JTF averts bloodyEaster in Kano

...towards a better life for the people VOL. 25: NO. 61850

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ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

N150

MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013

Our problem with Tukur,

by PDP NEC members

4 4 .

•P

Benue church collapse: Survivors •P.6 lament neglect

JTF averts bloody Easter in Kano •Kill 14 terrorists, recover planned suicide car, arms, etc.

•Britain bars citizens from Borno, Yobe, 20 other states •Northern govs urged to fish out Boko Haram members •International community deeply concerned — Anyaoku

BY AUSTIN OGWUDA, ABDULSALAM MOHAMMED & VICTORIA OJEME

K

ANO—THE Joint Military Task Force, yesterday, averted what would have turned out as a bloody Easter in Kano, following a combat operation that left 14 insurgents dead, a primed car laden with explosives for suicide attack and assorted weapons of war

Continues on page 4

CBN dismisses banks' claim on submission of financial statement •P.17

COLUMNISTS:

DELE SOBOWALE •P.33

LES LEBA •P.40

OCHEREOME NNANNA •P. 46

Mr & Mrs

EASTER CONCERT—The Orchestra and Choir of The Apostolic Faith Church, during the 2013 Easter Concert Programme entitled “I gave my Life for you", held at the Church's African Headquarters Campground , Anthony Village, Lagos, yesterday. Photo: Lamidi Bamidele.

Eas ask Nigerians on PPeace eace •P.8 Eastter er:: Jonathan, go govvs, clerics ttask

2 — Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013

C M Y K

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013 — 3

C M Y K

4—Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013

POCKET CARTOON

EASTER SERVICE—President Goodluck Jonathan (L) with former Head of State, Gen Yakubu Gowon during Easter Church Sevice at Our Saviour's Anglican Church, Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos, yesterday.

JTF averts bloody Easter in Kano Continues from page 1 recovered.

The bloody operation that took place at Layin Yan’awaki , Ungwa-Uku General area of Tarauni Local Council of the state brought economic activities in the commer-

cial nerve centre of Northern Nigeria to a standstill while the gun duel lasted.

Conducting newsmen round the battle ground, the Brigade Commander 3 motorized Brigade, Bukavu Barrack, Kano, Brigadier General

LIFEWORDS

BY PASTOR ITUAH

Today you’ll move past a whole range of different feelings. Let them come, let them go, and find real value in every one.

TAKE HEART

BY ELLA RANDLE

the day will come where the validity P of one’s spirituality will be judged not by the correctness of one’s theology but by the authenERHAPS

ticity of one’s spiritual life. When that day comes, authentically spiritual persons may find that they have more in common with each other than they do with those in their respective religions who have failed to develop their spirituality —David N Elkins

Albert Einstein perception on everyday spirituality is uplifting to emulate. He says, a human being is a part of the whole we call universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

Remember this too, the affection that you’ve shared with another person or any of God’s creatures, can never be broken. Love is an everlasting energy and it is a sacred lasting gift from Divine Spirit. So give thanks that your heart is open to see the beauty of God in everyone and everything, for we are all God’s children.

Iliyasu Isa Abba said, “my men were on cordon and search operations in the wee hours of this morning at Layin Yan’awaki, Ungwa –Uku General Area when suddenly they came under fire from terrorists that triggered a gun duel”.

General Iliyasu Abba said that the ensuing firefight that lasted for six hours left 14 insurgents dead, while undisclosed number of others were arrested, stressing that “it was an opportunity to demonstrate our superior fire power, and the gallant officers and men gave a good account of themselves”.

The imminent disaster was averted as the British government, weekend, advised its citizens in Nigeria to stay away from 22 states including Bauchi, Gombe, Borno and Yobe, for fear of retaliatory attacks by terrorist groups due to the involvement of Britain in the war in Mali.

Anyaoku challenges Northern govs Meanwhile, former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, has challenged governors in

the northern axis where activities of Boko Haram insurgents are rife to fish out the leaders, insisting that those governors should not shy away as it is their primary responsibility to do so.

Suicide car, arms, explosives recovered The JTF recovered from the scene, a Golf car primed with explosives, which the commander revealed was ready for a “suicide mission in the city”, while 14 AK 47 assault rifles were recovered.

Also recovered from the scene that comprises two adjoining houses were fabricated anti-aircraft machine guns, a pump action rifle, large quantities of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), and chemicals for making IEDs. The entire Ungwa-Uku General Area was barricaded by military men during the operation and both human and vehicular movement was restricted to a portion of Zaria Road and Eastern Bye pass.

In line with earlier vow of the JTF to demolish property housing

suspected terrorists in the state, the military pulled down the two houses and investigation is ongoing to track the property owners.

Panicky residents who woke up to deafening blast of explosives and sporadic gunshots remained indoors several hours after the operation. This might be connected with heavy presence of troops that were still engaged in a mopup operation.

Britain to citizens: Stay away from violence-prone states In a travel advisory, the British government cautioned its citizens to stay away from Bauchi, Gombe, Borno and Yobe, for fear of retaliatory attacks by terrorist groups due to the involvement of Britain in the war in Mali.

The travel advisory also declared 18 other states unsafe, urging its citizens to restrict travel to the affected states, except where absolutely unavoidable.

The advisory also cautioned British citizens not to travel to specific cities and areas across the country, including riverine areas of Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River states, Warri, Kano, and Okene.

It further cautioned its citizens against making unnecessary travel plans that would take them to Kaduna, Jigawa, Sokoto, Kebbi, Kogi, Abia, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Plateau and Adamawa states.

The travel advisory from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office released to journalists in Abuja, read: “There is a high threat from terrorism in Ni-

geria; there is a threat of retaliatory attacks, following the French intervention in Mali.

“A bomb attack at a bus station in Kano on March 18, 2013, resulted in multiple casualties; there is a high threat of kidnap throughout Nigeria; recent terrorist kidnaps have occurred mostly in northern Nigeria, but could occur anywhere in Nigeria.

“In recent years, many attacks have taken place during religious and public holidays against public or crowded places, including places of worship. During the Easter period, you should be particularly vigilant in and around such locations.

“Demonstrations and civil unrest can occur at short notice. Follow news reports and be alert to developments. If you become aware of any nearby protests you should leave the area immediately. A number of curfews are in force.

“Before considering any travel, take professional security advice.

Be vigilant at all times, keep others informed of your travel plans and vary your routines. You should follow your employer’s security advice, make sure your accommodation is secure and review your security measures regularly.

“Violent crime is common in the south of the country, including Lagos. Flash flooding can occur during the wet season (June to October). There is a greater risk from water-borne diseases during the rainy season.

“Around 117,000 British nationals visit Nigeria each year. 50 British nationals needed consular assistance in Nigeria in the period April 1, 2011 - March 31, 2012”

Continues on page 5

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013—5

NEW IMO DEPUTY GOV—

New Imo State Deputy Governor, Eze Madumere (L), being congratulated by Gov. Rochas Okorocha after his swearing-in weekend in Owerri.

JTF averts bloody Easter in Kano Continues from page 4

Fish out Boko Haram leaders, Anyaoku tasks Northern govs Urging northern governors to fish out Boko Haram leaders, Anyaoku said that the international community was deeply concerned about Nigeria’s security challenges.

He was also of the view that the Federal Government should dialogue with Boko Haram group once their leaders are unmasked, noting that such a dialogue should be a prelude to possible amnesty instead of putting out amnesty as a pre-condition.

He spoke during the reception marking his 80th birthday and 50th marriage anniversary at his country home, Obosi, Anambra State, weekend which was graced by dignitaries from all walks of life.

Although he differed with fear already expressed in some quarters that the country was on the brink of another civil war because of the activities of the Boko Haram, he quickly added that the security challenges were posing a danger and should be addressed as there was already a

growing concern by the international community.

His words: “My take is that Nigeria is facing various challenges at the moment especially the insecurity in the country particularly the activities of the Boko Haram.

These pose very serious crisis for the country and I don’t believe that we are on the brink of a civil war. But I do believe that we face serious challenges which must be addressed because if they are not addressed, then they could lead to the situation that those who said Nigeria is on the brink of a civil war are predicting.

“I am the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council on Foreign Affairs and I do offer advice to the President in the area of Nigeria’s foreign policy and in the area of Nigeria’s relations with the outside world. I think the outside world are looking at us very favourably but there is growing concern in the outside world about security situation in our country. And I believe that the government is addressing it through the efforts of our security agencies and law enforcement agencies to crack down on the leaders of Boko Haram and get them to book.

Identify the leaders “What I would like to see also happen is that the government should make more serious effort to identify who the leaders of Boko Haram are.

And this is not just the Federal Government.

This is primarily the responsibility of the state governments in our northern part of the country. They should help the Federal Government in identifying who the leaders of this Boko Haram group are so that the Government can invite them to a dialogue because I do believe that it would be right for the government to pursue a policy of the carrot and stick.

Amnesty shouldn't be condition for dialogue “Of course dialogue first, you cannot begin to talk of amnesty before dialogue. You cannot begin to talk of amnesty when innocent people are still being killed. I think the first thing we should talk about is to identify the leaders, engage them in a dialogue

and amnesty would be result of a dialogue not a pre-condition to a dialogue”.

Asked whether Nigeria was really being taken seriously in the fight against corruption by the international community, especially the United States, when President, Barack Obama, aborted an earlier scheduled visit to Nigeria, he said: “I don’t think it is correct to say that the United States President cancelled his visit to Nigeria because of the pardon to Chief Alamieyeseigha; that is not correct. I think relations between Nigeria and United States are still very good and we do continue to exchange views on matters of concern to them and matters of concern to us. So I don’t think that the pardon to Alamieyeseigha has had any role to play in our dialogue. I believe that the President is serious when he said that he is against corruption and using the agencies of government to fight corruption. But at the same time, I think that corruption is still a very serious impediment to our national development.”

Expressing joy at the massive turn-out of personalities on the occasion, Anyaoku said, “I feel very excited and

very appreciative of the fact that so many people could come from all walks of life from former Head of State, General Gowon to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Tambuwal to the governors from various states and the traditional rulers. “ I am very appreciative that they could come from all over the country to join in the celebration.

If you heard what the Primate said in his sermon and what the chairman of this reception said, they did attach importance to my achievements on the global scene. They did mention the fact that I was very much involved in the process that led to the ending of apartheid in South Africa. That I was very much involved in the process that brought democracy back to Nigeria and that I was very much involved in the liberation of Southern African racist minority ruled governments like Rhodesia which became Zimbabwe and Namibia.

They did mention all these and these were facts and they also acknowledged the fact that I am the first African to have a professorial chair named after him at a top British University. There is now an Emeka Anyaoku Professor of Commonwealth Studies in the University of London. They mentioned my other global achievements and I appreciated that”, he added.

Jonthan hails Anyaoku President Goodluck Jonathan in a goodwill message he sent to Anyaoku, said: “In the past four score years of a life of outstanding accomplishment and great personal fulfillment, you have not only served our nation at the highest levels with an uncommon sense of patriotism and unwavering dedication, you have also brought great pride to Nigeria through your notably successful service as Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations. Till date, you continue to give of yourself in the service of the fatherland.”

Chairman of the occasion, Ambassador Ralph Uwechue in his open-

ing remarks called for peaceful co-existence among the ethnic nationalities in the country.

He said: “It is not easy to talk about Nigeria existing as one country today without direct reference to General Yakubu Gowon, who has found time to be here. General Gowon fought a war. All of us have our views what led to the war and how it was fought. But the important thing is that when the war ended, the military might of Lagos did not intoxicate Gowon and he insisted on the story and practice of no victor no vanquished.

General Gowon, our dear Yakubu, we salute you.

What we want in Nigeria is commitment to the cause of our country.

“When we do disagree, we disagree on principles but continue to work for the unity of Nigeria based 100 per cent on fairness to all the various units that make up this country”.

Earlier at the church service held at Saint Andrew ’s Church, Obosi, officiated by a galaxy of ministers led by the Archbishop Metropolitan & Primate of All Nigeria, Most Reverend Nicholas Okoh, the celebrant Chief Emeka Anyaoku openly turned down gifts but asked that those willing to offer him birthday gifts should direct such to Iyi-Enu Mission hospital where he was born for its upgrade.

Anyaoku’s home town – Obosi stood still as personalities from all walks of life, far and near congregated.

Former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Rep Ndudi Elumelu, ACN National leader Senator Bola Tinubu, Minister of Labour Mr. Emeka Nwogu, Governors of Anambra, Imo, Abia, Edo, Minister of Finance Prof Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Professor Pat Utomi, Senator Chris Ngige, including Chief Judge of Anambra State, Justice Peter Umeadi (Vanguard Man of the Year Award winner 2009) and traditional rulers were among the numerous dignitaries that graced the occasion.

6—Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013

BENUE CHURCH COLLAPSE:

Survivors lament neglect, one year after

BY PETER DURU

M

AKURDI — ONE year after the church collapse that claimed 23 lives in Adamgbe, Vandeikya Local Government Area of Benue State, survivors and victims of the tragedy have continued to live in pains and anguish of that unfortunate disaster in view of the unfulfilled promises of succour by governments and public spirited individuals.

Vanguard investigations revealed that the new church building, which the state and Federal Governments promised to provide the community in place of the collapsed structure had been abandoned at its foundation level.

Work on the only road leading to the church had also been abandoned same as the borehole project which was done half way and left uncompleted.

Some survivors of the tragedy and relatives of some of the victims of the disaster, who craved anonymity, lamented that they were yet to feel the impact of the pledges made by individuals and organisations to them, the church and the community.

“We are pained because when the incident happened, the Federal Government undertook to rebuild the church while the state government promised to provide infrastructure in the community; but till date, it’s still all promises and nothing to show for it. It all goes to show the level of insincerity and nonchalance of those who claim to be our leaders,” one of the victims said.

When contacted, the gubernatorial Liaison Officer for Vandeikya council and an indigene of Adamgbe, Mr. Dominic Ucha, said the state government had not failed to fulfill its promises to the people and church.

He said: “On the part of government, all that was promised the people and church have been fulfilled, while work on the road leading to the church is ongoing and would be completed soon.”

Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Public Affairs, Dr. Cletus Akwaya, told journalists on phone that the church was in a better position to offer explanation as to what happened to the donations made by individuals and governments because “the state government has handed all the donations to the church.”

AVERTED ATTACK—Arms and ammunition recovered by the JTF in Kano. Inset from left: An improvised explosive device; the primed suicide car and one of the buildings occupied by the suspects. Photos: Abdulsalam Muhammad.

One dies, others injured as Fulani herdsmen, Hausa clash ...over stolen Okada in FCT

By KINGSLEY OMONOBI & FAVOUR NNABUGWU

A

BUJA — ONE person was allegedly killed and others seriously injured while a house was razed as Fulani herdsmen and Hausa natives clashed over stolen motorcycle in Kubwa district, Abuja, yesterday.

This led to confusion as residents ran for safety while others locked themselves in.

The fracas, according to Vanguard investigations, was sparked off at 3 a.m, when the motorcycle belonging to an Hausa man was allegedly stolen

by Fulani herdsmen.

The dispute heated up at 10a.m, when the stolen motorcycle was traced to the Fulani herdsman's abode at Kubwa Extension II, off Arab Road, Abuja.

An eyewitness, who spoke to Vanguard, narrated: “The Fulanis are fond of robbing Okada riders and stealing their motorcycles at Kubwa, especially on this Arab Road.

“They stopped the Okada man very close to the Glass church on Arab Road, macheted the rider and the passenger and stole his Okada only for it to be discovered that it was the Fulani herdsmen that carried out the robbery.

“In an attempt to protest the Fulani terrorism in the area,

Okada riders, who were fed up with the constant attack on their colleagues, traced the Fulanis to where they live and argument occurred in the process.”

The eyewitness further told Vanguard that the Fulanis had guns and other weapons which they fought the Hausas for daring to come to their domain.

He added that the Okada riders had to retreat to equip themselves and returned before the fight started.

Both sides sustained serious injuries, as the person that was badly injured was said to have been taken to Kubwa General Hospital but died before he could be treated.

Investigations revealed that the Fulani herdsmen fled with their cows through the mountain behind their abode when they sighted over 100 Okada riders driving towards them to retaliate their injured and dead colleagues.

Contacted on the incident, FCT Police Commissioner, Mr Femi Ogunbayode, confirmed the clash, saying, however, that the situation was brought under control after a house belonging to the Fulanis was razed.

Personnel of the FCT Police Command, who were drafted to the scene of the clash, confirmed that one person died.

The police consequently deployed men to Kubwa and its environs.

500 Delta Steel pensioners die awaiting

BY JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU

A

BUJA — NO fewer than 500 retired staff of the Delta Steel Company Limited, DSCL, have died since 2005 while awaiting their entitlement, Nigeria Union of Pensioners, NUP, has said.

National President of NUP, Mr Ali Abatcha, in a statement in Abuja, yesterday, said over 1983 pensioners of DSCL were unilaterally laid off and later retired.

Abatcha added that the death toll does not represent their wives and children.

According to him, on June 4, 2012, the union wrote a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan over the plight of their members

and the resultant deaths, while till date, there had been no response from the President.

The union regretted that of the N11.709 billion owed the senior citizens, only 45 per cent of the amount had been paid them.

NUP in the letter copied the Joint Senate Committee on Public Establishment and States and Local Government on Pension Administration and Management, Minister of Iron and Steel, Director General of Bureau for Public Enterprises, BPE, and Secretary NUP Delta Steel Company Limited, noted that 55 per cent of the money was yet to be paid.

Abatcha alleged that the decision to stop pension payment to the existing pensioners and

the non-placement of the disengaged staff on monthly pension was taken by the joint Managing Director of DSCL in collaboration with some BPE and government officials to the detriment of the pensioners and disengaged staff.

He described as sad, the way authorities were handling pensioners in Nigeria, saying: “Since June 2012 that we wrote a letter to the President for intervention into the situation of DSCL pensioners, nothing had been done till date, while our members die daily.

“Another pathetic story of DSCL pensioners is that the houses sold to them by Federal Government through BPE as part payment of

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013—7

Gunmen kill soldier at checkpoint in Delta

BY AUSTIN OGWUDA

A

SABA — GUNMEN, suspected to be kidnappers, have attacked a military check point mounted by the Joint Task Force, JTF, at Agidigbo Junction on Okpai/Aboh Road in Delta State, killing a solider and snatching a machine gun.

The incident, it was gathered, took place, Friday.

It was gathered that the gunmen, who swooped on the soldiers, opened fire while the soldiers retaliated but at the end of the gun duel, one of the soldiers lost his life and his machine gun was taken by the gunmen.

One of the gunmen was fatally wounded and arrested as he was unable to flee with his colleagues.

The area had been cordoned off while the soldiers were conducting frantic search for the fleeing gunmen and recovery of their machine gun.

Road blocks had been mounted and residents, afraid of being manhandled, had resorted to staying indoors while the popular Eke market at Kwale had also been deserted.

A resident, who pleaded anonymity, said: “The area leading to the gas plant had been witnessing a lot of kidnap cases.

In short, Kwale, Beneku and environs in Ndokwa West Local Government Area of the state, are now under siege following the attack and killing of a soldier at a military check point by gunmen.”

Contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Famous Ajieh, said he was yet to get details of the attack on the military check point.

However, on the shooting of the two brothers, Mr Ajieh, said that “report from Abbi village stated that one Akadibo Sunday, male aged 42 was shot on the back, while asleep at night and one

Chukwunalu Sunday, 27, of same address was also shot on the chest, wounded by unidentified assailants while trying to ascertain what was happening to the deceased.

“Detectives have visited the scene and moved the wounded to the hospital and corpse to morgue while preliminary investigations are on.”

A

A busy cattle market at Garba-Chede, in Taraba State, yesterday.Photo: NAN.

A

DO EKITI — ONE person has died while many others sustained serious injuries in Erijiyan Ekiti in Ekiti West Local Government Area of Ekiti State during a fight between

benefits their entitlements we are constrained to inform you that of about 4500 units of houses that were sold to the pensioners, about 600 units were yet to be accessed by the pensioners as the houses are being occupied by illegal occupants, who have vowed not to quit the houses.

“Ironically, while this injustice to our members is going on unchallenged, our members are dying daily without enjoying the fruits of their labour. Sadly, as at today, the death toll of our members at DSCL had risen to over 500. This figure does not represent their wives, children and dependants they lost while hopelessly waiting for payments of their benefits.”

BUJA — FEDERAL Road Safety Commission, FRSC, has arrested 246 motorists in Kwara, Edo, Osun, Jigawa and Ekiti States for violating various traffic offences in the commission’s ongoing nationwide special patrol for the Easter festivities.

