The Nation October 19, 2014

Newspaper of the Year

Adamawa: PDP may expel Fintiri

Another four years of PDP will be disastrous –Buhari –Page 8

Ex-Acting Gov refuses to withdraw appeal –Page 3

Nigeria’s widest circulating newspaper

Vol.09, No. 3006

TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

SUNDAY

OCTOBER 19, 2014

N200.00

R L: President Goodluck Jonathan, President John Dramani Mahama, Foreign Affairs Minister, Ambassador, Aminu Wali and Governor of Bayelsa State, Seriaki Dickson during the President of Ghana one day official visit to the Presidential Villa in Abuja, yesterday.

Photo: AKIN OLADOKUN.

Boko Haram defies ceasefire

The Nation’s Ololade shines at CNN Award Wins Health Reporting Prize –Page 5

–Page 3

Kills 15 in Borno, Sect’s strategic commanders APC wary of operate from Chad ‘suspicious agreement’ Adamawa

Shettima: North must unite to salvage Nigeria –Page 8

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2014

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CAPTURED

Woman goes to jail for not mowing lawn

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F you are a resident of Lenoir City, Tennessee, you might want to remember to mow your lawn otherwise, you will be spending the night in jail.

Karen Holloway just spent six hours in a jail cell for failing to maintain her yard in accordance with the standards set by the city.

The saga began last summer, when Holloway was sent a citation for her overgrown grass and shrubbery. Holloway, who works a full-time job and has two children living at home, a husband in school, and one family vehicle, admits the yard needed some attention but that it just wasn't feasible to do the work.

"The bushes and trees were overgrown. But that's certainly not a criminal offence," she says.

Last week, Judge Terry Vann handed down a five-day jail sentence to Holloway for refusing to comply with the city ordinances regarding yard maintenance, specifically the lack thereof. Holloway feels this was all just too much, saying, "It's not right. Why would you put me in jail with child molesters and people who've done real crimes, because I haven't maintained my yard?"

In addition to the severity of the sentencing, Holloway say she also feels that she was bullied during the process because she was never read her rights or told that she could have a lawyer present.

This isn't the first time Holloway has been cited by the city.

While her husband was serving in the military and deployed overseas, she was also sent a citation.

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OYIN Okupe is not one of President G o o d l u c k J o n athan's most effective spokesmen, given his brusqueness and sometimes uncouth attacks on critics of the government he serves. Last week, he once again waded into the controversy surrounding the Nigerian government's $15m impounded in South Africa, and he did it with characteristic controversiality and illogic.

Like everyone who has spoken for the government on the issue, particularly with reference to the leasing of Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor's jet to ferry the money to South Africa, Dr Okupe defended the increasingly controversial Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) president, and went even further than common sense would dictate. As he put it hyperbolically, "The linking of Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor is the most unfortunate thing; to put the very respectable, responsible, honest and sincere Presi-

Come, let’s b(l)eat them!

Manchester City's goat, Shaun, is taken onto the pitch at half-time of yesterday’s EPL encounter with Tottenham Hotspurs

BAROMETER sunday@thenationonlineng.net

Fed Govt's puzzling silence on $15m arms deal

dent of CAN in this matter is the extreme of mischief. It just shows you what Nigerians do, they go to any extent to politicise everything.

What bothers me here is the manner with which people want to bring down Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor on this matter. It is pure absurdity."

Dr Okupe's patronising

exoneration of Pastor Oritsejafor is not even the annoying part of the presidential spokesman's defence of the government's irresponsible handling of the scandal, a scandal they insist is not a scandal but mere politicisation of security matter. Hear Dr Okupe's tendentious remark: "The Nigerian government cannot share all information about the issue ($15m) because it is a security matter. It is an issue which we cannot just bring to public domain. For goodness sake, we need to have some quiet innocent support. I am surprised that Nigerians want to discuss security issues openly and publicly when a

war is still going on. These are very serious national security affairs, and running a government is not the same thing as running a Shoprite, where everything is on the table and on display."

The presidential spokesman is not the most patient, level-headed or logical of men, and his argument here rankles badly for its Third World and retrogressive quality. It is not clear where he got the impression that security matters cannot be discussed, or that information about smuggled funds cannot be shared. The movement of the money broke Nigerian laws, and then went on to break South Afri-

can laws. Is Dr Okupe suggesting that whenever security matter is involved laws can be broken? Why then do we have laws, when they can be broken whenever it is expedient ? In the implausible opinion of Dr Okupe, the ongoing war in the Northeast justifies the subversion of the constitution. This is obviously the opinion of the Jonathan government and of course the pliant and conniving National Assembly: that obedience to the laws of the land must be contingent upon a number of factors, most of them subjective and irrational. If they get away with the arms deal scandal, as they seem set to do, it will be a precursor to other egregious violations of the law and the constitution.

Dr Okupe spoke fawningly of Pastor Oritsejafor in a manner that will obviously please the CAN president. But it is clear that neither Dr Okupe nor Pastor Oritsejafor, nor yet the presidency understands the

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began timorously and incredulously. "We must deal with only policies and not individuals. You can help and correct the individual in leadership by ensuring that you give him advice in a way that his person is not important but what he is doing. Is he doing it for the people, is he doing it for the interest of the nation at large?"

Surely Gen Gowon must know that often a president's policies and his per-

son are indistinguishable, as Dr Jonathan shows amply. In fact in President Jonathan's case, many of his policy mishaps are a direct result of his idiosyncrasies.

How, for instance can you tell the president's contradictory and failing Northeast policies apart from his person as a leader loth to visit the region when he had the opportunity to do so, and as a leader who failed to inspire the region early enough to rise up against

insurgency, partly because he could not even inspire himself?

General Gowon also thinks that Nigeria's poor image is a function of public criticisms. �...When we complain about people calling us all sort of names, where do you think they get it?" he queried. "They get it from us, either from our magazines, or from our newspapers and sometimes, some of our public speeches." His reasoning is far-fetched,

Obasanjo's sarcasm

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ITH sarcastic glee, former President Olusegun Obasanjo told supplicating PDP leaders pressuring him to return to the party that he never left the party in the first instance. He, and unsupportable by ratio- however, admitted to being pasnal evidence. The truth is sive. He put down his passivity that the outside world to what he grandiloquently knows us far better than we described as his "principle, think, and do not need our morality, honour, integrity, input to form their impres- commitment and character sions of us. We could choose which are paramount." He to live in denial, believing could have fooled us. Given his boyishly that our cocoon is failed third term project, the impenetrable, but the world Transcorp shares deal, his can't be fooled about Presi- cruel mistreatment of political dent Jonathan's dilly- opponents, etc, there is nothing dallying, AIG Mbu Joseph about his person or ideas that Mbu's fascist tendency, or exemplifies any of the virtues Ayo Fayose's appalling dimi- he undeservingly arrogates to himself. nution of governance.

Gowon's admonition on the principles of criticism PEAKING at the Annual Conference and Awards ceremony of Leadership newspaper in Abuja last week, former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, contributed what must seem to him a perfect panacea to conflict between the public and their leaders.

Criticize policies, and not persons, he averred. "We should not condemn ourselves in such a manner that the outside world will think that we are not good," he

meaning of government or the dire implications of subordinating the presidency to the whims of Dr Jonathan and the lessor pastor. Alas, the decay of governance in Nigeria has just begun.

By ADEKUNLE ADE-ADELEYE

THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014

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ARELY 24 hours after a reported ceasefire agreement between the Federal Government and Boko Haram, the sect struck yesterday by attacking two communities in Borno and Adamawa states.

The Borno attacks left no fewer than 15 people dead.

In Adamawa State, houses were burnt in Sina Village in Michika Area. Some villagers were feared killed but it was difficult to ascertain the actual toll.

A security source informed that over 10 Boko Haram fighters in Hilux vehicles unleashed terror on Abadam at the weekend, shooting everyone in sight.

Abadam is located on the verge of Nigeria-Niger border in the northern parts of Borno State.

The source also disclosed that the community was completely sacked by the insurgents.

Another source informed that the father of an unnamed prominent politician was among those killed in the attack.

NEWS

Boko Haram defies ceasefire

From FROM: Yusuf Alli, Managing Editor, Northern Operation and Duku JOEL, Maiduguri

In Dzur village near Shaffa in Hawul Local Government, it was gathered that eight people died when the insurgents sacked it.

Residents fled into the bush following sporadic gunshot by the insurgents.

"Boko Haram fighters have our village, Dzur. They invaded the area, shooting and burning houses. They slaughtered eight people.

"Many people in Shaffa have run into the bush according to the report I got from my people who fled into the bush," the resident stated.

Shaffa had its dose of attack when Boko Haram killed at least 18 people, including a pastor.

The attacks have fuelled skepticism among residents over the commitment of the sect members to the ceasefire

•Kills 15 in Borno, Adamawa announced by the Chief of Defence Staff Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh.

Some residents of Borno and Yobe, who spoke with The Nation, noted that they have heard such announcements in the past without any meaningful results.

"What we want to see on the ground is practical ceasefire, which has to come with immediate restoration of peace in the troubled areas.

"My town, Buni Yadi, is still under the control of Boko Haram, so how can I trust such a statement?

"How are we even sure that it is the real Boko Haram that government has reached an agreement with.? I would have loved it if it is true but no one can explain what is happening," Babagana, a resident of Buni Yadi, now residing in Damaturu, said.

Head, Mass Communication department at the University of Maiduguri, Dr Mohammed Gujbawu, said it was a welcome development "if it is a genuine one."

He noted that nothing can be compared to peace.

"We've seen war and we are desperately in need of peace. We welcome the ceasefire if it is a genuine one," he said Gwoza, Damboa, Bama, Gambouru, Ngala, Banki, Wulgo, Dikwa, Kirenoa, Marte in Borno State and Buni Yadi, Gulani, Goniri, Buni Gari and other dozen villages in Yobe State are under the control of Boko Haram insurgents.

According to a source, the insurgents allegedly struck in Sina Village in Michika Area village at about 2pm shooting sporadically and setting

•L-R; Gov. Kashim Shettima fo Borno State, his Yobe counterpart, Gov. Ibrahim Gaidam and Kano State governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso shortly before a meeting of All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders in Kaduna, yesterday.

Chibok girls: Why Chad led deal with Boko Haram F

RESH facts yesterday revealed that the high number of Chadian mercenaries in the Boko Haram sect made Chad to spearhead the ceasefire with the group.

It was also learnt that five conditions were tabled at the negotiation session for peace to reign in the North-East.

But findings confirmed that the military was kept out of the swap deal which was mainly a political initiative.

In deference to political authority, the military hierarchy had to key into the negotiation accepted by the presidency.

According to a reliable source, Chad became central to the ceasefire because many of its citizens were conscripted into Boko Haram sect.

Intelligence reports confirmed that strategic commanders of Boko Haram were living and operating from Chad.

The source said Chad had shown little commit-

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From: Yusuf Alli, Managing Editor, Northern Operation

ment to the insurgency in Nigeria until the French President François Hollande, intervened and the follow-up visit to the Francophone nation by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The source said: "The reality is that intelligence reports have shown that there are more Chadian mercenaries in Boko Haram.

Also, Chad is rated as an ally of the sect because some of the strategic camps and commanders of Boko Haram are based in the Francophone nation.

"These developments made France and the international community to mount pressure on Chad to assist Nigeria to address the insurgency in the NorthEast. This is why it was

easier for Chad to spearhead negotiation with Boko Haram."

But there were indications yesterday that five conditions were tabled for the ceasefire which was announced on Friday.

The conditions are: ceasefire by the two parties; the release of the 219 Chibok girls; freedom for detained Boko Haram leaders and members; further talks on ending of siege on some towns and villages in the North-East; and mutual respect of all the clauses in the negotiation terms.

Another source added: "So far since Thursday, each of the parties had been trying to implement the ceasefire terms. This was why the Federal Government came out openly to admit the negotiation and asked the military to halt all operations in the North-

East.

"By Monday, there will be a clearer picture of the situation when the representatives of the Federal Government meet with Boko Haram facilitators in N'Djamena."

Findings however showed that the military was kept in the dark by the presidency because talks were "restricted to diplomatic and political levels."

A third source said: "The military received the ceasefire with cautious optimism. As a matter of fact, Nigerian and Cameroonian military chiefs were still perfecting operation strategies against Boko Haram at a session in Abuja when the alert on the ceasefire came.

"In deference to political authority, the military had to fall in line. This was why all military formations were directed to stop actions against Boko Haram. The military has shown its utmost respect for democratic institutions."

some houses ablaze.

The source said: "The insurgents came in hundreds to attack our people. They shot at many people and burnt many houses in the village.

"It is difficult to say exactly those killed and the injured because we are still taking stock. Many villagers scampered to safety to avoid falling to the rampaging insurgents.

"The villagers were caught unawares because they were all hopeful that the ceasefire will work."

A community leader in

Michika, Dr. Caleb Filli, confirmed the attack on Sina Village.

He said: "The gunmen invaded the village in the afternoon and attacked people.

We appeal to the Federal Government to ensure that the ceasefire agreement covers the withdrawal of Boko Haram fighters from the areas they are presently occupying.

"Many of our people are already displaced. The ceasefire will not be meaningful unless it paves way for residents to return to their homes."

Adamawa: PDP may expel Fintiri

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From Barnabas Manya, Yola

HE Peoples Democratic Party PDP is at war with the immediate past Acting Governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri over his alleged refusal to bow to pressure of the party to shelve the appeal against the victory of Bala James Ngillari in court.

A Federal High Court in Abuja had ruled that Ngillari who was Deputy to impeached Governor Murtala Nyako should be sworn in as governor since his reported resignation along with the former governor was not in accordance with the constitution.

Following the court ruling, the swearing in of Fintiri, the former Speaker of the House of Assembly as Acting Governor was nullified. Ngillari has since been sworn in and Fintiri has appealed the judgement.

According to dependable sources, the party may soon suspend Fintiri from its fold for disobeying the orders of the PDP from the party hierarchy in Abuja and even the intervention of the leader of the party, President Goodluck Jonathan.

A source in Adamawa State office of the party said he filed the case despite all entreaties on Fintiri not to pursue an appeal on the vic-

tory of another party man.

Reports in Yola said after the swearing-in of Ngillari, the state PDP Chairman Chief Joel Hamanjoda Madaki had asked Fintiri not to pursue the appeal but Fintiri refused. The former Acting Governor's refusal to heed this appeal was confirmed by the press secretary to Madaki, Mr. Fidelis Jockthan. According to him, the party had wanted an amicable resolution of the problems between the duo.

Jockthan said Madaki as the father figure in the party wanted Fintiri to drop the appeal and allow the PDP to handle the matter but he rejected the moves of the party and filed his appeal.

The PDP at the national level also in a statement by Mr. Olisa Metuh, said that the PDP as a party will not pursue any appeal, yet Fintiri filed an appeal through his lawyer, Chief Bayo Ojo. President Jonathan as leader of the party also intervened by inviting the former Acting Governor to Aso Villa, where he was appealed, not to further hurt the party's chances by his appeal.

The party, according to highly reliable sources which pleaded anonymity, said the party may be left with the last option of suspending Fintiri for fragrantly disobeying party directives.

Jonathan greets Gowon at 80 • Says he will remain a worthy icon of Nigerian history From Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja

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RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has heaped encomiums on former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, as he celebrates his 80th birthday.

In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, Jonathan described Gowon as a worthy, steadfast and iconic feature of Nigerian history.

He said that the nation will always owe the former Head of State a huge debt of gratitude for successfully managing and guiding Nigeria through an unfortunate civil war out of which it emerged as an even stronger and more united nation.

He said: "As you deservedly celebrate this noteworthy anniversary, I join your family, friends, protégés and

well-wishers in celebrating you and thanking Almighty God for the unique and richly fulfilled life. He has blessed you with these past 80 years.

"Over the years, you have continued to use your exalted position to engender bridges of love and harmony across the country; availing successive governments of your wise counsel and demonstrating your unwavering faith and willingness to partner with us in our quest to bequeath to our collective posterity, a nation of which we can all be proud. Nigeria owes you a huge debt of gratitude."

The President wished General Gowon very happy 80th birthday celebrations and prayed that Almighty God will continue to bless, guide and protect him.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014

NEWS

2015: Northern leaders renew opposition P to Jonathan's candidacy

ROMINENT elders from the north under the auspices of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) may have decided to vehemently oppose President Goodluck Jonathan's reelection bid. The leaders, according to sources are set to condemn the emergence of the president as the sole candidate of his party, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The ACF has been in the fore front of the agitation for power to return to the North following the death of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua in 2010. But following signs that the ruling party may have resolved to endorse Jonathan for a second term, there was a big lull in the agitation of the group.

But, at the weekend, according to reliable sources,

indications emerged the apex socio cultural organization in the north and the mouth piece of northerners may be set to renew its clamour for power to return to the zone in 2015, in spite of reported clandestine efforts by the presidency to gag its leaders ahead of the next general election.

The Nation learnt that at a meeting of the group's stakeholders in Kaduna during the week, majority of those present, mainly prominent leaders of ACF from 19 states, supported a motion seeking for the Forum to be categorical in its rejection of plans by Jonathan to remain in office beyond 2015.

By Dare Odufowokan, Assistant Editor

However, there was a minority opinion that declined to support any decision to prevent Jonathan from contesting the presidency since the issue of zoning or rotational presidency is not entrenched in the Nigerian constitution, rather it is a party affair.

According to sources at the ACF meeting, prominent personalities serving under Jonathan's administration are to be given ultimatum to withdraw from the government if the decision that the region should oppose

Jonathan's candidacy as a bloc is approved by the General Assembly of the forum billed to hold soon.

The ACF source said that "it is the view of the majority of our leaders that it is time for the north to take its destiny in its own hand and reject a brazen attempt by the President and his party to put wool over our eyes. If Jonathan thinks that he has changed the rules overnight and he is set to trick all of us into allowing him remain in office beyond 2015, we are watching how he will do it. northerners are ready to surprise him.

•L-R: All Progresives Congress former National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande; Kwara State Governor, Ahmed Abdulfatah and APC National Leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu at the church service for the late Mrs. Elizabeth Funmilayo Adebayo in Oke Onigbin Kwara State, yesterday

"Although it was resolved that all the recommendations made at the stakeholders' meeting will be subjected to the ratification of the general assembly of the ACF billed, it is our position as leaders of the three zones in the north that power must return to the north in 2015.

"To actualise this, a position has been taken that we must oppose Jonathan's reelection bid openly and as a region, north as individuals.

That is why we want the forum to champion this renewed agitation for power shift. We are not against Jonathan, we just want power back in the north come 2015."

Signs that the north may still have some iron to grind with the President emerged few weeks back when prominent northern elders told Jonathan to forfeit 2015 unless he produces the missing Chibok girls.

"In the light of our firm conviction that the insurgency and related security challenges pose threats to the 2015 elections and the survival of our nation, we strongly advise President Jonathan to bring an end to the insurgency in all its manifestations and produce the Chibok girls before the end of October, 2014.

"The circumstances under which our fellow citizens in and around Gwoza in Borno state in particular live and die will not be tolerated by any people who have a government and a leader sworn to defend them, and they must be reversed immediately. In the event that President Jonathan fails to do this, Nigerians will be left with the only conclusion that he has forfeited his right to

ask for our mandate beyond 2015."

Solomon Dalung and Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), signed the statement.

Efforts to get officials of the ACF to comment on the development proved abortive as they could not be reached by the time of filing this report. However, a state official of the body in Benue State who craved anonymity said nobody is to comment on the decision until it is put before the general assembly next week.

But while speaking to pressmen recently, the Chairman of the pan-northern socio-political organisation, Alhaji Ibrahim Ahmadu Coomassie, said the north is still very hopeful that power will return to the region in 2015.

The ACF chairman pointed out that despite the fact that the North appears to be speaking with different voices, power may return to the zone.

"The North has always appeared to be in disarray but it is not. When the time comes, things will sort themselves out and the correct thing will be done. Democracy allows people to express their views but, eventually, the majority will carry the day," Coomassie said.

He added: "If people want real change, they can always put their heads together. If we present a credible candidate and there is honest, credible and transparent election, the North can still win."

"But the important thing is that people should be allowed to cast their votes and let their votes count. There should be no changing results to favour another candidate, let officials allow voting to take place as is done in civilized countries.

If it is done, then we know the results will be credible and acceptable."

2015 poll: Two PDP members defy pressure, push ahead for Jonathan's disqualification

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ESPITE pressure, two members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have decided to push ahead with their application before the Court of Appeal in Abuja to disqualify President Goodluck Jonathan from contesting the 2015 presidential election.

The litigant is Mr. Cyriacus Njoku with Dr. Umar Ardo as Interested Party/ Applicant.

But the PDP has filed counter-affidavit at the Court of Appeal seeking the dismissal of the appeal.

The party said though President Goodluck Jonathan is eligible to contest, it has not shut its presidential nomination doors against any member of the party.

The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division has fixed Monday for the hearing of the application to stop Jonathan from contesting the presidential election next year.

A notice to the applicants by the Senior Registrar of the Court of Appeal, reads in part: "Take notice that the above mentioned motion / appeal has been listed for hearing before the Court of Appeal, Abuja on Monday, the 20th day of October 2014."

One of those before the

court, who spoke with our correspondent, said: "We have been under pressure to withdraw the application before the Court of Appeal but we have stood our grounds that we will pursue the matter to the logical end.

"We are not against the President but we are saying that he cannot contest because he has been elected to such office at any two previous elections.

"Jonathan cannot take oath thrice for the same office. We want the court to clear the air.

Contrary to insinuations, we are also not being used by any person or group.

"If it is for pecuniary gains, I would have bowed to pressure. Some are even saying I should name my price but I said no."

Njoku, who filed an appeal against the President, had been on the case in the last two years.

In 2012, the appellant had through his counsel, Osuagwu Ugochukwu, approached the High Court of Justice of the Federal Capital Territory to declare that President Goodluck Jonathan is spending his second term in office as the nation's leader.

He said Jonathan ran for the presidency in his first term

•PDP fights back for Jonathan •Legal battle begins on Monday in office on a single and inseparable ticket with the late President Umaru Yar'Adua.

He said the 1999 Constitution does not make provisions for separate elections both for the office of the president and vicepresident.

But on March 1, 2013, Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi said Jonathan can contest in 2015.

Dissatisfied with the judgment, Njoku headed for the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division.

He sought for determination of two issues: * Whether Section 135(2) of the Constitution which specifies a period of four years in office for the President is only available or applicable to a person elected on the basis of an actual election or includes one in which a person assumes the position of President by operation of law as in the case of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. * Whether Section 137(1) (b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, which provides that a person shall not be qualified

From Yusuf Alli, Managing Editor, Northern Operation

for election to the office of President if he has been elected to such office at any two previous elections applies to the 1st Defendant who first took an Oath of Office as substantive President on May 6, 2010 and took a second Oath of Office as President on May 29, 2011.

In its October 14, 2014 response to the Court of Appeal, the PDP said in part: "That the affidavit is full of half truths and untruths contrived to mislead the honourable court into granting the reliefs the applicant seeks.

"That contrary to the deposition in paragraph 2 of the affidavit in support of the application, the applicant (Dr. Umar Ardo)is not an aspirant to the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under the platform of the 2nd respondent(PDP), having not obtained expression of interest or nomination form for the purpose.

"That also contrary to the

depositions in paragraphs 3 and 10 of the affidavit in support of the application; the applicant will not be prevented from seeking the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria one way or the other by the mere fact of the 1st respondent (Goodluck Jonathan) being eligible to contest for the office or indeed contesting for the office in the 2015 general elections.

"Contrary to the depositions in paragraphs 4, 5 and 6 of the affidavit in support of the application, the applicant is a serial aspirant to the office of governor of Adamawa state under the platform of the 2nd respondent and has not been able to secure more than a dozen votes on each occasion.

"That contrary to the deposition in paragraph 8 of the affidavit in support of the application, notwithstanding the right of first refusal which members of the 2nd respondent have given the 1st respondent(Jonathan) regarding the presidential nomination of the 2nd respondent(PDP), the 2nd respondent has made arrangements to hold its national convention for the purpose of choosing its

presidential candidate for 6th7th December 2014 in which all aspirants (including the applicant if he desires to run) would have a free and fair opportunity to run for the office.

"That contrary to the deposition in paragraphs 12 and 13 of the affidavit in support of the application; the applicant (Ardo) was not a party to the suit subject of this appeal. That no relief was sought against the applicant in the suit subject of this appeal.

That no relief sought in the suit subject of this appeal inured to the benefit of the applicant and none affected the applicant personally or otherwise.

"That no interest of the applicant is borne from the record of appeal which the appellant or respondent (Cyriacus Njoku) seeks extension of time to compile and transmit to this honourable court as well as a deeming order. That none of the grounds of appeal in the notice of appeal the applicant seeks leave to rely on related to any personal interest of the applicant.

"That it is in the interest of justice to dismiss the applicant's application since he has no personal interest in the appeal."

THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014

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HE return of recuperating former Military President General Ibrahim Babangida from Germany may have been postponed to avoid political aspirants seeking his endorsement.

Babangida left the country on the 6th of September for a 2-week routine medical check-up but was advised to stay behind for a bone- related surgery by his doctors.

A family source told The Nation in Minna yesterday that the former military leader, who was to have returned this weekend, has postponed his trip home again till the end of the month or first week in November.

This, it was gathered, was

NEWS

Babangida delays return from Germany

From: Jide Orintunsin Minna

to keep him away from some political aspirants, especially from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seeking his (IBB) blessing.

It was gathered that the former military leader may not return home until the end of sales of nomination forms by the ruling party.

He had earlier shifted his return date on the orders of his doctors for a 2-week postsurgery rest.

This development led to rumour that his health was in danger before President Goodluck Jonathan paid him a visit in his private home in Germany.

It was also gathered that the retired leader relocated to

Germany when some politicians under the disguise of visiting the ailing leader came to seek for his blessing for their political ambitions.

His present home in Germany and telephone numbers are known only to his immediate family members and very few associates.

A governorship aspirant from Niger state, who was on

a state government delegation to visit Babangida recently in Germany, was believed to have used the trip to intimate the General of his aspiration, a development that prompted others to press for a visit.

An aide to the former leader, who craved anonymity said: “Oga (IBB) has postponed his return to avoid

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some of these aspirants from troubling him for his blessing of their ambitions.

“Since it was rumoured that an aspirant who was on the state government delegation that visited Oga in Germany went to seek his blessing, we have been receiving requests for audience by many politicians.

“So, the family met and resolved that Oga should stay in Germany so that he can rest properly.”

He, however, said that the former leader is in good health condition.

“Oga is in good health and he is eager to return home but for this politicians,” the source stressed.

Patience Jonathan meets Ladoja over 2015

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•Senator Gbenga Ashafa (left), All Progressives Congress (APC) Governorship aspirant in Lagos State, Akinwumi Ambode and former Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Joko Pelumi, during political consultations by Ambode, at the weekend

The Nation’s Ololade Olatunji shines at CNN journalists’ awards

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ENYAN photographer, Joseph Mathenge, yesterday emerged the overall CNN Multi Choice African Journalist of the Year for 2014.

It was the first time a photojournalist was winning the award in its history.

Mathenge won with his work ‘Images of Terror’ which appeared in Kenyan daily newspaper The Standard.

The overall winner’s work documents the moments of terror experienced

by Westgate Mall shoppers in Kenya when the mall was attacked by yet unidentified gunmen in September 2013.

Two Nigerians - led by The Nation’s Olatunji Ololade and Business Day’s Obinna Emelike won in the Health and Culture categories respectively.

Olatunji won for his report on the plight of Africa’s child brides.

Jakaya Kikwete President of Tanzania; Nico Meyer, CEO MultiChoice Africa and Deborah Rayner, SVP International Newsgathering TV and Digital, CNN International, presented Mathenge with the Award at a Gala Awards ceremony at Mlimani City Conference Centre in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Twenty eight finalists

•Olatunji

from 10 countries attended the ceremony as the culmination of a four -day programme of workshops, media forums, networking and sightseeing.

The overall CNN MultiChoice African Journalist 2014 wins a substantial cash prize and a visit to CNN Centre in Atlanta to attend the three- week CNN Journalism Fellowship.

All finalists receive a cash prize and iPad Air with runner-ups receiving an iPad mini.

Ololade has also won several other nominations and awards. He was winner Diamond Award for Media Excellence Anthony Enahoro

Prize for Political Reporting (2012); Winner, Diamond Award for Media Excellence UNICEF Prize for Childfriendly Reporting (2012); Winner, Ernest Sisei Ikoli

Prize for Newspaper Reporter of the Year(NMMA2012); Winner, B.A.T Prize for Industry Reporter of the Year (NMMA-2012); Winner, Ernest Sisei Ikoli Prize for Newspaper Reporter of the Year, Nigerian Media Merit Award (NMMA2011); Winner, Ibrahim Buba Shekarau Prize for Education Reporter of the Year, NMMA-2011; Winner, B.A.T Prize for Industry Reporter of the Year NMMA-2011; Diamond Award for Media Excellence Prize for Best Judicial Reporting of the Year (2010); Winner, Ernest Sisei Ikoli Prize for Newspaper Reporter of the Year (NMMA-2010); Winner, Gani Fawehinmi Prize for Human Rights Reporter of the Year NMMA-2009; Winner, Olu Aboderin Prize for Entertainment Reporter of the Year NMMA-2009.

FTER meeting with the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on the forthcoming governorship election in Oyo State, former Oyo State Governor, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, will also meet with wife of the President, Dame Patience Jonathan, in Abuja today. ýA reliable source disclosed to The Nation that the meeting is aimed at offering Ladoja the governorship ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for 2015.

He contested on the platform of the Accord in 2011 and lost.

Ladoja left the PDP for Accord in 2011.

He has since main-

From Bisi Oladele, Ibadan tained the status of a national leader of the party.

The source said that the meeting would also have in attendance former governor of the state, Otunba Adebayo Akala and former Senate Leader, Teslim Folarin, also contesting for the ticket.

The source revealed that the meeting is at the instance of the Minister of State for FCT, Ms Jumoke Akinjide.

According to the source, the meeting is meant to seek the presidency’s nod to have Ladoja run as gubernatorial candidate of the PDP in Oyo State in 2015.

FG to commence dualisation of Otor road project

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HE Federal Government will commence dualisation of the Otor Road linking Edo and Delta States following the completion of the Otor Bridge project, Vice President Namadi Sambo has said.

The Otor Bridge was built at N4.4 billion by an indigenous company, Inter Bau Construction.

Sambo said that the successful completion of the bridge was a testimony of the benefits of the Transformational Agenda of the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.

He assured that the federal government was determined to upgrade the infrastructural base of the country, adding that the government decided to change the policy of arterial roads in 2012, which he claimed resulted in the completion of the bridge at a record time.

He said: “It is gratifying to note that the completed bridge is already impacting on the lives of the people in terms of enhancing for farmers and better social integration between the communities on both sides of the bridge.

“I am pleased to inform you that we have directed the Minister of Works to commence the design and dualisation of the road.”

He said that the federal government will continue to partner with the private sector in the road sector as it occupies a strategic place.

The Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, said that the completed bridge was part of the road which runs all the way from the Delta State capital of Asaba to Illah, Ebu all the Illushi, Ubiaja, Uromi and Irrua in Edo State.

President Jonathan and his acceptance nationwide.

He said: “Let me assure you that the signatures you have so far collected, over 17 million which cut across the entire nation, will be presented to Mr. President and I assure you it will receive adequate response in no distant future.”

According to him, TAN’s initiative has helped to showcase the nation’s democracy

in action, which he said has taken a firm root.

He said: “Let me further add that this initiative is significant in many respects, more importantly, it has helped to show case our democracy in action.”

“This innovation is an eloquent testimony that our democracy has taken firm root. This initiative is in line with the tenets of democracy worldwide.”

From: Okungbowa Aiwerie, Asaba

2015: Jonathan to declare soon, says Presidency

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HE Presidency yesterday maintained that President Goodluck Jonathan will soon declare for re-election in the forthcoming 2015 presidential elections.

Vice President Namadi Sambo stated this while representing President Jonathan at the grand finale of the nationwide rallies by the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) at

From Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja the Eagles Square, Abuja.

Unveiling the over 17.8 million signatures so far collected, Sambo commended TAN for the constructive engagements of the populace, which he noted was in line with democratic tenets all over the world.

He observed that the signatures were eloquent testimonies of the popularity of

NEWS

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014

2015: PPA repositions in Anambra

Why I picked nomination form to run for senate seat -Kalu

By Kelvin Osa Okunbor

From Nwanosike Onu, Awka

F

ORMER Abia State Governor, Dr Orji Uzor Kalu, disclosed at the weekend, why he indicated interest to run for the Abia North Senatorial Seat on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), because he is interested in serving the people of the state.

Kalu said despite bickering by some politicians in the state, who are opposed to his ambition, he hinges his optimism on the fact that power is given by God, despite the machinations of man.

Speaking in an interview at the Lagos Airport on his way to the Middle East, he said he would continue to pursue the ongoing reconciliation in the party despite distractions from the Abia State chapter of the party.

He said: “Last week, I picked my nomination form at Wadata Plaza. I decided to run for Senate after several calls by the good people of Abia North for a better representation. I and Gov T.A Orji are from different senatorial zones and more so, the mandate belongs to the people. No one has monopoly of power to make anyone Senator except God and your constituents.

I believe that the beauty of democracy is fair play and the President has promised a level playing ground for all aspirants.

Before venturing into politics, I had been empowering my people, same when I was in public office, so based on this, I am rest assured of victory.”

He however commended government for addressing the insecurity affecting the country calling on traditional rulers and leaders of thought to educate their subjects on the negative effects of terrorism.

APGA supports Jonathan, says Obiano

From Nwanosike Onu, Awka

A

NAMBRA State Governor, Chief Willie Obiano, yesterday reiterated the support of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 general elections.

He spoke at the state Government House in Awka, when another none governmental organisation (NGO), under the name of G-7 Patriots International, stormed the Government House yesterday.

Tagged one million –man match for Jonathan, led by Zeribe Ezeanuna, the group said all they wanted was for the president to declare interest for 2015 election.

Obiano was represented by his Special Adviser on Administration, Dr. Samuel Nnana.

Though security operatives did not allow the crowd entry to the seat of power, they were addressed outside the gate by Obiano’s representative.

LOSS OF DOCUMENT

I, Mrs Saidat Abioye Taiwo of no 7 Gbajumo Cresent, off Adeniran Ogunsanya.Surulere Lagos notify the general public that I have applied to the LSDPC for its consent to change ownership of No 53 Adeniran Ogunsanya surulere lagos State, which was originally allocated to Engr Clement Egbueze and Mrs Felicia Ihidero. I have made series of efforts to contact Engr Clement Egbueze and Mrs Felicia Ihidero.the assignor from whom I brought the property, but all efforts have proved abortive. I hereby indemnify the corporation against any future claims that may arise if my application is granted, and undertake to pay cost of any dispute that may arise on same. LSDPC, Engr Clement Egbueze and Mrs Felicia Ihidero.and the General public, please take note.

A

•L-R: Manager, Talent Hunt, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), Mr. Paul Bakare, National Treasurer, Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM), Mrs Ifeoma Adeniji, President/Chairman of Council CIPM, Mr Victor Famuyibo and MD/CEO, NLNG, Mr Babs Omotowa, at CIPM’s Annual National Conference in Abuja…recently

Ngige replies Umeh: You are jittery, afraid of me

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HE Senator representing Anambra Central Zone, Dr. Chris Ngige, has described the National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh, as somebody who is afraid of him. He said so while responding to a statement credited to Umeh recently, where the APGA National Chairman reportedly said that Ngige’s scholarship to over 6,000 persons in his senatorial zone was a Greek gift.

The statement, according to Ngige’s media aide, Mr. Igboeli Arinze, yesterday in Awka, pointed to the fact that Umeh is jittery.

He asked Umeh to tell the people how many persons had received scholarship

From Nwanosike Onu, Awka

awards from him to enable them acquire the Golden Fleece, despite the millions of Naira he had acquired as National Chairman of APGA. According to him, ‘it is unfortunate that rather than Chief Victor Umeh commending his political senior for doing what no other politician, not even the state government of Anambra State has done over the award of scholarships to over 3,000 students in both tertiary and secondary school categories, he has rather chosen to play puerile politics with it.”

“Let me ask Chief Victor Umeh, how many youths has he empowered as Chairman of APGA and as a stakeholder

in Anambra State?

