October 15, 2011

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I took two wives, two concubines every month h

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No drug found in Nollywood actor, Baba Suwe’s excreta

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—Suspected robbery kingpin Pg. 13

17 pregnant teenagers arrested in baby factory

• Vidic

BATTLE OF THE REDS

We’re still watching him NDLEA Page

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• Gerrard

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Liverpool, Man Utd divide England

Pg. 32

Dalgish plays down United clash

Nigeria’s widest circulating newspaper

VOL.05 N0. 1914

TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM Page

23 ‘Reason I didn't marry my daughter’s father’

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

N150.00

Opposition mounts against fuel subsidy removal 3 Page

Afenifere, ACF kick

Senate, Reps yet to give consent Jonathan’s summit endorses proposal

IN THE NEWS Pages

Babangida Aliyu 3&4 blames PDP for Daniel, Akala, Goje’s travails Ogun ex-governor gets bail

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OR failing to monitor the activities of governors and other public office holders who contested elections on their platforms, political parties in the country should be held responsible for the misdeeds of such public office holders.

Uwais, Kutigi, Belgore on 28-man Page4 judiciary reforms committee

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o resolve the crises rocking the judiciary, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Dahiru Musdapher, has raised a 28-member stakeholders committee.

A statement by the National Judicial Council (NJC) Secretary, Danladi Halilu, said the committee was inauguarated after a meeting held yesterday in Abuja.

2 NEWS

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

‘200 houses in Osun need urgent demolition to save lives’

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HE General Manager of the Osun State Emergency Management Agency (OSEMA), Engr. Segun Ajayi, said no fewer than 200 houses constituting hazards to people and environment in the state would be urgently demolished.

Speaking at a press conference to mark this year World Disaster Day with the theme “Making Cities Resilient: Children and People Partner Together for Disaster Reduction,” Engr. Ajayi said “the

Adesoji ADENIYI, Osogbo

agency is still awaiting the approval of the state governor for demolition of the houses.”

The General Manager, who praised Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s visionary and proactive measures in handling environmental issues in the state, however, said the law establishing his agency did not permit it to demolish any house constituting hazards to the environment, but admitted that some houses

within the state should be demolished without delay to save lives.

The General Manager lamented the inability of his agency to take decisive action on such structures.

He disclosed that the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps in Osun State marked no fewer than 200 houses for demolition across the state, but regretted that the agency was handicapped to act for lack of protective law to safeguard the agency from unwarranted litigations. Engr.

Ajayi, therefore, called for an enabling law that would empower the agency to demolish all structures that endanger lives of innocent citizens in the society.

“What we do now is appeal to people to stay clear from such houses because we are not empowered by the law to demolish houses.

Files of some of these houses are before the governor and we await his approval of relevant agencies’ recommendations on these houses,” he said.

•L-R: The first female President of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), Barrister Laide Osijo; Senator Oluremi Tinubu and Lagos State Commissioner for Education, Barrister Olayinka Oladunjoye, during the investiture of Barrister Osijo as the 16th President of the NCRIB at the Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos on Thursday.

Nigerian female professionals can overcome limitations lawyer and fellow of the N spite of existing limita— Oluremi Tinubu NCRIB for excelling in her tions, female profession-

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als in Nigeria have all it takes to rise to the top, even in male-dominated professions, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, OON, has said.

Senator Tinubu, the guest speaker during the investiture of Mrs Laide Osijo as the first female President of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) on Thursday, emphasised that other female professionals can replicate such success in their careers.

While lauding Mrs Osijo, a

career path, Senator Tinubu urged career women to overcome stereotype perceptions and cultivate excellence, integrity and other qualities expected in a thorough professional.

“Today is a significant day for you all, your organisation and for women folk in Nigeria. It is not just because you made a landmark decision in your association’s 50 years history by electing her as the first female president; the fact that you acknowledge that she has more than fulfilled the critical test of professional

competence equally matters.

“Through your action today, you have recognised the dedication and precision skills Barrister Laide Osijo brings to the work you do. She offers an inspiring example of how Nigerian women can be role models of excellence.

“She is shining the light to enable other women find the path to achieving their potential and fulfilling their purpose,” Senator Tinubu stated.

At the Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos where the event took

2,000 PDP members defect to ACN in Lagos T HE chairman of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) in SomoluBariga Local Government Area, Chief Adeoye Oriade, has led over 2,000 PDP members in the area to defect to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

The defectors, who were received into the ACN by the Lagos State chairman of the party, Chief Henry Ajomale, included prominent members like Chief Kola Adebayo, a PDP leader in the area, Chief W.B. Ogunleye, State Organising Secretary of the PDP and Prince Adewunmi Sonaike, the PDP candidate for the House of Representatives in the 2011 general elections, amongst others.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Oriade said their defection was prompted by the outstanding performances of the ACN, both at the state

and local government levels, as well as the leadership qualities of the ACN national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, whom he described as a visionary leader.

Welcoming the group to the ACN, chairman of Bariga LCDA, Hon. Akeem Omoyele Sulaimon, noted that the defection was very symbolic as it meant that opposition in the Somolu/ Bariga axis had eventually collapsed.

Hon. Sulaimon commended the courage of the PDP defectors to have realised that the PDP was not the right party for them, adding that their defection was also an endorsement for the good programmes of the ACN at the local government level in the Somolu-Bariga

axis.

The Bariga LCDA chairman enjoined the defectors to see themselves henceforth as members of the ACN family who stand to benefit like every other member and should, therefore, join the campaign to win votes for the party in the October 22 local government elections.

Chief Ajomale, while welcoming the defectors, observed that they were no strangers in the ACN as most of them had always been with the party in the past before their sojourn in the PDP. Also on hand to welcome the defectors were the chairman of Somolu Local Government Council, Hon. Gbolahan Bagostowe, and other prominent members of the ACN in the state.

place, Senator Tinubu stressed that the dismal underrepresentation of women at various levels of governance and various careers necessitates strong proactive measures at individual and collective levels.

“I am sure that most of you are aware that out of the 109 seats in the Nigerian Senate today, women occupy only seven seats. The trend whereby women are discriminated against because of gender or relegated to the background and made to play second fiddle is visible at all levels of governance.

“Newsweek magazine’s 2011 Global Women Progress Report revealed that in the developing world, women lag behind in pay and political power.

“The report gives Nigeria an overall score of 29.9% after taking into consideration issues like access to justice for women, share of women in politics, access to education and health and percentage of women in the labour force.

“It is clear that Nigeria still has quite some way to go in empowering women,” she added.

Emphasising the need for mentorship to help develop young women who have great potential, she noted that the Post-Secondary School Scholarship Scheme (PSSS) that she recently launched as part of her constituency projects would help 650 beneficiaries in various higher institutions to overcome some of the obstacles facing them.

Inflation rises to 10.3%, beats CBN’s target Collins NWEZE IGERIA’S headline inflation rose to 10.3 per cent in Septem ber, beating the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) single-digit target. The rise in inflation came to many as a surprise because of six official interest rate rises by the apex bank this year. The inflation was 9.3 per cent in August, snapping three straight months of declines, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

Food prices, the largest contributor to the consumer index, rose 9.5 per cent year-on-year in September after 8.7 per cent the previous month. “The biggest contributors to the consumer inflation were the high prices of electricity and food items, even as the rise in food prices was mainly due to the increasing costs of yam, cooking oil and fish,” the NBS document said.

The CBN has been raising interest rates for more than a year to help curb high inflation and support the naira which plunged to an all-time low this week. CBN hiked its benchmark interest rate by a much bigger-than-expected 275 basis points to 12 per cent and implemented several other tightening measures at an emergency meeting on Monday.

The naira recovered from the record low of 167.8 to the dollar on Monday, after the CBN sold around $1 billion into the market in the space of a week, traders said. But trading on the local currency remains volatile and further weakness would add to inflation pressures.

The local currency was trading at 164.85 against the dollar midsession yesterday. The naira weakness is likely to be temporary and as monetary tightening measures take effect the local currency should strengthen, the CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi said.

The naira slumped to its lowest ever on Monday, just before an emergency CBN meeting where interest rates were hiked far further than analysts expected and several other tightening measures were imposed.

But trading on the local currency remains volatile with dealers not willing to quote actively. The naira ended the week at 164.05 in the interbank market, far weaker than at the central bank’s auction on Wednesday when the regulator sold $591.67 million at 150 naira to the dollar.

“The acceleration of inflation in September validates the Monetary Policy Committee’s significant tightening measures earlier this week. We expect the significant depreciation of the naira in October to compound the existing inflationary pressures, through higher imported inflation,” said Yvonne Mhango, economist at Renaissance Capital.

Although monetary tightening measures are will help temper inflation in coming months, upward price pressures are on the horizon, including higher public spending and fuel prices.

Nigeria’s government unveiled a four-year fiscal plan this month which showed spending in the 2012 budget will increase from this year, although the fiscal deficit should decline. It also announced the forthcoming removal of fuel subsidies which the government said cost the country N1.2 trillion this year.

Meanwhile, the CBN has said it will restrict the sale of dollars at its auctions to foreign companies taking the currency offshore, in a further measure to limit local foreign exchange demand and support the weakening naira. The regulator said foreign investors were guaranteed to repatriate their earnings and proceeds of investments offshore but they could only seek dollars for such purposes from the open market, limiting forex demand at its auction. “All remittances in respect of dividends, capital and proceeds of investments shall be through the use of autonomous funds (interbank),” CBN Director, Trade and Exchange, Batari Musa, said in a circular to banks.

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Alleged $1m fraud: EFCC raids Daniel’s associate’s office Yusuf ALLI, Managing Editor, Northern Operation

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HE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yes terday raided the office of one of the associates of the exGovernor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, on Victoria Island in Lagos.

The suspect, who is the Managing Director of 21st Century, is Wale Ajisebutu. The raid was in respect of alleged $1m belonging to the state allegedly diverted into the telecommunications company.

A source said: “The said $1m was allegedly diverted from Ogun State Government’s domiciliary account in a bank.

Some petitioners alleged that the money was actually stolen from the accoint. The suspect, who has been arrested, is still being interrogated.”

The Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Mr. Femi Babafemi, said: “We have arrested Ajisebutu and we are interacting with him over the $1m.”

NURTW crisis: Tokyo describes ban illegal Tajudeen ADEBANJO

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HE embattled leader of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Oyo State chapter, Chief Lateef Akinsola (a.k.a. Tokyo), has described his banning from participating in union activities as illegal.

Tokyo described the ban as a joke and an attempt to deprive him of his constitutional mandate as the union chairman in the state.

The national headquarters of the NURTW on Wednesday banned factional leaders of the union in the state, Chief Akinsola and Mukaila Lamidi (a.k.a. Auxiliary) from participating in union activities, especially contesting and participating in any election.

The national president of the union, Alhaji Najeem Yasin, told pressmen that he met with members of both factions in Abuja and the stakeholders agreed to let peace reign.

Tokyo, who was absent at the reconciliatory meeting, denied ever sending his supporters to the meeting.

“None of my members was at the meeting. I never sent any of my members to Abuja. He should give names of my members that attended the meeting,” he said.

NEWS 3

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Europe chapter of NUJ decries harassment of journalists

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EQUEL to the arrest and detention of four Editors of The Nation newspapers, The Nigerian Union of Journalists, Europe Chapter has condemned the harassment of journalists.

The Union has therefore called on the Nigerian government to put a stop to the harassment and incarceration of journalists in the course of performing their specific duties.

In a statement issued by the Chairman of the Union, Mr. Wole Arisekola, NUJE queried the essence of the passage of the Freedom of Information Bill if the police could invade

The Nation Newspapers’ office in Abuja to arrest four editors over the publication of a letter from Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to President Goodluck Jonathan.

In the statement, the NUJE Chairman opined that such actions would take Nigeria back to the dark days of military dictatorship.

Ihe statement also said “Nigeria deserves better for voting President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, a man who walked with his bare feet in the creeks; a man who understands the nation’s feelings rather than a retired general.

No drug found in Nollywood actor, Baba Suwe’s excreta .We are still watching him –NDLEA Kelvin Osa- OKUNBOR

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HE National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has said that ace actor and comedian, Omidina Babatunde a.k.a.

Baba Suwe, who was arrested on Wednesday over the suspicion that he ingested hard drug, made his first excretion on Friday evening, but no drug was found in it.

The actor, who was to board an Air France flight to Paris at about 10 pm on Wednesday October 12, 2011 at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos allegedly tested positive to drug ingestion and was placed under observation.

NDLEA’s spokesman, Mr Jarikhre Ofoyeju, confirmed yesterday that the artiste excreted once but no drug was found in the feaces.

Ofoyeju, who spoke with our correspondent in a telephone interview last night, explained that the Yoruba comic actor was under the observation of the medical and investigative team of the NDLEA. He dismissed claims that the artiste has been released.

He said : “Baba Suwe is still under NDLEA’s obsevation. He is still in our detention. He has not been released. He excreted once on Friday, and from what he excreted, we have not found any drug so far. That is the lastest development.

NDLEA Airport commander, Alhaji Hamza Umar, who confirmed that Mr. Omidina Babatunde was in safe custody, added that the process of placing suspected persons under observation was the agency’s usual practice.

According to Hamza, “there are reasonable grounds for suspicion and the actor is currently under observation. He is fine and has gone for the first excretion, but no drug had been found on him. We have in the past recovered drugs after the fourth excretion. It is just the normal process for all passengers”, Ofoyeju Mitchell head of public affairs said .Meanwhile, the actor will still be under observation. The Agency’s doctor had examined him and he is cooperating with narcotic investigators. Further update on the matter shall be made known to the general public.’’

Blame PDP for Daniel, Akala, Doma's travails –Governor Babangida Aliyu Vincent AKANMODE, Deputy Editor and Augustine AVWODE, Assistant Editor

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OR failing to monitor the activities of governors and other public office holders who contested elections on their platforms, political parties in the country should be held responsible for the misdeeds of such public office holders.

This was the position canvassed by Niger State Governor, Dr Mu'azu Babangida Aliyu in an exclusive interview with The Nation.

Reputed for his frank views on national issues, he declared that his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), could not absolve itself of blame in the ongoing trial of three former governors, Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State, Adebayo Alao-Akala of Oyo State and Aliyu Akwe Doma of Nasarawa State, for alleged corrupt practices by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Governor Babangida Aliyu, popularly addressed as Chief Servant by the people of his state, argued that had the party monitored the activities of the governors closely, the indignity of arrest and subsequent arraignment would probably not have happened.

He said: "When some governors of my party were invited by the EFCC, I read somewhere that somebody said it is not a party thing. No, it is a party thing. ‘’If a party presents people who are being questioned for this and that, the party should be able to look at it. And when you are serving, has the party been observant of what you are doing?

Have they been playing their role that 'look, we went to the people with this manifesto and it is the manifesto you must implement; what have you been doing with the money?

"It is the party's responsibility to monitor the leadership it has selected. By our constitution, you can't be a governor unless you are sponsored by a political party. So, it goes without saying that the party created you, and so, it should take responsibility if you mess up. A political party must take responsibility if an elected person under its tutelage messes up."

He condemned the attitude of elected officials who behave as if they are masters while the people who elected them are servants. He insisted that being elected into any office does not suggest that the elected individual is superior to those who elected him or her.

•ACN supporters at the local government chairmanship campaign rally in Ikorodu, Lagos yesterday. Inset: National leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu: Lagos State Chairman of the party, Prince Herny Ajomale; the state governor, Babatunde Fashola; the Deputy Chairman of ACN in the state, Pa Abiodun Sumola and other party leaders at the rally.

Opposition mounts against fuel subsidy removal M ORE Nigerians yesterday expressed their opposition to the plan by the Goodluck Jonathan administration to remove government’s subsidy on fuel.

Prominent individuals and groups who spoke with our correspondent yesterday described it variously as ‘’unjustifiable punishment” and “death sentence” for Nigerians. Some others described it as a “poorly disguised bunch of lies.”

But in spite of the public outcry against the proposal, Jonathan yesterday reiterated government’s resolve to go ahead with the plan, saying that funds saved from it would serve as a stimulus for the private sector and bridge the infrastructure gap.

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) urged the government to ensure that no action is taken on the plan, saying that the excuses of the existence of a cartel or mafia who are the sole beneficiary of subsidy should not be allowed to determine public policy.

Speaking to The Nation on Thursday, ACF Publicity Secretary, Anthony Sani, urged Federal Government to make the refineries functional. “The government should make all the refineries functional and not embark on the policy until the outcome of the investigation by the Senate. ‘’If there is a mafia and what they call a cartel, these should not determine the policy of government. For now, government is yet to convince the people on the benefit they will get from such a policy. Until then, they should not do it.”

In the same vein, the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) reiterated its opposition to the policy, describing it as ill conceived and ill advised.

The National Chairman of the ARG, Hon Wale Oshun, told The Nation on Friday that there are no subsidies anywhere and therefore, the talk of removing subsidy is nothing but a fraud.

•ACF Afenifere kick

Senators, reps yet to give consent From Yusuf ALLI, Managing Editor, Northern Operation

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NDICATIONS emerged yesterday that despite pressure, the Senate and the House of Representatives have not made any commitment to the Presidency on whether to support the withdrawal of fuel subsidy or not.

Also, the two chambers are weighing options on likely gradual withdrawal of fuel subsidy to monitor how the cushioning effects will work before backing the policy wholesale.

But the withdrawal may take effect from January 2012, going by the thinking in government circle.

The government says it has spent about N1.2 trillion on fuel subsidy this year, which President Goodluck Jonathan said is no longer sustainable.

Attempts were made by the Presidency on Monday to present indices to the National Assembly on why fuel subsidy must go.

The Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Alhaji Zakari Mohammed, said: “We are yet to give any commitment because whatever you must sell to the people, you must believe in it. Most members do not yet believe in the withdrawal of subsidy.

“Our position was informed by two things. We know that the withdrawal of subsidy will be harsh to people.

Secondly, we have not seen the justification for it. Members are saying that we should get our refineries working before competition comes in.’’

Asked how soon the National Assembly will make up its mind, Mohammed added: “Officially, the issue of withdrawal of subsidy is before the Senate and it is receiving attention.

“We believe that any issue that comes up like that in the Senate, we should not discuss it in the House of Representatives. We are waiting for the Senate on what it will do before making our opinion known.

“Most members are eager to discuss the subsidy issue.

After consideration of all factors, we will then announce our position.”

Continued on Page 5 Augustine AVWODE Assistant Editor “What they are talking about does not exist. There is no subsidy anywhere; how can they remove what does not exist? Why are they not talking of making our refineries functional? I see this as a fail-

ure of the PDP-led government in its last 12 years. It is the failure of the military government which the PDP has succeeded. ‘’What is the magnitude of the subsidy if it exists? Obviously, Jonathan is rehashing the time worn tunes by all the military rulers and Obasanjo.

This is just another ploy to extort money from Nigerians. It won’t work,” he declared.

Former governor of Edo State and vice presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in the 2011 general election, Chief John Odigie Oyegun said the government should not do anything that would further worsen the plight of the ordinary Nigerian. He advised the President to be wary of the kind of advice he takes from those who are close to him.

“The government probably does not know the situation of things in the country. The ordinary Nigerian is facing very critical economic challenges, the worst, perhaps in the last 10 years. It will be dehumanising for Nigerians to be subjected to the untold hardship that would be the direct outcome of this policy. I can’t see how it will benefit Nigerians in any way. He should not go ahead with it,” he counselled.

Kaduna-based legal practitioner and national coordinator of Independent Election Monitoring Group, Festus Okoye, was vehement in his opposition to the policy.

Okoye, who considered the plan as a ‘’death sentence,’’ argued that no man deserved the death sentence unless he is found guilty by an appropriate law court of such a heinous crime.

He insisted that whatever argument the present administration is canvassing as reasons for the removal of fuel subsidy had been bandied around many times over and over in the past.

“Nigerians are not swayed by these reasons being adduced by the government. We heard all of them before and our position is that there is no more subsidy anywhere that the present administration wants to remove. This is a poorly disguised bunch of lies meant to deceive Nigerians,” he said.

Continued on Page 5

4 NEWS

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

17 pregnant teenagers arrested in Anambra baby factory

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HERE was tension in Anambra State yesterday, following the invasion of an alleged baby factory in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State being used for child trafficking.

During the raid by policemen, 17 pregnant teenage girls were arrested. Eight other girls who were not pregnant as well as two men were also arrested.

Also, the owner of the baby factory known as Spormil Hospital and Maternity or Iheanyi Ezuma Foundation, believed to be a non-governmental organisation, Mrs. Ngozi Ezuma was arrested.

The police team was led by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Okere Okey and Inspector Francis Ogbuonye from the office of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Awka.

The Anambra State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Dr. Ego Uzoezie, regretted

Nwanosike ONU, Awka that some registered outfits go beyond their scope to harbour pregnant girls in their organisations.

“What the woman is doing is not what she was registered for, and this kind of thing should not be encouraged in our society. It is unfortunate and my ministry can not continue like this,” he said.

The Nation noted that it was the second time Mrs. Ezuma would be arrested in the state over child trafficking.

The premises was sealed up by the Ministry of Women Affairs, while police investigations continued.

The Director of Child Development in the Ministry of Women Affairs, Emeka Ejide, told our correspondent yesterday that the ministry was aware that such a foundation existed in Ihiala but did not know about other activities

that went on there.

He said that the ministry was informed through the state police command that some pregnant teenage girls were discovered at the home.

He said: “The foundation is registered under a nongovernment organisation, but the latest discovery is not in the certificate given to the office.”

Speaking with the Nation, Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) Okoi Apama, who stood in for the Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Criminal Investigation Department, Mike Okoli, said that the command got to know about the activities of the centre through a petition from a concerned Nigerian.

According to him, the police informant said that such activities had been going on for long, adding that efforts made to stop the woman by the people around the vicinity proved abortive.

He said the informant also suspected a ritual act going on in the environment and decided to involve the police to investigate the woman. “Then we swooped on the place and discovered that a good number of teenage girls were pregnant. We had to arrest all of them, including the proprietress who claims to be a staff nurse and midwife,” Apama said.

But the 49-year-old proprietress of the centre, Mrs. Ngozi Ezuma, told The Nation that she had been in business for the past four years, adding that Spormil was a hospital and maternity home which she said was different from Iheanyi Ezuma Foundation.

Ezuma pleaded for mercy, saying: “I know I have erred.

I will not do it again. I do not sell babies, when they deliver, their parents usually come to take them away. Rather than encouraging them to do abortion, we take care of them.”

•The teenagers

Abia rape saga stage-managed, says Orji’s aide

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HE rape incident widely believed to have taken place at the Abia State University (ABSU) and posted on the Internet recently was not only stage-managed but done to attract the attention of the state government.

The Special Adviser on Public Communicat to Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State, Mr. Ben Onyechere, who made this declaration in a statement yesterday, also said that while the incident was concocted to blackmail ABSU and the state in general, it had also succeeded in ‘’desecrating the sacredness of womanhood.’’

He said: ‘’It was laughable as it was harrowing that the perpetrators of the act would use the social device of the Internet in a failed attempt to blacmail the government.

Otherwise, when did it become the voque to post such shameful act on the Internet if not for the purpose of cheap blackmail, which goes to show that some people can go to any length to unconscionably discredit the image of the state, similar to the act of kidnapping of school children and journalists, which once set the nation aghast.’’

Onyechere maintained that the bid by the current administration in the state to re-write its history could not be hindered by any form of hypocrisy, intimidation or blackmail, ‘’as it was in the past when such instruments were used to hinder propress ‘’The government is undaunted in its determination

to develop Abia, as it is willing and able to curtail acts of lawlessness, particularly in Aba where people have constituted themselves into stumbing blocks against the will to develop and recast decandent infrastructure. ‘’The decongestion of Aba has come a little late. But that not withstanding, it is a

task that must be carried out to the letter, because no one can make an omlette without breaking an egg.

The major reason why roads colapse is because of illegal construction of buildings on drainages, which gives rise to the flooding that eventually causes erossion.’’

5,000 overdue civil servants avoid retirement in Benue

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O fewer than 5,000 civil servants in Benue State who are overdue for retirement are still in service.

About 2,000 of this number have served for more than 43 years as against the 35 years recommended by law.

Investigations by The Nation revealed that about 1,500 civil servants, who joined the Benue State Government from Plateau State when the state was created in 1976 are still in service.

From records available to The Nation, many who are due for retirement have overshot it by as many as six years but and yet have not shown any sign of retiring in the near future. Others

Uja EMMANUEL, Makurd

have overshot the retirement age without retiring, while some had retired only to suddenly find their ways back into service; a development believed to have compounded the unemployment situation in the state .

The Nation gathered that the Civil Service Commission (CSM), which is supposed to notify workers who are due for retirement has largely been inactive in this regard.

Governor Gabriel Suswam had during the agreement with Labour on the N18,000 national minimum wage said: ‘’We

are going to carry out a staff audit before the implementation of the minimum wage to ascertain the exact number of workers, because some of them have put in more that 35 years. Others who came from Plateau State since the creation of Benue are still in the service.’’

But, an official of the Civil Service Commission, who pleaded anonymity, told The Nation that the commission was aware of the situation but could do little about it because many of them are still in service for political reasons: ‘’They claim that they have contributed to the victory of some politicians and cannot be retired,’’ he said.

Uwais, Kutigi, Belgore on 28-man judiciary reforms panel

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O resolve the crises rocking the judiciary, the Chief Justice of Nigeria Dahiru Musdapher has raised a 28-member stakeholders committee.

A statement by the National Judicial Council (NJC) Secretary, Danladi Halilu, said the committee was inauguarated after a meeting held yesterday in Abuja.

The high-powered committee, made up of former CJNs, former Presidents of the Court of Appeal, retired justices of the Supreme Court, retired and serving judges of the high court as well as senior members of the bar, is headed by the former CJN, Muhammad Uwais.

Justice Musdapher had on September 19, at the Special Court session to commemorate this year’s legal year promised to carry out reforms in the judiciary to addresas his inherited challenges.

One of such is the restructuring and repositioning of the NJC, Federal Judicial Service Commission and the National Judicial Institute (NJI).

The committee is to recommend measures to address the quality and timeliness of the trial process, procedural inefficiencies, poor infrastructure, as well as poor conditions of service for judicial and non– judicial officers.

It is also to suggest ways to tackle the “declining intellectual quality and reasoning content of delivered judgments, corruption, as well as the effects of an unrestrained quest for political power which have served to disrupt the efficiency of the judiciary and damaged its perception by the public”, the statement said.

Members of the committee include former CJNs; S.M.A.

Kamarudeen OGUNDELE, Abuja Belgore, Idris L. Kutigi and A.I. Katsina-Alu, Mamman Nasir (former PCA), A.G. Karibi-Whyte, Mustapha Akanbi, Umaru Abdullahi (former PCA), Kayode Eso (Rtd. JSC), Umaru A. Kalgo (Rtd. JSC) Rose N. Ukeje (Former CJ, Federal High Court).

Others are Justice R.P.I. Bozimo, (Former Chief Judge, Delta State), Justice Lawal Hassan Gummi (Chief Judge, FCT), Joseph Daudu, SAN, (NBA President), Chief Richard O.Akinjide SAN (Former A-GF), Alhaji Abdullahi Ibrahim, SAN, (Former A-GF), Dr. A.G.F. AbdulRazak, (SAN) and Anthony O. Mogboh, SAN. It also includes former NBA Presidents; T.J.O. Okpoko, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), O.C.J. Okocha (SAN) Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), Oluwarotimi O. Akeredolu (SAN) and Prince Lanke Odogiyan, Esq. Other members are Hajiya Hairat Balogun, Prof.

Epiphany Azinge, SAN, (Director-General, NIALS), Dr. Mamman Tahir (DirectorGeneral, Nigerian Law School) and Mr. A.B. Mahmud, (SAN).

The other areas of the reform initiatives by the CJN will include constitutional review of all Superior Courts of Records as well as the lower courts.

Justice Musdapher at the meeting reiterated that the purpose of the reforms is to set out the Judiciary on a path of renewal so as to restore the integrity and dignity of the Judiciary to its pristine status.

The committee has five weeks to submit its recommendations.

Ex-govs Goje, Doma to spend weekend in EFCC custody

•Daniel gets bail

E

X-GOVERNORS Danjuma Goje (Gombe) and Aliyu Akwe-Doma are to spend the weekend in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Goje, a serving senator is to be arraigned on Monday before a Ferderal High Court, Gombe over alleged mismanagement and diversion of about N52.9 billion state funds.

The money comprises of alleged N37.9 billion loans obtained from 27 banks and N15 billion security votes.

But his lawyer, Chief Adeniyi Akintola (SAN), said his client was yet to be served the charge even though he had been detained beyond 48 hours in violation of Section 35 of the 1999 Constitution.

Doma is to be arraigned on Tuesday before a Federal High Court, Lafia.

He allegedly inflated or duplicated contracts in addition to mismanaging the Local Government Joint Account to the tune of N18 billion.

Meanwhile, a state High Court sitting in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, yesterday "admitted" former Governor Gbenga Daniel "on bail" with the sum of N500m and "two sureties in like sum."

Daniel who is facing 16 count charges bordering on stealing of public funds, fraudulent con-

Kamarudeen OGUNDELEand Ernest NWOKOLO

version of State money to personal use, failure to declare his assets truthfully and fraudulent use of Ogun State landed property was granted bail around 3:55 pm yesterday.

The former Governor is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC]. As at 5pm yesterday, he was still battling with the challenges of meeting his bail conditions especially areas that had to do with documentations.

The Judiciary workers' strike that entered its third day yesterday was not helping the situation as they were no officials readily available to either receive documents or verify same from sureties.

Daniel sureties - Col. Emmanuel Shoda [rtd] and Ewusi of Makun - Sagamu, Oba Timothy Shola Adesanya, are expected to be landed property owners as well as residents within the jurisdiction of the Court.

They are to also submit their two recent passport photographs to the Court's registrar along with sworn affidavit of means while Daniel's International Passport should remain in the custody of the anti - corruption agency for the time being.

NEWS 5

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Senators, reps yet to give consent Continued from Page 3

•R-L: President Goodluck Jonathan; Minister of Finance, Prof. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Governor of Cross River State Senator Liyel Imoke at the second day of the Presidential Retreat with the Private Sector on Economic Development and job creation at the Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa, Abuja yesterday.

PHOTO AKIN OLADOKUN

Jonathan’s summit endorses proposed fuel subsidy removal P ARTICIPANTS at a summit organised for the private sector by the

Presidency in Abuja last night endorsed the plan by the Federal Government to remove fuel subsidy.

The participants believe the present system is inefficient, corrupt and a waste of scarce national resources.

The latest move to withdraw the subsidy has attracted widespread condemnation, especially from organised labour.

It was argued that the policy would push up the prices of goods and make life unbearable for ordinary Nigerians.

But the outcry did not deter the captains of industry who decided to make public their stand on the contentious issue at the Presidential Villa at the end of a two-day presidential retreat with the private sector on economic development and job creation.

The decision was endorsed by 43 of the 45 members of the organised private sector who participated in the summit.

Vincent IKUOMOLA, Abuja

Publisher of Thisday newspaper, Nduka Obaigbena, read out the endorsement.

He said: “That the current regimes of subsidies in the pump price of petroleum product is inefficient, corrupt and a waste of scarce national resources.

“That the majority of Nigerian citizens do not enjoy the benefit of the current subsidy on petroleum products today, rather the subsidy itself operate to the benefits of very few beneficiaries.

“That the financial burden of subsidy is unsustainable and untenable in our nation where critical infrastructure, human and capital development are in dire need of investment. “ We note from the retreat that the Federal Government of Nigeria has promised to consult widely with the labour organisation, civil societies and other stakeholders to ensure a high level of engagement regarding the benefit of

Opposition mounts against fuel subsidy removal Continued from Page 3 Yinka Odumankin described the policy as a plan to make the people pay for the cost of running the April 2011 elections. In his words: “It is obvious that there is nothing like subsidies in Nigeria. It is therefore clear that the government is pulling a fast one on the people. We believe that the government emptied the treasury to prosecute its election and now wants people to pay for it. Subsidy is a fraud. Asking Nigerians to pay for subsidy is saying they should pay for corruption and inefficiency, which is rampant in the oil and gas industry managed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)”.

Odumakin urged the government to rather think of how to make the four refineries work or build new ones instead of talking of non-existent subsidy. He wondered why Nigeria cannot refine its products when the failed Biafra Republic was able to refine its crude even during war time.

“Today, we are not at war, but we cannot refine. Our neighbours who just discovered oil are building refineries and targeting Nigeria as their main market. It is sad. ‘’Even more sad is the alleged building of a refinery in Indonesia by the government, though they have denied it.

Labour is right, Nigerians must oppose it,” he said.

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) had opposed the proposal on the grounds that it would push up the prices of goods and services and make life unbearable for Nigerians.

a deregulated price regime, particularly the impact on the improved livelihood of Nigerians.

“Taking cognisance of the foregoing, we call on the Federal Government of Nigeria to ensure that the benefits of deregulation accrued to the generality of Nigerians in a manner that it benefit the poor and the underprivileged. ‘’That is our statement and we urged you to sign it. 42 out of 45 signed the position.”

Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State, who also spoke on the issue, said: “Fuel subsidy is not sustainable. We do not have the funding to sustain such waste. Whatever is saved from the removal of subsidy can be applied properly in rebuilding our infrastructure which will eventually bring about turn around in competitiveness doing business in Nigeria, and businesses that will employ people will come in.”

On the Guarantee that the money will be put to proper use, he said Nigerians must hold the government accountable to ensure that the money is put to proper use.

“Nigerians should hold the government accountable. Everybody must join hands to make sure that the money is put to proper use.

Alhaji Aliko Dangote, on his part said subsidy does not benefit anybody.

He wants the Labour Union to be understanding on the issue, reminding them that the removal would have been done in 2008.

“The Labour should understand. They know better because I can tell you for a fact that the same people who are there we held a meeting, the former president, the current NLC President, the TUC President and the former economic adviser, Tanimu, and we agreed that the subsidy will now be removed from January 2008. That was the agreement. ‘’I think the mistake that happened was that the government of late Yar’Adua did not remove the subsidy when the prices were at N65, N70 per lit-

er. When prices went to N34 per litre in 2009, that was when I believed the government should have removed the subsidy. But nevertheless, right now, it does not make sense for government to be borrowing money to fund their own operations. It doesn’t happen anywhere. I trust this government to utilise the money. Have you ever seen where a president sits with the private sector for two days? That shows they are very serious.

He explained further: “The subsidy does not benefit anybody. If Labour is really right in their demands, they should go and fight for diesel and low fuel oil, because that is really what concerns the masses. The masses are always traveling by buses. Have you ever seen a rail mass traveling by air? No! ‘’Aviation fuel has be deregulated for the past 11 years, Diesel has been deregulated.

We are paying N160 or N140 per litre. For low fuel oil, we are paying from N25 to N90, and the same labour has not really come out to to ask for subsidy, which can even close down the factories in which they work.

“What we are asking is why should government be giving N200 billion in terms of subsidy per month when we don’t have good roads and so many things? So, let the government use the money to develop the country, provide power and other social amenities. ‘’With that, we will be able to provide more jobs and a lot of them will not lose their jobs.

Today, can you really tell me you are buying at N65 per litre? Even if you are, your cousin in the village is not buying at N65.’’

On the possibility of manufacturers surviving without subsidy, he said: “But we are surviving now because we don’t have any subsidy. Let me repeat, we have not enjoyed subsidy in the last 10 years we have been paying market prices for diesel, low fuel oil and even natural gas and these are the three things that we use in terms of producing goods and services.’’

