The Nation November 23, 2014 by The Nation

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2014

COLUMN

Looking back and looking forward

nooping around With

Tatalo Alamu

•Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal at the shut gates of the National Assembly

HIS week as the unhinged Jonathan administration finally slipped its rational mooring with the armed invasion of the National Assembly, Nigerians must now brace themselves for the worst imaginable political catastrophe. There is a chilling feeling of Déjà vu abroad. The pictures are all too reminiscent of the 1962 bedlam in the Western Region House of Assembly. But while one event may resemble another distant event, you cannot step into the same river twice. It beggars belief that there are some of our compatriots who are justifying and defending this wanton desecration of a very critical state institution. Patriotism is truly the refuge of scoundrels. This columnist is often amused when our ersatz patriots and emergency nationalists mount the rooftop to pro-

NOOPER suspends all intellectual hostilities this morning to wish President Goodluck Jonathan well as he takes full charge as the third elected president of the Fourth Republic of Nigeria. This must be a moment of charity and sober reflection. Nigeria’s history has been a long nightmare punctuated by sleepwalking. This columnist is dreaming sweet dreams this morning and we urge Jonathan to become a visionary dreamer too, if he is to rescue Nigeria from the purgatory of damned nations. The odds may be stacked against him at this point but that is just the point about visionary imagining. Without dreams, nations and people must perish. Without hope life is a sour and surly joke. But being optimistic about Nigeria carries extremely grave risks. It is a deeply compromising ritual. To start with, analytical integrity may have to be abandoned. Hard facts on the ground may have to be ignored. The logic of events will have to be sacrificed. Yet we must dream our way out of the current nightmare. It is not the failure of nations and state collapse that we must fear. It is the failure of national will. This is why children and youths are the best nation builders. Because they carry no ancestral baggage of resentment, no evil memory of ancient tribal feuds, youths have a better capacity to dream and to will into existence a new society. But we are already beginning to poison that romantic well of national wellbeing. Our youths are gradually being sucked into a vortex of fear and trembling. The Other is hell. Ask prospective members of the National Youth Service Corps. When he was asked why he remained defiantly at odds with the Italian state and cheerfully hopeful about the future despite bitter defeats, stunning reversals of gains, persistent harassments, incarcerations and the murder of his colleagues and comrades in arms, Antonio Gramsci retorted that it was due to optimism of the will and pessimism of the intellect. Opti-

claim their love for the nation and its presiding eminence. Given the battles some of us have fought for this country, both against military and civilian despots, their delusional nuisance ought to be a source of wry bemusement. But sometimes, the joke is carried too far. When many of us were battling to revalidate Jonathan’s legitimate claims to the presidency in the face of a desperate conspiracy by a feudal cabal, he had no ambassadors then. They were still in the diplomatic crèche for hustlers. Or more likely, they were studying the game as usual to see which way the gravy train was heading. But now that they have captured Goodluck, turning him into an ethnic and sub-regional president, it is good luck to all of them. As part of a constant reality

check, this column often takes a retrospective glance at the immediate past. The result can be sobering and profoundly therapeutic. It is an elixir for the soul in depressing and degrading times. You are aware that when everything has ended in an absolute disaster, little is worth salvaging in the eternal cycle of political stupidity. You can then be reconciled to reality under duress, apologies to Fredric Jameson, the great American literary theorist. If Jonathan fails, it will not be from want of initial support from vital segments of the Nigerian civil and political society. It will be due entirely to his fundamental flaws of character. In the end, character is fate, as no one can escape the implacable consequences of their foibles. As the Greeks will say, call no man lucky until that day that he carries his luck to the grave.

As it is at the moment, nothing can be expected from Jonathan in terms of the fundamental political re-engineering of this structurally disfigured country; nothing in terms of a visionary developmental blueprint and nothing in terms of moving the nation away from endemic political paralysis. Once again, the nation walks the path of thunder. In their tokenist trifling with harsh and bitter reality, Jonathan’s supporters may continue to point at kilometres of road constructed, stadia built, old rail wagons refurbished and new universities opened, forgetting that these are all ad hoc projects without any holistic integrative structure. In any case, even a third rate local government chairman with the same funding will not be jubilant about this. With the benefit of hindsight, the Jonathan presidency represents the greatest frittering away of historic opportunities and possibilities for this nation. No other civilian ruler in the history of the country could be said to have acceded to power with such massive goodwill and a pan-Nigerian groundswell of hope and optimism. But in the end, no man can give what he doesn’t have. To have invested such hopes in the first instance in an untried and untested fellow is a prime ex-

A dream for Nigeria

mism of the will is the ability to dare and dream ; the capacity for continuous exertion and permanent struggle for a better society even where the intellect tells you that it will all be to no avail in the end. Gramsci should know. He was a human exemplar. The great Italian journalist and outstanding leftist theoretician lived life as pure hell. A hunchback wracked by every conceivable human affliction, the great man produced seminal works under intense pressure and suffering. Here was a man sent to life-long jail by Benito Mussolini, the late Italian dictator, with the war-cry: “We must prevent this brain from functioning for twenty years!” Although Gramsci perished in jail, it was from prison and under the most abysmal conditions that he wrote his best works. You can imprison a man but you can never imprison his mind. Let us thank god for great mercies. Twelve years ago exactly today, the Nigerian military departed in a hail of controversy and ill-will. They turned out to be neither political nor economic messiahs. But they managed to hold the nation together in spite of themselves. It is still a tense and fraught unity with an American Nostradamus starring us in the face. In many countries, the military often act as the human incarnation of the providential will that wields together the heterogeneous forces of a nascent nation, forging an organic community from disparate nationalities and in the process turning a nation in itself to a nation for itself. But in Nigeria, the military goofed catastrophically and it was only by a divine miracle and the legendary luck of Nigeria that the armed forces survived the ethnic and religious fissures that have polarised the larger Nigerian society. But we cannot blame a river for being sluggish and tardy in midstream without looking at its origin. The Nigerian military began as an instrument of colonial pacification; an armed will of the metropolitan

imperium. And for most of its postcolonial existence, the Nigerian military lived up to its billing as an army of occupation without an ennobling vision of a just and humane society or an enabling visionary for that matter. Yet in just twelve years of depoliticisation and reprofessionalisation, we have seen how a professional military can act as a stabilising bedrock of the nation and of the political order, despite the suicidal antics of an errant political class. We salute the gallant men and women of our armed forces for this recovery of initiative and for their rediscovery of the ethos of the modern army. Had it been the army of yore, the past two years would have been sorely tempting indeed. Happy indeed is the land without the need for a military hero. Goodluck is lucky. He is beginning his real presidency on this happy augury of a military safely ensconced in the barracks. Secure in the knowledge that the military threat has receded, Jonathan ought to have his mind free for the great feats of social engineering required to return this country to the path of sanity and rationality. But he remains gaffeprone and susceptible to unforced errors of political judgement which may prove fatal in the long run. Like all responsible electorates all over the civilised world, Nigerians must brace for the consequences of their choice. In the long run, the Jonathan presidency may be more important in terms of its profound symbolism than in terms of real achievement. While many Nigerians had thought that the social question of justice and accountability should be superior to the political question of regional hegemony and monopoly of power, the overwhelming majority of Nigerians had thought otherwise. For them, it is more important to lay down the rule once and for all that the Nigerian presidency is accessible to and attainable by all qualified Nigerians irrespective of

origins or ethnic affiliation. For many Nigerians, then, the Jonathan presidency represents the first real people driven power shift in the country as distinct from the cartel-driven “army arrangement” that brought Obasanjo and Shagari to civilian power. But Jonathan is not his own creation and the myth of the “shoeless” boy who made the Nigerian presidency does not even begin to address the problems of power disequilibrium in Nigeria. Neither does his belonging to a minority among a minority group scratch the surface of the national question. A wound does not heal by merely clearing the pus of dereliction. It is just the beginning of the healing process. Yet the way history often unfolds in a neat and exacting symmetry defies human understanding. Exactly forty five years ago today, a monolithic north exploded in response to what it saw as the challenge of the five majors and the chain of events that brought General Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi to power. At this very moment forty five years after, the core hegemonists of the north are seething with anger and bitterness over the chain of events or what they believe to be the chain of conspiracy which has robbed one of their own of the presidential slot. It is to be stressed that neither Aguiyi-Ironsi nor Goodluck Jonathan initially sought to rule Nigeria. Both are beneficiaries of extrahuman and cosmic forces precipitating sharp historical detours: the one profiting from a mutiny he knew nothing about but which decapitated civilian rule; the other a beneficiary of a biological accident which altered the power equations. But no man has ever been known to throw away a juicy piece of federalist morsel. Ironsi made hay by attempting to bring Nigeria under his unitarist anti-federalist jackboot. Jonathan has consolidated his grip in an election which has further exposed the hideous wounds and fault lines of the nation.

ample of the collective delusion and daydreaming to which Nigerians are particularly prone. The Jonathan presidency has become a historic albatross for the nation. But like a misbegotten child mounted on its mother’s back and with the feet grating on the floor at the same time, it will require considerable tact and adroitness to set down if it is not to bring mother and child crashing to the ground. This latest executive tragedy will not stop Nigerians from dreaming. It will not stop us from imagining a greater tomorrow in which this formidably gifted nation will take its rightful place in the comity of great nations. That greater tomorrow may appear like a forlorn dream in the distressing circumstances of the moment. But all great human achievements are products of imaginary projections. Nothing worthwhile can be achieved without visionary dreaming. This morning, we republish a piece published three and a half years ago in 2011 when Goodluck Jonathan first acceded to the Nigerian presidency on his own steam. Our expectations have not been met and certain things have since happened to the fabled Nigerian military. The reader is invited to take an intellectual excursion to our immediate past with the columnist. As it was in May 1966, so it appears to be in May 2011. But if history repeats itself, it is not always under the same circumstances. Today, the northern core hegemonists are without their middle belt satraps, their eastern mercenary class of power profiteers, their Yoruba collaborators, their riverine subalterns and the military card they are wont to press into service when the going gets stormy. However, there are new kids on the bloc. The immiseration and de-industrialisation of the north under the watch of its own military and civilian scions has dramatically expanded the vast underclass of illeducated rabble and casual riff-raff ready to be pressed into murderous service at short notice. With their burning resentment now framed as a political jihad against their local oppressors and now framed as a religious project against an “infidel” state the stage is set for a genocidal explosion on a truly industrial scale. What this means is that under Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria has slipped into a perilous conjuncture which requires brilliant statesmanship and extraordinarily creative political engineering. Like Ironsi, Jonathan may be ill-equipped for the job at hand. He may not have the wherewithal to deal with what is clearly an emergency situation. But unlike Ironsi, if anything untoward were to happen to Jonathan, the apocalyptic meltdown and descent into hell would be such that 1966 Nigeria and 1994 Rwanda would be a child’s play. This is not just another political game. We have arrived at the limbo between death and resurrection. It is the luminous zone of childlike reverie and collective daydreaming. In their dream, most Nigerians will vote for resurrection. Let Jonathan join in the dreaming too. It is a dream for Nigeria, a dream for Africa and a dream for the entire Black race. The alternative is a nightmare that is too cataclysmic to imagine. First published in May, 2011.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY NOVEMBER 23, 2014

NEWS

SSS, Naval officers invade APC office

HE All Progressives Congress (APC) was at the receiving end of a fresh assault by security agencies yesterday. Operatives of the Directorate of State Security (DSS) and personnel of the anticrime squad, OP-MESA invaded the party's data centre on Bola Ajibola Street, off Allen Avenue, Ikeja, at dawn and ransacked it. Twenty eight party workers, 25 data agents and three security guards- were whisked away by the state agents. The incident came on the heels of last Thursday's attack by armed policemen on the National Assembly where House of Reps Speaker Aminu Tambuwal, an APC member and many of his supporters were targeted. The party called the latest incident as the worst political scandal in Nigeria's history. National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed likened it to the

• Arrest 25 workers • Vandalise computers, furniture • Party says invasion Nigeria’s worst political scandal

Watergate Scandal that led to the resignation of US President, the late Richard Nixon in 1974, as a result of the June 17, 1972, break-in at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the attempted coverup of its involvement by the Republican Nixon Administration. He demanded an independent inquiry to "fish out those who ordered the needless and unprovoked attack on the offices of the APC and ensure that they face very serious consequences, irrespective of their status." It was gathered that the security agents carted away servers, routers and hard drives from personal computers and

By Raymond Mordi, Deputy Political Editor

the work stations in the centre. National Project Director, Bisoye Coker, who works for the consultancy outfit that was contracted by the APC to set up a data base for its members, following its membership registration in February (IT Data Network Limited), said she was still in shock. "As you can see, I'm absolutely and utterly shocked and dismayed by the fact that the premises were invaded this morning (yesterday) by security operatives from Abuja - that was what I was told. We do not know why they have invaded us. As you can see, they have vandalized some of our properties. This is one of our

systems; they've taken the hard drive inside," she said. The security men even went to the residence of her IT manager, Esther Enemuwe, who was not on duty during the raid to arrest her at about 1pm. "They were asking her about back-up system and the password to our server, which she doesn't have access to," Coker said. The outfit runs three shifts and the third shift, which closes at 7am, was in the process of winding up when the security operatives arrived at 5.45am and began to turn the office upside down. The centre was in complete disarray yesterday when reporters were conducted round.

•Part of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Data Centre vandalised by SSS and Naval officers yesterday PHOTO: Olusegun Raphael

Prominent broadcaster, Chaz B, is dead

prominent Nigerian radio broadcaster, Charles Bruce Chukwuma, also known as "Chaz B" is dead. Mr. Chukwuma was a popular presenter of a radio show "Sharing Life Issues" which aired on Inspiration FM Radio before moving to Rhythm FM. Mr. Chukwuma abruptly signed off on air during his last presentation late Friday, telling listeners his colleague will finish the show. Friends and family said he died yesterday of complications arising from kidney failure. Mr. Chukwuma had in 2012 had a kidney transplant from an organ donated by his wife in India. He reportedly started feeling uncomfortable, complaining of rumbling within his system and promptly left the programme mid-air. He was admitted at St. Nicholas Hospital, Lagos, where a team of doctors battled to save his life. He gave

up the ghost early Saturday morning and his corpse has since been deposited at the morgue. Apparently in compliance with doctors' directive, he had reportedly gone for check up in April this year and returned hale and hearty to the delight of his fans. Burning with a desire to take his highly inspirational programme to a wider audience across the country, Chaz B had served Inspirational FM notice to quit early in the year, and transmuted to Rhythm FM, which has capacity for network broadcasting across its stations in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Awka amongst others. Chaz B's programme, "Sharing Life Issues" was widely acclaimed as the most popular on Inspiration FM, and his notice to leave was said to have angered the station's owner, Erasmus Akingbola, who immediately

ordered that he be paid off. He will be missed by his cult of followers, who have come to trust and value his wise and consoling solutions to issues. Chukuma, hails from Delta State, Nigeria. With over

•Late Chaz B

20 years of experience in the Hospitality Management Industry of the United States of America, Chaz B consults on management turned around the hotel and entertainment sectors in Nigeria.

Several doors were smashed as were desk top computers. Coker's office was ransacked; her Imac computer and server were taken away. All the shelves were forced open. Coker said: "They broke into my assistant's office through this window and took all the documents she had normally piled up on the floor. My IT manager was not on duty when they called, but they got her phone number from one of the staff, somehow located where she stays and went to her house, ransacked the place, arrested her at 1pm and took her to their office at Ketu." The consultants have been working round the clock, transferring the information on the membership forms into electronic format, so that their records can be easily accessed. The APC conducted its membership registration nationwide in February. The IT consultants were trying to transfer the information on the individual membership forms received from around the country into electronic format, for easy access to them. The Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, who addressed the media at the data centre, said the APC has been trying to create a database and provide permanent party identity cards to its members. His words: "But, this morning, security agents raided this place and you saw the damage that was done. If this people follow due process in their work, they would have made investigations about this place, to find out what we are doing here. "This is the worst political scandal we have ever witnessed in this country. You see, this people are getting desperate. A few days ago, we read from PDP press statements that the APC were producing permanent voters' cards somewhere in Lagos. That is probably the reason why they have invaded this place." Igbokwe said the type of desperation PDP is displaying is not new. "We saw it in the days of IBB; we saw it in the days of Abacha. But this is a civilian dispensation; are not supposed to be getting better? What stops the security agents from doing some little investigation, to find out what is going on here before doing this kind of damage? What is the basis for this idiocy? What is the basis for trying to destroy the psyche of people who are working here? What impression are they giving to the outside world?" he asked rhetorically. . "That's exactly what they did here. They invaded this place and stole some vital documents; what do they want to do with it? They didn't apply common sense," he said. Reacting to the development, Alhaji Mohammed said: ''Saturday's attack is another one in the string of attacks and illegal actions of the PDP-led administration. The attack was unwarranted and unjustifiable. To attack one of the offices of the opposition party, APC, where legitimate operations of the party were being undertaken is an act of fascism and totalitarianism. To the point of brigandage, the invasion of the APC centre is an assault on the APC and its entire membership across the

country. It must not go unpunished. The party said though it had been tipped off about an impending attack on the 'secret warehouse' of our leader Bola Ahmed Tinubu, ''we dismissed such plan because there was no 'secret warehouse' anywhere and also because we never imagined that the government will attack the offices of an opposition party in a constitutional democracy. Obviously, we under-estimated the desperation of the Jonathan Administration and its worsening proclivity to impunity.'' An operation of terror and brigandage was unleashed on a legitimate operation of a leading national party. They came without a search warrant for the premises. Over 50 security operatives drafted from Abuja operations blocked the two major street entrances to the APC data entry centre, pulled down the gates and spent over two hours ransacking and vandalizing the centre. ''More than a dozen computers were destroyed. The server was also vandalized along with other equipments in the building. Just like the Watergate scandal in the USA, the state-sponsored security operatives apparently acting at the behest of the ruling PDP government turned the office upside down, and pulled out and vandalized everything in sight. ''If the PDP-led government and the security agents had done due diligence and acted professionally, they would have known that the APC data centre is a legitimate operation and the staff are Nigerian youths who were left jobless by the Jonathan government. Apart from the Lagos centre, the operation is decentralized and similar centres are functional in about six different locations around the country. ''They chose to believe the lie that it was a warehouse belonging to one of the national leaders of the party where dangerous weapons were being kept, when in fact it is a centre for entering the data provided by the millions of Nigerians who registered as members of the party during its membership registration exercise,'' the party said and described the invasion as another act of impunity, now a trademark of the Jonathan-led presidency which is being edged on by the hawks in the PDP. APC called the invasion of its offices an attempt to suppress the opposition, get details of its membership with the intention of using it to rig the 2015 elections and also to destroy the spirit of democracy. ''When in Oct. 6th, 2013 we issued a statement alerting Nigerians that the Jonathan Administration was using Rivers State as a testing ground for creeping fascism ahead of the 2015 elections, some said we were raising a false alarm. ''Well, here we are. In the past five months, the PDP-led government has stepped up its acts of impunity and terror against the leaders of the APC and all non-PDP actors. Elected officers, who are not PDP members, have had their rights repeatedly violated by the police and other security operatives. Never before has an elected government been so scared of the opposition to the point of shutting it down."

THE NATION ON SUNDAY NOVEMBER 23, 2014

OUSE of Representatives Speaker Aminu Tambuwal declared yesterday that he was ready for police invitation over Thursday's fracas at the National Assembly. Tambuwal who was reacting to reports that the Police and the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) planned to call him in for questioning on the matter, also faulted police claim that he arrived the Assembly Complex on the fateful day with a motley crowd. The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Suleiman Abba and the NSA's office yesterday denied plans to arrest the Speaker although the Force Headquarters said it is the responsibility of investigation officers on any matter to decide who to invite, quiz or prosecute. In a statement through his Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Mallam Imam Imam, the Speaker asked the police not to allow themselves to be used. Imam said:"The Honourable Speaker wishes to state that he is a law-abiding citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who has no immunity against arrest and prosecution except privileges as may be provided by the Legislative Powers and Privileges Act. "Accordingly , the Hon Speaker states for the records that he is available, ready and willing to answer any lawful invitation from any of the Security agencies on any matter for which they may require his attention. "The Speaker expresses dismay at the unprofessional conduct of the Nigerian Police in the attempt to stop him from accessing the House of Representatives chambers on the 20th November, 2014 to preside over the Special Session of the House on the State of Emer-

Tambuwal: I am ready for arrest

• Investigation will determine who to be quizzed, prosecuted -IGP • NSA denies issuing order •Arrest plot recipe for chaos, says APC gency Extension requested by Mr. President, for which he had recalled members from their working recess." The Speaker dismissed allegation by the police that he arrived at the Assembly Complex last Thursday with a motley crowd, stressing: "Most disgraceful is the false statement later issued by the Police in which they claimed that in the lawful exercise of their duties Alh. Aminu Tambuwal (CFR), arrived the venue with a motley crowd, who broke the cordon, assaulted the Police and evaded due process. "This blatant falsehood coming from a law enforcement agency, that is expected to be neutral and lawful, is unfortunate, to say the least. "For the avoidance of doubt, the Hon Speaker came to National Assembly accompanied by Hon Members as is customary during any sitting of the House. They all came with their official vehicles but were disallowed from driving into the premises. "Certainly Hon Members, who arrived the precinct of the National Assembly in response to a call to perform an urgent, critical national assignment, cannot be described by any self respecting institution as "a motley crowd " "It is important to remind the Nigeria Police Force that as a public institution that provides common services for all

APC to Presidency: Plan to arrest Tambuwal is recipe for chaos

HE All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday warned that the alleged planned arrest of House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Tambuwal by the Presidency could trigger a crisis that will be fatal for the nation's democracy. It therefore called for caution on the part of government and asked that the plan be dumped forthwith. In a statement in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the federal government would be pouring petrol on a naked fired by arresting the Speaker, following the failed attempt to prevent him from accessing the National Assembly to preside over the affairs of the House on Thursday, and also in an apparent attempt to halt the current move to impeach the President. He said, ''Published reports have corroborated what we know: That the plan on Thursday was to prevent Tambuwal from entering the National Assembly to pave the way for his Deputy, Emeke Ihedioha, who had already been allowed into the House, to preside over the removal of the Speaker. Were it not so, why would the police even try to seize the mace from the Sergeant-at-arms, as reported? Why would the police detain the Sergeant-at-arms for his refusal? What is the business of the police with the mace, which is the House's symbol of authority? ''It has also now been corroborated that the plan hatched by the PDP and the Presidency was to give

NEWS

Tambuwal the ''Ekiti treatment'', in which seven PDP members removed the Speaker in a 26member House of Assembly. But for the quick thinking and action by the Honorable members who scaled the gate to access the Assembly, that plan would have succeeded and Tambuwal would have been removed as Speaker, the consequences of which no one would have been able to foretell." The statement added, ''Therefore, instead of pillorying those who scaled the gate, we should be commending them for risking their lives to save our democracy. Those who shut the gate against the lawmakers and barred them from carrying out their constitutional duties are the villains, not the honorable members who acted in the nation's interest.'' APC said the ceaseless hounding of Tambuwal by the President and the PDP is patently provocative, to say the least, and calls into question the stated commitment of the Jonathan Administration to the rule of law. ''In the eyes of the law, Rt. Hon. Tambuwal remains the Speaker of the House of Representatives, despite his defection from the PDP to the APC. No matter what the PDP and the Presidency may feel, they are not the court of law, which is the only body that can make a definite pronouncement on the fate of the Speaker," Mohammed said. ''The Speaker also remains the number two man in the hierarchy of the Legislative Arm of government.”

FROM: Yusuf Alli, Managing Editor, Northern Operation/Faith Yahaya, Abuja the arms of government, they must not allow themselves to be used by one of the arms to undermine the others." In the meantime, the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) has described as unfair and a total falsehood suggestions that the National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki ordered the ar-

rest of the Speaker at a meeting with Vice President Namadi Sambo and Inspector General of Police Suleiman Abba. The Director, Special Duties in the Office of National Security Adviser, Colonel Bello Fadile (rtd.) said there was no such order of arrest. According to him, "It is not only untrue and mere fabricated reports that the NSA met with the VP and ordered the arrest of Hon Tambuwal. The fact is that

the National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki has been outside the country since Wednesday on pressing national security issues." He added, "To the best of our knowledge there is no any order for the arrest of Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of the House of Representatives." The Force Headquarters, in a separate denial said IGP Suleiman Abba has not issued any arrest order on the Speaker

or any other person involved in "the attack on Policemen at the National Assembly on Thursday." But it said, "it lies with the investigating Police Officers in charge of the case to determine who to invite, quiz and prosecute." Force Spokesman, Emmanuel Ojukwu, who signed the statement said: "The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Suleiman Abba has denied issuing any arrest order on Tambuwal and any particular person involved in the attack on Policemen, or the disturbance of public peace, at the premises of the National Assembly, Abuja on Thursday. "It lies with the investigating Police Officers in charge of the case to determine who to invite, quiz and prosecute as the case may be."

• All Progressives Congress party leader on Lagos Island, Bashorun Sikiru Alabi-Macfoy, Secretary, APC Lagos and former Chairman, Lagos Island Local Government, Hon. Wasiu Eshinlokun, immediate past Chairman, Lagos Island Local Government, Hon. Kamaal Salau-Bashua, APC Governorship aspirant, Akinwunmi Ambode, former Secretary to Lagos State Government, Alhaji Omotilewa Aro-Lambo and a prominent party leader in Lagos Island, Alhaji A. J. O. Sadiqat at a political consultation visit by Ambode to the APC leaders in Lagos Island, recently.

Why Reps scaled Assembly gate -Ogene

HE Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Victor Ogene, says some Representatives scaled the gate of the National Assembly during Thursday's assault on the complex by policemen, for their personal safety. He said they took the action because the complex was "besieged by strange elements, some of whom were hooded." He said there was need to learn from the travails of the late Senate President, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo because "no one loves to be a dead hero." He, however, denied being part of the move to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan. Ogene, who is from Ogbaru

Federal Constituency, in a statement through his media aide, Mr. Edward Dibiana said: "Regarding the incident which led to scaling of the National Assembly gate last Thursday, the action was necessitated by the desire of the lawmakers to ensure their personal safety as the environment was besieged by strange elements, some of whom were hooded. "As you know, lawmakers got to the National Assembly gate at different times. By the time some of them, including Hon. Ogene, massed around the gate, they discovered that some security operatives in plain clothes had infiltrated their ranks and started releasing pepper spray on them, while calling for reinforcement.

FROM: Yusuf Alli, Managing Editor, Northern Operation "In the midst of the confusion, some of them decided to go over the gate, into the National Assembly complex, instead of leaving themselves open to torture and humiliation. Indeed, they had to choose between being bludgeoned and pepper sprayed to death, or make good an escape. "Remember that the former Senate President, the late Chuba Okadigbo was killed in Kano after pepper spray was used on him. No one loves to be a dead hero" Ogene however denied being part of any move to

impeach President Jonathan. He said the clarification became necessary "following ceaseless inquiries regarding my stand on the current crisis rocking the House of Representatives. "Besides being a top stalwart of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), which has already endorsed President Jonathan's re-election bid, Hon. Ogene is of the firm belief that such a move is not only unwarranted, but would also constitute an unnecessary distraction in the current efforts at national healing, amid mounting security challenges". "I have neither seen any such notice of impeachment, nor would I be part of any such undertaking".

Be ready to arrest all of us, APC Rep tells police

HE chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Justice, Dr. Ali Ahmad says the police will have to arrest a lot of Representatives should they carry out their threat to move against Speaker Aminu Tambuwal. The police plan to invite Tambuwal for questioning over Thursday's assault on the National Assembly by armed policemen, and arrest him should he fail to heed their invitation. The Speaker has already declared his preparedness to honour any invitation from the

From Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin police. Ahmad said yesterday that the police should be ready to arrest no fewer than 100 Reps along with Tambuwal. The former University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) law teacher said they were prepared to accompany the Speaker to prison. He spoke to reporters in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital shortly after commissioning UNILORIN Students Union vocational Centre which he equipped. He said: "Anybody who is

planning to arrest Mr. Speaker should be ready to arrest over 100 legislators. We will follow him to prison and if they won't open the prison doors we will break them and go inside. They should go and buy more shackles. We have brought back our skills in the university days. "When I jumped the fence I remember my National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) days. We will do anything for Nigerian democracy not to be sacrificed on the altar of somebody's personal ego. Nigeria is a country that is being governed by a constitution. "It is not a kingdom. You cannot just wake up and say

you want somebody to disappear. No. You are there because of the constitution. You continue to be there because of the constitution and when you leave you leave because of the constitution. "Police action in the whole saga is illegal. You cannot interpret the constitution. When the courts have the opportunity to pounce on the police they will do that. Just yesterday (Friday), the Supreme Court passed a judgment on the Taraba State government and it sacked the governor. The time will come when the courts will smash the police because they know what they are doing is not right."

NEWS

First Lady's plot to unseat Dickson gathers stream T

THE NATION ON SUNDAY NOVEMBER 23, 2014

DHQ deplores 'misrepresentation' of counter-terrorism operations

TRANSFORMATION Agenda of Nigeria (TAN), the chief campaigner for President Goodluck Jonathan's second term, has been recruited to spearhead the ouster of Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State from office. Allegedly bankrolling the campaign in President Jonathan's home state is his wife, Dame Patience, who recently resigned her appointment as a Permanent Secretary in the state civil service. The resignation confirmed speculations about the First Lady's frosty relations with the governor. Mrs. Jonathan, according to political sources in the state, wants Seriake out of power not beyond 2016 when his first term expires. Her move is generating ripples in the state with some elders and stakeholders said to be angry at what they see as a plot to destabilise the state. They are considering sending a high-powered delegation to President Jonathan to call his wife to order. The Nation gathered that the First Lady brought in TAN to drive the 'Seriake-must-go cam-

• TAN deployed as chief tool By Our Correspondent

paign', and also consulted former close associates of exgovernor of the state, Mr. Timipre Sylva, to lead TAN in the state. The plot, sources said, entails the restructuring of TAN leadership in the state. Tipped to lead the new TAN is a former top government functionary in the state and close associate of the First Lady. The proposed TAN leader was until recently in Sylva's camp. The current leader of TAN in the state, Mr. Talford Ongolo, has been pushed aside to give way for the new man. The new man has started his mission by coordinating the distribution of goodies from a federal government agency to the people. The source who pleaded anonymity said the campaign is expected to be launched soon with anti-Seriake rallies across the state. "This is just the latest addition to the bag of strategies

mapped out by the First Lady to remove Dickson," the source said. "You'll recall that she resigned her appointment as permanent secretary to give her the moral ground to launch this war. Besides, you heard of her partnership with some federal lawmakers. "Right now she has resolved that TAN should drive the process. She is working with the loyalists of former governor Sylva and they are coming under the guise of TAN to work against Dickson. "That is her new strategy now. She wants to use the TAN structure which is everywhere to actualise her ambition." He said the First Lady had already promised her foot soldiers juicy rewards after a successful campaign. "They are going to use TAN like a body to fight the government and they are going to engage in propaganda. It is the same thing that they are doing now, everything possible to rubbish the governor. "Her number one agenda is

to get him out of the way." The source said Bayelsa elders and stakeholders who are aware of the development will soon be "meeting with the President to plead with him to call his wife to order." When contacted, Ongolo's personal aide confirmed that his boss had been sidelined from all TAN activities in the state. The aide who said his name should not be mentioned said TAN suddenly accused Ongolo of being Dickson's man and declared him unfit to handle its affairs in the state. "It was a surprise to all of us. Ongolo has been the coordinator of TAN in the state but recently he was not allowed to handle TAN activities any more. He was branded Dickson's man. We don't know what that means but we smell a rat. "We were also surprised to see someone coordinating the activities of TAN and it became obvious when he led the distribution of items brought for women in the state. "My boss still has all the documents of TAN in his custody. Nobody has had the courtesy to officially relieve him of his position."