The commission’s Public Education Officer, Mr Jonas Agwu, in a statement, yesterday, said 232 of the offenders had been convicted and fined by mobile courts, while 14 were cautioned and discharged.

The statement noted that speed limit violation, dangerous driving, overloading and non-use of seat belt were the prevalent offences.

It added that one of the FRSC’s Regular Marshals, Mr Iyakwo Danlami, was killed by a truck in Kogi on Saturday.

The statement said the officer was attached to the Zariagi Unit Command of FRSC in Kogi State.

It noted that the overspeeding truck, a Mercedes Benz with number plate, XB 30 KTU, knocked down and killed the officer on the Zariagi-Lokoja Road while he was on special patrol.

An accident involving a commercial bus and a saloon car at Anthony Bus stop which resulted in a traffic jam on Gbagada-Anthony Expressway, yesterday. Photo: Lamidi Bamidele

One killed in PDP, ACN clash in Ekiti

BY GBENGA ARIYIBI

Easter: FRSC arrests 246 traffic offenders in five states

members of Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. It was gathered that during the fight, a man identified as a PDP member in the community, Mr. Ayodele Jeje, was killed by suspected ACN thugs.

Vanguard also gathered that the mother of another member of the party in the community, Mr. Segun Adewumi, as well as Adewumi’s younger brother, were also shot, and are now receiving treatment at undisclosed hospital in the state capital.

Reacting to the incident, Chairman of ACN in the state, Chief Jide Awe, who also hails from the town, said ACN had nothing to do with the incident, suggesting that it was a case of groups in the state chapter of PDP attacking each other.

Meantime, in a statement by its state chairman, Mr. Makanjuola Ogundipe, PDP said that Jeje, Adewumi and others were attacked while finalising arrangement “for a programme where Mr. Segun

Adewumi wants to lead over 1,000 members of ACN to PDP.” Ogundipe in the statement by Mr Femi Omolusi, said “many were injured and cars damaged.”

Sources, meanwhile, said a PDP leader in the state, Senator Clement Awoyelu, was not spared, as his cars were vandalised during the attack.

The Ekiti PDP chairman called on the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, to intervene and also urged the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Sotonye Wakama, to bring the perpetrators to book.

ACN denies attack But ACN denied that its members attacked PDP members, saying it was rather a clash between members of two factions in PDP in the area.

Chief Awe said his party had nothing to do with the clash, claiming that the build up to the crisis had started since Thursday, when some PDP

members, who belonged to a former governor ’s group clashed with members of another group of the party over a planned rally by the former in the community.

Awe said the community had been tensed since Thursday following the arrival of Chief Bolu Adewumi, who he said was the financier of the group and his younger brother, Mr Segun Adewumi, who also coordinates the affair of the group.

The ACN chairman, who denied that Segun Adewumi was a former member of his party, however, confirmed that Adewumi had once indicated interest to contest for the state House of Assembly election on the platform of ACN in the 2011 general elections, claiming that “he was not allowed to contest based on the fact that he was still a serving civil servant in Lagos State and he had not been working with the ACN in the town.”

State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Victor Babayemi, could not be reached for comment.

Ikotun communities task govt on roads, drainages

L

AGOS — RESIDENTS of Ijeododo, Ijegamo, Okerube, Fagbile and Abaranje in Igando/Ikotun Local Council Development Area, Lagos, have appealed to Governor Babatunde Fashola to construct roads and drainage to reduce their hardship.

They told News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, that their communities were not habitable due to the absence of drainage channels.

They said that they were usually cut off by flood anytime it rain, adding that the roads were inaccessible during downpour.

An Ijegamo resident, Chief Abiodun Ajayi, told NAN that fares go up by over 200 per cent when it rain.

Another resident, Mrs Janet Mathias, said that most parent were afraid of the possibility that their ward might drown.

8—Vanguard , MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013

FG condemns upsurge of criminality in N-Delta

BY SONI DANIEL, REGIONAL EDITOR, NORTH

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BUJA—RECENT spike in kidnapping and oil theft in the Niger Delta is pure criminality, the Presidency has said.

The Presidency’s reaction followed a sudden and inexplicable surge in abductions of foreigners and locals by gunmen in the region in recent months, leading to concerns over whether the amnesty offered Niger Delta militants by the Federal Government in 2009 had achieved its aim.

Oil theft in the Niger Delta, popularly known as bunkering, was reported to be costing the government at least $14billion yearly, while locals and foreigners are said to have parted with billions of Naira in ransom to kidnappers even with amnesty in place.

The illicit trade has also cut Nigeria’s oil output by 17 percent or the equivalent of 400,000 barrels per day, according to Finance Minister, Ngozi OkonjoIweala.

No fewer than 30,000 Niger Delta ex-militants, who claim they had renounced violence and returned their weapons of war, are currently being reintegrated by the Amnesty Office, which is being coordinated by the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Mr. Kingsley Kuku.

The lucky ex-militants are being placed on a monthly pay of N65,000 in addition to local and overseas training for many in special skills capable of securing them jobs in the oil and gas industry upon completion.

But the Presidency said yesterday that the renewed incidence of oil theft and kidnapping had nothing to do with the amnesty programme, describing the twin evil as pure criminality by some elements out to blackmail the government.

The Spokesman for the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, which coordinates the amnesty office, Mr. Daniel Alabra, told Vanguard that it was wrong to attribute the renewed wave of criminality in the Niger Delta to ex-militants, whom he said, had denounced violence before signing up for the programme.

Easter: Jonathan, Govs, clerics task Nigerians on sacrifice, love, peace

BY DAYO JOHNSON, SIMON EBEGBULEM & JIMITOTA ONOYUME

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RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan, state governors and clerics yesterday charged Nigerians to embrace love and peace and make the necessary sacrifice towards the development of the country.

They gave the charge in separate Easter messages marking the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

President Jonathan in his goodwill message delivered at Our Saviour’s Church, Tafawa Balewa Square, TBS, Lagos said, “We are here today because Christ was killed, buried and rose from the dead. We have hope that he will come again”.

Jonathan said he decided to celebrate 2013 Easter with Lagosians and to sincerely thank all Christians for their prayers.

“Through the various intercessory prayers, God has continued to stabilise the country. If not, it would have been worse,” adding that the country had challenges, “especially in these days of terrorism”.

The president said the government was working hard to check terrorism, noting that such incidents should make Christians wonder the kind of social environment that existed during Jesus Christ’s time.

He said as a mortal, he would do his best within the nation’s limited resources, to fix infrastructure such as railways and roads, as well as stabilise the power sector.

Also speaking, former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, urged Christians to continue in the faith.

Gowon, who is the leader of ‘The Nigeria Prays’, told the President that, if he continued in the faith things would be well with him.

“Trust in the Lord. He is all sustaining. He did, when I was ruling the country,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Archbishop of Lagos, Alfred Adewale Martins, urged President Goodluck Jonathan to rise above the challenges facing the country and deliver his electoral promises to Nigerians.

The prelate gave the charge at a media briefing where he condemned the level of insecurity, corruption and unemployment in the country.

Martins urged the president to address the contending issues of good governance and commit all available resources to address them.

“Nigerians are tired of mere promises, they want concrete action. They want to see in practical terms that this government is committed to fighting insecurity and restoring the country to its past glory. Events

of the past few weeks, particularly the spate of insecurity in the land, leave much to be desired.

Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State in his message called on Christians to pray for leaders of the nation, stressing that the Easter celebration should be used to renew love for one another.

The governor who spoke through his Chief Press secretary, Mr Dave Iyofor, said the death and resurrection of Christ was a clear manifestation of the love of God for mankind, adding that Christians should em-

ulate Jesus Christ and imbibe his virtues of love and forgiveness.

Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State has asked Nigerians to reflect in the spirit of Easter, on what further personal sacrifice they can make to the development of the country and mankind.

According to him, “Christ, the person in the centre of Easter, epitomised sacrifice of self for the good of all. Celebrating him therefore must be with a deep understanding of the need to put the pursuit of selfish and parochial goals aside and de-

voting time and energy to societal goals.

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State said Nigeria will attain her full potentials when her citizens resolve to live a life of sacrifice and righteousness.

Governor Oshiomhole in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Peter Okhiria, said: “As we commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who gave his life as a sacrifice for mankind, I enjoin the Christian faithful to toe the footsteps of their progenitor and emulate his spirit of peace, love, sacrifice and righteousness".

CONFAB— From left: CEO, Computer Warehouse Group, Mr. Austin Okere; Country Managing Director, Accenture, Mr. Niyi Yusuf and AGM/Head, Corporate Planning and Strategy, Skye Bank, Mr. Tajudeen Ahmed at the Nigeria Economist Conference at Eko Hotel and Suite, Lagos.

....As Pope Francis denounces greed

BY SAM EYOBOKA & OLAYINKA LATONA, WITH AGENCY REPORT

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HILE celebrating his first Easter Sunday mass at the St. Peter Basilica in Rome, Pope Francis yesterday gave an unexpected twist to the annual pontifical appeal for peace as he used the occasion to denounce “greed looking for easy gain”.

In his Urbi et Orbi address, which translates as “to the city (of Rome) and to the world”, the Pope, who has sought to make himself the tribune of the poor, disabled and disadvantaged; appeared to put uncaring capitalism in the same category as the armed conflicts his predecessors have traditionally, and forlornly, deplored on Easter Sunday.

Since being elected Pope on March 13, Francis has repeatedly stressed concern for the poor and others on the margins of society, and he returned to what is clearly emerging as the central theme of his papacy on

Sunday.

He said he wanted his Easter message of hope and resurrection “to go out to every house and every family, especially where the suffering is greatest, in hospitals (and) in prisons.”

Last week, the pope visited a youth detention centre in Rome where he washed the feet of 12 inmates as part of the traditional rite representing Jesus’ final act of humility to his disciples.

Francis’s denunciation of greed came after he had made a tour of the crowd in St. Peter’s Square in which he kissed several babies and children, held a severely disabled young man in his arms and accepted the gift of a football shirt of his favorite team, Argentina’s Saints of San Lorenzo.

His longest stop was reserved for a disabled child who was lifted up into the popemobile and whom he hugged and kissed repeatedly.

According to the Vatican’s estimate, some 250,000 people crammed into the square and the broad avenue that stretches away from the Vatican to the riv-

er Tiber for the Pope’s first Easter Sunday mass.

By the time Francis, wearing cream-coloured vestments, climbed aboard the open and unprotected Mercedes pontiff-carrier, the square in front of Michelangelo’s basilica was a sea of colour.

In addition to the spring flowers on either side of the shallow steps down which the popemobile bumped into the square, there were the flags of countries from Albania to Zambia. The light blue, white and gold of Argentina’s flag was well represented and the pope’s face lit up in recognition every time he identified a group of his compatriots in the jubilant crowd of tourists, pilgrims and Romans.

In the final event in the gruelling timetable that Easter sets for the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, the 76-year-old Francis’s voice occasionally sounded weak.

He was, however, visibly energised by his tour of the square and his delivery of the Urbi et Orbi address was forceful and at times impassioned.

Vanguard , MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013—9

SURE-P funds tearing Lagos PDP apart, No, it is not true — PDP ACN alleges

BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI & DAPOAKINREFON

A

CTION Congress of Nigeria, ACN, weekend, claimed that sharing of Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme, SURE-P, funds among the Lagos People’s Democratic Party, PDP, was currently tearing the PDP apart.

ACN called for an independent investigation into how the money accruing to SURE-P had been disbursed since the inception of the programme, with a view to establish what extent the funds had been abused.

But the Lagos State PDP dismissed the allegations that the sharing of SURE-P funds was causing disaffection among its members.

In a reaction, State Publicity Secretary of PDP, Mr Taofik Gani, described the allegation as untrue saying “Lagos PDP is not been torn apart. Lagos PDP is waxing stronger. All our leaders are working together, but we all know what the problem of the ACN is. We, however, want to warn, that we are not going to allow any of our leaders to be murdered by anyone. The ACN is always happy to cause disaffection among members of PDP. The SURE-P is a Federal Government programme that has a credible national coordinator in the person of Dr Christopher Kolade that will not allow any of the state coordinators to mismanage the funds.

I do not know where the ACN has gotten the false information from to cause confusion amongst us.”

Gani added “Lagosians are asking that the ACN should give us an account of how monies for the SURE-P for both the state and local government areas were utilized.”

However ACN said; ‘Today, the truth has prevailed as the PDP members themselves have confirmed that the SURE-P funds are being shared among them across the federation. Thanks to the alleged hijacking of the funds meant for the PDP members in Lagos State by the Bode George faction and the crisis that it has generated. The nation can now see that the Jonathan Administration has willfully converted the money accruing from SURE-P to campaign funds. This is a very serious violation of the constitution, because the State Implementation Committee, a body not recognised by law, has been set up to distribute the SURE-P largesse to PDP members in all the states.

Recall that money being spent on fuel subsidies was in the past taken out of the Federation Account money that would have been divided among the three tiers of government in accordance with the revenue allocation formula.

’’But by virtue of the SURE-P arrangement, part of the funds are now available for the Federal Government to share freely by approving contracts, pro-

grammes and activities in accordance with its whims and caprices.

"The PDP-controlled Federal Government has now seen the

accruing huge funds as money which may well be spent with special favour for its cronies and party affiliates, without regard to the constitution".

New model city project: Court stops Lagos House c'ttee on land

BY INNOCENT ANABA

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From right: Olorogun Felix Ibru; Deputy Governor of Delta State, Amos Utuama; Chief Edwin Clark and Maj-Gen. David Ejoor (Rtd), the Ohworode of Olomu Kingdom in UghelliSouth Area of Delta State, HRM, Ovie R.L. Ogbon, Ogoni-Oghoro I, Royal Canon, during his 96 birthday and 25 years on the throne, weekend. Photo: Akpokona Omafuaire.

....Don't soil your reputation, Bakare tells Kolade

BY CHARLES KUMOLU

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ONVENER of Save Nigeria Group, SNG, and General Overseer of Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has called on the Chairman of Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme, SUREP, implementation monitoring team, Chief Christopher Kolade to resign so that he can prevent his reputation from being soiled by the current allegations of non- performance by the board.

He also regretted the delayed trial of those alleged to

have stolen fuel subsidy funds, arguing that it was an indication that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had overbearing influence over other arms of government.

Briefing newsmen yesterday in Lagos, Bakare said the SNG would soon take a stand on the pardon granted to former Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Deiprieye Alamieyeseigha.

According to him: ‘’If people are saying that the PDP is sharing the subsidy reinvestment fund, I would not be surprised.

If PDP does not share the mon-

ey, who will? Do you think the PDP has good intentions? I felt pity for Dr. Christopher Kolade when he was appointed to head that committee. He is a man with good reputation but appointing him at 80 to head that committee, was a way of soiling his good reputation.

With the kind of allegations coming up on how the funds are being managed, the best thing for him to do is to resign.

I hope he withdraws or resigns before he is messed up, because you cannot expect anything good from the PDP.’’

FAAN accuses Bi-Courtney of N1.9bn debt FAAN actually owes us N132bn — Bi-Courtney

BY LAWANI MIKAIRU

F

EDERAL Airports Authori ty of Nigeria, FAAN, has alleged that Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited, BASL, is owing the agency N1,9 billion as debt incurred in the services it rendered to the domestic terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

FAAN called on BASL to pay up without further delay.

However, BASL said it was not true it was owing FAAN, arguing that FAAN was actually owing them.

BASL built and is operating the domestic terminal, known as MMA2 under the Build, Oper-

ate and Transfer, BOT, concession agreement.

FAAN, as government agency in charge of the airports in the country, provides security, mershallers, fire cover and other services for the terminal, which , BASL must pay for.

FAAN’s General Manager, Corporate Communication, Mr. Yakubu Dati, said this figure represented the total amount owed FAAN for services rendered to BASL as spelt out in the concession agreement since September 8, 2007, when it began operating the terminal.

He alleged that Bi-Courtney had foiled every attempt by FAAN to recover the debt, including debt reconciliation

meetings between officials of the two organisations.

He added that: "Since BiCourtney started operating the BOT terminal in September 8, 2007, it has refused to make its audited account available to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, in line with the terms of agreement for that concession, despite several reminder letters.”

But BASL spokesman, Steve Omolale-Ajulo alleged that FAAN owed Bi-Courtney N132 billion being the charges generated at the General Aviation Terminal, GAT, of the same airport since 2007 “because by our agreement, GAT belongs to us.”

OVES by Lagos State House of Assembly’s Committee on Land and Housing to investigate an alleged illegal destruction of the master plan of New Lagos Model City project in Lekki area of the state, has run into a hitch, following an order of the State High Court.

Trial judge, Justice Atinuke Ipaye of the Lagos High Court, ordered parties in the suit to maintain status quo and that “all construction activities of whatever nature shall cease forthwith on the subject property,” pending the hearing and determination of the suit.

The Eleku family of Oko-Olomi, Bogije area of Ibeju-Lekki Local Government Area of the state, in the suit against Governor Babatunde Fashola, had asked the court to among others, declare that the excision of their land by the state government without any notice of compulsory acquisition or payment of compensation rendered the whole acquisition illegal, invalid, null and void.

Also defendants in the suit are state the Attorney-General and Oba Tajudeen Elemoro.

The plaintiffs were asking the court to set aside the government’s official Gazette No 19 volume 40, dated February 22, 2007.

They also wanted the court to restrain the defendants from further embarking on any construction work on the disputed land.

At resumed hearing in the matter, counsel to Oba Tajudeen Elemoro, gave an undertaking before Justice Ipaye that all construction activities of whatever nature would cease forthwith on the disputed land, pending the hearing and determination of the case.

Cconsequently, the court ordered parties to maintain status quo and adjourned further hearing till April 15, 2013.

10—Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013

PDP cautions Aregbesola over ‘State of Osun'

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SUN State chapter of People Democratic Party, PDP, has cautioned Governor Rauf Aregbesola against the use of “State of Osun“ instead of Osun State, and advised corporate bodies, banks and individuals not to transact business with the current administration under the name “State of Osun.”

The party was reacting to a recent judgment by a Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere, which dismissed a charge against a 20-yearold man, David Monday,

by The State of Lagos (prosecution), over what it described as non-existence of the prosecution owing to the name which ought to be Lagos State.

Chairman of PDP in Osun State, Alhaji Ganiyu OlaOluwa in a statement by the Director of Media and Strategy for Osun PDP, Prince Diran Odeyemi, advised Aregbesola to drop the name “State of Osun” and stick to the constitutionally-recognised Osun State.

According to the PDP statement, “we are aware of the pronouncement of Justice Ebenezer Adebajo in which he declared that Section 3 of the Constitution is headed States of the Federation."

... as Oke lauds S/Court judgment

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EOPLE Democratic Party, PDP, governorship candidate in the October 20, 2012 election in Ondo State, Chief Olusola Oke, has hailed the judgment of the Federal Court of Appeal, sitting in Akure, which quashed the ruling of Ondo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.

He described it as another signal that Nigerian judiciary has men of impeccable character, who are determined to ensure that justice is done at all times.

Oke, in a statement by his Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, said the justices of the Federal Court of Appeal had shown that the judiciary was capable of regulating itself thereby saving the common man from arbitrary justice.

Alakenne stool: Court strikes out Ogun govt's application

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

A

BEOKUTA—MOVES by Ogun State government to dethrone the Alakenne of Ikenne, Oba Adeyinka Onakade, has suffered a setback as the State High Court sitting in Sagamu, has struck out an application by the government listing of the stool as vacant.

The equally court ruled that it has the jurisdiction to hear the suit against the state government by the Ikenne monarch, challenging the government’s action in listing his stool as vacant.

Onakade, who was made the Oba in May 2011 at the twilight of the last administration, has dragged the state government to court for

declaring his stool vacant, urging the court to declare the state government's action null and void.

He had prayed the court to, among other things, set aside the listing of his stool as vacant and an order seeking the non-usage of the listing of the Alakanne stool as vacant.

Reacting to the suit filed by

REALITY TV: From left— Mr. Sulyman Bello, Head Reality TV Show, Globacom; Mr. Richard McCullough, Chief Financial Officer, Rapid Blue; Mr. Sammie Okposo, and Ego Ogbaro, both Glo Ambassador, at the launch of The X Factor, by Globacom in Lagos.

PHOTO: Akeem Salau.

