Vanguard 6th June 2013 Edition

...towards a better life for the people VOL. 25: NO. 61898

**

ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

N150

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

P.5 • Senate proposes six-year CONSTITUTION REVIEW REPORT: single term for Presidents, Govs

PDP suspends another governor • The NWC notes that on several occasion, Governor Aliyu

Magatakarda Wamakko had ignored invitations and lawful directives of the NWC and has continued to show complete apathy to the affairs of the party and contempt to an organ of the Party•

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR & HENRY UMORU

A

BUJA—THE Peo ples Democratic Party, PDP has suspended Governor Aliyu Wamakko from the party, citing serial disobedience to party orders and contempt for authorities of the PDP. The suspension of the governor was effected by the National Working Committee, NWC at its 338th meeting yesterday, a statement issued by the National Publicity SecreContinues on page 5

•P.29

COLUMNISTS:

Is'haq Modibbo Kawu•P.17 OCHEREOME NNANNA •P.19

Josef Omorotionmwan •P.19

Mr & Mrs

TRAFFIC HORROR—Traffic gridlock as a result of road construction at Berger Yard Bus Stop, along OshodiApapa Expressway, Lagos, yesterday. Photo: Akeem Salau.

NGF: Mimiko tackles Amaechi —P.8

2 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

C M Y K

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013— 3

C M Y K

4 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

C M Y K

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013—5

POCKET CARTOON

FEC—From left: D.G. Bureau for Public Procurement, Engr. Emeka Eze; Labour Minister, Chief Emeka Wogu and the Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Oduah listen to the Education Minister, Prof.

Ruqqayat Rufai during the weekly Federal Executive Council Meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan at the State House, Abuja, yesterday. Photo: Abayomi Adeshida

CONSTITUTION REVIEW REPORT: Six-year single term for Presidents, Govs •Committee throws out state creation, state police, LGs-states joint account, rotational Presidency, others

BY HENRY UMORU & JOSEPH ERUNKE

A

BUJA —THE Sen ate Committee on the review of the constitution has recommended a single term of six years for President and Governors because

of the financial expenses often associated with reelection as well as to ensure that executive heads are freed from distractions.

The report of the committee which was presented to the Senate, yesterday, also shattered

LIFEWORDS

BY PASTOR ITUAH

You cannot claim to be the master of the summit when you have not experienced the valley.

TAKE HEART

the hopes of Nigerians, who desired to have more states created from the existing ones as it said none of the 61 requests for new states complied with the entire provision of Section 8(1) of the Constitution.

Also, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will no longer have the powers to assent to constitutional

amendment if the review of the 1999 Constitution scales through.

With amendments being carried out by the Senate, if a Vice President-elect or Vice-President succeeds the President-elect or the President, he shall not be eligible to contest for the office of the President in any subsequent election.

It was also recom-

mended that the idea of having State Police must be jettisoned, as the Committee called for a total overhauling of the present Federal Police system for effective and efficient service delivery.

Discussions on the report were, however, suspended as Senate President David Mark announced that it will commence when the Senators come back from two weeks break that will start on Friday.

Also, according to the Committee, to engender accountability and efficient service delivery, State Houses of Assembly, State Independent Electoral Commissions, Auditor-General of the State and the AttorneyGeneral of a State will henceforth get direct funding from the State Consolidated Revenue Fund with the coming in place of first line charge funding.

The Committee which also separated the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and that of the States from

the Ministries of Justice, also gave a mayoral status to the Federal Capital Territory in line with what obtains in other capital cities of the world.

The report presented to the Senate for discussions, yesterday, by the Deputy Senate President who doubles as the Chairman of the 49member Constitution review Committee, also rejected calls for rotational presidency and other offices on the grounds that it should be a matter of consideration among the various political parties.

On the issue of assenting to alteration of constitution by the President, the Committee said: “In the light of recent experiences, the committee inserted a new provision to resolve the impasse where the President refuses to signify his assent or that he withholds such assent.

In our view, this will strengthen legislature’s authority for good governance.”

Continues on page 50

PDP suspends another governor

BY ELLA RANDLE

Happiness does not come from pleasing other people. Happiness comes from feeling content with your own life and goals —Madison Sonnier

E

LIMINATE the worries of your life. Worry puts a burden on your mind, body, and spirit. Actually you may have experienced this already; worry can keep you up all night if you let them. Find comfort in the fact that everything happens for a reason and everything will fall into place at the right time.

In the past during moments of uncertainty, I relentlessly questioned every aspect of my life. But I have since learnt that those thing I worried about were things I did not need in my life, and I am very glad that these so called disappointments turned out to be great blessings, for in not having those things, I got something much better and the feeling that comes with it is joy unlimited.

By constantly bashing yourself and worrying about every single thing that happens to you, you’re missing out on happiness that you could’ve had all along. Do not try to please or impress anyone but yourself. The need to impress, please, and compare ourselves is very unbecoming. As long as you’re trying to please other people and live up to their expectations, you will not be pleasing yourself..

Continues from page 1 tary, Chief Olisa Metuh stated.

Wamakko is the second governor to be suspended in two weeks by the ruling party following penultimate Monday ’s suspension of Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State.

Wamakko is a strong ally of Governor Amaechi and had recently been touted as Amaechi's political soul.

PDP sources said, yesterday, that Wamakko had serially flouted party orders and instructions and had continuously flouted invitations issued by the NWC the latest being an invi-

tation to attend yesterday’s meeting.

However, sources disclosed yesterday that Governor Wamakko travelled out of the country on Tuesday, a day before the NWC meeting. A PDP source, however, pooh-poohed that excuse saying that the governor travelled out of the country after he got the invitation from the NWC. “We have evidence of the receipt of the summons so, who does he think he is deceiving?” a senior party source in Abuja told Vanguard yesterday.

The party statement issued at the end of the NWC meeting stated

thus: “The National Working Committee (NWC) at its 338th meeting held on Wednesday, June 5, 2013, extensively discussed the state of the Party across the nation and its members as well as the repeated breaches and disregard to the Party ’s Constitution by his Excellency, Dr. Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, the Executive Governor of Sokoto State.

“The NWC notes that on several occasions, Governor Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko had ignored invitations and lawful directives of the NWC in this regard and has continued to

show complete apathy to the affairs of the party and contempt to an organ of the Party.

“Consequent upon the refusal of the Governor to honour yet another invitation by the NWC to appear before it today, Wednesday, June 5, 2013 without any reason, the Committee, in exercise of the powers conferred

by Articles 57 (3), 57 (7), 58. 1(c ),(h), (f) and 59 (1),(2), hereby suspends the Executive Governor of Sokoto State, Dr. Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko as a member of the party and refers the matter to the appropriate disciplinary committee of the Party."

6—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Okada operators face three months jail in Ebonyi

BY PETER OKUTU

A

BAKALIKI— MOTOR CYCLE operators popularly known as Okada are now to face three months imprisonment or pay a fine of N20,000, if caught plying dual carriage way within the state capital, Abakaliki.

Governor Martin Elechi of Ebonyi State who signed the Use and Operations of Motorcycles in Ebonyi State and Related Matters Law Amendment Bill into law at the Government House, Abakaliki said the law provided stiffer penalties for commercial motorcyclists in the state.

The bill was passed by the State House of Assembly on May 22, 2013 and further prescribed that owners of impounded motorcycles shall forfeit them, if they fail to claim them within a period of 30 days.

It also empowered the state government to auction the impounded motorcycles.

According to the law, “any person who contravenes the provisions of section 6 of this law is guilty of an offence and liable to three months imprisonment or a fine of N20 000.

“Any person whose motorcycles is impounded pursuant to the operations of this law and who fails or neglects to claim the same within a period of 30 days from the date of impoundment shall forfeit the motorcycle to the state government.”

Elechi said the original law was passed because criminal activities such as kidnapping and bank robbery were being perpetuated in the city with impunity with the aid of the motorcycles.

He said: “People are calling for outright ban of Okada but when they (House of Assembly) make laws, they consider the plight of the masses knowing that taxi cars and buses are not readily available to the poor people, if not they would have banned it out rightly.”

$7m reward'll hasten Shekau's arrest — IGP

BY OLA AJAYI

I

BADAN — THE Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, said yesterday in Ibadan that the $7 million reward on the leader of the Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Shekau, would hasten his arrest.

Describing it as a welcome development, the police boss commended the United States of America, USA, for the step taken to fight terrorism in West Africa.

He said this after the commissioning of a 50-room ultra-modern hospital at the state police headquarters, Eleiyele, Ibadan.

The hospital which is equipped with state-of-the-art medical equipment was named after the IGP to appreciate his leadership qualities.

On the welfare of policemen, he hinted that very soon officers and men of the force would be promoted, noting: “About 19,000 policemen and women were promoted in January and also last year the same number was promoted among the rank across the nation.”

In addition to the welfare of policemen, he said the new hospital was being built in all commands across the nation.

On the hospital, he said: “My belief is that health is wealth. No officer can deliver his constitutional duties effectively without being medically fit.”

L

AGOS —A 39-year-old man, Musa Wurno, was, yesterday, arraigned before an Ikeja Magistrate Court, for allegedly stealing $50,000 belonging to one Mrs Uayemen Okhimanhe.

Wurno, who is facing a twocount charge bordering on conspiracy and stealing levelled against him by the Police was said to operate a bureau de change.

The police prosecutor, Asp Barth Nwaokoye, told the court that the accused and one other person at large conspired to commit the offence on November 21,

Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State attributed the peace being enjoyed in the state to sincerity of purpose of his administration and the cooperation of the police.

He said prior to the advent of his administration, the state was a theatre of war, with violence, thuggery and brigandage reigning supreme.

He said: “You would all recall that by May 2011, Oyo State was perhaps the state of lawlessness of nature propounded by Thomas Hobbes in his famous treatise. For a state that had hitherto been labelled as dirty and unplanned.

The addition of a lawless state of brigandage was a heavy blow too unpleasant for our people to shoulder.

“Many of our people were killed mercilessly in crossfire as if we were in a state of war. Any-

one who identified him or herself outside of the state as having hailed from Oyo State was perceived to be a part of the violent order.

“We have taken governance beyond the violence and chaos that we inherited, through the cooperation of the officers and men here seated. We are proud of you. We promise to continue the regular consultations and offer of logistics support to the Police Force.”

From left:Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State,Inspector General of Police, Mr Mohammed Abubakar; Dr. C. F. Okafor, Commissioner of Police, Medical, South West Zone and Deputy Commissioner of Police, D.O. Esiorho, DCP Medical, Oyo State Command during the official commissioning of Police hospital and clinic at the Oyo State Command Headquarters, yesterday. Photo: Dare Fasube.

Man nabbed for allegedly defiling daughter

BY EVELYN USMAN

L

AGOS — EMOTION ran high, Monday, at the Bar Beach Police Division, following revelation by a Primary 5 pupil of how her 57-year-old father had been having carnal knowledge of her in the last three

months.

The primary school pupil during interrogation said her mother brought her to her father after years of separation, adding that since the sacrilegious act began, her father had been giving her N200 as pocket money to school.

Unsure of who to confide in,

she said she told her mother during one of her visits only for the father to dismiss the claim, stating that he could not bring himself that low as to having carnal knowledge of his biological daughter.

But the bubble burst after she summoned courage to tell her

...another stabs step-son to death

A

SABA — A 26-year-old man, Godfery Osinikpo, has allegedly lost his life for interfering in the marital af-

Bureau de change operator docked over alleged theft

BY ONOZURE DANIA

Ajimobi lauds Police

2011.

He said the offence was committed at a new generation bank, on Ademola Adetokunbo Street, in Victoria Island, Lagos.

Nwaokoye said that the defendant stole the $50,000 which is an equivalent of N8 million, property of Mrs Uayemen Okhimanhe.

According to the prosecutor, he said the offence committed contravenes Section 285 and 409, Criminal Laws of Lagos State 2011.

However, when the charge was read the defendant who resides at 68E Salau Estate, Makoko, Lagos pleaded not guilty.

fairs of his step-father.

Osinikpo, a native of Illah, Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State, died after he was allegedly stabbed in the chest by his 45-year-old step-father simply identified as Onyeka, after a disagreement over family issues.

The victim’s mother who allegedly got married to the suspect after her first marriage that produced Osinikpo crashed, was said to have moved into her new matrimonial home with Osinikpo and had been living there, but to the distaste of her new husband.

According to sources, Onyeka and his step-son had never been in good terms, although he did not send the victim packing.

On the fateful day, a heated argument allegedly ensued between Onyeka and his wife,

following which Osinikpo took sides with his mother.

Although the cause of the argument could not be ascertained, Onyeka was said to have accused the late Osinikpo of meddling in the disagreement between husband and wife, following which he became infuriated and asked Osinkpo to leave the house, an order that was allegedly rebuffed.

In anger, Onyeka was said to have reached for a dagger in his room with which he stabbed the victim on the chest. He died on the spot.

According to the Delta State Police Command Public Relations Officer, ASP Lucky Uyabeme, the suspect is on the run but the police would soon track him down.

He said the corpse of the victim has been deposited at Ebu General Hospital for autopsy.

head teacher, who invited the police.

According to the pupil, “ when I was reunited with my father, I was happy because I was living with an aunt in the village since my parents separated. He usually told me that I would take the place of my mother in his life since my mother had divorced him. I did not know what he meant until he started having carnal knowledge of me at night.

"At a point, I got tired and insulted him. Then, he started beating me and changed his loving nature. He would beat me and strip me naked and have his way whenever he wanted. When I attempted to scream, he would hit me harder and cover my mouth.

He later apologized, telling me he would buy me a car. All I want at the moment is for my father to be punished for what he did to me.”

But her 57-year-old father, Nwafor Iko, described her daughter’s claim as mere allegation. Ikoro said he only beat his daughter after he discovered she was in an amorous relationship with an unnamed man.

The matter, according to Police sources, was immediately charged to the Igbosere Magistrate Court, from where Ikoro was remanded in prison custody until his application bail would be considered.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 — 7

Kano Hezbollah bunker: Security uncovers fresh weapons K

BY ABDULSALAM MUHAMMAD

ANO — A COMBINED team of officers of the Directorate of State Service, DSS, and soldiers drawn from 3 Brigade, Nigerian Army, has uncovered more fresh weapons of war at a private residence at 3, Gaya Road off Bompai Road Kano, where cache of deadly weapons linked to Hezbollah, the international terrorist organisation, was busted last week by the security agents.

A statement by the Joint Task Force, JTF, spokesman in Kano, Captain Ikediche Iweha, revealed that the owner of the controversial residence identified as one Abdul Hassan Taher Fadlalla, a Lebanese national, is currently out of the country.

The army spokesman further said: “After painstaking search of the whole premises, the search team uncovered an underground bunker in the master bedroom where a large quantity of assorted weapons of different types and calibre and ammunition which were properly wrapped was re-

Delta police track escaped kidnap kingpin overseas

BY EMMA AMAIZE

A

SABA—POLICE in Delta State have trailed the alleged kidnap kingpin, Ifeanyi, from Onitsha in Anambra State, who escaped from police cell in Asaba, about a fortnight ago, to Cotonou, in the Republic of Benin.

“The police in Delta state traced him to Cotonou, but they could not locate him. The exercise was frustrated, however, the search for him is on,” a reliable security source told Vanguard, yesterday.

Commissioner of Police in Delta state, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba, confirmed to Vanguard that police traced the suspect outside the country, but declined to give details of the operation.

He, however, said police were closing in on the escapee suspect.

According to him, “We have made some arrests in respect of his escape, we have picked up some persons in Owerri and Asaba and I can tell you, we are closing in on him.”

However, a source confided in Vanguard: “I think that Ifeanyi might not have travelled out of the country. He had gunshot wounds and I doubt if he would travel out with those wounds. He could be using foreign number to make calls to make it look as if he is outside the country.

“It is to make the police to beam their searchlight outside while he is inside. They should comb everywhere for him, he is trying to be smart. I know Aduba will not give him such opportunity.”

covered.”

According to Iweha, deadly weapons recovered from the latest operations include a cooler buried under the wardrobe which had in it, 80 indicators, five PPK

pistols, 334 rounds of 7.62mm special, nine magazines, four pistol silencers, 18 36 hand grenades caps, four explosive fuses and two explosive devices.

The army spokesman, therefore,

commended the citizens for their support and cooperation, as he assured the commitment of the security agents in ensuring that an atmosphere suitable for business continues to prevail.

The bus on fire

Bus ferrying drinks busts into flames

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

Y

ENAGOA —TRAFFIC on the Isaac Boro Expressway was, yesterday, reduced to a crawl for over 50 minutes after a bus conveying soft drinks suddenly caught fire.

The incident occurred at about 11.30am. Though the fire triggered panic on the busy route, no one was injured.

The blaze showed billowing black smoke from the bus and traffic backed up for miles as the driver, his conductor and other sympathizers watched helplessly.

The ill-fated bus, a Mitsubishi 300, filled with crates of soft drinks and other beverages, was approaching the popular roundabout close to the Tower Hotel project linking the Sani Abacha expressway, Azikoro town and the Ox Bow Lake area of the capital when it exploded into flame.

Vanguard which arrived the scene about 15 minutes after the fire started noticed the bus owners making efforts to get away from the blazing bus.

The driver, who simply gave his name as Uche and his conductor

escaped unhurt.

He said he heard a couple of pops before the entire bus went up in flame.

Uche who was in shock told Vanguard that he was at a loss

as to the cause of the inferno. He said but for his closeness to roundabout which necessitated his slowing down, the bus could have burst into flame while he was on speed.

Many Nigerians drown en-route Spain — Bianca Ojukwu

BY OKONKWO EZE

O

NITSHA — NIGERIA Am bassador to Spain, Bianca Ojukwu, yesterday, in Onitsha, Anambra State revealed that many Igbo and other tribes got drowned in the ocean in a bid to cross over to Spain in search of greener pastures.

Disclosing this at a special interactive session/launching of almanac of the South East zonal chapter of the Campaign for Democracy, CD, Bianca regretted that the country they were struggling to get into was not better off than Nigeria, adding that on managing to get there they became jobless.

According to her, “as an ambassador to Spain, you come face to

face with the trouble people are going through. I am sad that because things are not going on well in Nigeria the way they should, people now board ships to Spain and on their way, they get drowned.”

Regretting that it was hardship and suffering that made them to leave the country, she urged the state and Federal Governments to create enabling environment to help curtail the rush abroad.

On the bilateral relationship between Nigeria and Spain, Bianca stated that it has been very cordial, adding: “Nigeria has signed a lot of memorands of understanding, MoU, with Spain on various areas, cultural cooperation, education as well as transportation and infrastructures.”

Alleged attempt to murder Judge: Court refuses accused bail

BY BARTHOLOMEW MADUKWE

L

AGOS — JUSTICE Christopher Balogun of the Lagos High Court in Igbosere, yesterday, dismissed bail application of a commercial bus driver, Quadri Kasali, who was charged over attempted murder of Justice E.A Adebajo.

In his ruling, Justice Balogun said there was no particular address attached to the defendant and his family,

adding that there was no concrete evidence that the defendant will show up for trial and therefore dismissed the bail application. ”While considering the materials before the court, apart from the remarks made by the defendant in the affidavit, there is still no concrete evidence that he will show up for trial. I therefore dismiss the bail application” the judge ruled.

Justice Balogun held that the defendant must have fulfilled certain conditions to show the court

that he would not avoid trial but in the absence of that, the court must be wary.

According to the judge, there would be an expedited trial and accelerated hearing on the case, as he fixed June 25 and 26 for further hearing.

Quadri, who has been in prison custody since March 2012, had pleaded not guilty to the charge and a bail application was filed on his behalf by his lawyer, Oludare Falana, of Falana & Falana Chambers.

33-yr-old jailed two yrs for drug trafficking

L

AGOS— A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, yesterday, sentenced a 33-yearold man, Olusegun Olusesi, to two years imprisonment for drug trafficking.

Olusesi was arraigned by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, on a one-count charge of dealing on a restricted narcotic, cannabis sativa.

Justice Mohammed Idris in his judgment held that the prosecution had proved his case beyound doubt.

The judge added that all the evidence led by the prosecution, sufficiently linked the convict with the commission of the offence.

“The prosecution has suceeded in discharging his burden of proof before this court. All evidences led, sufficiently links the accused with the commission of the offence.

I, hereby, find the accused guilty of the offence, and he is hereby convicted as charged."

Protest: Obi visits varsity, directs closure

BY VINCENT UJUMADU

A

WKA— GOVERNOR Peter Obi of Anambra State has cut short his on-going distribution of funds to secondary schools and hospitals in the state to visit the scene of the demonstration by students of Anambra State University at Igbariam.

He directed the closure of the institution to enable security operatives deal with the activities of hoodlums that have allegedly been parading themselves as students and to enable government take the necessary steps to restore sanity in the university.

On arrival, the governor and his entourage that included the Commissioner for Education, Dr. Uju Okeke, observed one minute silence for the repose of the soul of those who lost their lives during the armed robbery incident in one of the students’ hostels.

He sympathized with the staff and students of the university and assured them that government would continue to take interest on the issue of security at all times, adding that he had already directed the Commissioner of Police to get to the root of the incident.

He advised the students to remain calm, reminding them that there was no need for them to take to the streets for his government to know what is right or wrong.

8—Vanguard , THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

BY DAYO JOHNSON & HENRY UMORU

49 suspected terrorists arrested as peace returns to Yobe

V

ICE CHAIRMAN of the Jonah Jang faction of the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, yesterday, challenged his Rivers State counterpart, Rotimi Amaechi to substantiate his claim that he (Mimiko) voted at the disputed election by producing the video evidence.

The Ondo State governor in a statement in Akure was reacting to Amaechi’s claim that he (Mimiko) voted at the controversial election which Governor Amaechi was said to have won.

Mimiko said: “Amaechi should not hide under religion to cover up his anti-democratic dispositions. Nothing stops Governor Amaechi from proving to the world that I voted by using the same video he has been using to tell the public that there was an election.

“If Amaechi is saying I voted at the election, I think he should prove it to the whole world that I did. I sincerely believe that a process must have led to the declaration of result contained in their few minutes video clip. That later part can’t come in isolation. I challenge him to show the entire proceedings, including where I voted”.

While accusing the Rivers State Governor of ”anti-democratic disposition," Mimiko said Amaechi “cannot take ecclesiastic refuge for his undemocratic dispositions by dragging the church into the Forum’s disputed election as a way of covering up his antidemocratic tendencies".

According to him, "Amaechi should tell the world whether or not he presided over his own election despite cries that he should step aside for an interim chairman to preside over the same election as it is the practice in any democratic setting “He should also tell the world whether or not he was the sole provider of ballot papers and ballot box used for the charade where he was also a contestant.

“He should tell the world why he insisted he must contest for another term even when he knew that negates the norm in the Forum.”

Mimiko accused the Rivers State Governor of betraying his colleagues, describing it as “the height of treachery for the Governor to have installed secret video camera to record his colleagues without their consent simply because he is acting the script of another agenda inimical to the progress of the Forum.

He declared that “It is not acceptable, it is undemocratic, it is the height of desperation, it won’t work because Nigerians can no longer afford to be fooled.”

BY KINGSLEY OMONOBI

A

ETISALAT PRIZE FOR LITERATURE—From left: Dele Olojede, Patron, Etisalat prize for literature; Steven Evans, Chief Executive Officer, Etisalat Nigeria; Pumla Gqola, Chair of Judges, Etisalat prize for literature; and Wael Ammar, Chief Commercial Officer, Etisalat Nigeria, at the Etisalat Prize for Literature briefing at Wheatbaker Hotel, Ikoyi, Lagos, yesterday. Photo: Akeem Salau.

NGF: Show proof that I voted, Mimiko tells Amaechi zAs Clark, other South-South leaders move to reconcile Jonathan, Amaechi South-South leaders meet to reconcile Jonathan, Amaechi Meanwhile, moved by the lingering political quagmire between President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State, elders and leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from South-South, yesterday, met as part of arrangements to reconcile them.

The meeting which was called by former Federal Commissioner and the National Leader of South-South, Chief Edwin Clark, was conceived among others to take a decisive step on how to resolve the crisis.

Speaking before the leaders went into a closed door meeting, Chief Clark disclosed that Black American and Human Rights Activist, Jesse Jackson had visited him alongside some traditional rulers from the South-South to put an end to the problem.

Clark noted that he assured him that the issues would be looked into, and that the meeting was called for the purpose.

Chief Clark said the two issues which were very important to him were “first, the mid-term performance report of President Jonathan’s administration and second, the

on-going crisis between Governor Chibuke Amaechi and the Presidency, particularly since the so-called elections for leadership change at the Nigeria Governors Forum.

And because the two principal names repeatedly mentioned in the media are from the South-South zone, we have a duty to look into the issue and take a position.

According to him, “ we should necessarily intervene in whatever manner appropriate to bring peace to our troubled zone.

In addition to these key issues, I also believe that the elders and leaders of the party at the zone have the responsibility to speak on the challenges facing our son, Mr. President.

Whereas we know the problems of this country preexisted his ascendancy to power; whereas we know he has worked with a clear sense of responsibility if reports that Governor Chibuike Amaechi’s undying craze to be the chairman of the Governors Forum is premised on his ambition to use it as a platform to become the Vice President in 2015, whose interest is he intending to serve; the interest of the people of the SouthSouth or his personal interest?

“As a party, I believe we

need to dispassionately look at these and other issues and make our position known to Nigerians. We must rise from this meeting with definite options to stop Governor Amaechi from pursing that madness.

"If he must contest in deference to his constitutional right, let him contest for the office of president because the South-South of today is not interested in any other office than the president.”

At press time, the meeting was still in progress.

Roll call Chief Edwin Clark, Senator Stella Omu; member, BoT, Chief Don Etiebet; Dr. Stephen Oru, National Vice Chairman, PDP, South South; Chief Joe Ediowele, Secretary, PDP, South South; Chairman, PDP, Delta, Chief Peter Nwaoboshi.

Others are former Deputy Speakers, Chibudom Nwuche; Austin Okpara; Senator Lee Maeba; Senator Ewa Henshaw; Senator Victor Oyofo; former Senatorial aspirant, Chief Richard Lamai; Cairo Ojougboh; former Minister of State, Education, Kenneth Gbagi; General Cletus Emein; General Etukudo; AVM, Idongesit Nkanga; Chief Ayakeme Whiskey; Ima Niboro.

BUJA—THE Defence head quarters said, yesterday, that 49 suspected Boko Haram terrorists were apprehended in various locations in Yobe State by troops, following a tip off by locals in some communities.

A statement by the Director of Public Relations, Brig-General Chris Olukolade, noted that the arrests which were made during cordon and search operation, also witnessed the recovery of various weapons.

Olukolade said weapons such as AK 47 rifles, locally made pistols and ammunition were recovered by the troops who combed such villages as Rugan Fulani, Arikime, Afghanistan and Ngandu villages”.

He said: “Police stations are now being reopened in some parts of Borno State. At Kirenowa, detachments of the Police anti-terrorist unit have been deployed to complement security in the area.

“A key terrorist who specializes in recruiting young men into the Boko Haram fold has been apprehended by troops in Maiduguri following a tip off.

“The same individual who also watches over the insurgents’ armoury was arrested in one of the cordon and search operations by the special forces.

“Another group of five insurgents,, all Nigeriens were arrested when troops stormed their hideout at Mallam Fatori as they attempted to escape in two Toyota Cruiser Jeeps.

“Troops continue to patrol the notorious Sambisa forest and are also cordoning the Alou forest and Gwoza hills. More abandoned vehicles, weapons and other items are being recovered in the camps of the insurgents.

“Among the recent discovery are rifles, double barrel guns, various charms and amulets, machine guns, as well as pairs of camouflage uniforms, bows and quiver and assorted rifle magazine”.

“Others are handset, walkie talkie, car number plates and some food items. Abandoned vehicles recovered include, a Golf Car, a Honda, Customs Pickup Van, Honda (2003 Model) and a Volkswagen Monte Carlo.”

The feat of restoring peace to Yobe State and arrest of 49 terrorists with the help of locals was broken to the Defence Headquarters Operation Assessment Team in Damaturu.

The team, led by Air Commodore BE Inyang, was also informed that all the camps of the terrorists in the area had been dislodged as some of the insurgents fled towards Niger Republic.

Vanguard , THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013—9

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR & LUKA BINNIYAT

L

OYALISTS of President Goodluck Jonathan are boycotting today’s meeting of the Northern States Governors Forum, NSGF, as payback for the alleged betrayal of the governors’ collective decision to support Governor Jonah Jang for the chairmanship of the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF. While some of the governors are boycotting the meeting holding in Kaduna, a number of them are also mussing the fact that the developments from the NGF are masking collective issues that bother on the interest of the northern states.