•R-L: National Trainer, Nigerian Girl Guides Association, Ms. Kike Thompson, State Commissioner, Nigerian Girl Guides Association, Ogun state Mrs Juliana Aluko, State Commissioner, Nigerian Girl Guides Association, Lagos state, Mrs Blessing Adolphy-Akee (JP) , Chairman, Trefoil Guides, Lagos state, Princess Disu, and some Girl Guides at the 95th anniversary/Brownie day 2014 of Lagos state branch of Nigerian Girl Guides Association in Lagos. PHOTOS: Adejo David

Lagos 2015: Fear grips APC guber aspirants

GANG up plot by some All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirants in Lagos State against a frontline aspirant, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, has hit the rocks, The Nation can report. The aspirants had convened a meeting at a hotel in Maryland, Lagos at the weekend with a view to picking one of them as a consensus candidate to face Ambode who they saw as the man to beat in the December 4 primaries. A source familiar with the development said: "They arrived at a plot to select one of them as a consensus candidate ahead of the primaries coming up on December 4, 2014. Their plan was to pool their resources together in support of their consensus candidate against Ambode at the primaries. "Believing erroneously that Tinubu is behind Ambode's aspiration, and hoping to deal a devastating political blow on both of them at the primaries, the aspirants, at an earlier meet-

• As 'consensus' plot fails By Dare Odufowokan, Assistant Editor ing, agreed to meet and produce a consensus candidate in good time to allow for time to project their choice candidate as acceptable to them all." The meeting which had in attendance Dr. Leke Pitan, Dr. Femi Hamzat, Senator Ganiyu Solomom, Adeyemi Ikuforiji and Tokunbo Wahab, amongst others, however, failed to achieve its objective as no one was ready to sacrifice his ambition for another. Hamzat was said to have sent out a three word text message inviting participants to the meeting. The only non governorship aspirant at the meeting, Muiz Banire, sources claimed, moderated the meeting even though he is believed to be rooting strongly for Dr. Pitan. Ambode, sources said, was not at the meeting because he was informed a few hours be-

fore its commencement. Sources said this was deliberate since he was the target of the gang-up. The decision to invite him was also said to be an attempt to fulfill all righteousness. However, as the deliberation got underway, several of the aspirants expressed desire to forgo their ambitions in the interest of the group's effort towards stopping Ambode at the primaries. Sources said: "The meeting started well and progressed smoothly. After some deliberations, some of the aspirants, including Speaker Adeyemi Ikuforiji, Tokunbo Wahab and Ganiyu Solomon, agreed to drop their governorship ambitions for a consensus candidate. "Consequently, more aspirants were persuaded to step down to allow for the emergence of two aspirants amongst which others will elect a consensus candidate. At the end of the process,

the duo of Leke Pitan and Femi Hamzat were left in the race for consensus," our source said. "However, there was soon a twist after Hamzat, perhaps sensing that the imminent voting would go against him, raised some objections to the planned election of a consensus candidate and stormed out. "Hamzat, sensing that the decision to be taken may not favour him, objected to certain parts of the process and at that point, things started to fall apart at the parley. All efforts to allay his fear fell on deaf ears," our source added. That ended the discussion. Consequently, there is serious panic in their camps ahead of the primaries. Ikuforiji in his reaction dismissed the notion. In a text message to our reporter he said, “Please don’t listen to rumours. Everyone will go for primaries.” However, several calls made to Hamzat were unanswered as at the time of going to press.

HE Defence Headquarters is dismayed by what it sees as insufficient appreciation of soldiers in the counter-terrorism operations in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States. It says rather much of the glory has been going to hunters. It dismissed the hunters' claims as flimsy and exaggerated. The DHQ in a statement on its website said claims of the hunters' exploits "are simply intended to foster a mischievous campaign aimed at disparaging and depreciating the professional efforts of the Nigerian military at containing the terrorists especially in Adamawa. It is obvious that the intention is to ridicule and discourage the military. We are not moved. "While appreciating the effort of the hunters and citizens who have been supporting our troops in the on-

slaught, the military still remains in the vanguard of the mission to rid the nation of terrorists and their activities. We will remain focused and utilise only well-meaning support and advice in the ongoing campaign to wipe out terrorists." It accused unnamed politicians of promoting the campaign for whatever reasons, but vowed that it would "not be distracted by their antics." "The result of present efforts will soon manifest for the whole world to see and Nigerians and their military will not be diminished, as intended by those engaging in the campaign of calumny against the Nigerian military," it said and cautioned Nigerians not to allow themselves to be "hoodwinked into danger by some false reports on so called liberation of certain areas by 'hunters' as we can only vouch for areas where the military has reported cleared of terrorists."

Accord, APC trade blame over Ibadan violence

CCORD Party and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State yesterday traded blames over Friday violence by hoodlums in Oke-Ado area of Ibadan. Violence had erupted in the area as Governor Abiola Ajimobi was winding up his state-wide tour in Ido Local Government, prompting him (the Governor) to suspend his visit to the area as earlier scheduled to be the last place of visit. A policeman was killed in the encounter with the hoodlums. In a statement by the Accord yesterday, the party called for a 'high-powered' investigation into the attack which it said was undertaken by members of the APAC. But the latter accused the opposition of infiltrating its ranks to perpetrate the attack having been intimidated by the huge success of its huge achievements, peaceful tenure as the success of the two-week state tour. The Accord statement by Prince Dotun Oyelade, read in part: "Accord Party in Oyo State has called for a high-powered investigation into the attack that led to the killing of some policemen and wounding of others after an attack by thugs at an APC rally in Ibadan over the weekend. "For a party that brandishes peaceful reign as its cardinal achievement in four years, the unprovoked killing of policemen and random shooting to intimidate by hired thugs barely 12 weeks before the next election is a danger sign that must be stopped." But the APC lamented the violence, saying that its rank was infiltrated by thugs wearing the party's vests. It distanced itself from the violence. The statement issued by its Publicity Secretary, Wale Shadare said, "The opposition parties, apparently overwhelmed by the success of the governor's meet-the-people tour and distribution of letters of appointment to teachers, embarked on the violence to embarrass the governor and take the shine off the "successive tour". "Why was it that this happened on the last day of the tour? Why did they choose the governor's local government to

From Bisi Oladele, Ibadan

inflict the mayhem?" The party asked. The Chairman, Caretaker Committee, Ibadan South West Local Government, Taoreed Adeleke has also explained the circumstances surrounding the attack, saying thugs invaded the proposed venue of the visit by the governor. In a statement on his behalf by the council's Head of Information Unit, Prince Segun Adeyemo, Adedoja said: "The fact of the case is that the hoodlums who impersonated the members of the APC came out of the blues and unleashed terror on the mass of the people who had gathered at the Oke Ado Rally Ground since 12 noon that faithful day. The hoodlums even engaged the police in a gun duel, disrupting the peace in and around Oke Ado area." Adeleke further stated that at the time of the sad incident, he, along with other top functionaries of the council were at former headquarters of the local government at Town Planning Area, Oluyole Estate which was designed as first place of visit of Governor Ajimobi before he would proceed to Oke-Ado. He therefore asserted that the opposition used the hoodlums to cause violence so as to instill fear in the minds of the people. In its reaction, the Police Headquarters deployed the attacj=k and killing of its officer. Force Spokesman, Emmanuel Ojukwu, said in a statement, "The Inspector-General of Police has condemned in very strong terms the unwarranted attack on Police Officers providing security at a political rally in Oke Ado area of Ibadan, Oyo State, during which one Police Inspector was shot dead and five others sustained grievous injuries. "While ordering a thorough investigation into the shooting incident and the attendant death of a service personnel, the Inspector-General of Police reiterated his warning to political actors to desist from the use of thugs in pursuing their agenda. "The IGP reaffirmed the resolve and determination of the Nigeria Police to provide a safe and secure corridor for all political competitors, stressing that offenders of the Electoral Act will face the full wrath of the law."

THE NATION ON SUNDAY NOVEMBER 23, 2014

NEWS

Health workers threaten to extend strike to medical centres

‘MSMEs contribute 75 per cent of national employment’ From: Franca Ochigbo, Abuja

ICRO, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) currently represent 97 per cent of the businesses in the country, contributing 75 per cent to the national employment, the Minister Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, has said. Aganga disclosed this at the opening ceremony of the Eight Developing Countries, D-8 SME Governmental Bodies meeting in Abujawith the theme: “Promoting Green SMEs on Sustainable Development’. The D-8 meeting, being hosted by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN) comprises of Nigeria, Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan and Iran. According to Aganga: “The growth in this sector is directly correlated with growth in the economy as a whole and in the level of employment throughout Nigeria, translating the strong macro-economic performances to improvements in the living standards of the citizens and growth in MSMEs sub-sector remains one of the most critical challenges confronting the country.” He further said: “MSMEs are crucial to the economic development of the country. They have the potential to drastically reduce unemployment and poverty if properly nurtured and developed.

PDP primaries: Caution Elechi, Ebonyi Speaker tells Jonathan

By Sam Egburonu, Associate Editor

BONYI House of Assemble Speaker, Hon. Chukwuma Nwazunku, has called on President Goodluck Jonathan and the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to caution the state governor, Chief Martin Elechi, whose recent dictatorial tendencies, he alleged, could hurt PDP and the state. In a letter he signed on behalf of a group, the Forum of Ebonyi State PDP aspirants/key stakeholders, addressed to Jonathan and the National Chairman of PDP, Adamu Muazu, dated November 13, 2014, Nwazunku alleged that Elechi “has constituted himself as the sole selection authority for nominating party candidates while subjecting other aspirants to all manners of intimidation and deprivation.” He condemned some controversial actions within the state PDP, which preceded the last ward and local government congresses in the state like the announcement of former Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, as the consensus governorship candidate of the party and the attempt to change the leadership of the party in the state through illegal appointment of another State Chairman. On the appointment of Ben Akpa as the new state PDP chairman at a meeting convened by the State Secretary on October 31, the group said: “This action, Mr. President knows, is contrary to the clear provision of the party constitution empowering only the State Chairman to convene such a meeting.”

From Vincent Ikuomola, Abuja

•Chairman Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), National Assembly Screening Committee, Hamidu Muhamud presenting nomination form to Governor Isa Yuguda Of Bauchi for Bauchi South senatorial district seat in Bauchi… yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

I won’t dump APC if l lose presidential ticket, says Atiku

ORMER Vice President Atiku Abubakar has assured he will not dump the All Progressives Congress (APC) if he loses the presidential ticket of the party. He however added that he remains the most qualified aspirant to fly the party’s flag in the 2015 presidential election. Atiku spoke in Asaba, the Delta State capital, while ad-

From Okungbowa Aiwerie, Asaba and Polycarp Orosevwotu, Ughelli

dressing the state’s delegates for the December 10 APC presidential primary election. The former vice president said he was vying for the presidency because of his experience in government, adding that he was in the state to solicit for the support of the delegates.

He explained that his wealth of democratic experience and entrepreneurial capability placed him above the other aspirants, saying that he was not a regional leader like most of those competing against him. Atiku said: “Olorogun O’tega Emerhor is my friend in Delta State and I could have stayed at home and ask him to talk to you on my behalf but I believe in de-

mocracy and l do not take Delta for granted. That is why I have to come myself. “We are about five aspirants running for the APC presidential ticket, but none of the aspirants has distinguished practical political experience like l do. “I served as Vice President for eight years after serving as a top federal civil servant longer than any of them.”

NUT threatens to shut primary schools indefinitely if…

HENational Executive Council (NEC) of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has threatened to direct its members to embark on a nationwide indefinite strike action if the proposed local government autonomy and scrapping of the State Joint Local Government Account sail through in the ongoing constitutional amendment. NUT’s National President, Comrade Michael Olukoya, who briefed newsmen at the end of the NEC meeting at its headquarters in Abuja, insisted that granting of LG autonomy would lead to total collapse of primary education in Nigeria. He urged the governors and members of State Houses of Assembly to stoutly resist the recommendation of the National Assembly in the recent proposed scrapping of

From: Gbenga Omokhunu, Abuja

the State Joint LG Accounts as contained in the Bill for an Act to further alter the provision of the 1999 Constitution. Olukoya said the implication of the LG autonomy was that payment of teachers’ salaries, pension contributory funds and payment of retirees would be left in the hands of Local Councils. According to him, the development would be a great setback to the efforts by the Federal and State Governments to revamp primary education in the country. He said: “The moment the constitutional amendment process is concluded against the wishes of the Nigerian teachers, we shall direct all schools in Nigeria to remain closed. “The mother of all strikes

shall commence; because we have a responsibility to protect and defend our members.” NUT President lamented that the children of the poor who are the majority voters have been denied access to quality education while the children of public officials who formulate various policies leading to the decay being experienced today are sent overseas. He said the sad memory of the near-total-collapse of Primary Education between 1990 and 1994 when Primary Education came under the control of the LGs, was still very fresh. “At that time, the local government allocation from the Federation Account was increased from 15% to 20% to ensure that local councils comfortably assist the State Governments in the pay-

ment of salaries of the primary school teachers. “Unfortunately, primary education was never in the priority list of the LG Councils as virtually all of them resorted to owning the teachers their salaries for upwards of 6 to 12 months continuously. “Expectedly, the situation attracted incessant strikes from the deprived teachers which heralded a near total collapse of Primary Education in Nigeria. “The effect of that is still hunting the entire education sector till date,” he said. Olukoya insisted that granting of LG autonomy would spell doom for primary education nationwide and increase the hopelessness of poor Nigerians who would not have the opportunity of going abroad to receive quality education.

He said the recent funding was in addition to grants made to the universities from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND). The President said his administration would work with relevant stakeholders in the education sector to transform the economy and urged private organisations to forge partnership in the area of funding research and scholarship. He congratulated outgoing Vice Chancellor of

UNIBEN, Prof. Osayuki Oshodin for a successful tenure. Oshodin said over 100 NEEDs Assessment projects have been awarded. He stated that an additional 424 projects were executed during his administration. The Iyase of Benin Kingdom, Chief Sam Igbe; Senator Daisy Danjuma, Rev. Matthew Okpebholo and Tony Elumelu were conferred with honourary degrees.

Jonathan: Our universities now better

RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan yesterday boasted that Nigerian public universities are now better off following adequate release of funds in line with the NEEDs Assessment request of each university. Jonathan said the funds were released to both state and federal governmentowned universities. The President said the University of Benin alone got N2.6bn for development of its infrastructure.

From Osagie Otabor, Benin

He spoke in Benin City during the conferment of Post-Graduate Diplomas and Higher Degrees at the 39th and 40th convocation ceremony of UNIBEN Represented by the ProChancellor of the university, Senator Bob Dickson, Jonathan expressed optimism that Nigerian universities would develop its infrastructure and academic services from the NEEDs Assessment funding.

EALTH workers have threatened to bring activities in federal hospitals and health centres nationwide to a total halt except the federal government address pending issues with them. Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU), the umbrella body of all health workers and other professional in the sector, also vowed to extend the ongoing strike to medical and health centres should government continue to delay in addressing the issues of disputes. JOHESU has commenced a nationwide strike action to press government to fulfill its promises on issues relating to implementation of collective bargaining agreement, full implementation of judgment and implementation of outstanding demands. Briefing reporters in Abuja yesterday, JOHESU’s president, Dr. Ayuba Wabba, stated that with no further headway in resolving the issues of dispute, the union was not considering calling off the strike until all the issues in the dispute were addressed. Wabba noted that no aspect of the issues has been addressed, warning that the union might be forced to extend the ongoing strike to secondary and primary healthcare facilities. He said: “We cannot pretend and limit our members that are in the secondary and primary health care centres because they are also affected. “You will not be surprised if we now direct our members at the various primary and secondary health care centres to join. This is because we demonstrated enough commitment and enough time to look at these issues.”

‘No shipment without approval from legal metrology’ From: Franca Ochigbo, Abuja

ROM the first quarter of 2015, no ship will be allowed to leave the country unless they have complied with the requirement of the legal metrology. The Chief Executive Officer Nigerco Nigerian Limited, a consultant on Weight and measure in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Yusuf Sani, stated this at the weekend in Abuja. Sani, who spoke with reporters, stated that the greatest challenge in the sector is the refusal of the oil companies to pay for statutory and preshipment exercise fees. He declared that oil and gas producers and exporters owe the federal government not less than $300million statutory fees. “The inability of the government to block some loopholes and drain pipes in oil and gas sector which ought to have saved valuable funds that could be channeled into key projects in critical productive sectors is of great concern. “The reluctance of the oil companies to settle their respective bills is an attempt to slow down government legal metrology implementation services in order for the operation to remain opaque.”

THE NATION ON SUNDAY NOVEMBER 23, 2014

NEWS

Over 30,000 witnesses converge in Ibadan From Oseheye Okwuofu, Ibadan

VER 30,000 delegates of Jehovah's Witnesses from Oyo, Osun, and Ogun states in South Western part of Nigeria converged on the ancient capital city of Ibadan this weekend as part of the annual spiritual gathering of the witnesses around the globe. The witnesses who started arriving the city since Thursday for the seventh of the nine series of the annual event have been busy extending an open invitation to millions of Nigerians to attend the convention with the theme "Keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom." In a press release issued and signed by the convention's Regional Media Contact, Mr. Sunday Oladele, the programme sessions would highlights spiritual education and enlightenment that teaches God's way to realise the kingdom that will bring lasting peace to mankind.

19 APC Ekiti lawmakers, others protest at Fashola's office S

TILL smarting from the abrupt usurpation of their electoral mandate, the 19 All Progressives Congress party members of the Ekiti state House of Assembly in company of their counterparts from the Lagos State House of Assembly and some civil society organisation members at the weekend staged a peaceful protest to the office of Governor Raji Fashola to express their grievances over Ekiti impeachment and the police assault on the National Assembly on Thursday. Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, the Speaker of the House who led the lawmakers to the governor's office, said that the lawmakers embarked on the

By Oziegbe Okoeki

protest to register their grievances to Governor Raji Fashaola, urging him to convey their displeasure over the unfortunate incidence to President Goodluck Jonathan. Justifying the protest, Ikuforiji said it was imperative in view of the current happenings in the polity. "We are here to express our grievances about the political situations in the country, especially about the Ekiti impeachment and the recent fracas in the National Assembly. We are fully with the lawmakers, all hands must be on deck to save Nigeria's democracy," he said. While noting that the 16 years experience of democ-

racy in Nigeria is the longest since independence which should be sustained, the Speaker said all concerned Nigerians should speak against the ills bedeviling the nation. "It is the duty of every citizen of the country to defend our democracy and that is the reason why we had a special sitting today for the Ekiti lawmakers to express their view to the public. "We want the governor to convey our grievances to the president over the situation in Ekiti and the National Assembly, it is an abuse of the legislature," he stressed. Fashola, while responding to the lawmaker's plight, said it was unusual for the House

of Assembly to stage such a protest to the state house. The governor said that though the executive and legislature in Lagos state disagree but they are never on the opposite side. "It is a very unusual thing to see members of the House protesting like this, though we disagree but not in opposite side. We have made a clear choice in a way in which we want to be governed. "I share your concerns and every person who is concerned about Nigeria should also be worried about the situation in Ekiti Assembly and the National Assembly. "I think Mr. President has a moral duty to the country. He should not be leader of a side," Fashola said.

Ex-Ambassador pleads for caution ahead 2015 polls From Bode Durojaiye, Oyo

ORRIED that the build up to the 2015 polls could be violent, the former Nigeria Ambassador to Zambia, High Chief Moses Ogunmola, has urged caution on the part of politicians. Speaking at a public enlightenment in Oyo town, Ogunmola said as a people, we must judge our fellow Nigerians not by their ethnic origins but by the content of their characters. He stated that as people we must be wary of those who are the greedy, selfish political class who has continued to exploit our differences to plunder our resources. According to him, "The ongoing ethnic and religious hatred in the race to achieve political ends come 2015 greatly portends danger for us as a nation. Every vote must count and using coercive means and military harassment and intimidation by the incumbents to perpetuate themselves in offices amount to sitting on a keg of gun powder that is waiting to explode."

Lagos deputy speaker seeks re-election By Oziegbe Okoeki

EPUTY Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Kolawole Taiwo, has formally declared his intention to come back to the House for a fifth term. Kolawole who is representing Ajeromi-Ifelodun 1 constituency, made the declaration at Alao Bus stop, Ojo road, Ajegunle Lagos. Giving account of his stewardship thus far, Taiwo said: "Over the years, through my personal programme called (HKT Poverty Alleviation empowerment) I have empowered thousands in self employment and adult education, many have graduated from tertiary institutions and are fully employed, I also facilitated provision of transformers to various communities and bore holes as well."

Buhari supporters inaugurate sub-committees in Ondo

MIDST growing rumours that some aspirants under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State may be enjoying favouritism, APC leaders have discountenanced that such won't happen. At an emergency meeting of APC leaders in Owo local government hosted by Chief Idowu

From Damisi Ojo, Akure

Fioye Bajowa. Other committees namely: Publicity & Communication by Prince Olu Adegboro; Women Affairs by Mrs. Lola Fagbemi and Youth Affairs by Akogun Gbenga Omole. Committee members who are prominent APC leaders in the State were saddled with responsibility of mobilising human and material resources for the project in Ondo state. Speaking on behalf of Buhari, the Coordinator, Buhari Campaign Organisation, Ifeoluwa Oyedele, said, part of his plan for the country if elected is to restructure the federation and put in place disciplined fiscal federalism which would en-

hance devolution of powers to other tiers of government for effective governance. He noted that the 2015 election must be about issues that affect the well-being of the ordinary man on the streets and the performance records of the candidates as a pointer to their suitability for the role. Buhari promised that he would not drag religion into politics so that every man will be confident that the next president of the country will protect him even when they do not share the same religious beliefs. He said: "We will prove that with good management of our resources, Nigerians can once again see in their life time the naira favourably compare

with the currencies of other civilized nations." Buhari cautioned that nobody would be permitted to use any derogatory, abusive or insulting language against other contestants. He said" We must ensure that we do not allow PDP to drag us down the path of mudslinging nor attack on the persons of other candidates as they have attempted to do in previous elections and are starting to do even now. "It is my firm belief that the quest to secure the party ticket is a contest among brothers, nobody is therefore permitted to use any derogatory, abusive or insulting language against any of the other contestant."

Ondo APC favours primaries From Damisi Ojo, Akure

Okunrinbokun, it was emphasised that nobody has been endorsed as senatorial candidate in the zone. A lawyer and one of the aspirants, Mr. Nat Adojutelegan, gave insight into the position of the APC constitution on the issue.

According to him, "Article 20(1) provides that all party positions prescribed by the constitution shall be filled through democratically conducted elections, subject to where consensus is possible." Adojutelegan stressed that the constitution also states that where a candidate

From Leke Akeredolu, Akure HE Senator Representing Ondo Northern Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Ajayi Boroffice, at the weekend, assured his constituent members of his commitment to complete all ongoing projects he had embarked upon in his district. Boroffice, who spoke with reporters in Akure, the Ondo state capital, recalled that he had embarked on some projects in the six local governments in his district to alleviate poverty in the society. While noting that there are various skills acquisition projects ongoing in the four local governments in his district in different phase of completion, he assured that the centres would help in training the youths, particularly the graduates who have no jobs to develop some skills in business planning. He said, "we are constructing hostels, workshops and business technology centres in the local governments. We are building a team of young Nigerians that will be financially assisted to start a company on their own that will be entrepreneur on their own."

Doctors urge FG on global best practices

â&#x20AC;˘ Governor Fashola receiving the protest letter from Speaker Ikuforiji

S the various aspirants mount political hustings ahead of the 2015 polls, supporters of the Buhari Campaign Organisation at the weekend inaugurated six sub-committees in Akure, the Ondo state capital as part of plans to facilitate the emergence of the former Head of State, Gen Muhammadu Buhari (rtd)as the presidential flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The committees which cuts across all sectors including Finance & Administration is headed by Mr. Wale Akinterinwa; Contact & Mobilisation by Mr Femi Idris; Strategy & Intelligence & Security being led by Prince

2015: Boroffice assures electorate on project completion

has emerged by consensus for an elective position, a voice of 'yes' or 'no' should be called to ensure that it was not an imposition which could breed crisis." All aspirants were consequently directed to go to the field and work assiduously for victory after the primaries, as no one should await automatic ticket.

From Adesoji Adeniyi, Osogbo

EDICAL doctors under the aegis of the Nigerian Medical Association in Osun State have charged the Federal government to ensure that healthcare providers and regulators in the country adopt the global best practices. They also said that the government must provide modern facilities for all the tiers of healthcare system and allow motivation of personnel to get the best out of them. Speaking at a press conference in Osogbo, the Osun state capital, at a public forum to mark this year's 'Physician Week', the association's chairman, Dr. Suraj Ogunyemi, lamented the lack of global best practices in the nation's medical healthcare industry. According to him, the healthcare sector has become an all-comer affair, with many uncertified people laying claims to treating various ailments. Blaming the rot in the nation's health sector on the lack of political commitment by the leaders at different levels of government in the country, he decried poor funding of the sector by the government.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY NOVEMBER 23, 2014

â&#x20AC;˘Muazu

HERE are strong indications that all is not well within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) following moves by some powerful elements to ensure the removal of Alhaji Adamu Muazu as the national chairman of the party before its next convention. Feelers from Wadata Plaza, the party's national secretariat, indicate that unless something is urgently done to halt the many plots against the former Bauchi State Governor, it may be difficult for him survive the current political onslaught against him. According to insiders, Muazu's travails peaked following reports that President Goodluck Jonathan has agreed to allow the bulk of senators elected under the platform of the party to be granted automatic tickets to contest in the 2015 elections. Reliable inside sources told The Nation that some serving governors are not happy with the decision and may have decided to oppose it in their various states. It was also gathered that the Governors leading the opposition to the deal are largely those with senatorial ambitions. Although reports claimed Jonathan entered into the deal with the Senators at a meeting he had with them, many PDP governors were quick to trace the deal to Muazu's quest to whittle down the influence of the serving governors on the party. According to a member of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the party, who spoke to The Nation on condition of anonymity, shortly after news broke last week that the Presidency may have struck a deal with angry senators who protested the results of the party's congresses, some Governors met with the Muazu, to know if the reports are genuine. "They (the Governors) met Muazu few days after the reports. They wanted to know if the reports were genuine. The Chairman told them the party is determined to mend all fences ahead of the 2015 general elections. He urged them to be ready to make sacrifices as party leaders in their various states. "Obviously they were dissatisfied with his response for few days later we gathered that they met with the President on the same matter. I'm unaware of the discussion but what I know is that the aggrieved governors have called on the party leadership to desist from granting automatic

Muazu's

many troubles Things are definitely not going easy for Alhaji Adamu Muazu, national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The party's decision to give governors the power to control the party's machinery in the state has put him on firing line with senators. Dare Odufowokan, Assistant editor takes a look at his travails. tickets to senators in their states." Aggrieved Senators But it is doubtful if the party can renege on its deal with the Senators. This is because the deal itself is the product of efforts to placate PDP Senate caucus which became enraged following allegations of unfair treatment during the party's last ward and Local Government congresses. PDP Senators had earlier this month forced the Senate President, David Mark, to adjourn sitting abruptly amidst protests from his colleagues over the ward congress which they alleged turned out against them. The PDP caucus in the red chamber, which was protesting the alleged maltreatment by President Goodluck Jonathan and the leadership of the party ensured that no issue was tabled for discussion before the Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, moved motion for adjournment.

Shortly after the adjournment, Mark led all PDP senators into a closed door meeting in one of the committee rooms within the complex where sources claim the Senators laid their grievances on the table for discussion. It was at the meeting it was agreed that a delegation of high ranking Senators be sent to meet with the President to discuss the unfair treatment meted out to them by the governors of their respective states during the congress. The now controversial deal that would see forty of them getting automatic return tickets to the red chamber is the outcome of that delegation's visit to the President. Angry Governors Largely, the opposition to the deal is being led by Governors with senatorial ambitions and those interested in who become senators in their states. We are also aware that they have vowed

to oppose the deal in their various states if the national leadership of the party insist on it," our source explained. The Nation learnt that Muazu and Jonathan have met to discuss the angst of the governors with a view to determining how to handle their agitation. "The issue is not being taken lightly by the party. The idea of striking a deal with the senator is a strategic one and we only hope the governors will see reasons with the party. The President and the National Chairman recently met to discuss the latest development. Plans are underway to invite the concerned governors to a stakeholders meeting of party elders," our source added. Speaking on the matter, a PDP governor who pleaded anonymity described the development as worrisome. He said: "I can tell you that most governors are unhappy over the move because it is worrisome. I am not interested in a Senate seat but I see the move as a way of sidetracking our colleagues who are interested in going to the Senate. Secondly, is the party saying the Senators are more important that we governors? I see a big problem ahead unless this is promptly and properly addressed." The governor confirmed that some of his colleagues met with Muazu recently to discuss the matter. He expressed confidence in the ability of the national leadership of the party to resolve the crisis amicably. "If the party told us not to impose governorship candidates on the party in our states, I don't think they would want to impose Senators on us. I am optimistic that this will be amicably resolved soon," he added. Reports had it that aggrieved senators led to the meeting by Senate President David Mark and Jonathan resolved that at least 40 senators be given automatic ticket and allowed to return to the legislature if they win the election. The president had met with PDP senators last week where the lawmakers allegedly tabled their grievances for Jonathan to address. The Nation gathered that governors who are miffed with Muazu over the deal with the Senators include Gabriel Suswam of Benue,

â&#x20AC;˘Contd. on page 12

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2014

NEWS REVIEW

$16BN GAS PROJECT

Brother against brother: Reigniting Last week's sudden cancellation of President Goodluck Jonathan's visit to Escravos area of Delta State for the ground-breaking ceremony of gas city project has increased tension between Ijaw and Itsekiri in the area. SHOLA O'NEIL reviews the growing tension and distrust between the agelong neighbours.