“This is a man who stood by while his fellow co- traveler in Mr. Peter Obi ran Anambra as one of his chattels; he did nothing when the state government increased tuition fees from N20,000 to N130,000.

“This is sadly a man who brands himself as party chairman of APGA yet looked the other way when ANSU lost accreditation of over 13 courses.

“Today, because he wants to run for senate and knows that Ngige might be asked to run again, he has thrown caution to the winds and wants to engage in a rofo rofo fight.”

Continuing, he said the scholarship programme began way back before now,

with Ngige setting up a board to advice on the form and manner it would operate with.

Furthermore, he said the students were then invited to determine by merit those who were to receive the scholarship.

“This again, you will agree, will take a huge chunk of time given the number of students.

“Perhaps, Umeh is jittery, with the implosion in APGA, he is seeing the handwriting on the wall and desperate as ever wants to hang on to at least look relevant,” Ngige said.

The statement further said that “Ndi Anambra would forever be grateful to Senator Ngige, whether jesters admit it or not.”

APGA youths battle Obi over defection to PDP

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OLLOWING the defection of former Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) recently, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) youths in Anambra State have vowed “to pay him in his own coin.”

The youths, who recently visited the Mausoleum of late leader of the party, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, in Nnewi, said they would make sure Obi is stripped of the (Okwute Ndigbo title) bestowed on him in the state.

During the visit of the

From Nwanosike Onu, Awka

youths to the grave side of the late Ikemba Nnewi, his son, who is the sole administrator of Nnewi North Local Government Area in the state, Chukwuemeka (Jnr), had labelled Obi as a “traitor” and betrayer.”

Speaking with The Nation yesterday in Awka, APGA youth leader, Hon. Tony Uche, recalled how the former governor was brought to Ojukwu by the National Chairman of the party, Chief Victor Umeh, prior to the election of 2003.

He said Obi was nurtured

to get attributes that would enable him lead the state, only to abandon the ship in spite of all promises he made to the late Ikemba Nnewi and Ndigbo.

According to one of the leaders of United Anambra Youth Assembly (U-AYA), who did not want to be quoted, “This is the fall of Obi in politics of Anambra State. You cannot betray Ojukwu and Igbo and you want to be relevant,” he said, adding, “Our former governor has drawn a battle line between himself and the youths of this state and indeed Ndi Anambra, what he wants

to do is to destroy APGA which he cannot do.”

It would be recalled that the day Obi left APGA for PDP at his residence in Onitsha, none of the political heavy weights in the party in Anambra State attended except Senator Ndi Obi and Olisa Metu. Others came from other states.

For example, Chief Chris Uba, Senator Andy Uba, Senator Joy Emodi, Prince Arthur Eze, Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu, Sir Emeka Offor, Prof. ABC Nwosu, Dr. ABC Orjiakor, among those who make PDP tick in the state, were absent.

Stakeholders obtain senate nomination form for Chime Square to the party secretariat,

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HE battle for the Peoples Democratic Party’s ticket for Enugu West Senatorial Zone has taken a new twist as PDP stakeholders of the five local councils of the zone have purchased form for Governor Sullivan Chime to run for the senate seat.

The form costs them N4.5m.

The stakeholders were led by the chairmen of the local government councils of the zone to the state headquarters of the party amidst pomp and ceremony.

Enugu West Senatorial

From Chris Orji, Enugu

Zone has been in a hot contest between Governor Sullivan Chime and the incumbent, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who is seeking re-election.

Although Chime has not publicly declared his intention to run for the seat, stakeholders, who want Ekweremadu stopped after three tenure in the upper house, have been mounting pressure on the governor to run.

The stakeholders, alongside a large crowd of supporters, marched from Okpara

a distance of 8 kilometres, with dance troupes.

They were cheered by residents who trooped out to watch them.

Awgu Local Government Chairman, Mathanus Nnanna Nze, who spoke on behalf of the stakeholders, told reporters that the development was to translate their position into action.

He said they had consulted from the grassroots to the top that Udi Local Council in the zone should produce the next senator and the lot fell on Governor Sullivan Chime.

“We want to demonstrate to the world today that our brother, Chime, is the candidate of our choice and we shall ensure that he accepts our gesture.

“We did not only purchase the expression of interest form, we also purchased the nomination form,” Nze explained.

Nze further explained that their action was informed by the desire of the people for peace and unity of the zone.

Among those present include all legislators from the zone, commissioners as well as market leaders.

HEAD of the general elections in 2015, the Progressives People’s Alliance (PPA) in Anambra State has set up committees in its bid to reposition the party for the battle.

As a result, the party held what it called stakeholders meeting yesterday in Awka at its office at Udoka Housing Estate where the committees were inaugurated.

The state committee is headed by Uduonu Emmanuel, a lawyer, while Mike Igwilo, an engineer, will serve as the secretary with the sole aim of supervising the local governments and wards in the state.

Addressing stakeholders yesterday, the leader of the party in Anambra State, Mr. Godwin Ezeemo, said there was need to get it right in the country as the current leadership under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had failed the people.

According to Ezeemo, “We must not continue this way, the people must follow a party with the same ideology with the (PPA) to alleviate the sufferings of the people.

“A lot of people are disgruntled by what is happening in Nigeria today. PPA will contest every election in 2015, politics is not about money, making people feel like animals or a do-or-die game, politics is all about sharing ideology of progress and positive change.”

“Our party has not picked anybody for the president, but we are patiently waiting for the National Working Committee (NWC) to come up with what they have,” Ezeemo added.

Orji Ogbonnaya Orji loses mum

M

RS. Oyidia Orji, the mother of Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, a renowned broadcaster and journalist, who is currently, NEITI’s Director, Communications at the Presidency Abuja, has joined her ancestors, aged 87.

Until her death, Madam Orji, from Ugwuavor village, Arochukwu, Abia State, was the Eze-nwanyi (Women leader) of the village and Mother –General of Christ Ascension Church, Arochukwu.

An agent of community mobilisation and social worker, the late Madam Orji, led the women in her community to embrace self- development initiatives and economic empowerment programmes through entrepreneurship. She was also involved in conflict prevention, management and resolution in families. In recognition of her services, she was honoured as “Nne-oha Arochukwu” in 2005 by Nzuko Arochukwu, women’s wing.

A statement from the family said Madam Oyidia Orji’s funeral will begin with a Christian wake in her family compound, Eziukwu, Ugwuavor village, Arochukwu, on Friday October 31st, while interment will follow the next day, Saturday, November 1st, after a commendation service.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014

NEWS

Church seeks assistance for pastor who lost entire family to Warri inferno

APC youths kick against consensus candidates in Akwa Ibom

From Bolaji Ogundele, Warri

From Uyoatta Eshiet, Uyo S preparations for the 2015 general elections gather momentum, the youth arm of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State has said they will not accept any consensus candidacy nor accept any form of imposition by the party.

Speaking yesterday at the party secretariat in Uyo, the state capital, the youth leader, Mr. Idara Udoh, said the youths are holding consultations with their peers across party lines and age brackets across the state to impress it upon them the need to embrace APC which he described as the train of change in today’s society.

The youth leader said they have concluded plans to embark on state-wide tour for more sensitisation. Idara said from his interactions, youths in the state and the country are tired of the current situation and are yearning for genuine change which, according to him, only APC can bring about.

A

T

HE Warri District of the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) has called on individual members of the public, churches and government to join its efforts at rehabilitating Pastor John Kayoda, one of its parish pastors, who lost four children, his wife and all its belongings to a fire incident last month.

Making this plea at a press briefing in Warri, the chairman of the church’s district, Pastor Emmanuel Orode, said it was deemed necessary to seek the assistance of every kind heart assist the bereaved pastor get back on his feet again because it might more than what only his church could handle.

Orode also revealed that Kayoda’s four deceased children had been given a mass burial in his home town of Owhe-Ughelli, Ughelli North council area of the state, while that of his wife would hold tomorrow in her Odovie village, same council area.

According to him, the hierarchy of CAC, led by its president, Pastor Abraham Akinosun, had been trying their best possible to console Pastor Kayoda, nothing that the disaster he just suffered was more than could be imagined or likened to any other.

“Pastor Abraham Akinosun, President of the CAC Worldwide has sent a delegation down to Warri to offer personal and the church’s condolence and material assistance towards resettling the bereaved Pastor. The President’s wife has had to send a separate delegation as well. At the District level, we are also trying our best but I dare say we cannot do it alone.

“The case of Pastor Kayoda is worse than the ordeal the biblical Job suffered. At least Job had his wife alive to vilify or comfort him. Our Pastor lost his dear wife, all four children and entire properties. His situation is also worse than a bachelor because he has to start all over again. He is looking up to godly people to come to his aid to be able to stand on his feet again.”

Rep demands automatic tickets for select PDP governors From Mike Odiegwu, Yenagoa

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EMBER of the House of Representatives, Dr. Stella Dorgu, has canvassed automatic tickets for performing governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Dorgu, who represents Sagbama/Ekeremor Federal Constituency, Bayelsa State, said automatic tickets would help hardworking governors to complete their laudable projects.

The lawmaker who spoke in an interview in Yenagoa, the state capital, at the weekend said: “The right of first refusal given to President Goodluck Jonathan should be extended to performing governors.

“It may not be in the constitution, but convention has it or the constitution says that every governor that was elected into office should seek two terms of four years each.

“And when governor’s are performing, especially with the phenomenal work that my governor, Seriake Dickson, is doing, it will be most unreasonable and it will be enemies of progress that would think that such a person should not be given a second term.

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• From left: Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Fidelity Bank Plc, Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, President/ Chairman of Council, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Otunba Mrs. Debola Osibogun and Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, Heritage Bank Limited, Mr. Ifie Sekibo during the conferment of Honorary Senior Members of CIBN on Okonkwo, Emefiele and Sekibo during the 2014 CIBN Investiture held in Lagos...yesterday.

Lawmaker faults detention of Edo speaker, others by EFCC

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OLLOWING the detention of principal officers of Edo State Assembly, namely, the Speaker, Uyi Igbe, Majority Leader, Philip Shaibu and Majority Whip, Folly Ogedengbe by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over allegation of forgery which many believed ought to be the purview of Nigerian Police, Minority Whip of the House of Representatives, Samson Osagie yesterday said the National Assembly

From Osemwengie Ben Ogbemudia, Benin

may be forced to review the EFCC “to remove any area of ambiguity for which the EFCC will want to hide under to be used as political tools by the ruling government.”

Speaking to journalists on the crisis rocking the state House of Assembly which culminated in the arrest and detention of the trio last week, Osagie said his statement became necessary so as not to allow members

of the public be deceived by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which has been justifying the detention of the lawmakers.

“I am speaking as someone who intervened in the matter and not one who was told or heard. I am not speaking out of hearsay. I was there and asked question why they were invited by the EFCC and I was told why they were invited by the EFCC,” he said.

Osagie, who is seeking to

become the senator to represent Edo South senatorial district said: “First, the EFCC is questioning the regularity of a motion filed on the impeachment of Ebea (Festus) as Deputy Speaker on the ground that the said motion could not have been proper since a member complained that his signature was forged.

He said it was practically impossible for the EFCC to successfully prosecute the allegation of forgery against the lawmakers.

From Bisi Olaniyi, Port Harcourt lacked quality governorship candidate and had nothing to offer the people in the 2015 general elections, noting that the PDP in Rivers is made up of corrupt politicians.

The NGF chairman disclosed that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was also targeting 69,000 supporters for its mega rally on October 25, to mark seven years of Amaechi’s Supreme Court victory of October 25, 2007, through the landmark judgment.

The Rivers State branch of the PDP alleged that the NGF chairman only demonstrated outright ignorance and sup-

pression of facts and reality.

Amaechi, during an inspection tour of the Adokiye Amiesimaka Sports Complex, newly built by his administration, near the Port Harcourt International Airport, maintained that the APC is the party to beat in Rivers.

The Rivers State governor said: “Rivers people need to vote out PDP and vote in APC in 2015. The quality of candidates PDP is offering are people who are prepared to cart away the state’s funds.”

The Rivers State governor and the outgoing Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, who is scheming to succeed Amaechi, are both Ikwerre.

The NGF chairman said: “There are people whose interests you must protect.

Ikwerre people were not born into the state just to become governors at the expense of other Rivers people. If we cried against injustice when the Bayelsa people were with us, then Ikwerre people should not lead the onslaught to say that Ikwerre must always get governorship because they have the number to achieve that.”

It will be recalled that the Rivers State Chairman of the APC, Chief Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, earlier stated in Port Harcourt that the resignation of Wike would help to formally bury the dead PDP in Rivers state.

Amaechi, PDP at war over choice of governorship candidate

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HE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Rivers State chapter, has disagreed with Governor Rotimi Amaechi on the choice of governorship candidate for 2015 election in the Niger Delta state.

The opposition PDP, through its Rivers Chairman, Chief Felix Obuah, yesterday in Port Harcourt,the state capital, insisted that the party had eminently qualified and unbeatable governorship aspirants, from whom the party’s standard bearer would be picked by the delegates at the primaries.

Amaechi, who is also the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), declared that the PDP in Rivers state

2015: ‘Fear, tension pervade Akwa Ibom’

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S the political space becomes tensed in Akwa Ibom State ahead of the 2015 polls, Nduese Essien, a two- term member of the House of Representative and former Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, has said he will not seek election into the office of governor, insisting the present political environment in the state is not very safe.

Essien, who spoke at a reception organised for him

From Uyoatta Eshiet, Uyo by the Eket Senatorial District, Akwa Ibom State and the South-South People’s Assembly, said the elections he won twice in 1999 and 2003 when Obong Victor Attah was the governor was because the political space was very safe at the time.

The former minister while lauding the role played by former Governor Attah and current Governor Godswill Akpabio in his

life, recalled that he did not only win elections into the National Assembly during Attah’s tenure, the governor also gave his support during the struggle for the 13 percent oil derivation in the National Assembly which the state and other oil-producing states in the country are enjoying today. While appraising the current situation faced by local governments in the country, Essien said the local councils have been incapacitated because of lack of direct access to

their federally allocated revenues. This, he said, has greatly hampered the discharge of their responsibilities towards the grassroots, thus defeating the aim of establishing them as a tier of government.

He, therefore, called on the National and State Houses of Assemblies to urgently pass a legislation that will ensure the autonomy of the third tier of government.

On the numerous aspirants angling to succeed Akpabio, he urged caution.

Ikom State constituency endorses Ndoma-Egba

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HE Ikom State Constituency of Cross River State has jointly endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan and Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN) to continue in office in 2015.

Ikom is the political and economic capital of Cross River Central Senatorial District.

The endorsement was contained in a communiqué signed by Rt. Hon. Joseph N. Ndoma, Dr. Ebaye Akonjom, Hon. Glory E. Akonjom and Dr. Tony N. Ngban representing Abanyum, Nde, Nta/ Nselle and Nnam wards respectively for Ikom State Constituency. The communique reads in part: “It was pointless changing a winning team since Senator NdomaEgba and President Jonathan have performed creditably well, we have endorsed them each for another term in office.”

Ndoma said: “The meeting was convened to discuss the way forward for our constituency, particularly with respect to political aspirations of our people under this present dispensation.

“While it may be true that prophets are not revered at home, we want Nigerians to know that Senator NdomaEgba, who is, today, the Senate Leader is revered and loved at home.

“He is in touch and in tune with his people.

“We, the leaders of Ikom State Constituency aver that political office aspirants should be growth-conscious and to stop revolving around political office just for the sake of ambition. We are pleased with him and thus, we want him to continue in office, come 2015.”

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014

NEWS

Beware of FGBoko Haram’s ceasefire, APC tells Nigerians From Abdulgafar Alabelewe, Kaduna HE opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday warned Nigerians to beware of the cease-fire agreement entered into by the Federal Government and Boko Haram, saying that it could be a deception to achieve cheap political points by the ruling party.

The party in communiqué issued at the end of its stakeholders meeting in Kaduna which was read by the APC Deputy National Chairman (North), Senator Lawal Shuaibu said the party was committed to the well-being of all Nigerians.

According to the communique, “The meeting notes reports that the federal government and Boko Haram are engaged in discussion that may result in cessation of hostilities. While it welcomes any effort to resolve the conflict, it advises against attempts to deceive Nigerians and create a false sense of security for political ends.

“Work closely and diligently with all members of the party across the country to ensure the ousting of the corrupt, disastrous and clueless Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government in the 2015 general elections.

“That the incoming APC government in 2015 will make security of life property of all citizens, respect for the rule of law and good governance its top most priority.

“To provide a level playing field to all those who aspire to contest for public office on the platform of the party through its internal democratic process.”

Akwa Ibom govt condemns attack on Senator

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Rivers 2015: Guber aspirant to Wike: ‘You’re no threat’ From Olugbenga Adanikin, Abuja S aspirants jostle in the next election, Richard Victor has said the Minister of State for Education Nyesom Wike is no threat to him in the 2015 River State governorship poll.

Victor, a former governorship aspirant in the state disclosed that it was important for the people to vote in credible candidate, adding that Wike has no presidential backing to win the election.

According to him, it was the turn of the Ijaw tribe, South East Senatorial Zone of the state to present the next governor.

Victor who is an aspirant under the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) spoke during an interview yesterday in Abuja. He said: “Wike has no chance of coming down to stand in election. Forget about the intrigues. Let’s be realistic. He cannot match me.

“You cannot be a leader of a party and at the same time be the governorship aspirant. Being the senior man in the rank of position, we agreed you lead the party and since we have no governor as our party member.

“So he thought he can now use that position to spot himself as a governor, no. It’s not real and it will not happen.”

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From Kazeem Ibrahym, Uyo HE Akwa Ibom State government has condemned the attack on a senator representing Akwa Ibom South Senatorial District, Senator Helen Esuene.

Sen. Esuene was on a political consultation at Essien Udim Local Government Area when political thugs struck.

The State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Aniekan Umanah, while briefing newsmen yesterday in Uyo, the state capital, said the state governor, Godswill Akpabio, instructed him to dissuade the state from the attack and to condemn it in strong term.

His words: “The governor has condemned the attack of Sen. Helen Esuene, in its entirety. The action of the irate youths on the distinguish senator is condemnable.

“The governor is not happy over the incidence. The local government was not against any aspirant from coming to the area for consultation or campaign.”

He added that the attack was not targeted at Esuene, but the youth were not happy with the Peoples’ Democratic Party Chapter Chairman, Friday Udoh.

He said that the crisis erupted because Udoh had instructed the senator to pay their consultation fee of N1m into his account which was improper and unacceptable to the youths.

Chairman, Essien Udim LGA, Nse Ntuen, said that the non-availability of transport fare to the youths was the cause of the crisis.

The council chairman said that the ignorance of the organisers of the consultation team to involve the security operatives from the local government left large security gap at the function.

•From left: Gov. Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State; Vice President Namadi Sambo; Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Chief Emeka Ihedioha and Gov. Ramalan Yero of Kaduna State at the grand finale of Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN ) rally in support of President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja, yesterday PHOTO: NAN.

Another four years of PDP will be disastrous -Buhari

•As ACF, NEF harp on APC’s unity ahead of 2015

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ORMER Head of State and Presidential Aspirant of All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari has said that, if Nigerians allow the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to rule the country for another four years after 2015, it (PDP) would send the country down the drain. ýHe said Nigerians were tired of incompetent leadership of the PDP, urging the electorate to be at alert in all ramification to ensure that there is free, fair and credible elections that will usher in credible leaders at all levels of governance.

The former Head of State said this in Kaduna yesterday while delivering remarks on behalf of himself and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who was also present at a stakeholders meeting of the northern APC. According to Buhari, 2015 is another year of extreme concern to Nigerians, which leaders of the opposition APC must not allow their members to be disenfranchised prior to and during the elections.

While stressing that APC was in better position to wrestle power from the ruling party, General Buhari stressed the need for vigilance among party members against all manipulation to rig the poll in favour of the ruling party.

In his words, “I contested

From Abdulgafar Alabelewe, Kaduna the Presidential election three times in this country and failed and ended up in Supreme Court and lost the case.

“The first time, the Judges that, agreed that there was no election were from the South and they are all Christians. But, the second time, the Judges that declared that PDP has won despite the irregularities are Fulani from Adamawa and Taraba and a Nupe man. That was when I understood that, it is not about religion and ethnicity, but about Naira and Dollars,” he said.

He observed that the amount of soldiers, police, SSS deployed to Ekiti State during the election, if same were deployed to the troubled Northeast they would have secured the release of the over 200 abducted girls.

Towards this end, Buhari said “Nigeria is tired of incompetent leadership. So we must be ready to make sacrifices that will salvage the country, let us not allow our people to be disenfranchised during the elections, we must be united to ensure a free, fair and credible elections in 2015.”

He also emphasised the need for the party to be united and make a difference in ýthe general elections.

Meanwhile, the northern socio-cultural group, the Arewa

Consultative Forum (ACF) in a goodwill message delivered by Solomon Dalung on behalf of the Chairman Ibrahim Coomassie urged northerners not to allow themselves to be divided by the artificial differences created by politicians to divide the north.

He urged politicians from the northern extraction to put the interest of the north first and above their personal interest, saying ACF desire is for a united north that can give credible leadership in this country.

“We want politicians to search their hearts and tell in whose interest they are aspiring, we must put the interest of the suffering masses above our personal interest” he said.

In the same vein, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed who spoke for the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) said the north has paid ýhuge price for the failure of democracy in Nigeria.

He therefore said 2015 should be seen as a turning point for the people of the north.

“We look forward to any party that will deliver good governance, let us find the best person to lead the northý and Nigeria in 2015.

“Do not allow your personal interestý to override general interest, Nigeria is too important to be sacrificed on the platform of personal interest.”

The NEF also called on the APC stakeholders to engage in

discussions that will see to it that all the Northern Presidential aspirants are engaged in dialogue aimed at reaching a consensus with the least friction.

Meanwhile, NEF expressed hope that the ceasefire agreement said to have been reached between the Boko Haram and the Federal Government is real and not a political gimmick meant for political gains.

The meeting had in attendance the major Presidential Aspirants under the party, General Buhari, Atiku Abubakar and Kano State Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.

Governors of Borno.

Kashim Shettima, Zamfara Abdulaziz Yari, and that of Yobe State, Ibrahim Gaidam were also in attendance.

Legislators and national leaders of the APC from the northern extraction were also present at the meeting.

Earlier in his welcome address, the APC Deputy National Chairman (North), Senator Lawal Shuaibu who is the convener of the meeting said, it was important for the party to learn from the lessons of history and ensure that it gets stronger, more focused and committed to democratic ideals.

As at the time of filing the report, the stakeholders were still holding their discussions under close doors. While communique is expected to be issued at the end of the meeting.

North must unite to salvage Nigeria - Shettima

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HE Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, has called on the north to irrespective of their religion and ethnicity, to summon courage and come together to salvage the country, as Nigerians go into another round of election next year.

He also said that the north has the number and was in a position to make or mar the future of this country.

He made this call yesterday, in Kaduna, while speaking on behalf of

From Abdulgafar Alabelewe, Kaduna

other All Progressives Congress (APC) governors at the party’s Northern Stakeholders’ interactive meeting.

According to the governor, the north in the best of times was the least in all indices of economic development, let alone now that insurgency is ravaging some parts of it, saying that “we are now the poorest of the earth. Poverty has no religion, it has no ethnicity, therefore, we

must reach out to other parts of the country, so that by 2015, other Nigerians can join forces with us to salvage the country.

“We must not fight over political offices within the party. We must not allow our aspirations as individuals to jeopardize our collective resolve to salvage the country. We have the number and we are in the position to make or mar the future of the generation yet unborn in this country.

“The north is in shambles. Citizens have become refugees in their country. There is need to produce the next President from the north. But this is not without challenges, requiring vigilance and courage. There is need to bury our differences and become united to confront the challenges ahead. If we can summon courage to come together irrespective of our religious and ethnic differences, we are poised to forming the next government, come 2015.”

Group endorses former Akwa Ibom SSG for governor From Kazeem Ibrahym, Uyo

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HE people of Abak 5 have endorsed the governorship aspiration of former Akwa Ibom Secretary to State Government, Umana Umana.

The people, under the auspices of Abak Division Assembly (ADA), said they would resist every attempt by anybody to impose a governor on them.

The Chairman of ADA, Okon Obot, who spoke during the visit of Umana in Abak, said the people would choose their governor.

Obot decried that Abak 5 has been marginalized by the current government, saying their emancipation lies in their ability to bring in a governor that will favour them.

His words: “We don’t want a governor that will come and steal what belongs to Abak Division. We don’t want a governor that will destroy the unity of the state. Seven years ago, there was unity in this state but unfortunately, today the story is different. We want that governor who will restore that unity.”

The former SSG explained that it would be foolhardy for anyone to think that he can appoint a governorship aspirant for five million people of the state.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014

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2700 DAYS IN OFFICE

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SOARING IN THE TRADITION OF EXCELLENCE countries and spreads across the globe, Lagos and the country, successfully repelled the virus. Strategies deployed include immediate quarantine of suspected victims and those who came in close contact with them, regular meeting by the Governor with all those concerned, continuous communication with members of the public on government’s efforts, collaboration with the Federal Government and International donor agencies.

teadily but sure footed, the Fashola administration has continued to soar in the delivery of democracy dividends, even as it coasts towards the finishing mark of a glorious era.

It has striven towards the attainment of the Governor’s pledge of providing quality service to the people to the very end of its mandate.

Phase One of the rebuilt Tejuosho Shopping Complex, Yaba, was recently reopened. The complex is part of the longterm radical infrastructure renewal plan by government. It is driven by farsighted vision and pursued by thoroughly committed public servants. Lock-up shops in the new complex has risen from 1,484 to 2,640 provided 1,251. Other facilities in place are banking spaces, eight lifts to enable swift movement of goods and people , two escalators, a dedicated 800-vehicle capacity car-park, two ramps designed to assist the physically challenged to move in and out of the complex and a crèche where nursing mothers can attend to and keep their children while they are trading. There is also a dedicated Fire Service Station within the complex with fire fighting systems built to forestall and control any fire incident.

Just recently, government announced an 86 percent third quarter cumulative budget performance. This is an aggregate of the first quarter performance of 67 percent, the second-quarter results of 106% and 3 rd quarter performance of 84 percent. The feat is a reflection of the commitment of the administration to governance despite the rains and dwindling revenue from the Federal Government. With more prudent management of resources and discipline in expenditure, the government has promised better performance in the final quarter.

At the 7th draw of the Lagos Home Ownership Mortgage Scheme, fifty-nine new home owners emerged, making a total of 273 new home owners. This development rates the State Government higher as one that makes promises and fulfils such. More houses are being built, as construction is going on in over 23 sites across the state. The Lagos HOMS has continued to witness adjustments based on new experiences and revelations. They are necessary in order to accommodate all segments of the society who are qualified to participate in the scheme.

Despite the rains, road construction works are ongoing at over 17 sites in Ikorodu axis of the state alone. Other projects include the Ijegun-Isolo road, Ipaja – Ayobo road to mention a few.

On the education sector, the State Government recently employed about 1,775 new teachers into the system as secondary school teachers, despite its limited resources. A total sum of N268 million was presented to schools under the Governors Award organized by the Lagos Eko Project.

Thirty One (31) new class rooms were handed over to various schools in the Iju- Ishaga and Ifako-Ijaiye area of the state. These include Sonmori Comprehensive Senior High School, College Road, Ifako- Ijaiye and the First African Church Mission Primary School, Iju-Ishaga, among others.

In sustenance of its quest to bequeath an enduring standard in the education sector, the State Executive Council has approved the provision of solar power in public schools in the state. Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN), who made this disclosure at the 4th edition of the Governor’s Education Award held at the 10 Degrees Event Centre, Oregun , said 172 schools would benefit in the first phase of the pilot project expected to run between now and May next year. He said the first phase has been broken into two sub-phases , adding that 35 schools in the riverine hinterland parts of the state will fully be lit and powered by solar power. He noted that the development would lead to the decommissioning of over 800 generators in use in the public schools.

Fashola also stated that the water corporation is also working assiduously to install pipelines for direct water supply to 600 schools in the state as the phase of ensuring that public schools get direct water supply. He explained that his focus on electricity for the up-coming generation as the way forward was based on his belief that if their capacity is developed at this level, they would be able to improve the nation’s power sector, adding inadequate power supply had continued to impoverish the country.

The Governor said government decided not to make grants presented to winning schools personal but reward winning schools and encourage the students.

Government put together a five week intensive science vacation course for secondary school students in the state during the long vacation period. Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Olayinka Oladunjoye disclosed that the course took place in 217 centers across the six Education Districts. She said it was organized to channel the energies of students into productive ventures during the long

Governor Fashola

vacation period, improve their skills and performance in science, as well as sustain their interest in science subjects.

Efforts were intensified in the campaign for residents to switch from using fire wood and kerosene to gas for domestic use, with the free distribution of 1000 gas cylinders to residents of Isolo and Ojodu Local Council Development Areas.

Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Taofiq Ajibade Tijani, speaking at the road show where the cylinders were distributed, said government is partnering major operators in the gas industry to ensure the success of the campaign on the use of gas for domestic use. He disclosed that as a sign of seriousness on the campaign, government has committed the sum of N300m on the Eko Gas Initiative with prospects of more financial investment. He frowned at the situation where gas abounds in abundance in the country, but most of it are exported leaving much less for domestic utilization. In order to reverse the situation, he told his street audience that Governor Babatunde Fashola ( SAN), approved gas as the fuel of choice for Lagosians.

As a way of encouraging good parenting among its workforce, government extended the maternity leave of its female employees by three months bringing it to a total of six months, to enable them to give the required attention to their new-born babies in their first few months of life. The policy which is in line with the state’s exclusive breast feeding policy for the first six months of a baby’s life, will enable mothers to take proper care of their babies and recoup well from the stress of child birth before resuming work, so that both mother and child would be strong enough to withstand the expected temporary separation that comes when the mother resumes work. For the first time in the country, the Government granted a ten working day paternity leave for male employees who may want to join their wives to achieve good parenting.

As part of efforts to improve economic activities in Apapa and environs and free residents and industrial concerns of the traffic menace, the Governor visited the area over five times within two months. He was emphatic of the need to put the roads in excellent shape, get the railway system working to rid the axis of the menace of petrol tanker operators. He was also keen to see the numerous industrial estates resurrect and working at full capacity while news businesses as the on going shoprite shopping complex are completed.

The State Government received and still continues to receive local and international commendation, for its management and containment of the ravaging ebola virus disease. While it continues to kill thousands of citizens in other West African

Government as usual, set the pace again with the commissioning of the unique Motor Vehicle Administration Agency (MVAA) One-Stop Centre for vehicle documentation and launching of the Temporary Vehicle Tag project, the first in the African continent. The centre is designed to ensure that vehicles are registered from the point of purchase while also adequately securing vehicles.

It was as well put in place to effectively and efficiently manage the influx of vehicles within the state. With the commissioning of the One-Stop Centre; Lagosians would have the opportunity of accessing the centre to fill their forms, access the Internet, pay at the same point, visit the Motor Vehicle Administration Agency, Vehicle Inspection Services, do their data capture and get their temporary driver’s license the same day a within a maximum of two hours. The citizenry will also be able to procure plate numbers for their vehicles, renew their driver’s licenses and perform other services under the motor vehicle administration with speed and precision. The Centre is expected to drastically reduce the heavy customer traffic experienced at MVAA’s 46 Vehicle Licensing Offices, 11 Drivers License Centres, eight Riders’ Card Issuing Centres and 18 Dealers’ License Zonal Offices, as well as independent licensed outlets and designated banks (for vehicle licenses and Hackney permits). Customers will be able to obtain registration forms, complete the forms, make payments, have their biometric data captured, renew their licenses and undergo screening requirements.

The elegant One-Stop-Centre is truly an all-round state project from conception to completion; the engineering and construction of the building were handled 100 percent by engineers of the works Department of the Lagos State Ministry of Works and Infrastructure.

The Temporary Vehicle Tag project expected to be processed and issued at the One-Stop-Centre, aims at putting an end to the era of using unregistered vehicles for criminal activities while also aiding easy tracking of vehicles when stolen.

Opeifa disclosed that no fewer than 302,000 driver’s licenses have been processed in the state since 2011 while only 194, 000 applications for the drivers license, out of the 511,030 applicants captured since 2011, are yet to be processed.

The plan has been made; the vision is shared, and the commitment is real. It requires Lagosians to continue fulfilling their obligation to the government through prompt payment of taxes and other dues. Without this, it might be difficult for government to adequately fulfill its own obligations to the people. Secondly, it will require that Lagosians continually embrace peace by respecting and obeying the laws of the land. No meaningful development can take place in an atmosphere of chaos. According to Martin Luther King, “peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek but a means by which we arrive at that goal.”

Lateef Aderemi Ibirogba Is the Honourable Commissioner, Information and Strategy, Lagos

THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014

Kwara Deputy Speaker confident of APC’s victory From Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin

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Y 2015, Nigeria will have a new government that would provide right leadership under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Deputy Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Prof.

Mohammed Yisa, has said.

He added that the country will experience flourishing economy under a vibrant APC-led government from 2015.

Yisa said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)- controlled federal government had misruled the country, stating that the APC will set it back on the right track if elected.

The Deputy Speaker spoke on the forthcoming elections in Ilorin, the Kwara capital, just as a senatorial aspirant in the state; Anu Ibiwoye promised that his Kwara South senatorial district would by 2015 enjoy quality representation, which it lacks at the Senate in the past eleven years.

Yisa and Ibiwoye spoke in separate interviews with newsmen at the APC state secretariat in Ilorin shortly after they collected forms of expression of interest in contesting the party’s slots for offices of National Assembly.

While Yisa collected form for Patigi/Lafiagi Federal Constituency, Ibiwoye obtained the form for Kwara South Senatorial District.

Yisa said he is seeking a seat at the House of Representatives because he wants to be part of those who would make the House vibrant with promulgation of laws that would enable the executive arm turn around the fortunes of the country.

He promised the party would instill discipline and discourage corruption to promote development of the nation.

Ibiwoye, on his part, said people of the Kwara South have not, in the past eleven years, felt the impact of their representatives at the Senate.

He assured that he would make a change if he emerges the next representative of the people at the Senate.

37 firms win Customer Service Award From Bukola Amusan, Abuja

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firms were yesterday awarded the prestigious Nigeria Customer Service Excellence Award.

The award categories cut across 27 sectors of the economy including banking and finance, telecommunication, media, hospitality, transport, real estate, oil and gas and others.

Heritage Bank emerged the most supportive Customer Service Company while Access Bank and Etisalat won Best Customer Service Companies in banking and telecommunications.

Other winners at the event were Abuja Urban Mass Transport Company, VIP Express Tourism Limited, DHL, DANA Air, Daily Trust, KIA Motors, NNPC, Channels Television, Julius Berger, Lona and Halogen Security, among others.

The coordinator of NSCA, Dr. Aliyu Ilias, said the award was instituted to celebrate outstanding service excellence across all sectors in the country.

NEWS

Gemade’s, Suswam’s battle for Senate seat deepens

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LDERS of Kwande Local Government Area, Benue State have disowned an alleged endorsement of the Governor Gabriel Suswam to represent Benue North East in the Senate.

The area comprising all the four clans of Ishangev- Ya, Ikurav -Ya, Nanev and Turan rather gave their blessings to Senator Barnabas Gemade to vie for the Senate seat of Zone A of the state.

The Senatorial seat was reportedly loaned to Governor Suswam a few months ago.

A statement by Gemade’s Legislative Aide, Bob Jija, said that the elders, led by Udele Jov from Shangev-Ya, “washed Senator Gemade’s feet and head with water from (Iyongu), a special type of calabash used by the Tiv people in performing their rituals.”

Jija added that the elders also “sprinkled water on Gemade and asked him to go ahead and tour the nooks and crannies of Kwande,” assuring

•Community denies loaning seat to governor From: Onyedi Ojiabor, Assistant Editor

him that they have more confidence in him.

The Legislative Aide said that elder Asua Gbuuka, who spoke on behalf of Nanev and Ishangev-Ya, debunked rumours that they have loaned out the Senate seat to Suswam.

Jija said that Asua expressed displeasure with Senator Gemade for delaying for so long, stressing that they have more confidence in giving out their Senate slot to Gemade to hold it in brief for them than any other person.

Asua was quoted to have said: “If anybody claims that he came to Kwande and got a Senate loan, it is the same thing as the joke of a rabbit, which went out with its father and came back to say its father had delivered and needed water to bath the kid.”Jija said that Gever Ingbian, who spoke for Ikurav-Ya and Turan, corrobo-

rated elder Asua’s remarks.