Opposition stage-managed guard's murder — Oyo ACN Suspecting that the murder which was obviously targeted

BY OLA AJAYI

I

BADAN—FOLLOWING last week’s murder of the night guard of a former Secretary to Oyo State Government, Mr. Ayodele Adigun, Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in the state has alleged that the murder may have been stage-managed by opponents, who wanted to give a false impression that politics of violence has returned to the state.

may have been carried out to attract attention and win the sympathy of residents in the state ahead of 2015 elections, the party called on the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Abubakar Mohammed, to investigate and unearth the mystery surrounding the murder.

Speaking through its Publicity Secretary, Mr. Dauda Kolawole, the party said: “Oyo State people are too civilised to be hoodwinked by this queer, seemingly stage-managed murder

at showing that we have returned to the old days under PDP and its turn-coat administrators.

“Our people have discovered that the Ajimobi government’s peaceful reign is borne out of tolerance for the other person and nonaligned administration of justice. Is it not curious that the first statement made by a major dramatis personae of the murder was that Oyo had returned to the Hobbesian state of nature where life was nasty, brutish and short?”

the Oba, the defendants, who are Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and the Attorney-General of the State, had filed an application seeking an order of the court for the dismissal of the suit on the ground that it had become “statute barred.”

They also argued that they were covered under the Public Officers Protection Act to take the action regarding the listing of the Alakenne stool as vacant.

In her ruling on Friday, the Presiding Judge, Justice E. O. Osinuga, dismissed the application by the state government on the ground that the defendant/applicants were not recognised as public officers.

She said that the defendants were not covered by Section 318 (1) of the 1999 Constitution and the Public Officers Protection Law, Volume 4 Laws of Ogun State.

Justice Osinuga subsequently ruled that their action in listing the stool of the Alakenne of Ikenne as vacant could, therefore, be challenged in court by the claimant/respondent.

The judge said: “There is no doubt that from the constitutional provision, the governor of a state is not a public officer. The first and second defendants from the provisions of Section 318 (1) are also not public officers.

“Accordingly, even if they were acting in their capacity as Commissioner for Local Government and AttorneyGeneral under the instruction of their master, that is the state governor, the first and second defendants do not qualify as public officers as provided by Section 318 (1) of the constitution and as such cannot enjoy the protection under the Public Officers Protection Act herein.”

The presiding judge gave the defendant/applicants 21 days to file their defence and adjourned till April 18.

Call for strike splits NLC, TUC in Osun BYGBENGA OLARINOYE

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SOGBO—FOUR affili ates of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, in Osun State, have dissociated themselves from the strike called by the state chapter of NLC and TUC, describing the leaders of the two organisations as incompetent to call the strike.

Among the unions that are against the strike are the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE; Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, ASCSN, and Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria, M&HWUN. It would be recalled that the state chapter of NLC and TUC had directed public workers in the state to embark on a four-day warning

strike to press home their demand for full implementation of the new minimum wage.

However, at a briefing in Osogbo, yesterday, Akinyemi Olatunji, State chairman of ASCSN gave a counter directive, directing “all members of the association to ignore the call to strike by the NLC and TUC.” He claimed the chairman of Joint Negotiating Council,

JNC, Mr. Bayo Adejumo, who chaired the meeting where the strike order was given, was not competent enough to preside over such meeting as he had retired from the service of the Federal Government.

He said Adejumo lacked the competence to preside over any legitimate meeting of Osun workers as he retired as an employee of the Federal Government.

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013—11

Kidnappers urged to release abducted Rivers bizman

BY EGUFE YAFUGBORHI

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ORT HARCOURT—The people of Abua/Odual in Rivers State, have appealed to abductors of Rivers notable investor, Mr. Joseph Sokolo, to release him without further delay.

The appeal from natives of the locality, under the aegis of Edogh Abua Development Association, EADA, is coming as Sokoloa's whereabouts remain unknown one month after gunmen seized him on his way to his hometown.

At the inauguration of executive of the association in Abual/Odual, weekend, Dr. Ela George, President EADA, said: “The abductors of Sokolo should release him unconditionally to his family. His being held is a sign of wickedness, which this association cannot condone.”

Ex-militant commander urges support for Uduaghan

BY EMMA ARUBI

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ARRI—AN exmilitant commander in the Niger Delta region, Mr. Josiah Oyakonghan, has charged the people of Ijansa/Jelejele/Ikeremo communities to support the three-point agenda of Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan for the sustenance of peace and security in the state.

Oyakonghan, recently elected chairman of the communities in Warri South-West and Burutu Local Government Areas of the state, promised to use his position to take Ijansa to greater heights of infrastructural development.

He said: “The key to this height lies in the active support of the threepoint agenda of the state governor.”

He applauded the peaceful and mature manner the election was conducted and sued for peace, co-operation, unity and understanding from the people both at home and in the diaspora for him to succeed.

Appeal Court declares Obahai sole ruling family of Ogwashi-Uku

BY INNOCENT ANABA

T

HE Court of Appeal sitting in Benin, Edo State, has declared the Umu Obi Obahai royal family of Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State, as the only family qualified to produce the Obi of OgwashiUku. The court upheld the decision of a Delta State High Court, Ogwashi-Uku, on the issue.

The current Obi of OgwashiUku, Professor Chukuka Okonjo, comes from the Umu Obi Obahai royal lineage of Ogwashi-Uku. The Appeal Court upheld nine of the 10 reliefs sought by the Umu Obi Obahai royal line, including the issue of which family can produce the Obi of Ogwashi-Uku. The judgment upheld the position of the Obahai family that succession to the throne of the Obi of Ugwashi-Uku was hereditary by primogeniture and that the last validly installed Obi of Ugwashi-Uku was Obahai.

It also confirms that Dieyi, the forefather of the Dieyi family, which challenged the Obahai's position was never an Obi but a mere regent, who held the throne in trust because Obahai’s children were

minors at the time of his death.

Reacting to the judgment, spokesperson of the Obi of Ogwashi-Uku, Mr Law Okolobi, said the Obi and the Obi-in-Council, were pleased that the truth in the matter had been confirmed and justice done.

He added that the Obi was convinced that the judgment was a victory for the entire people of

Ogwashi-Uku. It will be recalled that Obi Obahai reigned from 1870 to 1882 and since his demise, the regency had prevailed until 22 years ago, when the descendants of Obahai decided to take back their stool. To achieve this, they felt that the only weapon was not through a ‘palace coup’ but to seek redress in the court

VISIT: Minister of Niger Delta Affaris, Elder Godsday Orubebe and the Minister of State in the Ministry, Arch. Darius Ishaku, during a working visit to the Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko.

Watch your utterances, CAN tells Muslim done for the Muslim commuleaders in Delta nity in the state.”

BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

A

SABA—CHRISTIAN Association of Nigeria, CAN, Delta State Chapter, has called on leaders of the Muslim community in the state to watch their utterances in order not to jeopardise the peaceful co-existence between Christians and Muslims which could lead to a breach of the peace.

Reacting to recent media reports by Muslim council in

the state calling for equal treatment, CAN urged the Muslim leaders to appreciate the good things Delta State Government has been doing for Muslims in the state.

A statement by Delta State Secretary of CAN, Reverend Oke Akokotu, said: “Instead of asking the state government to accord equal treatment to Christians and their Muslim counterparts in the state, the Muslim community should appreciate all the good things successive governments in Delta state had

Akokotu described as baseless, the allegations by the Delta State Muslim Council that Muslims in the state were marginalised.

He asked Delta State Government to disregard the reports and agitations by the Muslim body, arguing that the agitation was capable of jeopardizing the existing peaceful co-existence between the two religious bodies in the state as well as the peace and security agenda of the state government.

N-Delta communities to decide location of projects —Orubebe

BY CHRIS OCHAYI

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INISTER of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe, has said that the new Action Plan for infrastructural development in the Niger Delta will focus on bottom-up approach in order to ensure acceptability and community participation in location of projects in the region.

Elder Orubebe, during a

of law.

The defendants in the case, on the other hand, contended that the Obiship had changed hands several times and, having been gazetted by the state government, the stool should remain with the Dieyi family.

Following the controversy, the plaintiffs, the Okonjos headed to court.

courtesy visit to the governors of Bayelsa, Delta, Edo and Ondo States respectively, in continuation of his sensitisation tour of the nine Niger Delta states, said gone were the days when agencies sat in the comfort of their offices and decided what projects were suitable for the people.

The minister said that the implementation of the Action Plan would also eliminate duplication and uncoordinated execution of

projects by the interventionist agencies in the region as they would be subjected to the direction of the National Council on the Niger Delta.

Orubebe informed his host governors that he and his colleagues were on the tour to share thoughts and inform them of the forthcoming stakeholders conference and first National Council on Niger Delta scheduled for April 2013 in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

Lawmaker lauds Uduaghan over regional water scheme

BY FESTUS AHON

U

GHELLI—A MEMBER of Delta State House of Assembly, Olorogun Taleb Tebite, yesterday, commended the state governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, for the re-introduction of a regional water scheme in the state.

Tebite, in a chat with newsmen, said under the scheme, “water will now flow in our homes across the state, whether you have borehole or not.”

Commending the state deputy governor, Prof. Amos Utuama, Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Ovuozorie Macauley, Commissioner for Water Resources, Dr. Chris Oghenechovwen, for working closely with the governor, he said, “the people of the state will enjoy better water supply under the regional water plan.”

On the state mass transit scheme, he said; “government’s investment in the transport sector has in no small measure reduced the sufferings of Deltans."

12—Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013

Shell commissions N31m 6-classroom block in Delta

BY FESTUS AHON

U

GHELLI—SHELL Petroleum Development Company, weekend, commissioned a block of six classrooms worth N31 million, in Odimodi, Burutu Local Government Area, Delta State.

Commissioning the project, the Forcados Terminal Installation Manager, Engr. Emmanuel Wordu, said Shell was committed to the education of the people of its host communities.

He said: “Shell will always give support to education. Those educated usually do things right.

I urge the students and teachers of Odimodi Grammar School to make judicious use of the project to enable it serve longer.”

Chairman of Odimodi Federated Communities, Chief Sunny Gbegha, thanked Shell for the project, adding that the project came at the time it was mostly needed.

Why protesting youths were arrested, by Bayelsa govt

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BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

E N A G O A — BAYELSA State Government has explained why it ordered the police to arrest and prosecute 22 youths, who recently protested against the inability of the state government to provide them jobs, saying the protest was illegal and sponsored by some politicians to rubbish the administration’s effort at job creation and empowerment.

The state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Francis Egele, said the protest was unacceptable, adding that preliminary investigation showed that antagonists of the current administration sponsored the youths.

He said: “Their protest went beyond what they were supposed to do in law. There is no way you protest and harass people. That’s wrong and is a conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace.”

Lassa fever: 33-yr-old man killed in Rivers

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

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ORT HARCOURT— RIVERS State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Sampson Parker, has confirmed the death of one patient from Lassa fever in the state.

Parker, weekend, in Port Harcourt, said the victim, a 33-year- old man, died a few days ago at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital.

He said: “Just a few days ago, my attention was drawn to the isolation of the virus in a suspected case and we lost the patient.”

He said that the state government was poised to tackle any outbreak of the disease in the state.

“For this purpose, at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, a multidisciplinary task force has already fashioned an integrated approach to ensure

that the disease was contained,” he added.

He said the government had

acquired adequate drugs to combat the ailment, pleading

BRIEFING: From left: Mr. Daesung Ra, Business Development Director, Samsung Electronics West Africa, SEWA; Mrs Folasade Oyelayo, Head, IT, SEWA; Mr. Olumide Ojo, Head of Sales, Hand Held Products, and Mr. Kim Brovo, at a press briefing by SEWA on activities of the company in Ikeja, Lagos, yesterday. Photo: Joe Akintola, Photo Editor.

CNS tasks oil firms on pipelines security

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

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ENAGOA—THE Chief Navy Staff, Vice Admiral Dele Ezeoba, has challenged oil exploration companies to provide first line security that would ensure the integrity of their pipelines.

Vice Admiral Ezeoba, who led senior military officers, including the Flag Officer Commanding the Central Naval Command, Yenagoa, Rear Admiral Olutoyin Johnson; Commander, Joint Task Force, Major-General Bata Debiro, among others, on a tour of the creeks of Bayelsa State up to the Brass Island, said the provision of the first

line security would help deter would be intruders.

He said the battle against crude oil theft was the collective responsibility of all, and not that of the military alone.

Ezeoba, who stopped at every oil installation during the tour, as well as the naval base operation, Formosa, on the Atlantic fringe of Brass, said: “The fight against the hydra-headed problem of pipeline vandalisation is the collective responsibility of all.

“The oil majors have a role to play. We, as security operatives, are the enforcement agencies that have responsibility for prosecution to ensure that these culprits who had been caught are charged to court, prosecuted and jailed. That would serve as a major deterrent to would be

perpetrators.

“What we find today is that there is more of surveillance and response and that of enforcement is negligible. Nobody does anything and it is frustrating the efforts of the officers and men who put their lives on the line on daily basis to fight this menace.

“Having said that, I advocate that whatever we do, they (oil majors) must provide us with proactive capacity that is sustainable. What we do, as it is today, is because of the lack of commitment by the oil companies. They should put in place state of the art, 21st century security apparatus that will make our efforts proactive and preventive rather than being reactionary as it is today.”

Jonathan to present NDYP award to Yar’Adua, Fashola, others

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RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan will on Friday, April 5, present the Niger Delta Young Professionals, NDYP, Award of Excellence to five eminent Nigerians who have distinguished themselves in their fields of endeavour.

Those to be honoured at the event billed for Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos, are the late Nigerian President, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (posthumous); Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos

with residents to keep their environments free from rats and dirt.

State; Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State; Chairman of Arik Air, Sir Joseph Arumemi-Ikhide and young author, Daniella Nengi Dan-Jumbo.

In a statement by Chairman of Niger Delta Young Professionals, Mr. Moses Siasia, the awardees are to be honoured for their contributions to the growth and development of the Niger Delta region and by extension, Nigeria.

It was gathered that the President is impressed with the pro-

grammes of NDYP and his coming personally to present the award will encourage productive Nigerian youths to embark on programmes that will lift the image of the country. The Niger Delta Young Professionals is a non-governmental organisation conceived by a group of young professionals from the Niger Delta region possessed with a conviction in the promotion of innovative ideas for economic, social development and leadership that is accountable.

Oshiomhole's record difficult to beat —Rep

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

B

ENIN—THE member representing Oredo Federal Constituency of Edo State in the House of Representqtives, Mr. Rasaq BelloOsagie, weekend, said that Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, lawmakers in the state were battling to meet up with the developmental strides of Governor Adams Oshiomhole in their various constituencies.

The lawmaker, during the commissioning of eight constituency projects he executed, which include two blocks of classrooms and five toilets, said the governor had set a standard that would be difficult for any individual or future governor of the state to beat.

Noting that the projects were part of his contribution to the ongoing efforts of Governor Oshiomhole in revamping public education in Edo State, he promised to continue to appreciate the support he has enjoyed from members of his constituency before and after he was voted in.

He said: “When people give you a mandate, there are certain responsibilities that are placed on you. It is my desire to respond to the need of Oredo people. I have gone round and I have understood the needs of my people and we can only thank God for what Oshiomhole is doing. What we are doing is to complement Oshiomhole's efforts.”

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013—13

Orji accuses Works Minister of neglecting federal roads in Abia

NDDC commissions road, moves to 2nd phase

BY ANAYO OKOLI

UMUAHIA — GOVERNOR Theodore Orji of Abia State has accused the Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen, of deliberately refusing to visit the state to attend to dilapidated federal roads since he was appointed minister.

Orji alleged that the reason for not visiting the state was to avoid facing the people over the dilapidated condition of the roads.

Orji told the minister to continue to avoid visiting the state if he so decided, but warned that he would enter in the bad book of the state and its people if the 65-kilometre OhafiaArochukwu road flagged off, weekend, was not completed on scheduled.

The governor, who spoke at the flag-off of Nkporo-AbribaOhafia and Ohafia-Arochukwu federal roads, wondered why the minister had not visited Abia State over two years he assumed office, even though the state accommodated many federal roads under his portfolio.

He said the people were not happy that the minister did not deem it necessary to visit the state to see things for himself, despite the public hue and cry over the horrible state of some federal roads in the state.

The governor also expressed disappointment that the minister could not use the opportunity of the flag-off of the two roads to visit Abia and see things for himself.

Orji said he wanted to send a representative when he got information that the minister was not coming but changed his mind because “my people are involved and the roads are for them.”

Gridlock on Abuja-Lokoja Road, at Gwagwalada, in Abuja, on Good Friday.

NSCDC arrests PHCN vandal after stealing for 17th time

BY PETER OKUTU

ABAKALIKI — A middle aged man, Chukwu Onyekachi, from Okofia Village, in Ezza South Local Government Area of Ebonyi State was arrested, weekend, by men of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, for allegedly vandalising Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, installation in the state.

The suspect, 28, who confessed to have engaged in similar venture in Anambra State before coming to his village, revealed that his operation at Ezza East Development Centre will make it the 17 th time he had engaged in the vandalisation of PHCN cables.

Addressing newsmen at the Command headquarters in Abakaliki, the Corps Public Relations Officer, Assistant Superintendent of Corps, ASC Emmanuel Nwali, noted that the suspect sustained injuries on his belly, hands and face due to the electrical shock he received while attempting to steal a bolt from the high tension transmission cable behind Ezza East

Development Centre.

He said: “At about 7: 30 p.m. last night, we got a signal from one of our divisions, precisely in Ezza East Development centre of Ezza South LGA that a young man was caught vandalising PHCN transmission cable.

“In fact, it was a surprise that a man of that age who knows what life is all about could risk his life by climbing transmission cable at that time.

“It was as a result of him trying to remove a size 18 bolt

APGA youth leader escapes attack by gunmen

BY TONY EDIKE

ENUGU — NATIONAL Youth Leader of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Mr. Ikechukwu Chukwunyere, said he narrowly escaped being attacked by unknown gunmen in Enugu shortly after attending the last Court of Appeal session held in Enugu on the party ’s leadership

MDCN approves Abia diagnostic centre for internship

BY ANAYO OKOLI

UMUAHIA — THE Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, MDCN, has approved Abia State Specialist Hospital and Diagnostic Centre for medical internship.

Chief Press Secretary to the state governor, Mr. Ugochukwu Emezue, said Governor C M Y K

Theodore Orji was excited by the approval and commended the Council for its objectivity in its assessment of facilities at the Centre.

The governor was quoted as saying that the “development is a big boost to his administration’s quest to bring health to the door-step of every Abian”.

from the transmission cable that made him sustain all those burns; our men tried to save his life by calling PHCN which eventually switched off power supply from the station.

“From the victims confessional statement, we gathered that he has been in the business for a long time, making this last mission his 17th time. The law has caught up with him and he will face all the charges against him in court.

OWERRI — THE first BY CHIDI NKWOPARA phase of the ChokonezeOrie Mbaise-Ife road currently being constructed by the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has been commissioned and the second phase flagged off.

Speaking at the event, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Emeka Ihedioha, said “the realisation of this project has ultimately alleviated the suffering of the people and communities served by this road.”

He expressed joy that work on the road was flagged off last December, adding that the federal government realised the project within only three months of its commencement.

On the abandoned Ahiara Junction-Okpala Road, Chief Ihedioha recalled that the immediate past administration of Chief Ikedi Ohakim started the work, pointing out that the contractor was sacked by the present state government.

Speaking also, the Managing Director of NDDC, Dr. Chris Oboh, said it was possible to realise NDDC projects in record time with the cooperation of the peo-

Chief Orji, according to his spokesman, expressed satisfaction that the internship accreditation team from the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria that visited Abia Specialist Hospital and Diagnostic centre in February 2013, was impressed with what they saw, prompting them to accredit it for medical internship.

crisis.

Chukwunyere, who recounted how he escaped the gunmen’s attack during a parley with leaders of National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, and the executive of National Youth Council in Enugu, said while driving out of the court premises at the Independence Layout, Enugu, the gunmen, driving an unmarked car, pursued him but that he was able to escape unhurt by the grace of God. The APGA youth leader noted with concern the unfortunate move by the antiVictor Umeh elements, led by Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State, to factionalise the party after it had assisted in bringing them to power.

“Before 2011 Governor Obi was politically insignificant but APGA raised him and made

him the governor, Anambrarians supported him because Sir Victor Umeh and APGA alongside late Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu, the then leader of APGA, gave him relevance but he has now chosen to engage Umeh in a battle that is uncalled for.

“He has decided to fight the same Victor Umeh that saw to his emergence as the Governor of Anambra State which is unfortunate,” Chukwunyere said.