Itsekiri, Ijaw tensions

â&#x20AC;˘Itsekiri protesters

O say that the $16billion Delta Gas City project (also known as the Ogidigben Export Processing Zone (EPZ)) in Delta State has been dogged by controversy is to understate the crisis that has ravaged the project since it was conceptualized over five years ago. The federal government had to move it from Koko, the headquarters of Warri North local government to Ogidigben, Warri South-West area. Since that relocation neither the project nor the Itsekiri people of Ugborodo have known peace. The sleeplessness is now gradually seeping into the creek and other parts of the state. The crisis bedeviling the laudable project climaxed last Thursday, November 13, when a terse statement from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources announced that the ground-breaking ceremony, slated for the next day, had been scuttled by security report. The ceremony was to be performed by President Goodluck Jonathan. The report did not reach the people of Ugborodo early enough or they merely hoped against hope. The Itsekiri Leaders of Thought, one of the highest organs of the ethnic group, took a coloured fullpage advertorial to "Welcome the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces" to the epochal ceremony. Julius Berger Nigeria Limited one of the major contractors on site and locals were in hyper mood. The company deployed its years of experience and engineering know-how to erect a massive rostrum and a stage that would make international event planners green with envy. The Ugborodo people and entire Itsekiri nation were in frenzy and eagerly awaited the ceremony, which would lay the controversy and uncertainty over the project to rest. The aged, women and youths rehearsed signature Itsekiri dance steps to enthrall and thank President Jonathan and the foreign investors, most of who had flown into the country days earlier. But the discerning ones knew that the few hours before the ceremony were very long, particularly after the Ijaw people of Gbaramatu Kingdom, led by former MEND leader, Chief Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo) issued a threat of war if the President performed the ceremony without addressing their grievances over the project. Their counterparts in Seikebolou in Ogulagha clan of Burutu LGA also made their views clear. The protest by the Gbaramatu started months earlier and picked up steam at the end of July, when they claimed that the site earmarked for the project sits almost entirely (75percent) on their land. Chief Godspower Gbenekama, who was the

â&#x20AC;˘Ijaw protesters arrowhead of the agitation, said a number of Ijaw clans in the area, including Ikpokpo, a land in dispute between them and the Itsekiri, would be wiped out by the project. Nevertheless, the 'security report' on which The Presidency and President Jonathan hinged his failure to kick off the project was the massive protest held at Oporoza, headquarters of Gbaramatu clan on that Wednesday, barely 48 hours to his arrival. Scores of masked youths stormed the community in dozens of boats dressed in the traditional red and white Ijaw war attires and sang their 'Egbesu' war songs. They were joined by women and other youth groups, who displayed several placards condemning the handling of the project and alleged undue influence and bias of the state government and Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan. They were particularly riled that the governor set up a committee in Ugborodo without doing same for them, even though the committee was established to unite Itsekiri warring leaders. Chief Gbenekama, who read the text of the speech, alleged: "We are convinced that the NNPC/ the Federal Government is taking sides with the Delta State Government, which is bent on promoting an Itsekiri agenda aimed at continuous oppression and marginalization of the interest of the Ijaw of Gbaramatu Kingdom in a project that we the Gbaramatu people have a major stake." Explaining that the protest was not against the "EPZ project per se", he said their grouse was with perceived "grand design by the NNPC/ Government to oppress and marginalize Gbaramatu Kingdom in a project that cuts across major part of our land. We demand that two

interface committees be set up for the Ijaw of Gbaramatu and those of Ogulagha respectively. We have a 23-man committee in place to negotiate Gbaramatu interest in the EPZ project. The committee's list and names of members have since been submitted to the Delta State government and the NNPC." He warned that if the peace in the area was to be maintained along with unhindered operation by contractors working on the project, the NNPC must open a channel of discussion with the various Ijaw groups, especially the host communities of Gbramatu kingdom. The protest was on the heels of a similar position canvassed by the 'EPZ host communities Gbaramatu Kingdom', in an open letter to President Jonathan published as advertorial in several national dailies on Monday, November 10. The message of the advertorial was the text read by Gbenekama in the Oporoza three days later. How Tompolo stopped Jonathan At the height of the uncertainty and doubt about the President's visit, Governor Uduaghan was forced to issue a statement assuring Deltans that the 'show would go on'. The governor promised that no amount of threat would deter Jonathan from coming to break the ground for the take-off of the project. Sources close to Uduaghan said he made the announcement after consulting with Jonathan, who also assured Nigerians during the flag-off of his re-election campaign at the Eagle Square that he would be in the state. Some Itsekiri leaders said the plot to scuttle the ceremony was perfected between The Presidency, Ministry of Petroleum Resources and

Tompolo several days before the protest and advertorials. It was learnt that President Jonathan had been under intense pressure from the former Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) leader and the Gbaramatu people to stop Jonathan from going to Warri. It was further gathered that having bowed to the pressure, the president got into a fix on how to cancel the ceremony with minimal damage to his reputation and his relationship with Governor Uduaghan, who was also pressing the president to keep his promise to Deltans. It was learnt that before Uduaghan gave the assurance, he got strong pledge the president would be in Ogidigben. An Itsekiri source said they were reliably informed by their source at the Ministry of Petroleum Resources that the use of 'security report' to get out of the sticky situation emanated from there. "The decision was taken by very high people in the ministry and it was sold to those who did not want the president to perform the ceremony. The Gbaramatu people were asked to perfect it by going back home to create the enabling atmosphere for security operatives to give the report." And if the purpose of the Wednesday protest at Oporoza was to obtain an adverse security report, the masterminds couldn't have performed the task better. Hundreds of fierce-looking youths who stormed the community in dozens of speedboats when the protest was on performed creditably. They vowed to return to the creeks and unleash mayhem. A very reliable security source in the region also told our reporter that the Gbaramatu protest was given detailed attention and as soon as the

NEWS REVIEW

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2014

$16BN GAS PROJECT

Ijaw youths stormed Oporoza with boat, the Department of State Security and other security arms were briefed by their men on ground and same was relayed. One of those propounding the theory, remind this reporter that "the president would have performed the ceremony when he visited the state for the NIMASA university, but the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the NNPC said they wanted another date. It is now beginning to seem that they had it all planned." Accusations and counter-accusations Apparently sensing foul play in the 'security report' that scuttled the ceremony and the power play that led to it, at a hurriedly summoned press conference held at the home of Pa Jos Ayomike, renowned historian and leader, he said, "We cautioned President Jonathan that he sits above and beyond the ebbs and flows and rough seas of the Nigerian society and as the father of all, he should ignore the baseless threat of war with Itsekiri from his Ijaw brothers and perform the ground-breaking ceremony of the EPZ. He didn't heed to the warning, but rather pitched his tent with his Ijaw warlords and did the wrong thing. Itsekiri, Nigerians and indeed the world now know that President Jonathan is pursuing an Ijaw agenda. This agenda is to exterminate the Itsekiri in their God-given land. Nigerians and indeed the world are watching. We will resist it and we will never

be intimidated by threats of war and genocide against the Itsekiri," Itsekiri leaders in Ugborodo also organized their own protest on Sunday to express displeasure. They were joined by the Ilaje from the neighbouring communities at Ogidgben. The protest led by controversial and outspoken Itsekiri traditional title holder, Chief Ayirimi Emami, Pa Maku Utieyin, John Anderson and Madam Mercy Olowu, Ugborodo Women Leader, among others hinted that President Jonathan played ethnic politics with the project. The text of the conference issued by the protesters and read by Mr. Elijah Itse-Wilkie, regretted that the president "listened to the threat of Tompolo and some of his Gbaramatu brothers barely 24 hours to the eagerly anticipated ground breaking ceremony." They regretted that the President's U-turn was done after he had told the world during his Presidential re-election speech at Abuja that he was coming for the ceremony, expressing shock that "even the Governor, Dr. Uduaghan declared that nobody can stop the president from coming to Delta State to perform the ground breaking ceremony of the EPZ," did not sway The Presidency. They were also unimpressed that Jonathan did not bow to Boko Haram threat to bomb the Eagle Square venue of his re-election campaign

flag-off, but succumbed to his own brothers' threat. "How come the threat from Tompolo and his Gbaramatu kinsmen stopped the much-desired ground breaking ceremony of the EPZ that will guarantee economic growth and snowball Nigeria into the proud place in the world economy was aborted?" they wondered. Ilaje leaders, Durojaiye Ogunsemiore and Prince Abayomi Olufeyinmi were very piquant in their reactions. The latter urged that "President Jonathan must show that he is not an ethnic President, but of the entire country. He should do that by showing that his people's threat cannot prevent him from doing what is right. We are not happy." Ogunsemiore hinted of conspiracy as he recalled that months earlier, Tompolo and other Ijaw youths from Gbaramatu had visited the scene with Governor Uduaghan, Emami and their Itsekiri counterparts, adding that "They ate and drank at 911 (Emami's resort in Ajudaibo)". He then wondered why the same people would create the impression that the place was not safe for the president to visit and perform a task that is important to the development of not only the immediate beneficiaries, but the entire country. Besides, they insisted that there was no doubt that the disputed land belongs to the Itsekiri of Ugborodo, who had hosted both the Ilaje and other tribes for several centuries without any contest.

However, Governor Uduaghan exonerated Jonathan of any blame in the perceived conspiracy theory and allegation of bias by his Itsekiri kinsmen. He said, "I found it very unfortunate and objectionable for anyone to accuse Mr. President of being partisan and ask him to resign. If the President did not love Delta State he would not have brought the project here." The governor reminded those accusing the Jonathan-led Federal Government that the President had been to state at least twice in 2014 and in one of the occasions his assignment was to flag-off a very key project, the NIMASA Maritime University in Okerenkoko in Gbaramatu clan. "Is that a man we should be accusing of having hatred for us? I don't think it is right for people to ask him to resign and as I told them when they said it, I said they must separate the issues, let them deal with the issues and stop being personal. If you have personal issues with anybody don't bring it to the issue of this gas project because Mr. President means well." Caught in the middle of a dangerous media war between the Ijaw, who accused him of bias and his Itsekiri kinsmen, who feel the governor is allowing his political interests and relationship with President Jonathan, rather than the truth to guide his decision. He is between a rock and a hard place, but in his words, "I mean well and we (with Jonathan) are determined to ensure that that project kicks off."

REPORTER'S DIARY

Six hours in Tompolo's den

HEN this reporter and 14 journalists from different news organisations, on Sunday, November 16, honoured an invitation by the Itsekiri people of Ugborodo community to a press conference in the riverside community, little did they know that would almost cost them their lives. Most of them, including this reporter, are regular visitors to Warri and other waterways and creeks in the region. Some of them were in the area four days earlier to cover by a protest by the Ijaw of Gbaramatu kingdom in Oporoza. The Ijaw protest over stake in the $16 billion Delta Gas City Project, forced President Goodluck Jonathan to cancel the ground-breaking ceremony slated for Friday, two days earlier. The Itsekiri's protest was in response to the president's cancellation of his visit. The leader of the group, Chief Ayirimi Emami with women leader, Mrs. Mercy Olowu and dozen others took the news crew to the project site and adjoining land in their bid to affirm their ownership. After the press conference, this reporter and three other journalists including Emma Amaize and Sola Adebayo, Regional Editors of Leadership and Vanguard newspapers, Bolaji Ogundele of The Nation and their other colleagues boarded a boat from a wooden jetty at Ajudaibo, one of the five clans of Ugborodo. They were in a hurry to get back to the oil city to file their reports. But they never did - not on that day and not without a close brush with death. Shortly after the boat passed the Escravos Gas to Liquid complex of Chevron Nigeria Limited, scores of speedboats broke out from creeks, like bats out of hell. They made straight for the reporters' boat. The attackers were in a very fast boat powered by high-horsepower outboard engines and they moved in a manner reminiscent of the dark days before the amnesty programme. The prowlers were menacing and in very foul mood. The leader of the gang was a very darkskinned young man, whose arms, neck and belly were crudely tattooed by fire-burn, probably relic from another 'war'. He spoke in a voice that matched his countenance - crude and inauspicious: "Na una de go round de take pishor and video everywhere ehn?" there was no doubt that the question was rhetorical. The journalists tried to explain that they were only in the area to balance a report his kinsmen had also done; it did not matter to him and he shrugged it aside. He was a man on a mission and seemed to have a clear instruction not to ensure that the Itsekiri protest story did not leave the area. The boat rider and one Sam Eyengho Jnr (aka Kiki) tried to explain 'Scarface' who was in no mood for chitchats. The duo got wacked in the head with a club for their troubles; blood spluttered everywhere. Interestingly, our reporter learnt that Kiki's father, Chief Sam Eyengho, a titleholder in Gbaramatu Kingdom, is from Ijalla (or Joula in Ijaw), a land in dispute between the two ethnic groups. While the father pitched his tent with the

SHOLA O'NEIL, S'SOUTH REGIONAL EDITOR, who was among journalists detained recently by militants narrates their ordeal.

â&#x20AC;˘Oporoza 14 after their release Ijaw, his other brothers and children, including Kiki stayed on the Itsekiri's side. In the lion's den The carousel of terror and brutality began shortly after they seized the boat. Another dark skin youth, who goes by the moniker of Old Soja, snapped the fuel line of the engine and left the loose end, pouring petrol into the boat. Sola Adebayo tried to explain the danger of petrol freely into the boat, he was menacingly advised to keep quiet or face unpleasant consequence. Soon the boat was filled with the highly inflammable liquid and fear heightened as the attackers seemed determined to either sink the boat or set it on fire. The newsmen pondered the irony of news hunters possibly turning into newsmakers as they floated on the turbulent Escravos River. More boats bearing no less menacing Ijaw youths joined the fray. The marauders jabbered incessantly in Ijaw language; they were apparently in communication on telephone with a higher authority. As they were deciding the fates of the 20 occupants of the boat, one young lady reporter burst into tears, others hearts pounded faster. Shortly afterwards, the leader of the group announced that the boat was being rerouted and taken to Oporoza, headquarters of Gbaramatu kingdom. The captives were roughly shoved into another boat and driven through a narrow creek to a private jetty that is used only by former MEND leader, Chief Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo) and his associates in the town. At that point all video and still cameras had been seized. At Oporoza, a middle-aged man identified as 'Prince' took over proceedings. He and a dozen others moved about with two-way radios (walkie-

talkies) sent out messages nonstop. They intermittently spoke in Ijaw and Pidgin English depending on whom they were addressing. Prince asked each reporter to write out their names, ostensibly to profile and separate them from the six other locals in the boat. The names were relayed on the phone to someone, who asked that Emma Arubi, an Itsekiri reporter in the crew, be isolated from his colleagues. It was later revealed that Arubi's 'sin' was some reports that were deemed unfavourable to their 'oga'. He was introduced to the group of youths, who greeted him with slaps, blows and armoured-cable whips. The 14 reporters were searched to their last clothing and all mobile phones, recorders, wristwatches. Pens - other than Bic ball-pen - were searched for hidden recording gear. Those uncovered were all confiscated and dumped under a shade of trees where the captives were interrogated and tortured. One of Tompolo's aides later called and asked to speak with this reporter. He said our reporter should have sought his consent before embarking on the trip. Hope that the caller could be the key out of the dudgeon was shattered. As the seconds ticked into minutes and then hours the ordeal continued but the worst was yet to come. The situation got from bad to worse when one of the youths brought out a pistol, which they claimed was found in a captive's bags. "Ha, you are carrying guns!" Prince and the others shouted. The 'discovery' of the pistol led to a frenzy of violence, particularly on Kiki, Arubi and the others, who were accused of leading the Itsekiri to attack and kill them. They were ordered to lie with their faces in the dust with clubs, cudgels, bottles and

planks raining down on them. The boat driver and other passengers who identified themselves as Ijaw too were not spared; they were accused of being Itsekiri collaborators and told that everybody there would die. One of the tormentors boasted: "I have killed six persons; I just need one more head to achieve the next level. Thank God that you are here, I will take the seventh head from here." One of his colleagues, a smallish small man with a twitching mouth, grabbed the leg of one of those lying down and started chewing on his ankle and heel. After a further hour into the nightmare, a short, stocky man in a pair of knickers, burst forth holding a gleaming AK-47 over his head. He was shouting, "I don see kalash for their boat (I have found an AK-47 rifle in their boat)". The new 'find' came with three fully loaded magazines and it looked very new. It was greeted with a thunderous, murderous murmur among the mob who unleashed more horrific attack on their supine subjects. Some started singing war songs, others whet cutlasses and knives. "Let's cut them into bits and feed them to the crabs," one of the older members of the group suggested. He was dressed in a white T-shirt and blue trousers and said he had just returned from Calabar. He spoke with glow in his eyes and a voice that sent shivers down the spines of the enslaved 20 men and women. The boat driver, his mate and a passenger, who identified himself as Ziakede Kelvin, were separated and taken to what was later found to be a torture chamber. Ziakede said his arm was held with a clamp and squeezed until his bone almost snap. He was asked to confess to owning the guns. Ziakede though refused but could not stop shouting, "I know nothing about the gun," as more broken blocks landed on his head. The six men and Arubi were later forced to hold the guns while one of the Ijaw youths, a rotund man who said he had just returned from a training in Stockholm, Sweden, took pictures and recorded on a camcorder. He and others took pictures as the guns went round the 'suspects; while the Channels TV was forced to record the charade. It was later learnt that the pictures were sent out to social media, including Facebook, were the reporters and other victims were marked as Itsekiri gunrunners and militants. Amidst the orgy of violence and battering of the victims, the Chairman of Warri South-West local council and younger brother of Tompolo, George Ekpemupolo called and spoke with Emma Amaize of Vanguard. Later Tompolo also called and asked to speak with the same reporter. The calls raised hope that the ordeal was ending but the hopes were soon dashed and the beating not only continued, but intensified. Even the arrival of Chief Eyengho (Kiki's) father did not stop the torture of his son and others. Dressed in a blue shirt and jeans, he watched helpless. Amaize later disclosed that the callers insisted that since guns were found in the boat, the reporters and everybody on it would be handed over to security agents for proper interrogation.

NEWS REVIEW

•Contd. from page 9 Sullivan Chime of Enugu and Isa Yuguda of Bauchi states, amongst many others. To these governors, Muazu represents a serious obstacle to the realisation of their aspiration to transmute to the Senate after the expiration of their second terms in 2015. Ambition tears party down the line In Benue State, Muazu got into trouble for throwing his weight behind a former national chairman of the party, Barnabas Gemade, who is seeking re-election to the Senate. Gemade is believed to be one of the 40 senators that will benefit from the deal they had with Jonathan. Gemade and the governor are from the same senatorial district in Benue State. The senatorial aspiration of the two heavyweights has polarised the party in the state in recent times. Convinced that Muazu is supportive of Gemade's re-election bid, sources say Governor Suswam, who is unwilling to go into political retirement in 2015, is also supportive of efforts to yank the national chairman off his seat in Wadata Plaza. Similarly, Mu'azu lost the support of Governor Chime as a result of his with alleged support to the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu's bid to return to the senate in 2015 ahead of the Governor. Expectedly, Ekweremadu, like Gemade, will benefit from the senatorial deal. Chime who is equally from the same senatorial zone as Ekweremadu is overtly interested in contesting for the Enugu West senatorial seat currently occupied by the later. The governor, contrary to reports that President Jonathan has ordered him to drop his senatorial ambition, has gone ahead to declare his intention to contest for the Enugu West Senatorial District seat. While declaring his intention during the week at the Enugu West Senatorial District Zonal meeting of the PDP, Chime said President Jonathan has not been firm over his discussions with him. Jonathan and Muazu had mediated a peace meeting between Chime and Ekweremadu. The President was reported to have prevailed upon Chime to drop his ambition and allow Ekweremadu return to his seat in 2015. Delegate lists Apart from allegation that he encouraged Jonathan to grant the Senators automatic tickets, Muazu is also under fire for allegedly tampering with the delegates' lists submitted from the PDP congress elections held in some states last month. Governors of those states who are angling for absolute control of the party structures are also believed to have perfected plans to oust the PDP national chairman. The Nation gathered that governors who are opposed to Mu'azu's handling of their delegates' lists include Governor of Akwa Ibom State and Chairman of the PDP Governors' Forum, Godswill Akpabio, Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam, Bauchi State Governor Isa Yuguda; Enugu State Governor Sullivan Chime, Cross River Governor Liyel Imoke, and Katsina Governor Ibrahim Shema. Yuguda, Muazu's successor as Governor of Bauchi State, sources said, is up in arms over his predecessor over allegations that Mu'azu is the arrowhead of a plot to install the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Yayale Ahmed, as the next governor of the state. "Muazu and Yuguda are no longer friends. They are back to their political rivalry of old. Yuguda has his preferred governorship aspirant and he is not hiding it. Mu'azu is busy taking Yayale all over the palce seeking support for him as the next governor of Bauchi. He has taken him to President Jonathan. He has taken him to the Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), Chief Tony Anenih. He has taken him to tmany stakeholders within and outside the state. This is not going down well

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2014

Muazu’s many troubles

•Tukur

•Suswam

•Akpabio

•Yuguda

with Yuguda," a source said. In Akwa Ibom where a national officer of the party is being accused of conniving with an aspirant to truncate Governor Godswill Akpabio's plan to install his preferred candidate as the next governor of the state, Muazu is no longer popular. Akpabio is working for his immediate Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, as his successor. But a high ranking chieftain of the party is working for another aspirant's success the party's gubernatorial primary election. "They are using their closeness to Muazu to oppress party leaders here in Akwa-Ibom. He is the national chairman of the party, but he is not to dictate who govern us in our state," a PDP chieftain in Uyo told The Nation There is also the allegation that Muazu's men collected of over $3 million from a governorship aspirant in Cross River State and undisclosed sums of money from two guber aspirants in Abia State with a promise to help them alter the delegate lists of their states in their favour. This, party chieftains said, has pitched him against the Governors of the states. Following insistence by the second term governors to anoint their successors and a directive from the Muazu-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party that Governors should stop endorsing aspirants, there has been no love lost between Muazu and the Governors' camp. A meeting initiated by Muazu few weeks back to discuss the issue ended in a deadlock as the Governors reportedly insisted that since the party adopted President Jonathan as its sole candidate for presidency, there is nothing wrong in the state chapters endorsing sole candidates. The meeting, held in the residence of Muazu, ended with the governors rejecting the national chairman of the party's position on the matter. A rescheduled meeting on the issue was boycotted by the Governors. "Since the issue of the president's endorsement was concluded at our

last NEC meeting, the Governors, as party leaders in their respective states, have also embarked on endorsements for their preferred aspirants for various positions. While we respect them as party leaders, there is need to caution excesses. This is what Muazu is saying. This is why they are angry with him. He has a job to do for the party and he must do it irrespective of whose ox would be gored in the process. It is for this reason he is now embattled on all fronts," an aide of the national chairman, said. Tukur's fight back In a related development, immediate past national chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, who resigned in January this year, is determined to regain his seat from Muazu. Tukur, according to his lawyers, is challenging his resignation as the national chairman of the ruling PDP, claiming that he did not resign properly as the national chairman of the party. Tukur declared that he was forced to resign his post in order for the seven defected governors to return to the party. He however, said that following the defection of the seven PDP governors to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2013, pressures were mounted on President Goodluck Jonathan to remove him to enable the governors' return to the party. In a counter-affidavit he filed to a suit instituted by an aspirant to the House of Representatives in Adamawa State, Aliyu Abuba Gurin, who is seeking to unseat the present national chairman of the party, Adamu Mu'azu, and also stop the party's planned delegates convention, described Mu'azu's appointment as a nullity. In the motion on notice filed by the plaintiff, the court was asked to stop the planned national convention of the PDP scheduled for December 10 and 11, 2014. The plaintiff in the suit also argued that Tukur's resignation did not comply with the provision of Section 47(5) of the constitution of the party which

stipulates that a 30-day notice be given to the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) by Tukur. In his counter-affidavit to the plaintiff's suit, Tukur said that he was surprised that 10 months after he quit the post, the governors were yet to return. He further contended that, according to the party's constitution, if he could not finish his four-year tenure as chairman, he was to hand over to the deputy national chairman as acting chairman, pending the holding of a national convention to elect his successor. Tukur further stated that the NEC of the party had no power to appoint the national chairman, adding that the votes and proceedings of the NEC held at Wadata House on January 15 and 20, which deliberated on his resignation as national chairman and appointment of Mu'azu as chairman, were null and void. He added that even if he had submitted a letter of resignation on January 15 to the party, the letter did not comply with Section 47(5) of the party's constitution which requires that a 30-day prior notice should be given. Furthermore, Tukur stated that the subsequent presentation of Mu'azu to NEC as the new chairman for appointment did not comply with Section 47(6) of the party constitution, Section 85(3) of the Electoral Act, 2010 and Section 223(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). He stated that at the time of Mu'azu's appointment, no vacancy existed in the office of the national chairman, adding that Mu'azu lacks power to preside over the planned convention as such will nullify its proceedings. He, however, submitted that it would be in the interest of all parties if the status quo ante bellum is maintained, pending the election of a new chairman via a national convention. Should the Court grant his prayers, Muazu will have to vacate his position for Tukur to preside over the convention. PDP stakeholders As if to add to the many troubles

of the national chairman, PDP stakeholders from North West Zone on Thursday advised President Jonathan to as a matter of urgency remove him from office for what they called incompetent leadership that has led to the present conflict in the ruling party. Spokesperson, Alhaji Ibrahim Suleiman Zango gave the advice in a statement in Kaduna and stated that the current conflict between PDP Senators and the Presidency was a result of the inability of Muazu to resolve the issue as the chairman of the party amicably. He explained that the current political instability in PDP could spell doom for the ruling party in the forthcoming 2015 general elections if not properly managed and handled by a competent leader. Suleiman Zango also noted that the present PDP national chairman was unconstitutionally imposed as leader of the party to replace Tukur without proper consultation with stakeholders of the party. The PDP chieftain from the North West Zone also stated that the massive defection of PDP members in the National assembly to the opposition APC was as a result of the incompetent leadership of Muazu and his failure to reconcile aggrieved members of the PDP. He also observed that the planned decamping of more PDP legislators in the national assembly from the North to the opposition party was aggravated by the inability of Muazu to initiate dialogue and resolve the crisis before it affects the chances of the party in the 2015 general elections. NWC rancour As if his brewing battles with the governors, party stakeholders and Tukur Tukur are not enough, indications are also out there that there may be no love lost between him and other members of the NWC of the party following complaints over his handling of party businesses. "There is the very strong allegation that he handles party affairs like his personal affairs. Rather than allow party officials perform their role in the running of the party, what you find here is that Muazu's personal aides are saddled with such duties. Another annoying thing is that he has not been holding regular meetings of the committee. And because no meetings are being held, many things are being done without the knowledge of NWC members. This is not a good thing giving that we are all here to work and not to idle away. In most cases, you find Muazu and his men dropping the name of Mr. President to justify some of their actions. Muazu as chairman has reduced the NWC to an arm of the presidency. This many of us are not comfortable with," a party official said on condition of anonymity. "When he, as the national chairman constantly fails to convene meetings of the NWC to discuss issues and complaints against him, how can there be harmony within the leadership of the party? There are so many issues for us to discuss as a body, particularly complaints and grievances as regards the delegates' elections which have polarized the party. There is also the issue of his legitimacy as national chairman. But he seems not to be bothered. But we are bothered and determined to correct this anomalies," our source added. The Nation learnt that the party only had one NWC meeting recently after many months of inactivity. Statutorily, the NWC is supposed to meet every week to discuss and attend to urgent party businesses and issues. "The morale of the staff and members of the NWC is low. From what is happening, it does not seem that we are preparing for the elections." With no end in sight to the seeming endless crises Muazu has to contend with, and with Tukur waiting in the wings to capitalize on the situation, the fate of the former Bauchi state helmsman appears to be hanging precariously in the balance.

Ropo Sekoni

Page 14

Femi Orebe Page 16

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2014

Jonathan's Nigeria

A country’ s frightening descent into banana republic tunjade@yahoo.co.uk 08054503906 (sms only)

NE question that I have always remembered most times when I stumble on anything on the French Revolution was that asked by my European History teacher in my Higher School Certificate (HSC) days at the Federal School of Arts and Science, Ondo: "How did the French Revolution beget the dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte"? I guess someday, some students of Nigerian History would also be asked: "How did a potentially great Nigeria beget the serial incompetent and corrupt regimes hat brought it to this sorry pass"? It was clear immediately the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC) on October 28 that the PDP would not take it kindly. I had said then that the party would resort to crude and primitive tactics instead of coming up with civilised means of settling scores, if any. In essence, the police take-over of the National Assembly on Thursday was quite predictable. Discerning observers of the country's political situation knew the day would not go without incident. President Goodluck Jonathan had written to the National Assembly for extension of the state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. If that had been granted, it would be the fourth such extension and no one needs to be reminded that the emergency is not working. If more than 200 school girls could be abducted from their school in Chibok in spite of emergency; if bombs could be exploding in motor parks and other public places, including schools even in the daytime in spite of emergency, we need no one to tell us that the emergency has failed. And, as the House of Representatives noted, if you are using a particular strategy that is not working, you restrategise. There is no evidence that the government has done or is now prepared to do things differently. In the terror war as in other spheres of life, it has been tall in words but abysmally short in action. Ordinarily, one would have condemned the action of the House of Representatives members who climbed the iron fence at the National Assembly to make their way into the chamber. But then, that would not be fair because their action only resonates with what the ruling party has been doing and which the presidency has pretended not to see. Impunity is only begetting impunity. The most recent example is Ekiti State where seven lawmakers hired two unknown quantities to make nine, to 'impeach' the speaker. The same police force headed by Mr. Suleiman Abba that provided cover for those who perpetrated the show of shame in Ekiti said it had to move in to prevent a breakdown of law and order at the National Assembly. It further claimed that Mr. Tambuwal came to the assembly complex with thugs. Much as they would have to provide evidence of this, the question to ask Mr. Abba is whether he had expected Mr. Tambuwal to be walking all alone when he, Abba, had withdrawn his security details illegally? Weeks have passed and Mr. Abba is yet to restore the security details because, in his view, Tambuwal has ceased to be the Speaker on account of his defection. Obviously, Mr. Abba is not aware that Governor Segun Mimiko of

the country's finance minister saying the country was not broke but that it only had cash flow problems. This is why one can understand US President Harry Truman who in frustration demanded for a one-handed economist. "Give me a onehanded economist" he said, adding "All my economists say, 'on the one hand...on the other'". For God's sake, what is cash flow problem? If the cash is there, why would it not 'flow'? Instead of sitting down to • Impunity begets impunity: Lawmakers jumping the address the looming danger National Assembly fence on Thursday which has eventually stared us all in the face, Ondo State and the speaker of the state house of assembly also defected from the Labour Party they kept assuring there was no cause for (LP) to the PDP, and none has relinquished his or alarm. Incidentally, the same Okonjo-Iweala her official position; none has lost any of the is coordinating minister for the economy. rights and privileges attached to their respective Apparently she was so chosen because of her offices. Should the same law that binds the Bretton Woods background, which may not masquerade not be binding on the women in necessarily be useful in our kind of situation purdah, that is assuming Mr. Abba is in a as a developing country. A President Truman position to say the action was illegal? Haba, would by now be shopping for her Mr. Abba! The IGP told journalists after a meeting replacement. Regrettably, not President Jonathan with Vice President Namadi Sambo over the sad incident on Friday that: "Somebody was because, just as Nigeria does not require an removing road blocks mounted by police, we Okonjo-Iweala kind of finance minister at this have never seen this kind of thing in the whole point, the country's problems transcend a world". But he did not tell us where else in the presidency that is applying analogue solutions civilised world the police are used for partisan (brute force, illegalities, etc.) to digital purposes like the Nigeria Police Force. The police, problems. The end-time signs of the Second now an extension of the PDP, and like the ruling Republic are already manifesting: bad party, are now the litigant, the prosecutor, the economy, crippling corruption, crass judge and the law enforcer. Clearly, this incompetence in high places and, to crown it presidency is several centuries late in coming. all, using the security agencies as crutches to Clearly too, IGP Abba does not belong to this sustain a corrupt and inept government. Where did Alhaji Shagari end despite age. But what all we have been seeing point at is unleashing the kill and go on Nigerians? Perhaps never in the history of mankind that the Jonathan presidency is bare without the country's security forces. Indeed, one would not has the goodluck of one man become the be wrong to say that even the security agencies albatross of millions of fellow citizens. A see themselves more as the president's and his president who has spent over four years in party's security agencies rather than those of the office cumulatively does not have to be as anxious for reelection as President Jonathan Federal Republic of Nigeria. But things cannot continue this way for long, is to the point of intimidating everyone with democracy now being endangered by considered a hindrance to this importunate people who contributed nothing to the struggle ambition. If the president had worked hard for it. This should not be surprising though in the right direction, what should be speaking because you cannot value what you did not labour for him now are his achievements. He should for. Unfortunately, it is the same people who be telling Nigerians not just the amount of were nowhere to be found during the struggle megawatts of electricity he has added to what for the return of democracy that have cornered he met on ground but how much of it is the chunk of the spoils of the bitter struggles that available to them. Years after he said we should be ready to dash out our generators, brought democracy back in 1999. However, it is instructive to point out that we are still importing more. The president things were not this bad in 1983 when Alhaji should show Nigerians the dent he has made Shehu Shagari and his cohorts were rendered on unemployment; he should tell them what jobless. Sadly, we appear to be following the same the exchange rate was when he took over and trajectory. When in the Second Republic the (now what it is now. Even on his basic responsibility late) Chief Obafemi Awolowo said our economy of security of lives and property, he is a was collapsing, the then ruling National Party of monumental failure. That is why, like an old Nigeria (NPN), which I consider the PDP its woman who is never at ease when dry bones offshoot, said there was nothing like that only to are mentioned in a proverb, President come out with what it called Economic Jonathan has become so intolerant of those Stabilisation Act (1982) which spelt out some who think he does not deserve a second term. austerity measures some months later. The And that is why he is unleashing the police problem then was oil glut which brought crude and sometimes soldiers on them, even as the oil prices to rock bottom levels. About thirty- soldiers are unable to grapple with their basic two years later, we are back to square one. Crude responsibility of defending the country's prices are going down again. And, after living in territorial integrity. We wobbled and fumbled to this sorry pass self-denial for months, the Federal Government because we failed to protest against little came up with its own version of austerity measures. Just as in the Second Republic, those impunities like the ones the PDP is daily who saw the trend coming and warned earlier perpetrating now. The danger, however, is were called names, with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, that, four more years in the hands of this government, the question that a great historian asked about Ghana Empire would be relevant to Nigeria's situation: "Despite its opulence, greatness and wealth, by 1240 A.D., Ghana Empire was no more. The question now is: What caused such an inglorious fall of such a glorious empire"?

“Perhaps never in the history of mankind has the goodluck of one man become the albatross of millions of fellow citizens. A president who has spent over four years in office cumulatively does not have to be as anxious for reelection as President Jonathan is to the point of intimidating everyone considered a hindrance to this importunate ambition ... if he had worked hard in the right direction”

CHIBOK GIRLS. STILL IN LIMBO. SINCE APRIL 15.