A senator, who spoke in confidence, correborated the position of Mohammed. He said: “At a session we had with the President at the Villa, the Minister of Finance presented an Economic Blueprint but we observed a lot of gaps, especially on issues relating to withdrawal of oil subsidy.

“We have not given any pledge because we are still weighing options, especially the backlash of the economic implications on the survival of our democracy.

“You cannot run democracy on empty stomach and under harsh socio-economic conditions. The government wanted commitment from the National Assembly leadership but we refused to make an onthe-spot pledge.

“We isolated three issues to be addressed by the government: identification of leakages of oil revenue; Action Plan on how to break the cartel benefiting from subsidy; and clear cut projects which they will spend the withdrawn subsidy on.

“So far, I can tell you that we are weighing options.

But from our consultations so far, most members of the National Assembly prefer a systematic or gradual withdrawal of subsidy.

“They said they want the cushioning effects put in place to work before fully backing total withdrawal of subsidy.

“We learnt that the exit date for the subsidy is January 2012. So, we are hopeful that we would have chosen our options on the withdrawal policy.”

PUBLIC NOTICE PRINCESS JENNIFER LEE MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL THE general public is hereby notified that the above name Organisation has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) for registration under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, Part ‘C’ No 1 of 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE; 1.

Dr. Princess Jennifer Lee 2.

Mrs. Ifeloluwa Olubi 3.

Mr. Marvin Allen 4.

Prophet Femi Oni 5.

Ms. Barbara Rea AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 1.

Ministering Compassion to the under-priviledged.

2.

Preaching and Teaching the word of God, by practical demonstration of love.

3.

Provide Home, Food, Clothing for the poor.

4.

To empower Christians to be able to apply the principles of God in their everyday lives.

Any objection to the registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, Tigris Crescent, off Aguiyi lronsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of publication

Signed: LAWYER; MR. OLADIPO OLAYINKA

PUBLIC NOTICE KLOB GOODWILL 0485 IBADAN The general public is hereby notified that the above named Klob has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for the registration under part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act No 1 of 1990.

The Trustees are: 1. DR. ISAAC ADEKEYE ABIONA 2. DR. ADEGOKE ADEGBITE 3. DR. OLUFEMI ADELEKE

-

PRESIDENT SECRETARY - TREASURER

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE: 1) The aim is to form a social organization with a view to helping members.

2) To protect the interest of the members.

3) To organize an annual visitation to charity Homes such as Hospitals, Motherless Babies homes etc.

Any objection to this registration should be forwarded to the RegistrarGeneral, Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420, Tigris Crescent, off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 days from the date of this publication.

Signed: DR. ADEGOKE ADEGBITE SECRETARY

PUBLIC NOTICE AFRICAN CHILD DIASPORA FOUNDATION Notice is hereby given to the general public that the above named organization has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for registration under part of C of the companies and Allied Matters Acts, 1990.

TRUSTEES 1. Barrister Victor Eyo Offiong (M) 2. Mrs. Uyi Edem Offiong (F) 3. Mrs. Uyi Kokoma Odinuwe (F) 4. Mrs. Christina Ikwanong Tawo (F) 5. Mrs. Queeneth Abariowoa Clentsil (F) 6. Dr. Anthony Nuonum Ugbaja (M) AIMS/OBJECTIVES 1. To propagate and protect the rights of the African Child.

2. To provide home, care, Training and Education for poor children especially Street children irrespective of race, religion and nationality with emphasis on the African Child.

3. To research and educate on development alternatives for children in Africa.

4. To provide re-integration support services for needy Africans and Africans families in Diaspora 5. To promote critical thinking among young African Children Any objections(s) to the above named organization should be forwarded within 28 days of this publication to the registrar General, Corporate Affairs Commission, plot 420, Tigris Crescent, Maitama Abuja.

Signed: Barrister Victor Eyo Offiong (07055333611)

6 COMMENTARY

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

From Obasanjo’s whip to Jonathan’s scorpion

I

MMEDIATELY the news filtered in that the Jonathan administration was contemplating complete removal of subsidy on fuel, the thought that struck my mind was the biblical story of Rehoboam, the son and successor of Solomon as the King of Israel. Upon the death of Solomon and Rehoboam’s ascension of the throne, Jeroboam, the leader of the opposition against the Solomon administration, led a delegation to his palace, pleading to be loyal to him if only he would assure them that he would treat them more kindly than his father did.

Rehoboam told the delegation to come back in three days for his response. Within the period, he consulted with some elderly men who were close to his father before he died. The elders advised Rehoboam to tell the delegation that he would deal kindly with them and even serve them. By so doing, they said, Rehoboam would enjoy a peaceful reign and the people who had opposed his father’s administration would cooperate with him and serve him forever.

But Rehoboam forsook the counsel of the elders and sought the opinion of his friends and contemporaries. They told Rehoboam to tell the delegation that whereas his father chastised them with whip, he would chastise them with scorpion. Somehow, it was the latter counsel that appealed to Rehoboam. As soon as Jeroboam’s delegation returned, Rehoboam

declared as his friends counselled. The shock generated by Rehoboam’s declaration led the delegation to make one of the most popular biblical statements: “What share have we in David (Rehoboam’s grandfather)? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents oh Israel!” Thus was the kingdom of Israel divided along the lines of Rehoboam and Jeroboam’s loyalists.

I may not have recalled the story as accurately as a pastor would, but I can boast that I understand it enough to see its relevance to the silent war that is brewing in our land over government’s plan to remove its purported subsidy on petroleum products, a timeless euphemism for a hike in the pump price of fuel.

Obasanjo, President Goodluck Jonathan’s political father, had made hiking the pump price of fuel the centre of his economic policy during his reign as the nation’s president between 1999 and 2007. He had become the President at a time the pump price of fuel stood at N20 per litre. But by the time he left on May 29, 2007, his administration had reviewed fuel price a record 11 times, raising it from N20 to N65 per litre.

Indeed, in the last review he had on the eve of his departure from the Presidential Villa, he had put the pump price of petrol at N75 per litre. It took extreme determination on the part of the labour movement led by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the present governor of Edo State, which fought tooth and nail to see the new pump price of fuel reviewed downward to the current N65 per litre. If Obasanjo had chastised us with whip, Jonathan now appears determined to chastise us with scorpion.

He is not just thinking about reducing the subsidy payable on fuel like his political father did, he plans to remove it completely, such that the pump price of fuel, according to economic analysts, will jump to about N200 per litre!

In its pursuit of this evil agenda, the government and its apologists have been advancing

‘

It is no surprise that the call for subsidy removal has been loudest in the mouths of governors and other public office holders who live in free apartments, ride free cars, enjoy free fuel and are well positioned to corner the proceeds of the new price regime

’

all manner of arguments which are nothing but specious. They are insisting that the masses must suffer dysentry for the excess sugar consumed by the government and its agencies. For instance, rather than challenge the Customs, Immigration and other agencies responsible for guarding our borders with neighbouring countries to live up to their responsibilities, the government believes the solution to smuggling petroleum products across our porous borders is to saddle the impoverished citizens with higher fuel price. This, the government believes, would bring fuel price in Nigeria almost at par with those of neighbouring countries and make the smuggling of the product to neighbouring countries unprofitable.

Not for them the thinking that as citizens of an oil producing country, Nigerians ought to enjoy better access to fuel than citizens of nonoil producing countries. Now we will have a

situation where the barber, the welder, the pepper grinder and other artisans whose jobs depend on electricity cannot get it from the public grid and cannot source it privately because the high price of fuel will make it impossible for them to use generators. It is no surprise that the call for subsidy removal has been loudest in the mouths of governors and other public office holders who live in free apartments, ride free cars, enjoy free fuel and are well positioned to corner the proceeds of the new price regime.

The masses are the ones left to pay for the failure of the police, the EFCC, the ICPC, the CCB and other law enforcement agencies to arrest the phenomenon of corruption in public offices, on account of which the Obasanjo administration sank 16 billion dollars into electricity supply with absolutely nothing to show for it. From three ex-governors—Gbenga Daniel (Ogun State), Adebayo Alao-Akala (Oyo State) and Akwe Doma (Nasarawa State)—the nation is now battling to recover about N101 billion allegedly stolen from government purse. Imagine how much the nation could have profited from such funds if they are invested in electricity or refineries. These, sadly, have left well-meaning Nigerians with the justifiable fear that the proceeds of a hike in fuel price will also go into private pockets and further impoverish the average Nigerian.

It is for these reasons that I sometimes think that rather than channelling all their energy into the perennial push for wage increase, the Nigeria Labour Congress should do more of confronting the people in whose hands we have entrusted public utilities and infrastructural facilities. The more functional they are, the less need there will be to push for salary increase.

Like Israel, Jonathan’s threat has already divided Nigeria, going by reports from the National Assembly. The division is certain to grow from schism to chasm in the days ahead.

God help us.

Reactions to Illuminations •I read with sympathy your article on Akpabio. Sympathy because you wrote on what you were made to see and hear. He has no doubt tried on infrastructure but at what cost? I’m not from that state but I go there often. Primary school toilets, one tap boreholes are constructed and commissioned by him with fanfare. His billboards adorn every nook and cranny of the state. He brooks no opposition. Go on a private visit and speak to the man on the street. Do you ever ask yourself why every community and groups rush to give him titles and praise? Fear!

Let him not use you (the press) to launch himself to the centre.

08135869033 •Just read your column on Saturday 8/10/ 11 and the interview you and Sam had with Governor Akpabio. I’m impressed in nonpartisan journalism you practice. I must say also that I’m impressed on the performance of Governor Akpabio, posterity will project him positively. The young man has done well for his people, especially, in the area of education which is free. Udoedehe should wait for his turn, he can still rule Akwa Ibom.

Tanx Andy Okoh, 08033320402 •I read your Akpabio’s lamentations’, after reading the interview you and Sam had with the governor. Even, if you had not made the confession in the first paragraph , most of your passionate readers, including myself know that majority of you in ‘The Nation’ do not believe that anything good can be found in the PDP. And this is why, to those of you at ‘The Nation’ OBJ never did anything when he was the President. Thank God, you were in Akwa Ibom and you saw the ‘Akpabio wonders’. Believe it or not, you will discover more Akpabios in the PDP if you care to find out.

Hon ‘Dapo Adeyemi, Abeokuta, 08123110039 •This is absolutely an interesting, and a point blank piece. Keep up the good job.

Yinka, 08056028320.

•The way you columnist write about issues of political interest is never balance. It is an indication that ‘The Nation’ newspaper is an ACN. My reference is your piece on Saturday October 8 2011. Tell me? Which of the ACN states that is better than Ikwa Ibom. Be objective.

Bimbo writes from Akwa Ibom, 08038670009.

•Akpabio is a lucky man because he is one of the governors his predecessor left with a good plan. He has no excuse to fail.

08069415292

Re: Akpabio’s lamentations •The protagonists of oil subsidy removal are heartless enemies of Nigeria. Now who are the terrorists against the poor masses of Nigeria?

The government or the Boko Haram sects?

Akin Olanusi, Jos City.

or before? Your answer will make you go outside the state capitals to see what the roads, hospitals, schools are meant for the urban centres.

Chike, Port Harcourt, 08033078336

•Segun, journalists are invariably friends of politicians like the governors. Instead of the journalists to investigate facts through independent journalism, private information gathering, they prefer invitation by all these dubious politicians who will treat them to lavish banquets and lodge them in magnificent hotels where they will be given brown envelopes to ‘doctor’ the facts. Our democracy will be worse than dictatorship if those who will protect it like journalists and lawyers are feasting and protecting the thieves. Compare the roads, security, education, value of naira etc with military era, are we fairing better now

•It is most likely you were not taken beyond Uyo. It is also possible you did not know Akwa Ibom before Akpabio’s government. All the roads in Ikot Ekpene were not passable even by pedestrians. To connect one LG with the other was a problem in Akwa Ibom State. What we did was to park our cars and ride on motorcycle but then except body pains in night.

Akpabio has done so much. We were below the scratch before now. We are now on top.

Godwin Ekanem, 08033838789

•Continued from Back Page would have happened had the fans laid their hands on Siasia and Dele Aiyenugba.

Kudos must go to the Nigeria Police and other security operatives at the stadium for the brilliant job.

So where did Siasia get it wrong? Was he given enormous powers without control from the supervisory body? Did they not say that he beat Stephen Keshi to the job during the screening? How do you reconcile this statement with the tale of Siasia being forced on NFF by the Presidency?

Is it now that we realize that Siasia led us to defeats at the U-21 level at the Africa Youth Championships held in Egypt and the WAFU Cup finals in Abeokuta? Did we just know that Siasia was a failure at JUTH CF of Jos, Ocean Boys FC of Yenagoa and Heartland FC of Owerri? At what point did we wake up to the fact that Siasia has never won any final game at the international level?

Certainly, a coach with this profile has no business handling the Super Eagles. Coaches are judged by their last assignments. The lesson from Siasia’s choice includes the need for the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to head-hunt a competent foreign coach who would be hungry to make his mark with the Eagles at the Brazil 2014 World Cup. Our shortsightedness in swallowing the bait of Siasia’s canvassers that we need to ‘Nigerianise’ the Super Eagles bench has cost us the Africa Cup of Nations ticket- a feat that should be the simplest for any coach who knows his onions. These canvassers hinged

•Mr. Segun, I just finished reading your hate filled write-up today on ‘Akpabio’s

lamentations’. It’s either you have a mental problem or you have personal score to settle with GEJ. If I were GEJ, I’ll run you and your pay masters out of town and put a final stop to your madness. The Nigerian people are not happy with fuelled write-ups against GEJ, the problems we are facing in Nigeria started way back in 1914. Leave GEJ alone! There are lots of happening in your state, that should be your take, leave GEJ alone, please.

08098489663 •Mr. Segun Ayobolu ever since you came back from your sabbatical and I started to develop interest to read your Illuminations, this is the first time you are being objective. Unlike your previous write-ups, where objectivity was sideline for the view of your paymaster, primordial sentiment. And your one-sided editorial policy, irrespective of the good side of the policy.

Mr.Williams Ime, Uyio Akwa Ibom State, 07030740295.

Siasia’s last straw their argument on the mundane theory that no country has lifted the World Cup with foreigners on their bench. What they selfishly didn’t add to their argument was the fact that the six countries that have lifted the World Cup have thriving domestic leagues anchored on the presence of youth academies at the grassroots that produced budding talents to replace the ageing and injured stars.

The Nigerian league is in a shambles. It has been politicised chiefly by NSC men whose mission is to enthrone exinternationals in all the facets of our sports, without pre-requisite training. I hope we can see how these ex-internationals have ruined us.

Most of these ex-internationals are incharge of the domestic league clubs that are indebted to its players. Do you give what you don’t have? These ex-internationals start their quest to reform our football by going to their states. It is what they achieve in their states that would convince us that they truly have what it takes to revolutionise soccer at the national level.

Sadly, those who forced Siasia on us are again flying the kite of the Presidency having interest in the matter. Is that not why we have a sports minister who should be the president’s eye?

Amodu Shuiabu met all the targets set for him as Eagles coach, yet he was eased off by

the Presidential Task Force (PTF) that felt the Eagles were not playing to their potential in spite of the fact that they were getting the results. Adegboye Onigbinde wasn’t given a second chance to complete his rebuilding process after that Korea/Japan World Cup tournament. Christian Chukwu was disgraced out of the job after the Eagles lost the Germany 2006 World Cup ticket.

So, why is Siasia’s different? A few people may argue that we have passed this path before. In the case of Siasia, he has told us that he cannot work under anyone. Yet, we are talking about having Sunday Oliseh as the technical director. Will Siasia defer to him on technical issues?

Eagles need a better foreign tactician to rejuvenate the team. Does Siasia expect Enyeama to give his best under his reign?

Can’t he see how dispirited Osaze Odemwingie was against the Guineans? Was he shocked that Osaze opted out of the Ghana friendly on spurious grounds, which his club’s manager debunked? Did Dickson Etuhu vow not to play under his reign?

It is sad that the NSC men are putting pressure to ensure that Siasia remains after armtwisting the NFF chiefs to pick the all-knowing tactician. What it simply means is that the next Super Eagles coach would come from the next president’s state. Nigeria, we hail thee.

7

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

1600 days of real change in the State of Excellence G

ood governance is akin to a palatable delicacy necessary for healthy growth and enticing enough to warrant personalities undermining distance and risks savouring. Good governance is necessary for sustainable development and growth. It is premised on effective utilization of resources, time, deft planning, experimentation, reviews, consultations and utilization of high net worth personnel. Good governance rests on the pillar of visionary leadership, zeal to succeed, faith in the ability to actualize dreams and set goals, as well the discipline to follow set objectives. As with the delicacy which many go through pains to have a taste of, good governance also attracts hordes of personalities and groups, as the end result being peace, infrastructural development, freedom and respect for human rights, a conducive atmosphere for growth and development is irresistible. No wonder Europe and America is today the abode for millions of tourists and businessmen. Courtesy of good governance.

In Germany for instance, the whole nation was recently torn apart, not by the struggle for power and its attendant sorrow, blood and tears, not by mindless ethnic cleansing, not by the orgy of national cake sharing but by the debate as to whether or not to increase financial assistance or using the appropriate phrase, provide bailout funds to another independent country, Greece. In the USA, the Republicans and Democrats are ever at each other’s jugular, on differences in strategies to move their country forward.

They quarrel on life transforming issues and never allow such to degenerate into warfare. When, for instance, the government was about to be shut, as a result of their inability to agree on the national budget and deficit, both sides rallied round to a favourable solution at the last minute, in national interest.

Their desire for improving the lot of their electorates on whose crest, they hold their legitimacy, was too overwhelming to be sacrificed, another evidence of good governance.

In Lagos State, the Centre of Excellence and the indubitable national pace setter, good governance has been the hallmark since the return to civil rule in 1999, as all. All aforementioned ingredients of good governance are present. Visionary leadership, the will to succeed, assemblage of high net worth personalities, unity of purpose, inspiration to actualize dreams and set goals among others.

Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) has epitomized all the qualities of a visionary leader.

In Nigeria, good governance has always been the elusive quality to drive the country forward, as the Federal Government has consistently demonstrated lack of it, especially in the last ten years.

However, Lagos State, the Centre of Excellence has distinguished itself as the abode of good governance, especially since the return to civil rule in 1999. All the ingredients are ever present.

No wonder, the unassuming government of Babatunde Fashola (SAN) continues to be the toast of everybody as he has epitomised all aforementioned qualities of visionary leadership.

The Governor, ever sparkling to take the state to greater heights, has continued with the provision of qualitative lifechanging welfare programs in the

• Fashola

‘

The Fashola administration has within 1, 600 days, moved successfully towards fulfilling the yearnings of the people. Though it is not yet Uhuru, the administration has been able to justify the confidence of Lagosians in assenting to its getting a second term

‘

last hundred days that he got the mandate to govern the state for a second term.

In line with his belief in equality of rights and privileges for all citizens, he identified with the physically challenged whose rights he tried to propagate with the promulgation of the disabled law. He has ceaselessly told them never to allow their disability make them condescend to lower themselves as second-class citizens. His message to them has always been, “There is an ability in disability.” With this, the Governor took off with a comprehensive plan to carry every citizen along.

As a way to give a creative approach to infrastructures

development and renewal, the administration shifted from strictly relying on budgetary allocation, to partner with the private sector, through the Public/ Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.

Through this, it has been able to execute the Lekki – Eti – Osa’s expressway and the just commissioned the ramp on Falomo.

The Lagos – Badagry expressway, has continued to be upgraded into a ten lane superhighway, complemented with a light-rail service, in partnership with the Lekki Concessionaire Company (LCC). Not only, this, there are a lot of other projects, which are being handled through direct contracting. These include the

upgrading of the Moshalashi – Egbeda road which is moving on smoothly while the expansion of the Ayobo – Ipaja road which will incorporate Aiyetoro and Isuti communities, is on course. The road would link the LASU – IBA road, to further ease traffic bottlenecks in that axis. Plans are equally in progress to construct a link road between Ikorodu road and the Lagos – Ibadan expressway at Ojodu Berger while work is soon to commence on the rehabilitation of Ikorodu road, which would incorporate a BRT route.

Accommodation for the citizenry, irrespective of social status continued to get the attention of government, which demonstrated determination to succeed in this regard, with the commissioning of the 336 housing units Michael Otedola estate, Odoragunshin and 80 units at Olaitan Mustapha and Adetoun Mustapha at Ojokoro. Just, two days ago, we also commissioned 72 units of three-bedroom apartments at the Elegant Court, Ikota, Lekki.

The Lagos Mortgage scheme would soon be launched to encourage ownership of the housing units with relative ease. As forerunners, the website to provide information on the scheme and regulations, as well as rules and regulations guiding it are already in place for easy access have been launched. Government has already promulgated the Tenancy Law with which it has also promoted a healthier relationship between landlords and tenants in the state.

As a way of giving our children a head start, government has continued to spend much money in the education sector for the purpose of creating a conducive ambiance for teaching and learning. Towards this end, unique programs such as the Eko Project, train the trainers program, etc., have been pursued with vigor, just as government keeps developing the physical structure and emphasizing discipline in the school community.

In addition, government has built more schools and equipped existing ones to meet the ever growing challenge of education. Same for the distribution of free text books, desks and benches and of course payment of bursary awards and scholarships to students in tertiary institutions. Government also released the white paper on the Lagos State University (LASU) essentially to position the institution to higher standards comparable to other world-class institutions. Equally, the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Ijanikin, has been upgraded, so also is the Michael Otedola College of Education, Naforija.

The tempo of managing the environment has been stepped up with the continued beautification of open spaces, construction and maintenance of more drainage channels, commissioning of the Oshodi Transfer Loading station, removal of obstructing structures on or near drainage channels. The State Government in conjunction with the International Council for Local Government Initiative (ICLEI), organized the Mayoral Climate Change Congress, to further create a forum from people from across the world to exchange ideas on climate change and the effect of global warming, which is already taking its toll on even the organized cities of the world.

On transportation, it has been cheering news in the last one hundred days. Government has taken a comprehensive approach

which saw it giving adequate attention to land, water, and rail transportation. The light rail project is progressing while the Lekki Airport project is also progressing.

Government has also built the Ipakodo jetty just as it keeps increasing its fleet of BRT buses for the convenience of commuters. The state has also launched the e – ticketing scheme with the – ticketing machine, the same way it has launched and put to use the Auto Detector. Also, LASTMA continues to enjoy the confidence of the public, just as government continues to train more drivers at the Lagos State Drivers Institute.

The rural sector has equally continued to enjoy the dividends of democracy with the provision of water through the Water Corporation and boreholes, electricity through the state IPP, feeder roads, Primary Health Centers etc while the Neighborhood Watch provides local security.

Also in the last one hundred days, youth empowerment and women development attracted the attention of government, which has put in more money to make the sectors vibrant for the challenges of tomorrow.

Food production has been the cornerstone of the Fashola administration which is targeting to make the state the food basket of the nation. Its approach of collaborating with farmers on their specific needs through feedback makes government’s agricultural programme customized to the specific needs of each farmer.

On health, government has done a lot in the last one hundred days to ensure that mother, child and the entire family live well to be fit for their daily activities. It has pumped more money into the development of hospitals and primary health centers to make them cope with challenges of patronage, just as drugs are constantly supplied for the use of patients among whom children and the aged enjoy free medical services.

Security is another area the Fashola administration has excelled in the last one hundred days. It is heartwarming that Lagos is the only state where there is the concentration of 18m people of diverse background and belief and the state is still peaceful, as it gives room for free interaction, peaceful co – existence and lawful causation.

Government has done a lot to give value to life and property and has collaborated with the police and other security agencies to nip crime in the bud. This has led to government providing the wherewithal to fight crime. Patrol vehicles, surveillance helicopters, arms and ammunition, police motor bikes, APCs, and other crime preventing equipment have been provided to combat crime. The State’s Security Trust Fund has continued to help in this regard.

Lagos State is also the only state that has emergency help lines 767 and 112, with which members of the public relate with government on criminal activities.

Therefore, the Fashola administration has within 1, 600 days, moved successfully towards fulfilling the yearnings of the people. Though it is not yet Uhuru, the administration has been able to justify the confidence of Lagosians in assenting to its getting a second term.

Lateef Aderemi Ibirogba Hon. Commissioner Ministry of Information & Strategy

8

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

9

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

D

EMOCRACy is undoubtedly the most popular political

ideology of our time. Those who get to power through its main ritual of elections pay homage to its credentials as a responsive and responsible people- oriented ideology. They hail democracy as the most realistic process of ensuring power is not abused in any political system since by its hallmark of being the government of the people by the people and for the people it ensures maximum political participation and aggregation of interests in the distribution of power and access to it by power seekers and political actors.

But those who abuse and traduce the democratic process and refuse to leave office after being duly elected and serving their terms or tenure also extol the virtues of democracy to high heavens. Which really is the core of the matter and the subject of discussion today.

This is because it is necessary to know why leaders born of democracy as it were later turn round to burn the finger that fed them or to remove the ladder they used to climb to power and metamorphose to total strangers to the rungs of the same ladder that facilitated their ascent to power in the name of democracy. Shakespeare said in his play As You Like It that ‘all the world is a stage and all the men and women have their entrances and their exits ‘and each man in his time plays many parts.

He then went on narrate the seven stages of human existence till old age and finally death.

Today however I intend to take on some personalities who from their use, misuse and abuse of power have scant respect for Shakespeare’s timeless observation that where there is an entrance there must ipso facto be an exit. These powerful people by their actions or lack of it seem to mock Shakespeare because the way they wielded power showed that they never thought they would make an exit. In some cases they seem to want to die in harness and in power rather than vacate office gracefully and as when due. In other cases they violated the rules of the game so much during their tenure that it was safe to predict that they will spend a long time in jail after the expensive jamboree at public expense that they turned their style of governance into .

This week Russian leader Vladmir V Putin visited China and signed huge gas contracts over $7bn to boost the Russian economy and cement his nation’s partnership with the Chinese to curb American and EU domination of world politics and finance. The two nations are the biggest consumer of oil in the world (China) and the biggest exporter (Russia) and they are negotiating the price of building the longest pipeline. In Cameroun, near us here, 78 years old President Paul Biya who has been in power for 29 years went through an election that can only have one result -which is to confirm him in office for

Demagogues and demons of democracy

another 7 years. In Liberia the FIRST female president in Africa President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf went to the polls to seek reelection even though the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of that nation had ruled that she should not be allowed to contest because of her political pedigree.

In Nigeria the EFCC charged three state governors who had just vacated office to court for embezzlement of public funds These then are the personalities whose political actions , antics and the ensuing and inevitable consequences I want to discuss today.

Vladmir Putin Russia’s strongman and modern world without end politician came to the world stage when he was handpicked as a presidential aide by Russia’s former president Boris Yeltsin (1991 – 1999), the man who took over from Mikhail Gorbachev who introduced glasnost and pereistroika - words that are no more than transparency and accountability into Soviet politics and hastened the death of the powerful USSR .

Putin bidded his time and served Yeltsin diligently as a former Kremlin spy without betraying any inordinate or imperial ambition in a democratic setting that Russia was

struggling to get accustomed to in those days. Eventually Putin succeeded the hard drinking and tired Yeltsin and Russia’s history has become synonymous with the ambition , political strategies and machinations of one man -Vladmir Putin.

After succeeding Yeltsin, Putin has ruled Russia like a modern Tsar for over a decade and is set for another perhaps till 2024 when elected to succeed present President Dmitri Medvedev in next year’s Russian presidential elections. In very brilliant democratic arithmetic, dexterous political calculation and deft manouvres, Putin ceded the presidency to his hand picked successor after being in power for two terms of four years from 2000 to 2008.

He became PM for another four years under his protégé who has now announced that he would not stand for reelection in 2012 but Mr Putin for whom he has kept house would return to the position he vacated in 2008 as the next president of Russia. I had speculated on this possibility before on this page but I can not but admit a grudging admiration for its consummation in 2011 right before our eyes. Anyway I see no one except death stopping Putin having his second coming

and third term by the back door in 2012 after the exit of the present President Medvedev who unlike most powerful people and politicians seem to know the way to the exit door while the ovation is loudest.

While time seems to be on the side of incoming president Putin in Russia who will be 60 next year the same cannot be said of President Paul Biya of Cameroun who is securing another term of office after 29 years in office. But Mr. Biya is as politically nimble and smart as Putin and equally proactive in achieving his perpetuity in office.

Biya had changed the constitution to allow him to contest another term long before now and there was little cry of foul by his countrymen.

Even now as the elections are going on there are so many laws in Cameroun that equate any protests to acts against the state and in Cameroun Paul Biya is the state just like the French king once said of himself – L’etat c’est moi – I am the state.

Again, since a coup is regarded as a political misstep in Africa at present and the sort of street revolutions in N Africa don’t happen in this part of the world; and since the likes of Paul Biya are not deterred by the pathetic sight

of former President Housni Mubarak of Egypt being taken to court in bed in the same Egypt he ruled for 32 years, nothing it seems can stop Paul Biya succeeding himself after winning the last democratic elections in Cameroun this week.

Obviously President Biya at 78 like his colleague in Zimbabwe urgently needs help to find an exit out of power even in his last stage of life as a man.

In Liberia where new Nobel President Ellen Johnson - Sirleaf is seeking reelection the issue of legitimacy looms over the elections results. Since the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission had ruled that most of the candidates cannot or should not contest for peace to reign in that nation they indeed should not have contested in the interest of peace in Liberia.

That the Supreme Court ruled that such people should contest can only remind one of the Gbagbo – Ouattara presidential election saga in neighboring Ivory Coast, and the role of the President of the Ivorian Constitutional Court who averred each time and for each side that the man in power won the elections.

I do not doubt the credentials of Sirleaf and that of Tubman the front runners in the Liberian elections to lead Liberia but if they served Charles Taylor and Sergent Doe so diligently in the past and Taylor is at the Hague at least biting his nail and accounting for his impunity while in power how clean can his collaborators be?

Indeed President Sirleaf was former minister of finance for late President William Tolbert who was killed in a military coup by Sergent Doe. I honestly think there should have been more respect for the findings of the

Truth and Reconciliation Committee before the elections, for peace to return to Liberia.

Lastly the sight in the newspapers of the two last governors of Ogun and Oyo state being docked for embezzlement of public funds speaks volumes in terms of the fall of man from grace to grass even in a democracy and all in its name. I however expect a speedy and fair trial but the governors should be deemed innocent until the EFCC proves otherwise. This is because the rule of law says in a democracy, a man is innocent until proven otherwise. This is what should be obtainable in these trials to put our Nigerian brand of democracy on course and banish impunity and the misuse of power.

One can recall the trial of former IMF MD Dominique Strauss Khan in the US over rape charges and how the accused was handcuffed and taken to a maximum security prison only to be released after the ordeal because the prosecution said it can not successfully pursue the case.

That really damaged the image of fairness in the US judicial sysyem before a global audience.

That should not be allowed to happen in our present Nigeria .Indeed trial of these former governors should give our anti corruption agencies, our police, prosecutors and in particular our judiciary , another opportunity to establish the rule of law in our democracy by punishing corruption and showing through the courts that our brand of democracy is definitely no sanctuary for demagogues and demons of democracy.

It is an opportunity so big for our democratic redemption that it can not be allowed to fail as the whole world like Big Brother is watching.

10 COMMENTARY

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Reactions to Saturday Flakes •I agree with you that many of our policemen are beasts in uniform. They have brought hardship and sorrow to many individuals and families. Their brutal acts and senseless killing of innocent citizens will continue until government takes serious steps to bring culprits to book. But in a society like ours, those in authority prefer to look away as long as they or their families are not victims of stray bullet, brutality or extra-judicial killing.

May the blood of those people maimed or sent to early graves by policemen hunt the beasts forever. Police is not my friend.

Adekanye T.A., Ilorin •Hi Vincent. The tragedy of your write-up this week is that you singled out the police for vilification. Yet, no doubt, you were right.

And your six-year-old daughter was right too.

Biblical Zaccheaus was extorting money from innocent people and so are the police in Nigeria.

But beyond that, what do you expect in a nation where justice is for sale to the highest bidder even in the highest court in the land.

Our hitherto revered justices are now at one another’s throats in a rat race to corner justice for the ruling party. If the head is okay, the police will sit up. They are the products of the society.

Still, kudos for your piece.

080335338..

•For the people who live in Ikorodu, Ketu, Ojodu, Berger and Ikeja but work on Victoria Island and must get home through the Third Minland Bridge, a foretaste of hell is the experience each day. Reason? The traffic stretches from the police checkpoint around the Oando filling station to Obalende.

The question is how many robberies have they foiled? Remember that this same spot claimed the life of a patriot, Agbeyegbe. The Nigeria Police has become a terror to the people. God will deliver us.

Israel.

Re: A tale of beasts in police uniform •Vincent, please extend my heart felt sympathy to the family of Mr. Quadri. The Lord almighty will fight for all those the police have killed their loved ones.

070315456..

•Your piece today is indeed a sad reminder of man’s gross inhumanity to man. Of a truth, we live in a world where those who ought to uphold the law kill it and bury it in the dustbin of lawlessness. I think your daughter’s well articulated question points to the indubitable fact that the time to reform and tailor our police along democratic norms is now.

Those who hide under the black uniform to commit all manner of illegalities should not forget the words of Dele Giwa that no evil deed will go unpunished. Any evil done by a man to another man will be redressed. If not now, then certainly later. If not by man, then by God. For the victory of evil over good is temporary.

Nigerians, please do not forget that the police is your best friend. So, please keep giving them the needed information to fight crime and terrorism.

Ehimare Godfrey •You fed Nigerians with the words you wanted them to hear and not the truth. You only see a side of an issue and go for yellow journalism most semi illiterate (sic). You can be arrested and charged for giving false information.

08037607020 •My brother, what is actually going on in this country? I shed hot tears as I read your piece this morning. What is going on in this jungle we call Nigeria?

081526519..

•In your piece, A Tale of Beasts in Police Uniform, the examples of Innocent Onovo, Muritala Saliu’s three-year-old daughter and Ismail Quadri, the baker, are enough to wonder what is going on in our nation, especially the police force. The army with all its power and force hardly brutalises except perhaps they are professionally insulted and annoyed. Who are these policemen? When shall we have peace in Nigeria? Police, think, think and think deeply. Only you all the time.

I felt for those families as I read your piece.

Enough of these uncivilised acts by the bad eggs in the police. Kudos to The Nation on Saturday for publishing the Quadri story. The police certainly intended killing.

•Lanre Oseni, Lagos.

Hmmm, Vincent. A tale of beasts in police uniform? The tales are endless. But who will stop this black men with black minds in black uniforms. May God help us.

080340118..

•You never see the good side of the police; only the bad side. Why? 07033023475 •Your article on Page 8 of The Nation today shows that you are a criminal and you will never go scott free from all heinous (sic) you have committed previously.

08037607020.

•Those monsters called policemen, who killed Mr. Quadri, must face the law and the consequences of their action. I commend you for not keeping silent in the face of injustice.

Monsuru •Vincent, the evil you pronounce against

the police that serve you at the expense of their own lives is against yourself. And remember that you cannot be both a journalist and a policeman at the same time.. Also, the measure you pronounce (sic), the same measure you will be judged with. Be sensible in your remarks.