According to the APGA youth leader, trouble with Obi started when the party's hierarchy approached him over some issues bordering on his activities in Anambra State, including the nonprovision of basic infrastructure as good roads, water, security, health care services, among others, for the people .

14— Vanguard , MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013

Boko Haram, evil forces against Nigeria's destiny — Cleric

BY CALEB AYANSINA

A

BUJA — P R I M AT E , Church of Nigeria, (Anglican Communion), the Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, yesterday, described the Boko Haram sect as evil forces challenging the destiny of Nigeria.

He, however, assured that by the power of resurrection of Jesus Christ, it shall become history.

Okoh stated this in his sermon, entitled 'Alleluia! Christ is Risen', during Easter Sunday celebration service, at the Cathedral Church of the Advent, Life Camp, Gwarimpa, Abuja.

Okoh likened the killings in the north to when the Roman Empire was struggling with the new order, which was Christ Jesus.

Ghost workers: ICPC kicks-off verification of e-payment system in MDAs A

BUJA — THE Independent Corrupt Practices And Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, has started a check on egovernance system’s mode of paying salaries.

This is with a view to uncovering sharp practices in pay roll and fish out ghost workers in Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, across the country.

Chairman of ICPC Mr Ekpo Nta, who dropped the hint while chatting with newsmen in Abuja last weekend, disclosed

that operatives of the commission were currently carrying out authentication of what was on nominal roll and that of pay roll in some banks.

Ekpo explained that they were visiting various banks to verify the actual recipients of the money.

According to him, this is to check whether the “person whose name is on the nominal roll and on the pay roll in a particular ministry is the same person who is receiving it in the bank.”

He said the checks were

necessary because of the egovernance system of paying salaries, which has removed so many bottlenecks as cashiers now pay directly to the banks.

In the past, you had a whole lot of people involved up to the cashier to move money, but now the system has removed those elements of man to man contact,” Nta explained.

The ICPC boss maintained that the checks by ICPC operatives were working perfectly, calling on members of the public to avail

themselves of the opportunity by contacting the commission promptly.

Nta noted that physical reportage of infractions to ICPC had slowed down the agencvy’s activities, adding that he could be reached on the following e-mail address: -ekponta@icpc.gov.ng for urgent response to requests. ” I want to use this opportunity to state that the moment you have any credible issue to send to us, go ahead and we have a much more responsive system now,” Nta said.

Land swap: Minister assures affected Abuja indigenes BYCALEB AYANSINA

A

BUJA —FCT Minister, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, has assured that affected original inhabitants of FCT living within the areas earmarked for land swap policy would be

carried along in the implementation of the programme.

He stated that they would not be abandoned to the elements as their well being would be adequately captured Mohammed advised them not to allow themselves to be used as tool by those scheming to politicize the policy, which is intended to accelerate infrastructure and housing development in the FCT. Speaking during a meeting with relevant officials in his office, the Minister stated that the land swap system was adopted as a way of fasttracking development to keep pace with the ever increasing population of

FCT. He described Abuja as the fastest growing city in Africa, stressing that there would be a demographic disaster unless a revolutionary measure as the land swap system was taken to provide decent and affordable housing for the residents, including the original inhabitants.

Senator Mohammed directed that more interactive sessions be held with the affected persons to reassure them of the huge benefits derivable from the land swap policy, adding that

the model was propeople.

He noted that FCT was a place for all Nigerians, hence the need to fasttrack the opening of more districts to accommodate millions of people relocating to the territory from other parts of the country, particularly the areas facing security challenges.

The Minister pleaded for the understanding of all Nigerians while his administration continues to provide amenities and facilities to stem the mounting pressures on existing ones.

FCT 6 area councils share N2.38bn …as revenue allocation rises by 13.4%

By LAIDE AKINBOADE 2013.

A

BUJA — THE six area councils of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have recorded an increase of N281,174,986.71, representing 13.4 per cent) in revenue allocation for the month of February 2013.

A statement signed by the Special Assistant (Media & Publicity) to the Minister of State for FCT, Mr. Oluyinka Akintunde in Abuja, said Abaji, Abuja Municipal, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje and Kwali received revenue allocation of N2,380,208,667.17 from the Federation Account for February, compared to the N2,099,033,680.46 received for January

Acting Permanent Secretary, FCT, Alhaji Nuhu Ahmed, who disclosed this during the monthly FCT Area Councils Joint Account Allocation Committee meeting, attributed the increment to the improved inflow from Value Added Tax, VAT, and the arrears of January budget augmentation.

Ahmed, who represented the chairperson of the FCT Area Councils Joint Account Allocation Committee and FCT Minister of State, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide, disclosed that N1.041 billion was received for the five per cent VAT in February as against

N1.007 billion in the preceding month.

He gave the breakdown of the allocations from the Federation Account as: N731.26 million from Statutory Revenue Allocation, N56.77 million from Subsidy Reinvestment and E m p o w e r m e n t Programme (SURE-P) and N23.10 million being refund by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

Other allocations from the Federation Account were: N250.35 million being arrears of January 2013 Budget Augmentation and N277.09 million being differential between budget and actual.

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013—15

EMEKA ANYAOKU'S 80TH BIRTHDAY A thanksgiving service, in celebration of Chief Emeka Anyaoku's 80th birthday, was held at St. Andrews Church, Obosi, Saturday. PHOTOS: Hill Ezeugwu and Nath Onojake.

Chief Emeka Anyaoku and his wife, Bunmi.

From left— Nicholas Okoh, Primate of Anglican Church of Nigeria; Chief Anyaoku; his wife, Bunmi; Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd.), Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State and others.

Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State (left), and wife of Anambra State Governor, Margaret.

From left— Obi of Onitsha, HRH Igwe Alfred Achebe; Governor Obi and Bishop of Enugu Diocese, Emmanuel Chukwuma.

Chief and Mrs Anyaoku and General Gowon (rtd.).

From right— Mr. Emeka Nwogu, Minister of Labour; Mrs Alex Ekwueme and Governor Obi. C M Y K

From right— Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of Finance; Ms Oteh Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Dr. Oby Ezekwesili.

16 — Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013 AFTER several postponements, Justice Neels Claasen of South Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, South Africa, pronounced a 24year sentence on leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, MEND, Henry Okah for his alleged roles in the bombings that shook Abuja and Warri in 2010.

Months after the Federal Government extended amnesty to Niger Delta militants which Okah rejected; the bombings took place, with MEND claiming responsibility. The Abuja bombing was staged close to the Eagle Square, venue of Nigeria’s 50 th independence anniversary celebration, with no less than eight people dead and scores injured.

The verdict creates mixed feelings on several counts. It is a relief that a conviction has been achieved to punish those implicated in the bombings which were clearly terrorist attacks.

Terrorism cannot be condoned under any guise.

The other side is the court’s recognition that MEND was fighting a course, the fairer treatment of the Niger Delta, though more legitimate means would have been acceptable in the struggle.

Still on the verdict, Okah’s lawyers stated that

Okah’s Conviction his witnesses from Nigeria were prevented from testifying in South Africa, where their testimonies could have helped Okah make a better case of his innocence. It is an issue that would make a major plank of a proposed appeal of the verdict.

However, President Umaru Yar’Adua’s amnesty to militants in the Niger Delta was deemed an amicable deal to restore peace in the troubled region and lay the structures for addressing the legitimate grievances of the agitators for justice in the oil-producing zone.

Campaigns of terror after the amnesty clearly ran against the spirit of the deal.

The South African justice system seems more potent and effective than Nigeria’s, where a leader of a terrorist group killing thousands of people received a three-year sentence.

Had Okah been tried in Nigeria, the process would have been mirred in politics which, would neither bring justice to those murdered nor create deterrence, which is a primary objective of justice administration. Once more, a foreign court has brought offenders to justice in a way that their Nigerian counterparts have increasingly ignored.

Okah insists on his innocence. He wants to make that case at the appeal. Whatever the outcome of that step, the journey to addressing bombings in Nigeria has started. The Nigerian courts have examples to follow on speed.

The hundreds that have been arrested over bombings in Nigeria should be made to face the law quickly. A slow justice system assists in building the aura of impunity associated with terrorist attacks.

Much as we insist that terrorists should be dealt with, according to the law, we also state that justice must be done and seen to have been done.

OPINION

BY BONS OBIADI

M

OST times, we have good ideas and our policy makers, as always, would come up with programmes we thought would advance our causes in good directions. But at the end, we fail because of poor and bad implementations, misplaced priorities, disrespect by the affluence and privileged circumstances.

Geographically, Nigeria covers a wide expanse of land requiring that we should have adequate to enough road networks to serve the exploding population.

Unfortunately, we are still contending with most of the major roads put in place by our colonial masters, narrow and squeezing.

Our supposedly ultra modern roads, built from the 1970s, are not particularly wonderful and some of them are death traps. Our people are being killed on them in thousands every year and we are not bothered. To manage these roads and our road users, our policy makers came up with different programmes and agencies including, but not limited to, the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, the Federal Road Maintenance Agency, FERMA, all kinds of both state and local government traffic control programmes and personnel, yet lives are lost on our roads in thousands because of our carelessness and lackadaisical behaviours.

The paradigm shift from our narrow colonial roads to ultra modern roads of the 1970s and all the traffic control programmes and personnel associated with them are nothing but false paradigm. This is not to criticize the programmes because

Death traps on Nigeria roads it is not good and appreciated when criticized, but criticism is healthy when it attracts changes and developments. If we want growth and changes in these programmes, we must all get involved, speak with one voice and move towards one goal and would not allow any distraction or divides in the programmes. The programmes are good, but poorly implemented and heavily influenced by the privileged.

The questions are: What are the jobs of the FRSC, the FERMA, all the state and local government traffic control programmes and personnel while we have: *Pot holes on almost all our roads, except, maybe, inside the Abuja Capital City. *Our major roads bridges are collapsing and without protective handrails and vehicles are falling inside them. *The hauling trailers plying our roads on daily basis go through hundreds of FRSC and police control posts with incomplete tires and tilted consignments and most times, overloaded. *Vehicles ply our roads with worn-out tires and, in most cases, blown tires. *Commercial buses, fuel tankers and trailer drivers excessively speed on our roads as if they are on race tracks and in most cases, some of them have inadequate and functional brakes. *Touts block both federal and local roads extorting money from road users, collecting money from some of us and in most cases, radio fees. On federal roads?

*Commercial vehicles and motorcycles block our roads with impunity. *Crashed vehicles are left on accident scenes for hours, if not days and in most case, causing more accidents. *Corpses litter our roads and no one bothers to remove them and /or look for their family members. *Sick and mad people roam our roads, sleep on bridges and sidewalks without humanitarian assistance. We must remember that these people belong in shelters and not on our roads and highways. *Panhandlers, sick, and especially people with leprosy, form colonies along our roads and major highways. *Hawkers turn our roads and major highways into commercial heaven, roasting and selling yam or plantains in very poor sanitary conditions. Most times, some of their products are infected and inducing diarrhea in our road users who patronise them. We are not afraid of hepatitis and other infectious diseases that could easily be transmitted through those merchants and their products.

The truth is that, some of these programmes were created to alleviate our pains and sufferings; however, they have, themselves, turned into nuisance and causing us more headaches. For instance, the FRSC, the VIO and a few others, take undue advantage of the provisions of the law. They block the roads and impede traffic flow, especially during heavy rush hour traffic. Reasonably, at such times when

the traffic should be flowing, no right thinking person should block the roads, and to dampen the matter, they do not have standardised procedures of checking whatever they look for and if they do, they are not coordinated.

It has been commonly observed that when these agencies, especially the FRSC personnel appear on accident scenes, that they are pr-occupied with damages to our cars and vehicles instead of the state (safety) of the occupants of the vehicles which should be their initial and primary responsibility. Safety of the occupants of the accident vehicles and around the scene must come first before property damages to our expensive vehicles. Although, one may not completely blame them because we are living in a society consumed by influence and material powers. We are living in a society where people drive recklessly undermining the legal rights of other road users and when accidents occur, the unprivileged suffers because they do not have the voice to protect them. They drive cheap and beaten up cars disrespected by our controlling authorities. They do not have the courage to shout, “Oh! My car, do you know who I am?” Or: “Do you know who my father is?” The laws and our programmes, in most part, favour the bad guys who are reckless and could easily intimidate the other road users and agencies monitoring the roads and the road users.

Our city bus drivers are in the world of their own and without control.

They excessively speed, run the road shoulders and, most times, overloaded. *Mr. Obiadi, an architect, wrote from Lagos.

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013—41

Easter celebrations across the country

From left: Mrs. Oluranti Ademowo, Most Rev Ephrain Ademowo, Archbishop of Lagos; Princess Ajoke Orelope-Adefulire, Lagos State Deputy Governor and Chief Folorunsho Alakija, at Easter Sunday church service, yesterday. Photo: Biodun Ogunleye

Most Rev. Felix Alaba Job, Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Ibadan, blessing the congregation, at St Mary's Catholic Cathedral, Oke Padre, Ibadan, yesterday. Photo: Dare Fasube

From left: Mr. Elijah Faswe, Rev. Sam Nwaeze, Most Rev. Archbishop Josiah Feron and Mr. John Baba, Provost Warden, during the Easter service, at the St. Michael's Church, in Kaduna. Photo: Olu Ajayi.

Mrs. Nicholas Okoh, wife of Anglican Church Primate (left) and other clerics' wives, dancing during the special thanksgiving service to mark the Easter Sunday at the Cathedral Church of The Advent, Anglican Communion, Gwarimpa, Abuja. Photo: Abayomi Adeshida

From left; Pastor Waleola Akinfiresoye, Chaplain of the Chapel of Grace; Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, Ondo State Governor, his wife, Olukemi; wife of the Chaplain, Funmi and Pastor Joshua Odeyemi, the officiating minister, during the Easter Sunday Service, at the Chapel of Grace, Government House Ground, Akure, yesterday.

From left: Rt. Revd. James Odedeji; Chief Segun Osunkeye, Chairman, Nestle Plc; Justice Babasola Ogunade, Chancellor, Diocese of Lagos West; Rt Revd Peter Awelewa Adebiyi, Bishop of Lagos West and Chief Bimbo Adesanya, SAN, during the church service, at Archbishop Vining Memorial Church Cathedral, Ikeja. Photo: Diran Oshe

2013 Lagos regatta

The Agbowa-Ikosi Group performing, during the 2013 Lagos Water Regatta Festival, organised by Lagos State Government, weekend, at Regatta Village, Oyinkan Abayomi Drive, Ikoyi, Lagos .

C M Y K

From right: Otunba Olusegun Jawando, Chairman, Regatta Planning Committee; Mr. Babatunde Fashola, Lagos State Governor; Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Iba, Flag Officer Commanding Western Naval Command, Apapa, and Aremo Olusegun Osoba, former governor of Ogun State, at the regatta.

L-r: Otunba Olusegun Jawando, Chairman Regatta Planning Committee, Erelu Abiola Dosumu, and Ms Elisa Larkin Nascimento, IpeAfro-Brazil Ambassador Lagos Black Heritage Festival 2013 Brazil. Photos: Kehinde Gbadamosi

42—Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013

demand, they “fight alone”. They are the schoolmasters of the masses. And they are always on the side of freedom, whatever the price. As another of our great writers, Zulu Sofola, has made one of her characters say in Wedlock of the Gods, “It is a slave who sees the truth but ties his tongue with silence.” Achebe put it more poignantly in a nonfictional comment that one of the foremost authorities on his work, GD Killam, attributed to him in a 1970s essay, “No self-respecting writer will take dictation from his audience. He must remain free to disagree with his society and go into rebellion against it if need be.”

Material comfort

•Prof. Chinua Achebe

TRIBUTE

BY P-J EZEH

I

N the nadir of winter on Saturday, November 23, 1985, I arrived in Stockholm to investigate the neglect of African writers in the award of the Nobel Prize in Literature since its inception. I knew nobody in that sub-Arctic inclement part of our planet. Indeed colleagues on the Paris-based Journalistes-enEurope staigiaire class had been doing their best trying to dissuade a Johnny-come-lately to the cold climates from embarking on what they, on just account, considered a hazardous undertaking. But it was, for me, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, not to be missed.

When I heard the news about Achebe’s death, I thought of that journey. I remembered some of my experiences then only faintly but there are some highlights of it that stand out as if only yesterday. The first task was to look for a place to pass the night.

My main tasks would begin on Monday. By sheer serendipity I came upon a visiting Chinese called Luu who had stayed a longer period and seemed to know a thing or two about the city.

C M Y K

And who, more importantly, was so friendly. Luu was staying in a cheap youth hostel and was willing to take me along to the place.

The Swedes had converted a decommissioned ship into a youth hostel, naming it Af Chapman and stationing her on the banks of the lake. It was the cheapest place my shoe-string budget could accommodate. I arrived Af Chapman too thoroughly tired from the hassles of the day to notice that I had myself become something of a spectacle.

Ecstasy over a travelling document In the well subscribed hostel, I was the only person of my colour.

The receptionist demanded my passport. I brought out the green booklet and handed over to her.

She hadn’t looked at my particulars just yet but she exclaimed something that I didn’t understand in Swedish. But I knew she was pleased because I had never, and still never have, seen an official react with such ecstasy to a mere travelling document. “Ah, Nigeria! Nigeria, the country of Chinua Achebe!” she followed it up in English.

Never mind what she did to the pronunciation of the name. How many times in the life of a Swede does she speak Igbo? It was her own turn to show me something in print too. She rummaged her daypack and brought out a book.

It was an all too familiar one; the old edition of the English version of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. “It is a major set book in our English literature class this semester,” she enthused.

“Chinua Achebe, a marvellous writer!” She informed me that she was majoring in English in the Stockholm University and was temping as a receptionist in Af Chapman.

I told her that I was a Nigerian journalist currently based in Paris and I had come to Stockholm to do a story on the denial of the Nobel price to African writers, 80 years on. I would visit the establishments that were connected with the Prize and would have an interview with Lars Gyllensten, the Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, givers of the Prize on Monday. When I asked her to compare Achebe or any other African writer she knew with Claude Simon, the French writer who won the Prize that year, she

pouted in contempt. “I only heard the name after he won the Prize.

At any rate, my specialization is English literature.” Achebe was Nigeria’s greatest export to the modern world. And he was selfmade in the intellectual or ideological sense. He was one of the few reasons the country was ever mentioned in good light.

And there is a lesson in all this.

In all aspects of life, social or individual, achievements that are worth the name come only when

,

Achebe: the man as a metaphor

That is not to say that such people are infallible. They are also humans; only they are humans that have something important to tell their society or the world and they go on to do so without minding who is upset by it or who is pleased by it. Their friend, first and foremost, is truth.

Often they will go on with their message even if the price to be paid is deprivation of material comfort, the embarrassment of being passed over in a reward that is well merited, or something worse. Achebe was denied the Nobel Prize, but so also was Graham Greene, and one or two others that should get it. The unofficial deductions that I have heard over and over again for such unfair denigration is simply that, in the case of these two at least, they were too committed in their support of the oppressed to serve the interest of the big powers. Just as it is true that such great writers are the targets of the powers they try to rein in, so also is it true that no truly important writer has failed in the end to secure his/her own niche in history, whatever his/her contemporaries may do. It is time

,

Achebe was denied the Nobel Prize, but so also was Graham Greene, and one or two others that should get it

people think originally and rise above self-serving cheap fame hunt. Achebe could have got himself ensconced in the in the bountiful pleasure that life offered graduates in the late-colonial and early Independence periods, but he chose to explore something novel; something that would endure because it served higher social purpose.

Such people are not desperate to win praises because often they are usually at a distance others are yet to reach. You can’t praise what you do not understand.

They give humanity the benefit of their ideas, not minding when the rest of the society would see the sense in such ideas. In the words of his best-known character, Okonkwo, if occasions so

that finally certifies a writer.

Chinua Achebe is one of such greats, to put it most simply. His body might go the way of all flesh, but his works no doubt will live for ever. He has transformed from a mere man to metaphor. He has become emblematic of the fact that by becoming original; by drawing from his roots, by taking reasonable pride in his tradition, the African; corporate and individually, can attain true greatness in the present world.

As a quintessential teacher he created characters to show us how not to do it. Apart from the paths that are confirmed to be wrong, all others are free for exploration.