He noted that while speaking at the gathering of Kwande elders Gemade told them that he thought it wise to first intimate them and seek their blessings as his first point of call before embarking on consultation throughout Zone ‘A’.

Gemade, he said, added that as elders and owners of the land, they are the people to decide what happens in their domain.

He said that Gemade who advised those he described as having “insatiable appetite for power” to go for other things lamented a situation where a younger person will ask an elder to stand up and give him a seat.

While appreciating the people of Kwande for their overwhelming reception and support, Gemade expressed delight over his endorsement, describing Kwande as the foundation of politics in Tiv nation

and Benue State at large.

He said: “I am very happy to be here in Kwande LG, the foundation of politics in Benue State, the foundation of politics in Tiv land. You have produced several politicians, many of them renowned and distinguished people.

“If anybody wishes to challenge me in that office, I am ready and willing for them to follow the rules. And the rules of our game are very clear: we go into primaries and the will of the people is the will of God. “But if it is the will of Ak47 and the will of the thugs that are all over the places, some of whom have already started tearing my bill boards, God is never going to bless such a move.”

He said his senate ambition is a shortcut to Kwande becoming senator in 2019, pointing out that he will never contemplate going back to the senate again in 2019.

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Berom youths fault STF over Jos killings From Yusufu Aminu Idegu, Jos

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HE Berom Youth Movement (BYSM) has faulted claim by the Special Task Force (STF) on Jos crisis codenamed Operation Safe Haven that the recent killings in Riyom local government was due to cow rustling.

No fewer than 30 people have been killed in the series of attacks in the last few weeks on villages in the council with several communities sacked.

The Media Officer of STF, Captain Ikedichi Iweha, had linked the killings to reprisal attacks following alleged cow rustling.

But in a statement at the weekend, the National Caretaker Committee chairman of the BYM, Rwang Dantong, expressed surprise over the position of the STF. He said: “The entire Berom nation while commending the efforts of the STF posted to Bachi for restoring normalcy after the protracted 10- day massacre of innocent and harmless Berom in Bachi District is however greatly surprised by the position of the STF spokesman.

“We wish to categorically state that there has been no report whatsoever of cow rustling in Bachi District since time immemorial.”The group cited a statement by the State Chairman of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, Alhaji Haruna Boro, that there have been no cattle rusting around Riyom.

It said any information received must be thoroughly verified to avoid misleading the public. Top of Form.

Ologale of Ogale to be installed

From Jide Orintunsin, Minna

•Graduating students at the maiden convocation of the Polytechnic of Sokoto in Sokoto …yesterday

Tambuwal, Wamakko, Sultan, others bag fellowship awards

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OUSE of Representatives Speaker, Aminu Tambawal, was yesterday conferred with a fellowship award along with Governor Aliyu Wamakko, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, and three other prominent personalities by the Polytechnic of Sokoto State.

Also conferred were: Executive Secretary, National Board for Technical Education, Dr Mas’udu Kazaure; Rector, Cape Coast Polytechnic, Professor Lawrence Atepor; and the chairman, Sokoto State

From: Adamu Suleiman, Sokoto

Task Force on Water Supply, Alhaji Namadina Abdulrahman.

The conferment of the awards by the institution was performed at its maiden convocation ceremony of the institution where it graduated 21,062 students.

Speaking at the combined convocation ceremony, Governor Wamakko said that the polytechnic has since the appointment of the Rector, Prof. Bashir Garba, in 2012,

PHOTO: NAN

recorded tremendous developments.

Wamakko also promised to do more in the provision of adequate funds and facilities to the polytechnic to enable it record more successes.

On the fellowship awards, the governor pledged to be good ambassadors of the polytechnic even after they leave office in 2015.

The Chairman of the Governing Board of the institution, Amb. Muhammad Sani, commended the government for its tremendous support to it.

He also hailed the National Board For Technical Education (NBTE) and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) for their unrelenting efforts to the development of the institution.

The Rector of the Polytechnic, Prof. Bashir Garba, also commended the state government, TETFUND, NBTE and other agencies for their laudable interventions, policies and programmes towards staff training and infra-structural facilities.

Garba, however, called for the provision of more accommodation, personnel, facilities and structures at the polytechnic.

Speaking on behalf of the awardees, Atepor commended the Polytechnic for the honour.

administration is a product of divine arrangement and I came in 2007 with a clear mandate to unite the people of the state to the glory of God. “I want the churches to pray for a credible and Godfearing candidates; pray for total restoration of peace in the state; pray for greater

unity of the churches and pray for the greater unity of Plateau people.”

He added: “The church should pray for a credible successor who should be god- fearing and to build on the successes recorded by the Redemption administration.

Such a person should be able to unite the people”.

Jang presents four-point prayer for 2015

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LATEAU State Governor Jonah David Jang has presented four key areas of prayers to churches and mosques in the state ahead of the 2015 general election in the state.

Jang presented the prayer points when he received the National President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of

From Yusufu Aminu Idegu, Jos

Nigeria (PFN), Dr. Felix Omobude, at the Government House Rayfield, Jos. The governor said: “These special prayers for Plateau state have become necessary at this critical period of politics because my

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HREE- hundred- year old Ogale Ijumu in Kogi State will on Saturday install its eighth traditional ruler, Oba Michael Kolajo Otitojua, the “Ose M’ehi M’adee Moliya II.” The ceremony will also see ten prominent sons and daughters of the town honoured with chieftaincy titles and awards of excellence.

The chairman of the organising committee for the coronation of the Ologale, Reverend Paul Femi, said that the former President of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Senator Smart Adeyemi, will be the chairman of the ceremony.

The Royal father, Oba Otitoju, was born on the 22nd of August 1946 at the IdiAkika Quarters Gbobo Ogale, in Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State.

He attended St. Michael Catholic School Ogidi Ijumu briefly in 1958 and completed his primary education at Ogale Idi-Oro, St Patrick Anglican School in1965.

He worked briefly with Kewon Hotel Lokoja in 1973 after which he had the call of God and became a full- time Pastor in 1977.

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NEWS

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KITI State Governor Ayodele Fayose has dissolved the caretaker committees of the 16 local government areas and the 19 recently inaugurated Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in the state.

The governor also dissolved all state controlled agencies, commissions, boards and parastatals.

The LCDAs were created by the immediate past administration of Dr. Kayode Fayemi in July 2014.

Fayose, who disclosed this in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS) Idowu Adelusi, at the weekend, clarified all the council chairmen should immediately hand over to their Directors of

THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014

Fayose sacks Ekiti council chairmen From Sulaiman Salawudeen, Ado Ekiti

Administration (DAs).

The Caretaker chairmen had been in control of the 16 councils since the former governor came on board on October 16, 2010 consequent upon a High Court injunction that the council elections proposed by the Fayemi-led administration on February 4, 2011 should be put on hold pending the determination of a suit against its conduct by the

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

PDP had alleged that some of the members of the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC), which was to superintend the conduct of the election were card-carrying members of the then ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Fayose, in his inaugural speech last Thursday, disclosed the courts had been approached to

challenge the creation of the new councils.

The governor noted that the move to create the councils by Fayemi in the twilight of his administration was less than desirable.

He consequently insisted they (the LCDAs) would not be financed with funds meant for the 16 constitutionally-recognised councils in the state as listed in the 1999 constitution.

'Court verdict has vindicated Ondo PDP'

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CHIEFTAIN of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State, Dr Benson Enikuomehin, has described the verdict of an Abuja Federal High Court, which restrained the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party from dissolving the Ebenezer Alabi-led executives in the state as appropriate.

Enikuomehin, the former Commissioner representing the State on the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDCC), told reporters in Akure that the leadership of the party in the state applauded the decision of the court.

The court presided over

by Justice Oriji had in his ruling granted an interlocutory injunction restraining the NWC of the party from dissolving the State Executive Committee (SEC) in the state.

Justice Oriji ruled that the status quo should remain and adjourned the case to November 6 for further hearing.

The Alabi-led executive had approached an Abuja Federal High Court to stop the NWC from dissolving the

From Damisi Ojo, Akure

Ondo State Executive.

Enikuomehin, a lawyer, said with the injunction granted, the verdict indicated that the Ebenezer Alabi, led executives is at liberty to conduct the party's ward/delegate congress slated for November 1.According to him: "The verdict has vindicated our stand and agitation. It has raised our hope. The call for the dissolution of the party executive in the state is of no importance.

"It was borne out of an individual selfish interest. Since it was not the entire Labour Party (LP) in Nigeria that is merging with PDP, you cannot because of the interest of an individual collapse the entire structure of the party in the state.

"That decision was a contravention of PDP constitution.

A visitor that comes to your house cannot tell you the room he wants to sleep, no matter the intimacy."

Enikuomehin said there were vital issues the leadership of the party needed to ironed out with Governor Olusegun Mimiko before his defection if the party must be united.

Lagos Commissioner declares for Reps seat

A •Lagos State Chairman of APC, Chief Henry Ajomale, handing the governorship and expression of intention forms to Ikuforiji… yesterday

Ikuforiji picks governorship nomination form

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AGOS State Speaker, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, yesterday collected the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship nomination and expression of intention forms for the 2015 election at the party secretariat on Acme Road Ogba, Ikeja.

The two forms were handed over to Ikuforiji by Lagos state chairman of the APC, Henry Ajomale, after payment of N5.5million.

Speaking with newsmen after collecting the forms, Ikuforiji said only the best is good enough for Lagos.

He stated that having

•'Only the best is good for Lagos'

By Oziegbe Okoeki

led the legislative arm of government for ten years, he would replicate the same at the executive level, if elected.

"This is my 12th year in the government of Lagos state and I have been leading an arm of government in this state that is recognised worldwide to be the very best that Nigeria has had and that same best we are taking to the governor's office so that Lagosians will have what

will be globally accepted to be the very best form of government in the continent," Ikuforiji stressed.

On consensus, he said: "It is all part of the game.

There can be a consensus candidate and we would not be the first to have such. Even Jonathan is a consensus candidate of his party, so there is nothing wrong in having a consensus candidate."

Stating that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) appeal of his ac-

quittal by the High Court cannot slow down his aspiration, Ikuforiji attributed the trial to leadership tribulations.

Reiterating, he said: "I know with leadership comes trials and tribulations. I think the presiding judge made very categorical remarks and statements in his ruling, so if EFCC wants to go on appeal it is their business not mine.

"So if they want to go to appeal, if I have won round one and square at the lower level, be rest assured their appeal will amount to nothing."

some of his Ajimobi kicks off second term campaign highlighted achievements on the throne.

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YO State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, has described the Alaafin of Oyo as an enigma with unparalleled passion whose fatherly role and uncompromising commitment to peace, development and equanimity remains a source of inspiration.

The governor gave the remarks in Oyo town at an interactive forum organised for corps members from the four local governments (Afijio, Atiba, Oyo-West and Oyo-East) that constitute Oyo Federal Constituency.

• extols Alaafin at 76

From Bode Durojaiye, Oyo

The forum was part of activities to celebrate the 76th birthday of Oba Lamidi Adeyemi.

"Kabiyesi has always taken into consideration the safety and welfare of the people and will never compromise their tradition, culture and development.

"We are celebrating the flagship of royalty, intellectualism, embodiment of knowledge and traditional

ruler par excellence,'' Ajimobi said.

The governor, who did not hide his joy for the monarch's support and sincerity of purpose for his administration, prayed for Alaafin's good healthy living, long life and prosperity.

The governor also used the occasion to declare his intention to contest for second term in office.

Adeyemi, who thanked God for what he described as his divine, fulfilled life,

These include provision of scholarships from his personal purse to 120 persons to study courses of their choices at the University of Sokoto now renamed Usman Dan Fodio University where he was appointed as Chancellor for three consecutive terms.

Others are sponsorship of over 60 persons to universities across the country who graduated with Doctoral, Masters and First Degrees as well as transformation and unprecedented development of Oyo and its environs.

COMMISSIONER with the Lagos State Civil Service Commission, Pastor Isreal Alagbe, has declared his intention to contest for the House of Representatives seat for Badagry Federal constituency on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Alagbe, who is the Publicity Secretary of Badagry Divisional Leaders Forum of APC and former Executive Secretary, Oshodi-Isolo Local Government from 2002 to 2003, made his intention known at a ceremony in Badagry.

Present were all executive members and other members of Badagry local government Core Leaders Forum.

Alagbe, who disclosed that he has always been in the progressives' camp since he

By Oziegbe Okoeki

joined politics in 1976, said he wants to bring about a turnaround in Badagry by ensuring that the dividends of democracy are delivered to the people.

"I am determined to make the good people of Badagry Local Government, especially the party members and electorates to live with peace, progress and prosperity to eliminate the fear of political disenfranchisement, poverty and emotional disorder," he stated.

He promised to use his position as a legislator, if elected, to impact on his constituents by "moving motions and presenting bills that will be beneficial to all people in Badagry Federation, state and the nation."

Community screens aspirants ahead of Ondo APC primaries

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ETERMINED to regulate the numbers of aspirants eyeing the Akoko South West constituency I seat in the Ondo State Assembly under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), elders of Ibaka community in Oka-Akoko yesterday conducted primaries for all the aspirants.

At the event witnessed by APC card- carrying members in the community and presided over by Bere of Ibaka land, High Chief Samuel Obagunwa, Prince Boye Ologbese emerged winner among other four contestants with 310 votes.

Other aspirants were Adelakun Yaya, Tajudeen Balogun and Oladimeji Tiamiyu.

However, only Tiamiyu was in attendance during the exercise.

Obagunwa said leaders of the community took the decision to prevent political acrimony among indigenes of the

From Leke Akeredolu, Akure town.

He said such step would assist Ibaka to speak with one voice as parties prepare for their primaries.

The community head noted that they would begin move to appeal to other aspirants to drop their ambition and support Ologbese as the only aspirants from Ibaka community for APC Assembly's ticket.

Tiamiyu insisted that he would still participate in the party primaries, stressing that he walked out of the community's meeting because two other aspirants failed to show up.

"The elders, who claimed to be community leaders, have compromised. The High Chief Bere is a member of Labour Party (LP) and other elders are PDP members.

"How can the community be holding primaries and there will not be leaders of APC on ground?" he wondered.

Ropo Sekoni

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Page 14

Femi Orebe Page 16

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2014

tunjade@yahoo.co.uk 08054503906 (sms only)

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F there is any country that should take the food question serious, Nigeria is it.

The reason is that Nigeria was a big agricultural player before crude oil was discovered in commercial quantities in the country in the late 1950s. Unfortunately, we abandoned the farms as soon as the moneyspinning crude oil was discovered and the petrodollars started coming in. But crude oil also came with crude problems. For the first time we became conversant with all kinds of jargons as an oil producer: 'vagaries of the international oil market', 'oil glut', etc, concepts that were never our headache when we were a major agricultural country. This was enough to make us know the dangers in having a monocultural economy.

Unfortunately, many of our leaders, including those who took Economics as a subject even at the Ordinary Level and must have read in many Economics textbooks the need to diversify our economy obviously read for the sole purpose of passing examinations. The result is that we always catch cold whenever these 'vagaries' sneeze.

Our challenges are now compounded by the Shale revolution which has led to the U.S. reducing crude oil imports from the country by more than 50 percent. In spite of these stark realities, our leaders do not seem to realise what is about hitting the country, and if they have, they are yet to take concrete steps in steering us out of harm's way.

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State brought the looming danger into focus again on Thursday at the state's commemoration of this year's World Food Day/ Agriculture Value Chains Empowerment held at Johnson Agiri Agricultural Complex, Oko-Oba, Agege, Lagos. The governor told the audience that he was just informed that this month's Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting had been postponed as a result of cash crunch. So, no money for the states, many of which have not been able to meet their basic obligations, like payment of salaries as a result of this incessant cashflow problem that hit the country some months back.

But, while many of these states have merely been lamenting their plight without taking any serious action except waiting on Abuja for the monthly handout, the Lagos State government has taken some bold steps to shore up its finances, with huge success.

Yes, the argument may be made that it is easy for the state to raise its internally generated revenue exponentially as it has done because of its peculiar position; the same argument can be made for the peculiar number of people it has to cater for. What has become obvious is that Lagos, unlike many other states has had to reinvent governance, especially since the return to civil rule in 1999.

Part of that reinvention is the reform of its tax policy which has brought into the net many people and corporate bodies that hitherto were perpetual tax evaders. Fashola indeed alluded to that when he said but for this improvement in tax collection, the state government would not have been in a position to do some of its laudable programmes, including the empowerment of the 3,149 people that it gave one form of

Marking World Food Day the Lagos way Empowerment of agric workers is the way to go

•Prince Lawal agricultural equipment/assistance or the other at the occasion, to improve agriculture as well as make life more meaningful for them and, by extension, the larger society.

The beneficiaries cut across the state, with some of them going home with 50 crates of eggs each; some went away with 50 kilogrammes of cat fish each, while others also received all types of feeds to boost their livestock businesses, among others. Some riverine communities also received speed boats to aid their fishing businesses. Perhaps the luckiest beneficiaries were the 217 who received title deeds to enable them obtain loans from banks for their farming operations. This is good in that it redresses the situation whereby industrialists who make use of the farm produce made available by farmers are able to get loans from banks while the farmers themselves are shut out due to lack of collateral.

Little wonder the event was marked with pomp and pageantry, as it was attended by dignitaries, including the former governor of the state, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, who received a standing ovation on his arrival; traditional rulers and the top echelon of the civil service as well as beneficiaries of the agriculture empowerment scheme and their relations. It is therefore easy to understand why Governor Fashola was elated at the occasion. The huge crowd that turned out for the event was enough endorsement of the programme. Although one could not divorce political tinge from the event, it nonetheless did not detract from the raison d'etre.

Governor Fashola made highly witty statements, many of which were weighty in their profundity; statements that put government and governance in bold relief. He spoke about the inequities and inequalities in the world. For instance, the governor spoke about our world in which we still find very poor people in some very rich countries, as well as the paradox of very few rich people in some poor countries.

But the issue, as the governor rightly noted, is not much about the paradoxes but about making sense out of the inexplicable nonsense. This could be done by redistributing wealth in a way that makes it possible for the needs of many people to be met, which was what the empowerment scheme was all about.

“The Lagos example must have been part of the ways that those who conceived the World Food Day wanted the day marked and definitely not by measuring affluence or prosperity by the number of people having private jets in a country, or the number of billionaires where abject poverty stares the majority in the face.

International days such as the World Food Day have meaning when localised in a way that they connect to the respective peoples of the world.�

World Food Day is celebrated worldwide every October 16, in honour of the date of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations in 1945.

The theme for this year's event is "Family Farming: Feeding the world, caring for the earth". In a sense therefore, the state government has, by empowering such a huge number of people in the agriculture and agro-allied businesses commemorated the day not by mere sloganeering as many of our governments are won't to do, but by concrete actions, in line with this year's theme of the day. It is instructive that the empowerment was for agriculture and agriculture-related ventures. In a sense therefore, the state government is assisting in its own way to diversify the economy.

Such little drops of water replicated across the country could help in restoring agriculture to its pride of place and we would stop having headaches over volatility of the oil market. In addition, we would be able to save the billions we spend importing some basic food items, like rice, for more useful purposes.

A fascinating aspect of the event was the presentation of the star prize to Ikeja Senior Secondary School, Oshodi, Lagos, which came tops in the Agricultural Science Quiz Competition among the secondary schools in the state. The intention is to 'catch them young' and it is a good way to "connect our children to the land" as Governor Fashola noted; it can never be a journey of books without food. The message is that no one should have the impression that farming is for the ne'er-do-well in the society.

The sheer magnitude of the event was enough to make people who see workers in government ministries as parasites to rethink their view. One individual who cannot but be commended in all these is the state commissioner for agriculture and cooperatives, Prince Gbolahan Lawal, who must have worked tirelessly along with his team to ensure the success of the event. Kudos also goes to Governor Fashola for being thoughtful of the less privileged in the state.

In sharp contrast to the 'stomach infrastructure' phenomenon which is becoming an issue in the country, the Lagos State government realised that it is better to teach people how to fish than giving them fish. As Governor Fashola said at the occasion, many of the beneficiaries who as at the day before the event had nothing doing would from the day after boldly tell their relations and neighbours: 'I am going to work'; whereas only a few days before, what would be in the subconscious of many of them is: 'I am going to beg' anytime they were leaving their homes, even if they could not have said it loud.

The Lagos example must have been part of the ways that those who conceived the World Food Day wanted the day marked and definitely not by measuring affluence or prosperity by the number of people having private jets in a country, or the number of billionaires where abject poverty stares the majority in the face. International days such as the World Food Day have meaning when localised in a way that they connect to the respective peoples of the world. Not until we begin to see farmers as kings and give them the necessary assistance and encouragement not only to make them produce well but also ensure that whatever they produce is not allowed to waste (because most food items are perishable), we may never get out of the food quagmire.

CHIBOK GIRLS. STILL IN LIMBO. SINCE APRIL 15.

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Waiting for Chibok girls

OLLOWING the ceasefire agreement by the federal government and the representatives of the Boko Haram insurgents, there are indications that the over 200 abducted Chibok girls may be released soon.

Their release, possibly in the new week, is said to be part of the outcome of negotiations to end the insurgency in the North East part of the country which has left many dead and properties destroyed.

This is not the first time that speculations will be rife about the release of the girls whose abduction has generated worldwide interest and concern.

Recently, some of the girls were reportedly released and driven into the Army Barracks in Maiduguri, Borno State capital in a bus but it turned out that the report, said to have earlier been confirmed by the Defence Headquarters was false.

Not even the leader of the Bringbackourgirls campaign, former Education Minister, Dr Oby Ezekwesili could resist the speculation that she twitted about it hoping that the girls will regain their freedom after months of incarceration in unimaginable circumstances.

Hopefully the girls reported release this time around will not be yet another shattered hope, but a possible end of the abduction saga which will for years continue to haunt us as a nation considering the negative image the unfortunate incident has earned us.

The girls according to the insurgents are said to be "well and alive" contrary to reports that they have been physically abused. If indeed the girls have not been viciously assaulted as reported, the emotional trauma they have been subjected to must be harrowing.

For over six months, the young girls have been denied the comfort of their homes and care of their parents and have been held hostage for no justifiable reason.

They are definitely not returning the same way they were taken away, but we will be too glad to have them back after the long wait that has forced their parents to declare them dead in accordance with the tradition of the Chibok community.

It is sad that the Boko Haram terrorists resorted to abducting the innocent girls to advance whatever cause they claim to be fighting for and refused to release them despite the global outrage that greeted their action.

Their action stands condemned and they will someday pay dearly for the crime and the agony they have subjected Nigerians to with the girls' abduction.

There are claims that the possible release of the girls at this time is a political ploy by the federal government to enhance the electoral chances of President Goodluck Jonathan for re- election.

Whatever it is, what is important is that the girls regain their freedom and we are able to put the ugly incident behind us.

The federal government has no choice but to ensure the release of the girls to redeem whatever is left of its image and should be commended if it is able to pull this negotiation through and not allow similar incidents to reoccur.

Not many approve of negotiation with terrorists but in the circumstance the federal government has found itself, any compromise to ensure the release of the girls will be worth considering.

We can only hope that the government will not allow itself to be outwitted by the terrorists who are known not to usually honour ceasefire agreements like the one reportedly reached with them. The government need to be sure that that the terrorists are sincere about this truce after all the avoidable havoc they have wrecked and will not soon strike when we least expect.

We can afford to give the terrorists the benefit of doubt knowing that they have recorded some casualties in the battle against the military but we must be on the alert. They cannot be completely trusted.

The ceasefire for the battered Boko Haram group may well be a case of he who fights and run away, living to fight another day.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014

COMMENT

Toward the future of Nigeria . The current system (bequeathed to the country by military dictators and sustained by civilian rulers for the past 16 years) of dependence on oil at local, state, and central levels is not sustainable in the long run.

Northern states cannot continue to survive on Niger Delta's oil money. Our states are bereft of ideas that will generate revenue to run our affairs. There is no state in the North that can pay one month salary without federal allocation, and federal allocation is derived from the sale of the Niger Delta's oil. This is dangerous and spells disaster in the future‌.If Nigeria splits today, the North is in danger‌We must resist money politics and elect credible people. We must protect our votes. - Shehu Sani

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HE extract from the campaign material of one of the country's leading human rights activists, Shehu Sani, reminds me of the Yoruba saying: Ibitiiyati n baomo re wi, niomoalainiyati n koogbon (where and when a mother counsels her child, a motherless child within earshot pays rapt attention and thereby learns wisdom). Campaigning for votes for the senate in Kaduna Central Senatorial District recently, Sani used the occasion to canvass for votes and at the same time persuade the electorate in his constituency about the need for a rethink or new vision of and for Nigeria, if citizens at large are to benefit from the union.

Nigeria has for too long depended on the oil money from the Niger Delta. When successions of military dictators changed the revenue allocation formula of 50% for derivation to zero to the model of bottle-feeding each state from the breast milk of the Niger Delta, they based the sudden change of policy on the imperative of national unity and cohesion. The school of thought then was that a policy of even development through donation of oil money to states would make Nigerians feel a sense of belonging to one country and see themselves as brothers and sisters eating from the same pot or bowl. Similarly, the policy to balkanise the

regions into mini states and create about 800 local governments to receive milk from the national feeding bottle was also supported by the theory that to keep Nigeria united after the civil war, the more oil money that is taken to the grassroots, the higher the chances of national integration.

Nigerians from all parts of the country have grown to see oil money as the source of life for the nation-state. In the north, bogus theories about oil as national resource were propagated to counter calls for return to federalism and the pre1966 revenue allocation system. The most prominent of such theories from public intellectuals from the north were two. The first one is that there would have been no petroleum in the Niger Delta if solid and liquid wastes had not over centuries come through Benue and Niger rivers in the north to the delta and the basin that produces oil in the Niger Delta. The second claim is that it was federal resources that were used in the 1950s to intensify exploration and later develop technology for exploitation. In the western part of the country, many politicians argued (and still do) in the day for resource sovereignty for the Niger Delta while using the night to canvass for continuation of the revenue allocation system that dished out money to states and local governments, saying in whispers that post-military governors would not be able to sustain free education without such soft funds from the Niger Delta. Such thinkers could not be bothered by the interjection that there was no trace of petroleum in the country when Obafemi Awolowo's government introduced free education in the Western Region in 1955.

It is on record that the issue of dependence on oil money was a major factor in the failure of the recent national conference to go beyond recommendations for cosmetic or symbolic changes to the current unitary constitution, designed to support easy flow of funds to states and local governments. Even those who argued at the conference for additional 19 states (to move

from 36 to 55 states) did so on the strength that the oil money would flow to the new 19 mini states. Even when the conference agreed that local government creation and development should be the sole responsibility of each state, the conference still kept intact the policy of direct allocation of funds from the federation account (made possible by petroleum) to the 774 or more local governments.

Sani's assessment that there is no state in the north that can pay one month salary without federal allocation applies to over 30 of the current 36 states. Only Lagos State in the west can pay one month salary without federal allocation and without floating bonds. There is no state in the Southeast and outside the oil-producing states (which now receive 13% percent for derivation) that can sustain its secretariat without direct allocation from the federation account. Most of the governors in the south have confessed publicly that they have no money for development and even to pay salaries if the Accountant-General in Abuja fails to send quarterly or monthly allocations down to the states.

One does not have to have a stake in Sani's chances to become a senator for Kaduna before acknowledging that the human rights activist in his recent campaign speech was addressing all of Nigeria on the right way to go, if the entire country is not to become endangered. The current system (bequeathed to the country by military dictators and sustained by civilian rulers for the past 16 years) of dependence on oil at local, state, and central levels is not sustainable in the long run.

The price of petroleum is more likely to go down than to rise from now on. Technological innovations to produce new forms of renewable energy are yielding good results in many other parts of the globe; new sources of petroleum are coming from fracking; new technologies to save energy and thus reduce consumption are also coming to the global market.

All of these indicate that any country that defines reality largely in terms of the oil it produces is virtually living in the past. The north is not likely to be more endangered than the west or the east, should Nigeria break. Having depended on manna for decades at the instance of military theory of political unity, no section of the country is likely to be immune from danger when oil prices head south. There used to be a time when each of the regions made good and respectable living from productive as distinct from the extractive activities that currently drive the economy: cotton, groundnut, cocoa rubber, palm oil production. There was a time when Ivory Coast, currently the world's largest producer of cocoa, used to be behind Nigeria and Ghana in cocoa production. There used to be a time when Indonesia and Malaysia needed the assistance of Nigeria with respect to palm oil production.

Today, Nigeria even imports palm oil in bleached form from Malaysia and Indonesia, with money made from petroleum.

What needs to change radically is the mindset that Nigeria turned Nigerian political leaders into prayer warriors for manna from the Niger Delta.

It is citizens that can drive such change. As voters, they need, as Sani has recommended to the people of Kaduna senatorial district, to identify candidates who want to serve and produce, in contrast to the hordes that ask for votes to enable them sleep and consume from the soft funding made possible by petroleum. The reason citizens have lost the courage or energy to resist corruption and impunity that hold the entire by the jugular at present is that the money being used to keep the country as it is and to intimidate citizens does not come from citizens' efforts and taxes. Voters all over the country need to consider the future of their children and grandchildren by voting for candidates who are capable of going beyond the Sisyphean effort to do the same thing over and over, without noticeable benefits to citizens.

COMMENT

THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014

15

Damning reports T

FG should address the problems of hunger, diseases and deprivation that continue to roil a rich country

HERE does not seem to be any hope for the poor and downtrodden in Nigeria as every aspect of its human development indices shows negative signs. Whether in education, health, governance or physical infrastructure development, Nigeria does not only lag behind consistently, it records an unrelenting downward trend.

It was the World Mental Health Day on October 10 and experts reported that psychiatric cases are on the rise in Nigeria. The University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, recently cried out at what it considers an overwhelming number of indigent patients in its facility.

These are people who cannot afford to buy drugs or pay their hospital bills. UCH's Head of Department of Hospital Services, Mrs Grace Logun, noted at a function to receive donations, the alarming "rate at which people die as a result of poverty and inability of the hospital to cope with the demand of many indigent patients who come to the hospital with nothing in their pocket".

Children seem to be more exposed and vulnerable in this scourging poverty. According to the report from the premier hospital, parents are said to bring their children in for treatment without money in their pocket. "Many children had died needlessly just because their parents lacked money to pay for basic drugs", it was noted.

As if to corroborate the fact many Nigerians are afflicted by extreme indigence leading to unwarranted deaths, the Global Hunger Index (GHI) report which was released last Monday reports that Nigeria falls under the "extreme" or "serious" hunger category. The GHI conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is in its ninth year and this year's focus is on "hidden hunger" otherwise known as micronutrients deficiency.

Nigeria is placed at "serious" with 14.7 index score while Ghana has "moderate" hunger with 7.8 score. This report tallies with another survey conducted last January

by Africa Health, Human and Social Development Information Service (Afr-Dev.Info) which reported that

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RAVELLING is part of learning. I was a member of a team that went on a tour of Nairobi, Kenya between May 2 and 7, 2011.

The Nairobi weather was so cool that one of the delegates, who were drawn from cooperative societies across Lagos State, commented that the collar of his shirt had no stain, unlike Lagos where the struggling for vehicle and the scorching sun would make one sweat and deposit some of the sweat on one's clothing.

Contrary to what I thought, Nairobi had its fair share of traffic jam but the

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HE Nigeria national team, Super Eagles, has made Nigerians sad by their recent performances toward qualifying the nation for 2015 African Cup of Nation and also defend the cup they won in 2013 in south Africa.

The total disbandment of the current Super Eagles should be the best option in spite of the outcome of the qualifying matches towards Morocco 2015.

Since the appointment of Coach Steven Keshi as the national team coach, our Super Eagles did not have a clear pattern of playing and the coaches are bereft of sound technical knowledge of modern football to bring smile to faces of Nigerian.

Anybody following the matches of our national team, since the appointment of the present coaching crew, what we watch as matches was just

with 12.1 million people hungry, Nigeria topped a list of 11 ECOWAS countries with over one million people affected by hunger and undernourishment.

And with 33 points out of hundred, Nigeria is placed 86th globally and 14th in Africa, on the global food security index. Ghana on the other hand is the most food-secure country in West Africa, with 45.4 points out of 100 ranking 67th globally and number six in the world.

We really do not need surveys and human development indices to see that the standard of living in Nigeria has continued to depreciate across board in Nigeria due to numerous structural and developmental reasons. One, the local government system of governance has been in near recession over the last decade as revenue allocations to that tier of government hardly reached down. Increasingly, economic activities in that tier that ought to cater for the rural population have dwindled because little or no resources are applied at that level.

Since they are starved of funding, hardly any planned economic process like budgeting, planning and project execution go on in most local government areas (LGAs) across the country. This is a recipe for poverty and alienation for a tier designed to galvanise rural development and growth. Sustainable agriculture, cottage industries and rural infrastructural development are almost non-existent in hinterlands across the country.

TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

•Editor Festus Eriye

•Managing Director/ Editor-in-Chief Victor Ifijeh

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

•Chairman, Editorial Board Sam Omatseye •General Editor Adekunle Ade-Adeleye

The level of corruption in the country since the beginning of the current democratic dispensation has also been a source of negative global reports. This has of course imposed extreme poverty on the majority of the populace. Budgets are rarely implemented while most institutional checks have broken down. It is therefore so easy for public officials and civil servants to breach the treasury with so much impunity. The judiciary has also become weak and compromised to the point that it has become very difficult to prosecute offenders and raiders of the treasury.

The result is that the rate of development has been slow and unsustainable in all facets of the polity.

Power infrastructure, transportation and even oil and gas, which are strategic to development, have witnessed little improvement. Nigeria suffers acute under-capacity in these crucial sectors and the result is stark underdevelopment and little growth.

The resultant socio-economic effect is a vicious cycle of misery. The scenario is that of the survival of the fittest as the state hardly caters for anyone. There seems a constant stampede for sustenance and survival.

Violent crimes, strange social vices, cultism, insurgency and terrorism are the social offshoot of this extreme deprivation of the populace.

A scenario like this will only lead to a complete implosion if governments at all levels and the ruling class do not retrace their steps and redeem the situation. The rate of pillaging of the common wealth at the top end of the spectrum is almost directly proportional to the level of suffering and deprivation at the lowest end of the rung.

This is sure to continue to breed increased social discontent and a possible anomy. It is not for fun that these surveys have consistently come off negative; they are warning signals that government must act more urgently and radically. We urge the Federal Government particularly to lead the radical change that the country

LETTER

Horn -free Day: The Kenyan example vehicle maintained reasonable distances. The traffic was particularly heavy during the visit as the country was experiencing fuel scarcity and thus had vehicles queuing up at filling stations.

On the third day of our sojourn, I thought aloud "Don't they horn in this country?" Others in the vehicle said that they noticed it too and asked one of our wining all the football competition they played based on individual talents exhibited by all the players.

When we qualified for the last Nation Cup in South Africa, our group matches were was played with all Nigerians having their hearts in their mouths, because the matches were not the true reflection of teams that are

D

URING the last Eid-elKabir (Sallah) holiday, on Sunday to be precise, I did a transaction with my First Bank card at a Guaranty Trust Bank branch close to my residence in Surulere. Everything went on very well as the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) dispensed cash to my satisfaction, but rather unfortunate b,y the machine did not release my card. I was left dumbfounded as to why the machine refused to release

guides who replied that blaring one’s vehicle's horn really made no difference as the vehicle will move only when it was ready to move.

Why then do we blare the horns in Nigeria thereby causing noise pollution? It makes our situation not even getting better. This provokes questions such as asked by our late musician Sonny Okosun, "Which Way Nigeria?" in one of his

albums.

In Nigeria, our danfo drivers and others have indeed turned vehicular horns into baby toys, blaring 'pam-pam-pammm' continuously, even when there is no need to blare the horn or when there was even no obstruction whatsoever on the road.

May be we need to remind ourselves that the ear drum is a very delicate part

of the body which should be protected from noise.

According to study, sound is picked up by a small, spiral-shaped organ called the cochlea, located within the inner ear.

Thousands of tiny hairs in the cochlea sense the vibration and pass the message to the brain via the cochlea nerve.

These sensitive hairs can be damaged by excessive

Disband the Super Eagles now made of champion stuff.