Ouagadougou as a metaphor By Tayo Ogunbiyi FTER 27 years in the saddle, former Burkina Faso's imperial ruler, Blaise Compaoré, was recently forced out of power by a popular uprising against his aspiration to extend his reign over the landlocked country. As it is usual with sit tight rulers like him, Compaoré fled the capital, Ouagadougou, to an unidentified destination. Before his abrupt fall from power, excluding the years he spent as a military dictator, Compaoré had served two seven-year terms before a change to the constitution allowed him to serve another two fiveyear terms. It will be recalled that on October 15, 1987, Compaoré seized power in a coup that led to assassination of his former friend and one of Africa's most charismatic leaders, Thomas Sankara. The event in Ouagadougou is, once again, a sad reminder that African leaders don't learn from history. Between 1960 and 1976, 45 percent of African leaders were either assassinated or exiled for exhibiting despotic tendencies. The years after 1975 saw the emergence of more ruthless African tyrants such as Charles Taylor and Mumur Ghadaffi. After years of inflicting pains on the very people they were meant to protect, the duo were disgraced out of power in a most ignoble manner. Taylor is currently serving a jail term for war crimes while Ghadaffi was brutally hacked down while fleeing from a NATO backed local revolt against his government. The tragedy of the African continent is that most of its leaders, especially those with little or nothing to offer the people, have continued to tow the ignoble path of authoritarianism. It is puzzling that majority of them would rather prefer to die in power rather than giving opportunities to others with fresh ideas to rule. A good leader should know when to quit. Other African leaders that had shamelessly perpetuated themselves in power are Félix Houphouet-Boigny of Cote d'Ivoire who ruled for 33 years, Gnassingbe Eyadema who ruled Togo for 38 years, Mobutu Sese Seko who reigned for 32 years in Zaire, Kenneth Kaunda who ruled for 27 years in Zambia, Daniel Arap Moi who was in reigned supreme for 24 years in Kenya and Mathieu Kérékou who ruled for 19 years in Benin Republic, just to mention but a few. The African poverty situation is further compounded by the failure of governments across the continent to properly harness human, natural and material resources for the common good of all. This is why Nigeria, a famous world oil exporter, is ranked among the poorest nations of the world. Sadly, rather than making concerted efforts to address the deadly poverty situation in the continent, most African leaders' only concern is how to devise callous strategies that would keep them in power. In his famous book, '1984', English novelist, essayist and critic, George Orwell was, perhaps, inadvertently referring to the power perception of the average African leader when he stated that: "the Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. Power is not a means; it is an end. The object of power is power." How awful! Ironically, this is the attitude of a large number of African leaders. Majority of them are attracted to political power for the wrong reasons. This eventually results into the reign of aberration and impunity that have since been part of governance in the continent. Not a few of them fumble while in power because they are ignorant of the ultimate purpose of power. They are only interested in the grandeur and magnetism of power as opposed to the sacrifice and other selfless responsibilities which are basic obligations of power. This explains why they often use power to spite their people. Perhaps, more baffling is the docility of Africans to tyrants. Why, for instance, would a people sit back and tolerate an irresponsible leadership for 27 years? What magic did Ghadaffi, Mugabe, Compaoré and their likes used to lord it over their people over such a long period? This, perhaps, is the real fairy-tale from Ouagadougou. Part of the lessons from Ouagadougou is that followers should frequently ask questions of their leaders. Government does not exercise power; rather, it is the concept of government, upheld by law as put in place by the people, which exercises power. Democracy will be endangered, when followers naively permit their leaders to get away with brazen acts of impunity. This is the time for the African people to stand up and demand accountability, transparency and integrity from their leaders. This is the time for Africans to ensure that our leaders uphold the right concept of power for the good of the society. - Ogunbiyi is of the Features Unit, Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY NOVEMBER 23, 2014

COMMENT

Permanent voter cards: INEC's might versus citizens' right? INEC's response to queries from citizens who could not find their names and pictures but had with them their temporary cards is nothing more than another indulgence in the culture of excuses.

HE latest controversy on our political landscape is the issue of what the Independent National Electoral Commission calls the Permanent Voter Card. Since INEC's shoddy work in releasing PVCs to citizens, the country's political temperature has been raised noticeably. Opposition parties, APC in particular, have justifiably cried foul while image makers for the ruling party at the centre have made frantic efforts to dampen what appears to be a nation-wide opposition to impending disenfranchisement of citizens. INEC itself appears to be less forthcoming on how to resolve the crisis caused by its inefficiency. All over the world, the most important ritual of democracy is election. It may come every four years in some countries and every five years in others, but come it must in the character of rituals. The famous claim in democracies that sovereignty belongs to the people is most concretised in electoral democracy: the inalienable right of citizens to choose at constitutionally specified intervals, the persons they want to govern them in the political territory to which they belong as bona fide citizens. Citizens' right to choose those who rule their country becomes compromised when they are deprived of their right to vote. The right to vote is, first and foremost, represented by unfettered to access to the voter card without which no citizen can cast his/her vote during elections. It is a common belief in democracies all over the world that any attempt-intentional or unintentional-that makes citizens feel that their right to choose their leaders has been abridged constitutes an attempt to deny citizens their claim to sovereignty. Such deprivation is perceived as deliberate effort to rob of their citizenship. Denying citizens access to voter cards is a clear case of annulment of citizens' political and civil rights in a democratic country. Where such happens, concerned citizens have a right to scream, protest, and even go to court. Failure to protest and demonstrate against abridgement of such rights

is tantamount on the part of citizens to knowingly committing political suicide. However, in the present circumstance of millions of citizens not being able to collect their voter cards from INEC officials, the onus of rectification rests solely on INEC, if the commission is not to be labelled as election rigger. Members of the ruling party and spokespersons for the president should have no role or voice in the matter of INEC's failure to make voter cards available to citizens without fetters. For the ruling political party to criticise other parties for protesting against INEC's failure to provide voter cards to citizens as required by law, such ruling party spokespersons give the impression that it aids and abets (or at least condones) the commission in its failure to perform its constitutional function properly. As a citizen who registered to vote as required by the country's electoral law, my experience in M.K.O Abiola Gardens during last week's release of voter cards convinced me that INEC was not prepared to release voter cards to citizens without fetters. The Commission was absent on the first day it was billed to release cards, a day set aside as workfree to enable citizens perform their constitutional duty with ease. On the second day when INEC's agents came, the performance of the agents was abysmally low. The agents were rude to citizens, shouting at them and ordering them around. Citizens who came there with their temporary voter cards (with their pictures on them) were ordered to first go and search for their names among hundreds of names and pictures pasted on the walls. Furthermore, when citizens came back to tell the agents that most of the papers had fallen off, they were told rudely to put the papers back on the wall themselves, if they were truly interested in obtaining their PVCs. When citizens asked for assistance and glue to remount the papers on the walls, they were told to bend down and search for their pictures among sheaves of papers on the ground, if they were not ready to put the papers back on the wall. Those who did not see their pictures on the walls or on the ground were told caustically to wait for future announcements in the media

about when they should come for reregistration. Those lucky enough to find their names, like me, were made to line up in the sun while the agents groped for cards in trays on and below the table. In the three hours I was there, more people were unable to find their names on the wall than those lucky enough to find theirs. The experience of those who were able to find their names is enough to accuse INEC of subtle or covert attempt to rob or deny citizens of their right to vote in the 2015 election. Rights in democracies are not supposed to be given grudgingly. Instead of providing a facile access to the cards for citizens on the day I went to collect my PVC, the agency frustrated citizens and gave the impression that the agents preferred to annoy citizens to quit without receiving their cards. One did not on that day need to be a critical citizen to suspect that INEC agents were more interested in holding on to the permanent voter cards than in giving them to their rightful owners. Otherwise, the culture of service (as low as it is in our country in relation to others) is generally higher than what I observed that day. INEC's response to queries from citizens who could not find their names and pictures but had with them their temporary cards is nothing more than another indulgence in the culture of excuses. "Losing over one million names on the computer" is reminiscent of NEPA's excuse of power outage coming from too much water during the rainy season and too little water during the dry season. In other countries where governments and their agencies have been made (or are in the habit of) respecting citizens, there would have been announcements of the loss of one million names to the computer well ahead, to prepare citizens for the frustration that might arise at the point of collecting voter cards. In addition, a complaint and rectification table would have been created to solve problems of those who did not find their names on the same day and at the same venue. Scheduling another time to do this appears designed to make the process cumbersome and frustrating to citizens, with the ultimate goal or hope discouraging them from fulfilling their civic duties.

There are some issues that INEC needs to clarify for citizens. When did the agency realise that it had lost over one million names? What type of computer and software does the agency use that has no in-built device to prevent such huge loss? Were handlers of such computers properly trained or were they just irresponsible? Why has the agency not chosen to input the names that were lost from the master records in their headquarters long before the date to release cards to citizens? Why did INEC not announce and publicise all the names purportedly lost well ahead of the time for release of PVCs? Why did INEC wait till a time so close to the election to make permanent voter cards available to citizens? What is to be gained or lost if citizens with their temporary cards are allowed to use them to vote in 2015, instead of insisting that they must come back to do another registration, realising that the registration they did about four years ago had miscarried under the watch of INEC? In a country where all other important documents: passport and driver's licence are not permanent, why is the voter card being made permanent and not renewable like other civic documents, as it is done in many other democracies? How can INEC guarantee that no citizen with a copy of his/her temporary card will be prevented from exercising the right to vote three months from now, should they still be unable to obtain INEC's permanent voter cards? Political party leaders who went to complain and protest on behalf of citizens about the injustice and danger in the shoddiness of INEC with respect to providing all duly registered citizens with their voter cards have shown good leadership. There is nothing partisan about insisting that citizens, regardless of their party affiliation, must be given the opportunity at elections to indicate their choice. There is everything wrong with an agency charged with protecting such right to act-knowingly or unknowingly - as an agent to deprive citizens of their right to vote. Political party leaders also need to encourage and support citizens to protect their right to vote, as such protection is better handled by the aggrieved, through litigation-individual or class action.

COMMENT

THE NATION ON SUNDAY NOVEMBER 23, 2014

A fretting president P

Jonathan's last minute change of mind on EPZ trip bad for his status as C-in-C

RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan's failure to commission the groundbreaking of the $16 billion export Free Zone facility in Ogidigben has further raised questions about his administration's commitment to development, fairness and justice. The project, billed to position gas as an alternative to overreliance on oil as source of revenue for the country, is expected to generate jobs for the youths and sharpen the skills of indigenous professionals to wean the nation off dependence on expatriates to run the oil and gas industry. Unfortunately, the project is now mired in the local Ijaw-Itsekiri conflict. The Ijaw have raised query over the location of the project, claiming that the land acquired includes a large portion of Ijaw territory, especially the Gbaramatu Kingdom of Warri South West, while the Itsekiri insist that it is wholly sited on Itsekiri land. We find it disheartening that President Jonathan allowed militants long used to threatening the peace of the country to frighten him away from performing a statutory function to which he had committed himself. Government Tompolo, one of the Ijaw militants who received pardon during the presidency of the late Alhaji Umaru Yar'Adua was breathing fire and brimstone if the President dared step down from his jet to perform the task. And, the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and symbol of the state lent credence to the suggestion that the Nigerian state is now too weak to show it as more powerful than any rabble-rouser or ragtag army. We find it difficult to appreciate the recent

HE Great Ife is indeed one of the best places to study in Africa. I remember with nostalgia my time there as an undergraduate and I realise that every bit of my stay was worth the stress. The academic activities in Ife remain rigorous, yet interesting. Through my younger brother who recently graduated from the school, I learnt students' behaviour has somewhat changed, they now sign autographs on certain parts of the human body as a form of remembrance of loved ones, classmates and friends. In our own time, we basically took pictures and printed year books! In Ife, I made one special friend, even though I never knew our friendship would blossom beyond Africa's most beautiful campus, the Great Ife. Professor Wole Ogundele was a great academic, teacher, researcher and a meticulous writer. On his return from his

BEGIN by recalling that Sections 7.1(g) and 7.3(c) of the Constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, respectively, talk about "promoting of egalitarian society founded on freedom, equality and justice" and "adherence to the policy of the rotation and zoning of party and public elective offices in pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness." They are emphatic on the need to rotate key political offices among the diverse peoples

decline in the honour and power of the state. In the battle field of the North East, the Boko Haram scourge keeps raging. Territory after territory keeps falling to the insurgents and strange flags are being hoisted as if to show that our armed forces cannot rein in the terrorists. In the Second Republic when a similar sect, the Maitatsine, attempted to confront the nation, the fire was quickly quenched. The might of state was demonstrated and honour restored. No other sect attempted to test its strength against the Nigerian military. And, when forces from Chad made a move to annex Nigerian territory, the Third Armoured Division rose to the occasion by pushing them back far into Chad. It was reassuring. Nigeria has invested so much into resolving the Niger Delta crisis than to have this latest challenge of state power and authority. The project itself would have helped to assure the Niger Delta people that the course of reconciliation had not been abandoned. One of the grounds of the unrest in the region was that money being made there was being invested elsewhere; that the oil companies merely despoil the land of the South South, TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

•Editor Festus Eriye •Deputy Editor Olayinka Oyegbile •Associate Editors Taiwo Ogundipe Sam Egburonu

•Managing Director/ Editor-in-Chief Victor Ifijeh •Chairman, Editorial Board Sam Omatseye •General Editor Adekunle Ade-Adeleye

pollute the rivers and then build up Lagos and Abuja. In coming up with a project the size of the proposed EPZ, the Nigerian state was taking steps to correct the impression. But then, the likes of Tompolo and Ijaw irredentists have chosen to throw spanner in the works. We accept the submission of the Niger Delta that the region desires closer attention from the state and thus, investment in oil and gas should impact positively on the land. But, steps by men like Tompolo would not advance this cause. Tompolo who had earlier been touted as contractor handling the security of the waterways in Lagos, without the needed competence and experience ought to have been called to order by Dr. Jonathan who should have shown that no Nigerian President could be deterred from pursuing the just cause. It is high time Tompolo, who is fast becoming a Frankenstein monster was cut to size. Unless this is done, other militants would rise against the state in pursuing sectarian interests. Tompolo himself could begin to imagine that he is a Commander-in-Chief of the same stature as the Nigerian Head of State. We also call on Ijaw and Itsekiri leaders and governors of the zone to call their men to order. They should conserve the energy being exerted in this war of attrition for the war against poverty. The Nigerian state deserves honour from all for so long as we all belong to it. The symbols of state must be preserved and whoever challenges the country's territorial integrity, sovereignty or stands in the way of development is a common enemy and should be treated as such.

LETTER

Tribute to the late Prof Ogundele long sojourn in the United States of America, he introduced us to Western literature in 2001. And after the first week with him, some mischievous classmates named him 'Beowulf'! And somehow, amongst the few of us, the name got stuck until we finally graduated in 2003/2004 academic session. Something stood Prof. Ogundele out: his simplicity. He was a very simple man, approachable and of course a very sound mind. His tutorial classes were one of my best times. I cannot remember how exactly we became friends, but from the first day my LIT 201 assignment script got to his table, he called me out to know if I was related to Nigeria's

former finance Minister, Kalu Idika Kalu (he admired the man's fine intellect and finesse), I promptly told him I wasn't. All the same from that day till the first week of October 2014 when we spoke on the phone last, he called me Kalu Idika Kalu! Prof. Ogundele was a teacher who was genuinely interested in his students, he taught us from his heart, he was an accomplished academic, yet he never had airs around him. He related to his students in a manner that almost infuriated some of his colleagues who felt a lecturer should be a demigod to his students. Perhaps, that was what stood him out. The vintage Ogundele is a man whose only passion is

service, he never was a greedy man, and he even had no time for the politics that has turned our universities to village meetings. Two years ago, while we shared a drink at 'Festac' along Ede road, he narrated his experience as a civil servant with the Federal Civil Service Commission and I quickly realised he was just very different and that was his nature. Even when he retired from the Obafemi Awolowo University, he was still willing and ready to continue in service to the fatherland, as a man in love with the culture of his people he wasted no time in taking up the appointment as the Executive Director, Centre

for Black Culture and International Understanding (CBCIU), Osogbo, a position he held till his death in October 2014. Perhaps, the ache of the centre's tribulations may have been a contributor to the demise of Prof. Ogundele, he cherished that centre and was willing to do anything to make it succeed. He had started using the centre to attract the required attention to the fast dying African cultures, starting with his native Yoruba culture, through his leadership, the family of the late German scholar and Yoruba culture enthusiast, Uli Bier, donated all his research works, and gallery to CBCIU. The centre was on the verge of

becoming a hub for Nigerian universities to revive their cultural studies departments. Alas, Prof is dead, but then he has done his bit. But as Prof. Wole Ogundele will be committed to mother earth, I resolved not to delete his phone numbers. I will definitely allow them die a natural death as well - with the phone. Like the great Shakespeare already noted thousands of years ago, "life is a stage" and we all come here, play our parts and get the hell 'outa here! Prof just got the hell out. But we celebrate him, his fine rough intellect, humility, simplicity and most importantly for me, his friendship. He was a good man. Fare thee well the great Beowulf! Moses Idika Olaari Media Nigeria 22, Aguiyi Ironsi Street Maitama Abuja.

PDP: Zoning good in Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, not in Rivers and zones at the national, state and local government levels. In Bauchi State, where the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Muazu, comes from, the party zoned out aspirants from the southern senatorial district from contesting the governorship position in 2015. The same was witnessed in Akwa Ibom, the home state of the current Chairman of the

PDP Governors' Forum, Godswill Akpabio. In its wisdom, the party entrenched this important principle of zoning to ensure that justice, equity and fairness prevail. But in Rivers State, this important principle is suffering and it's threatening to tear the party apart. Former Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, is being empowered and encouraged

by the First family in perpetrating the inequity that Rivers people are witnessing, as I write this. Dame Patience Jonathan is getting notorious and infamous for her meddlesomeness in the affairs of some states, especially Rivers and Bayelsa. She must have known of the charter between upland and riverine sections of Rivers State. She is allowing the ambition of one

man (Wike), to cost PDP, the party that her husband leads, to be thrashed in the 2015 elections. It is now becoming clearer to Rivers people that Dame Jonathan is the engine room from where Wike draws his power and arrogance. She is also rumoured to be providing most of the funds that Wike is throwing about. Nevertheless, the attempt by the First Lady and PDP to

impose Wike as the PDP flag bearer for the 2015 governorship position in the state will not fly and will not secure victory for the party. I know that many decent Ikwerre people are not in support of another Ikwerre taking over from the incumbent Ikwerre governor in May 2015. - Onyeike Agomuo Port Harcourt, Rivers State

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COMMENT

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2014

President Jonathan bares his fangs: Events in Ekiti a mere foot note

And if the president had once claimed that 13 is greater than 16 in the governors' forum affair, who is a governor not to uphold the harebrained action of seven where eighteen is stipulated?

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HIS is more than serious...why must everything, from federal to state, be so much brigandage? Lord have mercy!', wrote Professor Mobolaji Aluko on the ekitipanupo web portal, commenting on the sealing of the National Assembly by the Nigerian police as well as tear gassing its members on that unfortunate day when all of President Jonathan's make-belief as to being a pacifist got completely blown up to smithereens as no Nigerian Inspector General of Police, born of woman, not to talk of a mere state Commissioner of Police, as is being claimed, would dare enact that horror movie without the express say so of the President. Happily, if Professor Aluko was still wondering as to what has befallen the country under the Jonathan presidency, not so a perspicacious Tatalo who, in his column of Sunday, 17 Novembe, 2014 in The Nation had written, inter alia, as follows under the Title: Political War Games In Nigeria - "It would be politically foolish and obtuse to the bargain to ever imagine that Jonathan and his strategists are unwise enough not to realize his electoral limitations at this crucial moment. If that is so, it brings us to the central thesis of this piece. Jonathan and his handlers may very well not be preparing for an electoral competition but for a physical conquest in the guise of a democratic quest". Evidence of that now abound as we would show in this article. In the meantime, not knowing that what Ekiti people currently regard as the embarrassing dividends of their decision of 21 June, 2014 are nothing more than the dictates of a man dead set on contesting and winning an election, no matter what that entails

for the nation, I am convinced that with what happened at the National Assembly this past week, they must by now have begun to see how exactly they have been badly had. For confirmation of that, simultaneously as the National Assembly members were being shut out from the House, the Ekiti state House of Assembly, in a most macabre undertaking, was deceiving itself into believing that 7 of its 26 members can impeach a speaker where the constitution prescribes two thirds, which is 18. I saw one of the seven on Channels television during the past week making what he considers a justification of their illogic and I saw perfectly why Ekiti has become the butt of jokes the world over as a visit to a Facebook account will more than confirm. However, the worst was to come when the state governor popped up claiming it is that illegal 'speaker he was going to work with, emphasizing, repeatedly, that he had no apologies. What a land of honour gone awry! And if the President had once claimed that 13 is greater than 16 in the governors' forum affair, who is a governor not to uphold the harebrained action of seven where eighteen is stipulated. Nor did they stop there. As contained in a Press Release by Wole Olujobi, Press Adviser to the Speaker of the House of Assembly, the legal as distinct from the rabid impostor, "the Police and ?the Department of State Security have withdrawn their personnel from the security teams of the Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly, Dr Adewale Omirin, and the Deputy Speaker, Chief Adetunji Orisalade. This followed the invasion of the Speaker's Lodge this evening by Mr Dele Olugbemi, the purported new

Speaker, who led PDP members in a forceful occupation of the building'. Again it should be obvious to Nigerians from these events that Abuja is the falconer and that the state governor is nothing more than the President's viceroy in Ado-Ekiti. It certainly cannot get more scary but only a fool would claim not to have seen all these coming given President Jonathan's single-minded ambition, after six years already spent on the post, not only to contest, but to be declared winner in the 2015 presidential election. Indeed, given the unequaled success of their newly fangled election rigging tactics which we saw deployed in Ekiti in June, arising from which the President asked some foreign Ambassadors in the country to inform their Heads of state that the 2015 elections would be a successful and seamless excise, even where he had not proposed a single effort at improving our chaotic and fraudulent electoral process inthos six years, it is obvious that Nigerians must be prepared for more of the same as these people are not preparing for an election in its true sense, but as Tatalo put it, a physical capture. I just hope the oposition isbeing properly warned as it will no longer be able totalk of a failure of intelligence. Both PP and the President have shown enough of their hands. So successful was their scientific rigging in Ekiti on 21 June 2014 that because there was not a single reported case of ballot snatching or illegal thumb printing but rather, a calm and peaceful voting, Ekiti people believed they got what they voted on that day even where neither the PDP nor its candidate had done a single positive thing for the state and the people for the past four years apat from the emergency rice and beans which in no way compared with all that Fayemi had done in office to cater to the

needs of both the needy and the general populace. I can understand, however, that that the 20,000 ghost workers he eliminated by his introduction of epayment to the government's financial system rankled amongst the rogues. But I tell them, what they are celebrating is science, miraculously, but clinically settling matters long before the voting proper. And since VANISHING INK, instead of the constitutionally prescribed INDELIBLE ink was what INEC provided voters, the deed was done, even without a whimper. For those in doubt, I once again ask them to Google: NIKUV and the Zimbabwean presidential elections as well as NASENI and its own findings on the 2013 Presidential election in Zimbabwe, another African country. So PDP was not inventing the wheel but merely catching in on the new fad in election rigging. As to those who question why there were no riots, I say, how could any sensible person react to an apparently 'flawless' election, even if the state was not completely militarily locked down. And by the way, were there any cries of anguish from the victims of atomic bombing in Hiroshima? Science is clinical enough to ensure that the victims could not react. Instead, where they are not dead, the victims are put in a permanent state of delirium; the very state Ekiti presently finds itself though unknown to many. But all these are mere preparations for the big prize: the 2015 presidential election. And so Nigerians, not only in Ekiti but in all the Southwest states as well as others like Akwa Ibom and Rivers, where you see governors or Abuja sponsored contestants daring everybody, insisting it is their way or the high way; in Kwara, where they hate Bukola Saraki with a passion, Kano, because they still cannot

imagine a triumphant Emir Sanusi Lamido, in spite of all the make belief and some other state must brace up for the Ekiti treatment. Photocromism, otherwise known as scientific rigging, in its various variants, will be deployed in these states by their rogue scientists who are mostly from a Middle East country whose national economy thrives most on the military industrial philosophy. As things stand today, President Jonathan's strategists have their plans for 'pacifying' each geo-political zone to ensure that zones with high voter populations are compromised and others leaning more towards the opposition APC are completely messed up. It is this that accounts for the shenanigans we are witnessing in the distribution of Permanent Voter Cards and the man to pity here is Chairman Jega who is not complicit since he is not even trusted. Instead, middling officers in the IT departments with, possibly a dedicated director, are in charge of all the schemes to add to or subtract from the number of voters in each zone as illicitly decreed by the men of power. The Northeast,, unfortunately, shot itself in the foot when the likes of Modu Sheriff deliberately encouraged illiteracy, and ended up as the birthplace of Boko Haram which authorities have done everything to ensure thrives until the 2015 election is over. In the huge Northwest and North Central, what used to be occasional bloodletting between the various tribes has taken a life of its own and in the Southwest, it is the turn of the MACHO MEN to rein in the Yoruba, a distinguished people with thousands of years behind them. As for the South South and the South East, they are already presumed safe and delivered.

The dead man who found his way home and other random thoughts I love thee well, Nigeria my country. The reason why, I really cannot tell. Though your story be crooked or torrid, I love thee well, that you can tell.

N Nigeria, nearly everything mysterious is possible. Are you looking for a fighting hen with three legs? It was born in Nigeria. Are you looking for people who have killed each other over one or two thousand Naira? It has happened here. Are you looking for a land where the clear winner of an election is not really the winner? Its right here in Nigeria. Don't ask me for proof of these things. I read them in newspapers just as I am sure you also did but probably did not pay attention, just as I read that a dead man found his way home, against all odds. During the week, we read the story of a man who was reported to have been missing from home and work for days, only to have been found stowed away in some mortuary. The story says that the man left home for work and did not return, while the work place confirmed that he did come to work but he signed off at the end of his shift. So, he was not seen at home or work until about five days later, when he was found in the mortuary. Now, this is where the wonderful story really begins for a writer who loves mysteries; for somewhere between closing off at work and failure to report home, Nigeria's tale is told. First of all, there are conjectures to be made from that interval of time, which the dead man cannot confirm or deny. Could he have been kidnapped?

That of course would not surprise any Nigerian as there are people always on the watch for making a few pennies off their neighbour. Just this morning, I was reading of how a man, his wife and ninemonth old baby had been caught in the act of kidnapping, a family business you could say. (Is the baby also liable, I wonder?). Anyway, he confessed to have helped his gang to kidnap his former colleague. Can you just imagine that? Now, when you walk or drive on the road or you are in a taxi or you are at your office, you have no idea who is sizing you up for just how much you are worth, dead or alive. Does it not make you shiver that our Nigeria has become something else? The man, according to the story, was picked up by the police in a neighbourhood somewhere between his home and place of work and placed in a mortuary. Presumably, it was said, he had slumped because he was suffering from some ailment. Now, we do not know exactly what happened to this man's blood sugar or blood pressure or something else but it is consternating indeed the number of people suffering from one or other of these bloods in Nigeria and yet do not follow instructions or they prefer go after miracle cures. This is a general comment for all of us and not addressed to the family but I believe that it is only in Nigeria that people think that

diabetes or hypertension can be 'cured' by herbs or bouts of night vigil. The night vigilians are even worse. Rather than take drugs or attend clinics punctually and regularly, they believe that an endless number of 'rejecting IJN' will resolve the blood issue. Even till this morning, I know a patient who kept shifting his/her doctor's appointment day after day because s/he needed to travel; so the doctor should please not be 'annoyed'. The doctor sweetly said he wasn't but that s/he should please leave a note on her kitchen table that, should anything happen, s/he failed to keep his/her clinic appointments. It is only in Nigeria that health is valued for much less than the price of the cheapest lace material. The story also says that the people who observed the fallen man lying there were afraid to go near him perhaps because of fear of the ebola virus. There was a time in Nigeria when everyone was his brother's keeper. True, the fear of ebola appears now to be the beginning of a great basket of wisdom. However, that did not absolutely absolve that neighbourhood of the guilt of failing to assist the fallen man. For one thing, ebola had been successfully banished from the country. For quite another, anyone from the age of forty can fall down anywhere in the country now considering that the life expectancy in this country is falling everyday with the stress of living in Nigeria. Fortysomething is now the new seventysomething.

Worse, who can tell if that man would not have survived if he had benefitted from some kind of medical intervention or if there had been some rallying around by the people or if he had been given first aid? Since no one could move near him, we really do not know how long it took him to die. Unfortunately, Nigeria is replete with such stories of needless losses. Much worse than all the above, it was reported that the police team which picked him up saw the man's identity card but did nothing about contacting the family or his work place. This is a very strange thing for a police force to do, any force in the world. Of what use is one's identity card if not to state the important information regarding one's dead body? Are such pieces of information not to be used should anything happen, like falling down arsy-varsy? What exactly does it mean when we hear, 'The police are your friends?' Honestly, I need some education on that matter because if you ask the citizenry, all the 'friendings' appear to be coming from the people and very little is coming from the police. Is this deliberate? For instance, why could two policemen not cover areas in beats as we see them do in other countries, so that such matters as contacting a dead man's family would easily be handled by the pair or group assigned to that area? With the reorganisation going on in Lagos, I don't believe there is an address that cannot be located now, more so, a place

of employment. We have so many questions for the police to answer on this matter but I guess mum's the word. Anyhow, that is the story of Nigeria told by the people themselves. It is an unsavoury story though, all things considered. The story of this man has brought to the surface the great amount of indifference to life running as undercurrents even as we all appear to be going around building houses, building businesses, building money and anything else that can or cannot be built. It sort of makes you think that it is all so worthless if a man can just slump on the road and no one would help him but providence. Perhaps, I'm taking too dim a view of the situation; after all, providence is still there for us, both king and peasant. I commiserate with the family of Mr. Oranusi for its loss; his story is an example of how a dead man can find his way home. It also shows how much everyone is really on his/her own in this country. In this scientific age, you sort of think that we can do things a little more methodically as a nation rather than rely overly much on providence to help the individual. Right now, fortuitousness seems to be guiding us all. This is why we still do things the same ancestor-preferred way: no research input into civil service reforms, business methods, products output, eating systems, social engineering systems, etc. This should not be. Nigeria's sad tale, as told in the death of one man, can still change.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2014

COMMENT

(91) "Fail in English, fail in all" - and my conditioned envy of Physics and Mathematics I

T took me a long time to discover that the great professional or intellectual envy that I have had of Mathematics and Physics (and of mathematicians and physicists) all my adult life had its roots in my secondary school education, especially with regard to what we used to call "fail in English, fail in all". I say "envy" deliberately, for I could as well have said "admiration". This is because while I have a great admiration for all the sciences and scientists, especially the really gifted and conscientious among them, what I feel about Mathematicians and Physicists is envy. Admiration is to envy what possibility is to improbability: we admire what is within our ability to achieve and envy what seems totally beyond our capability to master. This is what I feel about Physics and Mathematics. This disciplinary or professional envy is one of the unspoken, subconscious highlights of my life as a professional academic. It is not an envy that drives me crazy with distraction, thank heavens! But it is enough to make me know that it is an unwelcome and perhaps psychologically unhealthy thing. And only this realization has stopped me from quitting my job as a Professor of Comparative Literature and going to enroll in a bachelor's programme for a combined honors degree in Mathematics and Physics! Ah, "fail in English, fail in all", what roiling confusion thou hast wrought in my adult intellectual life! Of course, since I dare not presume that most of those reading this piece know what "fail in English, fail in all" exactly meant in the lives and careers of all secondary school pupils in my teenage years, I suppose I had better explain the term and its meanings first before attempting to show its linkage with my envy of Mathematicians and Physicists. The phrase literally meant what it proclaimed. Before the creation of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the examining body for all secondary schools in English-speaking West Africa was based in Cambridge, England. This was the period in which the "fail in English, fall in all" policy was put in place. It meant that if you failed in English, you were automatically denied the passes that you might have recorded in all other subjects for which you might have sat in your school leaving exams. But the real emotional force of the phrase went far beyond literalism. For not only did you automatically fail all other subjects if you failed in English, you had to retake all those other subjects with English in the next round of the Cambridge school leaving exams. Everyone in my generation (and several generations before ours) knew or had heard of hapless, unlucky students who sat year after year for