One of such issues is the consideration of a report of a committee constituted by the NSGF on the state of insecurity in the North.

Among the governors boycotting today’s meeting are Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State and Gabriel Suswam of Benue State, Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State, three of the leading canvassers for the enthronement of Jang for the NGF chairmanship.

Despite their efforts, Jang lost the NGF election by 16 votes to the 19 scored by the incumbent, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State.

That was also despite the fact that he was proclaimed as the consensus candidate of the NSGF for the position.

Initial speculations that Governor Jang would make a comeback to the NSGF and use it as a platform to consolidate his claim to the chairmanship of the NGF were dashed yesterday when a senior aide to the governor asserted that Jang would not attend. “No, capital NO, he is not coming,” a senior aide said.

Jang, Yuguda, Suswam, Shema, others shun Northern Govs' meeting Jang was as at yesterday holed up in a strategic retreat for his cabinet holding on the outskirts of Jos, the state capital and sources told Vanguard that the governor would not want to abandon the retreat for the NSGF meeting.

Governor Jang had boycotted most of the recent meetings of the NSGF following perceptions that he was denied the chairmanship of the forum upon pressure from governors from the core north who took offense at his handling of the crisis on the Plateau.

Governor Jang was expected to take over the chairmanship of the NSGF from Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State based on the principle of alphabetical rotation of the chairmanship but when it got to his turn, it was decided that Governor Aliyu should hold on to the chairmanship, a decision that made Jang to boycott most of the meetings since then.

Besides Jang, Suswam and Yuguda, Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State and the Acting Governor of Taraba State are also not expected to attend the meeting.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that Governor Rabiu Kwankwanso of Kano State, who returned from a foreign trip, yesterday, is sending his deputy to represent him at the meeting.

However, 14 Secretaries of State Government, SSGs, were present at the preparatory meeting that was held to prepare for today’s meeting given optimism that the NSGF

BUSINESS FORUM—From left: Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed; Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga; and CEO of Ben Television UK, Mr. Alistair Soyode at the Nigeria-Netherlands Business Forum, at The Hague, yesterday.

may not fully break as the larger body.

At the end of the meeting of the SSGs of the northern states yesterday, the chairman of the forum of SSGs, Alhaji Saidu Ndako Idris, insisted that the NSGF had no issue that will divide it, describing today’s meeting as “normal”.

But a source said: “It is sad that today’s meeting will not focus on the issue facing the North, but will be on how to muscle power and stay relevant by the governors.

“As you are aware, Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State, has left the NSGF because he

cannot stand in the same room with those who opposed Jonathan.

“Those who are supporters of Amaechi are also going to vent their anger on their colleagues for refusing to stick with the Rivers State Governor who wants to help the North get the PDP Presidential ticket in 2015..

“Some of them are also not happy that the President has taken over the accounts of the Yobe, Adamawa and Borno states and using the money to fund military bombardment of these states. But, many others are seeing it differently.

“I want to assure you that the

way that the Presidency has been handling Boko Haram has rubbished all the efforts that the Northern Governors have made to see that violence of Boko Haram is reduced. But the President’s men will attempt to stand firm for him, even when it is clear that Jonathan does not intend to hold any dialogue with Boko Haram, not to talk of amnesty. I am very pessimistic about today’s meeting”, said the source.

However, speaking before the commencement of the meeting of the SSGs yesterday, Idris said.

Illegal importation of arms: FG gets court order to keep Fawaz, 3 other Lebanese in custody

A

BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI

BUJA—AN Abuja Chief Magistrate Court sitting at Karu, yesterday, gave the Federal Government the nod to keep in the custody of the Department of State Service, DSS, four Lebanese, Mustapha Reda Darwish Fawaz, Talal Roda, Abdulla Tahini and Hussain Nurudeen Kossdi, who were allegedly involved in illegal importation of weapons into Nigeria, It would be recalled that Fawaz who is the co-owner of Amigo Supermarket and Wonderland Amusement Park in Abuja, was arrested by the Military Joint Task Force, JTF, sequel to his alleged complicity in ownership of a large cache of weapons of different types and calibre.

The weapons were uncovered at an underground bunker at No. 3 Gaya Road, off Bompai Road in Kano, after a combined team of the JTF involving soldiers from third Brigade in Kano and Kano DSS conducted a thorough search of the bunker.

Likewise, Roda who was said to have surreptitiously secured a Nigerian passport

was said to have been arrested at the underground bunker by the military operatives.

The weapons recovered included anti-tank weapons, rocket-propelled guns, antitank/anti-personnel mines and other dangerous weapons.

According to the security operatives that conducted the search, the arms and ammunition were properly concealed with several layers of concrete and placed in coolers, drums and bags neatly wrapped.

Kano State Director of DSS, Mr Bassey Etang, had maintained that the discovery established suspicion that a terrorist group, Hezbollah, whose foreign operations are mostly coordinated by Lebanese, has a functional cell in Nigeria.

All those arrested during the

operation confessed to have undergone training under the Hezbollah terrorist organisation.

The DSS said the arms and ammunition were targeted at facilities of Israeli and Western interest in Nigeria.

Among the weapons discovered and displayed to reporters were 11,433 rounds of 7.6 mm ammunition; 76 military grenade, one SMG rifle, nine pistols, 17 AK-47 rifles, 44 magazines, 103 packs of slap TNT and 50 MM anti-tank grenades, 123 MM artillery guns, four anti-tank landmines, 21 rocket propelled grenades, RPG, 16 RPG chargers, and one RPG tube.

Meantime, Chief Magistrate Muyiwa Oyeyipo ordered that the suspects be remanded and produced in court on June 19.

10—Vanguard , THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Stay off Lagos, LSSC warns criminals

L

AGOS State Security Council, LSSC, yesterday, sounded a note of warning to criminals, urging them to stay off the state or face severe consequences.

At a meeting under, the chairmanship of Governor Babatunde Fashola, Deputy Commissioner of Police, in charge of Operations, Mr. Tunde Sobulo, said Lagos was now very calm with the security agencies rapidly dismantling kidnap gangs and halting the unwholesome trend.

Sobulo, who fielded questions from newsmen at the Lagos House, Marina, after the meeting, said the security agencies had spread their nets to Ogun State, where some of the criminals on transit had been discovered.

He said: “We are getting closer and the best thing for them is not get close to Lagos. If you kidnap anybody from here to any part of the country, we will go after you and get that person back."

Bi-Courtney boss challenges EFCC's power to prosecute

BY ABDULWAHAB ABDULAH, ONOZURE DANIA & IJEOMA NATHANIEL

C

HAIRMAN of BiCourtney Services Limited, Dr. Wale Babalakin, and his co-defendants, yesterday, told an Ikeja High Court that Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had no power to institute criminal proceedings at a state high court without a valid fiat duly issued to it by the state’s attorney-general.

In his application before Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo by his team of lawyers, Babalakin and his co-defendants asked the court to quash the charges preferred against them by the anti-graft agency.

Babalakin and others, who are standing trial for allegedly laundering N4.7 billion on behalf of a governor.

AGM: From left— Mr. Graham Hefer, Managing Director of Okomu Palm Oil Company Plc; Mr. Gbenga Oyebode, Chairman, and Sir Sunny Nwosu, National Coordinator, Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria, at the 33rd annual general meeting, AGM, of Okomu Oil in Abuja, yesterday.

Nigeria electricity situation, a nightmare— FG

BY BEN AGANDE

A

BUJA—FEDERAL Gov ernment, yesterday, in Abuja, said despite the investment in the power sector, only 25 percent of Nigerians currently had access to electricity.

After a meeting of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo, told newsmen that the power situation in the country in the last three weeks had been a “nightmare” due to a combination of system failure and sabotage.

Similarly, Minister of State for Power, Hajia Zainab Kuchi, said out of the estimated population of 160 million Nigerians, only 40 million Nigerians enjoyed electricity, arguing that with the investment in the sector, the number of Nigerians who would have access to steady electricity was expected to rise rapidly.

The duo spoke after presenting the progress report of the power sector to FEC. Nebo said: “The power situation in the last three weeks is a nightmare. We have not had the kind of system failure like we have had in the last three weeks. For instance, Bayelsa State was knocked out for three weeks as a result of a breakdown on one of the transmission lines.

“It took about 12 days to restore power in the state using temporary measures. Another one happened in Kebbi.

There is also man-made vandalism. Funding is part of the nightmare we are facing.

“It was thought that by 2012 the privatisation would have

been completed, so there was no provision for mainte-

nance in the budget. It has become very difficult for even routine maintenance to be carried out.”

He defended his allega-

tion, during his screening for the ministerial appointment, that there were evil forces working against stable power supply in the country.

Dana crash: Controversy over missing names on cenotaph

BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI AND MONSUR OLOWOOPEJO

L

AGOS—CONTROVERSY has continued to trail the list of victims of the ill-fated Dana plane, engraved on the tombstone at the cenotaph located at the Iju-Ishaga site of the crash, Lagos, unveiled on Monday

by Governor Babatunde Fashola.

The unveiling was part of activities marking one year remembrance of victims of the crash on June 3, 2012, at Iju, Ifako-Ijaye Local Council Development Area, LCDA. Investigation revealed that the names of three of the ground victims are not on the cenotaph.

Also, 156 names appeared

on the cenotaph against 157 names read out by Governor Fashola, while delivering his speech before the unveiling.

Mr. Gbenga Eguntola, counsel to 30 victims including 18 ground victims, who spoke to Vanguard, confirmed that apart from only 156 names appearing on the tomb, some names were wrongly included.

Eguntola said: “The construction of the cenotaph was a shoddy job. To further tell you that it was a shoddy job, 156 names were pasted on the tomb as against 157, which the governor read while delivering his speech.

“The missing names are Paul Ebodage, Mrs. Habibat Yusuf and her husband, Mr. Muhammed Yusuf.

"They all died on the ground and their names did

not reflect on the list pasted on memorial tombstone.

"The state government failed to follow the proper manifest, which they could have obtained from the management of the airline or solicitors handling the case for the victims’ relatives.

"It is an injustice to the soul of those who died in the illfated flight. We believe that justice should be done on such a sensitive case like this.

“I do not know what was responsible for this. Since last year, we have been engaging the management of Dana to include their names on the list."

Commissioner for Special Duties, Dr. Wale Ahmed, could not be reached for comments.

An SMS sent to his phone was unreplied at press time.

Work environment affects jobs— ILO

BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

I

NTERNATIONAL L a bour Organisation, ILO, yesterday, said the world work environment was being transformed more quickly and more deeply than ever before by rapid changes in demography and technology, growing inequality, poverty and the slow economic recovery.

Director-General of ILO, Guy Ryder, who spoke at the opening of the 102nd International Labour Conference, holding from June 5 to 20 in Geneva, said that these issues posed challenges for achieving the goal of decent work for all.

He said: “The most important question, the one asked everywhere and with growing urgency and sometimes alarm, is ‘ where are the jobs

coming from?’

"It is most frequently addressed to the situation of our young people.”

He outlined seven initiatives for a “forward-looking and strategic response” to the crisis.

He also made propositions in his report to the conference on Towards the ILO centenary: Realities, Renewal and Tripartite Commitment.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013—11

Why I borrowed N25bn— Amosun

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

A

BEOKUTA—GOVERNOR Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State, yesterday, explained that he obtained a N25 billion loan from the capital market to fund some road projects to save the state from collapsing through infrastructure decay.

Amosun, who stated this while inspecting some ongoing projects in Ogun West Senatorial District, pledged that his administration would, before the end of this year, offset N15 to N18 billion of the N25 billion loan obtained during his first two years in office.

He said: “When we came, what we met on ground discouraged us then, but we had to take the bull by the horn. We knew it was our cross, we had to face it and that is why we are borrowing short and spending long.

“Again, it is hard, it is tortuous but that is the part that we met. There is nothing we can do; otherwise the government would have collapsed. That is what they think will happen because they believed there was no way out.

“Somehow, the benevolence of the almighty God, support of the good people of Ogun State and our professional calling have stood us in good stead.

And that is why in this year

alone, we are going to pay about 15 or 18 billion naira back.

“If I borrowed N25 billion the

first year and we pay about 12 out of the 18 billion, then how much we are owing? Maybe six."

“Every month we are pay-

BY MICHAEL EBOH

I

ENVIRONMENT DAY: From left— Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State; Dr. Bolanle Fakunle, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment; Dr. Adewale Omirin, Environmental Ambassador and Speaker, Ekiti State House of Assembly, and Dr. Eniola Ajayi, Commissioner for Environment, during World Environment Day celebration in Ado-Ekiti, yesterday.

Osun 2014: ACN challenges PDP for credible guber candidate

BY GBENGA OLARINOYE SOGBO—ACTION Congress of Nigeria,

ACN, in Osun State has challenged Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state to search for a credible candi-

demic standards entrenched by the initial owners.

He noted that some states in the South-West zone had already taken the ‘bull by the horn’ by perfecting strategies for the return of mission schools to their owners.

He said: “Governor Olusegun Mimiko is a man of his words. He is a product of mission schools just like his wife. He had pledged to take steps towards a successful return of the schools to their owners.”

O Mimiko urged to return schools to ‘owners'

BY DAYO JOHNSON

A

KURE—AN appeal has gone to Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State to emulate the gestures of his counterparts in neighbouring states by returning mission schools, taken over by government over three decades ago, to their original owners.

The Rector, Sacred Heart Catholic Minor Seminary in Akure, Rev. Fr. Valentine Omolakin, said this in Akure.

Omolakin noted that the return of the schools to original proprietors was long overdue in view of the fact that the fall in the standard of education was noticed since the government took over the schools and failed to maintain the moral and aca-

Normalcy returns to troubled Ondo community

BY DAYO JOHNSON

A

KURE—NORMALCY has finally returned to the troubled Ile Oluji area of Ondo State following youths’ restiveness in which property worth millions of naira were destroyed in their bid to sack the traditional ruler of the town, Oba Suulade Adedugbe.

However, security operatives still keep vigil in the town.

Report had it that the traditional ruler was still under police protective custody in the palace.

The commission of enquiry set up by government to probe the crisis had commenced sitting and is expectedd to finish its job in 14 days.

Ekiti begins production of organic manure

E

KITI State Waste Man agement Authority, EKWMA, has started the production of organic manure for farmers and other industrial use under the Waste-to-Wealth programme of the state government.

Governor Kayode Fayemi, who made this known, yesterday, at the World Environment Day held at the Adetiloye Hall in Ado-

ing back. It is difficult, it is tough. That is what we are doing and thank God we would finish.”

Energia, 4 others to build 15,000bpd refinery

Ekiti, said the state government is poised to turn waste to wealth through the engineering management of dump sites in the state.

Governor Fayemi added that nylon recycling plant was already in operation for massive production on commercial basis, assuring that there would be provision of more modern

equipment for this purpose to make it more functional and create more employment opportunities for the people.

Speaking on the theme of the programme, Think, Eat and Save, the governor said it was high time people started moderating their food consumption and cultivate the habit of food preservation.

date that can stand up against Governor Rauf Aregbesola in a contest of honour for the governorship election in 2014.

The party’s Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, Mr. Kunle Oyatomi, a lawyer, said this in a statement in Osogbo, yesterday.

Oyatomi said that all PDP candidates in the state appear to depend on lies and misinformation rather than facing up to the truth on ground and admitting the obvious that Aregbesola’s performances in Osun make his re-election unassailable.

Oyatomi was reacting to what he described as the unrelenting lies being propagated by all PDP aspirants in the state that nothing had been done by the Aregbesola administration to develop the state.

He argued that Aregbesola’s achievements in two and a half year surpass that of his predecessor.

He said while the PDP aspirants were lying shamelessly about the governor ’s performance, Nigerian Bureau of Statistics has credited the state as the best in human development, poverty, employment and environmental index.

The ACN spokesman said: “Despite the lofty attainments and achievements of Aregbesola, the PDP aspirants keep repeating in newspapers publications that Aregbesola has not performed since he assumed office.”

NDIGENOUS oil firm, Energia Limited, yesterday, said it is partnering with four other local oil companies to build a crude oil refinery plant in the country with an initial capacity of between 10,000 and 15,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

The four other companies are Midwestern Oil and Gas, Pillar Oil, Chorus Energy and Flatform Petroleum Limited.

Speaking at a forum in Lagos, Mr. Felix Valentine, Managing Director, Energia, said the firms are already in discussions with a consultant on the feasibility and viability of the project.

He disclosed that the decision to set up a refinery in the country is in response to the high rate of illegal bunkering, pipeline vandalism and to prepare the country for an eventual reduction in crude export brought about by major discoveries around the world and stoppage of United States’ crude import from Nigeria.

According to Felix, the five firms lost about $72 million (N11.448 billion) in 2012 alone to illegal bunkering, crude theft and pipeline vandalism.

He said: “Our cluster group lost about $72 million to crude theft in 2012 alone and at the rate we are going, this might increase to $100 million (N15.9 billion) in 2013. This got us thinking and we considered building a refinery.

“Another issue that made us decide to build a refinery is because of the threat to Nigeria’s crude oil export due to vagaries in the international oil market, which will very likely pose a serious challenge to the economy.

“The refinery will help us prepare for an eventual reduction in the demand for Nigeria’s crude and bring about a reduction in crude theft.”

He disclosed that the refinery will reduce oil bunkering, as limited quantities will be available to steal.

12—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

ACN chieftain lauds Oshiomhole, EDSEIC

Cleric urges CAN to wade into Jonathan, Amaechi face-off

A

U

CTION Congress of Nigeria, ACN, chieftain in Edo State, Mr. Henry Okpamen, has commended the Edo State Independent Electoral Commission, EDSEIC, for the successful conduct of the just concluded local government elections in the state, despite initial hitches, saying that EDSEIC has done well.

He also commended the state governor on his effort to move the state to greater heights through his developmental strides and people oriented policy, which he said had benefited the people in Edo State.

Okpamen, former Special Adviser to Governor Adams Oshiomhole on Public Affairs, called on the opposition political parties in the state to exercise restraint in their attacks on the state government activities, which in most cases, he noted, were trivial and to support the governor in his avowed desire to transform the state .

Onolememen tasks Esan on reform agenda

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

P

ORT HARCOURT—MINISTER of Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen, has called on Esan people in Edo State, to be active in the reform agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan's administration.

Speaking in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, at the 2013 quarterly dinner organised by Esan Club 30 in his honour, the minister said the people of Esan should continue to contribute substantially to the development of Nigeria, adding that they should come up with new strategies to sustain their relevance in the scheme of things.

The minister, who spoke through Mr. Clifford Odia, expressed gratitude to the club for the honour done him, adding that they should evolve measures to further unite the Esan at home and abroad.

BY FESTUS AHON GHELLI—CHAIRMAN of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Ughelli North Local Government Area, Delta State, Rt. Rev Diamond Emuobor, has urged the national leadership of CAN and Niger Delta Christian Elders Council, to wade into the face-off between President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, before it gets out of hand with its attendant consequence on the Niger Delta region in particular and the country at large.

He also charged the ruling elites in the political groupings in Nigeria to be wary of bigotry and tyranic manipulations of the populace over who should take precedence in holding leading positions in the country’s administration.

Emuobor, at the quarterly meeting of the association in Ughelli, queried the wisdom of President Jonathan, his allies and “a governor ” in the country from the same political party and region, in washing their dirty linens in public.

He said: “Nigeria has its admirers and peer groups

all over the world. By this manipulation, Nigerians are now being ranked low as a people without elders to advise its leaders.

“The nation at this time needs formidable unity to conquer the rampaging insurgency facing the country and good leadership.

While Brazil, an age group of Ni-

geria, is exporting development to Nigeria, elites of the ruling class in Nigeria are busy ternishing our collective image in their disgraceful and retrogressive boastings and bashes.

“A governor volunteering to bankroll the impeachment of a fellow governor with N7

billon smacks of a deranged elite leadership. Who owns the N7 billon the governor wants to waste in bribing Nigerian colleagues to overturn our development?”

He also congratulated National President of CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor on his reelection for a second tenure.

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY: From left: Mr. Toyin Onisarotu, Director, Monitoring Enforcement and Compliance, Office of Environmental Service, Ministry of Environment; Mrs Omolola Essien, Vice Chairman, Lagos Mainland Local Government, repsenting Sentor Oluremi Tinubu, and Prince Adetoyese Olusi, Vice Chairman, Lagos Island Local Government, during the 2013 World Environment Day, organised by Lagos State Government, in Lagos, yesterday.

Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi.

Resign now, Boki, C-River PDP members tell party official ....Go to EFCC, he fires back

BY JACOB AJOM

P

EOPLES Democratic Party, PDP, faithful in Boki, Cross River State, have demanded the resignation of the Publicity Secretary of the state chapter of the party, Mr. Bisong Obi, on moral grounds.

His emergence as the state PDP Publicity Secretary in March 2012, is being questioned by some party leaders, especially from his immediate constituency, Boki.

A concerned Boki PDP member, Mr. Takon Osang, who said he was representing the views of his people, told journalists in Calabar that party leaders from the area were demanding the immediate resignation of Obi as he does not represent their interests in Calabar.

He said: “His so-called election to that office is still a mystery to all of us. How could Obi have been elected when he was not a delegate to the 2012 state congress of the party?”

Obi was also accused of drawing salaries from the local government area long after he had assumed office as the party's Publicity Sec-

retary.

But Obi, who described the accusations as lacking merit, told our correspondent in Calabar that his accusers should not stop at talking to the press but should write to Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to investigate the matter.

He said: “I contested for the

post of Publicity Secretary of PDP on March 17, 2012 . On March 15, 2012, I dutifully resigned as Supervisory Councillor with Boki Local Government Area, two days before the election. I only collected my March salary for which I worked for 15 days. The Public Service

rules allow for a person to collect his salary after 15 days. Soon after my resignation, somebody was sworn into that office. Are my accusers saying the council is paying two salaries for the same position?”

Obi said anyone in doubt should confirm from the council's accounts department or the Ministry of Local Government in Calabar.

Delta boosts waste management with multi-million naira incinerators

BY AUSTIN OGWUDA

A

SABA—DELTA State Government has acquired multi-million naira integrated waste management facilities capable of processing 1,000 tonnes of waste daily without polluting the environment.

State Commissioner for Environment, Chief Frank Omare, told reporters after inspecting the equipment in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where it is being fabricated locally, that the equipment would be put to use soon, after installation in Asaba.

He said that as a result of the procurement of the facility, existing dump sites would be closed down, noting that “this is a pilot scheme. Warri and other

parts of the state would equally be provided with one soon.”

The equipment has various compartments such as incinerators in-vessel compost-

ers, recycling systems, refuse-derived fuels, integrated waste management and smokeless flares, among others.

2015: Delta South DFG vows to cal Government Area, had all top deliver Ochei functionaries of Delta Focus

D

ELTA Focus Group has inaugurated its Delta South Senatorial district chapter, with a promise to deliver all wards in the district for the Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly, Mr. Victor Ochei, come 2015 PDP governorship primaries.

The inauguration, which was held at Amawhe Primary school, Ozoro, Isoko North Lo-

Group from home and in diaspora in attendance.

Speaking during the inauguration, Chief Joshua Okoh, National Chairman of Delta Focus Group, said that the inauguration was part of the group’s moves to enthrone Ochei in 2015, adding that the aim of the group was to woo PDP delegates to cast their votes for Ochei in order for the state to move forward.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 —13

Ugolor lauds Oshiomhole

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

B

ENIN—EXECUTIVE Director of Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ, Rev David Ugolor, has commended Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State over his move to set up an investigative panel to unearth facts behind the killing of the 22-year-old final year student of University of Benin, Mr. Ibrahim Momodu, allegedly killed by the Divisional Police Officer of Ogida Police Station, Mrs. Carol Afegbai.

Ugolor in a statement, yesterday, in Benin by his Information and Communication Officer, Mr. Kelly Umukoro, also appealed to the state governor to ensure that the panel was set up without delay and ensure that proper criminal investigators were selected for the panel.

NNPC assures on stable supply of products ...denies report of illegal evacuation of kero

BY SEBASTINE OBASI

T

HE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and its downstream subsidiary, Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, PPMC, yesterday, assured Nigerians that the ongoing maintenance work at Warri Refinery will not affect the supply of petroleum products, especially kerosene.

Mrs. Tumini Green, the Acting General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of NNPC, said the corporation has enough stock of products to keep the country well supplied for the period the refinery will be under repairs.

She said the reassurance was necessitated by reports in the media, insinuating that there might be a dislocation in the supply of petroleum products, especially kerosene, as a result of the maintenance work at the Warri Refinery and an alleged illegal directive to evacuate kerosene from the Warri Depot.

She said: “The corporation has enough petroleum prod-

had paid for since March, 2013.

“Warri Refinery is configured to evacuate kerosene and other petroleum products through trucking from the depot and by marine vessels through the jetties, just as some oil marketing companies take their assigned product by trucks." she explained.

Green explained that there ucts to keep the entire counwas nothing illegal about the try wet until the repair of the evacuation of kerosene by unit that came down in Warvessels as suggested by the ri Refinery is effected. We report and that the vessel also wish to clarify that there which belonged to a marketwas no directive from any er registered with the PPMC quarter, directing the allocawas only loading its assigned tion of kerosene to anyone cargo which the company and or a politician illegally, as reported by a section of the media. Petroleum products are sold in line with laid down sales policies and guidelines to marketers duly registered w i t h PPMC.” Throwing more light on the alleged illegal evacuation of kerCENTENARY LAW SUMMIT: From left: Delta State Deputy Governor, Prof. osene from Amos Utuama; Metropolitan Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, John Cardinal the Warri Onaiyekan and Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, R e f i n e r y, Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, during the Centenary Law Summit, in Abuja.

Rivers councillors back Amaechi

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, Political Editor

R

IVERS State chapter of Nigerian Councillors Forum, yesterday, threw its support behind the state governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, saying that his government was focused on the delivery of democracy dividends to the populace.

The forum, at the end of its meeting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, also condemned what it claimed as surreptitious moves to undermine the governor and the peace of Rivers State.

Chairman of the forum, Mr. Lesor Nwigbaranee, said the councillors, as representatives of the grassroots, took the decision to speak up as they noted that “except strategic stakeholders speak up, the wishes, as-

C M Y K

pirations and rights of the people of Rivers State, as guaranteed under the 1999 constitution as amended, may be unjustly trampled upon.

“We, and indeed the people we represent, shall not be part of any

act or actions instigated to cause breakdown of law and order in Rivers State. We are opposed to any measure, especially made in secret or through any uncanny means, to torpedo Amaechi's administration.”

Fani-Kayode made illegal payments, witness tells court

BY INNOCENT ANABA

T

HE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, witness, yesterday, told a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, that former Minister of Aviation, Mr Femi Fani-Kayode, allegedly made several illegal payments as Minister of Aviation.

The EFCC witness, Bashir Abdulahi, formerly an operative with EFCC, though now at Force Headquaters in Abuja, said he investigated alleged mismanagement of fund by Fani-Kayode, adding that his team started investigating FaniKayode after EFCC received a petition alleging mismanagement of aviation fund.

Led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, the witness said: “The peti-

tion about mismanagement of aviation fund was assigned to my team for investigation. I and other members of the team assigned responsibilities to ourselves and collected various documents that would assist our investigation.”

He told the court that his team “obtained documents from different financial institutions, especially Finbank Plc, which were keeping his accounts. My team analysed the documents and the bank statements and other document.”

He further told the court that his team’s investigation revealed that several payments, beyond the legal limits, were made into his account, through one Mark Saviour, adding that Fani Kayode allegedly reneged on his promise to produce Saviour for interrogation.

14—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

7 Nigerians bag State of Arkansas honourary citizenship in US

A

RKANSA—SEVEN Nigerians were among 17 personalities awarded honorary citizenship of the state of Arkansas in the U.S., each with a key to the city of Little Rock, the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports.

Gov. Mike Beebe of Arkansas also proclaimed May 30 of every year as Nigeria Day, which was celebrated with a spectacular display of fireworks.

The certificate for the proclamation was handed over to Prof. Ade Adefuye, Nigeria’s Ambassador to the U.S., who was represented by Mr. Baba Garba of the Consulate General of Nigeria in Atlanta.

The recipients of the awards are Alhaji Aliko Dangote, President of Dangote Group; Sir Joseph Arumemi-Ikhide, Chairman of Arik Air, Gov. Rabi’u Kwankwaso of Kano State; Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, and Prof. Tajudeen Gbadamosi, a former lecturer of University of Lagos.

Others are Prof. Ade Adefuye, Prof. Julius Okojie, Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission, NUC; Chief Temitope Ajayi, the Coordinator of Nigerian American Agricultural Empowerment Programme, NAAEP; Mr. Robert Brunner, the Vice President, America Arik Air International and Mr. Kester Ifeadi, the Managing Director of Contemporary Group Ltd. Beebe and Mark Stodola, the Mayor of the City of Little Rock, presented the awards during the Nigeria-Arkansas Economic Development Forum last Saturday.