We cannot be an Okonkwo and carry on as if social life were some

Continues on page 43

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013—43

ALL THINGS FALL IN PLACE:

Remembering Chinua Achebe at UNN TRIBUTE

•Prof. Chinua Achebe's home in Anambra State

BYDAMIAN UGWUTIKIRI OPATA

the gentleman of Fela’s iconic and ironic figuration. When you meet Christopher Okigbo, shake him with our silences, tell him that lions now groan, and that their thunder has been stilled. Can any institution be mightier than its people? Can the offspring of the snake afford not to be long?

In this age, we no longer tell the unresponsive deity the stick from which it was carved.

P

ROFESSOR Chinua Achebe, the Eagle on Iroko, the founding Father of Okike, a journal of creative writing and essays, the founding father of UwaNdigbo, another journal whose medium was Igbo while it existed, the acclaimed father of Nigerian literature, the founding editor of Nsukkascope that championed the voice of freedom at the University of Nigeria in the seventies, the eminent Emeritus Professor of English, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and the voice of cultural liberation in Africa, your mighty spirit lives on. Your sun rises to the West. Chinualumogu Achebe, your Chi has seen you through to this inevitable and ultimate promise of the final return, a return of the flesh to the soil of its birthing, but your enduring spirit is global. Any wonder that your presences have been reported to be felt in your

•Prof. Chinua Achebe, Eagle on the Iroko

novelist has greatly taught Life, but unruly Death is ungovernable, unteachable, and undisciplined. The dead man’s path is not for those who gave the sacrificial egg to vengeful creditors. You are now in touch with the Path of Thunder, but no lightning shall smite unsuspecting victims. His labyrinth is your world

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Chinua! Your celebration begins. The testaments of your pen take on a new signification. The shedding of this flesh is no threat when it has made itself the least common multiple of life home, despite the passing on of your flesh in another country, another continent! Achebe, our true man of the people, things do not fall apart where the creative genius reigns eternal.

And the trouble with Nigeria can now be fought from the mighty heights you have ascended. No boko haram will see there. No ethnic militias shall dare there.

And we are now at unease as expected of mortals. The savannah is very much with us, but it is no perching space for your transcended self. The war of this world has been fought and overcome, by you, but the stories live on in the mouth of girls and boys.

Yes, tomorrow is pregnant as the Igbo would say it, but today has found us mortals paying tribute to a noble soul. This country is still a presence with us, but we pray for the future to be greater and better than the past.

Taabugboo!My dear teacher, the

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unending, by the Pillar of Water.

Our noble and renowned master of the word, our lot is not with the voter whose choice is of the madman. No marriage with the state is a private affair. A national honour to your studied distaste is no antidote, not even a salvo to the Nangas and Sams of this world.Your singular affiliation and exemplary display of belongingness with the powerless talakawas is memorable, but they are no match for the giants in our colony.

Yes, the barracks is home to its people, but the respite we get in the fields is slow in the coming, and that trouble is still there.

Our great inspirer, a model of studied humility, our fabled story teller, and our torch in these narrow straits, the story will continue to show us the posts and point out to where the rain started to beat us. The actors on God’s behalf have indigenized, and the myths are gone, but the

sores are deeper. The fireplace is extremely warm, too warm for our comfort, warm with the shocking currents of the stammering embers of an unstable power. But we are trying. Even us your colleagues are trying, trying to move away from the discomfort of deodorized dog-shit, calling on and on for a healing from our scripted colonial selves, trying and trying to regain our voice, echoing the fathers we were taught were forest men, and the forests we were never given a privileged entry, the forests of our land.

There are discordant voices no doubt, and there will always be, as it was in the beginning, and even in heaven, in the very presence of the mighty God, but we shall imprint your focus on our forehead.

Chinua! Your office at the Faculty of Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, has always known your ghost, your pertinent absence. Like a recurrent Washington at the Statue of Liberty, your office your amiable spirit will ever inhabit.

And the Institute of African Studies at this University where the dignity of Man has still to be fully restored! Yes, this dignity!

This one dignity assaulted from time to time, without an Nsukkascope, without Chimere Ikoku, without Emmanuel Obiechina, without Ikenna Nzimiro; this dignity meets with unnerving onslaughts from time to time, but today is still early for a rethink. There are no more eggs for the sacrifice. We have become

Emeritus Professor Chinua Achebe, do not take our seeming lamentations amiss. Indeed, they are our parting songs to you.

And the songs will continue to flow, to echo your being. These songs are no dumb bells. The God that blessed you with a plethora of creative offspring is no mean God.

Creative offspring Idemili and Omambalaare great waters of the Muse. Your footprints at UNN are marbled on gold. The fruition has just begun. Chimalum Nwankwo, Chimamanda Adichie, Chika Unigwe have all drank from the same source, have all passed through the hallowed portals of this University. The bottled leopard also drank from the same springs. And your children are still coming, still drinking from the same waters that Chukwuemeka Ike drinks from, the same waters you too drank from. These same waters are the waters of your beginning. The Iroko does not fall where the soil knows no denudation. Where flood threatens, the spirit of cleansing is like a he goat with nose airborne. The land that

knows the flood knows the secrets of the Water Maiden. The Water maiden knows the secrets of the waters, of the flood. This Water Maiden is the exquisite Muse, your Muse. The Muse knows no death, and Death knows not the Muse. Chinua! Your celebration begins. The testaments of your pen take on a new signification.

The shedding of this flesh is no threat when it has made itself the least common multiple of life.

Many happy cheers to you my great teacher. There is no fear where things have fallen in place. Your Department at UNN loves you. Your Faculty needs your spirit presence. The University needs your persona.

You are welcome to your new world. Your echoing songs will trumpet the universe. Live on in splendour. Live on to blossom in this new world of essences. Live on and march forward to embrace your spirit destiny. And now, let the celebrations begin. Let the accolades come in spirited bounds. Tomorrow is another country, your country, our country, the habitus of all that have breathed, all that breathe now, and all that will breathe in future. Congratulations on your worthy transition, the inevitable departure from the here of our known stage. May God be with you and continue to bless you.

May the Muse accompany you to these new heights. And please pray for us at the crossroad.

•Ugwutikiri Opata is of theDepartment of English and Literary Studies at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka

Achebe: the man as a metaphor Continues from page 42 kind of boulder stationary and unchangeable. We must recognize the importance of change and find rational ways to negotiate our place in it. Nor should we just jump at any design for change, like Obi does. Note that for the parrot in the cage of a bird collector’s cosy portico, there is a change. But everyone can see who the unilateral beneficiary from such a change really is.

Dr Ezeh teaches anthropological linguistics at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka

44—Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013

Investors’ confidence in Nigeria records marginal improvement —LCCI

BY OMOH GABRIEL

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AGOS Chamber of Com merce and Industry, weekend, said that though the business confidence index of Nigeria in the second quarter of 2013 has improved, it was still far below the international bench mark.

Business Confidence Index BCI, is a leading economic indicator designed to measure the degree of optimism on the state of the economy that business leaders are expressing through their investment disposition.

Decreasing business confidence is often a pointer to slowing economic activities because business owners are likely to decrease their investments. The idea is that the more confident business owners and managers feel about the economy, the better disposed they would be to make new investments and create job opportunities.

The second quarter 2013 BCI survey according to LCCI covered 14 sectors, 37 subsectors and 600 top business executives’ respondents over the period, February 15 to March 16, 2013.

According to the outcome of the Chamber ’s survey released weekend and signed by Muda Yusuf, Director General Chamber of Commerce and Industry “the second quarter of 2013 aggregate Business Confidence Index BCI, recorded a modest improvement of 16.5 per cent from the 10.5 per cent it achieved in the first quarter of 2013. This represents a six point movement of the index along a positive trajectory. This improvement notwithstanding, BCI scores for Q1 and Q2, 2013 continues to trail far below the 50 per cent global confidence threshold. Investors and business leaders are still wary about the state of the economy and the unfriendly doing business environment”.

Mudal Yusuf added: “The result of the factors that weakened the index score includes poor access to credit, inhibitive tendencies of monitoring and regulatory agencies, sustained insecurity situation across the country, dwindling public power supply and budget approval/implementation crisis.

“Macroeconomic factors such as exchange rate and inflation rate exerted neutral influence on the second quarter, 2013 BCI score. The neutral impact of macroeconomic prices on businesses at this time is informed by the relative stability achieved over the last few months. However, the downside remains that the current stabilisation of prices through monetary tightening has been achieved at the expense of investment, employment, output and growth."

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Our problems with Tukur, by PDP NEC members

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, Political Editor

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EMBERS of the Na tional Executive Committee, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, are inching towards a confrontation with the national chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, over the multiple crises facing his stewardship of the party.

Central to the anger of the party officials is the increasing perception that he is using his office to achieve personal political interests. Remarkably, while Tukur is alleged to be still supportive of the political aspirations of President Goodluck Jonathan ahead of the 2015 presidential election, the president is, however, now said to be under serious pressure to dump the national chairman on the strength of the heavy baggage the 12 month stewardship of Tukur is said to have put on him.

Besides, Tukur is alleged to have allowed a battalion of personal aides to distract him having created the highest number of offices for aides of the national chairman in the history of the PDP. Also infuriating to party officials especially members of the National Working Committee, NWC was the national chairman’s decision to recognize the state executive committee of the party in Adamawa led by Mr. Joel Madaki against the decision of the NWC to confer recognition on the faction led

by Alhaji Umar Kugama.

ficials when he went to Adamawa to openly pledge solidarity with the Madaki faction infuriating senior members of the party who at that time helped in reaching a truce with the governors over the issue.

A very senior party member and member of the NEC reacting to the decision of the national chairman to recognize the Madaki led faction told Vanguard yesterday, “Talk is cheap.” Another member of the NEC even while trying to make excuses for Tukur, nevertheless, put the problems of the party at the door step of the aides of the national chairman. He said: “The problem is that Tukur has too many aides, even his political aides are more than those of the president.

He has many senior aides and they are either former members of the National Assembly or former ministers and they are not giving him proper advice.”

Tukur’s first problem with the NWC arose when he was accused of allowing his personal aides to run a parallel secretariat different

from that operated by the NWC. The face-off with the NWC members led to the disengagement of Alhaji Habu Fari as his Chief of Staff few months after the inauguration of the present NWC. Others allege a rapid turnover in the number of aides appointed by the national chairman, though one source defended the national chairman saying that the aides were mostly funded

by Tukur, himself, a multi billionaire prior to his advent as national chairman of the ruling party. “Today you could be appointed as an aide and tomorrow you could be sacked. You know baba is old. Today he could appoint you and tomorrow meet you and ask ‘who are you?’,” a source confided in Vanguard.

Tukur’s problems, Vanguard learnt are now being compounded with the open welcome being given Anenih by many governors in the course of his ongoing tour across the country.

Where Tukur has failed in building bridges with the governors, Anenih it was learnt, is moving ahead

making deals with the governors and creating the kind of peace that the president is envisaging to help push forward his 2015 aspiration.

A source close to Anenih nevertheless claimed, yesterday, that the BoT chairman was not in any way interested in hastening the exit of Tukur from office saying that Anenih was singly focused on stabilisng the party.“Anenih and the BoT are just focused on one thing, helping the president to stabilize the party and if the president is happy with the efforts that are being achieved you cannot blame Anenih for that,” the source said.

The anxiety about the national chairman, nonetheless, Tukur’s position remains presently safe. Any contention for his job can only be formally considered at a NEC meeting which Tukur has to call. The last NEC meeting took place last July despite the provision of the PDP constitution that the NEC should meet at least once quarterly. The alternative is a petition arising from a majority of NEC members, but so far intrigues and other considerations have so far made that impractical.

Success of Anenih Tukur’s position is further being compounded by the success of the chairman of the Board of Trustees, BoT, Chief Tony Anenih, in wooing disaffected stakeholders and governors back to the party.

Remarkably, Anenih to the delight of the president is understood to be making deals with the governors on behalf of the president during his tours.

Tukur has been engaged in a face-off with the majority of the governors of the party over his handling of the crisis in his home state, Adamawa. At the peak of the crisis last January, the NWC reversed its earlier dissolution of the Adamawa chapter executive of the party. Tukur, however, to the chagrin of other members of the NEC proceeded to upturn the decision and confer legitimacy to the faction of the party loyal to him. Tukur had during a homecoming last February infuriated party of-

L-r: Former First Lady and Acting Chief Judge of Niger State, Justice Fati Lami Abubakar; Governor Mu'azu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State; former Chief Justice of Nigeria,Justice Muhammad Lawal Uwais; and other Judges at the at the valedictory court session organised in honour of the immediate past Chief Judge of Niger State, Justice Ndajiwo in Minna

NBM embarks on free medicare in Delta

BY FESTUS AHON

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OVED to complement Government effort in the provision of healthcare to its citizens, the Neo Black Movement of Africa, Delta Zone, has carried out free medical checkup for traders in the Warri Main Market, Warri, Delta State. The programme was part of activities to mark the one year memorial of one of its

leaders, Mr. Believe Erovwo, who was gruesomely murdered a year ago in Warri by unknown gunmen. The traders, whose blood pressure and sugar level were tested, were given adequate diagnoses according to their test results. Speaking during the programme that was applauded by the market traders, the group’s Legal

Adviser, Delta Zone, Mr. Kelvin Agbroko, said they decided to carry out the test, considering the importance of health and the dangers associated to high blood pressure and high sugar level in the society.

According to him, “most victims of these particular health challenges are traders who due to the nature of their trade may not have time or even see the need to go for medical checkup.”

Vanguard, MONDAY,

APRIL 1 1,, 2013 —45

Scientists disagree over intake of alcohol in pregnancy

BY CHIOMA OBINNA

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N recent times there have been questions, and different debates whether a woman should drink alcohol during pregnancy or not.

Several studies have pointed to one direction that alcohol no matter how little is not acceptable or safe during pregnancy.

In fact, scientists in most of the studies revealed that alcoholand pregnancy don’t mix. The studies stated that when you drink, the alcohol quickly travels through your bloodstream, crosses the placenta, and reaches the baby.

According to them, Alcohol endangers the growing baby in a number of ways by increasing the risk of miscarriage and stillbirth.

“A little drink a day can raise the odds for having a baby with a low birth weight and raise the child’s risk for having problems with learning, speech, attention span, language, and hyperactivity. Some researches have shown that expectant mothers who have as little as one drink a week are more likely than non drinkers to have children who later exhibit aggressive and delinquent behaviour.

thing that is clear, is that heavy drinking or addiction to alcohol by pregnant mothers can result in the delivery of low birth weight children with an increase in neonatal and infant mortality.

Osahon said: “Indeed, some children born to pregnant mothers who indulged in heavy drinking of alcohol may develop Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder with cognitive and behavioural disorders/learning disabilities, a characteristic facial appearance with a small head size, epicanthic folds and a broad base to the nose, a long upper lip and a small lower jaw, with a high chance of having other serious malformations. “Based on available evidence,Enabulele said it is advisable for a pregnant mother to abstain from alcohol, particularly during the early weeks of gestation. “If a pregnant mother must indulge in alcohol occasionally she must consult her family physician for professional advice/counselling before making her personal decision,” he noted.

• A Pregnant woman. cine at Ucla, Carol Archie, even small amounts of alcohol can affect a developing baby’s brain. “We know that alcohol impacts brain cells and that the baby’s brain is constantly developing throughout the entire pregnancy. I would say to a pregnant mother that it’s probably best to abstain from all alcohol.”

However, Danish researchers say there is no strong evidence low levels of drinking in pregnancy are harmful, they argued that eight units of alcohol per week during pregnancy had no obvious impact on children at age five.

And found that drinking up to three times that amount appears to have no negative effect on children.

The 2010 study, published in the British journal of obstetrics and gynaecology, followed 1,628 women and their offspring from pregnancy to the time the children were five. The mothers’ were asked to assess their own drinking during pregnancy in interviews conducted at antenatal appointment,

Mental health problems One study found that girls whose mothers drank during pregnancy are more likely to have mental health problems.

According to the United State Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, fetal exposure to alcohol is one of the main preventable causes of birth defects and developmental problems.

But a study published in October 2010 in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health some how reassured the women. In that study, researchers in the United Kingdom reported that 5-year-old children of women who drank up to one to two alcoholic drinks per week while pregnant were not at an increased risk of behavioural or cognitive problems.

However, many doctors with the stance of the CDC recommend that pregnant women should avoid drinking.

Reacting on the ongoing debate here in Nigeria, President of the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, Dr. Osahon Enabulele said the issue of alcohol consumption during pregnancy is a subject that needs to be handled professionally and with great caution because of its evolving nature.

For Enabulele, though available studies have not documented any harmful effects from light drinking of alcohol but one

• Dr. Osahon Enabulele Continuing he said: “I must however state that women with certain risk factors such as liver disease, a history of drug or alcohol addiction or on drugs that interact with alcohol, need to be especially cautious in handlin He further advocated that more research need to be conducted amongst Nigerian pregnant mothers to ascertain the direct effects of drinking different doses of alcohol and at particular times during the pregnancy.

This he said, especially as some pregnant mothers may have different alcohol tolerance levels or alcohol handling abilities because of differences in the levels of the enzyme that breaks down alcohol.

Also in the views of MD, Associate Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the David Geffen School of Medi-

usually at about 17 weeks. The women were asked if ever it is right to drink alcohol while pregnant and they were then categorised as abstainers during pregnancy; light drinkers (one to four drinks a week); moderate drinkers (five to eight); or heavy drinkers (nine or more). For the purposes of the study, one drink contained 1.5 British units of alcohol - roughly that in a small (125ml) glass of medium-strength white wine.

Self control and ability to organise themselves

They found that having up to eight small drinks a week had no effect on the five-year-olds’ IQ, attention span, self-control and ability to organise themselves. Only children of women who consumed nine or more such drinks a week were affected, demonstrating lower attention spans.

Prof.Ulrik Schioler Kesmodel, of Aarhus university, Denmark, said: “We are not encouraging women to drink but we hope to reassure those who have been drinking in the early stages of pregnancy - maybe before they knew they were having a baby - that they don’t

BY VICTORIA OJEME need to worry about it.“ He claimed they were surORRIED by the high rate of maternal and newborns in prised not to find any evidence Lagos, the Japanese government through its grant assist- of harmful effects in children ance for grassroots human security projects has approved $121,883 among pregnant women who for procurement of medical equipment for PHCs in the State. The had been involved in binge project involves procurement of numerous healthcare equipment. drinking. Kesmodel admited that Biire Child and Maternal Health Foundation an NGO will be re- the children in their study should sponsible for the procurement of the medical equipment for the be checked at an older age, beprimary health care centre. cause neurological problems only Ten health centres selected across Local Government Areas of became noticeable from age five.

Lagos are to benefit. The Ambassador of Japan to Nigeria Ryuichi These findings suggest low to Shoji,said it is worrisome to note that mortality rate is very high moderate drinking has no signifidue to lack of health care facilities, medical equipment, medical cant effect on children aged five. practitioners etc.

It is up to every mother to deIn addition to provision of materials the Japanese International cide if she will have the occaCooperation Agency (JICA) will render technical assistance to sional small drink or sacrifice a ensure that quality maternal, new born and child health services small amount of time. It is defiare provided at the primary Special Adviser to the Governor on nitely not the biggest sacrifice Public Health, Dr Yewande Adeshina, said the grant was timely. when raising a child.

Lagos, Japan sign $0.12m health contract

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46—Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013

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Gov Dickson’s wrong WAR (2) However, excessive r umour mongering is rampant in environments where the income or sustenance for the majority of the population comes from one major source rather than a diversified variety of sources. This is common among those states known as “civil service states”, where the government treasury is the primary source of income for the elite, the middle and lower classes alike. A friend who used to be a political appointee in Imo State (one of the “civil service states”) once told me that the moment a cheque amounting to more than five hundred thousand naira (N500,000) is okayed for payment in the Accountant General’s office, everybody would hear about it in all the major beer parlours in Owerri later that same day.

Bayelsa derives 90 per cent of its income from the federation account, a large sum of which comes from the derivation principle tied to the oil resources of the state. Every major player in the state; from civil servants to politicians, youths, elders, traditional

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OVERNOR Henry Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State is worried about the activities of rumour mongers in his state. Feathers were ruffled across the ever-nosy social networks in particular when the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, announced that the governor had decided to set up what he termed: Rumour Management Committee, to “find a permanent solution” to the “disturbing trend of incessant rumour mongering in Bayelsa State”, with the government or its officials being the prime targets.

Even before the much anticipated Committee gets to work, Governor Dickson had personally made a fine example of a civil servant, named as Akpoebi Ifidi. The governor announced his suspension for “making careless statements” about his administration.