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the Cambridge School Certificate Exams and failed year after year only because they had failed in English while sometimes performing brilliantly in the other subjects. Indeed, it was not unknown for the educational prospects of many otherwise brilliant students who could never obtain a pass in English to founder and crash only on the basis of this policy of "fail in English, fail in all". With English being my very best subject, I was of course one of the few very lucky students who were completely immune to the real and imagined traumas of this policy. And I knew it, perhaps knew it in a manner that would ultimately work against me, though I did not know this at the time. All I knew, all most of the other students never let me forget was the fact that I was relieved of the endless hours and herculean efforts that others put into passing in English. This was made all the more blessed for me - so I thought at the time - by the fact that my ease with and in English opened the doors for excellent grades in other subjects like Literature, History, Government and Religious Studies, these being subjects in which competence in English was considered essential and mastery a divine gift. This meant in effect that with English, I was assured of automatic excellent passes in FIVE subjects. All I had to do, all I thought I had to do was perform well in two other subjects and I was okay. In my case, those other subjects were Geography and Chemistry in which I did sufficiently well without ever having really had to apply myself rigorously to their specific demands as academic subjects. At this stage in this piece, perhaps it is necessary for me to pause and explain the colonial basis of this "fail in English, fail in all" policy as this was an absolutely crucial aspect of general educa-

tional policy in the colonies of Great Britain. On the surface, this colonial dimension was merely apparent; it did not loom large in our consciousness. English was the medium of instruction in all subjects and this was the reason why a pass in English was compulsory, not because English was the language of our colonizers, the language of our cultural and linguistic tutelage. This is what we were told. And it is necessary to point out that we were given this rationalization of the policy by black, Nigerian and not white, English teachers. But dig a little deeper into the historic context and the impregnable colonial basis of the policy was revealed. For instance, it never occurred to us until after the policy had been relaxed or completely retired why students who failed in English had to redo ALL subjects over again, including even subjects in which excellent passes had been recorded. I mean, why did they not simply have students who had failed in English retake only English? What was the point of making such students retake every single subject if the whole basis of the policy was not to make English the language of colonial triumphalism? Almost a half century later I see it now, but I must confess that I did not see anything wrong as such with the policy when I was one of its few lucky beneficiaries. I was sympathetic to its victims, especially the students who we thought were "wizards" in the sciences but who somehow never seemed capable of finding their graces in English, the key that opened the doors to success in many other subjects, the language of the imperial lords of the planet. The worst part of my memory of this period in my life is the realization that the policy was a vital part of the general colonial educational policy of keeping the number of high school products

that would or could go on to higher degrees through university education very, very low. And indeed, it was not until WAEC replaced Cambridge as the examining body and students could combine passes in the West African School Certificate Examination (WASCE) with passes in the General Certificate of Education (GCE) that it became possible for university education to be available to thousands of high school leavers that could never have got past the iron gates of "fail in English, fail in all". How does this all connect with the besotted envy of Mathematics and Physics of my intellectual adulthood? Well, I must emphasize the fact that what I see now with great clarity I simply did not see, did not comprehend then. For I realize now that deep down, I must have felt a deep fascination with these two particular subjects. This may have been because they were the two subjects that I found the most challenging, the most resistant to my efforts, not to achieve mastery but to get a bare, working knowledge of their "mysteries". There was a rather funny and poignant way in which this was manifested: the brightest students in Mathematics and Physics envied my consistently excellent performance in English and plainly showed it; but clothed in the marvelous cloak of English, I could not and did not show them my envy of Mathematics and Physics. However, I could not hide this truth from myself, even if I wanted to - which I didn't. For I knew only too well how I often secretly leafed through the pages of Mathematics and Physics textbooks marveling at the strange and endlessly fascinating "language" that I found in those textbooks. And I knew only too well the tremor that coursed through my whole body when the "wizards" of Mathematics and Phys-

ics among my classmates held their own against our teachers in these subjects. In my adult intellectual life, I of course came to a much better understanding of these aspects of the great miseducation that that "fail in English, fail in all" policy had wrought in my life as a professional academic. Permit me to become rather sentimental in my expression of this pathos. I think I was/we were all born into this world to have a working knowledge of Physics and Mathematics, to avail myself/ourselves of their incredibly rich methodologies and procedures for understanding the physical laws of the universe and the logical, abstract relations between numbers, phenomena and things that we cannot easily perceive with only our eyes and the other sensory organs. I was/we were born into this world to penetrate the veil that hides super-small things and relationships from our perception. But that accursed "fail in English, fail in all" policy made it impossible for me to realize these things for which I was born into this life to know and appreciate from the closeness of, if not of an expert, then of a competent amateur. How did this happen, you ask? You see, I had bad teachers in Mathematics and Physics. But this did not bother me in the least - until it was too late. If I had had bad teachers in English, I and my classmates would have raised hell and protested mightily. But we did not protest at all against the bad teachers that we had in Physics and Mathematics. Indeed, now that I think about it, I realize with the shock of recollected memory that the students who were good in these two subjects did not protest either. They were far too busy worrying about passing in English to expend their energies on subjects they knew they could easily pass even without good teachers. When eventually I wanted to protest against the bad teachers that I had in Physics and Mathematics, it was about four decades too late! I do not wish to end this piece on a sad, defeated note. If the conclusion that I wish to make is not exactly buoyantly optimistic, it is nonetheless hopeful. Now, I know more about and of Physics and Mathematics than I knew two or three decades ago. For the most part, I have been learning - again the most basic and rudimentary aspects of these two subjects from scratch and mostly by self-instruction. I shall never get a combined honors bachelor's degree in Physics and Mathematics, but I am slowly coming to a deep and gratified appreciation of the practical applications of these subjects in modern societies and modern life. That's enough for me. Q.E.D. Biodun Jeyifo bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2014

COMMENT

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The Banana Republic and its police O

RIGINALLY, the term ‘Banana Republic’ referred to small countries which are politically unstable, dependent on a primary agricultural export and are ruled by a wealthy and corrupt clique. Their police forces are often brutal, corrupt and engage in human rights abuses. They are intolerant of political dissent. Over time the term has evolved – moving away from the sense of some tiny country whose economy revolves around banana plantations or some other similar primary export. Today, countries struggling with rampant corruption and political instability, mass unemployment, wage inequalities, poor social services and where the security forces are used to oppress their own people define the concept of the ‘Banana Republic.’ As I tried to make sense of the actions of the Nigerian police, Department of State Security (DSS) agents and soldiers who laid siege to the National Assembly last Thursday, the phrase ‘Banana Republic’ leapt at me. It was not for nothing. A series of events – beyond that day’s madness – pointed to the fact that Nigeria ticks most of the boxes to be so classified. Ever since the images and story of that morning’s assault on legislators went viral, a number of senior administration officials have been fingered as having ordered the siege in an attempt to block Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, who had defected from the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) from presiding. I am not bothered about the identity of the official that gave the orders. Knowing the way Nigeria operates, there’s no way security forces can storm the National Assembly and shut out lawmakers without getting their matching orders from the very top. To suggest that ‘Oga at the top’ was unaware is even more scary as it conjures images of a moving train with no one at the controls. This latest incident is confirmation of the damage that has been done and is still being done to the Nigerian police. Over the years, a succession of pliant force leaders have acquiesced in turning an institution that is part of our commonwealth into the enforcement arm of whichever government controls the center. That can only spell trouble going into an election year. In the dying days of the Second Republic, the then Inspector-General of Police, Sunday Adewusi, unashamedly made it clear the police would further the interests of the then ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) over and above those of the other parties. His commissioner in the old Anambra State, Bishop Eyitene, humiliated the then Governor Jim Nwobodo, severally. Even before last Thursday’s display at the National Assembly the police and some of their sister services showed that they had not changed from their servile ways. They don’t behave like a force operating in a democracy, but more like oppressors and conquerors. Many still remember how the former Rivers State police commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu, turned him himself into the personal adversary of the Governor Rotimi Amaechi. At one point his men tear-gassed Government House, Port Harcourt. Following his transfer to Abuja, he bragged about being a lion who had caged the pesky governor. In the run-up to the Ekiti governorship elections in June, Vice President Namadi Sambo showed up in Ado-Ekiti for a PDP rally – prompting the police to, again, show their true colours. That same day former Governor, Kayode Fayemi, who was traversing the town, had an altercation with a police officer who was particularly rude. I recollect his response when someone drew his attention to the fact that he was talking to the governor. He said: “Which governor? Who is governor when Vice President is in town? I don’t know any governor!” He said that to Fayemi’s face and hearing. In the same Ekiti, the week that seven legislators in a 26-person house sat to approve Governor Ayo Fayose’s nominees, the police

•Minority Leader Femi Gbajabiamila (left) with Victor Ogene and an unidentified member (right) ... on Thursday. provided the stiff arm to keep the governor’s opponents away until the illegality had been perfected. When Tambuwal defected to APC, it was the police that pronounced he had lost his Speakership – not the courts! The scandalous nature of the force’s presumption in usurping judicial duties is till date still lost on its leadership, as they continue to defend their indefensible decision to withdraw his security details. Since the Speaker’s defection, several members of the House and three erstwhile APC senators from Ogun State have crossed party lines. I don’t recollect the Inspector-General of Police, Suleiman Abba, stripping them of their orderlies and ordering them not to enter the National Assembly precincts. Examples of outrageous conduct by the police across the country make for embarrassing reading. But they carry on this way because our political leadership is so parochial. Small men in big offices don’t bother about elevating our democratic experience; they are more concerned with manipulating the coercive instruments of state to extend their grip on power and privilege. One of the worst things about the Goodluck Jonathan administration is its lack of originality. For someone who promised to be a breath of fresh air, it’s a shame that he and his team always run back to the template of impunity designed by the first PDP president, Olusegun Obasanjo. Long before the incumbent found himself unexpectedly president, his predecessor walked this lawless path. In the heat of his quarrels with

his then deputy, Obasanjo sacked Atiku Abubakar’s aides and stripped him of every privilege of office he was entitled to as Vice President – including security details. It was all because he defected to another party after the president had frustrated him out of PDP. Atiku went to court and won a famous victory that allowed him to continue as VP until the last day of his tenure. It was under Obasanjo that former Plateau State Governor Joshua Dariye and one-time Oyo State Governor, Rasheed Ladoja, were ‘impeached’ by a minority of members of their respective houses of assembly. The then president sustained the illegality because he could order the police and soldiers around. Ultimately, the courts overturned the sham impeachments – much to the shame of the ruling party and its government. Although the Nigerian constitution recognizes the executive, judiciary and legislature as independent but equal arms of government, Obasanjo pioneered a doctrine that sought to make legislators appendages of Aso Villa. He and the party worked actively to install their lackeys in legislative leadership. Where they failed they spent their days plotting to topple the incumbents until they had their way. The latest political crisis can be remotely traced to the fact that Jonathan also attempted to foist his yes-men and women upon the House of Representatives only to be embarrassed by an assertive chamber that decided to chart an independent course under Tambuwal. Aso Villa

South Africa’s dead and Nigeria’s forgotten hordes

N Saturday, October 15, 2014 South Africa executed a clinical military/ civilian operation to repatriate 74 of her citizens who perished when a six-storey guesthouse at the Synagogue Church of All Nations on September 12. In all it is suspected that close to 80 persons from that country may have lost their lives in that disaster. In the intervening two months while DNA tests were being carried out the South Africans piled unrelenting pressure in the media and through diplomatic channels seeking a proper accounting for, and the repatriation of their dead. President Jacob Zuma even appointed one of his ministers, Jeff Radebe, as Special Envoy to Nigeria for the sole purpose of bringing the Synagogue dead back home. Mind you some of the remains had badly deteriorated because of the delay in allowing emergency services access to the site of the

tragedy. In the end because of very high humidity in these parts, putrefaction set in quickly. Still, the South Africans desperately pushed to recover their dead – the good, bad

•SA repatriation team in Lagos

had never been comfortable with a Speaker it didn’t make and things were bound to come to a head one day. What happened on Thursday is a watershed in the development of Nigeria’s democracy. As the brave and heroic lawmakers risked injury scaling the locked gates, they were serving notice that Nigerians would no longer be cowed by a force that has turned into an oppressor of the very tax payers who pay its bills. They were saying that this country would not be ruled by some Inspector General of Police but by the will of the people reflected in their elected representatives. I have been entertained by some ‘commentators’ who have tried to turn what played out on last Thursday into some so-called ‘show of shame’ on the part of the lawmakers just because they scaled the gates to access their chamber. The analogy that comes to mind is that of a man screaming loudly because his balls are being squeezed in a vice. In walks this advocate of acceptable public conduct to berate the suffering fellow for disturbing the peace, were he to switch places with the noisemaker, he wouldn’t be so dignified. Clearly, some people never heard of cause and effect. The heat triggered by the attempt to forcibly oust Tambuwal is so unnecessary. Jonathan and his people could have gone to court to challenge the defection. They didn’t because despite their preachments they don’t really believe in the rule of law. So they resort to self help. Like we saw a few days ago, it always ends badly. and ugly. What a lesson in human dignity and concern for your people. The number of her citizens that died at Synagogue is nowhere near the body count from some Boko Haram attacks. The Nyanya Motor Park, Abuja, attack alone produced a gory harvest of at least 88 bodies. After a quick photoop at the hospital, President Goodluck Jonathan sped off to Kano to dance at a rally for a defecting politician. The day after a suicide bomber eviscerated 47 school kids in Potiskum, and with images of their broken limbs making many sick online, our humble, caring president was dancing again at Eagle Square – listening to sycophants telling him all was well in the land. Ever week hundreds are slaughtered in our killing fields. The response from those charged with protecting lives and property is to issue another canned press statement threatening to deal decisively with the perpetrators. We don’t treat our people – living or dead – with dignity. Is it any surprise that other countries find it convenient to trample all over us?

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Oil prices: Hard times are here Page 60, 61

From one austerity measure to another •Okonjo-Iweala

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South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya rule Africa's gambling market

HE gambling industry in Africa's emerging market may be receding but South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya continue to lead the pack, according to the outcome of a recent study. The report tagged: 'Raising the stakes in Africa: Gambling outlook 2014-2018 (South Africa - Nigeria - Kenya)' which is the third annual edition on the gambling sub-sector by PricewaterhouseCoopers stated that gross gambling and casino revenues showed subdued growth in 2013 in the wake of a faltering economy. Gross gambling increased only 4.3per cent. The slowdown in gross gambling revenue was centred on casinos, the largest category at 76 per cent of the market or R16.5 billion.

• 2014-2018 outlook promising Stories by Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf Some casino operators in certain regions believe the slowdown in 2013 was due in part to growing competition from electronic bingo terminals, limited payout machines (LPMs) and sports betting shops, which are becoming more prevalent in the industry. The publication focuses on segments within the gambling industry with detailed forecasts and analysis. The National Gambling Board of South Africa is the source for South African historical data. Of the three countries included in the analysis, South

Africa has the largest overall gambling market as well as the largest land-based casino gambling market. Gross land-based casino gambling revenues totalled R16.5 billion in South Africa in 2013 compared with only R428 million in Nigeria and R195 million in Kenya. Nikki Forster, PwC Hospitality and Gambling Industry Leader for South Africa, says: "We expect slower economic growth to lead to slower gross casino gambling revenues in Nigeria and Kenya and continued slow growth over the next two years. We then look for a pick-up in growth in each country as economic conditions improve.” "Gross gambling revenues

as a whole are expected to expand from R21.8 billion in 2013 to R29.5 billion in 2018, a 6.2 per cent compound annual increase," says Forster. Currently there are three licensed casinos in Nigeria. Most forms of gambling are illegal, other than skill-based card games, backgammon, and the national online lottery. Casino gross gambling revenues have grown at double-digit rates during the past three years, including a 19.4 per cent increase in 2013. "On the whole, the outlook for the industry is positive, with the further rollout of LPMs and electronic bingo machines in the pipeline that will further contribute to the expected growth in revenues."

• From left: Mr. Olumide Sogunle, Deputy Managing Director, Mr. George Noah, Managing Director/CEO and Mr. Gbolahan Dixon, Head Mobile Advert, all of the Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency (LASAA) during the launch of the 2015 Mobile Advert Sticker in Lagos…recently. PHOTO: MUYIWA HASSAN MIDST growing rift over the propriety or otherwise of the Initial Public offer of Transcorp Hotels Plc, shareholders under the aegis of the Constance prospective investors that our Shareholders Association of discountenance moves by the law to approve the change of shareholders' group spread Nigeria (CSAN), have passed company to pursue its IPO. status of Transcorp Hotels Plc across the six geopolitical zones a vote of confidence on the ISAN said that their ("TranscorpHotels") (formerly of the country is in full support management and board of the demand became imperative a private company) to a public of the IPO by Transcorp Hotels company, assuring the former following serious breach of company, its initial public offer Plc because it is a good deal of its support as it prepares to operating capital market laws (IPO) and subsequent listing by anytime, any day," he stressed. make perfect the IPO. by the regulators. the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Pressed further, Mikail Speaking with The Nation ISAN, in letters signed by "The regulators would not said considering the positive over the weekend, Mallam Sir Sunny Nwosu and Mr have approved the process if the fundamentals of the Shehu Mikhail, a retail Adebayo Adeleke, National consent/approval of the Transcorp's hotel business, it is shareholder, and leader of Coordinator and General parent/holding company necessary for stakeholders to CSAN described the proposed Secretary respectively shareholders (Transcorp) were rally round the company to IPO by Transcorp Hotels Plc described the approval for the required by law and not ensure that the IPO is as a welcomed development. recently concluded offer of the obtained. subscribed. The CSAN boss, who shares of Trancorp Hotels as "The case would have been CSAN's view is quite at spoke on behalf of his group criminal and the height of different if Transcorp was variance with the view being after its monthly stakeholders' regulatory impunity. hiving off a business (which is canvassed by the Independent meeting, said the IPO presents Reacting to the not the situation here) - then Shareholders Association of fresh an opportunity for shareholders' position, SEC approval will be required Nigeria (ISAN), which made prospective investors Transcorp Management said, based on existing SEC Rules. had written two separate letters interested in growing their "The issue is whether the But here, TranscorpHotels is to the Securities and Exchange investments in the hospitality shareholders of Transnational simply going public and Commission (SEC) and the sub-sector of the economy. Corporation of Nigeria Plc asking for subscription of its Nigerian Stock Exchange "Without fear of ("Transcorp") are entitled by share from the public.“ (NSE) urging the regulators to contradiction, I want to assure

Shareholders endorse Transcorp Hotels' IPO amidst rift

‘I give my staff the latitude to operate’ •Essang

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Access Bank, FMO sign $30m facility to empower women

CCESS Bank Plc and Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO) have agreed on a $30million facility for on lending to Women in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME's) in Nigeria. The line of credit will provide financial resources to women owned small and medium scale enterprises in Nigeria. The facility will also be utilised in providing capacity building, debt capital support to women owned businesses, and promote the bank's financial goal of reaching the unbanked through provision of cheap funding. The Women Empowerment Fund will be funded through a fifty-fifty participation from Access Bank Plc and Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO) and will be available to Women owned SME's operating in various sectors of the Nigerian economy. Speaking at the signing ceremony held at the Bank's head office in Lagos, Herbert Wigwe, Group Managing Director, Access Bank Plc, said: "This for us is a milestone achievement and a step further in our relationship with FMO. We did collaborate in 2006 to promote the Gender Empowerment programme (GEM) but I think today's facility for us is necessitated because of the large program we have for the W, the umbrella for anything for Women in Access Bank. Our aim is to inspire women through various strategic mentoring programs, a very interactive website which connects them, giving them better financial support and financial advisory services to enable them succeed as entrepreneurs." According to Wigwe, the $30million which the FMO is contributing is part of a counterpart funding structured to support female entrepreneur. Access Bank is actually providing the second part, so the total amount is about $60million which is about N10billion. "This is a much larger facility than what we had before. We believe that through this process we will be able to empower many more women, support female entrepreneurs and even more importantly the educational process through which these women will get involved in terms of book keeping and how to run companies," he stated. In the same vein, Frederik Kummersteiner, Manager, Infrastructure, Manufacturing & Services, FMO said: "This is another important partnership for us at the FMO as the women-driven SME sector represents a strategic pillar of Africa cum Nigeria's quest for modernised and improved economy whilst encouraging inclusive banking in the economy." Justifying the need for the project, Kummersteiner observed that: "SMEs account for a large percentage of all businesses in Nigeria and contribute 50% of employment to same. This why we are happy to partner with Access Bank in empowering the women led small and medium scale enterprises and providing business development services to female entrepreneurs."

Ethiopian Airlines named as African Airline of the Year

THIOPIAN Airlines, the largest and most profitable airline in Africa, has been named the African Airline of the year by the African Airlines Association at its 46th Annual General Assembly held in Algiers last week. Ethiopian Airlines bested others for its exceptional results in 2013, consistent profitability, and sound strategy, which has enabled it to forge win-win partnerships with fellow sister African airlines. This is the third year in a row that the airline has continued to receive the award from AFRAA. Responding to the award, Ethiopian Group Chief Executive, Tewolde Gebremariam, said:" We are highly honoured for this recognition by fellow sister airlines in Africa," adding: "The award goes, first and foremost, to the more than 8,000 employees at Ethiopian, who work very hard every day to provide the best services on the ground and in the air to our valued customers."

THE NATION ON SUNDAY NOVEMBER 23, 2014

BUSINESS

IGERIANS are in for a hard time. This seems to be the damning verdict of a few discerning Nigerians as they express anguish and fear that the nation's somewhat weak economy may be doomed, no thanks to the fall in oil prices at the global market. Crux of the matter Nigeria, widely acclaimed as one of the new global economy frontiers following the rebase of its GDP and whose economy is fuelled largely by oil earnings for its foreign exchange and national income, may be in dire straits, as there are fears that the effect of the slide on the global oil price might plummet the economy if steps are not taken to cushion the effect through sound economy measures. Though, last week, the federal government proposed an oil benchmark of $78 per barrel for the 2015 budget, 0.50 cents higher than the $77.50 per barrel approved by the National Assembly in the 2014 budget, economy experts are afraid that these economy measures might deepen hardship for average Nigerians as the effect on exchange rate, capital market, fiscal operations of governments, among others, will affect industries and commercial activities generally. Currently, the federal government through the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, announced an austerity measure to cushion the effect of the slide. Apart from the crude oil price benchmark for 2015 budget to $73 per barrel from $78, the government also stiffens its spending by increasing taxes on luxury goods, restriction on foreign travels and withdrawing sponsorship for training of civil servants. These measures, according to market observers, will bounce back on key sector of the economy. Market sources are already blaming the depreciation of the naira and increase in interbank lending rates on austerity measures. According to an analyst in the research unit of one of the banks, the measures are being interpreted to mean there are bad times ahead and people should make necessary preparations. He said the sentiments in the market are that the CBN does not have the resources to defend the naira and hence the naira will continue to depreciate. Industry stakeholders react Expectedly, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI)'s Director General, Muda Yusuf, while reacting to the inherent dangers that may befall the nation's economy following the introduction of austerity measures, stated that the salaries and wages would be adversely affected. He said: "The introduction of austerity measure by the federal government is inevitable in the light of the current situation of a decline in the price of crude oil, but the dangers in the policy would be a sudden reduction in spending and adjustments on capital projects as part of the sacrifice to the paid by government." Echoing similar sentiments, the organised labour, under the aegis of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), has warned the federal government to ensure the new policy does not inflict more hardship on Nigerians. NLC General Secretary, Comrade Peter Ozo-Eson, while reacting to the new policy, stated that the federal government must be transparent enough to ensure that

Oil prices: Hard times are here The current volatility in global oil prices, analysts believe, might have a far reaching negative impact on the nation's fiscal operations, currency exchange rate, capital flow, the stock market, foreign reserves, inflation and interest rate, reports Bukola Afolabi

â&#x20AC;˘Busy commuters in famous Oshodi market, Lagos

more hardships are not inflicted on the Nigerian masses. In his reaction, President of TUC, Comrade Boboi Bala Kaigama, stated that there is the need for the federal government to tell Nigerians the relevance of the policy that never favoured the nation's economy during the administration of former President Shehu Shagari. According to Oscar Odiboh, publisher, Newsletter, and a consultant in the auto industry, people knew that the economy was unstable, saying that Okonjo-Iweala has been at the vanguard of defence and denial of the fact that the economy was not working well. The fact that this is just manifesting, Odiboh maintained, shows that things are really bad. He said Okonjo-Iweala, by her pedigree, should not have put her hands in it. On his part, Kehinde Olawumi, a chartered accountant, said the situation was as a result of insensitivity of the government to the people. He said the country has relied too heavily on oil, which they don't have control over the price. For Wale Omole, President of Peoples Problems and Solutions, a non-governmental organisation, which assists Nigerians in poverty eradication and other economic problems, the move has shown that the current government has failed in its responsibilities to Nigerians and Nigeria as a country. His words: "Austerity measure is not a bad thing on its own. It has been used by governments in the developed world of recent to redress their spending and return their economies back on its feet, but the problem with Nigeria is that we are not supposed to be experiencing this. The way we waste money on frivolities in government has led to this state. Jude Udeozor of Financial Initiatives Limited said that "Even Dr Okonjo-Iweala knows it that she

can only bark but she cannot bite; all what they are doing is playing to the gallery and they would always protect themselves. Some others said, "If the government was truthful and ready to protect the masses, all those driving expensive cars would be made to pay heavy duties and taxes on those facilities as this is the only way that the poor would be protected." Though an Ernst & Young Africa Advisory Oil and Gas Lead, Mrs. Claire E. Lawrie appeared more optimistic that such measures could lift the nation's economy out of the impending doom that the oil price fall might bring when she said recently that "crude oil exports generate over 90 per cent of Nigeria's foreign exchange earnings and as such the country is prone to serious economic pressure if there are no plans to deal with the situation." According to the oil and gas expert, the price of oil is important to the world economy, given that oil is the largest internationally traded good, both in value and volume terms. "Since the era of the oil boom in the 70s, Nigeria has been dependent on 'oil-cash' with a need to continue diversification of the economy," she said. She said that continuous decrease on the prices of crude oil could result in long-term reductions in OPEC oil export revenues, and would force OPEC countries to make difficult economic, social, and political tradeoffs. She stated: "The price of oil is linked to some extent to the price of other fuels. Therefore, abrupt changes in the price of oil have wideranging ramifications for both oilproducing and oil-consuming countries (that is, the multiplier effect of oil prices on other products). "Nigeria's sweet crude is in demand. China alone can take all that we produce. The recent decline in crude oil price has impacted negatively on the capital market activities and has become a source of

worry to stakeholders. The stock market is reacting negatively to the decline in crude prices. This is normal - anytime the crude oil price falls, it usually has negative impact on the stock market." Lawrie said that there is need for the federal government to adjust the macro economic variables. "This can be achieved by stabilising inflation rate and exchange rate. For oil prices to go up, there has to first be a production shut-in by all OPEC members. Secondly, to try and solve the problem locally, the federal government should look towards refining locally and becoming the central supplier of refined product to West. A recent monthly oil market report of OPEC stated that in October, OPEC crude oil production averaged 30.25 million barrels per day (mb/d) and that, according to secondary sources, a drop of 0.23 mb/ d over the previous month was recorded. The reports explained in context that crude oil production from Saudi Arabia, Angola and Nigeria decreased, while crude oil output in Libya increased. It noted that production not including Iraq stood at 27.02 mb/d in October and down by 0.21 mb/d from the previous month. It is thus needless to say that Nigeria's preferred high grade Bonny Light oil, will by this month begin to feel the pinch from the crude oil price slides as recently disclosed by Okonjo-Iweala. Fiscal operations of governments Declining oil price means reduction in revenue inflows. This has implications for the capacity of government at all levels to meet their statutory obligations. Most states are over 70% dependent on statutory allocations, which makes the impact of declining oil price very profound. This is even more so when the culture of big and profligate spending has been entrenched.

Already, some states are having issues with the payment of salaries of their workers just as many have issues with payment to contractors even as it is expected that major adjustments in government spending at all levels is clearly inevitable. Naira exchange rate Exchange rate is a price determined by forces of supply and demand. The strongest factor on the supply side is the forex inflow from crude oil. Therefore, a downward trend in oil price would naturally result in exchange rate depreciation. Although the CBN has been struggling to defend the naira, this may not be sustainable if the slide in oil prices persists. The Nigerian economy is estimated to be over 80% dependent on imports. Exchange rate depreciation would mean new pressures on production and operating costs in the economy which would generate new inflationary pressures. High importation costs will also come with high import duty payment, port charges and VAT, as all of these are computed as percentages of import value. Capital flow reversals Trend of oil prices is a major driver of foreign capital flows, especially portfolio flows. This is because the prosperity of the Nigerian economy is perceived to be inextricably tied to the developments in the oil market, and rightly so. For portfolio investors, oil price and exchange rate conditions are major indicators that drive their investment decisions. The impact of such capital flow reversals is often profound in the stock market and the foreign exchange market. Stock market There is a correlation between stock market performance and the fortunes of the oil market. Nigerian stock market is well known to be more vibrant when oil prices are high. A major factor in this is the pro-

THE NATION ON SUNDAY NOVEMBER 23, 2014

•Allison-Madueke

•Yusuf

fundity of foreign portfolio investors who currently account for about 60% of the market. Their sensitivity to oil price and exchange rate movements is very high. Furthermore, declining oil price scenario would result in further tightening of monetary policy to preserve macroeconomic stability. The result is high interest rates and superior returns on investments in the money market which could have negative impact on the stock market. External reserves Declining oil price scenario would reduce the accretion to reserves. Therefore, there is a good chance that the reserves will come under pressure. Besides, the customary disposition of the CBN to defend the naira through increased supply of foreign exchange will take its toll on the robustness of the external reserves. This is even more so when the excess crude account has dried up. Interest rate The likely CBN response to the current scenario is to intensify the tightening of monetary policy. This will further push up interest rates, increase cost of funds to investors in the economy and constrain the access of the banks to investible funds. All these would impact negatively on the bottom line of enterprises in the economy. Energy cost The good news in all of these is the likely moderation of cost of fuel importation. This is well known to be a major burden on the finances of the country. The share of the nation's resources committed to fuel importation and fuel subsidy is horrendous and perhaps scandalous. It is hoped that declining oil price would moderate this cost. Also, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Financial

Derivatives Company Limited, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, said the CBN's recent move to restrict dollar sales to some importers at the RDAS forex market was a form of devaluation. This, he said, was because the affected importers were now buying dollars at the interbank market at higher rates. Asked if such an action would not lead to inflation, Rewane said, "The action is currently inflation negative but in the long run, it will be inflation positive. "Already, at the interbank market last week, the naira was selling at N169 before the CBN intervened and sold some dollars. At the official rate, it is already N156.3. So what is devaluation? Devaluation is allowing the currency to flow, which is what they have done by directing some of the activities at the CBN RDAS forex market to the interbank market." He also said the country's external reserves could fall to $34bn by December. The stock of external reserves has depleted to $37.5bn and can finance 7.6 months of import of goods, according to the CBN. Noting the increasing pressure on the naira at the foreign exchange market, Rewane said so far external reserves had moved from accretion to neutral and now depletion. He said Nigeria was slowly moving towards exchange control, noting that the CBN had given a two-day window for the utilisation of intervention funds. "The potential revenue loss on unsold dollars purchased is expected to reduce the speculative activities of the banks on Forex. It may also increase the frequency of the CBN's intervention as banks may reduce the quantum of forex purchased during each intervention. "Dollar sales to the Bureaux de Change have been restricted, effectively reducing dollar cash at the parallel market. On the flip side, the restriction may lead to excess demand at the interbank market and widen the divergence. The premium between the two market rates is expected to increase and expand the arbitrage opportunity." He said external reserves level declined as the CBN intervention at the RDAS increased and naira depreciation intensified at the interbank market due to demand pressure from international investors. "Can the CBN defend the naira at current levels? The willingness to defend is strong but the ability to defend is falling apart," Rewane said. Oil marketers fume Reacting to some of the concerns raised, the Independent Petroleum Marketers (IPMAN) said the Nigerian oil industry has not fully developed in such a way that white products like diesel, petrol and kerosene could be sourced within. The IPMAN stated that the likely failure of the National Assembly to live up to its promise to pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) before the end of the 7th session of the Assembly is a source of worry. Gani Dibu Aderibigbe, national treasurer of IPMAN, who reacted to some of the issues while speaking with The Nation, believes that the passage of the PIB will bring to an end the era of fuel subsidy, importation of fuel and kerosene, which will further aggravate the situation that will arise by the oil price drop as government will not have much funds to sustain the subsidy regime.

BUSINESS 61 How Nigeria's Njorku.com is competing with Google

T has been observed that Africa has always been left behind in almost global economic revolution. Well, it appears that things are beginning to change as new generation of digital entrepreneurs are emerging from the continent. These technology-based African businesses that use the internet as their primary business platform are beginning to give the continent a new hope of economic development, as well as putting African on the global picture. In March, 2011, self-taught software and web site developer-turned entrepreneur, Churchill Nanje, joined this league in a quest to make it possible for unemployed youths in Africa to get their desired jobs without hassle. Thus, Njorku.com, a search engine that works like Google, but focuses on helping people search and find job pages in Africa, was developed. In a chat with Nanje recently, he said once you ask Njorku to give you information on all accounting jobs in Africa or in Nigeria, "Njorku will go on the internet, find all websites that have information on the most recent accounting jobs and then present you a list and you can review this list and follow the links then apply… so you can find all jobs in all websites via Njorku.com." Since the search engine was launched, he said they have recorded success stories by those who gained employment through the platform. However, he said they have lost count of these individuals. "We don't keep track of these people mainly because we are like Google; our service is mostly to help you find the jobs and then apply for it," he explained.

Udemma Chukwuma in this report profiles Njorku.com, the innovative application designed by Nigeria's Churchill Nanje.

•Nanje This young Cameroonian who conceptualised in helping people in getting their desired jobs said he was inspired to set up the search engine because "I realised it was a need in Africa. There was no single place you could go and find all jobs on the internet in Africa. And I also needed a tool to help me find and employ people for this company, so that gave to birth Njorku.com." Speaking on the application's modus operandi, he said: "Njorku uses a lot of social media, bloggers and

YouTube to reach out to its target audience, we have not invested yet into heavy marketing but we have thousands of daily users and we are growing steadily." On the challenges he has faced thus far, the netpreneur said: "The biggest challenge I am facing is finding the right talents or people with the skills to join the team and help grow the business." The challenges notwithstanding, he is enthusiastic that things are really looking up for him. "Well, we are very happy with our current investors and for now they are just happy to be part of something that has potential to be very big and spans across the continent. But with time, we will focus on our business model which is centred on subscriptions and advertising with huge potential." Pressed further, he said: "We have thousands of daily unique users without any paid advertising is more than the word encouraging. So, yes, I would say so far we are happy with the usage and how people love and cherish the technology we are building for them for free." On whether his platform has had any unpleasant experience with Google over fear of competition, he responded in the negative. "No, Google has never blocked Njorku.com that is not true. Some sites blocked us but they all have come to their senses and unblocked us."

