electrification project and therefore, had to be done in phases due to paucity of funds. He noted that the first phase from Elerangbe junction to Ajegbenwa in Ibeju Lekki, covering 9 kilometers, commenced in 2012 and was completed and commissioned in November same year while the second phase of 5 kilometers was approved and executed in 2013 by direct labour from Ajegbenwa to Arapagi. The final phase of 9 kilometers from Arapagi to Oriba, is what the Ministry is handing over.

It was a new dawn for taxi cab operations in the state, as government introduced the uniform licensing policy. The novel policy was formally endorsed unanimously by all stakeholders in the industry, comprising, taxi cab operators, modern cab operators, the taxi section of the National Union of Road Transport Workers and Oredegbe Taxi Transport Service. At an interactive session with Lagos State Taxi and Cab Operators (Yellow and Modern) on the introduction of a new uniform policy, at the Blue Roof Hall, LTV Complex, Agidingbi, Ikeja, Governor Babatunde Fashola, SAN, endorsed the unanimous decision of the stakeholders that the State Government should effect a change on the five-year manufacture limit placed on vehicles to be used as taxis in Lagos to 12 years, in view of the downturn in the nation’s economy. He stressed that government would permit taxi operators who have the capacity to

Lateef Aderemi Ibirogba, La gos Sta te Commissioner ffor or Inf or ma tion & Str ate gy, La gos Sta te Lag State Infor orma mation Stra teg Lag State te..

In continuation of government’s concerted efforts to mitigate the hazardous effects of climate change, 20, 000 residents spread across the state received free LPG cylinders, courtesy the State Government and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) LPG Group for partnering government on the program. The cylinders were distributed to further promote the use of cooking gas and reduce hazards associated with the use of firewood and kerosene. The free distribution and sensitization program would equally enable a majority of the residents to come to terms with the immense benefits in the usage of gas for domestic usage, preventing hazards faced by residents of the communities while using firewood, charcoal and kerosene.

A new Head of Service, Mrs. Folashade Jaji, was also sworn in by Governor Babatunde Fashola, with a charge to consolidate on successes recorded in the public service and even improve on them. She is also expected to sustain reforms initiated and improve worker’s welfare.

The State Government through the State Civil Service Commission, successful conducted the Year 2015 written examination for eligible officers. The examination is expected to enhance public servant’s capability to improve service delivery to the citizenry, in line with government’s vision of a functional mega city.

During the period under review, the State Government as part of concerted efforts to further diversify its economy away from white-collar jobs and reliance of statutory allocation from the Federation account, into such alternative sectors as that of agriculture, created 3, 529 entrepreneurs in the sector. They were beneficiaries of the second Agricultural Value Chain Empowerment program put in place by government with taxpayer’s funds. Last year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives empowered over 3000 (three thousand) Lagosians from various parts of the state, at the pioneer edition of the program. Those empowered aside from being self-employed, are expected to be employers of labour in their numerous fields. Governor Babatunde Fashola SAN, commended the invaluable contributions of farmers to the state’s economy and recalled his administration’s landmark strides in moving the agricultural sector forward. These include the establishment of the Cooperative College, distribution of agricultural products direct to the people by circumventing middlemen, introduction of Eko meat vans in transporting meat in a more hygienic manner, commissioning of the rice mill among others. These, he noted, have contributed meaningfully towards the enhancement of food security in the state. The empowerment of the 3,529 households on ten value chains, mainly; aquaculture, poultry, artisanal fishing, piggery, crop production, vegetable & arable crop, egg marketing, fish marketing, butchery, perishable produce and feed mill, would create numerous jobs, enhance capacity building of beneficiaries and make the agricultural sector more attractive to local and foreign investors. Commissioner for Agriculture and Cooperatives, Prince Gbolahan Lawal, said agriculture being a huge employer of labour, is a major focus of government and improvement in the production of a fishery value-chain, as Lagos now produces 176,850 tons of fish, which is 11.2% increase over the 2013 production figure of 159,025 tons.

14

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

15

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

16

THE NATION

BUSINESS INDUSTRY

industry@thenationaonlineng.net

Few weeks into the implementation of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Common External Tariff (CET), Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, is tipped by manufacturers and members of the organised private sector as potentially the biggest beneficiary of the adoption of a common regional tax regime. The new policy, which took effect from April 11, may have opened a window of opportunities for this country’s industrial growth.

Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA reports.

ECOWAS CET: Why manufacturers are hopeful

I

T took assurances by President Goodluck Jonathan and Minister of Finance/Coordi nating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to convince manufacturers and business operators that the adoption of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Common External Tariff (CET), which took effect on April 11, this year, would deliver bountiful benefits to them and the economy.

ECOWAS CET allows goods from any other part of West Africa into Nigeria without the imposition of any tax, import duty or levy. It means that goods imported into a Francophone country will not necessarily be cheaper or more expensive than those entering another Anglophone country, such as Nigeria or Ghana. CET, according to experts, is a mild form of economic union, but may lead to further types of economic integration.

In addition to having the same customs duties, the countries may have other common trade policies, such as having the same quotas, preferences or other non-tariff trade regulations, apply to all goods entering the area, regardless of which country within the area they are entering.

Apart from resulting to significant improvement in the implementation of the ECOWAS Trade Liberation Scheme (ETLS), giving rise to the concept of a regional customs union, the scheme is seen as an effective instrument for harmonising the import policies of member-states which will, in turn, strengthen the framework for the realisation of a common market.

The approval for the implementation of the new tariff was conveyed in a statement signed by Mrs Okonjo-Iweala. The NCS said all imports arriving in the country beginning from April 11, shall be subjected to the rates contained in the CET 2015-2019 and 2015 Fiscal Measures without recourse to the rates applicable before the coming into effect of the ECOWAS CET 2015-2019.

A statement by NCS spokesman, Deputy Controller of Customs, Mr. Wale Adeniyi, said that the approved Supplementary Protection Measures/Fiscal Policy Measures comprised an Import Adjustment Tax list, which involves additional taxes on 177 tariff lines of the ECOWAS CET. The ECOWAS CET also covers a list of goods whose import duty rates have been reviewed to encourage more development in strategic sectors of the economy and an Import Prohibition List (Trade), applicable only to certain goods originating from nonECOWAS countries.

However, before it came into force, government needed to get the buy-in of stakeholders before its implementation, which was why the President assured that Nigeria had successfully negotiated a strong CET

•President Jonathan

•Mrs Okonjo-Iweala

•Muda Yusuf

agreement with ECOWAS partners on the need to protect the country’s strategic industries from foreign domination.

The Minister assured manufacturers that efforts were on to establish a development finance institution to make credit accessibility easy and reduce high cost of funds. She emphasised that efforts would be made to ensure that indigenous manufacturers gained from CET scheme, which took off on April 11.

The assurances were neccessary to allay the fears and suspicions of manufacturers and members of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) most of who fear that CET would throw the nation’s borders open to influx of goods from within the West African region when implemented. “You can’t have an industrial growth in this kind of environment with a CET that exposes local industries and products to unequal competition,” an economist, Mr. Henry Boyo, argued.

Members of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) were no less apprehensive. NACCIMA noted, for instance, that although it appreciates the need for ECOWAS CET, but is also concerned that it might turn Nigerian into a dumping ground, a situation that would pose a huge challenge for the nation’s growing industries that are battling with the devaluation of the naira, among other challenges.

“The need to ensure compliance with all protocol signed by ECOWAS to eliminate dumping of goods in the region becomes of great importance if our growing industries are to survive with the implementation of CET and for the realisation of the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP),” First Deputy National President, NACCIMA, Chief Bassey Edem, said.

narily reduce smuggling within the region because what has promoted smuggling is disparity in tariff.

“If a product in Nigeria is attracting 70 per cent and the same product in Cotonou or Togo is attracting 10 per cent, it is likely that smugglers and other unpatriotic traders will follow the rules of the lowest tariff but if the same tariff obtains between Lagos and Mauritania then there is no advantage of smuggling by unscrupulous traders.”

President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, Prince Olayiwola Shittu, thinks so too. “Definitely, it will stop smuggling, create competition among nations and attract more vessels to Nigeria because there will be no more diversion of cargoes,” he said, asking, “If what you are going to pay in Ghana or Ivory Coast is the same thing you are going to pay in Nigeria, why take your goods there?”

Apart from a possible reduction in smuggling, operators are also hopeful that Nigeria would take advantage of the window of opportunity CET would open up by way of enlarging the nation’s industrial sector through higher economics of scale.

“There will be a kind of scale advantage, which is good,” says Registrar/Chief Executive Officer, Institute of Business Development (IBD), Mr. Paul Ikele.

He told The Nation that the essence of having a common tariff is to build international business relations integration so that certain rules, which can assist each nation to stabilise its economy are harmonised.

Ikele further pointed out that CET would make room for faster business development, faster economic development, faster trade and integrated business exchanges like currencies and agro-allied businesses.

“It will also ensure stability within the economic states because in each area you look at where you have comparative advantage. For instance, in Nigeria we have oil, we have cocoa, we have agro-allied products; we even have mineral resources. We look at the ones we have in quantum, which we have an edge over all other states so that all other countries will do the same,” he added.

The IBD Registrar also said the implementation of CET would strengthen national institutions through peer learning among members. “Non-productive economies might want to key into it and take advantage to move into productive ventures, he pointed out, adding that with the world moving into globalisation, CET makes it possible for Nigeria to adapt to those areas it could generate revenue to assist her boost bottom-line.

He also dispelled fears that CET could make Nigeria a dumping ground. “It (CET) has to be controlled; there must be determinants. So, it will not open any floodgate for influx of

cheap goods if there are controls,” he explained, adding, “Before a tariff is published it has to be harmonised per country; you have to determine the areas you have an advantage that will generate economic strength for you. Each country has to look at areas where it has comparative advantage before keying into the tariff.”

Isemede also said CET will make for better planning. According to him, operators will be able to plan better now because they know that the tariff will not change overnight, which has been a challenge for Nigeria in particular.

“If there is any need to change tariff, ECOWAS as a body must meet, member countries must agree to that tariff change. So, that will make for better planning and companies will be able to plan long term, fully aware that their tariff will not change overnight and affect their investment output,” he said.

Operators are also excited over the prospects of CET curbing perceived excesses of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) since there will be a common tariff in the ECOWAS sub-region that the NCS cannot influence. The thinking is that with CET there is no way the tariff of the NCS would be different from other customs services in the ECOWAS sub-region.

“There is no way Nigeria Customs will give their own tariff anymore because there will be a common market. It will help shippers to make their plan, projections and sales margin unlike now that we can’t make projection and sales margin because you don’t know what to meet at the port,” President, Shippers’ Association Lagos State (SALS), Rev. Jonathan Nicol, reportedly said.

Common tariff, many benefits Few weeks into the implementation of the new policy, the picture appears to be getting clearer despite initial apprehensions. Already, the fears and suspicions earlier expressed by operators are gradually giving way to optimism and hope that Nigeria potentially could be the biggest beneficiary of the CET regime. Such optimism is anchored on the strategic economic advantage Nigeria enjoys as Africa’s most populous and largest economy.

According to experts and operators, one of the areas such advantage would find expression is in curbing smuggling, which has been a pain in the neck of Nigerian manufacturers. Former director-general, NACCIMA, Dr John Isemede, said the effect of CET within ECOWAS region could discourage smuggling and promote regional trade. He said: “The only key thing is that it should ordi-

‘

Definitely, it will stop smuggling, create competition among nations and attract more vessels to Nigeria because there will be no more diversion of cargoes,” he said

’

The flip side However, experts say that there are gray areas that must be smoothened if Nigeria must benefit from CET. Isemede identified the need for harmonisation of the different tariffs. For instance, while countries, such as Nigeria, Ghana, and Gambia are Anglophone nations, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, are Francophone.

Similarly, while Value Added Tax (VAT) is five per cent in Nigeria, 20 per cent in the francophone countries and 15 per cent in Ghana, he noted that only when these VAT harmonized can the sub-region talk about one external tariff.

Noting that Nigeria might not get to the Promised Land on the platform of CET unless VATs are harmonised, he called on ECOWAS to harmonise the different VATs in the countries for the smooth implementation of the policy. He also said that cost of doing business in Nigeria is high when compared to other countries, which is why goods shipped into the country are cheaper than the ones made in the country, adding that there is need to address issues responsible for the high cost of doing business in Nigeria.

The Director-General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Mr. Muda Yusuf, agrees with him. He said CET would have serious implications for the economy, particularly the manufacturing sector unless issues of high energy cost, high costs of funds, high regulatory charges, and high ports charges, among others, are not addressed.

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

17

COMMENTARY LETTER

EDITORIALS

Government by subterfuge •SURE-P/FERMA Task Force youths abandoned. Is this any way to run a country?

T the height of its reign, the Goodluck Jonathan administration exemplified everything that is despicable in the delicate art of statecraft. The daily activities of government became a chess game of the horrendous type. It was not what was right and proper but what was expedient and self-serving. Every action of government was geared towards one purpose: to perpetuate the president in power.

No effort or resource was spared and nothing else mattered. Subterfuge therefore, became the order of the day.

It was from this base milieu that a youth ‘militia’ tagged SURE-P/FERMA Task Force was born about mid last year. As the desperation of the sitting Federal Government to remain in power grew in the runup to the 2015 general elections, all manner of schemes were initiated. The SUREP Task Force is, therefore, a group of youths who were hurriedly assembled and decked in ominous black T-shirt with the bold inscription in front: THE PRESIDENCY SURE-P/FERMA FEDERAL TASK FORCE under Nigeria’s coat of arms.

The young men and women were deployed to federal highways, especially in Lagos where they were stationed at the old toll gate Oregun, on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. From there, they were deployed into the metropolis ostensibly to control traffic on federal roads in the state.

Quite a number of times, there had been ruckuses in Lagos as the Federal Task Force had bullied the Lagos State Transport Management Authority (LASTMA) and the traffic police, claiming authority and superiority on the federal highways traversing the city. It was always the maturity of the LASTMA hierarchs which had averted

A

bloodshed in what would have been gruesome turf wars.

It was common knowledge that the socalled Federal Task Force was in reality, an ‘official’ election ‘militia’ set up by elements of the Lagos chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for ‘fighting’ the 2015 elections. There is absolutely no place for another highway task force for a country that has over half a dozen well-established traffic agencies. There is the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC); the Motor Traffic Division of the Nigeria Police and the Federal Highway Patrol. And at the state level are LASTMA and the Vehicle Inspectorate Service.

The so-called Federal Task Force was indeed borne out of subterfuge. It was not the first time the Federal Government had created a ‘militia’ of this nature in Lagos in the guise of federal highway traffic controllers. In the run-up to the 2007 general elections, Mr. Adeseye Ogunlewe as Minister of Works, had also initiated a similar boondoggle scheme which was named FERMA Task Force. That corps did not outlast the 2007 election.

Today, the same aberration it termed SURE-P, a reference to the savings from the petroleum subsidy programme which was to be applied to providing transport infrastructure and ameliorating the sufferings of the masses most affected by the last increase in the pump price of petrol.

Apparently, the SURE-P fund was being applied to projects for which it was not designed.

However, if the youths had been properly trained and the corps statutorily established, the programme might have redeemed itself as a source of employment

for teeming Nigerian jobless school leavers. But that is not so. The youths have been practically abandoned at their highway station since after the election which PDP lost roundly in Lagos. In the past one week, the hapless youths have raised placards protesting their fate. Some of them claim they had left previous jobs for what seemed a more promising Federal Task Force job. Some of the placards insinuate that abandoning them in this manner is to push them into insurgency and terrorism.

This of course, is no way to run the affairs of a country. This is subterfuge scripted and executed by government functionaries. We urge the Federal Government to promptly undo this mess by offering proper appointments to these youths. This is the least we expect.

‘The youths have been practically abandoned at their highway station since after the election which PDP lost roundly in Lagos.

In the past one week, the hapless youths have raised placards protesting their fate. Some of them claim they had left previous jobs for what seemed a more promising Federal Task Force job ’

Sambisa Forest pregnancies • We need a special rehabilitation for the mothers and the expected offspring to avoid new seeds of terror

L

AMENTABLY, there seems to be no end to the crises spawned by the Boko Haram insurgency. The latest was captured in a statement issued on behalf of Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima concerning 687 children, girls and women recently rescued by the military from the clutches of Islamist terrorists in Sambisa Forest. Shettma said: “I do not have any official information yet regarding these issues, but I have read from some online media houses that many girls were rescued with visible pregnancy and some with newly born babies.”

According to Shettima, “Boko Haram insurgents deliberately raped women with the intention of getting them pregnant so they would give birth to future insurgents as successors of their violent struggles, hence the need for a special programme to break the chain anticipated by the insurgents.”

‘This approach is ... the path to follow based on enlightened self-interest.

Supporting the sexually abused mothers and the contextual offspring must be seen as crucial to the social well-being; and the work of rehabilitation must involve all the tiers of governance’

Beyond such genetic speculation by the insurrectionists, there are real reasons for concern over the sex crime. Shettima’s insight is worthy of note. He said: “I am seriously worried at the fact that most women tend to hate and abandon children they deliver from rape. Now, the problem is that these children could go to the streets unattended to; they then lack access to food, healthcare and education. The result is that they could indeed inherit their fathers’ traits somehow.”

It is relevant to observe that too many vulnerable children are already victims of the insurgency that was ranked as the fourth deadliest conflict in the world in 2014 and said to be responsible for an estimated 11, 529 deaths. The human suffering resulting from the destructive imagination and vision of the terrorists includes “dramatic rates of acute malnutrition” among the displaced children and a recent survey around Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, showed that over 35 percent of them were malnourished.

Against this background, it is instructive to note the unveiling of the European Union N325 million planned support for about 45,000 children and adolescents displaced by the activities of the terror champions in Borno State. ”The project is expected to contribute to mitigating the negative psychosocial implications of the humanitarian crisis that currently plagues Borno State, which has largely disrupted education and health services, including immunisation activities,” the Minister for National Planning, Dr. Abubakar Sulaiman, said at a ceremony to formalise the financing agreement

concerning the 11th European Development Fund support. The project is expected to be implemented in 300 communities across 11 local government areas in the state for a period of 36 months.

The addition of products of rape to this mix will likely complicate the chain of crises. It is worth stressing that these are innocent victims of circumstances and deserve to be treated as such. This approach is not just correct on moral grounds; it is the path to follow based on enlightened self-interest. Supporting the sexually abused mothers and the contextual offspring must be seen as crucial to the social well-being; and the work of rehabilitation must involve all the tiers of governance.

There is no doubt that managing this issue will require multi-disciplinary expertise, involving medical, psychosocial and child welfare specialists, apart from decisive political will and governance skills. As Shettima accurately highlighted, the resolution of the crisis would involve “documenting these kids without getting them stigmatised, monitoring and working towards raising these kids to become educated future leaders without the slightest ideologies of their fathers in order for us to cut the cycle being envisaged.”

The Boko Haram insurgency that has terrorised the country since 2009, particularly the Northeast states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, continues to reflect a darkness of spirit that needs illumination. How the society tackles the negatives arising from the group’s terroristic activities is a critical element of the antiterror war.

Who’s against free education in Ogun?

S

IR: I am compelled to voice out my observations in the educational sector of the Gateway state of Ogun as it has become incumbent on all residents, sons and daughters to let the world know what parents are passing through in the hands of public school teachers, education administrators and private school proprietors.

At the inception of the Senator Ibikunle Amosun administration, parents were promised a lot of incentives which include among other things, free education at the primary and secondary school levels, non-payment of WAEC fee, non-payment for extra mural classes or other levies whatsoever.

It is however surprising that in public schools, various levies are being collected under the guise of Parent/Teachers Association (PTA) umbrella that are about equal to what was paid as school fees before.

It is also glaring that most members of the so called P.T.A. have no children in the schools they claim to represent while some have been in office for well over eight years. These cliques, in concert with some school heads have turned the schools into commercial hubs.

In some schools in the state, outgoing students of secondary schools pay as much as N7,000.00 before being allowed to sit for the West African School Certificate Examination under the pretence that the money was for P.T.A. and school development.

Lower classes pay between N1,700 and N2,200 per student per term and yet there is claim by the government that education is free.

The difference is based on each school’s demand.

In public primary schools, pupils are made to pay between N750 and N1000 per term.

Aside from all these, parents still purchase lockers and chairs for all new incoming students of public secondary schools even when the state government is yearly supplying same to the schools. School principals unlike in the past now bill the parents for the lockers and chairs.

The governor should endeavour to investigate the sum of N2,000 being demanded for testimonial and certificate from outgoing primary school pupil in Ado-Odo/Ota, Ifo and other local governments practicing such.

The state government promised posting pupils into schools near them but the recent development is that aside from the N2,500 being paid for Common Entrance forms, officials of the Zonal Education Offices now hoard the forms. Parents now pay between N5,000 and N10,000 to be able to collect the form. It is so sad that some people are bent on staining the good reputation of this government.

The private school owners are the worst culprits as they have turned their pupils into commercial goods through outrageous collection of levies that matched that of higher institutions, and unheard of matriculation and convocation ceremonies.

It is high time the Ministry of Education and Technology see into all these before politicians start using them as tools of destabilization.

• Abiodun Rauph Ijoko Road, Sango, Ogun State.

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

• Executive Director (Finance & Administration) Ade Odunewu

•Deputy Editor Lawal Ogienagbon

•Advert Manager Robinson Osirike

•Deputy Editor (News) Adeniyi Adesina

• Gen. Manager (Training and Development) Soji Omotunde •General Manager (Abuja Press) Kehinde Olowu •AGM (PH Press) Tunde Olasogba

•IT Manager Bolarinwa Meekness

•Deputy Editor (Nation’s Capital) •Press Manager Yomi Odunuga Udensi Chikaodi •Group Political Editor Emmanuel Oladesu •Legal Counsel John Unachukwu •Group Business Editor Simeon Ebulu • Manager (Admin) Folake Adeoye •Group Sports Editor Ade Ojeikere •Acting Manager (sales) •Editorial Page Editor Olaribigbe Bello Sanya Oni

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

18

CARTOON & LETTERS

IR: What the present generation of some black South Africans who recently launched a wave of xenophobic attacks on hapless immigrants from different African countries may not know is that they have resurrected the corpse of apartheid buried to the rapturous applause of the human community in 1994 from the catacomb. Were those involved in such unfortunate and shameful attacks on fellow Africans not fully conversant with history of anti-apartheid struggle or were they suffering from amnesia to commit such a heinous crime?

How was that South Africa that hosted the third United Nations’ Conference against Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in September 2001 witnessed the latest outbreak of anti-foreigner violence?

The recent mindless attacks on African migrants there were sparked in Durban after the tribal Zulu king, Goodwill Zwelithini, was alleged to have called on foreigners, who he accused of taking jobs belonging to locals, to pack their bags and leave the country. It is noteworthy that the rate of unemployment in South Africa is

S

EDITOR’S MAIL BAG SEND TYPEWRITTEN, DOUBLE SPACED AND SIGNED CONTRIBUTIONS, LETTERS AND REJOINDERS OF NOT MORE THAN 800 WORDS TO THE EDITOR, THE NATION, 27B, FATAI ATERE ROAD, MATORI, LAGOS. E-mail: views@thenationonlineng.net

South Africa: From apartheid to xenophobia more than 24 per cent and this disturbing development, along with lack of access to social services and welfare programmes, has become a major driving force behind xenophobic outburst in a country that is seen as the continent’s most advanced economy.

Alas, black South Africans have vented their socio-economic frustrations by accusing African immigrants of stealing their jobs, undermining wages, acquiring government-built houses, rampant criminality and establishing relationships with their women. However, the immigrants are wont to blame them for their penury and suffering, which they attribute to their laziness and lack of entrepreneurial spirit, hence the jealousy undertones of the recent xenophobic violence in the country.

Not helping matters are the ugly legacies of economic injustice and inequality of apartheid years which have left many black South Africans deprived, impoverished and disillusioned. During the presidency of Dr. Thabo Mbeki, a determined effort was made to address the problems through the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) programme, which was launched to eradicate extreme poverty among the black population in the country. The programme has only succeeded in creating few black economic overlords or nouveaux riches. Furthermore, the much-expected land reform in South Africa, which requires transfer of 30 per cent of farmland to blacks by 2014, under a “willing seller, willing buyer” programme, was not implemented last year. This has raised fears about

possible seizure of white-owned commercial farms in the country by restive black South Africans, as witnessed in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe several years ago.

Considering that the recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa were contrary to the spirit of a new, forward-looking Africa whose renaissance is partly driven by the values of brotherhood, inclusion, equality and cooperation, the African Union (AU) should be bound and determined to fast track the process of political community building on the continent in a way that resembles that of the European Union (EU). It is only by so doing that the AU would be able to confront xenophobia in that former apartheid enclave, as well as other exclusionary ideologies that could impede the quest to make the continent a

home for all Africans like indigenesettler dichotomy, ethnic separatism irredentism and religious extremism.

However, beyond the moral outrage over the recent attacks on foreigners in South Africa lies the lesson for African states, especially those whose nationals were affected in the unrest. Exactly, the lesson, apart from grappling with how to ensure the safety of their citizens abroad, is the overriding need for them to address their internal contradictions like misrule, corruption, mismanagement, economic misery, deprivation, wretched poverty, hunger, chronic unemployment, lack of social opportunities, political oppression and civil strife. No doubt, such adverse factors have led to mass efflux of nationals of many African countries to foreign lands, even to the risks of perishing in desert or drowning in high seas like the Mediterranean whose migrant deaths are shockingly projected to hit 30,000 this year or facing persecution abroad, as observed in the recent xenophobic crisis in South Africa.

• Okechukwu Emeh, Jnr Wuse 2, Abuja.

Customs’ terror in Oke-Ogun Revitalizing Nigeria’s educational sector

S

IR: It has become imperative to cry out about the highhandedness and cruelty associated with the operations of officials of Nigeria Customs Service in Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State. The Customs and Excise Duties Act empowers the department to generate revenue for the government, but that Act does not empower it to perpetrate activities inimical to people’s lives and well-being.

That is exactly what the organization is doing in Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State.

Not too long ago, a war-like invasion of a supposed smugglers’ hide-out in an area in Saki resulted in the death of an innocent man who was passing by. The horrendous act has not been redressed up till today.

Again, on Sunday April 19, along Saki-Ago Are road, tragedy struck when a customs patrol van attempted to force a suspected vehicle smuggler to a halt on the highway.

Owing to the driver’s intransigence, the patrol vehicle butted the Volkswagen Golf 3 from the side thus violently causing the vehicle being chased to veer-off its own lane only to collide with an on-coming vehicle. The driver of the Volkswagen Golf 3 died instantly while the six occupants of the Nissan car coming from the opposite lane sustained serious injuries.

The physical and emotional damage caused by this inhuman and inhumane act is better imagined than narrated.

It is time to curb these hellish and cruel acts by customs men to avert unwarranted loss of human lives and stave off a possible face-off between communities in the area and customs service. Customs men need to be reminded that only the living, and not the dead, pay customs duties.

• Femi Oyedemi(PhD.) The Polytechnic, Ibadan.

IR: Nigeria, widely regarded as the giant of Africa is still uncertain where she is headed regarding her educational future. Since the commencement of the Universal Primary Education (UPE) in 1976, the programme has failed to perform as anticipated as a result of lack of funds necessitated by corruption among other related factors. The Universal Basic Education (UBE) initiative launched by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in Sokoto State on September 30, 1999, intended to be universal, free and compulsory has been bogged down by troubling revelation of shortage of teachers as well as employment of halfbaked ones.

As the disgusting culture of corruption persists, the public tertiary institutions have been left to rot away. Some of the loans received from the World Bank towards the revitalization of the nation’s educational system were rather used to purchase inconsequential equipment that could not be properly installed or maintained, and sev-

S

eral institutions received irrelevant books and journals in this regard. Due to this anomaly, each year the nation’s tertiary institutions send-forth hundreds of thousands of half-baked graduates in different fields of endeavour to the nation’s labour market.

To restore Nigeria’s economy, there is an urgent need to revitalize the educational system, and this can only be actualized by revisiting all the factors that currently affect the system such as lack of infrastructure, teaching facilities, social amenities, poor wages and incentives, substandard teaching curriculum, high tuition fees, just to mention but a few.

We must begin from the grass root.

The government ought to as a matter of urgency rehabilitate all the dilapidated technical colleges situated in various locations across the country as well as provide adequate facilities required to run the schools, and sufficient funds to sustain the structures and equipment. Honestly, the country’s anticipated technological development or

enhancement shall remain a mirage if the grassroots educational system is not properly addressed.

Most of the technical works presently done in China is being carried out by school children. Barely few years ago, China was recognized as one of the third-world countries alongside Nigeria and other developing nations. But today, China is among the world’s elite class as regards science and technology.

Also, there is an urgent need to reintroduce History subject, which has abruptly vanished in the Nigeria’s school curriculum. It is pathetic that most of our young ones barely know their past. Without knowing our past, we can never comprehend where we are to be headed.

In the same spirit, the Industrial Training and Teaching Practice schemes by students of our Universities/Polytechnics and Colleges of Education respectively, must be taken more seriously by the concerned authorities.

• Comr Fred Nwaozor frednwaozor@gmail.com

7, 2015

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

19

COMMENTS

Professor Tekena Tamuno – A tribute

I

N about a week from now, the mortal body of Professor Tekena Tamuno affectionately known as TNT will be buried in Okrika his home town in Rivers State of Nigeria. He was 83 when he passed on and joined the saints triumphant. About two or so years ago, he told me that he had come a long way from his riverine native environment to the solid and stony grounds of Ekiti State.

This was at the occasion of being honored with a Doctorate of Letters by Ekiti State University to add to his earned D.Litt. of London University where he had previously gotten his B.A Honours and Ph.D degrees.

Professor Tamuno had been one of my teachers in the university of Ibadan along with J .C . Anene, J. F. Ade Ajayi, Emmanuel Ayankanmi Ayandele, J. D. Omer-Cooper, Robert Gavin, J. B. Webster, Alan Ryder and Emmanuel Adiele Afigbo. My recollection of these great men was the quiet mien of solitary academics carrying out research either in the archives or in the research areas of the university library.

Professor Tamuno was the quietest of them all! He was like a deep river that flows silently. At a time, he was shunted to the then unpopular teaching of American history. The University of Ibadan while trying to get out of the warm and claustrophobic embrace of anglophone obsession with the history of England and the Commonwealth decided to give students the opportunity of comparative history which learning American history provided. As students, we knew there were no American history experts. Tamuno ably took on the challenge and discharged his responsibilities creditably. Tamuno did not indulge in the use of bombastic language as one or two of his colleagues did but he got in his points without much ado.

His original area of research was the colonial consolidation of Southern Nigeria as well as the history and evolution of the Nigerian police. This latter interest led him into studying national security as a sub-specialty.

Later on in life, he got involved in the study of the roles of palm oil and crude oil in the history of the Niger Delta .

This was a natural thing for him coming from Okrika.

Unlike Professor E. J. Allagoa from Nembe, he was not interested in the micro-history of the individual islands; rather he took a panoramic view of the external influence of either the oil companies and the Nigerian state on the Niger Delta. He was not what one will call an activist but in elucidating the history of the Niger Delta, he provided intellectual material for alleviating the problems of the area and he brought that quiet, diplomatic and scholarly approach to a difficult and enigmatic problem. The authorities of the Nigerian state took notice because Tamuno had spoken.

Professor Tamuno held many academic positions in the course of his career. He was Head of Department, Dean of faculty of Arts, principal of the then University College of Ilorin; Vice chancellor of the premier university, the University of Ibadan, Pro-chancellor and finally stood at the apex of university governance pyramid as chancellor of Bells university and lastly Redeemers university.

He was at a time chairman, New Nigerian newspaper and briefly served as Directing staff in NIPSS in Kuru.

He was also a foundation Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters. He also served as chairman of a panel set up by the Nigerian government to produce some tomes on Nigerian history. He has packed so much into one life time that one wonders how he managed to do it. I have no doubt that his wife provided him not only a good home environment but also professional support for his literary endeavors. As a professional librarian, she must have helped in his research and writing.

What is most remarkable about him is his humility which was quite frankly, overwhelming. He never had problems relating to his junior academic colleagues; he was never patronizing. If you gave your book to him to review and if he liked it, he will praise you to high heav-

‘What is most remarkable about him is his humility which was quite frankly, overwhelming. He never had problems relating to his junior academic colleagues; he was never patronizing. If you gave your book to him to review and if he liked it, he will praise you to high heavens and if he thought it was not good, he will gently suggest areas which needed improvement’

U

NTIL it suffered a huge loss in the last general elections, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) prided itself as the biggest party in Africa. It may be so, but its size was and is still not a measure of its popularity. It is only big in name and not in ideology. PDP is a party of anything goes, with members more interested in themselves than in the country. The problem of PDP is leadership, which it brought upon itself. The party was founded by some great minds, even though they did not share the same ideology.

The circumstances of the time brought these political tacticians together long before 1998 when former Head of State Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar threw the political space open. Years before Abdulsalami came to power, the late Gen Sani Abacha, who he succeeded, had held the country in a vice-grip. The late Abacha was a mean dictator, who did everything to make life miserable for Nigerians. Rather than challenge him, many of our politicians went to bed with him.

Those who challenged him were few and far between. They were the lone voices in the wilderness. It was a costly venture challenging the late Abacha; so it was better, those lily-livered

388 DAYS AFTER

WHERE ARE THE ABDUCTED CHIBOK GIRLS?

ens and if he thought it was not good, he will gently suggest areas which needed improvement. He seemed to enjoy very much being regarded as just an academic colleague than hailed and treated as if he were a super person.

He wrote a poem celJide ebrating JOLLY Osuntokun PAPA which in the lingo of the Delta was some kind oh happy go lucky carefree person. The late Rex Lawson also sang about this Jolly Papa which I suppose encapsulated Professor Tamuno’s attitude to life in that life is too short to be lived brooding and oppressing fellow human beings.

He made friends easily and did not have stomach for making enemies. In this he was heavily influenced by his Christian religion of brotherhood of all men. He was also full of humor and could be self-deprecating, enjoying the joke of being an Okrika-man which in Yorubaland was associated with second hand clothing.

I came towards the end of his life to see him as a personal friend and whenever he met me or sent innumerable text messages to me, he will address me as my prochancellor on account of the honorary doctorate of Letters which Ekiti State University conferred on him when I was its pro-chancellor and chairman of Governing Council. I saw Professor Tamuno last on Good Friday in his usually cheerful mood only to pass on a week or so later when announcement of the gubernatorial elections was being made. The coincidence was rather uncanny because one of his areas of academic interest is electoral politics in Nigeria. I was really shocked by his death. I knew he was ill last summer and went to the United States for medical attention. When I saw him on Good Friday, I was saying how happy I was that he had regained his good health and appeared to have fully recovered. I hardly knew I would not see him alive again.

If there was ever a good man in Nigeria, it was Tekena Tamuno. Go well Jolly papa.

Crying over split milk politicians thought to dine with him with a long spoon. So, when the late Abacha lifted the ban on politics after crudely shoving the late Chief M.K.O Abiola into jail, our politicians began to dance tango instead of coming out boldly to participate in the process.

Except for one or two politicians - the late M.D.Yusufu and Lawan Gambo - no other came out to challenge the late Abacha, who was rumoured to be harbouring plans of transmuting to civilian president. The action of the then parties lent credence to this claim.

They all adopted the late Abacha as their presidential candidate.

He would have emerged unopposed for the exalted post if he had not died suddenly. The late Abacha and those politicians would have had their way if not for divine intervention. They had everything going for them until the unexpected happened and their plan fell flat on its face.

Abacha’s death on June 7, 1998 loosened the mouths of those politicians, who never saw anything bad in him when he was alive.

We know those politicians and their roles then. They are still playing this role of going with any government in power no matter how bad that government may be. But the politicians with the love of their country at heart, who took on the late Abacha and envisaged a better future for Nigeria beyond him, never for once allowed him to rest. The late Abacha too gave it back to these politicians, but they were undeterred.

These politicians were the brains behind today’s PDP; they went through hell in the hands of the late Abacha and his security goons for daring to stand up to the dictator and provide an alternative voice for the people. As far back as 1997, these politicians had seen that the ship of state was tottering and so came together to salvage it. It all began with the All Politicians’ Summit convened in 1997 by former Vice President Alex Ekwueme. The summit was disrupted by security men.

Ekwueme and his associates were not deterred; they saw that as a temporary setback. In no time, the group of 18 (G18) emerged, with Ekwueme as its leader. Members of the group did not share political ideologies.

Some were progressives and some were conservatives, but they had a common cause - to form a party that will meet the yearnings of the people. Following further consultations, the group increased to 34 (G34). On August 13, 1998, it formed the Peoples Democratic Party. With the exception of the late Solomon Lar, Chief Audu Ogbeh and Senator Barnabas Gemade, who were PDP chairman at one time or the other, no other member of the original G34 ever held that position in the party.

The founding fathers of the party have since been sidelined, leaving it in the hands of those, who know next to nothing about its ideals. The party’s loss in the last elections exposed so many things about PDP, which inci-

dentally was founded by great minds. The PDP has only been PDP in the past 16 years because it is in power. It is not being run as a party, which should evolve policies, plans and programmes for the government. The party’s founders never expected that things would turn out this way.

Their plan was to make the party the envy of others in the country and on the continent. hose that hijacked the party from them do not seem to share this ideal.

This is why PDP is where it is today. With its loss has come the blame game. The party is blaming the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of causing President Goodluck Jonathan’s defeat in the election because of the hate campaign spearheaded by his wife Dame Patience, the rabble rousing Femi Fani-Kayode, the garrulous Ayo Fayose and the loud mouthed Doyin Okupe, among others. Where was the party when they were doing this?

What did it do to stop them? If it had won the elections, would it be whining like this? What all this shows that PDP is not organised.

If it is, the PCC would not have seized the presidential campaign from the party.

The PCC should have taken di-

T

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

rectives from the party and not the other way round. If the party left the initiative to PCC for fear of offending the president, that is its cup of tea. It should bury its head in shame for not living up to being a party in the true sense of the word. A party which dances to the tune of any of its organs is not a party and that is not the kind of party that should lead our country. What the PDP should do now is to return to the drawing table and see how it can revive the dream of its founding fathers because therein lies the way to its being that great party, which those running it now so much wish it would become.

But with the squabbling in the party over its loss in the last elections, can PDP bounce back and redeem itself? Time will tell.

‘What all this shows is that PDP is not organised. If it is, the PCC would not have seized the presidential campaign from it...this is not the kind of party that should lead our country’

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

20

COMMENTS

O

N October 31, 1959, Chief Obafemi Awolowo told a distinguished audience including Sir James Robertson, then Governor General of Nigeria that very few events in his life time had given him so much pleasure as opening the Western Nigerian Television Service, (WNTV), which he described as ‘a modern miracle’. It was the first in Africa. The structures housing the project took less than three months to build with the help of 300 workers. Sir James Robertson in his opening remark paid glowing tribute to the ‘enterprise and determination’ of those behind the project and their overseas partners’ for achieving such a feat in such record time. The inauguration of the TV station was the icing on the cake of other achievements of the Western Region between 1952 and 1959. The regional government had not only successfully implemented its free education programme, it awarded during its first year in office, local and international scholarships to youths of Western Region than all the colonial government awarded to the entire country in their years.

The giant strides made by the Western Region were possible because we operated a workable federal arrangement. And the credit for that goes to the British colonial masters who realized very early that most of the educated elites with eyes on becoming new inheritors of power lived in denial pretending our cultural differences had been greatly exaggerated by accident of colonial rule. The colonial regime therefore took it upon itself to tell us the obvious- that the ‘Hausas of Zaria are different from the Bantu tribes men of the valley of the Benue’ just as the Scandinavians in the Baltic are different from the Slavs of Bulgaria; that we are a ‘collection of mutually independent native states, separated by difference of history and tradition, by ethnological and racial, tribal, political, social and religious barriers’.

Consequently, Hugh Clifford, the then Nigerian Governor General in an address to the Nigerian Council on December 1920 was unequivocal about a British policy designed to produce a ‘regional government that secures for each separate people, the right to maintain its identity, its individuality and its nationality and its own chosen form of government which have been evolved for it by the wisdom and by the accumulated experiences of generation of its forbearers’. This stated policy was what later influenced the constitutional changes of 1954, 1957 and the 1958 Lancashire debate at which October 1, 1960

I

Restructuring: Buhari’s major challenge was chosen as the date for our independence.

With the collapse of the first republic through the intervention of forces loyal to those who had earlier expressed their preference for a unitary system in a multi-ethnic society, we have – in the absence of an impartial British arbiter –been living in denial, running a federal system only in name. Expectedly, children of the Western Region’s miracle of the first republic have been in the forefront for a struggle for a restructured Nigeria. However, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, former CBN Governor and current Emir of Kano while labeling them as advocates of a ‘return to a nihilist era of ethnic agendas and tribal warfare’ accused them of engaging in ‘rabid tribalism and provincialism’.

What was probably lost on Sanusi who not too long ago claimed he was proud of his grandfather who supervised the famous Kano groundnut pyramids’ is that Yoruba advocates of a restructured Nigeria were yesterday’s children of cocoa farmers whose taxes were creatively deployed through marketing boards by Awo and his colleagues to provide free education, build industries and GRAs for those who have today turned out to be successful entrepreneurs, businessmen, lawyers, doctors and academics. But for the British structure that allowed each region to develop at its own pace without interference from others, and the dedication of Awo and his self-made colleagues to the cause of Western Region’s youths, there was only a thin line between them and the children of the groundnut farmers who ended up as emir’s

N the Foreword to Hon Femi Gbajabiamila’s 2012 Political Memoirs entitled, Fearless; The Emergence of a Virile and Formidable Opposition Leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu had this to say: ‘’Femi is a highly respected legislator and leader in the House. He has earned his stripes by being able to adeptly craft a beautiful mélange of passion, compassion and courage of conviction in the way he brilliantly puts forward arguments and ultimately discharges his duties’’.

In the same book, Speaker Aminu Tambuwal paid glowing tributes to his colleague: ‘’Femi is a stabilizer and a mobilizer and a very humble and true democrat who tackles issues dispassionately. Not only did he conceive the Speakership project, he nurtured it and worked tirelessly and assiduously towards its reality. His role transcended his role as the leader of the ACN Caucus in the House because he so much believed in it that he gave everything, time, money and commitment to its actualisation’’.

Finally, Dr Wale Babalakin (SAN) has this to say of his professional colleague: ‘’Femi is very engaging on the floor of the House and pushes his cases very well. As opposition leader, he has shown a lot of strength. His rejection of the National Honours on grounds of personal principles must also be applauded’’.

I had known Femi as a fellow member of the 2003-2007 set at the House of Representatives, especially for his doggedness and patriotism during the anti-third term struggle. I found Femi as I met him, brilliant, hardworking, a committed party man to the core and more humble than he has been painted by some critics.

Bespectacled with his slightly greyish hair and his usual sartorial habit of a well-tailored suit, Femi cuts the image of a serious and smart lawmaker.

Even before he became the Minority Leader in the House, the Gbajabiamila I knew when I was a member of the House was a very active lawmaker. His well thought-out and well delivered speeches could sometimes become highly emotional. Of course, he mastered materials quickly. The few times he had walked into a matter or debate on the floor of the House, his intellect and deep reservoir of knowledge had always come to play. His presentations during sittings are as finely constructed and powerfully argued as his set-piece speeches. So awe-inspiring and eloquent were his submissions that his colleagues including those on the other side of the political divide rarely had cause to grudge expenditure of time on them.