07060849293 •The beasts in police uniform are not restricted to Lagos State. On August 24, 2011, I travelled from my Port Harcourt base to my home town, Okene in Kogi State for a wedding. The police stormed my Ahache ward overnight, claiming that they were looking for bad boys. The front and back windshield as well as the door glasses of my Honda car were smashed by the policemen who also vandalised more than 10 other vehicles. Nine innocent people who were arrested that night are still in detention in Lokoja till today.

Abdul S. Oziava, Port Harcourt.

•From what I have read, it is a case of murder. A source revealed that the DPO (Divisional Police Officer) has been removed.

I am sure the matter will not be swept under the carpet.

Sunny.

•If our policemen are just collecting money like Zaccheaus, it would have been better.

The beating and, sometimes, killing that go with it has now made them 08054055012 •I would advise the family to report the errant policemen to the Provos Marshal, Force Headquarters Annex, Kam Salem House, Obalende, Lagos.

08052538...

Reactions to Knucklehead Re: Before Dowden impoverishes our lawmakers Yomi, like you captured it, it is quite unfortunate that what shocks in other climes fascinates in Nigeria! However Dowden, in my understanding, still passes the apt message that corruption still abounds in all the corridors of power in Nigeria. Thank God the Senate president and the Speaker of the House of Representatives’ were at the event. The Executive was ably represented by the President and they all listened to what Dowden said. One day, monkey will go to the farm to steal and eat free banana sweated for by the farmer, and the monkey may not return home. ‘A word is enough for the wise’. It is quite unfortunate for the greedy parliamentarians.

—Lanre Oseni, 08033518726 Hello Yomi, got your ‘’sarcastic’’ points! If I may add, who told Mr. Dowden that we ‘Nigerians’ are complaining?

Can you see that while the Arab unrest is ongoing, and the ‘’occupy wall street’’ protest is on in America, Nigerians are busy praying, organizing vigils called by the Christian

Association of Nigeria leaders who are themselves ‘’fully belleful’’, filled up to the brim, and now asking people to ‘’fast’’!

I honestly feel we deserve what we get in this country. What Dowden does not know is that what service means in his country is very different from what it means here. Here it is the ‘’siren’’, ‘’looting’’, and all what have you, and quite interestingly, they get paid for looting. We are on our own o, everyman as government onto himself!

—Fola Aiyegbusi, hefzibar2006@yahoo.com Where have you been? I have been waiting to read your ever interesting article on the newspaper and finally I was able to read the one for October 8, 2011. It made a goodread.

Take care.

—08163692155 .

Hello Yomi, Mr. Dowden falls within the class of men Ellen G. White referred to, when she wrote that ‘the greatest want of the world is the

want of men who can’t be bought or sold with money, men who will call sin by its right name, men who in their innermost heart are ready to say the truth though heaven falls’.

—Ehimare, 08076823815.

Until we start operating the law as expected, the misinformation leading to misappropriation will continue.

Constituency offices should be functional where the running costs are well applied and not diverted to personal use.

—Hon.Ihuoma, 08060019005.

Your piece on ‘Before Dowden impoverishes our lawmakers’ published in Saturday 8th October of The Nation is a food for thought. I read it in transit between Ilorin and Minna road. If only you were on that road when writing your piece, you probably would have headed for the National Assembly with a bomb and not your pen! Even Lord Lugard didn’t leave such a road behind nearly a century ago. My verdict is - God will judge all the bad eggs in power in Nigeria.

Re: Of ‘leaks’ and beer parlour gossips Yomi, your writings of yesteryears and those of today are full of intelligent brainwork. This latest one sends a simple message to the gossips in high places—— ’to every bad mouth, a padlock must be hung!’ I cherish your writings.

—Alh Samanja Awodi, Ilorin Yomi, even if all the Wikileaks revelations and leakages are not 100 per cent perfect, some elements of truth would be there. In life, there are some things we do that are known to God and us only. If God decides to expose those things, then we will keep quiet. Wikileaks cannot be wrong. People should search their conscience, period!

—Lanre Oseni, Lagos, 08033518726 Hello Yomi, it is only the kind of leadership we have here that will describe the Wikileaks revelations, as they concern Nigeria, a beer parlour gossip. An inept, corrupt and greedy leadership!

—Fola Aiyegbusi Yomi, there exists the court of morality that resides in the public domain. No matter the denials of Wikileaks’ leaks, the fingered person carries a moral burden on his chest.

—Ter Akaa, Abuja, 08023856820 For me, Wikileaks’ revelations are security issues and it should be worrisome. Mr President should find a way to investigate or monitor the Nigerian ‘gossipers’ in the interest of the nation’s security.

-08033509122

Yomi, thanks a million for that piece which has rightly described our leaders as bunch of idle and careless talkers, especially when they are confronted by officials of developed nations. One is more disturbed with the degree of triviality that our President has turned the very damaging verdict into.

Our President, rather than admitting the damn verdict and promise to commence a general process of re-orientation of government officials, went ahead to showcase his political mediocrity. Let it be known to our president that there is no official of any developed country that does not have security background or training before he is given important political appointment. The security concept of ‘the need to know’ is germane in any official or unofficial interaction. With this exposition of our leaders’ undiplomatic conduct at every level of interaction; there is therefore the urgent need to expose our leaders to security/information management, at least to avoid a repeat of this kind of embarrassment as caused by Wikileaks. I remain your very good admirer.

—Adeyemi A.Kolajo, Agege, 08033796336 Yomi, good job. What should we expect from them? They found themselves in positions which they are the least qualified to occupy. When you give greedy man food, he loses control of his mind and speaks spuriously. Let’s pray for them to have sanity.

—Egungun, 08029680782 Here is my comment, President Jonathan needs to know that in every rumour, there must be an iota of truth. For him to jump into conclusion and describe the vital leaks as beer

parlour gossips is nothing but a display of the shoddy way we handle things here. That is the different between leaders in other climes and here. Jonathan should know that Nigerians are not happy with him—no security, road, education, basic infrastructure etc. God save and bless Nigeria.

—Doyin, Lagos, 08126373737 Yomi, I love this piece. In every lie, there is an element of truth .If people don’t see, they won’t say. We don’t want what happened in some North African countries to happen here in our country. But if they refuse to stop, one day, a revolution will take place here in our country.

-07089894583 Yomi, you should know that we practice various types of government ranging from corruptocracy, militocracy, meritocracy and gerontocracy. So far, corruptocracy is the form of government that we currently practice. The Wikileaks’s revelation is just like someone is trying to teach his grandmother how to cook egg. Our leaders are all born rogues.

Imagine the alleged ‘leaks’ which said David Mark and Mrs Yar’Adua took $30m dollars per month from our oil money!

And this is a country that is still rigmarolling with N18,000 minimum wage! Who are they professing to serve? Is it not their individual pockets? But they should remember the inescapable wrath of the poor masses and that of God. The Lord of the manors of this falling house should check their inordinate thirst for personal aggrandizement to the detriment of the poor that are seriously eating their heart out.

—Dapo Ipoola, Omuo-Ekiti

9 r/ 1

My life at 75

-Bola Kuforiji-Olubi

Life & Style/ 41

—Lizzy Anjorin

Paradise tucked away in an island

ille Thr

Screen/ 34

Reason I didn't marry my daughter’s father

Weekend

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THE NATION, Saturday, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Mystery UK-based doctor’s son found dead in hotel swimming pool Father insists on probe

Continued on Page 12

11

12

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

•The swimming pool in which Moses was found dead

Furore over 26-yr-old UKbased doctor’s son found dead in swimming pool

•The late Moses

L

IFE came to an abrupt end for a 26-year-old school leaver, Moses Adeniyi Ajewole, after he was found dead in a swimming pool at Motel International Hotel a few days ago.

A source at the hotel said the deceased, who was on night duty, had resumed work the previous night hale and hearty only for his body to be found in a swimming pool at the hotel at the hotel on Bamidele Abolaji Street, Alakuko, Lagos State.

Our correspondent gathered that the deceased had just sat for his West African School Certificate Examination and was looking forward to gaining admission into the university before his life came to an abrupt end.

The cause of his death remained a mystery even as the hotel management claimed that he was active on his duty post the evening before his body was discovered in the swimming pool.

Explaining the incident, the Hotel Manager, Mr. Samson Durosinmi, described Moses’ death as shocking

Kunle AKINRINADE

and mysterious. He said: “Moses resumed for night duty and was full of life and active throughout the night. In fact, nothing suggested that he could die so soon. That is why his death is so shocking, especially considering the fact that he was found dead the following morning.

“It is still a mystery because as an employee of the hotel, he was very familiar with the pool.”

The father of the deceased, Dr. Mike Ajewole, who is based in the United Kingdom, was said to have complained that there was more to

‘

the death of his son than meets the eye.

A source said: “Moses’ father is a qualified medical doctor and he is based in London. The man was so devastated that he was lost for words.

But he said he suspected a foul play in the death of his son.

“He is insisting that his son was not drowned as claimed by the hotel management, adding that the police must investigate the matter to unravel the mystery surrounding his death.”

Meanwhile, the police have arrested three employees of the hotel in connection with the death of the deceased, while the hotel was also temporarily shut to give room for

He is insisting that his son was not drowned as claimed by the hotel management, adding that the police must investigate the matter to unravel the mystery surrounding his death

’

further investigation into the matter.

A source who asked not to be named said: “Moses was such a nice and unassuming person, and he was very diligent too. He resumed for a night duty looking hale and hearty. Nothing suggested that such an incident would happen.

“I shed tears when I saw his body being removed from the pool. I can’t even believe that Moses would die such a terrible death because he was a promising young man with great hopes.”

Effort by our correspondent to speak with the father of the late bar attendant yielded no result as he did not pick his calls. Text messages sent to his telephone number were also not responded to at press time.

The spokesman of the Lagos State Police Command, Mr. Samuel Jinadu, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, said he needed more time to respond when our correspondent sought his comment on the incident.

“Please, you will have to give me more time to confirm the incident,” he said.

13

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER15, 2011

I took two wives, two concubines every month —Retired soldier suspected to lead a gang specialising in robbing foreigners Ebele BONIFACE ward off attacks from policemen on patrol. And the way I shot the gun would send the signal to them that I am a combatant soldier and the commander of the gang.

“I cannot remember the number of operations I have participated in, but I have been involved in more than 20 operations which were successful because we planned well before we carried them out. At times, we studied the operational mood of the policemen at the affected police divisions. If they were not battle-ready or the Divisional Police Officer was weak, we took advantage of it, did our job smartly and found our ways.

“In some divisions the police would not even know that robbery was going on until we had gone away for about 30 minutes.

“My joy is that we never killed anybody. We are disciplined robbers because we did not rape our victims or talk to them in dirty language. Maybe it was because they always cooperated with us.

“We did not invest the money we got from robbery operations because we knew that the moment we were caught, the police would go to the bank and clear our account.

The same thing would happen if we had landed property or vehicles.

Therefore, we felt it was better to enjoy our money when we had not been caught.”

Asked how the gang sourced their guns and ammunition, Sunday said: “It was my deputy, Segun, who used to collect guns from his brother, whoi we used to call Egbon. He works at the Alagbon office of the Immigration in Ikoyi, Lagos. He is still serving, but I don’t know his real name.

“He used to give guns to us on commission basis. How much he got depended on the outcome of our operation. At times, we gave him N50,000 for the gun and N10,000 for ammunition. There was a time we gave him N100,000 for the gun and N50,000 for groundnuts (bullets).”

Speaking further, Sunday said: “We were also involved in diverting goods. This business gave us food because it was easy to carry out and there were ready buyers.

“At times, we posed as members of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) by wearing their hand badge. We also have ID cards which we used to flag down any vehicle we wanted to operate on.

•Sunday

“At times, we planned our operation with the driver of the contraband goods, who would drive straight to the point where we were waiting to carry out the operation.

If the owner of the goods was with the driver, we would order him to alight from the vehicle and wait for the driver who we would take to our station. If he insisted on going with us, we would bring out our gun and threaten him.

“We would then take the goods to Apongbon area of Lagos or any-

,

O

PERATIVES of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Police Command has smashed a threeman gang of armed robbers, which specialises in robbing foreigners who are based in Lagos.

In an exclusive interview with our correspondent, the leader of the gang, 52-year-old Omotutu Bamidele Sunday, identified two other members of the gang as Segun and one Michael who he said was the gang’s expert rider.

He also explained why the gang targeted foreigners and mobile bankers who go about to collect money from petty traders, artisans and small scale industrialists.

He said: “I am an army staff sergeant on compulsory retirement. I am from Atijere village in Ilutuntun Local Government Area, Ondo State. I am married with four children. I am also the Ward C youth leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Apapa Local Government Area.

“I had the party’s promise to be made the head of traffic control in the local government if they emerge victorious in the coming (local government) election on October 22, 2011, and I am confident that the PDP will sweep the local government election.

“My wife is a hard working housewife. She sells dried fish. I became an armed robber after meeting Segun, who is now at large. That was three months after I retired from the army as staff-sergeant.

“When as a staff sergant in 1994, I got a job with a Lagos agency as the Chief Security Officer (CSO) and I was on a monthly salary of N22,400, whereas my salary in the army was about N7,000. With more money in my pocket, I took two wives and two concubines every month.

“Because of the large size of my family, I took another job as traffic officer in Etiosa Local Government Area. This gave my gang members the opportunity to stay on the roads and stop any vehicle they desired, particularly passengers buses.

“There were days we got between 10 and 14 phones and other items like wrist watches, jewellery, expensive shoes as well as cash amounting to thousands of naira.

“While I was in the army and earned only N7,450 monthly as a staff-sergeant, I had only one wife.

But when cheap money started coming, I expanded my family by taking more wives and concubines.

I didn’t patronise prostitutes because I was afraid of HIV infection.

“We suffered many disappointments, as we seized many suitcases from private car owners only to get to where we would share the loot and discovered that there was no big money in it, and most of the documents we find in them had no meaning to us.

“But the day we got a white man, we found enough naira and dollars to make us smile. Since then, we started targeting foreigners.

“We used to be well armed to

While I was in the army and earned only N7,450 monthly as a staff-sergeant, I had only one wife. But when cheap money started coming, I expanded my family by taking more wives and concubines. I didn’t patronise prostitutes because I was afraid of HIV infection

,

where we liked to dispose them off to standby buyers.

“Our secret leaked when some men of the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA) arrested us for collecting money on the road. We were charged to court for extorting money from innocent members of the public. We were later granted bail but we were sacked and I became jobless.

“Instead of staying idle, particularly when the money I got from robbery had almost finished, I became an okada (commercial motorcycle) rider.

“But Segun said we should operate as special commercial motorcycle riders by using our motorcycles to rob. He said it would pay us better than carrying passengers.

“Segun knows how to drive long vehicles and cars. So, at times, we snatched cars and used them for robbery operations. At other times, we stopped long vehicles and tie the driver while Segun would take over steering.

“We raided Alaba area with motorcycles and made much money there until the traders organised a market security network we found difficult to beat.”

Explaining how he was arrested

by SARS, he said: “I was arrested after we robbed a Chinese. We were at Airways at Apapa local government area Lagos around 2 pm on September 13, 2011, at about 2 to 3pm. I carried Segun with me on a bike while Michael was on another bike. We were on top of the bridge at Apapa when we saw the Chinese man coming. I used my motorcycle to block him and he stopped. I then flashed my fake FERMA identity card and ordered him to wind down.

“I opened the front door, sat beside him and brought out my English pistol and pointed it at him. I ordered him to give me his bag and he complied. I came out and jump ed on the motorcycle and Segun rode off while Michael followed us and we headed to our location at Airways, Apapa.

“In the bag was the sum of N250,000, according to Segun, although the Chinese said it was N280,000. I did not know whether Segun removed N30,000 from it, because he is a clever thief.

“Other items in the bag were bank cheques, a certificate of incorporation and other vital documents as well as a Nissan car key.

“We went to a beer parlour at Onikan Stadium around 5pm the same day where we shared the money. As soon as Segun gave me N52,000, I left to my house at IE, Desalu Compound, Apapa Road, Costain. When I got home, I relaxed and thanked God for a successful operation.

“I later went to Airways for a meeting we had arrnged. There, Segun gave me a cheque of N400,000 to go and withdraw from the Zenith Bank account of the Chinese.

I went to Zenith Bank at Pako Bariga and presented the cheque with my FERMA identity card. The cashier collected them and asked me to go and sit down for verification. I waited for more than one hour, not knowing that the Chinese had alerted the bank.

“I was told that the cheque was stolen and I was immediately arrested and taken to the Bariga Police Station.

The Chinese man was later invited by the police and I met him face to face at the police station. He identified me as one of the three men that robbed him on top of the Apapa bridge.

The policemen took me to SARS Command headquarters at GRA, Ikeja and handed me over to them.

After initially denying robbing the Chinese, I told them the whole truth.

The Public Rleations Officer of the Lagos State Police Command, Mr. Samuel Jinadu, a deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), advised the two other members of the gang who were still at large to hand themselves over to the police.

14

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER15, 2011

Our female members were more ruthless —Robbery gang

•From left; Ugochuku, Abiola and Olaitan

T

‘ They physically par-

•35 catrigdes and five locally made pistols recovered from the suspects

Ebele BONIFACE car. As he approached us, Ejike stopped him and pointed gun at him, telling him to cooperate with us. We ordered him to come down and told him that we were robbers.

He begged us to spare his life. The road was free, so we sped off.

“I was later dropped at Mushin and told that I would get my share of the deal when the car might have reached its buyers who were already waiting at Sango-Ota, Ogun State.

“Suddenly, SARS operatives appeared in my house and arrested me. They searched my house thoroughly but could not find anything incriminating. I later took them to Ejike’s house, but he escaped before we got there. They searched his house and recovered two locally made pistols we used in our operations.”

Asked how they procured the guns, he said it was Ejike who was responsible for that. But he added that the gang’s armourer was one Wale who was also at large.

He said: “When a gun is pointed at a victim and the victim fails to cooperate, my duty was to work on the victim by beating him mercilesly. I didn’t allow members to shoot or rape victims because it brings bad luck to the gang. I always advised them not to shoot. I don’t even carry a gun myself

ticipate in car snatching, armed robbery and the process of taking the vehicles across in almost all the operations I knew about. If you see them in action, you will understand better. The women are more wicked than men during robbery operations

‘

HREE members of a robbery gang with which two women allegedly worked on contractual terms have admitted working with the women, describing them as more deadly than the male members of the gang.

In our last Saturday edition, we carried the story of two women, 38year-old Fausat Anifowose and 32-year-old Kemi Adesanya, who admitted working with a robbery gang that specialised in snatching cars on contractual basis.

A member of the gang told our correspondent in an interview during the week that the female suspects were not as innocent as they sounded in their confessions. While the two women had said their involvement did not go beyond escorting the men to take the vehicles they had snatched across the Nigerian/ Benin border, a male member of the gang, 31-year-old Olaitan Abidoye, said the women were actively involved in the actual process of car snatching.

Abidoye said: “The women are our members. They are very powerful. They know all the bush paths in the border areas, the customs officers, the immigration officers and the police officers. They sleep with the law enforcement agents.

“They physically participate in car snatching, armed robbery and the process of taking the vehicles across in almost all the operations I knew about. If you see them in action you will understand better. The women are more wicked than men during robbery operations.

“I was the one who personally took SARS operatives to Alhaja Fausat Anifowose’s house at Badagry where she was hiding.

She is a big woman.”

Abidoye, an indigene of Ilorin, Kwara State, said he was an auto-mechanic at Ojodu area of Lagos but resided at No. 16 Olanukan Street, Ikorodu, Lagos.

Narrating the events that led to his arrest on August 7, 2011, he said: “I was arrested on August 7, 2011 in Mushin, Lagos. They said they were looking for me for armed robbery and snatching of vehicles. I told them that we were four - myself, Shina, Ejike and Alhaji Kazeem. But Obe (another suspect) was the receiver of a Toyota Camry we snatched at Ijora at gun point, while Ugochukwu Obi is a friend to Ejike.

Ejike, Kazeem and Shino are still at large.

“On that day, Ejike and Shino held a locally made pistol and we were standing on Ijora Road when saw the victim with his

because I swore not to kill anyone until I die.

“Even when we carried victims in a snatched car, I always advised my men to slow down well for the victims to alight. I don’t allow them to drop victims while the car was in motion because it is very risky to life. I made sure a victim was gently dropped at a place he would conveniently find his way back home.”

In his own confession, Alhaji Abiola Obe (27), a native of Ilara village, Ogun State, said: “I was not the receiver. My role was to wait on top of the bridge in Sango-Ota. Sometimes, I stroll down to where the NURTW workers loaded Mile 12 and Iyana Ipaja passengers. We communicated on the phone, and that made things easier for us.

“I had no problem with the police, customs, immigration and LGC officials I met on the way to the border because we set aside an amount of money we normally gave to them. It could be as much as N5,000.

“I normally waited with one Alhaja Fausat. When they (snatchers) brought the car, I took over from that point while Fausat would sit beside me as I drove off to Benin through the bush path. I have crossed two cars, a Kia Seconda and a Passat, for Alhaja Fausat.

“At Cotonou, the buyer is one Alhaji Frank. He pays me money for crossing the car. He pays N40,000 per car. I got N80,000 for crossing vehicles for Fausat twice while I also got N80,000 for crossing vehicles for Alhaja Kemi.”

“From the proceeds, I bought a desktop computer and furnished my business centre. I plan to own a cyber café soon. “ The third suspect, Ugochukwu Obi (17), a native ofUmudioka village in Awka South Local Government Area, Anambra State, said: “I schooled in Capital City Secondary School Ummagom in Awka South Local Government, Anambra State. I am in SS2. I came to Lagos to spend my holiday with my elder brother.

“I knew Ejike, who is still at large, as my classmate in the primary school. The day I met him in Lagos was the day my church, The Lord’s Chosen, had a crusade. I met him as we were sharing handbills and flyers at Ijesha Expressway side. He was on a motorcycle and we exchanged our phone numbers.

One Saturday, he called me and took me to his house. I did not know that Ejike was an armed robber because whenever I visited him, he asked me to wash his dirty clothes and even his girlfriend’s pants.

When it was time to go, he would give me a lot of money, as much as N10,000.”

On the three guns found on him, he said they belonged to Ejike, who usually asked him to clean and oil the guns.

He said: “The guns belong to Ejike. I was merely cleaning the guns for him. I did not know that they used them for robbery. I thought they were his property. Even some of his gang members who used to visit him used to give me their guns to clean.

Contacted for comment, the Public Relations Officer of the Lagos State Police Command, Mr. Samuel Jinadu, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, said as far as the command was concerned, it made no difference that a robbery is carried out on contractual basis. “Armed robbery is armed robbery,” he said.

15

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

I became an orphan when I least expected, says 18-yr-old survivor of generator fume which killed her mother, brother, cousin

•Kasarachi on hospital bed after the incident

Kunle AKINRINADE

, •Kasarachi before the incident

O

N Saturday April 7, 2011, we ran the pathetic story of this 18- year-old lucky survivor of a generator fume that killed three other members of her family, including her mother, younger brother and a cousin.

Kasarachi Okoroji was watching the television with her deceased family members in their living room at their No 5, Old Nekede Road, Owerri on February 4, 2011 when tragedy struck.

A power outage had occurred, prompting her deceased cousin, who was putting up with the family at the time, to dash out to start the generator. Not long after, Kasarachi, her mother, who until her death was an insurance practitioner, her brother and her cousin fell asleep with the generator still running.

Smoke from the generator’s exhaust was said to have filled the living room, leaving three members of the household dead before dawn. Worried that none of the family members had surfaced the following morning, neighbours forced open the door to their twobedroom apartment and found the three people dead in the living room. But Kasarachi miraculously survived the emission.

Concerned neighbours, who had forced the door to the apartment

It was an incident that devastated me, considering the monumental loss I suffered. My dream of studying in a tertiary institution was abruptly halted. My emotional attachment to my mum was destroyed and I was rudely detached from my siblings.

In fact, recalling the sad incident brings tears to my eyes...

,

open, found that Kasarachi was still breathing and decided to rush her to the hospital. At that time, she had just secured admission into the Imo State Polytechnic, Nekede, Owerri, to study Banking and Finance. Her matricula-

tion was only a few days away when tragedy struck. The incident did not only disfigure the young woman and left her swollen beyond beyond recognition, it left her bedridden at the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri.

But help came her way from Nigerians at home and abroad after the incident was reported by The Nation. Before then, doctors had terminated her treatment because her family could not pay the hospital bills.

Happily, Kasarachi is now out of hospital, even though she is still undergoing treatment for her contorted left hand as an out-patient.

“I am fine now,” she told our correspondent in an interview during the week. “I can walk, play and talk. I want to thank Nigerians for coming to my aid and for giving me hope when the situation was hopeless.

“It was an incident that devastated me, considering the monumental loss I suffered. My dream of studying in a tertiary institution was abruptly halted. My emotional attachment to my mum was destroyed and I was rudely detached from my siblings.

“In fact, recalling the sad incident brings tears to my eyes. It has been a harrowing experience, but I thank God that I am alive, and I will forever thank Him”.

She once again solicited help from well-meaning people to restore one of her limbs which was badly affected during the incident. She also says she wants to go back to her studies as soon as possible.

Kasarachi said: “I want to appeal to Nigerians once again to come to my aid so I can live a life of my dream. I want to go back to school to continue with my studies, but I don’t know where my help would

come from, because I was turned into an orphan when I least expected.”

Her aunt and guardian, Mrs. Mary Azubuike, also said:” I want to express my sincere thanks to the public across the states of Nigeria and to members of UmuIgbo Katolik Community in London for their financial contributions to aid my niece, Kasarachi.

“After the miraculous recuperation of Kasarachi from her coma, we can say the worst is over for now. With the medical attention and physiotherapy treatment she received these past months, she now walks on her two feet unassisted, and she is able to use her hands partially. She can use her left hand properly now, but her right hand and fingers remain partially contorted, needing more physiotherapy.

“Kasarachi is out of the hospital and she has accepted the tragedy that befell her immediate family in good faith. She is now bravely facing the reality of life without the emotional and financial support that her mother had provided for her, as well as the terrible loss of her siblings.

“My concern now is for her dayto-day survival and to ensure that she is able to continue with her education and become self-sustaining in life. I am appealing again to Nigerians, government agencies, corporate organisations and other well wishers to please donate what they can afford so that Kasarachi can be assured of a future. Donations should be sent to the Appeal Fund that was set up by Union Bank Plc, Lagos with account number 0022914560.

“Kasarachi can be contacted through Mrs. Mary Azubuike on 08035239245 or Amaka on 08060105976 .”

•Kasarachi... now out of hospital

16

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER15, 2011

Anambra community banishes man, his wife and father for allegedly killing family friend with poison

•Chinedu explaining himself

•Chinedu’s father

W

,

HAT could make a man to poison his best friend with gun powder? This is a question that is begging for an answer at Nnobi, a community in Idemili South Local Government Area, Anambra State.

The incident has thrown the Ngo quarters in the community into a pandemonium, which resulted in the middle-aged man, Chinedu Atuigwe, who allegedly perpetrated the atrocity being banished from the community.

Also banished were his wife and father for allegedly being part of the plot to poison the victim.

Before the three were banished from the community, there were said to be many strange deaths.

This fuelled the suspicion of the villagers that the trio of Chinedu, his wife and father were responsible for many sudden and unnatural deaths that had plagued the community in recent times, an allegation Chinedu and his father have denied vehemently.

Trouble was said to have started for the trio about two weeks ago when the deceased, Chukwudi Okeakpu, paid a visit to his friend at Ngo village Nnobi.

Unknown to the visitor, the food served him was allegedly laced with gun powder with the intention of eliminating him. Shortly after eating the poisoned food, Okeakpu left for another destination.

The sources further stated that on his way home, Okeakpu developed running stomach and started vomiting. He died before passersby and sympathisers could offer any help.

It was alleged that before the victim gave up the ghost, he stated that his death was not unconnected with “the delicious food” he ate at his friend, Atuigwe’s place.

It was not clear what could push Atuigwe to poison his friend, but

However, the angry members of the community stripped Atuigwe naked, hung palm leaves on his neck, dragged him round the town like a common criminal, destroyed his father’s altar and banished him and the other members of his family from the community

,

•Chinedu displaying charms

Adimike GEORGE, Onitsha sources stated that Okeakpu, a builder, had been taking Atuigwe along to work with him at building sites until he told Atuigwe that he would no longer need his services.

The development was believed to have angered Atuigwe.

It was gathered that shortly after his death, those who overheard him

mentioning the food he ate at Atuigwe’s residence passed the message round the community. At once, the villagers confronted him, his wife and father over the allegation.

He denied killing Okeakpu because he said he would no longer be taking him to his building sites to serve him as a labourer.

However, the angry members of the community stripped Atuigwe

naked, hung palm leaves on his neck, dragged him round the town like a common criminal, destroyed his father’s altar and banished him and the other members of his family from the community.

They also forced him to carry his father’s charms and amulets on his head, after displaying them to the entire villagers, just as his father was equally humiliated.

The President-General of Nnobi

Welfare Union (NWO), Dr. Omenugha, who confirmed their banishment, said the measure was the traditional way of allowing justice to take its course in Igbo land.

Describing Atuigwe’s alleged action as a sacrilege, Omenugha also confirmed that by that punitive measure, Atuigwe, his sons and generations yet unborn would never come back to the community and dwell among the people.

He added that such people who could kill in cold blood were not worth living with, saying that their banishment would teach other people some lessons.

17

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER15, 2011

‘I threatened my cousin’s wife with death to cause her pain’ ,

I never planned to hurt or harm her in any way. My plan was to make her feel immense pain she made me feel.

This wasn’t how I planned it to be. I never meant to harm her or any one in her family. I went through pain and I wanted to make her go through the same pain

,

•Joy

•Idris

I

DRIS Ibrahim,20, recently vowed to retaliate an injustice meted out to him by his cousin’s wife, Mrs. Joy Jagaba.

According to him,he was falsely accused by the woman of impregnating a girl in Kuta in Niger State.He then put up a plan. He was out to launch a psychological war. The first step he took was to send Joy a death threat and placed a N70,000 ransom on her life. That was not all.

Jide ORINTUNSIN, Minna He later inflicted more emotional torture on his victim by saying that members of her family would swell the number of guests in heaven, if by 7pm Thursday, September 29 she failed to play ball.For 48 days, Joy went through hell. The absence of her husband, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, who is currently on a peace

mission in Sudan further worsened her predicament.

It was the most traumatising period of her life. On the day Idris thought his plan was successful,he was picked up by security operatives. He was detained in the cell of the Central Intelligence Department, Niger State Police Command Headquarters at Dutsen Kura, Minna.

Fondly called ‘Daddy’ by family members, Idris was remorseful.

He said: “I never planned to hurt or harm her in any way. My plan was to make her feel immense pain she made me feel. This wasn’t how I planned it to be. I never meant to harm her or any one in her family. I went through pain and I wanted to make her go through the same pain. I never thought it would get to this stage or end this way.”He was arrested when he went to pick the money from the place he directed Joy to put it.

He further said: “I did not report to anyone, neither did I tell anybody what was bothering me or that I had her in my mind. No, I didn’t tell anybody. If I had told them, they would not have done

anything about it. I would have been told to be patient. I wanted her to feel the pain I felt. I wanted her to go through the same harrowing emotional torture. “I had no plan to use that money. I just want to hit her back, to make her feel the pain I felt.”

When Joy could no longer bear the pain, she was advised to do as directed by her tormentor, that is, she should put the money at the place at the appointed time and leave the rest to the police.Like magic, it worked.

Idris, who thought he had perfected his plot, quietly walked to pick N70,000 at Gunni Junction in Mararaba at about 7 pm was picked by the police.

Waiting anxiously at the police station after dropping the ransom, Joy was shocked when she came face-to-face with her tormentor, Idris. According to her, “It was really shocking when I saw that it was Daddy that had been threatening me. I was really surprised. I wept when I saw him. I was not myself when I learnt that he was the one who came to pick the money that was placed at the designated point. Though I prayed to God to reveal the per-

,

son behind this, I was shaken to discover it was Daddy.”

Narrating her ordeal, Joy said, “I was not myself. The threat started since August 13. It stopped for a while and then started again. That was the time he told me how much I was to pay to stop the threat and where to put it. I had to call my husband who was out of the country and he sent me the money. I also had to go to the police to report the case and they told me what to do. ”When confronted with the allegation that she had earlier in the year accused Idris of impregnating a girl in Kuta, Joy denied vehemently.

“I did not accuse him of impregnating anybody. I don’t even know the girl. What happened was that Daddy came to our house one day and saw some leaves we were to use for soup and he said they were also useful for terminating pregnancy.

He took some of them, saying that he would give them to any of his pregnant girlfriends.”When I returned, my sister told me this, and bearing in mind that he had earlier impregnated a girl, I called his cousin, that is, my husband, to tell him what Daddy said and asked him to caution him so that he would not impregnate another girl.

I did not even talk to him directly. I just asked his brother to caution him,” she said.Though she went through excruciating pain, Joy said she had forgiven Idris for all the pain he caused her, adding that she had left everything in the hands of the God. “There is nothing I can do. I have left the case for God. He helped me.

But he has to face the law,”Joy said.Expressing regrets about his action, Idris said: “I take it to be my destiny. If I had known it would get to this extent, I wouldn’t have stressed myself for something like this.

I would have met her one on one. I accept it as my destiny.”

18 The National President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, during the week in Lagos, fielded questions from select journalists on pressing national issues. The Nation was there.

Excerpts:

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

T

HERE are fears that the nation could break up going by the way things are going? Do you share that view?

I don’t want to go by that prediction.

What we are seeing actually points to that direction. I believe that it is the will of God for all these nationalities in Nigeria to be brought together, or let me say for someone to bring them together. If not, it won’t happen, we have come together. But government must do something to all that we have been experiencing – violence and the likes. Government must convene a sovereign national conference; whatever name you choose to call it but all the different nationalities must come together. We must sit around a table and discuss.

You see the problem of Nigeria is that we want peace without justice; we want justice without truth. We are experts at sweeping the truth under the carpet.

Some governors are now calling for a sovereign national conference unlike what the case used to be. People are beginning to reason; what do these people causing trouble really want? A national conference is a good place to ask them that question. I don’t pray that Nigeria should break up.

Some of their demands include a call for Shariah and jihad?

That is exactly what I am saying, Boko Haram is one good reason for us to come together and discuss. Are we now going to have two different constitutions – one for 12 states and another for the rest of us? Sanusi Lamido has already done in it in the Central Bank of Nigeria through the non-interest banking. There is a guideline on Islamic banking and another one for the rest of us. It’s very worrisome; anybody who loves Nigeria will be very worried at this point. I am very worried.

It’s hard to comprehend how any normal group of people will be making such demands. Their demands have to be viewed in light of other members of Nigeria’s demands. I am glad that Arewa (Arewa Consultative Forum) spoke up eventually; I have always said that part of the solution to this problem must come from the northern elite. When we

•Pastor Oritsejafor

Boko Haram has reinforced the urgent need for a national conference —CAN President Oritesjafor had serious issues with the Niger Delta, some of us intervened. I went to the creeks and we discussed until we finally came to the point of amnesty.

Fish and fuel are more expensive at source, but we had to talk to them.

Some people are making excuses that the issue of Boko Haram is political, but I can tell you that it is very religious.

Politicians may have taken advantage of it but if you listen to the boys, you will find out that it has religion at its base. They believe their religion has to be supreme. I believe that moderate Imams should find ways of reaching these boys in teaching them the right things about Islam. They have been indoctrinated, they have to be deprogrammed and reprogrammed.