From left: Tony Muoneke, Regional Vice President, RIFAN, Abimbola Okoya, General Manager, British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation, Hiroshi Kodoma, Senior Representative, Japan International Corporation Agency, Nigeria Office and Godson Ononiwu, Director, External Relations and Capacity Building Market II, USAID, at the NEPAD Business Group Nigeria and Rice Investment Forum in Abuja… recently.

Diamond Bank sponsors 'Vision of the Child' competition

REPARATIONS are in top gear for the 2015 edition of the 'Vision of the Child', VOTC, an innovation of the Lagos Black Heritage Festival scheduled to hold between March 30 and April 6 next year. Sponsored by Diamond Bank, the Lagos Black Heritage Festival is a series of cultural celebrations held within the Lagos metropolis and Badagry. It composes of events such as the Lagos carnival, beauty pageant, and a boat regatta which takes place on the Lagos lagoon while 'Vision of the Child' is a segment to incorporate school children in the fiesta by engaging them in competition in the arts. Declaring open the competition, with the theme 'The Road to Sambisa' recently, was the Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism and Intergovernmental Affairs, Disu Holloway. "I was here last year and enjoyed all the events put up by the Black Heritage Festival," he said. "The events and all the drama that were

By Joe Agbro Jr.

held here were fantastic." Representative of Diamond Bank said most renowned Nigerian artists started their art as children. According to the organisers, the competition which is open to students interested in reading, writing, and painting, and aged between eight and 12 in public and private schools in Lagos State is to promote creative skills. Registration which opened from November 13 will close by December 19 while screening of entrants begins on January 12, 2015. Interested students can either apply by filling out a paper form or electronically by logging on to www.votc.lagosblackheritagefestival.com and following the instructions. There is a registration fee of N500. To qualify, interested participants will submit a poem, essay or short story of 300 to 500 words based on the theme. Shortlisted entrants will then be

invited to Freedom Park and provided with canvas, brush and easels to interpret their writing in painting. However, unlike the previous years, the festival consultant, Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka, decided to recognise 'few individuals' endowed with duality of creative skills. According to him: "Unlike 2014 where the prize is awarded on the aggregate of the two creative media, there will be three prizes in all - one in painting, another in its sister art, the literary, while the prime prize will go to the combined product of the pupil's dexterity Painting and Literature." "We've had awards for six kids in 2012, 2013, 2014," said the Festival Secretary, Foluke Michael, while praising Diamond Bank for supporting the contests. "As of today, we have 96 paintings that will go to our hall of fame very soon." Students from 620 schools participated in the 2014 edition.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY NOVEMBER 23, 2014

BUSINESS

From one austerity measure to another T

HE term 'austerity measures' is not totally new to Nigerians. At first, it came garbed in the coinage, Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), between 1986 and 1988 during the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida which came to power in August 1985. It was also during a period of depressed oil prices in the country. Many citizens, across the board, considered the measure as a means to further sap their already sapped lives. It didn't go well with Nigerians as barely months after, creative minds devised various kinds of slogans, such as "Laiye Babangida, olodo gari toro, di sile kan..." "Babangida ti mu aiye le fun gbogbo ara ilu Naijiria..." (In Babangida's era, a hitherto three penny measure of cassava flour sells for a pound per measure...) and (Babangida has made life unbearable for an average Nigerian...); to vent their frustrations. To say life became unbearable for millions of Nigerians was to state the obvious mildly. Coupled with SAP, Babangida's government also initiated what they called Second-tier Foreign Exchange Market (SFEM) that was sold on auction for a near equilibrium price and used for export earnings and import trade requirements under which, according to economists, the naira reportedly depreciated 66percent to N1.00 $0.64 or N1.56 equals $1. The local currency then declined further in value up till July 1987 when the first-and-second tiers were eventually merged. Through these periods, Nigerians’ sufferings were immeasurable. Also under SAP, falling real wages, redistribution of income from urban to rural areas, reduced health, education and social spending, decrease in spending on social programmes and many others, aided outbursts of voluble domestic unrest as religious riots in Kaduna State in March 1987, urban rioting in April 1988 due to reduced gasoline subsidies, student-led hostility in opposition to government economic policies in May and June 1989 and lastly, a second coup attempt against Babangida's leadership style in April of 1990. Before then, General Mohammadu Burahi’s regime had been ushered in amid insoluble economic problems that plagued Nigeria. Along the line, his government nearly crumbled as petroleum prices collapsed in the face of expanding foreign debt. Hurriedly, he too, instituted austerity measures that added to the already severe hardship meted on an average Nigerian by the previous governments. Coupled with this, political corruption continued unrestricted as politicians jetted to Western countries with millions of dollars siphoned from government coffers. Decrying the austerity measures’ move announced by Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala last Sunday, an economist who asked not to be named noted that it you look at the trend, Nigeria’s governments often adopted such measure when it is obvious that they are failing in meeting their obligations. He said that at this informationsoaked stage of our national life, Nigerians would amaze him if they went out en-masse in 2015 to vote any of today’s politicians who have have exhibited blatant failures to govern well. Okonjo-Iweala, sitting amidst the Director-General, Budget Office

The news last Sunday, by Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on plans by the federal government to introduce some austerity measures purportedly to reduce the effects of steady oil price decline has been greeted with weepy criticism. Not a few economic analysts, commentators and the general populace decry the move as a measure to make lives doubly tough for Nigerians, writes Assistant Editor, Joke Kujenya, who sampled opinions

•Okonjo-Iweala

of the Federation, Dr Bright Okogu; the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr. Jonah Otunla; the Acting Chair, FIRS, Alhaji Kabir Mashi, added that Nigeria would be experiencing challenging times owing to the global fall in oil prices. “But Nigeria does not need to experience fall in her crude oil prices,” said a Political Science lecturer in one of Nigeria’s federal universities, who is also an economic analyst. He asked: “Why is Nigeria talking about austerity measures when we have no basis for it? Why must we have decline in oil price at all? What this simply suggests is that we only need to re-formulate the oil sector. Sadly in Nigeria, people in government lack the imagination for that. “I am emphatic, there is an urgent need to overhaul the entire crude oil sector. Once we do that, there wouldn't be any need for our crude oil prices to decline or have ourselves talking about austere measures. And mark my words, we’re so dependent on crude oil, not just the oil without realising that from crude oil alone, there are over a 100 derivatives that we can get to boost our economy. “That is why I am hammering it that there is really so much we can accrue from just half of our oil industry. But about 95percent of this goes to other countries that are smarter and more prudent than us. Again, the problem is those that are currently in power lacks the creativity to do things right. But

other countries are doing these things so well, why can’t we?” Looking back at when austerity measures have been featuring in Nigeria, the political scientist added: “While this is not a contemporary phenomenon, it has never been favourable to the populace. I recall during the Second Republic when the government embarked on SAP, another word for austerity measures, Nigerians reacted in the popular culture with slogans like: “austerity measure lode, owo gari di poun merin”; so, it has always been a problem. Then you are forced to ask, why does our government embark on austerity measures at the slightest hint of any problem where there are better options? “It’s so annoying. Also, think back to the Second Republic when our Economic Stabilisation Act (ESA) was propounded by the Shehu Sagari administration which later gave rise to SAP under Babangida. Now, in the post-SAP era, we are now having austerity measures again. Haba! What for? “Do you know that lecturers were then reduced to zero? That was the period you hear a lecturer say: 'My take home pay cannot take me home'... Or jests like 'My boss is a comedian, what he pays is a joke...' because that was the reality of the aftermath. “Perhaps, the only difference between then and now is that the economic tight-rope in the context of democracy, and two, proximate elections, that is, looking at 2015, the ruling party, PDP, representing the

Federal Government, must be very, very careful because this can smear their profile. “Whatever is being done now in half-measures cannot take them through the political temperature. You see, in a context dominated by the ecology of elections, I repeat, the PDP government has to be very careful. Even if it is the APC government that is in power, they too must be careful. I say this with consciousness because what happened in Ekiti State was because politicians underestimated the significance of the Ekiti syndrome, i.e. that the polity, voters can speak and that they can do that forcefully in the context of their aspirations and inclinations. “In other words, the Ekiti pattern can happen the other way round, this time, at the national level. So, it is to that extent that the government must be very watchful. On the other hand, part of the benchmark listed by OkonjoIweala as in creating a climate for private sector growth is rather heartwarming, at least for now; meaning that government would not go aborrowing and that we can rely on internal resilience, for me, this is tight and very good. “Aside that, any right thinking Nigerian must quarrel with a number of things in the measure. Let us look at the tax on jets. Is that really possible? People who own jets in Nigeria, some of the most powerful lots, taxing themselves? So, ask yourself, who own the jets? “And don’t forget that some,

not all of them, get their monies through dubious means, i.e. they got their wealth through what we call in economics a ‘rentier economy’, that is, they are touting unearned incomes. And whenever there is rentier in a ‘nation’, it means the beneficiaries have nothing to pay back. This is why the effects on the general populace, which already have been living on ‘austere measures’ long before now, are unquantifiable. “So, it is just one austerity colliding with another. For Nigerians in general, it is a case of double jeopardy. Already, that a majority of our people live below a dollar a day is sufficiently austere enough. It is thus baseless to then announce another austerity. And if you look at our system vis the salary structure for the political class, they are out of this world. Just in passing, somebody mentioned that the supposed monthly salary of N1million+ paid the old man that designed the Nigerian flag recently appointed a Special Assistant to the President, now (I'm not using the old man as a classic reference here) plus all the so-called Special Assistants and Advisers that our president alone exhibits, are “visible wastes” in the 36 states of our federation. To be sure we don’t need austerity measures, they must take the right steps to cut down on these wastes. “So, while we have so many parasites in government, being fed for contributing nothing to the nation’s economy, and living on Nigeria’s cake, you will then begin to see why austerity measures are sheer nonsense because it is not based on visible economic needs which can be curbed by eliminating wasteful spending in government expenditure. Do you know that since 2009 pensioners have been calling for increase in their allowances? But you see a government saying money is not available for such vital disbursement. Even when the prices of oil were high, pensioners were not answered. This set of Nigerians have been living austere lives long before now. Asking them to embrace this new development is just akin to sentencing them to early graves. “Lastly, Malaysia, Mexico, Iraq and more, are from their own crude oil getting so much resources. But what are we doing with our own? If we don’t understand these things, that we don’t have to depend on oil prices of crude alone, we will continue to run ‘rentier economy’ and making lives harder for ourselves”. Apparent worried about the dire consequences of the planned measures, Dr. Samuel Nzekwe, former President, Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), urged the government to look at how to diversify the economy by creating an enabling environment for industries to thrive, adding that increasing or taxing of more utilities is not the major solution. “Government should make more efforts to diversify the economy and see to it that the agricultural sector and few others thrive”.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2014

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2014

'Winning Best Radio Station is a big reward for City FM's rebranding effort'

Biggest problem in publishing is distribution -Adesuwa Onyenokwe

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2014

INTERVIEW

'Genuine miracles are always verifiable' Kwara State Overseer of the Deeper Life Bible Church, Pastor David Adebiyi, spoke with W newsmen on the forthcoming crusade of the church in Ilorin and sundry national issues. HAT does Christian Living mean to you? Christian living is a call of Christianity; without the life of Christ you are not a Christian. Before my conversion, I attended church services. I read my bible; I sang in the choir but I was not converted; I was not living in Christ. But eventually in 1976 I met the Lord. I heard the word of God that was preached to me and I gave my life to God. I yielded my soul to God. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour and then I knew the meaning of Christianity. It was then Christian living and living for Christ became meaningful. What can you say motivated you to come into the ministry? The motivating factor behind my coming to the ministry is the word of God. When I heard the word of God initially, I discovered that I was empty and blank concerning the bible. Immediately I gave my life to Christ, I yielded my life to God and since then I have been worshiping God at Deeper Life since 1976 and up till today I have not looked back by the grace of God. Someone recently pronounced Nigerian churches as practising merchandise Christianity. Do you agree to this assertion? Well, we have churches; we have good churches, true and living churches of God. We have churches that make merchandise of the people because not all churches stand on the bible. Some came out because they don't have jobs or to get their daily bread. They felt starting church is a means of amassing wealth and therefore they make prey of the congregation. They deceive them, collect their money and use their money to buy big cars because they are not standing on the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is possible for a church

HE United Aladura Churches (UAC) has dissociated itself from white garment churches involved in criminal and shady practices. The body comprising churches under the Cherubim and Seraphim; The Church of the Lord (Aladura) Worldwide; The Fellowship of Christ Disciples Ministry (a.k.a. Independent) and the Celestial Church of Christ (CCC), stated that those involved in those practices are not genuine members of the organisation. The President of UAC,

Excerpts:

that is not standing on the word of God to make merchandise of the word of God but not all churches are making merchandise of the people. Those that stand on the true word of God know where they are going and they want to teach the truth. They cannot make merchandise of anybody because if they do, their purpose of coming to the gospel will be defeated. In the past the term 'born again' described a very serious and committed disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. But today the term has been bastardised. Do you believe so and why? The term 'born again' cannot be bastardised by anybody but it can be bastardised by everybody. The word 'born again' stands forever because the bible says by their fruits we shall know them. If any man be in Christ old things are passed away because those modern Christians, so to say, are not taking the word of God seriously, they commit sin, they tell lies but they carry the title. Being born again is not a title; it is an experience. If you are born again, it's a real experience and you cannot manipulate experience. The experience is real because when I was born again it was not what my mother told me, it was an experience that I experienced myself. Those professing to be born again whereas they are not born again are just making mockery of the term. Someone who is not born again, somebody who is committing immorality, who is telling lies, who can cheat who can embezzle money and says I'm born again is a deceiver and therefore let's call a spade a spade.

â&#x20AC;˘Adebiyi

He who is born again knows that he is born again. Today the devil is working against the church, making the people to believe in lies because they are deluded and they just profess to know God but in works and in power they deny Him. Pastor W.F Kumuyi has been visiting various states of the nation to conduct great gospel campaigns, when will it be the turn of Kwara State? By the grace of God he will be coming to Kwara State on the 25th to 27th of November. He will be ministering to the

people at Deeper Life Campground, Eye-Nkorin, Ilorin. The theme of this crusade is "Supernatural encounter with the God of power." How far are you preparing to host this African foremost and international evangelist? All hands are on deck to host and to welcome our father in the Lord, Pastor W.F Kumuyi, to Kwara State. All preparations are almost completed. All that is needed to be done in term of accommodation, electronics and gadgets, electrification of

NEWS UAC vows to expose 'herbalist' churches Baba Aladura Samuel Andrew, assured that the body will work vigorously to sanitise all white garment churches by exposing and flushing out the bad egg among them. "There are some churches claiming to be white garments wearing/ Aladura but do not practise the doctrines as laid down by our Lord, Jesus Christ and the founding fathers like Moses Orimolade Tunolase, Josiah Ositelu,

Joseph Ayo Babalola and Bilewu Oshoffa. "Leaders in some of these churches are alleged to be 'herbalists' in white garments who go about deceiving unsuspecting public. The UAC is set to expose such people and their 'churches', Andrew vowed in a statement. For the purpose of sanitisation of these dubious churches, he said committees and subcommittees will be

constituted to visit churches in all local governments in states where the UAC operates to determine the genuine ones. He lamented: "Most churches just use white garment to cover up their evil activities, whereas they are just herbalists in disguise. "The UAC will investigate such churches, expose them and take necessary actions deemed fit to discourage such satanic activities."

the venue and publicity and other areas are going on with high speed. What were the striking events at his previous crusades in states visited by him and your expectations in Kwara State? We heard from Osogbo, Osun State that there were notable miracles of healings, blind eyes were opened and deaf ears were opened and over there at Nasarawa and Benue states also there were notable miracles, signs and wonders. God normally follows our pastor wherever he goes. And I believe in Kwara State, our expectation is high, signs and wonders, miracles and deliverances will be the order of the day in multitude. In Nigeria today, there are many miracles that people profess at crusades. Are you sure we are going to see some of these notable miracles in Kwara State being verified? Yes, the miracle in any crusade that we hold in Deeper Life or that the Pastor is leading the church is always practical, no deceit; if they want to verify. If you say you are healed of HIV, you will bring your previous test compared with the new test and when you discover that the hospital that tested you positive for HIV after you go back to the hospital and they test you negative to HIV, we know that the power of God has touched you. It is not the man of God who does the work. So we don't fake miracles, we don't

pretend like somebody who is not blind that is blind. Miracles are coming from God. Winners -take- it- all and bad -losers'- syndrome has been at the front burner of Nigeria politics. As 2015 general elections gather momentum, how do you think the politicians, electorate and electoral commissions can deepen our nascent democracy? Well, politicians should learn from the past, they should learn from history. If you do well you will reap it. If you don't do well the whole nation will suffer. It's the population that suffers but if they will allow righteousness to prevail, if corruption is not allowed in high places, I believe God that things will change and our nascent democracy can be nurtured by righteousness. What about the electorate? The role of the electorate is that they should elect credible, trusted candidates; they should not sell their votes for peanuts or for just a small amount of money. So, if the electorate is honest and elect right persons, if they are sincere and do not collaborate with those who cannot rule them well, they will enjoy the dividends of democracy and good governance. And the electoral commission should maintain strict neutrality and shun partisanship and corruption, ethnicity and religious affiliation, and be proactive and dispas-sionate.

Pentecostal Bishops: Boko Haram an enemy

HE United International Association of Pentecostal Bishops (UIAPB) has described the activities of radical Islamic sect, Boko Haram as a declaration of war on the sovereignty of Nigeria. In a communiquĂŠ at the end of its quarterly meeting in Lagos, the group said Boko Haram, attacks on defenceless civilians, especially Christians, has reached an uncomfortable level and should not be treated with kids' gloves. The bishops also called on the federal government to devise a consolidated strategy to dislodge the terrorists once and for all before next general elections. According to them: "The conference views with seriousness and great

By Adeola Ogunlade

concern the unabating level of insecurity in the country and called on the Armed Forces to do all within its power to arrest the situation." The body praised the federal and state government as well as health workers for containment of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). ''It is one area that has shown that it can be done well when there is willingness and cooperation. We believe that Ebola was eradicated with that level of commitment because of the fear that it does not know class. If corruption was Ebola, we are sure it would have been eradicated by now."

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2014

WORSHIP

COLUMN

Lagos West Diocese celebrates at 15

HE celebration was long-awaited. It took months of serious planning and preparations. Everyone looked forward to its kick-off. The D-day finally arrived last week. Members and well-wishers trooped to the expansive auditorium of the Archbishop Vinning Memorial Church Cathedral Ikeja, Lagos for the 15th anniversary of the Diocese. Tagged triumphant convocation, the anniversary took the form of a three-day crusade for salvation, healing and deliverance of souls. The church's leadership and membership spared no efforts to rake in as many souls as possible to the kingdom of God. According to the Bishop of the Diocese of Lagos West, Rev. James Adedeji, the crusade was deliberately planned for the harvest of souls. He said nothing will best define the success of the Diocese aside from the salvation of souls. But besides the salvation gospel, the anniversary also afforded the Diocese the opportunity of making serious comments on the polity, especially governance. Adedeji tasked parties to present only credible candidates capable of effecting changes. To voters, he said 2015 presents incredible chance to

By Amidu Arije chart a new course for the nation. Adedeji urged them to assess candidates well and decide only on the best. According to the cleric: "The issue of politics is not a do- ordie affair. Let's allow the best candidate to emerge; we should base all that we do on merit; we will forever remain grateful for whosoever brought Fashola from wherever he was before the election then, he performed wonderfully well. "He too has a stake in the matter to make sure that whoever comes after him will not destroy these great things he has done. He must endeavour to see that somebody that will come after him will build on what he has started so that the state that has been known for progress will not go down the rail." He urged Christians to be true followers of Christ as commanded in the Bible, saying the nation will witness progress and development if everybody truly follows the dictates of God. "If Christians in Nigeria are competent and true children of God, this country will not be what it is today because even the few Christians that are in politics are they righteous? My idea is that those of us who are Christians, it is high time that we stood for the truth and

boldness and do what the Bible has commanded us to do," he said. For the past 15 years of the Diocese, Adedeji said it has been moving from strength to strength. He said the Diocese has grown numerically. "It has been wholesome. God has used so many people that are my predecessors to be able to double the strength of the Diocese. Numerically, we have expanded. We started with about 100 churches. Today, we have more than 300 churches with two new Dioceses and we are still very strong and formidable," he said. Giving the sermon on the occasion of the Diocese's anniversary, the Archbishop of Kaduna Province and Bishop of Kebbi Diocese, Most Rev Edmund Akanya, urged Christians to remain faithful to the Lord. Akanya reminded the congregation of how God saved the children of Israel form their enemies. He therefore urged them to remain focus and be hopeful of God's wonders. "Don't think everything happening to you is for your destruction; don't think God has not abandoned you when there are obstacles in your life. What He allows in your life, He allowed it for your success and progress," he said.

L-R: Dean Bishiop Vining Memorial Church Cathedral, Venerable Abel Ajibodu; Bishop of Diocese Lagos West, Bishop James Olusola Odedeji; his wife Lydia and guest minister, Archbishop of Kaduna Province and Bishop of Dioceses of Kebbi, Most Reverend Edward Akanya, during the Holy Communion thanksgiving service to mark the anniversary last week PHOTO: OLUSEGUN RAPHEAL.

Motailatu moves against secret cults

NYBODY belonging to a secret cult will never be allowed to hold membership of the Motailatu Cherubim and Seraphim Church Worldwide (MCSCW). This was part of the resolutions reached at the end of a delegates' meeting of the church in Lagos last week. The church also resolved not to be involved in the funeral activities of anyone found to belong to a secret society or cult.

Presbyterian

HE Presbyterian Church of Nigeria has appealed to politicians to avoid acts capable of plunging the nation into crisis. Rising from its fourth quarterly General Assembly Executive Committee (GAEC) meeting in Calabar, Cross Rivers, the church urged political parties and their members to conduct their primaries, congresses and other electioneering activities with utmost decorum. In a communiqué at the end of the meeting, the Church noted

Stories by Sunday Oguntola

In a statement signed after the meeting by the founder and primate of MCSWC, His Eminence Baba Aladura Motailatu Akinadewo; the General Evangelist, Prof. Joseph Otubu and General Secretary, Elder Dr Israel Akinadewo, the delegates stated: "no member of the church should belong to a secret society."

It added: "The church will not be involved in the burial of anybody found to be a member or associated with any secret society. "Any member of secret societies shall not function in the church hierarchy nor be a member of any committee of the church, under any circumstances and will not be allowed to participate in the burial of any departed member of the Holy Order."

Church seeks clean politics

the apparent helplessness of the military in the face of the worsening security situation occasioned by the heinous activities of the terrorist Boko Haram sect. The communiqué signed by the Prelate and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church, Most Rev. Prof. Emele Uka and the new Principal Clerk of the Church, Rev. Eseme David William, expressed dismay over the federal government's proposal to establish cattle ranches for Fulani herdsmen. While insisting the ranches

should be established only in states where cattle is the main occupation, the church said " any attempt to establish cattle ranches in other states would only replicate the tension and friction between Fulani herdsmen and host communities, thereby worsening the security situation in the country." The church also commended the National Assembly for approving the provisions for local government autonomy and Independent candidacy.

Living Faith By Dr. David Oyedepo

The Covenant Of Rewards! (4)

AST week, I considered two more requirements of the covenant of rewards - rendering service cheerfully and your service being love-motivated. You need to be joyful while rendering your services to God. There are many whose rewards are just wasting, simply because their joy level is nothing to reckon with. Also, I said if you must qualify for God's rewards, your stewardship must be love-motivated. Please let your stewardship be lovemotivated, if you must be entitled to God's rewards without hindrance. This week, I will yet show you other requirements of the covenant of rewards •Render your service sacrificially: The Word of God says: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit (John 12:24). The grace for sacrifice is the path to significant rewards. The reason there are too many mediocres in the Church, is because most people sit down with folded hands, waiting for something to happen. We are co-labourers with God, and until our part is fulfilled, God is not committed to doing His part. For instance, there may be two individuals working in the same organization and earning the same salary. But one has built a house, without stealing, while the other has built his stomach. The first man knows the rule of game, so he regulates and disciplines his taste, sacrificing every luxury, in order to have a shelter over his head. But the other man is not willing to sacrifice anything. He eats all and

keeps wishing for one day when a building would drop from the sky, with his name written on it. Of course, that day will never come, because the Bible says every house is built by some man (Hebrews 3:4). There must first be a dying, before living can be colourful. There must first be sincere stewardship, before you can reap your rewards. Therefore, get ready to give your stewardship what it takes to succeed in life, so that you do not end up as a Prodigal Christian. Place value on your time and every covenant resources at your disposal, and invest them appropriately as a person who is in a race and is determined to get the prize (reward). Note that every great season of reward is preceded by a great season of sacrifice in your stewardship. So, do not expect to reap rewards until you are prepared to sacrifice whatever will qualify you for the rewards you anticipate. Remember, a man can only reap what he has sown. However, nothing empowers a sacrificial life like love (Romans 8:35-38). There is no star without a scar. Sacrifice entails going the extra mile and investing to make something happen (John 10:18). It is your sacrificial input that makes a star out of you, and your reward is sure! You won't be foot-dragging; you will sacrificially be forging ahead because your reward is sure! It is not late to re-position, to ensure your reward reaches you. Once you re-position yourself, God will focus His rewards on you because of your stewardship. • You need endurance: The law of endurance is a cardinal law in the journey to your rewards. It is the price

you pay to ascend your throne, as everything precious comes out of pressures. Proverbs 27:21 says: As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; so is a man to his praise. How much heat you are willing to endure today, determines how high you will fly tomorrow. The Church is full of earthen vessels, but a few gold and silver, because not many people are willing to endure the heat of the furnace and the pressures of the refining pot. But those who take shortcuts in life end up having their lives cut short, and those who dodge the heat miss the height. Endurance is the identity of men of prominence. It is a required quality in your stewardship for rewards in life. Unless a man strives lawfully in a race, he cannot win the prize. Think of this! It is my prayer that you will receive grace from heaven to give your service what it takes, so you can make the most of it. You will not miss your reward, in Jesus' name! Friend, the power for endurance and sacrificial stewardship is for those born again. You become born again, by confessing your sins and accepting Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. If you are set for this, please say this prayer: "Lord Jesus, I come to You today. I am a sinner. Cleans me with Your Blood. Forgive me of my sins. Today, I accept You as my Lord and Saviour. Thank You, for saving me! Now, I know I am born again!" I will conclude this teaching next week. Every exploit in life is a product of knowledge. For further reading, please get my books: Born To Win and Understanding Your Covenant Rights. Friend, come for a lifechanging encounter at Faith Tabernacle in Canaan Land, Ota, from December 9-13, at Shiloh 2014, captioned, Heaven On Earth. Shiloh is an annual prophetic gathering of the Winners' family worldwide. God will deliver you from stagnation, frustrations, failure and destitution at the event. Be there! I know this teaching has blessed you. Write and share your testimony with me through: Faith Tabernacle, Canaan Land, Ota, P.M.B. 21688, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria; or call 7747546-8; or E-mail: feedback@lfcww.org

NEWS

RCCG donates street lights to Lagos HE Redeemed Christian community asked, who is your neighbour? Church of God (RCCG)

The Lord's Chapel Gbagada, Lagos, last Sunday, inaugurated the third phase of its street light project. The street lights were donated by the church to fight crimes and illuminate the community at nightfall. The facility will also be powered by the church daily free of charge to the environs. Declaring open the project on behalf of the church's General Overseer, Pastor Brown Oyitso said giving back to the public is the responsibility of any corporate organisation to put smiles on the faces of others. Stating that government alone cannot address the needs of communities, Oyitso said the

church decided to complement ongoing government's efforts to bring succour to the society. The gesture, he said, is: "motivated by the instruction that our general overseer gave to us that the church should not only be seeing as taking from the society but also give back to the society." Urging Christian organisations to ensure that they contribute their quota towards the development of their communities and the nation at large, Oyitso said: "Church should not be seen as a taker but also as a giver. "A parable was told in the bible about the good Samaritan and since then the question is

So, we are advising other churches to team up with RCCG and help humanity as much as possible." The Assistant Pastor- incharge of the parish, Pastor Kehinde Buraimoh, said the church is bent on showing forth the light of God in the area. One of the residents, Mrs. Oby Ekpo, appreciated the gesture of the church. She said: "We have been in the state of darkness for years and when they approached us that they wanted to do the street lights we were happy because we know that it will help us to curb the rate of crime in this our environment and also enhance security."

THE NATION ON SUNDAY NOVEMBER 23, 2014

With Adeola Ogunlade 08083127847

Hello kids, How was your week? Hope it was splendid? Always learn to save for the rainy day. Don't eat your future today. Keep some of your money for some productive ventures. It is not too early to save.

•Mr. ChrisFasipe (Principal/CEO Makestudios) presenting the Raspberry Delux pack to the winner (The Redeemers International School) during the MAKE Nation Educational Television Workshop

Make studio showcases amazing kids

HE students of Redeemer’s International School has emerged the winner of the M.A.K.E Studios Educational Television Workshop and Competition in science and technology for students in junior secondary schools in Nigeria. Redeemers International School clique first among seven schools drawn from Lagos state and were taught on how to use internet as a tool for learning either academic programme and expert advice on career choice, finance and leadership. There is also time for unwinding, entertainment, recreation and sports. In his welcome address, Producer of M.A.K.E Studios,Mr. Chris Fasipebi, said that the making of a child is the primary responsibility of three institutions: the home, the school and the society – it is this reality that makes great na-

By Adeola Ogunlade

tions. He further said that Education is the most powerful weapon for poverty reduction and inequality in modern society. It is used for laying the foundation of sustainable growth and development of any nation. “Even though education is not fun like sports and entertainment, twenty-first century learning has changed and it is providing children with opportunities to experiment with their surroundings as a form of problem solving’ he said Adding that M.A.K.E Studios Educational is making amazing discovery, constructing dynamic models of real world processes and interacting with meaningful tools that will expand mental capacity in creative and collaborative ways. He said “we want children to learn to create using paints, mixed media, 2D/3D

animations, clay paper mache, creative machine and how to turn everyday items they find around their homes into useful and beautify objects a through a powerhouse of M A K E instructors”. Fasipebi noted that M.A.K.E Studios Educational Television Workshop is a platform designed to cater for and contribute to the success of educators by providing television coverage, organize educational events that offer unique systems to enhance creative-thinking, problem-solving and teamworking skills of students in an active, fun and entertaining environment thereby exposing these super kids to the skills necessary for them to embrace the challenges of the future. He opined that in subsequent events, they will also develop their own design, build models, make machines (robot) and market their creations.

POEMS

Covetousness ~Peter Idley Covetousness hath never end, And where is no end, is no rest; Where is no rest, peace doth wend; Where is no peace, God is a guest; For God Himself made His nest Where peace made his bower, And there He dwelleth, our Saviour

SILLY PUNS 1. Why did the chicken cross the playground? -To get to the other slide. 2. What do you call a pig that knows karate? - A pork chop! 3. Why do bees have sticky hair? -Because they use honeycombs. 4. Why was the man running around his bed?

CAREER TIPS

What you need to know GEOLOGY

LTHOUGH God created the earth over 6,000 years ago, man has continue to explore the earth and its dynamics, its resources and the most economic and sustainable ways to use these resources. We are looking at Geology as a course of study for young people to explore as it is a field-based, multi-disciplinary science that integrates the principles of chemistry, physics, biology and mathematics in the study of Earth processes and history. Areas OF SPEICALISATION Marine Geology Exploration Environmental geology Earthquake Hydrogeology Ground water Why study geology?

RIDDLES Answer to the last week riddles activity Barium. Because they're cheaper than day rates. Never lick the spoon. Sherlock Ohms. NaBrO! Don't get excited. You'll only get into a state! You may have graduated but I've got many degrees. Fission Chips. It doesn't conduct itself. Critical mass.