The three matches played so far by our national team, in qualifying us to Morocco 2015 ,the Super Eagles, show that Nigerias national team need total overhauling to start afresh by inviting serious minded and

vibrant players who would give their best and would not place selfish interest above that of national interest.

It must be noted that other countries passed through this type of trying period in their football history and they went

back to the basic and came out stronger to the admiration of the entire world.

Football in Nigeria should be seen in context of unification and all hands must be on deck to ensure it's played to the delight of every Nigerian.

CBN and ATM billing my card when I had cashed my money. I waited a while but to no avail.

On the first working day of the week, I was one of the earliest customers to get into the bank hoping things will be sorted out within minutes, but was shocked as I was told my card had been returned to the closest First Bank branch.

Though I am aware of the new Central Bank rules on ATM

transactions and card, but I am of the opinion that in this case I was not at fault. I did not press a wrong Personal Identification Number (PIN) nor commit any other error; indeed my transaction was almost completed when the machine refused to release my card.

I met the bizarre occurrence of my life in First Bank branch as the card had

been perforated and cannot be used anymore, I was told I had to fill a form for another card to be issued and was billed N1,000.

Personally, I consider the payment of this money as a rip-off unbefitting our banking system and customers; everybody is put under general classification.

My point, therefore, is on what basis I am being made

noise.

It is important to note that once hearing is damaged, it cannot be restored. I therefore wish to implore you to begin to protect your hearing and those of others by limiting the blaring of vehicular horns and other equipments that produce noise that can damage the ear drums. Pass on this message to others.

I therefore salute the Lagos State Government for declaring October 15 of every year as a Horn-free Day; the first of which was observed on Wednesday.

- Mrs. Ebun Akin-Falaiye Lagos.

We should forget the idea of making it to any competition by all means possible without taking into consideration the role of the beautiful game.

The time to act is now for our football to move forward like what is attained in other parts of the world.

- Bala Nayashi, Lokoja, Kogi State to pay this penalty; as far as I am concerned the machine is at fault for not releasing my card even after dispensing cash. This is an unfair rule that will always assume the user to be at fault even when the machine is wrong, a fool-proof system needs to be put in place to determine why card is not released by the machine.

I am by this requesting a refund of my N1,000.

- By Badejo Adedeji Nurudeen Surulere, Lagos State.

SEND TYPEWRITTEN, DOUBLE SPACED AND SIGNED CONTRIBUTIONS, LETTERS AND REJOINDERS OF NOT MORE THAN 500 WORDS TO THE EDITOR, THE NATION, 27B, FATAI ATERE ROAD, MATORI, LAGOS: sundaynation@yahoo.com

16

COMMENT

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2014

Periscoping APC’s ideal presidential candidate (3) But the contestants can themselves make the job a lot easier for the party by giving the pride of place to Nigeria rather than to self.

B

EFORE delving into our ongoing discuss on the ideal presidential candidate for the APC, it will be interesting to hear the views of our delectable 82-year-old Mama Adebimpe Okunade, a retired University of Ibadan teacher, on the immediate past governor of Ekiti, Dr John Kayode Fayemi. She wrote as follows on ekitipanupo this past week under the caption: 'A DIGNIFYING EXIT INDEED "Dr John Kayode Fayemi is a man of honour, integrity; highly educated, civil and committed to the welfare of his people. As a decent person, he went about doing his work with diligence. Dr. Fayemi changed the land scape of Ekiti State and how government business should be done.

His work and comportment resonate throughout Nigeria and beyond the shores of this country. There is no doubt that he stepped on many toes.

In a predominantly corrupt society, changing the fraudulent ways the affairs of government are run will no doubt incur the wrath of entrenched interest groups. Dr. Kayode Fayemi did a lot to block leakages. Some of his policies to improve education ran into stone walls! How can the quality of education improve when teachers are incompetent? Dr. Fayemi "offended" teachers and pilfering civil servants.

I salute your wife for being so supportive and for her love for Ekiti people.

Kudos to all the members of your team for a job well done. My dear Kayode, you did well, you did very well. We are proud of you. As you

bow out of office in style and dignity, you step into peace; you step into progress and into higher calling.

"Usedale Ekiti a gbe o. " And in that same thread, may I use this opportunity to salute the gentle intellectual giant, Professor Dupe Adelabu, who stepped seamlessly, though in a particularly difficult circumstances, into the delectable shoes of her sister, our own beloved Moremi, the late Mrs. Funmi Olayinka, as Deputy Governor, and so effectively complemented the governor. Ekiti remains grateful for your impeccable service to Motherland.

PERISCOPING ...

"Since 1999, PDP has presided over our country's decline. Nigeria in my experience has never been so divided, so polarised by an unthinking government hell bent on ruling and stealing everything. We in the APC are resolved to stop them in their tracks to rescue Nigeria from their stranglehold" - Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

Since the PDP assumed the reins of government in 1999, incompetence at the highest levels of our government has transmogrified into a Boko Haram, about the most dangerous insurgency group on the continent of Africa, easily outpacing Al-Shabab and like the dreaded ISIS, decapitating humans by beheading them; lack of moral turpitude since that time has turned our country into a citadel of corruption, just as impunity has turned us to a laughing stock in the comity of nations. No Nigerian now, not even Mr. President,

can sleep with his two eyes closed.

These are but only a few of the demons which must concentrate the mind of the All Progressives Congress as it sets out to choose a candidate that will square off against a powerful PDP incumbent come February, 2015.

Mindful of how few and far between it is for incumbents to be defeated at elections in Africa -God bless Ghana APC needs not be told that this is a task that must be handled with the greatest sense of responsibility.

As the columnist, Gbogun gboro of The Nation, reminded us this past week, no thanks to the PDP, Nigeria is now one of the foremost contributors to poverty in the world and, according to him, quoting a World Bank Report, it 'will by 2030 be one of the main contributors to global poverty'. On the Human Development Index which is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development, Nigeria has, since 1999, occupied the lowest of the three categories of high, medium and low, placing between 147 -182 in company of lowly countries like Djibouti, Lesotho and Zwaziland.

Nigeria actually currently ranks 158.

No thanks to a kleptomaniac PDP government which, rather than deal decisively with corruption, prefers to romance it, serially dropping corruption charges against its members. Although the government has been touting its annual growth average of over seven percent, I think it needs be told that with the country's dilapidated infrastructure and over dependence on oil and gas, massive youth unemployment and with between 60-70 percent of the population living below the poverty line, there is absolutely nothing for the Jonathan government to gloat

about despite those voodoo statistics by the likes of TAN. Fifteen years after, Nigeria now generates far less than the 4000 MW of electricity it generated in 1999 after having most of the 20 billion dollars claimed to have been spent in that sector stolen. It will be interesting to see what sane people would vote more of the same come 2015 and thereby consign Nigeria into purgatory.

In choosing its candidate, therefore, APC must ensure that it will not be bogged down, wasting precious time, trying to extricate its candidate from any corruption baggage from his past. Starting out so late in its national campaign whereas PDP, through its various surrogates, had jump started its own campaign for the last six months, APC can only ill afford such distraction.

With a list of contestants that boasts a past Head of State, a former Vice President, a two-time state governor and former Minister of the Federal Republic as well as a respected publisher, picking its candidate will certainly not be the easiest of tasks.

But the contestants can themselves make the job a lot easier for the party by giving the pride of place to Nigeria rather than to self. In other words, the contest must never be allowed to degenerate into a do or die affair. This plea is important given Nigeria's extremely precarious circumstances.

Nigeria is in dire straits which, unfortunately, those milking us cannot see owing to our government's visionlessness; a situation that has turned Nigeria to something totally unthinkable some two decades ago.

Corruption now roams the nation making nonsense of everything decent and developmental. APC must, therefore, see itself as being on an urgent rescue mission. I suspect this

must have motivated Dotun Falua, a technocrat, when he suggested that APC must confront a prurient PDP with its very best, the MR CLEAN, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

He wrote: Name any Nigerian who had been a state governor, a GOC in the Nigerian army, a minister of petroleum resources as well as a past head of state who is, today, not living in unspeakable opulence. Buhari, he says, has been all these but has only a house in Kaduna and another in his native Daura. Here, he says, is a Nigerian, against who nothing despicable has ever been found or even alleged. As GOC in Jos, Buhari, he says, taught Chadian rebels who crossed into Nigeria the fear of the Lord by pursuing them straight to the very gates of Njemaina, the Chadian capital, thus implying that with a decisive president like him, Boko Haram would not have stood a chance of becoming the menace they have since become, seizing over 200 of our girls for over six months now.

Concerning allegations of being a religious fanatic, Dotun asks if Buhari is more religiously fanatical than President Jonathan who he claims was the only known head of state who abandoned his official duties to go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria in tow? He concludes by saying that all the moral deficiencies both Buhari and Gen Idiagbon, his Chief of Staff, wanted to correct in his first coming, have since grown into demons tormenting contemporary Nigeria.

Need I add a word as my own contribution except to suggest that Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, should, for strategic considerations, be Buhari's ideal VicePresidential candidate.

Not just another castigation of Caesar ...

It is to be taken that the people voted for the person of their choice. Like Pilate, I dare to proclaim that I find no harm in that. What I find galling is for an elected governor to promise to give people rice and chicken and there is jubilation

W

ATCHING the trends of politics in this country is an exercise in futility: it leaves you with dizziness, and an incurable sense of loss, deprivation and selfdepreciation. You go away wondering whether you really belong to the same group of homo sapiens as politicians.

The reason is simple. Since 1999 when we got into this Horror Boat of Politics, we have stood by and watched politicians call each other names; yet, we have been the ones bathed in their spittle. We have seen politicians display power drunkenness worse than that which alcohol and drug can induce; yet, we have been the ones set on fire. We have also stood by and watched politicians move all our monies to all kinds of banks abroad (and not even on our behalf); so, we are the ones holding our stomachs in hunger. After all is said and done, and the many volumes of spittle, power displays and trillions of dollars, where exactly are we standing in 2014?

I'll tell you where we are not. The ordinary Nigerian is still not standing on a railway platform to board a train of comfort to any part of the country; or underground train to reach his part of the city; or an air-conditioned bus to take him to his doorstep. Right now, chaos still reigns as he is huddled onto and into uncomfortable motorcycles, taxis and tiny intercity buses while the politicians ferry each other around in jets, swilling champagne. And they

don't even call me.

The ordinary Nigerian cannot get back home at any time in the day from the labours of his hands and flip his switch to flood his humble hut with electricity. He is still left to the mercies of noisy, carbon monoxide-emitting generators, candles and lanterns while politicians power their own private homes with public transformers.

The ordinary Nigerian cannot be soothingly assured by friendly doctors and nurses (who are supposed to have all needed equipment but don't) that everything necessary will be done for him should he fall sick. Currently, he is consigned to the hands of quacks and donations from passing motorists to finance his cancer treatment while politicians jet around the world in search of cures for headaches and sneezes.

Worse indeed, the ordinary Nigerian is right now standing mystified and wondering how he will prosecute the war of hunger left at his doorpost by successive governmental inefficiency. Should he continue to watch politicians gorge themselves to stupid stupor in the hope that someday, crumbs will fall under the table? Or should he beg, steal or borrow to keep body and soul together? Or should he just adopt Fayose's stomach infrastructure style?

Listening to Fayose's inaugural speech actually made my mouth water. The new governor not only

acknowledged the existence of his stomach infrastructure programme but promised to intensify it. There will be, he promised, a special assistant in charge of stomach infrastructure. He also promised that he would continue to join the people in their corn eating habits and in their agbo-jedi drinking habits. Then, to crown it all, there will be rice and chicken at Christmas.

Wonderful, I thought; there goes a rough and tumble fellow. Indeed, there, by the grace of God, goes a fitting response to the World food Day programme, which is being celebrated somewhere hereabouts, before or after today, don't know which now.

Here we are, thinking that in this twenty-first century, Nigerians as a people can actually be thought to have grown up a little, and should be treated as adults. We thought that the advancement of Ekiti in producing and possessing perhaps the highest concentration of knowing ones would be an advantage. And there was his excellent self, the governor, proclaiming to the hearing of the whole world that indeed, the exalted Ekiti electorate are still in their young infancy and so will be treated as such!

Does it strike His Excellency as an anomaly that while the rest of the world is acquiring magnetic trains to ferry its citizens around, Nigerians are ferried around on thin-tyred motorcycles? Does it matter that in most parts of the world, people can help themselves to good food and so do not need to be given cups of rice and chicken at Christmas by politicians? Does it matter that it is the absence of governance that makes

people to be grateful for cups of rice and chicken at Christmas? Does anything even matter anymore when a governor can promise at his inauguration to give us rice and stew at Christmas? Does the whole scenario not indicate that we have reached the end of the road, the end of our collective wisdom, the end of our grey matter?

It is the more frightening when one considers the jubilation that greeted these pronouncements. It called to mind the mindless revelry that the Romans derived from watching lions and gladiators slug it out in the Roman arena of yore. Were those Romans to wake up today and view themselves in retrospect, they would agree that they were a little barbaric, not just because the people allowed the scenes to take place, but because they allowed themselves to enjoy them so. That basic, elemental level appears to still be driving the people of Ekiti.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am not an advocate for any Nigerian political party. At the moment, the difference between PDP, APC, APGA and any other is really no more than what separates six from half a dozen.

It is to be taken that the people voted for the person of their choice. Like Pilate, I dare to proclaim that I find no harm in that. What I find galling is for an elected governor to promise to give the people rice and chicken and there is jubilation and rejoicing! I just hate that I'm not in Ekiti right now!

Seriously, though, the situation is a sad comment on the impoverishing programmes of this present crop of

politicians and, horror of horrors, our responses to them! Those responses portray our thought processes as a nation. I have, however, not come to castigate our Caesars, neither have I come to praise them. I have come to wake them up from their soporific slumber lest they snore us all into the grave.

Take Ekiti as an example. It is a very poor state yet very rich in educated personnel, I have heard. I also know that the state does not have industries even though it has a long history of farming. Now, all we need is for someone to come and mix the educated personnel with the products that come from farming, and voila, what will you get? Industries, employment, exports, hello...?! An industrial revolution is possible in Ekiti and other states as well.

A priest once gave someone a horse and he admonished that it should not be beaten since it will respond to a gentle 'Girrup'. The new owner tried many 'Girrups' but the horse would not budge. So he went back to the priest and that one took a stick and walloped the horse, whereupon the thing flew. Aghast, the new owner said 'but you said I was not to beat it!' 'Yes,' said the priest, 'but first, you have to get his attention.' The new governor in Ekiti has got the people's attention; let him now quickly take advantage of it and revolutionise the economy of the state. He would do well to remember that appetites are quickly satiated when the menu is too repetitive. Trust me, I know. Fayemi also had his share of jubilation and rejection. The same cane awaits.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2014

COMMENT

17

(87) "IJN" scientists in a massively inhospitable environment for science - an epilogue Religion is the opium of the people (but it is also) the soul of a soulless world.

Karl Marx

T

HE University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana is one of the best research and teaching universities in the U.S. and the world. It is a Christian denominational institution. Its leading social and natural scientists are first rate scholars and researchers. To teach and do research in this fine institution, it is not required that you should be a Christian, though of course if you are a Christian and also a top-flight scientist, Notre Dame will be very pleased to have you among its distinguished faculty. At this institution, both Christians and nonChristians have absolutely no obligation to attend church worship, prayer vigils or revivalist crusades since these are not part of the essential work and identity of the institution as is the case with our own Redeemer's or Covenant University. As far as I know, there is not a single "IJN scientist" on the faculty of Notre Dame. In our country, "IJN scientists" are, by a long shot, the majority among men and women of science in our tertiary institutions.

I openly admit it: I am being very, very deliberately provocative in coining this term, "IJN scientists". This of course then necessitates providing a working definition of the term. To this, I say that an "IJN scientist" is a highly formally qualified, highly formally credentialized scientist who believes that since God is in control, since In Jesus' Name nothing is impossible, you can still do science, you can still produce scientists of the next generation in an environment that is extremely inhospitable to science. This of course is total nonsense: you cannot do quality science, you cannot produce quality scientists of the next generation in an environment in which the absolute minimal conditions for doing science don't exist - as in our country at the present time. The world has never seen and will probably never see scientific work of quality and usefulness to human beings where you have no infrastructures, no water, no electricity and all you have as a scientist is your faith that God is in control and somehow you will become and remain a great woman or man of science.

Let me expatiate further on this term, "IJN scientists". If there are no "IJN scientists" at Notre Dame, this is largely due to the fact that in the U.S. as in the other leading scientific and Christian nations of the world, there are no "IJN scientists".

•Christian crucifix

These countries spend colossal sums on science and science education. And they have excellent environments for doing and teaching science. In a formal sense, they are Christian nations and indeed many of their top scientists are Christians. As a matter of fact, one can imagine that when such scientists that are also Christians submit grant applications to the National Science Foundation (NSF), they may pray to God for the success of their grant applications. But they know that if they don't get the much-needed grant, no amount of prayers and vigils will advance their research projects. What is the basis of this assertion? Simple: in the leading scientific and Christian nations of the planet, you cannot simply say God is in control when your colleagues who get the prestigious grants are producing landmark scientific research while you produce nothing of merit, nothing of value. This means that "IJN scientists" are produced only in a country like ours where you can be considered a great man or woman of science when your last scientific work of value was done years and decades ago when conditions were far less dire and inhospitable for doing and teaching science.

At this stage, the careful reader might have noticed that I am making, indeed I am insisting on a distinction between "IJN scientists" and non-IJN scientists both of whom are Christians (or Moslems or Judaists) and both of whom believe in the existence of God. In this, I am returning to my insistence in my series on religion and science, faith and rationality, that though

•Moslem crescent

they are fundamentally different operations of the human mind and express often quite opposed dimensions of human thought and sensibility, religion and science are not incompatible. I am returning to this point here because I got many emails from readers who gave passionate arguments trying to convince me to change my view and accept that religion and science have little or nothing to do with each other. In fact one of such interlocutors went as far as to suggest that if great scientists like Newton and Einstein were also believers in the existence of God, that does not mean that science and religion are compatible. All it means, according to this interlocutor, is that Newton and Einstein managed to effectively keep God out of their scientific work!

But I remain unconvinced by this argument, this insistence that the religion and science are incompatible. In their most penetrating and beneficial forms, both religion and science entail extraordinary feats of intellectual and psychic energy; they both entail hard toil and considerable creativity of thought and imagination. I think fellow atheists who insist on the absolute separation of the two misrecognize this fact; probably, they take all forms and expressions of religion as mystification, especially when, as in contemporary Nigerian Christianity, there are legions upon legions of charlatans, swindlers and impostors at the highest level of the pastorate. But religion has a rich, ambiguous and complex place in human affairs.

Which is why I have nothing but

the greatest admiration for such schools and movements of religious thought and action as Martin Luther King's Southern Leadership Christian Council (SLCC), Liberation Theology in Latin America and the centuries of work that the order of Franciscans, with their vows of poverty, did among the poor and the wretched of Europe. In these expressions and movements of radical and progressive religious expression and activism, we are far from the laziness, the mendacity, the bad faith of our "IJN scientists" in invoking God while nothing of scientific value is being produced, while indeed the masses of laboring and suffering Nigerians are being looted dry to the skin of bare life.

Of course, I am only too aware of the fact that the distinction that I am making between one type of religion and another, between, on the one hand, the true saints and intellectuals in and of religion and, on the other hand, the holy charlatans and swindlers is difficult to sustain in our country at the present time, with perhaps one or two notable exceptions. For any thinking man or woman of religious disposition in our country today, it is difficult to look at the total darkness, the complete decay that envelops religion and be willing to accept my insistence that not all that we have in the heritage of religion in this country and the world is rotten. For I suspect very much that this is why many of the fellow atheists who wrote me pleaded so passionately for me to not provide an alibi, a reprieve for the kind of religion we have in this country today. But as I have said

on other occasions in this column, I have lived long enough to have known a time and a form consciousness when religion was not, by and large, the rotten moral and spiritual sinkhole that it has become in our country at the present time. At any rate, against certain schools of hidebound and narrowly defined atheism, I insist absolutely that at certain levels and forms of exertions and operations of the human mind and imagination, religion demands and gets the same kind of hard, dedicated and venerable work that we associate with science and scientists.

This leads me to my concluding thoughts in this piece, thoughts having to do with belief in the existence or non-existence of God. Frankly speaking, while this issue has deep and fascinating intellectual, moral and social implications for us in Nigeria and all of humankind, it has not been of any particular interest to me, either in the series on religion and science or in this prologue to that series. I believe that it is not because of belief or unbelief in the existence of God that one is a either a good or a mediocre scientist. They may invoke God, but show me the man or woman who becomes a truly brilliant and great scientist who has not worked hard and long to reach that position and I will take back my words. If a given person scientist gives the glory to God, that's fine with me; all I will say or do is tell such a person to become lazy and complacent and see what happens. Thus, the bottom line for me is human effort and inventiveness riding on the cusp of solidarity with the most oppressed and marginalized of our country, our continent and the world.

This, by the way, is why in the piece on Dr. Adah Igonoh I did not bother in the least to raise and settle the question one way or another whether she was saved by divine intervention or by her rigorous and herculean pursuit of the remedies available through medical science.

If she privileges divine intervention, that is her right and that's fine with me, as long as readers of the piece did not fail to note the great emphasis I placed on the extraordinary work of rationality that she also expended. That is why, even though I suspect that she may not like this, I will still say that I do not see her as an "IJN scientist" who, even as the environment for doing and training scientists in our country worsens and worsens, are content to declare victory in the fading shadow of what science once was in our country: a practice, a tradition, an intimation that indicated that we were on our way to becoming one of the medium level scientific and technological powers in the world.

Biodun Jeyifo bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

18

F

OR obvious reasons, and due to the myriad of security challenges confronting the Nigerian nation, there is a mistaken trend that perhaps the best leader to infuse discipline and engender national security is a man or woman with a military mien, a person who can order people around. In short, a fearsome leader, or a Draconian despot, that forces people to cower under his breath and at whose command the endemic corruption that has perennially plagued the country would just fly away. These thoughts cannot but be naive; it's like a man who thinks his wishes are horses.

But why do Nigerians seem to embrace this erroneous and troubling notion that their security or safety lies in the hands of a socalled "No-Nonsense" leader? The reasons are both historical and contemporary. First, the governance history of Nigeria since independence in 1960 has been burdened by incompetent administrations and blighted by series of interventionist military coup d'ĂŠtats, the consequence of which has brutally militarised the collective psyche of the citizenry. This makes people to believe, albeit wrongly, that it is only the man in uniform or his retired clone that is capable of re-ordering and re-orientating the Nigerian people. So, let us seek another Praetorian guard to carry out a surgical operation for us, many people seem to be saying this time around!

But history again, even from the Nigerian example, has fatally faulted this line of reasoning. It is incontrovertible that such an approach does not endure in instituting desired changes; its success is short-lived as it is enforced through coercive decrees, cruel, unjust and inhuman adjudication process.

Human nature abhors oppression in any form.

The second contemporary factor why many citizens thirst for a dictator, even though he is in a fake democratic garb, is multi-faceted. One major reason is undoubtedly attributable to the agonisingly embarrassing failure of the incumbent administration to frontally confront the numerous security and safety issues

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2014

COMMENT

ENERAL Yakubu Gowon turns 80 on October 19th (today). A couple of things stand out when you meet him for the first time. Firstly, he is a people person.

His gregarious nature is such that you know he loves good company, though he does not seek to dominate proceedings. Secondly, he can be disarmingly humble, offering you his handshake in a respectable rather than condescending manner as some of our "very important personalities" tend to do. Thirdly, the General can be wickedly funny. He would make fun of you, but not before he has poked fun at himself. Once in a while I hold my breath until the punch line is delivered. I have myself been at the receiving end of his barbs particularly as regards my height or my silver hair.

I first met General Gowon in October 1980 at Warwick University where I had enrolled for a master's degree while he was pursuing a doctoral programme in Politics. To be candid, I did not know what to expect. After all, the last time I saw him was about six years before in Kaduna at a public function which I covered for the New Nigerian. Then, as Head of State, he had the panoply of Nigerian officialdom, the ceremonial outriders, the security detail and the equipage. As a reporter among my colleagues, I think the best we got was a smile, his trademark grin, towards us. At Warwick what would be the story? How do you relate to your former Head of State now turned fellow student? Would he be friendly? Do you keep punctuating your discussions with "Your Excellency"?

If only I had known that with Gowon such thoughts, no matter how felicitous were unnecessary. Firstly, he actually left a word for me that he was on campus from his base in London. Secondly, he insisted on being on first name basis like every other student.

So, if you cared, call him Jack. If my memory serves me well, I believe we had tea together on the ground floor of the University library.

Any lingering doubts that Gowon had adjusted after a nine year stint as Nigeria's

National security and leadership style

By Segun Olanipekun

Nigerians face on daily basis. Some of these are a breakdown of the law and order system, impunity and rampant lawlessness by both high and low, increasing rates of crimes, kidnappings for ransom, abductions, bloody skirmishes and tensions between rival ethnic groups across large swath of the nation, and the unspeakable crimes being routinely committed by the murderous terrorist insurgents called Boko Haram.

This ad infinitum list of security failures has justifiably made people to lose faith in the capacity of the current, clueless administration to carry out its first constitutional responsibility of protecting lives and property of the citizenry. The tendency therefore is to seek out a man who as they say, "brooks no nonsense and tolerates no opposition." But that will only compound the present security dilemma of Nigeria as the issue of sustainable national security is not achievable by fiat or by electing a ruthless leader with the swagger stick.

Issues of national security in modern times transcends merely installing a regime of local diktat; it involves building a nexus of collaborative military, paramilitary and civil institutions, and the gathering and sharing of national and cross-border intelligence to enhance safety and health of the nation and its citizens. Most importantly, modern concept of national security is largely anchored on the economic well-being of a nation, while the militaryindustrial complex plays complementary but also vital role in the scheme of sustainable peace and tranquility in any country. In other words, the economic indicators determine to a large extent the level of peace and stability enjoyed by the citizenry.

It is inarguable; therefore, that the major

plank in any nation's security platform is its economy. A nation's security can only be enhanced when its labor force, especially its youth, are gainfully employed, and there is a creation of welfare schemes to serve as safety nets to those unable to work or are physically challenged. This is what is operational in advanced, and young, stable democracies all over the world. It is a universal fact that when people are gainfully engaged they have less or no time for brewing trouble. But the idle hand is the devil's workshop.

Also, modern thoughts and practices have since discountenanced the traditional notion that national security is limited to acquisition and warehousing of huge military hardware; neither is it just about displaying formidable military force nor traditional military activity though all these may be included in the overall security architecture of a nation. It is essential to know however that development is nowadays sine qua non to any nation's security.

Development in this context relates to the capacity of a nation to utilise its human and capital potentials to optimally provide opportunities for its citizens to dream and realise those desires in a conducive and well-structured environment. It is when this is achieved consistently over a period of time or on a sustainable basis that the society experiences noticeable decline in disorder and violence and its security is subsequently and correspondingly enhanced. This holistic approach to national security has been the view of a onetime, but now late, respected President of the World Bank, Robert McNamara.

In addition to the above, other means of boosting national security and arresting the current breakdown of law and order and the rule of law in the country are running a truly federal system of government where

much power is devolved to the states, including the power to create state police.

This means additional job opportunities and enhanced capacity to institute community policing to fight crimes, especially at local levels.

National security could be further enhanced through proper delineation of national, state and council boundaries to reduce communal clashes and needless inter and intra-ethnic tensions; to properly equip and train the police to fight crimes and internal disorder while the military should be well-funded and equipped to effectively dismantle and destroy the scourge of terrorism in the country In conclusion, it is obvious from the above that a democratic Nigeria of the 21st century really doesn't need an Orwellian Napoleon, who is always right and must be obeyed.

This is a federal democracy that is fostered through healthy debates, dialogues and discourse. It is not a command economy or unitary state that responds to the dictates, decrees and is ruled by whims and caprices of a single strong person, no matter how Spartan in stuff. That era is passĂŠ.

Citizens are therefore enjoined in a nascent democracy like ours to be wary of politicians seeking their votes for the highest office in the land to know that what Nigeria mostly need at this time is not the emergence of a leader who rules by bravado, or creates hysteria among citizens but a well-groomed and well-grilled democrat, whose policy agenda is similar to the template above, and whose antecedents are well known as someone who is a bridge builder and is committed to strengthen the nation's fragile key institutions.

- Dr. Segun Olanipekun is Associate Professor of Journalism, Warwick University, DC, U.S.

80-gun salute for the General

By Clem Baiye

military head of state, all were blown away by his unaffected simplicity and charm.

There were no nostalgic references to "when I was in power", nor did he seem to miss the trappings of it. Of course you cannot forget his patented "honestly" or "sincerely" as he spoke. We drank from disposable plastic cups with the obligatory plastic spoons. He would stand up to greet fellow students, engage in small talk about the weather, the train ride from Euston Station to Coventry and whatever was of interest. He took in good spirit, criticism of his regime, displaying a loyalty streak to his much-criticised subordinates, particularly most of the governors.

On a personal level, Gowon reminisced about times with my maternal uncle, the late Mr Abdul Aziz Atta, who had been Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance and later Secretary to the Federal Government under him. He would also ask after my elder brother, Mr W. O. Baiye ,who was his French interpreter and translator.

For the one year I was at Warwick we saw each other fairly often. And when it seemed too far between, he would call or leave a note in my carrel or at the department. His capacity to relate very well has spun many a yarn and will still do, but a few factual encounters will be adequate.

Once, a friend, Mohammed Sagagi (a doctoral student in Economics), and I were in the supermarket on campus. Then, we saw Gowon across several aisles in the shop. Our concern was that no matter how hard we tried, Gowon would not let us carry his basket to the till. So, to avoid the embarrassment of not being seen to be courteous and helpful to a former head of state and an elder at that, we opted to feign

•Gowon

ignorance of his presence. Unfortunately, we did not reckon with those giant mirrors in the supermarkets. Gowon not only identified us, he walked towards where we were! After pleasantries he not only insisted on carrying our items to the cashier's till, he offered to pay. His action had very little to do with the state of his cash flow; it spoke much about his generosity of spirit, something those who have been much closer to him can adduce copious evidence of.

On another occasion, Gowon was on a visit to Nigeria sometime in the mid-80s. I went to visit him at the State House, Marina where he was lodged. He apologised for not ever inviting me to visit their home in London. While I was trying to negotiate my way through an apology, Mrs Victoria Gowon rightly handed me a rebuke for not visiting as she believed that a formal invitation was not necessary. I am sure I would not be the first to say that the charming, thoughtful, and warm-hearted Victoria is a straight talker. After the visit, Gowon saw me to the car, waited till we drove off and waved goodbye. My driver was so chuffed by the fact that the Gowon he had heard about so much came to the car to greet and see us off. So carried away was Alabi the driver that I had to advise him to calm down and focus on the traffic!

One of my time consuming habits is to read about the subject of Leadership. For me, memoirs and biographies provide the substance of that subject. Some great leaders wrote very helpful and thoughtful stuff but so did some not-so-great leaders such as George W. Bush, America's President from 2000-8. His book, Decision Points is a readable account of his stewardship. On the contrary, former President Richard Nixon wrote that "Leaders are uncommon men. They should not try to appear to be common. If they do try, they will come across as unnatural--not only phony, but condescending."So wrote Nixon in his book Leaders, published in 1982.

Happily, Gowon has retained the common touch without being phony. That is why he deserves an 80-gun salute.

Happy birthday, General Gowon.

- Baiye, formerly Managing Editor with the New Nigerian, is a business executive based in Lagos.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014

ETCETERA

56

SUNNY SIDE

Cartoons

By Olubanwo Fagbemi

POLITICKLE

deewalebf@yahoo.com 08060343214 (SMS only)

A twenty-first century guide •Counsel for the young

OH, LIFE!

THE GReggs

GREATER awareness often separates adults from children. And the average adult should be politically aware. The growth process includes, but is not limited to, regularly reading newspapers and magazines, and watching the news. You may follow by discussing topical issues with others, but always while respecting their opinions.

The world is constantly changing, for the better or the worse. Be informed so that you can take an active and responsible place in your society.

Read obituaries if and when you can. They are somewhat short biographies. And they remind us that interesting, successful people rarely lead orderly, straightforward lives. If your entry into the world was not rated first, second or third, why should you care about your ‘class’ when you exit?

Acquire empathy, good interpersonal skills, and confidence. Learn to read body language and non-verbal communication. Don’t just concentrate on your vocational or technical skills or you’ll soon be betrayed.

Don’t be afraid to stand up for yourself. It is an important skill to obtain.

As they say, speak your piece, even if your voice shakes.

Have fun. Life should be an interesting journey, not an excruciating race. Success should not mean outrunning everyone else in some set direction. You didn’t deserve the pressure of having to attend the ‘exclusive school’ and you are better off without the strain of landing the ‘plum job’ or achieving the ‘juicy promotion’ by all means.

Emulate a role model or, better still, become one. There are so many worthwhile people to look up to and try to follow. The trick is picking the right people for the right reasons. Look far enough and you’ll probably find more inspiring figures in history and books than celebrities in sports, music and TV. The latter group may be rich and successful but that doesn’t necessarily make them wiser. Your task is to find real heroes that embody values other than fat bank accounts.

Man or woman, in turn will you be a friend, employee, parent, and mentor. Guide the young people that come after you. Recognise that you have the potential to be the most powerful force in society. But only in your job will you be clearly rated and rewarded for your performance.

You owe your boss loyalty, as you do other competing influences in your life. For instance, leaving a task undone at work so as to attend to family or friends may be interpreted as ‘dodging’ duty, just as cancelling a date with loved ones to finish work might mean avoiding the people that matter in your life. You will need to find a balance all the time.

Remember that you live a limited life. Nothing, least of all tomorrow, should be taken for granted. Would you regret spending your life the way you do or are about to if you were to expire next week or next year? Better still, would you be happy with your lifestyle if you outlive the next decade or two?

In the end, mind that you don’t overdo the greatness stuff; only follow your passion with strong commitment. Being another Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great requires a great deal of luck and other circumstances beyond your control. The less you think about it, the more likely greatness would ensue. If it doesn’t, there is nothing wrong with being stable and dependable.

CHEEK BY JOWL

Doublespeak!

IF LAWYERS are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, models deposed and dry cleaners depressed. Laundry workers could decrease, eventually becoming depressed and depleted!

More, bed makers will be debunked, boxers will be disrobed, landscapers will be deflowered, bulldozer operators will be degraded, organ donors will be delivered, software engineers will be detested, and musical composers will eventually decompose.

On a more positive note, perhaps we can hope that politicians will one day be devoted.

QUOTE In giving advice seek to help, not to please, your friend.

Jokes Humour General Wisdom THE DEFENCE headquarters said they had too many generals running around, so they decided to get rid of some of them. They offered N100,000 in severance pay for each inch of their body – to be measured however they chose.

The naval Admiral went first. He said he wanted to be measured from head to toe. He was 69 inches. He received N690,000.

Next came the Air Chief Marshal. He wanted to be measured from the tip of his finger to the tip of his other finger. It was 80 inches. He received N800,000.

The two generals were satisfied with their earnings.

Then the Army General came up. He said he wanted to be measured from the chin to the big toe on his right foot.

The man taking measurement said, ‘’Sir, do you know how much the other generals received?’’

The general said no. ‘’Sir, they received N690,000 and N800,000 respectively. Are you sure that is what you want measured?’’

The general said, ‘’Just do it!’’

The man went ahead. When he reached for the general’s big toe, it wasn’t there. The man said, ‘’Sir, where is your toe?’’

The general smiled and said, ‘’I left it back in the Congo!’’

Heart of the Matter A MAN with heart trouble went to the doctor to see what his options were. Naturally, the doctor recommended a heart transplant. The man reluctantly agreed, and asked if there were any hearts immediately available, considering that money was no object.

“I do have three hearts,” said the doctor.

“The first is from an 18-year old kid, athletic, non-smoker, and a swimmer with a great diet.

He hit his head in the swimming pool and died.

It’s N100, 000. The second is from a marathon runner, 25 years old, in great condition and very strong. He got hit by a bus. It’s N150, 000.

The third is from a heavy drinker, cigar smoker and steak lover. It’s N500, 000.”

“Hey, why is that heart so expensive? He lived a terrible life!”

“Yes, but it’s from a laywer. It’s never been used.”

•Adapted from the Internet

—Solon

Writer ’s Fountain VOIDING writing errors: See how the following common at her with anyone else’s eyes? And would the throat in question belong to anyone exmistakes get repeated over and over again. cept the woman he was looking at?