And that has to be done by the imams.

What is going to be the

constitutional ground for the SNC, how are the members going to emerge?

I am not a lawyer, but I am very practical in the things I do. I don’t know how Chief Olusegun Obasanjo did the one we have sometime ago (the 2005 National and Political Conference), but you know that Baba has his way of doing things. But if we can have the support of the National Assembly, I believe they can find ways. In most states, there are about three senatorial districts with different nationalities being represented by a senator. Most of the time, people who are not from his ethnic group will not trust him. It is almost the same case with the House of Representatives. So the National Assembly can come with something that will be able to accommodate all the ethnic nationalities.

I pray the NASS buys into the option.

On Mallam Sanusi Lamido and Islamic banking concept; there appears to be some quiet from Christians now...

That to me is what is called graveyard peace. It is not calm at all. The problems are still there. Some people say that I am the one heating the polity; but it is not me, I am only reacting to what somebody has done. The person to blame is the man who introduced that idea. If Sanusi did not go the way he went, we will all the happy and shaking hands.

I am not against Islam or Islamic banking per se. This is not a fight between Christians and Muslims. But some of the things that l am against are: to give the world the impression that Islamic banking is synonymous with non-interest banking; yes, it is but there are other kinds of non-interest banking.

The principles of non-interest banking •Continued on Page 22

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Saturday

THRILLER

Paradise tucked away in an island

19

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THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Paradise tucked

•Open space where students relax

•Members of Nigeria Institute of Sports on the island

F

EW Lagos residents probably know about its existence. And a good number of those who know, particularly the wealthy men who cruise their boats on the Lagoon, may not really know about the goings on at the small island in the nation’s commercial nerve centre.

They might just have seen people moving in and out of it without knowing their mission. Even on this sunny Thursday afternoon, majority of the people in the boat boarded by the reporter were visiting the island for the first time.

Overwhelmed by the beauty and serenity of the environment, the Minister of Youths Development, Mallam Abdullahi Bolaji, could not but marvel

•Ships like this are seen beside the island

Gbenga ADERANTI

at the existence of the island that hosts the Sea School unit of the Citizenship and Leadership Training Centre, Lagos.

The minister shook his head repeatedly in a gesture of surprise as his host, the Director General of the Citizenship and Leadership Training Centre, Abuja, Mr. Michael Oladele Fawole, took him from one part of the training centre to another.

The heat generated by the sun was effectively neutralised by the cool breeze that seized the air.

While the minister admitted that he did not know about the island’s existence until recently, you could see from the looks on his face that he was impressed with what he had seen. He must, indeed, have asked himself over and over, why

many people were not aware of the existence of such a wonderful place?

Except for the absence of posh cars and state-of-the-art buildings, the community would have eminently matched James Hadley Chase’s description of the Paradise City.

Not for this island the pollution occasioned by generator fume, industrial waste and other man-made threats to the environment.

And while many Nigerians groan under the burden of epileptic power supply, no thanks to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), the training centre is one of the few places in Nigeria where ‘Up NEPA’ is not a familiar slogan.

Some who had visited the island attested to the regular supply of

electricity to the centre, a dvelopment they described as commendable.

Sea School Training Centre is arguably one of the most secured places in Nigeria.

Apart from the place being surrounded by water, the constant patrol of the area by the Marine Police makes it difficult for hoodlums to go near. These are complemented with a fence which the management is building round the school.

Good health is also assured with a medical team constantly on patrol. And in case of emergency, speedboats are readily available to take anyone who needs medical attention to Apapa General Hospital.

No one seemed to know the strategic importance of the island until Fawole

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THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

away in an island

•The DG Fawole and the minister

•Some of the students

•One of the training tools

‘

Not for this island the pollution occasioned by generator fume, industrial waste and other man-made threats to the environment.

And while many Nigerians groan under the burden of epileptic power supply, no thanks to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), the training centre is one of the few places in Nigeria where ‘Up NEPA’ is not a familiar slogan

disclosed that people in the military, para-military and even crew members have to visit the island for one course or the other before they graduate.

It is also a school that hosts members of the State Security Service (SSS).

According to the DG, there is no way you would become an SSS operative without passing through the school. At the time The Nation visited the school, there were students from the Nigeria Institute of Sports (NIS), the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other organisations on training.

“We run programmes throughout the year. Most federal colleges and private schools have built it into their curricula.

’

All acting prefects, pending the time they resume, are sent here. The management of the schools have discovered that when they are sent here and their students receive training, they perform excellently,” Fawole said.

He added: “Almost all the schools in Lagos patronise us. Schools used to send in prefects, but now they send all their SS2 students who have just graduated into SS3. Colleges of education, universities or those doing their Ph.D programmes attend our programmes.

We assess them and I think our assessment carries a percentage.

“The Police, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Road Safety, the SSS and Prisons all patronise

us. The list is long.”

As you walk round the island, you notice lush green grass. There and then, you begin to appreciate nature. The almond trees planted around the school add beauty to the serene environment.

Under the almond trees, people converge to discuss all manner of issues.

The quadrangle also provides an avenue for people from different backgrounds to converge and socialise.

But good as this place may seem, the DG says it is faced with a myriad of problems. According to him, it is difficult to transport students, visitors and workers to and from the island.

According to him, as at today, the school has three water buses. “To run three water buses daily is expensive. But because we want to maintain standard, we keep struggling,” Fawole said.

Disposing waste is a big headache for residents of the island. It is a task much easier to perform on dry land. That, our reporter gathered, was responsible for a refuse dump on a portion of the island.

The DG explained that they had to leave the refuse till the time it would be easy to burn it, because it would be unwise to throw the refuse in the sea.

He said: “This is an island and it is also at water level. When you dig a soak away, you discover that water settles there even before you complete the soak away. Often, we have to rebuild the toilet. There are areas that need sand filling. We need to acquire more space,” the D-G added.

Funding, he said, had also been a major challenge for the institution. According to the DG, what the centre has been getting from the government is not enough. And since those who come back to use the place pay meagre sums, the island has been struggling to survive.

He said: “At its inception, students were not paying fees. It was the government that was sponsoring them to attend capacity-building programmes. But executive courses have their own charges; I think between N3,000 and N5,000. But it is not a regular thing.

“Ten per cent of the fees charged are remitted to the federation account. For now, we charge N1,000 per day for students. The N900 is meager to maintain a person’s three square meals and accommodation and the programme.

But somehow, we are managing.”

Fawole told The Nation.

Fawole said the place could be better if government injects funds. “If we receive government’s recognition, there will be funding and we will be able to do much of what we intend to do. For example, we need a bigger boat that would carry 100 people. We need a better conference hall. With a conference hall, we can run conferences. There is much we can do if facilities are improved.”

The excited minister said rather than government and other private bodies having their retreats in other places, the island is the most ideal environment. In view of this, he promised to be the ‘chief marketer’ of the island.

“I’m excited about this place. I think so much can be done with this place and I’m also impressed witht what I heard about the things they do in spite of the limitations of the infrastructure. I believe that we can overhaul this place and repackage it and do more than what they are currently doing.

“But a challenge for us as in all sectors is to find a linkage with the private sector. It is very important. This place has probably gone the way it is because we’ve not been able to open up and there are so many people who are doing the kind of things we are doing.

“We are competing with people who are running with business enterprise in mind. Unless we are able to position ourselves to deliver, we will probably continue to lag behind, and this is a great institution.”

The minister described the place as “a great establishment, with great history.

An amazing location. I don’t know of any other place where they have this kind of location.

“There is so much we can do. Our plan now is to partner with individuals and corporate organisations to invest in the infrastructure and reposition it for future challenges. No doubt, what is being done here, training is one of the critical areas that we want to focus on. But we need to upgrade our facilities.

“This is my first time of visiting. I’m already charging. I’ve put an officer on it and we are going to run it as soon as possible. Something I want to do at the end of my tenure in the ministry of Youth Development is to be the one that repositioned the centre. And we are going to work aggressively,” the excited minister said.

22

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

‘We must pray and continue to pray for Nigeria’ •Continued from Page 18 existed before Islamic banking. It’s like Nigerians are being intentionally indoctrinating Nigerians.

He made the adjustment he made when he saw that the pressure was much from us; to say that there will be one guideline for Islamic banking and another for other forms of noninterest banking. Is that not discriminatory? There is a problem there. Why not have a uniform guideline for all forms of non-interest banking? If he truly has a genuine intention, he should provide a common guideline for all. There is one guideline for universities, there is one guideline for the telecoms sector; that is what should be in banking. If Sanusi doesn’t have a hidden agenda, he should streamline it to one type of guideline.

Have you spoken with President Goodluck Jonathan on this issue?

No. Let’s leave Jonathan out of this and I say that deliberately. We can handle this.

What’s your reaction to these national issues: deregulation of the petroleum sector and the single tenure controversy? Some have said it will define the tenure of Jonathan…

First, the petroleum subsidy in 2012, that it is not a bad idea but there are two important things to note. Before making this public, they ought to sit down and agree with relevant stakeholders – the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and other groups that represent the masses. I’m not aware that happened and it’s still not too late to do that. The other thing is how to cushion its effect. What are the plans to make life easier for the ‘common man?’

We should not look for a Nigerian that is worse than we see today. They should look at corruption, wastage; they need to look at curbing people who siphon this subsidy money. On the single term matter; I don’t see anything wrong with the idea. The problem is still corruption in the political class. If a man has just six years and he knows he is not coming back, then we are in trouble because he begins to grab all that his hands can find and destroys the nation. The kind of money that goes into election is enough to salvage Nigeria.

At 51, how do you appraise developments in Nigeria?

In one word, I would have said the journey has been disappointing, but if I may use more words that it would

•Pastor Oritsejafor

be mild, the fact that about 400 different tribes who originally did not plan to live together, but have been able to stay together for so long is commendable.

Nigerians are not fulfilled. So much must be done to make life worth living for Nigerians. The future itself is disturbing looking at the things we had earlier discussed. But Nigerians are hopeful people.

There is a spiritual dimension to some of these issues. We must pray and continue to pray for

Nigeria. You see a man that looks like a performer, an achiever, but he suddenly gets into office and he is not able to perform again, what has happened? You may ask, there are some of these things that I cannot say here. But you cannot deny the existence of spiritual forces in the issues in Nigeria. Yes, we have wrong people around our leaders but Jesus also said that we should watch and pray.

Watch means get involved, don’t just stay back and pray. If we don’t speak, God will hold us responsible.

‘

You don’t need a prophet to tell you that Nigerians are getting to a point of reacting, but my prayer is that it will be a peaceful one... When people start asking questions and you cannot give them answers, they are going to begin to want to get those answers somehow

’

Some complained about your choice of words on the Boko Haram, they said it is capable of igniting the country …

So all that Boko Haram has been doing are not capable of igniting the country?

Were the politicians who made statements before, during and after the elections that they will make Nigeria ungovernable, not capable of igniting the polity? In Nigeria, we don’t like the truth. Some people should have been picked up by now, even if just for questioning.

But is the resilience of Nigerian not being taken for granted by the political class?

It won’t continue to be like that.

When will it stop being like that?

I may not be able to tell the time, but you don’t need a prophet to tell you that Nigerians are getting to a point of reacting but my prayer is that it will be a peaceful one. I can assure you that things are not the same; people now ask questions. When people start asking questions and you cannot give them answers, they are going to begin to want to get those answers somehow.

Nigerians will take their destinies into their hands.

People believe that the current political leadership is too timid to handle prevailing national situations, what’s your take on that?

From when he was elected this year till now, it is still a short time. Let us give Jonathan more time; I believe that he will perform. Personally, I will be able to assess him properly by the end of this year. I expect that having risen through the ranks, he should be able to make a positive difference in the life of Nigerians. But I am not only worried about Jonathan but the kind of advisers that he has. I am not happy with them, but I hope that he will change some of them; because he has the power to do so. In terms of the cost of governance, I think there are too many people there.

One advantage of having a person from the minority being president is that since he cannot fall back only on his people, he is forced to carry every group along and so he has the task to try and please everybody.

Are you holding back because you don’t want to be seen as standing against a fellow minority?

No, it is not so. I just believe that he should be given more time. If you talk to me on this again by January or February next year, I would be able to properly assess him.

Do you believe the saying that the church is also part of the problems of the nation, especially prosperity preaching?

There is what is called the whole counsel of God. There is the salvation aspect of the gospel; there is, whether you like it or not, the prosperity aspect.

What is wrong is de-emphasising the salvation aspect. Many preachers still preach the total and balanced gospel.

Not every preacher belongs to the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria; not every church belongs to CAN. We are still working on the issue of discipline.

There are people who are not under this umbrella. We are going about it by speaking to people who have influence in the church. These are not things we can legislate on.

How have you been able to combine heading CAN and PFN, with pastoring your church?

It’s been challenging, but I wanted to relinquish my role at the PFN. One thing led to another and I was asked to continue. Nothing says that I have to relinquish one role for another. I need a lot of prayer.

LOCATION

BACKSTAGE

SNAPSHOT

REEL NEWS

MUSIC

SCREEN

Edited by: VICTOR AKANDE

Tel: 08077408676

E-mail: victor_akande@yahoo.com

ntertainment

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

23

Reason I didn't marry my daughter’s father

—Lizzy Anjorin --Page 28 & 37

24

STANDh BY! Wit

VICTOR AKANDE

Afro Hollywood Best Entertainment Writer 2009

E-mail: victor_akande@yahoo.com Tel: 08077408676 (SMS only)

THINK

nt part of An importa s of any the succes is its civilisation late the mu ability to e t led to the a factors th f other success o s.—Eric civilisation rt Reine

Who shoots Aregbesola’s script?

W

HEN recently Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State was talking about the excesses of despots in a democracy, little did any one know that The Nation would be facing a semblance of the military exuberance over its function as society's watch-dog.

That makes it two scripts for any willing filmmaker, judging that the Obasanjo vs The Nation faceoff may turn out to be an intriguing drama; one that will sure add to the stanza of the history of investigative journalism in Nigeria.

Rauf Aregbesola's pain stems from the stealing and withholding of his mandate for close to four years until the Nigerian judiciary used the fearless side of the coin to give judgment in his favour. Perhaps the story of a delayed mandate is not as heart-breaking as the one stolen from MKO Abiola forever. Aregbesola's experience is peculiar to the Omoluabi (quintessential virtuous person) State of Osun; where aliens to its political heartbeat had ruled with the semblance of the military because of their overbearing power at the centre of governance.

The persecution of the governor's mother can only remind us of the treatment which Funmilayo, the mother of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, was subjected to before she was eventually eliminated by the 'Unknown Soldiers' of the military government of Obasanjo. Nothing will gladden the Osun State First Citizen's heart than to find a filmmaker who can at least use the satiric genre to tell the story of the various murders recorded of law abiding citizens by overzealous faithful of the ruling party in the course of his struggle to be declared the rightful governor of the state. “When our films capture this experience”, Aregbesola enthused, “artistes will also be acting as watchdogs on the government and society.”

The story of the harassment of The Nation's staff and effort to ground operations from Tuesday is nothing short of being totalitarian. It becomes more painful that this is happening during a civilian regime or a supposed one at that. Discerning minds think that the best thing for an aggrieved Obasanjo to do should be to file for litigation.

The style of raid and mass arrest

Indeed, which filmmaker will tell the story of the travails of the The Nation of a truth in defence of freedom? of its staff is a further evidence of our guise as a civilised and democratic nation.

Perhaps beyond the story of Aregbesola and The Nation on the other hand, there is need to access our history from time immemorial and remind ourselves of the areas where we have failed to document history.

When armed robbers come shooting sporadically in broad day light without mask and taking victims hostage longer than imagined, then one cannot but think of the vicious comfort of today's criminalities. That seeming unconcealed facial identity is a function of the naked truth about how complex our problems are.

Therefore, wouldn't you like to see in filmic reality, the amalgamation among the Islamic Hausa-Fulani in the North, the monarchical Obaship of the Yoruba people of the West and the autonomous, democraticallyorganized Igbos of the South-

Aregbesola's experience is peculiar to the Omoluabi State of Osun; where aliens to its political heartbeat had ruled with the semblance of the military

East?

Wouldn't you love to see the story of the Nigerian civil war; that story in which brothers were pitched against brothers in bloody combat? Wouldn't you love to see it being told in such a way as will not awaken a sleeping dog, rather with such great lesson that will make us a better people by learning from the past pitfalls?

Oh, how I love to see a film on the Nigerian civil war in the way that Chimamanda Adichie wrote in her book, Half of a Yellow Sun. Indeed, Chimamanda's book rather than arousing bad blood, elicits sober reflection in us as parents while also educating our children as future leaders.

Shouldn't we be made to see ourselves in the mirror of the filmmaker; that we may appreciate our strength and weaknesses in our look, so that we may adjust our make-ups where necessary? Such looks as we carry about with ignorance or carelessness; such ugliness as we call unity; our country's unity that has been nick-named 'truce' judging from our differing political ideology, suspicious national sharing formula, as well as occasional ethnic, religious and political crises.

Not to tell the story about our past is to rob us of our most cherished future as a nation. Who knows, that ugly past, if told like the cliché known as bitter truth, might pave way for the new Nigeria of our dream, where ideologies about our unity in diversity will be better defined.

As it is, we seem to have forgotten that the Nigerian civil war, our experiences with the military junta, our annulled popular election of June 12, 1993, our dark moments of riots and religious killing; our ups and downs- all have occurred for a purpose - a purpose that will forever remain the controlling factor of our continued coexistence.

Who then will be able to tell this story of the Unbreakable Nigeria that we may watch with much enthusiasm like a football match that different groups of fanatics will savour together and not lift a finger?

Who will be able to tell Aregbesola's mind-bogging story of Saheed Adebiyi's cold murder in Ikirun or the killing of Ade Komolafe whose perpetrators he said, still walk freely on the street of Ilesha for example? Indeed, which filmmaker will tell the story of the travails of the The Nation of a truth in defence of freedom?

WRITE TO US! Do you watch Nollywood movies? What do you think of the Nigerian motion picture industry? Send your review of any movie or short essay on any topic of your choice about the film industry in not more than 200 words. Send entries by e-mail to: victor_akande@yahoo.com or SMS your short comments to 08077408676

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

SNAPSHOTS

Is Queen Nwokoye dating this Ghanaian actor?

•Eddie

Ireti Osayemi’s marriage clocks two!

Ike Uche aims for Etuhu eyes Atletico upset cleanslate

Pg. 34

Pg. 34

Nation Saturday, October 15, 2011

• Vidic

• Gerrard

BATTLE OF THE REDS

Liverpool, Man Utd divide England

Pg. 32

Dalgish plays down United clash

30

35

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

NATION SPORT

NATION SPORT

N

IGERIA crashed out of the Nations Cup 2012 and on Saturday night and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Technical Committee rose from a meeting in search of a Technical Director. Every finger is pointing in your direction. How ready are you?

Well I think it is always a honour to serve Nigeria that is the thing, and if you want to serve Nigeria, it should be in the formation you have other wise you will be a square peg in a round hole. I am open to helping Nigeria get out this mess. Not qualifying for the Nations Cup is humiliating enough as it is, but not being counted as one of the best sixteen countries in Africa, I don’t think that is what we planned for our Nation and children. Like what I told them when they contacted me some time ago about the position, I am ready for the job, but that I will not pour water into a basket. If I know that there’s a calabash waiting to receive water and ensure it stays, of course I will be ready to pour the water in. So I am open for it, I will not let my country down because this is where I came from. I attended the school just on the next street, Methodist Boys High School.

There’s the clamour for the sack of Samson Siasia as a result of the current development. Will you subscribe to this?

Well sack or appoint, I think that question should be directed to the people who appointed, who is the NFF. For instance you can’t ask me to divorce my wife because you didn’t run after her for me, so it is like that. Of course it was a big blow that we did not qualify. It was the first objective that he was given and it is a smaller objective than the World Cup itself.

But then again it is the NFF that should do what they have to do. I think the question should be directed to them.

Does it break your heart to know Nigeria has not gotten a technically gifted player like yourself since you left the Super Eagles?

The thing there is, like I saw today, there are still talents. So with the kids you see here today we are trying to brush up for the benefit of Lagos state and Nigeria. We do have talents but how these gifts given to you by God is used is what makes the difference.

Except for Messi and Ronaldo, most players are almost on the same level.

But what makes them different is how they apply what they have to be together, like Barcelona have now, like Spain and the German national

We played with more passion — Oliseh Arguably the most technically gifted player Nigeria has ever produced. Played for some of the biggest European clubs that ever existed, like AFC Ajax, Borussia Dortmund and Juventus Football Club, Sunday Ogochukwu Oliseh was part of the revered 1994 World Cup squad for Nigeria. Mostly remembered for scoring the winning goal in the group stage match against Spain in the 1998 World Cup, as Nigeria prevailed 3-2, Oliseh played 63 international matches and scored 4 goals for Nigeria. In this interview with INNOCENT AMOMOH at the Campus Square Mini-Stadium where he engaged U-20 boys in a two-day clinic curtesy of, Ministry of Sport, Oliseh bared his mind on the state of Nigerian football and why the Super Eagles during his era did better than the current team.

Teams. We must rebuild. We are in a situation now where it is really necessary for us to rebuild, if we are not aware, then we are really in trouble. We must rebuild and I think by the time we get the right people in charge of the right places, then you can be sure you will see a new Oliseh, a new Taribo, Yekini, and Finidi George. Like I say often if we can’t get a player that can play like Yekini up front, then we are in trouble.

How should this rebuilding process start, and what is the way forward for Nigerian football?

Let me say what my grandfather used to say, if you don’t know the nature of ailment afflicting you, then you won’t know what medication to

•Super Eagles line up at the 1994 World Cup in the United States

apply. I think the first thing to do is to sit down and analyse the problem clearly, and then from there we can move on. What I don’t like about Nigerians, is that when things happen, we point accusing fingers.

Every time I read through the newspapers and internet, Its easy to find people blaming others with no one proferring solutions. We all know what is wrong, but nobody will tell you the way out. The first thing we should do in my opinion is to review.

If you want to have good kids, you must have good parents. If you want good players, then you need a good technical crew, and good administrators, otherwise it is useless.

Most Nigerians feel that Siasia

failed to qualify Nigeria for the Nations Cup because he lacked the technical depth to coach the Super Eagles. Do you agree?

This question is multifaceted. I don’t know, but the fact that I just spent three years preparing myself has made me much better than how it would have been if I just graduated having played in the best clubs in the world and became a coach. When I see myself considering the talent God has given me, and I come into a coaching class, and see somebody like Ryan Giggs, a man who has won virtually everything in football and have played under one of the best coaches in the world for the past sixteen to seventeen years, then I know he wouldn’t have

been stupid staying there. It means that I have not wasted my money attending that course. Being an exinternational helps you a lot to be successful as a coach, but it doesn’t guarantee it.

What in your view should be the criteria for appointing a national team coach?

The first thing to consider in appointing a coach or anybody for any job should be first to decide the direction you want to go and the kind of football you want to play. If we say as Nigerians today we want to play physical football, then we must appoint a German coach. If we want to play the Nigerian style, then we must either appoint a Nigerian or a Dutch man, because they play technical football too. But recently it has been resolved that contracting foreign coaches is not the solution, so we have to look inwards that’s for sure.

But if we must look inwards it has to be in a way that it will suite us as a country. Like I said when Brilafm celebrated their ninth year anniversary, we all need water to survive, otherwise if you don’t have water you will die. But if you drink the wrong water, you will die anyway. So we need ex-internationals to be part of it, but have to choose the right ones, otherwise we wouldn’t do well.

I remember the Nations Cup match against Senegal in 2002 at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, where you had to come into the match despite the fact that you were declared ill. Why are such passion lacking among the current players?

I think in those days we played with more passion. If you look back and remember the people you represent on the pitch, especially in a nation like ours with 150 million people and being selected as one of the best, if you don’t have the passion to play, you will never have passion again. I am so happy this is happening because initially when they tried to cook up all the lies against our set, wanting to get reed of people because we confronted them for wanting to steal money, most Nigerians even began to doubt us. But thank God the average Nigerian is

very intelligent. With time they began to realize that they cannot be fooled anymore. They also realized that we served truthfully and honestly too.

That is why you guys are here, that is why anywhere I go all around the country, people still give me gifts. I am happy anyway, because I don’t play anymore. But you see that is my reward for passionately serving this country and I am pleased with it. If you want to be remembered as a Nigerian great, you have to win things for the country or else you will be forgotten. That was why players like Finidi, Taribo and the others were always determined to win something.

I’ll give you an example. At the Atlanta ’96 Olympics final, it was 6pm in Nigeria. And one of us said guys make una remember say na midnight for Nigeria and every body dey outside like say na afternoon. (Meaning though it is 6pm here and after midnight back home, Nigerians are awake watching this matc)That was what was needed to win the gold. That was the stuff the team was made off.

In your candid opinion do you think that staging the national team matches in Abuja affected the

performance of the Super Eagles?

This question is political so I have to be careful the way I answer it. There are certain things within your jurisdiction as a coach to decide. If the authority says you have to play in Abuja, there’s nothing you can do about it. But you see most importantly, you have to take matches to the heart of Nigerians to be played. But I must also admit that it is not fun to watch a Nigerian team play such a crucial match and the Stadium was not filled up. That should make us think twice if we have made the right decision.

Playing a game of this magnitude, and having the seats empty is not a good development. Let me give an example, when we played Togo here at the national Stadium, by 9am there was an announcement that the seats were filled up. An 80,000 capacity Stadium was put at a 100,000 capacity. That tells you the kind of passion you can get playing in Lagos. So what you have just said might not be totally wrong. We won a lot of matches during our days just because we played in Lagos.

Does the fact that you are educated have a role to play in the way you

AKINLOYE AT LARGE 08050246155 atlarge84@yahoo.com

Don’t disband Eagles

•Sunday Oliseh celebrate after scoring the winning goal against Spain in the 1998 World Cup played football, because we notice that most of the players today are not?

No they are schooled. It is just that they are educated in a sport, which is football. Like you now, it does not matter how well read I am, I cannot boast of being able to write better than you. You have been trained to use words to drive home your points. We are schooled in giving passes in square miters, and others aspects. I think the education that is important is really not the one we learn from school, but what we learnt from our parents, telling us what life values are.

Like teaching how to put your people first before anything else, putting your family first before anything. When you imbibe that and bring it into the field of play, the case will be different. All these put together, may translate into the field of play. You can get other forms of education, but you can’t know everything. Despite the fact that I played in Italy, Germany, and Holland, does not make me know everything.

•Sunday Oliseh contests the ball with football legend Diego Maradona

SUPER Eagles have never been in such a sorry state. They were grasping for breath and could not tackle the Guineans especially in the second half as the game wore on. Samson Siasia was caught in the web of frustration weaved by the Guineans as he blundered with the removal of Joel Obi. The Inter man was the only light in the midfield and when he was pulled out, the midfield collapsed. The French –speaking West Africans took over the middle and did what they liked on the pitch. They were made to look good despite being an ordinary side. This is the story of ignorant men led astray by equally ignorant officials. If the game had ended 2-1, we would have qualified for the African Cup of Nations. But they were told a wrong story of how to qualify and the Guineans went full throttle. They were made to look extraordinary.

They were not and they will never be. Thanks to the misfiring Super Eagles and the bungling technical crew. Somebody said they were thrown off balance by the first Guinean goal so they could not play to instruction. I disagree.

They were not thrown off balance. They responded very well to the goal.

They equalized and got the second which was enough to do the magic. Yet they allowed the visitors back on the dead of time...

The game has come and gone and the question is what happens next? In a saner clime, the coach would have thrown in the towel and walk away from the job, but the fact that he is still in the saddle days after the rude exit leaves much to be desired. It kicks the ball right unto the court of the egg-heads in the Glass House. In taking their decision, they should not forget that the country will be missing the Nations Cup for the first time in 25 years. The performance of the Super Eagles was embarrassing to say the least and something must give to blow our football back on course.

Somebody has called for the disbandment of the team. That is exactly what was done in 1986 when Eagles missed the Nations Cup party. They had lost to Zambia 1-0 on goal aggregate in the Nations Cup qualifier. The players were sent home while the interim coach, Patrick Ekeji was sent back to the classroom. The national team bounced back alright but it took some time. We saw the era of Manfred Hoener, a German and Paul Hamilton. Then, Clemens Westerhof came on board. He took the national team to the Nations Cup and the World Cup alright, but he had about five years to do the job. The team lost woefully in the opening match of the Nations Cup finals to Algeria. It was five goals to one but he went on to play in the final. That saved his neck and probably kept him on the seat for those numbers of years. He is the longest serving coach in the modern history of Nigerian football. Disbanding the team would not solve the problem. It will add to it. You don’t disband a team and leave the coach on the saddle. Where•Igali do we get a new coach and fresh legs to rebuild? The next qualifiers start in three months time!

We made a mistake in picking Siasia in the first instance. The position was not bided for. We handed the coaching job to an inexperienced coach who was talking of rebuilding when we should be talking about consolidation.

We picked Siasia and he threw away the baby with the water. We needed to build on the team that Lars Lagerback left behind. But Siasia did not. He destroyed the foundation and the result is what we saw at the National Stadium, Abuja last weekend. We warned when Siasia was limiting the national call up to his boys in the name of rebuilding. He referred to some players as the future of the national team, those who should be playing in the current squad. We warned when he banned Osaze for two matches for leaving the camp. We thought the team should be discipline alright but a fine should have done the trick for a first offender. That of Vincent Enyeama came but it got stuck in his throat. He was too big to swallow on a night Dele Ayenugba failed the test as capable replacement.

We had lived dangerously especially in the World Cups for quite some time now. We scaled the hurdles in style on those occasions. Now that our attention will be focused on the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, we need to get things right. The coaching issue must be resolved. We have to determine whether we need another coach or stick to the devil we know. We should be among the early birds, those that would qualify early for Brazil. If it is Siasia, we need to strengthen the stable. We also need to call back players that went to the 2010 World Cup but thrown to the dogs. Midfielder Dickson Etuhu must be brought back to the team so also is Haruna Lukman. Though we crashed out in the first round in South Africa, Etuhu and Haruna were revelations. They carried the team on their wings in the middle in the three matches it played at the World Cup. Such players should not be left out of the national team under any circumstances. They need to grow into their roles in the team. Obafemi Martins and Yakubu Ayegbeni must be brought back also. They are in the prime of their careers that they should not be thrown out of the national team.

Danny Shittu must return too. If he is injury-free, the QPR man’s absence in the national team is yawning. He should be brought back without delay.

Sani Kaita is hard working and a marker of man. He needs to be brought back as well. He is tireless. Dele Adeleye has been outside looking in. I think it is time to promote him into the main team. He should be playing in the heart of the defence. He is more stable and cool headed to carry out that responsibility.

31

THE NATION SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

NATION SPORT

Re-Siasia: The Manager I as an Emperor NSIDE Pamodzi’s corporate hospitality suite at the Abuja National Stadium last Saturday were a number of respectable sports-loving businessmen who are known to spend their personal resource to travel to watch matches of the Super Eagles and other games. They included former House of Representatives member, Nduka Irabor, former bank chief and NFA Vice-Chairman in the 1990’s, Tony Nnachetta, Pinic Amaju, the young administrator that has turned Delta State sports around. There was also Idorenyeng Enang of Samsung, Taye Ige of Hotsports and many others we can’t spare space to mention.

We had a good time watching the match enjoying the hospitality of Mike Itemuagbor, the Pamodzi boss and yet not too comfortable on our seats on account of the performance on the pitch by Nigeria. As we retired for refreshments after the first half, there was subdued optimism that Nigeria will get it right in the second half as we are always known to do.

So we made merry but was stopped short when Guinea broke the deadlock and the rest of the story is all too familiar to us. I was playing the clairvoyant during the game, seriously egging all to cheer up and at one point taking over the Glo-branded clapper from Irabor and predicting our equalizer which came in a snap. I returned the clapper again to him and on noticing he was too tensed to use it, snatched it again from him only for Ike Uche to net the second goal. My position as the oracle was secured after that. So, I moved for the Guinean jogular predicting a third goal which unfortunately landed in our own post.

The snacks turned sour on our tongues and we were choking on the drinks unbelieving what has happened. But there were some who saw it coming.

As prophecies and predictions go, it never augurs well when it affects the one who’s got the message. That is the burden of a columnist, especially when raising the alarm about an impending failure.

Situations like that are awkward given that the consuming disaster will not only affect those being warned but also the oracle beeping the danger signs. Since last Saturday when I patriotically predicted a 4-1 routing of Guinea despite my past submissions that Samson Siasia was heading in the direction of a career holocaust, it has been the typical and proverbial saying of when the mouth cries, all parts of the body are involved.

Siasia’s faux pas has become a national period of sack cloth and ashes.

I take liberty to extract this paragraph from the piece published on this page on September 10, 2011 in which I alluded to several reasons Siasia may fail: “So, while the Federation may lack the muscle to sack Siasia, the performance of the players can make or mar his

By Harry Iwuala

stay on the job. The staying power of any coach is determined by the results and before any one alludes to Arsene Wenger’s six years drought at Arsenal, his is an exception that may be rooted in the success of the club’s financials. I am not sure that the masses who championed his hiring will tolerate his continued stay if Nigeria loses the 2012 Nations Cup and 2014 World Cup tickets. They will bay for his sacking with the same aplomb they canvassed for his hiring. A workman need not quarrel with his tools and the players are the critical tools a manager works with. It is not the field, not the salary and definitely not the equipment supplied by the federation. It is a sign of bad workmanship if a manager is at odds with the most essential kit required to deliver results. I see Siasia always quarrelling with his tools (players)”.

I am no undertaker and therefore have not set out here to bury Siasia but to call other witnesses to how he squandered a golden opportunity for indigenous coaches to thump their chest on performance. It is so often that in Nigeria, those on whom huge favour has been bestowed by providence are known to always squander it the most.

Check out Generals Yakubu Gowon on whose shoulder was bestowed the luck of rerebuilding Nigeria and leading us back to democracy.

Consider General Obasanjo who had a second opportunity to make good as leader of this great nation and his third term fiasco and all the revelations at the privatisation probe. Then there was General Ibrahim Babangida who enjoyed enormous goodwill to fashion out a democratic agenda after many years of military rule but he mistook it for foolishness on our part.

Below are therefore extracts from comments on Siasia, by one of his fellow ex-international, opinion leaders and fans EMEKA EZEUGO (Ex-Super Eagles) I feel you, all my fans all over the world and Nigerian football fans. I saw Victor Ikpeba at Sheraton Hotel and I gave him an embarrassment of his life in front of his date. I told him, 'he should be ashamed of himself'. So also should Samson Siasia, Ike Sorunmi, Jay-Jay, Garba Lawal and Christian Chukwu.

First of all, why would any sane mind work with charlatans? They are all little minds anyway. Samson thought he was an Island. No man is an island. He is down from his high horse and will never ride or mount a horse again.

Samson has only one tactic of playing football, as such, he's tactically bereft. He doesn't know any other way and due to his little mind and inferiority complex, he preferred to surround himself with 'YES' men with little or no knowl-

edge of the game.

Where in Netherlands did Kalika coach before? Verify.

The man is good at selling players and was brought in solely for that purpose. All his assistants brought nothing to the table and cannot help him when the chips are down. He chose the selfish alley alone, on his own and he's go to go.

His time is up. He's had his day in the sun.