I won’t leave abandoned projects in Abia —Orji

By ANAYO OKOLI

U

MUAHIA—GOVERNOR Theodore Orji of Abia State has promised not to leave a legacy of abandoned projects for the state.

Consequently, he pledged to complete all ongoing projects before the expiration of his tenure in 2015.

Orji stated this while answering questions from newsmen shortly after inspecting some on-going projects in Umuahia to ascertain the progress of work.

According to him, the multibillion Naira projects are progressing in line with government’s plans, based on the available resources.

Governor Orji said Abians should judge him on the basis of what he did with the resources available to the state.

The governor also expressed joy that the contractors were doing a good job.

At the Ubani Ibeku new market, Chief Orji observed facilities were being put in place and noted that light has been

connected to the market, while the fire service building and the motor park have been completed.

The governor also inspected the new low and middle income housing es-

A

WKA—THE Angli can Diocese on the Niger is to establish a Dialysis and Diagnostic Centre at the famous Iyi Enu Hospital in Ogidi, Anambra State at a cost of N500 million.

Bishop of the Diocese, Right Reverend Owen Nwokolo, at the synod of the Diocese at St. Thomas Church, Oraukwu in Idemili South local government area of

would be affordable for civil servants, and also disclosed his intention to park into the new Government House before the end of his tenure in 2015.

HANDOVER: From left: Chief Medical Director, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, NAUTH, Prof. Anthony Igwebe; Dr. Evaristus Afiadigwe and Corporate Sponsorships Manager, Guinness Nigeria Plc., Mrs. Nkiruka Ogboruche, showing the duo, the Mindray Anaesthesia Machine, before the formal handover to the Guinness Eye Hospital in Onitsha, Anambra State.

How to reduce childhood diarrhoea, by UNICEF

BY CHIOMA OBINNA &

VICTORIA OJEME AGOS—AS the globe commemorates World Environment Day, the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has said that reduction in open defecation will significantly reduce diarrhoea cases in children under five by 90 per cent.

UNICEF had in its 2012 report revealed that an estimated 34 million Nigerians practice open defecation and ranked the country amongst top five countries in the world with largest number of people defecating in the open.

It, however, noted a marked improvement in the situation as no fewer than 34 million Nigerians now use toilets.

In statement issued in Abuja to mark this year ’s World Environment Day, UNICEF Nigeria Country Representative, Jean Gough, declared open

L

defecation as a serious threat to public health, especially during flooding.

According to Gough, “90 per cent of diarrhoea cases in children under 5 are related to unsafe water and sanitation. Open defecation causes contamination to water bodies and is a serious threat to public health especially during flooding.

“Ending open defecation also means saving the lives of thousands of Nigerian children dying annually from preventable water and sani-

the state, said the former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku and wife Bunmi, had redeemed the sum of N65 million proceeds of their recent 80th birthday and 50th marriage anniversary to the Diocese towards the realization of the project.

According to the Bishop, the Church will seek expert advice in procuring the best diagnostic and dialysis equipment. He added

tation related diseases.”

Gough further disclosed that UNICEF’s partnership with relevant government Ministries, Departments and Agencies, NGOs, as well as donors such as European Union and UK Aid in the implementation of Community Led Total Sanitation, CLTS, in 30 states in Nigeria, showed that more than 4,000 Open Defecation Free, ODF, communities with over 2.5 million inhabitants were now using toilets.

He said with continuous support from governments and oth-

er partners in scaling up this approach, more Nigerians would live in open defecation free communities.

“We know that by improving sanitation, we can improve child survival as well as the environment.

“Although current sanitation coverage is low at 31 percent, successful models like the Community Led Total Sanitation, CLTS, approach have already demonstrated that it is possible to achieve quick progress in access to sanitation.”

APC won’t favour Igbo —Uwazuruike

A

By VINCENT UJUMADU

WKA—LEADER of the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB,

Anglican Church plans N500m Dialysis Centre in Iyi Enu hospital that another person had promBY VINCENT UJUMADU

tate under construction, located close to Ubani Ibeku modern market, where he assured that the houses would be ready for occupation in the next five months.

He assured that the houses

ised to donate some medical equipment as support to Emeka Anyaoku.

He also said Sir Emma Bishop Okonkwo Foundation donated a fully fitted ambulance worth millions of naira to the Mission hospital, while the South East governors, led by Mr. Peter Obi of Anambra State, also promised to donate to the hospital on behalf of Chief Anyaoku.

Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, has said that the emerging mega political party, All Progressive Congress, APC, would not favour Igbos based on their political experience.

Speaking yesterday when Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah, a governorship aspirant in Anambra State paid him a courtesy visit, Uwazuruike observed that Ndigbo had attained a high level of political consciousness that would make it difficult for APC to survive in Igbo land.

He said: “APC is dead on arrival in Igbo land. We have not walked that path before and I don’t think APC will favour Ndigbo and that is why we still insist that the legacies our late leader, Dim Chukwuemeka

Odumegwu Ojukwu left behind, should not be allowed to die.

“I am here to make sure there is peace in Igbo land, and the issue of who becomes the next governor of Anambra state still lies with the masses. I am only here to bless all the aspirants and the rest is left for the people.

“I don’t like the situation where my people continue going to court after each election and stay in court even till the end of the tenure of the election in contention.”

The MASSOB leader further said as the Igbo leader, the issue of who became the next governor of Anambra State laid with the masses.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 —15

Fuel subsidy scam: FG slashes oil importers from 128 to 38 As government withholds N971.138bn subsidy payment to marketers Local consumption now 40m litres per day traders who did business with

A

BY HENRY UMORU

BUJA—THE Senate was yesterday told that the Federal Government has slashed down the number of oil importers into the country from 128 to 38 as at December 2012.

This came as indications also emerged that government has refused to commence payment of subsidy claims for the 2013 fiscal year.

The lawmakers were also told that the Federal Government has spent N3.7 trillion in five years.

Disclosing this yesterday, during a meeting with the Senator Magnus Abe-led Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources, Downstream, Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, Mr. Reginald Stanley, blamed the Ministry of Finance for the delay in sorting out foreign exchange claims by the marketers.

“There has been no payment for any marketer importing petroleum products in 2013.

This is caused by delays in the payment of subsidy claims by the Federal Ministry of Finance resulting in interest as foreign exchange differential claims request by marketers, etc,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Committee, Senator Magnus Abe, however, warned that if importation of petroleum products must be reduced, refineries must be allowed to function optimally.

He also urged the PPPRA boss and his agency not to relent in sanitising and weeding out “briefcase marketers,” adding that they were still lurking around, waiting to manipulate any loophole in the system.

He said: “We are happy that you have put in measures to control the cost of subsidy payment. We have looked at the figures and we are impressed with the progress you are making and we believe you can do more. ”At this juncture, all I want to say is that all Nigerians should be vigilant. The reason we are celebrating now is because of the attention which made some people run away.

The moment we relax, they may come back.

“Those who ran away with their briefcases are also looking for how to come back. If the figures rise, we will like to know why the rise because there’s still that danger as they are still lurking around on refineries.”

Speaking further, the PPPRA boss, who noted that local consumption of PMS had also been brought down from 60.25 million litres per day in 2011 to 40 million litres per day, said between 2006 and August 2011, total government expenditure on petroleum subsidy amounted to N3.7 trillion, while expenditure on subsidies increased from N261 billion in 2006 to N673 billion in 2010, an increase of about 160 per cent.

He said: ‘’Additionally, there have been unprecedented payments in 2011 that so far amounted to N1.4

trillion, due in part to two key factors- increase in subsidy per litre as a result of rising global oil price and large arrears due NNPC for household kerosene imports. ”When we started, the chairman was very hard on us but he’s objective. I asked for time that we will live up to the Senate’s expectation and I’m happy with this visit. ”2011 was like a gold-rush where you had briefcase marketers. Local consumption rose to 60.25 million litres per day in 2011 but had dropped to 39.66 million litres per day in 2012. ‘’Most of the international

their Nigerian counterparts were also briefcase traders.

They would sell and run away. That practice, I can tell you, has since been cancelled. ‘’One of the biggest fraud in 2011 was “Bills for Collection” which is used to trade for petroleum products. There’s been a very dramatic transition from what obtained in 2011 and what we have today.”

It will be recalled that the Federal Government allocated N971.138 billion for fuel subsidy in the 2013 budget and N888.1 billion was officially allocated in 2012.

The fuel subsidy allocation, as captured on page xvii of the Approved 2013 Budget

signed by President Goodlcuk Jonathan on February 26 indicates that the N971.133 billion is for domestic fuel subsidy (marketers) (carry-over from 2011& 2012 provision for partial subsidy).

Also speaking on some key challenges facing the PPPRA, Stanley reiterated that the agency was yet to clarify the status of kerosene, whether it had been deregulated or not.

He said: “There is lack of clarity on PPPRA and DPR roles in regulating the petroleum sector. Besides, there is lack of clarity on the subsidy status of household kerosene, HHK. We don’t know whether it has been deregulated or not. ”All over the country, between January 1 and December 30, we go round to determine the stock...that was how we first got the figure of 40 million litres per day as our local consumption.”

CONFERENCE: From left: Nuruddeen Rafindadi, President, Association of Consulting Engineers, ACEN; Kassim Ali, President, Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN, Musa Mshelgaya, Federal Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, FMLH&UD, Husein Dikko, President, Quantity Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria, QSRBN; Agele Alufohai, President, Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, NIQS; Umar Aliyu, President, Architects Registration Council of Nigeria, ARCON and Ifeanyi Anago, at the 3rd BCERT round table conference in Abuja.

Boko Haram proscription: It’s long overdue —CAN Says amnesty c’ttee no longer relevant APGA lauds FG on proscription As Special Forces arrest 49 Boko Haram terrorists

BY KINGSLEY OMONOBI/

CHRIS OCHAYI/CALEB AYANSINA BUJA—THE Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, yesterday, hailed the Federal Government’s decision to proscribe Boko Haram and Ansaru Islamic fundamentalist sects, saying the action was long overdue.

This came on a day Defence headquarters said 49 suspected Boko Haram terrorists were apprehended in various locations in Yobe State by troops, following a tip off by locals in some communities.

Also, the faction of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, led by Maxi Okwu, has lent its voice to those commending President Goodluck Jonathan over the

A

proscription of Boko Haram and its splinter group, Ansaru, declaring their activities illegal and acts of terrorism.

The national Christian body also called for immediate dissolution of Boko Haram amnesty committee on the ground that it had become irrelevant.

The Federal Government, on Tuesday, issued a statement outlawing the Jamaatu Ahlis-Sunna Liddaawati Wal Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram, and Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan, also known as Ansaru, who unleashed mayhem on the polity in the northern axis of the country, with 20 years jail term for anybody associating with them.

The General Secretary of CAN, Rev. Musa Asake, articulated the association’s position while speak-

ing with Vanguard, shortly after a press conference on the launching of a nationwide campaign for the restoration of core values in the society, coming up on July 14, in Abuja.

He said: “CAN has always had one position; it has always believed that these groups should have been designated before this time.

“CAN President has spoken on this and he got opposition from people, even when he addressed the congress of United States, he came back home, and some people were even saying he should be arrested, but we thank God that we are alive today to witness what Pastor Oritsejafor said is true.

“The federal government was very slow but thank God, now the government has woken up from

its own sleep, to know that these are evil groups who do not know God. “They were killing Christians, burning down churches, people were not saying much, the socalled northern elders were not saying much, but God has unveiled them. We now known that these are criminals, these are just blood-thirsty people, they don’t mean well for Nigeria.

“If you see the unveiling of the bushes, where they have their syringes, they drug themselves; they have condoms, for what?

These are the people that want to replace the constitution of the country with Sharia, to do away with churches.

“Federal government, thank you for the step you have taken, even though it is late, it is better late than never.”

16—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

FOSIECON warns against plan to scrap it

BY PROVIDENCE OBUH

L

AGOS — THE Fo rum of State Independent Electoral Commissions of Nigeria, FOSIECON, has warned against proposals to scrap the commissions during the ongoing review of the 1999 Constitution by the National Assembly.

In a statement after a four-day national delegates’ conference of the forum in Katsina, FOSIECON observed that the lapses in the states encountered by electoral umpires should be rectified to remove present constraints hindering them instead of being scrapped.

The resolution of the FOSIECON is coming on the heels of series of allegations that elections conducted by the states’ electoral umpires were usually rigged in favour of the ruling parties in such states.

The statement was signed by the Chairman (also the Chairman of the Lagos FOSIEC), Justice Afolaby Adeyinka and the Secretary, Dr. (Mrs.) Hannatu Biniya.

Yakasai berates Obasanjo over Jonathan

BY ABDULSALAM MUHAMMAD

K

ANO — ELDER STATESMAN Salihu Abubakar Tanko Yakasai, yesterday, berated former President Olusegun Obasanjo over his constant criticisms of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

In a statement, yesterday, in Kano, entitled, ‘My opinion on the recent democracy day celebration in Nigeria,’ he

condemned Obasanjo for attacking the sitting President openly without exploiting several other options.

Yakasai’s reaction came on the heels of recent remarks by Obasanjo at an economic summit organised at the instance of Jigawa State Government in Dutse, the state capital, where Obasanjo was quoted as saying that “ you can help someone to get a job but you cannot help that person do the

job.”

The former liaison officer to ex-President Shehu Shagari in the Second Republic, described Obasanjo’s comment as a “unpalatable.”

He stressed that “using such a highly enlightened forum to underrate the achievement of the Jonathan administration, especially in the area of macro economic growth, is unfair.”

He stated that “as a patriotic Nigerian, a Democracy Day

The sector commander of Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Kaduna State Command, Mr. Olu Mike Olagunju (right), with the public enlightenment officer, Mr. Dijangla Martin, at the flag-off of the ‘Operation Shield’ for motorists on Kaduna -Abuja road, yesterday. Photo: Olu Ajayi.

celebration is hardly a suitable occasion for any making a personal attack on his country’s leader whatever differences that exist between them.”

Yakasai asked Obasanjo to borrow a leaf from the First Republic politicians who “despite our differences with NPC leaders, NEPU leaders and members of the opposition, “never took our political differences with Sir Ahmadu Bello to the level of attacking his personality.”

Yakasai decried what he called Obasanjo’s unforgiving spirit whenever he had cause to disagree with anyone, saying that “Obasanjo’s method of disagreement with people is sometimes regarded as a matter of life and death.”

The elderstatesman added that “people close to him say whenever General Obasanjo disagrees with a person, he would carry the fight to his place of worship, to his dining table and sometimes he will even be fighting the person in his dream.”

He therefore advised Obasanjo to pursue his political differences with the sitting Commander in Chief with “decorum, tolerance and statesmanly standard, stressing that, “this is the most honourable path for a man of his stature.”

We were paid N200, N240 as compensation — Adamawa flood victims We used the money to buy fertiliser for the agrarian beneficiaries — SSG

BY UMAR YUSUF

Y

OLA — SOME victims of last year ’s flood in Adamawa State have claimed that they received paltry sums ranging between N200 and N240 as compensation from the government even after the Federal Government had released N500 million to them.

They have, however, said that they would not relocate to safer areas, following predictions of heavy flooding at the peak of rainy season this year.

The Kobis Ari Committee in

the state was saddled with the responsibilities of both the assessment and disbursement of the N500million from the Federal Government.

However, some of the victims in Demsa Local Government Area of the state, who spoke to Vanguard on the issue, criticised the alleged poor handling of N500 million from the Federal Government.

Some of the victims told Vanguard at Gindin-Kuka ward, which was one of worst hit, that they were yet to get any form of assistance except for an offer of between N200

to N240, and asked that the matter be probed.

One of the victims, Moses Ginam, said he learnt of the N500 million assistance from Federal Government from the media, but was yet to receive any assistance except that he was told that the sum of N93,000 was allocated to affected people in his area whereby each person would get N240. ”To be candid I only read in the newspapers that N500 million was given to Adamawa State. We were told that we were given N93,000 and

Vision 20-2020 ‘ll not be actualised without completing Ajaokuta Iron and Steel plant — Kogi gov

BY BOLUWAJI OBAHOPO

L

OKOJA — KOGI State Governor, Captain Idris Wada (rtd), yesterday, said that Vision 20:2020 pro gramme would not be actualised without the completion of the Ajaokuta Iron and Steel plant which had been aban-

doned for over 10 years now.

Wada spoke at Ajaokuta, during an assessment tour of the steel plant, noting that, ‘’no country achieves industrialisation without producing steel.’’

The governor then advised the Federal Government to take another look at the moribund steel plant with a view

to making it functional to drive its industrialisation programme.

“The political will must be there to ensure the steel plant is reactivated. The option of Private Public Partnership, PPP, is being considered and such requests are being passed to the Federal Government,” he said.

when you divide this money each household will get N240. ”The Federal Government should investigate this matter because those affected were not the people who benefited from the money.”

Another victim, Mr. Francis Emmanuel, also asked the government to investigate the incident , saying that, his community in Mbula chiefdom rejected the N1.5 million given to them as it was too meagre to go round. ”They sent N1.5 million to the entire Mbula chiefdom and the people refused it because if you are going to share this money to the people, each will get just a little above N200. ”Imagine somebody that lost his house and farm and he is given just N200?” he asked.

Mallam Abdullahi GindinKuka, who also called for probe into the handling of the Federal Government’s largesse, said he was asked to collect N240 from the ward head as assistance from the government, but that he rejected the offer.

The Secretary to Adamawa State Government, SSG, Mr. Kobis Thimnu who was the state chairman of Quick Response Committee that handled the issues involving the flood victims, said the money was used for the purchase of 60 trucks of fertiliser and varieties of seedlings, among other things, for the farmers.

Thimnu said the measure was taken in view of the fact that most of those affected we’re farmers. ”You are aware that the state is an agrarian area and that is why we decided to give priority to food security by providing fertiliser and seedlings to framers,” Thimnu said.

He also explained that cash was given to affected local governments based on the level of destruction, adding that Lamurde was given N29 million as the worst affected.

According to Thimnu, committees were set up in each of the local governments with commissioners from the affected local government areas serving as chairmen of the disbursement committees.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013— 17

I

Extreme decision It was apparently the rumour making the rounds that Yuguda was one of the governors who voted against Jonah Jang, even when he had previously been adopted as the Northern consensus candidate to face ChibuikeAmaechi. As the whole world knows, Jonah Jang was defeated in the election.

Yuguda is very angry that he was apparently found out to have voted against Jang; or had somehow become contrite or was actually on Jang’s side from the beginning, because Jang was Goodluck Jonathan’s candidate. Yuguda would not be caught dead or alive doing

Isa Yuguda: The serial opportunist's burden anything that Jonathan could frown at. But for all who know Yuguda, his Jonathan-for-life posture is actually a grand expression of opportunism; the opportunism that the master opportunist himself alone can muster! Once upon a time, during the reign of the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, there was a troika which ruled the roost at the Aso Villa: Isa Yuguda, Bukola Saraki and James Ibori.

The troika was larger than life! Yuguda’s route to prominence inYar’Adua’s Aso Villa was the hurriedly arranged marriage to Yar’Adua’s daughter. There is a story that might possibly be apocryphal, but was indicative of those times.

It was said that then Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan once sent an emissary to Yuguda to find out if he, Jonathan, had offended Yuguda, the “first son-in-law”.

It was said that he would ignore or refuse outright, to acknowledge greetings from the Vice President. It was also the time that Ibori and his tag team brother, Bukola Saraki were responsible for many of the ap-

Bauchi State Governor, Isa Yuguda pointments to juicy positions in Nigeria! Then the president died and the man they used to ignore became president of Nigeria. Yuguda was better than most at doing a volte-face. He became the most grovelling defender of the Jonathan hegemony. It is as if such grovelling posture can erase the arrogance of the past; and Yuguda is making a good show of the new posture. The latest

Sule Lamido, Jigawa Summit and what Obasanjo didn’t say

L

AST Thursday morning, I placed a call to Sam Nda-Isaiah, Chairman of LEADERSHIP newspaper. He said he was at an event, would call me later, but he never did.

I wanted to point out that LEADERSHIP newspaper’s lead story from the Jigawa Investment Summit, which quoted Obasanjo as having said that if somebody was not up to the job, Sule Lamido was able or ready to do it, was a very “ingenious” form of editorializing, as we say in the industry.

The reporter read into the report far more than Obasanjo said. I knew this, because I was one of the two rapporteurs for the opening session of the summit where Obasanjo spoke. I took copious notes and we also did a verbatim recording! But I was not surprised that the sensational political slant was what was played up in the LEADERSHIP report; but it did a disservice to journalism which is based on reporting the FACTS of any situation.

I am an old-fashioned believer in basic journalistic ethics. This was an issue we used to debate a lot at DAILY TRUST. I always felt that we should stay with the basics: report the facts and if we felt strongly about the issues in the news, then accompany the report with an analytical sidebar! But some of my colleagues pitched for what they describe as perspective reporting: a mixture of facts and conscious editorialising. It seems that the current shifted a long time ago in the direction of perspective reporting, especially in politi-

basic political-cum-human instinct does not lend itself to noble gestures, idealism or principles. Yuguda learnt that political lesson early in life and is two years away from completing eight years as governor. Maybe a senatorial seat is already being kept in escrow for the great survivor and he is also going to end the eight-year rule a materially comfortable and contented man.

But Yuguda should spare all of us of histrionics! His threat to stop attending the Northern Governors’ Forum resembles an overkill. In the first place, the Forum has gradually deteriorated into a conclave of governors; individuals whose very tall egos often get in the way of serious efforts to collectively solve the problems facing the people of the region.

Facing the people's wrath

cal reportage in Nigeria. I have never agreed with that tendency and last Thursday’s lead story from LEADERSHIP newspaper just showed all that could go wrong with perspective journalism. This is because Obasanjo spoke only within the context of the developments in Jigawa and Lamido’s strides as governor in the past six years. The context was then elasticized to take in the politics of 2015.

Unnecessary controversy It made very good reading; helped to up the political ante, especially given the stories which followed in subsequent days, that in response to Obasanjo’s statement in Dutse, Jonathan was planning to probe Obasanjo and the prompt denial from the Presidency!

I just think that reporters should stick to reporting the facts of events and avoid the unnecessary controversy of editorializing the news! I have always believed that two institutions are central to democracy consolidation in Nigeria, and these are the judiciary and the media. Section 22 of the Nigerian Constitution obliges the media to hold government accountable to the Nigerian people.

I am not aware of any other institution of society which has such a weighty obligation to Nigeria. That is why the media must carry out its functions strictly within the professional canons. There is no other way!

quixotic tilting at the windmills of principle is so out of place, because no serious person identifies Yuguda’s politics with principles! No way.

Yuguda is the archetypal serial opportunist in the Nigerian political space. He had decamped to the ANPP in the lead to the 2007 elections, when his former friend, Adamu Muazu, then Bauchi governor, squeezed him out of the PDP governorship race. The brazen effort to deny Yuguda his right to run, angered people in Bauchi, all over the North and the country. By decamping to the ANPP, he was

,

SA Yuguda, the Bauchi State governor, seems to be angry! So angry that he decided to do what amounts to a grand Northern regional version of “apostacy”. Isa’s grand posturing is related to the crisis within the Nigerian Governors’ Forum.

He says that he will not attend the regional forum again, until “anyone of his colleagues publicly admits that he breached the agreement to adopt Da Jonah Jang as the consensus Northern candidate”.

Yuguda told DAILY TRUST, as reported on Monday, June 3, 2013: “I don’t see any reason why I should attend the Northern Governors’ meeting again.

Yes! If that is what we will do, I am not going to be part of it.

For the remaining two years of my tenure I will not be part of the Northern Governors’ Forum”. What could have irritated Yuguda so much to take that extreme decision?

When the majority of these governors supported Jonathan in the 2011 election, against the general feeling of people in the North, they could no longer hold their meetings in the regional capital, Kaduna, because it had become too hot to handle, and they were afraid of facing the people’s wrath in the political centre of the region; it became an affair of the Niger governor’s residence in Abuja.

For most people in the North, the Forum, which had very lofty origins, gradually became alienated from the concerns of the Northerners. But even in the midst of its problems, the Northern Governors’ Forum still possesses very strong elements of symbolism; that feeling that the North will somehow continue to find collective solutions to its problems. There is a sense in which that symbolism and the latent possibilities of the Fo-

By threatening to stop attending the Forum, Yuguda is posturing in Jonathan’s favour. But the man might need to be reminded that he is attending because there are issues of common interests to Bauchi and other Northern states

literally running on autopilot to governorship because there was the over-riding General Muhammadu Buhari’s factor.

Yuguda milked that fully and once he won the governorship election, the man turned his back against Buhari and the ANPP and not only that, he forced every other person elected on the ANPP to join him in his return to the PDP. That pressure to decamp to the PDP was resisted by his deputy; and the old man was promptly thrown out of office!

To underline his newfound loyalty to Yar ’Adua, Yuguda made the grandest gesture: took the president’s daughter as wife! Somersaults are central to the gentleman’s politics.

He has to survive and such a

,

rum, have always been found uncomfortable, politically, in some quarters in other parts of Nigeria. Objectively, President Jonathan will be very happy to have the Northern Governors’ Forum become weaker and ineffectual. So by threatening to stop attending the Forum, Yuguda is posturing in Jonathan’s favour. But the man might need to be reminded that he is attending because there are issues of common interests to Bauchi and other Northern states. His tall ego should not becloud him to forget that fact.

But this is Nigeria and the way it is presently set up, it is politicians, like Yuguda, who make a success of things. That is why we continue to run in circles!

C M Y K

18 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 A CENATOPH – the second in eight years – was erected for victims of the Dana crash of 3 June 2012 at the crash site in IjuIshaga, a crowded Lagos neighbourhood.

The plane’s 153 passengers and crew, and another 10 people on ground perished.

The other cenotaph is in Lisa, Ogun State, where on 22 September 2005, Bellview flight 210 killed 117. Before Lisa there was a 1996 cenotaph in Ejinrin, Ikorodu, site of an ADC crash that claimed 151 lives.

None of these cenotaphs has changed our attitude to life. Weeds have grown over the one in Ikorodu. Lisa’s has not been mentioned after the first anniversary when the dead were mourned, as if they mattered.

Other major crashes in the past eight years: •December 2005, 107 perished in a Sosoliso crash, in Port Harcourt, some of them school children heading home from Abuja.

•7 November 2005, 96 lives, among them the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Maccido, his son and a grandson, died in an ADC disaster in Abuja.

•17 September 2006 an Air Force Dornier

More Than Memorials 228 (with 18 people on board) crashed in Mbakunu in Sangev-Ya, Benue State; 13 people (including 10 army generals) died.

We mourned each of these crashes as if they would change anything. Eloquent speeches and the setting up of the Air Marshall Paul Dike’s committee that toured aviation facilities nationwide and recommended changes, was the closest we can to acting.

Dike’s committee resulted in the N20 billion aviation intervention fund, its pillage is the subject of a five-year-old ricocheting litigation.

In all these crashes, poor emergency services were cited for the huge loss of lives.

The 2005 accident that killed the Sultan of Sokoto was just outside the Abuja airport,

like the Dana flight that was approaching landing in Lagos. Both cases were in daylight yet the emergency services were as chaotic as when the flights crashed at night and in locations that took hours to identify.

We cannot make the point enough that infrastructure is critical to improving Nigeria. It is deceitful for anyone to expect emergency services that would race to site of air crashes, without services that function in daily life. Governments are hypocritical by assembling at these crash sites with assuring words whose emptiness show in the fact that after a year of the Dana crash, and years of earlier crash, nothing has been done to improve emergency services.

It is important that we establish structures to guarantee not only security, but the right to life. Crashes demand better regulation of aviation. They also challenge our infrastructure - emergency services, roads, hospitals, electricity and water supply. We need these measures to minimise future losses. Our hearts remaining with the mourning families.