As the Clerk of the House of Representatives, Mr. Omolori observed: ‘almost all his arguments and debates have a two prong approach; the moral and non-legal issues before methodically and painstakingly attacking the legal ones using extant law, rule books, common law, judicial pronouncements and the constitution’.

Although a Minority Leader, Gbajabiamila has the uncanny ability to reach across to members of the ruling party during

labourers, almajiris or worse still ‘maitatsine’ religious fundamentalists..

For the Yoruba, restructuring is not ‘primarily about providing a constitutional frame-work, a formula for sharing the spoils of power’ as claimed by Sanusi. The Yoruba have a template of the ‘1959 miracle’. Restructuring is a vehicle for all ethnic groups at different levels of cultural development including those Clifford in 1920 identified as ‘cannibals inhabiting some hill tops’, ‘the antisocial tribes’ and ‘the naked warriors of the jungle’ for equal opportunity to develop at their own pace without interference from others.

Besides the Yoruba, other prominent Nigerians have in the light of our experiences in the last 16 years, identified what a restructured Nigeria should look like. For Chief Emeka Anyaoku, a former secretary-general of the Commonwealth, ‘the present ‘36 federating units and the federal capital territory, each with its full paraphernalia of administration, spending disproportionate amount of its resources on recurrent expenditure’, is responsible for the collapse of education and health sectors and infrastructural decay’. The most appropriate structure of governance for Nigeria, according to him should be a return to a ‘true federation of six federating units with each developing at its own pace, and the proceeds from “God-given” national resources’.

And as for Atiku Abubakar, a onetime vice president of the country, ‘the current federal structure arrogates too much functions and

resources to the government at the centre, and thus killing the spirit of innovation and enterprise among the people’. He has therefore advocated for a political and governmental system that “empowers local authorities and gives them greater autonomy to address peculiar local issues, and enhances accountability, while contributing to the general good of the country.”

Here is where the president-elect viewed as the elixir for all our socio political and economic ailments comes in. As CPC candidate in 2011, he was the only presidential candidate who had restructuring as part of his agenda.

Restructuring also featured in his current APC manifesto. The template has been made for him. We can start by devolution of power to the already identified six geo-political zones to allow them face their own demons. The federal government has no business in education, health, agriculture local government etc. Government should dismantle all the money guzzling agencies and transfer their services and the resources to the new zones or regions. The Federal Road Safety Commission, like many other government duplications have more than enough personnel to form the nucleus of state police for the new zones.

We are not being asked to invent the wheel.

Europe after two brutal world wars realized part of the solution to hostility is a workable federal arrangement based on the peculiarities of their different communities. Today the whole of Europe is working towards becoming a federation.

What will finally define the Buhari government beyond fighting corruption, turning the economy around, making us proud Nigerians once again, all of which have been taken for granted by millions of Nigerians who have faith in his capacity to deliver on his promises is how he tackles the forces benefitting from the current anarchy we call a federal structure which allows politicians who by just claiming to be a Nigerian before being Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba or Munchi etc becomes president without representing anyone or secure oil block and made billions without work. That, as one can infer from Edmund Burke’s argument, is like climbing the palm tree from the top. No one can be a good Nigerian if he is not first a good representative of his or her people.

Ahmadu Bello and Obafemi Awolowo who distinguished themselves as representative of their people are today remembered more by Nigerians than any living or dead former Nigerian head of state.

Why Gbajabiamila should be next Speaker

By Wale Okediran debates on matters of national importance. He has the reputation for sometimes collecting over 100 signatures across party, ethnic and religious lines when moving a Motion or a Bill for adoption.

Although it is generally agreed that a politician in opposition is free to play around with plans and proposals beyond the reach of those in government, Gbajabiamila is known to be considerate despite the often strident tone of his arguments.

For politicians, loyalty to party (which in practice has to mean the party leadership) is the supreme morality. If this is the yardstick for measuring success, then Femi Gbajabiamila is right on course as a well-rounded politician.

In his letter to members of the House of Representatives on why he should be allowed to succeed Aminu Tambuwal as the Speaker of the House, he among other issues referred to the January 2010 impending leadership vacuum created by the absence of President Umaru Yar’Adua who travelled to Saudi Arabia for medical help under doubtful circumstances. Consequently, Gbajabiamila was the first and only legislator to move a motion on the floor of the House for invocation of doctrine of necessity that eventually led to elevation of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan from Vice President to Acting President of Federal Republic of Nigeria. Gbajabiamila also turned down the national award of OFR conferred on him on the ground that the abused rewarding system in Nigeria needs reform first. His exceptional record saw him overwhelmingly re-elected in 2007 and elected as AC leader and Minority Whip of the House. In 2011, Gbajabiamila was re-elected ACN leader and leader of the opposition by his colleagues in the House. While in this position, he revived the role of opposition in the House and maintained a tough stance against the ruling party, PDP. He was the face of opposition not just in the House but the whole national assembly including the senate. On many occasions, he put his life at risk in his many attempts to hold the government of the day accountable. In this capacity he has also instituted lawsuits against the Federal Government most recently on appropriation without due approval from the National Assembly and the deployment of the Nigerian military during elections. Over the last 12 years, Gbajabiamila’s legislative focus has covered employee rights, local content in construction, industry, vocational schools, economic stimulus, interest-free students loans and constitutional reform among others.

Prof Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, chairman, Nigerian Human Rights Commission in his book review article entitled – Beyond Politics; Civic Memory In Times Of Trouble observed thus; ‘’ The

personality that emerges from a reading of Fearless, defies one word. To be sure, his work does justice to the title of the book.

But there is more. It is the story of a man, his provenance, principles and politics. It is also the story of the son of a magistrate who would grow to become magisterial as a legislator; the son of a pioneering female politician who was willing to follow his mother’s foot-steps into public service and, in so doing also altered her political allegiances; of the son of a widow who has strived to never forget where he came from; of the lawyer who was not prepared to suffer on his advocacy skills the singular constraints of the court room even when his talents justly entitled him to the rich rewards that come with forensic distinction in the court room. It is also the tale of the Muslim from the South West married to the Christian from the Middle Belt. Above all, it is as well the tale of the citizen, loyal party man, caucus leader, constituency representative, and constitutionalist struggling to reconcile these often contradictory roles in the most difficult of environments’’.

In my Preface to Gbajabiamila’s biography, I had this to say: ‘’ The various testimonies of former classmates, professional colleagues, party leaders, constituents, fellow legislators, friends and acquaintances have given the book a rich mix of different backgrounds and persuasions. The final product is therefore not only a book about Gbajabiamila but the historical analysis of Nigerian politics especially our nascent democracy. The book is a testimony of one of the leading opposition voices in a democracy where being in the opposition is vilified. With the strength of his contributions, the insight and the rigour of his debates, Gbajabiamila has been able to command attention traversing political lines and in the process earned for himself the healthy respect and sometimes objective criticisms of his colleagues. A veteran of many fierce battles, in instances in which parochial interests are staked against the national interest, he has decisively intervened in favour of the latter. For him, the overriding interest of the masses should not be sacrificed either on the altar of political expediency or in pursuit of a narrow selfish agenda of those who operate the levers of power. Accordingly, his politics, character and vision has been informed and guided by this philosophy.

As the famous British MP Ronald Cartland once observed; ‘No government can change men’s souls. It is the souls of men that change governments’. A very prophetic statement for a very promising lawmaker who should be the next Speaker of the Federal Republic Of Nigeria.

• Okediran is a former member, House of Representatives, and former National President, Association of Nigerian Authors.

2015

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

21

COMMENTS

T

RUE journalist strives toward the ideal of objectivity. A propagandist for hire writes whatever his paymasters deign is apt for him to write. When propagandist seeks to disguise himself as a purported journalist, the resulting work product is the tortured sculpture of rumor mongering posing as true fact and information. All in all, the ugly composition he creates cannot withstand scrutiny. The venal nature of the culprit writer is more on display than the unproven faults of the intended victim.

Wale Olaleye’s piece in Thisday of Friday April 24th, “Tinubu- an Asset and Liability” will one day be the first lesson chapter in a manual entitled, “How Not To Be A Journalist.” Wale should ponder whether his boss truly cares for him. No caring boss would allow someone to become an editor who himself needs close guidance. Without strict adult supervision, Olaleye is prone to destroy himself by his very own words.

At first the urge to dismiss Olaleye’s piece was dominant. Why respond to a piece sourced from the political black market by a willing journalist whose piece was so full of unchecked, false rumor that it could only have been the product of envy and malice. Why respond to an ill bred, uncouth and totally misguided writer who has turned journalism into a tool of both subtle and brazen blackmail? Before Olaleye ever became a journalist or eventually rose to the position of an “editor” there were real journalists- well bred, disciplined and who never crossed the line between objectivity and obsession with whom they write about because they abhor his personality or politics.

Thankfully, a few of our journalists and

Wale Olaleye, a laptop mercenary attacks himself, not Tinubu

By Sunday Dare editors remain firmly planted on this ethical soil and are not self-serving and egoistic.

Let me dismiss Olaleye’s rantings. The crux of his complaint is that I refused to grant him an interview with my principal, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He claimed that my refusal to grant interview access somehow offended the morals of journalism. His attempt to lecture me on journalistic ethics falls flat when one puts side by side his professional track record against mine. I am willing to stake that reputation against Wale’s. If he checked more closely he would see that I am the Chief of staff and Media Adviser of Asiwaju Tinubu. I am not an employee of Olaleye or of Thisday. It is my duty and obligation to help my principal make the most productive use of his time. It would be utter dereliction of duty if I subject him to being interviewed by someone with an ulterior motive. I have approved dozens of interviews for Asiwaju with both the domestic and foreign press. Our criteria have never demanded that you be an ally or pliant, but we do demand human decency and objectivity. On both counts, Olaleye fails miserably. Let him take his awful trade somewhere else. We do serious business.

‘Tinubu- an Asset and Liability’ will one day be the first lesson chapter in a manual entitled, ‘How Not To Be A Journalist.’ Wale should ponder whether his boss truly cares for him. No caring boss would allow someone to become an editor who himself needs close guidance.

Without strict adult supervision, Olaleye is prone to destroy himself by his very own words’

T

HE aftermath of the 2015 General Elections leaves our country with profound questions seeking urgent answers; questions ranging from how tenuous the woodwork of this collective edifice sustains to how variegated the fouled waters of our corporate existence appear. We cannot pretend that all is right; we cannot pretend that governance will sail pretty without national cohesion; we cannot pretend that the CHANGE we preached will not meet with despair if we do not etiolate the fires that raged during the campaigns; and we cannot pretend that all is well.

We saw a campaign that was inundated with hate, a campaign that was replete with caustic diatribes, a campaign that snow-balled the deluge of dichotomies that litters this space; the dichotomies of creed, of clan, and of region dominated our politics. Debates on issues were in short supply, the prelude to March 28 and April 11 saw a Nigeria split effusively and profusely along the lines of ethnicity, religion and region. That the change movement prevailed at the polls compels a national task that must be handled as imperative and germane. We must heal the wounds and unite our peoples.

The linchpin of the present challenge is a vibrant national orientation paradigm. We must above all emphasize the beauties of this enterprise. We must water the trees of patriotism. We must clear the bushes of ethnic distrust. We must level the mountains of religious fundamentalism. We must diminish the shrubs of partisan discord. We must etiolate the fires of the pre- and post-election angst. And we must coalesce at a place where Nigeria becomes the winner.

Today our National Orientation mantra must soar beyond ONE NATION GREAT PEOPLE; we must begin to address the fundamentals of national integration, we must locate the cords that unite us and prize the jewellery that presents us as the hope of a continent in search of leadership. We must remember the halcyon beats of our history, we cannot forget that not only were we a nation of great wealth, we were the Big Brother to most African nations. We cannot overlook the realities of our history, and we

By writing his invective, Olaleye hoped to blackmail me to grant an interview. To disabuse him of this hope is the primary reason I write these piece. We stick to principle. Olaleye is a hireling of hidden paymasters with hidden agenda. He is not objective. His request remains denied, no matter how many unfounded rumors he publishes.

Demonstrating steep hypocrisy, he then seeks to use my alleged breach of journalistic etiquette to excuse the more serious one he commits. In his piece, he engages in an unfounded tirade against Bola Tinubu.

His work is the product of a lazy hand and a slovenly mind; it would not pass the most basic test for good reporting or investigative report and analysis. It is a long citation of alleged reports, unreliable and undisclosed sources, innuendo and illogical conjecture. He makes Bola Tinubu into some omnipresent agency who is the most dominant factor in every political happening in the nation, large or small. Olaleye’s work is not one of political analysis; it is one of mythology and fiction gone awry. Wale’s write up is a meandering road of salacious falsehood, drunken tales and dubious claims. The attempt to sound authoritative in the false claims made is a journey in futility. Using a typical trait of insincere writers, he first gave scant, grudging praise to Tinubu’s exploits only, to cram the rest of the article with nonsensical analysis and false reports.

Dear Wale probably did not dare re-read his work. If so, he would still be trapped in the labyrinth of lies he constructed to make this tale. Wale has descended into the abyss of unethical practice and needs urgent help.

Wale has sold his journalistic soul. We hope what he received in return is worth

the cost of the precious thing he has lost.

We hope his masters are as pleased with his distorted efforts as he seems to be. Yet, he also should be courageous enough to drop the façade of feigned hurt and stop acting as if he is the guardian of journalistic etiquette. He was hired to do a dirty job and he did it. It is that simply. Ethics and defense of the profession and freedom of the press have nothing to do with it. In fact, the quality of the piece Olaleye submitted for public consumption is an embarrassment to the profession he says he loves so dearly. In reading the article one gets the sense of a man trying too hard to drape himself in sincerity so that the reader might be distracted from the craven substance of his efforts at character assassination.

Olaleye represents the decadence in present-day journalism. He personifies the dangers ahead for the profession and the society. With the likes of Wale as an editor, no one is safe from character attack unless you pay the appropriate toll. He goofed on many things he wrote. And like a false prophet he huffs and puffs and blows empty words n a two-page tirade against Tinubu. He tripped so many times that one starts to wonder if he was just coming off some prescribed medication.

Olaleye is a journalists easily besotted with power. His time in journalism is up. He should try a career in the dramatic arts by writing funny little plays or movie scripts.

Wale is not an asset to the journalistic profession. He constitutes a liability.

Tinubu’s contributions to building a modern Nigeria are well documented.

Through the years, Tinubu paid the price and painstakingly worked with others to bring Nigeria to a new dawn. No amount of malicious writing can erase that.

• Dare, Chief of Staff /Special Adviser,Media to Mr. Bola Tinubu

Imperative of new national paradigm

By Chris Nwaokobia must seek to replicate and surpass the great mementoes of our co-existence.

I have worked my mind on the realities of history. I have discovered that most nations emerged like Phoenixes from the ashes of the Civil Wars that sought to immolate them to forge great symphonies of brotherhood and community. History is replete with statesmen who did not sulk over the pain of battle and the internecine conflagrations that traumatized their space, but who seized the moment and wove nations out of variegated seas of distrust and angst. We can yet do the same.

I was born a year after the Nigerian Civil War, I did not meet three of my grandparents because they died during the War. I was suckled by the only one standing, Ma Christiana Nwanze my Mother’s mother. She did a marvellous job teaching me to love and to think. She was so forgiving that she saw nothing but a great Nigeria where the difference in creed and clan will count for nothing, where our strength will devolve on the well of our minds and the content of our character. She died at 92 never loosing that faith.

She lived in the North before the 1966 pogrom, she returned home just before the Civil War, she lost her businesses in Northern Nigeria to the War but that did not stop her first daughter Aunty Justina my mother’s elder sister from making Funtua and later Malumfashi in Katsina State her abode and base for close to 30years after the War. I learnt from this the inviolableness of our togetherness. My Igbo brothers have made the North their home irrespective of the many pitfalls that rehearse the shortness of our National Orientation stratagem.

Lagos is today a copious experimentation of our love for each other; we can replicate the same spectacle across the country. The shortcut to the nation we seek is to make patriotism our pride, wealth and job creation our passion, corruption our national foe, so-

cial security a collective challenge, and to make a rework of our national canvass an urgent imperative. Yes, we can together as a people create a Nigerian Dream, we can build a great nation where the prime is the primacy of lives and properties, where the summon bonum shall be the well-being of the masses, and the centre-point of our collective intercourse COUNTRY FIRST. I am not saying that we do not have cause to worry; I am saying that it is not sufficient to lose faith in the journey set before us. I am not saying that Nigeria has been fair to all, I am saying that we can make Nigeria a fair, just and an equitable enterprise. I am not saying that leadership has been responsible; I am saying that WE can make leadership responsible and responsive to all. I am saying that we can set forth to the Isle of Peaceful Co-existence when we make followership engaging and commit leadership to decorum and sincerity.

We must create a national orientation network that must set out at dawn without hate or bias to unite all fair interests, and begin an overhaul of our collective morality where imperative. We must make noble values prime and celebrate patriots. We must lampoon quick fixes, corruption and villainy and hail hard-work and rectitude. We must salute dedication to service of fatherland and condemn any form of dereliction of national trust. We must create for posterity fabrics of reference, such that must confer honour on acts of heroism and patriotism. And we must create monuments of deterrence such that our nation must flee from fleece, sleaze and thieving.

A national orientation praxis that seeks the reorientation of villains is germane, and the one that seeks to inspire the virtuous to continue the noble stride for the good of fatherland is imperative. I cannot be more hopeful that the incoming regime understands the urgency of now. We are here because we rode on the mantra of CHANGE; we cannot therefore sacrifice same at the altar of politics. We

must fix square pegs in square holes and round pegs in round holes. We must as was promised the electorate create jobs, and kill corruption. We must ensure human capital development and improve national security. We must provide social security and more homes for the masses, and make real the promises of our 31-page manifesto. We must make true the promises of democracy.

We are at that point in history where satesmanship latches in on the monumental goodwill it enjoys, we have an unequalled goodwill and as statesmen we must hit the ground running. We must in all that we do engrave the praxis NO LONGER BUSINESS AS USUAL in our collective thought. We must wage the war against indiscipline and fight the good fight of faith. We must make Peace, Progress and Prosperity the Nigerian Dream and work for all that must guarantee this 3Ps. Countrymen and women, the fierce urgency of now is such that we must bury the hatchet, all hatchets and confront our fears.

Do not forget that fear thrives only when False Evidence Appears Real, the truth is that the 54years plus of our nation is not all melancholic, we have a litany of highs and lows, and we must search the reasons for the lows, fix them and soar, whilst celebrating our highs. We must create a nation that shall truly surmount her differences and build the harmony that shall lead Africa to the top of the new world. Yes we can.

In confronting the moment we must not be unmindful of the fact that the task before us is onerous, the faint will say monumental but the faithful must seize the moment and show the world what great people we are. I cannot be more confident that WE CAN because the body language of our Presidentelect assures us that things will be done differently. I cannot be more hopeful now that the mantra of CHANGE resonates. I am indeed positive that we shall set forth at dawn to do that which is needful and imperative.

• Prof. Nwaokobia Jnr is Director General, Change Ambassadors of Nigeria (CAN).

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

22

NEWS American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola, Adamawa State has played a critical role in mitigating the effect of the Boko Haram insurgency.

Its concern now is how to check the effect of the crisis on an estimated 200,000 out-of-school pupils, writes OLUKOREDE YISHAU •Kids freed from Boko Haram

•Kids freed from Boko Haram

Loosening Boko Haram’s grip on kids

T

HE images are scary. These children look like nothing other than ghosts. They are evidently malnourished and clearly in need of some form of medical help. And later, the government will also need to think of another challenge: their education.

These children, now camped in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, are victims of the Boko Haram insurgency, which has crippled the most of the Northeast. Hundreds of them were last week rescued from the dreaded Sambisa forest. No one is sure of how long they were there. But what is not in doubt is that they need to be in school.

How to get them and others back in school has been a major concern of the Yola-based American University of Nigeria (AUN).

This Saturday, the university is hosting Ms. Victoria Colbert, an award-winning educator. She is scheduled to be Commencement Speaker at AUN’s seventh graduation ceremony. She has been an authority on the matter since the 1970s.

AUN President Margee Ensign said of the choice of Ms Colbert: “We are all so happy that an educator as internationally known and distinguished has found the time to visit us. As Africa’s first ‘development university’, we are anxious to hear of her wonderful experiences in the developing world, where her work has brought education and hope to so many millions of children across the globe.”

AUN’s choice of primary education for its graduation talk is not unconnected with happenings in its environs.

Yola is home to some 400,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Many of the IDPs are children. It is believed that they are

•Director of Project Monitoring, Lagos State Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Gbenro Adetona (second left); Executive Secretary, AmuwoOdofin Local Government, Deaconess ModupeAjibolaOjodu (left); Council Manager, Mr. SegunAjayi (second right) and the Council Engineer, Martins Odupitan during inspection of the on-going drainage system at Midland Estate, Amuwo Odofin...on Monday.

‘

These children have had little formal education. Over the past three years, we have provided more than 12,000 of them with literacy instruction and training in entrepreneurship •Dr. Ensign

much as 200,000. These children have been out of school because of the crisis.

According to UNESCO 2015 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, Nigeria has the most children out of school in the world. The grip of Boko Haram has sent more children out of school in the northeast Adamawa State has a 77 per cent illiteracy rate.

The University has provided for many of these IDPs. It is concerned with the challenge of finding cost-effective and proven solutions to provide primary and secondary education.

That informed the choice of Ms. Colbert to talk on primary education, a field she has been involved with since the 1970’s. Her message at the seventh Com-

’

mencement, where AUN will graduate another set of problemsolvers, students who have been steeped in the challenges of African development during their four years at AUN, according to the university, will fall help leaders of the area wrestle with the challenges that so many refugees have posed.

Colbert’s visit, it is hoped, will spur positive policies in the area of education. The techniques that she first developed in poor rural areas of Columbia have since taken root in 20 other developing nations, providing a new model for how to provide good education in impoverished communities with few resources. The hope is that some of these ideas can be implemented in northeast Nigeria which has been so ravaged by

the Boko Haram insurgency.

AUN’s existing learning resource programs for the community and the internally displaced persons will be a good starting point on which to build.

Among the resources the University has built are the literacy programs in community schools such as Student Empowered through Language, Literacy and Arithmetic (STELLAR); Science, Technology Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM); Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination preparatory tutorials, and ICT training and sharing of digital resources with neighboring institutions in Nigeria’s northeast.

It is hoped that Ms. Colbert’s extensive experience in this field can further strengthen AUN’s teaching and learning programs and show how they can best benefit Nigeria’s impoverished communities and their underserved children.

Ensign, a member of the Adamawa State government Committee on Assessment of the Effects of Insurgency, has emphasized the need for food supply, standard hygiene, and most importantly education for the children of the displaced.

“These children have had little formal education. Over the past three years, we have provided more than 12,000 of them with literacy instruction and training in entrepreneurship, information, and communications technology.

“As a development university, we are committed to community development programs that are enabling an environment for peace, women empowerment, and socioeconomic equality. Today we are embracing a much broader definition of community - both inside and outside our university gates - and the problems that come with that larger community.”

Dr. Ensign said that to address the academic gap the school has put in place “mobile education and training centers”. The university also has a literacy programme that aims to reach as many as possible.

He said: “It’s a misperception that Nigerian parents don’t want education for their children; they simply lack access and resources.”

The programme is aimed at strengthening basic academic skills of primary school students in Adamawa State.

According to the university: “It evolved from a community service course at AUN in 2012, a course every student in AUN is required to take as a requirement for graduation. Undergraduates are supervised by faculty members to teach in community schools.

“STEM, another literacy program, nurtures academic talents in the ciences, engineering, technology, and mathematics through the effort of AUN students who encourage and help secondary school students in Adamawa State to establish Whiz kid Clubs in their schools while they mentor them.

“AUN’s local training has graduated more than 4,000 community youths who are now ICT-capable and many have gained scholarship into free CISCO certification courses.

“Some community youth beneficiaries of the AUN free tutoring program, in which AUN students serve as tutors for secondary school students preparing to enter university credited their success in the last UTME computerbased test to the fact that peer-topeer learning helped them score higher in the matriculation exam.

“The AUN Honor Society has raised money to support scholarships to community schools, paying school fees for families whose children could not otherwise attend school.

“Thus it is with great interest that the members of the American University of Nigeria community await the arrival of Ms. Colbert, whose “New School” movement has reached millions of young students across the globe.

Fostering, like AUN, greater cooperation between schools, their teachers, local parents, and their communities, and emphasizing peer-to-peer learning and collaboration, this very successful model has brought hope and education to countless communities in Latin America and elsewhere in the developing world.”

Ms. Colbert a recipient of many international awards, including the Clinton Global Citizen Award. She brings a message of hope to northeast, which is emerging from the long night of Boko Haram violence.

25

THE NATION

EDUCATION

THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

For children, making a career choice can be difficult without proper guidance and counselling. In senior secondary school (SSS), they are expected to select subjects relevant to their career. It is a lifelong move that will shape their future. So, they have to get it right, because of the consequences of wrong choice, reports OLUWATOYIN ADELEYE

•Pupils need wide exposure to guide their career choices.

Making a career choice

C

HRISTIANA Alli, fondly referred to as Christy by family members and friends, is a student in Law School. Her passion for law could not be missed when she spoke with this reporter about her career choice.

Making her choice was not easy.

As a pupil who almost always topped her class and won prizes in primary and secondary schools, deciding whether to study sciences or humanities was a big challenge because of others’expectations. Her case was interesting because she excelled in both areas as an SS1 pupil despite having to do 28 subjects. She was encouraged to do sciences, but that was not what she wanted.

"I was extremely confused at this stage. You know, being a brilliant child, it was more difficult for me, because everyone automatically assumed that a brilliant child would study sciences and become a doctor or engineer, so it was as if my whole life had been programmed for me; but I was not happy," Christy explained.

‘

Initially, she tried being a science student, but when she found she was not happy, she changed to the humanities - to the surprise of her family and school.

"I was so unhappy in chemistry and physics classes. I really did not get what the subjects were all about, so I used to stare out the window during those classes and crammed to pass.

At this stage of life, the youngsters are faced with making an important decision that they would have to live with - and they must choose right. For some, the decision is easy, for others, it is not INSIDE

UNILAG starts N39m climate change research -Page 26

But after I spoke with the school's guidance counsellor, my parents and some of my teachers, I knew what I had to do and I am so happy and fulfilled today," she said.

It is not uncommon to find secondary school pupils, who are at the verge of writing terminal examinations, still unsure of what career to pursue in future. At this

SUBEB summons head teacher for alleged extortion

THE Delta State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), has summoned the head mistress of Ahabam Primary School, Asaba, the state capital, Mrs. Franca Odita, over allegations of extortion and absenteeism.

-Page 39

CAMPUS LIFE Blind student with big dream -Page 29

Mac 45 / Edu this week / 25-28-Pgs - 07-05-15

’

•Christiana

stage of life, the youngsters are faced with making an important decision that they would have to live with and they must choose right. For some, the decision is easy, for others, it is not.

For Abdulmajid Adnan, an SS3 pupil of Mandate Private College, Akesan, Lagos State, he is unsure of the decision he has made.

"Sometimes I think I am supposed to go for something else; but I have chosen to become a mechanical engineer," he told The Nation.

Receiving awards for third •Continued on page 26

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

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

26

EDUCATION

UNILAG starts N39m climate change research

T

• From right: Prof Okojie; Mallam Shekarau; Country Manager, World Bank, Chief Bayo Awosemusi, and Ms. Bayusuf at the signing at the NUC, Abuja.

Centres of excellence sign performance contract

W

ITH the signing of performance contracts last Thursday in Abuja, 10 Nigerian universities that won the World Bank Africa Centre of Excellence (ACE) bid would be given 10 per cent of the $8 million grant needed to start off their projects.

The 10 universities and their projects are: Redeemer's University Mowe, Ogun State (ACE for Genomics of Infectious Diseases, ACEGID); African University of Science & Technology, Abuja (PAN African Materials Institute, PAMI); Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (Agricultural Development & Sustainable Environment); Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (Neglected Tropical Diseases and Forensic Biotechnology); University of Jos, (Phytomedicine Research & Development, ACEPRD); University of Benin (Reproductive Health and Innovation); University of Port Harcourt (Oil Field Chemicals); Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife (OAU Knowledge Park: A Model for National Science Technology and Knowledge Park Initiative); Bayero •Continued from page 25 position in Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), International School, Lagos, Oni Ayokunle, said he was not sure what he would like to be in future but he is in the science department, considering medicine for now.

Guidance Counsellor of Africa International College, Abuja, Mrs Lydia Abaga, said confusion about career choice is normal among youngsters, saying there is a 50 percent chance of every child experiencing it.

Thankfully, she said overcoming the confusion is "simple and straight forward", advising pupils in such situations to identify their personal interests first.

"First find your interest - that is what comes easily to you.

Sometimes, it is in form of a hobby.

You should then discover your value, which determines your passion.

Your passion is what drives you.

These are steps that guide every child in making such vital decisions," she said.

Freelance career counsellor, Mrs Ifeolu Tugbiyele, added that the first solution is for the students to "know yourself". She advised they should try answer the following questions: "Ask yourself questions like: 'Am I somebody who would like to work with people or do I like to keep to myself?' 'How good am I with figures?' 'Do I love to help people?'

'Do I like to talk?' 'Do I love adventures?' 'What skills of mine would I like to improve upon?'"

A study by the Lorain County Community College (LCCC, 2015)

By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie

University, Kano (Dryland Agriculture) and Benue State University, Makurdi (Food Technology and Research).

They were selected for the grant out of a total of 51 proposals received from universities in West African countries (27 from Nigeria).

The ACE project was instituted in 2013 by the governments of Burkina Faso, Republic of Benin, Ghana, Cameroon, Togo, Senegal and Nigeria, with support from the World Bank to promote specialisations in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM), Agriculture and Health.

At last week's signing, Education Minister, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, said the ACE project was a call to action to tackle national and regional challenges. He urged the universities to meet the demand for skills and deliver high-quality training and applied research.

The Minister warned the management of the host universities against undue interference and

substitution of team members without approval by the National Universities Commission.

"It is therefore your responsibility to work in harmony with your team, to ensure that they perform optimally", he said.

On his part, the NUC Executive Secretary and Chairman, ACE Steering Committee, Prof Julius Okojie, said Nigerian universities winning 10 of the 19 ACE projects despite criticisms against the standard of its education was worth celebrating.

In her remarks, the World Bank Education Specialist, Himdat Bayusuf, explained that the bank would adopt the results-based financing model for the project, which meant that after the first tranche, funds would be released only to Centres that show evidence that previously-released funds had been judiciously utilised. She added that the bank would also adopt the you snooze, you lose model, which means that grants for nonperforming Centres would be reallocated to other Centres that are doing well.

HE University of Lagos (UNILAG) has embarked on a palynological research project worth N39 million to determine the status and effects of climate change on coastal regions of Lagos State.

A pre-project workshop for the research, which is sponsored by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) National Grant Scheme in collaboration with UNILAG, held at the Julius Berger Hall of the university on Tuesday during which the requirements and progress of the project were spelt out.

Principal investigator of the project, Prof Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, said it would provide an alternative way for the Lagos State government to predict climate change in the state for the next 20 years, which would help in planning and development of the state.

He said: "This is our own contribution in determining the effects of climate change in Nigeria and Lagos State in particular. This is not somebody coming from abroad to now start modelling something for us. We are doing this one ourselves and this is the first time we are having a research like this in Nigeria and I want to say that the climate change summit of Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babatunde Fashola, last year inspired this project."

Ogundipe said the project would bring together scholars and students - undergraduates and postgraduates -

• Prof Ogundipe

Making a career choice supports the position of the counselors.

It states: "The first thing to consider when choosing your career path is YOU. Your interests, strengths and personality play a big part in determining which careers will provide you with the most personal satisfaction."

However, children are not alone on this career choice journey. The role of parents, guardians and teachers in shaping a child's future cannot be overemphasised.

Mr Femi Longe, who teaches English at Africa International College, Abuja, believes teachers play the biggest role of all.

He said: "From the amount of time students spend in school, it is apparent that teachers play the most vital role in their overall development and career path, as they impact knowledge into the children every day, saddling them with the responsibility of first presenting to their pupils what career is all about.

A child that will study Accounting, for example, would have excelled in Business Studies at Upper Basic level and Accounting as well as Economics in senior school, hence, such a child

would know what to expect in pursuance of such fields. Likewise, a child that would go for engineering would have studied and passed Basic Technology Studies at Upper Basic level and Chemistry as well as Physics in senior school before deciding that he can deal with the tenets of the field."

Parents also play a vital role, and have been notorious for forcing their wards into professions just to suit their own interests. However, that seems to be all in the past, as some parents told this reporter that they allow their children to decide for themselves.

A parent, Mrs Adedamola Oni, said: "Well, I hope I am doing it right because I believe these career choices are things we should leave to our children to decide for themselves.

Because frankly, we are no longer in the age where parents choose careers for their children, just as parents no longer choose spouses for their children. But we can definitely guide them."

For Mrs Mojisola Durotolu: "I did not really have a hand in what my son is today, because he is a focused person and he had made up his mind

to be an engineer right from the start.

It may have something to do with his father being an engineer though, but his father is a mechanical engineer, while he is an electrical engineer."

Easy as the idea of choosing a career path sounds, it is true that many children are stuck in the wrong choice of career based on childhood dream and other factors, ignoring the areas where their strengths lie. From years of experience and counselling with students, Mrs Tugbiyele made the confirmation that for some children, "getting to know what to do does not come so easy for them, especially children who possess temperaments of indecision."

Mrs Tugbiyele supports parents having frequent talks with their children, despite their busy schedule, in to learn their interests and guide them right.

"Do not force them; but you must have an input in their career choice, because you must guide them into ways in which they can earn a living with their passion and strengths."

However, where parents are not available for such pep talk, she said the child must make the enquiry by

‘Do not force them; but you must have an input in their career choice, because you must guide them into ways in which they can earn a living with their passion and strengths’

By Oluwatoyin Adeleye

from various departments of the university as well as related agencies across the country like the Nigerian Institute of Meteorological Science for a joint effort to get accurate statistics on climate evolution.

He said results of the project would help in regional planning, conservation and sustainability of the environment, biodiversity, issues of Greenwich areas in Lagos, as well as influence other state governments in the country to show more concern for the environment.

One of the principal researchers of the project, Dr Temitope Onumiya, a lecturer in the department of Botany, said the project is about using pollen grains and climatic data to assess changes that have occurred around the Lagos coastal environment over the years, through a comparison of vegetation that existed from the past 10,000 years to now.

She encouraged Nigerian higher institutions to expand their interests and involvement in research works that would promote the status of the nation and reduce the country's dependency on developed countries.

She said: "For UNILAG, we are a solution-proving institution where we make research in order to help solve national problems. This is what every higher institution is expected to do. We are not just there to train people; we are also there to provide solutions."

Speaking at the workshop, Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof Rahamon Bello said the project was one of two projects being funded by the TETFund in the institution and urged individuals and groups in the country to tap into the TETFund scheme to broaden their horizon.

He said: "There is no longer limit to research funding because even if the university's research funds cannot carry your researches, the TETFund research grants and TETFund National Grant Scheme would lift you."

He urged them to attend to more proposals and come up with their own research proposals to promote their career and the nation. themselves.

She counselled them to take interest in what their parents do as a starting point.

"The child should develop interest in what his or her parents do; go with them to their places of work, and get familiar with the business, as this would help the child understand the parents' field and decide whether to follow the same path or not," she said.

Apart from their parents, the counselor said role models in careers of interest can help children decide what they want or do not want as well.

Citing an example, she said: "For a child who wants to be a doctor and begins to associate with a doctor, then discovers that she is squeamish at the sight of blood and hospital mess, it is easy to change her mind on her career choice at this stage. This would also give the child some work experience."

Agogho Asabunor-Nukie, an SS 3 pupil of International School, Lagos, enjoyed this privilege. She said she initially wanted to be a medical doctor, but after speaking with her uncle who is an engineer, as well as her father, a mathematician, she found out that she enjoyed engineering and now wants to study chemical engineering in the university.

Mrs Tugbiyele also recommended that career awareness programmes be organised for youngsters.

"This is where exposure comes in.

The children must be well-informed about available career choices, their requirements and what it takes to go through such fields," she said.

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

27

EDUCATION First Class students are usually regarded as nerds who achieve the impossible. However, some of them shared their formula of hard work with OLUWATOYIN ADELEYE.

Making First Class is easy…if RADUANDS, who were honoured for their academic prowess during the 2014 convocation of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), last week, said achieving academic excellence is not rocket science.

Counselling students coming behind, they said hard work, dedication and focus would propel an students to desired heights of success.

Speaking with The Nation, the overall best graduating student of the institution, Korede Akinpelumi, the best student in the department of English, Oluwakayode Odumboni, and several others, testified that they defied odds to achieve exploits.

With a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 4.69, Kayode emerged the fourth student to attain a first class degree in the institution's department of English since its inception.

The last time a first class grade was recorded at the point of graduation in the department was in 2009.

Besides this achievement, Kayode is the first to earn a university degree in his family, as all his siblings went to polytechnics.

He too obtained a National Diploma (ND) in Mass Communication from the Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH).

However, wanting more, he decided to apply to the university during his internship at The Nation.

He was admitted into UNILAG after his second attempt.

For Kayode, stories about the difficulties of making a first class in the English department, and his previous experience at LASPOTECH, where he was cheated out of a distinction, put off first class achievement from his mind. But he strove for excellence, which finally

G

paid off.

Advising his peers, he said: "People should not put themselves under the pressure of making first class. Just strive to excel at what you do and understand the nitty gritty of your course, so that even if you do not attain a first class grade, you will be able to stand tall as someone that knows his onions."

Another former intern of The Nation, Simon Godwin, who graduated as the second best student in the Mass Communication department with a CGPA of 4.71, said his achievement was a product of his dream right from his first year in the university.

He said it cost him hard work, determination and discipline and urged other students to do likewise.

"Make sure you live a purposeful life on campus. If you set a goal for yourself overlook distractions and maintain your focus on your goal, you will achieve it," he said.

Twenty-one-year old Korede of the Faculty of Engineering said he centered his social life on religious activities, shunning the conventional social activities youths were wont to.

He said: "My social life was restricted within the religious sphere. Right from my year two, I became a worker in my fellowship.

In my final year, I became the

• UNILAG Pro-Chancellor, Prof Jerry Gana, presenting an award to Godwin during the Day Two of the convocation. With him are: the Vice Chancellor, Prof Rahamon Bello (second right); Prof Babajide Alo, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academics) and Research (right) and Registrar, Dr Taiwo Ipaye(left).

PHOTO: DAVID ADEJO

assistant follow-up secretary of the Redeemed Christian Fellowship so I had them as my family on campus.

These, coupled with my determination to be among the best, if not the best, propelled me."

The only female to attain first class degree in the department of Engineering, at this year's convocation, Oluwakemi Olofinnika of the Department of Petroleum and Gas Engineering, was eager to encourage everyone to dream big and stay focused on their dreams to be where they want to be.

She had this counsel for undergraduates: "I want to encourage everyone out there that it is very possible for you all to achieve this. I will tell you that in UNILAG, there are a lot of

‘I want to encourage everyone out there that it is very possible for you all to achieve this. I will tell you that in UNILAG, there are a lot of distractions but if you are determined and focused, you can make it’

distractions but if you are determined and focused, you can make it. If you can also connect with your lecturers for guidance and be very close to God, you will definitely achieve great exploits."

Kemi, the only child in her family to have attained a first class degree, thanked God for his help. She added that she said she did not allow herself to be hindered by her family's financial difficulties, but strove to acquire scholarships that saw her through.

The best student of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Mohammed Abdul-Rahman of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, aptly said: "What helped me to achieve this were hard work, dedication and focus. I am from Borno State, where education is disregarded by most and we have never had any graduate from my family until now, which is me. So I did my best to prove to the world that yes I am from Borno state, but I can also succeed."

He counselled students not to lose focus.

"Most times, when people come into the university, they lose focus, because the university is a place

• Kayode

where you are on your own and have every opportunity to do what you want to do. So, you have to get your priorities right to say, what do I want to make of my next four or five years in this university? There is nothing you want to achieve that you cannot achieve if you plan with prayer, hard work and dedication", he said.

Shun corruption, PG students told

F

OR the first time in the history of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), the convocation held for three days.

Undergraduates got their degrees on the first two days (last Tuesday and Wednesday), while it was the turn of postgraduate students the third day (Thursday).

It was, indeed, a higher calling, as the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council, Prof Jerry Gana, went beyond the usual counsel of telling the 4,764 PhD (103), masters (4,330), and postgraduate diploma (331) graduands to be good ambassadors of the university, to warn them about the dangers of corruption.

"Let your knowledge impact on the people around you. Let people know by your outstanding conduct that you are a graduate of UNILAG. Avoid all forms of corruption; walk away from whatever is evil. Be men and women of integrity; don't cut corners. If you are not celebrated today, you will be celebrated tomorrow. If you cut corners, you may be cut short," he said.

The programme also featured the conferment of honorary degrees on three distinguished Nigerians, Pasto Enoch Adeboye (Doctor of Science), Lt-Gen Theophilus Danjuma (Doctor of Science), and Deacon Gamaliel

• From left: Emeritus Professors Fajemirokun, Abass and Sofola.

By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie

Onosode (Doctor of Letters).

The trio thanked the university for the honour done them.

It was also a day that three retired professors, Prof Olayide Abass, Prof Francis Fajemirokun, and Prof Soga Sofola, were elevated to

emeriti professorship for remaining relevant.

One of them, Fajemirokun, told The Nation the honour was unexpected.

"I have been honoured beyond my expectation. I have always seen the hands of God in my life because

‘Be men and women of integrity; don't cut corners. If you are not celebrated today, you will be celebrated tomorrow.

If you cut corners, you may be cut short’

PHOTO: RAHMAN SANUSI

every height that I have reached, I would say that I never dreamt about it.But somehow, God gets me there, and he does it in his own special way," he said.

Apart from the dignitaries, many postgraduate students, who were outstanding, were also honoured.

In his valedictorian speech, the overall best PhD student, Dr Emmanuel Akpan, who got several awards for his thesis titled: "Processing and Characterisation of Selected Biodegradable fibre - PLA Composites", called for greater varsity-industry collaborations to enhance the usability of research

•Dr Akpan

findings.

"We are using this opportunity to call on the university to establish a research and development linkage with the industries such that results of research from the university can be applied in the industries. A good example is the result of my research work, which can be applied in the plastic industry to improve on the strength of structural plastics (using agricultural wastes) and improve barrier resistance and thermal stability of packaging materials by 100 per cent while keeping them biodegradable to protect our environment," he said.

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

28

EDUCATION

Be of good conduct, board urges examiners

UNILORIN FILE Lecture for May 13 THE 11th Mosobolaje Oyawoye Faculty of Science Endowed Lecture will hold on Wednesday, next week, at the Main Auditorium of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN).

The lecture, titled: "Stem cell research: Science, medicine and ethics", will be delivered by Prof.

H. C. Higgins, the Pro-Chancellor and immediate past ViceChancellor, Durham University, United Kingdom (UK).

Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali, is the chief host for the lecture, which is being jointly organised by the Faculties of Life and Physical Sciences.

The Deans, Faculty of Life Sciences, and Faculty of Physical Sciences, Prof. A. Sani and Prof. I. A. Adimula, will be the co-hosts.

VC tasks affiliated institutions INSTITUTIONS affiliated to UNILORIN have been tasked to ensure they maintain the best global practices for which the university is known.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof.