Samson is not Nigerian football's problem though. The President has got to flush out all the rotten egg-heads at the Ministry, NSC and NFF. The Sports Minister, Patrick Ekeji and all Amos Adamu boys should be deported to Republic of Chad. I mean no mercy.

Leave no stone uncrushed.

And employ bright minds with expertise in Sports Management. Ignore daft minds among the ex-internationals who can't even spell their names or articulate a sports development program for a nation.

GODWIN DUDU ORUMEN (LAWYER & FOOTBALL ANALYST) “Harry, for the avoidance of doubt let me re-state my exact position on Siasia's appointment as national team coach...it was a decision we did not have to make. In my opinion, which a lot of people sentimentally bore holes into or purely because they must disagree with me, Brand Super Eagles is bigger than Siasia or any Nigerian coach today.

The job is a Manager's job requiring a different set of skills, managing human and material resources in addition to very sound technical/tactical savvies. I put all these points in public domain but Siasia still got the job. Then l elected to show the error in that decision by exposing his technical/tactical weaknesses to see if his mentors, employers and fans will find some reasoning in what l say and advise him accordingly. It’s not that l did

not see the attitudinal problem. In fact l alluded to that in an interview with the Vanguard after which Yakubu Ibn Mohammed of NTA wanted to have me for dinner…” “…...Dan Amokachi, Victor Ikpeba on Super Sports’ Tuesday Night Programme with Charles Anazodo on prematch comments, Nigeria v Argentina failed to tell the truth why Eagles’ midfield under Siasia does not look good in play-Siasia deploys four natural forwards all the time living the midfield with just two overworked men.

And with full-backs who are poor passers of the ball, Eagles midfield will always be light weight and weak.

COACH KASIMAWO LALOKO (FORMER SUPER EAGLES COACH) Siasia destroyed his team…it is good to have discipline in camp but it requires extra tact.

You chastise with one hand and draw the person back with the other but it was not so for Siasia and that was not good for team spirit.

Salihu Ibrahim Mohammed(RayPower/AIT Reporter) Chukwu no good, Chukwu no good, him qualify for nations cup. Eguavoen no good, Eguavoen no good, him go nations cup. Amodu no good, Amodu no good, my brother land for nations cup. Siasia is the best, Siasia is the best ...???

NNAMDI EPUNAM- A fan They all asked for Sia-one to be appointed and Amodu to be sacked. Siasia dumped Shittu, Odiah, Etuhu, Kaita and Aiyegbeni to pacify the fans. He had issues with his key players and they all hailed him. At the end he failed where it mattered most and Iam still wondering where it all went wrong for the Naija Special One and I am still laughing…Naija for life Harry Iwuala is a renowned Journalist based in Lagos, Nigeria

•Siasia

VOICE OF SPORTS

With Clement Nwankpa Jnr. sportswar@yahoo.com

A FRIEND I LOST MY views on Samson Siasia are well documented. Those views are not about to change. In fact, I still believe this guy has what it takes to take Nigerian football to Eldorado but those of us who clamoured for him want him to return to us. He belonged to us; we identified with him and he symbolized the attacking brand of football our national team had always been linked with. (Don’t forget that yours sincerely has written a book on the Nigerian pattern of play. It is the most anticipated football literature in the nation at the moment. Just watch out).

But Samson was my friend. In the days of the struggle, when the Nigerian football faithful carried the ‘All-we-are-saying-giveus-Siasia!’ placard, this page was the rallying point. It was on this page that I did the ‘Samson and Delilah’ piece where I warned Siasia against the various forces that were out to derail his enthronement. Siasia was a regular reader of this column and was able to maneuver all the anti-Siasia forces. But like the proverbial warrior who brought back fire from the land of the dead only to lose it in the land of the living, Siasia has played into the hands of those very Delilahs. It hurts terribly because having gotten the better of those Delilahs during those very stormy moments, I didn’t expect him to make himself available for their dinner this moment.

The fact is that I lost my friend, Siasia, to sycophants who led him astray. If it was my friend of old, he would have read this column last Saturday and wouldn’t have lost the Nations Cup ticket. The friend I used to know, would have taken my text to him last Wednesday seriously (the contents of that text were published on this page last week). That my friend would have picked my call between Wednesday and Thursday last week because I really needed to ring the alarm bell direct into his ears.

Samson, the friend I used to know wouldn’t have turned his back so much on my column that he didn’t take note of the warnings I had been issuing from here over the past four months.

It was here that I pointed out the dangers of Siasia’s Mikel/Joel Obi midfield combo. In fact, during the Nigerian/Argentina post match briefing in Abuja, I had told him that the lack of a defensive midfield shield for the Obis in the midfield portended doom.

Yet he took that as a grandiloquent comment by a journalist who craved to draw the audience’s applause. I came back to this page afterwards and warned that Siasia may pay dearly for this midfield combo on the very big stage.

Right here, I brought Fengor Ogude’s club exploits to the fore and I termed him ‘our own Essien’. Do you guys still remember?

On that very day, I opined that even if Siasia was to stick to his two-man midfield, it had to be Ogude and another but I seriously advocated for a three-man midfield with Ogude at the base.

On this page, I had suggested that even if Siasia had to stick to the offensive Mikel/Joel combo against Madagascar, he must protect the duo with an Ogude few days later against Argentina. I am sure he didn’t read that piece because he was already in Antananarivo for the Madagascar game but he started with the Obis in Antananarivo only to include Ogude in a three-man central midfield against Argentina in Dhaka few days later.

Ogude was largely responsible for keeping the Lionel Messi quiet and keeping the scoreline somehow respectable. That made me take note of Siasia’s tactical flexibility. I also noted that he filed out his wards according to how he rated the opposition.

I had therefore sent him a text penultimate Wednesday warning him not to underrate the Guineans. I had recommended a three-man midfield with Ogude shielding the Obis. My reckoning was that since the team needed a 1-0 victory to qualify, there was need to ensure defensive stability, keep a clean slate and press for the solitary goal which I believed must come, somehow. Siasia replied my text and promised he wouldn’t underrate the Guineans. I still wanted to press home this point, so I persistently called Siasia’s phones over the next two days yet he didn’t pick my calls.

Then came match day. Many are wont to point at Siasia featuring off-form Osaze Odemwingie and dropping Vincent Enyeama for Dele Aiyenugba as the team’s albatross but Siasia lost the ticket because there was no defensive midfield shield for the back four. Check out the two goals; they were a result of Mikel moving out of his ‘supposed’ holding midfield position. If Siasia had started with the back four he used against Ghana with Ogude in the defensive midfield, the team would have kept a clean slate as it did against the Black Stars. Those two Eagles goals would have counted giving the team an automatic ticket.

I lampooned Amodu Shuaibu for being ultra defensive but while I admire Siasia’s attacking disposition, there should be some balance. Even the highly offensive Spanish team has a holding midfielder in Sergio Busquets; France deploys Alou Diarra and M’Villa while Brazil parades Lucas and Ramires in the holding role.

I lost my friend to those who told him he didn’t need a defensive midfielder to thrive. Now that they have led him astray, they should release him to me. I still believe in him. I want Nigerians to believe in him. Believe me, that guy will still lead us to glory at the 2014 World Cup. By the way, we call him ‘World Cup coach’. For the sake of this rebuilding process, let’s give him a second chance.

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NATIONSPORT SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

33

NATION SPORT

NATION SPORT

•Dalglish •Ibrahimovic

THE NATION SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

34

NATION SPORT

Inside The Glass House WITH AMINU MAIGARI

Fresh Perspectives (1)

I

had projected to discuss the issue of refereeing in Nigeria this weekend, but following the failure of the Super Eagles to qualify for the 2012 African Cup of Nations in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, that would have to wait for a couple of weeks.

I will start by reiterating the apology of the NFF Executive Committee to His Excellency, President Goodluck Jonathan (GCFR) as a person, the Federal Government of Nigeria as a body, and all footballloving and even ordinary Nigerians who must have been sorely disappointed by the Super Eagles’ mishap.

A few days before the match against Guinea, I had led a delegation of the NFF to meet personally with the President of the Senate, Distinguished Senator David Mark, to get him to be at the National Stadium to lead the support for the Eagles. Certainly, Senator Mark was not excited about the invitation, and I had all to do to convince him that the Super Eagles would make him happy and would play with the passion and urgency deserving of the occasion.

We needed only a minimum win and three points to earn the ticket to the Cup of Nations, I told him, and he obliged in the end, saying that he loved the team and loved football as a person.

At the end of the first half, I accompanied Senator David Mark to the players’ dressing room, where the country’s Number Three Citizen addressed the players and told them to fight hard for their country.

There were no goals yet, but he told them to go out there and dominate and that he believed they would conquer.

At the final whistle, I sat depressed and totally downcast on my seat while I could only cast an apologetic glance at Senator David Mark.

It crossed my mind that the Super Eagles had, once again, disappointed the man. As a member of the NFF Executive Committee in the previous administration, I remembered that Senator Mark was the leader of Federal Government delegation to the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals in South Africa.

His Excellency, President Goodluck Jonathan (GCFR) had been invited to the opening ceremony of the first FIFA World Cup finals on African soil, by his South African counterpart, President Jacob Zuma. It was a very tiring day in Johannesburg that day of the opening ceremony, with the

traffic simply something else. But football-loving President Jonathan insisted on seeing the Super Eagles, who were in the city that night of 11 June for their opening match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals against Argentina the following day.

President Jonathan was accompanied to the Protea Hotel Wanderers that night

by Senate President David Mark, a number of governors, some ministers including Mr. Odein Ajumogobia and Professor Dora Akunyili, and Chief Mike Adenuga, among other very important personalities.

President Jonathan spoke kind words to the players and told them to go out there and defend the green-and-white.

He said goodies awaited them of they give a good performance at the first World Cup finals on African soil. The President then handed them over to Senator David Mark, telling them that Senator Mark was leader of the Government Delegation to the championship.

The following day, at the Ellis Park, the Super Eagles lost 0-1 to Argentina but everyone agreed they gave a good performance and should they play the same way against Greece and Korea Republic, they would definitely pick up the three points in each match.

They did not. On June 17 (five days later) in Bloemfontein, the Eagles imploded after that mistake

by Sani Kaita reduced the team to 10 men and we eventually lost 1-2, despite taking the lead. On June 22, we could only draw 2-2 with Korea Republic in Durban and were eliminated from the World Cup. All these ran through my mind and I saw Senator David Mark off to his car. He was, like every Nigerian, not happy.

I went to the players’ dressing room but could not utter a word. My head was not clear. Had the match really ended, or something was playing a trick on me?

Eventually, one had to come to terms with the situation: Nigeria had failed to qualify for the 2012 African Cup of Nations.

A lot of ‘ifs’ came to my lips. If only Samson Siasia had fielded, from the very business-like Ikechukwu Uche and Ahmed Musa, who showed great understanding in the second half when they came in. If only Siasia had not removed Joel Obi who was marking very well in the midfield. If only the referee had not given up to six minutes time-added on.

So many ifs. But at the end of the day, we cannot draw back the hand of the clock.

It is a very painful situation but we must look ahead. In looking ahead, we must address several matters around the Super Eagles. The Technical Committee has made some recommendations and the NFF Executive Committee would meet to look at these recommendations with a view to seeing which should be implemented immediately and which should be modified or implemented later on.

It is no massive consolation that the qualifying series for the 2013 African Cup of Nations will start in January 2012. It has been confirmed that the preliminary rounds will take place between January and February 2012.

We will be involved, meaning that whatever we have to do to pave a better pathlane forward, we must do NOW. It is also no consolation that some ‘big guns’ of African football like seven-time champions Egypt, four-time champions Cameroon and 1996 champions South Africa are also not going to be in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

That is not a good way to look at it. We should not celebrate failure by thinking that failure is good company.

We would have to look at things henceforth from fresh perspectives. Was the NFF right to give Samson Siasia unlimited free hand in team selection?

Should the Technical Committee be playing a greater role in this, and should they even go as far as publicly questioning the Head Coach’s team lists?

Should the Head Coach see himself as being only answerable to some people in the Technical Committee and not to some others? Should the Head Coach of the Super Eagles assume total responsibility for managerial matters in the team?

The Head Coach should be a manager, no doubt, but there must be checks and balances. There must be institutional guides to ensure that he does not abuse his powers of ‘free hand’ in team selection, team tactics and strategy.

Watching the game against Ghana on Tuesday in London, you would wonder why our team did not play the same way against Guinea. Did they under-rate the Guineans? Surely, there was no reason for that because the Guineans were top of the same group and won our clash in Conakry a year earlier.

The passion, fervour and vibrancy shown against Ghana is what is recommended for the playing body as we go forward. Whoever gets the opportunity to wear the green-and-white must see himself as being privileged,

indeed.

On returning to Abuja on Thursday, someone accosted me on why I had told the players in London that they played well against Guinea.

Well, it was only meant to ginger them to a muchbetter performance against the Black Stars.

And I insist that those words were not wasted, given the output against the Black Stars. The Ghanaian team is buoyant in confidence and up there, having reached the quarter finals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals and looking towards the 2012 African Cup of Nations. Our boys created their own chances and defended with resolution and calm assurance.

On the balance, the Super Eagles have not done enough in the circumstances and while we have no time to pass blames, the group must purge itself. The Nigeria Football Federation gave all the support, provided all that the team asked for and even more.

Another issue that came up during the week was on Samson Siasia’s relationship with his players. I would however, disagreee with those who feel that he should not have insisted on discipline. He acted right, whether it was in the case of Osaze Odemwingie, or in the matter involving goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama.

Discipline is key in running a group and we will continue to insist on this, perhaps even more, against the backdrop of what has happened.

No single individual is bigger than this country. Anyone who has an opportunity to wear the green-and-white, or contribute in one way or the other to national issues (like those who work in the NFF) should always count himself/herself privileged.

Give us something to smile about...

I use this opportunity to call on Enyimba FC of Aba and Sunshine Stars of Akure to give Nigerians something to smile and rejoice about this weekend when both teams play in the semi finals of African club competitions.

Sunshine Stars are up against Club Africain of Tunisia in Ijebu-Ode and I reckon the club has perfected its strategies against a wily and streetwise North Africa side. Sunshine Stars must not only win, they must win well, in order to lessen the burden in the return match in Tunis. It would also be some sort of revenge for Nigeria after Club Africain stopped Kaduna United FC reaching the semi finals of the competition.

As for the People’s Elephant, they are much more experienced on the road and know what it takes to play in the semi finals of the CAF Champions League. They aim to overturn a one-goal deficit from the first leg against Wydad Casablanca of Morocco. And I believe they will do it.

Enyimba know they have $1.5 million to pick up should they overcome Wydad and win the final against Esperance or Al Hilal. Surely, they can go that far, with a ticket to the cash-spangled FIFA Club World Cup in Japan in December to boot.

• Ike Uche

Ike Uche aims for Atletico upset

N

IGERIA international Ikechuckwu Uche will try to banish the memory of not going to the Africa Nation Cup next year as he leads Granada against Athletico Madrid at the Los Carmenes tonight.

Granada’s players and especially Franco Jara who was left out in the match against Valencia, insist that the team is growing in confidence and adapting to tactics noting the importance of scoring quickly to maintain momentum.

Interestingly and according to Marca, 10 of the 15 players who have played for Atletico

Madrid so far this season have all arrived during the summer, including top scorer Falcao.

The Colombian, who forms part of the new offensive trio that is likely to start on Saturday, has been in terrific form and has played in seven out of 11 matches this season, accumulating 607 playing minutes.

Despite the limited training time Atletico have had due to international duties, they are confident they can pick up points against a stuttering Granada side that have yet to find their rhythm.

Etuhu eyes cleanslate

N

IGERIA'S Dickson Etuhu is aiming for five consecutive clean sheets with Fulham in all competitions when they travel to Stoke City today.

Martin Jol's men earned their first Premier League win of the season in their 6-0 thrashing of promoted Queens Park Rangers - but it was their fourth shutout with Australian shot-stopper Mark Schwarzer in goal.

Statistically, Stoke are the least attacking side in the Premier League, firing just 17 shots on target in seven games this season, meaning Schwarzer may have few worries at the Britannia Stadium.

Stoke's attacking prowess has been boosted by the acquisition of tall striker Peter Crouch, who has fired home two goals in his past three matches.

Crouch has a scoring history against the Cottagers too, with three goals in his past five starts against the L o n d o n e r s , suggesting the

former Liverpool and Tottenham man may be the one to botch Fulham's clean streak.

A man who will be hoping Fulham preserve their run of no goals conceded is rightback Stephen Kelly, who believes he can hold his spot in the XI despite Chris Baird, Aaron Hughes and Zdenek Grygera all capable of filling the role.

• Etuhu

Olubanwo Fagbemi

On Sport Sport On SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

36

e-mail: deewalebf@yahoo.com

Siasia’s call

P

O

NCE again my heart weeps for Nigerian sports. This is not connected to the failure of the Super Eagles to qualify for the 2012 edition of the African Cup of Nations which has drawn many cries from the entire polity. Whatever way we look at it, I believe that with proper management the Eagles can still fly once again.

My heart weeps for Nigerian basketball in particular. After all the false hopes, and promises, Nigeria will not be represented in the basketball event at the London 2012 Olympic Games. I cannot fault a team which played and lost on the field of play, however, when a team like our National Women’s Basketball team shoots itself in the foot, it is a cause for concern. And it makes you wonder about the caliber of officials running basketball in this country.

On October 1, 2011, I got the information that our National female team was engaging Senegal in the Semi Finals of the competition wearing Angola National team jerseys.

I told the caller it was impossible, but I was wrong.

I got to know that there was a clash of jerseys as the Nigerian team which was playing Away forgot to take the right jersey colour to the pitch for their Semi Final game and had to borrow from the Angolan team. Angola had just defeated host Mali a few minutes ago wearing the same jerseys.

It is not a surprise that despite the brave efforts of the Nigerian girls, Senegal dumped us 89- 63 in this game played on the most important day of our National heritage, being our 51st Independence Day. What result do we expect from a team which had been demoralized in such a manner and had to play with wet kits borrowed from a fellow rival team in the same competition?

Who were the Coaches and Technical staff of this team and what excuse and explanation do they have for millions of Nigerians. How were they appointed as National Coaches in the first place if

AFRO BASKET SHOW OF SHAME

How D’Tigeress borrowed jerseys on Oct. 1 they can not simply interpret the rules of the game to know what colour of jersey to wear as a Home or Away team. This becomes more unexplainable against the background that Nigeria is being sponsored by Nike and has all the complements of Jerseys and other equipment like bags etc.

Common sense suggests that any team going for any game should take more than one set of kits to the pitch and the Nigerian team had many. The players also had Nike bags with them and the question will then be what were they carrying in those Nike bags at the time? I do not blame the players because no player will refuse to heed a coach’s directive on what kits to wear to the pitch. That the entire team even wore the wrong colour shows that the coaches had no clue. What a shame?

I have waited anxiously to see if this disgrace which we have been subjected will be reported to our sports authorities. It would appear that the Nigeria Basketball Federation, in its usual way of doing things, has swept it under the carpet. Was the coaching staff issued a query?

Was this very critical incident reflected in the Federation’s report to the National Sports commission? I doubt so. If it was reported to the sports authorities, what action is being taken against the set of incompetent officials? In any country which aims to reach the zenith of sports, such coaches and officials will be banned from handling the National teams for a certain

period of time. Serious minded persons would have resigned from the Board of the Federation for this disgrace at this time of our sports history.

The National Sports Commission can not condone this disservice to our National psyche.

My findings lend credence to why this unwholesome and avoidable incident in Mali took place. All the basketball stake holders complained that only one man was saddled with the responsibility of coaching both the Senior Men’s and Women National teams and the NBBF abdicated the responsibility of both teams to him and he did as he pleased.

The same coach had abandoned the Women in Florida to coach the Men’s team to the Nation’s Cup in Madagascar where Nigeria failed to qualify for the Olympics. Thereafter he left the same team to coach the Women’s team to the All Africa Games in Maputo and later to Mali African Nations Cup. In the course of all these, two of his Assistant coaches to the Women’s team, Patrick Omo- Osagie and later Mfon Udoka, were unceremoniously dropped by the Federation on the Head coach’s advice allegedly on grounds of “disloyalty” and were replaced at the last minute by Scot Nnaji of the Customs. Nnaji, who was the late replacement for the two Assistants that were dropped did not practice with the team in Florida nor was he at the All Africa Games and he joined the team in Nigeria

only two days to the teams departure for the competition in Mali.

Other information that came to light is that the same coach ran the NBBF Secretariat from the home of one of our foreign based professionals in Florida USA, in the absence of the Secretary General of the NBBF who was left in Nigeria. At a time, it was difficult to differentiate between the Coach’s own funds and that of the Federation. Sources claim that the NBBF presently owes him a lot of money which explains why he seems to be answerable to no one. For the records, apart from the Secretary General, no Member of the Federation accompanied the team to Mali till after October 28, when the President and Vice President of the NBBF arrived in Mali for the FIBA 50th Anniversary celebrations.

What manner of sports administrators do we have that will apparently abdicate their responsibilities to one person?

How do you query a coach, whether competent or not, if he is spending his resources on behalf of the Federation?

The National Sports Commission needs to set up an independent panel to clear this mess. Nigerian basketball has gone beyond this mediocre level and administrators whom we have placed our faith in should not just be waived off with flip of the hand as they disgrace our country at the international arena.

If not it may be time to sing the dirge for one of our most loved sports with crowd appeal.

ITY not Samson Siasia and his posse of 22; the 2-2 result managed against visiting Guinea last Saturday at the Abuja National Stadium capped consistent decline of the Super Eagles from near-invincibility to imminent obscurity.

It was a typical Nigeria performance captured succinctly by former international Sunday Oliseh. “There’s a lack of consistency, we are not that well-rounded and there are too many lapses,” he said.

By the draw was the Group B ticket surrendered as Nigeria finished the 2012 Africa Nations Cup qualification campaign on 11 points behind Guinea with 14. Significantly, the disciplinary problems that attended Siasia’s tenure were highlighted by Osaze Odemwingie’s and Emmanuel Emenike’s blatant reaction to Guinean provocation.

Entertaining the opposition’s game plan was clearly the first mistake of a tense afternoon. The Nigeria players, by European club and international football exposure, should have countered with individual and team discipline.

English Premier League hotshot Odemwingie was was a peculiar culprit. He of the fleet foot contrived to recall South Africa 2010 World Cup anguish with a first half howler reminiscent of Yakubu Aiyegbeni’s unforgettable miss. It would have put Nigeria in front and probably in control of the dicey encounter.

Instead, the Eagles allowed the Syli Nationale to score first and render an already intimidating task nearly impossible. The Eagles chased hard thereafter with the joy of Obinna Nsofor’s 64th minute equaliser subsequently doubled by the irrepressible Ikechukwu Uche, who shouldn’t have started on the bench in the first place.

With the Spain-based striker’s substitution for Chinedu Ogbuke and Ahmed Musa for Odemwingie, Siasia underscored the penchant to read matches well, but overreached himself by withdrawing Mikel Obi’s midfield partner, Joel Obi for Ekigho Ehiosun. It was a panicky move that fell flat, not least because the less-industrious middle-man was kept on, even if he was more experienced.

With the centre failing to hold in the latter stages, the visitors dealt the deadly blow: 2-2; when the earlier count of 2-1 would have counted in consideration of qualification as group ‘best loser’. And the Syli Nationale were the same side Siasia promised “to beat silly” by as many as three goals to nil. Lashing out at the Guineans was as silly as it got.

Encouraged by the friendly nature of the following confrontation with Ghana in London last Tuesday, Siasia gave fringe players their chance in the goalless draw, and while the more purposeful Black Stars apparently spared their rivals further misery by playing for a draw, Siasia confirmed my hunch that the team would be better off fielding one of Mikel Obi and Joel Obi at a time. It was also a relief to see the blunder of Abuja avoided with a natural defender – Ambrose Efe – in right back rather than the midfielder, Fengor Ogude.

Some may argue that discarded goaltender, Vincent Enyeama, might have saved the day in Abuja with his more tested reflexes, but it must be realised that for all his faults, Dele Aiyenugba was brutally exposed. Unfairly held as scape goat, Enyeama endured neglect while Mikel and Nsofor who joined in a player protest before the penultimate qualifier against Madagascar kept their shirts. As reward, Mikel publicly scorned a fine for reporting late to camp ahead of the final encounter.

Others may finger sabotage as Siasia’s emergence was opposed by officials until the point of inevitability. At any rate, he fuelled conflict by failing, as predicted by cynics, to deal with the ego of the team’s ‘big boys’, as one fallout with a prominent player was topped by another.

The latter consequence might well indicate the extent of rot in the system. Recall that player dissent was a feature of Nigerian representation at South Africa 2010 and the preceding Angola 2010 Africa Nations Cup finals. Incidentally, Aiyegbeni and Odemwingie – two players now linked with the national team’s biggest errors and consequent cup exits – were leading rebels at the tournaments.

But if I saw the 2011 Nations Cup ouster coming, I struggled to table my view in the run-up to the decider, for the signs of a wayward campaign required little comment: a coach who would not select solely on merit, players who contrived to miss ‘insignificant’ matches, and officials who shirked duty.

Siasia may have taken the reins when the mission was endangered by Austin Eguavoen’s mastermind of the October 2010 away loss to Guinea in the qualifying series, but he was expected to arrest decline as commendable results on previous stints with the Under-20s and Under-23s suggested. As the muchmaligned rescue operation with the Flying Eagles team to the Egypt 2009 World Youth Championship, his most recent shot at international glory came to naught.

Judged by nearly a year’s occupation of the hot seat, Siasia can hardly justify retention. It is time to explore more technical alternatives in an unhurried manner, and the earlier the football federation acknowledges it, the better for a smooth process of replacement – the kind likely to attract the best international hand available via a process devoid of rancour and graft.

The query consequently issued Siasia by the football federation’s Technical Committee should precede a definitive line of action that will culminate in change. Egypt’s recent engagement of former United States of America coach Bob Bradley following iconic Pharoahs coach Hassan Shehata’s underperformance of recent is an encouraging process. It can only be hoped that Nigeria attracts one as worthy, and not some self-serving agent’s second-rate proposal.

39

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

I

have been writing for about five years. In my writings I have always encouraged feedbacks. Feedbacks from my readers tell me if I am on the right track. It let’s me know that I am not talking to myself. Constructive criticisms; also helps to put me on my toes. These feedbacks comes in various forms; text messages, emails, facebook, some even attempt to call; and my favourite form of feedback is from those who would flash until my battery runs flat.

In all, it makes me want to do better. Some friends and readers alike have said to me at one time or the other “oh Vera, I want to leave my job” And my response has always been; “ Do you know know how many women out there looking for gainful employment like yours”? “Do you know how many women that will give their right arm just to have the same opportunity you have”? With these lines; I have talked several women out of leaving their jobs. And then came Kike Alao’s mail.

Before Kike’s mail; a dear friend of mine showed me yet another intended resignation letter, which I destroyed. And then came kike Alao’s mail...

A day after I got Kike’s mail; the same friend called me and said “ my mind is made up. I want to work on my own. I want to go into buying and selling “ she went further to tell the nature of business she intended to enter into and how it will afford her time for her home. Kike’s mail made me have a re-think.

Her mail made me say to my friend “go for it girlfriend “! For the first time in my adult life. I told my friend to ensure that she has had successful deliberations with her husband before throwing in the towel. In fact, I added the words; “you have my blessing” Before kike’s mail got to me ; all the way from kakuri area in kaduna state; I have heard from friends who has told me how they regretted leaving their jobs. A young widowed friend of mine once said to me

About Mrs Kike Alao’s mail... in her words; “ my only regret during my married life is letting my husband talk me into leaving my job” she went further to tell me how she paid for it. The good news is that she is beginning to find her feet. Yes; about kike’s mail , it is a must -read for everyone.

Husbands, wives, intending couples and singles.

After reading this very expository mail, I actually realised that my cheeks were wet with tears . I hardly cry, you see. The last time I cried was when Guinea equalised Nigeria on the 8th of october during the African Nation’s cup qualifying match. Last minute goal against one can make anybody cry...no big deal, right? Imagine leading two goals to one until... Now wait a minute; this is not Uncle Ade Ojeikere’s sports column, this is feminique and yes, we were discussing Kike’s mail.

Please read, I hope it touches you like it touched me...

Hello Ms Chidi-Maha, I am terribly sorry to be responding so late but I would be doing myself a great injustice if I didn’t respond to this wonderful write up. I misplaced the newspaper and just found it. I find it comforting to know that most other working mothers are having guilt issues over their inability to spend more time with their families, particularly the kids. this is because I worked as a

Re: Help! Working mothers are dying of guilt.. banker for many many years during which time I got also married, had three kids, got a masters degree (in a science course for that matter) and still tried to deliver on my set targets. Needless to say that i was harried and overworked every single day. I felt guilty that my life was just breezing by.

I was not happy because I felt I had reversed the roles nature set for us; call me conservative but I feel the man should work harder than the woman especially since most men hardly help with the domestic chores and are even limited in how much help they can render (they still cant carry our pregnancies, science or no science!).

Today, I have resigned from my plush job, not because I don’t like it anymore; it was a wonderful environment to work in, the staff acted like one big family, the company had a staff-friendly approach to Human Resources, and of course, it paid very well! I resigned because i was always exhausted, at home or at work, mentally and physically.

Lots of my colleagues coped just fine, My own case was peculiar because of the long distances i had to drive both ways daily in terrible hold up, nursing three kids under the age of five (not mentioning their dad too) and still having

to pursue targets.

I pretended as though I was coping too but I realised I wasn’t having fun. My first child completed nursery school without my ever attending the school’s PTA meetings. I had never gone to pick him up at closing time and when I heard of year-end functions I looked away wistfully.

I kept buying expensive toys and clothes for them but I wasn’t fulfilled. I felt they grew taller with each week my schedule makes me leave home before they woke and made me return after they had slept. They were more familiar with the throng of maids I kept than they were with me.

I realised that I was working to achieve one end: meet a certain high standard but I wasn’t happy.

Now I put in 30 hours a week at a far less-paying job, but I am glad to say: I finally went to visit my sisters and saw three nieces and nephews for the first time ever, I have taken my kids to parks and zoos and other family-time outings, I finally have time for regular coiffure (and hey, I am actually still pretty), my blood pressure is 120/90, my kids go for regular Doctor’s and dentist’s appointments and I am able to wear all the beautiful laces and other non-formal wear I

stowed away, I feel closer to God as I can now read and reread His word.

Today I am savouring life, not just existing. I agree that the economy is so harsh that one salary may not suffice anymore but I also think it is because our tastes have gone so high. I have discovered (for the first time) that even the N11,000 U.K. dresses I buy for my daughter fade when washed, and my son’s N4,000 shoes work just as fine as the N8,000 pair before he outgrows them.

The free-to-air shows better movies than the DSTV I pay for monthly; my baby didn’t like his formular and has actually gained weight when I followed my pediatricians advice of corn-soybean fortified gruel. My husband has always told me I would like life outside the bank and I agree with him. I am home enough to provide fresh meals as against microwaved ones for him and of course we are a lot closer too, as I am no more always aloof and exhausted. my children now prefer my salads to what obtains in the fast-food joints. I have made our house homely with pictures and other luxuries low on my priority list before now.

The point here is not to disparage working mothers (WM), as I have absolute and

Text messages Re: His mother or his stomach….

•Amanda knox going for a walk outside her home near Seattle, US

•Many a time, we say: ‘tongues are sharpter, bite worse than razors’. No pity for Henrietta. They are many and around. There is nothing that sees a good girls/women through in males’ homes than resilience, humility, perseverance and being cultured! A man who allows his stomach to override his mother…where mum is known to be peaceful and cultured… is a big fool.

For me, it’s mum.

Lanre Oseni •Well done my dear sister, you are surely making a good proof of our own calling through your column. As for the quickest way to a man’s heart I beg to say that the express road is constructed right on the tongue of a wise woman with choicest words seasoned with grace and affection.

While I agree with the ageless believe that one can get to a man’s heart through a good pot I want to quickly add that no man enjoy the delicacies of a woman with mouth diaherias or unbridled and poisonous tongue that can even bite the mother-in-law. I will never fancy the aroma of a delicacy of a woman who can insult my mother at will.

Dairo Seyi B. Ibadan

•Vera, How are you and the family? Your topic today: His mother or his stomach” Vera, you didn’t say what the young man said to the lady that made her to use such a word on his man. My point is this, I didn’t like people shifting there anger to either rmother or even father in any disagreement between two lovers or spouse.

The lady calling him the son of one eyed woman is an insult to the young man and the mother. At least she should have shown a little respect for the mother. That you cook very well and your man adore you doesn’t give her the write to insult the woman that gave birth to the man you want to settle down with. He acted well because who knows what sshe will do when she comes in proper. Vera, the truth is that ladies from not too rich family parade themselves as people from very rich family.

N. Chukwu Owerri •Blood is thicker than water, Love and respect for a spouse must extend to the family of the spouse or the relationship is dead on arrival. The lady in your story did an abominable thing. The words made me cringe. Spouses should mind their language especially in anger which ought to be expressed on issues

not direct insults. The stomach is the man. Culinary skill is the woman. It’s the kitchen before the bedroom.

Aloysius Abuja.

•Good evening. Wonderful scholarly, down to earth piece you have written on the topic ‘His mother or his stomach’ in your popular feminique column. A must read for some Nigerian spinsters who have yet to come to terms with some of the compelling facts you espouse.

Kudos! Please don’t pick offense, are you married?

Samuel •Your write up of yesterday was very interesting especially on the need to control our tonques, I hate my wife because she is generous with insults, we have 5 children, though I don’t intend to divorce her but can’t love her again, she insults me, my mother calling her a witch and had insulted my late father.

N. •A man’s mother and his stomach are two sides of a coin, which ever option you ignore has its own consequences.

Therefore, harmonization is needed to achieve the desired objective. Vera, you know that there is an element of selfish-

unflinching respect for a woman who works, regardless of where she works.

I am still working, but I have left the more demanding job for my husband, motherhood is more than enough. Let it be said though that NO woman, whether working 70-hr weeks like I used to, working 3040hours a week like I now do, working from home or simply a stay at home mom (SAHM) is unemployed in the conventional sense.

No man/husband, or even woman should disparage a woman for “leaving her kids to work”. Its nobody’s business besides the couple. Nor should you look down on SAHMs. Motherhood is one of the least appreciated yet most tasking duties any human can take on, but the toothless grins of our children is more than enough compensation.

Seeing as recently, Circle of Moms a motherhood network I subscribe to referred to a report with similar findings as you quoted, which shows no significant difference in the milestones of children of SAHM and WM, I think we should as women find our comfort zones and stick with it.

It might be too soon to tell after just one year on my lean salary, but I think I am doing just fine and people actually say I glow with contentment.

Work if it makes you feel accomplished, stay at home, if it makes you feel accomplished.

Think hard and decide, you have no reason to feel guilty.

Thank you so much. Good night. Mrs Alao, K.K. Kakuri area, Kaduna State. ness in every man. His needs, desires, and above all his stomach should take priority.

Sir O. C. Felix, Kebbi •The quickest way to a man’s heart is neither his mother nor his stomach, but her character. A girl can cook well but can’t talk well, she may have a good relationship with his mother but not with others. Good food can give her a man but character determines how long.