OPINION

BY NNAMDI NWIGWE

T

HE paroxysms that have seized the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF, in recent days are a clear manifestation and proof that the conclave has always been irrelevant to the polity and to the individual citizens who voted for governors for the governance of their respective states. At no time did the state governors receive the mandate of their states to join any parapo group where their state funds are expended.It is only typical of our nonquestioning followership that nobody had bothered to find out where the governors got their authority to form an association with a director-general and other paid staff members. Is the Nigerian Governors Forum captured in the budgets of the memberstates? Not that it matters much though. After all, don’t they all have “security votes” which they customarily do not have to account for and the size of which is decided by them, for their rubber-stamp state assemblies to approve? When actually did this Governors Forum originate? What are the aims and objectives of the organisation?In the days of President Shehu Shagari, we didn’t hear much about the Governors Forum to which the chief executive officers of the former 19 states belonged. During former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s eight-year rule, C M Y K

Go orum: An irritating Incubus Govvernor ernorss FForum: the Governors Forum occasionally made their presence felt, all of the time, as an agent of blackmail to the President. The most notorious act of the NGF was to shamelessly support Obasanjo’s illicit bid for a “third term” tenure on the condition that they too, the Governors, would benefit from the project.That was an offer the great military fox, OBJ, did not expect. No manipulation of the Constitution could have guaranteed him and the Governors such a bonanza in a country where many legislators at both state and national levels were rearing to make a bid for their state governorship seats and indeed also for the Aso Rock Villa. The rest is now history.

When the goodluck of former VicePresident Goodluck Ebele (Azikiwe at election time) Jonathan propelled him to be Acting President and later, President, he still hob-nobbed with his former colleagues and their NGF. Let’s not forget too quickly that he graduated to a State Governor from Deputy Governor. He allowed state governors to reduce their political parties to mere cheer leaders and chorus boys. Appointments into the Federal cabinet and Federal parastatals could only be made with the approval of state governors and

not anymore in close collaboration with the party leadership. Indeed party officials who should be calling their governors to order soon become appointees.Then came Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi as an approved Chairman of the NGF in 2011 and things began to change for the worse for the Presidency. Suddenly the NGF was no longer taking dictations from Mr. President. Dr Jonathan soon realised that his South-South brother was cutting fresh teeth which hurt when used. Meanwhile, a plethora of governors fora had sprouted across the country.The 19 governors of the old North formed their own “Northern Governors Forum”, the South-East had their own. The South-South governors met now and gain. The Western zone always had their closed shop.

A

nd the latest to be formed was the “PDP Governors Forum” which was intended to clip the wings of Chairman of the national all-states Governors Forum, Governor Amaechi of Rivers State.The protracted election of the NGF took place on Monday May 27, 2013 and Amaechi was returned with 19 votes against 16 scored by his wild cat 11th minute challenger, David Jonah Jang of

Plateau State. Amaechi’s victory over the perceived anointed of the Presidency rattled the powers-that-be.

Without any tinge of shame, and to the horror of the rest of us, some modern day quislings among the governors have rejected the result of their own election and have adopted the loser Jang who they say had been adopted by mostly PDP governors “before the election”.

In fact, some anti- Amaechi governors had taken out full-page colour advertisements to “congratulate” Jang as their new Chairman.The National Working Committee, NWC, of the PDP said it has suspended Amaechi from the party. Amaechi said the action was wrong and alien to the constitution of the PDP. The re-elected Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum is now without a party until the courts re-install him. Meanwhile, the NGF itself appears to have arrived at its long-awaited destiny with perdition.The woolly contraption that had held sway all these years, known and addressed as Nigerian Governors Forum, is as good as dead. A welcome riddance to bad rubbish.Regrettably for the future of politics in Nigeria, the head has knocked the calabash, and the calabash has in turn hit the kitchen ceiling.Tomorrow is pregnant.

Who knows what it will deliver. *Mr. Nwigwe, a commentator on national issues, wrote from Lagos.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013—19

, A

LHAJI Atiku Abubakar and Chief Tony Anenih are one of a kind. They were launched onto the centre stage of Nigeria’s politics by, arguably, the most undesirable political machine ever to be formed in the history of this nation – the late Major General Yar’ Adua’s People’s Front of Nigeria, PFN, which later renamed itself the People’s Democratic Movement, PDM. There are certain traits common to most PDM “graduates” irrespective of the platforms they find themselves today. They are highly manipulative. They are adept at staging scientificallyconcocted elections or primaries to fit into the preconceived outcomes. That was how they won to lead the Social Democratic Party, SDP, even though they were the minority faction to the Babangida decreed amalgam in November 1990. They brought the tradition into the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and the Obasanjo presidency successfully used it to last eight years.

They also know how to desert

their principals at the drop of a hat.

Though the PFN faction of the SDP helped win the 1993 presidential election which Chief Moshood Abiola won and General Ibrahim Babangida annulled, they abandoned Abiola and went for the rescheduled election of April 1994 under Professor Okon Uya’s National Electoral Commission, NEC. Anenih, who was the PFN/SDP/ PDM National Chairman, deserted Abiola. Then he also abandoned General Yar ’Adua when the latter was detained by General Sani Abacha in March 1995. In fact, he sponsored a motion at the Constitutional Conference reversing the October 1, 1995 terminal date that the PDM leader had sponsored. It was Yar’Adua’s motion that led to his arrest and eventual demise in prison.

Anenih deserted Atiku and became Obasanjo’s Mr Fix-it.

Later he deserted Obasanjo for the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.

Today, he is President Goodluck Jonathan’s Man Friday for 2015

,

politics. Anenih is the original Any Government in Power, AGIP, of Nigerian politics.

P

DM graduates are also very desperate politicians. Atiku, as Vice President, threatened to slap Justice Kashim Zanna, who presided over an electoral matter that ruled former Governor Boni Haruna (Atiku’s lackey) as loser of the 2003 Adamawa governorship election. He accused the judge of lacking “respect” for his person and office as Vice President of Nigeria.

Also in 2011, Atiku, along with his loud-mouthed political hangers-on, Professor Ango Abdullahi and Alhaji Lawal Kaita,

Miracles, baby factories and all that

W

E SHALL rely on Webster’s’ Third New International Dictionary definition of a miracle as “an extraordinary event taken to manifest the supernatural powers of God fulfilling his purpose; and an accomplishment or occurrence so outstanding as to seem beyond human capability or endeavour".

Essentially, when an ordinary situation turns extraordinary, it becomes miraculous.

A situation in which state governors who voluntarily entered into a union cannot decide who leads them is, to say the least, preposterous.

The governors went into an election. The electoral officer who should announce the result of the election duly declared Governor Chibuike Amaechi as the winner of the election. A day later, a whole Governor who had voted on the Jonathan (oops, I mean Jang) side, came up with a different result, touting the list of people who had earlier signed an undertaking to support Jang as superseding the actual votes cast.

This transcends into the realm of miracle because if this goes into 2015, election results would be announced before the election day. Promises obtained on campaign trips would be superior to the actual votes in the ballot boxes.

We are reluctant to accept the idea of positive miracle as canvassed by some Nigerians who are quick to point to the marvelous job that Professor Augustine Orhue and his team are doing at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH, under the Assisted Reproduction Technology, ART. Their work is sciencebased and backed by several years of profound research. Today ’s essay is dedicated to this group, which has, by dint of hard work, given hope to the hopeless; and still striving to produce fertility in every

woman, even those hitherto confirmed barren. This is science in action!

We have been trying hard to distinguish between miracle and magic. When we were growing up here in Benin City, we used to go to Ring Road to watch magicians perform.

Sometimes, some of the itinerant magicians also moved to rural areas where they asked people to “come and see American wonder”. Today, these magicians are no longer around.

In the main, they may have migrated into churches.

We may never know the number of moral idiots who have perished with their faith, believing in miracles. There is the case of a pastor who lived in the ghetto. At midnight, armed robbers came calling. He opened his door and went to confront them only with a big Bible in his hand. They shot him dead and left.

There is one hospital in town where they did not believe in blood transfusion. At a time, dead bodies were being reeled out of the hospital by the hour. We believe in miracles and in the efficacy of prayers but miracle is not everything. All the same, when sickness strikes, people should pray and still see an appropriate doctor.

Miracle baby factories are springing up everywhere. Every aspect of these baby factories is suspect and dubious. Very gory stories are told of how they obtain their cargoes through conscripted and trafficked girls who are put in concentration camps of sorts from where babies are extracted from them for sale.

People go there to register and obtain babies for various reasons. The stake and patronage are now so high that people go to register for fetuses in the womb in just the same way that people from the North go round our villages, buying up fruits on the

boasted that they would rally the North to force President Jonathan out of power with their so-called “majority” votes. To actualise that, they formed the Northern Leaders Political Forum, NPLF, headed by Mallam Adamu Ciroma to snatch the PDP ticket from Jonathan.

When they saw their scheme failing, Atiku made his remarkable “those who make peaceful change impossible will make violent change inevitable” speech. His hangers-on followed up with threats to make Nigeria ungovernable if Jonathan won the presidency.

In spite of their desperate antics, Jonathan won. Since then, as if their “prediction” was coming true, Boko Haram resurged and the rest of it is history.

With this track record, I have always been at odds with these chaps. I do not believe they are democrats, and I have said so many times in the past. Atiku embraced a struggle many times when his former colleagues in the PDM now working for incumbent presidents used their old weapons against him. He often went to court and won historic cases. He started dubbing himself a quintessential democrat. I take that with a pinch of salt. But in contrast, Anenih, being an operative for incumbent presidents does not pretend to be anything of the sort.

Over the past week, at the “family dinner” of the PDP where President Jonathan was “endorsed” for 2015, Anenih, true to type, called for “automatic tickets” for the president and first term PDP governors seeking re-election. In a swift retort, Atiku issued a disclaimer, saying that such a move will be undemocratic. He

orange and pear trees when they are beginning to produce.

For barren couples who desperately want children, all they need is enough discipline and patience to hide away from their immediate environment for some nine months, after which they emerge with bouncing babies.

All that matters here is that these people are enabled to avert the entire stigma

,

Atiku is right, Anenih wrong

A good performer will always be the first to ask for free, open contest because he knows it will favour him; for the same reason that I oppose Atiku’s regional sabre-rattling and born-to-rule mentality, I say no to Anenih’s anti-democratic call for automatic tickets

Here at home, miracles are pouring out of our churches in their thousands daily, even where the miracles of Jesus Christ were few and far apart

,

associated with barrenness. From day one, the feeding bottle comes to the rescue as the nine months of their hide away cannot induce breast milk.

T

his is not the best because there is no telling how much care can be given to a child acquired under private treaty as compared to the one obtained in an open adoption known to everybody.

All the same, it is still better than those cases where people with clandestine motives go to the factories to obtain babies for slavery or rituals. They can do with the babies or their completely knocked-down parts, CKP, what they please. This is a sin against the Holy Ghost.

said every aspirant in the party must be given equal opportunity to prove himself even against incumbents.

For the first time on record, I am on the same page with the Turaki of Adamawa, the chief proponent of Northern hegemony in Nigerian politics.

Automatic ticket is not only undemocratic, it is a sign of fear that in four years the incumbents know they have not done enough to stand before their party men and ask for another term, since one good term deserves another, as they say. They want party leaders to impose them on the membership and carry the moral liability to the larger Nigerian electorate. The danger is that the electorate could punitively vote the incumbent out of power (as in Imo State in 2011) and the bubble will burst.

By saying incumbents should be given automatic tickets, it means Anenih is afraid there has been a general poor performance by the PDP elected executives. That may not be true, but the perception can be to the advantage of the opposition. A good performer will always be the first to ask for free, open contest because he knows it will favour him. For the same reason that I oppose Atiku’s regional sabre-rattling and bornto-rule mentality, I say no to Anenih’s anti-democratic call for automatic tickets.

Anenih led the PDP to a woeful failure in Edo governorship polls in 2012, thus signalling his lack of ability to win free and fair elections. Anenih’s “automatic ticket” runs counter to President Jonathan’s “one man one vote, one woman vote, one youth one vote” mantra of 2011.

It is a booby trap.

Where the carcass is, we are told, there the vultures go. What we find most intriguing in all this, is the African touch. Here at home, miracles are pouring out of our churches in their thousands daily, even where the miracles of Jesus Christ were few and far apart.

Wherever it is happening, look closely and you will see some Africaness to it. Last summer, the British media were awash with the escapades of Miracle Pastor Mbenga of the Victorious Pentecostal Assembly, Hyde Road, Gorton, who kept ripping people off with his claim that his blessed blackcurrant and olive oil could cure serious illnesses, including cancer, HIV and diabetes.

In far way Zimbabwe, Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa, founder, United Family International Church, UFIC, was the pastor whose prayer brought a baby boy to Mr. and Mrs. Moffat after three days of pregnancy – Mrs. Moffat became miraculously pregnant on 15 November and delivered on 18 November 2012.

These church magicians are sharp-witted.

You will be surprised how easily they compare themselves with Christ. Hear one of them: “Have you found out where the fish and bread that Jesus multiplied came from?

How do you expect me to explain the chemical composition of a miracle?”

Towards the final part of the last century, India took a quantum leap from crudity to refinement, hence we can now dispatch our cancer patients there for healing. So comfortably are we occupying the magic slot India left behind! In literature, this is the unwilling suspension of disbelief. Quite pathetic, isn’t it?

20-Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Why Ogoni should produce the next Rivers State governor Dear Sir, T is still sad and worrisome that despite the sons and daughters produced by Ogoniland in Rivers State, we are yet to produce the governor of the of the State . The time is now and that is why we the Ogoni Leadership Forum, USA, is calling on all Ogonis to unite in order to produce the next governor of Rivers State come 2015. As a people, we should be embarrassed and challenged that, since the creation of the State, no Ogoni has occupied the Brick House. built on May 27, 1967 when the defunct Eastern Region of Nigeria was split into states.

Rivers State has since then has had about six indigenous governors. The highly revered and respectable Alfred Diette Spiff governed the State from 1967 to 1975 before he was ousted through a military coup.

He was followed by the late Chief Melford Okilo, Rufus Ada George, Dr. Peter Odile, Celestine Omehia and, the current Governor, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi.

Interestingly, Ogonis with pristine reputation have served in high ranking capacities in all these administrations. The late Kenule Saro Wiwa was appointed Administrator of Bonny as he was instrumental to the success of the Federal troops during the civil war.

Suffice to say that his brilliance

I

helped usher in the fragile peace that the geo-political experiment called Nigeria presently enjoys.

When the present Rivers State was eventually created, he became the first Commissioner for Education under Spiff.

Similarly, Chief Edward Kobani, Edward Baddey, and Dr. G.B Leton, all Ogoni men of great repute, served the State in various capacities with distinction. But despite their contributions and sacrifices to the progress and development of the state, none had the opportunity to serve the state as its chief executive.

In the more recent past, distinguished Ogoni such as Senator Lee Maeba, Hon. Emmanuel Deeyah, Keneth

Kobani, Befii Nwile, and others have demonstrated exceptional stewardship to the state.

Presently, Leyii Kwanee, George Feyii and the distinguished senator for the Rivers South-East District, Sen. Magnus Abe are serving the State as well as the nation, again, in very high ranking capacities.

But, besides these politicians, Ogoni has also produced accomplished and highly decorated academics, businessmen, and administrators. The question

Kudos to Uduaghan for DLA road Dear Sir, PERMIT me to use this medium to commend the Governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan for proving to us what it means to have a people-oriented Governor in office. I live along the DLA road in Asaba and the road which looked as if it was jinxed has been so transformed that we are very proud to have Governor Uduaghan in the saddle of leadership.

The construction company that is handling the job is competent as it is constructing the

road with walkways and drainages. Before now, the rainy season was a nightmare but, despite the fact that the road has not been completed, we are very happy.

The DLA road project is a typical example of the quality of roads being constructed by the Governor in different cities and towns in the state.

We are enjoying good dividends of democracy as it concerns road construction. God bless Delta State.

Festus Orghogo, DLA, Asaba, Delta State.

tiating with, but granting amnesty to Boko Haram and promises to release detained sect members in phases. It really saddens me that this is taking place in Nigeria.

Anthony 07044092117

KILLING campaign being embarked upon in the north by the Boko Haram sect is not a problem for the ruling party alone, but for the whole country. All the opposition parties should rally round and support the Federal Government’s emergency rule in the northern states for peace to return to the country.

Gbenga 0800582233

Emergency rule

The declaration of a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states is in line with section 305 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The emergency rule in the three Northern States is long over due. The Federal Government should not dialogue with terrorists.

Chief Bobson Gbinije 08058231669

Still on emergency rule in the North

Now that Boko Haram sect

has turned down the Federal Government’s offer of amnesty, the government must descend on the terrorist group with maximum force. That is what a group that preys on human blood deserves. Kudos to President Jonathan for de-

President Jonathan vs Gov. Amaechi

Amaechi is an asset to be courted by President Jonathan, not antagonised.

But if he strongly believes that he must teach the Governor a bitter lesson, he might do well

The emergency rule in the three Northern States is long over due.

The Federal Government should not dialogue with terrorists

,

Emergency rule in three Northern states

claring emergency rule in the troubled states.

Mercy wrote in from Delta State

Still on amnesty and emergency rule in Northern States

Bearing in mind the suicide bombing carried out by the Boko Haram, the sect is undoubtedly a terrorist group.

The American Government, as a policy, does not negotiate with terrorists. I feel pained that the Nigerian Government is not only considering nego-

,

to entrust the job to people of integrity; who are not likely to agree to do it. As it is, the bungling tirades of the bunch of sycophants who are undertaking the task are bolstering Governor Amaechi’s image.

Chief Emeka 08030582233

Lagos State Government drainage system and rainy days ahead

In spite of all our letters of appeal in various media and the subsequent visit of the

then arises; why has the Ogoninot produced governor?

The next coming weeks would

help answer this question as the Ogoni Leadership Forum, USA, will engage well meaning Ogonis at home as well as in the Diaspora, the political class, and youth groups to discuss and chart a path to a consensus gubernatorial candidate for 2015, regardless of party platform or political affiliations. We would miss it if we don’t come together this.

Michael Akoka,USA kponet@gmail.com.

Re: Rationalisation’ll strangulate LASU Dear Sir, THE attention of the University Management has been drawn to a publication on Page 11 of the Vanguard Newspaper of Tuesday June 4, 2013, titled “Rationalisation’ll strangulate LASU.” The University Management hereby expresses her displeasure over the submission of the Coordinator, Education Reghts Campaign (ERC), Mr. Adams Lateef, and the insidious caption for the write-up and wishes to put the records straight: •That the Lagos State University through its Senate has only recently set out to restructure and repackage the academic programmes in the University to make them more contemporary and attractive for prospective candidates; •That there is no attempt in anyway by the University Management or the Governing Council to sack any teaching and non teaching staff because of this exercise;

Honourable Commissioner for the Environment to Ajao Road and environs in Surulere, it is sad that no practical action has been taken up till now.

The light rains of the past few days have left roads like Ajao, Adebisi, Olukole, Simisola and Olufemi flooded almost impassable. Our fear are genuine as we wonder how the aforementioned roads would be when the rains intensify around June. A stitch in time saves nine.

Ken Lawson 08053891112

Nasarawa state massacre

Our politicians have destroyed the future of this country and the future of our youths. It is a big shame that our politicians who claim to be

•That there was no policy whatsoever at commercialising education in LAGOS State, in view of the recent hike of fees in Lagos State University.

The University believes that the reporter was mis-informed and considers the write up as inflammatory, spurious and capable of negatively affecting the image of our University which we are currently rebuilding in tandem with new vision of the Governing Council and the Government of Lagos State.

In addition, the University Management requests, that this rejoinder be published on or before Friday, June 7, 2013 for proper information to the genera! public.

Dr. Sola Fosudo Ag. Director, Office of the Director, Centre for Information, Press and Public Relations, Lagos State University, LASU, Ojo, Lagos State

elites and educated people mix cultism with politics.

Where is the future of the youths? What are our elders turning our nation into?

Anonymous 08136582917

National Judiciary Council probe and Justice Gunmi

The resignation of Chief Justice of the Federal High Court, Hon. Justice Gunmi to ascend the throne of Emir of Gunmi community while the NJC is probing him is not and shall not stop the National Judiciary Council from completing the probe.

The National Judiciary must continue and complete the probe and take a decision on the issues raised against him.

Anonymous 08036662923

SAYINGS OF OUR ELDERS 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 Adewale08056180103, 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 Co-ordinator, Sayings of Our Elders,Vanguard Media Ltd., PMB 1007, Apapa,

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 —

NNRA approves fixed scanner operations at Seme border

BY GODFREY BIVBERE

N

IGERIA Nuclear Regulatory Au thority (NNRA).has given approval to Global Scansystems to commence operation of its fixed scanners at the Seme border post.

Chief Executive Officer, Global Scansystems, Fred Udechukwu, who disclosed this during a facility tour, explained that the fixed scanner site is now ready and awaiting the formal launch.

A team of officials from NNRA were at Seme border post to “inspect and enforce radiological safety and protection” of the Smiths Detection-made dual-view scanner.

A staff of Smiths Detection described the 9 mega electron volts (MeV) scanner as the highest possible energy-level to be used for scanning and is capable of penetrating through 40 centimetres of steel. “The dual-view visual scanner is capable of material discrimination, which is between organic and non-organic, allowing for just one high-resolution scan as against two by other models. Throughput is in the range of 20 containerladen trucks per hour,” he stated.

Japan pledges $32bn for Africa’s economic growth, devt

J

APANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has announced his country would contribute US$32 billion to scale up Tokyo International Conference for African Development (TICAD)’s agenda in Africa over the next five years, focusing on peace and stability, building robust and sustainable economies and promoting inclusive and resilient societies.

Abe made the pledge, as the 5th edition of the Tokyo conference (TICAD V) drew to a close, with leaders from 50 African countries and international partners vowed to work hand in hand to deliver quality growth and sustainable development to Africa.

The funds are expected to help the continent in areas including trade, infrastructure and private sector development, health, agriculture and agro-processing. They include US$1 billion in development, humanitarian and security assistance for the Sahel region and an initiative to help tens of thousands of Africans find jobs.

Delegates at the closing ceremony of TICAD issued the Yokohama Declaration. The document calls on African countries to unleash the continent’s business and trade potential while improving well-being through agricultural development, job creation and promotion of food

Global Scan had earlier appealed to government for extension following the delayed approval of site for the fixed scanner. According to Udechukwu, “between January 2010 and December last

year, true to what we pleaded with the government, in 24 months the site was ready. They (the technical partners) have installed and test-run. When they finished, we agreed they will be here Thursday, Friday and Saturday for

21

hand-over, though Customs have been here since last month. Full operations will begin this month.”

The Global Scan boss expressed gratitude to the government for keeping faith with his company despite the delays, being the only indigenous firm amongst the three destination-inspection service providers.

According to the CEO, “The site to set up the fixed scanner was a problem; we went there and said we cannot do a Nigerian project across the border.

From left: Mr Rotimi Omotosho,FCA,Registrar/CEO, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria; Alhaji Kabir Alkali Mohammed, FCA, incoming President of the institute and Mr. Adedoyin Idowu Owolabi, outgoing President during the investiture of the 49th ICAN President, in Lagos.

FBN Capital woos indigenous oil companies on equity financing

BY PETER EGWUATU

F

BN Capital Limited, the investment banking and asset management subsidiary of FBN Holdings Plc, has advocated equity fund raising for the indigenous oil and gas companies.

The company at its maiden Oil and Gas Roundtable noted that this is necessary, if the indigenous oil and gas firms must perform well and compete effectively giving the capital intensive nature of the i n d u s t r y.

The event which had as its theme ‘Raising Equity/Mezzanine Capital For Oil and Gas Companies’, brought together industry players, bankers, consultants, lawyers and other key stakeholders to discuss from different professional and experienced perspectives what it takes for emerging indigenous upstream independent oil & gas companies to raise equity and mezzanine capital for asset acquisition and development.

Speaking at the event, Managing Director of FBN Capital, Mr. Kayode Akinkugbe, said, “We consider ourselves to be innovators in the financing space and if we are able to assist indigenous entities in better under-

standing what it takes to arrange finance from an early stage, we believe we would have added true value. We have focused on equity/ mezzanine capital for the oil and gas industry because we believe there is a huge need for this type of c a p i t a l . ” In his presentation, Tarica Mpinga of Cannacord Genuity highlighted the stages of financing for oil and gas companies. He stated, “Nigeria will play a bigger role in oil and gas development for Africa”. He further highlighted the importance of players conservatively planning and mapping projections so that investors can make informed decisions based on information provided.

The event also featured a case study on the growth transition of Afren Plc, an indigenous oil and gas company.

The roundtable speakers shared perspectives on how capital raising can be successfully achieved, and Dapo Okubadejo of KPMG commented on the steps that are taken into account from a consultant’s perspective.

Sanmi Famuyide, Head of Origination and Client Coverage for FBN Capital who moderated the session, explained

FBN Capital’s role in making these opportunities real for indigenous companies.

127.40

+1.60

2,280.00

+34.00

16.38

-0.05

103.16 +1.10 93.33 -0.12 CURRENCY BUYING CENTRAL DOLLAR 154.74 STERLING 236.8141 EURO 202.4463 FRANC 163.4002 YEN 1.5446 CFA 0.2863 WAUA 230.8666 RENMINBI 25.2471 RIYAL 41.2607 KRONA 27.1569 SDR 232.7754

155.24 237.5793 203.1005 163.9282 1.5496 0.2963 231.6126 25.3291 41.394 27.2446 233.5275

SELLING 155.74 238.3445 203.7546 164.4562 1.5546 0.3063 232.3586 25.4112 41.5273 27.3324 234.2797

CBN Exchange rate as at 05/06/2013

22—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Stanbic IBTC Bank unveils non-interest banking product

BY PETER EGWUATU

A

S part of its effort toward enhancing financial inclusion in Nigeria, Stanbic IBTC Bank, a member of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, has introduced a non-interest product into the market, known as Imaan Current Account.

services system.

“We are always delighted to bring best-in-class banking and financial products and services to suit the specific needs of different segments of the society. Stanbic IBTC Bank has consistently emphasised its commitment to furthering financial inclusion in

Nigeria. The launch of Imaan Current Account is another demonstration of this commitment,” David-Borha said.

She noted that over the past three years, the bank has broadened its presence in Nigeria through a rapid branch expansion project designed to make its products and servic-

es accessible to most Nigerians, wherever they are located in the country.

Some of the benefits of Imaan are: access to non-interest based facilities and provision of the same convenient features that are characteristic of Stanbic IBTC Bank’s current accounts.

The bank stated “Imaan Current Account, an interest free banking product, partly fulfills a crucial aspect of Stanbic IBTC group’s long-term strategy to build a strong retail banking franchise by expanding the range of services and products available to all segments of society.”

Speaking at the launch of the product in Lagos, Chief Executive Officer, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Mrs Sola David-Borha, stated that noninterest banking, for which the Central Bank of Nigeria granted Stanbic IBTC Bank a licence in 2011, represents a new window through which a significant proportion of Nigeria’s unbanked population, as well as people seeking products and services that meet their specific needs, can be brought into the financial

S

HAREHOLDERS of Nigeria Police Force (NPF) Micro-Finance Bank Plc have hailed the 10 kobo dividend payment approved by the bank’s board of directors, saying that the bank

Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Fidelity Bank Plc, Reginald Ihejiahi handing over the keys of a new Hyundai Accent car to Mrs. Edeh Nnenna Ogo, the star prize winner of the Fidelity 25th Anniversary Cars and Cash Savings Splash at the prize presentation ceremony at the bank’s corporate head office, in Lagos.

has out-paid and outperformed its peers in Nigeria’s financial system.

The shareholders also commended the board, saying that they have done well especially in growing the deposit base of the bank, imploring the management of the

bank to make loans accessible to the shareholders by removing all the barriers to accessing loans from the bank.

The shareholders, who spoke at the bank’s shareholder forum in Lagos, urged the board to increase the bank’s branch network by giv-

CIBN signs MoU with GARP, IFS; opens UK branch

By PETER EGWUATU

T

HE Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU with Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) on Joint Risk Management Certification and Institute of Financial Services (IFS), London on facilitating the Certificate for Documentary Credit Specialists (CDCS).

The institute also inaugurated its UK Branch in London recently.

According to a statement from the institute, the branch which was officially launched by Mr. Segun Aina,President/ Chairman of Council of the

C M Y K

ChitHub to boost e-payment with new pr oduct product

BY RITA OBODOECHINA

C

Shareholders laud NPF Micro-Finance Bank over performance

BY KINGSLEY ADEGBOYE

BRIEF:

Institute, attracted Nigerian Bankers resident in the UK and other distinguished personalities.

Mr. Aina noted that CIBN branches were expected to galvanize members to form common positions on matters of peculiar relevance in their various locations. He encouraged the branch to protect, project and represent the interest of the Institute in the UK and facilitate development of new and sustenance of existing UK based partners and collaborations and ensure that eligible young Nigerians in the UK sit for and pass the examinations leading to the award of the ACIB and other certification

among other things.

The statement noted that the ceremony was well attended by officials of Nigerian Banks based in Uk, as well as other personalities including, Alastair Graham, Managing Director UK, Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP); David Morrish Relationship Director, Institute of Financial Services(ifs-formerly London Institute of Bankers); Ade Adeola, Managing Director, PEF Group, Standard Chartered Bank UK, London who was the Guest Speaker; Rosemary David Etim HCIB, Exec Director FBN Bank UK; Two other staff from IFS and one other from GARP.

ing it even spread that reflects its ownership structure.