Riddle activity Send in your stories, poems, articles, games, puzzles, riddles and jokes to sundaynation@yahoo.com

Geology studies both modern and ancient environments, deciphering the processes at work on our planet Geology is a means and a method for understanding and discovering the natural resources upon which the modern world is based Geology is a study of history, a long view of history that extends back billions of year Where you can work? Most geoscientists are employed by industries related to Oil and gas, mining and minerals and water resources. Mineral prospecting companies Quarries Ministries of solid minerals Consulting firms Teaching and research institutions

Q. Why was the maths book sad?

Q. What's the king of the pencil case? Q. What US state has the most maths teachers? Q. Heard about the mathematical plant?. Q. Which tables do you not have to learn? Q. What tool do you use in maths? Q. Why was 6 afraid of 7? Q. What do you get if you cross a maths teacher and a clock? Q. What is 67 + 35 + 99 + 136 + 84? Q.How do you make one vanish? sundaynation@yahoo.com or adeolaogunlade2010@yahoo.com.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY NOVEMBER 23, 2014

Evidently, Nigeria is broken

EBERE WABARA

WORDSWORTH M 08055001948

ewabara@yahoo.com

Presidential goofs

HE Presidential Declaration Committee (PDC) goofed in its 'thank you' message to Nigerians published in most national newspapers of November 17 and signed by Dr. Bello Haliru Mohammed, OFR, Chairman, PDC, Sen. Ken Nnamani, GCON, Dep. Chairman and Prof. R. Ahmed Alkali, Dep. Secretary: "The enthusiastic participation by all Nigerians from all works (walks) of life…." "…an indelible statement that inspite (in spite) of the challenges that currently exist…." ('Currently' is otiose here) "…and All the Governors (needless capitalization) who attended the epoch making (epoch-making) event." Except if 'epoch' is the event maker! "We are proud of the President's Pan Nigerian (sic) outlook…." This way: the President's pan-Nigeria outlook "Sisters arrested over (for) attempt to smuggle marijuana to brother" "Group condemns INEC (INEC's) handling of PVC in Lagos" "Ebola: Group visits hospital's CMD…condoles (condoles with or consoles) victims' families" "We are eternally appreciative to (sic) be part of the ongoing Transformation agenda which has recorded irreversible growth for the Oil and Gas Industry." (Fullpage advertorial by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and signed by its Management, November 20) A rewrite: We are eternally appreciative of being part of the ongoing…. "I…of the Niger Delta Development Commission on behalf of the management and staff of the Commission felicitates (felicitate) with…." (Fullpage advertorial by the NDDC, November 20) "…especially in this (these) turbulent times in our journey to great nationhood." (Source: as above) "Mgbidi Boys (Boys') Secondary School (1982 Set) and Classmates of Senator Hope Uzodinma" THE NATION ON SUNDAY POLITICS of November 16 contributed the next two wrongs: "Another party source said the elders are (were) considering the consensus option." "…used the authority of the party's extraordinary convention held in Abuja a forth-night (sic) ago…." Spell-

check: fortnight "Ilorin residents groan as pure water scarcity worsens" Middle Belt Today: sachet water "Unity Bank releases names of debtors" Why not debtors' names, especially for headline purposes? "Ajimobi will break second term (second-term) jinx" "Intelligent EMUI 3.0 with gravity sensing (gravity-sensing) technology" (Full-page advertisement by HUAWEI, November 17) "LG boss assures on democracy dividend" Who did the chairman assure? "At both the Enugu and Nsukka campuses of the university.…" (THISDAY, November 14) On (not at) both the campuses… "The commission did analysed the memorable…" I don't need to analyse the tense problem in the extract. "It is simplistic to think that every decisions will be accepted by everybody." Every decision or all decisions "It's constitution is over 200 years old and was drafted by just 55 men." The possessive form of 'its' does not require an apostrophe. "Robbery tribunal sworn-in" 'Sworn in', a phrasal verb, cannot function as a compound word. "The veil of enemity between.…" Get it right: enmity. "…the arrogance of certain persons connected directly or indirectly make me nervous…." The arrogance…makes me nervous. "He had reflected back to (reflected on) this time two years ago.…" Yank off 'back' which smacks of crass illiteracy. "However, with series of p a i n s t a k i n g explanations.…" A series of… "On my way to work, last week Wednesday…." Simply last Wednesday or Wednesday, last week: the excerpt is odd. "And that is, the Nigerian police has not failed." The Nigerian police have "…the nation's enormous human and material resources would blossom resulting eventually into (sic) economic buoyancy." Resulting in economic buoyancy "The campaign abroad is that Nigeria is on the verge of a huge conflagration." (THISDAY, The Sunday Edition, November 16) 'Conflagration' does not need any amplification (huge).

"It is true that majority of us do not want to see Nigeria break." A/the majority of us.… "They were thought (what!) how to use cutleries as Frenchmen." (THISDAY, November 21) I was taught by my current dictionaries that 'cutlery' is non-count. And 'thought' for 'taught'? Could it be ignorance or carelessness? FEEDBACK VANDALIZATION (also vandalism) is a variant of vandalism that is not so popular in terms of usage because it is often used in Law in a specialized manner. A more perfect or perfect union? I convened a national conference where recommendations and resolutions were reached towards a 'more perfect (perfect or nearly/possibly/ probably perfect union. This is imitation of 'we'. The people of the United States in order to form 'a more perfect' union in the Constitution of the United States adopted in March 1789. 'Perfect' is an absolute superlative. It is not modified, qualified or amplified. 'More perfect' is un-English, un-presidential! We can correctly say or write nearly/possibly/probably perfect or unique (not more perfect or most perfect). Keep up the good work, brother. 'Flag off' means to start an event: it may be found in a standard dictionary. Therefore, some writers have popularized its usage. Users will continue to argue about correct usage. (BAYO O G U N T U N A S E , 08056180046) FACE mark in Africa transcends mere decoration. It connotes ethnicity/culture. So, OBJ has tribal marks on the face. The marks can as well be on other parts of the body (especially in the olden days) The English language should be adapted to portray intended expression and not to please native speakers. This is the essence of linguistics. May God deliver us from colonialism. (MODUPE ADEGBORO, 07030759108) IT is incorrect for RayPower in its Nigeria Today News (November 17) to use 'wake-keep' instead of 'wake'. (KOLA DANISA, 07068074257) I find your column WORDSWORTH profound, an asset to the media and all users of the English language. (OGOCHUKWU, 08033812451) "This piece does not intend to whip-up (whip up) ethnic sentiments…."

ANY would contest the declaration conveyed in the head of this article. They would see it as a stretch tinged with politics. I wish there was a way to order human affairs sans politics, which is more often dishonourable and utterly unworthy of regard by men of culture. But my declaration that Nigeria is broken is no politics. It is born of the evidence of my eyes and the fact of verifiable information available to me. There is no metaphor more graphic, more emblematic of Nigeria's brokenness than the state of our roads. Forget about what you see in political advertorials and what you read in PR editorials. Do what CNN advertises in their programme promo, "Going there." Don't read about it; don't hear about it. Just pack your bag and go there. Get on the road and see that truly, evidently, Nigeria is broken into enclaves not accessible one to another because they have been cut off by lack of roads. About three weeks ago I did just that. I packed my bag and got on the road from Lagos to Asaba in Delta State, to attend the inauguration of my friend and business partner of 15 years, Hon Emmanuel Egbabor, as chairman of Isoko North local council. I had not made long trips by roads until recently, the trip to Delta State being one of them. Before I got to Benin bypass the treacherous sections of the Ore-Benin 'highway' had taken a toll on my car. It cost a bomb to fix it. Once I was done with my friend's ceremony, I headed for Akwa Ibom to see my mother. After the Niger Bridge at Onitsha, I detoured right through Owerri because I could not go straight through the shorter PHEnugu-Onitsha 'expressway.' A key road linking Rivers, Abia, Enugu, Anambra, and a prime passage to the North and West, the PH-Enugu-Onitsha 'expressway' had been in a state of disrepair for a long time. It is now virtually impassable. The journey was insufferably nasty, to say the least, until I got to Aba in Abia State. Aba is a story for another day; for now just take it as a byword for decay. I was to find out that my journey would end in Aba. There was no way, try as hard as I did, to access Akwa Ibom either through Iwukem or Ikot Ekpene, neighbouring towns in Akwa Ibom, about 45 minutes away either way. I was out of touch with reality, not having travelled home by road for more than a decade. I never knew that what used to be federal highways could literally cease to exist without alternative routes for citizens who depend on those roads to get by daily. On enquiry I was told the way out was to go through Umuohia to Ikot Ekpene, with the warning that I could spend the night on the road because even that road is in a terrible state too. The next option was to go through Port Harcourt, but in October I went through Port

•Jonathan

By Iboro Otongaran Harcourt Airport on account of a cancelled fight to Uyo and had such a hard time getting out of the city because of a traffic snarl caused basically by bad roads. I was stuck. But thanks to the locals, I was able to get out of Aba to Akwa Ibom through their help. They guided us through bush paths, by which we meandered and zigzagged around the labyrinth of a ghoulish countryside, gnawed all the while by the ever present fear of kidnapping in the wilderness of Osikanku country. Roads best represent the nation's broken state. The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway has been under repair forever; Ibadan-Ife Road, which I took in June to attend a friend's father's funeral near Osogbo, is in a state of disrepair. Calabar-Itu Road, the only link between Cross River and Akwa Ibom by land, and the only access to the Calabar Port from the eastern states and the North is in such bad shape that travellers from Calabar to Uyo, a journey of about one hour, often spend a whole day on the road. The East-West Road, over which spin doctors had had a field day, is a tombstone to non-performance. The story of Nigerian roads is similar in virtually all parts of the nation, and is a tale of decline and of failure and brokenness. But Nigeria is broken in more ways than one. Its sovereignty has been broken by a band of terrorists, with no air force, artillery unit of any description, no naval powerjust light weaponry-against a country that boasts the largest army in black Africa. The occupation of Nigerian territories by Boko Haram is no metaphor. It is a practical fact that this country is broken, its sovereignty questioned and successfully challenged. The physical facts of the nation's broken state pale into insignificance placed side by side with the grotesque, all-is-well swagger of its leaders in the face of humbling, even humiliating circumstances. How do you resolve in your mind the pomp and panoply of a presidential declaration amidst the occupation of parts of the country by terrorists, with daily slaughter of children and adults even as the presidential declaration was going on? The body parts of the children blown sky high by a terrorist's bomb in the Potiskum high school in Yobe State had not even cascaded down to earth when the leaders of the nation gathered at Eagle Square, Abuja to celebrate a President and

Party, without as much as a minute's silence to the memory of the slain children. That is a clear sign of brokenness. Our collective sense of decency and right judgement can't be said to be intact with that kind of insensitivity and grotesqueness. The swagger in the carriage of our leaders does not square up with the reality of the time, another indication of brokenness. It is hard to find sense in the lavish displays everywhere in the face of plummeting oil revenue, which even presents a far less grim picture than the prognosis going forward. Recently in Akwa Ibom State, a sport stadium was commissioned with the kind of celebration that should be expected only at the opening ceremonies of the World Cup finals or the summer Olympics. There were three sitting presidents, one former president, an international friendly by two national teams, more than a clutch of international sports icons, all of them imported with the tax payers money. Imagine the expense and the message, that money is not a problem, and that such extravaganza and the artefact it celebrated meant more to the state than alternative investment in completing the international wing of the state airport, or in resolving the issue of transmission and distribution of power generated at the state's 191mw power plant, or in completing the various hospitals that look likely to be some of the uncompleted projects that will be handed to the next administration in the state. We can push the imagination. Let us imagine what stable power would do for industrialisation and job creation and therefore wealth and security for the state if the resources on the stadium were invested in the capacity to fully evacuate electricity from Ibom Power and make it available to homes and factories. Imagine what the spin-offs would be if the money were invested to complete the hanger at Ibom Airport, its international terminal building for cargo operations and the taxiway. We can imagine a host of other alternative investments that would actually translate into true development for the people. The point really is about true development. If a government subsidises gate fee to a cinema, does that translate into development? If the nation is left disarticulated because communities are not linked with roads, is government promoting development? Development is not just about Abuja, or Uyo or Ikoyi. Development is about empowering the entire states, whole communities with infrastructure and amenities that enable people to make best of the pursuit of happiness. When this doesn't happen, the consequence is dislocation. Evidence of dislocation is everywhere; Nigeria lies broken, much like dropped china on a rock. • Otongaran is CEO of Reference Nigeria

THE NATION ON SUNDAY NOVEMBER 23, 2014

Al-Shabab militants kill 28 in Kenya bus at dawn AntiS government OMALIA Al-Shabab Islamists, Saturday ambushed a bus in Kenya and executed 28 non-Muslim passengers in what they said was revenge for police raids on mosques in the troubled port of Mombasa. A regional police chief Noah Mwavinda told AFP: “I can confirm that 28 innocent travellers were brutally executed by the Shabab. The bus, which was headed for the capital Nairobi, was ambushed shortly after departing from Mandera, a town lying on the border with Somalia in Kenya’s northeasternmost corner. Some 60 passengers on board were ordered off the vehicle, and the gunmen separated the travellers into Muslims and non-Muslims. The militants then had the nonMuslims to reboard the bus and tried to drive off with them, but the vehicle got stuck. Then they sprayed bullets on those who failed to recite Quran verses, killing at least 28 people, authorities said. The bus, with 60 people aboard, was heading from Mandera, near the Somali border, to the capital of Nairobi. About 20 miles into its dawn journey, militants stopped it at a hilly area and stormed in, local police Cmdr. Noah Mwivanda told The Daily Nation newspaper. The militants demanded those onboard to recite Quran verses. As others watched, they opened fire on passengers who failed to do so, he said. Somali-based terror group AlShabaab claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement, saying it was retaliation for mosque raids this week. It described those killed as Christians. This is one of the busiest travel seasons in the nation. Throngs make their way to relatives’ homes for the holidays, with buses and other public transportation packed this time of the year. “Security agencies are in pursuit of the criminal gang”, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. It later said helicopters and jets have demolished the attackers’ camp and operations were ongoing. Days before the bus attack, police raided multiple mosques in the port city of Mombasa after they found explosives in one. The searches this week prompted clashes with Muslim youths in the city, Kenya’s secondlargest. Al-Shabaab, which has ties to al Qaeda, has launched a series of attacks in Kenya since its forces went into neighboring Somalia in 2011 to battle the extremists. Kenyan soldiers have targeted militants’ hideouts across Somalia, prompting retaliatory attacks from the terror group. Last year, Al-Shabaab raided a Nairobi mall in a brazen attack that killed 68 people and left shoppers under siege for days. In addition to Kenya and Somalia, the terror group has struck Uganda, where it killed more than 70 people gathered to watch a World Cup soccer match in Kampala in 2010. As the attacks get more daring, the international community has rallied to battle the militants. In September, a U.S. airstrike killed Al-Shabab’s leader, Ahmed Godane. The terror group later replaced him and vowed to avenge his death. Al-Shabab has carried out a series of attacks in Kenya since 2011. A statement on a website linked to the Islamist group said the attack was carried out in retaliation for security raids on mosques in the coastal

• Some of the displaced passengers city of Mombasa earlier this week. Kenya’s interior ministry said on its Twitter feed that a camp belonging to the attackers had been destroyed by Kenyan military helicopters and jets, with “many killed”. Point blank' One of the passengers on the bus, Ahmed Mahat, said there were more than 60 passengers on board when it was attacked, before dawn on Saturday, about 30km (19 miles) from Mandera town. The driver tried to accelerate away, but the vehicle became stuck in mud caused by recent heavy rains, he said. Mahat said said: “When we got down, passengers were separated according to Somali and non-Somalis. “The non-Somalis were ordered to read some verses of the holy Koran, and those who failed to read were ordered to lie down. One by one they were shot in the head at point blank range”. Some Somalis were shot after

Photo: CNN

pleading with the gunmen to spare nonSomali passengers, he added. Kenya's Red Cross said emergency workers were trying to retrieve bodies from the scene. Security agencies were “in pursuit of the criminal gang" that carried out the attack, the interior ministry said. It described the assailants as “bandits”. A local official quoted by Kenyan media said the government had failed to answer their pleas for extra security. “This place has been prone to attacks”county official Abdullahi Abdirahman told The Daily Nation. “This is not the first time the government has totally ignored us, and you can now see the how many innocent precious lives have been lost." Mahat, a teacher from Mandera, said police never came to rescue people from attacks for fear of being ambushed themselves. Mombasa raids The attack comes after a week of heightened tension in Mombasa, which

has suffered a series of al-Shabab attacks. Security forces raided mosques in the city, saying they were being used to store weapons. The raids triggered apparent revenge attacks by Muslim youths. Kenya has experience a series of al-Shabab attacks since it sent troops to Somalia three years ago to help fight the militant group. Mandera, a remote area in Kenya's north-east that shares a long and porous border with Somalia, has been one of the regions worst-affected by the violence. On the Somali side of the border, al-Shabab is said to have a base that was recently bombed by Kenyan warplanes. It was not immediately clear whether this was the same base targeted by Kenya following Saturday's attack. There was unrest in Mandera in June after two clerics accused of belonging to al-Shabab were shot dead. Residents protested that the clerics had no links to the group.

Ebola crisis now ‘stable’ in Guinea, WHO

HE Ebola outbreak is now “stable” in Guinea, where the latest crisis began, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says. There were still some flare-ups in the south-east, but things were improving in other prefectures, WHO co-ordinator Dr Guenael Rodier told the BBC. More than 5,400 people have died in the latest outbreak, with Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia the worst hit.The outbreak can be ended by mid-2015 if the world speeds up its response, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said. But he warned that although the rate of new cases was slowing in parts of West Africa, Mali where six people And the head of the UN Ebola mission, Anthony Banbury, said the world was ‘far away’ from beating the virus. There have been more than 15,300 reported cases of Ebola since the outbreak began earlier this year, the WHO says.

More than 1,200 people have died of Ebola in Guinea alone. However, Dr Rodier said that the situation in Guinea was now "relatively stable". "When you look in more detail, you see that it's still quite active in the Guinea forest area [in] the south of the country," Dr Rodier said. However, he added that the situation was "actually improving in a number of prefectures, especially Conakry", where there was a fairly good understanding of how the disease was spreading. The WHO has faced criticism that it was too slow to respond during the start of the crisis. However, Dr Rodier said it was the first time there had been such a serious outbreak in West Africa, adding: "Lessons have been learned." Refused entry Guinea has not been as badly

hit by Ebola as neighbouring Sierra Leone and Liberia. Eight months since the outbreak was first declared, some still do not believe Ebola is a real disease, and health teams trying to trace new potential cases are still being refused entry to some villages, says the BBC's Tulip Mazumdar in the capital Conakry. Meanwhile, a group of 30 health workers from the UK's National Health Service have flown to Sierra Leone to help treat Ebola patients. They are also expected to train local staff at treatment centres across the country. Ebola is spread only through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person showing symptoms, such as fever or vomiting. People caring for the sick or handling the bodies of people infected Ebola are therefore especially vulnerable.

protest in Albania's capital

ENS of thousands of Albanians protested on Saturday against their government’s economic policies, including tax and energy price increases. The demonstration on the main boulevard of Tirana, the capital, also demanded action against the country’s unemployment rate of nearly 18 percent. The protest, which ended peacefully at mid-afternoon, was held by supporters of the main opposition Democratic Party and its leader, Tirana Mayor Lulzim Basha. He has accused the governing Socialists of taking the country into recession, and his party's legislators have been boycotting Parliament since September, saying the coalition government is ignoring their complaints. "The country is in recession and the recession was caused by the government," Basha said in a speech to the protesters from a podium raised in front of Prime Minister Edi Rama's office. "Tax increase is no solution.” The Democratic Party says that Albania's coalition government has broken electoral pledges by increasing taxes and electricity fuel prices. The opposition also accuses the government of having inflated government officials' expenses. "Don't give to the oligarchs what you take from the people and citizens," said Basha, pledging continued protests and opposition "for our rights, to save the country." Rama's Socialist party swept to power in June 2013, pledging to create new jobs. However, unemployment stood at 17.7 percent in the second quarter of 2014. Rama has accused the nation's previous Democratic Party administration of increasing the country's public debt, imposing failed energy and tax policies, and granting up to $700 million in loans to private businesses that remain unpaid. In June the European Union granted Albania candidate status, a step toward launching talks regarding full membership in the bloc.

Concerns over Thailand’s King health

• Thailand King Bhumibol Adulyadej HE failuire of King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand to attend a public function has fraised fresh concerns about his health. On Friday, the 86-year-old monarch was due to preside over the confirmation of two ministers appointed by PM Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former general who seized power in a coup in May. However the ministers were told that King Bhumibol was unable to meet them. His health is a sensitive issue in Thailand.

WORLD NEWS

Global economic blues T

HE global economy staggers about like a listless man tired of being locked in that amber condition between decent health and dire sickness. Debilitation pervades the global political economy. Apparently, someone forgot to tell the 2008-2009 Great Recession that it is the past. In some ways, it remains with us more than it has departed. Statistically, the world is no longer in recession. But, people can’t eat, wear, drive or reside in statistics. They eat, wear, drive or reside in whatever their wages can afford or what they can shape by the skill of their hands. For them, the recession has lived close by like a rowdy neighbor. The moment you think you have heard the last of him that you might enjoy a quiet night, he brews even greater commotion. Statistics are brandished to tell people to ignore their reality. Statistics tell the people to smile and be thankful; things are on the increase. The misery they feel is a horrid self-delusion. Thus, they should not look to government for relief or reprieve. They should forget their shoddy wages and indebted lives in order to rejoice at the accretion of GDP. It seems a non sequitur that the majority of the people would become their lesser economic selves as GDP becomes greater. We have been fed the tale that all we need consider to determine our economic well being is the GDP rate. While the relevance of GDP to true wellbeing may be mythic, it is not the Golden Fleece. We tend to err when we come to value the measurement more than the thing being measured. Focusing on GDP is like reading every other word of an important missive. This concentration is a half-truth, akin to taking a half-bite of an apple or receiving a half-kiss. It is rather unavailing and unappealing. It brings into question the overall objective of economic policy. Is the intent to increase aggregate numbers or to improve the living conditions of as many people as possible? This difference is important because the two possible objectives are sometimes interrelated but they are not always synonymous. However, mainstream economics requests that we have faith that the two actually are the same. Because of this inaccurate bias predominating the economic news we receive, I periodically return to this discussion of economic bias in order to pierce the intellectual miasma in which convention wisdom seeks to cloak us. Imagine a street where ten extremely poor families reside. Then one family wins a coveted and enormous lottery. Before the per capita income of the neighborhood was a pittance. Because of the windfall that has graced the one family, the street’s per capita income – the neighborhood GDP – has increased so dramatically to where the entire place is considered the home of the affluent. Yet, something is amiss. The statistics are real but inaccurate. If the lottery winners hold the majority of the funds to themselves as they most certainly will, they have been enriched to the utmost. Without something else happening, the rest of the neighborhood remains immersed in poverty but are told to rejoice because their community has become rich. The neighborhood is rich yet the majority of its people remain bruised by the maw of penury. As with neighborhoods so it is with nations. Most growth of global GDP has gone to affluent elites. And most of this marginal growth has gone to the even numerically smaller financial sector within the overall elite. The financial sector has won the lottery but the rest of the economy is no better off. The more the financial sector gains, the more it influences government so that economic policy will sustain and increase the rewards given the financial sector. In economic reality, there is no such thing as the free market. The market is shaped and directed in a manner to profit those who paid for the shape and direction the economy will take. Those who do not invest in how the economy is structured, those who think the economy’s present architecture follows some inexorable principles akin to the laws of natural science, will believe the economy is destined to be as it is. Mistaking this subjective social construct as something immutable as if design by science and logic, they will see no need to invest in its redesign to better suit them. That which they refuse to invest upfront to safeguard their interests will be multiplied then charged against them when the dividends and taxes of reward and burden of our economic processes are allocated among all the players in the system. We must remember that all fields of human endeavor are ultimately connected. In the abstract, we compartmentalize our activities into social, political and economic categories. In reality, there is no barrier between them that is not always and everywhere violated. The elite would rather you believe that some things are purely economic and therefore scientific. They would have you focus solely on the GDP, solely on aggregate wealth created within the system. For

Economics is the attempt to make a happy marriage of the uncertainty of good fortune to the certainty of greed.

•Christine Lagarde, IMF President

you to fixate on this point is to become “GDP blind” as one would become sunblind by gazing too long at our closest star. Such a condition would blind us to other important things we need to see so that we will not be rendered both blind and ignorant. To help avoid this tragedy, I prefer the phrase “political economy” instead of trying to split things into artificial political and economic spheres. By acknowledging the interplay between political and economic forces we are led to ask questions that protect against GDP blindness. We come to ask: 1. How is the political economy arranged, by whom and for what purpose? 2. What is the allocation of power, wealth and influence within the system? 3. What goods and services are to be produced, why are these produced, and how are they allocated and why? 4. What are the marginal changes and causal links between the economy’s productive processes, the actual inventory of goods and services produced and allocation of power, wealth and influence among the various sectors of the political economy? These questions initiate a more curious inquiry and seek a deeper understanding of the political economy than the one dimensional focus on GDP. The more we think in these terms, the more we bring ourselves to the point of realizing the political economy is shaped as is because of the subjective bias of those who have placed themselves in positions to make decisions that determine the fate of all. We don’t have the space to overview the entire world but a glance at three important economies will indicate what is to unfolding. We have steadily returned to the type of debt-fueled, speculative world that existed immediately prior to the 2008-9 Recession. A few policy miscues in strategic nations and recession may be upon us with such swiftness that we shall feel as if we have been cursed by some deity instead of merely being led astray by unfortunate policy. Experiencing modest growth, America has been fortunate among the developed economies. But even here, the vast majority — roughly 90 percent of the population — is no better off now than they were the day after the prior recession officially ended. Even with this, America has done better than its peers. This relative good fortune is more the product of good fortune than of good policy. In late 2011, President Obama handed conservative Republicans a stark austerity “Grand Bargain” paring social programs below the bone. He gave it to them on a silver platter. Due to their neuralgia toward the gift bearer, they refused to accept his offering although he had

gone so far as to offer them greater long-term budget cuts than they requested. Instead of accepting the conservative feast he presented, they trashed the offered smorgasbord then crammed the silver platter down his throat. Had they taken the deal, America would have started feeling economic contraction by mid-2012, giving a blow to the President’s reelection bid. President Obama could have lost the election that year but for Republican blind hatred. During these last two years in office, he still might renew this fiscal austerity offer for two reasons. He is a more midstream Republican than liberal Democrat regarding economic policy. Despite the mountain of empirical evidence against it, he believes austerity leads to growth. Second, he wants to accomplish something big to enhance his flagging chance at a memorable legacy. Thus, he may be more concerned with demonstrating he can hatch a bipartisan economic deal than he is concerned about the actual economic consequences of the deal. This time, the Republicans may accept the offer. Downturn looms at a time the world can least afford it. A second reason America has logged growth is because of the monetary policy called quantitative easing (QE). The media incorrectly calls QE a stimulus program. This willful error is to entice the public to conflate this monetary action with expansionary fiscal policy. They prevaricate because they want the public to believe all “stimuli” are the same. This is a serious intellectual fraud. Basically, monetary policy focuses on the financial elite with the implicit hope that something will trickle down to the common folks. Monetary policy is almost always geared toward the affluent. Fiscal policy is different because its direct targets can be more diverse. The rich are still usually the major beneficiaries but the poor and working classes are sometimes directly benefitted. In short, both monetary and fiscal policy generally favor the rich but fiscal policy sometimes is used to help the common man. QE is not a stimulus program as much as it is an asset swap for the affluent. A fiscal stimulus program would hire the unemployed to engage in public projects or would provide social welfare services for the needy. It would provide money in exchange for labor or because of a person’s impoverished condition. In contrast QE was a mechanism by which the American Federal Reserve purchased bonds and other financial paper from investors. As such, it merely substituted one form of financial asset for a more liquid one, that of money. To some extent, this allowed some people to remove assets of questionable value from their balance sheets without suffering the loss they would have incurred if forced to the sell the paper at true market value. In effect, this amounted to a govern-

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2014 ment prepayment of investors, giving them money for the securities they were willing to release from their financial portfolios. It enabled the investor class to take new funds and reinvest them in another round of financial speculation. Consequently, QE helped bid up stock market prices and also devalued the dollar. This damaged the export industries of developing nations; at the same time, it brought another wave of speculative investment to many developing nations. However, with the ending of QE and the slowdown of the global economy, that money is leaving the developing world and heading home as it always does at the sign of hard times. This flight will damage the financial stability of those nations that were careless enough to quickly welcome the fast money, once again forgetting that speculative money is always of the “easy come, more easily gone” variety. The net effect of QE was to artificially enhance financial asset prices. It raised the ceiling on financial assets without doing much to repair the floor of the productive sector of the economy. The investor class benefitted handsomely, the working class not at all. Japan introduced a program akin to QE on amphetamines. Going much farther the American edition, the Japanese version included the Central Bank’s purchase of even stock market equities. This has been a boon for the speculative investment class. As in America, it placed downward pressure on the Yen, making imports more costly. Yet, at the same time, the government imposed high consumption taxes on a population that was already too frugal and a nation with weak aggregate consumer demand. Thus, the Japanese government has almost literally torn the economy in two, purposely profiting the financial class while undermining the average person by unduly taxing their consumption. This will further lower aggregate demand, serving to deflate the real sector of the economy. The Euro zone has been an experiment in austerity. The experiment has failed. The zone teeters again on the edge of recession. Even German’s economy is fragile. Its usual trading partners are so cash-strapped that they cannot purchase higher volumes of German exports. Meanwhile, some people possessed by a mortician’s wit have begun celebrating because Greece experience roughly 2 percent growth the past two quarters. They claim this shows austerity’s effectiveness. They are right but not in the way they intend. Due to austerity policies, Greece slumped from recession into depression six years ago. Its depression was the worst in modern times; Grecian output and employment fell more steeply than America’s during the Great Depression. The austerity program was intended to reduce the nation’s debt/GDP ratio which stood around 125 percent at the time austerity was first applied. Austerity worsened the ratio to over 175 percent by the beginning of this year. Austerity – cutting the budget – increased government debt! This misstep was taken because decision makers exalted conservative theory over empirical evidence and rational practice. Self-strapped to conservative orthodoxy, they assumed government expenditures had a negative multiplier effect. Thus, any budgetary savings would result in an even greater increase in overall growth. This was worse than conservative myth; it was a lie injurious to those who had to live it. Empirical evidence showed that the multiplier regarding government expenditure was closer to 2.5. For every euro slashed from the budget, the overall economy shrank by 2.5 euros. Implicitly recognizing this, the international troika (IMF, EU and World Bank) allowed Greece to engage in some expansionary budget engineering through an ambitious highway reconstruction program at the beginning of the year. This fiscal expansion is the primary reason for the slight new growth Greece has experienced. Thus, after six years of depression, Greece has tasted a bit of growth only because it was given a small dose of fiscal expansion. The global economy walks toward renewed recession because it has been engineered to do so. In too many nations, government policy has been to elevate financial asset prices and encourage speculation among the investor class. The valuations of their assets have hit the roof. For them, happy days abound. Meanwhile, governments choke fiscal policy, claiming discipline is in order. Why it is in order fiscally but not monetarily they dare not divulge. This discrimination has nothing to do with objective economic principle. It has everything to do subjective bias. They believe the best and easiest policy is to cosset the wealthy while allowing the rest to lunge at and fight over whatever crumbs may descend from the table of plenty. Unless this policy course is altered, aggregate global demand will remain suppressed. Most people will live as if in a recession but the global GDP will still be in the black due in part to the overvaluation of financial assets and other speculative activity. The elite and their hired experts will not only have their cake they will still be eating it as well. They will have also taken a good portion of slice intended more fairly intended for the rest of us. 08060340825 (sms only)

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2014 CHANGE OF NAME OLAIFA

I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Olaifa Olamide Taiwo, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Abasi, Olamide Taiwo. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note. ADEYEMI I, formerly known and addressed as Mrs. ADEYEMI GANIYAT OLUWAFUNMILAYO, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. ADETILOYE GRACE OLUWAFUNMILAYO NEE ADEDAYO. All former documents remain valid. Ondo state local government pension board, Akure and general public should please take note.

FAJOBI

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OGUNSEYE

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IBE

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CHANGE OF NAME CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

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ENOMA

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OGBONNA

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RAFIU

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AGUNBIADE

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BABATUNDE

MATANMI

I formerly known and addressed as Owhin Babatunde, now wish to be known and addressed as Owhin Robert. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

OGUNTUNDE

I formerly known and addressed as Miss Adenopo Abolanle Abiodun, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Akintade Abolanle Abiodun. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

OLORUNSOLA

I formerly known and addressed as Franklin Adekunle Makinde , now wish to be known and addressed as Gabriel Ade-Jesu Emmanuel. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

OGUNDIRAN

I formerly known and addressed as Miss Ajayi Elizabeth Oluwatoyin, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Akinrinade Elizabeth Oluwatoyin. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

I, formerly known and addressed as Miss MATANMI ADEBUKOLA ADEOLA, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS. OSINBAJO ADEBUKOLA ADEOLA. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note. I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Oguntunde Taiwo Olubukola now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Owolabi Taiwo Olubukola all former documents remain valid general public take note. I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Olorunsola Grace Abiola now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Adetoro Grace Abiola all former documents remain valid general public take note. I formerly known and addressed as Ogundiran Adewale Oladapo Theophilus, now wish to be known and addressed as Oludiran Adewale Christopher. All former documents remain valid. WAEC and general public should please take note.

MAKINDE

I formerly known and addressed as Miss Makinde Temitayo Anthonia Adebola, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Oduneye Temitayo Anthonia Adebola. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

IJIE

I formerly known and addressed as Miss Maria Aimeidenwy Ukpebor Ijie, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Maria Aimeidenwy Shittu. All former documents remain valid. Ministry of Justice Lagos State and general public should please take note.