Austin, Benin •At birth, feeding itself starts from the breasts of a mother, whatever the situation is, at any given time, men and their mothers are always a kind of knit, may be this can be explained by the Oedipus complex as posited by Sigmund Freud (1937). There are some men who occasionally ask their mothers to prepare a particular delicacy for them, not because the wives lack culinary skills but I think it’s just this natural mum-son thing; a filial affection. The truth is no matter who and what a mother in-law is, wife must always find a way of loving her more. No doubt, good meals (at the right time) play an important role in relationship and ‘good sex’. However, the quickest way to a man’s heart is his mother while the quicker is his food.

Seun Osinkolu, Ogbomoso

40

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Flying without wings

S

OMETHING happened some weeks ago and by my reaction, one of my best friends Chief Alex Ademola Dedeke looked at me and said he was just realizing that I was a woman - all soft and jelly - after all.

That was funny especially as it was coming from someone who has known me all these years.

Chief Dedeke and my dad went to the same secondary school long, long before I was born so he saw me grow into a woman. But now, he sees me now as a friend than the friend’s daughter that I am. He was Deputy Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs some years ago, yet, when he wants an opinion, mine happens to be one of the very few he seeks. So, it must have been easy for him to forget that I’m a

woman who has her own moments of distress, and prone to breaking down in tears like most of us do.

I’m the one to listen to others when they cry, and instead of offering a handkerchief during their terrible moments, I always offer a shoulder to cry on.

Maybe that steel-like quality has made me look somewhat of a superwoman, but truth is I know I’m not. As I said earlier, I have my own moments when life offers lemon and I have to struggle to make lemonade out of it. The squeezing of life’s bitter juice to make it sweet sure brings tears to the eyes.

The reward of being the ‘superwoman’ to many people pays off every now and then though. Yes, it does. Last Saturday,

so many people (over 1,000 actually) made me fly without wings with their messages, their phone calls and even their presence. I practically tore myself into tiny bits as I was forced to fill into the plans of people to celebrate me. The best of all was the dinner at the Chinese restaurant where I was made to look like a princess.

For you all who made October 9, 2011 really special for me, I leave a part of Westlife’s ‘Flying Without Wings’: ‘Some find it sharing every morning, some in their solitary lives.

You’ll find it in the words of others. A simple line can make you laugh or cry.

You’ll find it in the deepest friendship, the kind you cherish all your life. And when you know how much it means, you’ve found that special thing. You’re flying without wings.’

He sees me only when he wants to relax Hi Deola. I’ve been in a relationship with a guy for 3 years. He comes around only when he wants to relax. I was sick sometime ago and I called him and my girl friends to say I was down. My friends came to spend some time with me but he left after coming to see me. After that, he didn’t call for 2 days after which he called to apologize. He hasn’t showed up nor sent a message since then. I need your help because I feel he’s not meant for me. – Amara.

Dear Amara, you didn’t tell me what this man does for a living but I have the instinct that he’s a busy person. So, let’s take it that it is only when he has time to stretch his legs and close his eyes to work that he sees you. You may be getting him wrong for all you know.

3 years of a relationship means that you have been

through so much and survived it all to get to this stage. So, a little patience, a little talking-to and a little understanding are the ingredients you need to make this man your dream man. Have a serious talk with him about how much it hurts that he comes around only once in a while. If he can make some adjustments- fine! What about you also going over to his place to visit?

That he came to see you at all when you were ill means he cares, it’s just that other things are competing for his attention.

We can’t get it all in a relationship. It’s either you get a man who gives you one hundred percent of his time and stays around enough to spend your money with you and embarrass you that the best you could get is a jobless man, or you get the one who wants to be responsible but has very little time for you. Choose your kind of man wisely. All the best.

Readers, please help! This is beyond me Please Adeola help me. I went home for the weekend about 6 months ago and met a lady. We fell in love immediately and I took her out 2 days later after which she became my girlfriend. All my friends became envious of me because she is beautiful, wellbehaved, charming, sexy and in fact, she is my queen. I value her like precious gold.

But one day, I went to her house

and discovered her mother as my relative.

Her grandfather (maternal) and my greatgrandfather (paternal) were from the same father and mother. Now she insists that the relationship must continue and I love her so much. What do I do? -TA N.B: I have a friend who is married to the son of her father’s immediate younger brother, (her first cousin). Her

younger sister is married to another of her uncle’s sons. It is allowed in their culture so nobody frowns at it. However, TA is not from that clan and since I do not know the culture of his people (South-East), I cannot rightly advice him; so, over to you all from that side of the country. I have sought his consent and he has allowed me to throw it to the public. What do you think about this case? Please call: 08125878580. Thank you.

What can I take to abort this pregnancy?

Please Aunty, I’m a broken-hearted lady carrying a baby. I want to know the merits and demerits of abortion and possibly what to take so as to remove the pregnancy. –M. Dear M, I’m not a doctor but I’m pro-life and anti-abortion. At this stage in my life it has dawned on me that despite the problem we have curtailing the rapid growth of the population, several people are still desperately searching for the fruit of the womb.

I always say that getting pregnant is a matter of choice whether you admit it or not. There are always options open to prevent pregnancy, and they are cheap too.

I’m a woman and I know how we sometimes plan to pin a guy down with a pregnancy. Some guys fall into that trap while others simply take a

Hearts With Adeola Agoro E-mail: libranadeola@yahoo.co.uk Tel: 08023162609

I caught him in bed with another woman; I’m confused Dear Aunty Ade, please help me. I’m 21 and just finished university. I have a boyfriend and we’ve dated for over 5 years now (we met in my fourth year in secondary school. 3 months ago, I went to his house unexpectedly and found him kissing and

She shares my love with another boy Good day ma. I’m a boy of 28 in love with a girl of 24. The girl shares my love with another boy.

Please advice me.

Hello! Talk it over with your girl.

Women should be decent and not be having more than one man. If she’s through with you, let her say so instead of sampling the love of you and your rival. Does she want to start a civil war? Warn her to make up her mind o.

Lost contacts Please Adeola, link me up with Paul from Akwa Ibom State . My name is Awudu Chukwuemeka.

I’m Ishaq O. Mohammed, please link me up with my old school mates at P i v o l t a Teachers’ College , Jos from 1977 to 1979. They are Jibrin Abubakar Garba and Joseph Miri Langtang both from Plateau State .

walk. So, the only option left in this case is to keep your ‘planned’ baby.

Always have it in mind that men leave some of the time whether you’re married to them or not, but your child is not likely to leave you. So keep this baby and pray for the best. Who knows, the man who broke your heart may have a re-think someday and come back. How would you feel then knowing you aborted the baby?

Except a pregnancy poses a lot danger to one’s life and it has to be quickly induced, I don’t see any merits in abortion. The demerits? Danger to your womb and loss of chances to get pregnant when you need it, regrets and depression are some of them. In some cases, death is also a demerit.

Be cheerful. Register for antenatal and start checking out some nice unisex names for this baby. It shall be well.

Help Line

L-R: Co-Founder and Managing Director, Carlyle Group, Mr. David Rubenstein; Chairman, Stanbic IBTC, Mr. Atedo Peterside; and Group CEO, Standard Bank Group, Jacko Maree; during a cocktail for the Carlyle Group team in Lagos, October 11, 2011

making love to another woman.

I was angry and I left. Since then, he has been calling and sending text messages even to my best friend for her to beg me. Aunty, should I forgive him? I’m confused – C. Dear C, 5 years is such a long time to keep a young man faithful to you and you alone. I’m sorry to say this, but truth is that it’s easier for men to stray and be adventurous than for women to be. Most young men want to sow the wild oaths before finally settling down.

If you had not caught him in the act, you probably won’t be thinking of leaving him. You still love him, that’s why you’re even asking if you should forgive him. If you didn’t want to give him a chance you would have made up your mind and you won’t ever ask me.

Anyway, now you have caught him and you know he’s not a saint.

So, set your rules and let him promise you that the days of catching his fun with other babes are over. What I’m saying in essence is that you should forgive him. The man that sins and begs for forgiveness is better than the one who has an I-don’t-care attitude.

Please Aunty, I have only N32, 000 (thirty-two thousand Na ira) and I just gained admission to a federal school. Please link me with someone that can tell me the business that I can do to earn my school fees and handouts. Thanks – Peter (07065358318). P.S: Dear people, please let us rise to Peter’s cry for help. He didn’t beg for money, he only asked for advice on how to turn N32, 000 around. I know that amount can’t do much in the Nigeria of today. But with your assistance, a little bit here and a little bit there would push up his chances of making it in business to pay his tuition. God bless you as you come to his aid.

SUDOKU 1ST STEP IN SOLVING PUZZLE 339: Look at the 3 bottom horizontal (GHI) 3x3 boxes. The left box has 6 in cell Ib, while the middle box has its 6 in cell Ge. The right box must, therefore, have its own 6 in row H, where there is only one vacant space - cell Hg. Reasoning along these lines, try and fill in all the other vacant cells.

Thinking along these lines, try and fill in all the other vacant cells SOLUTION PUZZLING!

TOMORROW .

HAPPY

&

LIFE

Society Profile

THE NATION, Saturday, OCTOBER 15, 2011

STYLE Gossip Interviews

SEE PAGES 44 & 45

My life at 75 —Bola Kuforiji-Olubi

41

Saturday

42

SPECIAL

THE NATION SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

With KAYODE OLANSHILE-ALFRED E-mail:kayflex2@yahoo.com TEL:08035733605

Terry Waya's new lease of life

Uju Ononiba goes AWOL

Katherine Edoho savours new found freedom

K

atherine Edoho, the estranged wife of popular TV presenter, Frank Edoho, is no doubt one of the most talked about ladies in the Lagos social space at the moment. Ignoring gossips and tales about her failed marriage, she carries on as if nothing has happened.

Her decision not to allow her collapsed marriage weigh her down could well be responsible for her good looks. A few months after her marriage crumbled, she dusted the calamity off her life like a shoe shiner does shoes. Now she remains her adorable self.

Yet, many believe her confident looks stemmed from her belief that somehow, she would be reunited with her estranged husband. The dark and lovely lady was her bubbling self when we sighted her at Ice Prince's album launch at the Expo Hall of Eko Hotel & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos last Sunday.

Caroline Ekanem Danjuma gets her groove back

Former corporate players recoil into their shell

Saturday

SPECIAL

THE NATION SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Tokunbo Afikuyomi floats new hangout

Vivienne Chioloji not in a hurry

T

hat Vivienne Chioloji, the dark-skinned and lovely lady behind the much-talked about pride and joy in Lagos is doing well in her line of business is not a subject of controversy, but what has forced agitations in the minds of her admirers? In a society where marriage is considered a crowning gift upon a woman's achievement, it is still very obvious why Vivienne is not in a hurry for any kind of emotional attachment. She has since decided to jettison the world of men with fake promises of happiness which has never

43

T

he well-meaning people of Ikoyi, Lagos State have been asking themselves one question for the past few weeks: who owns City café, Michelangelo Wine Shop and Michelangelo Event Centre, a winebar cum restaurant and event centre which opened some weeks back and has been drawing to itself an increasing clientele base? Well, they need not ponder for too long again. The brain behind the new hospitality outfit is Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, the immediate past Commissioner for Tourism in Lagos State.

According to him, City café, Michelangelo wine shop and event centre is gradually becoming the onestop fun spot for people on the Island. It is situated conveniently at Mulliner Towers, Kingsway Road, Ikoyi, Lagos.

According to him, it was a child of necessity conceived many years ago.

“City café is a luxuriously appointed Restaurant and café bar franchise. The only eatery and watering hole in Mulliner Towers, and we are now officially opened with full Panoply of services. Exquisitely situated for your maximum convenience and comfort, City Café has a delightfully spacious sky-lit ambience that will titillate your senses and impress your guests. It is the ideal venue for your breakfast meetings and business lunches. In addition to the mouthwatering dishes, it is one place you can be sure of getting fine wines and premium spirits which is our specialty.

There is the cozy feeling of being at home at City Café because if there is a wine or drink your part of the world is known for, we probably have it here at City café”, said the senator.

He went further to say that the mission is to make people happy whenever they step into the serene atmosphere of City Café.

been.

Knowing fully well that time is always faster spent for women than men in this part of the world, and in spite of the many things she has passed through in life, she has chosen to be happy.

Those who should know allege that she has been in and out of several relationships.

But with her strikingly loving looks and understated elegance, she is never going to be short of admirers. There was a time that speculations were mounting that she was about to get engaged again.

Though, our sources confirm that Vivienne is actually planning to settle down after her last relationship crumbled.

In the style department however, she still holds the ace.

About Roli George T

here is a thin line relevance and irrelevance, the line between obscurity and prominence is even thinner.

It is now about eight months since Bode George, former People's Democratic Party's henchman in the Southwest zone returned from prison after serving his two-year jail term for financial impropriety orchestrated during his stint at the Nigerian Ports Authority.

For some of his cronies and immediate family members, the reality of his travails is still biting hard in them. It was even more so for Roli, George's beautiful wife.

Roli, who staged an elaborate welcome party for her hubby on Saturday, February 26, 2011 was telling everyone that her husband has bounced back and that George will soon take over the structure of PDP in Lagos State.

Man however proposes, and God disposes. Bode George is no longer the beautiful bride in the Lagos political space. Recently, the chieftains of the not too popular political party in Lagos State kicked against the nomination of Roli George, as Federal Commissioner of the National Population Commission (NPC) representing the state. According to the chieftains, Mrs. Roli Bode George is from Delta State

and has no natural connection with Lagos State. She is also a member of two different boards, the Federal Medical Centre, Bida and Nigerian Pilgrim's Board.

Happenstances gathered that Chief Bode George has been trying to persuade those who were against his wife's nomination.

However, with the latest development, close watchers of happenings unfolding within Lagos PDP political space are insinuating that Roli's chances are presently being threatened by a lot of factors which Bode George's opponents are busy stirring up. Except if the presidency intervenes.

Sources close to the former Ankara model say that Roli is not in a good mood at the moment. Obviously, Roli has learnt the hard way that power and position like life are transient, you might be here today and gone tomorrow.

Break-up tales trail Karen, Patrick Koshoni's marriage

Yetunde Ogbemudia bereaved

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etunde, the wife of the former military governor of the defunct Bendel State, Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia, is mourning the loss of her mother, Alhaja Kadiatu Afolabi. The 68th year-old woman surrendered to death in a ow could you have forgotten so soon the high-octane 40 London hospital a few days ago. And birthday shindig of Karen Koshoni, a popular Lagos big those in the know say the news of her girl? The A-list party that was staged for her by her mother's death came like a thunderbolt. husband, Patrick Koshoni, at the prestigious Radisson Blu Hotel on Yetunde remains a very visible figure in Ozumba Mbadiwe, Victoria island, Lagos. the social circle, particularly because of The party was well attended. A-listers, fashion forward ladies, her involvement in fashion business. She leading socialites and party pillars dressed to the nines to honour is believed to be the largest supplier of one of their own. Patrick and his pleasantly beautiful wife, Karen, Swiss lace to lace merchants on Victoria made sure that the guests were pampered to no end with choice Island, Lagos with her NODONY fashion champagne, from Crystal to Moet & Chandon. Also, there was free house located at Dolphin Estate, Ikoyi. flow of Remy martins, Brandy, assorted wines, beer and fruit juices According to an inside source, preparation is in top gear to give the late with slap-up meals that pleased the guests' palate.

Alhaja Kadiatu Afolabi a befitting burial.

The shindig paraded all the trappings of class, style, pomp and Many of Yetunde's friends are already panache, the beautiful evening of music, food and canapés had in warming up to make the day a memorable attendance dozens of those who make the Lagos social firmament one. tick.

Yetunde, we gathered, has been shuttling Just two months after the elaborate birthday party, the much between Lagos and Abuja to make sure celebrated couple have gone their separate ways and are busy that all things are on ground to make the singing discordant tunes which are not too palatable to human ears. burial scheduled for October 23 at the Furthermore, Karen has lost so much weight to make people start prestigious City Hall, Lagos, a memorable wondering what is wrong. She is a despondent lady at the moment event. which is not hard to decipher. Even more worrisome is that unlike Her husband is said to be pulling all the jolly, happy-go-lucky lady that she was, the very beautiful lady strings to see that her dream of a befitting now wears a permanent furrow of worries. burial materialises.

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44 Otunba Ayora (Dr.) Bola Kuforiji-Olubi, 75 years old about two weeks ago, is a woman who has scored many firsts in public and private services as well as business and traditional realms. She has capped her fellowship of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (FCA), England and Wales; Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators with the national honour of Member of the Order of the Niger (MON) and Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON). In this interview with JOKE KUJENYA, she challenges the widely held view that women are the weaker sex.

She also speaks about the challenge that comes with her numerous chieftaincy titles and awards

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HILE the word celebrity is loosely thrown around in these contemporary times, there is no doubt that very few people in Nigeria truly match the title in the real sense of it. Years back, when the word ‘service’ qualified a person for being celebrated, not just for their talent but for the indelible mark they have made and the inspiration they represent among the womenfolk. Otunba Ayora (Dr.) Bola Kuforiji-Olubi, was among the people to reckon with.

As a tall and intelligent woman with stunning facial features that blend her beauty with her brains, she ticked the ‘superstar’ box. Being among the first set of women to venture into the relatively uncharted territory for brainy women, she soon became a media sensation. And no one was in doubt as to the fact that she earned her place in Nigeria’s business pantheon.

Now 75, the age she gracefully clocked on Wednesday, September 28, 2011, she reminisces on the values that have shaped her life: “Let me just start by saying that I had a sheltered life like any growing up child from an upper-middle class family. My adolescent cum childhood years prepared me for the life ahead. It was the period of tutelage for me either traditionally, on the home front with my parents or with the people I lived with to acquire more sense or preparing me educationally for the future.

And that laid the foundation for me as a person, what I want to be in life and what I want to do. These have conditioned my life generally.”

At 75, the famous woman, who has excelled in her chosen professions, still makes beauty marks. She is still gorgeous at 75. Dressed in a three-piece black-and-white trouser suite, with her make-up slightly decking her face, Mama still has her diction intact. She spoke crisp English and made each point clearly, warning the reporter: “I really don’t like being misquoted or misrepresented.”

Asked why a woman with such a weighty educational and corporate package would choose to go for a traditional office instead of enjoying the social accolades she had been showered with over the years, she said: “No, dear. I didn’t choose to be a traditional chief.

You know that my current title is Otunba Ayora. It is not something I sought for. It is something the family said, ‘fine, this is your desert. It is what you deserve. So, it’s time you come and be installed as an Otunba. And an Otunba is not the kind of title for which they send a letter and ask you to come and be an Otunba. It is a proper traditional title.

“I went to do what they call ‘Ipebi’ for eight days, where I sat down and I was humbled by different people, old and young, who came to prostrate and greet me ‘Kabiyesi’. I stayed there for eight days, not going home or even

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011 ease myself. To me, it was an eye opener as to the rich tradition that the Yoruba have.

“On my father’s side, I come from the Jibodu Sokalu family. My paternal grandmother was Jibodu Sokalu on her father’s side, while on the mother’s side, she was from Ilupomi Soleka. So, I am from royalty in the two sides, as you can see.”

For a woman who was once fully in the social circle, how much of that is she now missing for life in the palace?

She responded: “We meet once every two months. There is a Council of Otunba, which meets in Ijebu-Ode every two months. We go there to deliberate on such issues as infrastructure; all kinds of discussions that you will normally do to improve your community.

“So, my basic responsibility to the Oba is to pay homage and, as much as I can, give support to projects that are taking place within Ijebu-Ode and its environ.

Then, I suppose basically that being an Otunba is to know what my responsibility is. And those responsibilities include being able to be there for the community whenever I am needed to do things, even without being prompted. When I know that there is something that needs to be done and support needs to be given, I readily do what is expected of me, both to individuals in the community and to the inner caucus of the community as well.

“And you need to know that I’m not just an Otunba in Yorubaland; I have been honoured in Efik with one of the highest chieftaincy titles that can be given to anyone in that land. It is called Adaidake-Egburutu, which was conferred on me during my tenure as Chairman of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) in 1990. They said it was in recognition of some of the developmental processes I undertook in that community then.

“Also in early 1990, I was conferred with the title of Ahaneji-Agamba 1 of Isu-Nkwere (meaning the name that goes to places or opens doors). I am also the Asiwaju Iyalode of Ibadanland. And in my father’s land in Egba, I am Suada Egba. It is a title zeroed to the Ikereku Egba-Okeona sector. I don’t know what Suada means.

“I also got Igbokodo-Okeona. But I first had Lika Ikija from the quarters where my paternal grandmother came from; then the Balogun Ogunbona family.

“So, for me, that is why my upper-middle class upbringing conditioned my childhood and my adolescent years and gave me the tutelage for the years ahead and for the life that I was to live.”

Is there a way then that being an Otunba has affected her life or altered her being?

“No, I wouldn’t say so. You see, there was nothing fetish in my own coronation and, indeed, in any of the chieftaincy titles that I got. I don’t know about any ritual at all. I know that I had to kneel down and prostrate for the Awujale (the traditional ruler of Ijebuland). Incidentally, the Awujale came from the same arm of royal houses, Anikilaya, Olutoyese and Ayora royal families of Ijebuland, where I came from. So, it was the same spot where the Awujale sat in the ‘Ipebi’ for 30 days during his coronation that I sat for eight days to become the Otunba.

“So, it was not like ‘okay, we’ve seen this woman somewhere, let us honour her as an Otunba. It is from my heritage. So, as an educated person, I adopted an open-hearted policy towards most people who come to see me. Unless, of course, for security reasons, when one is not very sure of the person approaching or his or her motives.

Then you can screen the people coming and make sure that it is the right person that comes your way.

“Then, as a corporate person, it is very necessary in Nigeria of today. I do have an Otunba Ayora Court in Ijebu-Ode, like I have an Olatunbosun Villa in Abeokuta, which is where my father comes from. And it has never taken any pains for anybody to see me. I don’t arrogate to myself that air of not being approachable, like a thin god.”

Dr. Kuforiji-Olubi is a woman who does not share the women empowerment sentiment. For her, every woman possesses what it takes to be the quality person she sets out to be. And for that reason, she has mentored not a few women.

She said: “Right from an early age, both in Nigeria and from all those professional courses abroad, I believed that I have the wherewithal to be empowered and that I was already empowered by the various

When I was a minister, I used to work till 2am •Kuforiji-Olubi relives life at 75

antecedents and things that I have been able to do and the experiences that I have been able to gather.

“So, when I came into the corporate world, for instance, I never regarded myself as one weak woman who needs to be propped up by anybody. I paced myself up. I stand tall.

Thank God, I’m already a tall woman. And I look at people straight in the eyes and discuss issues from the standpoint of knowledge added with some measure of God-given

wisdom. I have proven that I am as good as the next man, if not better. I believe that to be able to hold your own in a man’s world, you shouldn’t be a cry baby or someone who asks for favour. You have to show that you have confidence in your own ability.

“Things don’t happen overnight. I believe in gestation period, and it starts from childhood–your tutelage in school, the experiences you gathered from your own role model in life, your parents and people you

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

come in contact with. All of them eventually gestate for you to the extent that when you get to a stage in life, you want to flower and blossom. When you now get to this blooming point, then you are noticed.

“People try to test you to see what mettle you are made of. And it will be in your own interest all the time to disprove anybody who thinks you have got somewhere because of one something besides your own ability and God-given sustenance and grace. Those are

women. Sometimes, I am partial in favour of some women, especially when a woman comes and starts to relate stories of woes. I tell such people, ‘See, you are not the only person who has sour tales to recount. Virtually, every woman has something to say about her existence. But it is the way we handle these things that makes us overcomers, and we can beat our chests that by the grace of God, we have been able to do it.’ So, when some come crying, I try first and foremost to give them courage and confidence. I let them know that if they don’t have courage, they cannot have confidence and that would make them walk about like a dog that has its tail between its legs.

“I also let them know that living like that is actually giving the wrong signal about yourself. When you want to go somewhere or get into an office, for instance, people will easily know that you don’t have confidence.

And they are not even sure if you are sure yourself about what you are entitled to or have come to do in that office environment. They would then be in doubt if that is something that should come your way.

“But when you come and you are confident about what you have come for, people are asking you questions and you are giving back intelligent answers, that is what makes for progress.

“I have sponsored one or two people who said they were vying for House of Representatives, State Assembly or some other political aspirations. You give them something and probably you don’t see them again. But then, what do I need to see them for if they know for sure that I wouldn’t go asking any of them to do anything for me? What one has done is done because you want to help the people to actualise their dreams. And in the process of actualising their dreams, you are building their resolve to make themselves better, help their families and make their contributions to the larger society.

“We all have, in our own various ways, the need to contribute; some in large measures and some in smaller measures because oftentimes, the resources are not equal. At least, we all heard the story of the widow’s mite in the Bible, which is eventually considered to be larger than the millions of the moneybags who did not even know that they were dipping hands into their resources.

So, it is a question of what you have been able to do to affect the lives of others positively.”

Globally, the time when it seems that women are treated as second class people is fast phasing out. Yet, many of them still lack what it takes in terms of leadership qualities.

One such example of laxity was how the womenfolk performed in the just concluded 2011 elections.

Otunba Kuforiji-Olubi noted: “What I have observed is that the rationale for many people going into governance is that it is a way for them to make money. Politics has become the biggest profession in Nigeria. And it is a profession because not many of the people who are in politics want to change the social terrain of Nigeria for the better. Though there are some well-meaning ones among How could them, because in any basket of eggs, you believe that as a you cannot say every egg is bad.

There are always some good minister, I was sitting in So, what one has observed my office until 2 am, working? ones. is that rather than have in mind progress and And when I looked back, I said the infrastructural development to myself, wasn’t that a crazy thing of the country at heart, everybody is looking the to do? It was at a period of dire way of themselves. In that security problems in Nigeria with the process, it gives the wrong signal even to the younger ING (Interim National Government). generation.

But I wasn’t afraid. I would sit down “Some younger ones in my office, do my work and come would just believe that they can’t make progress with into Lagos at the weekend with honest jobs. They would just assume they have to go into my suitcases of files to treat in politics or hamper on onto my house before the someone’s whims and caprices to be able to get somewhere in life. following week And what really angers me is that some people, not only women, having been put in that position, they puff, get thin, tall, short, all in one swoop because they now the three things I have consider themselves God’s greatest gift to relied on.”

Otunba Kuforiji-Olubi has been a role model mankind or to Nigeria in particular.

“It was John Kennedy who said ‘ask not to several women she has come across in an age when the place of a woman has become what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.’ Most of more functional.

She said: “Several of them have come to me. all, before you start thinking what you are I do have a foundation called the Ayora Trust going to benefit from Nigeria, your state or Fund Foundation. With that, I have just tried community, ask yourself what you are going as much as possible in my own little way to to give to your country, state and community.

“When I was a minister for the first period, touch the lives of many people; not just

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people came into my office to ask me for ‘mega bucks’’ which I didn’t have because it was my desire to serve. How could you believe that as a minister, I was sitting in my office until 2 am, working? And when I looked back, I said to myself, wasn’t that a crazy thing to do? It was at a period of dire security problems in Nigeria with the ING (Interim National Government). But I wasn’t afraid. I would sit down in my office, do my work and come into Lagos at the weekend with my suitcases of files to treat in my house before the following week.

“You know what? I took my private sector orientation into public service. Sometimes, I look back and ask myself, ‘Were you not a fool to have done that? But I wasn’t a fool. I refuse to even think that I was or that I am a fool. I only went to give service. And no file stayed on my table for more than 48 hours. I don’t know whether such still happens now.”

Reminiscing on the Nigeria of today in comparison with the Nigeria of yesteryears, Otunba Kuforiji-Olubi said: “Let me trace the genesis of Nigeria. It was an amalgamation in 1914 by Lord Luggard of different creed, tongue, tribe, religion, ethnic backgrounds and so on, which were all put together with the mind that this entity called Nigeria would work. Even in those days, it was obvious that the fabric called Nigeria was being pulled in different directions. But even at that, things were not as bad as they are now. Because of everybody’s innate desires for selfaggrandisement, it has become imperative for people to look at being a Nigerian from the point of view of, ‘yes, I’m a Nigerian. But what is in it for me?’ Each person wants his own ethnic group to outshine the other ethnic group. So, the little bit of togetherness that we used to have seems to be shaky.

“We are emphasising ethnicity more than national unity. Most people approach life from their ethnic sentiments rather than from being a Nigerian first and foremost. But it is fine if I shine in my own corner and you shine in yours, provided we are able to give off ourselves to ensure that we work together for the entity called Nigeria, to make her a nation that will be reckoned with in other parts of the world.

“Sustaining a corruption-free country and becoming a nation where we would all be proud to be one another’s brothers and sisters is by giving conscious thoughts to our efforts to unify Nigeria. There is so much that is pulling the fabric of this nation apart. We are supposed to be a federation. The Federal Government is taking the larger share of the resources of the country, and in so doing, we are getting more and more semblance of a unitary government than a federation.”

And how has her position shaped our socalled value system, if any? What future for Nigeria?

To this, she said: “Values don’t come overnight. You start teaching and imparting lessons in values to your children right from infancy. Also, values should be inculcated into your personal life throughout your own existence. Now, there is no question of do as I said but not as I do. One must practise what one preaches, and in the process, you give the values of honesty, diligence, hard work, piety and integrity. All these are necessary for us as well as our children, families and associates. If a person mortgages his or her life for a bowl of pottage, that would be pathetic.

“What we should not try to do is that anytime you are cornered on any issue you have clearly no reason to give for whatever action you have taken, it is not at that point you start scratching your head, ashamed of things you didn’t think about properly before you do. And the same goes for everyone of us in Nigeria, right from those governing down to those being governed. Everybody has a duty of care, a duty of attention to the values that would make this country a better place.

“I am not saying that Nigeria is the worst place to live. Of course, every country has its own problems. But we have all travelled far and near, and we have seen how other people live. Is it the bad things others do that we want to copy and imbibe? Rather, we should make ourselves the cynosure of all eyes in terms of our value systems, so that people will say, ‘Oh, you come from Nigeria?’ and they will be amazed. It is not that when you go abroad and because you come from Nigeria, you are delayed at the airport for hours for funny questioning and all that. We all need to re-orientate our value system spiritually, physically, orally, politically, economically and mentally, like a moral rearmament.”

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THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

•In white buba, sokoto and agbada brocade, Hakeem Bamgbola looks charming.

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he ethnic look is the must- have clothing item to bridge the gap between the smart and casual wear, offering a variety of colours and designs to choose. The idea that indigenous designs can be worn by day as well as night and for all seasons and occasions depends on the pattern, texture and style. Fashion buffs would agree that the native wear is the unannounced official attire of most events, and it is the favourite fabric of many society people. They are best worn when you really want to be different.

•Yinka Akanbi’s great style.

•Ali Baba:The ethnic top looks great and adds an edge to his looks.

• Yinka Fashola of Moofa Couture:This royal pant (trousers) is the perfect example of shaking it up in style.

•Saidi Balogun: Looking gorgeous in native attire.

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THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

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HE fashion circus swept into the newly-opened Jemi Riana African Fashion outlet on Bode Thomas, Surulere, Lagos two Sundays ago for the embroidery fashion exhibition of talented couturist, Anita Yesufu. It was the usual mix of fun, fashion and drama, as guests trooped in to see the designs on display.

The exhibition might have come and gone, but many are still giving kudos to Yesufu who, over the period of 20 years, has contributed immensely to the fashion industry in Nigeria.

Photos

by Niyi Tabiti

Johannesburg hosts Africa Fashion Week T HE city of Johannesburg’s love affair with fashion will reach fever pitch this month as it hosts the Africa Fashion Week.

South Africa is the continent’s undisputed fashion capital and all of Africa’s Who is Who in fashion are heading for Johannesburg for the continent’s most influential fashion week.

But as this event kicks off on October 20, it won’t all be about fashion. The South African Ministry of Tourism will once again support the Africa Fashion Week as it works to establish South Africa as a premier fashion, design and lifestyle destination in the world.

“It’s a natural event for us to support the Africa Fashion Week. It gives us a platform to showcase our destination and its unique fashion aesthetics to a world of stylish, trendsetting travellers and people,”said Roshene Singh, Chief Marketing Officer of the South African Ministry of Tourism.

Singh added that the Africa Fashion

Week would be a bold, exciting event, drawing visitors from all over the continent and all over the world.

The show will provide the platform for African designers to showcase their designs. Besides the cream of local design talent, designers are flocking to the city from Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, the UK, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, United States and Zimbabwe.

Many of the fashion stars who will be featured at the Africa Fashion Week have already made a name for themselves in the other style capitals of the world.

Stakeholders have said that the Africa Fashion Week will be an event like no other. It will take place at the Sandton Convention Centre. This year, the Africa Fashion Awards will include the premier South African Tourism Designer of the Year Award.

The awards will conclude the runway show on October 22.

Gucci accused of inhuman working conditions

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•A Gucci store in China

UCCI announced during week that it was trying to address the disturbing allegations about the company’s working conditions in China made by former employees through an open letter published in a Chinese newspaper.

The state-owned Chinese newspaper, Global Times, reported that five employees in a Gucci flagship located in the southern city of Shenzhen wrote an open letter that outlining workplace grievances, including 100 rules that regulate employee behaviour. Such rules include having to ask for permission before going to the bathroom and drinking water.

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•Vivienne Westwood

RITISH international fashion designer and businesswoman, Vivienne Westwood, who is largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream, during an interview last week, said: “I never look at fashion magazines.

I find them incredibly boring. To me, reading a fashion magazine is the last thing I need to do. I’ve got books I need to read. More people should read books.”

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Kwankwaso grapples with destitution in Kano ,

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HE world has changed. So has development pattern. In time past, availability of natural resources was what a nation needed to develop.

In modern economic setting, however, abundant natural resources do not necessarily constitute sufficient impetus for rapid and sustainable development.

This perhaps explains why a former President of the United States, Bill Clinton, once said: “People can only advance not by what they have in their soil but what they have in their heads.”

In Kano State, there has been a new wave of thinking in government circle since the advent of the Kwankwaso administration: governance is not about sharing money and playing to the gallery with meaningless rhetorics.

The administration seems to have redefined governance as the necessaryplatform for socio-economic and political advancement.

Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso seems to share in the old saying that if you give a man a fish, you would feed him for just a day, but if you teach him how to fish, you would feed him for life.

While the cliché may sound old, it holds true for today’s Nigerian society, where the quality of human capacity is below what is required to galvanise the country’s development.

In Kano State, the human resource is huge, the fertile soil is vast, but the most populated state in Nigeria is still grappling with such challenges as poverty, unemployment and destitution.

In the last national census, the population of Kano State was put at 9.3 million, making it the most populated state in the federation.

Kano State, therefore has a rich human capital base, which can be tapped for the development of the state.

A breakdown of the population indicates that the youth constitute more than 60 per cent of the population, majority of whom are just redundant, as there are few or no job opportunities in the state for them to utilise their energy and channel it into productive ventures.

Trained and knowledge-based quality human resource is no doubt an asset. An untrained and unskilled population, on the other hand, is a resource that is extremely difficult if not impossible to manage. This trend, according to analysts, provides a fertile ground for the prevailing culture of destitution and social disorder in the state.

To tackle this challenge, Kwankwaso, during his first term between 1999 and 2003, launched a comprehensive human development programme to empower the youth, so that they could make their own contributions to the development of the state. However, he did stay in office long enough to realise his lofty dreams in this regard.