“The NPF has national spread and as such, we want the bank to have presence in every part of Nigeria especially in Onitsha, Aba, Uyo, Eket. This branch networking will enhance the value of the bank and also increase its deposit base”, the shareholders reasoned.

According to them, the leap from 2 kobo dividend paid last year to 10 kobo this year is a quantum leap, urging the board to do a rights issue for the shareholders. The bank according to them has growth prospects, describing it as a gold-mine still waiting to be exploited.

The Chief Finance Officer of the bank, Ohanehi Jude Chukwueloka, while presenting the company ’s performance in the past four years spanning between 2008 and 2012, had announced a dividend of 10 kobo per share, pointing out that the bank has been performing well even during the global economic meltdown.

HITHUB Company Lim ited has launched a new product -ChitBox, designed to promote electronic payment processing in Nigeria.

Speaking at the launch of the product in Lagos, Mr. Michael Agbogo, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, ChitHub, said that ChitBox is a device that would be used to deliver service through the ChitHub platform to organisations in Nigeria.

He said, “The services that will be available on this platform includes, payment for intra-state travels bus tickets, airline tickets, satellite TV subscriptions, utility bills payment, airtime vending, lottery tickets payment, sports bet ticket payment, hotel reservations and cinema tickets” Giving insight into the purpose of the product, Agbogo said, “Chitbox is a product of ChitHub to develop and render world class services to individual territories.”

First Bank, Lego target kid savers with new product

By PRINCEWILL EKWUJURU

F

IRST Bank Nigeria, FBN, in collaboration with Lego, suppliers of children educational materials through its distributor Arclight Limited, has unveiled kids saving product christened ‘kids First’. The product was unveiled to mark the celebration of this year’s children’s day.

The product according to the bank is to enable children imbibe the habit of saving, thereby inculcating the habit of early saving before their adult age.

Speaking, Akin Meadows, Product Manager Kids First A/c & other Youth Products of the bank said the new product is to catch the kids in their prime to enable them imbibe the habit of saving.

Meadows, who said that the benefits accruing to the kids are enormous including a N1million education fee, and the opportunity to travel to the Lego tourism sites among others.

Vanguard, THURSDAY , JUNE 6, 2013—23

FG tasks Brazilian investors to set up plants STORIES BY FRANKLIN ALLI & NAOMI UZOR

T

HE Federal Government has urged Brazilian investors to set up manufacturing plants in the country.

This was government’s response to request made by the Brazilian investors for removals of restrictions on some of their items that fall under the prohibitions list to enable them introduce their products directly to Nigerian markets instead of being smuggled into the country.

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Dauda Kigbu received the Brazilian business delegation led

by Anibal Moacir da Silva, the City Mayor, Sao Leopoldo .

Anibal Moacir requested for removal of trade barriers, especially restrictions on some of their items that fall under the prohibition list to enable them introduce

their products directly to Nigerian market instead of being smuggled into the country.

This he said will enable them to assess the market and take a position in partnering with local businessmen for investment in local production.

The leader of the delegation, Anibal Moacir da Silva, pointed out that they were in Nigeria to assess opportunities and exchange experience for future trade relation as well as strengthen trade relationship between both countries.

Kigbu, however, said that government policy on Industrialisation is based on promotion of local products and backward integration to stimulate production activities that will create wealth and employment opportunities for Nigerians.

“We are encouraging domestic and foreign investors to come and invest in some of the areas we have

comparative and competitive advantage rather than have large scale importation that has serious effects on our foreign reserve and

employment situation in the country.

“If you are interested in investing in Nigeria, you can start production of your products in the

I

N this interview ,Muda Yusuf ,Director General of Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, speaks on salient issues affecting the industrial sector of the economy. He also noted that foreign investors are having a better advantage here in the country.

Excerpts: The LCCI has been an ardent critic of the ‘tight monetary policy’ stance of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), why?

Youhaveasituationwhere it is very difficult to assess credits first because of the tight monetary policy that is in place and second, because of the high risk management condition. So all this and other factors has made it very difficult for business operators and entrepreneurs to get credits for their business.

Like I said, first the interest rate is very high. It is about 25 percent and by the time you sum up all the charges and the main interest rate, you will discover that it will come close to 30 percent and for somebody who is into ag-

•Muda Yusuf riculture, it is going to be almost impossible for him to survive with such rate of interest.

So the source of fund is a big issue basically arising from the tight monetary policy and of course the channel of fund is also very short because you cannot get long term loan in this economy. The longest you can have is maybe six months or one year. And for the real sector, investments or production investments you need long term loans. Let’s say five years, ten years and preferably at single digit, that is the way we can get domestic entrepreneurs to be actually productive.

If you are not having long term loan at an affordable rate, you cannot operate in

He noted that Nigeria has export free trade zones in a number of places that investors can take advantage of and set up businesses there to export to the world.

From left: Dr. Junaid Mohammed, one of the discussants at the first Jigawa State Economic Summit; Alhaji Bature Umar Masari, DG SMEDAN and Dr. Bindir, DG NOTAP at the occasion.

Interest rate is killing businesses in Nigeria — Yusuf

BY DOTUN IBIWOYE

country and explore 167 million people and ECOWAS sub region where we now serve as hub and you can reach out to the rest of African countries,” Kigbu said.

the real sector, and we need the real sector to transform our economy because what we are seeing currently is that our economy is short of production. Not with goods mainly, trading or what we call rent-seeking to act as a broker, make your money through the bank or fly to China bring in some consumer goods, pay the custom and get it into the market, make your money and go away.

But the economic indices indicate that there is a tremendous growth?

All these activities are not adding much value to the economy and even to the life of the people, that is why despite all the good economic fundamentals that are mentioned, we still have a very high rate of unemployment. We still have a very high rate of poverty because we have an economy that need goods in the face of it.

In terms of GDP ranking,our economy is ranked the 36th in the world; this is not a bad ranking because the economy is worth over $270 billion.

We are the second largest economy in the African continent. We are next to only South-Africa which is about $400 billion.

So it is a very big economy but the citizens are not in the main stream of the economy because they don’t have what it takes to be there. So you have a big market only in thefacebutyoucannottake advantage of it because you are not having the resources. The resources in the country flows from the government, either the state or at the federal level and also to the hand of the people who are not having much knowledge about investment and that is a major issue for the economic effect.

So the economy is viable and attractive to foreign investors?

The structure of investment is now such that foreign investors are taking better advantage of the market than home based investors. So we have a situation where Nigerians have been turned to spectators in their economy because people come from all over the world and they come with very cheap funds and many of the foreign countries are encouraging their citizens to go invest and sell their products in other countries.

Dangote strengthens trade ties between Nigeria, Tanzania

D

ANGOTE Group is strengthening the bilateral relationship between Nigeria and Tanzania with the ongoing construction of its three million metric tonnes cement factory valued at $500 million.It is sited at Mtwara in Tanzania.

The President/Chief Executive of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote Aliko Dangote, said the construction of the facility was a familiar turf for his company as it has done same in other parts of Africa.

He, therefore, expressed hope that the new investment will strengthen the ties between Nigeria and Tanzania. He said that this company was advantage of the abundance of limestone in the country and wants to make Tanzania selfsufficient in cement production.

The Prime Minister of Tanzania, Mizengo Pinda, expressed happiness that the investment came from an African to a sister African country and that prior to the coming of Dangote cement,

in spite of the abundance of limestone, a necessary raw material in cement manufacture in Mtwara, Tanzania was experiencing a deficit in cement production and supply.

He said: “We could not bring in cement plants with capacities to produce cement in large quantities, so that demand of cement would be met. Growing demand for cement with inadequate supply led to deficit and high prices.

“While this was becoming a growing concern to the Government, we came to know about the availability of Cement Grade Limestone in huge quantities in this village in Mtwara, but this was a challenge for us, as Mtwara is quite far from the market of cement, which is mainly in the cities.”

According to him, the discovery of cement grade limestone prompted the search for investors who could put up a large cement plant, along with facilities at the Port for transporting the cement all over Tanzania.

24 — Vanguard, THURSDAY,JUNE 6, 2013

NIMASA’s Cabotage fund attracts single digit interest rate

T

Controller Othman Abdul Saleh flagging off the destruction of some of the contaminated rice seized by men and officers of the Seme Command of the Nigeria Customs Service. With him is the Command's Public Relations Officer Mr. Ernest Olotta.

Cargo cost: Importers abandon Lagos seaports for Seme border STORIES by GODWIN ORITSE

F

R E I G H T forwardersand importers operating in the Lagos ports area have abandoned the seaports to patronize the Seme border post following the high cost of cargo clearnce and extortion from Government agencies.

Formers Chairman of the Council for the Regulation Freight Forwarders in Nigeria (CRFFN) Honourable Tony Iju Nwabunike said that the fraustration agents are going through at the seaports have made them to patronize the border post in Seme.

He stated besides importers who go to Cotonou to bring their goods to Nigeria, pay less duty in that country, also pay duty at the border post in Seme.

“Despite the payment of double duty, they sell at a cheaper rate than importers who clear their goods Lagos ports. He added.

Nwabunike explained that officials of the most of the agencies have ended up acquiring licenses to do the jobs of freight forwarders adding that they even porch their staff sometimes.

The former CRFFN boss further explained

that Nigeria is not isolated from the international trading system adding as such international best practices should be applied.

He said: “ Nigeria is does not operate in isolation of the world trading system, Customs

operation can be very frustrating “Have you asled yourself why people import from Cotonou, pay duty in Cotonou,come back to Seme, pay some duty here and still sell cheaper in Alaba international market whereas the importer from

Apapa port cannot sell his goods because of the added cost of clearing” “Every importer wants to go where he will Maximize profit and if going through Cotonou will make them maximise profit so be it.”

HE Nigerian M a r i t i m e Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) is to attract a single digit interest rate.

Disclosing this in Abuja earlier in the week, Transport Minister, Senator Idris Umar said that all was set for the disbursement of the fund adding that only six applicants are said to have successfully passed screening processes by both the banks and the ministry.

The minister who spoke at the presentation of the mid-term achievement of the present administration also disclosed that the repayment time for the loan is seven years.

Although,there has been some level of anxiety by stakeholders over the disbursement of the fund following the delay that has characterised the disbursement.

Umar explained that NIMASA will provide 50% of the fund percent and take 4.3% percent

More Nigerians embrace rail transport as NRC conveys over 4m in 2012

M

ORE Nigerians now embraces rail transport as the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) conveyed over 4million passengers between Lagos and Kano in 2012.

The increased preference for rail transport cannot be unconnected with the current rehabilitation of the entire rail system embarked upon by the Federal Government.

Disclosing this recently in Abuja, Transport Minister Senator Idris Umar said that there has also been an increased in the conveyance of goods between Lagos and Kano and vice versa.

Records made available by the minister showed that in 2009, 1,285.080 passengers were conveyed on the LagosKano route, while in 2010, 1,314,215 also traveled through the same route.

The figure also showed that in 2011, 3,483,443 were conveyed by the NRC between both states as against only 1,325,455 passengers that have so far been conveyed in the first four months of the year (Jan – April) A breakdown of the figure also showed that the NRC operates one express train service to Kano from Lagos and Offa to Kano on a weekly basis.

Other services operated by the Railway Corporation are the Lagos – Ibadan –Ilorin – Lagos three times a week and moving approximately 6,188 passengers every week “Besides the inter states train services currently being operated by the NRC, the intra states services have received a boost following the patronage

by Nigerians” Umar said.

Besides the movement

of human traffic by the NRC, there was also in increase in the conveyance of raw materials, petroleum products and containers from the ports to various parts of the country.

The minister also said that flour mill of Nigeria moved wheat from Apapa port to Kaduna and Kano just as a total of 1, 500 ton equivalent of 50 trailers of cement was conveyed from the Ewekoro cement factory to Ibadan, Oshogbo, Ilorin, Minna and Kano for Lafarge every week for Lafarge.

“From 2011 to date, a total of 561,883 metric tones of cargo have been conveyed by rail to various parts of the country” He added.

According to the minister, over 26,000 people were conveyed within the cities of Lagos, Kano , Kaduna and Chalawa.

“Part of rehabilitaion plans of government is to

replace the narrow gauge with standard ones and engage the services of private firms for the maintenance of some of these infrastructure” the Minister stated

interest, the four banks namely Sterling Skye Diammond and Fidelity, will provide 35% percent and take 5.7% percent interest, the beneficiary will provide the balance of 15% percent.

It was gathered that the minister has forwarded the screened applicants to the Presidency for approval for disbursement It would be recalled that NIMASA had on two occasion promised to disburse the fund to the beneficiaries but this promise was never kept.

It will also be recalled that a section of the maritime industry had accused the managers of the fund of purposely delaying the disbursement because some people were allegedto be trading with it.

It was also said that some of the appointed Primary Lending Institutions (PLIs) are not in a hurry to disbursement the fund that has risen to over nN30billion because they are also trading with the money.

The Director-General of NIMASA Mr. Patrick Apkobolokemi had said the money will only be given to genuine Nigerian ship operators adding that no politician under whatever guise and no matter how highly placed would be allowed to access the Cabotage Vessel Financing Funds.

Shippers’ Council offers hope on take-off of dry ports

BY IFEYINWA OBI

T

HE acting Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Mr Hassan Bello, has said that the six proposed dry ports across the country may soon become functional.

The proposed dry ports, otherwise known as inland container depots (ICDs) and container freight stations (CFSs), are located in Ibadan, Oyo State; Kano, Kano State; Isiala Ngwa, Abia

State; Jos, Plateau State; Funtua, Katsina State; and Maiduguri, Borno State. Making the pledge about the envisaged prompt take-off of these facilities, after long years of delays, Bello said that dry ports were created to solve the perennial problem of ports congestion.

The dry ports, according to him, were created to also bring shipping services to the doorsteps of shippers, while serving as consolidated points for exports.

5 Vanguard, THURSD AY, JUNE 6, 2013 —2 THURSDA —25

How 5 indigent children recieved ‘miracle’ on Children’s Day W HILE millions of children were observing the 2013 Children’s Day at various locations across the country, five Nigerian children with different surgical problems were reeling in pains at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH. These five children; Blessing Olatunji, Nathaniel Oboh, Abdulahi Balogun, Raji Nofisat and Glory Joseph have one thing in common. They are all indigent and require urgent life – saving surgeries. Unfortunately, their parents cannot afford the cost of surgery. Some have spent months in the hospital while their parents run from pillar to post to raise the required hospital bills. But only a miracle could have provided this life saving surgeries. Just last week, this miracle manifested through a US-based Philanthropist, Dr. Oluyemi Olawaiye.

This large hearted Nigerian paid for the surgeries of these five children even though he has never met them or known their parents.

Olawaiye, who is a Clinical Pharmacist, Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Centre, was on a visit to LASUTH in commemoration of this year’s Children’s Day when he heard about their cases and took interest in their plight and eventually cleared their hospital bills.

Blessing was operated for colostomy

post PSARP, (closure of colostomy), Nathaniel; left Inguinoscrotal Hernia, Glory; Soft Tissue Mass, Nofisat; Anorectal Malformation with rectovestibular fistula and Balogun for Hirschsprings disease. Those who know Olawaiye better may not be too surprised about this extra ordinary show of kindness. It would not be the first time such gesture would be exhibited, as the Founder of YELOTO Foundation,a philanthropic organisation focused on children issues.

For the parents of these children it was a miracle. Narrating his ordeal, one of the parents of the children, Mr. Godwin Oboh said:”I was relieved when my wife broke the news to me. It all began when we discovered that her appendix which has been there for some time now has swollen and we immediately rushed her to the hospital. Getting here, we were asked to pay for an urgent surgery but we did not have money. I have gone to all my friends and family members but all I got was that month has not ended.

But getting to the hospital this morning, my wife told me that someone has paid for the surgery and already my daughter has been wheeled into the theatre. I thank YETOO for saving me from this shame.”

Another parent, Mr. Adelaja Olatunji said: “YELOTO has wiped away our tears.” According to him, Blessing ordeal

•Centre; Dr. Oluyemi Olawaiye, Founder of YELOTO and two parents of the beneficiaries, Mr. Adelaja Olatunji and Mr. Godwin Oboh " started on the day of her naming ceremony and since then, she has underwent two surgeries and this last one, making it three. “We were referred from Badagry General Hospital to LASUTH but today, God has given us a reason to smile. YELOTO is God’s sent and it is marvelous in our eyes.” Reacting to the gesture, the Founder of YELOTO, Dr. Oluyemi Olawaiye who explained that the gesture was part of the Foundation’s activities to mark this year’s Children’s Day said it is time for well- to-do Nigerians stand up for the Nigerian children without depending on international donor agencies.

Olawaiye said he was touched when he discovered that a particular child has stayed over four months in the hospital without treatment because the family could not afford to pay for the diagnosis.

“As Nigerians, our motto is that it takes a village to raise a child. So even in cases a mother cannot pay for her child it doesn’t mean that the child should be allowed to die.”

Chief Medical Director of LASUTH, Prof. Wale Oke described the gesture as noble. He called on other Nigerians to come to the aid of other indigent patients in the hospital.

COMMON SEXUAL PROBLEMS AND THEIR NOVELTY BASED SOLUTIONS (ADVERTORIAL)

D

EAR Zee, I am 64 years old and I used to have a very active sex life until a few years ago. I will not say that my libido is no longer there. I still have the urge for sex but it is difficult to get an erection now and when I do, sometimes it disappears before sex or it is just plain weak, such that I cannot do anything with it – Mr Samuel Hello Mr Samuel. What you are experiencing now is age-induced erectile dysfunction and it is typical for men your age. As humans get older, their bodies begin to shrink and that includes their organs. This shrinkage narrows the blood vessels that carry blood to the penis for erections, causing restriction of blood. The restriction of blood is what leads to partial or total loss of erection also known as impotency. But there is hope. With a blood flow stimulator, popular known as an aphrodisiac, more blood can be pumped to the penis to get good erections.

Good aphrodisiac such as Sex Voltz and Exploding Thunder supplement are ideal for this. They also improve your sexual stamina and enable you get a second erection just a few minutes after ejaculation. This means that if you choose to continue having intercourse shortly after after climaxing the first time, you can do so easily. Sex Voltz and Exploding Thunder supplement are top of the range and work for days. They are also all-natural and safer – Uche Hello Uche. My problem is tiredness after sex. After just one round, I am too tired and I just feel sleepy.

When this happens, my wife wants to keep the sex going because I climax early and I am so tired and keep on waiting for energy and the next erection but it takes a long time to come and by then, my wife would have slept. The woman is not satisfied – Lanre Lanre sometimes tiredness after ejaculation is normal because sex is also a natural sedative designed to enable men fall asleep easier and quicker. That is why you feel a little weak and just want to go to sleep moments after ejaculating. But then if it really takes too long to get

another erection, then your body needs nutritional fortification. This you can get with specific supplements that can give you the required performance stamina. If you are looking for something cheap, then you can take the Wonderland Performance drink. But if you want a comprehensive overhauling of your sexual performance, go for Sex Voltz or Exploding Thunder supplement. For your quick ejaculation however, I recommend a delay cream. Keep it up Delay Cream is very good for controlling premature ejaculation – Uche Dear Zee Virtual Media, do you have anything that can boost sperm production? Chris Yes Chris, there are two powerful supplements that can do this for you. One is called Max Load and the other is Explosion supplement. These two supplements enable the body produce larger quantities of sperm and make sex a lot more enjoyable. But if it is enhanced fertility that you are after, then what you need is Repro Aid for men – Uche Hi, I am on medication so my doctor says I cannot take pills. What can I use for penis enlargement? James Hello James. Your best bet is the use of a penis enlargement pump or cream. For the pump, take the Remote Plunger Pump. For the cream, take Maximus Enlargement Cream. You can also combine the two for better results – Uche Hello sir. Sex Voltz worked as you promised. My erections are back and better than ever. Bless you – Kelechi You are welcome – Uche I experience vaginal dryness and this makes sex painful. Sometimes I bleed a little after intercourse. Please any solution? – Margaret Margaret apply a lubricant during intercourse and it will stop. Ask for the Smooth and Slick lubricant – Uche Adults in need of the above mentioned treatments and novelties can call 08191978308, 08051924159 to order or they can order online at www.zeevirtualmedia.com.

We deliver to you wherever you are in Nigeria.

26—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 06, 2013

Workplaces in Nigeria unsafe, laments labour

Oladele Hunsu, President of National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTWN, addressing the gathering at the safety seminar while Comrade Lumuba Okugbawa, Deputy General Secretary of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN (second from left) Gbenga Komolafe, General Secretary of Federation of Informal Workers of Nigeria, FIWON, and another labour leader(first from the right), look on.

R

ECENTLY, IndustriAll Global Union affiliates in Nigeria gathered at the National Secretariat of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, Lagos, at a one day workshop to mark the World Day for Safety and Health At the event that attracted not only labour leaders and workers, but officials of Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Lagos, office, speakers bemoaned the worsening safety concerns at workplaces in Nigeria and called for greater commitment and strengthening campaigns for the prevention of health and safety hazards at work.

Work related accidents Delivering the lead paper, General Secretary of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGWN, and Executive Committee Member and Chairperson Industrial Global Union, Africa Region, Comrade Issa Aremu, noted International Labour Organisation, ILO, statistics indicated that “one worker dies every 15 seconds worldwide, 6000 workers die every day and more than two million workers die annually as a result of work related accidents and diseases. In fact, increasingly more people die at work than at wars. Beyond job related deaths, each year, there are some 268 million non-fatal workplace accidents; the victims miss at least 3 days of work as a result, as well as 160 million new cases of work related illnesses. The statistics are simply grim and certainly unacceptable.”““But the danger is not abating, technological and social changes along with global economic crisis are aggravating existing health hazards and creating new risks. The ILO estimates that occupational accidents and diseases result in annual 4 per cent loss in global gross domestic product (GDP) or about 2.8

trillion US dollars in direct and indirect cost of injuries and diseases. In Pakistan and Bangladesh, several hundreds of workers in textile and garment factories were lost to workplace accidents. The worst ever industrial accident in Bangladesh has just killed more than 200 garment workers with fears of a final death toll reaching 1,000 as hundreds remain injured and trapped in the debris.“Sanction for employers.

“While calling for a severe sanction for employers who turn work places into industrial mortuaries, Aremu said workplaces in Nigeria “are increasingly becoming killing fields of working people.

In recent years, there had been pockets of safety disasters as in the case of Boiler explosion in a Distillery company in Otta in which two young workers lost their lives.“We recall the pains and agony of scores of workers who were consumed in the Ikorodu Fire incident about a decade ago. There are several cases of bodily injuries some reported to the Union and several others happening in nonunionised workplaces with very little support and compensation for the affected workers. Just recently, a staff of Dura Pack, a Chinese-owned Lagos-based company that produces nylon bags, died, as a result

Bits ILC begins in Geneva The conference of the International Labour Organisation began in Geneva, Switzerland yesterday. About 5000 delegates from 185 member countries including Nigeria are expected to be at the conference which ends on June 20.

“The 102 conference which is being attended by representatives of organised labour, private sector employers and government will discuss among other issues, employment and social protection ,sustainable development, decent work

of electric shock while carrying out a repair work in the company. We wholeheartedly condemn this industrial murder by employers that disregard minimum safety standards at work.”““We support the workers' Union leaders’ should have proper demand for documentation. We want the employers adequate and employees to make issues of safety compensation for the family of and prevention of occupational diseases at the diseased. workplace a collective bargaining issues We call on the Federal government to sanction employers necessary action prevent regular occurwho turn work places into industrial rence. mortuaries! We must also learn to come Controller of the Ministry, Lagos, Alhaja out to picket murderous employers and Nofisat Arogundade, who represented the even demand for their prosecution because ministry, said unions should keep statics it is criminal to expose workers to avoidable of accidents and diseases and report same hazards and dangers because of profit when they occurred to ensure that the making.“Often we hear that Gunmen in incident did not repeat itself. northern Nigeria have attacked places of According to her “Union leaders’ should worships. But we must know that have proper documentation. We want the increasingly workplaces have also been employers and employees to make issues attacked by these unknown forces. Having of safety and prevention of occupational attacked a camp belonging to a construction diseases at workplace a collective company, killing a guard in Bauchi state bargaining issues. If the employees or recently it was also confirmed that other union make complaint to the ministry the kidnapped seven foreign workers from issue will be taken up and necessary Britain, Greece, Italy and Lebanon, have measures put in place to avoid recurrence.’’

,

BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

been killed. As affiliates of Industrial Global Union, we demand strong international Health and Safety standards.

We note that healthy and safe workplaces rest on the tripod of respect for workers rights, employers’ commitment to its obligation and supportive legislations and policies by governments. On this occasion we restate our collective commitment to strengthen workplace action in promoting and fighting for health and safety issues.”

“Synergy between labour, NSITF “He commend the Federal government under President Goodluck Jonathan over the enactment of the Employees Compensation Act, ECA 2010, but noted however that “the benefit of the new legislation cannot come alive except we are determined to work together to promote health and safety standards at work. ECA is about compensation for injury at work.

The emphasis really should be on prevention of accidents. There must be increased synergy between the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF, Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, particularly the Factories inspectorate division and the relevant departments in the ministry of health, and the employers in promoting health and safety education, awareness and healthy and safe work practices.“Report industrial accidents Speaking, Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, called on organized labour in the country to report workplace accidents to appropriate authorities for

and green jobs.“Also to be discussed extensively is the issue of social dialogue which is central to the tripartite organisation. Nigeria will be represented by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress ( TUC), the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association ( NECA) and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity.

Ondo recruits 600 health workers Ondo State government has recruited over 600 graduates into its service through the Hospital Management Board. Applicants had earlier been interviewed to fill vacant posts in

,

the health sector.

The recruitment came after several weeks of verification exercise to determine areas of waste and areas that needs immediate employment of new staff members.

The Head of Service, Mrs Kosemani Kolawole, in a statement said the state had to continue to employ where there were needs.

“The bureaucracy is being repositioned for more efficient and effective delivery of service to the people of the State. In the process, new vacancies will emerge," she said.

Vanguard,THURSDAY, JUNE 06, 2013—27

Labour carpets Northern govs over ex-workers' unpaid entitlements His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed with Governors of Zamfara, Kano, Bauchi and Borno States as members. The Committee was mandated to look at KTL and proffer recommendations on the way forward.

The report of the committee is yet to see the light of the day. The Union also visited the Chairman of the Board of KTL Gen. Wushishi (Rtd.) in March 2013 on the way forward; when the company would re-open or when the workers’ entitlement would be paid, but he could not give a concrete response.

BYVICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

N

ATIONAL Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTWN, and IndustriALL Global Union, IGU, have worrisome is the continuous delay in settlement of the entitlements of workers of Kaduna Textiles Limited, KTL, since 2002 by its owner-19 Northern States of the Federation.

NUTGTWN and IGU, in a statement said Textile union since September 2005 obtained a court judgment for settlement of the entitlements of the workers amounting to N687,073,346.00, lamenting the government had continued to disobey the court’s judgment.

Mass job creation According to the statement, sustainable development of any country or State lied in industrialization and mass job creation, saying the “the root of the current crisis in the country is economic and social. It is against this background that the union is disturbed by the continuous closure of Kaduna Textiles Limited since 2002. Even more worrisome is the continuous delay in settlement of the entitlements of KTL workers by its owner-19 Northern States of the Federation. KTL workers are suffering untold hardship due to non-payment of their bene-

Settle workers’ entitlements Issa Aremu, General Secretary of NUTGTWN fits since the unilateral closure of the factory in 2002. The union since September 2005 obtained a court judgment for settlement of the entitlements of the workers amounting to N687,073,346.00. Unfortunately, the management and owners of the company (19 Northern States) have remained insensitive to the plight of these workers inspite of repeated appeals, prayers, rallies and protests by the union.”

“In March 2013, the NGF set up a Committee of 5-Governors headed by

Continuing, NUTGTWN and IGU said “We again call on the Northern Governors and the management of Kaduna Textile Limited (KTL) to settle the terminal benefits of KTL workers.

We equally call on the management of other closed textile factories in the North particularly Arewa Textiles Plc. and Gaskiya Textiles Kano to settle the entitlements of their workers without further delay. Urgent settlement of entitlements of these workers will go a long way in reducing their burden and alleviating their increasing destitution, poverty and desperation capable of causing communal/ industrial disharmony. We commend all textile companies that have settled

their workers’ benefits. In particular, we commend Alhaji Aminu Dantata who is making efforts to settle the benefits of Nortex/Finetex Limited workers. But beyond settlement of the entitlements of KTL workers in particular, the Northern Governors must also bring back to life Kaduna Textiles Limited (KTL), the oldest textile company in Nigeria and indeed Africa and the proud legacy of the late Sarduana of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello.”