AbdulGaniyu Ambali, gave this charge last Tuesday during an workshop organised for the affiliates by the Centre for Affiliated Institutions, UNILORIN. Ambali, who was represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics), Prof Nike Ijaiya, said the workshop was not to demonstrate superiority but promote quality.

He said such workshop was crucial to ensure that students get the best of education, accountability and to make teaching and learning effective.

The Director of the centre, Prof.

A. O. Omotosho, said the workshop would afford the two sides the opportunity to discuss to foster good working relationships.

PG fellowships for women THE Organisation for Women in Science for the Developing World has invited applications for its postgraduate training fellowships for women scientists. The deadline is May 31.

The fellowship would enable women scientists from sub-Saharan Africa and least developed countries to pursue postgraduate training leading to a doctorate degree at a centre of excellence in the south outside their own country. Fellowships support research in the natural sciences.

Applicants need at least an MSc or equivalent, or an outstanding BSc honours degree in the natural sciences, engineering or information technology disciplines.

The host institute must be located in a developing country other than the applicant's home country.

Applicants who wish to register as PhD students at their home institution may undertake part of their research programme at a host institute in another developing country, for a minimum period of six months.

Full-time fellowships are offered for three years and cover travel, a monthly allowance to cover accommodation and meals, visa costs, a contribution towards medical insurance and attendance at one international conference or training course. Sandwich fellowships are offered for a minimum period of six months and include travel, accommodation and living expenses while at the host institution.

Applicants can make enquiries by sending an email to fellowships@owsd.net ; or visiting http://owsdw.ictp.it/activities/ postgraduate-training-fellowships.

•Area of concentration (AOC) rejected

T

O prevent examination malpractices, the West Africa Health Examination Board (WAHEB) has charged examiners to be of good conduct.

The examiners learnt this at a twoday workshop organised by WAHEB, which had as theme: “Examiners’roles and responsibility in the examination”.

WAHEB facilitator, Mr Patrick Olupona, said examination is a vital method of testing the preparedness and ability of students, and as such should be free from any form of manipulation.

“It is one thing to hold an examination; it is another to make it successful and free from any form of malpractice,” he said.

By Faruk Hamzat

Olupona said standards must not be breached by examiners as they are custodian of ethics.

The board’s Registrar, Mrs. Gladys Nchelem Ihunda, added that it is unethical for examiners to tell students the area of likely examination questions.

“By telling students to concentrate on a particular area, you are preventing them from reading broad,” she said.

The registrar decried the practice of some chief examiners who work in isolation, adding that they should be team players.

“In a group dynamics, you are meant to work together,” said

Ihunda.

She advised examiners to report cases of malpractices if the chief examiners failed to do so.

A representative of School of Health Technology, Yobe State, Musbau Sikiru, advised that students must submit their examination cards along with the answer sheets to curb impersonation.

A board member, Mr Samuel Olubode, said examiners should avoid familiarity with the students so that they do not use it as an advantage to cheat during the examination.

“When this happens, the examiners will be left to do nothing about the scenario,” he said.

In the event of cheating, he advised

Council chairs lament

Write for basic education, commissioner urges authors

T

HE Lagos State Commissioner for Education, Mrs Olayinka Oladunjoye, has charged authors and publishers to produce more books for basic education to improve writing skills.

She spoke at the Edistyle Company's launch of two books: 'Writing Masterpieces' and 'Smart and Brilliant Writing for Senior Secondary School Students'.

Oladunjoye, who spoke through the ministry's Deputy Director, Curriculum Services, Mr Segun Osibote, identified technology, environmental factor, laziness among others, as hindrances to effective writing and learning.

She said there were indications that pupils show more dexterity in using the computer than writing.

Oladunjoye said: "We need to look into our educational system. You see children of between two and four years today making use of the internet perfectly; but when you ask them to handle manuscript, they cannot. You see some authors today getting into the educational system without having anything to do there and this is also affecting our children and our education.

"Let's look at our environment like Lagos. In the early hours of the day you see people on the road - Daddy and Mummy leave home early and this makes the kids lack necessary attention and subsequently loss of

From Gbenga Omokhunu, Abuja

By Adegunle Olugbamila and Ibrahim Adam

reading culture. Social media is good but we need to return to the basics first to help generations."

Oladunjoye also urged parents to teach their children to write well and learn.

A member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Ipoola Omisore, appealed to the state government to allow the new books circulate round schools in Lagos.

Author and publisher of the books, Mr Michael Omisore, said his interest and passion for 'good read' prompted him to produce the books.

Omisore, who is an architect, said he packaged the books for both students and professional to improve on their writing and learning habit.

"Sport is packaged, comedy is packaged, music is packaged and that is why I have packaged these books to secondary schools for it to be a supplementary text to their English text books."

While "Writing Masterpieces for adults and professionals" is a resource on writing for authors and readers, "Smart and Brilliant Writing for Secondary School Students", is "an adaptation for students to appreciate and get used to good quality writing, and be able to reproduce it.

Omisore promised to produce many more volumes under the Smart and Brilliant Series from the

supervisors to get the evidence of the malpractice and staple it with the erring candidate’s booklet.

A delegate from Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Nwachukwu Mathew,said the records of examinations malpractice should be documented and reviewed after examinations to know the rate of malpractices.

On script marking, Mrs Abodunrin Abiodun from Oyo State College of Science and Technology, said experienced people should be deployed to head the section.

Mrs Precious Obiora, a delegate from Nigeria Army School of Sciences, lamented that some chief examiners see themselves as lords who should not be challenged.

This, she said, stifle ethical practice during exams.

T • Osibote

nursery to secondary school levels.

An educational psychologist, environmentalist and CEO of iRead Mobile Library in Nigeria, Mrs Funmi Ilori, lamented that most authors of local books are not doing enough to improve on their contents so their readers can get the best.

"What we are failing to realise is that reading is done with a lot of concentration and dedication unlike watching a movie or a play which you can do subconsciously at times.

In watching a video for instance, the images are already made, and the person watching does not need to have to a lot of imagining. But with reading, the reader would have to translate words into images in his mind for him to. So the quality of writing needs to be taken seriously if we want the reading to greatly improve," she said.

HE Committee of Chairmen of Governing Councils of Federal Colleges of Education (FCE) has raised the alarm over what it described as poor capital project development in colleges of education. The body decried the lack of investment as a problem militating against the vision of the founding fathers of the colleges.

In a communiqué signed by the Chairman of the committee, Senator Emma Anosike, after an emergency meeting, the group said: "frowned at the non-release or poor capital projects in the colleges which negates the vision of the founding fathers of these institutions."

The group also recommended that some of the colleges with the adequate staff strength and infrastructure be seriously considered for upgrade to universities of education, while urging the Federal Government to lift the embargo on recruitment of workers, especially in core areas of physics, chemistry, science and special education.

Congratulating the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, on his election, they prayed God to see him through a successful administration.

The communiqué reads: "The Committee seized the opportunity to congratulate the President elect Gen.Mohammadu Buhari and pray that the almighty Allah will guide him aright in administering the country."

Nigeria's problem is tertiary education, says educationist

I

F Nigeria can fix its tertiary education system, then it would compete favourably with the best in the world, says Dr Adesanmi Felix Adeduro, Chairman, Banquaires-SMS Consultants Ltd, an education solutions firm.

In an interview with The Nation, Adeduro said secondary education in Nigeria is doing better than the tertiary level.

"We realised that the secondary education in Nigeria, the children usually don't have any problem.

When they finish, we find out that the average SS3 student is good. The problem has been with our tertiary education system. The universities have a lot of challenges," he said.

Adeduro, whose firm has partnerships with many organisations outside Nigeria to provide various educational solutions, said fixing the tertiary education system requires heavy investment in the right facilities, an end to strike, and a reorganisation about how universities are run.

For instance, he said lack of facilities scuttled efforts by Amity University, India, one of the institutions his firm partners with to place students, to run a programme with the University of Lagos (UNILAG). He explained that the online programme could not work because

•’Lessons we can learn from Indian varsity’

By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie

UNILAG's broadband internet facility was not strong enough.

To expand access to tertiary education, Adeduro recommends a collegiate system for Nigeria. For instance, rather than UNILAG turn away many qualified youths, they should be admitted by smaller accredited colleges, which delivers the UNILAG curriculum. At the end of their programme, UNILAG would assess and award degrees to them.

He said Nigeria can also learn from how Amity University, which is ranked the best private university in India and among the best in the world, is run.

The institution, which boasts of many Nobel Laureates among its faculties, provides such education that he said after graduations, many students have jobs waiting for them.

He said: "When in Amity, you don't have to look for jobs; it is the jobs that will look for you. We want our children to have industry-based education; we don't want them coming back with their masters degree or whatever, ending up taking up menial jobs. With industry-based education, you will be thoroughly skilled.

Here, you see an graduate okada(motor cyclist) for commercial purposes; that is the deficiency that we are talking about. So with the

Amity educational curriculum, there is no excuse for a graduate not to get a job; in fact they get recruited even two to three years before they graduate, so that is the same thing we want Nigerians to have access to

• Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Management Services ), University of Lagos, Prof Duro Oni (left) and the University Bursar, Mr. Lateef Odekunle, at a reception organised by the UNILAG Alumni Association to mark the admission of new alumni members into the association after the 2014 convocation.

Mac 45 / Edu this week / 25-28-Pgs - 07-05-15

Foundation’s scholarship for 59 students

*CAMPUSES

Protecting dignity of woman

*NEWS *PEOPLE *KUDOS& KNOCKS *GRANTS

Page 34

Page 31

THE NATION

CAMPUS LIFE 0805-450-3104 email: campusbeat@yahoo.com THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

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

email:- campuslife@thenationonlineng.net

Blind student with big dream Bilamin Babalola became blind when he was struck by a chronic eye disease as a toddler. But, despite his visual impairment, this student of University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) is determined to become a lawyer.

TOYIN ALI (300Level Law) writes.

A

SUDDEN loss of sight has aborted many dreams, but to Bilamin Babalola, anyone whose dreams die after losing his or her sight does not have a dream. Although, Bilamin is visually-impaired, he sees beyond his current circumstance and visualises what many of his contemporaries do not see.

Bilamin was barely two when he was struck by a chronic eye disease, which rendered him blind. But, he does not want to allow that to limit him.

He may be blind, but he visualises being a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in futre. A tall dream, many would say, considering the rigours of studying law; but Bilamin is determined to live his dream.

To Bilamin, blindness is not a barrier. “Seeing with two eyes is not a requisite to become a lawyer, but skills,” he said, adding: “My inability to see does not pose a challenge so long as I have conviction to do what I want to do.”

With confidence, Bilamin said he has the intellect to achieve his aim.

Before his admission into the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) to study law, Bilamin, an indigene of Oyo State, took the Cambridge Advance Level programme at Education Advancement Centre in Ibadan. There, his ability was underrated by his colleagues, who thought he would not do well in his studies.

Bilamin left the school as the best

•Bilamin

graduating student in Arts.

He was denied admission severally to study Law because he is physically challenged. “I was denied admission to study law many times despite my success at the Cambridge Advance Level Examinations. Although some universities complained that they don’t have the facilities for training special people like me. However, I remained hope-

ful that one day, my wishful thinking would gravitate into reality,” he said.

On why he insisted on studying Law, Bilamin said providence and divine calling are driving his passion. His aim, he said, is to tackle injustice in the society. He said: “Initially, people expected me to settle for a a discipline that is less competi-

tive. They saw my disability as a barrier to achieving anything good in life. But, I have strong conviction to achieve my aim, as long as I have the requisite background and skills. If I am a lawyer, I would tackle injustice and remain a beacon of hope to the physically-challenged people.”

Recalling how his oratory and argumentative skills won him prizes

in his days at SPED International Secondary School in Oyo, Bilamin said he loves history, literature and government. He said: “When I was in secondary school, I did participate in quiz and debates. I won many prizes and I was the best pupil in history, literature and government during my days.”

•Continued on page 30

•Shun cultism, VC tells freshers•No allowance, no work’ -P32

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

30

CAMPUS LIFE

Time to rejig NANS

“A

LL around the world, universities are established to push forward the frontiers of knowledge, transform people’s lives and contribute to the health and wealth of nations through their deep involvement in result oriented researches which is expected to have impact in the wider society and the economy.”

This was my opening paragraph in a three part series I wrote on the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) last year titled: “Is all well with the house of NANS?” I made mention in the articles the leadership crises the student body was facing where three individuals all claim they were “president” of NANS. That was the situation until the present executive led by Tijani Usman took over earlier this year.

It is saddening that undergraduates could not provide a coherent voice in the run up to the just concluded 2015 elections. Other than the gale of suspicious and spurious endorsements of some candidates, the “students” could not even produce a position paper to their preferred candidates on what they desire for the education sector should the candidates win. Just like the society they live in, our students were mainly concerned with the candidates that can haul in the largest amount of cash. This cash for endorsement strategy further factionalised an already distressed association.

Nigeria has in the past seen the best in student unionism. For those old enough to remember the military era, they will recollect the part the National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS), the precursor of NANS, and later NANS itself, played in giving the military sleepless nights. How can one forget the late Segun Okeowo, Chris Abashi, Akintunde Ojo, Chima Ubani, Chris Mammah and a host of others?

Then student unionism was ideologically driven with detailed and intelligent analysis of the state of the nation, regular communique that are deep with insight and knowledge are released, not the shallow statements that we see from the stable of representatives of Nigerian students these days.

Student unionism in Nigeria has a cherished and glorious history that is worth reenacting here. The emergence of West African Student Union (WASU) pioneered by some Nigerian students in London in 1925

opened the floodgate of student unionism in the country. WASU fought the colonial masters for the rights of Africans. with This was followed by the National Union of Nigerian Students, (NUNS) whose last leader was the late Segun 08116759750 Okeowo. The NUNS was proscribed (SMS only) by the regime of General Olusegun Obasanjo. But with the advent of •aagboa@gmail.com democratic rule, Nigerian students converged at the Yaba College of After the controversial and heated convenTechnology, Lagos to establish NANS. NANS inherited the same idealism from WASU and tion, NANS – for the first time - witnessed a NUNS and the student union matched on as split along ethno-religious lines when a a platform of change and of informed activ- former undergraduate from Usman Dan ism. Has that same cherished tradition con- Fodio University, Sokoto (UDU), announced a “Northern NANS.” This almost tore the tinued to date? We’ll find out.

The last NANS leadership led by Yinka union apart, but the students eventually came Gbadebo is perhaps the most controversial together after finding a common ground of in its history. At its 26th convention held in agreement.

However, that split fostered deeper ideoUyo, Akwa Ibom State, students elected Gbadebo of Obafemi Awolowo University logical conflicts and schisms between differ(OAU) Ile-Ife as the president. However, one ent interest groups and weakened the broad notable feature which has been the norm in platform of the body which unfortunately past conventions since student unionism has continued to date. This compelled anstarted was left out; the students did not dis- other delegate month later to allege that: “Student unionism has been infiltrated by cuss the state of the nation.

I recollect reading a report then where one dirty money politics as well as brigandage disappointed delegate described the failure by members of some confraternities and cult to discuss current issues as “evidence of the groups.”

But some activists from the past strike more level of degeneration in NANS.” He added that the organization used to be at the fore- sympathetic notes as they see the new develfront of the struggle for the liberation of opments as not simply evidence of student Nigeria’s downtrodden and oppressed leaders’ “degeneration,” but as a symptom classes. This, no doubt, was one informed of broader problems in the larger society.

They point to the 2005 case when the then delegate.

I can still vividly recall how NANS served NANS president Orkuma Hembe used the as an active resistance group during the era platform to campaign for Obasanjo’s third of military regimes in Nigeria. It was part of term gambit and even went further to award the movement that fought for a return to civil him “Defender of Democracy” award.

This was against the backdrop of a rule in the country. By 1990, NANS was at the peak of its glory, having played a signifi- groundswell of opposition that this same decant role in rousing Nigerians to protest the fender of democracy proscribed NUNS, exStructural Adjustment Program (SAP) im- pelled and rusticated several of its leaders posed by the Ibrahim Babangida regime at from their various university campuses the urging of the World Bank and the Inter- across the country.

To try to understand the situation in NANS national Monetary Fund (IMF).

The year also marked the beginning of what is to also understand that the larger societal would be a split within the organisation later. malaise is also affecting the association. If NANS annual convention had been fixed for you think the principle of zoning of political November 30, 1990 at Auchi Polytechnic, offices is a creation of the Federal Character Auchi Edo State, but because of disagree- Commission or the PDP, then you have anments it was moved to the University of other think coming. There is zoning provision in the constitution of NANS as well. Last Benin (UNIBEN).

Blind student with big dream •Continued from page 29

How does he study when he cannot see? Bilamin said he reads and conducts academic researches through his personal computer. He also pointed out that his classmates lightened his burden. “Studying is never a difficult task for me, because most of my books are in electronic versions. I read them with the aid of voice transmitter on my personal system. And sometimes, when the materials are not available, my course mates come to my rescue.”

Bilamin said he has never lacked anything since he started studying Law, praising his mother for rising up to the challenges. He said his mother supports him financially and emotionally. “My mother has remained my pillar of support since the death of my father many years ago. She has ensured that I don’t suffer anything, including money. She is solely responsible for my upbringing till this present moment,” he said.

For his logical contributions in class discussion, Bilamin has been described by his course mates and lecturers as a “visionary student.”

According to Isiak Apalando, coordinator of the Faculty of Law Quiz and Debate Club, Bilamin is a brilliant contributor when it comes to debate and quiz.

Isiak said: “He has won the hearts of many students with his rational presentation of arguments in any forum he finds himself. His detailed knowledge of African history and literature distinguishes him among

Pushing Out

his peers.”

When he achieves his aim to be a lawyer, Bilamin said he would contest for the Presidency. He hopes the 8th National Assembly would amend the Constitution to accommodate the physically-challenged who want to contest for public offices.

He said: “I have aspiration to contest for Nigerian president to institute change in the society. I dream of a Nigeria where the masses will enjoy the dividends of democracy as against what is obtainable in Nigeria presently.”

Bilamin said the 1999 Constitution does not represent the wishes of the common man, especially the physically-challenged. The best way to effect a change, he said, is through an amendment of the Constitution.

‘Studying is never a difficult task for me, because most of my books are in electronic versions.

I read them with the aid of voice transmitter on my personal system. And sometimes, when the materials are not available, my course mates come to my rescue’

Agbo Agbo

year, this does not permit anybody other than a Student of an institution of higher learning in the South-West to contest the presidency.

It was widely alleged by students that he last leadership of Yinka Gbadebo capitalised on the larger societal ills for pecuniary gains. Inibehe Effiong, a former Law student of UNIUYO castigated the leadership for not “taking a responsible and prostudent stance” to end the almost one year ASUU strike. He also accused him of “taking over the propaganda machinery of a government that does not appreciate the sanctity of agreements from Doyin Okupe, Reuben Abati, Labaran Maku and Reno Omokri... The order day, he travelled to Onitsha in Anambra State to endorse the candidature of Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah for the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Anambra State.”

So has things changed with a new leadership? It will be difficult to say at this point because the Tijani Usman leadership also caught the endorsement bug during the last election when he endorsed the out-going president. As expected from a factionalised body, other zones, especially the south west zone released a statement dissociating itself from the endorsement.

However, the body has found its fangs again and has started commenting on national issues. Last week, it says it will not support the removal of fuel subsidy either by the outgoing or incoming administrations. It also says it has resolved not to sit aloof anymore when critical issues of state are being worked out, adding that it has over the years been at the receiving end of programmes and policies of government whether good or bad.

These are positive steps, but what impact they would make is left for time to tell. While this is going on, the body needs soul searching and articulation of thoughts and ideas, especially those that immediately affect the education sector. This should be one of the areas its leadership should hone into.

For a student body in the 21st century it is appalling that its website and twitter handle are all dormant- in fact, it has been dormant for more than two years now. It is shameful that while the leadership was busy endorsing politicians it could not activate a common website! So what have all the undergraduates of computer science been doing?

The rebranding and repositioning of the NANS should start from here; but this can only be carried out by a purposeful leadership.

ESSAY CONTEST FOR UNDERGRADUATES The Nation, Nigeria, in collaboration with African Liberty Organisation for Development (ALOD) and Network for a Free Society (NFS), is calling for entries into the 2015 essay competition.

Details are as follows: Topic: Government regulations and controls are the biggest threat to jobs in Africa today. Discuss using practical examples Participants must discuss the topic using contemporary examples.

Qualification: Participant must be a student in any tertiary institutions (university, polytechnic, college of education and technical schools) in all African countries. The format of the text should be in Microsoft Word and not more than 1,500 words.

Interested student can visit: www.networkforafreesociety.org for useful background materials on the theme of this contest. Be informed that no participant is allowed to lift materials directly from works of any author and claim to be his/her own. Plagiarism automatically disqualifies any entry, which contains work of another author.

If any text or sentence is copied from another author’s work, it must be shown in quotation marks and writer must credit the original author at the bottom of the paper.

On the first page of the completed essay, participant must write his/her full names, department, and year of study and name of institution. Also include your email address and functional mobile phone number.

All entries should be sent to: adedayo.thomas@gmail.com Entries will be received between March 26 and June 26, 2015. Late entries will not be accepted.

Winners will be announced on July 29, 2015.

PRIZES 1st-George Ayittey (Platinum Prize): $1,000 and scholarship to the 2015 Liberty Camp in Kenya from August 5 to 9, 2015 OR Students and Young Professional African Liberty Academy (SYPALA) in Ghana from August 19 to 23, 2015 2nd-Anthony Fisher (Gold Prize): $700 and scholarship to the 2015 Liberty Camp in Kenya from August 5 to 9, 2015 OR Students and Young Professional African Liberty Academy (SYPALA) in Ghana from August 19 to 23, 2015 3rd-Franklin Cudjoe (Silver Prize): $500 and scholarship to the 2015 Liberty Camp in Kenya from August 5 to 9, 2015 OR Students and Young Professional African Liberty Academy (SYPALA) in Ghana from August 19 to23, 2015 4th- The Nation CAMPUSLIFE (Media Bronze Prize): $300 and scholarship to the 2015 Liberty Camp in Kenya from August 5 to 9, 2015 OR Students and Young Professional African Liberty Academy (SYPALA) in Ghana from August 19 to 23, 2015 We also have eight consolation prize of $50 each.

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

31

CAMPUS LIFE Former Pro-chancellor of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA), Ondo State, Chief Bisi Ogunjobi, has given scholarship to secondary school and higher institution students through his Foundation. SEYI OLUWALADE reports.

•Prof Ajibefun (in blue cap); and Chief Ogunjobi (first right of the VC), in a group photograph with members of the BOF, guests, and beneficiaries of the scholarship during the event

W

HEN it was funded 24 years ago, the Bisi Ogunjobi Foundation’s (BOF’s) objectives was to improve people’s lot. It has been living up to billings. In a career roundtable held last week at the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA) in Ondo State, 59 students were given scholarship by Chief Bisi Ogunjobi, the Foundation’s initiator.

The event, held at the Multipurpose Hall of the university, was chaired by the Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof Igbekele Ajibefun.

The beneficiaries are students of Ondo State origin from tertiary institutions across the nation. Fifty-four are higher institution students; the others are pupils of Community Secondary School in Iboropa, Ondo State.

The theme of the career roundtable was: Enhancing entrepreneurial schemes for sustainable development.

Chief Ogunjobi, a former Pro-chancellor and chairman of the AAUA Governing Council, thanked God for

Foundation’s scholarship for 59 students giving him the opportunity to give back to the society that made him.

He said the Foundation is waxing stronger, adding that it remains tenacious to its ideals. “We are expanding gradually into new areas. I appreciate God for giving me the opportunity to do what I have planned to do,” he said.

The BOF founder, who is Pro-chancellor of Samuel Adegboyega University in Ogwa, Edo State, said: “Our aspiration is to help people be better than what they are, particularly to assist the young people acquire knowledge and education. It gives me joy to see the youth prosper. It will be interesting for people to know that over 700 students had benefitted from the programme and we hope to do more by the grace of God.” Chief Ogunjobi, who is also the

chairman of Board of Directors of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, advised the beneficiaries to place values on developing their entrepreneurial skills to impact on the society productively and to be self-reliant after their graduation.

He added: “You should know that generosity is not a mark of wealth but a manifestation of inner compassion for others. It is not when you are wealthy that they can help others.”

Earlier, Prof Ajibefun hailed the Foundation for setting a good legacy and its selfless activities to improve the lots of mankind, describing the founder as an exemplary Nigerian whose philanthropic gesture has given hopes to many youths.

The VC said the university would continue to partner with public-spirited organisations such as BOF for ca-

pacity building and development.

He described the theme of the career roundtable as apt, saying: “Entrepreneurship, which is another name for job, wealth creation and selfreliance, has undoubtedly become the best way to rescue the world from poverty. It is a step toward rescuing the world from the grip of poverty of ideas and comfort zone that came with white collar jobs.”

Prof Ajibefun said entrepreneurship was a product of the failings of the old and conventional educational system, which he said, placed emphasis on schooling and white collar jobs and had no regards for skill acquisition and wealth creation. He said the rush for white-collar job led to the crisis of unemployment, misery and poverty ravaging the world.

He urged governments, institu-

tions, corporate organisations and affluent individuals to focus more on the core ingredients of entrepreneurship, which he listed to include logistics, research, training and re-training and curriculum development.

These, he said, would help the youth to achieve their desired objectives.

Chairman of BOF Board of Trustees, Prof Gabriel Alegbeleye, said over 1,000 applications were received in the exercise but said the Foundation ensured proper screening of the applicants without interference from the founder.

The beneficiaries in tertiary institutions were awarded scholarship between N50,000 and N70,000 each, while the pupils got N25,000 each.

Fourteen of the beneficiaries are students of AAUA, while the rest were selected from other schools.

achievements, urging the inductees to do more by enlightening the public on new development in the profession.

The Dean explained that excellent research in veterinary medicine has encouraged professionals in the field to have trust in graduates produced by the school in solving challenges facing animal species.

Outlining the new agenda for the veterinary doctors, the President of Veterinary Council of Nigeria, Prof Garuba Sharabutu, said the council had identified itself with best practices in the continent, urging the inductees not to bypass standards.

Sharabutu said the role of veterinary doctors had been misunderstood, adding that the graduates’ services are needed in museums, poultries and rural healthcare centres. He said the council was repositioning the methods of training

for students to enable them discover their areas of interest.

He urged the incoming government to consider investment in veterinary medicine, animal husbandry and animal sciences to boost the profession in the country.

Sharubutu warned the graduates against unethical practice, which he said may lead to revocation of license to practise. He added that the certificates given to them were provisional and only valid for one year to checkmate irregular practice among veterinary doctors.

The Registrar of the council, Dr Marcus Avong, urged the parents, guardians and non-governmental organisations to play role of a watchdog to the graduates to enable them maintain standards of the training given to them.

Highlights of the event included the approval of the certificates by the council.

Doctors in the house Forty-two graduates of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) have taken the oath of practice. The ceremony was held in the institution’s Princess Alexandra Hall.

OLADELE OGE reports.

T

HE role of doctors cannot be overemphasised in the health delivery chain. To enable Nigeria achieve quality health service, doctors must understand the primary objectives of their calling, which are to treat illnesses and save lives, said Prof Benjamin Ozumba, Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, (UNN) at the induction of veterinary medicine graduates.

The event was held last Wednesday in the university’s Princess Alexandra Hall. It started at 11am, with the procession of the 42 veterinary medicine graduates into the hall. The graduands looked resplendent in their well-tailored suits.

Prof Ozumba, represented by his deputy for Administration, Prof Edwin Igbokwe, congratulated the

•The veterinary medicine graduates taking the oath

inductees for their courage and hard work during their undergraduate days. He advised them to maintain the culture of excellence for which the school is known, saying they must strive to achieve the best for themselves.

He urged the graduands to use their scientific knowledge and talents for the benefit to the society, stressing that the school had trained them to be authority in the prevention of animal diseases. If human must not be made to suffer, the VC said, animals also deserve good living condition.

The VC wanted the graduates to be in the vanguard of change as they were formally inducted into the profession, advising them to be guided by the ethics of the profession and the underlying values of their alma mater.

Prof Ozumba praised the Dean of Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Prof

Chukwunyere Nwosu, for keeping the standards of the school high and his contributions to the accolades the school had received in teaching veterinary medicine.

Prof Nwosu highlighted the tasks of the profession to the society, which he said, is pertinent to human health.

He described animals as creatures next to human being, saying their wellbeing or suffering affects the health of the society.

He said: “If domestic animals like dog, goat and chicken in our environment are in good health, it is also a great benefit to human lives because human won’t contract any disease through consumption of these animals. If they are being ravaged by disease, no human being would like to consume them as meal.”

Prof Nwosu described efforts made by veterinary doctors in preventing animal sickness as great

2015 polls: Nigerian students meet in London THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

32

CAMPUS LIFE Shun cultism, VC tells freshers •Dr. SID thrills students

T

HE University of Ibadan (UI) has matriculated 3,474 freshers for the 2014/2015 academic session.

The event took place at the institution’s International Conference Centre. The students took the matriculation oath before their parents, guardians and friends.

The Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof Isaac Adewole, congratulated the students on their admission, urging them to keep the institution’s integrity. The university, he said, would only issue its certificates to students found worthy in character and learning, advising them to take their studies seriously.

Adewole advised the students to shun cultism and associations not registered with the Students’ Affairs Division. Misconduct, he said, could lead to expulsion.

He said over 41,000 applicants chose the university in the 2014/ 2015 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME). About 3,829 were recommended for admission; 3,474 showed up for clearance.

The VC gave scholarship to six students, with the highest score in the post-UTME. All the beneficiaries are in the Department of Medicine and Surgery.

•Prof Adewole (fourth left) and Dr. SID (fourth right) with some of the students given scholarship.

From Hammed Hamzat UI A hip-hop artiste and the guest lecturer, Dr Sidney Esiri, popularly known as Dr. SID, became the first UI alumnus to deliver lecture at its matriculation. Dr. SID studied Dentistry at the university.

In his lecture titled: Make it happen, Dr. SID advised the freshers to study hard and make good grades.

He urged them to focus on their future despite the challenges they may encounter.

The Registrar, Mr Olujinmi Olukoya, who administered the oath on the freshers, advised them not to break school’s rules.

Dr SID thrilled the students at

•The freshers taking the oath

Trenchard Hall during a live performance.

A breakdown shows that Faculty of Science has 650 freshers, Faculty

of Education, 501 and Faculty of Pharmacy, 99.

Speaking with CAMPUSLIFE, Abdulkareem Usman, a 100-Level

Petroleum Engineering student, said he was grateful to God for his admission. He promised to abide by the school’s rules.

‘No allowance, no work’

T

•Olaniyonu (second left) with members of the FOSSU executive

C

ONGRATULATORY messages are still pouring in for the Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi, on his re-election during the April 11 governorship poll. Ajimobi is the first governor to break the second term jinx in the state.

The Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH) chapter of the Federation of Oyo State Union (FOSU) hailed him on the feat, saying his re-election calls for more work to bring the state out of the woods.

Its President, Babalola Davies, in a letter to the governor, urged him to work hard to justify the people’s support.

Oyo people, he said, invested their hope and aspirations in the mandate given to Ajimobi, urging

T

HE University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) in Borno State has urged parents to prevail on their children to be of good behaviour. The school said it has received a report on crimes being perpetrated by students, warning the criminals to desist or face the consequences of their action.

The Acting Registrar, Mr Tijjani

Oyo students hail Ajimobi •Governor urged to pay bursary From Ademola Fagbemi LASPOTECH him to take the state to greater heights.

The letter reads: “On behalf of the entire students of Oyo State studying in Lagos State, we wish to congratulate Your Excellency on the successful re-election as the governor of our dear state. As you look forward to the commencement of your second term in office, we urge you to be prepared to work harder to justify the fresh mandate given to you by the people.

“Governance is a sacrifice even as we urge you to be magnanimous in victory and carry every body along in delivering the dividends of democracy to the people.”

The Commissioner for Education Solomon Olaniyonu, who received the FOSU executive on behalf of the governor, promised to deliver their message to his principal.

The students appealed to Governor Ajimobi to facilitate the payment of their bursary, scholarship allowance and other benefits they enjoy.

Varsity warns criminals From Caleb Ishaya and Deji Daniel UNIMAID Bukar, said some criminals, who are children of staff, are involved on crime, stressing that the university would not allow criminals

to overrun the campus.

Management, he said, would not fold its arms and allow such students to go unpunished.

He advised members of staff to warn their children, saying anyone caught would be the prosecuted.

HE Kogi State University (KSU) in Anyigba has been re-opened after a threemonth strike by lecturers. But lectures will not start until members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are paid their salary arrears.

Chairman of the university’s ASUU chapter, Dr Abdullahi Musa said lectures would resume after members receive alerts confirming payment of their allowances.

He said the government is owing the workers over N1 billion in academic allowances, which it has agreed to pay in installment, starting with N100 million. But, the first installment is yet to be paid.

Musa said: “It is true we had a meeting with government and they have assured us that they would pay the money into our accounts. As I speak to you now, we have not received any payment. Immediately the money is paid, lectures will resume.”

On the release of the amended academic calendar, Musa said: “If suspension of strike is anticipated, it is necessary for the management to work ahead and prepare. But as we speak, we have not suspended the strike in effect because we have not got the money promised by the government.”

The Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) said its strike would continue until its demands are met.

Its Chairman, Comrade Yusuf Audu, said the union is resolute in its demands, adding that its members would not resume until they are paid.

Audu said NASU is not bound by the agreement between ASUU and government.

A top official told our reporter that the school is looking into NASU demands.

He said the Vice-Chancellor

From Yabagi Mohammed KSU (VC), Prof Hassan Isah, is working to ensure all matters are resolved.

The source said: “The matter is out of the VC’s hands, but he is doing everything within his powers to ensure that the knotty issues are resolved amicably, so that normal academic activities can resume.”

Students are confused over the matter. They appealed to the management and the aggrieved workers to sheathe their swords.

Angela Solomon, a 200-Level Mass Communication student said nothing is happening on campus.

“We are just roaming the campus, nothing is really happening.

Everywhere is dry,” she said.

Ameh Simon, a 400-Level Law student, urged quick resolution of the matter.

‘If suspension of strike is anticipated, it is necessary for the management to work ahead and prepare. But as we speak, we have not suspended the strike in effect because we have not got the money promised by the government’

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

33

CAMPUS LIFE ‘Entrepreneurship solution to poverty’ From Rukayat Jimoh LASPOTECH

•The TETFund team with members of the university management during the visit

S

OUTHWEST Co-ordinator of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) Mr Olusegun Jebooda has visited Osun State University.

His team was received by the Acting Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof Jelil Oguntola, and top members of the management team, including Acting Registrar, Mr G.A. Shittu, Acting Bursar, Mr S.A. Adegbite and Acting Director of Academic Planning, Dr M.O.

‘Why TETFund created zonal offices’ •Team visits Osun varsity From Abideen Olasupo UNIOSUN Adeleke.

The team said its visit was in continuation of its tour of institutions in the Southwest to relate with

them on their challenges.

Jebooda said TETFund created zonal offices, following complaints by some institutions so as to be closer to them.

Management praised the team for the visit, saying the school

would remain grateful to the agency for its support on training of teaching and non-teaching staff and research grants.

Oguntola said the support the institution has received from TETFund could not be quantified.

T

HE 155th inaugural lecture of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) was held last Thursday at the institution’s Akin Deko Auditorium. A professor of Accounting, Famous Izedonmi delivered the lecture titled: If you want to be poor, be an employee only: An accountant’s perspective on wealth creation.

Izedonmi argued that being employed does not lead to wealth, asking how many civil servants make it beyond their income. He decried what he called “overspending” by civil servants, urging them to invest part of their income on shares, fixed deposits and entrepreneurship.

Izedonmi said lack of information on how to create wealth has made many civil servants to live from hand to mouth. According to the don, the present economic reality can make people living on their salaries only to regret.

Stressing the need to divest their income to other productive venture, he said: “If you are in a paid employment, I want you to realise that you will retire one day. Learn from retirees around you. Plan for retirement and build your retirement home peacefully to avoid dying in penury. Keep debt profile low and never abandon the re-

•Prof Izondonmi with members of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria after his lecture

Don to workers: plan for retirement From Eddy Uwoghiren UNIBEN sponsibility of wealth creation to your employer only.”

He condemned what he called the government’s anti-worker policies, which he said had resulted in the suffering of workers and retirees.

The don noted that tertiary insti-

tutions were breeding armies of job-seeking graduates, majority of whom, are unemployable.

He called for the promotion of skills acquisition programmes for graduates, advising schools to ensure attitudinal re-orientation of students to avoid overdependence on government for job. He also advocated for mass education for

workers on the dangers of a single source of income.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Faraday Orumwense, who chaired the event, hailed the lecturer for his “cerebral expedition”. He said the theme of the lecture was timely and called on members of the audience to spread the message.

STUDENTS have been advised to acquire necessary skills that can make them self-reliant after school. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor of University of Ibadan (UI), Prof Gbemisola Oke, who was the guest speakers at a conference organised by Center for Entrepreneurship and Skills Acquisition (CESA) of the Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH) in Ikorodu, said students needed to embrace entrepreneurship to be independent after school.

Prof Oke, who spoke on Entrepreneurship education: A veritable tools for sustainable economic development, said despite being ranked as the largest economy in Africa, Nigeria battles unemployment because of its inability to promote entrepreneurship.

She said: “It is common knowledge that entrepreneurship is not solely about business, skills or starting new ventures; it is a way of thinking and behaviour relevant to the society. Students should draw business plan, acquire skills and look for a better mentor.”

She enjoined government to provide adequate funds to entrepreneurs, adding that tertiary institutions needed to review their curricula to train students that would generate employment through innovation.

She added: “Government should support graduates with requisite training to enable them establish small and medium enterprises. Student should learn to create jobs while government should learn to create a good platform to tackle unemployment.”

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GOAD Consult Ltd, Dr George Adewoye, said without skills, it would be hard for graduates to survive life after school.

He charged participants to explore agriculture to reduce employment and poverty in the country.

How geographers can remain relevant, by VC

G

EOGRAPHERS have been advised to focus on how to solve societal problems.

This was the message at the conference of the Association of Nigeria Geographers (ANG) at the Osogbo campus of the Osun State University (UNIOSUN).

The theme was: Climate change and human security. The theme, the organisers said, is germane, especially at a time the world is being ravaged by bio-geophysical distortions caused by changes in climatic condition.

Speakers agreed that solving the climatic conditions would require re-orientation of geographers from purely academic perspective to problem-solving research.

Declaring the conference open, the Acting Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof Jelil Oguntola, said geographers should be concerned about how they could solve societal challenges through quality and cutting-edge research. This, he said, is how geography could remain relevant to the world.

•Some of the participants after the lecture

From Abideen Olasupo UNIOSUN Prof Adeniyi Gbadegesin, ViceChancellor of Ladoke Akintola University of Science and Technology (LAUTECH) in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, who is also the ANG President, led members, including

UNIOSUN Acting Registrar and Bursar Mr G.A. Shittu and Mr Samuel Adegbite, to the occasion.

The plenary witnessed the presentation of research papers on climate change and its possible impact on human security. The papers focused on developmental issues facing the environment, including

theoretical and conceptual issues on climate change, physical systems, politics and governance, legal issues and mitigation measures, among others.

Over 200 geographers and professionals presented their works.

Prof Gbadegesin described the conference as the best in a decade.

He hailed the UNIOSUN management for supporting the Department of Geography to host the conference.

The Local Organising Committee was headed by Prof Temi Ologunorisa, with Dr Samuel Yakubu and Mr Kayode Samuel as Secretary and Assistant Secretary.

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

34

CAMPUS LIFE Members of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK) community in Awka, the Anambra State capital, have held a special session to celebrate female academic and non-academic staff. FRANKLIN ONWUBIKO (Mass Communication) reports.

•Participants at the event

I

T was a remarkable moment at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK) in Awka, the Anambra State capital, as wife of the Vice-Chancellor, Dr Gladys Ahaneku, led academic and nonacademic staff to celebrate the university’s Women Day. The university auditorium was draped in colourful ribbon for the event. It was filled to the brim. The women, who came for the event, spilled over the hall. The event began with the arrival of the principal officers led by the Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof Joseph Ahaneku.

Other dignitaries included the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Academics, Prof Charles Esimone and Registrar, Mr C.C. Okeke, among others.

The VC described the ceremony as a good step for UNIZIK women, urging them to lead an exemplary life to shape the characters of students. While advising women to

Protecting dignity of woman always demonstrate their capacity and competence in their disciplines, Prof Ahaneku urged them not to be intimidated by their male counterparts.

The guest lecturer and a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), Dr Edith Nwosu, urged the women to strive for society’s growth by exploring their innate potential. She enjoined them to follow the footprints of accomplished women so as to make positive impact on humanity.

Earlier, Dr Ahaneku said the event was borne out of the vision

to awaken the spirit of women in the university to realise their potential.

According to her, the institution is getting accolades for its growth and developing new frontiers to ensure even development. The success of the last two years, she said, could be attributed to the astute leadership and proper management of the university.

On the need for the university women to maintain unity for the purpose of contributing their quota to the daily success of the school, Dr Ahaneku said: “We went to other institutions and made in-

•Prof Ahaneku (left) and his wife, Gladys at the event quiries. We found out that strong and vibrant women associations exist to complement the managements’ efforts towards development.”

She added that the aim of the association was geared towards the transformation of the university as well as creating a platform for the women working in the institution to interact and socialise.

In her poetic rendition, a former Head of Department of Igbo, African and Asian Studies at UNIZIK, Prof Nkechinyere Nwokoye, charged the women to always stand up and protect their rights.

She said there is dignity in being a woman.

Speaking to our reporter, some of the participants described the event as one which rekindled their spirits towards service to the school and the nation. They praised the VC’s wife for taking a bold step to revive an event after many years it had been stopped.

Mrs Ify Obi, Station Manager of UNIZIK 94.1FM, hailed Dr Ahaneku, describing her as a woman of humility, who she said has passion to project and protect the interest of women working in the university.

Indigenes of Azumini Ancient Kingdom in Abia State have visited the community’s traditional ruler to seek his blessings and discuss the challenges of youths. LAURA OPUSUNJU and CHINONYE EMUCHAY report.

A

ZUMINI Ancient Kingdom, a community in Ukwa East Local Government Area of Abia State is still basking in the glow of the coronation of its traditional ruler, Prof Edward Eule. The monarch was a university teacher in the United States before he was picked to ascend the throne.

But, before he could settle down to business, students of Azumini origin in higher institutions under the aegis of Azumini Students’ Union (ASU) visited him. Led by the union’s national president, Emmanuel Shebbs, the students met the monarch in his palace to seek his blessings and tell him of the challenges facing the youth.

Shebbs praised the monarch for granting the students audience, saying: “We are here today to seek your ofo oma (blessings) and to contribute our ideas and recommendations which can make your reign peaceful.”

The ASU president said politicians had disappointed the community, noting that the youth do not trust them again.

Shebbs told the king that the major challenges facing the community were unemployment and moral decadence. He said the community is blessed with intellectuals, scholars and youths that could work for its development but many of them, he said, do not have the wherewithal to contribute their quota.

He said: “The community has educated men and women and youths currently studying at various universities within and outside the country. But the challenge which bothers us so much is that,

‘Our youths, our future’ there are many youths who are not in school due to challenges that make it difficult to go to school.

“We request that your royal highness to consider the establishment of Azumini Royal Scholarship scheme to encourage young men and women to go to school.