But once he secured another mandate to govern Kano State, he revived the programme and gave it a new concept, leading to the establishment of about 18 different institutes, which seek to provide vocational skills in various areas of human endeavour.

The establishment of the training institutes was predicated on the need to strengthen the human resource base of the state and transform it into a knowledge-driven economy, where there is value for money and dignity for human labour.

The Kano State Government seeks to use the institutes as a springboard to tackle the problems of destitution, poverty and unemployment in the state.

Kwankwaso seems to be conscious of the fact that the gravest challenge confronting the state is how to equip the abundant human resource in the state with skills and knowledge, and make the huge human capital not a liability as is the case today, but a veritable tool for sustainable development.

Within the first three months of his second coming, Kwankwaso left no one in doubt about the direction of his administration. His focus has been on the development of human capital.

Speaking at a forum in Kano recently, he announced the decision of his administration to establish 18 institutes, which he believes would serve as the launch pad in his battle against destitution and unemployment.

He said: “We are all aware of the cosmopolitan nature of Kano State and its rising population. It will not be out of place to state that the youth constitute 60 per cent of the population of the state.

“It is, however, unfortunate to observe that the youth are the worst victims of pervasive unemployment, food insecurity and poverty,

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

We are all aware of the cosmopolitan nature of Kano State and its rising population. It will not be out of place to state that the youth constitute 60 per cent of the population of the state.

It is, however, unfortunate to observe that the youth are the worst victims of pervasive unemployment, food insecurity and poverty...

,

Kola ADEYEMI, Kano which no doubt contribute to re-curring youth restiveness, not only in Kano State, but the nation at large.

“As a way out of this situation and as a strategy towards providing gainful employment for our youths, my government has established 18 vocational training institutes, six of which are in the agriculture sector. The six institutes include Farm Mechanisation, Livestock, Fisheries, Poultry, Irrigation Development and Women in Agriculture Skills Employment.

“Already, two of the institutes (Farm Mechanisation and Informatics) have takenoff. I have launched the Farm Mechanisation institute with the initial intake of 500 trainees spread in four training locations in the state.”

Recently, about 200 farmers graduated from the Farm Mechanisation Institute, Bagauda, after undergoing a three-week rigourous training in cultivation techniques and management of work bulls and equipment.

At the graduation ceremony, Kwankwaso personally presented certificates and work bulls with ploughing equipment to the graduands, tasking them not only to become self sufficient, but also work towards the realisation of the food security aspirations of his administration.

There are also plans to train 44,000 women in poultry farming. One thousand women are to be drawn from each of the 44 local government areas in the state under a policy aimed at reducing poverty among rural women in the state.

Pleased with the laudable initiative of the Kwankwaso administration, the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Adewumi Adesina, recently visited Kano to perform the foundation laying ceremony of the Fishery and Livestock Institutes, all at Bagauda.

The Kano State Governor is optimistic that the establishment of the institutes will drastically reduce destitution in the state.

He said: “We strongly believe that this strategy will not only provide the necessary knowledge and skills to our youth, it will also enable them to be self-employed, and arm them with opportunities to contribute their quota to national development.”

There are challenges ahead, however, in that it is one thing to establish training institutes and another thing for the institutes to run efficiently. Enormous political will is required to ensure that the purpose for which the institutes were established is not defeated.

On the part of Governor Kwankwaso, however, there has been no shortage of commitment. He has on several occasions made it clear that the task of moving Kano State forward is a task that must be accomplished, despite the frail financial muscle of the state and the alleged huge debts he inherited from the Shekarau administration.

•Kwankwaso

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THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Strategic partners FTAN on tourism seminar

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trategic, a tourism man agement company, and the Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria [FTAN], an umbrella tourism private sector body in Nigeria, have concluded arrangement for a one-day seminar.

The seminar with the theme: “Expanding the Frontier of Opportunities in the Nigerian Tourism Industry” is scheduled to hold on October 18 at the Lagos Sheraton Hotel and Towers.

Speaking on the preparation for the seminar, the CEO of Strategic, Abiola Akinsola, noted with excitement that the seminar will make a lot of differences on practitioners and investors, among others, that are being targeted to participate.

Quoting from recent statistics made available by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation [UNWTO], she said: “Tourism has experienced continued growth and expanding diversification to become one of the fastest growing financially viable sectors in the world.

“Modern tourism is closely linked to development and encompasses growing number of new destinations. These dynamics have turned tourism into a key driver for socioeconomic progress”.

•Enyong Creek

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ROCHUKWU is a town with rich history. Hardly can the Igbo history be complete without mentioning the role of the Aro people. Apart from the historic role of Arochukwu people, they also spawned out different outposts in different parts of Igboland that are now towns and communities of their own.

So, also would Christian history of Ndigbo be written without devoting a part to discuss about the Arochukwu’s role in the advent of Christianity. It is this antecedent of Arochukwu that makes the town a must-visit for tourists exploring the endowments of Abia State.

It was through Arochukwu that the Presbyterian Church made inroad into Abia North.

The missionaries also succeeded in stopping the killing of twins. Some of these twins are still alive today.

A trip to Arochukwu from Umuahia, the Abia State capital, ordinarily should not take more than one and half hours, but currently there is no road leading to the town as the so-called roads are more of death traps than access ways to one of the great towns in Igboland.

Up to Ohafia, the road is still navigable, but from AkanuOhafia, after leaving the army barracks,it becomes almost impassable.

Qatar rated Enyong Creek: Mary best airline Slessor’s route to Igboland Q As we insisted on making the trip, the old commercial vehicle groaned and tilted right and left like a tiny breeze being swayed by a huge breeze. Getting to Arochukwu for a

tourist visitor is like a mission almost impossible due to the state of the road.But finally we got there.

In Arochukwu, you have an

•The church in Arochukwu named after Mary Slessor

old community that moves at a slow and unhurried pace.

There are options to explore for a tourist in Arochukwu. One could decide to go in search of the shrine Continued on Page 50

atar Airways has con tinued its awardwinning streak by retaining the Best Airline in the Middle East and Africa accolade at the 2011 Business Traveller Asia Pacific Awards.

Voted by readers of the prestigious monthly magazine targeting frequent travellers, Qatar Airways beat stiff competition to pick up the coveted award for the second year running at a ceremony in Hong Kong attended by leading figures from across the hospitality industry.

Recently named Airline of the Year by industry audit Skytrax, Qatar Airways won the Business Traveller award for the first time last year.

The award further recognises Qatar Airways’ strong commitment towards travel excellence as voted by the very people who regularly ply the skies on business travel trips – frequent flyers.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said retaining the award reflected the company’s high standards of service and commitment to the travelling public.

50

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Enyong Creek: Mary Slessor’s route to Igboland Continued from Page 49

of the Arochukwu long juju known as Ibino Ukpabi.

However, I was told by my guide that there were particular days for visits. Unfortunately I came on a wrong day.

Exploring the Mary Slessor route into Arochukwu was more like it. We decided to visit Enyong Creek.

The creek is shielded within the rubber plantation just at the back of the town. At the bank of the river, there is a white painted metal used to probably mark the depth of the water.

By the bank of the river is what looks like a disused wooden canoe. From the bank, one could just see little as the river meanders through invading water plants and disappears from view, leaving only the water that covers the river in view. There has been no efforts to clear the creek of these obtruction.

There is nothing in the creek that gives one the inkling to the role it has played in the lives of people both within and outside the country. In the landlocked area like the

Arochukwu community, such river in the lives of the people then was invaluable.

According to history, it was from this creek that the Scottish female missionary, Mary Slessor, came to Arochukwu around 1906.

This was after the British Army had overrun

Arochukwu warriors.

Arochukwu hitherto had been a notorious community in the buying and selling of slaves .

According some reports, the creek also played a significant role when the formindable deity of the Aros, Ibino Ukpabi, held sway in the whole of Igboland.

It is believed it also played a significant role in moving slaves from Arochukwu to the coast for onward movement to the New World.

Enyong Creek, as it is today, has little or nothing to offer to tourist visitors. This writer considers this scandalous.It leaves asking what the Abia State Tourism Board and the tour-

•One of the ancient houses in Arochukwu

ism committee of the council area are doing.

There are no signboards, no souvenirs or pamphlets to give a little history of the place. Nothing whatsoever that shows the activities that once went on there. To even get to the river is a difficulty. There is mud making movement difficult. Most of the people asked do not see what they have as anything out of the ordinary.

About 50 metres from the Enyong Creek is a piece of land, about a plot.

It has no structure and there is no sign whatsoever to indicate the ownership. It is said to be the point where Mary Slessor built her base . One of the indigenes explained the community had donated the land to the Presbyterian Church to build a befitting centre in Mary Slessor’s memory.

It does not speak well of the community that it lacks a great monument in the name of a missionary like Mary Slessor who gave so much to the people of Arochukwu and its environs. These are some of the things that tourists visiting

Arochukwu would want to see.The only thing showing that Mary Slessor once worked in this community was the naming of the Presbyterian church in Obinkita after the Scottish misssionary.

I got to know that the Presbyterian Church is planning to put up something in that regards, but that it has not existed before now does not speak well about the tourism awareness of the state authorities and the local government.

Three years from now would be a century since she died, but the legacies of Mary Slessor, the young Scottish woman who stopped the killing of twins in the SouthSouth and South East, still remain.

Tourist attractions in Arochukwu include the Enyong Creek, the Ibino Ukpabi Shrine, the First Presbyterian Church in Abia North, artefacts from the slave trade and many others.

Unfortunately all these are not being showcased to the world.

All over the world, fortunate communities are showcasing their ecotouristic or cultural tourism assets and inviting the world to come and see. Arochukwu owes to the world and humanity to open its doors to tourism.

Kehinde FALODE: 08023689894

Fresh fish peppersoup

Foluke ADEMOLA

Have you a stressful day? Need to relax with a good meal? Try this amazing sauce.

It is very easy and quick to prepare. Enjoy with wine or chilled juice.

Ingredients · 2 medium size fish (tilapia catfish or bream) •I lemon or lime •50g / 2oz peppersoup seasoning •50g / 2oz chopped chillies •100g / 4oz fresh prawns •I litre / 2pints water or stock •25g / l oz chopped mint leaves

Method • Have the fishmonger clean the fish and slice into pieces. Wash the fish thoroughly with lime or lemon to remove any slime season with salt.

•Cover and leave in a cool place until required. Pour the stock into a clean pot and add chopped onions chillies and peppersoup seasoning.

•Boil together rapidly for 15 minutes to blend together the flavours.

Then add the seasoned fish and peeled fresh prawns.

•Simmer gently for 20minutes.

Check seasoning and serve garnished with chopped mint leaves

Nutritional benefits of lemon Lemon is one of those super foods with a myriad health and cosmetic benefits. It is very helpful to the general human body.

There are a few persons for whom it is an allergen, so make sure you are not allergic to this natural product before you start enjoying the benefits.

Below are few: •Lemon, being a citrus fruit, fights against infection. It helps in production of WBCs and antibodies in blood which attack the invading micro-organism and prevents infection.

•Lemon is an antioxidant which deactivates the free radicals preventing many dangerous diseases like stroke, cardiovascular diseases and cancers. It also lowers blood pressure and increases the levels of HDL (good cholesterol).

•It is found to be anti-carcinogenic which lowers the rates of colon, prostate, and breast cancer. They prevent faulty metabolism in the cell which can predispose a cell to becoming carcinogenic.

•A tablespoon on thick lemon syrup everyday relieves asthma and the juice also lessens chilblains and itchy skin.

•Lemons are packed with numerous health benefiting

nutrients. The fruit is low in calories, 29 calories per 100 g, one of the lowest among citrus group. It contains no saturated fats or cholesterol, but is rich in dietary fibre (7.36% of RDA).

•It helps in sore throat or infection, gargling lemon juice speed up the healing process If you are having diarrhea, drinking lemon juice prevents dehydration.

•The are also a good source of B-complex vitamins such as pantothenic acid, pyridox-

ine, and folates. These vitamins are essential in the sense that body requires them from external sources to replenish.

•Contain healthy amount of minerals like iron, copper, potassium, and calcium. Potassium in an important component of cell and body fluid helps control heart rate and blood pressure.

•It is amazing how much benefits lemon have. Its nutrition is certainly a lot more than other fruits and drinking lemon juice is definitely a must to keep you healthy.

51

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Abuja Carnival rejigged

Emir of Argungu to grace Akwaaba

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•Participants at a past edition of the carnival

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FTER celebrating an nually for the past six years, the Abuja carnival is about to evolve.

The new thinking is to bring in the contemporary while still showcasing the best of Nigerian culture.

This is the new thinking of the carnival as explained by the Artistic Director of the carnival committee, Professor Rasaki Ojo Bakare.

Bakare explained this while briefing journalists on the 2011 edition of the carnival.

Bakare expalined the reason for the new thinking: “We saw the necessity to remove the word ‘cultural’ because it has for six years succeeded in confusing our stakeholders from the states who bring the content of the carnival,” began OjoBakare at an interaction with journalists in Lagos on Tuesday, October 4.

He noted that the inclusion of ‘cultural’ in the nomenclature has made participating states “think that the carnival should be a poor imitation of the National Festival of Arts and Culture. So,

for six years, in spite of all efforts, the carnival has looked like a slightly polished version of the traditional festival.”

Carnival’s Artistic Director further noted that a number of Nigerians erroneously believe that the carnival belongs to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, because of its name, whereas it “is Nigeria’s national carnival.”

With ”A Carnival of Reconciliation” as its theme, the event will hold from Saturday, November 26 to Tuesday, November 29. The street carnival, the most colourful of carnival’s activities, will kick-start the programme on the 26th at 7am ,while the formal opening ceremony comes up at Eagle Square by 4pm of the same day.

Next up on Sunday is the durbar which didn’t hold last year and for which organisers were roundly criticised by the media and tourists. It will start by 9am at the Equestrian Club Ground, Asokoro, while the children fiesta, another vital component of the carnival,

holds at the Millennium Park at 2pm.

The traditional food fair and newly introduced bush bar holds on the evening of the same day at the Old Parade Ground at 4pm, while the cultural night holds at the same venue by 7pm.

Explaining the introduction of the bush bar, OjoBakare said, “Traditional food should go with local drinks, not soft drinks.”

He added that since the socio-economic development of Nigeria is the major objective of the carnival, it will be a veritable “platform to expose our cultural products.”

The masquerade fiesta, boat regatta and command performance will happen on November 28. The ancestors will display from Area 11 to Eagle Square, while the other two events are scheduled for Jabi Dam and Sheraton Hotel respectively.

The carnival, which the head of the CMC disclosed “is gravitating towards the contemporary” as from this

Lagos NTDC holds talks

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HE Lagos Zonal Office of the Nigerian T o u r i s m Developemnt Corporation (NTDC) recently marked the 2011 edition of the World Tourism Day. The theme for this year was “Tourism-Linking Cultures.” Although the world body, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, celebrated day in Egypt, members and affiliate members of the world body marked the day.

The event kicked off with a presentation from the French Cultural Centre (Alliance France) on the French culture and its impact on their tourism arrival. The presentation was done by Mr. Ghalem Loual , acultural attachee from the French Embassy

and Sama Char Chere.

The UNWTO’s secretary general’s address was read by the Lagos area zonal director of the NTDC, Mr. Nosiru Kaka.

In the address, the secretary general, Talib Rafai, said that thanks to tourism, millions of people from different cultures are being brought together around the world like never before.

“This interaction between people of different backgrounds and ways of life represents an enormous opportunity to advance tolerance, respect and mutual understanding”.

World Tourism Day 2011 also drew attention to the importance of preserving and promoting the cultures of the world in all their forms. Culture, which compels millions of tourists to

travel and spend, is of immense value in itself, but is also a vital tool for the development of a sustainable tourism sector. As such, it must be thoughtfully managed and protected, as set out in the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism which states that: “Tourism policies and activities should be conducted with respect for the artistic, archaeological and cultural heritage which they should protect and pass on to future generations”.

Rifai said culture was one of the most precious assets and needs protecting.

“As we launch World Tourism Day 2011, I call on all people to conduct tourism in a way that preserves and enriches the cultural wealth of the world for future generations,”

year, will close with the second street carnival and ceremony on the 29th.

Explaining what he means by “contemporary”, Ojo-Bakare said, “A carnival is different from a traditional festival. A carnival is a street party, theatre on the street. A carnival celebrates unusualness, celebrates extreme creativity, so you don’t wear babanriga and stroll on the streets of Abuja and say you are wearing a carnival gear. The carnival henceforth is going to be a platform for uncommon creativity.

Uncommon creativity in all its ramifications, every element of the carnival will exist to do just one thing, to celebrate uncommon, weird and wild creativity.”

Stakeholders, he assured, have endorsed the move from cultural to contemporary.

The theme, he also informed, was chosen to heal the rifts caused by the last general elections. “We always try to use the platform to impact on Nigeria’s progress; impact on the development of the nation and its people. We are using it as a medium to bring together all dissenting voices; to come together, unite and reconcile for just one reason: Nigeria.”

HE Akwaaba Travel Market, West Africa’s pioneer travel fair, will kick off on Wednesday, October 19.

One of the leading traditional rulers in West Africa and the custodian of the world famous Argungu fishing festival will be a royal guest at the 2011 edition of Akwaaba.

The emir, Alhaji Samaila Mohammad Mera , will be joined by other royal fathers and the ministers of tourism from three African countries. As royal guest of honour, he will be expected to present awards to the winners of the “BALAFON AWARD OF EXCELLENCE IN TRAVELS”.

This year’s winners include Phill Hall, an environmentalist; Obinna Ekezie of Wakanow; Hon. KGB Oguakwa, a former parliamentarian; and Kris Aligbe, among others. This comes as the government of The Gambia through its Ministry of Tourism will be hosting a Gambian Day on Thursday, October 20 at this year’s AKWAABA: African Travel Market.

Akwaaba will be starting two days earlier than planned because the Lagos State Local Government elections have been fixed for October 22. This year’s Akwaaba will start on the f October 19 and end on the October 21. The special three-hour event at Akwaaba will see the Minister Fatou Mas Jobe, making a presentation to culture, entertainment and tourism stakeholders on the strength of the Gambian brand as a premium destination for Nigerians. Last year, the Ghanaian Minister of Tourism along with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu hosted a well attended Ghana Day at Akwaaba.

Lufthansa German Airlines has joined the supporters of Akwaaba as sponsors . Lufthansa is one of the leading European carriers with worldwide connections. The other sponsors of this year’s event include NCAA, Southern Sun Hotels, Ethiopian Airlines and South African Airlines.

Akwaaba, African Travel Market, is the only international expo in West Africa listed by the United Nations World Tourism Organization(UNWTO), a partner event of African Travel Association( ATA )in the region and the only member of International Tourism Trade Fairs Association(ITTFA) in West Africa.

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Thumps up for FABA theatre

HE Executive Secretary of the National Institute for Cul tural Orientation (NICO), Dr. Barclays Ayakoroma, has commended the theatricals of the Film and Broadcast Academy (FABA) students for their command performance of the ‘Castles In The Air,’ a satirical comedy play written by Barclays Ayakoroma himself.

Ayakoroma made this commendation recently at Film and Broadcast Academy Ozoro, Delta State when he led a delegation of management staff and some professional colleagues to the academy’s command performance of the play, ‘Castles In The Air’ co-directed by Bifatife Femi Adeseye, a lecturer in the Theatre and Media Arts, Delta State University, Abraka and a visiting scholar and co-ordinator of Film and Theatre Production, FABA and Elo Ibagere (Director), former HOD, Department of Mass Communication and Theatre Arts, Delta State University, Abraka.

He thanked the organizers of the performance for the wonderful hospitality which they showed to him and his delegation during their visit. Equally, he was elated by the wonderful performance put up by the students and promised to support them all the way, hence he granted them the right and approval to perform the play wherever they might desire to.

Commenting on the production, Ayakoroma reacted thus: ’’I want to tell you, this stands a theatre tradition that will over whelm this community,” He therefore, enjoined them to take the performance to the capital city Asaba probably stage it at the government house to gain more visibility. This he promised to draw to the attention of. Richard Mofe Damijo, Hon. Commissioner for Arts and Culture in the State to facilitate their performing it at the state house.

•L-R: Mr. John Ima (NOA); Mr. Ishola Waheed (NOA); NTDC Lagos Zonal Director, Mr. Nosiru Kaka; Mrs. Annette Chioma Ibe (NTDC) and Mr. Obafemi Ilesanmi (NTDC)

•

52

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Growing children of destiny (3) quired, in order not to make the teen years frustrating for you as parents.

That’s why God’s Word says: Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established (Proverbs 24:3).

Undoubtedly, understanding the transformation that takes place in the lives of your teenagers, will help you to proffer appropriate control and provide you with the patience needed to go through the period.

It is important to note also that maturity begins earlier in girls than in boys. Certain emotional changes occur in this period. In some cases, instead of fear, inferiority complex sets in – fear of being disliked, failure, fear of being laughed at, etc.

In such cases, your teenagers must be taught that body changes do not mean being inferior, abnormal or bad. They need to understand that everyone is unique, and learn to accept their uniqueness.

It is very good for teenagers to be adequately counselled. Most often, before the age of 20, there will be temptations to have sex, i.e. they may be with someone of the opposite sex who will be ready to release his/ her body to them for sex. But before

such temptation comes, it is of utmost importance as parents to give your teenagers sex education from a godly perspective, otherwise someone else will, and that could be disastrous.

Like in the case a secondary school young girl, whose mother told that if a boy should just touch her body, she would get pregnant.

So, one day after class, she and a boy were discussing some matter and he touched her arm, and she suddenly broke into profuse sobbing, to the amazement of all.

It was later discovered by friends and mates that she thought his touching her had made her pregnant, and she feared the reaction of her mother. They all laughed at her and after being told the truth on how babies are made, she was deeply disappointed that her own mother could not educate her properly.

In the long run, her trust in her mother failed, she ended up being taught by the wrong company and eventually she indulged in the wrong acts. Your case will not be like that!

Emphasize purity to your children in thoughts, words and ac-

tions. That way, you will help them steer clear of evil thoughts. Let their minds be pre-occupied with God’s Word, by being spiritually-minded (Romans 8:1-8). You will succeed in having a wonderful relationship with your teenagers. God is on your side!

Grace to perfectly understand your teenagers for better tutoring, is the privilege of the children of God. To become a child of God, you have to confess your sins and accept Jesus as your Lord and personal Saviour.

If you are set for this, say this prayer of faith: Dear Lord, I come to You today. I am a sinner. Forgive me my sins. Cleanse me with Your precious Blood. I accept You as my Lord and Saviour. Now I know I am born again!

Congratulations! Call or write, and share your testimonies with me through: E-mail: faithdavid@yahoo.com Tel. No: 234-1-7747546-8; 07026385437, 07094254102.

For more insight, these books authored by me are available at the Dominion Bookstores in all the Living Faith Churches and other leading Christian bookstores: Raising Godly Children, Understanding Motherhood and Building A Successful Family.

EAR Reader, It’s another great privilege to share few thoughts of God’s Word with you again today.

Last week, I taught on the vital key of training in growing our godly seed in becoming what God pre-ordained them to be.

This week, I will teaching on Understanding Teenagers!

What happens when a child becomes a teenager? The teenage years mark a transition in a young person’s life, when they change from being a child to an adult. Physically, children are maturing earlier than they used to, and changes in technology and lifestyle appear to have speeded up young people’s social development.

D

The teen years can be one of the most mesmerizing periods in life. As parents, it is exhilarating to see a man emerge out of the little boy you use to cuddle. As a teenager, it is fascinating to accept the responsibility of maturity. Though this only happens when both parties are well informed.

Parents are usually puzzled by the swings in the moods of their teenagers. One minute they are excited, the next minute, they want to be alone. What used to excite them before, like certain activities are now regarded as childish. This leaves many parents exclaiming: “who can cope with this!”

Note that knowledge and understanding are what is actually re-

C

30 percent of cancer could be prevented

ANCER affects everyone – the young and old, the rich and poor, men, women and children – and represents a tremendous burden on patients, families and societies.

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world, particularly in developing countries.

It is the uncontrolled growth and spread of cells and can affect almost any part of the body. The growths often invade surrounding tissue and can metastasize to distant sites.

Yet, many of these deaths can be avoided. Over 30 percent of all cancers can be prevented by avoiding exposure to common risk factors, such as tobacco smoke. Others can be detected early, treated and cured.

Even with late stage cancer, the suffering of patients can be relieved with good palliative care. In addition, a significant proportion of cancers can be cured, by surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy, especially if they are detected early.

The main types of cancer are: •Lung (1.4 million deaths) •Stomach (740 000 deaths) •Liver (700 000 deaths) •Colorectal (610 000 deaths) •Breast (460 000 deaths).

More than 70 percent of all cancer deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries. Deaths from cancer worldwide are projected to continue to rise to over 11 million in 2030.

Modifying and avoiding risk factors More than 30 percent of cancer could be prevented by modifying or avoiding key risk factors.

Key risk factors for cancer that can be avoided are: •Tobacco use - responsible for 1.8 million cancer deaths per year (60 percent of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries); •Being overweight, obese or physically inactive - together responsible for 274,000 cancer deaths per year; •Harmful alcohol use - responsible for 351,000 cancer deaths per year; •Low fruit and vegetable intake •Physical inactivity •Urban air pollution •Indoor smoke from household use of solid fuels.

•Sexually transmitted human papilloma virus (HPV) infection -

responsible for 235,000 cancer deaths per year; and •Occupational carcinogens - responsible for at least 152,000 cancer deaths per year.

•Ageing is another fundamental factor for the development of cancer. The incidence of cancer rises dramatically with age, most likely due to a build up of risks for specific cancers that increase with age. The overall risk accumulation is combined with the tendency for cellular repair mechanisms to be less effective as a person grows older.

Prevention strategies •Increase avoidance of the risk factors listed above.

•Vaccinate against human papilloma virus (HPV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV).

•Control occupational hazards.

•Early detection Cancer mortality can be reduced if cases are detected and treated early. There are two components of early detection efforts: Early diagnosis Some early signs of cancer include lumps, sores that fail to heal, abnormal bleeding, persistent indigestion, and chronic hoarseness.

Early diagnosis is particularly

relevant for cancers of the breast, cervix, mouth, larynx, colon and rectum, and skin.The awareness of early signs and symptoms (such as cervical, breast and oral cancers) in order to facilitate diagnosis and treatment before the disease becomes advanced. Early diagnosis programmes are particularly relevant in low-resource settings where the majority of patients are diagnosed in very late stages.

Screening Screening refers to the use of simple tests across a healthy population in order to identify individuals who have disease, but do not yet have symptoms. Examples include breast cancer screening using mammography and cervical cancer screening using cytology screening methods, including Pap smears.

The systematic application of a screening test in an asymptomatic population. It aims to identify individuals with abnormalities suggestive of a specific cancer or precancer and refer them promptly for diagnosis and treatment. Screening programmes are especially effective for frequent cancer types that have a screening test that is cost-effective, affordable, acceptable and accessible to the majority of the popu-

•Many of those who die of cancer die out of ignorance

lation at risk.

Based on the existing evidence, mass population screening can be advocated only for breast and cervical cancer, using mammography screening and cytology screening, Examples of screening methods are: •Visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) for cervical cancer in lowresource settings; •PAP test for cervical cancer in middle- and high-income settings; •Mammography screening for breast cancer in high-income settings.

Treatment The primary objectives of cancer treatment are cure, prolongation of life, and improvement of the quality of life.

Treatment of early detectable cancers and other cancers with potential for cure Some of the most common cancer types, such as breast cancer, cervical cancer, oral cancer and colorectal cancer have higher cure rates when detected early and treated according to best practices.

Some cancer types, even though disseminated, such as leukemias and lymphomas in children, and testicular seminoma, have high cure rates if appropriate treatment is provided.

The national cancer control programme in Nigeria should therefore establish guidelines for integrating treatment resources with programmes for screening and early diagnosis, and provide therapeutic standards for the most important cancers in the country.

Treatment may involve surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, or some combination of these. The most advanced forms of treatment may produce a 5-year survival rate of 75 percent or more for certain types of cancer, e.g. cancer of the uterine corpus, breast, testis, and melanoma. By contrast, survival rates in cancer of the pancreas, liver, stomach, and lung are generally less than 15 percent.

Some treatments require sophisticated technology that is available only in locations with substantial resources. Since the cost of estab-

lishing and maintaining such facilities is high, it is desirable that they should remain concentrated in relatively few places in a country to avoid draining resources that could valuably be devoted to other aspects of the work of a national cancer control programme.

10 facts about cancer •There are more than 100 types of cancers; any part of the body can be affected.

•In 2004, 7.4 million people died of cancer - 13 percent of all deaths worldwide.

•More than 70 percent of all cancer deaths occur in low and middle income countries.

•Worldwide, the 5 most common types of cancer that kill men are (in order of frequency): lung, stomach, liver, colorectal and oesophagus.

•Worldwide, the 5 most common types of cancer that kill women are (in the order of frequency): breast, lung, stomach, colorectal and cervical.

•Tobacco use is the single largest preventable cause of cancer in the world.

•One fifth of all cancers worldwide are caused by a chronic infection, for example human papillomavirus (HPV) causes cervical cancer and hepatitis B virus (HBV) causes liver cancer.

•A third of cancers could be cured if detected early and treated adequately.

•All patients in need of pain relief could be helped if current knowledge about pain control and palliative care were applied.

•More than 30 percent of cancer could be prevented, mainly by not using tobacco, having a healthy diet, being physically active and preventing infections that may cause cancer.

Source: WHO/Chris de Bode

53 Coping with diseases

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Drugs and happiness Marijuana as a social drug

with Prof. Dayo Oyekole

Prostate enlargement

ARIJUANA or cannabis is possibly the most widely used “social drug” and possibly the most abused worldwide.

In some cultures, it has the kind of acceptance that tea or coffee have in other cultures, though illegally.

Thus the great and fondly remembered reggae megastar, Bob Marley, could boldly sing: “got to have kaya now”. Although archeological artefacts indicate that marijuana has been used from three millennia BC, presently, in many countries, marijuana is illegal.

However, with the experience of important beneficial medicinal effects of marijuana, some forms of marijuana have been officially approved for use in conventional medicine.

These include synthetic drugs such as dronabinol (Marinol®) and nabilone (Cesamet®) and an analgesic mouth spray (Sativex®) for cancer-associated pain.

Advocates of medical marijuana support its use for relieving pain (analgesia), reducing nausea and vomiting, stimulating appetite in cancer chemotherapy and AIDS patients, and for the treatment of glaucoma (because it lowers eye pressure). In another field, the intelligence services used marijuna as a “truth serum” because it caused loquacity (unguarded and continuous

talking) and divulging of information from subjects.

Marijuana smoking or chewing, as a source of happiness, is delusive on many counts. Its “happy” effects do not last. It will keep costing, financially. It produces euphoria, which is not happiness but is unstable sensory and mental pleasure. Perception becomes distorted.

Marijuana habit is escapism, a flight from reality to return to reality in a less capable manner, an eventual disappointment.

Chemicals in marijuana act on brain and body cells and can cause undesired effects: decreased concentration, impairment or reduction in short term memory, altered sense of time, confusion, “acute panic anxiety reaction”, apathy, depression, red eyes, increased heart rate, dry mouth and throat, reduced ability for tasks requiring acuity such as driving or operating machinery, and lung damage.

Marijuana users may develop tolerance to the drug, needing more of the drug for the same effect. In some cases, this may translate into financial crises and criminal activities such as theft.

Chronic users may become dependent on marijuana to the point that their lives revolve around drug use and this can lead to wrecked careers and

I

Staphylococcalinfection(3)

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NFERTILITY in men is usually due to history of venereal disease that was treated before, but not totally cured. When a venereal disease is not well treated, it pave way for staphylococcus to set in and such a man will always complain of the following: • internal heat •worm-like movement within the body •weak erection •reduction in size of male organ •inability to go more

than a round (low libido) •body weakness •premature ejaculation.

Once you start to experience any of these symptoms, then it could lead to the victim having a low sperm count (oligospermia), watery sperm, no sperm count (azoospermia) etc. Unlike female that it may just take some few hours or days to de-

P failed relationships. Addicts are compulsive users that cannot control their use of the drug. Their brains and bodies have changed to function with the presence of the drug and they suffer tremendously when they lack the drug. Typically, addicts would do abnormal things to get the drug.

Young people who chronically abuse marijuana tend to turn to other social drugs too. Hence, for young people, marijuana is often a “gateway drug”. For this reason, it can be used to trap the children of the rich. Young people may become hampered in academic activities and less motivated for normal goals in life. Loss of control, unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, and delinquency may be associated with marijuana usage. When youths smoke marijuana heavily over a long period, they get “burned out” (retarded in behavior). High doses of marijuana can produce acute psychotic reaction and development or relapse of schizophrenia (a mental illness) in vulnerable individuals.

tect the infection, especially vaginal itching, in male it may take some months or years before the major symptoms begin to manifest. That is why in most cases when a couple are married for some years without any issue, the man usually believes there is nothing wrong with him because he feels he is physically fit and erroneously lays the blame on the woman.

Even the society is not also being fair to the women, whenever the issue of giving birth arise. Once there is delay in a woman conceiving, we usually believe the fault is from her.

This reminds me of a couple that came to our office for consultation on the issue of fertility, the man believed that there was nothing wrong with him since he is physically fit and performs his function as a husband to his wife. He believes since he is sexually active, he does not think there is any problem from his side.

The wife has also done some series of tests and scan which all revealed nothing, but they still wonder why after 5 years they remain childless.

During our discussion I found out that the man has

Marijuana use can cause infertility problems: low sperm count and ejaculation disorders in males and irregular menstrual cycles in females. Exposure of the fetus by a pregnant mum using marijuana can cause low birth weight and cognitive problems in the child.

But why do people want marijuana even when they know the dangers? The common human psychology shows that experiences such as euphoria, orgasm, power, etc., are feelings we tend to risk indulging in rather than pass them up. It is not easy to reject opportunities to indulge in them if we can get away without being punished and in some cases we would indulge in such powerful experiences even if we end up suffering from such choices. It takes a strong intellect or a good cause to reject something that gratifies our senses so effectively. Euphoria is intense gratification.

Dr. ’Bola John is a biomedical scientist based in Nigeria and in the USA. For any comments or questions on this column, please Email bolajohnwritings@yahoo.com or call 07028338910

refused to go for any form of test. After enlightening him for the need to be sure that all is well with him he agreed to go for the laboratory test, lo! and behold our friend has a moderate growth of staphylococcus aureus, coupled with a low sperm count.

Initially he refused to believe the outcome of the result but after repeating the same test at three different laboratories all pointing in one direction, he accepted to undergo treatment. Both he and the wife were treated for the infection since she too has it, after the treatment of the infection, drugs were given to the man to boost his sperm count. To God be the glory, today they are proud parents of a set of twin.

Staphylococcal infections can lead to erectile dysfunction in men. Erectile dysfunction is the inability of a man to produce a consistent or maintain an erection of the penis sufficient to have a sexual intercourse. Erectile dysfunction is also referred to as sexual impotence.

•Dr B. Filani is the Chief Consultant of Sound Health Centre, Lagos. You can contact him on 08023422010 or on facebook or email soundhealthcentre@yahoo.com.

ROSTATE enlargement is generally a disease of elderly men; and it is characterized by urine retention, leading to severe pains, anxiety, discomfort, and sometimes, loss of consciousness.