They commended “all the progressive forces and well meaning Nigerians that are working towards ensuring sustainable peace and development of the country. We commend in particular, the Kaduna State Governor, Alhaji Muktar Ramalan Yero for his commitment to peace and security in Kaduna State and for deepening the peace efforts of his predecessor, Late Sir Patrick Yakowa. We bear witness that His Excellency is quietly and effectively restoring investment confidence in the state that used to be the home of textile and textile workers.” We commend the Northern Governors Forum (NGF) under the chairmanship of Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, Executive Governor of Niger State for the effort to address the security challenges in the North.

We also commend the commitment of other Northern Governors towards sustainable peace and development of the Northern States.

Management, workers in shipping/ courier reach pact on gratuity

E

MPLOYERS in the Shipping/Courier sector of the Maritime industry have reach agreement with organized labour how modalities for sustainable gratuity in the sector.

President of the Shipping/ Courier branch of the Maritime Workers of Nigeria, MWUN, Uche Igwe-Onu, disclosed this development during the branch 3rd Quadrennial Delegates Conference, held in Lagos.

Addressing delegates and other guests including employers, Igwe-Onu said “in our turbulent time, some management took advantage of the situation to either ignore already agreed terms and conditions of service or even felt it was no longer

A

cross section of maritime workers at the May Day rally in Abuja

necessary in their profit maximisation agenda. To be precise, some of our colleagues were cajoled into signing off their gratuity while some did not have the opportunity of making decision on it.

On getting formal complaints from our Comrade’s in Maersk and Hullblyth Nigeria Ltd. respectively, we quickly set in motion the process of restoration of this very important item in our condition of service. Irrespective of the excuses of

these managements we were emphatic that the only way forward was that gratuity must be restored and arrears paid in the companies were it was clear that workers were short changed.

Comrades you will agree with me that this was a difficult task considering the money involved.

The Branch employed the best approach possible to ensure that members got back their due. I can confirm to you today that the two companies under reference

have fully restored Gratuity to the benefit of our members.

Comrade’s, after witnessing the ordeal passed by some of our colleagues in pursuit of their gratuity coupled with other encumbrances that have continued to threaten the survivability and sustainability of the gratuity scheme it became imperative that Union and Managements must bring to bare a pragmatic ways and means of not only surviving gratuity but to ensure its sustenance.

To this end we have initiated a high level negotiation with employers in our industry. I can confirm that the negotiation is going quite well, employers have accepted the inevitability of sustaining gratuity but with a modification on the calculation pattern. They have also agreed on separating gratuity from company funds and also to fund the accounts moving forward.

They time frame within which the already accrued gratuity will take before paying into the system and percentages going forward are yet be concluded. I can report that there is passion from both sides to ensure that this exercise is completed on good time. On our part we pledge to bequeath to you an assured gratuity scheme that cannot be threatened by any economic condition of the companies we work for.

This choice, for which we have so much trumpeted, was established in the Courier sector over 5 years now at the instance of employers till today not even one Courier company have commenced this process.

28—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Celebrating a pathfinder @ 54 TRIB UTE TRIBUTE

By JULIET ARCHIBONG

I

T is said that an individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. This is the guiding principle that drives Elder Godsday Peter Orubebe, the Minister in the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.

Elder Godsday Orubebe was born a twin at Ogbobagbene in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State on June 6, 1959.

As one who has kept faith with destiny, surmounting all man made obstacles, Orubebe had his early education at Keneyibo Primary School, Torugbene, Burutu Local Government Area, Delta State between 1966 and 1972 when he obtained the First School Leaving Certificate.

Thereafter, he attended Gbasa Grammar School, Ojobo and the Methodist High School, Owo, Ondo State where he obtained the West African School Certificate (WASC) at Division One in 1980.

The hunger for knowledge took the young and brilliant Godsday to the Rivers State School of Basic Studies (now Rivers State College of Arts and Science), Port Harcourt between 1980 and 1982 for the Higher School Certificate (HSC).

In search of the golden fleece and with a burning desire to “follow knowledge like a sinking star beyond the utmost bound of human thought,” Godsday Orubebe headed for the ivory tower and pitched his camp at the University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos where he read for a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science and graduated with honours in 1985. He served the mandatory National Youth Service in Akwa Ibom State and for his primary assignment, he taught in Government Secondary School, Four Towns in Uyo.

Elder Godsday Orubebe @54

ple. He contested the councillorship elections into Burutu Local Government Council, was elected a Councillor and was the Supervisory Councilor for Education between 1988 and 1989. Hon Orubebe was subsequently elected Chairman of Burutu Local Government Council in 1991, a position he held until 1993.

It was the renowned scientist and highly reputable Physicist, Albert Einstein who said and I quote “Politics is more difficult than Physics”. We all know the complexity in physics but if a man of the calibre of Einstein admits that politics is a more complex terrain to venture into than physics, then we must doff our hat for Orubebe, a man who has successfully traversed the Nigerian political terrain with sustained vision, hard work, integrity, patriotism and an extra ordinary commitment to the well being of the down trodden while remaining a quintessence of humility himself.

It is important to note that Elder Orubebe’s leadership qualities started emerging in his days at school. He was at various times House Prefect, Library Prefect, Assistant Senior Prefect, all at the secondary Elder Orubebe’s leadership school level, then at the tertiary level, he was Students qualities started emerging in Union Public Relations Ofhis days at school ficer and Student Parliamentarian at the UniversiNot satisfied with the knowledge ac- ty of Lagos. His unrivalled leadership quired from his first degree in political sci- qualities propelled his community, Ogence, Orubebe proceeded to probe further bobagbene, to confer on him the title of into specific areas of political science. He Amafeniowei, which means the Pathfindchose International Relations and headed er of Our Community. to Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma to read The Amofeniowei title is quite apt befor a Masters degree in the field and grad- cause Elder Godsday Orubebe is one Pubuated in 2005. lic Officer who, in spite of the comfort of His choice of International Relations had his office, takes time to go on monthly christo do with his firm belief that the human tian crusades to his Glory Sanctuary Censociety is interwoven and that human re- tre, christened “The Israel of Izon”, a paslationships are largely controlled by polit- toral resort built by him to win souls for the ical, economic and social factors, but must Almighty God. Thanks to his spiritual eftilt very much towards altruistic goals for it forts, today there is no form of idol worto have meaning. These are expounded ship in his home town, Ogbobagbene. in International Relations, the science of There is no gainsaying that “no pessithe inter-dependence of human society mist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, globally. or sailed to an uncharted land or opened a new heaven to the human spirit”. The visionary navigator with lofty aspi achievements of Elder Orubebe have been rations to leave his foot prints on the direct outcomes of the passion of an optisands of time, and deriving his strength mist, and more importantly, as a preacher from the driving force that propelled the of the gospel, in his firm faith in the suexceptional artist, Pablo Picasso, who ex- premacy of God and the fact that with God claimed, “Others have seen what is and nothing is impossible. He, therefore, surasked why, I have seen what could be and renders to God all that happens in his life. asked why not”, Orubebe founded the Orubebe savours diligence and rewards Lugapego Group of Companies after his same, but does not tolerate indolence, and National Youth Service while his mates as Shakespeare puts it in The Merchant were looking for white collar jobs. of Venice, drones hive not with him.

A man with a dogged commitment toAs we mark the 54th birthday of this genwards the Nigerian nation, a reputation erational statement, an embodiment of infor exceptional bravery and for taking cal- dustry, we join his family and friends to culated risks, Orubebe launched his foray wish him many more fruitful and fulfilling into the political arena because of his ab- years of service to humanity and our great solute belief that politics need not to be a country. dirty game (as presumed) but an avenue •Juliet Archibong (Mrs) to serve and improve the lots of our peo- Chief Press Secretary to the Hon. Minister

,

A

,

VANGUARD, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 — 29

learning@vanguardngr.com

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Investment in education will yield result only in 10 years — Expert Pg 30

UNILORIN students threaten to boycott exams Pg 32

Using jatropha to fight desertification, alleviate poverty Pg 35

UNESCO to revamp education in Nigeria ...commends Aregbesola for Opon Imo T

BY DAYO ADESULU

HE representative of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, (UNESCO) Director-General, Koïchiro Matsuura to Nigeria, Professor Hassana Alidou has said that its organisation is set to assist Nigerian government in all its developmental agenda including education and security challenges saying it will be done irrespective of sex and geographical location in the country.

Speaking at the official launch of Opon Imo (Tablet of Knowledge) held at Zenabas Half Moon Resort, Ilesha, Osun State, Professor Alidou, noted that the UN is in consultation with Nigeria government to design a framework for 2013 to 2015 to ensure freedom from all forms of discrimination irrespective of gender status and ensure a competitive workforce.

While congratulating the governor of Osun State on the launch of Opon Imo, she expressed hope that the shift from the rot in education sector in the state will lead to improved learning.

Deputy Chairman, Senate Committee on Education, Senator Sola Adeyeye while reading Professor Wole Soyinka's keynote address challenged the leaders of Nigeria to begin to think towards ensuring that technology is incorporated in every sphere of life.

He described Opon Imo as a ground breaker saying that the students will be proud and be motivated. “I am filled with envy and let it be said that a new drive for knowledge and learning have begun in Osun State.” The Nobel laureate urged the government to spread the initiaContinues on page 34

C M Y K

A cross section of students in Osun State displaying the tablet, during the official launch of Opon Imo: Tablet of Knowledge, in Ilesa, Osun State.

FG has not fulfilled its commitment to us —Nig. Society for the Blind

BY LAJU ARENYEKA & IMONLUAMEN WINIFRED

T

HE Vocational Training Centre of the Nigeria Society for the Blind has called on the Federal Government to fulfill the financial commitments it made to the centre a few years ago. At a press briefing held in Lagos recently, the Vice-Chairman of the society’s Executive Council, Mr. Asiwaju Fola Osibo said; “We rely largely on the donations of spirited individuals and organisations. However, the Federal

Government a few years ago, promised to give us N 30,000 per annum, but that meant that we had to go to Abuja to collect the money. Because of the bureaucracy, it could take days on end to go through the motions.

We realised that we were spending more than N 30,000 to collect the money. So, for years, the Federal Government has not been fulfilling its commitment to us.”

Continuing, Osibo said; “We are supposed to receive subventions from the Federal Government and Lagos

State Government annually. But these have not been given to us for some years except recently when the Lagos State Governor visited us. The state Government pays the fees of all our 60 students which is about N50,000 per head. However, that amount is subsidized because it costs about N200,000 per annum to train each student. When the society’s income is viewed against the

Continues on page 34

30 — VANGUARD, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Investment in education'll yield result only in 10 years — Expert

BY DAYO ADESULU

M

r. Shantanu Prakash is the Chairman and Managing Director of Educomp Solutions Ltd which was founded in 1994.

He is the man responsible for bringing the much-awaited change in the Indian education system. As a first generation expert in education and entrepreneur who almost singlehandedly redefined the concept of technology-enabled education delivery in India, he commands immense respect across the business spectrum for his visionary impact on the education sector in India and across the globe.

Shantanu’s vision has been to transform the teaching-learning process through the use of technology and best practices. Shantanu is also the Founder and Managing Trustee of the Learning Leadership Foundation (LLF), an organisation dedicated to bringing best practices in education to under-resourced schools. In this interview with journalists, he spoke on the antidote to Nigeria's falling education standards.

Excerpts:

BY NNAMDI OJIEGO

P

• Mr. Shantanu Prakash ital content right inside the classroom.

Almost every part of our world has been impacted with Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Recently I was in Eleme, near Port Harcourt and I was there at the inauguration of the Smart Class system in one of the schools and I said that today’s children are three screen children: they have the cell phone screen, the computer screen and the TV screen. It’s not the same with my generation. But the big question is: has the education system changed and

,

From your experience in managing schools in a country like India, what differences or similarities are there between India and Nigeria?

I think that the challenges facing both countries are similar. They both have young population. Countries that have young population have opportunities but also a danger. The opportunity is that if you train these young people and give them the right education, they can become globally productive citizens. But the danger is that, if you do not provide them the right education, they can become a demographic disaster. So I think the challenges facing countries like India and Nigeria are similar: what should we do about our human capital? In the 21st Century, I believe that one of the most important capital is human capital. It’s more important than the financial capital because we are rapidly entering into a knowledge economy and intellectual property is more important than physical property.

The dissimilarity is that India's structure of basic education is 10-2-3. But I know Nigeria is different. Nigeria’s is 6-3-3-4. It’s slightly different. In India, it’s 12 years of schooling before college(university). In Nigeria, you have four years of undergraduate but in India you have three years of undergraduate for arts and humanities but if you doing engineering, it’s four years.

For the past 18 years, Educomp has been working tirelessly trying to find the best and the most technologically advanced method of making the student more efficient and productive; improving the curriculum interaction so that we have a better human capital base and we have been very well known across the world for a very large number of innovations.

Thus, we discovered ‘Smart Class’.

Smart Class brings the power of dig-

ASUP strike: Poly students slam media over blackout

For the past 18 years, Educomp has been working tirelessly trying to find the best and the most technologically advanced method of making the student more efficient and productive

,

evolved? I think the big answer is no, it has not. So there is an urgent need for the education system to change with the times. Just before I flew to Nigeria, I had the opportunity of being at the World Economic Forum Conference which was held in Cape Town, South Africa and I was very pleased to know that more than 80 per cent of the debate was about young people, about human capital and about skills.

The place to start developing the skills is right inside the school and that is where Educomp comes in. Our first opportunity that we have in Nigeria is through our CEO, Hegdekatte. We have partnered with the Rivers State Government to set up a model. In this model school, every student has a laptop computer. Every classroom is

enabled with the latest Smart Classroom. When a teacher is teaching photosynthesis, for instance, the old means is to use the blackboard and explain orally what it is. It’s very difficult to explain the wonders of nature. But when you use the digital content and animation and you show these students how photosynthesis happens and they see the process, they get very fascinated and immediately in the brain the learning happens and that is the beauty of harnessing the power of education technology and that is why Educomp is here in this country for a partnership. The digital content from Educomp is currently used in Singapore, China, USA, Saudi Arabia and many parts of the world. And we are very happy that we had a very warm welcome from the Rivers State Government, where we currently operate.

Nigeria faces a challenge in the area of infrastructure - power and manpower. Is it the same in India?

Firstly, India doesn’t pay teachers very well. For some reasons across the world, teachers salaries are not very high. Which means that it’s difficult to attract the best talents to become teachers. If you go to the class and ask the students, how many of you want to become teachers, very few will raise their hands and say they want to become teachers. They want to become sportsmen, football players, politicians, pilots and others. Because the sector is not able to attract the best quality, the delivery of education is not so good, even though the students are very hardworking. So, when you have teachers who are unfortunately not the best given that the society can’t pool the best teachers and the students are very bright, to bridge the gap we have to use some support and Edumate is that kind of support.

OLYTECHNIC students across the country are not happy particularly with the media over what they described as the ’total blackout’ of the on-going industrial action embarked upon by polytechnic lecturers following government’s refusal to implement agreements it signed with the union in 2009, aimed at rejuvenating the polytechnic system.

The strike which has lasted for some time now has left students puzzled on what to do.

The students expressed disappointment that the media has failed to give adequate publicity to the strike and its effects on students, parents and the society at large unlike in the case of universities.

One of the students, Akpan Ukeme of Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic, Ebonyi State, in a protest letter to Vanguard queried the rationale behind the total blackout of the strike by the media.

His words; “Since the commencement of the on-going strike, it has become an arduous task for you to see the headlines talking about it.

The question is; why the media blackout? I remember the last time universities were on strike; the print media, television talk-show programmes focused on it and even published interviews granted by different university lecturers and the ASUU president which prompted a quick response from the Federal Government.

“The fight for recognition of Nigerian polytechnics starts from the media; if ASUP had the backing of the media, the government would have been pressurized to act accordingly.

FME commences assessment of unity schools

BY AMAKA ABAYOMI

T

EAMS from the Federal Ministry of Education have commenced on-the-spotassessment of unity schools across the nation.

The aim of the assessment is to examine the day-to-day activities of the students and the impact on them; focus on students’ performance, learning and teaching methods, students and teachers’ welfare; and learning environment.

According to the inspectors, the assessment would help identify areas of strengths and weaknesses and enable them make the right recommendations for both the schools and the FME.

VANGUARD, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013—31

Make accounting general course at tertiary institutions — SC, boss

BY STARRYS OBAZEI

A

N ACCOUNTANT, Femi Adeoya, the CEO of Skytrend

Consulting, has called on all the governments in Nigeria and private school owners to make accounting a general course at tertiary institutions.

He said that accountants as permanent crew members in all serious business organisations are therefore indispensable, but not always afford-

KHF lights up Kings College

BY AMAKA ABAYOMI

T

HE Kanu Heart Foundation, KHF, in partnership with Phillips Electronics Nigeria, has concluded plans to donate floodlights to Kings College, Lagos and four other communities in Nigeria.

Speaking with Vanguard Learning, the Coordinator/ Trustee, KHF, Mr. Onyebuchi Abia, said Kings College was chosen as the community in Lagos State where the donation of floodlights would be mounted by engineers from Phillips Electronics, Nigeria.

“We chose Kings College because the KHF played a testimonial match in the school in which Kanu Nwankwo played football with the students. He really enjoyed the time he spent with the students and this influenced our decision to choose the school.

able, in the planning and day to day running of organisations.

“There is a lacuna in the most sensitive area of running a business – the management of funds for profitability and this should not be left in the hands of employees alone.

The business of financial health of organisations must be regularly monitored by CEOs and other managers already trained as accountants.

Femi Adeoya said he began to organise weekend training for accountants, business own-

ers and managers, at his Lagos office, because as an accountant, “I feel bad when many companies get stunted due to lack of financial foresight or grounded due to corrupt financial activities of employees, which are not observed by the top managers because of ignorance.

“Many organisations lose millions of naira to illegal bank charges in the presence of companies’ accountants. It is now mandatory that the CEOs must be able to analyse bank statements and possibly discover illegal bank charges themselves.

reak b t u o Fire led in UI quel el host

BY HAMMED HAMZAT, UI

W

HAT would have re sult-ed in a monumental loss in one of the oldest halls of residence in the University of Ibadan (UI), was put under control with prompt intervention of students before the arrival of fire service men.

The fire incident occurred around 4:30am in Tedder Hall at the mini shop beside Block C where students buy variety of foods. The cause of the inferno is still unknown as a young boy whose mother occupies the shop said; “I started feeling heat close to where I slept, I woke my elder brother. Just before we could get up, there was smoke everywhere. We started screaming, “blood of Jesus,” that was when many students came out to help control the fire.

“Students played an active role in ensuring that the fire incident did not extend to rooms in Block C,” said the Hall Chairman, Sylvester Oluoha.

Dr. K.O.K Popoola, the Hall Warden appreciated the efforts of the students. The Hall Master, Professor Ajav and assistant Hall Warden were also at the hall to mobilise and fast-track control of the inferno. In a chat with Quadlife, Mr. Wale Olutayo, the owner of Ebony Cyber café beside the mini shop who had some of his computers damaged in the inferno said that he believed that the fire begun due to electrical fault.

Students in Tedder Hall registered their total displeasure to Students’ Union executives led by Comrade Babatunde Badmus for their failure to lend their support during the ugly incident. Sylvester Oluoha, the Hall Chairman who spoke on behalf of students in the hall said the damage has been done, goods worth millions of naira were destroyed.

C M Y K

32—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

into your lung and send to out again through your nose or mouth).

Examples: ‘Breathe in… out’, said the sports master.

President Goodluck Jonathan promised to give the nation a breath of fresh air.

The athlete breathed deeply before speaking to journalists.

His breath smelt of alcohol.

Frequently confused words

Beside-Besides Beside and besides do not mean the same thing. This pair of words provides a case where a single letter (such as ‘s’) can alter

the meaning of a word. Beside, a preposition, means ‘next to or at the side of.’ Besides, as a preposition, means either ‘other than; apart from’ or in addition to.’ Beside, as an adverb, means ‘more over.’ Do not confuse beside with besides.

Examples: My wife sat beside me during the church service.

A tree is growing beside our house.

What other sports do you like besides football?

Besides working as a doctor, Wale Okediran also writes novels.

Breath- Breathe Both breath and breathe have to do with ‘the air you take into your lung’.

Nevertheless, pay attention to the difference in the

spelling and word class of each of the two words. Breath is the noun (‘the air you take in into your lung’) and breathe is the verb (to take air

CONTINUES NEXT WEEK. Send requests/problems to Gabriel Osoba, Ph.D, Department of English, Lagos State University, Ojo, through Editor, Teach Yourself English, Vanguard Newspapers, PMB. 1007, Apapa, Lagos, or email: editor@vanguardngr.com & gabosoba002@yahoo.co

UNILORIN students threaten to boycott exams S TUDENTS of the Faculty of Communication and Information Sciences (CIS), University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), have threatened to boycott the ongoing second semester examina-

tions in the school if the leadership of their faculty fails to refund the sum of N2500 out of the initial N5000 they paid to access internet facility for the whole session, but which they didn’t en-

joy throughout the first semester.

In a letter signed by the executives of the faculty students’ association and presidents of the five departments within the CIS

faculty, and sent to the Dean of Students Affairs, the students vowed to stop writing the ongoing examinations if they do not receive their refunds on or before June 3, 2013.

Part of the letter reads: “If by Monday, June 3, 2013, the students of the faculty whose account numbers have been verified do not receive their refunds, we would have no option than to boycott ongoing second semester examinations, as a way of registering our grievances over the injustice metted on us.

“We would also go public by sending a press statement to both national and state-owned media houses and also publish articles on the internet to let the public know the kind of unfair treatment we receive here in our faculty. By doing this, we don’t intend to tarnish the image of the school; we only want justice.”

At the outset of the 2012/13 academic session which began last October, the management of the institution directed every student of the CIS faculty to pay a sum of N5000 for them to have access to internet facility within the school throughout the session. But the students did not enjoy internet connection for the whole of first semes-

C M Y K

ter.

It was gathered that the students, under the aegis of Communication and Information Sciences Students Association (CISSA), agitated for a refund of half of the internet access fee they paid for, and this was approved by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof.

Abdulganiyu Ambali on February 18. The university management consequently released the refunds to the leadership of the faculty, but the faculty is yet to refund the students since then, without providing any reason for not doing so.

The CISSA president, Anyim Obinna Anyim said that the students could not bear any form of extortion again, adding that Mass Communication students of the school suffered huge extortion, before it was stopped by the current VC when he assumed office last October.

NANS calls for more sponsorship for PTI

BY EMMANUEL SHEBBS

THE National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has called on the Federal Government to improve on its support for the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Warri, Delta State in order to encourage technological research in the institution.

NANS gave the charge when the Editorial Board of NANS Voice Magazine paid a visit to the institution. While speaking at the media tour, the NANS Zone-B coordinator, Comrade Chinonso Obasi applauded the fortitude with which the institution is embarking upon research. He noted that “the essence of the media tour is to ascertain the developments going on in the institution.

Obasi said that “from our findings, we have gathered that the institution is poorly funded and this is a challenge to the productive capacity of the institution.”

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013—33

Education is life – Omawumi Urhobo ••as indigent students receive scholarship

By EBELE ORAKPO

F

RIDAY, May 10, in War ri, Delta State, the dream of 16 intelligent but indigent students of acquiring qualitative education was made possible courtesy of Morgan Smart Development Foundation (MSDF).

Speaking at the ceremony, the third in the series, chaired

by Mrs Evelyn Dudu, Director, Library Services, PTI Warri, the President/Chief Executive Officer of MSDF, Dr Evelyn Omawumi Urhobo said the 16 students were drawn from junior and senior secondary classes in Delta State’s public schools, and that brings to 47 the number of students presently under the scholarship scheme.

Going down memory lane, she said that when MSDF was established over 10 years ago, “one of the primary objectives was to be able to give scholarship to intelligent but indigent children to help their parents meet their financial requirements to enable them access qualitative education that will make them compete favoura-

bly with children from rich homes anywhere in the world.

This passion was born out of my personal experience. With the death of my father at just nine years old and a young mother who had to struggle to put myself and a younger sister through school, getting a

scholarship to complete my secondary and university education was a welcome relief to her. The scholarship made it possible for me to acquire the education that made me what I am today. "I have always been grateful to God for this intervention in my life and

it has therefore always been my dream to give some children the same opportunity I got to realise their dreams.”

Urhobo who said she sees education as life itself, noted that “all things are possible if you take your education seriously. If you work hard at it,

Atumbi Timilehin (left) of Laureates College, Aviation Estate, Lagos being presented with the first price the school won in painting and cooking competition organised by the National Museum for secondary schools in Lagos on Children's day by Mrs Adekunle Gomez, special guest of honour during the event.

Other winners included Ayomide Shodunke and Dayo Akeep (cooking) and Adegbola Anjola ( Hairdo).

and with the fear of God in your heart at all times, all your dreams are achievable.”

She admonished the recipients never to be deceived into thinking that there is a short cut to success. “Any success achieved by cutting corners is on sinking sand; it will collapse. We heard when our dear President Jonathan talked about how as a poor child from Otueke in Bayelsa State, he went to school without shoes and school bag and he is today the president of Nigeria. He achieved this because he acquired education.

Though the road can be very rough in the process of educational pursuit, it is a question of perseverance and determination to succeed. So education is the key. If you are poor, it liberates you from poverty and puts you on same level with the richest families in the world. When you then have an intelligent child who cannot actualise his or her God-given talent because he or she is from a poor home, it becomes a tragedy that everyman of conscience must rise up to and address.”

She appealed to well meaning individuals to donate to the MSDF scholarship fund to enable the Foundation expand the scope of the award.

34—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Why education standard has fallen - NASU In this interview with Vanguard Learning, the General Secretary of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), Comrade Peters Adeyemi, spoke extensively on the education sector, the role of NASU as a major stakeholder and other issues.

BY FUNMI KOMOLAFE

A

s key key players in the education sector, what is NASU’s assessment of this sector, considering the fall in the standard of education?

When you talk about the fall in the standard of education in tertiary institutions, we need to consider the type of products we are producing at the primary and secondary levels. If the standard is not anything to write home about at those levels, you are not likely to get anything better at the tertiary level.

We need to focus more on the standard of education at the primary and secondary levels because not much has been done in ensuring that the standards of education at those foundation levels are adequately improved upon.

The second thing is the quality of personnel.

If the system is not able to retain quality personnel in terms of teaching and nonteaching staff, we are going to have a situation where the knowledge that would be impacted would not be up to the desired level and this is a problem when you look at the level of motivation that currently exists in our institutions.

We also have the problem of infrastructure, especially in our tertiary institutions. Decay in infrastructure is a general problem in our country and there is this mentality that Nigerians don’t believe in maintaining their structures.

A look round our tertiary institutions today shows that the infrastructures have collapsed to the extent that they can’t be compared with what is available in institutions of their standard outside Nigeria.

Then you look at supervision - who supervises what is going on; how committed are they; what is the level of supervision in our institutions; and how effective are the agencies established to supervise and monitor these tertiary institutions.

We keep on talking about the poor standard of education but we need to ask what are we doing to improve on the standard and this must necessarily include increase in the funding of our institutions.

Also we have to make sure that the present curriculum in our primary and postC M Y K

primary institutions are reviewed to the point that we are sure that students who seek admission into tertiary institutions possess some degree of knowledge from the foundation level.

We need also to intensify the level of monitoring and supervision especially by the parents because it’s very unfortunately that parents no longer have interest in what is happening to their wards.

Though I am a union man who works with these tertiary institutions, I think that the fact there has been this crisis of discrimination and Hope Eghagha the Prof contentious issue of harmony between teaching and non-teaching staff has created some level of instability in the system.

If we have several weeks of strike, that is not going to impact positively on the students, and I’m happy that in the last couple of years, we have achieved some level of stability in our institutions. Though the

•Adeyemi, NASU strikes have contributed, in no small measure, to destabilize the system, but they were embarked upon for the fun of it. The strikes were forced on the unions because of the unwillingness of government to address critical issues like decay in infrastructure, adequate funding, welfare of staff and students, among others. With all of these unattended issues,

there is no way we can have high standards in our tertiary institutions.

If there is the determination on the part of government, parents, teaching and non- teaching staff and students, things will improve. Some of the problems in the larger society are also impacting negatively on our education system because if we don’t have stable power supply, the students would not be able to read.

I was in Howard university and one of the things that surprised me when I got to the School of Business was that I could come out of the lecture room and press a button and get a Coke, Fanta or cold water.