Phrases best avoided: Imagine the folThe phrases would be better this way: “His lowing wordage from a romance novel: pale gray eyes held her in an inscrutable “Those gray eyes of his stared right at her” gaze” and “How he wanted to pin that neckand “How he wanted to pin that necklace lace around the lovely throat of the gorgeous around that throat of hers.” woman in front of him.”

They are awkward. Would he be looking Words better left out: Note that both statements can be improved upon as you wish.

Word power: Another common mistake is attaching un•Facetious and abstemious are the only necessary words at the end of a phrase or senwords that contain all the vowels in the tence. “Fred walked out, taking the file with correct order. him.”

•’Fickleheaded’ and ‘fiddledeedee’ are the You don’t need “with him”. If he took the longest words consisting only of letters in file, then it’s with him. An even better rethe first half of the alphabet. write: “Fred grabbed the file and walked out.”

•’Asthma’ and ‘isthmi’ are the only six-letter How about “Sisi shrugged her shoulwords that begin and end with a vowel and ders”? What else would she shrug? have no other vowels between.

“John nodded his head.” As opposed to •’Fortnight’ is a contraction of ‘fourteen what: his arm? “Sam found himself standing nights.’ In the US ‘two weeks’ is more in the middle of the room.” Was Sam lost? commonly used.

The rewrite: “Sam stood in the middle of the •’Forty’ is the only number which has its room.” letters in alphabetical order.

“It was a picture of Foluke Thomas, her•’One’ is the only number with its letters self.” Better: “It was a picture of Foluke Thoin reverse alphabetical order. mas.”

A

57

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2014

-- Page 53

Worries over Nigeria's diminishing oil wealth Page 58, 59

T

•Okuribido

Page 62

BoI blacklists 24 companies

HE Bank of Industry (BoI) has placed a total of 24 companies on its blacklist for failing to repay the loans borrowed from the bank.

The Managing Director of the Bank, Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa, made this disclosure at the weekend, during the induction of 10 customers who made it into the bank's hall of fame.

He said the bank has decided to name and shame these bad customers, to help banks in the country identify business people who have no respect for integrity and purpose.

"Unfortunately, there are two sides of a coin. Just as we have had exemplary customers, we have also had the very bad and difficult ones.

Some of these customers provided cloned title documents, thus committing outright frauds," he said, adding: "In addition to naming these companies, we have taken the additional step of

• Industrialists hail bank's supportive role

By Okwy Iroegbu- Chikezie

also unveiling their directors and shareholders, such that other leading institutions and credit bureaus are sufficiently put on notice."

"A total of 24 companies have been so identified, and they will henceforth experience the ignominy of belonging to our hall of shame.

Their names have also been published on our website."

He added that the 10 companies to be inducted into the hall of fame obtained long-term credit facilities from the bank at least twice and have fully repaid the loans as and when due, maintaining that they have proven that integrity is not a function of size nor of the business environment.

"They have shown considerable honour and character that we commend and applaud. We do not blacklist just because we want to,

How to stop unsolicited calls and messages

‘I place high premium on hard work’

we blacklist those that have no respect for integrity and not worthy of doing credible business with. As a bank, our hope and prayer is that we increase the number of customers in the hall of fame and minimise the blacklist," he said.

He said it is against this background that the BoI have decided to introduce a scheme to honour some of its customers who have shown excellent performance by fully repaying the loans granted to them by BoI as and when due.

"Our Board of Directors has approved the establishment of a hall of fame into which exemplary and outstanding customers, big and small, shall be inducted. We, development banks, derive our funding, not from millions of depositors but from government funding, which is provided from government resources that are limited, fi-

nite and subject to competing demands," he stated.

He therefore pointed out that the effect of any loan default is more severe, with certain socio-economic consequences which are capable of defeating government's laudable objectives of financing the strategic sectors of the economy, promoting Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and creating jobs for Nigerians.

"Therefore, when customers default on their loans, they deprive other Nigerian businesses of the much needed access to finance," he stressed.

Responding, CEO, Innoson Technical and Industrial Company Limited, a company with interests in automobiles and plastic components production, hailed BoI for supporting industries in giving out loans on single digit figure unlike the commercial banks.

Page 63

Ministry holds workshop on WTO trade agreement

T

HE Federal Ministry of Trade will next week, in partnership with the USAID's Nigerian Expanded Trade and Transport (NEXTT) programme, host a national workshop on "Implementing the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement."

The support is being given to the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI) as part of NEXTT's overall engagement to improve the trade policy process, including policy formulation and coordination in Nigeria.

The two days' workshop, which is part of the process to domesticate the Agreement on Trade Facilitation (TFA) agreed on in December 2013 at the 9th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation, will be attended by public and private trade facilitation stakeholders.

Upon entry into force, the TFA will create binding obligations for WTO members such as Nigeria to improve customs procedures, transparency and efficiency as well as cooperation amongst border regulatory agencies and private sector.

The developing and least developed members are expected to self-designate, on individual basis, the provisions of the TFA into Category A (implementation upon entry into force), B (deferred implementation) or C (linked with acquisition of capacity through assistance and support) and the date of their choice for the implementation of respective provisions.

The workshop, which will hold from the 21st to 23rd October at Chelsea Hotel, Abuja, will, among other things, enhance participant understanding of the Trade Facilitation Agreement and its implication; collect private sector inputs on the key barriers to trade Determine Nigeria target prioritisation of the TFA commitments It will also enhance participants' awareness on the key success factors for the set up and strengthening of a National Trade Facilitation Committee and initiate the process of building project plans to request donor's financial and technical assistance for Category C provision implementation Participants will include trade facilitation stakeholders from the public and private sector; development partners and the academia.

Honey Care Africa wins Nestle prize

By Awele Okwudarue

H • From left: Managing Director/CEO of Nigerian Breweries Plc, Mr Nicolaas Vervelde, Corps Marshal/CEO, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Mr. Boboye Olayemi, and Corporate Affairs Adviser of NB Plc. Mr. Kufre Ekanem, during the flag off of 'Don't Drink and Drive campaign at the Corporate Headquarters of NB Plc at the weekend.

PHOTO: MUYIWA HASSAN

Investor seeks better incentives for printing industry

T

HE chairman of Academy Press Plc, Chief Simeon Olusola Oguntimehin, has called for better incentives for the printing industry to remain afloat, noting that the company generated a revenue worth of N2.347billion in the year 2014 as against revenue in the previous year which was N2.286billion.

Oguntimehin made the

declaration during the company's 50th Annual General Meeting, held at the company's premises in Lagos.

He lamented that, the greatest threat to the survival of the printing industry in Nigeria is the importation of print products from abroad for Nigerian consumption, stressing that it has continued to affect the skills and capac-

ity in the country.

"The operating import tariff regime which made importation to be more economically viable for print product buyers to the detriment of local partners has been responsible for this.

"We therefore wish to commend government on its recent pronouncement on measures to encourage industrialization and job creation

by amending tariffs that have constituted barriers to these objectives.

We can only hope that the steps being taken in this direction will be sustained to the benefit of the printing industry," he said.

He maintained that the printing industry in the country has demonstrated that it can sustain the economy if the enabling condition is created.

ONEY Care Africa has emerged the winner of the 2014 Nestle Creating Shared Value (CSV) Prize.

The prize, an investment of CHF 500,000, was shared between the winner and runners-up.

The winners were announced at this year’s CSV forum held in Switzerland.

The Creating Shared Value Prize rewards innovative businesses that create values for their communities by addressing issues of nutrition, water or rural development.

Honey Care Africa has the record of pioneering the honey industry in Africa.

Creating opportunities for all, Honey Care Africa believes in transforming lives across East Africa into pillars of wealth, health and environmental stewardship.

Honey Care’s success relies on treating farmers and consumers as equal partners in this co-created value chain, designed to increase the incomes of farming families, provide additional pollination for staple crops, sustain environmental balance and bring new sources of nutrition to urban and rural low-income communities.

Honey Care Africa provides a range of honey products for both personal consumption and commercial food ingredients. The product range include: Honey Care Light+Mild, Honey Care Pure Health, Honey Care Pure +Natural and Honey Care Acacia.

58

THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014

BUSINESS

S

EVERAL decades ago some petroleum experts had in their forecast of Nigeria's rich oil wealth observed that it was only a matter of time that the country would suffer a misfortune of sorts as her enormous oil wealth dries off. But rather than take the necessary heed, the government and its spin-doctors saw the whole thing as a ruse at the time. However, unfolding events in the past few years may have proved the bookmakers right after all.

If there was any iota of doubt as to whether the fears over the nation's oil-wealth were real or imagined, the World Oil and Gas Review 2014 report released recently literally exacerbated that fear.

According to the report, despite its status as Africa's top crude oil producer and exporter, Nigeria continues to trail behind other African countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Libya and South Africa in terms of refining capacity.

The report showed Egypt as having the highest primary refining capacity in 2013 among the five countries, followed by Algeria and South Africa.

Specifically, the report indicated that the primary capacity in Egypt was put at 840,000 barrels per day, in Algeria 607,000 bpd, South Africa 520,000 bpd and Libya 380,000 bpd.

While in Nigeria, primary capacity was 342,000 bpd as at last year, as against 345,000 in 2005, according to the report.

It is also instructive to note that Nigeria is arguably the biggest importer of refined petroleum products on the continent, creating a lucrative market for refineries particularly in Europe and the United States.

The country, which is home to over 170 million people, imports more than 80 per cent of its refined petroleum products for the servicing of its economy.

A serious cause for worry Naturally, for some discerning members of the public, the report by the world body is not cheery news after all.

Piqued by the development, Rt. Hon. Imo Itsueli, CEO, Dubril Oil, had last week at a public presentation of an industry book called for a paradigm shift in the sector.

"We need a paradigm shift in the oil and gas industry. As the United States stops buying our crude oil and set to become an exporter of crude oil, I think it is a call to action. We need to start to look at value addition in terms of refining, petrochemicals and others," he said.

"Singapore has no crude oil, but they have many refineries.

Why can't we be a refining hub for the rest of Africa? Why can't we export petroleum products to Europe instead of crude oil? We are still talking about crude oil, not value addition out of crude oil that is our challenge," he lamented.

Data from the latest monthly report of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation showed that the country's four refineries operated at an average of 10.46 per cent of their combined nameplate capacity of 445,000 barrels per day in June.

According to the data, 244,000 metric tons of dry crude oil, condensate and slop was received by the three refineries, Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company, Port Harcourt Refining Company and Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company.

Worries over Nigeria's diminishing oil wealth The fate of Nigeria's oil wealth may be hanging on the precipice as the country's refining capacity keeps shrinking abysmally compared to other countries within sub-Sahara Africa, a development, experts have argued, could spell dire consequences for Nigeria's socio-economic development in the short and longer term, reports Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf

•

•Oil rig platform

"With an opening stock of 428,000 mt, total crude oil available for processing was 672,000 mt, out of which 221,000 mt was processed. The respective average capacity utilisation during the month was 0.00 per cent, 17.96 per cent and 13.44 per cent for KRPC, PHRC and WRPC respectively," the NNPC said.

Kaduna refinery in the month had total available crude oil of 169,301 mt, but nothing was processed. Out of 289,852 mt, the Port Harcourt refinery processed 152,889 mt, while Warri processed 68,098 mt out of 213,352 mt.

The country's refineries have long been operating well below installed capacity as they are in different states of disrepair. They operated at an average of 31.1 per cent capacity in 2012, according to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

In a related development, the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has appealed to the federal government to resuscitate the Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) at Warri refinery and the pipeline-hydrant system of supplying aviation fuel to the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos.

The AON Chairman, Capt.

Nogie Meggison, made the appeal while speaking at MMA, Lagos at

the weekend on the increasing price of aviation fuel also known as Jet A-1,which is sold between N160 to N170 per litre by oil marketers.

The AON boss, who lamented that most airline operators in the country are spending approximately 40 per cent of their operation cost on aviation fuel, added that sometimes some airlines spend beyond 40 per cent on Jet A-1.

He called on the Federal Government to intervene on the issue by ensuring that it revives the Warri refinery, Atlas Cove and Mosemi pipelines -hydrant system for supplying aviation fuel, pointing out that the pipeline that supplied aviation fuel to the airport before it was shut down by

Refining capacity of leading oil producers in Africa Egypt-------- ---840,000 bpd Algeria----------607,000 bpd S/Africa---------520,000 bpd Libya-------------380,000 bpd Nigeria----------342,000 bpd SOURCE: The World Oil and Gas Review 2014

the late General Sani Abacha led military regime in January 1996 were fully functional.

Warri refinery, he posited has the capacity to produce ATF, calling on the government to look into the issue, as this would further help to reduce the cost.

The global community is also mindful of what the future portends for Nigeria if her rich-oil reserves is to dry off, which is why it has continued to drum it in the leaders' ears to strike while the iron is still hot.

The World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had urged Nigeria to take proactive steps in readiness to match the expected drop in revenue, arising from the continuous drop in the prices of crude oil.

The Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi OkonjoIweala, who made this known penultimate Sunday in Washington DC, saying the drop in oil prices is of great interest to Nigeria, since the economy is largely driven by revenue from oil.

Mrs Okonjo-Iweala, who addressed the Nigerian press at the World Bank Group headquarters, said the development will naturally arouse interest and lead to questions being asked as to how

Nigeria would manage if oil prices continue to decline.

She said as a consequence of these developments, the IMF and the World Bank Group are asking that countries, especially like Nigeria, the emerging markets and lower income countries, should be ready with contingency plans to be able to continue to manage their economies, "should the mediocre growth continue and oil prices continue on the decline trajectory.

She said the World Bank Group President, Dr. Jim Yong Kin and his IMF counterpart, Christine Largard, have urged that "we should have the right mix of policies, including building up our buffers to be able to sustain the economy."

She said the Nigerian team to the conference, including the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, Director of Budget, Dr. Bright Okogu, the Central Bank Deputy Governor, Economic Policy, Dr. Sarah Alade, and others have been strategising and articulating the options open to Nigeria, in conjunction with the global financial institutions so as to be able to come up with strategies on how to manage the economy.

"They said we should be ready with contingency plans and that we need to continue with our struc-

THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014

•Diezani

tural reforms, as well as build up buffers and be ready with a contingency plan," Okonjo-Iweala, stated.

A private initiate to the rescue It does appears that the strident calls for private initiative to support the nation's refinery capacity is being explored by Dangote Industries Limited, which is building a $9 billion refinery/petrochemical/fertiliser complex in Lagos.

The refinery, which is expected to be completed by 2016, will initially have a capacity of 400,000 bpd, doubling the country's refining capacity as well as cut imports of refined petroleum.

"Subsidies have also contributed to low capacity utilisation at refineries. In Nigeria, for example, current subsidy schemes lead producers to sell crude overseas rather than to local refineries and therefore add to increasing volumes of refined product imports, which present a large cost to the economy," said KPMG in its 2014 Africa Oil and Gas Report, while noting that problems in the refining industry on the continent include corruption, poor maintenance, theft, and other operational problems.

Last month, oil workers in the NNPC embarked on an industrial action with their demands including taking immediate steps to carry out turnaround maintenance on the refineries and restoration of crude supply to the refineries.

Echoing similar sentiments, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, the General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress, in a report entitled 'Pricing of Petroleum Products in Nigeria', empahsised that: "Our domestic refineries must be made to work. Appropriate incentives need to be worked out to attract new investment in refining. While domestic refining by itself is not sufficient to guarantee product price stability, there are clear gains to be derived from domestic refining as opposed to imports."

Hope in the horizon Worrisome as the situation seems, there is hope at the end of the tunnel.

This optimism is shared by no other agency than the International Energy Agency (IEA). According to the IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven, "A better functioning energy sector is vital to ensuring that the citizens of sub-Saharan Africa can fulfil their aspirations."

"The energy sector is acting as a brake on development, but this can be overcome and the benefits of success are huge."

In the IEA's first comprehensive analysis of sub-Saharan Africa, it finds that the region's energy resources are more than suf-

ficient to meet the needs of its population, but that they are largely under-developed.

The region accounted for almost 30% of global oil and gas discoveries made over the last five years, and it is already home to several major energy producers, including Nigeria, South Africa and Angola. It is also endowed with huge renewable energy resources, including excellent and widespread solar and hydro potential, as well as wind and geothermal.

The report finds that investment in sub-Saharan energy supply has been growing, but that two-thirds of the total since 2000 has been aimed at developing resources for export. Grid-based power generation capacity continues to fall very far short of what is needed, and half of it is located in just one country (South Africa). Insufficient and unreliable supply has resulted in largescale ownership of costly backup generators.

In the report's central scenario, the sub-Saharan economy quadruples in size by 2040, the population nearly doubles (to over 1.75 billion) and energy demand grows by around 80per cent. Power generation capacity also quadruples: renewables grow strongly to account for nearly 45 per cent of total subSaharan capacity, varying in scale from large hydropower dams to smaller mini- and off-grid solutions, while there is a greater use of natural gas in gas-producing countries.

Natural gas production reaches 230 billion cubic metres (bcm) in 2040, led by Nigeria (which continues to be the largest producer), and increasing output from Mozambique, Tanzania and Angola. LNG exports onto the global market triple to around 95 bcm. Oil production exceeds 6 million barrels per day (mb/d) in 2020 before falling back to 5.3 mb/d in 2040. Nigeria and Angola continue to be the largest oil producers by far, but with a host of other producers supplying smaller volumes. SubSaharan demand for oil products doubles to 4 mb/d in 2040, squeezing the region's net contribution to the global oil balance.

Coal supply grows by 50 per cent, and continues to be focused on South Africa, but it is joined increasingly by Mozambique and others.

The capacity and efficiency of the sub-Saharan energy system increases, but so do the demands placed upon it, and many of the existing energy challenges are only partly overcome.

In 2040, energy consumption per capita remains very low, and the widespread use of fuelwood and charcoal persists. The outlook for providing access to electricity is bittersweet: nearly one billion people gain access to electricity by 2040 but, because of rapid population growth, more than half a billion people remain without it. Sub-Saharan Africa also stands on the front line when it comes to the impacts of climate change, even though it continues to make only a small contribution to global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions.

"Economic and social development in sub-Saharan Africa hinges critically on fixing the energy sector," said IEA Chief Economist Fatih Birol. "The payoff can be huge; with each additional dollar invested in the power sector boosting the overall economy by $15."

BUSINESS

59

•From left: Unity Bank Managing Director/CEO, Mr. Henry James Semenitari exchanging pleasantries with a customer - the Managing Director/CEO of Golden Yussraa Ltd - Mansoor Abdulalhi, at one of the bank's branches during activities to mark the Global Customer Service Week recently

'Poor customer relations bane of public transport'

P

OOR customer relations remains a major challenge with public transportation as customers and service providers have continued to have brushes on a daily basis.

Speaking with a cross-section of passengers who daily patronise some of these commuter busses, especially the BRT busses across Lagos metropolis and its environs, they confided in The Nation that their experiences have been anything but palatable.

Although many of the respondents acknowledged the fact that the busses have helped to ameliorate the stress of public transportation to a reasonable extent across the state, the unruly behaviour of the officials remains a sore point for many.

In recent times, there have been allegations of incivility and bad behaviour against the officials of the BRT, many of whom were accused of

By Olamide Anthony

undermining the good intentions of the state government.

In a chat with The Nation, some passengers, observed that one of the issues that set passengers and officials on a collision course is the problem of scarcity of change after collection of fares from prospective passengers.

Sharing his experience, a passenger, who simply gave his mane as Steve, recalled that he once requested his change from BRT official but the latter flared up cursing him under his breath.

"The unruly behaviour of these BRT officials is most unbecoming of supposed service providers serving the public."

Corroborating Steve, some passengers also complained that most

of the BRT ticketers are morally bankrupt, a situation which may have been responsible for their bad manners.

Buttressing his point with a vivid example, a respondent who identified himself as Mr Jide, a regular passenger on board BRT, said "These ticketers, I believe, are touts who the Lagbus is trying to culture but it is not just working. I can only urge the authorities of Lagbus to keep trying to change their orientation. That's all.

Or if possible, change all of them because the bad in their midst can further corrupt the others."

However, speaking with some of the drivers and ticketers at different designated busstops, they punctured most of the arguments being canvassed by some of the passengers.

In the assertion of Mr. Abdulaho Oyewole, a BRT driver, he said most of the passengers lack decorum and are not civil in their manners as well.

Hotel security seminar holds in November

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ONE-day executive workshop for the nation's hotels, catering outfits and other stake holders earlier scheduled for Friday, October 10, has been postponed till November 21, 2014, in Lagos.

The workshop is organised by a team of professionals in the hospitality industry, including Nigerian Hospitality Security Network, Finale Hotels Services Ltd and BNK Consulting Services with the support of the Nigeria Police Force.

With the theme "Security Challenges In Hotels And Hospitality Industry In Nigeria-The Way Forward" the workshop's objectives according to a press release signed by the Coordinator, Mr. Bright Uwabor, include sharing experience with security experts and

knowledgeable speakers on the current security challenges in the country; establishing baseline awareness and integrate the Security challenges which are imminent in Hotels and hospitality industry in Nigeria; assessing and analyzing the range of obstacles, risks and threats that affect the Hospitality industry as well as their capacities and vulnerabilities.

Other goals of the capacity building programme are: changing the non-chalant attitude of some hoteliers and subsequently to be more security conscious and embrace modern methods of addressing them as well as developing sustainable strategies and acquainting participants with the various appliances and gadgets to be used in averting criminal

tendencies.

Highlights of the event include presentations by security experts, law enforcement agents, and renowned academia and formal launch of a hospitality magazine.

The Keynote address will be delivered by the Chief Host, AIG Umar Manko, while the State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola and his Deputy, Mrs. Orelope Adefulire, are the Special Guest and Mother of the day respectively.

Other guests expected include: State Commissioner for Tourism and Youth Development, Mr. Disun Holloway, Chief Femi Falana, an academia, Prof. Ishaq.

Oloyede, Chief Ignatius Edema, Chief Executive of Halogen Security, Mr. Trevor Ward. The Royal Father of the day is the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, Eleko of Eko 1.

Canada partners firm on international day of the girl

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HE High Commissioner of Canada to Nigeria, His Excellency, Mr. Perry J. Calderwood, recently celebrated the International Day of the Girl by hosting a roundtable to discuss how media and private sector partners can invest in adolescent girls to promote girl safety and empowerment. The discussion was led by Girl Hub, an NGO working in three African countries to address the needs and rights of adolescent girls.

The High Commissioner and Girl Hub welcomed representatives from the media and private sector, congratulating them on the inaugural partnering event, and encouraging all parties to find innovative ways to achieve tangible and sustainable results on protection

and empowerment of girls.

The International Day of the Girl is celebrated on October 11 each year. The day promotes girls' human rights and aims to draw global attention to the gender inequality and abuse that many girls suffer worldwide. In line with this year's theme, Empowering Adolescent Girls: Ending the Cycle of Violence, the principal objective of this roundtable event was to motivate, inform, engage, and equip the media and private sector to focus on girl safety, a key dimension needed for adolescent girls to thrive.

High Commissioner Calderwood stated that, "Violence against women and girls is pervasive in many communities worldwide

and takes many forms. We must redouble efforts to overcome such violence and to create societies in which women and men are equal.

Today's discussion launches a new and promising collaboration between civil society and business that has the potential to unleash a ripple effect of change," a phenomenon that Girl Hub popularly refers to as 'The Girl Effect'.

Canada is committed to the view that equality between men and women is not only a human rights issue, but is also an essential component of sustainable development, social justice, peace, and security. Canada is a world leader in the promotion and protection of women's and girls' rights and gender equality.

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014

BUSINESS

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HE shipping industry has the potential to boost the nation's gross domestic product far above the crude oil if well harnessed.

Making this submission is Mr. Temisan Omatseye, a former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigeria Ship owners' Association (NISA) presidential aspirant.

Speaking against the backdrop of the parlous state of the shipping subsector in the last few decades, the Chairman of Polmaz Limited, said: "Snail pace is even better.

'Shipping industry remains a cash cow' Stories by Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf

Do you know what, this industry can turn around in just 24 months? But the administration has to be right, ship owners has to be ready, I think the policies I have which I already started running by the agency and the government are in line. If I am able to get there, I know the way money moves."

Omatseye who heaped

the blame for the diminishing fortunes if the sector on bad policies, said: "It was just a silly policy by CBN, whereby they said that you cannot apply for the letter of credit unless the vessels come from abroad.

What that simply does is that, mother vessels that use to come to Lagos is now stopping at Lome. All STS operation is done by Lome mother vessels that go to Lome and pays a fee to the Togolese government. In

addition to that, most of those cargoes are actually coming to Nigeria, so what we now do is send vessels as daughter vessels to the mother vessel to pick the cargoes and that costs money.

"If that mother vessel has berthed in Nigeria, it would have been cheaper for daughter vessel to take cargoes from Lagos to Port Harcourt than from Lome to Port Harcourt as obtained today. Government is now

losing money by sending daughter vessels to Lome to bring cargo to either Lagos or Port Harcourt. Mother vessel will pay, daughter vessel will pay, and cabotage will collect. That is the kind of money we are losing.

"If you go to Lome now you will see like over 100 vessels there, Lagos is about 143, so tell what kind of business is Lome doing that is having so much vessels

anchoring there whereas it is not happening in Lagos."

On the way forward, the former NIMASA boss said: "We need to go and sit down with CBN and explain that to them. Also, why is CBN giving sector funds to Aviation and not to Maritime? If a plane crashes, because of the CNN News, they will now give all airline operators something but if a ship sinks with crude oil or products the impact of that is 25-30 years. Look at what happened with Exxon or NNPC when their pipe leaks. So it is more in the interest of the government to fund the Maritime Industry even as it relates to safety."

Lagos chambers names goodwill ambassadors

By Tonia 'Diyan

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HE Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has unveiled Evangeline Wiles, Managing Director, Kaymu.com.ng amongst others, as an LCCI Goodwill Ambassador ahead of the 2014 Lagos International Trade Fair.

The event held at the LCCI's head office in Lagos.

The LCCI Goodwill Ambassadors are inspirational people who share a commitment with the chamber of commerce and industry to develop and promote the Nigerian economy. They possess widely recognized talent in the business, arts, sciences, literature, entertainment, sports or other fields of public life and will help generate public awareness and understanding of trade, commerce and development causes, as well as inspire broad, positive, committed action in support of LCCI and LITF'S mandate and priorities.

In his opening remarks, the Chairman of the Trade Promotion Board, Chief Dr Michael Olawale Cole said: "The Goodwill Ambassadors have put the country first in everything they have done, I will not be surprised seeing them on TV for national honours."

Wiles, in her acceptance speech thanked the Chambers for deeming her worthy of being selected. "The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry is known for promoting trade and entrepreneurship, which is at the core of Kaymu's business model. I am committed to promoting SMEs in my service as an LCCI Goodwill Ambassador," she stated.

While giving a vote of thanks on behalf of other ambassadors, an upbeat Mr. Olisa Adibua, a media personality, said: "Today is a good day for me and my fellow Ambassadors, I am very happy and I look forward to working with the Chamber and promoting it."

Other ambassadors unveiled at the event include: Tuface Idibia, Toke Makinwa, Toolz, Kunle Afolayan, Vector, Brymo, Funke Okpeke , Managing Director, Mainone Cable, Martin Mabutho (GM, Marketing Mutichoice) and Lerin Davis.

•From left: Senator Gbenga Ashafa; First place Winner, Aniema Udokang; Group Managing Director, Dufil Prima Foods Plc Mr. Deepak Singhal and Group Managing Director, First Bank Nigeria Plc, Mr. Bisi Onasanya, at the 2014 Indomie Independence Day Award in Lagos. PHOTO: BOLA OMILABU

NITDA boss hosts ICT merit award IRECTOR General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mr. Peter Olu Jack will be chief host at the 2014 National Information Technology Merit Award (NITMA) organised by the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS).

A new innovation at this year's NITMA is also the presentation of the first set of Special Recognition Awards to individuals and organisations advancing Nigeria's digital agenda. The DG of NITDA's high level presence is in keeping with the agency's mandate of fostering the development and growth of IT in Nigeria, and is particularly in line with the upcoming review of Nigeria's National ICT Strategic Plan being coordinated by NITDA. NITDA boss as NITMA Chief Host sends a strong message that the growth of Nigeria's ITC industry and profession is a top national priority. A functioning, purposeful, growing and sustainable ITC sector is at the heart of all nations that are truly independent.

Recognition or its lack will impact on Nigeria's ability to succeed in the global digital economy. NITMA 2014 is a platform NCS uses to emphasise the importance of excellence in information technology. For NCS and the entire IT community, NITMA is not just an award ceremony; it is about genuine independence, it is about shaping Nigeria's future.

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•From left: Prof. Oluwole Familoni, Chairman of the occasion, Chief Abiola Ogunrinde, Founder/CEO, Tropical Natural Dudu Osun, Special Guest of Honour and Mr. Abimbola Babatunde, Chairman Chemical Society of Nigeria, (Lagos Chapter) during the Lagos 2014 Chemical Expo, organized by the Chemical Society of Nigeria (Lagos State Chapter) yesterday PHOTO: RAHMAN SANUSI

'Annual revenue from food valued at over N200billion'

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ROM the President of the Association of Fast Food Confectioners of Nigeria (AFFCON), Mrs Bose Ayeni, has come a clarion call: prospective investors should gird up theirs loins as they stand to benefit a lot from Nigeria's economy because it's a goldmine that is waiting to be tapped.

Mrs. Ayeni made this call at the press conference held in Lagos to announce the second annual national conference of AFFCON in

Lagos.

She said: "In spite of the huge challenges Nigeria is grappling with, the size of our GDP shows that our economy is a goldmine waiting to be tapped. And food is essential to keep our large population of 170 million alive, nourished and going."

Ayeni also drew the public's attention to the urbanization and rise in social media penetration as factors that would boost business.

"Globally, we are living

through the largest wave of urbanisation in history," said the AFFCON President.

"Urban population, being more prosperous, aided by the steady decline in poverty arising from economic growth, will give rise to a greatly expanded consumer group. We as operators must understand the nature of this expanding consumer group.

In Nigeria, they are largely youthful and culturally diverse. We must understand the strategies required to reach them.

"Between 2012 and 2013, total global social media audience increased from 1.47b to 1.73b. With 25% of the population now online using social networks, we cannot be left out of the opportunities that abound in tapping into the use of social tools for business values. It is against this trend that for this year's conference, we have a subtheme of how we can utilize Technology to improve our business effectiveness."

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'How entrepreneurs can grow their businesses' A

LL an entrepreneur requires to make a success of his business is the hunger for success.

As simple as this statement sounds, the irony, however, is that not many people who venture into startups are motivated enough to make a success out of their business.

This is the major challenge for many startups in sub-Sahara Africa.

But in the view of Vusi Thembekwayo, a South African entrepreneur and business speaker, a lot of businesses can record success stories once they are able to apply themselves well.

Thembekwayo popularly referred to as Vusi was in Nigeria recently as the lead resource person at the maiden edition of the annual Stanbic IBTC Business Leadership series. Judging by his antecedent, the packed audience looked forward to Vusi to provide insight and learning at the Stanbic IBTC Business Leadership Series.

Apparently no stranger to such gatherings and certainly not to Stanbic IBTC, his proficiency, oratory, and delivery style, laced with humour kept the audience captive.

Speaking at the Stanbic IBTC Business Leadership series, conceived to provide new and fresh insights, challenge the norm, and help build deeper connections among businesses and business leaders, Vusi shared useful suggestions among entrepreneurs interested in taking their businesses to the next level.

Few weeks ago, on his Instagram page, Vusi posted a signpost with the inscription: "If you're the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room."

The wisecrack aptly embodies Vusi and speaks to his thirst for excellence, pursuit of knowledge, and constant self-improvement.

Little wonder at 17, he was considered Africa's best motivational speaker when he won the Audience Favourite Speaker Prize at the Public Speaking World Championship organised by English Speaking Union. He speaks to over 250,000 people yearly in more than 13 countries.

Vusi who is few years shy away from 30, is rated "one of the best motivational and keynote speakers alive today" by the Who's Who in Southern Africa, a website dedicated to the leading lights in that region of Africa.

The bubbly fellow is not only a business speaker but also empowers his audience with new knowledge, research findings and tools that they can immediately apply in their

•Thembekwayo

Stories by Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf businesses or careers to achieve "stepchange" results.

The choice of Vusi as a resource person for such a high calibre initiative by one of the respected financial institutions in the country is quite obvious, going by Vusi's formidable credentials, which read like a page out of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

Of importance is the fact that Vusi shares some of Stanbic IBTC's underlying business virtues such as professionalism, hard work, intelligence, integrity, leadership, and confidence.

Shell South Africa described him as exhuming "intelligence, trustworthiness, humaneness, courage and sternness." And "he understands sales, management and leadership," declared MTN Business.

Vusi studied at Witwatersrand University, South Africa, and has certifications from Wits Business School, where he graduated Cum Laude, Graduate Institute of Business Science (GIB), and INSEAD. He has worked as a salesperson and later as a business unit executive in some of the well-known organizations in South Africa. As Director of New Markets & Structured Income at Metcash between 2007 and 2010, aged 22, he led the growth of

New Markets business from R16 million (about $1.4m) to R298 million (about $26.6m), built the Structured Income business unit from nothing to R187 million (about $16.7m) and achieved the highest EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization) within the group for two years.

Before then, between 2004 and 2007, he co-founded Uciko Capital & Advisory Ltd where he co-managed the Advisory business unit. He developed a sales system that equipped the sales team with higher closure ratio skills and was able to deliver 82per cent growth in net operating profit less adjusted taxes in 18 months.

He is currently the managing director of MOTIV8, a specialist consulting and services business he set up. Premium business magazine named Vusi "an entrepreneur extraordinaire."

Thembekwayo holds several board appointments and directorships and influences R4.32 billion (about $384.5m) through these appointments in deals. One of such appointments is as a director in a listed company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the youngest such director in South Africa. He is a member of the National Speakers Association, New York.

Visu says he is "an ordinary guy, with a simple background." Simple background, yes, but he is certainly not an ordinary guy. There are not very many under-30s who have achieved so much professional success.

He belongs to an exclusive class that boasts of Lucy Baldwin, the 29year-old managing director of Goldman Sachs, Lucas Duplan, the 22-year-old founder of rave making Clinkle, a mobile payment start-up company, David Karp, 27-year-old founder of Tumblr, the microblogging platform and social networking website, and Uzoamaka Maduka (26) co-founder, The American Reader, a well received literary magazine.

On what drives him, Visu says, "As young people, we need to move beyond being successful; we need to be significant." Indeed, the very energetic Vusi is constantly in motion in search of the next challenge. This ties in nicely with Stanbic IBTC's pay-off line 'Moving Forward.'

The financial institution, leveraging on the rich heritage of the Standard Bank Group, to which it belongs, is always willing to push the envelope in product and service innovation and delivery. CEO of Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Sola DavidBorha, talks about an "unrelenting commitment to deliver innovative solutions and very credible performances across all business segments."

"His humour is the glue that binds some of his most diverse audiences in the world. His motivational speaking style is rich with jokes," wrote a columnist about his deliveries. In 2013, Vusi delivered 209 presentations across four continents.

Some of his clients include Standard Bank, World Bank, Shell, MTN, Ernst & Young, RBA Homes, Australian Houses of Parliament, British House of Commons, and many others.

A former Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, was so impressed by Vusi's presentation that he described him as the 'Rock Star of Public Speaking', in reference to the huge, almost godlike, devotion to and followership commanded by Rock 'n Roll stars. And like a Rock star, the speaker from Madiba country leaves his audiences swooning and asking for more.

Feedbacks from clients suggest Vusi is adroit at what he does, which is to motivate people to go beyond "success to significance".

IFAD boss, others speak on agric investments in Ebola-affected countries

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BOLA ravaged countries are not only contending with the debilitating ailment but also at a brink of a food crisis.

Appalled by this development, Dr Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), along with Florence Chenoweth, Minister of Agriculture, Liberia and Joseph

Sam Sesay, ?Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security, Sierra Leone addressed a press conference on the concerns.

IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialised United Nations agency based in Rome - the UN's food and agriculture hub.

Nwanze in his keynote address at the World Food Prize international

symposium stressed the importance of investing in rural agriculture around the world, especially in the face of issues such as the current Ebola crisis, climate change, and other challenges.