We want jobs to be created for the community youths to reduce urban migration. If this is done, people will come back home and develop Azumini. We love our community that is why we are here to make our recommendations for the development of Aumini Kingdom.”

Reacting, Eze Eule hailed the students’ courage to list their challenges. He said the students’ thoughts and ideas indicated that the community was blessed with good youths, raising hope that Azumini Kingdom would be a better place if the youth are allowed to participate in development.

He urged the students to be virtuous and be good example to others, who did not have privilege to get education.

Eule said he understood the need for immediate action to develop the community, reiterating his readiness to settle age-long disputes, which he said, have stifled the growth of the community for years.

He said: “Development cannot happen when there is dispute in the society. We have to promote peaceful relationship between Azumini people and their neighbours. We are doing that

now and thank God it is working out to our expectation.”

On the issue of scholarship, the monarch said: “That is very interesting. We are going to commence immediate action on that. I will communicate with our kinsmen in the United States. We have the Azumini Welfare Association in United States. We will see how we can make that happen. Even if it means to start with two or three

students for now, we will. Education is very crucial to development and we have to start with that.”

The monarch described unemployment as a general problem, but promised to use his contact to attract investors and companies to the community. “We have sufficient raw materials and we have the arable land. We thank God the power project is on. As soon as that is completed, we will invite

investors to come into Azumini to create jobs, not just for Azumini people but also for our neighbours,” he said.

The highpoint of the meeting was the formal nomination of Eze Eule as Royal Grand Patron to the union. The nomination letter was presented to the monarch by Shebbs, who said the position was expected to bring successes to the union and its members.

“We promise to be good ambassadors of the Azumini Kingdom and set good examples for upcoming generations,” Shebbs said.

•The Nation’s judiciary correspondent, Precious Igbonwelundu (left), with her classmate, Mrs Joy Ainoko (right) and her husband during their awards of Master’s degree at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) convocation...last Thursday

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

35

CAMPUS LIFE

Greed and politics of defections N

IGERIANS are a very peculiar people; they carry out their daily activities with certain peculiarity and are clearly indomitable in all spheres that they find themselves. Nigeria, is itself a nation of uncommon circumstances, hence the atypical nature of its populace.

It is that special flora of its societies that makes Nigerian a force to reckon with in the comity of nations. Nigerians are brilliant, witty, sassy, imaginative, creative and unconquerable. They just survive whatever the circumstance might be.

Dumping one political party for the other has become the stock in trade of many of the nation’s politicians and as expected, they have always justified their actions by canvassing excuses such as “irreconcilable differences” and “lack of internal democracy” in their previous parties.

Unlike Late Sir Ahmadu Ballo, the Late Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe and late Chief Obafemi Awolowo who were guided by ideologies with which they laid the foundation for the development of their regions and Nigeria at large, many of today’s politicians quickly defect to another political party once their personal interest is threatened.

In 2013, David Morris wrote: “Contrary to popular wisdom, the fundamental difference between Republicans and Democrats is not on the size of government but the purpose and goals of government.

Both parties believe in taxing heavily and spending lavishly when it comes to national security

that protects our nation from external attack.”

He continued: “what Democrats see as steps to enhance security, Republicans view as steps that restrict liberty. They assert that government-created health exchanges interfere with the right of insurance companies to manage their own affairs, while the requirement that everyone have health insurance constitutes an act of tyranny. Minimum wage laws interfere with the economic liberty of business and the freedom of the marketplace, take for instance President Obama’s Healthcare bill which has since been code-named “Obamacare”.

What we have in our system of democracy as opposed to the American system, where we claim to have copied our democracy, is a group of individuals, driven by gluttony for power and guilt of conscience. The ultimate being that they should be allowed to freely dip hands into the public treasury at will.

But the politicians of today do not care about ideologies or principles; they are barefaced prostitutes running from one party to the other, depending on the one in power.

They are bereft of shame or dignity, and don’t give a hoot about what the public thinks.

Columnist, Donatus Okpe, said: “If Ideology is a body of non-compromising beliefs or principles, in the face of its decades of systematic institutional failures, Nigeria should not expect miracles from whoever wins March 28th (Presidential) election. She is a country

where the past holds the history that is too weak to inspire the present.”

It is funny to read and see that barely days to the emergence of the former opposition party, All Progressives Congress (APC), at the centre, politicians in Kogi State and other parts of the country started decamping to the winning party. It is really nauseating to see a people without principle; without the capacity to endure and nurture their ideals and try to sell it.

Nigerians were not shocked when the former governor of the crisis-ridden Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, announced his defection to the ruling PDP because his close associate, Inuwa Bwala, had earlier told journalists before the defection that Sheriff was no longer comfortable with the APC structure and had decided to join the PDP. Sheriff, who had won elections three times on the platform of the defunct ANPP, justified his sudden love for the PDP, saying he took the decision in the interest of the country. He had said: “Our interest should be on what makes the nation move forward. My decisions will be guided by the interest of the nation first. My thinking of moving to the PDP is also in the interest of the nation.”

Former Osun State Governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who had waited long for the PDP to abide by the court judgement nullifying his sack as the party’s secretary, openly criticised the party when he defected to the APC shortly before the August 9 gover-

norship election in the state.

Even before he dumped the APC, Nigerians had expected that the former Minister of Foreign Affairs during the regime of the late Gen. Sani Abacha, Chief Tom Ikimi, would return to the PDP following his failure to realise his ambition of clinching the APC’s national chairmanship position.

Ikimi, who is believed to lack clear ideological base, had also traversed the defunct APP, ANPP, ACN and APC. The former minister had said shortly after he failed to get the APC national chairmanship position during its convention in June that the convention was a “charade”.

The Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, we cannot forget that he criticised the party for lack of internal democracy before dumping it for the Labour Party in 2006. The governor has also collapsed his political structure under the “Iroko Frontiers” to a group called “Believe Nigeria, Trust Goodluck” for the purpose of supporting President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid.

It was believed that Mimiko returned to the PDP to position himself for either a ministerial or ambassadorial appointment if President Jonathan had won the election.

Now that the tide has changed, I guess he would have to re-decamp to the All Progressives Congress (APC) to fulfil his ambition.

Save for Buhari’s populist ideology, I hardly see anyone that principled not to be tempted to join that ‘cross-carpeting bandwagon’. He stands tall when he straddles the

Now that Nigerians are delighted

L

ESS than two academic sessions ago, I was opportune to listen to some members of staff of my university library lament over the current state of the average Nigerian youth and what the future holds for them. The trigger of this discussion was the large number of students – over 500 – leaving a lecture theatre adjacent the library after a two-hour lecture.

They decried the level of insensitivity of the current and preceding governments to the plight of graduates who are churned out in their thousands every year from the universities and polytechnics without anything but a bleak idea of what life after school would be. Their apprehension is further heightened especially when they have older siblings at home who are yet to find meaningful employment years after school.

The courage exhibited on March 28 by voters who stormed the polling units in their numbers to cast their ballots, was in itself enough

I

WAS elated when I learned that: “Transforming education through partnerships for global competitiveness,” was the theme of the 20th Nigerian Economic Summit, organised by The Nigerian Economic Summit Group, held at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja from March 18 to 20, 2014. As someone who is deeply concerned about the backwardness of the Nigerian education sector, I participated in the summit, optimistic that it would address the disturbing development issues in the sector.

It was a wonderful summit, attended by great people from all walks of life. I bet that it was one of the major gatherings of Nigeria’s education technocrats in recent times. A lot of reforms were suggested in the summit; reforms that I hoped would later be transformed into policies for the Min-

By Maruf Ishola indication that Nigerians are tired of the ordeal with which they have been plunged by the current government over the last couple of years. Every discerning and unbiased observer of the mammoth crowd recorded at 120 thousand polling units across the country would give the victory to the candidate of the All Progressives’ Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari, even before the election results were announced.

The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) failed to wake early from its slumber to the reality that it was no longer business as usual; that the electorate had considered it time to ‘fire’ a government that had failed to offer them anything in practical terms but daily apprehension of billions of dollars missing from the state coffers almost on daily basis, as well as the corruption and lack of transparency in the oil and gas sector, the country’s major foreign exchange earner.

I, like many other Nigerians, get a moral boost each time I hear the statement of the President- elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, to the effect that corruption would not be given room to fester in his government and that the problem of youth unemployment would be addressed.

However, if I were to advise the in-coming administration, it is not yet uhuru as the hope of majority of Nigerians are surging by the day, especially as May 29 draws closer.

Although Nigerians are not unaware of the fact that time is needed to put the country back on the glorious track of development. And the People’s General, as many Nigerians call him, needs to urgently address the problem of youth unemployment which has the potential to place the country on the boiling ring of disaster. The rise of several militant groups from different parts of the country is a perfect attestation to this fact. To continue to budget as high as 30percent annually for defense – in a country that

has refused to allocate 25 percent of its budget to education despite outcry by the United Nations, without addressing one of the major triggers of insecurity, is to continue to scoop water out of a flooded room without blocking the channel through which water finds its way in.

Just last week, South Africans, who probably sensed parasitism by other nationals, decided to make us question our memory as to whether the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela actually spent a good part of their lives in South Africa. They went on rampage, attacking and looting shops of fellow black brothers whose countries did not turn a deaf ear when the deafening cry of South Africans under white minority rule reverberated across the continent. In the words of the late anti-apartheid crusader and former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, “love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite”. South Africans would not have degenerated so

The parlous state of education

By Chambers Umezulike istry of Education and other relevant institutions for implementation. It was a good idea that such a summit considered the structural linkages between the education sector, economic growth and development of the country. The plenaries and design workshops of this summit were robust with powerful topics. The DirectorGeneral of The Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Frank Nweke Jr., wrote a powerful foreword in the programme of events, citing the neglect and poor condition of the Nigerian Education sector; and the very importance of quality education as a catalyst for economic de-

velopment.

He said: this year’s summit is of particular significance as we will be focusing on the education sector. Education is without a doubt, the sector that holds the key to transformational national development and our ability to compete in global marketplace and it is singularly the sector that has experienced the worst type of decline in relation to standards, quality and value. The decision to hold the summit on education was taken to redress the decline in a sector that is critical to economic development”.

But I do not know of how these great reforms suggested in this summit have been implemented.

And just like most gatherings of

this sort in Nigeria, impressive reforms would be recommended but few, if any, would be implemented. The Nigerian education sector is currently in its worst of conditions, from the primary to the tertiary institutions, all crying and dying, and in dire need of urgent structural reformation more than never before. One would be left to wonder what actually happened to such an important sector to such extent that the quality of education is appalling. According to the recent Webometrics rankings, Nigeria has more than 140 universities, but none of them is within the first 18 in Africa.

What happened to the University of Ibadan, the University of Nigeria, the Ahmadu Bello University

By Yabagi Mohammed nation’s political landscape. His moral fortitude can only be compared to that of the ilk of Aminu Kano and the rest who had political conviction.

There are those few among us whose greed and cupidity would not allow to remain in one party.

They are always gallivanting from one party to the other, always wanting to be with the ruling party.

That is a strange culture of jumping a sinking ship for selfish reasons.

My fear however is with the rate of cross-carpeting and decamping that have formed recurring decimal of our political experience.

Wouldn’t it lead to the implosion of relatively burgeoning All Progressives Congress?

Thankfully, the President-elect and the National Chairman of the APC have both advised PDP members to remain in their party in order to form a credible opposition.

•Mohammed, 300-Level Mass Comm., KSU low as to take delight in hacking fellow humans to death, if jobs were enough for them. Although there can never be a justification for such barbaric act, the South Africans saw the xenophobic attack as the only means to get rid of foreign nationals who would not yield to any provocation to return to their home countries. This, among many others, is the result of youth unemployment left to fester for too long.

As home loving as Nigerians are, they are forced to seek greener pastures elsewhere when their government does not provide enabling environment for them to grow economically. They are scattered across virtually every country of the world, including neighbouring countries without as much potential for growth as Nigeria, defying all the ill treatment they receive from their hosts, the recent xenophobic attack in South Africa being a perfect example. After all, if home was good enough, nothing would have taken them out of their fatherland to seek livelihood.

•Maruf, 500-Level Mechanical Engineering, UNIAGRIC Makurdi etc., which were among the best in Africa in the 60s all though the 80s?

What has gone wrong? Is it because of government’s neglect or poor funding? The quality of education that Nigerians received in these universities decades ago can never ever be compared with what is on offer today. The differences are legion.

Few decades ago, to offer bribe to a headmaster in a village school was a taboo, much less a lecturer or professor in a university. Few decades ago, every step of the educational process was based on merit. But the realities have since changed. A lot have been said of Nigerian graduates being unemployable and lacking essential skills to compete in the 21st century career world. These allegations, though incredible, are very •Continued on page 36

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

36

CAMPUS LIFE

‘Comrade’ in Hall of Fame

D

EAN of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) in Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State Prof Femi Oyewo, has been inducted into the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS).

She was inducted last Tuesday at the university auditorium in Sagamu.

At the event were the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Adejimi Adesanya, chairman of NANS Campus Affairs Committee Comrade Oluwafemi Williams, Deputy Senate President of West African Students’ Parliament, Koffi David, president of Pharmacy Students’ Association Nigeria, Comrade Kayode Okeowo and students.

Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Youths and Students, Mr Jude Imagwe, in his goodwill message read by

From Sanya Boluwatife OOU Okeowo, described the inductee as a mother of all students.

Imagwe said: “Prof Oyewo is a mother to all students, who has dedicated herself to the struggle for the democratisation of education in Nigeria. She operates on a creed that, the academic is the only tool to eliminate prevalent ignorance, poverty and disease in the country.”

In her acceptance speech, said she was a Kegite in her undergraduate days at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife. She urged the government to make education a right of every child and not a privilege.

Prof Oyewo said: “The youth are the leaders of tomorrow and a leader who does not provide quality education for the people that will lead after him is a failure. I

•Prof Oyewo (third right) with NANS officials at the event

have always believed in mentoring students, because I always have interest in students’ activities. I never give up; we need

more role models in our education sector.”

NANS Hall of Fame started during the tenure of Moses Osakede.

Anyone who is inducted into the hall automatically becomes a lifetime member and a comrade of the NANS.

Students lament poor Internet service

S

•The school’s obsolete internet dish

On and Off Campus By Solomon Izekor 08061522600

TUDENTS of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) in Ogba, Lagos are worried over the state of the school’s internet facility. The facility was donated by the National Communication Commission (NCC), but students are claiming that it is not being maintained.

A student, who declined to give her names, said: “The school Internet is not functioning properly and with the poor service, the service is restricted to students. Only the Higher National Diploma (HND) students are given Wi-Fi to access the Internet service. This is a communication institute and the Internet facility should be up and doing for students to get information and materials online.”

Another student, Grace Omale, said the Internet service is not useful to the stu-

From Samson Uwala NIJ dents since they cannot access it. She said they have complained to manangement.

Grace said: “The Internet service is of no use to the students. In the last six months, we have made several complaints to the management, yet nothing has been done.”

But, the Head of Computer and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Unit, Theresa Abiodun, said the school has sought NCC’s intervention to resolve the issue. “We have made complaints to the NCC, but they made it clear that the Internet facility was not subscribed for. That is why the internet fluctuates.

But, we are working to get it back to normal.”

The parlous state of education •Continued on page 36

true. But can we solely blame them for the tragedy of their plight? What efforts have we made to secure a prosperous future for them?

There is no country where Nigerians cannot be found all in the name of pursuing standard education and to avoid the artificial challenges associated with running such programmes in Nigeria. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe studied in the USA because we had no indigenous universities then. More than eight decades later, Nigerians are traveling abroad just to have a share of quality education. Nigeria arguably boasts the highest number of nationals schooling in the UK and USA alone. Add that to the pool of Nigerians tucked away in far Australia, Cyprus, Malaysia, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Ghana etc., and you will not but appreciate how awry the narrative has become.

Imagine the capital flight. Imagine the loss of manpower and the hydra-headed brain drain. That is too bad for a country that prides itself as Africa’s giant.

It is disheartening that the global best practices entrenched in our foremost public universities were never sustained. It is depressing how studying abroad has assumed a stock for boasting and intimidation by today’s elite. And understandably, employers are on the look-out for Nigerians that trained abroad as they no longer believe in the quality of our own graduates.

The Nigerian public primary and secondary schools used to be very efficient, with a very high level of quality, but not anymore.

These schools laid emphasis on learning and character development. But all that has vanished into the air.

I went to a public primary school in a village in Anambra state. My life is built on the quality education I received in this school. I enjoyed free education. I had the best of teachers that understood what a child really needed to succeed and the best way a child should be taught. Premium was placed

on hard work, knowledge and discipline. I was taught by very humanistic and passionate teachers, ardent about teaching, and satisfied with their meagre pay. Decades ago, public primary schools were the best, with standard and free education. It is not so anymore. What happened? The public primary schools all over the country are almost all dead. A parent is seen as a joker if they take a son or a daughter to a public primary school, because quality is at its lowest ebb.

My enthusiasm for knowledge in a competitive learning environment was cut short when I saw my colleagues running helterskelter on the eve of my WASSCE examination. I would learn later that the question paper had leaked the night before. And I thought they were stupid for relying on such ignoble luck. When it dawned on me that what appeared in the examination paper were the same as what they had seen, I was downcast and partly felt stupid for reading that much. And today, that is the order of the day. This has severe implications on a nation’s reading culture. How can a country grow when almost all its young people depend on malpractice to excel in exams?

In the face of this dilemma lies a plethora of questions: what’s the Nigerian government doing about the poor standard of education in the country? Why is everyone seem to be silent over the leaked questions, gradually forming a regular pattern of our education life? What happened to the foremost public universities of the country? And how can the public primary and secondary schools be revamped? The questions are just too many.

The Nigerian education system needs a serious, systematic, reformatory and sustainable attention by the government if the future of the country is of any significance. To treat the sector like a plague is the beginning of a national disaster •Chambers is a Master’s of Arts and International Studies student of the University of Nairobi

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

37

EDUCATION Four dons get travel grants

IBBUL partners ICAN to boost accounting programme

T

HE British Council recently awarded £24,380 (or N7, 240,860) through the Researchers’ Link programme to four Nigerian lecturers to undertake various researches that meet the developmental goals of Nigeria.

They are: Dr Rowland Kayode, University of Ilorin; Dr Temilade Sesan, University of Ibadan; Dr Anozoeze Madu and Dr Vincent Chigor, both of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

The grant provides financial support for the researchers to spend up to three months in the United Kingdom (UK) as part of the Researcher Links initiative. The recipients will be supported by established researchers in the UK with proposed activities selected on the basis of mutual benefit, research quality and potential for sustained interaction.

During the visit, they would be expected to establish or develop research links; contribute to capacity building of individual researchers and research groups; and support development-relevant research in Nigeria.

Dr Chigor, who will partner with a researcher from Bangor University, UK, hopes to acquire further skills for research in Environmental Genomics, secure funding for research, and publish in high impact journals.

“The Researcher Links travel grant is clearly a huge step towards these goals and I am eager for the experience at Bangor University that will foster my further personal development, and aid capacity building inT Nigeria, where I am committed to raising young researchers at both doctoral and master’s level,” he said.

On his part, Madu, who will be working with a researcher from the London Metropolitan University on the “Relationship between the severity of sickle cell anaemia and expression of genes encoding fatty acid desaturases 1 and 2”, said: “I am massively excited and grateful for having this opportunity to carry out a high quality research in a state of the art research institution.”

HE Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) has expressed its determination to give all the needed support to the Management of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai (IBBUL) towards regaining full accreditation for its accounting programme this year.

The university lost accreditation for the programme during last year's accreditation exercise by the National Universities Commission (NUC).

IC AN President and Chairman, of Governing Council, Mr Chidi Ajaegbu, assured the university management during the council's visit to the university that it would provide professional support to bolster the accounting programme with the required human capital and academic curriculum that meet international standard.

Ajaegbu pointed out that the collaborative arrangement between the university and the institute would result in nurturing the students into professionals that can compete favourably on the global stage.

The ICAN boss underscored the critical role accountancy professionals play in the development of every economy and enjoined the university to adhere strictly to global accounting standards by prudently utilizing the resources made available for its development.

Responding, the IBBUL ViceChancellor, Prof Muhammad Nasir Maiturare, expressed delight with the visit and assured that no effort would be spared to strengthen the partnership.

He said that concerted efforts are being made to regain the accounting programme and any other that suffered similar misfortune during the last accreditation exercise.

T

• Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, handing over the particulars of an 18-seater bus and computers he donated to the Ebonyi State University to the Dean, Faculty of Management Sciences, Prof. Sunday Nwite who represented the vice chancellor, Prof. Francis Idike.

PHOTO: OBI CLETUS

Uduaghan faults NUC for scrapping weekend programmes

D

ELTA State Governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan, has faulted the scrapping of weekend programmes by the National Universities Commission (NUC), saying it would deprive youths of tertiary education.

Uduaghan, who spoke at the ninth convocation of the Delta State University (DELSU), Abraka said the NUC should first evaluate the advantages of the programmes before scrapping them.

"I stand here to lend my voice to those calling on NUC not to scrap weekend programmes not because of financial benefits to the universities, but because there are a lot of people out there who will not have the opportunity of having education without weekend programme," he said.

From Okungbowa Aiwerie, Asaba

The governor congratulated the 7, 806 graduates, who received diplomas, first and higher degrees at the event, challenging them to be good ambassadors of the university.

Uduaghan said his administration takes education as a priority second to the health sector in its human capital development programme.

"An uneducated society cannot develop, so we place emphasis on education. We are here to celebrate learning and worthy character and it is because of that I want to congratulate our celebrants today," he said.

He commended the host communities of the multiple campuses of DELSU, appealing to them not to ex-

ert undue influence on the management of the university on any issue, particularly employment and appointments.

Earlier, the Pro-chancellor of the University and Chairman of the Governing Council, Prof. Sam Oyovbaire, praised Uduaghan for his commitment to the development of the university.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof V. F. Peretomode, said: "Convocation is the ultimate rite of passage that inaugurates graduates into the society as finished academic products of an institution."

The overall best graduating student, Michael Ozioma, of the Department of Botany, said success could only be achieved through hard work.

Expert lectures on nutrition security at Bells University

By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie

•Umunna

N

IGERIA is battling with food insecurity and has to depend on imports to feed its 170 million citizens. However, Mr Larry Umunna, Nigeria Country Manager of the Global Alliance

• Some students of the Lagos State University (LASU) protesting the continued closure of the institution after the conclusion of the election.

The university was shut for 'election recess' on March 25.

PHOTO : OLUWATOYIN ADELEYE

for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) has pointed the attention of the Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State community to the challenges posed by nutrition security as well.

Delivering the 10th annual lecture of the College of Food Sciences with the theme: "The agriculture, Food and Nutrition Interface: Advancing the frontiers in Nigeria," Umunna said producing enough food for the citizens is one thing, but ensuring that such foods are of high nutritional quality is another.

The expert said good infrastructure, including good road network, stable power and water supplies are factors that ultimately affect the qual-

ity of food that gets to the consumers. When in place, he said they facilitate the transportation of food from the centres of production to the consumers and reduce post-harvest food losses, which ultimately protect the nutritional value of the food.

Umunna also argued that the nexus between food production and its security is incomplete if the consumers lack nutritional awareness.

"It is crucial that we bring the agriculture and nutrition sectors closer together. Not only is the agricultural sector crucial to combating malnutrition but it is often rural communities that suffer the worst effects of malnutrition," he said.

To address the problem of nutrition security, Umunna stressed that leadership is key. He also suggested

that there should be a tripartite arrangement between the Ministries of National Planning, Health and Agriculture.

The lecturer also called on governments at all levels to make nutrition security a priority in their developmental programmes. He explained that this would help the country to maximize the benefits of the outgoing administration's Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA).

Commenting on the lecture, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Isaac Adebayo Adeyemi, who chaired the occasion, applauded the efforts by

GAIN to check the scourge of malnutrition in the country and the continent.

The Dean, College of Food Sciences, Prof. Olugbenga Ogunmoyela thanked the VC for supporting the annual lectures and Umunna for advancing the cause of nutrition security in Nigeria.

Ogunmoyela also highlighted the need for increased food production, effective conservation and utilization of foods in various forms. He also spoke of the importance of grassroots education about the agriculture value chain to become more meaningful to consumers.

AOCOED FILE

Unauthorised absence banned THE Management of the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education Oto/Ijanikin (AOCOED) has said any worker who stays away from work on the excuse of ill health without obtaining a sick leave from the college's director of health services, risks dismissal.

A memo warning workers to ditch the habit, also noted that henceforth any worker that takes ill must obtain a ' medical certificate' from medical unit of the institution.

Deans and departmental/unit heads have been directed to inform workers under them of the new directive.

Promotion interview holds THE AOCOED management has conducted the 2014 promotion exercise for all non-teaching staff of the institution.

To ensure transparency, management outsourced the exercise to the Lagos State Public Service Staff Development Centre (PSSDC), the PSSDC team visited the college to commence the exercise.

Applause for new DG THE AOCOED management has congratulated Mr Onayele Augustine Abiodun on his elevation to the position of the Director-General of the Lagos State Records and Archives Bureau (LASRAB).

Until his appointment, Onayole was deputy director and head of finance and administration in the bureau.

Mac 45/ Edu this week / 37-40-Pgs - 07-05-15

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

38

CAMPUS LIFE ADOPOLY FILE

Four new deans emerge NEW deans have emerged for the four schools of the polytechnic, following their election.

According to the results endorsed by the Deanship Election Committee, Mr. Olabisi David Olasehinde, a Chief Lecturer in the Department of Banking and Finance, emerged Dean for the School of Business Studies with 65 votes.

Also, Dr Olusegun Adeoti, a Chief Lecturer in Agricultural and Bio-Environmental Engineering, scored 87 to win.

The sole contestant for the Dean of the School of Environmental Studies, Mr. M. A. Gbadebo was returned with 58 votes, while Dr. C.A. Ologunde got 98 votes.

Management congratulates the new deans, including their Students’ Affairs counterpart, Dr. O. F. Olowe, who was also recently appointed.

AAUA team visits THE Management of AdoPoly, has been praised for its quality staffing and availability of various facilities.

Prof. William Ibunkun made the commendation at the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, following a tour ahead of the affiliation between the two institutions.

Ibukun noted that for the proposed affiliation, ADOPOLY is well-prepared going by AAUA team’s visit to the polytechnic laboratories and workshops.

He however observed that the polytechnic would only need to work on the status certain workers who will teach in specific subjects of the affiliated program.

Earlier, Ibukun stressed that such partnership is approved nationwide for collaborative work in vocational education.

Responding, the Rector, Dr. Taiwo Akande, who spoke through her deputy (Special Duties and Revenue Generation), Dayo Oladebeye, expressed appreciation for the way the team went about its business.

He called for a collaboration between the two institutions.

Ex-HoD buried THE late Ajueyitsi Omatsola Neil Ayonshe, an engineer and former Head of Department of Mechanical Engineering, who passed on in January, this year has been buried amid tears in his Warri home town, Delta State.

In a funeral oration for the late don, the Rector Dr. Taiwo Akande, described him as “an amiable and diligent colleague who had fought the good fight and kept the faith” and one who has contributed immensely to the overall growth and development of the polytechnic.

In a sermon at the burial, Apostle Roland Ahwin in his message titled: ‘The Journey of life’, said everyone is on a journey towards a destination and shall disembark and give account of his life to the creator while facing the judgment.

The week-long burial activities included a commendation service held in the polytechnic, as well as a service of songs held at the Akure residence of the deceased.

SCHOLARSHIPS APPROACHING DEADLINE OFID Scholarship Award for International Students Masters (MS) Degree Study in: any Country Course starts September 2015 Brief Description: OFID's Scholarship Program sponsors outstanding young students from developing countries who wish to study for a Master's degree related to development at an accredited University around the world.

Host Institution(s): Any accredited University around the world Field of Study: Economics of development (poverty reduction, energy and sustainable development),

environment (desertification), or other related science and technology fields.

Number of Scholarships: 4 Target Group: Nationals of developing countries (except OFID member countries).

Scholarship Value/inclusions: The scholarships are worth up to $50,000 that covers the tuition fees, monthly allowance to cover living expenses, accommodation, insurance, books, relocation grants, and travel costs.

Eligibility: •Must be between the ages of 23-32 at the time of submitting his/her application.

•Must have obtained or be on the verge of completing their undergraduate degree with a

Baccalaureate from an accredited college/university, or its equivalent.

•Must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 rating system, or its equivalent.

•Must be matriculated at an accredited university for the upcoming academic year starting August/ September 2015, and must maintain full-time status for the duration of the Master's Degree.

•Must be a national of a developing country (except OFID Member Countries) •Must select a subject of study that pertains to OFID's core mission, such as: economics of development (poverty reduction, energy and sustainable development), environment

(desertification), or other related science and technology fields.

Application Instructions: Make sure that you fulfill the OFID Scholarship Award Eligibility Criteria before you apply. To apply, you must fill out an application form and upload supporting documents online. The application deadline is 8 May 2015.

It is important to visit the official website (link found below) to access the application form and for detailed information on how to apply for this scholarship.

Website:Official Scholarship Website: http://www.ofid.org/ FOCUSAREAS/OFIDYouth/ ScholarshipAward.aspx

OAU Muslim alumni hold reunion/convention

A

CTIVITIES marking the national reunion and annual convention of the Obafemi Awolowo University Muslim Graduates' Association (UNIFEMGA), will kick off tomorrow in Osun State.

Tagged: '2015 annual convention', the event begins tomorrow through to Sunday at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) campus.

A public lecture with the theme: 'The challenge of doing business in Nigeria: The Muslim options' will be delivered by the guest speaker, Dr. Wale Babalakin, SAN

NIBF to host education stakeholders

The chairman of the occasion is the Secretary-General of the Islamic Supreme Council of Nigeria, Prof.

Isaq Oloyede.

In a statement UNIFEMGA national vice-president, Alhaji Abdulwaheed Odeyinka, the event would comprise a Jumaat Service on tomorrow at the university's Central Mosque. There body would also pay a courtesy visit to the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Tale Omole at the OAU Secretariat same day. Cocktail for the OAU Muslim community comes up at 5pm and would be rounded up at 8pm with a family picnic.

A keep fit exercise would kick off the next day after which members would converge at the Oduduwa Hall for the aforementioned public lecture. Other activities include: students' empowerment programme by First Bank building, while the association' will hold at the OAU Central Mosque, Odeyinka added.

The grand finale comes up on Sunday with a keep fit and a press briefing on the activities of the association so far.

Founded over two decades ago, Odeyinka said aside providing annual scholarship award for out-

standing undergraduates and postgraduates students, UNIFEMGA's aims and objectives is also to educate, enlighten and address societal issues.

The annual convention, according to the statement, would offer a window of opportunities to members and the academic community to celebrate and discuss latest social developments from around the world.

Members will also use the opportunity to network and seek ways to improve their alma mater as well reunite and bond with fellow classmates and their families.

•

T

HE Nigerian Book Fair Trust (NBFT), the umbrella body of professionals in the book industry, has introduced an education summit for principal officers and owners of schools that will feature at this year's edition of the Nigeria International Book Fair (NIBF).

Its President, Alhaji Rilwanu Abdulsalami, made this known at a briefing in Excellence Hotel Ikeja, Lagos.

The summit has as theme: 'The truly educated child; A must concern to all education practitioners'.

Abdusalami said the fair was introduced to draw attention of the incoming government towards ensuring better quality of education in schools.

Abdulsalami encouraged parents to supervise the training and education of their children, in order to ensure that morals, values, character, thinking and productivity of the children, which all make up true education, are found in them.

President, Nigerian Publishers Association, Chief Okereke Ngwobia, condemned the poor maintenance and neglect of public libraries by governments, describing it as a hindrance to reading culture in Nigerians.

He said the Nigerian Librarian Association is working with stakeholders of education to improve the quality and content of public libraries, so that rare books could be made available for the public.

Executive Secretary, NBFT, Mr Abiodun Omotubi, said the forthcoming event, 14th in the series, would hold between Monday, May 11 and Saturday, May 18, this year at the Multipurpose Hall of the University of Lagos, Akoka.

It would also include a two-day children's programme, workshops, seminars, trainings, authors' groove, book exhibition and other side attractions, Omotunbi added.

According to him, the event would be chaired by the chairman

•From left: Mr Omotubi, Vice Chairman of NBFT, Mr Babs Fashanu, Abdulsalami and Ngwobia.

By Oluwatoyin Adeleye

of HEBN Publishers Plc, Mr Ayo Ojeniyi, while a professor of Oral Literature and Folklore at Delta State University, G. G. Darah, would deliver the keynote paper with the title: ‘African youth em-

powerment through book for sustainable national development.’

The Acting Executive Secretary, Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) Prof Ismail Junaidu, would be the special guest of

honour.

Mr Omotubi said nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka, Chimamanda Adichie and other notable authors of literature in Nigeria, as well as over 10 countries would be in attendance.

Havard don, others for Regenesys Business School forum

H

ARVARD professor of Business Administration, Ramon CasadesusMasanell, and founder/chairman Regenesys Business School Dr Marko Saravanja, will lead other international experts to debate on competitive strategy in three emerging markets namely, Nigeria, South Africa and India The event which comes up on Friday, 15 of this month, this year would see the need to look into the comparative advantage in each of the aforementioned markets in relation to global market.

"The session will take delegates through theories, models and in-

By Adegunle Olugbamila

ternational trends and cases that are applicable across markets and across industries", said a statement

by Regenesys Business School management.

"Core to successful strategy is the understanding of the company's extensive environment, its own composition and abilities, the market make-up and its most attractive segments based on the organisation's ability to serve, adapt to or grow with such segments. All this is to be factored into a set of options for building the organisation's sustainable com-

petitive advantage, given its relationships, its partnerships and connections, and the attractiveness of its offer to the targeted customer, the statement added.

According to the statement, the event aims to specifically contribute to emerging market managers to understand central strategic challenges facing senior managers and chief executive oficers, and through case study examination, be guided towards identifying or understanding the roots of competitive advantage, evaluating the limits to such advantage; and making decisions that create and sustain performance advantages over time.

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

39

EDUCATION

SUBEB summons head teacher for alleged extortion

T

HE Delta State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), has summoned the head mistress of Ahabam Primary School, Asaba, the state capital, Mrs. Franca Odita, over allegations of extortion and absenteeism.

The Chairman of the board, Elijah Ologie, who made this known shortly after monitoring of resumption of schools in the state, said culprits would be sanctioned.

Mrs. Odita allegedly asked Na-

From Okungbowa Aiwerie, Asaba

tional Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members deployed in the school pay N1, 500 for buying plastic chairs before they can work in the school.

Ologie expressed sadness over the manner some head teachers administer schools in the state.

Said Ologie: "Appropriate disciplinary measures will be meted out to defaulting teachers. We

have invited the head teacher of the school to the board, the lapses are too grave and I don't think that the board will take it likely.

We have gotten the report before and this is just a confirmation".

The SUBEB boss continued: "We have withheld a lot of teachers' salaries for various degrees of offences; some were suspended, some lost their jobs and it is quite a grave punishment."

He charged teachers to change

their attitude towards the improvement of education in the state.

"We cannot play with the future of our children and society," he added.

Ologie urged parents to release their children upon resumption in order to meet up with academic work.

"The purpose of this monitoring is to ensure that pupils and teachers resume promptly.The

turnout is very poor, considering that pupils have resumed for some time and up till now, you don't have a lot of them in the classroom. Teachers, too, are not helping matters. It is quite disappointing," Ologie lamented.

He noted that the government had done well in providing facilities for teachers to inculcate quality education. He noted that teachers were lacking in this regard.

Tears as Blue House snatches victory at sport meet •School marks 10th anniversary

M

EMBERS of Yellow House of Normandie Nursery and Primary School, Surelere, Lagos were in tears last Friday when they failed to repeat the victory which they secured at the school's biennial inter house sport two years ago. To their dismay, Blue House toppled their feat.

To make matters worse, their efforts on Saturday notwithstanding, neither placed them in the first or second runners up. They came fourth in the contest.

It took the effort of the Lagos State First Lady Mrs Dame Abimbola Fashola to console the Yellow House captain Ayinde Oladeyinde and his co-contests who could not hold back tears when their house position was announced.

The sport fiesta, which held at the Lagos Anglican Grammar School Sport field, Surulere, and also coincided with the school's 10th anniversary, saw the Blue House in fierce jubilation for snatching the trophy.

One of the teachers in Yellow House, Mrs Opeoluwa Olabanji, who also cried, faulted the overall result.

According to her, the judges were different from the ones who had been with them ahead of the grand

By Jane Chijioke

finale.

"The children in this (Yellow) house are much younger than other houses. They did their best. They are all sorrowful because having put in much energy in this contest and believing that they would win only to assume the fourth position is really heartbreaking," Mrs Olabanji said.

Blue House clinched 17 gold, 13 silver and 10 bronze medals, Green House won first runner up with 17gold, 11 silver and seven bronze medals, while the Red House grabbed nine gold, 12 silver and 16 bronze medal. Yellow House came forth with nine gold, nine silver and 15 bronze medals.

The Vice-Chairman of the school, Prof Ibiyemi Bello, noted that engaging in sport helps pupils showcase their skills, signifies competitive achievements and as well, fosters unity in the school. Celebrating the school's decade anniversary, Bello recalled how challenging it was when the school first open its doors.

Said Bello: "When we started 10 years ago, my consultant said to me if we could get just three children

•Mrs Fashola (second right), Director General, Office of Education Quality Assurance, Lagos State, Mrs Ronke Soyombo (second left) Lagos State Commissioner for the environment, Mr Tunji Bello and wife, Mrs Bello with the house captains of the school.

PHOTO: BIODUN WILLIAMS

we would be able to start. To the glory of God that day we started with seven and since that time God has been faithful.The school has grown beyond our expectation. We also thank God for what He is doing in the lives of these children.

Our products are in the best schools in this country, they are really doing very well and the feedback from

them is so amazing.

"I also thank God for the teachers that we have here, they have been very diligent and dedicated to the school" she said.

She urged the in-coming government to declare a state of emergency on education "In fact, I will say that there should be a state of emergency concerning

Report cases of abuse, teenage girls advised

F

EMALE teenagers have been advised not to keep quiet should they be abused by their relatives or any other persons.They have also been warned to be wary of relatives who come to them with sweet tongues promising them Eldorado in foreign lands.

"You must learn to be very cautions," warned Blessing Ezeala, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Festac Area Command of Lagos Police.

"Some of your relations would come to you promising big business opportunities if you travel with them overseas. Some of them even promise to sponsor your education all through the university. Always be careful and ponder on such proposition before you finally agree. Our findings have shown that, many of these unfortunate ladies, their parents or guardians are deceived because of the harsh economic condition at the home front, and they end up as prostitutes," "Once that happens to you, the hope of a better life is gone", she added.

Ezeala addressed female teenagers in secondary schools who gathered for the 'Femine Rapport' for girl child and mothers at the Frankids Amusement Park Festac Lagos Friday. The event was courtesy of Youth Advancement Forum, an NGO in conjunction with Soul Mate Industries Limited.

Though Africa is a male dominated society and its society frowns at women speaking up when abused

•From right (standing) DSP Ezeani, CSP Kemi Tijani, Mrs Odewale and Mrs Adebayo with some of the participants.

By Adegunle Olugbamila

owing to social stigma, Ezeala however inspired the girls that the 21 century world is fast changing and more powers are being placed on the women folk to fight for their freedom.

"And that is why I told you earlier to speak up whenever you are abused," Ezeala continued. "Your parents or relatives may also want to

discourage you from speaking up for fear of social stigma, but I tell you the best thing is to let the world know if you go through such experience so that the culprit can be brought to book. Do not feel too shy or intimidated to report to us (police), we are here to help you," she said.

Ezeala also admonished parents especially the career ones to develop close relationship particularly with their female children. According to

‘Some of you think you need to have special brains to win scholarships; that is wrong. All it takes is to believe in yourself, study very hard and cultivating virtues such as honesty, integrity loyalty and accommodating others’

her, children are always willing to share their daily experience with their parents once a rapport has been established. This would ultimately forestall likely occurrence of one's child being abused since information can be obtained first hand.

Proprietress Quadrutullahi International School Abule Egba Mrs Olabisi Odewale, urged participants to aspire for the top so they can be beneficiaries of scholarships.

Be it partial or full scholarships, Odewale believes all it takes is self confidence and optimism to get there.

"Some of you think you need to have special brains to win scholarships; that is wrong. All it takes is to believe in yourself, study very hard and cultivating virtues such as honesty, integrity loyalty and accommodating others," she noted.

education. For this country, education must start from the foundation.

We want to make sure that all children within the streets of this nation are in school. The condition of the schools must also be conducive enough for learning. The government should fund education; we need to improve more in this sector," Bello added.

According to her, scholarships launch the awardee as well as her school into limelight, take off a lot of burden which would have probably be borne by the awardee or her parents and make the awardee a role model, a plus which Odewale believes could also be a window to further opportunities.

Pastor Gloria Okorocha of New Exodus Ministry Agbara sought parents inclusion in subsequent edition of the event. Nonetheless, she told participants not to allow anybody tamper with God's future plan for them.

"God has a plan for you," Okorocha said noting, "do not allow anybody to destroy it. Do not let it crash. You will definitely get there."

The founder of YAF Mrs Olayinka Oluremi Adebayo said the event was the 11th.

Recalling how YAF started seven years ago, she said: "I attended an all girls school- Anglican Girls Grammar School, Surulere, and I fell in love with my alma mater because of the manner we were all treated then.

Ever since, it has always been on my mind to have an NGO that would offer protection to young women. I usually feel bad when I see a young girl being traumatised."

Though funding has been her main challenge, she is however happy that the body has been able to impact positively on young female children despite the odds.

Some of the schools in attendance include: Rock Ville Secondary School Ojo; Hopebay Schools Okoko, Auadruttallahi International School, Abule Egba, and Bamfem Group of Schools Ajangbadi. Others were: gracious Leadway College Ijanikin; Stokan College Iyana Ishasi; Ideal Comprehensive High School Ajangnbadi; Golden Foundation College Afromedia; and Ibuolu College Braacksothers.

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

40

EDUCATION EDUTALK

with

Simple Changes!

L

AST week, I met an educationist, Dr Felix Adeduro, who lamented that Malaysia and India, countries that were once in the same category as Nigeria, have gone light years ahead to shoot into world reckoning, particularly in the areas of technology and education.

We now have Nigerians choosKofoworola ing schools in Malaysia and India as cheaper alternatives to Europe and America. Adeduro said Kofosagie@yahoo.com Amity University, a privately08054503077 (SMS only) owned institution in India, boasts of facilities and faculties to envy.

The university is making such breakthroughs it registers patents regularly.

Nigerian tertiary institutions are not listed among the top in the world.

They are plagued by underfunding, poor infrastructure, and poor management. However, our institutions actually have the potential to achieve much more. That was one fact that came out of the selection process for the Africa Centre of Excellence (ACE) project funded by the World Bank. The Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) Prof Julius Okojie acknowledged that much when he said that despite the criticism of our educational standard, Nigerian universities were able to claim 10 of 19 ACE slots out of the 51 applications from various countries in West Africa.

If our universities could do so well when scrutinised by an international panel of assessors for selection, then I am sure they can become better ranked with some changes. I do not dispute that we need greater financial investment by the government to improve infrastructural facilities.What good money can do is evident in the various facilities funded by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) that dot our tertiary institutions. It is also evident in the number of academics that are being supported for further education and to attend conferences both home and abroad. However, funding and infrastructure are not all that make a good tertiary institution. So many things matter - from the organisation and neatness of the environment, to how courteous the workers are, and the comportment of the students - not leaving out the lecturer/student relationship.