It is also on record that Dickson’s immediate predecessor who was booted out to pave way for him, Chief Timipre Sylva, had also considered rumour such an important issue as to appoint one of his kinsmen as Special Assistant on Rumour Mongering (please don’t laugh!).

The first reaction that settles on any curious and inquiring mind is: why is rumour such an important issue in Bayelsa State? I can hazard a guess or two. But first of all, let me observe that rumour or gossip is a natural part of every human society. Rumour is nothing but unconfirmed or unsubstantiated report. Everybody engages in it. Nobody can claim he or she has never started a conversation with the usual signature intros of gossips or rumours such as “have you heard..?”, “can you imagine..?”

In fact, people engage in rumourmongering as a pastime or as a tool to lubricate their relaxation activities. That is why some people; including big shots in society buy gossip or “soft-sell” publications to read at their leisure times, even though some try to hide them from view. They want to know what’s being gossiped about their friends and enemies, including themselves! In fact, there is no serious Chief Executive or decision maker (including Governor Dickson and his predecessor Sylva) who does not cherish an opportunity to get “useful information” from the rumour mills.

Close confidants of leaders are nothing but people who supply them with interesting, “quality” rumour. Leaders value rumours because they know that the saying: “there is no smoke without fire”, is generally true.

Rumour mongering is not solved with the use of a sledgehammer. That is military mentality.

Setting up a committee to “fish out” rumour mongers is military mentality.

You waste a lot of public resources, inflict a lot of needless pain on hapless citizens and end up achieving nothing

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rulers, ex-militants and what have you, is a “stakeholder ”. It is for this reason that there will always be one dominant political party in states like Bayelsa, with “opposition” political parties invariably reduced to “parastatals” of the dominant, ruling party.

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Gov.Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa: Battles rumour mongers and gossips

econdly, since most of these “civil service states” do no have a large section of their indigenes dependent on economic activities outside those of government, there is a lot of spare time which is invariably spent on idle talk.

Idleness and laziness give a lot of room for rumours and gossip. Most nonindigenes in a “civil service state” who have to struggle for their livelihood outside the direct windfalls of the

government treasury hardly have time to participate in the rumourmongering.

Rumours, by their nature, also thrive in atmospheres of secretive activities in public office. Usually, when there is a lot of opacity and secretiveness, there is also corruption. But when government conducts its affairs openly and with eager readiness to account for every action taken, rumours become irrelevant. One governor that has used open and frank strategies to beat back the spectre of rumour mongering is Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State, Bayelsa’s next door neighbour.

I am strongly of the view that Governor Dickson is starting a wrong war. Setting up a committee to fish out rumour mongers will only eventually lead to persecution of the governor ’s perceived enemies. This committee will not bring friends for the governor. It will bring only enemies, and it will be the one arrogating to itself the right to define for the governor whom his enemies are. Being a lawyer and a former federal legislator, Dickson should know better than to believe it will be possible to prove the charge of rumour mongering against individuals.

It will be difficult to gather the credible evidence to secure conviction.

Rumour mongering is not solved with the use of a sledgehammer. That is military mentality. Setting up a committee to “fish out” rumour mongers is military mentality. You waste a lot of public resources, inflict a lot of needless pain on hapless citizens and end up achieving nothing.

I am wondering what the ten political appointees manning information and media for Dickson actually do to justify their positions. There is no greater “rumour management committee” than these chaps if they know their onions.

They are supposed to advise the governor and assist him in administering information creditably to the public with a view to minimising rumours.

Dickson should also consider opening up the Bayelsa economy to reduce emphasis on government as the primary source of income for indigenes.

People who are busy and profitably engaged in their farms, private businesses, markets and factories will have very little time to gossip about real or imagined money being shared in government offices.

There is no other way of fighting rumour mongering than through transparent, accountable, good governance.

OPINION

BY GABRIEL ZOWAM

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T the 2012 Physicians Week in Abuja, the President of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, Dr. Osahon Enabulele, lamented that foreign medical treatment was costing the nation over $500 million annually, with as many as 5,000 Nigerians (monthly) travelling outside the country for treatment!

Some posers!

Why is the Nigerian health sector not interested in intercepting this huge traffic of money flowing out of the country every year? Why is our National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, so uninspiring that Nigerians are so desperate to be treated abroad? In the other sectors of our economy (such as aviation, banking, telecoms, postal services, broadcasting, etc) the private sector has moved to effectively exploit the gaps in the services rendered by our public sector.

Why is this not effective in our health sector? Why are we not seeing private-sector performance from our NHIS, which is even dominated by private firms?

Why are the big players in the private sector (including outstanding Nigerians in the Diaspora, who don’t even need government money, to set up world-class health facilities here) not finding the space?

Many people may think that the solution to our

How to create a healthcare revolution present healthcare challenge, is to throw more money and budget into the sector. We submit that the starting point is to find answers to these posers!

The missing driver of success A vital “driver of success” in social service delivery (whenever corruption can be a threat), is always to put the funding of programmes in the hands of those the programmes are designed to serve!

A text-book application of this principle was the American GI Bill. Following the return of millions of American soldiers (the GIs) from the Second World War, the American Congress, passed the GI bill, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law on June 22, 1944. This bill allowed each GI to pick any accredited university or polytechnic they wanted, with the assurance that government would pay. In this way, government’s funds followed the GIs to whatever schools they chose; while institutions (private and public) now scrambled vibrantly for the GIs and their funds! In the peak year of 1947, these veterans accounted for 49 percent of all US college admissions! By the time the programme ended on July 25, 1956, nearly eight million World War II

veterans had participated! The bill was a phenomenal success which continues to be credited with turning millions of battle-scarred American young men and women into the educated backbone of America’s post-war economic boom!

Notice that the US government could have set up a special agency, whose job it would have been to “allocate” the GIs to institutions. Or it could have used the programme’s budget to build new institutions for the GIs, or expand existing institutions! But it chose to put the programme’s funding squarely in the hands of the GIs themselves; and that was what unlocked the vibrancy and economic success that the programme generated!

We can even use our public and private school systems to explain this vital principle further. The funding of a typical private school is in the hands of the community the school serves: If parents are not satisfied, they will readily withdraw their children; and money will stop flowing to the school! Notice how this creates inbuilt incentives for hard work as well as automatic consequences for failure to improve! This drives the private school system towards better service!

The funding of the public school, on the other hand, comes from government.

Continues on page 47 Mr. Zowam, a social critic, wrotr from Abuja.

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013—47

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HE news about the death of Chinua Achebe hit me in a very personal way, coming exactly a fortnight of the burial of my eldest brother, Benji; as his Owerri contemporaries called my own “head of state”, Ben C. Nwigwe.

Achebe had come to mean so much to me, almost as a brother, since we had a prolonged chat on the picturesque campus of the University of Ife, Ile-Ife in 1973, nearly 40 years ago. Achebe was one of over 20 resource people that presented papers at an International Conference on “Publishing in Africa in the Seventies,” which was jointly organised by the University of Ife Press and the University of Ife Bookshop Ltd at Ile-Ife, from 16 to 20 December, 1973. More than 100 people from all over the world participated in the conference, which understandably had a heavy African presence, 14 African countries! An appreciable number of delegates also came from the United States and Western Europe of which yours truly was one.

As an editor with the AfrikaEnglisch Abteilung (AfricaEnglish Department) of the Radio Deutsche Welle, the Voice of Germany, Cologne, I came to IleIfe, Nigeria, as a foreign participant among the large German team. Pre-flight airport chit-chats among the participants, on-flight discussions and conversations in the air-conditioned luxury bus that took us from Ikeja airport all the way to the beautifully landscaped University of Ife,

centred on the conference and the prospect of each and every one of us hoping to meet and shake hands with Chinua Achebe whose expected paper on “Publishing in Africa: A writer’s View” had been highlighted in the conference fliers.As a Nigerian, as an Igbo man, I was really proud that our Achebe was held in such a high esteem by my German colleagues, some of whom were senior executives of the world famous Frankfurt Book Fair.

The first day of the conference, December 16, 1973, a Sunday, was taken up with protocol matters as we expatriates were checked into Hostel rooms which we had paid for along with our registration, weeks ahead. But even as many participants tried to settle down and get ready for the official opening the next day, Monday, 17 December, questions were being asked whether Chinua Achebe had arrived or not, whether he would attend at all.

There were even some insinuations as to whether the conference organisers weren’t merely using Achebe’s name to promote the conference. But before we retired for the night some of us got dependable information that Achebe had indeed arrived and would be there the next day, in flesh and blood, to present his paper.

The conference on “Publishing in Africa in the Seventies” eventually took off on Monday 17, December, 1973, with a welcome address by Dr. H. A. Oluwasanmi, the towering Vice Chancellor, University of Ife, IleIfe and an official opening address by the Federal Commissioner for Education,

Achebe advised, “Write, Write, Write.”He told me that he looked forward to reading me someday. Pity, The book is yet to come. And Chinua is gone

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Chief A. Y. Eke who ignited the conference by announcing that the Federal Government had “given approval for the setting up of a provisional Nigerian Book Development Council to encourage all aspects of book production in Nigeria…”

That declaration set the scene for a thoroughly exciting five-day conference which lead presenter was unchallengeable Chinua Achebe, the famous author of Things Fall Apart.

His day and turn eventually came and the auditorium was overflowing with anxious participants and observers. The students were away on holidays, apparently to make way for an effective use of the hostels for the visitors. So it was inexplicable that such a deluge of students and other residents of Ife descended on the campus to listen to Chinua Achebe.

W

e were all ears as the literary icon began his presentation. Visibly taking in the massive child-like attention on him and the innumerable pairs of eyes that were focused on him, Achebe slowly, and methodically began to unravel his piece.

How to create a healthcare revolution (2) Continues from page 46

T

BY GABRIEL ZOWAM

HE school will also continue to receive pupils, especially from the poor and disadvantaged familiess who have no choice. That’s why a poorly-performing public school can afford to continue performing poorly!

In general, every social programme, whose funding is put in the hands of those it serves, always achieves phenomenal success; while no programme that violates this cardinal principle ever works well in a corrupt environment! Our health sector can improve dramatically, if we slightly rejig our NHIS operations, to unlock this vital driver!

Our NHIS is funded through the automatic monthly deductions from workers salaries and the matching contributions of their organisations. These contributions end up with the Health Management Organisations, HMOs, that provide the insurance. Once an organisation selects a particular HMO, the staff of that organisation (the service recipients) will become automatic enrolees of that HMO and are limited to the hospitals in that HMO’s list. This means that the vital decision of where each contributor’s fund goes (that is, which HMO receives the fund) is not being made by the enrolees, but by their organisations! The HMOs in turn pay the hospitals for services they render to the enrolees.

Now, too many things are profoundly wrong with this arrangement! For example, in our very corrupt environment, why should a HMO bother about the quality of service when it can easily (and far more lucratively) settle a few persons in each organisation with a generous percentage of the deductions

it receives from that organisation?

Similarly, why should a hospital bother too much about NHIS patients, who have been rendered? And so on! In fact, there is nothing in the arrangement to drive the cardinal objective of the NHIS of ensuring “high standard of healthcare delivery to beneficiaries”!

Rather, it is a perfect arrangement for making the NHIS fund (collected monthly from organisations, on behalf of workers) an object of cheap corruption - the kind of corruption that stakeholders have been screaming about! For example, Mrs Ejiro Foyibo, the National Chairman, Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria, ACPN, quipped thus: “I boldly say that NHIS is a fraud! The pharmacists, physiotherapists, laboratory technicians have all been sidelined in the operations of the scheme” (June, 2010)! For Nigeria’s House of Representatives: “The scheme is a national embarrassment, disaster and colossal failure” (November 2011).

Even the Acting Executive Secretary of NHIS, Dr Abdulrahman Sambo said: “Most of the enrolees are cheated, shortchanged and segregated against by institutions providing health insurance” (September 2011, at a subscribers’ forum in Abuja).

Ironically, I had in my 2006 book, Reinventing the Nigerian Public Service (published soon after our NHIS officially began in June, 2005) warned that the scheme was going to have problems because we were failing to put its funding in the hands of the enrolees! I can warn even more emphatically today that Nigeria’s healthcare can never get off the ground (even if we allocate our entire national budget to it) as long as it is driven by this NHIS arrangement, which discourages hard work,

He painted a word picture of the visceral, physical and spiritual links between the writer and the reader by first contrasting it with the relationship between himself and the tailor that made the suit he wore.

Let Achebe speak: “It is a tendency when we speak of books to forget or to give inadequate thought to the simple fact that our central purpose is a dialogue or the desire for a dialogue, between writers and their readers, that everybody else in the business is a facilitator…“When I put on a shirt I am not in communion with the factory hand who made the yarn nor even with the tailor who sewed it (especially if it mass produced)…“But when I read, somebody is talking to me; and when I write, I am talking to somebody. It is a personal, even intimate, relationship.”

The literary genius went on and to explain what he termed “intermediaries” in the book publishing and distribution chain and, most importantly, he hammered on the need for indigenous publishers in Africa and the need for governments in Africa to support such efforts.

A master story teller, Achebe drew an unending applause when he concluded his presentation. The audience was still standing virtually transfixed when Achebe was escorted out of the auditorium. But the man wasn’t free yet, A crowd of Europeans and Americans surrounded him outside, each clutching a copy of Things Fall Apart and demanding his autograph. Apparently already used to such rituals in the course of his travels, Achebe quickly thinned out the crowd as he furiously signed and signed on the opened pages of his great opus.

Within half an hour, it was my turn to hand in my own copy of Things Fall Apart, bought at the

,

BY NNAMDI NWIGWE

,

An encounter with Achebe

A vibrant, innovative, and service-focused NHIS will by itself, dramatically transform our healthcare delivery! Now, nothing (absolutely, nothing) can stop us from that, if we can redefine roles in the scheme

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innovation, and quality-service! Even if the model has worked for some other country, it can never work in our environment!

Finally, notice how we are missing the profound lesson of the GI Bill, and the neat opportunity to use our NHIS fund to unlock vibrancy, innovation, and decisive servicequality in our health sector! With the key actors assured of our cheap NHIS fund, they need not bother about other opportunities, including what they are losing monthly to foreign medical institutions!

The solution The starting point is to appreciate that the only reason Nigerians are so desperate to be treated abroad is that our NHIS is not providing the expected “high standard of healthcare delivery to beneficiaries”!

Indeed, a vibrant, innovative, and servicefocused NHIS will by itself, dramatically transform our healthcare delivery! Now, nothing (absolutely, nothing) can stop us from that, if we can redefine roles in the scheme, to “give service recipients unfettered freedom to choose and change their HMOs (and hospitals) as they want”!

With this as the starting point, we can now work out other roles. For example, our employers of labour (after making their

conference venue and about the fifth time I was to buy the book which I first read in Ghana, in 1965, as a Journalism student.

Fortuitously when Achebe looked up and saw me, he held out his hand to shake me as if we had met before.

I seized the moment and told him in Igbo that I desired a private meeting with him if he didn’t mind. He agreed to see me later that day and told me where to meet him. He wasn’t alone when I called but somehow he recognized me as the one he gave an appointment and excused himself from his companions. Seeing him in a good mood, and relishing the gesture of friendliness he had earlier shown me, I needed no preambles. “Am not very happy with you sir…”He cut me short: “Ah Ah! Brother what’s the problem.”I continued; “I have been trying to write a novel, and before I can complete a paragraph I find myself repeating Achebe. Even our proverbs in Mbaise are quoted by you. “I really can’t feel original as I labour to write…”

“Ok, I see what you mean,” he spoke with an assuring voice. “You see, I am the son of a missionary teacher who dragged the family along to the various locations the authorities posted him. We lived in Umuahia area. “You know, as children we mixed easily with the locals. “We come from the same background and there is no way we will not repeat ourselves if we decide to write about our people and our culture.”He was very sympathetic and urged me to summon the necessary courage and start writing. Tapping me on my shoulder, Achebe advised, “Write, Write, Write.”He told me that he looked forward to reading me someday. Pity, The book is yet to come. And Chinua is gone! *Mr. Nwigwe, a commentator on national issues, wrote from Lagos.

matching contributions), should not go beyond collating the list of their workers that select each HMO/hospital (the way many organisations handle workers salary accounts with different banks)! And so on!

This roles-redefinition will dramatically light up our NHIS by creating new incentives in the scheme for hard work as well as automatic consequences for failure to improve! For example, the HMOs, instead of competing on how much “kickback” they can give, will start advertising themselves directly to us, with focus on the services they can provide! The problem of enrolees being “cheated, short-changed and segregated against” will vanish! Our NHIS fund will move from being an object of cheap corruption to becoming the catalyst for unlocking the vibrancy, innovation and service quality that have practically disappeared from the sector! This will create that vital space for big private-sector players (including many Nigerians in the Diaspora who don’t even need government money), to come and set up world-class facilities here!

Way forward Nigeria’s health sector transformation is far easier than many people may be thinking! In fact, our health sector would, by now, have blossomed like our telecoms sector, if not for the abovementioned flaw in the NHIS roles-definition which has stunted the scheme!

What government needs to do now is to put together a small committee of experts to decisively correct this flaw and unlock the huge potentials of our health sector. The exploits of our medical personnel (when they travel to other parts of the world) attest to their innate capacity to drive a worldclass local health sector and stem the tide of Nigerians seeking medical treatment abroad!

Concluded *Mr. Zowam, a social critic, wrote from Abuja.

48—VANGUARD, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013

A conspiracy against the electorate Many Nigerians and governors would shriek at suggestions that the president sacks any one or all of the governors from office and run with appointed yes men. That, however, has not stopped the governors from continuously violating the system of democracy at the local governments leaving the third tier prostrate!

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, Political Editor

•Jonathan: Could he sack a governor?

T is perhaps the greatest conspiracy by the country’s governors against Nigerians and democracy in the country.

It is a conspiracy that draws participation of the majority of the governors even including those who strode on the platform of activism to power.

Remarkably, the nation’s governors have found one reason or the other to stifle democracy at the local government level with many of them using appointed officials to run the third tier against the specific provision of the constitution that the system of democracy at the local governments should be guaranteed.

Section 7(1) of the constitution detailing the unconstitutionality of local government caretakers states: The system of local government by democratically elected local government councils is under this Constitution guaranteed; and accordingly, the Government of every State shall, subject to section 8 of this Constitution, ensure their existence under a Law which provides for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and functions of such councils.

By the constitutional provision, elected local government officials are expected to hand over to successors who should ordinarily be elected by the electorate in the same way

governors hand over to elected successors after elections.

However, since 1999, that provision has been observed more in the breach by most of the states. Two states, Ekiti and Anambra States are particularly guilty as the two states have not conducted local government elections since the first elections that heralded the fourth republic in 1998.

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I

•Amaechi: NGF requests states to conduct council polls

view which faulted the failure by 18 states to conduct local government elections.

Ekiti and Anambra were particularly indicted in the report.

“Local government elections have not been conducted as and when due in the state since 1999,” the report presented by the National Coordinator, State Peer Review Mechanism, NGF, Dr.

Even the Nigerian Governors Forum, the umbrella association of the country’s governors has become embarrassed by the matter

The ambiguity of caretaker administrators can be equated to a situation where the president immobilizes the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC from conducting gubernatorial election in a state and the president goes ahead to appoint a caretaker governor. Whereas the governors would not allow this, they have, however, repeatedly impinged on the continued flow of the democratic spirit at the grassroots.

Even the Nigerian Governors Forum, the umbrella association of the country’s governors has become embarrassed by the matter. Last week the NGF secretariat released a report of a peer re-

,

Afeikhena Jerome stated concerning Ekiti State.

“The conduct of local elections has been thwarted by successive governments not playing by the letter and spirit of the relevant laws that regulate the establishment of the State Independent Electoral Commission, SIEC, which has responsibility of conducting local elections.

“The Anambra State government needs to urgently set machinery in motion and conduct credible local government elections,” the report commissioned by the NGF stated.

The embattled national chairman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, Chief Victor Umeh cites his insistence on the

conduct of local government elections in Anambra State for the opposition that has recently been mustered against him by Governor Peter Obi and his associates.

“I fell out with him (Obi) in March 2010 shortly after he was sworn in and he sent people to tell me that he wanted to put caretaker committees in the local governments. I said no, that it was a breach of an agreement between me and him and Ojukwu.”

“As soon as he won that election, he wanted to change it, I disagreed with him. We had that problem for two months until Ojukwu resolved it and he agreed there will be local government election.”

Short postponement “That was why in July 2010, notice of local government election was published by ANSIEC for 4th of December 2010. We were pursuing that, unfortunately, as we got closer, he said the voters’ register was not good and we got a short postponement to await the new voters register that INEC was putting together then. Immediately after that election, the voters register came out.”