Worried that the food crisis could assume an epic proportion, the IFAD boss impressed on the governments at all levels to close ranks in order to

stem the tide of food crisis and forestall other dire consequences.

IFAD invests in rural people, empowering them to reduce poverty, increase food security, improve nutrition and strengthen resilience. Since 1978, IFAD has provided over US$16 billion in grants and low-interest loans to projects that have reached more than 430 million people.

Agricultural sector created 3m jobs in three years- minister From: Frank Ikpefan, Abuja

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HE Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, said the agricultural sector created three million jobs in the last three years.

Adesina said the government was driving agriculture through the commodity and value chains approach to achieve results.

He spoke at the 2014 World Food Day with the theme: "Family Farming: Feeding the World, Caring for the Earth."

The Minister, who was represented by the Director, Federal Department of Agriculture in the Ministry, Demola Emmanuel, said this year's theme is aimed at heightening the role of family farming in achieving food security as well as signifying the contribution of small scale farmers.

He said: "The agricultural sector over the last three years has created three million farm jobs thereby putting young people to work as the agricultural revolution deepened across rural areas and agricultural value chains, leading to reduction in rural urban migration.

"The private sector participation in driving ATA shows that between 2011 and 2014, the sector attracted over $5.6 billion of private sector investments. Between 2012 and 2014, a total of 14 million farmers received their subsidised farm inputs using electronic voucher on their mobile phones to directly pay private sector input retailers."

According to the minister, the government has recorded 21 million metric tonnes of food from 2011 to 2014, surpassing the 20 million mt of food target set for 2015.

"Between 2012 and 2014, six million rice farmers were reached with improved rice varieties through the e-wallet system. The total cumulated rice area rose by two million hectares, national paddy rice production rose by an additional seven million MT. "The rice policy has attracted $1.6 billion of private sector investment and it is expected that Nigeria will become a net exporter of rice like Thailand or India very soon."

Adesina added that investment by fertiliser companies expanded from 100 million in 2012 to $500 million by 2014.

Earlier, the country Representative of the Food and Agricultural Organisation, Dr. Louise Setshwaelo, said a growing and increasingly urbanised world population was relying on food produced by a much smaller percentage of farmers.

According to her, family farming and the support it receives need to adjust in ways that can respond to these changing conditions.

Dr. Setshwaelo said: "Innovation is key to make this happen. Family farmers need to innovate, in the systems they use; governments need to innovate, in specific policies they implement to support family farming.

"Clearly, family farmers need to produce enough food, not just for them but also for people in rural areas not involved in farming or city dwellers. They also generate income -money to buy inputs, such as seeds and fertilisers."

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HE death, last week, at 81, of one of Africa's most celebrated and outstanding scholars, critics, teachers, authors and political historians, has yet depleted the rank. Professor Ali Mazrui, author of over 30 books, 2000 monographs and academic papers in different journals of the world, was a Kenyan citizen. He was more or less a world citizen, someone who did not limit his gaze or attention to the continent of Africa, but used his wide and global connections to champion laudable programmes and ideals for the good of Blacks at home and in the Diaspora.

Born in Mombasa, Kenya on February 24, 1933, he was educated at the famous Makerere University, Uganda where he graduated with a first class distinction in Political Science. In 1960, he did his Master's degree at Manchester University in Great Britain and his Doctorate in Philosophy at the Oxford University (Nuffield College) in 1966. Upon completion of his studies, he returned to Makerere University Kampala, Uganda, where he served as head of the Department of Political Science and later Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Exile In 1973, he was forced into exile by Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada, the defacto head of state of Uganda at that time. Amin, who had followed Mazrui's academic progression and his keen observation of the deeds of most East African leaders, said he did not find it comfortable with Mazrui so close to his regime. From that moment on, Mazrui remained in exile until his demise a few days ago.

He had lampooned African leaders as ironfisted people whose roles could not help Africa to move forward. Once he was driven out of Uganda, Mazrui headed to the University of Michigan, USA, as a Professor of Political Science where he was later appointed the Director of the Centre for Afro American and African Studies. A restless and incisive scholar, with a big heart to create his own ideals for the sake of humanity, in 1989 he moved to the University of Binghamton, the state of New York as the Albert Schweitzer Professor of Humanities and the Director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies. This was a position he maintained till death.

However, Mazrui's research interests centred more on how to improve the lot of Africa and Africans. In serving on the editorial boards of more than twenty international scholarly journals, he was offered the opportunity to breathe down on despotic leaders in Africa. He never spared them for being the architects of the retrogression of the African peoples. Even when he was widely sought after to help in fashioning new ideals by most of the heads of states and governments in Africa on political strategies and alternative thoughts, Mazrui never lost the chance to tell them the truth.

Writings An Uganda-born Professor of History and International Human Rights, Amii Otunu, who teaches at the University of Connecticut, USA, described him as a great Pan-Africanist.

"Yes, Mazrui turned his life into a great PanAfricanist in the mould of Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. He was a great African, one of the most prolific and controversial African writers.

Indeed, he was one of the most revered PanAfricanist of the century." He was an innovative thinker, someone who put Africa on the world map of popular African ideals.

Otunu further stated that he used biography and juxtaposition of ideals to explain Africa in a way no one else could have done it. He did so especially with his 1986 Africa: A Triple Heritage documentary which was jointly produced by the BBC and the Public Broadcasting Service in Washington in association with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). That film exposed the innate social and political and economic potential of Africa and then zeroed down on how some of these are being daily siphoned by the cabal to deprive the youths of their own golden chances.

Professor Tunde Babawale of the University of Lagos who had close contacts with Mazrui described his death as a big loss to scholarship in Africa. "He was indeed one

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2014

Ali Mazrui: An academic who lived for humanity Ali Mazrui, one of Africa's most firebrand and revered scholars and critics, died during the week in his residence in New York, USA, aged 81. Edozie Udeze takes a look at the man, who, through his many incisive and profound works, attacked African leaders whom he blamed for the economic and social retardation of the continent, among other issues he focused his attention on.

• Mazrui

“Mazrui, whose second wife, Pauline Uti, is a Nigerian, attracted the ire of most sensitive Nigerian leaders when he suggested that the Muslim North are meant to rule Nigeria in perpetuity. A great advocate of Sharia and the rule of law, he held vehemently that Sharia should form part of a democratised society. This was a stand for which he received hard and several knocks from many world and African leaders, yet Mazrui did not bulge.”

of the foremost African intellectuals of this century. His commitment to Africa's autochthonous development is unequalled.

He was a powerful advocate of African cultures as a tool for independent development. He also dealt extensively with the positive role Islam and Islamisation has played in African politics. Mazrui has become one of the loudest voices in the need to democratise the continent as well as the need to have a more politically oriented leadership for the continent."

Mazrui, whose second wife, Pauline Uti, is a Nigerian, attracted the ire of most sensitive Nigerian leaders when he suggested that the Muslim North are meant to rule Nigeria in perpetuity. A great advocate of Sharia and the rule of law, he held vehemently that Sharia should form part of a democratised society.

This was a stand for which he received hard and several knocks from many world and African leaders, yet Mazrui did not budge.

While rejecting violence and terrorism in its entirety, he equally gave vent to some of the anti-imperialist and capitalist sentiments that play important roles in modern Islamic fundamentalism. At the same time, he was a prominent critic of the current world order.

To him, the composition of the current capitalist tendency is deeply and unfortunately exploitative of Africa. What the West does to Africa, he contended, was merely and could be conveniently described as global apartheid.

He was opposed to the Western interventions in whatever forms in the developing world.

His attention was particularly directed at the Iraq war which he insisted couldn't have happened if the West did not meddle in Iraqi internal affairs.

He didn't quite toe the line of the Israeli government in settling the political quagmire in the middle East. To him, most of Israeli policies were totally anti-Islam and therefore should be opposed and discountenanced for the sake of peace and progress in the region. He, in fact, linked the treatment of the Palestinians by the Israeli government to the Apartheid situation in South Africa. This was one sentiment that also earned him doses of attacks from most world leaders.

Trial of Christopher Okigbo In one of his prose fictions dedicated to the late Nigerian poet, Christopher Okigbo, he lamented the sudden death of this great son of Africa. A book that was supposed to be a fiction somewhat passed on other comments that invoked undue nostalgia and ill-feelings. In his own comment on the death of Mazrui, Chijioke Uwasomba of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife, Osun State made specific reference to Mazrui's demeaning of Okigbo, even though as a great man, Mazrui, himself lived a total life dedicated to scholarship.

Uwasomba said: "In spite of his demeaning work, The Trial of Christopher Okigbo, he was a damn good African historian, politically-engaged intellectual, a resounding voice for the African and a source of inspiration to the upcoming African and Africanist scholars. No doubt, he was in the class of Samir Amin, Walter Rodney, Aye Kwei Armah and other well-meaning scholars who through their intellectual exertions wrote back to imperialism and empire builders."

Mombasa Even though Mazrui left East Africa, his birth place in 1973 and never went back to live there, he has requested that his body be taken home to Mombasa, Kenya, for burial.

Known to have died of natural causes in his Vestal home, in New York city, Mazrui is said to have come from one of the most renowned and famous families in Fort Jesus, Mombasa, the city of his birth. The family cemetery was where his parents and other late family members have been interred over the years.

As at the moment, the Kenyan government is not opposed to this request.

Even Mazrui's children are ever eager to take his body home for burial to end an era riddled with the nostalgic fears of exile. To them, it is now time for their sage, a man who brought the family to global limelight to have his final rest where no more exiles or despotic and erratic leaders will haunt and hunt him.

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‘We will perform for Nigerian soldiers’

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ART of the changes in the Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, which took place recently, was the appointment of Akinsola Adejuwon as the new Artistic Director of the National Troupe of Nigeria. The appointment which came on the heels of other changes made in three other sister parastatals is aimed essentially at infusing new life into the sector. With his apointment, Adejuwon, a seasoned visual artist whose international exposure as a consummate and well-tested artist, prepared him well for the post has become the fifth person to lead the National Troupe since its inception in 1991. Others before him were Hubert Ogunde, Bayo Oduneye, Ahmed Yerima and Martin Adaji.

Addressing the press last week to unveil his programmes to move the Troupe to the next level and to continue to improve on the standards of the performances of the artistes, he said: "I will work hard to improve on the large repertoire of ideas and programmes left behind by my predecessor. Beyond that, I could also discover that the staff are well-tested and properly equipped professionals to discharge this job. This shows that we can together make this Troupe get to the highest level ever."

Adejuwon who was until his appointment a staff of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, where he held sway as the curator of the Institute of Cultural Studies, studied Industrial Designs at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, Kaduna State. He also holds a Master degree in African Arts Studies of the OAU, and has persistently organised and run conferences, seminars and workshops, to shore up the image of both the visual and performance arts. A lover of festivals and events, Adejuwon has been involved in the running of several festivals aimed at signposting community events for posterity, youth development and for total entertainment. These and more are parts of the cognate experiences he hopes to bring in to refine the Troupe and make it ever alive and relevant in discharging its statutory role as the apex dance/ performance outfit for the nation.

He said: "With the quality of staff I have on ground already, it is easy, much easier for me to work to achieve results. But we have to reposition the Troupe; we have to make the artistes be in the best mood, in the best frame of mind to work.

I must inform you that my personal contacts and

Title: Oduduwa, King of the Edos Author:Jude Idada Pages: 233 Genre: Drama Reviewer:Adeniyi Taiwo Kunnu

T

HE heated controversies surrounding the ancestry of Oduduwa and the Bini-Yoruba divergent postures may have derived a realistic panacea in the fictive amassing of Jude Idada. It's been said afterall, that what every human owes the universe is either to protect it in its pristine state or add unadulterated colourations to it. These alternatives could well describe the attempt by this young NigerianCanadian, to re-face a perhaps, near-defaced issue, in a bid to salvage the very important history of these proud races, using the channel of creative writing to ostracise the demons of historical distortions.

Employing the imperialist bequest- English Language in its dialogue, the author immersed himself in shark-infested waters of tradition and historical mythology ensuring a balance is attempted with the use of Bini and Yoruba dialects to course through the rhythmic invocations of music and somber dirges, lighting up the embers of tradition in its unalloyed form. It must be noted that referring to Oduduwa as Ekaladerhan; Owomika as Eweka and Ogiso as Oba and a fews others should make for better appreciation as same.

Oduduwa, King of the Edos can best be described as the microcosm of our current geopolitical entity; complete in intrigues, distrusts, treachery, foibles and scarce integrity; vices and virtue which may not elude any civilisation, even if such a sphere wields the toga of civility and sanctimoniousness, it no doubt has evolved overtime from the dregs of bloodshed and ugly inhuman cultivations.

An unforgettable savageness is the 7th century Greek theatre- where Dionysus, god of wine and fertility basked in the wanton revelry of those thespians. One from the current civilisation was the American civil war in the 17th century, characterised by ideological loggerheads and consequent decimation of fellow American rebels, as that's what they are, having crossed the Atlantic to the Americas from the United Kingdom. A more contemporary allusion is the Umbrella Revolution in the former British colony of Hong Kong, where people clamour

Owing to the psychological situation Nigerian soldiers fighting insurgency are facing today in the North-eastern part of Nigeria, the newly appointed Artistic Director of National Troupe of Nigeria (NTN), Mr. Akinsola Adejuwon, has promised to inculcate the habit of performing for the Nigerian soldiers as part of his new ideals to reposition the Troupe. He spoke to reporters on this and more in Lagos last week. Edozie Udeze reports. working experiences with such great artists as Wole Soyinka and Demas Nwoko have over the years reshaped my foray into the art."

With his participation in the previous Black Heritage festivals organised by the Lagos State government where Soyinka made considerable inputs, Adejuwon is now set to lead a highbrow national troupe to train and improve the talents of more artistes to make dance more encompassing. "Yes, the National Troupe I inherited will be taken a bit higher to attain better heights in my tenure. I know the importance attached to this because we are considered as the cultural ambassadors of the country."

To him, the performing experiences of the Troupe have indeed become an enviable one.

"Both performance and visual arts, even in the renaissance Europe played such formidable role, with the kind of environment that existed at that time. Arts today contribute substantially to the national economy and we really have to make it work better. Arts has such reformative powers, powers that we can tap on to create more jobs for the youths, discover new artistes and make them more useful. In my own role, I will continue to work to propel such powers which the president of the country has invested in the National Troupe as the cultural ambassadors of Nigeria.”

He promised to ensure that all parts of the nation feel the impact of the performing nuances of the Troupe. "Most of our local performances and programmes may have to be taken to other

•National Troupe performing on stage

geopolitical zones of the country. In fact, we also intend to perform for Nigerians troops involved in the fight against insurgency in the North. As a national troupe, we are meant to reach out to the whole nation, states where good artiste are, we will discover them and we can co-opt them in, we will willingly do that. But in all these, we require finances. I am therefore prepared to involve the private sector to achieve all these goals. We know Nigeria is blessed. Even now our art is among the best in the world. By this, I mean all aspects of the art. Therefore, we need to look at the available infrastructure which we have to improve upon to achieve our desires."

Even when the National Troupe has already cultivated its own customers and collaborators over the years, Adejuwon still hopes to go the extra mile to cultivate more partners in the society.

"The whole idea," he said, "is to ensure that our troupe is organised in such a way as to achieve all that the federal government represents. We need to add value; indeed, we have to help government achieve the kind of image needed to make Nigeria better. Right now, we have a great number of artistes we have to take care of.

I have been talking to them to know their state of mind, their needs and based on that we will know what to do to make them work better."

Since for now, the Artistic Director does not have to depend entirely on the funds from the federal government, he therefore has a lot of task ahead of him to source for bigtime financiers for most of his programmes. Government fortunes are dwindling by the day because of the conflicts that we have. So, we will be very proactive in terms of raising funds to run the place. This, I hope to do with my able team and cooperation of other well-meaning Nigerians. We will be aggressive in our drive to generate funds and then produce quality shows for our people."

A unique king among his people for what is theirs and the authorities in Beijing are dung-faced about it.

The work opens with introduction of the treacherous and tempestuous warrior Uwafiokun, leading fellow fighters against Evian and Ogianmen, a regent of Igodomigodo and his son, whose heads eventually leave their bodies to his sword. Shameful and deserved, Uwafiokun's retributive imbecility comes to the fore as one journeys through the work and definitely attest to fate's punitive measure against hypocrisy and greater iniquity. A plunge from an initial exalted position, where war fought was for his pernicious intents than the preservation of the revered culture and heritage of Ogisos, and the Edo people.

Hear him in Act One, Scene One: "Let the hunger of the greedy consume the usurper of the crown of the Ogisos…Ogiamen!"

If anyone ever predicted his own end, then Uwafiokun just did. Expressing to the ears of all within earshot and impressing on the justification for beheading some usurpers. It is no doubt an auto-prophecy for the same crime he accuses Evian and Ogiamen of. He shares similarity with Odewale in Ola Rotimi's The gods are not to blame, who unknowing predicts his own end on the knowledge that Oba Adetusa has been killed by none other than himself.

This opening foreshadows unveiled chains of plots by power mongers and power brokers who jostle with wisdom, practical steps and at times deviousness in order to stem the tide of what causes man to be left in delirium. This disorientation can be adduced to the overriding influence of the gods; seeming insatiable cum conflicting tendencies of man and certain inexplicable phenomena. These descriptions definitely chart its course through different levels of conflicts in the work Evian the beheaded regent says in Act One, Scene two: "Culture is silent; it needs a man of wisdom, foresight and courage to speak on its behalf…."

Crave for wisdom, foresight and courage results in the need for an Ogiso to occupy the throne of his ancestors. How then can Igodomido have her "Ruler from the sky"? Banished, hasn't he been? Majority of Ovbiedo believes he is long

dead in the forest of Igo, following his fate occasioned by the treacherous Queen Esagho and subsequent verdict by Ogiso OwodoEkaladerhan's father. Conversely, a handful knows Oduduwa lives. The accomplices include, Ezomo- a highly respected member of the Edion'isen and Odionmwan- chief of the palace executioners- whose acts of omission eventually guarantees a royal lineage.

In Ola Rotimi's The gods are not blame, King Adetusa's and Queen Ojuola's joy become shortlived, when it gets predicted that their source of fulfillment-Odewale- will become their eventual failings. It is in similar vein that Oduduwa is sentenced to die, so as to make way for other sons to be sired from the loins of Ogiso Owodo. Situating both works side by side, one

finds the gods' intervention in man's affairs, with an instruction to tow a line so as to address an immediate concern or avert an impending doom.

While Ekaladerhan was not killed by Odionmwan, Odewale was himself spared by Gbonka, leading up to the fates of these core personas, who at best are reflections of an artist impression.

A contrast, however, surfaces. It is gullibility, cowardice cum stupid verdict from Ogiso Owodo, who prefers to cast out the strength of his youthEkaladerhan- as that appeared to placate his inability to bear more sons. It however, happens to be a bull's eyes prophecy in Ola Rotimi's work, where the prophecy comes to pass, but also enabled by man's inability to adhere to instructions-Gbonka.

An important precedent in the work is that, only blue bloods who are eldest males become Ogisos, so the revelation about Oduduwa bearing rule over Yorubas in Ile Ife is received with mixed emotions. Ezomo reveals the veracity of Ekaladerhan's existence, but since patience is alien to Uwafiokun and treachery pitches a concrete tent at his domain, such stories are best left as myths from Europe's dark ages.

Hear him again in Act One, Scene Two: "I stand here ready to go to war with anyone who tries to use guile and flowery words to usurp the throne."

Uwafiokun appears to breathe on war. His every existence is in making another life go down lifeless, should any situation not find an immediate comprehension in his cerebrum. He even refuses to make peace with his fellow chiefs because to him, war alone resolves knotty issues.

Power indeed has its stuporous tendencies.

Priority for the Edos is seeing Ekaladerhan return to his homeland, so that an unoccupied throne will be ascended. Oliha, a member of the Edion'isen carries this burden of destiny. His childhood fondness and friendship with Oduduwa is leveraged to accomplish this daunting task of salvaging the throne.

This quest however has its thorny sides, because a trap set is often forgotten, but he who gets entrapped and wrenches out with bruises never forgets. This dialogue between Oliha and Oduduwa in Act Two , Scene Three spells it aptly.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014

67

With Adeola Ogunlade 08083127847

Hello kids, How was your week? Hope you had a splendid week Remember to focus on your studies and be careful the kind of friends you choose as they could make or mar your career prospect in life

Fear of God, hardwork recipe for success

T

HE Programme Manager, Community Law Foundation, Uzodinma Nwaogbe has indentify the fear of God, hard work, prayer and respect for elders as factors responsive for greatness in life.

Nwaogbe made this known last week at a symposium organized by CEE Hope Nigeria in collaboration with Tipple "G" Girl Club Makoko for girls in commemoration of United Nation International Day of the Girl Child held in Makoko.

The theme Ending the cycle of violence against Adoles-

cent Girls brought together over 50 girls drawn from the community and Ogun state, cleric, traditional ruler which feature seminar, drama, book presentation and campaign on bring back the girls.

According to him, there is no limit to success for any youth no matter their gender, status, or environment when they fear God, do his will, pray and respect elders.

Uzodima who spoke on the topic Girls go for greatness said this is the best time ever for a girl child to be born as there are immerse opportunities that are now

Q. What do you do with a dead chemist?

A. Barium.

Q. Why do chemists prefer nitrates?

A. Because they're cheaper than day rates.

Q. What's the first thing you should learn in chemistry?

A. Never lick the spoon.

Q. What is the name of the first electricity detective?

A. Sherlock Ohms.

Q. Want to hear a joke about sodium hypobromite?

A. NaBrO! Q. What did one electron say to the other electron?

A. Don't get excited. You'll only get into a state!

Q. What did the thermometer say to the graduated cylinder?

A. You may have graduated

JOKES

available for everyone to explore for greater productivity in any sector.

He warned against unhealthy behavior and relationship that is capable of truncating their lives dreams, said "there are so much time for you to joy in life, his is the tome to be focus and concentrate on your studies and avoid bad behavior".

In her words, the founder of CEE Hope Nigeria, Mrs. Betty Abah said that the programme is aimed at reaching the underprivileged children with the message that would help them lead a better life.

but I've got many degrees.

Q. What did the nuclear physicist have for lunch?

A. Fission Chips.

Q. Why is electricity so dangerous?

A. It doesn't conduct itself.

Q. What do you call a Catholic Church service that is very, very important?

A. Critical mass.

POEMS A Child's Evening Prayer ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge Ere on my bed my limbs I lay, God grant me grace my prayers to say: O God! preserve my mother dear In strength and health for many a year; And, O! preserve my father too, And may I pay him reverence due; And may I my best thoughts employ To be my parents' hope and joy; And O! preserve my brothers both From evil doings and from sloth, And may we always love each other Our friends, our father, and our mother: And still, O Lord, to me impart An innocent and grateful heart, That after my great sleep I may Awake to thy eternal day!

Amen

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

CAREER TIPS

What you need to know Engineering

S

CIENCE is studying the world as it is: engineers create the world that has never been- Theodore Von Karmar. Engineering and technology may not be the easiest areas of study, but they are course of study that continues to be in demand, and because they are challenging, those studying them stand out from the crowd. You are also more likely to find employment quickly and work your way up the career ladder with an engineering or technology degree. Under engineering, we have multiples options which are Chemical, electrical, petroleum, mechanical, computer, civil, mentalogical and material engineer.

Career prospect Multiple options require basic knowledge in English, Mathematics, Physics, and

Chemistry They are inventive and dynamic They can work independently subject to how fund is available They have wide field of application or employment opportunities. They can work anywhere depending on their area of study and specialty.

Entry qualification Minimum Bachelor degree Flare for design Where you can work Construction companies Manufacturing/Production Companies ICT sector Multinational Companies Schools, churches, NGOs International Organisation Federal/State Ministries of Agriculture, Works, Housing, Education etc

RIDDLES Answer to the last week riddle activity . A clock! . A glove. . An egg. . A bottle. . A towel. . Your age. .Your name. . A shadow. . The moon. .....................................................

Riddle activity What do you do with a dead chemist?

Why do chemists prefer nitrates?

What's the first thing you should learn in chemistry?

What is the name of the first electricity detective?

Want to hear a joke about

sodium hypobromite?

What did one electron say to the other electron?!

What did the thermometer say to the graduated cylinder?

What did the nuclear physicist have for lunch?

Why is electricity so dangerous?

What do you call a Catholic Church service that is very, very important?

Please send in the answer to these questions and you stand a chance of winning prices. send your name, and the name of the school and class to: sundaynation@yahoo.com or adeolaogunlade2010@yahoo.com.

68

EBERE WABARA

WORDSWORTH 08055001948

ewabara@yahoo.com

Still on ‘tear gas’

“T

HIS truth no doubt was expressed in recognition of the role of the press in any society, especially one striving towards (for/after) the attainment of democracy.”

“And as the UN was packing its bags and baggage out of Somalia….”

Standard expression: bag and baggage. “…the whole nation hailed and applauded both parties in the protracted ASUU crisis for reaching an agreeable truce.” Gentlemen of the Press, what is the meaning of ‘agreeable truce’?

Students used to make newspapers reference materials for English language studies. I doubt if that happens these days, with oddities like ‘agreeable truce’.

“Cake is fattening thereby loosing its attraction to….” Correct spelling can’t lose attraction.

“I and the other Nigerians who had come to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia…”

(Daily Newswatch, October 17) Grammatical discipline demands that you put self last: The other Nigerians and I….

“Kogi workers asked to sign attendant register” ‘Attendance register’, please. “…and the partitioning of the country by the clan chiefs and warlords continue.”

(Daily Newswatch, October 17) …the partitioning (not the chiefs and warlords) continues.’

“Another recipient of the award was one of the directors of RayPower, a private electronic media….” If a non-journalist does not know the differences between ‘media’ and ‘medium’, I could excuse the fellow, but a (supposed) colleague of mine writing ‘a media’ amounts to crass illiteracy.

“They have in most cases remained willing collaborators in the depoliticization of the political system by acquiescing to virtually all the issues….” I cannot acquiesce in the ruination of modern English by some traditionalists.

“It was a most unhurried journey accomplished well over six hours, from 9 a.m. in the morning till about 2.00 p.m. in the afternoon.” One of these days, somebody will scribble ‘I saw the picture with my naked eyes’! Dear reader, you do not need

‘in the morning or afternoon’ after the abbreviation ‘a.m.’ or ‘p.m.’ ‘A.m.’ means ante meridiem (before noon). Similarly, p.m. refers to post meridiem (afternoon).

“The effectiveness of these provisions are hampered by ignorance and poverty.” This smacks of language poverty. Ignorance should not be extended to grammatical concord: “The effectiveness…. Is’.

“Available statistics has revealed that the magnitude of housing problem…” Singular: statistic; plural: statistics. This however does not apply to Statistics as a course of study.

“Disbursement under the loan scheme are subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions…” All sentences must obey subjectverb stipulation: ‘Disbursement… is’.

“Students warn” without any ‘kicker’ or ‘rider’—this is a very unscholarly, dull and meaningless headline. I was taught in my first year in the university that headlines must make sense.

“A reflection into our attitude toward claim settlement would expose….” I give the insurance and assurance that ‘reflection’ takes ‘on’ or ‘upon’, not ‘into’ “Earlier this year, FEPA officials had argued that they need an interval of raising public consciousness with regards to the environment…” As regards to the environment….” As regards…or with regard to…. You can also use ‘concerning’ in place of any of the two.

“We have heard of people running for office, a running mate, running neck to neck or the race between X and Y being too close to call”. Politicians run neck and neck; not “neck to neck”.

“Problems of one nation have a remarkable way of spilling into other nations as in refugees fleeing from one troubled spot to safe havens”. Good command of language: trouble spot.

“That same day, Robinson, his supporters and other Nigerians demonstrated in front of the Nigerian embassy on 16th Street, just a stone throw from Trans-Africa’s office.

“Democratic English: A stone’s throw.

“Criminal investigations into the controversial death of … has run into a hitch. “For a hitch-free sen-

tence, change ‘has’ to ‘have.’

“The Akabogu family took the hospital to court last year claiming N50 million damage for the death of….”The family claimed damages!

ELUCIDATION & FEEDBACK A fortnight ago, in this column, I magisterially declared that ‘tear-gas’ which I corrected by way of hyphenation, functions equally as a verb—not just a noun. A language pundit faulted the verb application, insisting on its noun exclusivity. The controversial excerpt: “Police tear gas (tear-gas) Hong Kong ‘Occupy Central’ pro-democracy demonstrators” This week, as follows immediately below, two avid readers have thrown their weight behind my assertion. Please, no further contradiction on this obvious incontrovertibility. Take this linguistic notice: no victor no vanquished in dynamic language debates!

Now the interventions….

CONSIDERING the sheer mass of material involved in producing your column, it is a non-issue if one or two errors escape your eyes. Macmillan English Dictionary (International Student’s Edition, 2nd Edition 2007) on Page 1535 says: TEARGAS (verb) (T) to use tear gas to control violent crowds.

The Chambers Dictionary (10th Edition, 2006) on 1569 says: TEAR-GAS (VT): To use tear gas on…. (Bola, Ogori, Kogi State, 08058810301) ‘TEAR GAS’ is an uncountable noun while ‘tear-gas’ (hyphenated), an intransitive, is its corresponding verb. ‘Tear-gas’ inflects ‘tear-gasses/teargassing—gassed/has teargassed. Look it up in The Merriam Webstar Dictionary, P. 53 and World Book Dictionary, P. 2153).

(Bayo Oguntunase, 0 8 0 5 6 1 8 0 0 4 6 , adoro62@yahoo.co.uk) LAST week, a phrase read: “Among items destroyed were textile materials….” ‘Material’ is unnecessary because ‘textile’ is a fabric or woven material’.

(Kola Danisa, 07068074257) Wrong: counsels; right: counsel.

(RayPower, October 13, 6 p.m. Bulletin) THE last contribution is from Dontexas Ekarika, Warri, Delta State, 08076252169: “Okorocha congratulates Obi for (on/ upon) dumping APGA” (DAILY INDEPENDENT, October 10)

THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014

M

R. STEVE OSUJI’S column, Expresso, is usually an interesting read on account of the depth of insight he brings to issues.However, on Friday, 3 October, 2014, he chose to deviate from his incisive style and delved into the banal realm of “pull him/her down (Phd)” criticism that many columnists have come to be known for. His tirade against Forbes for choosing the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani AlisonMadueke, for its “Best of Africa Leadership Award” was a crass display of lack of discernment.

Osuji’s position in the article titled: “Forbes’ Certificate of Infamy”, was that the American publishing firm goofed in giving an award to the Minister of Petroleum Resources when it is “common knowledge that Diezani has grossly under-performed as a minister, having superintended over a chaotic oil sector riddled with malfeasance in the last three years”. His tirade would have been better ignored but for its potential of being taken by a gullible Nigerian public as the truth.

The respected columnist argued that the oil and gas industry under the stewardship of Mrs. Alison-Madueke has witnessed “no new facilities, inability to fix old ones, IOCs divesting with urgency, unprecedented high sea oil theft and a regime of sleaze and phantom subsidy that has left Nigeria economy prostrate”. For him, the extensive gas infrastructure projects aimed at transforming the nation into a global gas hub so as to harness the benefit of the huge gas reserves which have been globally acknowledged to far exceed the nation’s crude oil reserves do not count for new projects. The Oredo Gas Processing Facility that was commissioned last year does not qualify for a new project in the estimation of the columnist. Neither do the numerous deep offshore projects coming on stream or even the new discoveries such as the Aje Oil and Gas Field and the oil find in the Anambra River Basin!

For the respected columnist,

RIGHT OF REPLY

Re: Forbes Certificate of Infamy

• Diezani Alison-Madueke

By Alex Okumo the massive rehabilitation of the nation’s inland depots and the products pipelines to facilitate easy distribution of products do not count as old facilities being fixed under the watch of Mrs. Alison-Madueke as Minister of Petroleum Resources. It does not matter to him that most of the Depots such as Aba, Benin, Jos, Gombe, and others that were rendered moribund for years because of the scourge of pipeline sabotage have been brought back on stream. Neither does the revamping of the LPG facilities attached to some of the depots count for old facilities fixed under the watch of Mrs. AlisonMadueke as Minister of Petroleum!

The third point Osuji raised against the Minister is the spate of divestments by IOCs. As a public commentator, one would expect Osuji to understand the issues involved in the divestments before making it look as they are an act of protest against the Minister. Long before Mrs. Alison-Madueke was appointed Minister of Petroleum Resources, many of the IOCs had been having problems with communities around their areas of operation, especially in their onshore acreages. The divestments being carried out are ba-

sically in their onshore fields.

None of the oil majors has left the country. All of them are still investing heavily in offshore field development. Meanwhile, Nigerian indigenous oil companies are benefitting from the divestment as it gives them the opportunity to invest in the upstream sub-sector of the industry and enhance local participation in keeping with the Federal Government local content policy. So the divestment by IOCs is not a bad thing as Mr. Osuji tried to imply.

Other reasons why the Minister did not deserve the award

by Forbes, according to Mr. Osuji, are the massive crude oil theft and sleaze surrounding the subsidy regime.Any fair minded analyst would know that oil theft is a security issue and that the Minister of Petroleum Resources is not in charge of any of the nation’s securityagencies. In fact, to her credit, she has convened a stakeholders’ meeting where all the service chiefs met to brainstorm on how to stop the trend of oil theft. The Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan-led panel on anti-oil theft is an outcome of her intervention.

On the issue of sleaze in the petrol subsidy regime, it must be stated that none of the panels instituted to investigate the scam indicted the Minister of any wrong-doing in the whole saga.

In fact, those found culpable are already being prosecuted by the EFCC. It is curious why the columnist insists on tagging the Minister with a crime she did not commit and expect a credible and respected organization like Forbes to deny her an award because of a crime she did not commit.

If Mr. Osuji believes that the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Petroleum Resources who have so far been honoured with the award by Forbes do not deserve it, it may simply be a question of the prophet not being without honour except in his own home. ·•Okumo is of Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC

'It's very painful that Amaechi left PDP' •Continued from Page 23 Much as Rivers remains a PDP state, with the riverine Ijaw group absolutely supportive of their son, the President's election for a second term shall be without rancour or problem.

But that of the election of the governor could tear the state apart. This is why it is my fervent and strong solicitation, that the PDP must not field another Ikwerre aspirant, but someone from the riverine Ijaw or Ogoni group.

There is the common propaganda disseminated that without the Ikwerre vote, no governor can emerge in the next dispensation. This is absolutely incorrect, because in the 1999 elections, whereas the Ikwerre, Ogoni and few other groups did not vote for Dr. Peter Odili, who had just one ward.

The combined, undivided and consolidated votes of the riverine communities led to the emergence of Dr. Peter Odili as governor. I will summarise that if by carelessness or inattention to the realities, we take for granted the PDP support and neglect the concealed strategies of the opposition, we may have some dents in our family (PDP).

This is why, we have in the past few months galvanised the elders and leaders of the state to speak with one voice and accord,

•Graham-Douglas and select a governorship aspirant. God being our help, we shall succeed.

What are your views about the recent reintegration meeting of the PDP in Abuja?

From the innocent and unsuspecting perceptual viewpoint, the intention of the party's hierarchy may seem plausible and commendable. I personally presented myself and briefed the committee that I find men and women of honour and charac-

ter, I am confident that they will provide unbiased, non-sentimental and God-fearing report that will consolidate their already-acceptable credibility.

I do believe that the committee will have the moral assessment of the aspirant Nyesom Wike and his chief promoter, Dr. Peter Odili, and some masked party officials, who are making it a do-or-die matter, concerning the emergence of Wike, without ever appraising its positive and negative repercussions in the state.

In a system where a serving minister would singlehandedly spend large sums of money to organise party structure, provide party paraphernalia and pay monthly expenditure, without anyone asking questions, or where someone will govern a state and he is investigated by a law enforcing and financial regulation body, with proven financial recklessness, would ask a court of competent jurisdiction to grant perpetual injunction not to be probed and yet because of selfish and myopic motives, such characters will be honoured graciously with national honours, with pomp and ceremony, is a paradox.

Enough is enough and I can assure you that never and never again shall the riverine Ijaw and Ogoni groups be marginalised and deprived.

69

THE NATION ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2014

INTERVIEW

Y

OU were 60 in August.

How is life at 60?

I think I am just trying to assimilate the reality of being 60. I have never been there before but now that I find myself there, it is a different ball game altogether. I'm beginning to redefine life and see it differently from how I used to before.

The reality that one does not have too much time anymore is sinking in now.