How does the institution communicate with students? Are the students respected or do they feel ignored and their needs unmet? How long does it take for the management to fix problems around the campus like: mend broken fences, replace burnt out light bulbs, fix plumbing or water problems? How are disciplinary issues concerning both workers and students handled? Are the laws protected? Or is it that offenders can escape punishment by buying their way out or being saved by god fathers?

How long does it take for results to be processed and submitted after examinations? Does it take two weeks? Or does it take the end of the next session? These two extremes happen in some institutions in Nigeria. A graduate of an institution in the Southeast told me that results are released once in a session - and never signed - so they are subject to changes at the whims of lecturers. A university that encourages such practices cannot hope to compete with the best on the continent, not to mention the world.

What are the rules concerning class attendance and examinations?

While virtually all institutions have rules regarding the percentage of attendance a student must achieve to write an examination (for instance, a private university in Lagos stipulates 80 per cent attendance before students can take examinations), not many institutions implement this rule, so it is not uncommon for students to skip classes and get others to write their names for them.

How does the institution handle issue of plagiarism in assignments and projects? With the internet so readily accessible, copying is now so easy. All the student does is some researching on the topic, a few clicks of the mouse and pronto! the material is copied, pasted, and ready for submission as his own assignment. Regarding projects, the practice is even worse. Students copy projects done by students in other institutions and from the internet. Now, I even learnt that there are people that specialise in writing projects for others for a fee. A friend of mine told me she was advised to pay N50,000 instead of bothering to write her masters project! Can you imagine copying at that level? Unbelievable but true. If it the university was that strict about scrutinising projects, it would have been difficult for students to present work they did not do as their own.

Attention to these little details can go a long way to improve an institution. They do not require billions of naira to implement.They only require instituting a culture of excellence, of doing things properly. These small changes can go a long way to make a big difference.

Belo-Osagie

• From left: Representative of the wife of Lagos State Governor, Mrs. Ladun Ogunbanwo; Idowu Sonoiki, Mrs Olaunjoye and Mrs Soyombo.

16-year-old gets ‘easy’ Spelling bee victory •I was 89 per cent ready, says Idowu

I

DOWU Sonoiki's victory in the 2015 Spelling Bee competition for public secondary schools in Lagos State last Wednesday was a classic lesson in the value of perseverance.

The 16-year-old, whose English Language teacher, Mrs Lucy Obiakalusi, said he had been chasing the trophy for years, finally cruised to a comfortable victory with the word, Fettuccine, a type of Roman and Tuscan pasta.

Few among the top government functionaries, sponsors, teachers, and pupils at the grand finale held at the Adeyemi-Bero Auditorium, Alausa, Lagos, had heard of the word before the spelling bee moderator, Mr Morounfolu Ojutiku, pronounced it. So, when Idowu spelt it correctly, he was hailed as a genius.

The competition was not for the unprepared or fainthearted. Fiftyseven pupils who had emerged as the best from the 20 Local Government Areas, and 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDA)of Lagos State were the ones privileged to mount the exalted stage.

However, with some of the words being spelt as the competition advanced having French, Spanish, Latin or Greek origins, many contestants unaccustomed with the distinctions they create, fell by the way side.

By the final round, the contestants were confronted with words like pirouette, arpeggio, trochee,

By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie

palim-bacchus, jalousie, and the like. However, Idowu did not falter at all. Unlike other contestants, he did not have to repeat the spelling of any word. He spelt each word with a confident smile.

In an interview, Idowu said he was 89 per cent prepared for the competition. The SS2 pupil of Ikotun Senior High School, Ikotun in Igando-Ikotun local Council Development Area, said he was inspired to try harder after losing in the fourth round of the competition last year.

He said: "I feel very excited. I was 89 per cent prepared. I prepared right from last year when I misspelled a word called Micromatosis. I went out in round four. I was bitter. From then my Dad told me that I should start working hard; that One Day governor is not what I can joke with.

So, I decided to start working right away. I used encyclopedia; spelling bee dictionary; I used a large hard copy encyclopedic dictionary in my principal's office. And I checked from the internet past words from spelling bee."

Idowu was rewarded with a star prize of N250,000, a trophy, and smartphone from Etisalat, among other gifts. The first and second runners up, Faaizi Abdullaidi of Omole Senior High School, Ojodu and 14-year-old Master Fehinti Dahunsi of Lagos State Senior

‘I used encyclopedia; spelling bee dictionary; I used a large hard copy encyclopedic dictionary in my principal's office. And I checked from the internet past words from spelling bee’

Model College, Kankon got cheques of N200,000 and N150,000 each.

As part of the reward for his victory, Idowu would act as the Governor of Lagos State for One Day on a yet to be announced date. That day, which is usually memorable for contestants, features visits to various public and private sector offices, and culminates in a meeting with the incumbent governor.

The winners usually go home with gifts from the trip.

In her speech, the Commisisoner for Education, Mrs Olayinka Oladunjoye, described the One Day Governor reward as a unique opportunity that motivates winners.

"Let me emphasise that today's winner has the opportunity of acting as the Governor of the state for one day. Suffice it to say that this peculiar experience has, over the years, continued to motivate our students to strive harder as manifested in the keen tempo that has been the hallmark of the competition," she said.

In her address, the Director-General, Office of Education Quality Assurance, Mrs Ronke Soyombo, noted that the competition improves children's ability to read and cements the connection between sounds and letters.

"Spelling words help lay a basic foundation that every student will need throughout their educational life," she said.

In the primary school category of the competition decided penultimate Wednesday, Boluwatife Tijani of Araromi Primary School Orile-Agege, won the star prize of N150,000. She was followed by Iretiola Ifaniyi of Methodist Primary School, Ibeshe, and Jonathan Awobodu of Abesan Priamry School, Mosan Okunola in the second and third position.

Dignitaries at the event included wife of the Lagos State governor, Dame Emmanuella Abimbola Fashola, represented by Mrs. Ladun Ogunbanwo; the Chairman, House Committee on Education, Science and Technology, Hon. Wahab Alawiye-King; the representative of Senator Oluremi Tinubu, Prof. Kolawole Raheem and the Head of Department Devices, Etisalat, Mr. Olayiwola Onafowokan.

AUN kicks off MBA, MSc, PhD programmes

T

HE American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola, has opened admissions for postgraduate degrees and diploma in the School of Business & Entrepreneurship (SBE).

The programs are: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Business Administration; Master of Business Administration (MBA); Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Business Ad-

ministration, and the Postgraduate Diploma in Management (PGDM).

Lectures for all the postgraduate programmes will commence in August 2015.

Applicants studying for their PhD, which takes between 36 and 60 months, should be holders of a business-related M.Sc. or an MBA, while those seeking place-

ment on the 18-24 month M.Sc or MBA programme should have at least second class honours degrees in business-related disciplines.

For the PGDM programme (1218 months), applicants should have first degrees or Higher National Diploma in any discipline.

Application forms are available on the university's website.

‘Now, I even learnt that there are people that specialise in writing projects for others for a fee. A friend of mine told me she was advised to pay N50,000 instead of bothering to write her masters project!

Can you imagine copying at that level?

Unbelievable but true. If it the university was that strict about scrutinising projects, it would have been difficult for students to present work they did not do as their own’

43

THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

THE NATION

e-Business e-mail: e-business@thenationonlineng.net

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

lukajanaku02@gmail.com

On June 17 , Nigeria is expected to join other members of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to migrate from analogue to digital terrestrial television (DTT). A digital television service provider, StarTimes, says it has prepared for the switchover. But there fears that this country may miss the global timeline because of tardy preparation, LUCAS AJANAKU reports.

Digital migration blues

• Nautel Digital UHF TV Broadcast Transmitters

S

OMETIME in 2005, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in Geneva, announced to its 193 members consisting of 70 private members, that June 17, this year is the final switch off date from analogue to digital terrestrial television (DTT).

TechTarget, an online search networking platform, defines DTT “as digital television (DTV) broadcast entirely over earthbound circuits. A satellite is not used for any part of the link between the broadcaster and the end user. DTT provides a clearer picture and superior sound quality when compared to analogue TV, with less interference. DTT offers far more channels, thus providing the viewer with a greater variety of programmes to choose from.

DTTV can be viewed on personal computers. Using a split-screen format, a computer user can surf the Web while watching TV.” According to ITU, digital television allows for better picture and sound quality, as well as more choice of channels and programmes.

Former ITU Secretary General, Dr Hamadoun Toure, said the migration exercise will lead to freeing up of about one-third of frequencies which can then be used for the provision of other services.

Over the past years, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has been giving assurances that the country will meet the June deadline.

Its Director General, Emeka Mba said after the ITU deadline, there would be no more international support for analogue spectrum as any operator still operating on the platform would have been technically edged out.

He said in pursuit of meeting the ITU deadline, the Federal Government has finalised and harmonised discussions over the transmission network parameters with all Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) member states.

According to him, specifications for the set-top-box and Digital Television Receivers (DTR) had also been finalised with other countries in the sub-region to ensure a seamless transition.

According to him, broadcasters would be responsible for content while a Signal Distributor or Carrier would be saddled with Transmission of the signals to viewers.

Aside the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), the NBC chief said the Federal Government would licence two other signal carriers for optimum benefit for viewers across the country, adding that the Federal Government has begun the process of licensing the second Signal Distributor.

• Analogue transmitters

• Set-top-boxes

• Toure

• Mba

Mr. Mba said the focus of the NBC now is ensuring more broadcasting services are created such that the current gaps in the industry are effectively addressed.

He said: “Our focus at the NBC is promoting more broadcasting services to fill current gaps in content and services such as themed channels, special interest channels, educational and children’s channels, regional channels as well as new HD services.”

But an Executive Director, Pinnacle Communications, Mr. Dipo Onifade, has said it is wishful thinking that Nigeria will be there. Pinnacle is a leading broadcasting firm that won a bid to distribute signals to homes in the DTT programme.

He said the June digital switchover was a hoax, designed to hoodwink the government and give it the impression that it was working.

According to him, it will be impossible for the country to distribute 26 million set-top-boxes to households with less than 40 days to go, adding that there is a pending legal action before the law court which could also hamper the country’s switch-over plan before the deadline date.

Onifade insisted that the NBC was not prepared for DTT as more than 95 per cent of television boxes in Nigeria are analogue while 26 million households are yet to get the set-top-boxes, accusing that the NBC conniving with a South African-based firm to shut out indigenous firms from participating in the process.

He said every household may be compelled to pay over N6,000 to secure the set-top-boxes to enjoy the dividends of the digital

migration.

“We are talking about digital switchover. Nigeria is nowhere near being ready to switchover.

This takes time. About 95 per cent of television boxes in Nigeria are analogue. How are you going to distribute 26 million boxes to households in Nigeria before the deadline? These issues have not been ironed out. So, we are not ready to migrate yet,” he said.

But despite the pall of doubts hanging over digital migration, StarTimes said it has put its house in order for the programme.

“Creativity and innovation are keys to success. Having adopted these keys, StarTimes, foremost digital TV service provider, reassures its existing and potential subscribers of its determination to offer more innovative and affordable sought-after channels across its bouquets in line with its vision,” the firm explained.

It added that having broken the barrier hindering Nigerians from owning a Pay TV, StarTimes links several homes across social status to digital television (DTV), which is a global phenomenon, with its four-television bouquet fully loaded, sought-after channels.

Now, StarTimes makes digital TV affordable and enjoyable for Nigerians, including those who are yet to get a decoder. Getting a decoder and recharging regularly has been made very easy and convenient.

Its Public Relations Manager, StarTimes, NTA Star-TV Network, Mr. Israel Bolaji, said DTV is for all; and as such, it should be affordable to all Nigerians. He said: “The increase in the number of relevant channels on the bouquet was done in a bid to continue to

satisfy Nigerians. We are working hard and smart to prepare Nigerians towards digital migration by offering our customers affordable bundle that makes a convenient switch over from analogue to digital television and promote inspirational television experience that creates values.”

He explained that the company introduced new channels to break the barrier and offer more affordable and efficient services to both existing and potential subscribers, adding that DTV is not meant for the high and mighty in the society but for all; and as such, affordable service should not be a barrier for all Nigerians. “The increase in the number of relevant channels on our bouquets was done in a bid to continue to satisfy Nigerians. We work smart to improve the quality and quantity of our services and also wet the appetite of Nigerians towards digital migration with our priceless bundle. We are determined to ensure no Nigerian home is left behind in the DTV migration expected to happen by middle of next month,” he said.

The firm also launched StarTimes Light, a new stylish and compact DVB-T2 decoder which Bolaji said is smaller, lighter and handy set-top-box designed to suit the fashionable, classy and trendy lifestyle of subscribers without paying anything extra. “It is fully DVB-T2 and DVB-T compliant with digital picture quality, simple remote control and friendly user interface. It also comes with automatic software upgrade, allows users edit favourite channels and enjoy parental control,” he added.

With an array of interesting channels for sports, music, movies, news, kids and teens’ entertainment, documentary, religion and gadget, Bolaji said: “ StarTimes is set to support Nigerians towards digital migration by offering them valuable family en-

tertainment at an affordable rate that makes a convenient switch over from analogue to digital television and promote inspirational television experience that creates values.”

He said the channels are aimed at offering the company’s countless subscribers more robust and improved DTV experience as the country approaches the full DTV switchover. He said: “With this help of StarTimes, Nigerians now enjoy a refreshing digital television experience with N600 subscription on Nova, N1,200 for Basic, Classic for N2,400 and Unique goes for N3,600 every month. With focus on ensuring that DTV becomes affordable and enjoyable to all, StarTimes decoder now goes for N990 with N2,400 minimum subscription.”

Apart from the affordable bouquets, the indigenous service provider also recorded a milestone recently when it signed an exclusive deal with iROKOtv, an online movie platform in France. StarTimes formed a formidable partnership with the company to offer its over 4.6 million subscribers two new sought-after channels, which are iROKO PLAY and iROKO PLUS, on the leading African Pay TV platform in 14 countries across the globe.

He said its subscribers now have the choice of viewing several entertaining and educating channels like iROKO PLAY, which is available on the StarTimes Classic Bouquet, with classic Nollywood movies from 2007 onwards, with a brand new exclusive movie added to the schedule each month or iROKO PLUS that is on the StarTimes Unique Bouquet offering premium Nollywood movies from 2011 till date, with the addition of an exclusive brand new movie every week. Others are AMC Series, Star Zone, Child Smile, Star Kungfu, Star Dadin Kowa, CCTV News, Star Music, IQRAA and TBN, and Star Sport Focus.

He said the Star Sport Focus, an exclusive sports news bulletin channel, can be viewed on both StarTimes (channel 250) and on StarSat (channel 240). This new channel is available on all StarTimes and StarSat bouquets. The channel offers subscribers a dynamic fast-paced overview of sports as a whole, and brings to viewers a 90-minutes sports news content block daily and content for magazine shows. Viewers can also watch the best action of top leagues in Africa, La Liga, Bundesliga and many more on Goalissimo.

It promotes African Sports via Sports News Africa and shows exciting news and information on wrestling, Bundesliga, Top football leagues and other favourite sports actions. Viewers can follow choice legendary sports stars from Africa and all over the world on the new channel.

Bolaji emphasised that StarTimes provides door-to-door services, which unveils the originality and selfless service of the brand as its major concern is not just to provide digital television experience.

“We show care and give needed support to our customers; our door to door after sales duties includes: outdoor antennal installation to subscribers on purchase of the decoder, product usage, technical assistance and other services required to be delivered,” he said.

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

44

e-Business

Telcos lose N20b yearly to opex, arbitrary fees T ELCOS in Nigeria lose about N20 billion annually to punitive operating expenditure (opex) and multiple taxation and arbitrary charges, the Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Nigeria, Segun Ogunsanya has said.

He has therefore urged the Federal Government to come up with a unified tax system to enable businesses and investors know what taxes are supposed to be paid to the government.

Ogunsanya who spoke in Lagos at CEO Forum organised by Business Day said it is estimated that increased operating costs and lost revenue costs around N9billion each year to the telecoms industry or about N20billion if most of the arbitrary fees/charges in some key states are upheld.

He said the government should unify taxes under one code and also bring to book vandals who deliberately destroy telecoms infrastructure.

With Nigerian Telecoms Industry: Five Years Ahead, as the theme of discussion at the forum, he noted that strong growth is expected from the mobile financial services over the forecasting period and opera-

Stories by Lucas Ajanaku

tors should ensure they are able to offer products to the large unbanked population of Nigeria, while growing demand for mobile apps and e-commerce will have a positive knock-on effect on mobile operators.

According to the Airtel CEO, Nigeria offers exciting opportunities for telecoms investors as a large population with rising incomes position the country as one of the most attractive destinations for investment on the African continent.‘ He said the country has massive bandwidth capacity from the four undersea cables that is yet untapped, arguing that the capacity from these undersea cables will provide opportunities to domestic and international investors to take advantage of the growing broadband and data industry.

But for the industry to attain its full potentials, he said key bottlenecks must urgently be removed telecoms industry to reach its full market potential. He listed these

issues to include spectrum availability and adequacy, government commitment to the National Broadband Plan (NBP), tackling multiple-taxation, reliable and costeffective power supply, protection of telecoms infrastructure from vandalism and resolving restrictions on telcos’ activity in mobile money.

He said due to explosive growth in mobile data traffic, operators require more spectrum to support this growth, adding that there is an urgent need to expedite the release / award of frequency to operators as this will facilitate industry development.

Ogunsanya also decried the incident of multiple-taxation, lamenting that revenue loss from idle or shut down base stations represents the main source of negative impact of multiple taxation and network vandalism for the industry. Between two and three per cent of Nigeria’s sites are affected by arbitrary shutdown and vandalism at any given point in time, he lamented.

Openshopen gets eCommerce platform award

C

OMPUTER Warehouse Group Plc’s e-commerce platform, Openshopen.ng, has been named the e-commerce platform of the year at the Beacon of Information and Communication Technology (BOICT) awards ceremony held in Lagos.

Openshopen.ng won the award after having the highest number of votes in its category following an online poll that featured over 200,000 entries via email and on the awards’ electronic voting portal. Chairman of the event and Chief Executive Officer, Zinox Technologies Limited, Chief Leo Stan Ekeh observed said the awards were based on merit.

He said: “I know that those that won the awards tonight deserved them because I can confidently say that the publisher, whom I know very well, is a man of integrity and he will give you what you deserve.”

Former President, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Mr. Chris Uwaje who presented the award said CWG Plc is known for rolling out IT solu-

tions that are remarkable for standard, customer satisfaction and reliability. “Once again, CWG, with Openshopen has shown us that indigenous IT firms have the capacity to provide the needed back-up for our growing economy,” he said.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, CWG Plc, Mr. Austin Okere said the award is an eloquent testimony of the innovation of the firm in the IT space. He said: “Winning the award of the ecommerce platform of the year in just less than one year of introducing our solution to the Nigerian market speaks volume of the unique value Openshopen offers to SMEs and how they have come to appreciate it. Our e-commerce platform has the capacity to support over 100 million stores. It offers businesses the advantage of building and promoting their own brands rather than just dumping their goods and their fates in the hands of third parties, whose brands they are invariably promoting. By displaying their goods online, entrepreneurs significantly increase their sales, thereby creating jobs and ensuring inclusive growth for the economy.”

MainOne leads panel at ITW

T

• From left: Service Manager, Lenovo Technologies West Africa, Ms. Nkechi Okolo; Marketing Manager, Smartphones, Mr. Bolade Oyekanmi and Sharma at a breakfast meeting with the media and launch of the Lenovo S90, Lenovo S60 and Lenovo P70 smartphones in Lagos

Smartphone penetration in Nigeria hits 30% G

LOBAL leader in personal computer (PCs, Lenovo, has said smartphone penetration in the country has reached 30 per cent mark, adding that there are still more rooms for growth in the smartphone segment considering the population of the country and huge youth population.

Its Executive Director, Mobile Business Group, Middle East and Africa (MEA), Shashank Sharma, who spoke during the unveiling of three smartphones into the market, said Nigeria remains strategic to the firm in its African operations.

He said: “Nigeria is one of the fastest growing smartphone markets globally. With about 30 per cent smartphone penetration, the country represents huge growth potential for Lenovo.

“In the past one year, Lenovo has made strong progress with its Nigerian consumers. We consider the region as a principal destination for investment, even as we continue to record robust growth in sales. Sustaining a solid in-country presence is very important to us from both social and economic standpoints. We will continue to expand our business and invest heavily in this market.”

“We are building on the strong relationships that we have with Nigerians by meeting their demand for smartphones with first-class design,

smarter features and improved functionality, with special focus on our latest range of mobile devices. Our continued organic growth and expansion puts us in a great position to maintain our momentum. We have tremendous balance between our core business, especially a profitable PC business, and growth engines in tablets, enterprise, ecosystem and smartphones. We expect to continue to build on these strong results.”

At the event, the firm unveiled its new entrants into the market; the Lenovo P70 with an epic 4000mAh battery which can lasts up to three days, the Lenovo S90, a perfect selfie companion with an 8-megapixel front-facing camera and front light emitting diode (LED) flash and the ergonomically designed Lenovo S60 that showcases users’ fun and social sides.

The dual-SIM 4G LTE Lenovo P70 smartphone packs an epic 4000mAh battery that could last up to three days for an always-on life. It comes with a 5-inch display, high definition resolution of 720×1280 pixels, a 1.7 GHz quad-core processor, Mediatek MT6752 64-bit chip, 2 GB of RAM as well as 16 GB of internal memory which can be expanded to up to 32 GB using the device’s

microSD card slot. The P70 also features a 13-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front camera. The device is powered by the latest Android 4.4 KitKat operating system.

Also powered by Android’s 4.4 KitKat operating system, the dualSIM 4G LTE Lenovo S90 smartphone comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8916 64-bit 1.2GHz Quad Core processor, a five-inch Super AMOLED high definition display, a 13-megapixel rear auto-focus with LED Flash and PureCel Sensor as well as a front eightmegapixel fixed-focus with LED Flash and back-illuminated (BSI) Sensor. It boasts 2 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal memory On its part, the dual-SIM and light (128 gram) Lenovo S60 4G LTE smartphone comes with a 13megapixel rear camera, a 5megapixel f2.2 wide-angle selfie camera, 2GB RAM, 8GB ROM and 32GB of expandable storage for a large library. Photos, videos, and web content can be viewed in vibrant high definition on the device’s crisp five-inch high definition screen. The combination of an Android 4.4 KitKat operating system and a superb Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.2GHz 64-bit Quad Core processor ensures that the Lenovo S60 is primed to provide users with unlimited fun.

HE premier Tier III Data Centre in West Africa, MDX-I, MainOne, will lead the African panel on localising content and data traffic in Africa at a plenary session of the International Telecoms Week (ITW) scheduled for Chicago between May 10 and 13.

With Localising Data Traffic and Content in Africa, as its theme, the session will highlight the growth in internet traffic in Africa and how the rapid development of data centre facilities and terrestrial fiber networks are aiding this growth.

As a prime sponsor of the conference, MainOne is expected to share its perspectives as a major player in the African wholesale carrier market and operator of the largest Tier III Data Center facility in West Africa. In addition, MainOne’s CEO, Ms. Funke Opeke, will chair a panel session with participants including CEOs of other players across the continent including CMC Networks; Liquid Telecom Group and Seacom.

Speaking ahead of the event, Ms. Opeke, said the African telecoms market is generating interest globally with the improved availability of broadband access and data center infrastructure. She stated that the improved telecoms infrastructure presents opportunities for global companies to expand their services into Africa with the potential of huge returns for first movers. “MainOne has remained consistent in its resolve to bridge the digital divide between Africa and the rest of the world. We are glad to be recognised as one of the major telecom players in Africa and to share our views on the opportunities it presents”, she said.

The ITW conference is the meeting point for the global wholesale telecommunications community, and is expected to host over 6,000 delegates from about 1,874 companies representing 150+ countries, to interact and discuss the latest market developments over a variety of panel sessions and presentations.

Vodacom promotes women in ICT

M

ORE than 100 Nigerian girls from private and public senior secondary schools in Lagos have come together to celebrate the International Girls in ICT Day. Vodacom Business Nigeria, in keeping to its commitment to empowering youth through ICT, has partnered with e-Business Life Communication Limited to support female senior secondary school students interested in studying Information and communication technology at tertiary education level.

Senior Manager Product Portfolio, Vodacom Business Nigeria, Mrs. Obafunke Atanda, said the number of females currently employed in ICT in Nigeria is extremely low compared to males and that this can be attributed not only to the relative lack of females studying science and technology at secondary and tertiary institutions but, also the number of females given access to formal education.

This partnership is aimed at encouraging youths especially females to include science and technology among their career choices. The intention is to increase the number of females in the ICT sector of Nigeria which is currently dominated by men. The company promotes the education and training of girls in primary

and secondary schools, thereby empowering them at a much earlier stage of their lives.

She said: “We feel it’s our responsibility to support initiatives aimed at increasing the number of skilled and qualified women in Nigeria, and we enjoin other companies to contribute to this course.” She added that empowering female students would be beneficial to addressing the root cause of the lack of female advancement such as poor education, unwanted teenage pregnancy and domestic violence.

The CEO of e-Business Life Communication Limited, convener of the Girls in ICT for Lagos, Mrs. Ufoma Emuophedaro said: “Companies like Vodacom are playing a key role in the global push to get young women and girls excited about a future career in ICT. You educate a woman, you educate a generation. We are grateful for Vodacom’s participation and support for this event”.

Girls in ICT Day is a time when girls have the opportunity to reflect on the importance of ICT to their future careers. It is a day where girls gain hands-on skills in ICT development, and realize that coding, blogging or app development is a fun and creative way to make a difference in the digital world.

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

45

e-Business Airtel, Oando seal partnership deal

A

IRTEL Nigeria has partnered with Oando marketing to expand its retail outlets, bring services more closer to its customers and add value to their lives.

During the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two leading brands, at the Wheatbaker Hotel, Lagos; Airtel Nigeria’s CEO, Segun Ogunsanya said the occasion marked yet another significant milestone in the telco’s efforts at providing innovative services to its customers.

Represented its Chief Sales Officer, Godfrey Efeurobho, he said the partnership will enrich and empower the lives of millions of telecoms consumers.

He said: “This MoU signing is proof of our unwavering commitment to provide innovative, relevant and affordable telecoms packages to the doorsteps of Nigerians. We believe that this partnership will empower Nigerians with real-time mobile solutions be it voice or mobile internet to help them fulfill their communication potentials.”.

He said Airtel is committed to enriching lives, touching lives and building connected communities of empowered Nigerians, adding that telco is delighted that Oando has bought into its vision of ubiquitous retail presence.

Ogunsaya said: “This is a special partnership involving two leaders, Airtel and Oando. Oando is a force

to be reckoned with in the oil and gas sector with over 300 retail presence across Nigeria. They saw value in us and through this mutual relationship have agreed to expand the values we both share.

“To live up to being the most loved brand in the daily lives of Nigerians, we in taking our services closer to the people. We hope that as Nigerians top up their gas, they will also top up their mobile phones and so enjoy the best of both worlds. We are immensely grateful to Oando marketing for partnering with us in our quest to serve Nigerians better.”

Commenting on the partnership, Chief Operations Officer, Oando Marketing, Mrs. Olaposi Williams, said: “We are elated about this partnership as it is the coming together of two great brands. We are glad that Airtel chose to partner with us, and we see this as the beginning of great things”.

“At Oando, customer experience means a great deal to us and so it is easy for us to buy into the Airtel dream. Airtel and Oando have so much in common, especially our commitments to corporate social responsibility (CSR), top of which is our adopt a school programmes.

So it is obvious that this partnership is great for Nigerians as we will also partner in doing several CSR programmes beneficial to Nigerians. Today, we at Oando are proud to identify and support Airtel Nigeria in its bid to serve Nigerians better.”

Technology, integrity gave Buhari victory, says Zinox chief

T

HE deployment of the tools of information communication technology (ICT) to the last general elections and the integrity of the chairman of the electoral umpire, the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), have been identified as the two factors that aided the transparent victory of Gen Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) at the polls.

Chairman, Zinox Group, Chief Leo Stan Ekeh said the adoption of card readers which reduced very significantly incidences of rigging, impersonation, multiple voting and other electoral vices paved the way for the peaceful conduct of the election.

He added that the personal integrity of the INEC chair, Prof.

Attahiru Jega went a long way in lending credibility to the process while helping the nation to avert a needless electoral crisis.

Ekeh, who is chairman of the biggest ICT group in sub-Saharan Africa and who has been at the vanguard of the campaign of digital

Stories by Lucas Ajanaku

technology adoption in Africa, spoke in Lagos.

Ekeh urged improvement on the card reader technology to graduate to a more innovative level such as electronic voting as a means of eliminating fraud in the electoral process.

He said: “Innovation is very important; we must embrace technology in every facet of our nationhood to make this a reality. The just concluded elections went a long way in improving voters’ confidence in the process and this was due to the adoption of card readers and the personal integrity of Prof.

Jega which saved the nation from crisis which could have resulted from an otherwise flawed process.

“However, we must keep our fingers on the handle of innovation to build more credibility in the system. In future elections, the option of electronic voting could be considered as this will definitely put paid to various forms of rigging.

This will help create a situation

where over 95 per cent of the electorate will begin to accept the outcome of an election as representing the will of the majority.”

Ekeh, whose Zinox Technologies demystified electoral registration for the 2007 and 2011 polls with the supply of computers and card readers which aided the building of a voter database for INEC, also urged government to give the youths freedom to succeed through technology.

He said: “Technology helps unleash skill and style to the world and anyone who fails to embrace it runs the risk of being left behind.

We must encourage the younger generation to achieve global success through technology.

“With the enabling environment and right policies by government, we can create many more billionaires of the calibre of Aliko Dangote and Mike Adenuga from our youths and the multiplier effects on our economy will go a long way in creating wealth and more jobs for a lot more people.”

Intel, Ericsson partner on security

E

RICSSON and Intel Security are working together to make managed security solutions available for telcos to bundle with the existing services they provide to enterprises, the firms announced in a statement.

Combining Ericsson’s managed services expertise, global delivery capability and network security expertise with Intel Security’s broad portfolio of consumer and enterprise security solutions will enable enterprises to strengthen their security posture.

It explained that from the enterprise perspective, telcos will contribute their regulatory compliance expertise, ability to combine communications services with security, and local response capabilities. Initially, intrusion prevention system services, email security and web security solutions will be available.

By supporting networks that connect more than 2.5 billion subscribers and carry more than 40 per cent of the world’s mobile traffic, Ericsson is helping to realise a truly Networked Society. Increased connectivity is unlocking massive value for people, business and society, but also exposing people to new potential risks. Together with Intel Security, Ericsson aims to make it easier for telecom operators to support their enterprise clients in protecting valuable intellectual property, data, devices, and

identities.

Senior Vice President and GM of Intel Security, Chris Young, said: “Telecommunications networks are a critical component of the economic and social infrastructures that we rely upon. Together, Intel Security and Ericsson are working to keep the well over three billion people across the globe that use these systems safe and secure.”

Vice President/Head of Managed Services at Ericsson, Jean-Claude Geha, said: “Intel Security has an exceptional, end-to-end consumer and enterprise security product portfolio.

Ericsson is the leader in telecom managed services with the scale, skills and people required to make Intel’s security solutions available to telecom operators around the world. Together, we will be able to provide exceptional managed security solutions to telecom operators.”

Today, Ericsson is the global leader in telecoms managed services. Operations for multiple operators are managed through Global Network Operation Centers and a field service organisation. Ericsson employs 65,000 services professionals in 180 countries, and provides managed services for networks that serve one billion subscribers worldwide. Increasingly, Ericsson uses its global managed services expertise in market segments other than telecommunications – and IT is one of the company’s focus areas.

Tech Titans confab for July

T

HE 10th edition of Titans of Tech iCconference and exhibition is to hold between July 22 and24 at Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Managing Consultant, Technology Africa, Don Pedro Aganbi, said in today’s modern society, information communication technology (ICT) continues to play an increasingly significant role in the development of any nation culturally, socially and economically.

According to him, Nigeria with over $30 billion invested in the nation’s ICT sector there is an urgent need to assess and promote the impact of this pervasive sector.

With How ICT Powers Nigeria’s Economy as its theme, he said it was chosen specifically to highlight the fact that ICT has become a key

driver of economic growth over the past decade. He noted that the rapid diffusion of the Internet, of mobile telephony and of broadband networks all demonstrate just how pervasive ICT has become.

ICT, he argued continues to provide economic opportunities to both urban and rural populations.

One common contribution is that it increases productivity and makes the market work more efficiently.

He said ICT is becoming the largest distribution platform of providing public and private services to millions of people in the country even in rural and poor areas. It makes available market information, financial services, education and health services that due to a lack of connectivity may largely have been unavailable in the immediate past.

•Head Marketing Communications, Computer Warehouse Group Plc, Success Nmerife, receiving e-Commerce Platform of the Year award from former President, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Mr. Chris Uwaje, at the BoICT awards in Lagos

‘Local capacity devt vital for industry growth’ E TISALAT has said the development of indigenous capacity in the telecoms sector is important if the gains made so far would be sustained.

The telco said it realised this early enough and had since taken steps in that direction, promisng that it will continue do more to help train the requisite man power to grow the sector.

Its Public Relations Manager, Chineze Amanfo, who spoke in Lagos during the quarterly seminar organised by the Nigeria Information and Communications Technology Reporters’ Association (NITRA) which the telco supported, said no nation develops without first developing its manpower requirements.

She said it was in the realisation of this that the telco in May 16, 2013, introduced the Masters in Telecommunications Engineering Programme at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

According to her, the Etisalat Telecoms Engineering Programme, a Master’s Degree course in Telecommunications Engineering run at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, provides training and exposure to about 20 students annually.

To provide the needed local expertise to sustain the initiative, Etisalat also sponsors four lecturers to study for a PhD in Telecommunications

Engineering at Plymouth University, United Kingdom (UK).

As a demonstration of its commitment to celebrate excellence, she said the telco also takes the top three students of the programme on an allexpense paid trip to Dubai for training at the Etisalat Academy to allow the students to have practical experience of what they have learned in the classroom.

According to her, other initiatives directed at developing local man power through education include the Adopt-a-School programme in collaboration with the Lagos State government. Under the initiative, Etisalat adopted three schools namely, Akande Dahunsi Memorial Secondary School Ikoyi, Edward Blyden Primary School Okesuna and Rabiatu Thompson Primary School, Surulere in Lagos State.

According to Amanfo, Etisalat has also been at the forefront of promoting local innovation in the telecoms industry, and promised that the company would do more in engendering participation in local innovation, especially now that the subscriber number across all networks is increasing daily, with its current figure put at 142 million active subscribers. She

emphasised the need to further grow the telecoms sector through capacity building and local innovation solutions.

Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah, who was represented at the seminar by NCC Commissioner, Dr. Mike Onyia, said: “From a regulatory point of view, innovation is key to the telecom industry. After the initial discoveries and development in the telecom sector, it is innovation that has catapulted growth in the sector to the height that it is achieved today. Innovation in the industry is also an attribute that is not exclusive to nations or states. The ready examples of uncountable number of apps developed in different parts of the world, riding on all available networks or platforms, shows that innovation is driving the industry.”

According to Juwah, the Commission has adopted technology neutrality in its licensing process. The reason for this is to provide opportunity for creativity and innovation in the provision of services. Restriction of service to specific technologies may not allow for innovation.

Provision of choice with the entry of multiple providers, and encouraging competition using regulatory tools is also designed to encourage

46

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

e-Business

‘How to achieve gender parity in ICT’

P

HASE 3 Telecom has urged parents/guardians, private and public institutions to expose girls to information communication technology (ICT) tools in their early stages to enable them appreciate and pursue careers in the industry. It said it is only by doing so that the current gap between male and female ICT professionals could be bridged and gender parity achieved.

Its Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Stanley Jegede who spoke during this year’s Girls in ICT Day, argued that early education, digitalised training as well as developing technology skills for women and harnessing those skills promptly is critical to Africa’s rapid socio-economic development and sustainability.

He said: “One of the key elements in addressing poverty is the empowerment of women. There is no better way to do this than ensuring the sustained representation of women in the world of technology to aid rapid socio-economic development of the African continent.”

He maintains that this and building a crop of young African girls to actively participate and compete in the evolving digital world as well

Stories by Lucas Ajanaku

as innovative global ICT space; is the basis for Phase3 Telecom’s commitment to continue to support the International Girls in ICT Day initiative.

Jegede expressed optimism that the global ICT evolution will gain greater momentum in Africa as more and more institutions and agencies advocate ICT skills for women on the continent. He believes that “young African girls must be encouraged early to see the advantages and dividends of the dynamic and fast-evolving ICT sector”.

Phase 3 Telecom collaborated with e-Business Life Communications to mark this year’s edition of the globally celebrated International Girls in ICT Day which is an initiative of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

With Expanding Horizons and Changing Attitudes as its theme, the initiative is a global effort to raise awareness on empowering and encouraging girls and young women to consider studies and careers in ICTs. To date, over 111,000 girls and young women have taken part in more than 3,500 events held in 140

countries around the world.

Jegede praised the commitment of eBusiness Life to ensuring the programme holds year-on-year to mentor and support girls who have keen interest in walking the ICT career path whether in engineering, design, operations or research. It is notable that in West Africa, women are significantly under-represented across the board in ICT sector – from education and training programmes right through to high level careers both in the academia or industry.

Managing Director of eBusiness Life Communication Mrs. Ufuoma Emuophedaro said the need to sensitise young girls is premised on the fact that society has unconsciously promoted the stereotypical ideals that technical discipline, especially ICT-based careers, are best suited for the male gender.

She said efforts should be made to introduce young girls to career opportunities in technical fields in both the public and private sectors to help them have a wider range of options and contribute their quota to the industry and in the development of the economy. She added that the ICT Girls’ Day workshop and attending campaign will further open up opportunities for girls in the sector.

T

Phone: Huawei P8

HE Huawei P8 takes the Chinese smartphone manufacturer up a level, but can it really challenge Samsung, HTC and Apple?

Huawei Ascend P7 smartphone impressed with its slimline good looks and top-quality camera, but it was undermined by sluggish performance and an overfussy UI. This year, the company is aiming to improve on that with its latest flagship device, the Huawei P8 It certainly seems to have achieved that from a design perspective. The P8 is superslim, measuring a mere 6.9mm from front to back, it weighs only 144g, and it looks great. The curved edges contrast pleasingly with the dead flat front and mattefinish rear, and the bevelled edges give it an expensive look that’s not too dissimilar to the Samsung Galaxy S6 impressive considering the P8 is considerably cheaper.

There are a couple of areas where the Huawei P8 trumps the S6, too. Although there’s no removable battery, the P8 has a microSD slot for storage expansion, it’s water- and dust-resistant – so it should survive an encounter with a hot cup of tea, or a soaking in a rain shower – and the camera doesn’t protrude at the rear of the handset.

The only major downside is a lack of Gorilla Glass on the front, so in time one may find it picks up scuffs and scratches more easily than its pricier rivals. So far, there no evidence of that.

Camera A smartphone is about more than looks, and Huawei has done plenty to boost the phone’s credentials in other areas as well. In particular, the 13-megapixel camera sees a couple of innovations. First on the list is the “world’s first” four-colour imaging sensor: instead of merely three sub-pixels, the sensor has an extra white pixel. Huawei claims this RGBW arrangement is able to capture more accurate colours than a traditional RGB sensor.

Second is that the camera has its own image processor, which is supposed to deliver improved scene recognition and more balanced exposures. The above innovations are accompanied by optical image stabilisation (OIS) and a dual-LED flash, plus an 8megapixel camera on the front.

The results are impressive. The camera is quick to launch and take pictures, plus it focuses quickly and confidently. The quality is fantastic, particularly in low light, where the OIS and a wide-angle f/2.0 lens mean the user can take handheld shots at shutter speeds as low as 1/4sec.

In good light, the camera dealt well with even tricky scenes, retaining detail in bright skies without losing detail in shadowy areas. Video looks just as good - crisp and rock-steady in all but the most extreme situations.

The only gripes are that in some conditions, pictures can look slightly washed out.

That’s easily fixed by bumping up the saturation in a photo editor. There’s no 4K video capture, however.

There are also a number of gimmicky software functions that you’ll probably use only once or twice: a light-painting mode, aimed at making it easy to capture taillight streaks, misty water and star trail photographs; and Director Mode, which allows you to combine four videos captured on different phones into the same project for multi-angle videos. More usefully, the camera’s macro mode can capture subjects from as close as 4cm.

Performance

•From left: General Manager, Consumer Marketing, MTN, Richard Iweanoge; Operations Lead, OLX, Funmi Ogutuga; Managing Director, Jumia Nigeria, Dr. Jonathan Doerr; Chief Marketing Officer, MTN, Olubayo Adekanmbi and CEO, Kaymu Africa, Massimiliano Spolazzi, during the launch of the MTN APPtitude campaign in Lagos

Cyber insurance scepticism exposes firms to attacks D

ISTRUST of insurers is leaving businesses vulnerable to the effects of cyber attacks, a KPMG survey has revealed.

Nearly 80 per cent of organisations belonging to KPMG’s International Information Integrity Institute (I-4) do not have cyber insurance in place.

Belief that insurers will not pay out on a claim is the top reason information security heads are not buying cyber insurance, the survey revealed.

This is despite 79 per cent believing that cyber security threats are likely to increase over the next year and 74 per cent regarding organised crime and state-sponsored activity as the biggest threats.

For those I-4 members whose businesses have purchased cyber insurance, 48 per cent think the policies may not pay out if they need it.

“It is worrying to see that so many businesses would rather risk having no insurance in place to protect themselves against a threat they believe is very real,” said I-4 head Mark Waghorne.

“It is also disappointing that cyber insurance is viewed as providing little comfort to those who have it, as almost half don’t believe they would be compensated properly if

push came to shove.”

According to the survey, about a third of respondents believe the market for cyber insurance is not yet mature enough.

Waghorne said insurers will need to deliver more comprehensive packages to convince the business community that they can and will protect against losses on cyber crime.

However, he said discussions during a later debate at the most recent I-4 Forum showed that the availability of specialist, focused cyber-related insurance has much improved during the past year with clear evidence that carriers do pay out.

“This indicates that those organisations which have avoided cyber insurance in the past should perhaps revisit their positions,” said Waghorne.

In February 2015, a study by The Corporate Executive Programme (CEP) revealed that United Kingdom (UK) companies are lagging behind US companies in taking out insurance to cushion the financial impact of cyber attacks.

Only 13 per cent of large and midsized companies in the UK with an-

nual turnover of $1million to $1billion have dedicated cyber insurance, the study showed.

Some 40 per cent of United States (U.S.) companies polled said they had dedicated cyber insurance, indicating greater familiarity with cyber security product offerings than their UK counterparts.

Overall, only 20 per cent of respondents said their organisation had dedicated cyber cover – an equal number had no cover at all.

In November 2014, the UK government joined forces with the insurance industry to improve how UK businesses manage cyber security risk.

The initiative builds on the government’s 10 Steps to Cyber Security and the Cyber Essentials Scheme as part of the UK Cyber Security Strategy.

The UK government believes working with the insurance industry to develop a comprehensive cyber security insurance model will encourage private sector firms to manage cyber risk.

However, the government has emphasised that cyber insurance does not replace the need for good cyber security practice.