“After 2011 election, he went into caretaker, I told him no, this thing is no longer good Continues on page 49

VANGUARD, MONDAY,APRIL1, 2013—49

LG autonomy: Governors can’t stop the wish of Nigerians – ALGON President SHORTLY after organizing a three-day national conference of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) at Nike Lake Resort, Enugu, last December ALGON President, Ozo Nwabueze Okafor told Vanguard why plots to scuttle constitutional provision for local council autonomy would hit the brick wall. He also spoke on efforts to democratize the councils and why the Board of Trustees of ALGON was enlarged to 12 among others. Excerpts:

BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE

M

ANY local councils across the country are at a standstill with caretaker committees, what are you doing address this problem?

We have worked very hard to bring the issue of the local governments to the front burner. We believe that the very foundation for having a virile and strong local government system is in the conduct of regular elections.

We believe that the people of Nigeria, in our different

communities, both rural and urban should be given the opportunity to decide who runs their affairs. Our democracy should start at the local level because that is where we have greater and wider participation in governance.

What do you make of the controversy and disparity in tenure of local councils, some are two years others are three years?

That is what we are trying to do and it is one of the reasons we are here. We want

•Okafor: ALGON president uniformity of tenures for local governments in Nigeria. We are saying that the issues of local government tenure should be made clear. We are

asking for four years since local governments are important to the people I believe they should be given sufficient time to articulate

and implement their programmes for the welfare of their people.

What are you doing to strengthen local council autonomy given the plans of the governors to stop councils from being a tier of government?

The governors will have their opinion. Funnily, our opinions as political leaders in this country are like shifting the goal posts. Their opinion as governors will be different from the position they will hold when they become National Assembly members or when they become president.

We are not talking as sectional leaders, we are talking about what is good for Nigeria and Nigerians have expressed in various public hearings that they want a strong and independent local government s in Nigeria

A conspiracy against the electorate Continues from page 48 because we have sold forms to people who would want to contest the elections. There is no reason to give them again.

That was when I was brought out to be dismantled.”

Besides Governor Obi, Governors Kayode Fayemi, Rauf Aregbesola and Adams Oshiomhole are three examples who have not at any time conducted local government elections in their states. One is now scheduled in Edo State after five years of Comrade Oshiomhole’s stewardship of the state.

Stewardship of the state Last week Governor Aregbesola for the third time inaugurated another set of appointed local government administrators having inaugurated two others before whose tenures expired after six months.

The reason often given by the governors for the appointment of caretakers is that the State Independent Electoral Commissions are constrained by one factor or the other.

That, however, is believed to be a façade for the attraction the governors have towards caretaker committees, to wit, that it

is an opportunity to draw funds from minions normally appointed as local government administrators.

Whereas some of the governors have deliberately delayed the conduct of local government elections, some others have imperiously sacked elected councils.

An example of that absurdity is Imo State where local government councils were dissolved by Governor Rochas Okorocha shortly after he came to office in 2011. The action was challenged by the chairmen, all of whom were elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP which ruled the state before Okorocha came to power on the platform of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA. The chairman of Isiala Mbano Local Council and Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Imo State chapter, Mrs. Ruby Emele in an interview told Vanguard how the authorities in Imo State have harassed her and her colleagues since the courts reversed Okorocha’s dissolution of the councils.

“Our lives are being threatened every day just for fighting for a just cause, fighting for our rights, defending the mandate given to us by our

•Obi: Anambra has not held council polls since "98 people. If you go to Imo now, most of the local councils are in comatose,” she told Vanguard on the sidelines of the recent national conference of the association.

Presently, democracy even though in its crude form in most cases obtains in the following states: Enugu, Ebonyi, Lagos, Sokoto, Niger, Kwara, Akwa Ibom, Benue, Jigawa, Adamawa, Kaduna, Cross River, Rivers, Kebbi, Ogun, Taraba, Zamfara, Bayelsa, Gombe and FCT. The impression that the above states presently run democratically elected local governments could, however, be a self-serving excuse for some to rejoice. But as almost everyone now knows, local government elections where

they are held are almost wholly fraudulent.

The party in power in the states almost always win everything leaving no room for the opposition parties.

Power of incumbency There, however, have been some near successful challenges to the power of incumbency. In October 2011, few months after the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN rode back to power in Lagos, the PDP marshaled a near successful challenge to the ACN in the state when it contested the local government elections. At the end of the day, the PDP claimed victory in the chairmanship contest in at least

three local councils, notably Ikoyi/Obalende, Agege and Badagry.

Remarkably, it took the authorities of the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission, LASIEC more than 24 hours after the counting was concluded to announce the results and declare the ACN winner of all the seats in the state. The ACN hierarchy which was particularly touched by the PDP•fs claim to Ikoyi/ Obalende, the base of its national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in a rebuff to the PDP asked the party to go to court.

After an initial victory for the PDP at the State tribunal in October 2012, the victory was restored to the ACN by the Court of Appeal.

The PDP has also taken its pound of flesh on the ACN in Kwara State where a similar story has also been playing out.

The widely proclaimed victory of the ACN in the 2011 council elections in 2011 in Offa received a strong challenge from the PDP which runs the state government. The PDP lost at the tribunal but won at the Court of Appeal which ordered for a rerun of the election!

It is the same story everywhere which underline the bastardisation of the local will and wishes of the electorate at the grassroots.

50 — Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013 — 51

Vanguard CLASSIFIED DIDI—I, formerly known and addressed as Master Didi Olisaebuka Metuh, now wish to be known and addressed as Master Derrick Olisaebuka Metuh.

All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

O T U O B A — I , formerly known and addressed as Miss Eunice Eloho Otuoba, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Eunice Eloho Ubogu. All former documents remain valid. Delta State House of Assembly Service Commission, Asaba and general public please take note.

EDI —I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Edi Omiretshuli Gloria, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Maku Omiretshuli Gloria.

All former documents remain valid.

Ministry of Justice and general public please take note.

OMOJAIDE—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Omojaide Queen, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Iviemu Queen.

All former documents remain valid.

DACEMPCS Ltd and General public please take note.

UGBEKILE—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Nkechi Ugbekile, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Nkechi J.O. Agbogidi. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

EREMOJE—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Eremoje Roli Beauty, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Beauty Roli Alabi. All former documents remain valid. Post Primary EducationBoard (Asaba) and general public please take note.

IKPOKPO—I, formerly known and addressed as Dr. (Miss) Theresa Erezimena Ikpokpo, now wish to be known and addressed as Dr. (Mrs) Theresa Erezimena Ogholaja.

All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

Mali army, Islamists clash at Timbuktu T

HE Malian army has been fighting Islamist rebels in the northern city of Timbuktu after a suicide bomber attempted to attack an army checkpoint.

The bomber was killed before he could detonate his bomb yesterday evening. This was followed by militant attempts to infiltrate the city.

The army, backed by French air power, then moved against the Islamists.

Earlier this year French troops pushed Islamists out of much of northern Mali but sporadic fighting has continued.

“The fighting is heavy and it is ongoing,” Malian army Capt Modibo Naman Traore told the Reuters news

agency, adding that the army was in the process of “encircling” the militants.

At least one Malian soldier and two civilians were wounded in Saturday ’s fighting according to the city’s mayor.

But the number of casualties following Sunday ’s fighting remains unknown.

The situation in Timbuktu remains tense, reports the BBC’s Thomas Fessy from Bamako.

The people of Timbuktu had barricaded themselves in their homes after a group of Islamists infiltrated a western neighbourhood of the city overnight, our correspondent says.

•Mr Odinga’s supporters reacted angrily outside the courthouse as the verdict was read

German opposition par ties disagree over joining forces

G

ERMANY’S two main opposition parties traded warnings yesterday against joining forces with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives after September’s election if they fail to win their own left-of-center majority.

The leaders of the Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens party issued unusually shrill messages to each others’ supporters about the risk their votes might end up going to a party that could join forces in a coalition with Merkel.

The SPD and Greens want to form a center-left government after September’s election but opinion polls show they will fall short of the needed margin. Surveys show Merkel’s best chances of serving a third term could be to lure either the SPD or the Greens into a coalition with her Christian Democrats (CDU).

SPD chairman Sigmar Gabriel, alarmed about flirtations between the

Greens and CDU, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that Greens voters should be aware that the proenvironmental party could end in bed with the CDU if the SPD and Greens failed to achieve a majority on September 22.

•A Malian army checkpoint was attacked on Saturday evening

Uneasy calm returns to Kenya

K

ENYAN police clashed yesterday with a few dozen protesters angry at a court’s confirmation of Uhuru Kenyatta as president-elect, but the unrest was minor compared with the nationwide bloodshed after the last disputed election.

There was little sign of violence beyond Kisumu, a city in the west of Kenya where there is strong backing for Prime Minister Raila Odinga, loser in the presidential election.

Kisumu and other regions were devastated by deadly riots after the vote in 2007.

Even in Kisumu, where two people were killed by gunfire and shops were looted on Saturday after the Supreme Court declared Kenyatta had won in a fair race, most areas had cooled down on Sunday and the latest trouble was limited to the

outskirts.

Many Kenyans had said they were determined to avoid a repeat of the violence five years ago that killed more than 1,200 people and hammered east Africa’s biggest economy.

Kenyans said the

Pope Francis delivers Easter plea for peace

P

OPE Francis has delivered a passionate plea for peace in his first Easter Sunday message since being elected.

Francis used his “Urbi et Orbi” address to call for peace in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and across the globe.

He singled out “dear Syria”, saying: “How much blood has been shed! And how much suffering must there still be before a political solution is found?”

Easter is the most

CAR leader facing isolation, says no reprisals

C

ENTRAL African Republic’s new leader Michel Djotodia, facing international isolation after seizing power, said on Saturday he would not take reprisals against rivals and called on those who fled abroad to return.

This is even as the United States said on Saturday it did not recognize Djotodia, who toppled President Francois Bozize on March 24 after leading thousands of his Seleka rebels into the mineralrich nation’s capital Bangui, triggering days of looting.

“I make a patriotic and

brotherly appeal for our countrymen, who have chosen the path of exile, to return,” the former civil servant turned selfdeclared president told several thousand cheering supporters near the presidential palace.

“There will be no witch hunt, because we must establish tolerance, dialogue and forgiveness,” he said.

Though violence in the riverside capital has ebbed, Djotodia said looters would face justice and called for international help, particularly from former colonial master France.

But the takeover has

calmer atmosphere this time was in part because of far greater trust in the reformed judiciary that ruled on the disputed March 4 vote, and also because Odinga was swift to fully accept the verdict despite his disappointment.

been condemned internationally.

important festival in the Christian calendar and pilgrims have attended church across the world.

Pope Francis, formerly Buenos Aires Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was elected on 13 March, becoming the first non-European pope for almost 1,300 years.

He replaced Benedict XVI, who held the office for eight years and became the first pontiff in more than 700 years to resign, saying he no longer had the physical strength to continue.

In his Urbi et Orbi (To the city and the world) speech, Pope Francis began with a simple “Happy Easter!”

Churches hold prayers for ailing Nelson Mandela

C

HURCHES across South Africa have held prayers for Nelson Mandela, who has been in hospital for four days being treated for pneumonia.

Several hundred people gathered at the Regina Mundi church in Soweto, once a focal point of the struggle against apartheid.

On Saturday, South

Africa’s presidency said Mr Mandela, 94, was breathing without difficulty.

It said excess fluid had been drained from his lungs to ease his breathing.

There were no details yet on how long he will remain in hospital and no statement on his condition has been given since Saturday.

52 — Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013

LEISURE

YOUR LUCK TODAY

By Joshua Adeyemo Phone 08056180139

PISCES; Unless you are more careful matters-ofthe-heart may cause avoidable trouble the way your career/business can suffer temporarily.

ARIES; It is important you don’t exhibit aggression unnecessarily. Here is a day when secret love is capable of bringing serious pressure. Try to be very diplomatic.

TAURUS; Your concentration level is not perfect and if you take bad advice from friends you would be misled. The more practical you are the better for you.

GEMINI; Unnecessary aggressive approach on your part along your career/business lines will back-fire more than you imagine. Graceful expression is what you will need.

CANCER; Happenings within your working arena can bring minor provocation but it is just a passing trend. Travelling for love will bring more challenges than expected.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

By Richard Eromosele

I

guess you are

working officially. And if you are not working, perhaps, you are schooling. And if you are not in any of the above, you may be in business for yourself. In all of these, there is a time for resumption and a time for closing. As it is with these, so it is

Knowing when to exit with every other thing that involves human beings in life.

Everything that has a beginning must surely have an end. No man is a Messiah. Just do your best and bow out. Do not listen to sycophants.

Many good leaders

today have been destroyed by sycopants.

Life is like a stage.

Know when to put a stop to what you are doing now. Know that with or without you, the world will move on.

There is a tide in the affairs of men. There is

TERROR MUDA in “Never say goodbye”

a time to be welcome, there is a time to be applauded, there is also a time to be rejected.

The good actor is the one who quits when the people’s clamour for him at the peak. We all are actors in our various spheres of life. So, lets learn to exit when the ovation is loudest.

Think about it, seriously.

By Lanre Kehinde

LEO; Male members of this Star sign will need to watch their libido while female must not ignore their sex-life. Beware of joint ventures with those you don’t know.

VIRGO; It is not compulsory you take to aggressive re-action to those within your base of operation who are not as perfect as you. Protect your spouse.

LIBRA; Watch what you eat and drink today. This is the wrong time to engage in unnecessary heated argument.. Romance at work may bring disappointment.

SCORPIO; Trying to influence matters-of-the-heart with money will not give you the desired result.

Any way it is a day you will need to be more careful with money.

KAPTAIN AFRIKA

in

“Princess Shii’

By Andy Akman

SAGITTARIUS; It is important you are more careful while trying to pass judgement on people within your base of operation because you too may be wrong.

CAPRICORN; Taking a pleasure drive or movement may bring more than anticipated responsibility. Keep away from whatever can not be placed above board today.

AQUARIUS; If you allow friends to force their ideas on you financially or on matters-of-the-heart, you would be the loser. Express yourself gracefully.

ASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLING Send yyour our dat th ttoo the As tr ological datee and place of bir birth Astr trological Counselling, PP.M.B .M.B 1100 00 7, Apapa, Lagos 007,

Where was my moon

VIRGINIA

dadadekola@yahoo.com

Dear Joshua, Kindly tell me where the Moon was placed when I was born and other things I should know about my star.

Adedamola-Ibadan

Dear Adedamola What space can take will be given here-under. Your natal Moon was in Aries.

ANALYSIS OF YOUR HOROSCOPE DATA Preponderance of cardinal quality in your chart is an indication of GREAT LEADERSHIP QUALITY together with innate ability to attain prominence on one hand, on the other hand, exaltation of intellectual related Mercury in Aquarius at positive angle to both lucky Jupiter and Uranus (the planet of genius) in Libra pointed to a person with higher pitch of intelligence.

Action loving Mars as the final dispositor of your horoscope ( that’s most influential planet at home when you were born) will most times induce you to strongly desire importance with likeness for quick results; actually long promise without concrete action will bore you easily. Equally 60 percentage of push-full influence in your chart means that the best for you is to go after your needs and wants.

Combination of all the placement and aspects formed within the planets when you were born are pointers to you as a person with balanced personality with little bias for good spiritual life. And you believe in disciplinarian life style.

Placement of your natal Sun and Moon in compassionate Pisces and self conscious Aries respectively are indications of your being mainly a Piscean and partly an Arian, however as Aries is also your Stellium sign, both basic characteristics of Pisces and Aries are highly pronounced in your inner-self.

Commen3

by Lawrence Akapa

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013—53

Re: Call for amnesty for Boko Haram Dear Sir, Nigeria is a complex entity and sometimes I just pity our leaders helplessness in a system where people who are in position and are expected to be very objective in state matters do otherwise. I am referring to the call by the highlyrespectedSultanofSokoto, that Boko Haram should be granted amnesty. Without mincing words, I have great respect for the Sultan because

from the little I have known and followed about him, he is a detribalised Nigerian. But on this issue of giving amnesty to Boko Haram, I wish to say, he goofed.

On the other hand, my thinking tells me, going by his precedence that he may have been under pressure from some unknown forces or is this call a cry of helplessness? If the issue of Boko haram is politicised, then the end will not be close. You can only

Leave politics out of ministerial appointments

PHCN and FG accord with succession coys PRESIDENT Jonathan should please speed up the privatization process of Power Holding Company of Nigeria PHCN, to succession companies. Nigerians are tired of living in darkness.

Felix 07057464301 5 years single tenure The word democracy according to Fela Ransome Kuti means “ Demonstration of Craze”. Nigerians will agree with me that truly our political environment is becoming crazy and the spirit of corruption has eaten deeply into the lives of our leaders and they are trying to inflict the coming generation with such negative characters.

Many greedy leaders have forgotten that only God can rule forever. A single tenure of five years is good so that the craze for first, second and third tenure will be over. The National Assembly should please do something about tenure elongation.

Steadfast Foundation

It is true that The President is sponsored by a Political Party but the moment the Election is over, the Winner becomes THE PRESIDENT of all Nigerians and not only limited to members of his Political Party.

Award of Contracts is different from these appointments and we should not bring politics into everything that is Government so that Nigeria could gain from all citizens whether they belong to a party or not. Please, let us copy some of the good things from other countries and leave politics out of Government appointments. Nigeria shall survive!

Chief Olayinka Ogunmekan President, Nigerian-Swedish Chamber of Commerce Lagos

08121945298 Odi judgment The Federal High Court in Port Harcourt has displayed the age-long courage the judiciary is known for. The baton definitely will be handed over to the Court of Appeal

grant amnesty to a known offender. The questions now are who are the representatives or leaders of Boko Haram? What are their grievances? What are the objects of their rebellion? For me, we are shying away from the root of the crises staring glaringly on our faces.

My worry is the daily emasculation of socioeconomic life of Northern Nigeria and by extension the whole nation by the actions of Boko Haram. These are trying times for our nation, but we must all stand for what is right regardless of whose ox is gored.

I can still remember during the critical days of militancy in the Niger Delta, that the militant groups and their leaders were known.

That was why elders from the region like Chief E.K. Clark went to the creek several times to negotiate with them. Can you negotiate with spirits. Let’s face the fact. Boko Haram is faceless and its members have not been able to state categorically what their grievances are except that western education is forbidden according to them. If that premise is anything to go by, then it will be

safe to conclude that Boko Haram is an ideology. Even at that, let the leaders come out and identify themselves. It is at this juncture

Dear Sir, I read a story in your widely read Newspaper in which the PDP National Vice Chairman, South-East Col Austin Akobundu (rtd), criticised the romance of the Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha with the newly-formed All Progressives’ Congress, APC. The PDP chieftain did not just criticise the Governor for aligning with the APC, he also described him as a failure and a disappointment to the people of the state.

According to Akobundu, Okorocha squandered the goodwill and support of the people by failing to deliver any tangible project nearly two years after he assumed office. He regretted that they (PDP) made a big mistake in entrusting the state to Okorocha.

The PDP stalwart further challenged Okorocha to point out any project he had started and com-

pleted since assumption office in 2011 and accused him of being clueless, unfocussed and unprepared to tackle the challenges of the state.

I felt so bad after reading the story because the PDP, a very unpopular party in Imo State, arrogated to itself, the power to chose who governs Imo State that boosts of the most literate number of Nigerians. My question is this, what yardstick did Akobundu and the PDP use to measure Okorocha’s performance? I sincerely believe, just like majority of Imo State indigenes, that Okorocha’s performance in two years has yielded more dividends to Imo State than the 12 years of Udenwa and Ohakim’s misrule put together.

Akobundu and his likes should always endeavour to be objective in their criticisms.

Chinonye Njoku Uzoagba Ikeduru

country. They have the highest number of people who have occupied that position in the history of Nigeria, still , they believe they must present the next president.

This is injustice to other parts of the country that have not occupied such office before. They should learn to be considerate. They should also be patient with President Jonathan to have his full term and then allow other parts to take their turn before dreaming of occupying that position.

Charles 080381196780

President Jonathan is actually being opposed by a majority of Nigerians and not just Northerners alone. He has to step up his performances before the next elections or face being disgraced at the polls, that is, if he is able to ward off the challenge of aspirants from the Northern region at the primaries. The problem, however, is that he may wangle his way back to office since our votes have never counted.

Ngozi 08030987726

marginalisation of his people rather than gossiping about the young man and plotting evil deeds against him. God is watching!!!