ADENOPO

MAKINDE

AJAYI

ABDOU

I formerly known and addressed as Abdou Ganiou Kolade, now wish to be known and addressed as Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Kolade. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

KAMANU

I formerly known and addressed as Kamanu Paul Chukwudi, now wish to be known and addressed as King Paul Chukwudi. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

OMOLOYE

I formerly known and addressed as Miss Omoloye, Ireti Omowumi, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Ojo, Ireti Omowumi. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

CHANGE OF NAME KAREEM

I formerly known and addressed as Kareem Saheed Oyekunle, now wish to be known and addressed as Yusuf Saheed Oyekunle. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

ISAAC

I formerly known and addressed as Isaac Kehinde Opakunle, now wish to be known and addressed as Isaac Kehinde Olu-Joshua. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

BODUNRIN

I formerly known and addressed as Miss Bodunrin Ibironke Temitope , now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Adelugbin Ibironke Temitope. All former documents remain valid. EAC, University of Ibadan and general public should please take note.

AREAGO

I formerly known and addressed as Miss Areago Sekinat Temitope , now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Bello Sekinat Temitope. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

NWODO

I formerly known and addressed as Miss Nwodo Justina Obinna , now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Onah Justina Obinna. All former documents remain valid. UNN and general public should please take note. CHIAGOROM I formerly known and addressed as Miss. CHIAGOROM FORSTA IHEOMA, now wish to be known as Mrs. EZEOBA FORSTA IHEOMA. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note. OKEREKE I formerly known and addressed as Miss. OKEREKE IRENE ORUM now wish to be known as Mrs. METU IRENE ORUM. All former documents remain valid general public please take note. NDIANEFO I formerly known and addressed as Miss. NDIANEFO IFEOMA JULIET, now wish to be known as Mrs. EJIOFOR IFEOMA JULIET. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note. CONFIRMATION OF NAME OSEANUA ISAH NNAMDI CHUKWUEMEKA and OSEANUA NNAMDI CHUKWUEMEKA refers to one and the same person, now wish to be known as OSEANUA NNAMDI CHUKWUEMEKA. All former documents remain valid First Bank Registrars and general public please take note.

SULAIMAN

I formerly known and addressed as SULAIMAN MODINAT OMOBOLANLE OKUNOLA, now wish to be known and addressed as OROJA MODINAT OMOBOLANLE OKUNOLA. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

SALIU

I formerly known and addressed as Mr Saliu Mutiyu Mathew now wishes to be addressed as Mr. Moses Oluwaferanmi Mathew. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

OKON

I formerly known and addressed as Miss Arit Eting Okon now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs Arit Aniefiok Moses Ette. All former documents remain valid. University of Calabar, NYSC and the general public to note please.

EMEKA

I formerly known as Onukegem Sixtus Emeka now wish to be known and addressed as Omeziri Sixtus Chukwuemeka. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

ADVERT: Simply produce your marriage certificate or sworn affidavit for a change of name publication, with just N4,500. The payment can be made through - FIRST BANK of Nigeria Plc. Account number - 2017220392 Account Name - VINTAGE PRESS LIMITED Scan the details of your advert and teller to - gbengaodejide @ y a h o o . c o m orthenation_advert@ yahoo.com. For enquiry please contact: Gbenga on 08052720421, 08161675390, Emailgbengaodejide@ yahoo.com or our offices nationwide. Note this! Change of name is now published every Sundays, all materials should reach us two days before publication.

NEWS

Nigerian in Norway to FG: Save my baby from forceful adoption A A

THE NATION ON SUNDAY NOVEMBER 23, 2014

Dispute over C/River ward congresses: Court delivers judgment tomorrow

Nigerian, Ms. Queen Agho, has cried to the Federal Government to save her baby from forceful adoption by the Norwegian authority. She alleged her one- yearold son was separated from her about a year now and has been put up for adoption. Going by the ongoing development, Agho lamented she could lose the custody of the child for the next 18 years. She told our reporter in a phone chat that the Norwegian Child Welfare Authorities have already taken away the baby “for adoption for a period of 18 years.” She noted that she appealed the adoption but the

From Vincent Ikuomola, Abuja

Norwegian court vehemently rejected her witness the right to testify on the case, a situation that led to the forceful seizure of her baby. Ms. Agho is now looking on to the federal government to help save the situation as she cannot afford to wait that long before reuniting with her son. Her Norwegian husband, Rello, who also confirmed the case, said despite the clean bill of health his wife received from the medical experts on her mental fitness, the authorities still went ahead to forcefully adopt the baby. A family member, Mr.

Kelvin Izekor, told our reporter that all efforts to reclaim the child have been frustrated by the judiciary process. The child, it was learnt, has been given to a Norwegian lady for adoption on the excuse that the mother and child do not have emotional connection and lack eye contact. He noted that the Nigerian Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden which is overseeing affairs in Norway and the National Assembly had waded into the issue without any positive result. The case had been referred to the Abike Dabiri Erewa- led House Committee on

Diaspora. Erewa said the House is aware of the case and efforts are on to address the issue. She told our reporter on phone: “We are aware of the case and we have gone far on it. In fact, we have met with the Norwegian Ambassador to Nigeria and we would have met with the Child Support people from Norway two weeks ago. “The meeting has to be rescheduled because of the strike by Lufthansa staff in Germany. “Their flight was cancelled. We are looking towards another date for the meeting. But I can tell you we are on it.”

Jonathan approves committee to showcase achievements P

RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has approved a 23-man list involving government and Non- Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to showcase his achievements within the last four years covering major sectors of the economy. WANDAN President Paul Kagame and the Vice President Namadi Sambo are among dignitaries attending the 11th edition of the African Security Watch award and lecture in Dubia, United Arab Emirates, this week. The three- day event,

•DSS, Police, NIA, others form list From: Gbenga Omokhunu, Abuja

Department of the State Security Service (DSS), Nigeria

Police Force, and the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA) form part of the committee Briefing newsmen on the

development, the Special Adviser to the President on Social Development and Special Duties, Mrs. Sarah Pane, said the event tagged international exhibition on the transformation of Nigeria will be declared open by President Goodluck Jonathan by December 18.

Kagame, Sambo for security award

which also showcases exhibition of security and safety equipment by world renowned manufacturers, begins on November 25. The President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Se-

curity Watch Africa, organisers of the event, Patrick Agbambu said the lecture is entitled: Developing strategies and best practices for the fight against terrorism and urban crimes in Africa.

He said the event will go down as the most far-reaching African private sector initiative aimed at seeking a lasting solution to the problems of insecurity bedeviling the continent.

•PDP elders reject results’ cancellation

Federal High Court in Abuja will tomorrow deliver judgment in the suit filed against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for purportedly tampering with the results of the ward congresses conducted in Cross River on November 1. Some members of the party led by Jones Tangban are by the suit marked: FHC/ ABJ/CS/824/2014, seeking to restrain the PDP, its National Chairman, Adamu Mu’azu; the National Secretary, Prof Wale Oladipo; the party’s NWC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from taking any step on the list of winners produced at the congresses. The plaintiffs are praying the court for an injunction restraining the defendants (except INEC) and their agents from taking any step or acting on any purported report or list of candidates purporting to be the list of elected delegates at the ward

From Eric Ikhilae, Abuja

congress held in Cross River State on November 1, 2014 from any person or persons other than the Electoral Committee. They also urged the court to restrain INEC from recognising those named as elected candidates based on the purported lists of winners. Some chieftains of the party in the state have protested the purported cancellation of the ward congresses results. Their spokesperson, Ojong Bassey, said the cancellation was “unacceptable to the people as the elections were free and fair. There was no form of violence whatsoever; something that was attested to by all the stakeholders. “We read the story in some national newspapers just like our people but we do not want to believe that our party will take that decision, even after it is clear that the matter is in court.”

Prayer summit in Lagos

OURSQUARE Gospel Church Orile Iganmu (I) Lagos will hold a three- day special prayer programme with the theme: O Lord! Remember me. Slated for November 26 -28, the service is dedicated to intense prayers for those believing God for definite

things before the year ends. The church’s prayer ministry coordinator, Sister Sola Dosu, in a statement said the service will be anchored by Bro. Tony Nwafor of Foursquare Gospel Church Sanya.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY NOVEMBER 23, 2014

Re: ‘Tinubu stooges and Almajiri journalism’

N the course of reading Sunday Sun of November 16,2014, this writer stumbled on a publication with the above caption, the first thing that came to mind was: what could have been the link between this gentleman and almajiri journalism? It was upon reading through that it dawned on me that the piece, ostensibly authored through borrowed name, Taiwo Sanyaolu, which had earlier been syndicated in other newspapers was actually a thoughtless rejoinder to a popular Friday column in The Nation newspaper edition of November 14, 2014. The column, Podium Snap, has the imprimatur of Mobolaji Sanusi, a longstanding courageous columnist and journalist. The piece by Sanyaolu is clearly the hand of Esau and the voice of Jacob. This is because this proxy writer is a lackey of Muiz Banire, the disgruntled National Legal Adviser of All Progressives Congress (APC). Let me state, ab initio, that I am a resident of Mushin and a sympathiser of the APC in the state and Nigeria as a whole. So, I know the ‘supposed author’ of the said rejoinder to be an aluminium seller in a small shop in Mushin who lacks the capacity to put up such write-up. But since Banire has chosen to act by proxy through that low standing in the society, it shows the calibre of men he breeds around that area. Banire’s proxy, Sanyaolu, erroneously described Mobolaji Sanusi as a desperate journalist because he seems not to know his academic pedigree as a master’s degree holder in Commercial Law and another in Managerial Psychology from the great University of Ibadan – and he is obviously doing well in life. Even though, if he is supporting Tinubu as alluded, it shows Tinubu, an accountant of international exposure and globally accomplished Nigerian politician, has a knack for men of intellect and intelligence with sound academic background. He is not a political hypocrite like Banire, whose treacherous inordinate ambition to overthrow the leadership status quo ante in the state has become legendary and unsettling to sane minds. Sanyaolu’s attempt at covering up for Banire by saying that he never ‘specifically’ mentioned Tinubu’s name in the Premium Times interview was because as an Aluminium seller, he might not appreciate what lawyers call innuendo, otherwise, he needs the services of a clear-egged lawyer or another truly educated fellow, not the

By Hakeem Adisa warped interpretative view of his master, to know that Banire was actually referring to Tinubu. Sanyaolu, though quite an insignificant person, showed that the conceited garb of Banire has been bequeathed to him when he took Tinubu, the leader and elder of his party, under the guise of writing a rejoinder, to the cleaners where he stated: ‘However, since Sanusi has decoded it is Asiwaju that was being referred to, I will respond in that context. When it is clear that Tinubu has defecated in the temple and torn the holy scripts to clean his ass and the whole world is condemning his sins…’ and that Sanusi shamelessly condemns ‘anybody who opposes the denigrating politics of his lord and saviour in Bourdillon.’ This kind of supercilious statement can only come from an ungrateful element. If not, how can a free-born Yoruba man be so spiteful of his benefactor/elder as Banire and his proxy had done to the brand name Tinubu and to also, without a prick of conscience, cruelly describe the politics he has immensely benefited and still benefiting from as ‘denigrating?’ Even if such is denigrating, it is not someone like Banire that can solve the conundrum because allowing that will be tantamount to saying that an armed robber, after unleashing several fatal onslaughts against the people should be pardoned for subsequently using his loot and blood money for puritanical essence. Banire and his cohorts simply lack the locus standi to fight against imposition because they owe what they are today to that self-appellated ‘denigrating politics.’ Allowing Banire’s coup d’état against Tinubu will amount to swallowing Sanyaolu’s logic that ‘Lagosians are not idiots that can be manipulated anyhow without resistance for politics of imposition to continue forever’ Sanyaolu tries to cover up the formative political years of Banire in politics as if letting the public be aware that it was Oba Olatunji Hamzat that introduced him to Tinubu was a crime where he quoted Sanusi as having said: ‘Banire was a product of one Olatunji Hamzat’s political benevolence…. For God’s sake, is Hamzat now ‘anyone?’ Whoever was present in Mushin before and after 1999 knew that Dr. Banire was a political factor in Mushin through his party activities and not by any godfather. His ascension to

commissionership in Lagos State in 1999 was as a result of his excellent political performance in assisting Alliance for Democracy in the company of Senator Ganiyu Solomon and others to emerge winner in the governorship election that produced Tinubu as governor.’ How can Sanyaolu, even at the suspected goading of Banire describe Olatunji Hamzat as just ‘one’ in the politics of Mushin area? No political scorn can be more serious than this. As at 1999, the name Banire could not even be located on the political radar of the state. Also, as at the last time I checked from the right quarters in the University of Lagos, the record still shows that Banire left the institution as an assistant lecturer contrary to the erroneous misinformation by Sanyaolu that his paymaster was ‘a notable senior lecturer in 1999 in the prestigious Faculty of Law, University of Lagos.’ The only ‘notable’ thing about Banire was that despite his touted tight schedule as special adviser and commissioner for 12 years, he was able to complete his doctorate in law. What a genius is this man that deployed public time, office and influence to achieve a personal academic end? He deserves 100 gbosas for this rape on public trust! Sanyaolu accused Sanusi of claiming that ‘Banire was using a ramshackle automobile before 1999 without mentioning the brand of the automobile.’ Let me as a Mushin resident help Sanusi put the record straight by stating that Banire was not what this hack writer wants us to believe him to be. For example, Banire got married in 1994 in his inherited one room in his father’s house at No.1, Suberu Banire Street, Ilasamaja, Mushin. Some friends later contributed money with which he moved to a two-bedroom apartment at 27, Araromi Street, Mushin from where he was appointed through the influence of Alhaji Hamzat as a Special Adviser to Tinubu. Before his appointment, he had a ramshackle 1986 Toyota Camry car that broke down intermittently on the road. This was also complemented by his white-turned-brown collar “jalamia” which was his best-priced wear then. Sanyaolu wants the world to erroneously believe that Banire is a true advocate of opposition to imposition in the APC, but is the situation on ground in Mushin where he reigns as emperor different?

Let us run a quick check on the record of this sudden “advocate of true democracy.” Apart from having a strong-hold on Mushin politics, government and party, Banire routinely imposed his stooges on members of the party. He imposed the immediate past chairman of Mushin Local Government who just completed an inglorious two terms in office and also single-handedly selected all the ten councillors, the Secretary to the Local Government and its Supervisors. Another stooge of his has retained the position of the LG party chairman since AC, ACN days and now APC. He also ensured, against popular outcry, that the two members representing Mushin in the state House of Assembly serving their third term are his persons. Sanyaolu speciously believes that Banire has become ‘an indispensable product in the government of Governor Fashola.’ It is apt to ask if the government has collapsed since he was booted out after 12 self-ingratiating years in power. Yet, he has been fighting to return to power and struggling to fix his people in strategic positions, including the Speakership of the state House. But his proxy, Sanyaolu, lied he never sponsored anybody for such positions. More importantly too, there is no character assassination in what Sanusi wrote on Banire except his “crime” of pointing out that if anybody is qualified to fight against imposition, that person should not be Banire or any of those secretly rooting for him. Furthermore, Banire, through Sanyaolu, displayed recklessness when it was unfoundedly stated: “One wonders if the threat by Tinubu to sack Sanusi some few weeks back due to allegations of wrongdoing at The Nation was what made him to indulge in gutter journalism and Almajiri penmanship.” This is, to me, not only laughable, but sheer falsehood and malicious blackmail which is better left for Sanusi himself to handle as a lawyer. What a libel that speaks volume of the desperation of this paper and the writer to join in blackmailing this man. The truth is that Banire has proven to be interested in becoming the next Tinubu of Lagos even in the life time of the APC’s national leader. And the Yoruba adage, ‘Odale abale lo,’ suffices here. . Adisa, a political scientist, lives in Mushin, Lagos.

NEXIM Bank: Charting way to economic diversification

HE mantra that Nigeria is mono-product economy follows the nation's perceived over-dependence on the oil sector. This notion undermines the genuine and committed programmes of various administrations in the country over the years to diversify the nation's economy to other non-oil sectors which are currently yielding positive results. Malaysia, for instance, is often used as an anecdote to undermine some giant strides in Nigeria's economic progression especially in the agro sector the trite story is that Malaysia got its initial palm oil seedlings from Nigeria and is now the world's second top producer of the commodity. Such tales should now be retold following giant strides recorded by some agencies of government that have shown palpable mettle in steering the non-oil sectors of the nation's economy to greater heights. That Nigeria is blessed with abundant natural resources is no longer news. The albatross has been the lack of the political will, appropriate policy regimes and institutional frameworks in harnessing the nation's natural endowments. It is against this background that the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) needs to be commended for its efforts to ensure that Nigeria raises its profile in the international export market by leveraging its potential in the non-oil sector. Pursuing the MASS Agenda - export-oriented investments in the Manufacturing, Agro-processing, Solid Minerals and Services sectors of the economy, NEXIM has contributed immensely in steering progress in rejigging the nation's non-oil sector, which is in tandem with DrGoodluck Jonathan's Transformation Agenda. The Bank is a major source of encouragement to non-oil sector exporters of Nigeria's goods and services as it works assiduously to ensure that Nigeria's entrepreneurs in the MASS sectors receive the requisite support to venture into the competitive international markets. This becomes better appreciated when viewed against the background of the competition among developing countries to exploit the opportunities that abound in the international markets, especially under the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) by which the US has given incentives of access to its market for a range of primary products from the Africa. NEXIM Bank adopted various mechanisms to get the ball rolling in this direction. It offers an

•Orya By Ndukwe Osigwe array of products such as its Direct Lending Facility (DLF), Export Credit Insurance (ECI), Stocking Facility (SF) and Export Credit Guarantee Facility (ECGF). ECGF is designed to protect banks in Nigeria and foreign suppliers of credit and goods against the risk of non-payment of loan advances granted to exporters to meet short-term export contracts as well as to encourage banks and other financial institutions to finance export business without fear of default from exporters. The type of guarantees available under the facility ranges from the preshipment guarantee which encompasses credits and advances granted by banks for the purposes of manufacturing, purchasing, processing and packaging of goods to be exported under a confirmed export order. Others are the post-shipment guarantee covering export bills or receivables, and the advance payment guarantee specifically designed to protect foreign buyers against payment risks in respect of payments advanced to exporters in Nigeria to finance exports. On the strength of the foregoing, the commitment of the Bank to giving the necessary protection to Nigerian exporters to alleviate their fears of swimming with the sharks in the seas of export business is evident. Many Nigerian businesses attest to these initiatives for their robust improvements in the recent time. Mr Roberts Orya, the managing director of

NEXIM Bank, has become the exponent of the push to give the non-oil sectors a pride of place in the efforts to diversify the economy. Prior to the reconstitution of the board of directors of the bank on 14th August, 2009, the bank was at its lowest ebb. It experienced a decline in risk assets. The bank's total loan portfolio as at 20th August, 2009 was N14.6b out of which 72% was non-performing. Within that category N10.03b or 69.05 was classified lost in line with Central Bank of Nigeria's prudential guidelines. This led to the Bank's income decline with the called-up capital standing at N32.74b; depletion of its shareholders' funds; significant decrease in income and tolerance of excess and escalating overheads; worsening assets quality and poor record keeping, lack of strategic focus; ineffective risk management framework; non-adherence to corporate governance tenets; and over-bloated staff strength. The board under Mr Roberts Orya initiated plans to turn the table around. It undertook a corporate transformation exercise on strategy, risk management and corporate governance, financial performance, operations, organization and people, with assistance from KPMG Professional Services in 2010. MrOrya's leadership acumen, manifested in NEXIM Bank signing memoranda of understanding with various institutions and agencies globally aimed at boosting export trade in the country, is a testimony that there is a silver lining at the end of the tunnel. A few years ago the bank concluded arrangements to spend 3.7 billion naira to finance local industries to export their products, while placing NEXIM Bank in the forefront of the efforts to empower small and medium enterprises as well as build the capacity of budding exporters to leverage foreign markets. Under him, the Bank is realizing its ambition of creating approximately 55,000 new jobs through empowering its SME clients and plans to realize over US $1.6 billion as foreign exchange into the economy. The Bank has also made a projection of an overall contribution of almost seven per cent from non-oil exports, including a 10 per cent share in the exports to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). To achieve these laudable goals, the Bank has enjoyed a good collaborative agreement with the African Development Bank (AfDB) in some project facilities. The Bank currently complements commercial banks and other development financial insti-

tutions by focusing on unserved markets globally. It also adopted an optimal operating model with a robust structure and structured market-facing departments along the key target sectors of manufacturing, agro-processing, solid minerals and services. NEXIM also adopted a performance-driven organizational culture which has led to strong shareholders' support through fresh capital injection, as well as institutional support through supervisory and regulatory oversight and guidance from the Central Bank of Nigeria and Federal Ministry of Finance. This increased the Bank's capacity to support the growth of the non-oil exports and complement the export credit support of commercial banks. To enhance access to credit by the SMEs, NEXIM obtained an approval for a loan of US$200m from African Development Bank, backed by the sovereign guarantee of the Federal Government. The Bank also has strong transactional relationships with the United States Export-Import Bank (US EXIM), the Guarantee Fund for Private Investments in West Africa (GARI Fund) and is a Shareholder in the Africa Biofuels and Renewable Energy Company (ABREC), while it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa. NEXIM Bank also has credit insurance agency collaboration with the Islamic Corporation for Insurance of Investment and Export Credits, a division of the Islamic Development Bank. The Bank also realizes the potentialities of Nigeria's entertainment industry and made lending commitments of about N1b in the industry's various value chains of late. The intervention is to take care of the establishment of credible structures, attract investment in the development of content and facilitate improvement in production standards, distribution, marketing and exhibition standards. The Bank commissioned EXIM India to undertake a study to review the industry and recommend best financing programmes in line with global best practices. It also sponsored capacity building programmes and film festivals such as Zuma Film Festival, BOBTV African Film and TV Programmes Expo, Eko International Film Festival, Nigeria Music Video Awards, Nigerian Copyright Commission's Stakeholders' Forum on Review of the Copyright Law NEXIM also collaborated

QUOTABLE

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2014 TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM VOL. 9, NO. 3041

“His (President Goodluck Jonathan) performance is below average. I will not accept responsibility for his performance. There is nobody that gets such as a position without being helped.” —Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, carpeting President Jonathan for his alleged poor performance in office in the last four years.

OR those who think democracy is alive and well under President Goodluck Jonathan, who believe that organising elections is about the long and short of democracy, Thursday’s combined security forces’ assault upon the National Assembly to bar Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, from presiding over the affairs of the lower chamber should open their eyes. And for those who entertain the fanciful idea that Dr Jonathan is as honest with his protestations of being a democrat as his dramatic gestures and verbal flailing suggest, I offer to dreamy analysts his vengeful attacks against the opposition, governors who irritate him and his wife, the press which he loathes, and a host of other politicians and institutions that dare to sneeze near his majesty. It is doubtful whether we can find a president like Dr Jonathan, not even Olusegun Obasanjo, who effortlessly unites in himself such contradictory passions that pretend to speak to liberalism as they rhapsodise totalitarianism. Doyin Okupe, Dr Jonathan’s impetuous spokesman on public affairs, has struggled to dissociate the presidency from the police attack on the lawmakers. But there can be no justification for the horrendous attacks, the tear gas, the intolerable affront to the number four citizen, the display of ignorance of the police who continue to defend their atrocious behaviour, subvert the constitution, and see themselves as the private security organisation of the president and the ruling party. And there can be no hiding the fact that the attacks were inspired by the presidency and executed by presidential aides who have managed to convince themselves that their interpretation of the role and powers of the Nigerian president allow for the sickening brutality they exhibited before the whole world last week. The Inspector-General of Police, Suleiman Abba, it is clear, does not have the strength of character to resist the presidency’s unconstitutional behaviour, nor it seems does he even have the disposition and knowledge to draw a line between the president’s interest and national interest. And though he cannot claim ignorance of the limitations imposed on his office by the Police Act and the constitution, he is precisely the sort of official whose eagerness to please his employer is his lifeblood, as his withdrawal of Hon Tambuwal’s security aides showed shortly before he suddenly merited confirmation as the substantive IGP. It is inconceivable that Mr Abba acted independently in planning and executing the disgraceful assault on the National Assembly. The police claimed they received intelligence reports of plans by miscreants to cause mayhem at the legislature; but shouldn’t they have taken the leadership of the legislature into confidence and joined them in thwarting the efforts of the hoodlums and protecting the number four citizen? It is embarrassing the egregious and childish lies the police often tell. However, it has emerged that the real reasons for Thursday’s madness were connected with impeachment moves, one by pro-Tambuwal forces against the president, and the other by pro-presidency forces against Hon Tambuwal over his October defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC). It would have been foolish of the proTambuwal forces to tamely give in to the police lockout, as some legal and political purists wanted, and then perhaps later resort futilely to litigation. The police were doubtless encouraged to desecrate the Speaker’s office and person because they knew the presidency was both remorselessly opposed to Hon Tambuwal and was willing to seize on any excuse to humiliate him. In June, at Hotel 17 in Kaduna, venue of a conference to which the Speaker was invited, soldiers subjected him to an embarrassing and provocative search. That was one of the earliest signals that the Speaker’s independence would not be countenanced by Dr Jonathan’s imperial presidency. The Senate did not see that humiliation as a dangerous precedent, let alone join hands to fight it. The harassments have since continued, culminating in the physical attack against him by the police and hooded secret service agents on Thursday. Since his defection to the APC, and notwithstanding the support he gets from his fel-

Jonathan a hair's breadth away from dictatorship

•Jonathan

•Tambuwal

low lawmakers and the constitution, the presidency has been obsessed with unhorsing Hon Tambuwal using the security forces. Unknown to them, such attacks and subversion of the constitution in turn undermine their own legitimacy. They also misread the times, unable to appreciate how dangerously unstable the world has suddenly become, where revolutions and anarchy are precipitated by the tiniest of provocations. The mood in Nigeria is super tense and fragile. Does the rampaging Dr Jonathan know this? Though Hon Tambuwal survived the attack planned mainly to unseat him last Thursday, he should rest assured it will not be the last, for the Jonathan presidency will get increasingly desperate in its plans to get rid of the Speaker by any means, fair or foul. The president’s understanding of leadership, like Governor Ayo Fayose’s, is completely distorted by traditional and monarchical influences and a poor appreciation of the concept of multi-party democracy. In spite of his constant expostulation about democratic tenets, much of it lacking in depth and coherence, Dr Jonathan has behaved more fre-

quently like an autocrat. After managing to subvert the Senate and co-opting it as an appendage of the presidency, he has sought to similarly castrate the House of Representatives. He would have succeeded had the Speaker lacked the character to stand up to the anti-democratic tendencies of the Jonathan presidency. However, Dr Jonathan’s limited success in stultifying democratic practices in the legislature has not discouraged him from trying over and over again. He is satisfied that the heads of the security services lack the character to draw the line between presidential orders and the provisions of the constitution. In addition, his aides grovel before him, desperate to keep their jobs no matter what principles they are forced to disavow. The Council of State is too polite and soulless to caution the president. Some geopolitical zones, especially the Southeast and the South-South, have also completely surrendered to the president’s whims, eager to dine with him and massage his ego. As a sign of final humiliation, Nigerians have uncritically allowed Dr Jonathan to exploit religious sensibilities,

thereby dividing the country largely along Christian and Muslim lines. Even the usually questioning Southwest has embraced Dr Jonathan’s hypocrisies, hypnotised by a barren national conference designed principally to hoodwink and deceive. With the entire country taking leave of its senses and metamorphosing into a parched land of sterile thinkers, the House of Representatives quickly became, in addition to a small section of the media, the champion of democracy and liberalism. The situation required the president to seek for imaginative ways of working with the critical House of Representatives, and harnessing the opinions and suggestions of the opposition and diverse critics for the country’s betterment. Instead, he chose not to understand the utility of dissent, and prefers to either compel support or destroy the opposition. Sadly, the president himself is surrounded by aides, security advisers and military chiefs who find it much satisfying and rewarding to tell the president what he wants to hear, indulging in the practiced buffoonery that has laid many African countries waste. It is unlikely Dr Jonathan will caution either himself or his overzealous police over the Tambuwal affair. He is also unlikely to find intelligent ways of getting his hostage presidency to relate with critics and opponents in a democratic manner. Thursday’s attack on the Speaker and other lawmakers, the feverish intrigues to undermine opponents, the lack of imagination in the fight against Boko Haram, the reliance on hunters to fight wars, like Sierra Leone’s Kamajors (hunters) were made to do during that West African country’s implosion, and the subversion of opposition states and governors who disagree with the Jonathan presidency, seem all designed to produce perhaps the worst dictator Nigeria has ever had. By every consideration, we are in fact only a hair’s breadth away from dictatorship. If he is allowed, Dr Jonathan will talk wonderfully about the 2015 elections, but will surreptitiously devise means of subverting the polls with all the viciousness he can muster. Our carelessness produced Dr Jonathan in 2011, a man so ill-suited to the demands of leadership in a modern and complex society. If he does not drive a permanent wedge between ethnic groups and religions before the next polls, we would be lucky to emerge unscathed should we have the apocalyptic misfortune of electing him into office next year. Should that happen, the first casualty will of course be democracy, followed by an exploding country no one can manage.

'Baby Doc' Fayose: usurper, propagandist, despot

USTIFYING the coup he plotted and executed in the Ekiti State House of Assembly last Thursday, the same day a similar madness was unfolding in Abuja, Governor Ayo Fayose claimed the leadership of the assembly had abandoned work. He was uninterested in what the constitution says, or the fact that he virtually drove the lawmakers out of town. Seven lawmakers out of the state’s 26 lawmakers could unseat Speaker Adewale Omirin and other legislative leaders, the governor and his rebel lawmakers argued. They also suggested that the circumstances of their rebellion and the continuing opposition of the APC lawmakers to the governor were more salient than the issue of whether or not seven members formed a quorum when they sat, or whether or not the constitution supported their actions. Mr Fayose’s style is straight from Nazi book of propaganda. First demonise the victim using the most dismal forms of misinformation and disinformation, then savage him by unconscionably distorting the law and constitution, and then finally keep the electorate tethered to lies and sated on a diet of sweeping propaganda, creating a siege mentality and predicating subsequent subversion of the constitution on the victims supposed sins. After Mr Fayose was sworn in I had thrice attempted to draw the attention of Ekiti to the style of their governor and the complex he suffered from. But somehow, they had convinced themselves that the state’s enemy is somewhere in Lagos, as the governor alleges, and the resources of the state are plundered by that unseen and distant enemy. Having found the formula efficacious, Mr Fayose is likely to deploy it in all its bitter severity

until the state is fed up with his atavism, the upheavals he is stirring, the d e c a y enveloping the state’s democratic and judicial infrastructure, and the extension of his abuse of power to include his erstwhile supporters. Recall that he began his manipulation of the state even before he won the election and before he was inaugurated. He made a bogey out of APC leaders and accused former governor Kayode Fayemi of kowtowing to them in Lagos. He also accused Dr Fayemi of building a palatial mansion and founding a university in Ghana at the expense of Ekiti people. Once he won the election, and knowing he had neither a programme to govern nor the acumen to offer civilised leadership, he began to inflame the Ekiti mob, priming them for attacks against his enemies. Soon he was marshalling an attack on the judiciary, virtually intimidating them into silence. And he has now turned his gaze on the legislature to weaken it and destroy it by a series of intimidating measures. Rather than build Ekiti and make it a pride among states, he is set on destroying its image, dividing its people and wrecking whatever is left of its weakened

institutions. Mr Fayose, at his inauguration and at other fora, said he was a changed man, sobered by age and his Christian ethic. His government, he promised, would be inclusive, and he would offer Ekiti the leadership it yearned for and probably deserved. Mr Fayose has not only refused to change; his inchoate ethos has in fact considerably declined, even as he has exhibited none of the wisdom and temperament that come with age. If he has any Christianity in him, in view of the spectacular thanksgiving he offered after his inauguration, it is not clear which verses of scriptures he rests it upon. He has mutated into the worst fascist any state can produce, and has become a propagandist and cruel and cynical manipulator of the people’s ignorance. He is cynical enough to continue to feed Ekiti the nauseous diet of fear of outside attackers, and he will stop at nothing to destroy those who oppose him. He will cast his enemies as stooges of Lagos money power, and his opponents and media critics as agents of destabilisation. He will create an atmosphere of fear and resentment, pitting Ekiti people against themselves, and setting the stage for the most pernicious attack on common sense and other symbols of Ekiti civilisation. But Mr Fayose, who reminds us of the sybaritic dictator of Haiti, Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier, will soon exceed even his own theatricality. Perhaps, then, Ekiti will finally wake up to the political nightmare they have brought upon themselves with the connivance of credulous Yoruba politicians and activists battling their own private demons and nursing their pet jealousies.

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