Core components comprise a Hisilicon Kirin 930/935 octa-core processor with twin quad-core CPUs running at frequencies of 2GHz and 1.5GHz respectively.

There’s 3GB of RAM, a Mali T624 GPU, and either 16GB or 64GB of storage, depending on the model you choose.

It feels nippy - much more so than last year’s P7 - but benchmarks reveal that despite the impressive-sounding statistics, the P8 isn’t in the same league as top-end phones such as the HTC One M9 and Samsung Galaxy S6, with the GPU particularly letting the side down.

Pure number crunching is, in fact, pretty strong, with Geekbench 3 results only a touch behind the HTC One M9, but a frame rate of 18fps in the GFXBench T-Rex HD test is a long way behind the M9’s 49fps.

The battery looks competitive at a capacity of 2,680mAh, but it, too, lags behind.

With moderate use, hardly any gaming and only a modicum of web browsing and photography, we found it would make it through a day, but it needed recharging every evening. Competitors such as the Sony Xperia Z3 and Samsung Galaxy S6 would comfortably last into the second day under such use. This was very much reflected in our battery tests, with video playback depleting capacity at a rate of 14.9% per hour and audio streaming using it up at 6.9 per cent per hour – both results are well below average.

The P8’s 1080p screen is better. Brightness is fine, reaching 419cd/m2 at maximum settings, and viewing angles are excellent. The IPS-Neo technology helps it to achieve a contrast ration of 1,461:1 - higher than normal for IPS panels. However, its colour accuracy isn’t all that great, and as a result it lacks the visual impact that phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S6 possess.

Other features, software Elsewhere, as with most Huawei devices, the P8 is packed with novelty features. There’s a crazy feature called “Knuckle sense” that allows you to capture a screenshot with a tap of your knuckle; utterly pointless unless you’re an IT journalist. In fact, we could do entirely without Huawei’s rather heavy-handed Emotion UI, which in our view doesn’t improve a jot on the underlying Android 5.02.

Still, Huawei has added some more useful features, including improvements to call quality via wind-noise reduction, automatic microphone sensitivity and earpiece volume control.

We had no complaints about call quality whether indoors or outdoors, although during speakerphone calls, the speaker had an unpleasant scratchy quality when we turned up the volume You can also wake up the phone with a customisable key phrase, then say, “where are you?” to help you find the unit if it’s lost down the side of the sofa. Huawei has also introduced a number of features aimed at improving the phone’s ability to hold a strong signal. In the absence of an anechoic chamber in which to scientifically test this, however, it’s impossible to say definitively whether the P8 is better or worse than the average smartphone.There’s even a dual-SIM version of the phone, where the micro SD slot can cleverly double as a second nano SIM slot. A simple idea, and one that could prove useful to frequent travellers.

Verdict The Huawei P8 finds itself in an awkward position. On the one hand, it isn’t a match for the very best smartphones we’ve seen. The S6 is secure on its throne at the very top, and the HTC One M9, Sony Xperia Z3, Nexus 6 and iPhone 6 are all better phones, with superior battery life and graphics performance in particular.

On the other hand, it isn’t quite cheap enough to get our wholehearted recommendation, especially with its disappointing battery life. The P8 is certainly an interesting proposition, especially if you value great camera quality above all else, but we recommend you investigate options such as Samsung Galaxy S5, which is cheaper SIM-free, or the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, which can be had for around 420 pounds, before you take the plunge.

•Culled from PC PRO

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

47

THE NATION

NATURAL HEALTH CLINIC DAY

E-mail:- health@thenationonlineng.net

A researcher and traditional medicine practitioner, Reverend Father Anselm Adodo, answers the question on indigenous treatment for malaria.

Researcher okays local treatment for malaria

M

ALARIA is an infectious disease caused by single-celled plasmodium protists including P. falcimalariae, and P.ovale. The parasites are usually transmitted from infected to non infected people via the bite of female Anopheles mosquitoes; about 60 species parasites take up residence in the victim's red blood cells.

The disease is characterized by episodes of chills and fever followed by profuse sweating; shaking and fatigue are other common symptoms. Repeated bouts can result in severe anemia, dehydration and death. Infants, children and pregnant women are at greatest risk of severe illness and death.

Malaria is endemic, dependent on a local symbiosis between infected anopheles mosquitoes and human. The severe symptoms of malaria caused by the tiny parasite Plasmodium Falciparum appear within days and bring death to about 15 to 25percent of those stricken when great quantities of infected red blood cells are destroyed in a single burst.

Facts and figures Malaria is a prevalent in a total of 105 countries and territories: 45 countries in WHO's (World Health Organization) African region, 6 in WHO's European Region, 14 in WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Region,9 in WHO's South East Asia Region, and 10 in WHO's Western Pacific Region.

Approximately six percent of malaria cases occur in southern and Southeast Asia, Mexico, Brazil, Haiti, The America, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands.

An estimated one million people in Africa die from malaria each year, 90 percent of these deaths occur in sub-Sahara Africa.

71percent of deaths from malaria are in children under 5. A child's most vulnerable period begins at six months, when the mother's protective immunity wears off and before the infant has established its own robust immune system. Once infected child's condition may deteriorate quickly and children can die within 48hours after the first systems appear.

Recent studies show that malaria causes at least 20percent of all deaths in children under five years of age in Africa.

Malaria kills a child every 30 seconds 300 to 500 million clinical cases of malaria are documented each year worldwide.

The majority of infections in Africa are caused by Plasmodium Falciparum , the most dangerous of the four human malaria parasites.

In all malaria- endemic countries in Africa, 25-40 percent (average30percent) of all out- patient clinic visits is for malaria (with most dangerous diagnosis made clinically).

In these same countries, between 20percent and 50percent of hospital admission are consequences of malaria.

More than 41percent of the world's population is at risk of acquiring malaria, and the proportion increases yearly due to deteriorating health systems, growing drug and insecticide resistance, climate change and war.

According to the report of the commission on Macro economics and Health, up to US two billion dollars will be needed each year to achieve the goal of halving the burden of malaria by 2010. Currently, only US600 million dollars is being spent.

There are three principal ways in which malaria can contribute to death in young children: •an Overwhelming acute infection, which frequently presents as seizures or coma (cerebral malaria), may kill a child directly and quickly.

•Repeated malaria infections contribute to the development of severe anemia,

Question I have been having a relapse of malaria, can you enlighten me about the disease and recommend a suitable traditional medicine for treating it?

Gbadebo Samson, 22 yearold Businessman, Ondo State.

•Bitter leaf

•Lemon grass

•English goat weed

which substantially increase the risk of death.

•Low birth weight- frequently the consequence of malaria infection in pregnant women- is the major risk factor for death in the first month of life. In addition, repeated malaria infections make young children more susceptible to other common childhood illness such as diarrhea and respiratory infections, and thus contribute indirectly to mortality.

Symptoms •Chills and headache that come and go.

•fever that recurs every 2or 3 days, each lasting from 2-3 hours.

•muscular pains •heavy perspiration •Loss of appetite •Weakness, pale skin Prevention •avoid mosquito attacks •eat food rich in vitamin •Keep the environment clean •Remove old cans, broken pots, etc from the surroundings. This items act as breeding places for mosquitoes.

• The use of dried pawpaw leaves as an anti-malaria tea is very important. Dry some pawpaw leaves and grind to powder.

Keep in brown paper bag or glass bottle.

Add one tablespoon of the powder to a cup of hot water and allow it to infuse for ten minutes before drinking. This prophylactic formula is a cheaper and more effective way to deal with scourge of malaria as it deals with prevention rather than cure.

Resistance to treatment In Africa, most cases of malaria are diagnosed on the basis of clinical symptoms and treatment is presumptive, rather than based

•Adodo

on laboratory confirmation. The main clinical symptoms of, malaria- fever and general weakness- are nonspecific and may well be due to other common infections.

Resistance to chloroquine- the former treatment of choice- is now widespread in 80percent of the 92 countries where malaria continues to be a major killer, while resistance to newer second and third-line drugs continues to grow. (WHO publication CDs 2000) WHO guidelines stipulate that once a country's resistance levels to a drug reach 15percent, it should start considering a policy shift to a new drug. The parasites have become resistant to insecticides. Efforts to produce a malaria vaccine have been extensive but unsuccessful.

•Orange peel

Government policy Africa government must look for homemade solutions to the spread of malaria rather than adopting foreign made remedies which will only help to improve the economy of the other nations and impoverish Africans. Importation of mosquito nets to prevent malaria is an example of foreign solution to a local problem. In the first place, how many can afford it? Secondly, who say that African mosquitoes cannot bite during the day when you are not lying down under your mosquito nets? Health is the greatest asset of any nation. I believe that home grown health systems and remedies offer the best hope to improving and safeguarding.

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

48

NATURAL HEALTH

Anti-aging tips for Buhari in Change era (5) M

OTHER nature is wise and right wherever you turn in this wonderful Creation. Can it be otherwise when nature bears or anchors the will of God in Creation? In the fourth part of this series last week, I answered the question of a reader who wanted to know why mother Nature did not equip the human body with antioxidants to destroy free radicals which destroy human cells, tissues, organs, system, and by, extension, shorten human life, when it is clear that we must always encounter free radicals and even produce them in our bodies every day.

The enquirer thought that Mother Nature, always credited with WISDOM, should have seen well ahead and provided the human body with a free radicals antidote. The reader arrived at this point of enquiry after reading about how free radicals are present in the air we breathe, water we drink and food we eat, how germs produce them in our bodies to destroy the immune system, how the immune system produces its own free radicals to destroy germs, how waste product of metabolism (breathing, digestion e.t.c) are all free radicals. It is reasonable to infer from this that if these wastes are not completely eliminated as they are produced, we accumulate free radicals overtime, endanger the cells and shorten life on earth.

Many people, for example, do not employ up to 40 per cent of the capacity of their lungs to bring in oxygen and to eliminate carbon dioxide produced during metabolism. Exercise helps to improve utilisation of more lung capacity.

Many people are constipated. This means the organs of digestion have been so impaired by free radicals that they cannot function properly and this is causing constipation, which is loading and poisoning the system with free radicals. Can we imagine a motor car with a running engine (“metabolism”) in which the waste products ( carbon and soot of the combustum of petrol or diesel do not leave the engine through the exhaust pipe? Even the kitchens and fire places of old were equipped with chymnies to take smoke and soot safely out.

The reader in reference was baffled by what he considered a slack on the part of Mother Nature when he learned that researchers extended the lives of some animals, including fruit flies, five times over when they fed them antioxidants to erase free radicals which previously ravaged their bodies, causing premature aging and early death in their species.

In the second part of the series, GINGKO BILOBA was thrown up as one of the best antiaging antioxidants for the brain. This has spurred interest in this ancient herb which protect the brain and the eyes in particular against free radicals. More antioxidant for the brain will be mentioned as the series progress.

Last Thursday, the fourth part of this series showed that Mother Nature equipped our bodies from birth with no fewer than three antioxidants complexes to deal with all sorts of free radicals which may assail us. Our duty is to maintain their levels by consuming foods and drinks which contain them or their building blocks. Happily today, the natural health industry, responding to the work of the research community, has produced food supplements which we can take to augment or boost the stock levels.

In this, we can be like the wise motorist who never allows his petrol tank to fall below the half guage before he “fills up” the tank. Some wait till the red light warns them they are on “reserve” fuel. Often, I see pictures of people who are on full antioxidant tank and those who are on “reserve”.

Both may be heavy smokers. One may be on Vitamin C food supplement, whereas, the other is not. cigarette smoke produces free radicals, especially for the passive smoker, to inhale. Every cigarette sick smoked is said to deprive the smoker of about 60 mg of Vitamin C, an antioxidant Vitamin.

HE one who takes about 1000mg of Vitamin C everyday with food may loose about 600mg of it to smoking, whereas the smoker who does not take Vitamin C may be completely depleted of the little stock of it he had.

He ages faster than his friends, and may be in and out of the doctors’ clinic everyday, whereas the other man suffers no complain.

What happens to the cigarette smoker happens to the alcohol consumer and the coffee drinkers, to mention a few examples. I learnt from Dr. Don. Colbert that, since he discovered coffee to be acidic, free radicals laden and, therefore, toxic, and since he could not stop taking coffee, he took an antioxidant with every cup. Dr. Colbert patient may sight him taking coffee and assume, stupidly, that he was a doctor and taking coffee, they too, could take it without any harm to their bodies.

They would be ignorant of his antidote and harm themselves. I learned, also from Dr. author of, ‘What your doctor does not know about your nutrition may be killing you’, that he never fails to add Grape seed extract to his prescriptions. Many pharmaceutical drugs require antioxidant fire power to eliminate the free radical they produced in the body.

Ever since I shared this idea with an Alhaja I met in a cab on the way to Ilorin a few years ago, she has not fail to take it whenever Vitiligo spots appeared on her skin, and It has not failed to work for her.

Nature wisdom.

As suggested last week, everyone must strive to build up or fill up or top up the natural antioxidant complex stocks Mother Nature gave to us all at birth. These are: •Clutathatione •Super Oxide Dismutase (SOD) and

T

•Catalase As a reminder, Glutathatione is made in the liver from three of the 23 or 50 amino acids, namely: •Cysteine •Glutamic Acid and •Glycene.

OR these reasons, it was suggested that free form amino acids or Spirulina be a part of the daily diet. There are two lines of SOD. One Zinc and Copper. This line protects the cytoplasm of the cell. The other line comes from Manganese and protects the Mitochondria or energy factories of the cell. For this reason, Zinc, Copper and Manganese should be in the daily diet. Many people prefer cheap and pharmaceutical Vitamin C. I go for the alkaline or buffered type which comes with Calcium, magnesium, Iron and Manganese, among others. As for Catalase antioxidant enzyme complex, which destroys hydrogen perozide in the body, converting it to water and oxygen, the ingredient to consume is Selenium, a good supplement for HIV- challenged people and of which we shall soon learn more.

The eye and the vision of President Mohammadu Buhari’s desk should be laden with files in the change era. For change is not roler-coaster, but work. My high school physics taught me in the 1960’s that work was force on distance. I do not think that definition has changed. It means the force applied on a mass over a specific distance. How much change President Buhari would bring about in Nigeria, therefore, would be how much force he can apply over the obtuse, heavy minds and brains of Nigerians in one, two, three, four years.

This will call up lots of information which he has to study and take decisions on. If he will keep his election promise, he will not be like President Ebele Jonathan who delegated his office wholesales or thereabout to his ministers who, recognising his weakness for work, capitalised on it. So, can we hear the opinions of our friends, JEAN CARPER’s on good vision, in her best- seller “Stop aging now” and JUDY LIMBERG MCFARLAND in ‘Aging without growing old’?

Both are star books for health libraries I have been recommending in this series. Problems of the eyes are many and beyond the scope of this column. I would, therefore, limit their suggestions to those problems prevalent in Nigeria.

This including (1) Cataract (2) Glaucoma and (3) Macular degeneration among others.

The bottom line, according to many studies they cite, is that the eye is saturated with antioxidants to prevent its vital organs from being oxidised by rays of the sun. But, overtime, these antioxidants molecules are used up and not restocked. Many people resort to surgery rather than diet only to find the knife couldn’t sort their problems. I’ve had glaucoma since I was 45 in 1995. This was to be joined by cataract from which opthalmogists says I am now free. In learning to take care of my eyes, I learned about how it is well supplied with blood and oxygen and of how blockages of blood circulation may cause vision to or induce blindness. Vitamin A is a good antioxidants present in the eye to protect and replenish the retina. But the eye cannot absorb vitamin A well in the absence of zinc, another antioxidant.

Alpha Lipoic Acid, yet another antioxidant, functions in the fluid and tissue parts of the eye.

Beta carotene, yet another antioxidant protects the lens against cataracts. So do the twin antioxidants Lutein and Zeazanthin, plentiful in Marigold flower from where they are commercially extracted for eye formulas. They filter the damaging blue spectrum of light from sunlight to prevent it from “cooking” the lens to a “cataract” against light flow through the eye. From the Cambridge Institute for Better Vision, I was to learn the eyes need 33 nutrients everyday.

These are present in the company’s EYE MAXPLUS. Many more are present in its Advanced eye and vision formula. Let’s hear from Jean Carper: “Everybody knows cataracts are a phenomenon of getting old. Right? The figures show it: only about 4.5 percent of Americans have cataracts in their fiftieth. By ages 70 and 80, that figure has multiplied 10 times… almost 50 percent have

F

e-mail:johnolufemikusa@yahoo.com/ or johnolufemikusa@gmail.com

vision dimmed by cataracts. But is age the real culprit? And are cataracts really a necessary part of aging? Bluntly, such senile cataracts, like so many infirmities as we get older, appear to stem from a Vitamins deficiency, says Dr. Irwin H. Rosenberg, director of USDA’s Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Turfts. Or, more especially, an antioxidant deficiency. Yes, it’s those destructive free radicals at work again.

“This time, they have targeted the lens of the eyes. They are born of photo oxidation that comes with simple exposure to ultraviolet light or being in sunlight so the light strikes the lens of the eyes. Its normal, but after years, it takes a toll by oxidising proteins, damaging crystalline in the lens, turning it opaque. That is, unless you have plentiful supply of antioxidants in the lens to spice out the damaged crystalline so it does not build up into cloudy lens. Its rather clear-cut, says Dr. Rosenberg.

“A number of studies indicate that cataracts tend to come to people who gets the least antioxidant Vitamins and spare those who get the most. In particular, Vitamin C seems most powerful in warding off cataracts. In one study, Americans in the lowest one third of Vitamin C intake were 14 times more apt to develop cataracts than those in the tight end.

Those getting the least Vitamin E had a three times greater risk of developing cataracts, those skimping on Beta Carotene had one and a half times greater risks for cataracts as they aged.

“In other recent research, at the State University of New York at Stonybrook, investigators found that relatively high intakes of antioxidant nutrients corresponded with low risks of cataracts in a group of nearly 1,400 people, aged 40 to 70.

Also, those who took multivitamin supplements at least once a week for at least a year were less apt to develop cataracts as they aged than non-vitamin takers. Nor do you have to suffer macular degeneration, a serious degeneration of the eye’s macular leading to blindness.

“A

RECENT study by Micheal S. Kaminski, at the Pacific University College of Optometry in Oregon, reported that 92 percent of a group of men and women with macular degeneration were deficient in at least one anti-oxidant nutrient. 75 percent lacked two or more, most notably Vitamin E, Zinc and Selenium. Research shows that nearly everybody over age 55 lacks at least one of the major antioxidants thought to protect against macular degeneration, and three-quartres are deficient in all three. A study at the Natural eye institute show that people with the highest blood level of fruit and vegetable chemicals called carotennoids, including Beta Carotene, were only one third as apt to develop macular degeneration as those with the lowest carotenoid levels. Even those who ate moderate amounts of carotenoids cut their odds of macular degeneration in half. A carotenoid called Lutein may be particularly powerful according to Swiss researchers. They have found Lutein highly concentrated in the macular, the part of the eye responsible for sharp vision. They theorise that antioxidant Lutein and other Carotenoids fight off oxygen free radicals that can damage the macular, destroying sight. Interestingly, vegetables highest in Lutein are Kale, Spinach and collard greens. ‘’In animal studies, Vitamin C, Vitamin E and Beta carotene have been especially protecting against macular degeneration.”

Jean Carper reported, also, that Havard University researchers found that 18,000 male physicians cut their chances of developing cataracts by 27 percent simply by taking a multivitamin formula every day. They tracked the men for 10 years.

JUDY LIMBERG McFARLAND says: “Light is our richest sense, and link to the world and its wealth of imagery. It’s always amazing to me when I study the eye to think of all processes that must take place for us to be able to see. Each waking second, the eyes sends about a billion pieces of information to the brain. The eye can sense about 10 gradations of light and seven million gradations of colors. We see in such detail because the eye is almost an extension of the brain. The health of the eye is largely dependent on a variety of nutrients, the foremost of which is oxygen. When the normal function that delivers nutrition and oxygen to the eye is impaired, many disorders soon follow. Most of these disorders are associated with aging- cataract, glaucoma, and macular degeneration. But are they truly linked to aging? They may not be. “Although cataracts, glaucoma and macular degeneration have been called signs of aging for years, these health problems may also be austed or lessened with proper diet and nutritional supplement. In both human and animal studies, antioxidants seem to offer the greatest protection against aged related degeneration of the eye.”

She speaks of cataracts, as the loss of transperancy in the lens of the eye, the only transparent organ in the body.

Judy Mcfarland adds: “Many investigators, beginning as early as 1935, have reported that cataract patients have very little Vitamin C in the Aqueous humour, the fluid held between the lens and the tissue at the front of the eye. According to the late Linus Pauling, Ph.D., in a normal person there is 25 times more Vitamin C in the Aqueous humour of the eye than in the blood plasma. Supplementation with Vitamin C has caused early cataract to regress or even disappear. The vision of 60 to 90 percent of patients with early cataract improved in one study with some cares of improvement labeled “dramatic”?

Low Vitamin C has actually been labeled by researchers as the cause, not the consequence of cataract formation. What I want to know is why, after 60 years of research, this information hasn’t been filled to every senior citizen. As part of their health care programme. Now, you know cataract can regress, reverse, or disappear.

Tel: 08116759749, 08034004247, 08116759749

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

49

THE NATION

BUSINESS LABOUR

Civil servants oppose jumbo severance benefits for Jonathan, others

D

ISTURBED by the jumbo severance benefits of about N3.24 billion approved by the Presidency for political office holders, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to reject the offer so that other beneficiaries can follow suit.

In a statement in Lagos signed

Stories by Toba Agboola

by its National President, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama and the Secretary-General, Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, the union expressed worry that despite public outcry against financial recklessness and sharp practices that have been the bane of the Federal Government in the past years, the Presidency still proceeded to

approve sum of N3.24 billion as terminal benefits for political office holders whose tenure will expire on May 29, including legislators who were re-elected. ”This is a sacrilege and it is unacceptable in an economy where civil servants who serve the country for 35years or attain the age of 60 years are not paid any gratuity after service. We demand that all stakeholders in the Nigeria project

must stand up now and oppose this financial recklessness’’ the union emphasised.

The ASCSN argued that if President Jonathan and other political office holders including all advisers and assistants collect such whopping terminal benefits, then, the incoming government of General Muhammadu Buhari must ensure that they return the money to the public treasury.

It said it was inconceivable that a situation where civil servants contribute their meagre salary to the Contributory Pension Scheme and receive no gratuity after many years of service to their fatherland, political office holders who serve for one to eight years and collect millions of naira monthly still award themselves such mouth-watering severance benefits.

NLC to Buhari: revive Ajaokuta Steel

T

HE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has urged the president-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, to revive the Ajaokuta Steel Complex in Kogi State.

Its Vice President, Comrade Adelegan Solomon, who spoke in Lagos, said the revival of the multimillion dollar complex would spur industrialisation and create jobs.

“This edifice was conceived to be the cornerstone of our administration. Unfortunately, our political class has refused to accept the simple truth that no country can truly

industrialise without an iron and steel industry. The fate of Aladja, Osogbo, Jos and Katsina Steel Rolling Mills post privatisation is too grim to recall here,’’ he said.

Adelegan bemoaned the growing unemployment in the land, saying the development is unbecoming of the stature of Nigeria among comity of nations.

He pledged to task the government on their commitment to job creation in line with the incoming government’s promise to create three million jobs yearly in the country.

ITF challenges trainees on entrepreneurship, skills acquisition • From left: Wabba; Director, Trade Union and Services, Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Mrs Dike Chinedu; President, National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Comrade Najeem Yasin and SecretaryGeneral, NLC, Comrade Peter Ozo-Esan, at the Ninth National Delegates Conference of MHWUN in Abuja.

Workers believe in my leadership, says Wabba

T

HE President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, has said workers believe in his transparency and leadership style, adding that this is the reason he was elected.

Speaking with reporters in Abuja, Wabba said the NLC March election was free and fair, adding that contrary to the allegation of the aggrieved group, delegates from all states voted and represented their union.

“Permit me to clear the air over the campaign, which our erstwhile opponents in the February/March NLC elections used to try to cause division within our ranks as union. We were accused of excluding our members from the Southeast and Southsouth geo political zones from our delegates’ selection because we were unsure that our

members from these two zones would vote for the union’s candidate for the NLC President as the two opponents for the position where from the zones.

“Our National Executive Council (NEC) met in Enugu just before the NLC conference and mandated the National Administrative Committee of our union to work out the modalities and logistics of our participation in the NLC conference where our delegation was more than the total number of delegation for our conference today.

Contrary to the falsehood that was propagated that states from the two zones were excluded from our union’s delegates composition, virtually all states were given representation on the list of our union’s delegation to that conference”, Wabba said.

He said his leadership will con-

tinue to be transparent and accountable to the Nigerian workers.

He said the union’s detractors have sought to argue that payment to the NLC over the years since the leadership took over has been because of the ambition of some of its leaders to occupy elective positions in the NLC. According to Wabba, the truth of the matter is that the leadership only chose to do what is right. “Our colleagues in other unions that are short changing the NLC by paying less than the statutory 10 per cent meant for the NLC are breaking the Trade Union Act and therefore, breaking the law. We therefore, refuse to be apologetic for doing what the law requires of us,” he said.

Wabba said although efforts have been made to settle with the aggrieved group, the group rebuffed peace moves.

T

HE Industrial Training Fund (ITF) has urged its trainees to brace to the high standards expected of them.

It said it is committed to its objectives of producing skilled manpower that will drive the economy.

Its Director-General, Dr Juliet Chukkas-Onaeko, said its students should imbibe the knowledge provided by the fund, and take charge of leading the nation and the continent into an era of sustainable economic development.

She said the vision of economic leadership on the continent by the country could only be achieved when adequate attention and commitment is shown by stakeholders to imbibe youths with continuous vocational and technical training knowledge that can create jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities for them and other citizens.

The ITF chief noted that while students have excelled in various technical and vocational sectors, it was important for the beneficiaries of the training to make the most use of it and become entrepreneurs.

Warning the students against ex-

ternal and internal influences and activities that are capable of derailing their goals, she urged the beneficiaries to consider themselves lucky, considering that ITF’s graduates are “hot cakes” as far as employment, job creation and entrepreneurship in the industrial sector was concerned.

According to her, the leadership of the ITF has remained focused in meeting the critical manpower needs of the country, despite the challenges and high cost of providing vocational and technical training.

She assured the students of providing effective training for them.

She said excellence and high standards would continue to define the activities of the fund.

Mrs Chukkas-Onaeko pointed out that some of the challenges the fund were inherited, urging some of its students who raised concerns over the elongated stay in the skills acquisition centre to remain calm.

She urged the students to focus on acquiring skills,assuring them that the challenge of securing more equipment for the centre was already being addressed by the agency.

Health workers seek adequate funding for primary health care

T

HE Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) has called on the Federal Government to ensure better funding and equipment of the primary health care system in the country.

Its immediate past President Ayuba Wabba spoke at the Ninth National Delegates Conference of MHWUN in Abuja.

Wabba, who is also the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), said it was imperative for the primary health care system, which accounts for 70 per cent of Nigeria’s health care requirement to be given the necessary attention in the area of funding and equipment.

He said the infrastructure decay

in the health sector should be tackled effectively through increased investment in health infrastructure, training and retraining in human resources, among others.

He lamented over the report that Nigerians spend N1trillion on medical treatments abroad annually. This, he said, further confirmed the poor state of health care delivery in the country.

“Perhaps it captures the state of decay of our health infrastructure that those who could afford it have been travelling out of the country at the slightest opportunity for medical treatment”, he said.

He said the medical workers had over the years consistently advocated for the country to come to

terms with the level of decay in the nation’s health care system. He also advised the Federal Government to ensure the extension of universal health coverage to rural communities through the National Health Insurance Scheme.

Wabba, who praised the Federal Government for passing the National Health Bill into an Act, called for a holistic implementation of the Act through the establishment of Local Government Primary Health Care Authority and the State Health Care Development authorities across the country.

He said: “We have over the years consistently advocated that for us, as a country, to come to terms with the level of decay in our healthcare

system, we need to go back to the basics and prioritise investment in health infrastructure, training and retraining of human resources and strive to attain set targets in the sector.

“For us in the union, it is important that as articulated in the National Health Policy Document, that primary healthcare which accounts for 70 per cent of the healthcare requirements of all Nigerians is adequately funded, properly equipped and staffed with trained professionals…”

He said after more than six years, the union is happy that the National Health Bill, which suffered many hiccups, has been finally signed into law by the President recently.

“It is our hope that with the law

•Minister of Health, Dr Khaliru Alhassan

now in place, the incoming government will develop the will to implement the provisions of the Act,” he said.

50

THE NATION THURSDAY MAY 7, 2015

The root ideas of the new policy were that the peoples of the tropics were, es‘sentially and permanently, inferior to Europeans, in every human sense, and in particular both that they were incapable of free institutions and that they conducted their own institutions so badly as to justify alien government irrespective of their wishes, so that, in Burke’s phrase, they were “doomed to live upon trust

Nigeria: Political power imbalance: The bane and chain down of Nigeria’s progress and development •Excerpts from a 261- paged book by Sir Olaniwun Ajayi ...Continued from yesterday.

I

T is interesting to observe that this man who now became a Doctor of Philosophy was a slave-gift.

He was a gift to the Duke of the Wolfen - buttel, a German, in 1707. He served his master as a page for many years.

This was the period when Africans, taken as slaves, were under various kinds of oppression and degradation, when the Africans were being dehumanised. It was just great that William Amo came, and to a great extent, to remove the blemish on the Africans.

But, thank goodness, he was not alone. There came another African, this time, a Nigerian. He was called Olaudah Equiano. He made a wonderful contribution to the abolitionist movement. Towards this end, he worked hard among both Blacks and Whites who were working very hard towards the abolition of the slave trade.

But while the unlawful and inhuman traffic in slaves was on and, indeed, many years after the official abolition, the Black Africans had been in mental darkness, human degradation, under - development and seriously depressed.

In a situation like this, the Africans accepted their being inferior towards the Whites. And of course, the Whites had taken them as being inferior and so treated them as such.

However, the death of the slave trade made it necessary, perhaps imperative, for the Whites to look for other commodities for export to Europe. Good as the tropics might be, the blemish and the hideous scar which the illicit trade in slaves created made the indelible impression in the mind of the white race that the status of the Black Africans was nothing, not more than that of their master’s cattle. This view of the Whites partly informed the belief that the Africans were basically different from the rest of the world. Therefore, it was argued that their destiny might be better guided by the Whites. It would appear that the thinking, and perhaps, the belief of the Whites and asiatics were that tropical Africa was most unfit for any principle that might underlie the Whites’ future relations with the tropical regions of the world. And so Benjamin Kidd argued and said: “Over a considerable proportion of these regions at present we have existing a state anarchy, or of primitive savagery, pure and simple, in which no attempt is made or can be made to develop the natural resources lying to hand.”

It appears a socratic irony to observe the high and interesting value which Benjamin Kidd placed on the tropics regarding the lucrative trade between the British and the tropical region. The same Kidd writes: “ ... it is well known that in recent years, several of the important and expanding industries have been dependent on the regular supply of these materials, Indian — rubber, the demand for which is likely to continue to increase.

The imports in 1882 were valued at £2,700,000; in 1896, they were valued at some £5,000,000. The next article is Cocoa, the British imports in 1896 were 38000,000 lb. valued at £1,053,962, Coffee, some 80,000,000 lb. were imported, valued at £3,558,746...”If we consider now the trade of the United Kingdom at the end of nineteenth century in relation to the historical movements mentioned at the outset, we may regard it as falling into three great divisions as follows: Trade of the U.K in 1896 with the tropics £1380000 With the English-speaking world (not including £2330000 Total with the Tropics and English-speaking £3710000 With the rest of the world £3670000 Gross total £7380000 Adding together, therefore, the exports and imports of the USA, we have remarkable analysis of the entire trade of the country as follows: Trade of the USA in 1895 with the Tropics $ 346,000,000 With the English-speaking world (not including $ 657,000,000 Total with the Tropics and English-speaking world $ 1,003,000,000 With the rest of the world $ 535,000,000 Gross Total US$ 1,538,000,000 With the 1895 and 1896 rosy trade relations between the tropical regions and United Kingdom and the United States of America as stated above, it is certainly mystifying, that Dr. Benjamin Kidd could write as he did: “No serious attempt, at least no attempt of the kind which the importance of the subject appears to deserve, has so far been made to set forth the principles which should underlie our future relations with the tropical regions of the world.

It is hardly surprising therefore to observe the confirmed view of Kidd, stressing firmly that: “...there never has been, and there never will be, within any time with which we are practically concerned, such a thing as good government, in the European sense, of the tropics by the natives of these regions... The tropics will not be developed by the natives themselves.”

A country is a country: either small or big. America is a big

•Sir Olaniwun

say that Nigeria played a ma‘jorTorole in the nefarious business of slavery, slave trade and slave raid would be an understatement.

There were thirteen major slave trading parts in West Africa.

About seven or eight of the thirteen parts were located in Nigeria

’

country just as Portugal, comparatively, is a small country.

Nonetheless, we cannot deny Portugal of its rights because it is small against the rights of big America. The fact that a country is small, weak and underdeveloped does not mean that its people should enjoy less or fewer rights as citizens or suffer contempt, humiliations and scorn of an inferior status.

It is therefore true to observe that an intellectual, like Alfred Cobban, could generalise so wide and scornfully stating, as he did in his book ‘National Self-Determination’ that: “National self-determination may in its normal political connotation be out of question in Africa...”

Unfortunately, Benjamin Kidd was not alone, regarding this parade of scorn and contempt for Black Africans.

Theodore Lothrop Stoddard in his book - ‘The Rising Tide of Colour Against White World Supremacy,’ published in 1920, said as follows: “Unless, then, every lesson of history is to be disregarded, we must conclude that Black Africa is unable to stand alone.

The Black man’s number may increase prodigiously and acquire alien veneers, but the black man’s nature will not change.

Black unrest may grow and cause much trouble...”

In the matter in issue, it would be inappropriate to fail to make due reference to the part played by Lord Frederick Lugard who, himself is on record as the most tenacious and, to a very great extent, the most successful of all the proconsuls who put a powerful moral stamp on the character of European rule in Africa. If Lugard had any liking for Africans at all, it could only be for the Fulanis. Lugard’s book: ‘Dual Mandate in Tropical Africa,’ published in 1922 is replete with many unwholesome references which are demeaning and contemptuous of Africans. Lugard said: “The verdict of students of history and sociology of different nationalities... is unanimous that the era of complete independence is not as yet visible on the horizon of time.”

Lugard referred to the statement credited to Dr. Stoddard and Meredith Townsend who said: “None of the Black races, for instance, whether Negro or Australasian, has shown within the historic time the capacity to develop civilisation. They have never passed the bounda-

’

ries of their own habitat as conquerors, and never exercised the smallest influences over peoples not Black. They have never founded a stone city, never built a ship, have never produced a literature, have never suggested a creed...”

At this juncture, it may be apposite to add the views expressed by Norman Leys, a medical officer in the British administration in East Africa who remarked thus: “The root ideas of the new policy were that the peoples of the tropics were, essentially and permanently, inferior to Europeans, in every human sense, and in particular both that they were incapable of free institutions and that they conducted their own institutions so badly as to justify alien government irrespective of their wishes, so that, in Burke’s phrase, they were “doomed to live upon trust.” It followed that the wealth of the countries inhabited by these ‘lesser breed without the law’ — and it was soon found to be enormous—should not be left for hands so incompetent to neglect and abuse.

These conceptions were fixed in the public mind by Mr. Joseph Chamberlain when he called our dependencies “Imperial Estates.” Up to that time, they had been thought of as belonging to their inhabitants, not to the people of this country. Lord Cromer, that arch-enemy of the concessionaire, was the last prominent exponent of the earlier Imperial Policy.

The new policy was directed by Mr. Chamberlain and exemplified by Mr. Cecil Rhodes and the Chartered Companies of South Africa and Borneo.”

As an aftermath of the nefarious trade in slaves, the impression, maybe hard impression, but which subsequent events and development have negatived, was that the Black Africans were weak, docile, lacking in self-confidence and holding themselves inferior to the White race.

Indeed, the impression was deep that the people of tropical Africa were quite different from the rest of mankind and that their destiny could only be guided or directed by the White race. And so, as in the previous instances cited, a Professor of history in Temple University, USA, Arthur Norton Cook, wrote thus: “The day is far distant when the peoples of Africa will be capable of organising independent states, but past experience has shown that there will come a time when even the most liberal rulers can neither help nor hold a dependent people.”

In the twenties and early thirties, countervailing events and episodes began. Agitation for self-determination started in the Gold Coast (now Ghana) and in Nigeria. Political movements and agitation for self-rule continued to develop. Therefore, the whole world came to realise that Africans were determined to promote their own political development.

In this connection, two very relevant matters call for mention. The first one was a thoughtfully prophetic statement made by David Livingstone. The other one was an inspiring and soul - lifting statement by William Pitt. The first is by David Livingstone who averred thus: “Africans would be the saving of their own country.”

Closely similar to the foregoing was a comment by Rita Hinden, stating as follows in her Author’s Note: “At least as much now depends on the actions of the people in the Colonies as on anything Britain can do, and a separate book might well be written on Colonial attitudes to imperialism, as a counterpart to this study of imperial attitudes to the Colonies. But such a book, if it is to ring true, can only come from someone who has himself experienced what it is to be a member of a subject race.”

It is disappointing to note, that Mergery Perham, with her many years of contact with Colonial Africa, particularly Nigeria, could, like the others who knew Nigeria less, comparing tropical Africa with Asia, affirm the very provocative and rebuttable proposition in her lecture of 29 July, 1951 at Foreign Affairs Institute,” The British Problem in Africa”: “In Asia, there are great areas of cultural and religious unity and of common pride, based on the inheritance of ancient civilisations. These people have brought their historic culture through centuries of subjection to Western influence with their deepest element still inviolate .... The meeting of the West with Asia, for all the present disparity of material power, will have to be between equals in status....The dealings between tropical Africa and the West must be different.

Here, in place of the larger unities of Asia was the multicellular tissue of tribalism; instead of an ancient civilisation the largest area of primitive poverty enduring into the modern age.

Until the very recent penetration by Europe, the greater part of the continent was without the wheel, the plough and the transport animal; almost without stone houses or cloths except for skins; without writing and so without history.”

A sharp critique of Miss Perham’s lecture came with a classic rebuttal by a Historian, Professor K. Onwuka Dike by way of a lecture— “African History and Self-Government.”

He said: “Such statements, if true, justify doubts about Africa’s future. But an analysis of this and similar evidence reveals certain assumptions which can be questioned. In the first place, some European students seem to assume that no other culture or standard of progress is valid except their own. But there is no criterion by which to compare one culture in terms of progress with another. Each is the product of its environment and must primarily be judged in relation to the community which it serves. The term ‘culture’ is used by Anthropologists to cover a wide field; laws, customs, traditions, music, art, morals, belief, dress; in fact, everything which goes to the making of the full life of a given community.”

• To be continued...

THE NATION THURSDAY MAY 7, 2015

51

Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s victory portends hope for the country. It also ‘portends a new dawn for the Nigerian people. He is a dogged fighter and never tired of fighting the cause of the down-trodden. He has a duty to rekindle our hopes, to give the nation a new sense of direction by containing and combating fundamental issues that retard our progress as a nation

’

Dr. Abimbola Ajayi Ojora is the former Lagos State Alliance for Democracy Senator-elect Shehu Sani (Kaduna Central) (AD) governorship aspirant. In this interview with IBRAHIM ADAM, she spoke on the recent general elections, power speaks about the marginalisation of women in politics and other partisan issues. shift and the other transition programme.

Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN met him.

‘Why AD can’t bounce back’

W

HAT led to your withdrawal from the governorship race in the Alliance for Democracy (AD)?

The action of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) was nothing short of manipulation of the highest order. The responsibility of any credible party is to conduct a free and fair primary where there is more than one aspirant for a position. However, when a primary session is conducted in the absence of eligible aspirants is an attempt to side line other aspirant(s); then the exercise is a manipulation; has no credibility; not free nor fair. This was what AD did. Where a so-called primary was conducted and I as an aspirant (my letter of intent duly accepted by the party), paid substantial amount to the party and spent a lot of money on my campaign, including acquisition of a befitting campaign secretariat was side lined in an orchestrated primary, then it is nothing but manipulation. Unfortunately, I later learnt that this is the trade mark of the National Leader of AD. Does it mean the party doesn’t want a female aspirant or what did you see as the main problem?

Well, like I later learnt, the party had its hidden agenda all along. It was unfortunate that I was rather too trusting, particularly of the National Chairman and the State Chairman. Their hidden agenda is gradually unfolding.

I believe that both leaders from the onset were simply stringing me along to milk me and members of my campaign organisation for all they could get. It actually was later learnt from one of them that they couldn’t have fielded a woman. In other words, their problem seemed to be because I am a woman. Though, that would have been there best leg forward, if they ever had any intention of going to the polls in the first place.

Are you withdrawing from politics?

Not at all. Nigeria is my country and together we will salvage it. The leadership of AD that deceived me only goes to prove the depth of insincerity, deceit and dishonesty in the land. Much is expected from our leadership, particularly as role models, but integrity, truth, credibility and justice seem to be in scarcity in the land. It would have been expected of me to run for cover, given the way the leadership of AD treated me. But, the Almighty God who led me into this race is and has been my strength, my guide, my fortress and my influence. If my decision to join the political terrain had been only humanly guided, I might have been bitterly dis-

• Former President Ibrahim Babangida (middle), National Patron of the Nigerian League of Democrats (NLD) Lateef Bakare (left) and the National Coordinator, NLD Otunba Omoniyi Adebanjo, during a meeting with the former leader in Minna, the Niger State capital.

• Mrs. Ojora

Women are always ‘used and dumped or given tokens to silence them, whereas we are the backbone of almost all structures of human existence and subsistence.

We are the ones men use for grassroots mobilisation

’

couraged. But, I was called into this by God, through whom I have understood that “when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rules, the people groan.” By God’s grace, I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. My coming into the political terrain of my beloved country is to create an environment where Nigerians once again will rejoice, young or old; male or female.

And by God’s grace, I am not relenting. I see a Nigeria, where there are genuine smiles on the faces of all.

How does your husband feel about your involvement in politics?

My husband has always been supportive in every good thing I have ever ventured into, and politics is not an exception. As a matter of fact, he was the one that reminded me that he had always noticed my passion for the welfare of people in general and politics in particular since we met 31 years ago. He is not a politician, nor does he understand much about politics, but he nevertheless encourages and sup-

ports me always, financially and otherwise. I thank him, our children and our extended family so much. When you have a supportive family, both nuclear and extended, the political battle for a woman is half won.

Do you see a female aspirant emerging the President or governor in the future?

Oh yes! Soon and very soon, the role of a woman in today’s politics cannot be underestimated and neither can it be enmeshed in the mud.

The role of women in all spheres of life is that of balance. Life, be it national life, family life or corporate life is moderated by both male and female perspectives on issues, without which there would be no balance. In nations where this balance is adequately appreciated, women are contributing their quota in managing the affairs of their land. Female-led national leadership are increasing around the globe, as can be seen in Liberia, Germany, Argentina, Bangladesh, Malta, Switzerland, South Korea, just to name but a few. It is therefore in the best interest of Nigeria to make available the enabling environment, rather than paying lip service to equitable integration of women in every spheres of nation building, particularly in elective posts.

What is your advice to women who are being marginalised in politics?