The lecture rooms are air-conditioned, so there is no reason to complain about anything. I had a very conducive atmosphere to read even to enjoy my life but if you visit our tertiary institutions, except the privately owned ones, you will not find those basic facilities.

We fail to realise that these basic facilities enhance the learning ability of students. So, you may say that the fall in the standard of education also has to do with the fall in the standard of basic amenities in our society.

You once raised an alarm about the state of libraries in our tertiary institutions and I remember that only one state government responded. Are the libraries better today?

There was a time we embarked on this crusade that our reading culture isn’t supported by our government and it is very unfortunate that governments failed to focus on the state of our libraries.

The state of libraries in all states is completely a disgrace as some of the buildings are such that you can’t even expect human beings to go and read there. Some of them are empty, so, it’s really a problem.

We talked about that and we approached all of them. There was a time NASU made the point that it didn’t make sense for a state governor whose state has no functional library to go and donate N10 or N20 million to President Olusegun Obasanjo’s library in Abeokuta, when your own state library is in a state of disrepair.

At that time it was only the Anambra State Government that built a fine library complex but we have been appealing to Governor Peter Obi to equally equip it.

UNESCO to revamp education in Nigeria •Continues from page 29 tive to market women, saying, “a new march of knowledge has begun and it should be a new life for education and empowerment.”

Speaking in the same vein, the initiator and dreamer of Opon Imo, Governor Rauf Aregbesola who applauded national and international dignitaries for gracing the occasion said the long awaited Opon Imo which contains both software and hardware has arrived to revamp the education sector of the state, pointing out that though the road was difficult, he is happy today for the dream come true.

His said; “Opon Imo is a first-of-its-kind learning tablet in the world for self-paced study. It provides three major content cat-

egories vis-à-vis, e-library, virtual classroom, and an integrated test zone. The virtual classroom category contains 63 ebooks covering 17 academic subjects for examinations conducted by WAEC, NECO and JAMB as well as non-academic life-enriching subjects such as History of The Yoruba, Sexuality Education, Civic Education, Ifa on ethics and morals, enterprise education, hints and tips on passing SSCE and ‘How to live a Healthy and Happy life’. This section also contains an average of 16 chapters per subject and 823 chapters in all, with about 900 minutes or 15 hours of audio voice overs.

In the integrated test zone of the device, there are more than 40,000 JAMB and WAEC practice questions and answers dating back to about 20 years. It also con-

FG has not fulfilled its commitment ...

•Continues from page 29 background of the ever rising cost of running our programmes, it becomes imperative to ask for more public support.”

The society’s call for public support is not without merit. This voluntary, nongovernmental, non-profit making organisation set up the Vocational Training Centre for the Blind at Oshodi in Lagos in 1956. Since then, the centre has trained over 2,000 blind men and women to acquire skills in Braille writing and reading, type writing, handicrafts, telephone switchboard operation, computer operation, mobility skills, tie and dye

and various crafts necessary for self employment. The Vocational Training Centre for the Blind runs a two-year course for visually impaired adults and adolescents, as well as a special one year course for professionals and special persons who need to adjust to their new predicament in order to be able to return to a normal life and continue with their professional or vocational calling.

Returning to a normal life is the testimony of Mr. Obinna Uche, a middle aged legal officer at the National Open University of Nigeria who lost his sight a few years ago. After spending a year at the centre, Uche returned to work in 2006.

tains mock tests in more than 51 subject areas, which approximates to 1,220 chapters, with roughly 29,000 questions referencing about 825 images.”

Recapitulating the successful birth and delivery of Opon Imo, Aregbesola said: “The journey began from a trip I made to the Borough of Southwark in the United Kingdom in 2011 where I saw an electronic learning device while windowshopping in a bookshop at Dockland.

And it occurred to me that we could build something like that and adapt it to our own purpose in a manner that would be unique to our circumstance. And then we went to work, and Opon Imo is the product of our toil.”

He, however pointed out that the idea of an electronic tablet is not his invention, and that he is not making such claim, saying it would be patently false. His words: “But we have made something completely unique out of the existing idea.

Hence, we make bold to say that Opon-Imo is a tablet like no other on the face of the earth. Opon-Imo stands alone. It is a complete library in a single computer tablet. It’s a complete and closed system that cannot interface or interconnect with any other system, because it does not need them to function. It was commended at Harvard University and by the Mayor of Pittsburgh who made no disguise of his admiration for the device.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013—35

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Using jatropha to fight desertification, alleviate poverty

BY EBELE ORAKPO

Desertification, poverty, poor soil quality, high unemployment level and more, are some of the problems a group of students led by their lecturer, Professor Raith at the Yolabased American University of Nigeria (AUN), are trying to solve. Unemployment is unarguably one of the causes of youth restiveness and insecurity in the country. As someone rightly said, if a university is not affecting its immediate environment positively, then it has no business being a university. No wonder then that the AUN through its jatropha project, tries to impact its environment and the country at large. In this chat with Vaguard Learningm,one of the students, Yasmine Abdulkadir, a year two Petroleum Chemistry and Mining Economics student of AUN said the aim is to provide a cleaner energy source while providing jobs for the populace, improving the soil quality and fighting desertification. Talk of killing many birds with one stone!

Excerpts: The project: According to Yasmine Abdulkadir, the idea behind the project was to create something innovative to solve a social problem because AUN is a development university.

“We are very interested in improving the lives of the population in Yola because two thirds of them are in poverty so our aim is basically to identify what we could do to engage the poor people of the community so they can improve their personal lives. We came up with the idea of producing biodiesel using jatropha as a means of generating the oil.”

About jatropha: Research has shown that apart from its ability to thrive in arid regions, jatropha can also be used to improve the quality of the soil because the seed coat, flesh and seed cake are rich in nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. Said Abdulkadir; “When you drive around, you see lots and lots of acres of land that nothing is growing on or with very few trees; what is really great about jatropha is that it can thrive in arid conditions and on almost any soil so it can be used to fight desertification and control soil erosion. The plant is poisonous so it is nonedible and animals do not C M Y K

Jatropha plant

•Jatropha seeds graze on it because they are disturbed by it. As a result, it has been used for fencing for so long by farmers who know about it. We believe that growing jatropha can actually improve the quality of the soil which is great because desertification is a big problem in Nigeria.”

Oil from jatropha: “We are trying to make

biodiesel from jatropha. It started off as a student project in which we had five groups and each group has five – six students. We have been working on it for a semester.

“The jatropha project has been implemented in India and it has been a huge success. It is to be part of a global phenomenon which says that the petroleum industry is

not sustainable, biofuel and other renewable energy sources are the way to go for a greener world,” she said.

Involving communities and creating jobs: “We have been engaged with a couple of communities at the moment and the farmers are fully engaged and they want to participate in what we are

doing.

Job creation is what we definitely want to do. We want to create jobs for these people.

The main market will of course be the AUN and the idea is that the revenue goes back to the farmers to improve their social lives because AUN is all about improving the lives of people,” Abdulkadir stated.

Educationist tasks govt on education

BY IKENNA ASOMBA

T

HE Principal, British International Schools (BIS), Victoria Island, Lagos, Mr. Peter Yates, has asked government at all levels to prioritize education, noting that it is the only key that can move the nation towards a befitting socio-economic and national development. Yates made this appeal while speaking at the formal fundraising reception to launch a hostel and swimming pool project in the school.

According to him, having studied geography and the world’s population, he described Nigeria’s problem in terms of the standard of its education as one that is self-inflicted.

He said; “I have studied the world’s population for so many years.

Nigeria’s problem is one of its own making and it is not any one person’s fault. Nigeria’s major problem is that

its population has grown beyond the infrastructural and academic facilities it has in place. If I must advise any tier of government, I will say they should invest massively in education.

“Nigeria must not necessarily operate the British curricula, because there is a good aspect of what happens in the Nigerian system. The problem is that Nigerians run themselves too much.

There are a lot of good things going on here. May be Nigeria needs a very good Press officer to tell the rest of the world the good things going on here.

We need to educate our children and impart in them, the right moral values in order for them to take good care of us in the future. Giving them the best of education now is important because they will make socio-economic and political decisions that will make or mar us in our old age. Nigeria is a very nice place to be; Nigerians are easy-going

people,” he said.

On the reason behind the fund-raising project, Yates said; “The school is a long-term thing, so, it needs a lot of space. We are very lucky that we have a lot of space. So the whole idea of the fundraising project is seeking ways on how to enhance the school's reputation, not only as an academic institution, but as an institution where the students could learn via extra curricular and social activities.

“In the 12 years that the school has been around in Nigeria, it has moved from nothing to an academic institution that can match the best in the United Kingdom. And now we want to match schools in the UK with the academic and infrastructural facilities we have here. We have about 16 different nationalities - Nigerians, Britons, Lebanese, Zimbabweans, Gambians amongst others.

PZ Cussons institutes chemistry competition

By AMAKA ABAYOMI

A

S part of its corporate so cial respon-sibility, PZ Cussons Foundation, an arm of PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc, has introduced a chemistry competition for secondary school students.

Known as PZ Cussons Chemistry Challenge, the competition is open to all SS1 and SS2 students in all public and private schools in Lagos State.

Speaking at the media launch, Chairman of PZ Cussons Foundation, Professor Emmanuel Edozien, said the free entry forms can be downloaded online from www.pzccc.com from June 3 to June 21, 2013.

“Chemistry is central to our daily lives as the basic understanding of the subject aids in the processing and manufacturing of several household products in the PZ portfolio.

“As part of our education in-

tervention, the Board of Trustees agreed to sponsor a programme that will address the seemingly declining interest inchemistry, and science in general. We hope this will rekindle the interest of our children in the study of chemistry and find it not just stimulating but more exciting.”

The winner of the threestage competition which would run from July to September would be rewarded with N700,000 worth of scholarship, a laptop and gold

medal, while the teacher of the pupil would have N100,000 cash prize and the school would be presented with N100,000 worth of chemistry books.

The first runner-up would have N500,000 worth of scholarship, a laptop and second place medal, while the teacher would win N60,000 and a donation of chemistry book worth N50,000 would be made to the school.

36—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Admission seekers have 103,000 more spaces in tertiary institutions — IEI President

BY LAJU ARENYEKA

S

ome stakeholders have contradicted the recent declaration by the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqquatu Rufai, that there are only about 520,000 admission slots in the nation’s tertiary institutions. In a chat with Vanguard Learning, Dr. Andrews Jegede, the National President of the Association of Innovation and Vocational Institutions, opined that there are 103,000 more spaces available for students at Innovative Enterprise Institutions (IEIs).

What role do Innovation Enterprise Institutions play in the education sector?

They are private institutions that offer technical and professional education at post-basic and tertiary levels to the school leavers and working class. The aim is to meet the increasing demand for technical manpower of the various sectors of the economy and these institutions are to implement Federal Government's concept of Public-Private Partnership in Technical and Vocational Education (TVET) and skill-focused education sector. Innovation institutions are meant to gradually increase intake until they absorb almost 50% of the admission seekers at post-secondary schools.

What are the features of innovative institutions?

They are products of the recent reform initiatives of the Federal Ministry of Education

(FME) in the education sector. There are about 120 institutions approved by the FME and accredited by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), and have been listed by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board since 2007. The curriculum is professional.

Some of the areas we cover are presently not covered by universities and polytechnics such as computer hardware engineering, software engineering, multimedia technology, oil and gas, information technology, creative arts, industrial welding, early childcare education, paralegal studies, computer networking and securities, film production and many more. The National Innovation Diploma (NID) is the certification approved by the FME for IEIs. It is the equivalent of the National Diploma, and it is equally four semesters of course work spanning over two years with Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES).

Tell us about the new registration template for UTME that makes provision for IEIs The Minister for Education Prof. Ruqquayatu Rufai has approved that effective 2014, JAMB will list Innovation Institutions independent of others on JAMB registration template. Hence, candidates will have to choose eight schools. For the first time, TVET is now in the front

burner of the education sector. In addition to that, this 2013/2014 academic session, other tertiary institutions have planned to admit 500,000 candidates, be sure that we innovative institutions will supplement that by additional 103,000 candidates. Prior to this time, we were lumped up with polytechnics and they nearly choked us and denied us of our identity. Operational guidelines of universities are different from those of polytechnics, operational guidelines of polytechnics are

also different from those of the colleges of education. In the same way, the operational guidelines of innovation enterprise institutions are different from those of other institutions. That was what we drew the attention of the Federal Government to. What this means is that henceforth, candidates will choose two universities, two polytechnics, two colleges of education and two innovative institutions.

Another advantage is that we are going to have a lot of can-

didates to contend with. Before now, people were not aware that there were spaces in innovative institutions. Instead of advertising from one place to the other, we pushed to get the policy right; and thankfully, we have done that.

And by 2014, we plan to increase intake to 110,000 candidates by year 2015, and year 2016 intake into Innovative institutions should be 140,000 by 2015 until we reach 200,000 by year 2017.

Were the 103,000 spaces mentioned included in the figures given by the Education Minister?

No. This is because in times past, IEIs were not factored into the available carrying capacities in the country.

There are spaces. The problem is that the general public is not aware of them. When you mention higher institution, the first thing that comes into anybody’s mind is the university. Some have forgotten that there are Colleges of Education and polytechnics.

Many people are not even aware that there are new institutions to complement those efforts. People are not aware that there are innovative institutions. When government mentions the available spaces, they are referring to universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and they forget the private innovative institutions.

•Dr. Andrews Jegede

One out of 1,500 Corps members qualifies during employable skills test

BY DAYO ADESULU

I

N an employable skills test con ducted by employers of labour recently in Lagos, most of the corps members have through their performances justified claims that they are not employed because they are not employable.

The corps members proved this at a job fair organised by New Horizons Computer Learning Centre, Lagos, in collaboration with the Lagos NYSC at the Main Auditorium of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) where corps members were subjected to a live job interview session as part of the exit programmes for the batch.

At the end of the live interview that featured five corps members from shortlisted entries of over 1,500 applicants, Mr. Olubiyi Ogundipe, a First Class graduate of Chemical Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) emerged as the only applicant qualified for employment with New Horizons as ICT teacher.

Ogundipe who was presented a letter of employment on the spot by Mrs. DanAbia came first in the live interview session watched by other corps members with a total of 14 points while the other four candidates had 11, 8, 7 and three marks respectively.

The NYSC Director-General, Brigadier Nnamdi Okore-Affia while speaking to the outgoing Batch B 2012 corps members through the Director, Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED), Mrs. Mary DanAbia, said corps members should get set for their next lines of action after their passing out parade slated for today. According to him, the present practice of NYSC is in line with the ongoing reforms of the 40 years old scheme which has the mandate to develop the spirit of self development, reliance, and entrepreneurship of corps members.

“Have you asked yourselves or make up your mind on what you want to do

after discharge? Ask yourselves what your visions are. What have I achieved during the service year. Was it a jamboree of sorts for 12 months? Am I ready for the employment market or ready to create wealth around myself? he asked the corps members.

He explained that if they cannot answer the above questions honestly, then they still have a lot of thinking and planning to do, maintaining that life outside the camp will only favour those who are prepared.

On her part, the NYSC State Coordinator, Mrs. Adenike Adeyemi while explaining the purpose of the job fair said, the pioneer live job interview organised for the Corps members was basically to further prepare them for future challenges, stressing that those who are able to attend the interview test would see firsthand the nitty-gritty of job interview and also prepare them as employer of labour.

According to Adeyemi, the job fair

would be a symbolic annual event to mark end of the service year for corps members in the state and to create a platform for those not cutout for vocational skills to secure immediate job opportunities with employers of labour at the ceremony.

The Managing Director, New Horizons Computer Learning Centres, Mr. Tim Akano tasked corps members on the need to acquire additional expertise in the Information and communications Technology in order to remain relevant in the global ICT driven job market.

He enumerated such fields to include project management, ebusiness skill, oracle skill, software programming, CISCO, Adobe and security skill system in order to be relevant in problem solving chain in organization.

VANGUARD, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013—37

I N S I D E

New laws to grow power sector investment needed — Page 39

Bakassi: Cross River made huge sacrifice for Nigeria — Ashang — Page 39

Nigeria’s security problems are transient —Ehindero

BY DAYO BENSON

M

R Sunday Ehindero is former inspector general of police. A lawyer by profession, he has been in private legal practice since his retirement in 2007. An author of several law books, Ehindero holds the record of being the police lawyer to appear before the high court, Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. An active bar man, he has attended several NBA and IBA conferences. In this interview, he spoke on his days in the police legal department which he set up, the legal profession and the security situation in the country among other issues. Excerpts.

As former Inspector General of Police, how has life been in retirement?

Life in retirement is stress-less. As a retiree, I now have enough time to do those things I had no time to do while in service. You know it is now over six years since I retired from the Police Force. Immediately I retired in June 2007, I had so many things in my agenda to perform. There was the need to establish my legal practice and perhaps to set up a publishing company. Of course, I had the desire to publish the second editions of the six books I wrote while in service. These include Police and the Law in Nigeria published in 1986; Constitutional Development of Nigeria,1849-1989 published in 1990; The Nigeria Police and Human Rights published in 1998; The Policeman as a Prosecutor published in 2003. I have added a new one in retirement which will, by God’s

•Former IGP Mr Sunday Ehindero most?

I miss the opportunity to serve.

Policing is about care. It is about treating your fellow human beings with equal respect and concern. You will read more of these in my new book. As the Officer in Charge of Crime, Alagbon, in 1984 I wept with suspects in detention whose innocence were not in doubt. But you must quit at a stage to allow others to serve. I recall in December, 2005 when I put in my papers to retire voluntarily, my tenure was extended by Government for a year beginning from 20th March, 2006. My tenure was also extended the second time on March,2007 culminating in my retirement in June,

,

The security problems we now have in Nigeria are transient. They will disappear in no distant future. We had gone through worse moments during the Maitasine period in the 1980s

grace, be published this year in 2013. I also find time to contribute to intellectual discussions on matters pertaining to the Nigeria Police Force. As a lawyer in practice, I also attend International Bar Conferences.

It was Mitch Alban who said in life there is no retirement. ‘All endings are also beginnings, we just don’t know it at the time.’ I have closed my career as a police officer and opened another chapter as a lawyer.

Looking back at your days in the police what will you say you miss

,

2007. This had never happened in the history of the Nigeria Police Force. I served the Nigeria Police for over thirty-four years without a single query. All I had were commendations and awards.

Do you have any glorious moment you want to recall?

Yes, I had so many glorious moments. The first, though not in chronological order, was when President Obasanjo approved my proposal for the establishment of Police Chaplaincy in 2006. It brought spirituality into the

Nigeria Police Force. The second was when I pioneered police prosecution in the Superior Courts. I was the first police officer to appear before the High Court. Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court since the establishment of the Nigeria Police Force in 1930. The third was when I was appointed acting Inspector General of Police in January,2005. What was glorious about this appointment was that at the time of my appointment, I was the only one left in the Nigeria Police Force out of twenty five of us, Cadet ASP, who commenced training in Police College Ikeja in 1973. Some have died, some had retired, others had changed their callings. I was the lone ranger and I was at the apex of my profession. Was it my making? Of course not. It is only God that maps the race of life for all.

As a lawyer how would you compare your experience while in service and now that you are in private legal practice?

In and out of service I give glory to God. God had been faithful to me. You know when God puts you in a position, He sustains you. When I was appointed IG, I least expected it.

When it was time for me to be confirmed, three months after my appointment in March 2005, the Chairman Police Service Commission petitioned the Police Council why I should not be confirmed. His main complaint was that I did not allow him to post policemen especially Commissioners of Police in State Commands. That petition came in on the eve of the Police Council’s meet-

ing to deliberate on my confirmation.

That petition delayed my confirmation for six months. But when the confirmation came, it was with the honour of CFR and the extension of my service for one year. That is how God works.

In and out of service as a lawyer, I have not lost any case in Court. God is the God of increase. He has prospered me more than when I was in Police Service. Remember all your efforts are in vain without Him. What will you consider as your major achievements in the Police Legal Department?

My major achievements were threefold. First, with the authorization of the IGP Ibrahim A Coomassie then in 1995, as the CP Legal, I was able to establish Police Legal Sections in all the State Commands. They were properly funded. At Alagbon, the Legal section was compartmentalized into the legal Advice, Civil Litigation, Prosecution and Administrative sections. Each Police State Command was able to prosecute cases as well as attend to civil litigations against the police. They were also encouraged and sponsored to attend NBA courses and legal seminars. Second, the police legal Section worked in close cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Justice during the tenure of Ibrahim Abdullahi SAN as the Attorney General of the Federation. He requested the Police Legal Section to send six Police Lawyers to assist in decongesting the Ministry of Failed Bank Cases. This I did by sending six lawyers headed by Mr. Nuhu Ribadu. These police lawyers, to the credit of the force, not only vetted the cases but also assisted the Ministry of Justice in the prosecution. Third, was the degree of confidence reposed on the legal advice given by the section. This made the AIG Inusa Isa to give an order that cases reported to Alagbon must be vetted by the legal section before investigation could be commenced.

With legal section vetting these

Continues on page 38

EDITORIAL TEAM Dayo Benson (Editor) Innocent Anaba Wahab Abdulah Ikechukwu Nnochiri

38—VANGUARD, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Continues from page 37

complaints more than 80% of the complaints were refused as civil or trivial. These included land matters, land lord and tenant cases.

Would you like to mention some landmark cases that you successfully prosecuted?

I assumed office as CP Legal in 1995 at a time the image of Nigeria was battered by 419ers.

The first case I prosecuted personally was that of Bright Ezekuse who obtained under false pretenses from a German National, Narinda Singh Bajwa US$353,900. He offered me gratification of N5million which I rejected. He was successfully prosecuted and jailed for 52years. This was the first conviction ever made in the prosecution of 419 suspects in this country at that time.

'Allegation against me by ICPC operatives, is vendetta' officers who are lawyers should not be appearing in courts to handle cases. Do you agree?

No I don’t agree. I have forwarded my opinion on this issue to the National Assembly.

While I agree that policemen who are not lawyers have no business appearing in court to prosecute cases, the same cannot be said of policemen who are lawyers. After all, police lawyers attend the same University and the same law School. Why should being a policeman be an inhibition?

There are about one thousand lawyers in the Nigeria Police Force.

More than what you have in the Ministries of Justice in the 36 States of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Justice combined.

•Former IGP Mr Sunday Ehindero

attend Training Courses even at retirement. I also attend International Bar Conferences in addition to Courses organised by the Nigerian Bar Association.

What is your assessment of the general Those police officers I adjudged of legal pracwere incompetent who served under standard tice in the country vis-ame while I was in office who later vis the conferment of found their way to ICPC as Opera- the rank of Senior of Nigeria?. tions Officers used the investigation Advocate Professionalism is in as a vendetta against me terminal decline not only in the police force but also in other professions Should you waist such The second landmark including the legal manpower? was the case of Gani Are you satisfied with profession. ProfessionalFawehinmi V IGP ism can be seen in the the current standard of where the Supreme description of behaviour legal practice in the Court held that the as unprofessional. For police? police cannot be comexample, habitual Of course, I am not. pelled by mandamus to lawyers late comers to You need more activism investigate a crime. The court, not taking pride in and dynamism.

It all third case was that of lawyers job, lawyers’ depends on who is in the Accountant-General appearance, courtesy or charge of the Legal of the Federation V IGP personal hygiene. All Section. If he is a dead where the Court of these are explicit referwood, he can’t initiate Appeal held that the ence to standards. Apart anything. The person Police and the Attorney from standards, there is posted to head the General of the Federaalso specialisation within section in addition to tion share coordinate the profession that being a lawyer must be positions in the initiashould come into play. interested in the job. tion of criminal proseMoreover, Police lawyers The NBA needs to cution. strengthen expertise, need constant training.

Some are of the Don’t be surprised that I service delivery, profesopinion that police sionalism and public

,

protection against commercialisation and commoditisation to allow access to court by continued legal education. I am aware that some have advocated the scrapping of the title of Senior Advocate of Nigeria. I defer. The conferment of SAN is a privilege bestowed on those who meet the laid down criteria for the award.

Once the process of selection is transparent, the conferment should continue to be made.

What is your assessment on the security situation in the country and do you think government is on the right track?

The security situation in the country calls for all hands to be on deck.

It is not only Nigeria that is challenged by security threats. The world is challenged by the clashes of civilization. The crises in the Middle East find ripples in Nigeria as recent discovery of arms and armament in Kano revealed. The stick and

carrot approach of government is commendable. You grant Amnesty to those members of Boko Haram who may wish to renounce violence while using the force of the law through Emergency Declaration and Military Operation on those who are foolhardy. The security problems we now have in Nigeria are transient.

They will disappear in no distant future. We had gone through worse moments during the Maitasine period in the 1980s.

There were media reports that ICPC had a complaint against you in court. Is it true?

You see, I heard it but i refrained from commenting on the matter. I allowed the scriptures to guide me in all that I do.

There were false and mischievous publications in the media that I, Ehindero stole/diverted to my personal use the sum of N16million from the N557,995,065.00 meant for the purchase of arms and ammunition for the Nigeria Police. At one time the false publication was that I stole M557million. It may interest you to note that the arms and ammunition had been purchased by the Ministry of Police Affairs with the N557,995,065. Also, the arms had been delivered to the Police and are being used. The N16million interest complained about was used for operational purposes. My initial reaction is to disregard these malicious publications. Because my scripture teaches me that sometimes silence is the best response to a false charge. We should be swift to hear but slow to speak. But at other times

we must speak up.

I am aware that the case is sub judice. The proceedings of the court are there for everyone to see. It is a public document. Right from the day I was invited by ICPC, I demanded to be shown the complaint made against me. Even as IGP retired, I was denied. It was only in court I came to know that there was no complaint against me to ICPC. My name was not in any letter of complaint to the organisation. The complaint was against the former commissioner of police of Bayelsa state and his men. It was anonymous and not signed. Rather than investigate this complaint, those police officers I adjudged were incompetent who served under me while I was in office who later found their way to ICPC as Operations Officers used the investigation as a vendetta against me.

But I prayed for them when they invited me to ICPC that may God allow them to retire the way I did. There were other officers who were not happy that I recommended Mallam Nuhu Ribadu to be promoted AIG. Their grouse was that with such promotion Ribadu would eventually get to the IGP post and rationalise them.

You know what happened to Nuhu. But for the Intervention of Government he would have been mesmerised or even eliminated.

Some police officers don’t even greet me in retirement because they claim they did not get ‘good’ postings from me when I was IGP. The new Chairman of ICPC could not have known of the vendetta and the fact that the matter had been looked into in the past and a verdict of no case entered. How can I who rejected N5million in 1995 from a 419er who I prosecuted and gained a conviction of 52 years jail now condescend to diverting N16million for my personal use as an IGP? What I am going through is the price I have to pay for leadership. I know that my Redeemer lives. And I do not ask why this should happen to me.

Why should it not? This trial is a test of my faith in God which remains unshaken. I retired in 2007 only to be charged in 2012. I believe justice

,

VANGUARD, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013—39

New laws to grow power sector investment needed' 'New

BY INNOCENT ANABA

A

N energy law expert, Ayodele Oni, has called for new laws to create more incentives for investment in the “power value chain.” He stated that Nigeria needs a few new regulations on “renewable” and on other engineering standards, cabling, among others.

Oni, a senior member of the bar, spoke at the presentation of his new book on the power sector: “Nigerian Electric Power Sector: Policy, Law, Negotiation Strategy, Business.” He said that the problem with the energy sector, and the power subsector in particular, was not the dearth of laws, but the lack of enough action to attract private sector investments.

He said, “if a sector of any economy is not profitable, private sector participants would not invest; and if the structure is not bankable, financiers such as banks would not provide finance to wouldbe investors. So, the problem, is not the inadequacy of laws, but the structure of the market, lack of bankability and poor pricing, including the insufficiency of gas, which is the fuel used by most power plants in Nigeria.

“It is, therefore, my view that the challenge has not got much to do with the adequacy or otherwise of legislation, but other practical issues. Indeed, it is the case that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has been proactive and very active in issuing crucial regulations. As such, there is really no issue of inadequacy of laws or statutory instruments.

“We already have regulations for the protection of consumers and the challenge is largely that of enforcement. Issues like disconnection of power (de-energisation) of consumers have regulations dealing with them.

There is no doubt, however, that we need to strengthen those regulations. We do not need full scale laws a little bit,” Oni said.

On how he thinks Nigeria’s perennial power problem be

solved, Oni said the government needed the political will to do so, adding that the strategy of paying lip service to issues relating to electric power should stop.

“Furthermore, gas supply issues should be properly dealt with, so that there is sufficient gas to fire the power plants. The government should work with the management contractors to develop a robust national grid that can wheel larger volumes of electric power whilst developing a super grid and smart grid solutions. Oni said.