My approach is to think differently from what I used to. I think this age bracket is teaching me a lot of lessons… …Which are?

One, you don't have all the time anymore. You must value your time and take advantage of the opportunities of life.

Two, you must value the people around you because people are assets and they could also be liabilities. Three, you must be patient with yourself and people around.

Four, you cannot win the world or even own the whole world.

Whatever God gives to you, be content with it and appreciate Him for it. You must leave a legacy, an imprint in the life of people because life is not just about yourself.

So, I have learnt all of these and I have just living to impact people than I have done in the past. Those are the things I will be working on henceforth.

But you must also be thinking about succession at your age. I know many don't like to talk about it…?

Well, you know it is a reality of life. I remember the first time I told my children that when we die we should be buried in a certain place. I said 'bury me here and my wife close by' but my last daughter said 'daddy, don't mention it' but I insisted it is a reality of life. It's like a 40 year-old refusing to write his will. He has to do that because it is mere deception to think you will always be around. God owns our breath.

So, the issue of succession is something that I have been praying about. There is a succession plan in place. I have a programme for myself

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'We should stop killing our wounded soldiers'

The general overseer of Agape Christian Ministries, Akure, Bishop Felix Adejumo, is a leader of leaders. He spoke with Sunday Oguntola on life at 60 and sundry issues affecting the body of Christ. and I told myself I have maybe ten more years to work actively. From 70, I will relax and take easier responsibilities that will not put pressure on my health. I am sound and healthy but I must not put too much pressure on myself. I have a retirement plan that I'm sticking to.

How much of mentoring are you into these days?

That is my major project now. It is what will take the latter years of my life. In the next ten years, I will be at some locations where I can be more accessible and raise the next generation. I want to share with them life experiences, principles and revelations from the word. I'd want to impart them with practical experiences of my life so that they can see both sides of the divides.

I am already thinking about that and it will cut across denominations. I have a lot of mentees and others are joining. I want to open up my life to them for impartation and learning.

How does it make you feel when one of your mentees is derailing and seems not to be yielding?

It is very painful sometimes especially if it is somebody you love so much.

You have invested and such a mentee is derailing but there is nothing you can do. There is nothing you can do but to pray. You can't but have such issues and that is why you have to open such a person up to the pitfalls in life. But if he falls into them again, you don't throw away the baby with the bath water. You don't run away, abdicate your

•Adejumo

responsibility as a father but hang on there to rescue that person.

Sometimes, don't you feel that some of them would have dragged your name in the mud in the process since everyone knows you are associated with them?

Honestly speaking, it is God that builds a name. If you have a baby that pees, you clean him up and not run away. You won't say you don't want the child to stain

Cleric seeks changes in workplaces

HE immediate Chairman of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) Lagos State, Apostle Alexander Bamgbola, has urged Christians to embrace changes.

He gave the advice at the monthly Conference for Leadership Change (CLC) organised by Voice of Change for Global Network (VCGN) in Lagos.

He noted some Nigerians are not employed by foreigners because of the bad attitudes of others who were ill-trained, incompetent and dishonest, displayed in the past.

By Joseph Eshanokpe

He said Nigerians lack respect internationally and are treated shabbily because of the fear that some of them are tricksters and crooks.

Christians, he counselled, should be in the vanguard of change, noting that hard work pays.

The former president of First National Bank of Boston Massachussetts, United States decried corruption in banking.

He wondered how a sincere banker could have billions while criticising materialism.

He canvassed for integrity in the workplace, saying: "Even

you and then walk away. If anybody says you are stained, well that is their opinion. You have your life to live. I have had a lot of such things. People will say 'he is their father', 'like father, like son'. But I don't mind. It is between me and God. That one of my mentees misbehaves does not mean I do or have to do. My shoulders are down for them to rise and I never walk out on them. I don't want to abandon people when

it's tough times. I want to be there for them because it can happen to anybody. The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong. Nobody is above any mistake or error. If anybody falters, we have to rally round. That is what happens in the army. If a soldier is wounded, they carry, nurture and nurse the wounded soldiers to life.

But it is never like that in the faith, is it?

It is not but it should be like that. That is what the scripture wants us to do. We kill our wounded soldiers when we should have helped to rescue and nurse them back to life. Some people even gloat over such developments. They say they have had revelations the person will fall. I think it is demonic because it is not of God. God is forgiving and who are we not to forgive?

So, we have to be there and protect our wounded soldiers. We have to help them back to fitness. In the parable of the Samaritans, the Levite and Priest saw the wounded man and left but the Samaritan rescued him.

The Levite and Priest represent the church while the Samaritan represents those in the workplace. We are the ones killing ourselves not the people outside the church.

It is lack of love. We only read the Bible many times but never demonstrate it. We should look through the attributes of love as defined in I Corinthians 13 and we would see how far we have derailed.

How do you feel when a

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if you do change the nation, change yourself. Change your tomorrow."

The Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer Air Separation Limited, Sosan Akpieyi, who spoke on taking the lead in manufacturing said: "Step out. It is in your taking action that help will come.

Don't be afraid to fail."

He canvassed acquisition of skills, saying education is not alone.

"The world,'' he said, ''is titling towards the man who has skills. He has an edge. If you are a plumber, do it well.

Believe me, everyone has a skill.''

man of God is misbehaving and is not accessible for mentoring?

Well, we are just instruments in the hands of God. In a situation where a pastor is messing up and is not available, well it is a choice he has made. It is a privilege to bear one another's burden.

When we don't have access to them, we only pray.

How is the Lekki church coming up?

It is coming up strong and we are in the process of getting a permanent centre.

Why Lekki, which is already saturated with churches, of all places?

There is no place that is not saturated but you see God will direct your flock to you. They will locate you anywhere you are. Your people will come and identify with you.

Many people feel you are just hiding in Akure. A preacher like you should be in Lagos, Abuja or any of the other big cities. How do you react to that?

There is nothing like be in God's place for one's life. I believe it is the will of God for our Headquarters to be in Ondo State. That is my place of primary assignment. Our branches are just extensions of what we did in Akure. I once tried coming to Lagos, somewhere in Surulere. I was in devotion one morning when God told me He didn't say I should relocate to Lagos though I could have a work in Lagos.

He said I should not leave my place of protection, my place of rewards and my place of prosperity. That was why I stayed put. So Akure will be my base except God says otherwise. Akure is my Jerusalem.

Your marriage clocked 30 also. How has it been?

It's been fantastic and challenging in the sense that there is no marriage without challenges. But grace has helped us to manage those challenges. My wife and I are close friends. We are lovers.

That has kept us all these years. God has helped us to raise our children well.

Laughter 2014 kicks off today

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•L-R, Pastor Chukwudi Ezekwe, Rev. Lazarus of Voice of the Cross, Pastor (Mrs.) Ezekwe and another guest when Lazarus paid a visit.

HE annual Harvest of Miracles at Pentecostal Canaan land Mission Incorporated aka reaching the World For Christ begins today.

Tagged Laughter 2014, it holds at 26/28, Adewunmi Abudu Street off Osolo Way, Ajao Lagos.

A suya night holds on Friday from 10pm till dawn.

The host, Pastor Nick & Pastor (Mrs.) Medo - Uwa stated that ministers expected include Pastor J.T. Kalejaiye (Lagos), Rev. Glory Idahosa and Rev. Felix Chikwendu.

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HE General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has tasked government to review the land use act and tenancy rate in to make housing affordable to all.

Adeboye said this at the Special monthly prayer and thanksgiving service for tenants and landlords at the National Headquarters of the church in Ebute-Metta, Lagos.

Tagged A sure house, the service attracted thousands and featured which prayers, thanksgiving, teaching and prophetic ministration.

Adeboye stated that the provision of affordable houses by the government will reduce crime to the barest minimum.

He said it could also reduce death rate among Nigerians while also helping with National planning.

He said that in the advanced countries, housings are made available at very low with longterm mortgage facilities.

He pointed out that such

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Stories by Adeola Ogunlade

transparent mortgage systems have been the major panacea for affordable housing in other countries.

Adeboye appealed: "If Nigerian government could do that also it will to reduce the problem of housing in the country."

Adeboye, who spoke through his Special Assistant on Administration and Personnel, Pastor Johnson Odeola, said: "government pragmatic way of addressing housing problems in Nigeria should be "Start it Now" "If government at all level could start doing something now and be committed to it, in few years to come the housing problem in will disappear into thin air as little drop."

He opined that strict policies

on land ownership, tenement rate and other measures should be considered to encourage average Nigerian to own a land and build their houses.

"Government could also made landed properties available to common man at low rate which will enhance building capacity of a common man to own and build his own house," he added.

While encouraging the congregation to trust God to supply for their needs including a house for them to live in, he said: "There is a time and a season for every man created

by God. "Hence there is a time for God to turn someone from a tenant to a landlord. I think it is the time of God to remember someone for good that is why the topic is a sure house."

others.

Speaking as the guest preacher, Asaju said the prevalence of confusion, poverty, corruption, injustices and insecurity offer an opportunity for Christians to show the light of God and influence their communities.

He said: "The whole of God's creature are waiting for the light of Jesus that drives away darkness. It is only the children of God that can bring solution to the problem of societies."

He noted that Christians of all ages have risen up to bring about good education, health care facilities, good roads, portable water and all forms of economic empowerment programmes in modern civilisation.

Asaju argued that the church cannot remain indifferent to the needs and aspirations of the world, stating: "The time of harvest for God's children will soon come as we sow in tears for a better and safer world for all of us to live in and our children, we will reap in joy

here in this world and in eternity."

He stressed that Christians must be faithful and content with the little that the Lord has given to them and avoid the short-cut syndrome that has done more harms than good to the nation.

The Hon. vice Lay President, Lagos Mainland Diocese of the church, Chief Babatunde Odufuwa, said that the harvest celebration of the church was to appreciate the goodness of God in their homes, family, church and bring their fruits and material gift in recognition of His goodness.

Odufuwa, who is also the Chancellor of Southwestern University, appealed to government to invest more in developing young minds that would be veritable catalysts for development.

In her response to the award, the Head of Service, Lagos State, Mrs. Josephine Williams, said that it will propel her to do more for the kingdom.

Trinity House seeks greater Nigeria

HE Trinity House Church Victoria Island Lagos has honoured some distinguished individuals in various fields of endeavours.

The fourth in the series, the event was tagged Honour Nigeria awards.

It was in commemoration of the nation's 54th Independence anniversary.

Those honoured include: former Ambassador to the United Kindgom, Dr Christopher Kolade for Leadership; the late Dr Ameyo Adadevoh and Mr. Akaniyene Edet for National and Community Service; founder of First City Monument Bank

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Adeboye charges govt on affordable housing

'Represent Christians in all things'

HE Bishop Theologian of The Anglican Communion and Rector of Crowther Graduate Theological Seminary, Rev. Dapo Asaju, has charged Christians to continue to beam the light of Jesus in different strata of national life.

Asaju gave this charge at the 2014 Adult Harvest of The African Church Cathedral Salem Ebute-Metta, Lagos penultimate Sunday.

Tagged Harvest of Uncommon Lifting, the service attracted government officials, captains of industry and community leaders.

Exemplary Christians who have contributed to the kingdom also received awards.

Among the awardees were The Head of Service, Lagos State, Mrs. Josephine Wiilliams; Managing Director, Daddu Construction Company, Surulere, Sir David Dawodu and Vice Chairman Twelve Brethren Society, Bro Muyiwa Odumose, among

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THE NATION ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2014

WORSHIP

• Honours individuals

By Nneka Nwaneri

(FCMB) Otunba Subomi Balogun for professionalism and Dame Priscilla Kuye bagged the award for female role model and leadership.

The Senior Pastor of Trinity House, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, in his sermon titled: 'What makes a nation great' stressed the need for churches to partner with government in the provision of community services.

He said any nation that wants to be great must get rid of idolatry, produce transformed leaders and citizens with the right thinking.

Ighodalo thanked the honourees for their services and urged Nigerians to emulate them.

"I salute them that even in the face of adversities, they stood strong. Nothing should be too difficult for you to do for others," he stated.

Son of the late Dr Adadevoh, Bankole Cardoso, said Nigerians supported the family's during their trying period.

Akanieyene has served in the Police Force for 32 years.

He controls traffic daily in the sun and rain and was spotted on his duty post that same morning of the award.

•From third left: Senator Gbenga Obadara; Hon Jumoke Okoya-Thomas; Chairman of Dangote Group of Companies, Alhaji Aliko Dangote; Dr Christopher Kolade and his wife; Senior Pastor of Trinity House Church Ituah Ighodalo; his wife Ibidun; son of Late Dr Stella Adadevoh, Bankole Cardoso; representative of Deputy Governor of Lagos, Mrs Ronikeji Shobayo and Managing Director of First City Group, Sir Peter Obaseki when Trinity House Honoured 5 Nigerians at the church's auditoruim in Victoria Island, Lagos, yesterday.

PHOTO: NNEKA NWANERI

Living Faith

By Dr. David Oyedepo

Encounter with Destiny from His Book! (3)

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N our discourse of Encounter with Destiny from His Book last week, we described every true child of God as a redeemed Spiritual Eagle. We identified the general features of the Eagle and attempted to relate the bird to the redeemed Christian, who is a Spiritual Eagle.

Today, we shall continue that discussion by situating the subject in the significance of the Bible, which is God's special dream Book for our encounter with destiny. Let us understand however, that the Bible is a Book of instructions and our life cannot be worth any more than we are addicted to those instructions.

In fact, our ultimate proofs are engendered by instructions and that's why those who hate instructions cannot go far with God. Therefore, sensitivity and commitment to His leadings is vital to our making (2 Timothy 3:16, Proverbs 4:13, Isaiah 48:21).

From the story of the eagle, the mother eagle goes outside her nest, bears the eaglet on her back, and soars to the skies. In the midst of the flight, the mother eagle suddenly removes her back, while the eaglet struggles for survival. When the eaglet is about crashing into the sea or on the rock, the mother eagle comes and bears him.

There are too many believers who have remained eaglets all their lives, because they won't get out of the 'nest' and take responsibility.

Though there is an eagle in us, it takes discipline, focused

spiritual exercises, being led by the Spirit among others, for the eagle in us to come alive.

Our second picture from scriptures is that every child of God is redeemed a 'Sun' of Righteousness: We understand from scriptures that Jesus is the Sun of righteousness and as the Father has sent Him, so Has He sent us. It therefore means that we are redeemed as 'suns' of righteousness. However, we must understand that though redemption has made us a sun, it is revelation that helps us to see and actualise it (Malachi 4:12, Psalm 84:11, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Isaiah 60).

But, what is the Sun worth?

•Scientifically, the sun is an entity of global phenomenon: The sun is worth all that engenders life on the earth. For instance, plants are absolutely dependent on sunlight; otherwise they will die. We also know that animals are absolutely dependent on plants, because they, including humans, survive by the oxygen that plants supply. Therefore, the sun is the fountain of life!

Likewise, every child of God is redeemed a global phenomenon and a fountain of life (Matthew 5:13-16) •There is enormous heat in the sun: Naturally, no chaff can survive the heat of the sun and we understand that whatever is not planted by God in our lives is chaff. Thus, when the sun in us comes fully alive, nothing can survive except what is planted by God (Matthew 3:11-12).

In scriptures, Jesus, the Sun of righteousness, is described as the burning and shining light. When He appeared, the

demons couldn't stand His presence and they cried out, "Have You come to destroy us before the time?" (John 5:35, Matthew 8:29). Likewise, redemption has made us 'suns' of righteousness and the overriding Sun (Jesus) dwells in us.

How is this heat generated?

The Holy Ghost is the fire from heaven, the Word is the wood and inside that wood is also fire. When the fire within the wood and the fire of the Holy Ghost come together, then we generate the heat of the sun. Also, we understand from scriptures that where there is no wood, the fire goes out. We generate and maintain the heat of the sun by our encounters with the heated Word of God(Jeremiah 20:9, Proverbs 26:20).

We must understand that every one of God's agenda requires a price to be paid. It is not enough to access God's plan, we must know what it takes to actualize it and commit to press our way into it. The truth remains that the Bible is the custodian of every great destiny in the Kingdom.

I pray today that no one will take your place in God's agenda for your life! Remain ever Blessed!

Friend, the grace to encounter destiny through His Book is free for those who are born again. You become a child of God, by confessing your sins and accepting Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. Say this prayer in faith: "Lord Jesus, I come to You today. I am a sinner.

Forgive me of my sins. Cleanse me with Your precious Blood. Today, I accept You as my Lord and Saviour. Thank You, for saving me! Now, I know I am born again!"

I invite you to come and fellowship with us at the Faith Tabernacle, Canaan Land, Ota, the covenant home of Winners. We have four services on Sundays, holding at 6:00 a.m., 7:50 a.m., 9:40 a.m. and 11.30 a.m. respectively.

I know this teaching has blessed you. Write and share your testimony with me through: Faith Tabernacle, Canaan Land, Ota, P.M.B. 21688, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria; or call 7747546-8; or E-mail: feedback@lfcww.org

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Don't commercialise prophecies, cleric charges

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HE chief chaplain of Grace Institute of Pastoral Counseling (GIPEC), Rev. (Dr) Bartholomew Dimanozie, has admonished ministers of God to desist from giving false prophecies to enrich themselves.

He spoke during the body's annual programme for the less privileged in the society.

The event, which also featured awards to deserving members of the public and commissioning of new chaplains from different parts of the country, held at the Golden Gate Paradise, Ikoyi, Lagos.

He said: "My fellow men

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of God, it is better for us to go back to our first love. If we do, He that called us will reignite his love in us and we would begin to preach, 'it is written'.

"When you meet people in government, don't begin to prophesy what you are not told to. When you meet with people in power, tell them thus says the Lord and that it is not worthy to do this or do that. Ministers of God should not go about telling lies to get envelopes."

He advised Nigerians to vote only for personalities that fear God and not for political parties.

According to him:"When the righteous is on the throne, the people will be happy. If we

vote for the right people, they will be able to do things aright and we will be able to move forward.

"You don't judge people by what they say during campaign. You vote for people based on what they did yesterday and not what they are doing now.

"What they are doing now is to cajole people to vote for them. Politicians should learn to wait for their time and not make our politics a do- or- die."

Chaplain Samson Adamolekun, a top member of the body, explained that chaplaincy is a caregiver saddled with the responsibility of doing the work of God.

New Birth Ministries international meet

H R E E - D A Y programme tagged How to receive by the New Birth Ministries International holds from

October 17-19.

Venue is 1, Abiodun Jagun road, Ogba last bus-stop, Ikeja, Lagos.

The programme with the

theme breaking forth ends today with an anointing service.

Host is Bishop Francis Anunobi.

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Mind & Body THE NATION ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2014

A vote for life •Dr Vaishya with Ayo as he recuperates after the surgery

OYEYEMI GBENGA-MUSTAPHA writes on how the determination for education by a lad with sickle cell that caused a hip arthritis, compelled his parents to obtain a total hip replacement surgery for him.

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EVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD Ayo Adewemimo was diagnosed of sickle cell anaemia at about age two. The first of three children, all boys, of Mr Hakeem and Mrs Gbolabo Adewemimo, Ayo had all the care possible from his prepared and informed parents and medical personnel and coped with the challenges of being a sickle cell patient.

His parents spared no cost or time to make him overcome the trauma that comes with his medical condition. Ayo did not allow his situation to adversely affect his academic life. He also participated in sporting activities, including football and cricket. But his condition changed for the worse five years ago.

As Ayo was plotting age 14, he began to experience severe pain, stiffness, shortening in right hip and difficulty in walking. Increasingly, Ayo, then a student of Bridge House College, Dolphin Estate, Lagos, found it difficult to walk. His extracurricular activities began to suffer and he was mostly confined to the same spot. He was diagnosed of hip dislocation.

It was caused by the sickle cell disease.

Ayo recalled: “The sickle cell made me

have a lot of pains on my joints and this made me miss classes and school lessons. I wasn't coping well in school and this led to the dislocation and I started limping, which required me to use crutches. I felt a little bit unsure while in school and among my friends.”

While some of Ayo's friends and schoolmates helped him through his medical challenge, others would just not care. According to his mother, Gbolabo, “some were a bit mean and he often complained of some of his colleagues not wanting to associate with him because he was limping and using crutches. And they made him feel they were not on the same level. They don't want to talk to him and he couldn't take part in sports.”

While the boy, who has now graduated from Bridge House College and has the ambition of studying IT Security at the University of Dubai, went through the pains and stigmatisation, his parents and sibling gave all the support, while seeking solution.

Ayo was taken to several hospitals in Nigeria, including the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos. “I

wasn't too comfortable with the arrangement at Igbobi,” Hakeem, Ayo's father, began. “I wanted something good and something I can be very sure of the result. I spoke to some people. Some said United States, Europe and India. But what took me to India was when I went on the internet to search for surgeons for hip replacement and I came across Dr. Raju Vaishya of Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi.”

Mr Adewemimo sent his son's X-ray to Apollo Hospitals as requested and he was told the procedure could be handled. But the boy had to wait for some time. “We had a challenge because they said he had to be of age before they could do it,” Mr Adewemimo recalled. “The hospital explained that if they do it earlier than that, they will have to do it some other time later and the success rate of the second time is about 30 per cent, which is not even guaranteed. So that's why we had to wait for him to come of age before we decided to go ahead with it.”

At the right time, Mr and Mrs Adewemimo travelled to India with their son, Ayo, in June this year. The hospital confirmed that due to the sickle cell disease, Ayo had developed Avascular Necrosis (AVN) of the femoral head of both hips, with secondary arthritis in the right hip.

In Nigeria, doctors had been apprehensive in performing total hip replacement because the patient was very young. But the doctors at Apollo Hospitals

took the risk. On July 15, this year, Dr Vaishya, who had examined the patient and approved total hip replacement surgery, led the surgery team. According to Dr Vaishya, a Professor of Orthopaedic, “total hip replacement was done using uncemented joint components with ceramic bearings and large diameter head. A special care was taken to prevent sickle cell crises during peri operative period, by providing adequate hydration and oxygenation to the patient. The intraoperative and postoperative period was uneventful.”

The preoperative pain of hip arthritis has completely gone after the surgery and now Ayo has started taking his first pain free steps after a long time. Ayo is now confident that since he has been operated successfully, he is preparing to take life head on without any pain and disability in the hip.

Ayo's case was unique in many ways, especially as he was a young boy with hip arthritis due to sickle cell disease. Total hip replacement surgery at such young age is extremely rare and is often not required.

But due to his severe hip problem, there was no better solution than total hip replacement to treat it. “He may require revision THR surgery in future, due to wear and tear of the prosthesis. But still he will be able to lead an active and pain-free life in his youth and prime time of life,” Dr Vaishya assured.

Mr Adewemimo was impressed about the way Apollo Hospitals handled her son's situation even as it was the first case of its kind. “The doctor, Dr Vaishya, was optimistic. And even when they did the xray, it was much clearer and revealed the situation to be worse more than he first thought, unlike what they saw in the x-ray we had earlier sent to them. Even at that, he was confident it will be successful and as it were, it proved to be.”

Ayo, who is the one who feels it, said he is on the way to full recovery. His words: “On my leg, after the surgery, I could make some movement which I was unable to do before. Just two weeks after the procedure, I could raise my leg to a certain angle from the foot to the knee and up to the hips. It was much better and I do exercises with much strength. Emotionally, I thank God this has been taken care of and finally maybe I will be accepted more among my peers because then I was limping and some do call me Fela (in reference to the late Afrobeat King Fela Anikulapo Kuti after his encounter with the soldiers who threw him out of his burning residence in the late 1970s). In another four months, Ayo should be able to throw away the crutches and walk unaided as he prepared for life in the university. On why he wants to study IT Security, the bubbly young man said he would like to be like Edward Snowden, the 31-year-old American who is credited with the landmark revelation of National Security Agency's numerous classified documents to Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, both journalists.

Such an Avant-garde proposition by a 17-year-old who would soon have the world on his feet!

Health benefits of onions

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HE humble onion is found in every kitchen, but its curative powers make it an important medicinal plant too. Like garlic, it is a member of the lily family. There can be no doubting the power of the juices contained in onions; anyone who has ever sliced one and shed a tear is only too aware that they hold something special. Quite apart from its medicinal properties the onion is simply delicious. It forms the basis of so many dishes - whether raw, sautéed, baked, steamed or boiled, that it would be difficult to imagine the cuisine of any country without it.

Ancient healing...

Onions were historically as a

preventative medicine during epidemics of cholera and the plague. They were apparently eaten by Roman emperor Nero as a cure for colds, and its reputation has made onions a popular component in the diets of many countries. ...The onion's revenge: The smell of onions can be a problem, both on the hands and on the breath. After chopping onions, try rinsing the hands with cold water, rubbing them with salt, rinsing again and then washing with soap and warm water. To remove the smell from breath, eat a few sprigs of parsley or an apple to help conceal the odour.

Nutritional highlights More than just a tasty culinary plant, the onion contains natural sugar, vitamins A,

B6, C and E, minerals such as sodium, potassium, iron and dietry fibre. In addition, onions are a good source of folic acid.

Types of onions Onions differ in the size, colour and taste.

Spring onions are grown in warmer climates and have a milder, sweeter taste.

Storage onions are grown in colder weather climates and generally have a more pungent flavour and are usually named by their colour: white, yellow or red. Smaller onions come in many types, such as chives, leeks and shallots.

Globe onions should be clean and hard and have dry, smooth skins. Avoid onions in which the seen stem has developed. Also avoid those that show signs of decay.

Onions should be stored at room temperature, away from bright light and in a well ventilated area. Those those are more pungent in

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Oddities The Nation on Sunday October 19, 2014

‘My devastaing experience of being jilted’ Madam Abigail Ebun Sofowote clocked 90 recently. She went down memory lane to talk about her eventful life. Taiwo Abiodun reports.

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he is fair in complexion, and her skin glitters.

Her set of white teeth are all intact. She does not use a walking stick to aid her movement (unlike people of her age group). She walked briskly from the staircase. She appeared neat and clean; she seems to believe in the saying that neatness is next to godliness. She radiated happiness. And her brain is still sharp as she exhibited good retentive memory, often quoting dates offhand.

Mama Abigail Ebun Sofowote has just joined the set of nonagenarians. She had seen and heard a lot and full of life experiences. She has been staying in England since 1962. She told The Nation on Sunday: I live in Stratham, London, I had been living there since 1962, and during winter I would come to Nigeria and would not go back to the United Kingdom until the winter is over. I celebrated my birthday in London in the Church of England but my children wanted me to do it here too and we celebrated it at Methodist Church, Opebi in Lagos Nigeria.”

Her State of Health Asked to comment on her state of health and how often she goes to the hospital, she replied: "I hardly go to the hospital. According to her, she had never been admitted in a hospital. I'm as fit as a fiddle. I only go to the clinic to take some drug for I hardly fall sick and had never been hospitalised. I hardly use reading glasses." As she said this, she rose from her seat and walked about briskly.

Talking about her state of dentition, she said: “I replaced only three of my teeth with artificial ones in my upper jaw but for the lower jaw all the teeth are mine; they are natural and this is hereditary. My mother was 90 years of age before she died .May be it only two teeth were missing from her mouth .The three teeth removed from my upper jaw were removed in UK and the last time I went to the Dentist was more than 20 years ago.

Revealing the secret behind her good health, she said: “The problem we have in our society is our environment. If we live in a good environment and watch the type of food we eat, we would hardly fall sick.”

Asked how she feels at her age which many never had the opportunity to attain, Madam Sofowote looked up and said: "Well, I can't boast, for it is the grace of God. At times I would be fed up having pains all over my body and would be asking myself, 'what's all these?”

She then went on to speak about her background. "I was born in 1924, into Christianity. My grandmother was one of those early converts who received Christ into their lives in Sagamu .That is what made me to be able to stand strong in Christianity. Anytime I fall sick, like having malaria or headache, she would ask me whether Jesus could heal me while I would answer in the affirmative. She would touch my head and pray for me while moving her hand round my forehead. And before you know it, I would have slept off. So that was how I began to have faith in God .My great grandmother was the first Iya Ijo at St Paul's Anglican Church in Sagamu.”

She claimed her grandmother, Susannah Olukede, was among the first set of early Christians in Shagamu. In her words: "There had never been any home in Sagamu in those days and even now that didn't practice African traditional religion. My paternal grandfather was an Ifa Priest. My grandmother was from an idolworshipping home. When these people had accepted Christ, my grandmother one day went to try the efficacy of the power of her mother's idol. She used some of the idols kept in sacred rooms made of wood as firewood to cook a pot of corn for her mother. When her granny came back

home, she ate the corn and nothing happened to her. Later, they revealed the secret of what they did to their mother. And she said they thought the Orisa Nla would deal with her but saw that nothing happened to her.

“However, their granny asked them not to reveal it to anybody. That was how they burnt many of these idols. I still met some remnants of the idols- I met the carved hands, legs and many others .The woman eventually became a follower of Christ. The granny said things were going on well after the destruction of the idols. My mother later converted these to chairs. That was how they converted the woman, my granny to Christ. She became the first Iya Ijo of St Paul in Sagamu and devoted her life in serving God till she died. And since she died in 1926, there was no Iya Ijo until 1940, I even heard the story from outsiders that my granny served the Lord faithfully as she abandoned idol worshipping completely.”

She further went down memory to talk about what she experienced while teaching. "In 1957 I was teaching at Ereko (on Lagos Island), and my last born then was a baby. There was flu and it was hard to see a medical doctor. I was the health officer in the school so I used to take care of the pupils. The schools had closed down now. The old building had been demolished. Then the flu killed a lot of Nigerians. We didn't even know its name then. Children were down with flu. My mother-in-law and everybody had it but I did not.

I fed my baby and used the spoon to feed myself and that was how I also contracted it. I couldn't wait till the ninth month as my eight month pregnancy was threatning to come down. I spent 10 days in the hospital and later gave birth to the baby. I was severely affected after delivery. God rescued me that year. For good two years I couldn't go to work.”

Life in England She travelled to join her husband in England in 1962. She said she is always amazed seeing herself in United Kingdom as she never thought she would go.” When it was revealed to me on my sick bed I never believed .And when I now went to UK and came back in 1968, I went to the church to do a thanksgiving. Why I doubted was that I was on my sick bed. Is it not the person that is well that will think of traveling? .I never thought of going there.”

She could not do a full time job while in England because she had to take care of her children at home. She learnt computer programming in 1962. It was a team of Americans who came to teach her and the others that participated in the training programme. This was at a time, she said, when people were running away from learning computer programming because they said it would make them become mentally deranged. She was very good in figure works and she worked in the Accounts Department of many organisations in Britain.

Her bad memories Asked to recount her bad memories, she said the first man she wanted to marry jilted her. They were both teachers teaching in the same school. It was a nasty experience for her, she said. They were young kids who grew up in the same neighbourhood and had been known by many people to be dating. When they told me they saw him at party with another woman and I challenged him, he denied. She said she felt pained by the experience of being jilted. In her words: “He was my childhood love and a native of my town and he disappointed me. In fact, we were teaching in the same school, we were getting ready to get married, not knowing he would go after another woman. This led to our resignation from the school where we were both teaching and we were given gifts by the school while I was given two tea cups, the man was given a tea pot for two of us. I took my disappointment in a stoic

• Sofowote way."

Asked if it were today what she could have done, she responded: "What would I do? You will only sue him. But for me where would I get the money to do that? I accepted my fate and destiny.

The man's sister was pained. His father did not know he was going to do a wedding. In fact, he (my fiancé) was tricked and wooed with money or was bought for marriage by the woman he attached himself to. I was already pregnant and had one child for the man. The man died some years ago. Then, anytime he saw me, he used to run away. One day I met him while in a bus in 1950. I went back to teaching till I travelled out in 1962".

Another episode she could remember was when she was preparing for her 50th birthday in the 1970s. She recalled: “I had earlier received a congratulatory message from my mother wishing me happy birthday and had prepared to mark it .But somebody called to inform me that my mother had just died When I heard the news, I couldn't continue my birthday party. The bad news stopped all the activities lined up for my birthday.”

Not yet done, the nonagenarian suddenly became still and cold when she said she lost her last born in England. Wiping her tears from her eyes, her voice cracked and in a shaky voice said "the third and another most painful of all was when my last child, a son who lived in London died in 2009, his death jolted me. He was just 42 years of age. I was 75 years old when he died. I didn't know how I survived it. He died in 1999 England, he was not sick but I thank God for his friends who said they had to celebrate it.”

Happiest moment When asked to talk about her happiest moment, she breathed heavily, paused for some seconds and declared: "My happiest moment

PHOTO: TAIWO ABIODUN when I was really glad most was the day I marked my 90th birthday.”

She said he enjoyed her marriage to another man she married after he was jilted by her previous fiancée. She stated: “It was peaceful, we were in love, and he never beat me. I was never been rude to him. Not that we did not disagree but when we went over the issue and we found out the right thing that should be, we would agree again.

Unfortunatel,y my husband died so soon. He died at the age of 61.”

Asked whether she ever thought of sex since the death of her husband, her response was quick.

"Sex Is nothing to me. The only law in the Bible that God laid down is to have children. When my husband died in 1976, I was 52 years of age. Some of my friends asked me to have another man to keep my company. I said my children were my husband. I did not make myself to be looked at by men. I kept to myself. I faced where ever I was going. It is when you see my face as a cheap person that you would attempt to make a pass at me.

Reflecting on her life so far, she said God has been good to her. She said she was shown by God before it happened that that man that jilted her was not her husband but she did not listen.

“Imagine, when the one he ran to marry wanted to deliver, she delivered a female child while I had a baby boy. My eldest child is 69. And I thank God the man I married was in England.”

She still has not forgotten her bad memory , she said "I remember when I was jilted at a younger age , I was shown by God that that man was not my husband but I did not listen , imagine when the one he ran to marry wanted to deliver she delivered a female while I had a baby boy .When they said they saw hi at party with a woman and I asked he denied .Thank God the man I married was in England. Anytime the boy I had for my former husband he would be shivering.The man is dead now .

73

THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014 Yemen's rebels attack home of Islamist, 12 killed

US-led strike kills eight in IS-held Syria town

Y

A

U.S.-led coalition airstrike on a gas distribution facility in a stronghold of the Islamic State group set off a series of secondary explosions and killed at least eight people in eastern Syria, activists said yesterday.

The airstrike targeted a distribution station in the town of Khasham in the oilrich province of Deir el-Zour late Friday, Deir el-Zour Free Radio, an activist collective, said on its Facebook page. The collective named four of those killed and said another four charred bodies were placed in a nearby mosque. It said the slain men were mostly fuel tanker drivers.

Another activist group, the Deir el-Zour Network, described "long tongues of flames" from the strike. The incident was also reported by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria.

Three Egypt soldiers die in Gaza tunnel collapse

T

WO Egyptian army officers and a soldier were killed yesterday when a smuggling tunnel connecting Sinai and the Palestinian Gaza Strip collapsed as they were preparing to blow it up, officials said.

One army soldier was injured and another missing in the collapse, which happened as troops were planting explosives.

The army says it has destroyed more than 1,600 such tunnels -- most of them since the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi last year -which the Palestinian Hamas militant group uses to smuggle in arms, food and money.

Tens of thousands march on London over low wages

A

T least 80,000 people marched through central London yesterday to protest against low wages and public spending cuts introduced to reduce Britain's deficit, organisers said.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC), a federation of the country's main trade unions, said thousands more gathered in Glasgow and Belfast as part of the "Britain Needs A Pay Rise" event.

The demonstration capped a week of industrial action over low wages, that saw workers in the state-run National Health Service (NHS), courts, job centres and museums stage strikes.

Led by drummers, brass bands, stilt-walkers and members dragging sound systems, the demonstrators in London marched in a carnival spirit, gathering for a rally in Hyde Park before dispersing peacefully.

•A man rests in front of a barricade in an area taken by pro-democracy demonstrators in Mong Kok district in Hong Kong yesterday. Hong Kong's embattled government said it will open talks with student demonstrators Tuesday, after three nights of violent clashes between police and protesters who have paralysed parts of the city with mass pro-democracy rallies.

AFP PHOTO/Pedro Ugarte

T

22 killed in new DR Congo attack

WENTY-TWO people, most of them women and children, have been hacked and clubbed to death

by Ugandan rebels in the troubled east of the Democratic Republic of Congo just days after a similar massacre.

The new attack sparked calls for UN forces to protect the vulnerable local population, as the rebels who have terrorised North Kivu for two decades resist attempts to drive them out.