All women, young or old, particularly young adolescent girls, young women and older women, should know that their participation in the governance of their land is their civic responsibility. We have the numerical strength, we have a unique and peculiar perspective to life issues. Nigeria, as an entity, is an obvious example. I lay it bare that, if there has been an equal representation of women in the administration and management of the country, Nigeria would have been singing a different tune by now. Women are always used and dumped or given tokens to silence them, whereas we are the backbone of almost all structures of human existence and subsistence. We are the ones men use for grassroots mobilisation. So, if we decide to support just one of us we know what the result will be, money or no money, rigging or no rigging. More women should therefore present themselves for elective positions. Nigeria polity should de-emphasise money in our politics, so that truthful, honest, intelligent, capable and credible women can present themselves for elective leadership positions in our nation.

‘Buhari should punish looters’

W

HAT does Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s victory portend for the country?

Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s victory portends hope for the country.

It also portends a new dawn for the Nigerian people. He is a dogged fighter and never tired of fighting the cause of the down-trodden. He has a duty to rekindle our hopes, to give the nation a new sense of direction by containing and combating fundamental issues that retard our progress as a nation; that tarnishes our image. Nigerians are hopeful that Gen. Buhari will clear the mess which the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has heaped on Nigeria in the last 16 years.

The people of Southsouth and Southeast allege that their counterparts from the North and Southwest ganged-up to remove President Goodluck Jonathan from office. What’s your view?

In democracy, gang-up is legitimate. They had their gang-up in 2011 and crashed in 2015. A bigger gang-up is at play. The Southsouth and the Southeast should adapt themselves to the reality on ground.

That reality is that Nigeria has done away with the Jonathan era. They should embrace the change that has taken place in Nigeria.

Do you think the sack of former Inspector General of Police Suleiman Abba was necessary?

It was not necessary for a President whose tenure would terminate in the next one month. President Jonathan became a frustrated and angry man since he lost presidential election. He was on revenge mission. The police had performed creditably in the general elections, compared to the past when they were biased. They remained neutral throughout the general elections. They adhered strictly to the ethics and professionalism codes in discharging their duties during the elections.

Will the probe of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) not distract Gen Buhari?

Buhari must institute a probe on the NNPC accounts for two fundamental objectives: for the recovery of the looted money and to punish those involved in the looting of the treasury. If we don’t probe, we are setting a bad precedent and giving the perpetrators a leeway to continue the looting. All stolen money should be returned and the looters punished. People say we should forgive.

How do you forgive what you don’t know. We need to know the level of rot before we can give.

How should the new federal cabinet be set up?

The incoming cabinet should be made up of competent people, not a theatre for settling political patronage. He should not appoint people for the sake of compensating them for their contributions to his electoral victory. If he fails, he will carry the blame. If he succeeds, he and his team will get the commendation.

Nigeria is in emergency, we need people that can assist in rescuing it.

The cabinet of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo were made up of people that were rewarded for

• Sani

their contribution for his electoral victory.

As a Senator-elect, will you support a reduction in the salaries and allowances of legislators?

If the sacrifice is in the national interest, it is a welcome development. We should all make sacrifice.

Patriotism should not be for poor people alone. All of us should be ready to make sacrifice for the progress of the country.

Will you encourage the government to honour the late Chief Moshood Abiola?

Yes, I will use the Senate platform to ensure that a presidential library in Abuja and a monument in the National Assembly are named after the late Chief Abiola. He remains the hero of freedom and democracy and the foundation of our democratic journey in the past 16 years.

Without the sacrifice made by Abiola there would be no democracy in this country today. All political office holders are beneficiaries of Abiola’s sacrifice.

The success of March 28 presidential elections will be better attributed to the sacrifice made by Abiola. He lived at a time when human sacrifice was very rare. It was resistance against the annulment of June 12 that gave Nigerians the inspiration to resist dictatorship and call for positive change. The hopes and dreams dashed in the past 16 years are now reawakening with a new government to be installed on May 29. Buhari was one of the few northerners who called for the revalidation of Abiola’s mandate in the heat of the struggle.

The PDP government appreciates party members holding political office and people that are loyal to government in power. Many Nigerians who struggled for the restoration of democracy are not recognised. MKO Abiola deserves all the honours we can bestow on him. Heroes in other climes do not die in vain.

What is your plan for Kaduna Central Senatorial Zone?

I will pursue bills that will enhance five major areas: education, jobs, industry, healthcare, peace and security. All these are vital to the development of my senatorial district.

It appears the youths have taken over the political leadership of Kaduna State. What do you think?

Yes, you are correct. In Kaduna State today, there is new spirit, new order, new era, new generation that think differently from the old brigade. A new political order has emerged. The youths are challenging the older generation and determined to bring down the wall of conservatism that dominates northern political class in the past.

52

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

NEWS Honour for Kuku in U.S.

T

HE State of Georgia, United States will on Saturday honour the Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan and Chairman, Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Mr Kingsley Kuku in Atlanta.

He will be conferred with Congressional Commendation from Georgia Legislative Black Caucus. Honorary citizenship of State of Georgia will also be conferred on him.

A letter from the organisers said: “The Commendation and honour from the State of Georgia is in recognition of your unrivalled contribution to Nigeria’s socioeconomic growth and development-leading the Presidential Amnesty Program transparently and undertaken monumental projects that have contributed immensely towards reforming the ex-agitators and contributing manpower to the oil & gas, Aviation, Logistics and other Services industry in Nigeria and Africa at large.

“The Congressional Commendation Award shall be presented to you by the Leadership of Georgia Legislative Assembly, while the Secretary of the State of Georgia, Mr. Brain P. Kemp, will present you with the Honorary Citizenship of the state of Georgia.

“The Board in its recommendation letter to the International advisory board, who made the submission for this honour, maintained that the Presidential Amnesty Program under your leadership is reputed to be one of the most ambitious and home-grown Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration Programme under which 30,000 former agitators were enlisted. They also maintain that you have approached the program with uncommon passion and commitment, which have earned local and global commendations from organizations around the world.

Some expected guests at this event include the Executive Governor of Georgia, Mr. Nathan Deal, Nigerian Ambassador to the United States Ade Adefuye and foremost civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Vehicle owners get ultimatum

T

HE Ogun State Police Command has warned owners of all accidented and abandoned vehicles parked at Ado-Odo and Owode Egba Divisions to remove them within 21 days of this publication or lose them to members of the public.

The vehicles are: Ford unregistered, Sienna unregistered and 18 motorcycles.

For Owode-Egba-Nissan Taxi marked with AE 154 AAB, Volkswagen bus Lagos AA 650 AGD, Volkswagen bus (Faragon) Bayelsa XB 397 SAG, Scorpio Ford car Ogun AE 97 JGB, Audi car Lagos CQ 361 FST, Nissan Sunny Lagos BE 76 KSF, Mercedez Benz AE 90 YYY, Mercedez Benz car AA 131 BDJ and Passat car JJJ 50 BC.

53

54

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

EQUITIES NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE

DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 06-05-14

DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 06-05-14

F

Banks seek policy review as CRR hurts earnings

BN Holdings grossly un dervalued, says Maccido Nigerian banks might have started intense lobby for a review of existing monetary policies, especially the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), as a combination of steep reduction in income sources and ability to generate more loans hurt earnings.

Banks, which usually relate with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under the auspices of Bankers’ Committee, have made representations to the apex bank to review the CRR, which has sterilized substantial banks’ deposits with the apex bank. CRR on public sector and private sector deposits is currently at 75 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.

Group chief executive officer, FBN Holdings Plc, Mr. Bello Maccido, yesterday confirmed that representations have been made to the CBN to review the CRR with a view to reduce the adverse impact on the banks.

He said the current CRR is too high and should be reduced in line with other global peers noting that FBN Holdings’

By Taofik Salako Capital Market Editor

commercial banking arm, First Bank of Nigeria, lost about N64 billion in revenue due to some N560 billion, which was sterilized with the apex bank in 2014 as a result of the CRR. He however noted that the performance of the FBN Holdings in 2014 showed that the financial services group has been resilient against the industry headwinds.

According to him, deposits, which stood at N1.4 trillion in 2010 rose to N3.1 trillion in 2014, gross earnings grew from N232 billion to N481 billion in 2014, profit before tax grew from N34 billion to N93 billion in five years, while total assets rose from N2.4 trillion to N4.3 trillion. Return on equity has improved from 10 per cent in 2010 to 17 per cent in 2014.

He said FBN Holdings has recorded significant growth across all financial metrics, as-

suring that the group’s growth trajectory would continuously improve in spite of the current and envisaged industry headwinds.

He pointed out that the current share valuation of the FBN Holdings at the stock market does not represent its intrinsic fundamental value and reputation as Nigeria’s largest and most impactful financial services group.

He outlined that the group will implement four key pillars of growth to sustain its performance and deliver better value to shareholders. These included continuing drive for revenue generation across the group, delicate balancing between capital retention and dividend payout to ensure adequate internal capital to drive growth, improve cost efficiency and close monitoring of risks assets to ensure that nonperforming loans remain within current band irrespective of loan growth.

DAILY SUMMARY AS AT 06-05-15

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

55

MONEYLINK

CITN’s tax confab to focus on economic devt

CBN’s weekly sales to BDCs hit $79.8m

T

HE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) disburses $79.8 million to 2,660 Bureau De Change (BDC) operators weekly.

This follows the approval of over 80 BDCs after the regularisation deadline elapsed last July. Each BDC takes $30,000 weekly, down from $50,000 before the new guideline came into force.

The regulator had pointed out that on the expiration of the deadline on July 31, it would cease to fund any BDC that failed to comply with the new requirements, adding that “only BDCs that meet the new requirements would qualify to be engaged as agent by the licenced international money transfer operators for inward and outward transfer business in Nigeria’’.

However, the continuous approval of additional BDCs by the CBN after the deadline elapsed last December is causing ripples in the subsector.

Older operators are alleging com-

T

Stories by Collins Nweze

promise on the part of the apex bank after it yesterday, and for the fourth time in a row, raised the number of BDCs that met the regulatory requirement to 2,660.

President, Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, told The Nation yesterday that the action of the CBN raises issues for concerns.

He said the group had approached the regulator to complain about the continuous updating of operators’ list as it keeps depleting the volume of foreign exchange allocated to each operators due to the increasing number of BDCs. The CBN, Gwadabe said, had claimed that the newly approved list of members were those that met the deadline, but had their names cut off, until it carried out internal reconciliation.

The CBN had in February, published a list of 2,586 licensed BDC

•CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele firms which it said had complied with its new capital requirements of N35 million as at last July 31.

There were 3,208 registered BDCs in the country before the expiration of the deadline. The CBN had last June announced a new minimum capital requirement of N35 million for the operation of BDCs in the country, up from the N10 million it was previously.

To ensure that the forex dealers comply with the new capital requirements, the CBN had extended the deadline to July 31.

Access Bank’s ‘W Initiative’ partners Audrey Pack

T

HE Access Bank ‘W Initiative’ is partnering with Business Direct and Services on the Audrey Pack project in Nigeria to support its value proposition to women at the different stages of their lives.

The project is focused on the reduction of Maternal and Child Mortality.

The group said that Nigeria loses about 2,300 under-five year olds and 145 women of childbearing age, daily. This makes the country the second largest contributor to the under–five and maternal mortality rate in the world.

The Audrey Pack is a free cobranded bag distributed to expectant and new moms in government and private hospitals nationwide.

It contains free products samples from multi-nationals, antenatal and healthcare information and of course, information on managing family finances.

With this collaboration, Access Bank ‘W Initiative’ will be liaising with both private and government owned hospitals to deliver free Audrey packs to expectant and new mothers.

Specifically, there will be educative sessions where women will be equipped with resources to help them

make informed choices before, during and after pregnancy.

In addition, the project is also poised to provide access to better health care services with the Maternal Health Service Support (MHSS) which is specially designed to support women and families with easy and convenient options to pay for medical expenses.

According to Ope Wemi-Jones, the Group Head of Inclusive Banking at Access Bank, the ‘W Initiative’ is the home for everything Access Bank offers to women and transcends just a banking relationship.

HE President, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), Chief Mark Anthony Dike has announced the group’s commitment to hold the 17th Annual Tax Conference which will focus on economic development.

Speaking yesterday on the forthcoming conference holding next week in Abuja, he said the theme of this year’s conference is “Inclusive economic growth and sustainable development: fiscal Iiperatives, prospects and challenges”. Various factors contributed to the choice of this theme.

The second is to create an avenue to relate directly with our friends in the media business to specifically review our collaborative efforts in ensuring that Nigeria evolves a viable tax system that would not only translate to increased revenue to the government but also and more importantly better the welfare of the citizens.

He explained that economic development requires sound foundations add-

By Alvin Afadama

ing that economists understand that economic growth and economic development are not synonymous, and inequality could be a barrier for growth.

“Several opinions had been expressed on the importance of redistribution of income as the most effective way to poverty eradication and sustainable development. Put more succinctly, economic growth is a narrower concept than economic development. While economic growth is quantitative measured by an increase in a country’s gross domestic product (GDP), economic development is qualitative, and is measured by an increase in the per capita income of the citizens, nay , the standard of living,” he said.

Dike said universal access to education and health services, access to financial services, new technologies, affordable mortgage facilities, access to bank loans and more equal distribution of resources could all support economic development.

BoI’s profit rises to N5.19b

E

FFORTS by the Bank of Industry (BoI) to re-jig its system within the last financial year may have paid off, as the bank’s profit after tax moved up to N5.19billion at the end of December 2014 financial year.

Specifically, the bank’s profit after tax rose by 138 percent year-on-year, representing an increase of N3.01billion from N2.2billion in 2013 to N5.2billion in 2014, according to the financial results released by the bank.

Similarly, the lender grew its profit before tax by 233 per cent from N1.7billion in 2013 to N5.6billion in 2014.

The growth in profitability, according to the bank, is attributable to an increase in its loan portfolio last year,

By Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie

and a decrease in its overheads.

Its MD/CEO, Rasheed Olaoluwa, said: “The bank’s results for 2014 represent the outcome of our deliberate revenue and costoptimisation strategies as well as improved staff productivity. We’re focused intensely on our core mandate as a development bank.

“New loans processed exceeded N127billion to companies in various sectors such as agro processing, metals, gas distribution, plastics, pharmaceuticals, general manufacturing, creative industry, and SMEs generally. We continue to make developmental impact in key economic sectors.’’

MEMORANDUM QUOTATIONS AFRINVEST W. A. EQUITY FUND ARM AGGRESSIVE GROWTH BGL NUBIAN FUND BGL SAPPHIRE FUND CANARY GROWTH FUND CONTINENTAL UNIT TRUST CORAL INCOME FUND FBN FIXED INCOME FUND FBN HERITAGE FUND FBN MONEY MARKET FUND FIDELITY NIG FUND • UBA BALANCED FUND • UBA BOND FUND • UBA EQUITY FUND • UBA MONEY MARKET FUND

126.04 9.17 1.12 1.19 0.63 1.39 1,744.73 1,104.77 112.34 121.16 1.67 1.1978 1.3117 0.7319 1.1349

125.82 9.08 1.12 1.19 0.62 1.33 1,744.73 1,104.00 111.75 120.30 1.62 1.1912 0.7203 0.7203 1.1349

O/PRICE

C/PRICE

NASCON VITAFOAM CAP HONYFLOUR TOTAL ETERNA INTENEGINS WAPIC CILEASING UPL

8.12 5.85 35.66 3.44 157.40 2.70 0.51 0.53 0.54 5.32

8.94 6.30 37.44 3.61 165.00 2.83 0.53 0.55 0.56 5.50

CHANGE 0.82 0.45 1.78 0.17 7.60 0.13 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.18

LOSERS AS AT 06-05-15

SYMBOL

O/PRICE

C/PRICE

FOREX RATES (NairaVs Dollar) April 1, 2015

Inflation: Febraury

8.4%

Monetary Policy Rate

13.0%

Foreign Reserves

$28.2b

Oil Price (Bonny Light/b)

$67.91

CHANGE

Interbank ($/N)

199.00

$1

Black Market ($/N)

215.00

$1

London Inter-bank Offered Rates (LIBOR)

Money Supply (M2)

GAINERS AS AT 06-05-15

SYMBOL

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

N16.42 trillion.

Credit to private Sector (CPS)

N17.2 trillion

Primary Lending Rate (PLR)

16.5%

Tenor 1 Month 2 Months 3 Months 6 Months 12 Months

April 31

May 6

Rate)%

Rate (%)

0.1735 0.2147 0.2615 0.3841 0.6709

0.1715 0.2108 0.2626 0.3857 0.6744

Nigerian Stock Market Indices NIGERIAN INTER-BANK OFFERED RATES (NIBOR)

Tenor

12-02-15 Rate (%) Rate (%) 13-02-15

Overnight (O/N)

14.683

76.583

1M

15.033

15.977

3M

15.809

17.177

6M

16.493

17.908

Statistics All Share Index Mkt Cap (NGN’bn) Deals Volume (mn) Value (NGN’mn)

4 May 34,649.3 11.8 3,385 564,28 6,087.80

5 May 29,383.93 9,804.36 3,714 377,75 6,568.66

GOVT. SECURITIES YIELD – SECONDARY MARKET

ACADEMY

1.01

0.96

-0.05

UAC-PROP

10.78

10.25

-0.53

CAPHOTEL

4.28

4.07

-0.21

T-bills - 91

12.44

COSTAIN

0.83

0.79

-0.04

T-bills - 182

13.85

ABCTRANS

0.63

0.60

-0.03

T-bills - 364

13.92

UNITYBNK

3.19

3.04

-0.15

Bond - 3yrs

15.92

PAINTCOM

1.33

1.27

-0.06

LEARNAFRCA

1.39

1.33

-0.06

Bond - 5yrs

17.22

29.00

27.90

-1.10

Bond - 7yrs

16.59

PZ

Transaction Dates 03/02/2015 3/12/2014 1/12/2014

Amount Offered in ($) 500m 400m 350m

Amount Sold in ($) 499.93m 399.97m 349.96m

Tenor

Feb. 13, 2015

Rates

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

56

SHOWBIZ

Suspected pirates quizzed by police

I

T was meant to be another tripartite meeting of filmmakers, Alaba electronic dealers and officials of the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) when, in a move that appeared shocking to the latter; the electronic dealers were rounded up by the police.

The meeting was aborted before it could start, as the suspects, being the last to arrive the NCC office, Iganmu, Lagos, ran into men of the Federal Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS), and were taken to the Department of Investigation, Adeniji Adele Police Station for questioning.

The fight against piracy was renewed lately when, high budget Nigerian films such as Half of A Yellow Sun, October 1 and 30 Days in Atlanta, were dubbed illegally and sold across the country without the consent of their owners.

Prior to a protest march which took some of the entertainers to the House of Assembly and the Governor’s Office in Alausa, Lagos,

By Victor Akande

recently, a major distributor, Gabriel Okoye, aka Gabosky had, in the company of some policemen, embarked on a raid of the Fancy and Furniture section, a purported hub of piracy activities in Alaba International Market, and were allegedly beaten up by the traders.

Gabosky was said to have reported the outcome of the raid to the Inspector General of Police who, ordered the Federal SARS to weigh into the matter.

The arrest of these men, suspected to be executives of the electronic dealers is considered civil in getting to the root of the much-talkedabout piracy cartel in ‘Alaba’.

But vexed by the unexpected arrest, the convener of the meeting and Lagos Zonal Manager of the NCC, Mr. Chris Nkwocha, said he felt slighted that the suspects were arrested in his domain, but the filmmakers were quick to rebuff him, saying the arrest took place outside

• L-R: Gabosky, Kosoko and Salami at NCC office ... yesterday

the premises and not in the NCC’s office.

At that point, it became clear that the meeting could no longer hold, as some stakeholders drove to the Adeniji Adele Police Station where they held a closed-door

meeting with the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr. Chris Okey Ezike. It was however not clear what the outcome of the meeting was, but there are indications that the police department is determined to give the piracy

Budding singer Boye Manni drops Lady Pamela

9ice attributes cracked voice to age

By Ovwe Medeme

T Coded Tunes returns with reunion concert

A

FTER a few years’ hiatus, celebrated music maker, ID Cabasa has announced that his imprint, Coded Tunes, has returned to business. To announce this comeback, on Sunday, May 10, the label will be holding a reunion concert at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The record label which has churned out some of the well-known indigenous talents we have in the country, including the likes of Lord of Ajasa, Reminisce, Olamide, 9ice, among others is undergoing some metamorphosis as it gets a new Managing Director, simply known as Iben. It has also signed on two new acts; Afro Fusion artiste Gaise and a rapper Chineke Boy. Unveiling the new acts to the media recently, Iben revealed his dream for the new look label. “We use this

By Ovwe Medeme

opportunity to introduce to you two new acts, new genre of music, individual talent that ID Cabasa and Coded Tune have been working with for the past couple of months. These guys have been working really hard with ID Cabasa and now we unveil them to you, to have the honour of listening to their music first. We want you to take your time to critic the music. We believe that your opinion matter that’s why we decided to create this forum,” Iben enthused.

The Coded Tune Live In Concert, according to Iben, has in it line up the likes 9ice, King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal (K1), Pasuma, ID Cabasa, Alibaba, Olamide, Don Jazzy and The Marvins, Lord of Ajasa, Seyi Law, Sound Sultan, Banky and a host of others.

MC Ayanfe thrills at Laff Xpress

By Dupe Ayinla-Olasunkanmi

U

P and coming comedian, Abel Oladokun Asogba, known as MC Ayanfe, pulled a crowd at the maiden edition of Laff Xpress, an initiative to create fun and excitement on May 1, 2015, at the Ara hall venue, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

The show, which was a convergence of talented, burgeoning comedians, like Simply Saka, MC Coded, Laff Doctor, MC Bleach and the eccentric, Mc Ayanfe, lasted for hours leaving a lasting memory of amusement and delight into its audience.

Host of the event, MC Ayanfe, said the choice of Ibafo, Ogun State and not Lagos, to hold the event, is basically to give the people in the area who are often used to the ‘work-home-work’ routine time to relax.

“I will continue in my quest to bringing laughter and excitement close to the people. I am excited by the turnout and I hope we will get more sponsors next year,” he said.

Speaking on why MTN Nigeria chose to sponsor the event, Adeyemi Odubayo of Trade Marketing Consultant (TMC), Ogun State, said the telecom giant is poised to see that it help upcoming artistes to achieve their dreams. “MTN Nigeria remains committed to improving individual and communal lives through social investment projects that nurture people’s inherent abilities, care for and respect people’s dignity and help create economic value in their lives,” Odubayo added.

To his credit, Ayanfe has piloted events for a variety of audience with his experience spanning over five years.

• Boye Manni

• Gaise, Chineke Boy and IBEN

ALENTED hip-hop singer, Adeagbo Adeboye, a.k.a.

Boye Manni is out with his first official single titled Lady Pamela. Officially released last week on Lagos-based radio, Eko FM, the artiste says that the song is fast gaining wide acceptance.

According to Boye Manni, the musical video for the song is what’s next to follow. “We hope Lady Pamela will gradually become an instant hit and I believe it would going by the feedbacks my team is getting.

With that we have in mind is to follow that success up with a grand video that will better explain the message of the song and win more applause,” he stated.

In 2011, Boye Manni was part of Star Quest reality show where he made it to the second round, winning the admiration of veteran, Paul Play and a host of other judges on the show. With that exposure, he moved on to drop a couple of songs on the net to build a fan base for himself. He’s also performed at a few musical concerts.

The artiste stated that his pact with music started during his teens when he would record on his mother’s favourite cassette and got beaten for it. This continued for a while until he got admitted into The Polytechnic of Ibadan where he fully launched his music career.

With mentors like 2pac, Nas, Fela, KSA, Phil Collins among others, the singer is being tipped as one of the finest hip-hop artistes to pull a surprise this year in the music industry.

issue some attention, having been briefed by the IG. Filmmakers at the event include Gabosky, Jide Kosoko, Adebayo Salami, Yinka Akanbi, Tunde Kelania and Mahmood AliBalogun among others.

• 9ice

A

T the unveil of the new look record label, Coded Tunes, it was an opportunity for Abolore Akande, aka 9ice to open up on his seemingly cracked voice. The artiste attributed the syndrome to age.

“At the time we were recording my first album I think that was 23 or 24.

Compare it to when someone is 35 years old. You can see the development in the physical body and every other thing. You can see that the voice is sexier now (laughs). So age has a

whole lot to do with that,” he explained.

Corroborating 9ice’s head honcho of the outfit, ID Cabasa said; “I could remember asking him to rest his voice. I could remember those days.

Some days we go three, four shows.

And sometimes you get to play with a live band; you will do your song on a particular key, they will play it for you on another key. You guys should watch out for some of the new songs that we are doing. We’d loved to play some of them for you to just listen to.

We are not going to give excuses. We will try to make sure you guys get value for whatever you expect from 9ice. But also, beyond the voice if there is any artiste that I respect his writing skill in Nigeria I think it will be 9ice.

As his maturing, his lyrics are maturing. There is no doubt 9ice still got it,” said Cabasa.

Piracy bane of filmmakers, says Henry Ozuluonye

N

OLLYWOOD producer and director, Henry Ozuluonye, has said that owing to the activities of pirates, filmmakers find it hard recouping their investments.

Speaking at a press briefing held to announce the release of his latest movie, Last Slave, Ozuluonye called on the government to concentrate on tackling piracy because it is killing the motion picture industry.

“Before you release a movie, it would have been pirated. How they get hold of the movie, is one thing that we still don’t understand. The government should work adequately to check piracy. They should also make sure that necessary support is given for Nollywood to grow,” he stated.

Last Slave, the movie producer revealed, features the likes of Francis Duru, Nuella Njubigbo as lead characters. He described the film as a fiction plotted to fight human trafficking in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.

“When people get missing with no trace, the possibility is that they might have been sold into trafficking. The message in the movie is for everyone to join hands and eradicate human trafficking,” Ozuluonye added.

Last Slave, he said, is his biggest ef-

By Dupe Ayinla-Olasunkanmi

fort so far. “I shot the movie after few workshops in the United States. I came back and I exercised those skills on the movie. The scenes are so emotional that one might want to cry and it was shot with my company’s latest equipment. We plan to release it on Friday, May 8 but it has been premiered in Houston, Texas,” Ozuluonye added.

Others in the movie include Zulu Adigwe, Joyce Kalu, Patrick Onyeocha, amongst others.

57

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

NEWS

‘We didn’t serve Chime any impeachment notice’

T

HE Enugu State House of Assembly has denied serving Governor Sullivan Chime any notice of impeachment.

A statement by the Clerk, Mr. Christpher Chukwurah, said the House neither moved the motion nor was he directed to serve any impeachment notice on the

From Chris Oji, Enugu

Governor.

Fifteen lawmakers, who had reportedly passed a resolution to commence impeachment proceedings against the governor, have also denied the existence of any impeachment notice.

“During our meeting with

the governor-elect, he asked for a copy of the notice of impeachment against the governor and everyone denied having signed such document,” a lawmaker said.

Chukwurah’s statement reads: “I write to inform Your Excellency that the Enugu House of Assembly never moved any impeach-

Assaulted APC leader hospitalised

ment motion, not to mention directing the Clerk to serve any notice of impeachment to His Excellency Sullivan I. Chime, the Governor of Enugu State.”

Chime said he did not receive any notice from the House and dismissed the allegations reportedly made by some of the lawmakers against him as “as baseless, barefaced lies borne out of malice and mischief”.

The two factions agreed to maintain a two-week moratorium to seek a resolution of the issues between them.

From Nwanosike Onu, Awka

•Chief Nwokoye

A

CHIEFTAIN of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Anambra State, Chief Ifeanyichukwu Nwokoye, who was brutalised last Monday by men of the Department of State Security (DSS), has been hospitalised.

Nwokoye was beaten up by DSS for allegedly withholding information about the expatriate doctors Governor Willie Obiano invited for the treatment of indigent persons in the state. He has been

•Brand Building Director (Foods), Unilever Nig. Plc, Mrs Nsima Ogedi-Alakue speaking at the Unilever and Nutrition Society of Nigeria lecture on the Impact of Iron Deficiency Anemia at Protea Hotel, GRA Ikeja ... yesterday. With her are: President, Nutrition Society of Nig., Prof. Ngozi Nnam, Snr lecturer, Dept of Human Nutrition, University of Ibadan, Dr. Folake Samuel and Vice President Marketing, Unilever, Mr Robert-de-Vreede.

PHOTO: OMOSEHIN MOSES

Houseboy kills woman, 59, in Enugu •Attempts to rape widow From Chris Oji, Enugu

•The late Alue

A

59-YEAR old grandmother, Mrs. Agnes Elue, was yesterday found dead in her bedroom on One Day Road, Awkunanaw, Enugu State.

She was allegedly killed by

her houseboy.

Elue, from Ogwashi-Uku in Delta State, was said to have been clubbed to death last Sunday by her teenage house boy whose identity is being withheld.

The deceased was an employee of the Federal Government College, Enugu.

She was popularly known as “Nwanyi Maluogo” by neighbours because of her kind disposition.

The house boy, according to sources, is a close relation of the deceased.

Police said the house boy,

who concealed the body for four days, confessed to have hit the woman with a pestle during a scuffle.

Police spokesperson Ebere Amaraizu confirmed the incident. He said the murder was discovered yesterday morning after the boy attempted to rape a widow in the same compound.

According to him, the boy demanded N2000 from the widow but before she could reply him, he had pounced on her and was stripping her naked when her noise attracted the attention of the caretaker.

The caretaker dealt the boy several blows while the widow hit him with a pestle.

They took him to his madam’s flat to report and discovered her decomposing body.

The boy confessed to have killed her on Sunday night while it was raining. He did not give reasons for his action.

But the police are not ruling out rape since the body was without clothes when it was found.

Amaraizu confirmed that the house boy, who is also from Ogwashi-Uku in Delta State, is in their custody and the case was being investigated.

Vehicle owners get ultimatum

T

HE Ogun State Police Command has warned owners of all accidented and abandoned vehicles and motorcycles parked at Criminal Investigation Intelligence Department, State Headquarters, Eleweran Abeokuta and Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS) to remove them within 21 days of this publication or lose them to members of the public.

The vehicles are: Toyota Camry with registration number KRD 255 AU, Mazda 323 Salon car unregistered, Ford Transit bus KJA 754 XE, Mitsubishi Lancer Salon car GGE 553 CE, Toyota RAV 4 AKD 148 DD, Nissan Suny JJJ 523 DA, Volvo SMK 667 AG, Honda Accord ABJ 576 AG, Honda Hala XN 68 KRD, Audi A4 EH 169 ABJ, Opel Astra BR 352 BDG,

Counsel’s absence stalls trial of pro-Biafra activists

T

HE trial of 11 members of the Biafra Zionist Federation (BZF) could not hold yesterday because the prosecuting counsel from the office of the Attorney General of the Federation was absent.

The pan-Biafra members, including their leader, Benjamin Onwuka, are standing trial before a Federal High Court sitting in Enugu for treason.

From Chris Oji, Enugu

They attempted to take over a radio station in Enugu to re-declare the Republic of Biafra.

The court, presided by Justice Dorothy Agishi, remanded them in custody, overruling a bail application by their counsel, Olu Omotayo.

During proceedings, the clerk informed the court that the prosecuting counsel was

indisposed.

Omotayo said the freedom of his clients was being toyed with by the Attorney-General.

He said: “We are surprised that he is not here today; if he knew that he would not be disposed to come from Abuja, he should hand over the case file to another counsel in their zonal office here in Enugu.

“During the bail application, a counsel was coming from the AG’s zonal office in Enugu; so,

I’m surprised that the person is no longer appearing in the court.

“I am praying the court that if they did not appear on the next date, the case should be closed while they allow us to open our defence.”

Members of the BZF present in court left with mournful looks, accusing the Federal Government of a deliberate plan to stifle a nonviolent organisation.

One of them, who pleaded anonymity, said: “President Jonathan should free these innocent freedom fighters before he leaves office.

“It is so bad that they have continued to keep them in detention, even when activities of BZF are still within international charters and conventions.”

The case was adjourned to May 19 for continuation of hearing.

NDLEA arrests two in Enugu for alleged drug peddling

O

FFICIALS of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested two persons at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport (AIIA), Enugu for drug trafficking.

One of the suspects, Daniel Lanre Akintola, 43, was found with 1.978kg of heroin concealed in a false bottom of his luggage. Another suspect, Onwuegbusi Tochukwu Victor, 48, was arrested with 51.5kg of ephedrine in his luggage.

The NDLEA commander,

By Kelvin Osa Okunbor

Mr. Nsikak-Abasi Udoh, said the 43-year-old pastor wanted to abandon his luggage at the arrival hall for fear of arrest.

“Mr. Daniel Lanre Akintola unlawfully possessed 1.978kg of heroin while returning from Entebbe, a town in Central Uganda. He wanted to abandon the luggage but we detected his intention.

“The drug was carefully concealed in a false bottom of his luggage. The second

suspect is a businessman who had parcels of ephedrine weighing 51.5kg, which he wanted to smuggle to Maputo, Mozambique.

“The suspects are being investigated,” Udoh said.

Akintola, an indigene of Oyo State, said he was returning from a pastor’s conference.

“I am a pastor with Gospel Faith Mission International (GOFAMINT), Olayemi Assembly, Ipaja, Lagos. I attended a minister’s conference in Uganda. The bag where heroin was found is

mine but I am a pastor and not a drug trafficker.”

Akintola, who lives in Lagos, could not produce evidence of attending a minister’s conference in Uganda. He did not give any reason for leaving Entebbe, Uganda, enroute Addis Ababa to Enugu.

Victor said he was asked to take the bag of ephedrine to Mozambique for 2,500 dollars. “I am a business man but I got stranded after customs seized my goods.

“They paid for my return ticket that the recipient of the

unconscious since the attack that almost claimed one of his eyes.

About 18 APC leaders yesterday visited his home at Amawbia in Awka South to show solidarity.

His wife, Jessica, who received them, wept uncontrollably but was consoled by the party officials led by Larry Emegini.

State treasurer Chukwudi Araonu said: “The man beaten up is our boss and a major financier of the APC in this state. We are here to tell the world that security operatives were unfair to him, such a thing has never happened before.

“We have sent messages to our leaders and we believe that very soon, the world will react.

“The impunity of security operatives in the country is making everyone worried and we implore those at the helm of security affairs to caution their men. We believe that the change everybody is talking about has come.

bag in Maputo will give me $2,500. I would have invested the money in import business,” Victor said. He hails from Anambra State.

The Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade, said there is no hiding place for drug traffickers.

“Drug traffickers have no hiding place. Unless they quit their criminal act, the law will take its course.

“I appeal to the public to report drug dealers to the nearest NDLEA office,” Giade said.

Nissan Suny KJA 321 BF, Bedford Bus unregistered, Honda Accord VG 202 AAA, Toyota Carina unregistered, Toyota Camry (Orobo) FC 221 EKY, Toyota Camry (Orobo) unregistered, Nissan Pathfinder EJ 46 KJA, Honda Accord EH 628 AAA, Toyota Corolla unregistered, Toyota Sienna bus, GGE 802 CY, Jetta Vento unregistered, Hyundai Sonata unregistered and 38 motorcycles.

Southeast APC backs Ngige for SGF From Nwanosike Onu, Awka

M

EMBERS of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Southeast are drumming support for Senator Chris Ngige as Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).

Ngige represents Anambra Central in the National Assembly.

An APC party leader, Chief Dennis Ngene, said Ngige deserved the position because he led Southeast leaders to APC after its formation.

Ngene, who spoke in Awka, the Anambra State capital, said: “Again, when he was the governor of Anambra State, he was almost sleeping in office to get things right and even today as a senator, he leaves office around 9pm each day, showing his workaholic nature.

“Ngige is the type of person the Presidentelect will need to work with and besides, he had been in public service before venturing into politics.

“The Southeast has been calling for Onu and Ngige, both deserve it, but from records, Ngige, who treats his files without blinking an eyelid, deserves it, being a meticulous civil servant.”

58

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

NEWS Rivers Assembly men’s aides protest From Clarice Azuatalam, Port Harcourt

POLITICAL aides to members of the Rivers State House of Assembly have protested the nonpayment of their four months’ salaries by the management of the Assembly.

The protesters, including Speaker Otelemaba Dan-Amachree’s aides, said they were being owed over four months’ salaries and allowances.

They regretted that the non-payment of their salaries and allowances was taking a toll on their families.

One of the aides to the Speaker, who spoke in confidence, said: “If you come to the Assembly’s staff quarters where we are staying, you will find out that our children are back home and have not been able to go back to school.

“The money should be paid to us because by May 30, their (lawmakers’) tenure will end. So, we are begging them because we have another step, that if we should take it, it will not be pleasant to them.”

S

USPECTED cultists, on Tuesday morning, killed two students of the Edo State College of Agriculture, Iguoriakhi in Ovia Southwest Local Government Area.

The third victim was said to be a boy learning a vocation.

Two women, who were said to be the mothers of unidentified students that rival cultists were looking for, were also killed on Tuesday night in Benin, the state capital.

A 20-year-old man, suspected to be a cultist, was also killed in his parents’ home in what looked like a reprisal.

The women were killed at Murtala Muhammed Way and New Benin.

The woman at the Murtala Muhammed Way was killed for allegedly lying about the whereabouts of her son. The other was reportedly killed when the cultists could not

Cultists kill five in Edo attacks •Two students, two mothers shot dead •20-year-old man also killed From Osagie Otabor and Osemwengie Ben Ogbemudia, Benin

find her son at home.

An eyewitness said the armed hoodlums stormed the Virginia Junction, near the Murtala Muhammed Way, at 8p.m., searching for their target, said to be a 20year-old student.

The cultists reportedly first went to the store belonging to their target’s mother. But when they asked her about the whereabouts of her son, she told them that she had not seen him for over two weeks.

They were said to have gone to the boy’s home and

found him. They killed him instantly.

Angered that the woman had lied to them, they went back to her shop and shot her dead.

The two students of the Edo State College of Agriculture, Iguoriakhi, were said to have been shot dead on their way to lectures on Tuesday morning.

The examinations that were supposed to start at the institution were postponed after students barricaded the highway to protest the killings.

The Provost, Dr. Friday Obasogie, confirmed the killings.

He said the victims were

on their way to school when they were ambushed and killed by the gunmen.

Obasogie said: “As I speak with you, I am with the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) at Iguobazuwa. The two students lived in the community. They were going to school when the perpetrators ran out of the bush, attacked them and ran back to the bush.

“It was a cult clash. You know what it has been in Benin for over a week now.

The police have brought the situation under control.

“The semester’s examinations have been postponed by one week to enable tension die down.”

Pipeline attacks: Urhobo, Isoko ex-militants urged to embrace peace

Cross River tribunal gets 26 petitions

From Polycarp Orosevwotu, Ughelli

F

From Nicholas Kalu, Calabar

THE Cross River State Elections Tribunal has received 26 petitions from aggrieved politicians and political parties in the March 28 National Assembly and April 11 governorship and House of Assembly elections.

The tribunal’s Secretary John Tsok addressed reporters yesterday in Calabar, the state capital.

He said: “As we speak, the tribunal has received four petitions on senatorial election, nine on the House of Representatives, two on the governorship and 11 on the House of Assembly elections.

“The governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Fidelis Ugbo, and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have filed their petitions against Governor-elect Ben Ayade.”

For the Senate, Senator Bassey Otu of the LP, representing Cross River South, filed a petition against Gershom Bassey of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

For Cross River North, Julius Okputu (LP) and Anthony Kanjal-Oko, of APC, filed their petitions against Dr Rose Okoh of the PDP, challenging her victory at the polls.

Tsok also said in Cross River Central, Dr Sandy Onor (LP) filed a petition against John Owan-Enoh of the PDP.

Police spokesman Stephen Onwochei, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), said investigation had begun into the killings.

Onwochei said the killers would not escape justice as the police had launched a manhunt for them.

In a similar incident, few weeks ago, suspected cultists shot dead the mother of their target when they did not find him at home.

An eyewitness said the woman was shot in the eye.

Over 20 persons have died in the last three weeks since the renewed cult war started in the Edo State capital.

The reprisal killings were said to have started immediately after the elections, when a member of a cult group was killed.

Onwochei told reporters that the police had arrested some suspects.

On the number of persons that have been killed since the violence started, Onwochei said: “I cannot give you the accurate figure, but we are compiling a list. Once we are done, we will parade them. We are still investigating.”

•All Progressives Congres (APC) supporters from Ahoada West, Akukuu-Toru and Obio/Akpor local government areas protesting the outcome of the party’s local government primary election in Rivers State, in Port Harcourt…yesterday PHOTO: NAN

Dickson fires commissioner for losing to APGA

B

AYELSA State Governor Seriake Dickson has sacked Sports Commissioner Ebikitin Doingoli, allegedly for losing his constituency to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the last general elections.

A statement relieving the commissioner of his appointment was announced yesterday on major radio stations in Yenagoa, the state capital.It was signed by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Iworiso-Markson.

Though the terse statement contained no reason for the governor’s action, it was gathered that Diongoli

From Mike Odiegwu, Yenagoa

was removed in the fallout of the House of Assembly election.

The governor was said to be unhappy that the commissioner did not work hard to ensure that the APGA candidate, Ebiye Tarabina, was defeated by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in his Kolokuma-Opokuma Constituency 2.

Tarabina, who is believed to have been sponsored by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Domestic Affairs, Dr Waripamowei Dudafa, is also a cousin to Doingoli.

It was gathered that Dickson was disturbed by the losses of the PDP in some of the constituencies.

The governor, who reportedly blamed the development on the conspiracy of some PDP leaders, inaugurated a panel, headed by Deputy Governor John Jonah, to probe such suspected party leaders.

Dickson was said to have held the view that the PDP lost the Kolokuma/Opokuma Constituency 2 because of disloyalty and anti-party activities of some PDP leaders.

It was gathered that more members may be sacked from the party and the State

Gunmen abduct Bayelsa monarch

S

OME gunmen have abducted Chief Gogo Lambert, the Amayanabo of Biokponga community in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

It was learnt that the hoodlums stormed the community at 11:30pm and whisked away the monarch to an unknown place.

The abductors were said to have shot sporadically

From Mike Odiegwu, Yenagoa

into the air before entering Lambert’s home.

The monarch was said to be fast asleep when the gunmen woke him up and bundled him into a waiting speedboat.

Police spokesman Asinim Butswat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), said the monarch

was taken away from his community in Nembe-Bassambiri.

He said the police got a report on the incident from the monarch’s son, M. Udua, at 12:50am on Wednesday.

Butswat said: “They took him away by a speedboat.

We have alerted the Marine Department of the police and the Special Anti-Kidnapping Squad.”

Executive Council (Exco) at the conclusion of the probe.

Doingoli confirmed that he heard about his sack on radio.

The former aide said he had not committed any offence that could warrant his sack, adding that he had sent a message to Dickson for giving him an opportunity to serve the state.

He said Tarabina is his cousin but cleared himself on the loss of the PDP at the poll.

According to him, he tried in vain to persuade Tarabina to drop his political ambition.

Doingoli said: “I heard the announcement of my sack on the radio, like every other Bayelsan. I have sent a message to the governor, thanking him for giving me the opportunity to serve the state.

“I believe it has something to do with the House of Assembly election. The APGA candidate, who won in Kolokuma/Opokuma 2, Tarabina, is my cousin.

“The governor sent me to tell him not to contest and I went to him severally to persuade him not to contest.

But he insisted that he would contest under the platform of APGA.”

ORMER militant “generals” in the Niger Delta, under the aegis of All Progressives Congress (APC) Security Committee, have cautioned their colleagues in Urhobo and Isoko to stop blowing up pipelines.