Moses Mala 08139602571

,

Dear Sir, I READ the report that the PDP is proposing that only card carrying members should be appointed as Ministers etc. As good as it sounds for loyalty, I think we should allow Mr President to use his discretion in the appointments .

Nigeria belongs to all citizens irrespective of their political leanings. If we start with Ministerial positions now, it will soon come to the Head of The Police. Immigration, Customs, FRSC etc. Then, where shall we go from there?

All appointments should not be a reward for partisanship but should be based on merit. It should be devoured of politics, religion or tribe if we want this Country to move forward.

The North should realise that other Nigerians have a right to occupy the topmost political position in the country; they have the highest number of people who have occupied that position in the history of Nigeria, still , they believe they must present the next president and subsequently to the Supreme Court. We expect to see the courage endure all through the process.

Anonymous 08036662923

Nor therners battle Jonathan over 2015

The North should realise that other Nigerians have a right to occupy the topmost political position in the

that I call on the elders from the North to stand up to the situation, after all what are elders for.

GrantingamnestytoBokoHaram is like running around the issue.

We must rise up collectively to fight against this crippling phenomenon. If we must see the end of this ugly trend, the North has a major role to play. May God keep and strengthen our nation.

Alexander Ighoro Warri, Delta State

,

Division in PDP

President Jonathan and Chief Olusegun Obasanjo should have a common interest if they are really serious about solving the problem in the People Democracy Party. Two persons can not work together unless they agree.

Jonathan, the North and 2015

PDP and Okorocha’s performance

Good leadership and Government Tompolo

It is unfortunate that 90 percent of Gbaramatans are still ignorant about true leadership. Otherwise, they would have been giving praises to Government Tompolo, a young man who has struggled so hard for the recognition of Niger Delta and the

On security

I am ashamed to hear that the French Government has sent helicopters into Nigeria to rescue their nationals from their kidnappers as alleged.

If that is truth, then, it shows how incompetent our government is.

We are only concerned with embezzling public funds. The federal government should prosecute those that involved in stealing of public funds and return every kobo so Nigeria can avoid to buy more helicopters to capture all those perpetrators of evil in our country.

Steadfast Foundation 08121945298

SAYINGS OF OUR ELDERS 1.You have to know when to stop and let go of somethings for they say "A stubborn fly follows the corpse to the grave".

Simon Adewale (08056180103), Lagos State .

Send us your Sayings of Our Elders. They must be African sayings or proverbs. Biblical or English proverbs are unacceptable. You will be paid N100.00 for every saying published. Address your sayings to: The Media Ltd., PMB 1007, Apapa,

54 —

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013

I

Jossy Lad, LMC and other stories ...

,

T sounded comical.

That Jossy Lad, yes the same one, fell ill. That Oyo state government, had spent “four hundred thousand naira on him” without improvement.

That on this fateful day, his condition worsened and his son rushed him to hospital and he had to queue because there were no beds or something until a doctor who now recognized his son fast tracked his attention and eventual admission (I can imagine the number of people who had died on that queue not having doctors who knew their children or them).

Back to the story. The Sports Minister then visited and donated five hundred thousand naira, I believe from his pockets. Then another one hundred thousand naira donation this time from Dominic Iorfa ex international who was in Ibadan for a league match and found time to visit.

Rewind to Morroco, Marakech, 35th Ordinary General Assembly of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the institution of a foundation, President Hayatou Foundation to cater for African footballers who had fallen into penury.

That hundreds of footballers in the African continent who had brought joy to their countries and continent by their prolific achievements on the field of play were languishing in poverty and needed to be supported.

Back to Ibadan and the fate of Jossy Lad. Yes I hold the view that those players who spend their life earnings in ostentatious life styles should have only themselves to blame when football finally leaves them.

Footballers in their prime should benefit from counsellings that expose them to the need of saving for the rainy day. Footballers in their prime should be exposed to the benefits of investing their monies in worthwhile ventures that will sustain them when their playing carriers are cut short either by age or injuries.

Talking about those who earn mega bucks. I also know that there are those like Jossy Lad who held sway when money was not the prime factor in donning boots and jerseys. Even as a National team coach, what he took home could be considered peanuts. This is the man that fell ill and ironically peanuts became his due. There is a reason why God has kept Jossy Lad alive as I write, in a country where “thousands” pale into insignificance and budgets are made in trillions of naira. Jossy Lad has fallen ill in a country where politicians spend millions flying around the world checking their blood pressures!

It started with the Oyo State government, that “……it had spent four hundred thousand naira so

That a state cannot hire a an air ambulance and fly out Jossy Lad for treatment abroad is a sad testimony of our national anthem even . . . .

,

far…. Four hundred thousand naira? Can someone stop me from laughing? I believe that story is not true. We know the history of IICC Shooting Stars , one that makes all the players of that team, past and present to be idols and role models adored and revered. The same can be said of Rangers of Enugu, Mighty Jets of Jos, Raccah Rovers of Kano…to name but a few.

That a state cannot hire a an air ambulance and fly out Jossy Lad for treatment abroad is a sad testimony of our national anthem even “the labours of our heroes past” Ah Jossy Lad made a mistake. He should have been born a governor, a senator, a president’s wife….. Instead he chose to be a footballer, a coach……

If I am addressing the deaf, what about the Nigeria Football Federation and the National Sports Commission, who at least know what I am talking about? Who are in a better position to chronicle and appreciate the contributions and achievements of this great sports son of Nigeria?

God help Jossy Lad.

The dreams of the LMC Sunday I was in Port Harcourt for one of Nigeria’s celebrated derbies, a clash between Sharks and Dolphins. For me this was an opportunity to witness first hand, efforts being made to bring back to

AYAC Champions for ECOWAS Games

BY BEN EFE

N

IGERIA juniors, who distinguished themselves at the African Youth Athletics Championships happening here in Warri, will be selected

by Athletics Federation of Nigeria to represent Nigeria at the ECOWAS Games in Burkina Faso later in the year.

This, according to AFN vice president Jide Josiah, is part of the programme to groom selected junior athletes to world standards ahead of the 2016 Olympics Games in Rio, Brazil.

“When we accepted to host the AYAC, our intenC M Y K

tion was to see the juniors that we have. We are going to have an extended programme for the athletes who distinguished themselves since they will represent Nigeria at the ECOSWAS Games.“By 2016 these athletes will be 20 and that is the age in which we have most Olympic champions,” said the AFN official.

“Our agenda is to groom these athletes for the future. Good that the University of Port Harcourt has agreed to grant the athletes admission so that they can be studying and at the same time training at the Port Harcourt High Performance Centre.

life the moribund Premier league by the Honourable Nduka Irabor led League Management Committee ( LMC ) Yes LMC! I pleaded my ignorance until Mitchell Obi filed me in on its formation, activities and aspirations, only for me to receive that famous letter to Nigerians entitled “ Revamping the Nigerian Professional Football League …..in line with the law and present day realities…” signed by Hounourable Irabo himself.

I recommend that piece to all lovers of Nigerian football and plead with the media to give it as much exposure as possible for its rich content.

This is a self explanatory submission that oozes with hope and promise of a better future for our domestic football. I have since spoken to honourable Irabor and all you will get from him is “…please let us come together to improve the game…” I am sure he said this more than six times in the course of our short conversation.

Some of the major components of that league include the Match Commissioners and referees.

What I saw during the match commissioners seminar in Abuja where over 700 Nigerians came out struggling to be match commissioners called for concern, ditto the referees.

I remember mentioning this to the leadership of the NFF that for us to fall in line with the aspirations of the LMC, a drastic reduction must be made in the list of referees and match commissioners to reflect credibility, savvy and professionalism and one way of doing that is that henceforth, the Match Commissioners and Referees placement committees should, at the end of every month, spend at least three days in Abuja to thoroughly go through reports and performances to be able to weed and categorise match commissioners and referees. This, is non negotiable.

Congrats AFN, Delta.

Been following with delight the recent hosting of the track and field youths of Africa by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, courtesy the Governor Uduaghan led Delta State Government.

For one who has organized secondary schools athletics in Akwa Ibom State for thirteen consecutive years facilitated by the NNPC-MPN Joint Venture I appreciate and commend this break through that has also helped to enrich our athletics infrastructure.

The future is definitely in our hands.

See you next week.

Iheagwam advises upcoming athletes on importance of education

T

HURDLES . . . Nathaniel Glory of Nigeria scaling over 400m Hurdles girls final at the AYAC 2013 in Warri. She ran a time of 62.04secs to win the Gold.Photo: Henry Unini

INA Iheagwam, a 1987 100m All Africa Games Gold medalist, on Saturday advised Nigerian athletes participating at the ongoing Africa Youths Athletics Championships (AYAC), to also attach importance to their education.

Iheagwam said at the Warri Township Stadium that upcoming athletes should not allow their current fame to becloud their priorities.

“They should not say that because of sports, they will abandon education, just as they will want to abandon education for sports. “They should strive at combining the

two because they won’t know which of the disciplines will eventually bring them to limelight,”she said.

Iheagwam added that because she attached equal importance to both endeavours in her career, she turned out to be a fitness coach at the end of the day.

“If I had abandoned education then, I will not be where I am today. Education, combined with sports, is the best.’’

The former sprinter also urged athletes to be focused on their career path, and shun any act that could dent their image.

Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013 — 55

Obuh vows to change squad for World Cup

CAN U-17: Eaglets tipped as favourites

A

J

OHN Obuh has promised to overhaul Nigeria’s team ahead of the upcoming FIFA Under-20 World Cup following their inability to defend the Africa Youth Championship title.

The Flying Eagles beat Mali 2-1 on Friday to clinch third place at the just-concluded Championship in Algeria, having gone into the competition as champions but getting knocked out in the semifinals by the Young Pharoahs’ of Egypt, who went on to beat Ghana in the final.

Obuh says there is room to bring fresh legs into the team as he is not going to build his team for the World Cup solely around the players he took to the Championship.

The former coach of Sharks FC disclosed that an average of between eight to ten additional players were are going to be called-up to the team’s European tour which will be part of the preparation for the FIFA Under-20 World Cup. There are also reports in the Nigeria football circles that the NFF are keen to ensure Imoh Ezekiel is drafted into the Under-20 team.

SCALING THE BAR.......Runners scale the hurdle in the 110m boys final won by Atuma Andrew of Nigeria (right) in a time of 14.00sec. Photo: Henry Unini

Incredible Messi sets another record B ARCELONA star Lionel Messi has the unrivalled distinction of scoring against 19 La Liga teams consecutively after he netted against Celta Vigo on Saturday.

The game ended in a 2-2 draw which still sees

The Flying Eagles drew goalless with Portugal in a build-up game preparatory to the 2011 World Cup in Colombia.

Nigeria will open their campaign on June 21 against Portugal in Kayseri.

Their other match dates are June 24 against Cuba also in Kayseri and then on July 27 against Korea Republic in Istanbul.

The Nigeria U20 lost out to France in the quarterfinals of the 2011 World Cup. Ghana, beaten AYC finalists by Egypt, will C M Y K

the Catalans top the standings with 75 points, 13 more than secondplaced Real Madrid.

Messi’s 73rd-minute goal against Celta was his 43rd of the season and the 29th consecutive strike, his tally in all

Gaiya Continues from BP

•Messi

Flying Eagles Continues from BP

top official of AlSadd Sports Club of Doha has tipped Golden Eaglets as a one of the favourites to lift the forthcoming CAN Under-17 Championship to be held in Morocco between April 1327.

Though the defeat of the Qatari foremost club by the Golden Eaglets last Friday at the posh Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium still rankles some local fans, Mohammed Saeed Al Hassan, an executive with Doha Bank w h o doubles as the Team

be in the ‘Group of Death’ along with Spain, USA and France.

Fourth-placed Mali are in Group D with Mexico, Greece and Paraguay.

Newly crowned African champions Egypt are in Group E along with England, Chile and Iraq.

The 2013 FIFA U20 World Cup kicks off on June 21 in Turkey to end on July 13.

Defending champions Brazil and one of the most successful teams in this tournament, Argentina, failed to qualify for this edition of the competition.

Assembly were very much disappointed because after the retreat and Mr President’s budget speech, we all expected a marked departure from the way sports was being handled. We thought that having shown the type of commitment he exhibited by calling the retreat, we expected to see some drastic change, but that did not happen,” he said.

He recalled that the retreat clearly identified management and funding as the two main problems inhibiting the development of sports in the country and said, “we expected changes in both management and funding to give the sports sector a new lease of life but that has not been the case.”

He described sports as a “very critical sector in nation building” and expected the Presidency to have identified the potentials inherent in the sector and accord it the attention it desires. “How can government allocate only N9 billion to all the

sports federations including their activities, salaries, current and recurrent expenditure in a whole year and expect results?” he queried.

He said legislation for both the National Sports Commission and the Nigeria Football Federation would soon be passed by the National Assembly to the President for his assent. “I am happy to tell you that we have reached a level I can confidently tell you that in a matter of months the bills will be passed into law and, except Mr President delays them, it will come to pass before the end of this year.”

He said the enabling laws will give the two organizations the required legal status with well-spelt out functions and obligations. “For instance, why should the ministry not have a permanent secretary?

What is the tenure of the DG? There is no way we can get any meaningful results from a chaotic situation as obtained presently. I don’t think sports should be run on an adhoc basis.”

competitions sits at 56.

Madrid ace Cristiano Ronaldo also scored against all the La Liga teams in the 2011/12 season but this is the first time a player has done it consecutively.

The Portuguese star is also second on the scoring chart with 28 goals.

Manager of Al Sadd, has shown rare sportsmans h i p by admitting the superiority of the Nigerian lads.

“We never knew your team is strong,” Mohammed demurred with a smile as he exchanged greetings with Golden Eaglets’ officials.” Of course, we knew the team is good but we never knew they are strong mentally.”

The Golden Eaglets did a Yeoman to earn a hardwon victory against a team that paraded legendary Spaniard, Raul Gonzalez amongst other Qatari national team players.

“This is an important victory for your team and I have no doubt that you will qualify for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup,” the amiable Alhassan further said.”

We wish you the best at the African championship in Morocco as well.”

Serena claims sixth Miami title

S

ERENA Williams says it’s exciting to have matched a WTA record after beating Maria Sharapova to claim the Sony Open title.

The 31-year-old became only the fourth player in the modern era to win the same event six times after she battled back from a set and a break down to defeat Sharapova 4-6 63 6-0. The 14-time Grand Slam champion struggled with her serve for the first hour of the game but still had enough in the tank to

record an 11th straight win over her Russian opponent, who hasn’t beaten Williams since 2004. The victory in Miami means Williams joins Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert and Steffi Graf on an illustrious list of players who have achieved the same feat of winning the same event six times.

Despite the recordbreaking win, Williams admitted she had been less than impressed with her performance in the final on Saturday. “I finally have some record,” Williams said.

Bolt wins 150m beach race

U

SAIN Bolt started his season by winning a 150m race on a track set up at Copacabana beach here on Sunday.

Bolt cruised to victory in 14.42 seconds, falling short of the world-best mark of 14.35 he set on the streets of Manchester in 2009.

Brazilian sprinter Bruno

Lins was second in 14.91, ahead of Ecuador’s Alex Quinones and Antigua and Barbuda’s Daniel Bailey.

After the race held under scorching heat on a four-lane track built on Copacabana beach in the city set to host the 2016 Olympics, Bolt said he was satisfied with his performance.

VANGUARD, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2013

F/Eagles escape World Cup ‘Group of Death’ STORIES by JACOB AJOM, Algeria

F

LYING Eagles will not be in the ‘Group of Death’ at the 2013 U20 World Cup after they were drawn with Portugal and Cuba.

Nigeria Rules African Athletics!

By Ben Efe

N

IGERIAN junior athletes proved that athletics is still very much alive in the country, when they topped the medals table of the Africa Youth Athletics Championships here in Warri, Delta State.

Team Nigeria had trailed Egypt on the table after three days of competition, but an outbreak of success in the final day of activity saw the juniors winning most of the gold on offer, much to the appreciation of the near capacity crowd at the Warri Township Stadium.

Divine Oduduru and Deborah Adewale completed a sprint double by winning the boys and girls 200m race. While Veronica Kasie Ugeh won in javelin, Onome Nathaniel won in 400m hurdles, and the women relay medley team raked

Medals Table G Nigeria 13 Egypt 8 Ethiopia 6 Kenya 5 Gambia 2 Ertirea 1 Morocco 1 Uganda 0 B/Faso 0 Namibia 0 Mauritius 0 Benin 0 Zimbabwe0 Togo 0 Mozam 0 Botswana 0

S 10 6 13 4 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

FIFA Under 20 World Cup draw Group A: France, Spain, Ghana, United States Group B: Portugal, Nigeria, South Korea, Cuba Group C: Turkey, Australia, El Salvador, Colombia Group D: Mexico, Paraguay, Greece, Mali Group E: Chile, England, Egypt, Iraq Group F: Uruguay, Croatia, New Zealand, Uzbekistan The other team in Nigeria’s first round Group B are Korea Republic.

The final draw for the World Cup was staged in

Gaiya blasts President Jonathan

B 12 2 6 2 1 2 0 1 2 2 2 1 1 1 1

in the gold to take Nigeria’s haul on the final day to eight.

“Last year we won the African Championships in Benin Republic after 10 years. Our junior athletes have also demonstrated that our athletics is on its way to recovery. We just need to have this winning mentality,” said Athletics Federation of Nigeria president Solomon Ogba.

C

C M Y K

DIVINE GOLD – Oduduru Divine of Nigeria celebrating after winning the 200m boys final in a time of 21.56sec. Photo: Henry Unini

CAN U-17: Eaglets tipped as favourites P.55

PUZZLE

HAIRMAN H o u s e Committee on Sports, Honourable Godfrey Gaiya has questioned President Goodluck Jonathan’s commitment to the development of sports in the country. In a no-holds-barred interview with Sports Vanguard at Hotel Charm El Sheikh in Oran, where the African Youth Championship is holding, the federal legislator said he is disappointed at the President’s handling of the affairs of sports despite the recommendations of the Presidential Retreat held last year at the instance of President Jonathan.

To be very straight with you, I must say we, at the National Continues on Page 55

QUICK CROSSWORD

Sudoku TODAY'S

Oran, Algeria, Saturday night after the AYC final between Egypt and Ghana.

Continues on Page 55

YESTER DAY'S YESTERDAY'S

ANSWERS

ACROSS 1 Opportunity (6) 5 Dope (4) 8 Obscure (5) 9 Sash (3) 10 Den (4) 11 High (4) 12 Pungent (5) 12 Educate (6) 16 Ardent (4) 18 Unsightly (4) 20 Energy (3) 22 Prosecute (3) 23 Ballad (3) 24 Game (4) 25 Transmit (4) 28 Thrill (6) 30 Condition (5) 32 Dandy (4) 33 Impel (4) 34 Also (3) 35 Degree (5) 36 Plant (4) 37 Tempestuous (6)

DOWN 1 Select (6) 2 Descended (8) 3 Inexperienced (6) 4 Vellum (9) 5 Obedient (7) 6 Perused (4) 7 Through (3) 14 Languor (9) 15 Fold (3) 17 Regret (3) 19 Mobster (8) 20 Place (3) 21 Attitude (7) 26 Straight (6) 27 Air (6) 29 Aid (4) 30 Wise (4) 31 Before (3)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS ACROSS: 1, Chance 5, Drug 8, Vangue 9, Obi 10, Lair 11, Tall 12, Acrid 13, School 16, Warm 18, Ugly 20, Pep 22, Sue 23, Lay 24, Ludo 25, Send 28, Tingle 30, State 32, Beau 33, Urge 34, Too 35, Grade 36, Tree 37, Stormy.

How to Play Sudoku

THE VIGILANTE

DOWN: 1, Choose 2, Alighted 3, Callow 4, Parchment 5, Dutiful 6, Read 7, Gale 8, Via 14, Lassitude 15, Ply 17, Rue 19, Gangster 20, Put 21, Posture 26, Direct 27, Melody 29, Abet 30, Sage 31, Ere.

e-mail: rowolove@yahoo.co.uk

P

lace a number (1-9) in each blank cell. (No line can have two of the same number).

Each row (nine lines from left to right), column, (also nine lines from top to bottom) and 3 X 3 block within a bold block (nine blocks) contains number from 1 through 9. This means that no number can appear twice in any block, column or row.

No mathematics is involved – no adding, subtraction, division or multiplication, just plain logic and your imagination.

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C M Y K