The latest violence on Friday evening in the town of Eringeti left 10 women, eight children and four men dead, local government official AmisiKalonda told AFP. "Most of the victims were killed with machetes, axes and hoes," the non-governmental umbrella group Civil Society of North Kivu said in a statement.

Several children had their heads "bashed against the walls" it said, blaming the rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces and National Army for the Liberation of

Uganda (ADF-NALU), the only remaining militia active in the region.

Kalonda, the government administrator for the area, said he was heading to Eringeti along with an army contingent.

Eringeti is about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the town of Beni, a town of half a million where 26 people were slaughtered with machetes on Thursday in an attack also blamed on the rebels.

The Ugandan rebels have committed strings of atrocities since they were chased into neighbouring Congo by the Ugandan army in the 1990s.

The Congolese army, supported by UN peacekeepers from the MONUSCO stabilisation mission, had dealt the rebels a series of severe blows earlier this year.

But the fighters have begun to recover, attacking isolated villages before targeting Beni, a day's drive from the regional capital Goma.

They are believed still to number around 400 fighters.

The North Kivu civil society group said at least 79 people had been "savagely executed by the ADF" in the past fortnight, calling on the UN force to contribute troops, not just logistics, to help confront the rebels.

It said its members would meet in Beni on Saturday to decide on their own steps to protect themselves.

According to a UN source, more than 50 women have also been raped in North Kivu and in neighbouring Orientale Province in one week.

Martin Kobler, who heads the UN peacekeeping force in DR Congo, called for "decisive joint military actions of

FARDC (the army) and MONUSCO to start as soon as possible in order to relieve the population from the terror imposed by the ADF, once and for all".

Led by Jamil Mukulu, a Christian who converted to Islam, the ADF-NALU has hidden out in the Ruwenzori mountains along the border with Uganda for nearly two decades.

The rebels, who have been accused of serious human rights violations including using child soldiers, have financed themselves by trafficking gold and wood. Beni is a major hub for wood destined for Uganda.

They began to lose their main bastions to the army and the United Nations from January and were targeted by Security Council sanctions in July.

The UN humanitarian chief in Orientale Province, Maurizio Giuliano, has voiced fears that the rebels could further destabilise the vast region rich in minerals.

Huge crowds as Benazir Bhutto's son makes political debut T ENS of thousands of Pakistanis gathered yesterday to hear Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, address a massive rally billed as his formal political debut.

Ultra-tight security measures were in place for the rally in Pakistan's biggest city Karachi, where huge crowds of supporters sang and danced, waving the flag of Bhutto's main opposition Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

Bilawal, 26, is being groomed to lead the party by his father Asif Ali Zardari, who was Pakistan's president from 2008 until last year.

The rally marked the seventh anniversary of the devastating bomb attack that hit

Benazir Bhutto's homecoming parade in Karachi on October 18, 2007, killing 139 people in the deadliest single terror attack on Pakistani soil.

Bilawal arrived at the rally by helicopter and was set to address the crowds from the same bullet and bomb-proof truck that his mother used for the ill-fated parade, which was meant to mark her triumphant return after nearly a decade of self-imposed exile.

She survived the bombing, but was assassinated in a gun and suicide attack in an election rally in Rawalpindi two months later.

"I start this journey for my

people, for the martyrs, for my mother," Bilawal wrote on his Twitter page ahead of the rally.

"Boarding the truck bought back some painful memories."

Analysts say the main purpose of Saturday's rally is to present Bilawal as the true political heir to his charismatic mother, who twice served as prime minister.

"From Khyber to Karachi peoples are chanting welcome Benazir welcome and bidding farewell to the political orphans," read another post on Bilawal's Twitter page.

The tweet did not name cricket star turned opposition politician Imran Khan, but

party sources say the rally was planned to combat the political threat posed by Khan, who they accuse of having the patronage of Pakistan's powerful military.

Khan, along with populist cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri, has been staging a sit-in in the capital Islamabad since August 15 aimed at toppling Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Protest rallies have also been held in other Pakistani cities, attracting huge crowds.

Thousands of police officers and commandos were deployed for Saturday's rally at Karachi's Bagh-e-Jinnah park, while hundreds of security gates were set up to scan the crowds as they entered the venue.

EMEN'S empowered Shiite rebels attacked the home of a rival Islamist politician south of the capital yesterday, setting off clashes that left 12 people dead, security officials said, adding that the politician was not home at the time.

The officials said Shiite rebels and allied fighters attacked the home of a local politician from the rival Islamist Islah party, killing two of his relatives in the town of Yarim, an Islamist stronghold in the Ibb province south of Sanaa.

The ensuing clashes left eight rebel fighters and two bystanders dead.

Another four rebels were killed when a roadside bomb struck a convoy bringing reinforcements to a battle with Sunni conservative tribesmen raging in both Yarim and the provincial capital, also called Ibb. The Houthis had advanced on Ibb city on Friday, setting of fierce clashes. A brief cease-fire collapsed.

In a separate incident, officials said another eight people were killed in clashes between al-Qaida militants and the Houthis, who are fighting to maintain control of the city of Radaa, in the central province of Bayda, also south of the capital. The Houthis seized control of the city a day earlier. Scores of families fled the fighting in Radaa, which died down after midday Saturday.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Germany arrests two suspected IS supporters

G

ERMAN police have arrested two men suspected of supporting Islamic State and raided properties across the country of another 13 suspected supporters of militant Islamist groups, prosecutors said yesterday.

The two men were arrested in the western city of Aachen and identified as a 38year-old Tunisian, Kamel Ben Yahia S., and a 28-year-old Russian, Yusup G., said federal prosecutors in a statement.

The Tunisian is suspected of providing clothing worth over 1,100 euros and 3,400 euros in cash to Islamic State since July 2013 and of smuggling a 17-year old boy from Germany to Syria via Turkey to join the group. The Russian is accused of helping the smuggling and of being a member of a foreign terrorist organization.

Authorities believe the other suspects supported either Islamic State or Ahrar alSham, another Syrian Islamist group, by providing thousands of boots and other military clothing.

The raids took place in the western states of North RhineWestphalia, Hesse, BadenWuerttemberg, Hamburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig Holstein and also the eastern state of Saxony.

74

THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014

THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014 CHANGE OF NAME AKINYEBO

I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Akinyebo, Abiodun Elizabeth, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Osikoya, Abiola Tawakalit. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

WAHEED

I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Waheed, Ife Dolapo, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Bukola, Ife Dolapo. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

LAWAL

I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Lawal, Adenike Kadijat, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Ajibesin-Lawal, Adenike Kadijat. All former documents remain valid. F.C.T.A and general public should please take note.

AKOLO

I, formerly known and addressed as Akolo, Blessing Omoladun, now wish to be known and addressed as Malachi, Blessing Omoladun. All former documents remain valid.

General public should please take note.

KAMORU

I, formerly known and addressed as Kamoru, Sekinat Olabisi, now wish to be known and addressed as Ileyemi Sekinat Olabisi. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

GIDEON

75

CHANGE CHANGE OF OF NAME NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

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

I, formerly known and addressed as Orutu Martins, now wish to be known and addressed as Martins Enebieyi William. All former documents remain valid.General public should please take note.

NNEJI

I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Tolulope James, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Tolulope Ladeji. All former documents remain valid.General public should please take note.

ADEOYE

I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Nneji, Chimemela Blessing, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Njoku, Chimemela Blessing. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

AONDOVER

I, formerly known and addressed as Gbatse Endurance Aondover, now wish to be known and addressed as Gbatse Cyril Aondover. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

W/CPL OBIDIGBO

I, formerly known and addressed as W/CPL. Obidigbo, Maryrose, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Agbor, Maryrose Ngozi. All former documents remain valid.

WAEC, Nigeria Police Force and general public should please take note.

ASHAYE

I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Ashaye, Oluwaseun Adenike, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Sao, Oluwaseun Adenike. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

SYLVESTER

I, formerly known and addressed as Gideon Livinus Chinedu, now wish to be known and addressed as Gideon Joseph Ikoja. All former documents remain valid.General public should please take note.

I, formerly known and addressed as Sylvester Etaruenu, now wish to be known and addressed as Best Etaruenu. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

RASHEED

ODEYEMI

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

I, formerly known and addressed as Aminat Afolake Odeyemi, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Kazeem, Aminat Afolake. All former documents remain valid.

General public should please take note.

OKOFU

I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Fagbamila, Elizabeth Titilayo, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Ogundoro, Elizabeth Titilayo. All former documents remain valid. Moba Local govt., Otub-Ekiti, Ekiti State Local govt. Service Commission, Ado-Ekiti and general public should please take note.

I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Jessica Obim Harrit Okofu, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Jessica Obim Harrit Okonjo.

All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

MOKALADE

I, formerly known and addressed as Mokolade Nofisat, now wish to be known and addressed as Akinloye, Nafisah Morenikeji. All former documents remain valid.

General public should please take note.

DASOFUNJO

I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Dasofunjo, Christianah Opeyemi, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Adeniyi, Christianah Opeyemi. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

IFON

I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Idaresit Tom Ifon, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Idaresit Mercedrs Ayeni. All former documents remain valid.

General public should please take note.

OKONTA

I, formerly known and addressed as Okonta, Jubril Okudiri, now wish to be known and addressed as Adeshina Jubril Olawale. All former documents remain valid.

General public should please take note.

IDRIS

I, formerly known and addressed as Idris Adefolakemi Kalif, now wish to be known and addressed as Idris-Lawal, Folakemi Kafilat All former documents remain valid.

Dangote Group and general public should please take note.

YUSUF

I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Yusuf, Aliat Oluwatosin, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Abdul-Wahab, Aliat Oluwatosin. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

HOLINESS

I, formerly known and addressed as Mr. Holiness Benedict Edet, now wish to be known and addressed as Mr. Joseph Benedict Edet. All former documents remain valid.

General public should please take note.

ASIKONG

I, formerly known and addressed as Bassey Etta Asikong, now wish to be known and addressed as Ernest Bassey Etta Asikong. All former documents remain valid.

University of Calabar and general public should please take note.

FAGBAMILA

ISADO

I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Faith Isado, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Faith Isado Isimbabi. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

ADEKUNLE

I, formerly known and addressed as Adekunle Ismail Ademola, now wish to be known and addressed as Ademuyiwa Adekunle Ademola.

All former documents remain valid.

General public should please take note.

ADIGUN

I, formerly known and addressed as Moroof Olalekan Adigun, now wish to be known and addressed as Moroof Olalekan Fijabi. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

ABUTU

I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Abutu, Hope Ogochide, now wish to be known and addressed as Akinola, Hope-Abutu Ogochide. All former documents remain valid.

Kogi State Polytechnic and general public should please take note.

FAMILUSI

I, formerly known and addressed as Familusi Funmilayo Iretiayo, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Akinmoladun, Funmilayo Iretiayo. All former documents remain valid. Kogi State Polytechnic and general public should please take note.

GIWA

I, formerly known and addressed as Giwa Iyabode Abolore, now wish to be known and addressed as Tiamiyu Iyabode Abolore. All former documents remain valid.General public should please take note.

ORUTU

JAMES

ADAMS

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

OJO

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

ABDUL

I, formerly known and addressed as Alhaji Karim Abdul, now wish to be known and addressed as Alhaji Karim Olowo.

All former documents remain valid.General public should please take note.

AJALA

I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Ajala, Babafunke Olufunmilayo, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Oladele Babafunke Olufunmilayo.

All former documents remain valid.General public should please take note.

OJEHE

I, formerly known and addressed as Mrs. Ojehe, Blessing Folashayo, now wish to be known and addressed as Miss Adeyemi, Blessing Folashayo. All former documents remain valid.General public should please take note.

ABDUL GANIYY

I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Abdul Ganiyy Tawakalt, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Alade, Tawakalt Morenike. All former documents remain valid.General public should please take note.

INYANG

I formerly known and refers to as Miss. GLORY EFFIONG INYANG. Now wishes to be known and addressed as Mrs. GLORY CHRISTOPHER AYODELE. All former documents remained valid.

The general public should please take note.

EBERENDU

I formerly known and refers to as Miss. VICTORIA ONYINYECHI EBERENDU. Now wishes to be known and addressed as Mrs. VICTORIA ONYINYECHI CHIMA. All former documents remained valid. The general public should please take note.

NZOYIM

I formerly known and refers to as Miss CHIOMA JACY NZOYIM. Now wishes to be known and addressed as Mrs. CHIOMA JACY ONWUBIKO. All former documents remained valid. The general public should please take note.

OKEKE

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS OKEKE MARY-ANN UCHENNA, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS EWII MARYANN UCHENNA. All former documents remain valid. General public and Ebonyi State University should please take note.

EKE

I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Ajumoke Mabel Eke, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Ajumoke Eddy–Anyanwu.

All former documents remain valid.

The general public should please take note.

NKPORNWI

I, formerly known as Miss Florence Nkpornwi now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Florence Chima-Uzoma. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

ANANTI

OGUNYEMI

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS ANANTI IFEYINWA STELLA, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS OFOJEBE IFEYINWA STELLA. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

NDUKWU

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS ORENIWA, Olamide Motunrayo, now wish to be addressed as MRS ASHAGIDIGBI, Olamide Motunrayo. All former documents remain valid.General public should please take note.

I, formerly known and addressed as Ogunyemi, Olusegun Omotayo, now wish to be known and addressed as Olusegun Omotayo Oluwayemi. All former documents remain valid.General public should please take note.

I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Juliet Chika Ndukwu, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Juliet Chika Nwatu. All former documents remain valid.General public should please take note.

ORENIWA

CHANGE OF NAME EWUNUGA

I formerly known and refers to as Miss Temitope Alice Ewunuga.

Now wishes to be known and addressed as MRS. Temitope Alice Nejo All former documents remained valid. The general public should please take note.

NEJO

I formerly known and refers to as Blessing Mosegun Olasumbo Nejo.

Now wishes to be known and addressed as Blessing Oluwasegun Olasumbo Nejo All former documents remained valid. The general public should please take note.

BRAIDE

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS GLORIA IBIADA IBIGBOLO BRAIDE, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS GLORIA IBIADA TARIMOTIMI TERRENCE. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

CHANGE OF NAME OGUNMOLA

I formerly known and addressed as Miss Ogunmola Omowunmi lyabode now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Oriade Omowunmi lyabode. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

BELLO

I formerly known and addressed as Miss Basirat Folasade Bello now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Basirat Folasade BelloBalogun. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

ADEWOLE

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS UWAKWE ROSEMARY CHIAMAKA, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS. IWUOHA ROSEMARY CHIAMAKA. All former documents remain valid.

General public should please take note.

I formerly known and addressed as Miss Abanihi Mary Chidimma, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs Egelemba Mary Chidimma. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

OYENIYI

MBAKWE

I formerly known and addressed as Miss AMARACHI VICTORIA MBAKWE, now wish to be known as Mrs. AMARACHI VICTORIA GODSWILL FRED. All former documents remain valid, general public please take note.

AJAYI

I formerly known and addressed as Miss. SAKIRAT OLAMIDE AJAYI, now wish to be known as Mrs. ABDULWAHAB SAKIRAT OLAMIDE. All former documents remain valid general public please take note.

OGADIMMA

I formerly known and addressed as Miss. ONWUDIEGWU PATRICIA OGADIMMA, now wish to be known as Mrs. PATRICIA MICHEALVIN OKPALA. All former documents remain valid. general public please take note.

ONWUME

I formerly known and addressed as Miss ONWUME CHARITY, now wish to be known as Mrs. WOKE .F. CHARITY. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

UMEH-MICHAELS

I formerly known and addressed as Miss. STELLAMARIS CHIOMA UMEH-MICHAELS, now wish to be known as Mrs. ELLA CHIOMA EZEADILIEJE. All former documents remain valid, general public please take note.

CONFIRMATION OF NAME AGHA AGWU ONU and DAMIAN AGHA AGWU ONU, refers to one and the same person, now wish to be known as DAMIAN AGHA AGWU ONU. All former documents remain valid general public please take note.

CONFIRMATION OF NAME EREME CORNELIUS IBHAGBOSORIA and EREME PRINCE CORNELIUS, refers to one and the same person, now wish to be known as EREME PRINCE CORNELIUS. All former documents remain valid general public please take note.

NWAKEGO

I formerly known and addressed as Miss NWAKEGO OGBUKA, now wish to be known as Mrs. NWAKEGO GLADYS CHIWUZOR NWANKWO. All former documents remain valid general public please take note.

AKINBOYEDE

I formerly known and refers to as Miss. EMILY JACINTA IYABO OLU. Now wishes to be known and addressed as Mrs. EMILY EGWE. All former documents remained valid. The general public should please take note.

AHWIN

QUADIRI-OKANLAWON

ABHULIMEN

I,formerly known and addressed as MISS OYETOUN IDOWU OYENIYI, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS OYETOUN IDOWU ADEDIRAN. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

AHIAMADU

I, formerly known and addressed as DR. (MISS) RITA NKIRU AHIAMADU, now wish to be known and addressed as DR.(MRS) RITA NKIRU AJIRENIKE. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS. THERESA UFUOMA AHWIN, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS. THERESA UFUOMA BOYOWA. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

I formerly known and addressed as Miss Qudiri-Okanlawon Olasunbo Obedat now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Oba-Kadiri Olasunbo Obedat. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

I,formerly known and addressed as GRACE MAFO WANIKO, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS GRACE MAFO WANIKO ABHULIMEN. All former documents remain valid. NATIONAL BUREAU OF STATISTICS and The general public should please take note.

OGWUN

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS. JOYCE OGWUN, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS. JOYCE LETEE. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

I formerly known and addressed as Miss Tomilola Christiana Adewole now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Tomilola Christiana Oniyitan. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

AIKOHI

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS AIKOHI VICTORIA ESELE, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS BAJEH-ALEXANDER VICTORIA ESELE. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

ABANIHI

OKOH

I formerly known and addressed as Miss Okoh Perpetua Anwuli, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Okojie Perpetua Anwuli. All former documents remain valid.

General public should please take note.

UWAKWE

OLADELE

I, formerly known and addressed as Adeola Oluwakemi Oladele, now wish to be known and addressed as Adeola Oluwakemi Oderinde. All former documents remain valid.

General public should please take note.

OLADELE

I, formerly known and addressed as Adeola Oluwakemi Oladele, now wish to be known and addressed as Adeola Oluwakemi Oderinde. All former documents remain valid.

General public should please take note.

YUSUF

AKINBOYEDE

I, formerly known and addressed as Mr. Yusuf Samsondeen Olawale, now wish to be known and addressed as Mr. Ileyemi Samsondeen Olawale. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

ODUSINA

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

I formerly known and addressed as Miss Akinboyede Oriyomi Abiola, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs Odugbesan Oriyomi Abiola. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

I formerly known and addressed as Odusina Muhammad Medinat Abolore, now wish to be known and addressed as Odusina Medinat Abolore. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

AKPOBIO

I formerly known and addressed as Miss Akpabio Unwana Ezekiel, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Ayeni Unwana Anwulika. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

SANUSI

I formerly known and addressed as Miss Sanusi Titilayo Tawakalitu, now wish to be known and addressed as Sanni Titilayo Tawakalitu. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

OKAFOR

I formerly known and addressed as Okafor Emmanuel Nwaneamaka, now wish to be known and addressed as Bobert Emmanuel Nwaneamaka. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

DEVADITYA

I Devaditya Rajeeva Tripathi S/o Shri Rajeeva Devtadeen Trpathi and Smt Neena Rajeeva Tripathi, R/ o Flat no 104, Upvan Apartments, 4/276-3, Parwati Bagla Road, Kanpur-208002, uttar Pradesh, India, do hereby inform to one and all that I have changed my name from Dev Tripathi to Devaditya Rajeeva Tripathi.

DEVSHREE

I Devshree Rajeeva Tripathi D/o Shri Rajeeva Devtadeen Trpathi and Smt Neena Rajeeva Tripathi, R/ o Flat no 104, Upvan Apartments, 4/276-3, Parwati Bagla Road, Kanpur-208002, uttar Pradesh, India, do hereby inform to one and all that I have changed my name from Devshree Tripathi to Devshree Rajeeva Tripathi.

CONFIRMATION OF NAME

I, CHIEF GOGO, JOB SOTONYE MEPIRI TUBOBIENIMI and CHIEF JOB SOTONYE JAMES GOGO refers to one and the same person. Now wish to be known and addressed as CHIEF GOGO, JOB SOTONYE MEPIRI TUBOBIENIMI. All former documents remain valid. The Opobo Council of Alapu and general public please take note.

ARUOCHA

I,formerly known and addressed as MISS ARUOCHA CHINASA ONYINYECHI, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS IHESIULOR CHINASA ONYINYECHI. All former documents remain valid. The general public should please take note.

OWOYEMI

SAIDU

I, formerly known and addressed as Halimat Funmilayo Saidu, now wish to be known and addressed as Halimat Saidu Hamza. All former documents remain valid. GNYSC, UDUS and general public should please take note.

TEMISAN

I, formerly known and addressed as Temisan Kuti, now wish to be known and addressed as Kuti Peace. All former documents remain valid.

GNYSC, UDUS and general public should please take note.

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76

THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014

THE NATION ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 19, 2014

NEWS

77

NCC directs network operators to deploy more infrastructure T O improve telecommunication services in all nooks and crannies of the country, the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) has directed all network service providers in Nigeria to provide more telecommunication infrastructure.

The Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau of the agency,

Tayo Johnson, Ibadan

Maryam Bayi, gave the directive yesterday in his address at the 67th edition of Consumer Outreach Programme in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, with the theme: “The effects of telecom infrastructure on human health.”

According to him: “As of today, we have over 132 mil-

lion connected lines while the teledencity has increased to about 94 per cent.”

The NCC boss also said: “While the commission recognises that there might be some concerns regarding the effects of these infrastructure it is necessary for network operators to deploy there infrastructure across the country.”

Bayi also faulted the claim that radiation from telecommunication masts mounted by GSM operators could be harmful to human beings.

The NCC boss described such fears as misplaced, arguing that the masts and towers erected by telecom operators were necessary for continuous telecommunication services across the country.

Bello, visited the camp at the weekend.

Rukujei said the team from Army Headquarters was supposed to be joined by a representation of the US Embassy but their personnel unfortunately were not present because of the security concerns.

He also pledged assistance

in the area of capacity building for members of Gombe State Social Development and other related Matters (a.k.a Gombe Marshals) since they were guided by an act of the law.

He, however, advised the Marshals on the need to be mindful of human rights violations.

National Integrated Infrastructure Masterplan.

Nnamani said that the workshop was aimed at enhancing the capacity and institutional strength of the ICRC, agencies of government and state PPP units, to ensure that PPP projects are bankable.

His words: “It is an empirical fact that the technical capacity to develop and prepare bankable PPP projects is the key that will unlock private financing of infrastructure projects.”

He explained that discussion at the workshop would centre on management of the PPP procurement process, as well as project financing models for PPPs. The ICRC chairman advised participants to champion infrastructural rebirth in the country, using the tools and techniques learnt from the workshop.

The Director, Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, Solomon Ukochio, said that his office had been championing the cause of PPPs infrastructure development.

He said that his office had sent out circulars to all agencies of government directing them to set up PPP desks, to bring on board projects that are eligible for PPPs. Ukochio said: “We have been having regular meetings with ICRC to enlighten us on how PPP businesses are being carried out, and this has helped us to become better informed on how to manage PPPs. “We are also encouraging Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to keep in touch with ICRC in their areas of challenges as PPP is still new to us.”

Army seeks new ways of assisting crises areas

A

T least 15,000 persons and 26 formerly nonexistent urban slots have sprung up in Gombe metropolis as a result of the influx in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), the Executive Secretary of the State Emergency Management Agency, Dr. Danlami Rukujei, has said.

He said the slot population

Vincent Ohonbamu, Gombe

had become government’s nightmare not only because they are unregistered but because there are no basic facilities in those places.

He spoke at the IDPs camp when the Deputy Director, Department of Civil Military Affairs, Colonel Mohammed

Inadequate capacity stalls project development, says ICRC

T

HE Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) has said that the major impediment to the operation of Public Private Partnership (PPP) in Nigeria is inadequate capacity for project development.

The chairman of ICRC Board, Sen. Ken Nnamani, made this known yesterday in

Kazeem Ibrahym, Uyo

Uyo at the opening session of a one-week Advanced Technical Workshop on PPP. Nnamani, represented by an ICRC board member, Mrs. Comfort Siro-Wiwa, said that the prevalent infrastructure gap in Nigeria was estimated at $2.9 trillion according to the

Adopt Buhari as presidential candidate - Christian group urges APC

R

EACH forth Nigeria, a Christian Non-Governmental Organisation, has thrown its weight behind the candidacy of former Head of State and presidential aspirant of the All Progressive Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari(Rtd.).

It asked the leadership of the party to adopt him as its candidate for the 2015 presidential election.

National Chairman of the organisation, Rev. Yunana Oganto, said in a statement that

From: Tony Akowe, Abuja

events at the declaration of intention by Buhari at the Eagle Square were clear indications of his acceptability across the country.

M

He said: “It must be emphatically stated that the APC has no option in deciding who the presidential candidate should be, as the issue is finally being settled by the Nigerian masses.”

He stated that the All Pro-

gressive Congress (APC) would need to collectively take a decisive and pragmatic decision by adopting the proposal by the Nigerian masses, as represented in the General Muhammadu Buhari’s candidacy.

with her husband, the late Engr. P.O. J Nworji, former General Manager Nigerian Coal Corporation pioneered contributions to the conception and building of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church Enugwu Ukwu.

A Christian wake holds at her Enugwu Ukwu residence on Wednesday while her remains will be laid to rest on Thursday after funeral mass at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church Enugwu Ukwu.

Nworji for burial

RS. Adeline Nworji (nee Onwubuya) of Enugwu Ukwu in Anambra State

is dead.

She was 81. The deceased was a community leader, who along

QUOTABLE

“The country is currently faced with bad resources management, insecurity, ethnic and religious disharmony and most importantly, we have poverty imposed on us. We have no reason to be poor because we have endowment in human and material resources.

Sadly, we have failed to utilise them due to poor leadership.”

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2014 TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM VOL. 9, NO. 3006

—Former Vice President Abubakar Atiku on the state of the nation and why he is the best APC aspirant

T

HE euphoria that lathered his inauguration as governor a second time was overwhelming. Governor Ayo Fayose and the voters who put him in office after about eight years in the wilderness will expect that the euphoria will last, especially with the divine spin they put on October 16, the date he was impeached in 2006 and the date of his inauguration in 2014. He won by his earthy humour and disposition; he will expect that both qualities should suffice to keep him in office for the next four years, notwithstanding his glaring weaknesses as a policymaker and undisguised failings as a person. But there is no doubt he is riding high and magnificently on the crest of huge popularity accentuated by the surprisingly intense dislike the Ekiti electorate nurse towards the former governor, Kayode Fayemi.

Mr Fayose was right to suggest during his inauguration that the more his opponents attacked him, the more popular he became. He attributed that popularity to his bucolic outlook, his simplicity and openness, his unpretentious cuisine, his unctuous embrace of alternative medicine, in short, his anti-modernist proclivities. He punctuated his speech with clear indications that pedestrianism would be the locus of his government. His speech was appalling and uninspiring, but the inauguration crowd whooped for more pearls from their new philosopher-king. Most of his critics regard him as unschooled and uncultured, but even by his own galling standards, his shocking inability to read his own speech was truly baffling. He struggled through every sentence and laboured painfully to enunciate words and concepts that seemed a pale above the ordinary, but the stadium where he was inaugurated erupted every time he delivered a futile and jocose wisecrack with his characteristic deadpan.

If he could hardly read a simple speech in a state that prides itself as the Fountain of Knowledge, where every family is said to have produced either a graduate or a PhD holder, if not a professor, he at least instinctively knew how to inflame the booboisie with unmatched extemporaneousness. Indeed, he exposed himself badly and did injury to his person by sticking to a prepared speech.

He did much better with off-the-cuff statements, for those crazy asides, those stirringly sweet nothings roused his audience to a frenzy. Had Dr Fayemi stuck to his urbaneness, that insufferable quality that was blamed for his disconnection from the electorate, and attended the inauguration, as he should in a civilised society, he would probably have been mobbed, if not physically by the inflamed mob, at least figuratively by Mr Fayose’s withering and merciless putdowns.

Ekiti’s brand new governor, as the PDP

H

Fayose grieves the heart national chairman described Mr Fayose, extended his right hand of fellowship to the state Chief Judge and the media: to the former because he knew in his heart that his assault on the judiciary some two weeks before his inauguration was unprecedented and unforgivable no matter the subterfuge read into it, and the latter because, like President Goodluck Jonathan, he chafes at their relentless criticisms.

His speech did not give indication what he intends to do with the judiciary other than promise futilely to make it the best, but what he did to it before his inauguration is telling enough to constrain that arm of government from practicing juridical Puritanism and adventurism. But his speech did indicate that he felt resentment towards the unsparing media, especially that section that needles him constantly, and would prefer that they were exterminated should the chance offer itself.

There is absolutely no doubt in anyone’s mind, except perhaps his inauguration audience, that his style and person hark back to the Idi Amin era, where opponents are castrated and the media completely shackled. Mr Fayose will try to muscle the judiciary now and again, and will instigate the Ekiti booboisie against that section of the media he loathes. This newspaper, sources say, is number one on his list of enemies. But while we can from the distance lampoon Mr Fayose and spurn his blandishments, and are even prepared to defy him should he cause a total boycott of this paper in his budding fiefdom, it is not clear what quinine the eminent justices in Ekiti would be made to swallow in the coming months and years, especially seeing how he intimidated and humiliated them before his inauguration. Nor is it clear just how the Chief Judge, whose task is to guard and promote the independence of the judiciary in the state, will walk the tightrope in a govern-

ment he knows at bottom to be dedicated wholly to the amenities and facilities of the street. Ekiti protests its right to elect whomever it wishes, no matter how unworthy, but we must also defend our right not to decay to the level circumstances and politics have pushed that intransigent and transfixed state.

Dr Fayemi must have offended Ekiti so deeply that the electorate canonised Mr Fayose right from the inauguration stadium. The complete repudiation of Dr Fayemi’s cultured ways and the total embrace of Mr Fayose’s rusticity either signify the polarisation of the Ekiti society between the elite and the plebeians or reflect a gradual and insidious decay of that society. Not only did the governor act coarsely before his coronation, he also spoke like a roughneck during the ceremony, and in addition selfdeprecatingly. What is more, he bluffed and blustered, and while he half-heartedly offered peace, even attributing that magnanimity to divine inspiration, he left no one in doubt he preferred war. He ridiculed his predecessors, sullied the throne he had just mounted, displayed shocking ignorance, and prepared the ground for the projection of brawn rather than brain.

He understands that any day and any time, the artisans and road transport unions that rally heedlessly to his cause pack a better and bigger punch than the state’s snooty elite. He knows where to throw in his lot. For the next four years, the mob will rule Ekiti, and the hearts of the judicious will grieve.

Before his electoral triumph, Mr Fayose was careful not to alarm the electorate with high-sounding programmes. At his inauguration, he was even more careful not to sound loftier than necessary. He offered Ekiti a mundane five-point programme, obviously nothing to fire the imagination, and nothing prop-

Officer and gentleman Gowon at 80

E comes closest than anyone in Nigeria, alive or dead, to the universal definition of an officer and a gentleman. Though he was overthrown in humiliating circumstances at a relatively young age, having become head of state at 32 and ruled for about nine years, he has had the good fortune of outlasting his enemies and detractors. Indeed, not only is he aging gracefully, balding pate and all, he is gradually and robustly mummifying before our very eyes. General Yakubu Gowon is 80 years old, and seems set to chalk up many more years, still fit and sound.

He assumed power in 1966 after the countercoup, but planned to relinquish power to a democratically elected government in 1976. In 1974, after leading the country through a civil war, he reneged. But given the acclaim that still follows him, his affability, and the huge respect given him everywhere he goes, the mind can’t comprehend what fame would have been his had he handed over power at the time he promised and laid a sound and solid foundation for democracy.

•Gowon

•Murtala Mohammed

Nevertheless, till today, he stands head and shoulder above every Nigerian ruler since independence, including the popular Murtala Mohammed and the chimerical Olusegun Obasanjo.

Yet he has a blot on his escutcheon. The civil war years showed Gen Gowon an enormously courageous man. But his worldview since then, especially when things are collapsing around him all over the country in terms of corruption and evident misrule, is reflected in his preference for prayers and gentle admonition of the rulers of the day, even when tough rebuke would have been

more appropriate. Here, the sanctimonious Chief Obasanjo betters him; and the more abrasive but now late Gen Mohammed trumps him. Dr Gowon is a man of enormous humaneness and tremendous personal qualities. His leadership skills during the war were quite invaluable, and his contributions to the war effort and the consequent peace incalculable. But his geniality and profound empathy, not to say his continuing reluctance to serve as the country’s conscience, may consign him to a less inspiring but safe corner of our history.

Given his outlook, he is unlikely to be able to fulfill the role of someone else of our profounder imagination,. But that is precisely the dilemma of his life: that the virtues that promoted him to sainthood in our gentle estimation have also conspired to vitiate his fame and achievement. That dilemma, even if it were possible to resolve, has unfortunately ossified around him, and will be interred with his bones. Nonetheless, this outstanding Nigerian, probably the best ruler Nigeria has produced, deserves to be celebrated much more than he has ever been.

erly describable as visionary. He feels it is safe to be tentative and conservative. But I really think he merely offered what is within his competence, intellectually and physically. He was breathless as he read his speech, and seems to be driven more by his own imagination (which he made poetic reference to) than his body can endure, but he appeared supremely confident of his ability to inspire the people to accomplish anything within the framework of his private, distorted and unflattering philosophy.

In retrospect, I think Dr Fayemi got his priorities and timelines wrong. Let him not insist he has not learnt lessons from his defeat. He misjudged the Ekiti electorate to be wise and enlightened and futuristic. But like their brethren in the Southwest, they are not. They are as susceptible to bribes as they are vulnerable to misinformation. Before the election, Mr Fayose’s team portrayed Dr Fayemi and the All Progressives Congress (APC) as working for Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Lagos, a spuriousness sold by Ondo State under Governor Olusegun Mimiko, and regurgitated by Bode George and other mischievous Southwest elements who either deliberately or ignorantly confuse inspiring a region to achieve greatness with exploiting a region for private ends. Mr Fayose repeated that spuriousness in his inaugural speech, asserting that the resources of Ekiti would under him be dedicated to developing Ekiti. Now, for all anyone cares, Southwest integration is all but dead. Most southwesterners never really understood it, and their governors approached it with exasperating gingerliness. With the mundane Mr Fayose in the saddle and the staid and underperforming Dr Mimiko genuflecting before Dr Jonathan in Abuja, I can see no future for Southwest integration.

Femi Falana, lawyer, activist and humanist hinted after the attacks on Ekiti courts that some Ekiti elites might go into exile. I wonder what went through his mind as he listened to Mr Fayose deliver his inauguration speech, a speech in which he gave indication he would give no quarter to his opponents. More, I wonder how Afe Babalola, lawyer, educationist, philanthropist and eminent Ekiti son felt as he watched Mr Fayose showcase his unenviable and unstatesmanlike skills at inflaming passions.

I am persuaded that Mr Fayose will grant no quarter to writers like me, and I intend to pay him the same compliment.

Under the plebeians and Mr Fayose their champion, Ekiti will of course gradually unravel. We will be there to document the tragic regression. Mr Fayose sees divine hand in his return to office, attributes his resilience to his wife’s prophetic gifts, boasts of the unusualness of his return, which he says is unprecedented anywhere, and considers the coincidence of his exit and return dates as spiritually significant . Absolute piffle. As a student of history, I am sensible and pragmatic enough to know that Hitler couldn’t have taken office without divine help, as he himself indicated when his enemies tried to assassinate him. Nor could King Saul of Israel, Stalin of Russia and a host of other dictators have taken office without heaven’s involvement.

Having elected Mr Fayose into office against the wishes of his critics and to the dismay and grief of the polished and cultured, Ekiti will stick to that questionable decision and even try to ennoble it. They will regard our criticisms, no matter how altruistic, as an assault on their democratic rights, and they will be prepared to violently defend their incomprehensible choice and inveigh against Lagos APC leaders for showing them up for who they are. I am persuaded that with Spartan equanimity, Ekiti will live with its choice, even if it cost them their civilization and reputation. Good. But we will also report that historical inevitability. So help us God.

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