They said President-elect Muhammadu Buhari would not forget them in his administration.

In a statement by their leader, Commander Bini Oduku, the former militant leaders regretted the incessant bombing of pipelines in Urhobo and Isoko areas, following the non-inclusion of the two ethnic nationalities in the Pipeline Surveillance Contract job.

They urged Urhobo and Isoko former “generals” to embrace peace.

Oduku said he was confident that the incoming Buhari administration would address the issue when he assume office.

The spokesman urged the people to give Gen. Buhari the enabling environment to give Niger Delta its fair share in his administration.

He also appealed to Niger Delta’s former militants to give peace a chance to enable the incoming government to tackle unemployment among the youth in the region.

Oduku noted that no meaningful development could come to an area with rancour and pockets of violence.

The spokesman said the first three refineries in the Southsouth were built when Buhari was a military Head of State.

He added that the President-elect would do more now that he has become a democrat.

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

59

NEWS

Tension as gunmen kill 40 in Plateau communities

A

T least 40 Berom women and children have been killed in two attacks by gunmen in Plateau State.

The killings were said to have happened within two days.

The gunmen reportedly stole some heads of cattle during the attacks.

The Berom communities have been living in fear since the attacks occurred.

Though none of the gunmen has been arrested by security agencies, the Berom alleged that their attackers were Fulani herdsmen.

Similar attacks were carried out last week in some communities in Riyom Local Government Area.

•Military recovers bodies of ‘missing soldiers’ From Yusufu Aminu Idegu, Jos

Barkin Ladi Local government Chairman Emmanuel Lomang said the suspected Fulani gunmen entered the villages through Jos East borders in the night.

Lomang said: “The gunmen killed 17 people, including women, in Vat village while 13 others were killed in Zakupang village, both in Foron District of the Barkin Local Government Area.”

Apart from the Monday attacks, in which 30 people were killed, gunmen, suspected to be Fulani herdsmen, also killed two newly married men at

Kakpwis village in Foron District.

Ward Head of Kakpwis Dagwom, Ahmadu Dung Hwere said: “The attacks occurred around 11pm. Emmanuel Joshua and Bot Joshua were killed in their homes and the killers stole 20 cows belonging to the late Joshua.”

An eyewitness said Emmanuel and Bot were shot when they were discussing near the cowshed.

Emmanuel, 32, and Bot, 30, were married and they had children.

The councillor representing Kakpwis Ward in Foron District of Barkin Ladi Local

Government Area, Istifanus Gwom Dung, condemned the attacks.

The councillor described the incessant attacks in the area as a strategy to eliminate the Berom.

Dung decried the nonchalance of security agencies in the local government area, especially men of the Special Task Force (STF), who ought to protect the lives and property of the residents.

The Special Task Force (STF) on Jos crisis had not spoken on the attacks at the time of filing this report last night.

Also, the STF said it had recovered two bodies, of the

three missing soldiers, at Kurmi, a border village between Taraba and Plateau states.

STF spokesman Iweha Ikedichi, a captain, spoke yesterday in Wase with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

A militia group reportedly killed six soldiers at Kurmi village last Tuesday. Three other soldiers were declared missing.

There had been series of attacks at Kurmi, where innocent civilians, particularly women and children, were maimed and killed by the suspected militia group.

The attacks worsened when nine soldiers were killed.

The killings prompted the STF, in collaboration with the 3 Armoured Division, to locate and engage the group in a battle on Saturday.

“We found the two bodies of our missing soldiers during our operation in Kurmi, Wadata and Kadarko communities,” Ikedichi said.

“As we speak, our men are still searching for the remaining soldier. We pray he is still alive.

“We shall leave no stone unturned in our search until we find our man - whether dead or alive,” he added.

The STF spokesman said the military was working hard to curb the excesses of the militia group, which had a stronghold in the communities.

Benue CJ restrains Suswam from appointing first class chiefs •Why we disregarded court order, by Governor From Uja Emmanuel, Makurdi

T

•President-elect Muhammadu Buhari (middle); All Progressives Congress (APC) Taraba State governorship candidate in the April 11 poll, Sen. Aisha Alhassan (third left) and other delegates during thier visit to the President-elect in Abuja...yesterday.

Aliyu: I’m unconnected with Niger Assembly crisis

N

IGER State Governor Babangida Aliyu yesterday exonerated himself from the crisis in the House of Assembly.

The governor said the faceoff “is internal”.

He also said he was not the lawmakers’ target of impeachment which caused the crisis that erupted in the Assembly on Monday.

The crisis led to the sack of the Assembly’s principal officers, including Speaker Adamu Usman.

In a statement yesterday in Minna, the state capital, by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Israel Ebije, the governor said the speculation of impeachment moves against him was false.

Aliyu said he enjoyed a robust relationship with the Assembly.

The statement noted that after alleged impeachment of

•Police use tear gas on Speaker, 20 others From Jide Orintunsin, Minna

the Speaker, the new leadership, led Isah Kawu, met with governor to explain their action and pledged their continuous support.

The statement reads: “Let me debunk the speculation on the alleged impeachment threat against Governor Aliyu.

The speculation is sponsored by mischief makers and should be discarded for what it is. The governor has enjoyed a robust relationship with the Assembly, and that has not changed.

“The action of the Assembly is internal and the decision to change the leadership has no other ulterior motive than the change of leadership, which they (lawmakers) have allegedly done. Let me, therefore, call on supporters of Governor Aliyu within and outside the

country to remain calm.”

The statement urged the feuding lawmakers to resolve their differences.

Also, the police yesterday used tear gas on new Speaker Isah Kawu, 20 other members and workers of the Assembly.

The main gate to the Assembly complex was blocked by a Hilux van while armed policemen formed a human barricade round the complex fence, apparently to stop the lawmakers from proceeding with their impeachment plan against Aliyu.

But the angry lawmakers attempted to break the padlock when the police released tear gas to disperse them.

Pandemonium broke out afterwards.

The lawmakers, led by Kawu, later left the scene.

They assured reporters that

they would soon address the media on the developments at the Assembly.

It was learnt that the lawmakers relocated to the Assembly’s staff quarters where the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Idris Ndako Kpaki, and Local Government Commissioner Yusuf Tagwai invited the principal officers to a meeting with Aliyu.

Source at the meeting said the parley hit the rocks as the governor’s assurance to attend to the demands of the legislators and a directive that they should revert to the old order fell on deaf ears.

The lawmakers reportedly told Aliyu that he should order the security agents at the Assembly to vacate the complex, adding that they were ready to carry out their legis-

lative duties under the tree.

Police Commissioner Olusola Emmanuel Amore, who arrived the Assembly complex for an assessment, after the tear gas incident, refused to comment on the incident.

Police spokesman, Ibrahim Gambari, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), said the police were not ordered to prevent the lawmakers and the Assembly’s workers from doping their legitimate duties.

The spokesman said the police were ordered to stop vandals from taking over the complex.

He said: “Those who are not members or workers of the Assembly are vandals. Our men are there to stop vandals from destroying property and causing problems...”

The police, at the Assembly Complex on Tuesday, attacked reporters covering the Assembly’s activities.

I won’t hand over on May 29, says Lamido

O

UTGOING Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido has said he will not hand over to the incoming All Progressives Congress (APC) administration on May 29.

The governor spoke yesterday in Dutse, the state capital, when he addressed the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members and scores of his supporters.

The occasion was a reception for a youth, who trekked for four days from Hadejia to the Government House in Dutse, about 170 kilometres, to meet the governor.

Lamido said having been

From Ahmed Rufa’I, Dutse

a democratically-elected governor under the PDP for eight year, he had delivered beyond the people’s expectations.

The governor said he was not owing the people anything.

He said: “I will not hand over to my successor, because my predecessor did not hand over to me.

“I will go on leave on May 20 (nine days to the day of handover day). I will hand over to the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and the SSG will hand over to the next administration, as it was

I will go on leave on May 20 (nine days to the day of handover day). I will hand over to the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and the SSG will hand over to the next administration, as it was done to me in 2007 done to me in 2007.

“Already, I have appointed the SSG to lead the transition committee and he will hand over necessary documents to the new elected

governor. This is normal.

“We will organise a farewell programmes before that day. I will invite all my supporters in the state to see me off to the Dutse International Airport, where I will take my flight and allow the new administration to continue from where I stop.

“We have served our lovely state to the best of our capacity and ability, for eight years. Of course, we achieved a lot in terms developmental projects that have turned Jigawa into a proud state.

“We made our efforts to ensure that the PDP administration continued to lead

•Lamido

Jigawa State but Allah rejected our proposal. So we have no option than to accept His will and support the new government because Jigawa is for all of us.”

HE Benue State High Court, presided over by the Chief Judge (CJ), Justice Iorhemen Hwande, has restrained Governor Gabriel Suswam and eight others from appointing first-class chiefs.

Ruling on a motion in a suit filed by Prof Tony Ijohor (SAN), for Benjamin Adanyi, the CJ granted the four reliefs sought by the plaintiff.

He restrained the respondents, by themselves or through their agents, from giving allowing the Benue State Council of Chiefs and Traditional Councils’ Bill/Law passed by the House of Assembly on April 7, 2015, pending the determination of the motion on notice.

Justice Hwande also restrained the respondents or their agents from appointing or taking any step towards the appointment of any person to the office of the 10 proposed first-class chiefs in the state or any such office by whatever name called.

Other orders of the court include putting the respondents on notice that disobedience of the orders contained would amount to contempt of court and would attract sanctions from the court.

The CJ directed that action on the implementation of the law should be stayed, pending the hearing of the motion on notice.

The respondents include the Tor Tiv, the Och’Idoma, the Bureau of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and the House of Assembly.

But Suswam has said he appointed first class chiefs because the court order, which restrained him and eight others, was not served on him.

The governor addressed reporters on the injunction granted by Justice Hwande against the implementation of the chieftaincy law, as passed by the House of Assembly.

The law allows for the appointment of 10 first-class chiefs.

The governor said he respected the Judiciary.

He said it was for the same reason he approached the elections petitions tribunal for redress when he lost at the polls to Senator Barnabas Gemade.

Suswam said the court process was not served on him, adding that his attention was not drawn to the restraining order.

60

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

NEWS Jonathan okays huge NPA contracts for ghost firms Continued from page 4

There are only 10 buildings and two empty plots on the street.

The only visible company on the street is on Plot 1, Block 128B, opposite New Creation Cathedral. Security officials and others on the street said Messrs Ibejige Services Ltd was not there.

The sacked NPA Managing Director announced in March, last year, during the introduction of the Electronic Ship Entry in Lagos that the authority would partner the private sector for provision of towage services at the Port Harcourt, Onne, Warri and Calabar ports.

The discovery that two of the four companies were unregistered, it was learnt, stunned senior officials of the ministry, who questioned how the companies were pre-qualified for the projects.

One of the ministry’s senior officials, who craved anonymity, said the award of the contracts to the two unregistered companies was against national interest.

The official said: “Was the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) involved before the President gave his approval and the contract was awarded by NPA? What was the role of the supervising minister in this regard? Answers to these questions are very essential because if I am approving a contract to any company and my minister and the officials of the agency cannot verify for me whether the company is registered; then I don’t know what they are doing as the head of that organisation.

“If the President, who

awarded the contract did not know, the Managing Director of NPA ought to seek confirmation from CAC and his head of legal department.

“With the award of this contract, the President, his minister and the sacked managing director of NPA have created a wrong impression before the in-coming administration that many other unregistered companies got multimillion dollar contracts under the out-going administration to siphon public fund.”

Also yesterday, The Nation learnt that the unregistered companies belong to “a powerful woman”, who is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). She is said to have the ears of the Presidency.

The source alleged that “the ghost contract companies did not have certificates of incorporation or tax receipts. Neither were they registered with the ministry”.

Another official, who spoke with The Nation under the condition of anonymity, said the methods adopted in awarding the contract were alarming.

He noted that the towage service, which was the core function of NPA after ports were concessioned, was awarded by its management after receiving presidential approval without verifying the companies to which these contracts were awarded.

The official urged the in-coming Gen. Muhammadu Buhari led-administration to investigate the method adopted in awarding the contracts by the management of NPA and the services so far rendered by the companies that won the contracts.

Minister, rice importers duty row grows Continued from page 4

eral Inland Revenue Service; Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; Nigerian Export Promotion Council; Raw Materials Research and Development Council, Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service and Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission.

The letter was titled: “Importation of Brown rice (H.S Code 1006.2000.00) and semi-milled or wholly milled rice, whether or not polished or glazed (H.S Code 1006.3010.00) by investors with rice milling capacity and verifiable backward integration programme.”

However, from May last year when the directive was received, nothing was done towards its implementation until December, when Adesina allegedly issued a licence to non-existing rice millers, an action that did not go down well with rice millers in the

under the leadership of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, said his party would have more activists on the ground on Thursday helping to get out the vote than the other parties combined.

He warned that another Conservative-led government “propped up by the Lib Dems” would “raid family budgets and cut the NHS”.

“This is the clearest choice that has been put before the British public for a generation.

Between a Tory government that is for the privileged few and a Labour government that puts working people first.”

This is isn’t how this election was meant to go.

It’s been marked by the lack of confidence felt by our political leaders rooted in the overwhelming lack of trust felt by most voters.

Why else would David Cameron promise to pass a law - not mentioned in his own manifesto - which would stop himself putting up taxes he’s long pledged not to raise?

Why else would Ed Miliband resort to “carving in stone” pledges so broad and so general that it would be almost impossible to judge whether they’ve ever been broken?

Why else would we see the relentless political cross-dressing as the Tories promised to become the party of the workers and Labour the party of economic responsibility?

Comatose PDP heading for self-destruction, says Mark Continued from page 4

members to ensure that they henceforth guard their utterances and actions, no matter the provocation and distortions in some sections of the media while channeling their energies and ideas towards the rebuilding process. ”In this regard, all members who have reports, grievances and suggestions on the way forward should transmit same to the Post-Election Review Committee for an all inclusive roadmap in the overall effort to regain power in 2019.”

Metuh urged members to be wary of the activities of some “mischievous persons” within and outside the PDP

family who are bent on frustrating the party’s peace efforts.

According to him, such individuals and groups have found the social media a veritable tool for their mischief through distortion of facts, false allegations and fabrications against the party.

“The leadership, therefore, urged all members to join forces to ensure that the core values and the vision of the founding fathers are sustained while also directing all organs of the party to focus only on party administration in a manner that rekindles zeal and commitment among members and supporters at all levels,” Mark added.

edly to his favorites with no milling capacity, thus causing a huge reduction in allocations to existing millers.

It equally alleged that the total quota allocation was not as per the supply gap of the product required as major stakeholders were not involved and that the quotas were issued retrospectively, which, as alleged, is against the legal framework of the nation.

But the Minister has denied the allegations. He said some smart import companies tried to abuse the Federal Government’s rice production policy by importing huge quantities of the commodity in excess of their approved quotas.

Adesina, who appeared before an Ad-hoc Committee of the House of Representatives in Abuja, told lawmakers that some importers did not only breach their quotas, but also failed to pay the duties for the excess imports.

He said some of the affected importers are owing the Federal Government duties in excess of N36 billion. “Nigeria is not a Banana Republic; we have laws here and the laws must work. All duties and levies must be paid to the last kobo. Importers must pay the appropriate duties,” Adesina declared.

Explaining that the policy was to cut imports and encourage local production of rice by allocating quotas to importers, he said the policy specified that any importer who chose to import more than its allotted quota, would pay 70 per cent of duties and levies to the Federal Government.

The committee, which is investigating alleged “fraud” and evasion of import duties and levies, is chaired by the House Deputy Leader, Leo Ogor.

Buhari: why I became a democrat

Continued from page 4

governors, he said: “It was a battle well fought and I am very pleased that you have taken the honourable way out.

According to the Nigerian constitution, you go to court.

I was there three times and ended up in the Supreme Court.

“Sometimes, people wonder why I tried so hard. I tried so hard because it is a system I believe in. I believe that multiparty democratic system is the best form of governance with a big caveat that election must be free and fair. Really, this is why I am in it. I was in APP. “I joined partisan politics in April 2002 and on that date, at my ward, I said that those who

Britons choose new govt today Continued from page 4

country.

It was also revealed that the current spat between the Minister and major rice millers in the country was as a result of the breach of the presidential directive, as none of them was granted the import licence as directed by the Presidency.

The matter got to its head when it was discovered that those who got the import licences began to seek the support of existing rice millers to buy-off their respective allocation, as the beneficiaries of the import licences lack capacity to undertake the task.

Among other things, the Presidency official said going by the norm, there was no Inter-ministerial Committee formed as instructed by Mr. President to deliberate on the matter and issue the licences, adding that the quotas were issued unilaterally by the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) at the minister’s discretion, alleg-

knew me, and myself, following my career antecedent in the military, if people say that I’ll participate in partisan politics, people would not believe it and I will not also believe it.

“But I found myself in it and I never turned back. Within one year, APP gave me the ticket. There were governors, senators and much older people than me, but all the same, I got the ticket. I lost. I was in court for 30 months. In 2007, we tried to have a limited merger and became ANPP and, again, I participated and was told I lost. “ I went to court for 20 months up to the Supreme Court and I felt that my party was not fair to me. While I was

in court, the leadership of he party proceeded and took two marginal ministries in late Yar’Adua’s cabinet and an adviser.

For that disgraceful behavior by the party leadership, I left the party and we floated the CPC. Again, I attempted in 2011 and lost and, again, I was in court for about eight months and I contested now for the fourth time under APC, having successfully gone through with the merger of the three legacy parties.

“So, Aisha, don’t give up.

You are younger and this is your first attempt. I contested three times and this is my fourth attempt. I hope that you succeed in the court. I am

impressed by the quality of Taraba people you brought here. I think that for all I get and purpose, the whole of Taraba is here and I am very grateful for that inspite of your expensive shopping list .“You said you have gold, you have tantalite, you want your roads to be finished, you want agriculture. If you will, I think I am in trouble. Honestly, I hope you will win in the court.”

Speaking earlier, the leader of the delegation, Senator Aisha Alhasan, urged the President-elect to ensure a fair deal for Taraba State in his administration, adding that the state had been unfairly treated in the past.

Two die in Ilorin road accident

T

WO persons died yesterday in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, in a road accident.

The accident, which occurred in Irewolede on New Yidi road, involved a Siena space bus, a tricycle belonging to a fast food company and a commercial motorcy-

From Adekunle Jimoh, Ilori

clist.

It was gathered that the driver of the Siena space bus (FST 459 BH), branded with a political party’s logo, veered off the road and hit the oncoming tricycle and the commercial motorcycle.

The okada rider and one other person were reported to have died on the spot.

It was learnt that the driver of the space bus and the tricycle rider sustained head injuries and were taken to the Ilorin General Hospital.

The Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety

Corps, Mrs. Mary Wakawa, confirmed the accident. She said: “I can confirm that two people died during the accident. Some people at the accident scene burnt down the bus."

The identities of the victims were not immediately known last night.

61

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

FOREIGN NEWS

U.S. approves Cuba-Florida ferry services

P

ROTESTERS in South Africa burned tires and piled rocks across the road leading to the Soweto home of the late Nelson Mandelayesterday, in a demonstration against electricity bills.Residents blocked the streets of the Soweto neighborhood that was once home to anti-apartheid icons Mandela and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, and now a popular tourist spot in Johannesburg.

Police fired rubber bullets at some residents to disperse them, police spokeswoman Edna Mamonyane said. No injuries were reported or arrests made. Among the protesters were elderly residents, said Mamonyane.Residents were opposing the power utility’s billing system change from a monthly reading to a prepaid meter, said Faith Vanqa, a representative of the protesters.

Soweto homes owe Eskom more than $300 million in unpaid electricity bills and the hope is that prepaid electricity will “contain the level of debt,” said Khulu Phasiwe, spokesman for the public utility company.

P

ASSENGER ferries could be set to run between Florida and Cuba for the first time in more than 50 years after the US government approved new services.

Services between the two countries stopped when the US imposed a trade embargo on Cuba in 1960.

But Washington announced the restoration of diplomatic ties in December last year.

The US government has now lifted the ban and a number of ferry companies say they have been given licences.

The BBC’s Will Grant in Havana says the latest announcement does not necessarily mean that boats will start launching for Cuban shores straight away, as there are bureaucratic hurdles to overcome in both countries.

However, it is another indication of Washington’s desire to put the policies of isolating Cuba in the past and begin a new era of co-operation, he says.

President of the Miamibased United Americas Shipping Services Joseph Hinson called the move “a great step

U.S. offers $20m on ‘four IS leaders’ •President Barack Obama shook hands with Cuban President Raul Castro at April’s Summit of the Americas, a sign of thawing relations forward”.

He said that “if all goes smoothly we could have things up and running by September”.

Havana Ferry Partners of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, said it also had a licence.

“This is a historical event.

Thanks to President Barack Obama, to whom we are very grateful, for his leadership,” the firm wrote on its

Facebook page.

Ferries will also be allowed to transport cargo to Cuba, which sits 150km (90 miles) from southern Florida.

A new charter flight service from New York City, operated by JetBlue, had already been announced.

A charter flight service from New York City to Cuba, operated by JetBlue, has been announced

The service was agreed during a recent trade delegation of New York-based companies to Cuba, led by state governor Andrew Cuomo.

Despite the new flights and ferry services, a travel ban on Cuba is still in place for US citizens.

Only those who have the right paperwork in 12 different categories are permitted to visit the island.

UN whistle-blower on child abuse to be reinstated

A

UN whistle-blower who revealed allegations of child sex abuse by French peacekeepers in the Central African Republic should be

Two UN peacekeepers killed in DR Congo

T

WO Tanzanian peacekeepers with the special UN intervention force in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been killed in an ambush, the UN has said.

Thirteen others were wounded in the attack by suspected Ugandan Allied Democratic Forces Islamist rebels.

It was second attack on UN forces in the eastern North Kivu region in 48 hours after a helicopter carrying a senior commander came under fire.

The UN has promised a “robust” military offensive in response.

Earlier, the Congolese army said it had killed 16 Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels during fierce fighting over the weekend.

The ADF was formed in late 1990s by a puritanical Muslim sect in the Ruwenzori mountains of western Uganda.

The army launched a UNbacked offensive against the group - one of many based in the mineral-rich east of DR Congo - after they were accused of hacking more than 200 villagers to death near Beni in a series of massacres late last year.

The UN intervention brigade convoy came under attack on Tuesday about 12km (seven miles) from Beni, UN peacekeeping spokesman Nick Birnback told the BBC’s Newsday programme.

Residents, workers protest in South African cities over power bills

re-instated immediately, a tribunal says.

Anders Kompass was suspended by the UN for leaking the report to French authorities, who are now investigating.

The UN appeal tribunal ruled that his suspension was unlawful, and that he should

now return to work.

The UN denies allegations it covered up child abuse.

French authorities are now investigating 14 soldiers over the report, having received it in July last year.

The report alleges that children as young as nine were forced to carry out sex

acts in return for food.

French President Francois Hollande said last week: “If some soldiers have behaved badly, I will show no mercy,” Soldiers from Chad and Equatorial Guinea have also been implicated in alleged abuse, but neither country has responded publicly to the accusations.

Yemen:Boat-shelling kills dozens in Aden

A

T least 32 people have been killed in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden while trying to flee heavy fighting in a boat, medics say.

Witnesses told the Reuters news agency the boat was struck by shells fired by Houthi rebels as it left the alTawahi district for al-Buraiqa in the west.

The Houthis have been battling southern militiamen for control of al-Tawahi.

Earlier, rebel sources said at least 34 civilians were killed in Saudi-led coalition air strikes in north Yemen.

The coalition had vowed to respond to a cross-border attack on the Saudi border town of Najran on Tuesday, which left three people

dead.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed concern about the worsening humanitarian situation in Yemen, as 22 international aid agencies warned that fuel shortages might halt their work.

In Aden, there was fierce fighting overnight between militiamen loyal to exiled President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and Houthi

fighters, backed by allied security personnel.

Aden residents have been using boats to flee the fierce fighting in the port city Southern militiamen have been unable to repel the rebel offensive on Aden Residents and militiamen told Reuters that at least 40 people were killed as a rebel offensive on al-Tawahi was repelled with the help of Saudi-led air strikes.

Netanyahu in Israel coalition deal

I

SRAEL’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed an 11th-hour deal to form new coalition government, Israeli media say.

The reported deal, seven weeks after his Likud party won the election, came just before a final deadline for the formation of a government.

Mr Netanyahu needed backing from the right-wing Bayit Yehudi party to give him the necessary 61 seats.

•Kyrgyz military cadets carry portraits of WWII veterans during the Immortal Regiment march devoted to the celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany in World War II in central Bishkek..yesterday PHOTO:AFP

T

HE US government is offering rewards totalling $20m (£13m) for information on what it says are four leaders of the Islamic State (IS) militant group!.

It named the four as Abdul Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili and Tariq bin alTahar bin al-Falih al-Awni alHarzi.

They join a list of suspects sought under the Rewards for Justice Program.

On Tuesday, Islamic State said it was behind an attack in Texas.

It said “two soldiers of the caliphate” had attacked a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest being held at a conference centre in Garland near Dallas.

The US State Department offered up to $7m for informa-

tion on Qaduli whom it described as a senior IS official who originally joined its precursor, al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).

It offered $5m each for Adnani and Batirashvili and up to $3m for Harzi.

It describes Adnani as an official IS spokesman, Batirashvili - who is also known as Omar Shishani - as a battlefield commander in northern Syria, and Harzi as chief of the group’s suicide bombers.

IS has seized swathes of territory in eastern Syria and northern Iraq, declaring them a caliphate and imposing a harsh interpretation of Islamic law on the inhabitants.

The state department said the group was responsible for systematic human rights abuses, including mass executions, rape and the killing of children.

‘Pilot had practicsed Alps crash descent’

T

HE co-pilot of the Germanwings plane that crashed in the French Alps in March appears to have practised a rapid descent on a previous flight, a report by French investigators says.

The report said Andreas Lubitz repeatedly set the plane for an unauthorised descent earlier that day.

Lubitz is suspected of deliberately crashing the Airbus 320, killing all 150 people on board.

He had locked the flight captain out of the cockpit.

The plane had been flying from Barcelona to Duesseldorf on 24 March.

The alteration of the flight settings occurred on the plane’s outbound flight from Duesseldorf to Barcelona on the same day, the preliminary report by accident investigation agency BEA said.

If Andreas Lubitz “practised a rapid descent” on the outward leg of the Germanwings flight, then the obvious question is: why did no-one spot it and ground him in Barcelona?

The interim French investigation report explains that puzzle. Over the course of three or four minutes, Lubitz did indeed designate “100ft” as the selected flight level. He did this several times, while the pilot was out of the cockpit.

But this was just after the plane had already begun its descent. After each occasion that he chose “100ft”, he then corrected himself and entered the correct flight level. The course of the plane was not altered at all.

Abbott dismisses gay partner ‘snub’ USTRALIA’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott has dismissed as “trivia” a media row over the treatment of the gay partner of his ambassador to France.

Australia media reported that Stephen Brady’s partner of 32 years was barred from an airport greeting party.

Peter Stephens was reportedly told to “wait in the car” rather than join Mr Brady on the tarmac to meet Mr Abbott.

Mr Brady offered to resign after ignoring the instructions, which Mr Abbott said were not from him.

The incident happened in April, as Mr Abbott was flying into Paris from Turkey where he had been marking Anzac Day. He was not travelling with his wife, so under normal diplomatic protocol the receiving ambassador would be ex-

A

pected to welcome him without his or her partner as well.

The prime minister’s office said he had been “very happy to be met by ambassador Brady and his partner when he arrived in Paris last month”.

Mr Abbott said yesterday that there was “some issue at the level of junior officials and I don’t concern myself with these things”.

He said Mr Brady was “a fine servant of Australia, a really fine servant of Australia. He’s a friend of mine, always has been and as far as I’m concerned always will be”.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has said it is time for Australia to act on marriage equality Opposition leader Bill Shorten, however, said that if the report was true Mr Brady and Mr Stephens “deserve an apology”.

62

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

63

THE NATION THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

SPORT EXTRA

‘Genius’ Messi secures Barca win

FIFA U-20 WORLD CUP

U-20 WORLD CUP

Brazil to rely Injury scare for Success on Man Utd, RANADA forward Isaac Success is carrying Real Madrid a minor ankle injury which might hinder his particikids to pation at the World Youth schedule to take place in New Zealand. beat Nigeria Championship Success, according to reports

G

T • Messi doubles Barca's lead by running through the heart of Bayern Munich's defence before chipping the ball over Manuel Neuer

L

IONEL Messi scored twice as Barcelona beat Bayern Munich 3-0 in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final on Wednesday night.

Pep Guardiola's Bayern side frustrated the hosts for long spells, with German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer making a host of stunning saves. Messi, however, who has now surpassed Cristiano Ronaldo as the all-time scorer in Champions League history with 77 goals, netted twice in the final 13 minutes, before Neymar added a third in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

The home side had a strong penalty shout inside four minutes when Jerome Boateng seemed to trip Luis Suarez inside the box, but the referee was not interested. Suarez was again involved after seven minutes following a quick counter from the hosts, but the Argentine's effort was straight at Neuer during

RESULTS CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Barcelona 3 - 0 Bayern ITALY - SERIE A Torino 0 - 1 Empoli

what was an open start to proceedings.

Suarez had a guilt-edged chance to open the scoring after 12 minutes when he ran through on the Bayern goal, but again Neuer was on hand to make the save. Suarez then set up Neymar after 15 minutes, but somehow it trickled wide.

Bayern were next to come close when Thomas Muller slid a super cross into Robert Lewandowski, but the Polish international made a hash of it.

Barcelona remained the biggest threat, however, with Jordi Alba forcing an excellent clearance from Boateng, before Suarez headed over the crossbar from the resulting corner.

Barcelona forced a free kick in a dangerous area after 35 minutes, but Messi's effort was collected by Neuer, before the German goalkeeper denied Dani Alves from inside the box.

Bayern started the second period on the front foot and forced a free kick in a dangerous area when Alves brought Lewandowski to the ground.

Xavi Alonso's effort, however, hit the bottom of the wall.

The German side continued to enjoy possession as the half developed, with Barcelona guilty of a number of late challenges, much to the frustration of the home supporters. Muller and Lewandowski were both caught just offside as Bayern continued to threaten in the opening 10 minutes of the second period, while Javier Mascherano was forced into a strong clearance at his near post.

Messi then combined with Neymar down the other end before striking towards goal, but Neuer was on hand to make the save. Neuer again came to his team's rescue on the hour as the German departed his box to challenge Neymar, who looked through on goal after a super pass from Messi.

Neymar again came close four minutes later, but the Brazilian's effort was high of the crossbar as the score remained level with 25 minutes remaining. Bayern finally tested Marc-Andre ter Stegen in the 72nd minute when Thiago tried his luck from outside the box, but a big deflection took it into the arms of the German goalkeeper.

HE Flying Eagles of Nigeria will have their hands full when they take on Brazil at the FIFA U-20 World cup as Brazil coach, Alexander Gallo, has called up Manchester United playmaker Andreas Pereira and Real Madrid forward Jean Carlos.

Defending his decision to call up the duo, the coach also gave reasons why he dropped Fluminese 17-yearold midfielder Gerson and Corinthians wonder-kid Malcom and Santos 18 year talented forward Gabriel.

“We called up committed players who have experience representing their country and have their careers shaped,” explained Gallo.

“We need players who are fully focused on our targets after our experience at the South American Championship." Pereira, highly rated within the corridors of Old Trafford, was voted the club U21 player of the year and only five days ago he signed a new three year deal prolonging his stay at the club till 2018.

He reportedly turned down PSG and Juventus to stay at Old Trafford where he made his first team debut in the capital one cup 4-0 loss to MK Dons.

Jean Carlos, on his part plays for Real Madrid Juvenile team as a right winger blessed with skills, tricks and pace aside from being a good header of the ball he also shoots well with both feet.

sourced by SL10.ng from media sources of Granada, was left out of last weekend’s game against Getafe due to an ankle injury picked up in the team penultimate game against Espanyol.

The 19-year-old is expected to join the Nigeria Under-20 team in Germany where they are presently camped ahead of the U-20 World Cup but sat out of today's training session as Granada prepares for their weekend game against Cordoba.

He was told by former coach of the team Abel Resino he will only be released if they are mathematically sure of survival or

• Success confirmed relegated from the LaLiga.

However, following the appointment of Jose Ramon Sandoval after Resino quit his post last week, there has been no statement from the team regarding when Success will be allowed to join the Flying Eagles.

Bundesliga clubs’ test for F/Eagles

T

HE Flying Eagles will play three test matches against the U-23 teams of German Bundesliga clubs Hoffenheim, Nurnberg and Freiburg, officials have announced.

The Nigeria U-20 team will

• Taiwo Awoniyi

tackle Hoffenheim U-23s on May 12 in Hoffenheim with kick-off time put at 3pm local time, which is 4pm Nigerian time.

Three days later they tackle the U-23 team of Nurnberg at their training ground in SudwestPark in Nurnberg by 4.30pm.

These two matches will be able to give coach Manu Garba and his assistants the chance to run a final rule over the players they will pick for their final 21-man squad for the World Cup. Nigeria will submit a final squad to FIFA on May 15.

Their final test match is slated for Freiburg against the U23 team of Freiburg on May 19 by 2.30pm.

The team are due to fly out to New Zealand via Australia from Germany on May 23.

TODAY IN THE NATION

THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015 TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

‘What all this shows is that PDP is not organised. If it is, the PCC would not have seized the presidential campaign from it...this is not the kind of party that should lead our country’

VOL.9 NO.3,207

COMMENT & DEB ATE EBA

T

O save Nigeria effectively, and to set her feet on a sensible and sustainable path, there is one imperative measure screaming for action. At all costs, we have to reduce the powers that have been accumulated into the control of the Federal Government.

For our type of country, the Federal Government has become too big, too bloated, and too presumptuous, and its ponderous weight and shambling irrationality are destroying our country.

Sure, with the best of effort and sincerity (the kinds that we all believe that Buhari is capable of), we can suppress public corruption. We can fairly well increase our country’s revenues and improve our revenue base. We may be able to reduce unemployment gradually over time. We will destroy Boko Haram, perhaps find ways to make Islamic fundamentalist terrorism unattractive to our bright youths, and improve security in our country. We may accomplish all these and more; but as long as we leave our Federal Government as a behemoth lumbering over our country and wrecking a lot of good values, our Nigeria will still be the same conflict-ridden and inefficient country. Simply, we cannot move forward as we should unless we trim down our overloaded central establishment and reenergise the muscles of our peripheries. Our real strength as a country belongs to our country’s peripheries – our state and local governments, our cities and towns and communities, our small local businesses and farms, and our petty traders and market women. We started to weaken our country when we let military ruler after military ruler pull all the energy of our country into a huge and chaotic centre and to focus all our gaze on that centre. It has been horrible.

The fundamental reality behind all this is that we, as Nigeria, are a family of very • Gen Buhari different elements. Our nearly 300 nationalities had formed their cultural policies and structures of our country, we characters over thousands of years before the inflict immeasurable pains upon ourselves.

British came along and slapped all of us For some wisdom, let us look around the together to form a country called Nigeria. The world. The English, Scots, Welsh and Irish English language has it as a saying that “what have been living as one country of Britain for is good for the goose is good for the gander” over 600 years, and each of these four because goose and gander are two names for nationalities (in spite of much admixture of the same one bird – the goose being the the different peoples in the same country) is female and the gander the male. In our own still itself. The Irish, with the exception of various indigenous cultures, our women rear one little Irish province, went off and formed chickens and pigeons around the home, but their own separate country, the Republic of they know very well that much of what is Ireland, in 1921. The Scots and Welsh are good for the chicken is not good for the agitating for major autonomies, and in some pigeon– and vice versa. Whoever lumps cases, for separate statehood. Even the chickens and pigeons together without a English, who, because of their large number, careful respect for the differences in their have always been the dominant nationality modes of life is likely to end up with a lot of in Britain, are now demanding autonomy for dead birds. To think that living as Nigerians can wipe out our ethnic cultural differences in about a hundred years is to be laughably unrealistic. When we go on to employ that unrealistic folly to mold the very highest ELP, help, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) hate factory is consuming own children! Things are falling apart and the centre can no longer hold!

ACTING IGP BANS ROAD BLOCKS,says During the ill-fated elections, in which the they breed corruption–News once-upon-a-time largest party in Africa shrunk into the pitiable regional party of Nigeria’s Southeast and Southsouth, the most vulgar was the undisputed queen of the belle.

That was Herself, Dame the Game, Patience Faka Jonathan, who would share her glory with nobody, on partisan vulgar abuse.

Samplers from her rotten words on marble: Buhari be brain-dead, the North born throw-way ‘shildren’, APC na expired drug, If you hear ‘shange’, stone dem — chai, dia ris God oooooo!

Then the triad of Ayo Fayose, the unapologetic morbid advertiser, Femi FaniKayode, irredeemable spewer of sweet nonsense; and presidential bulldog, Doyin Okupe, he of the toxic fixation: Muhammadu Buhari would never be president, no matter how bad Goodluck Jonathan was.

While Fani the Son ought to have devoted his sweet tongue to the wonders of Candidate Jonathan, though he be sitting president, he made himself Don Quixote, on a wild search for Candidate Buhari’s school certificate which was never lost; and, having hit a dead end, deliriously declared the man lacked that Oga, CHECKPOINT still dey inside paper.

FESTAC... check 3RD GATE and 2nd Playing the Yoruba fool that bawls what AVENUE at NIGHT.

OPEN FORUM By

PROF BANJI AKINTOYE

Let’s solve our country’s central problem

RIPPLES

H

their English nation too. More and more of English leaders are demanding that England must, like Scotland, have its own separate and semi-autonomous government based in Manchester – away from the over-all British government in London.

The Spaniards, Catalans and Basques have lived together as parts of the one country of Spain for over 700 years. The Catalans and Basques still desire to have separate countries of their own – even in spite of serious admixture of Spaniards, Catalans and Basques all over Spain. In the 1920s, a Spanish dictator thought he could wipe out the ethniccultural differences, and he prohibited the Catalan and Basque languages. He did not succeed. After him, the repressed languages revived vigorously.

In 1763, Britain, after defeating France in a war in North America, seized the French colony in the far north of the continent and added it to the English colony nearby to create the country now called Canada. That is 250 years ago, and the French provinces of Canada are still agitating for a separate French-speaking country of their own today.

The Indian Union, with about 2000 ethnic nationalities, pursues a sensible policy of respecting the various cultures and languages of its nationalities. India has declared the English language and 21 indigenous languages as its official languages, all of them eligible for federal funding and support in the educational system in their various states. Therefore, although India’s ethnic complexity is much more profound than Nigeria’s, India is a more stable and more progressive country than Nigeria. After Indonesia’s independence, the Indonesian central government made a habit of

HARDBALL

LAWAL OGIENAGBON

launching tough military campaigns against any show of desire for autonomy in any province. After losing some provinces to secession, the Indonesian government is now more thoughtful, more respectful of its various peoples’ cultural peculiarities, and more willing to grant local autonomies without a fight. Even in Africa, the Union of South Africa has wisely followed India’s example and declared 11 languages as its official languages.

But we in Nigeria have chosen to be blind to this universal wisdom. As soon as we became independent in 1960, the politicians who controlled the Federal Government (coming predominantly from the Northern Region and secondarily from the Eastern Region) decided to themselves that the Western Region, because it was doing more and achieving better than the other regions, was too independent-minded and must be subdued. By 1962, their plot against the Western Region began to produce its disruptive fruit. They started the dangerous trend. The soldiers soon came to intensify it.

And, since the time of the Abacha dictatorship in the 1980s, the dictatorship by the Nigerian central government has been at its peak. The Federal Government dictates the curriculum for schools in Nigeria, and that curriculum excludes the teaching of any Nigerian people’s history or language. In fact, since the Abacha years, the Federal Government has sponsored the campaign that the various Nigerian nationalities are not nationalities at all. And, during those years, Nigeria has dangled very close to the absolute bottom of instability, decline, poverty, hopelessness.

If we do not now deal seriously and sincerely with this situation, we are almost certain to be saying goodbye to Nigeria sometime soon.

General Buhari has a very large political capital as he comes into the presidency. Using that capital wisely and sincerely, he can get us Nigerians to deal amicably with this central problem of our country’s existence.

Of course, it will not be easy; but it can be done. But if he thinks he can parry this central problem and cleverly focus our attention on other issues that are also important, he will discover by-and-by that he let the boat slip away into the rough and uncharted seas. His hatred of public corruption, and his independence of spirit, are great qualities.

We, countless millions of Nigerians, who admire him now hope that he will surely make his rendezvous with destiny.

•Dapo Fafowora returns in a fortnight •For comments, send SMS to 08111813080

•Hardball is not the opinion of the columnist featured above

Help, hate revolution consuming own children! the wise whispers in private and strict secrecy, he even helped to amplify, rationalise, beatify and endorse the Faka claim that Buhari “is brain-dead”!

For Okupe and his pack of presidential hounds, many of them barking away in cyber space, it was a loud and raucous Mission Destroy Muhammadu!

But now, all is quiet on the Buhari destruction front, except the bitter recrimination and mutual gnashing of teeth, in the Mission Unaccomplished camp, where the hate revolution is consuming its own children.

The Fani-Kayode/Okupe camp launched the opening blistering attack, telling Chairman Adamu Muazu (ironically about the lone sane voice in a camp that went gaga) and his embattled PDP national executive to fall on own swords, for delivering crippling defeat, instead of thumping victory.

But the other side has charged right back, blazing from both sides of the hip, screaming and whooping for a fight-to-finish. Dame Faka? As gentle as a dove right now, diagnosed with withdrawal syndrome!

Still, as the Mu’azu camp counter-attacked, claiming the hateful quad sank Jonathan with their bile — not altogether false — they too stacked their cards in villainy.

Even before the campaigns opened, Olisa Metuh, without much ado or any shred of proof, dubbed the rival All Progressives Congress (APC) an “Islamic party”, a noxious theme Fani-Kayode, in his patent flippancy, soon stretched to a related tag, Haramists, meaning a party aiding and abetting Boko Haram.

PDP controversial National Secretary, Prof.

Adewale Oladipo, also declared, without provocation, that the presidential contest was between an “illiterate military jackboot” (that had no school certificate) and a PhD holder (spoilt for choice with academic laurels).

The bitter truth? There was little PDP could do, given pretty little to pin-point as Jonathan’s achievements.

So, they deliberately adopted a crooked campaign strategy. They ran a campaign of passionate hate, not clinical issues. For all of Jonathan’s vaunted PhD, rigour is not his strongest point.

But PDP leaders, most often deficit in honour and decorum, are just dishonest to accept they adopted wrong tactics and strategies — and got walloped, big time, for it!

Still, the recrimination is welcome comeuppance. It is sweet, very sweet, for the hate revolution to, in earnest, start consuming its own children!

Published and printed by Vintage Press Limited. Corporate Office: 27B Fatai Atere Way, Matori, Lagos. P.M.B. 1025,Oshodi, Lagos.

Telephone: Switch Board: 01-8168361. Editor Daily:08099365644, Marketing: 01-8155547 . Abuja Office: Plot 5, Nanka Close AMAC Commercial Complex, Wuse Zone 3, Abuja. Tel: 07028105302.

WEBSITE: www.thenationonlineng.net E-mail: info@thenationonlineng.net ISSN: 115-5302 Editor: GBENGA OMOTOSO