The full function of the prostate is not yet fully understood by scientists all over the world. However, it is known that as a gland, it produces fluid called ‘semen’ which is released by men, at the climax of sexual activity. The prostate gland will only grow and function under the influence of male hormones, the most important of which is called TESTOSTERONE, produced from the testicles.

The prostate gland surrounds the neck of the bladder and the first part of the urethra goes through it. An enlarged prostate, presses on the urethra and decreases the size of the opening through it, or it forms a dam which holds back part of the urine.

The causes of prostate enlargement are not very precise, but they are associated with hormonal imbalance; and available information indicates that most men who use drugs to improve their sexual performance tend to activate the level of their Testosterone hormone beyond the threshold, and consequently, they often end up developing prostate enlargement and related complications.

The enlargement can be a simple type called Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, or it may be cancerous, that is, Malignant Prostatic Hyperplasia. Both the benign and malignant types usually present similar symptoms of frequency in urination, hesitancy, urgency, trickling flow of urine and in advanced stages, there is acute urine retention as a result of blockage of the urinary tract.

A man suffering from enlarged prostate will first notice that he has to get up oftener than usual, to pass urine at night. The stream will be small and slow to start. A long time may be required to empty the bladder.

Many men with enlarged prostate may have no further disturbance than the “nuisance” symptoms stated earlier.

Other cases will get worse until the patient cannot empty the bladder, and must resort to a catheter for relief.

Unfortunately, after the urine has once begun to be drawn by catheter, the danger of bladder infection is great. Also, the symptoms and problems of cystitis are likely to occur.

Treatment and Control In Holistic Lifecare, it is strongly advocated that the best prospects of controlling Prostate Enlargement, is by going back to Nature. When symptoms of an enlarged prostate are noticed, it is advisable to avoid spices, condiments and alcoholic beverages; to lessen bladder irritation, which may promote infection. It is also important to avoid cold conditions or getting the feet wet, or holding the urine for too long.

Prostate Enlargement is not new in African context. In fact, ethno-medicinal research has shown that herbal remedies are very effective, without complications or side effects.

The holistic natural remedy being suggested for Prostate Enlargement is a combination of natural extracts of herbs such as Saw Palmetto, Cocos nucifera, Khaya ivorensis and Lycopersicum esculentum.

For further information and consultation on Holistic Lifecare research and services, especially on Blood Infections, Infertility, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Chronic Debilitating Conditions as well as mental and social problems, please call on: 0803-3303897 or visit: Mosebolatan Holistic Lifecare Centre, Adeyalo Layout, Ogbere-Tioya, Off Olorunsogo Express Bridge, Ibadan.

Website: www.holisticlifecare.com. Distance is no barrier, we can send remedies by courier if need be. We also have facilities for accommodation, admission and hospitalization in a serene and homely environment.

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THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

I shed tears the day bombs exploded in Suleja —Niger Governor Aliyu Dr. Babangida Aliyu has been in the saddle as the governor of Niger State for more than four years. Upon assuming office in May 2007, he adopted the novel title of Chief Servant in a country where governors are usually addressed as ‘His Excellency’. In this interview with VINCENT AKANMODE and AUGUSTINE AVWODE he explains why he seeks to demistify power. He also speaks about his family life and low moments as a governor. Excerpts:

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HE local government election has just been held in Niger State. How did it go?

It was very peaceful. People have spoken about the turnout also. Unfortunately, in most developing countries, instead of looking at the local government election as the most important, the way our federal system developed, we tend to think that it is the federal government that is more important.

If you look at the nature or the local government, it should be the most important election in this country. The local government is the closest to the people. The Federal Government has no constituency or people in that sense of the word.

People belong to the local government and the wards.

Every thing that is primary, whether school or health care, starts from there. So, the local government is the foundation. The state is the building and the federal government is the roof. And we know that in that structure, it is only when the foundation is strong that the building will be intact. But people don’t seem to appreciate this. No matter the amount of mobilization, they will still complain. But I am happy with what transpired during the exercise. We only had problems in one area, and we have 25 local government areas.And that was Kontagora. I was aware that even before I came, they burnt many of their houses and property. But we will look at it critically and ensure that we stop such a tradition in the area. In all other local government areas, the election went peacefully.

For me, the position we have adopted is that this is democracy and in election, you must respect the wish of the people.

Governors strive to influence the conduct and outcome of local government election because they believe it is the basis for their hold on power. How much influence did you bring to bear on the just concluded election?

Whoever the people have elected, I will accept and work with. The issue of the governor must go and make the party win should not be there. You have worked with the people for four years. If they still have a problem with you, you should be the one to correct yourself, not the people.

But it is a thing of joy for me that

the party did well in many local government areas. And it was because we allowed the people to select candidates of their choice. I swore before, and I am swearing to you now, there is no single person I would say I supported to become a councillor or a chairman. All I told the people was, ‘Please, you are the ones residing with the aspirants. You know the ones who can serve you. Please, go and give us those ones.’

We made sure that the primaries were transparent and sincere. And whoever the people said was their candidate was okay by me. I believe internal democracy must be entrenched in all the parties because we have seen the ugliness in imposing candidates. If you do that, you are not fair to God. If you say this is what you want and God says this is what he wants, whose wish will carry the day? For the sake of the local government election, the chairmen of other State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) came to Niger State and we had an interaction. The kind of things they saw were not seen in many other states. They were very happy that we really funded the SIEC here to do its job. And I think that is the way it should be because they cannot be truly independent, if you don’t give them the wherewithal to do the job. I was very happy when I heard all the chairmen talking about what we have been able to do.

But there have been calls from some quarters that SIECs should be scrapped.

I believe those who make such calls are ignorant of the learning process in democracy. If you want to teach people to appreciate the beauty and principles of democracy, it is at the local level that it should happen, not at the centre. And even what is happening at the federal level, every election that we have had, ended in court, up to the Supreme Court. So, there is no guarantee for you to say that at the local level, you are going to send somebody who has never been to that place to come and be Resident Electoral Ofmilitary rule, we have come to see ficer when he does not even know everything as federal. But in a fedthe issues that may be involved or eral system and in a democracy, the towns. So, for me, it should be what happens at the local level is the the other way round. most important.

I hope that gradually, when we Were you afraid that your party, create enough confidence in the systhe PDP, would not do well in the tem, it will be the SIEC that will conelection? duct the elections in each state and Honestly, I was not. It is not about announce the results rather than the confidence that we would win. imposing people from elsewhere. I No. Maybe you do not know how I think we must marry these two came into the system in 1983. I was things. Because of our 33 years of a final year student in the university

•Babangida Aliyu

when a delegation came to me and asked me to come and contest election into the House of Representatives. I took time to find out why the party would settle for me, of all people. I accepted. Then I came and won the election.

Everybody who knows the history of how I became governor knows that I was not looking forward to this one. As a permanent secretary, I was eyeing the Head of Service position.

But as God would have it, I came.

So, for me, my belief is that whatever you will be, you will be, no matter who wants to stop it.

Does this have anything to do with your upbringing?

Mostly, yes. I grew up in a large family. And before going to the western school system, we had to learn the Quran. I tell people that up till the time I finished school, I never had a room to myself. At that time, comparatively, our compound was probably the largest in Minna.

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THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

,

Why was it so?

We were a large family; very large family. Whoever came to Minna as a guest or a stranger usually ended up in our house or was directed to our house. So, you would be there in a room and a guest would just appear. No matter where he came from, they would tell you to leave the room for him. So, none of us, at least those of my age grade in the house, could claim to have a room.

This faith in God that whatever you will be, you will be was ingrained in all of us. But it is not fatalism where you say go and sit down and things will come. No! Do your best, but have it at the back of your mind that it is not the amount of effort that you put in that the end will give you. Do your best and leave the rest to God. And so, even in this case, if another party had taken over, we would work together. I know that the days God has given me to be here, nobody can take them away. And if he says I am not going to be here, no matter how much you love me, I will go. In fact, I will go yonder.

I have been asking people, even those who profess to love me, whether they will follow me into the grave if I die. Many of them, after two or three days, will start their own business. So, we need to have faith in God, have faith in ourselves and have faith in our nation. This idea of everything Nigerian is bad, we must really discard it. Those of us who have had the opportunity to travel to many countries are the people who seem to castigate everything about ourselves.

I went to deliver a lecture at the Harvard University last week, and I drew the attention of some of them to certain things. I said, ‘Look, do you notice that the CNN we watch here is not the same that we see in our country? Do you notice that they don’t have Al-Jazera? Do you notice that the BBC and co are watched with special permissions ? Do you notice that you cannot just tune to any station like we do in our country? Do you see that the headlines in their papers do not make it look like the country is about to break?’

They have gone through the same experience we are going through now, but they have learnt to moderate certain things. There is a limit beyond which an American can not go, and they know it. We need to have it here.

For us here, every little thing, people start talking about disintegration. At the end of the day, we are creating lack of confidence in the minds of our youths. When people talk about poverty, yes, it exacerbates certain problems. But are we poorer than many nations that have been able to do things in order? They are able to do it because they have a sense of discipline and what you can call equitable distribution of wealth, where whether you are poor or not, you are not jealous of the next person. But here, we have become a little parasitic. Everybody just wants to get without putting anything into it.

And if the claim that about 50 per cent of our population is below 25 years, it means there is something that we are doing wrong. I have not seen any religion that says you cannot sit down and have qualitative population. So, now, many people are being born and abandoned.

Government, religious and traditional leaders must sit down and look at it that for every time, there are certain principles that must be worked into the system without changing the basic system.

You seem to be alone among your colleagues in in the PDP. Is it not creating some problems for you?

Many of us really understand it that way, but many don’t want to talk about it. We seem to have developed this feeling that when you allow the problems to lie, they will sort themselves out. That is wrong.

There are some that will linger and create others. I think many of us realize what is happening, but some

Oh, the first one, I shed tears.

These were ordinary people. Most of the victims were passersby; people who were selling kolanuts, sugarcane, and so on. They had nothing to do with the elite competition that was happening.

The person that was standing near you, suddenly you saw his legs flying off to about three metres from you.

Indeed, it really touched me

,

•Babangida Aliyu

of us look at them as insurmountable. No! Some issues, when they are discussed, people begin to understand. Even without making an effort, they begin to change. Will I live like my parents or grandparents did, when in those days, the number of children you had might determine your wealth because the whole idea was to work on the farm, so if you had many children, you had bigger farms? Will you want to do that today? If you do so, the school fees may get at you. It means we must do something.

I don’t have to flaunt it as a status symbol that I have five or six wives.

No! The times have changed and we must look at it that way. We need to have a population that we can plan for and feed properly. It is not good to have a number that will be a problem. A population is supposed to add up to produce more for the society and to do other things.

In those days, you did not hear much about poverty because we were our brothers’ keepers and people could eat and be okay. But now, there are other demands that are coming. Now, I think we all need to come together.

That is why I talk about the quality of the population and the quality of the electorate. None of us can misbehave, if those who have elected us are also conscious of the roles they are to play and the roles you are to play. Those who have elected you, you want to beg them; literally beg them. You went from one village to the other. I told some

people that in those days, I slept where I normally would not sleep. I drank water which I would normally not drink. I ate food which had spent seven days, but did not spoil because of the potash that they put in it. Normally, I wouldn’t eat it, but I had to because I wanted to share the experience of those people.

Now, these were the people I begged and they gave me their mandate and trust. So, it means I am their servant. It is like you go for a job interview and you are given one, can you now say you are the owner of the company? No! You are an employee of the company. You are serving the company and you are paid for the services you render.

But we are in a society where the moment people get their mandates, they begin to behave as if they are masters. Unfortunately, the majority of the people have become sycophants and make the leaders feel there is something special about them. That is wrong. There is nothing special about being elected. I know that I am not the most brilliant of the four million people in Niger State and I am not the most educated or the most experienced. I can only count on the opportunity and the luck that God has picked me out of the four million people, and that tomorrow, I will be a former governor, just like I am a former permanent secretary, director, teacher and students’ leader. If we are all alive, I wil become a former governor and I will still be living with these people.

By the time I finish, even if people

will not praise me, at least, let them not abuse me and accuse me of bad things, not to talk of EFCC chasing me here and there and arraigning me. I think we should be transparent. There may be one or two people who may never love you. They will do and say whatever. But let it be that the majority of the people will say you have tried. I think that is what one should aim at, and I think that gradually, those who know that they are dubious will not even come near. The parties must present people who are credible and that must be able to account.

When some governors of my party were invited by the EFCC, I read somewhere that somebody said it is not a party thing. No, it is a party thing. If a party presents people who that are being questioned for this and that, the party should be able to look at it. And when you are serving, has the party been observant of what you are doing? Have they been playing their role that ‘look, we went to the people with this manifesto and it is the manifesto you must implement. What have you been doing with the money?’ It is the party’s responsibility to monitor the leadership it has selected. By our constitution, you can’t be a governor unless you are sponsored by a political party. So, it goes without saying that the party created you too, and so, it should take responsibility if you mess up. A political party must take responsibility, if an elected person under its tutelage messes up.

Was that why you lamented recently that the PDP is still afraid of elections after 12 years?

We were talking about constitution review and I looked at the nature of discipline in the party. If you had a situation where people would belong to a party, but during elections would run away to run in other parties, or people are not disciplined enough so that at primaries, if they lose because three ,four or five people are looking for one thing, but they know that only one person will get it, and then they run away, go to other parties, abuse the party and immediately after election, they are wooed back to the party, why? As a political party, you don’t have to have all the population as members.

In fact, as a national party, out of the 150 million Nigerians, you don’t

need more than 1 million to be in your party. A party is like a football club. I don’t know which club you support, but I see people with the T shirts of foreign teams. As a fan, you are not the player. The team is there doing its work. You are just a supporter. You can’t now play the role of the captain. The same thing applies to a political party. There are members because you have sympathy and you want certain interests to be protected and because you believe that this particular party will take care of your interest, so you belong. But the moment you elect a government, your interest is that the government should implement the things that you all agreed on, but you are not the party. You have gone to woo people to vote for you. Those who have voted for you are more important than those you call members of the party. But we seem to misunderstand it here, that those who are members of the party, once they form the government, they think they are the ones that should take all the benefits, forgetting that there is the electorate which the party and the government should be working for. We need to understand all these things. Believe you me, we cannot have democracy in this country until we are able to imbibe democracy in the party system.

The people who are coming to play all these roles, if they come through illegal means, how can they be good people? So, we need to understand this. And then too many parties allow for indiscipline. Some people argue that we should allow things to rationalise gradually, others say no. Now that we know the situation, maybe, at most, we should have five.

If it must be more, then seven parties. Gradually they will coalesce.

But where you have more than 50 parties, and then after election, a party that has not even won a council election still wants to be retained, this is one of the sources of indiscipline. It is not democracy to say everybody must have a party.

If you don’t want to be a party man, fine, be an elector. In fact, by democratic rule, it is your democratic right not to vote in an election.

We really need to inculcate discipline in the parties.

As for the PDP, my concern is that after 12 years of being in government at the centre and in many states, we should be more confident, more disciplined and more popular, so that people will find it easy the moment our party is mentioned. But I see that we have always been on the defensive. We allow even small people that should not be talking to make us feel like we are down here.

Every election conducted, people feel like something must have gone wrong. I think we really need to sit down and say this is the way to do things. So, that is the reason for my lamentation. I hope that by this constitutional review that we are doing, we will be strict enough and the people who are elected will be strict enough to implement the constitutional provisions in whatever demarcation.

You seem to believe that power must be demystified to achieve development...

If you recall our history, some of our traditional institutions, like the Kanem Borno Empire, the Oyo Empire and so on, the leaders used to be seen as representatives of God. In fact, when a traditional ruler was passing or was being carried, people were not allowed to look at him.

They had to turn their backs.

Then gradually, we had a situation where people could relate with the ruler. But you remember that up till the 1960s, the traditional ruler was seen as the omnipotent. Now, in a democracy, the leader should be able to relate with the poeple and the people to the leader. They should be able to ask him questions, and it is his responsibility to explain to the people because it is their right. It is their right to know. It is their right •Continued on Page 56

56 to say, ‘look, if you think our problem is water, we don’t want water, we want beverage. And if you can’t provide us beverage, you go and let the person who can provide beverage come in. You know, with the military regime, because of the structure, the leadership too, everybody looked at it as if it was up there.

We need to bring it down to the people so that they can understand.

That way, like I talked about self selection, only those who can deliver service to the people will aspire to be in leadership positions. But if you leave it, even a dunce who by some mistake was able to emerge will first use it to oppress the people.

So, you need to demystify power and let people understand. And it should go down the ladder up to the parent because the unit of government is the family. A child should be able to ask his father certain questions. ‘Daddy why did this happen?

Why is it that today, you frown at Mummy?’ You should be able to explain to the child because what children see, they think it is the normal thing. If the father is a wife beater, the child thinks it is the right thing to do. But if he is able to look at the father and ask, ‘Daddy, why did you beat Mummy today?’ the father may even feel guilty in the explanation and gradually reduce it.

So, you have to demystify power so that the people who are willing to do the work are the ones who will get there. And the people also will understand that there is nothing miraculous about being governor or president. It is because only one person can be elected at a time. And then we have no problem if the system is very clear. Whoever comes into the system, it is beautiful. The question of whether you are from my village or state or from the south or the north becomes immaterial because he is able to deliver the service to us. If you can get somebody who will equitably distribute these things, who cares if he comes from the moon?. So, that is why it is important to demystify power.

Was that also why you adopted the title of Chief Servant?

Like I said before, every leader, whether appointed or elected, is really the servant of the people because we are paid salaries for what we do. And if you are paid salaries for the services you render, whatever name you call yourself–president, governor, chairman or councilor–you are a servant of the people who pay you to do that job.

If I am excellent, believe you me, I would not be governor or president; I will go and do something else. So, why do you tell me what I know I am not: Excellency! Out of what! I have had classmates who were more brilliant than me. But today, I have the opportunity of being the governor of Niger State. And they may still be better than me in many aspects. We are serving the people. If I finish this job, I am on my own. If by then you come and give me all the appellations, I may answer you and we laugh together. But now that I am doing it, let me serve the people.

When I leave, like I said, even if I am not praised, let me not be accused. If this job can’t get me to paradise, let it not take me to hell. At least, it should not be the reason why I should go to hell, if it can not take me to paradise. And for all that we do, apart from the payment that we get, in my belief system, we still get reward from Allah. In the same vein, if you do not do well, you will be punished. A time will come when you have to account for everything, particularly in leadership. For example,I am the governor of four million people of Niger State. Whatever I do, deliberately or by inaction, and affect other people negatively, whether I know them or I am aware or not, I am still responsible. And a day will come when I will account and you won’t be there. Even the people I govern will not be there. I believe that if I am told that you have

‘Why I’ve stuck to one wife’ Boko Haram menace?

If you permit me, I would say we have been caught pants down in terms of the new security challenges.

We were probably not ready. If you had asked me 10 years ago whether we would be in the situation we are today, I would have sworn that Nigeria would not be in this situation.

So, for every new challenge, particularly that which you have not prepared for, you really need to go back to the drawing board. So, in terms of security challenges, the Federal Government must give more support to the states and local government areas. It must properly motivate the intelligence community to gather information because most of what we have seen could be attributed to the failure of intelligence. If you have the right intelligence, you will be able to pre-empt certain incidents. So, the strategy we have collectively adopted now is to say that every Nigerian must be involved.

Don’t look at security challenges as simply a government responsibility.

We used to have a traditional way of gathering intelligence, particularly in the Northern Region. No matter how small a community is, there is a community leader. A new person in the community normally reports to that leader. So, any person, even if you are just passing by, the community knows that so and so person has passed this place today, and it is reported to the emir.

So, we are saying go and strengthen it further, but most importantly, get the confidence of the people that we are in the same boat. It is not a case of only one person suffering it.

Whatever happens in Niger State has happened in Nigeria.

And that is why we are concerned with states where this has been particularly happening and nothing has been done about it. So, the strategy so far is good, but we need to do more in terms of intelligence gathering and equipping the security agencies. We need to mobilise people to understand that the security of their environment is their responsibility. Therefore, community policing must operate properly. I mean it has got to the extent that some of us are asking for state police. And there is this misnomer because of our federal system, where you call me the chief security officer of Niger State, but sometimes, if I am to speak to the Commissioner of Police. He may have to get clearance from the Inspector General of Police in Abuja. Anything I want to do, I have to involve the IG, the NSA and this and that. So, at the end of the day, things may have started happening here before they respond to me. But the best strategy is don’t even allow the thing to happen. Let me be accused of over-doing something than be accused of counting corpses and so on. So, don’t even allow it to happen.

We must really read our security reports properly. We must create the agency where we get the right security report on what is happening and what could happen. In fact, the best intelligence is the actionable intelligence where you know what to do and how to pre-empt it from hap-

•Babangida Aliyu

gone to this street at so and so time and I deny, my legs will say no, we carried you there. So, we must understand. We who are alive, did we do any special thing to be alive?

We must know that there is something after all the travails and toils here. After serving the people, suffering all the indignity, you have not slept very well, you are always tired as a result of the activities you are involved in, and at the end of it all, you are shamed.

I think it was former Ghanaian President, Jerry Rawlings, who once asked how many African leaders would allow their barbers to stand behind them...

I have told myself that the day I can no longer drive myself round the streets of Minna as a governor, I will resign because it simply means that I have lost it. I should be able to relate with people. I know that as a governor, there is curiosity, such that if you walk on the streets, you draw so much attention to yourself. But I drive myself every weekend; from Friday to Sunday. I go to every house I want, driving myself. If the security say this or that, sometimes I listen to them, sometimes I don’t because whatever will be, will be at the end of it all. I have not done anything special to be fifty-something years. In the same room I stayed with my mother, a child died after two or three days.

We must drive around. We must see the people. That is why in Niger State, we have told government officials not to tint their vehicle glasses because we want the people to see them and they see the people.

As you drive, you should notice whether people are happy with what you are doing. If they are not

happy, they will show it and it will be your responsibility. In fact, for me, if I pass through an area where people normally greeted me and there is no greetings, I will go back and ask what I have done wrong. If they tell me and it is a thing I can correct, I correct it. If it is explanation, I explain.

It is very important that we do that.

The moment people have the confidence that they can talk to you, half of the problems are solved. Many a time, it is because they have no access to know what is even happening. When we started, many people said we were talking too much. I told them they didn’t know the job. The job is not a secret cult. The job is about talking to people, explaining things and talking to them transparently so that they know what is happening, what to expect and what not to expect.

As an academic with a background in public policy and strategic studies, do you think the Federal Government is deploying the right strategy in confrontng the

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•Continued from Page 55

THE NATION, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Like I told you, everyone has a share of what God has given to him. When I was younger, before I got married, I could have thought I was polygamous. But with one wife after 32 years, you begin to wonder. But I don’t want to talk about that because I don’t want to be tempted by God

,

pening.

Niger State has had more than a fair share of the situation with the bombings in Suleja. Was that one of your low moments as a governor?

Oh, the first one, I shed tears. These were ordinary people. Most of the victims were passersby; people who were selling kolanuts, sugarcane, and so on. They had nothing to do with the elite competition that was happening. The person that was standing near you, suddenly you saw his legs flying off to about three metres from you. Indeed, it really touched me.

And to imagine that such a terrible thing happened three times, yet some people don’t seem to care. Remember what I told you; either by commission or omission, everything that happens, the leader has some responsibility.

I said it at that time that this violence was imported. It wasn’t a Niger State thing. With all the arrest, you know that it was not a Niger State thing. I must say again that our proximity to the Federal Capital Territory has affected us negatively, and people don’t want to listen. But I am happy that after it happened, they helped me with the military. But I want more. Many of the junior officers who work in the FCT are resident in Suleja. The water system and other amenities in the FCT should be extended to that place. The whole three local government areas there–Kafar, Gurara and Suleja–should benefit from what is happening in the FCT. How is your family life?

I am doing well. I have a wife. This year, we will celebrate our 32nd anniversary. I have six children–two girls and four boys. The two girls are medical people. One is already a practising doctor, the other is in the medical school. I have an engineer and the youngest is in high school.

As a Muslim and a governor, you have the means to take as many as four wives permitted by your religion. Why have you stuck to only one?

Like I told you, everyone has a share of what God has given to him.

When I was younger, before I got married, I could have thought I was polygamous. But with one wife after 32 years, you begin to wonder.

But I don’t want to talk about that because I don’t want to be tempted

by God. Many people who felt they were monogamous, after talking a little, we found them planning second, third and fourth wives. So, whatever will be, will be. I am the eleventh out of thirty-something children of the same father. I don’t want my children to come that way. During his time, things were different.

I am not saying having a large family is necessarily a bad thing. But we should be able to really understand that you must have a disciplined family. And I am happy with what I have. Sometimes, they joke that we are pastors, we are this or that with one wife. Please, do what makes you happy and that which helps you to reach your ultimate.

Did you meet your wife as a student?

Yes. You see, something happened. I saw her picture in a girlfriend’s house. And prophetic as it turned out to be, I looked at the picture and told the elder sister of my wife that ‘look, this picture is that of my wife.’ That was some time in 1973. By 1976, I went on teaching practice in her secondary school and I saw her again. But being on teaching practice, I couldn’t talk. But I was able to gather enough information of the person. Immediately I finished my teaching practice, I went and applied (laughs). So, we dated between 1976 and 1978. I came back from national service in August and we got married in 1979.

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Tomorrow in THE NATION PUNCHLINE

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011 TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM VOL.5, NO. 1914

So, really, as soon as the subsidy removal flag went off again this year, a message should have just been flagged across the sky, IT’S ALL RIGHT PEOPLE, IT’S ONLY THE GOVERNMENT NEEDING EXTRA CASH AGAIN! —Oyinkan Medubi

A

bird, according to a traditional Afri can saying, cannot fly on one wing.

This aphorism is most certainly true of President Goodluck Jonathan’s meteoric rise to the apex of Nigeria’s political leadership. It is all too easy to assume that Jonathan ascended to political pre-eminence solely on the wing of the legendary luck that has so amazingly characterized his public career.

But the other equally critical wing responsible for the President’s resounding success in the last general elections was the enormous goodwill he enjoyed among his fellow country men and women.

A number of factors were responsible for the positive disposition of millions of Nigerians towards Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. Many were mystified by the near magical run of luck that had catapulted the humble academic turned politician to such heights of power with such speed. They readily assumed that the heavens could not have showered its benevolence so lavishly on one man if he did not have an extraordinary mission to fulfill for his country. Again, his humiliating treatment by the infamous cabal during President Umaru Yar’Adua’s protracted incapacitation as well as the arrogant aggressiveness of his pro-zoning northern opponents during the contest for the PDP presidential ticket elicited a groundswell of sympathy and support for Jonathan across the country.

Furthermore, Jonathan’s percieved modesty, simplicity, humility, sincerity and restraint in the use of power won him widespread admiration. He always appeared so childlike in his disarming guilelessness that you instinctively felt like reaching out to protect him. In the run up to the last election, Jonathan seemed possessed by a new spirit of urgency and determination. He campaigned with passion and a sense of mission. He promised to offer transformational leadership that would decisively address the country’s numerous challenges.

Many Nigerians believed Jonathan enough to give him an emphatic pan-Nigerian victory at the polls. They were convinced that when endowed with his own mandate, Jonathan would summon the will to utilize the tremendous institutional and constitutional resources at his disposal to engineer the fundamental change Nigeria so badly needs. Even those who hated the PDP with a passion still voted for Jonathan because they made a distinction between the candidate promising change and his party, which is largely responsible for the corruption-ridden, poverty-stricken, chronically insecure status quo of the last 12 years in the country.

Ordinarily, a President ushered into office by such a huge fund of goodwill still ought to be enjoying his post-election honeymoon period having spent just a little over 130 days in office. But the reality is that the President has quite avoidably and needlessly, within this short period, squandered a huge chunk of his formerly rich reserves of public goodwill. This much was confirmed by the outcome of The Guardian Opinion Poll (GoP) published by the newspaper

Avoidable squandering of goodwill

‘

Has the battle for 2015 within the PDP begun already? Is the Jonathan presidency being undermined from within by fifth columnists? Is the President being goaded into taking decisions that will completely erode his goodwill and make him a veritable political liability by 2015? Think, Mr President, think •Jonathan on Wednesday. According to the GoP, 53% of respondents across the country expressed dissapointment with the performance of the President thus far with 47% giving him a pass mark.

In the words of The Guardian: “To be sure, the high expectations of a better tomorrow whipped up in the citizenry by the President’s coming on May 29, 2011, has started to wane; no thanks to the parlous state of virtually all sectors of national life, especially the economy and the growing sense of insecurity nationwide occassioned by sectarian bombing, resurgent militancy and armed banditry, and the seeming incapability of government to tackle them headlong”.

While a significant percentage of respondents in the GoP acknowledged the marginal improvement in electricity supply, relative stability in the education sector, enhanced attention to the Niger Delta and progress on electoral reforms under Jonathan, a majority scored the President low on unemployment, poverty alleviation, anti-corruption war, agriculture and national security. The overall picture that emerges from the opinion poll is one of an administration that does not inspire confi-

’

dence in its capacity to achieve any transformational agenda and uplift Nigeria out of the doldrums.

Now, is it fair to expect Jonathan to have found solutions to the country’s deep seated problems when he is yet to clock even one year in office as elected President? I am sure that no one expects the President to perform magic. Yet, he needs to demonstrate a clear appreciation and understanding of the problem so as to have an unclouded vision of exactly where he wants to take the country.

This so far is not the case.

The President has, for instance, shown no inclination to tackle the structural roots of such persistent problems as insecurity, poor electricity supply, massive corruption, economic underperformance and pervasive poverty. Hence his illusory hope that an over-centralized Nigerian State that incapacitates its component parts and imprisons their potentials can achieve any meaningful national transformation. In reality, any effective transformation agenda must necessarily begin with the transformation of the current incompetent, inefficient and suffocating Nigerian State into a genuinely federal entity where powers, responsibilities and resources are more comprehensively decentralized to unleash the caged potentials of its ethno-regional components.

Even more alarmingly, the President is

fast depleting the reservoir of national goodwill he so badly needs to successfully mobilize public support behind his transformational agenda, which will inevitably entail some measure of pain. Let us take the impending removal of the so-called oil subsidy as an example. Jonathan insists on going ahead with the policy despite widespread public disapproval. This is not necessarily a bad attitude if the President seriously believes a given policy is in the country’s best interest.

However, the administration is pursuing the removal of what many believe is a phantom subsidy as if it is engaged in a war against the Nigerian people. Are the people not justified in being sceptical since every regime since IBB in the 1980s has continually removed an apparently never ending oil subsidy with attendant fuel price hikes while the promised infrastructural facilities never materialize? Are the Nigerian people responsible for non-functional refineries that lead to the utterly inexcusable importation of refined petroleum by an oil producing country and the attendant distortion of the cost structure within the industry?

Must the people be penalized for the inefficiencies and stinking corruption of an opaque oil industry symbolized by a graftinfested NNPC behemoth? These are the questions President Jonathan must ponder as his economic team urges him to ram through a policy that will increase the revenues of the Nigerian State at the expense of the welfare and wellbeing of the vast majority of her people.

The needless distraction of the proposed single tenure of seven years has also contributed significantly to eroding the President’s goodwill. He has not been able to successfully dispel the notion that there is a hidden agenda behind the initiative. In the same vein, his handling of the crisis in the judiciary with the absolutely lawless suspension of the President of the Court of Appeal suggests that Jonathan pays no more than lip service to the rule of law. It has detracted enormously from his credibility.

His decision to move the commemmoration of the country’s 51st independence anniversary from Eagle Square to Aso Rock portrayed his administration as weak, cowardly and timid. The invasion of this newspaper’s offices in Lagos and Abuja and the arrest of its editorial staff portrayed the Jonathan administration as arbitrary and lawless. The damage to its image both within and outside the country had been done before the President’s belated intervention.

Ex-President Obasanjo’s controversial letter to Jonathan that prompted the action has not been proven to be a forgery. Tellingly, the presidency has not denied the existence of the letter. If indeed the letter leaked, shouldn’t the Presidency look within? Has the battle for 2015 within the PDP begun already? Is the Jonathan presidency being undermined from within by fifth columnists?

Is the President being goaded into taking decisions that will completely erode his goodwill and make him a veritable political liability by 2015? Think, Mr President, think.

Ade Ojeikere on Saturday talk2adeojeikere@yahoo.com

Siasia’s last straw

I

T is a shame that we have reduced the choice of the Super Eagles chief coach to one of the functions of President Goodluck Jonathan. Equally painful is the diabolical insinuation that President Jonathan identifies with failures and is prepared to sacrifice merit on the altar of ethnicity.

My heart bleeds over the thought that football, the only thing that unites Nigerians, devoid of creed or/and religion, is being dragged into the realm of ethnicity that will have grave consequences if Jonathan does not stop those dropping his name in their quest to give Samson Siasia a soft-landing to retain his job.

The deafening noise from almost everyone since the Guineans shocked us at the Abuja National Stadium on Saturday has forced one to ask after those who rooted for Siasia as the Super Eagles chief coach.

One couldn’t believe that the fans could be so vicious in asking for Siasia’s removal.

They listed Siasia’s ‘sins’ since he got the job.

But the most painful sin was the coach’s decision to exclude goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama from the rudderless Eagles against the Guineans.

One has never seen fans bitter over a draw as they broke every glass object in sight.

Their message was clear- sack Samson Siasia now. They pointed at his unforgiving acts.

They couldn’t understand why the coach fought his good players before games, with many questioning his disciplinary records as a player.

Many recalled how Siasia stormed the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, as the spokesman of a rebellious Eagles side that was protesting the non-payment of their bonuses by sitting in their Durbar Hotel rooms whilst a chartered Hercules aircraft was waiting at the tarmac for them. Nigeria lost that game in Yaounde to Cameroon, with goalkeeper David Ngodigha almost losing his life from a tackle.

A few others talked about how Siasia ‘jokingly’ removed the newspaper that Sunday Oliseh was reading at the lobby at the 1994 World Cup in the US and the fisticuffs between both players.

They wondered why Siasia, who wasn’t sent off the camp for these two grievous incidents, could be so vindictive in dealing with his players, despite their appeals for

forgiveness.

They reasoned that his high-handedness was chiefly responsible for Nigeria’s ouster from the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations. As the irate fans went on the rampage, they reminded those who stole glances from the stadium’s locked rooms of Siasia’s ineptitude as a coach, pointing at his refusal to include the Eagles highest goal scorer, Ikechukwu Uche, in the starting line-up against Guinea.

The fans were miffed that Ahmed Musa could be benched for an off-day Chinedu Ogbuke. They were aghast that Siasia could pick Chibuzor Okonkwo, who wasn’t fielded in heartland’s Federation Cup final game against Enyimba at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos due to injury for the Eagles tie against the Syli Nationale.

Their rage grew when one of them asked if Siasia could explain the reason for substituting Joel Obi, easily the best midfielder in the game, yet an obviously tired Mikel Obi played for 90 minutes. Only God knows what •Continued on Page 6

on Page 63 Published and printed by Vintage Press Limited. Corporate Office: 27B Fatai Atere Way, Matori, Lagos. P.M.B. 1025, Oshodi,•Continued Lagos.

Telephone: Switch Board: 01-8168361. Editor-08094000052, Marketing: 01-8155547, Abuja Office: Plot 5, Nanka Close AMAC Commercial Complex, Wuse Zone 3, Abuja, Tel/ 07028105302 `E-mail: saturday@thenationonlineng.com Editor: DELE ADEOSUN