Another senior lawyer, Mr Asue Ighodalo, who unveiled the book, praised Oni for “doing something that is truly wonderful.” He said the book has “a lot of fathers” in public

Mrs. Tola Akinsanya, Director of Legislative Drafting, Ministry of Justice administering oaths of office on new Judges, from right: Justices Folasade Bankole-Oki, Michael Akintunde Savage, Oyindamola Adesola Ogala, Ganiyu Ali Safari, Sedotan Sosi Ogunsanya and Wasiu Animahun, during the swearing-in ceremony of newly appointed Judges of the High Court of Lagos State, in Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos . Photo: Bunmi Azeez officials who laid the foundations for the power sector reform. “There was a major gap in this sector.

Ayodele has bridged that gap with this book. He is a great lawyer and a great mind. He showed that the mathematical

skills needed to be a lawyer is in him. His tenacity, focus, analytical capacity and understanding of the sector is unparalleled. Where he finds the time to write, I don’t know,” Ighodalo said.

From left: Justice Ayo Phillips, Chief Judge of Lagos State; Gov. Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, SAN, and Mrs. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, Deputy Governor of Lagos State, during the swearingin of newly appointed Judges. Photo: Bunmi Azeez

The reviewer, Dolapo Kukoyi, described the book as elaborate and well-researched. “The language is simple, clear and easy to understand. The reader can appreciate both the

scientific and technical sides. I recommend it to anyone who wants to know what the power sector is all about. I think it is timely. Thank you Oni for taking that initiative,” Kukoyi said.

Bakassi: Cross River made huge sacrifice for Nigeria — Ashang

BY BARTHOLOMEW MADUKWE

B

ARRISTER Tanko Ashang is a legal adviser to the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA. In this interview, he spoke on the report recently submitted by the Presidential Committee on the Resettlement and Rehabilitation of the Bakassi people set up by the Federal Government. He insisted that the Federal Government must implement the recommendations of the committee quickly in a bid to give hope to the displaced people of Bakassi. In the same vein, he commended the Cross River State Governor, LiyeI Imoke for his dedication, understanding and commitment to ensuring that the people are well taken care of. Excerpt.

You are aware that a committee set up on the issue of Bakassi resettlement and the committee just submitted its report to the Vice President, what is your reaction to the report? Considering the fact that there have been some reactions to the report, what is your general perspective on the issue?

Well, Bakassi is a naughty issue that bothers every Cross Riverian who is worthy of that name. Everybody is concerned of the huge sacrifice Cross River has made for this country, therefore the Bakassi will remain an urgent issue until it is addressed. The state government is doing its best to continue to provide for the displaced people of Bakassi because of concession of the land to the Cameroon, an action that was

taken by the Federal Government and the state Government is also maintaining security and conducting itself properly. We are grateful to the State Government and our governor, Senator Liyel Imoke for handling the matter very maturely and we are also grateful to those who have served in the committee. However, we are happy that finally a report has been submitted. We expect that now that the report have been submitted, the Federal Government will act timely so we can save our people the trauma they have been going through. Our hearts are in our mouth because we are worried whether the report will be immediately implemented. It will be good for all if the Federal Government implement it timely.

•Barrister Tanko Ashang So what is the perspective as regards the Bakassi people that have been relocated?

Well, l actually live in Calabar I don’t just go there, as you are aware, if you are displaced from your area it can never be easy for you, I’m sure you know that even if you are visiting or staying with relations it would be a difficult challenge so long as this people who are fishing community are not in their area of comparative advantage they will always be unhappy and would affect the general mood of Cross Riverians and our hearts are with them and any part of Cross River that face serious difficulties. Until they are properly settled, it would be a worrisome issue and as you know very well the country is presently experiencing a serious security chal-

lenge and if not for the dedication and disposition of the Governor there would have been serious issue in the region. You are very much aware of issues of militancy, piracy, kidnapping, human trafficking and the rest but the Governor has been able to manage the situation adequately and the state has been in calm situation. He has shown so much maturity, understanding and commitment to ensuring the matter is quickly addressed in the interest of our people and Nigeria. I think the committee has done a lot by identifying some Islands and locations to rehabilitate the Bakassi people, hence needs to be commended. The Federal Government needs to strengthen all the mechanisms to rehabilitate the displaced people and put all the structures in place quickly. We have confidence in the Vice President who is head of the Committee.

What has your agency been doing as regards Bakassi?

NEMA has been involved right from the moment the territory was ceded to Cameroun. We have constantly provided relief materials, but you know that the scope of the Bakassi issue is

complex and far beyond the mandate of a singular government agency like NEMA and the Vice President who is the Chairman of the NEMA Governing Board is adequately equipped to address this problem and ensure the plight of the people are urgently addressed through the report of the committee. We’re confident and hopeful that the situation will end soon and smoothly and as a Cross Riverians I will hope that speedy action is taken.

Another challenge that has faced the State is the loss of 76 Oil wells to Akwa – Ibom State what is your reaction to this?

The Supreme Court judgment again is regrettable. It is another challenge Cross River had to go through. The state has comparative advantage; oil has never been our core advantage. Agriculture is key and we have great potentials in this regard, I know our able Governor is well equipped to take us out of this situation. I don’t want to see it as a disadvantage or challenge. But we, as a people are capable of making greater progress with or without oil .Cross River State is very safe with governor Liyel Imoke.

40— Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 — 41

42—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Re: Challenges of parenting

OW is that my fault? Why do you like to shift blame on me? Is it a crime that I go extra miles in taking care of you and my children? This was the lamentation of a man who goes out to work and leaves the responsibility of taking care of their children to his wife.

Chief Tony was a wealthy man and he always ensured that he does his possible best for his wife who is a full time house wife to take care of their children. Chief was always occupied, moving from one country to the other and also from one continent to another, making money and sending it home to his wife and children.

The family was doing so wonderfully well and Chief had nothing to worry about. Their children’s conducts and performances were worthy of emulation by other children in church and in school. Whenever chief was at home, he was always very happy and proud that he would always praise his wife for doing such a great job.

Everything was moving on smoothly until Segun, the first son and first born of the family gained admission into the university. On the day he was to go to school, Chief was not around. The mother as usual was left to do all the counselling.

She called him to her room and advised him on a lot of things, especially on the need to continue being the good boy that he has always been and to always remem-

day, they told him about a friend’s birthday party holding in another town and out of fear of being rejected by the group, he agreed to follow them. At the party, he was taught how to drink and how to smoke at the same time.

Before long, Segun began living another way of life apart from the orientation he had at home. The group also introduced him to alcohol, sex and drugs as well as examination malpractice. He soon discovered that the group was also affiliated to another group which he finally discovered to be a cult group. Over the years, he was caught thrice in the examination hall and was finally rusticated from the school but he refused to leave the school premises. This is typical of many students who get caught in the course of being involved in cultism. This afforded him the opportunity to continue his activities in the cult. He would always send home for money on the pretence that he is busy in school and cannot come

Everything finally came to an end when one day, they went for an operation and were arrested

.

H

ber the son of whom he is. They prayed together and he left for school. At school, Segun became very engulfed in church activities, so much that his academic performance at the end of the first year was not encouraging. He came back home crying but the mother encouraged him to put more effort. Fortunately or otherwise, Chief came home that week unannounced and when he was told about the boy’s unexpected poor performance, he got angry and called the boy to scold him.

He told Segun “why are you doing as if you are the first person to gain admission into the university? If I had not faced my studies, do you think I will be accepted by the people the way I am now? Why are you carrying church on your head as if you are Jesus? My friend, when you get back to school, I want you to do everything possible to make it. Go extra miles, burn candles, waste my money on materials

,

Hi, Sometime ago, we published a series of narratives on the problems of parenting in modern day Nigeria and how it can be effectively tackled. The piece you will be reading today is a contribution from a young lady. Please note that there is no time limit to contributions on any issue raised on this column.

You may still send in your views on this or any of the topics raised on this column. Our address remains: The Human Angle, Vanguard, P.M.B. 1007, Apapa, Lagos and e-mail address: thehumanangle93@yahoo.com Happy reading!

On his first day at the meeting they read according to his friend.

But after one week of being with them, he started to notice that all they did in the group was not all about studying. Many of the boys had different characters and behaviours that he would have preferred not to be associated with. Then one

and make it for yourself”.

Now Segun was left alone with the dilemma of his father’s advice and began thinking seriously about how to go about achieving the things his father wanted. When he got back to school, he decided to slow down on his church activities and started missing fellowships. He began attending more classes.

Along the line, one of his roommates invited him to a meeting with a group of other guys. When Segun asked him what the meeting was about, his friend told him it was a reading and discussion group and that they could assist him improve his grades and help him pass his examinations. Segun, out of desperation to pass and make his father proud of him as he had always been, quickly accepted and was even dressed up before the proposed time.

,

home. The parents in return will send him money and food stuff, believing that he is studying hard.

Everything finally came to an end when one day, they went for an operation and were arrested. The police contacted Segun’s parents and this time around, Chief was around.

Together, they rushed to the Police Station where they met a very tearful Segun. He confessed all he had been doing in school and apologised to his parents for letting them down.

Chief tried to bail him but the bail was rejected and he was forced to leave. That day at home, Chief and his wife started blaming each other.

Chief’s main point was that while he was away looking for means of making life comfortable, why did his wife neglect the boy in school? According to him, had he been paying regular visits to the boy in school, she would have discovered his ac To becontinued

Friends Searching Males

•Tony, needs a lady, for a relationship.08035283821 •Samson, 30, from Delta state but resides in Bayelsa

state, needs a lady, aged, aged 27-29.08027472460 •John, 25, resides in Lagos, needs a girl, for a relatiuonship.08177091431 •Fidelis, 54, resides in Lagos, needs a lady, who is employed, aged 35, in Lagos, for a relationship.

07080380999 •Dan, 31, resides in Lagos, needs a caring and understanding lady, for a serious relationship, that will lead to marriage.07035722585 •Roma, 36, resides in Abuja, needs a lady, aged 35 and above for a secret love affair. 08160726354 •Martins, 52, needs a lady for a romantic relationship that will lead marriage, aged 27-35.

08163911144 •James, 30, needs an independent and open minded lady, for a relationship.07033325852 •Destiny, from Delta state, needs a tall, slim, fair in

complexion and busty lady, aged 20-30 for a romantic relationship.08129718681, 08063195141 •Osato,52, a gradate and in to private sector, needs a lady who is busty and good looking, aged 45-50, who resides in Benin and employed or in to busi•Dear readers, please note that neither Vanguard, nor Yetunde Arebi will be liable for any error in the publication of requests on the Lovezone that may result in any form of embarrassment to any member of the public.

Also note that we do not run any match-making agency in or outside the country. Any reader who transacts business with anyone claiming to be our agent does so at his/her own risk.

Henceforth, only messages sent through the numbers readers want to be contacted on will be published.

This notice is necessary in order to serve you better in our refreshingly different style. To get your requests published, just text it to the code number 33055. For further enquiries, call 08026651636. Cheers!

Tell him exactly how you feel

By ONOZURE DANIA

H

OW many times have you wanted to tell a man exactly what is going on in your mind but panicked that doing so would push him away?

How often have you said what you are feeling to a man only to have him withdraw, become angry with you, or disappear altogether?

Do you make a big deal out of nothing and take everything too seriously? Are you sick of stuffing down your feelings, walking on eggshells and pretending everything is okay?

It’s so hard to know what to do should you sugarcoat your emotions hoping that he will still get the message, only to be disappointed when he does not.

If you are anything like this description, you know what it’s like to constantly hide your real feelings from a man.

But not telling him how you really feel leaves you feeling bad about yourself, especially since it often means you end up putting up with unacceptable behavior for much too long.

Then there are the acute and chronic effects of hiding your feelings. You see, not expressing your true emotions backfires because he never gets to experience the real you. So he senses there is something funny about you and he can’t connect with you.

Gradually, things start boiling up inside you.

When you finally do express your emotions, you are burning up with anger and you explode, pushing him away. He feels like your words are an attack that you are making him wrong and telling him what to do, so he closes up and becomes defensive.

If you continue to deflect

your feelings, the issue is never going to be resolved and resentment continues to build between the two of you. The more you try to hide your true feelings, the more distant and tense he will feel.

Then, you will feel you can’t win and it feels awful paralyzing you with fear of saying the wrong thing.

The truth is, sharing our emotions is the best way to connect to a man’s heart.

You just need to learn how to do it correctly.

You can learn how to make a man fall more and more in love with you everyday, to the point where he wants nothing more than to please you and make you happy.

You can find the perfect words that will inspire him to want to push your relationship forward, whether it’s commitment, marriage or just deeper intimacy.

You can turn your entire relationship around on a dime, no matter how bad things are right now, by simply changing the words you use with a man.

This is not idealism or fantasy. I’m going to give you a single, yet incredibly powerful tool that will make it your reality.

Often, and especially when women have been swallowing whatever it is that is bothering them about a man, they will end up simmering with so much anger that one day they just can’t take it anymore. That’s when, despite a lady’s best efforts, her emotions take over and everything comes out in an explosion of feelings.

What comes out is often something that sounds like an accusation to him: “How could you have spent the whole weekend with me and then not call for two whole days?!”

ness for fun and good relationship. 08051759868, 07034890120 •Andy, 50, romantic and fun to be with, from Delta state, needs a sexy and romantic lady for a relationship.08087131507 •Efe,32,5.4ft tall, Urhobo, by tribe employed and resides in Warri, needs a pretty, tall, decent, employed and God fearing lady, aged 24-32 for a serious relationship. 08135110329, 08122860147 •Adeshola,28, 5.6ft tall, handsome, kind hearted romantic, down to earth and a single father, needs a matured, either divorced or a single, lady, for a relationship. 08185407117 •Daro, tall, handsome and dark in complexion, needs a rich lady for a good loving relationship.08134814853 •Seal is 30, resides in Abuja and needs a good and loving lady, aged 35-60, for a relationship.08163243011 •Francis, 50, married with kids, needs a second lady for marriage, who is still in stage of child bearing and will assist financially. 08063534323, 08077845717, 08105351650

Vanguard Vanguard,,

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 — 43

YOUR LUCK TODAY

By Joshua Adeyemo Phone 08056180139 SCORPIO; Those willing to put you to shame one way or the other ’ll be disappointed with the turn of things today.

It’s good to secure support of your spouse SAGITTARIUS; You’ve had enough of fun in the recent times and it’s now time you settle down for hard work in order to prevent avoidable trouble. Be patient please.

CAPRICORN; Your concentration level and determination are the pillars of your success today. Yet you’ll need to respect your senior colleagues and protect your image AQUARIUS; It’s true you’re willing to work harder but you just have to drop both aggression and mental arrogance to allow things to roll accordingly. Then, you’re accident prone within your working arena. Respect the law and its agents today.

PISCES; Serious thought may be giving to matters of the heart but it’s better you tarry a while. Joint ventures of short duration today may be an invitation to avoidable trouble

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

F

OR those that know me intimately well, they can identify me with my principles of “anything is possible”. Yes! there is nothing impossible. Even

Do it an ay anyy w wa when everybody around me believes otherwise, I do not allow it to weigh me down. Look around you and tell me which notable human achievement has ever

seemed possible in the eyes of cynics? Did the whole Nigerians not say Super Eagles of Nigeria can’t win the 29th edition of the African Cup of Nations.

TERROR MUDA in “Never say goodbye”

All you need is to believe in yourself.

Have faith in God. Get started. Get along.

Anyway, anyhow keep on going and the Almighty God will perfect your effort.

Do it anyway, today!

By Lanre Kehinde

ARIES ; If you back your financial plans with concrete and positive actions things’ll go according to your desire. If you fail to realise importance of your spouse you would work your way into avoidable trouble; aren’t you tired of crisis?.

TAURUS; Your intelligence, competence and level of concentration may today bring you envy, which you don’t deserve within your working arena in a negative form but, you’ll succeed.. Entertain no fear, and take advantage of your sex-appeal for love.

GEMINI;. Placement of the Moon highlights your Solar second house of money which is good but, if you try to buy true love with money, you’ll be disappointed CANCER; The. Moon in your Star sign’ll gives you new confidence and with new supports from the powers-thatbe, it’s like you are now un-stop-able. But be cautious, especially with the veterans within your base of operation LEO; Tomorrow is your better day. But you will today need to do away with non-productive argument and/or agreement. Try to be more diplomatic now.

VIRGO; If what you’re doing today’ll depend on tomorrow’s event it’s better you’re more careful now. Even things may not go according to your personal plans today. Yet it’s important you plan both your immediate and far future carefully now

KAPTAIN AFRIKA

in

“Princess Shii’

By Andy Akman

LIBRA; If you take to aggression, your ego would be deflated by your superior colleagues, but your being cooperative in a civilised way’ll prevent trouble

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,

Characteristics of Sagittarius Dear Joshua, Kindly give me characteristics of Sagittarius.

Dunni, Lagos.

Dear Dunni, Here-under are basic characteristics of Sagittarius

BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF SAGITTARIUS Sagittarius is a mutable sign by its quality. It ‘s element is fire, symbolised by half horse half man and/or an Archer aiming at the sky. Mutable means changes and experimentation, while fire is all about enthusiasm, taking of the initiative and leadership ability. Thus, you are the type that will exhibit strong interest in an important project that catches your fancy and you will not mind to experiment with ideas just to achieve your objectives and aims. Sagittarius is 9th of the twelve Zodiac signs that rules philosophy, RELIGION, law, foreign land, higher mind/higher institutions, lawyer, long (distance) travelling, in-laws, future, optimism and bluntness. Major problem or weak points of Sagittarians are excessive openness/bluntness and sometimes fanatical approach to religion.

Being a born adventurer, you are not afraid of exploration and new beginning. Sagittarians are incurable optimists and ever ready to listen to and eager to believe others. Honesty is truly in your inner self You are a tolerant person but you are not ready to compromise your FREEDOM Sagittarius as a fire sign can make you a quick tempered person. Half horse half man as the symbol, of Sagittarius indicates dual (double) personalities known in different circles with different personalities. Yet, you are not a pretender.

As the Archer aims arrow into the sky so also Sagittarians have many lofty ideas and ambitions. But sometimes their ideas and/or ideals are not practical enough for realisation.

Many times, they start too many things at the same time only to .either forget or lose view of their original target.

Development of practical approach is more important for Sagittarians this is in order to make success of many of their brilliant ideas, otherwise they tend to become dreamers.

In reality, Sagittarians are dreamers (by this 1 mean real dream many use to have at night when sleeping) and many of their dreams usually come to pass. Sometimes their dreams are vividly prophetic.

Sagittarians are born philosophers. That is why they have well developed minds indispensable to rare wisdom, Then, they are humorous, lively, sports loving out going, energetic, good hearted, in love with change/experimentation, ever willing to co-operate, socially inclined, enthusiastic and highly intelligent. Ironically as intelligent as they are, they can surprisingly appear fanatical about their convinction and/or views.

VIRGINIA

HOME & AWAY

dadadekola@yahoo.com

by Lawrence Akapa

44—Vanguard , THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Save displaced Nigerians, FG told

BY TOMMY ANADUAKA

T

HE FEDERAL Government has been called upon to liaise with other countries, where Nigerians have taken refuge while fleeing from the outlawed Boko Haram insurgency.

A civil society group, Human Rights Initiative, HRI, which made the call, in Asaba, Delta State, also called on the Federal Government to create a conducive bilateral corridor between her and the other countries, where most Nigerians had taken refuge, while fleeing from the activities of Boko Haram Islamic sect.

2015: Don’t allow factionalisation of NGF, Ogbemudia tells Jonathan .Says Oshiomhole never begged to join PDP

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

B

ENIN CITY — A member of Board of Trustees of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and former governor of old Bendel State, Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia, yesterday, warned that any attempt to

polarise the Nigeria Governor ’s Forum may adversely affect the chances of the party in the 2015 presidential election.

He urged President Goodluck Jonathan to remain neutral on the issue, by inviting the two factions for a meet-

ing, so as to amicably resolve same.

Ogbemudia, in his reacting to the comment by the leadership of PDP in Abuja, that Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State pleaded to join PDP, described the statement as untrue, explaining that due

Ogbemi passes on @ 62

D

R. Solomon Ogbemi of Warri, Delta State, is dead, aged 62.

He retired from Delta State Local Council Service Board in 2011, as medical officer in charge of Warri Local Government Area after 34 years service in Kwara, Edo and Delta states.

A statement by the family said he will be laid to rest in his residence in Koko, Delta State, on June 15.

He is survived by two daughters, Miss Jolone Ogbemi, Mrs. Ogbitse Ajemigbogho, and other relations.

Gov. Theodore Orji of Abia State (right), with MD, J & J Techno Nig, Engr. Tony Jamhour, during an inspection tour of the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs Complex under construction in Umuahia

Delta House leadership commended over laudable programmes

BY VICTOR AHIUMAYOUNG

L

AGOS — THE Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, has commended

the leadership of Delta State House of Assembly for its laudable programmes and legislative activities aimed at bringing succour to the people of the state.

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Clement Illoh, spoke during a courtesy visit to the Speaker, Delta Assembly, Mr. Victor Ochei.

He briefed the Speaker on

Rivers Dep. Speaker reaffirms Ogonis' support for Amaechi

BY EGUFE YAFUGBORHI

P

Late Dr. Ogbemi

to the efforts being made to bring peace to Edo PDP and bring more people into the party, “I led a delegation of myself, Senator Oyofo, Dr. Willie Ogbeide and three others to persuade Oshiomhole to come to PDP and he told us that if he comes to PDP, his friends in the media will kill him.

“I was, therefore, embarrassed when I heard that PDP said he came to them and they rejected him. The answer for PDP lies in coming together to resolve their problem, instal internal democracy and re-organise their management to victory,” he said.

On the issue of the NGF, he said that “the Governors' Forum, according to experts, is not in the constitution, but as far as I am concerned whether it is in the constitution or not, it has come to stay.

"The governors are the custodians of the democratic votes, they are the ones running the country, they are supposed to be the Chief Security Officers of their each states."

ORT HARCOURT — DEPUTY Speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly, Mr. Leyii Kwanee has pledged the support of Ogonis of Riv-

ers State to the administration and political leadership of Governor Rotimi Amaechi.

Kwanee, who spoke at the burial of Mr. Moses Mbani, former Treasurer of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in

Khana Local Government Area of the state, tasked the people in the locality to support the governor as he faces another trying period as a leading player in the development of Rivers.

By Bartholomew Madukwe

PEOPLE SPEAK

08102479985

the rigorous processes that led to his emergence as a Federal Permanent Secretary, representing Delta State, as well as the activities of his ministry since he assumed office, describing his appointment as divine.

He also commended the leadership of the House for its people-oriented services to the state.

“Over the years, I have followed with keen interest your laudable programmes aimed at bringing the dividends of democracy to our people."

(nwamad@yahoo.com)

37 days of ASUP strike: What is your view?

I

believe the Federal Gov-ernment likes granting amnesty in this country. Let them wait and see polytechnic students turn violent at home, since that is what they want. Then they will grant them amnesty.

— Miss Anne Oriaku, Student

G

OD is washing the discrepancy in the labour market. If care is not taken, polytechnic will be like o’level certificate. But God forbids! Let all affected persons merge together and cultivate everlasting fruit of freedom over this discrimination. — Miss Sophia Osuji, Student

I

S this the way Mr. President and his cabinet want to pay back students who gave their lives during the election that brought them to power? Or is it because none of their children school in polytechnics? Do they still believe we are the leaders of tomorrow?

—Miss Chika Dike, Student

P

LEASE, Mr. President, try to consider the students. If you don’t want polytechnics to exist any longer, it is better that Nigerians so are told.

Some are going for NYSC but because of strike they were unable to collect their results. — Mrs. Assumpta Ebere, Bussinessperson

G

OVERNMENT wants to turn Nigerian students to touts, but God will not allow it to happen. No wonder proverbs 29:2 says “when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice but when the wicked rule, the people mourn.” —Miss Anasithesia Ezeka, Bussinessperson

F

EDERAL Government should, please, come to our aid by resolving the ASUP matter because our future is more important to us.

We are pleading with the government to come to our aid.— Miss Chimezie Nnenna, Student

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013—45

Ijaw group warns Clark’s critics

Ogienwonyi blames Boko Haram insurgency on poverty, unemployment

F

B

OLLOWING the continuous criticism of South South leader, Chief Edwin Clark, in some quarters, over his recent stand that Chief Godsday Orubebe, Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, cannot vie for the governorship of the state, members of Delta Ijaw Core Support Group have called on such persons to be wary of their utterances against the elder statesman.

Speaking during the monthly meeting of the group in Warri, Delta State, yesterday, President of the group, Mr Godwin Masah, said that those criticising Chief Clark for telling Orubebe not to contest are political jobbers, who are aware that Orubebe is the least qualified for the office of governorship because of his handling of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and other previous assignments.

Ukueku passes on @ 87

C

HIEF Johnson Ukueku, a foremost pharmacist and Chairman of Johnson & Jones Chemist Limited, is dead, aged 87. The elder statesman passed on May 21, at Eku Baptist Hospital, Eku, Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State.

A statement by Chief Gabriel Ukueku for the family and Chief Ochuku Ukueku for the children, said condolence registers had been opened at his residence at Ukueku Close, Warri – Sapele Road, Water Resources, Effurun, and his country home in Eku. Funeral arrangements will be announced later.

Late Chief Ukueku C M Y K

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM ENIN—FORMER Minister of State for Works, Engr. Chris Ogienwonyi, has urged the Federal Government to find solution to the prevailing poverty and joblessness amongst Nigerian youths in order to ensure security in the country.

Ogienwonyi, at the one year anniversary of Come Alive for Niger Delta Initiative, a nongovernmental organisation, set up a year ago, attributed the Boko Haram insurgency to poverty and what he described as employment crisis plaguing Nigerian youths.

He said: “The truth still remains that it will be difficult for us as a country to solve the problem of security without tackling the issue of joblessness and poverty. If our youths are gainfully employed or empowered, they cannot be tools in the hands of politicians and once this happens, it will even solidify our democracy because it will allow our people elect their leaders without any form of rigging.

“I to appeal to government at all levels and the Federal Government in particular to

expedite action on its programmes for the youths and also in the agricultural sector, so that we can provide enough employment opportunities for our youths.”

Commending the beneficiaries of the Come Alive for

Niger Delta Initiative, which was concluded with the presentation of certificates and awards to graduands drawn from Edo and Delta states, the former minister, said it had not been easy sustaining the youth initiative and appealed

EASTERN BAR FORUM: From right: Mr. Francis Egele, Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Bayelsa State; Justice Kate Dabiri, Chief Judge of Bayelsa State and Chairman of the occasion; and Mr. Kemasuode Wodu, Chairman, Eastern Bar Forum, during the 2013 Eastern Bar Forum Legal Workshop, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Photo: Nwankpa Chijioke.

My greatest regret as NAFDAC boss,

by Akunyili

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

Y

ENAGOA—FORMER Director General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Prof.

Dora Akunyili, yesterday, said her greatest regret as NAFDAC boss was her inability to bring to fruition the establishment of drug marts in the country.

Akunyili, who spoke at the launch of a drug mart in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, said

it was an idea she had nursed over the years but could not actualise during her stay in office.

She lauded Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State for the move to establish a drug mart in the state, saying it remains one of the most practical ways of eliminating fake and counterfeit drugs from the country.

She said: “I have nursed the idea of the drug mart for many years right from when I was Director General of NAFDAC, and my inability

to bring it to fruition before now remained one of my greatest regrets. Today, I feel fulfilled that the pragmatic governor of Bayelsa State has bought the idea and decided to partner my non-governmental organisation, Dora Akunyili Foundation for Safe Medicines, to actualise the dream of putting in place a drug mart or drug distribution centre in Bayelsa State.

“It is one of the most practical ways by which fake and counterfeit drugs can be eliminated from the country."

We won’t accept shoddy projects from contractors —DESOPADEC

BY EMMA AMAIZE

W

ARRI—DELTA State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC, Delta State, has warned that it will not accept poorly executed road projects by contractors in oil producing communities of the state.

The Commissioner representing Udu, Uvwie and Ughelli- South Local Government Areas on the board of DESOPADEC, Mr. Festus

to well meaning Nigerians to assist financially in the interest of the youths.

Also speaking, the Obasogie of Benin Kingdom, Chief Eduwu Ekhator, admonished the youths to be focused and ensure that the equipment in the centres were properly utilised.

Utuama, at Ughelli, during an inspection of projects in his mandate area, said the commission would not hesitate to revoke any substandard project and urged the contractors to adhere strictly to specifications, as contained in the bill of quantity, BOQ. He said that Governor Emmanuel Udughan had charged the commission, during its inauguration, to ensure that no project was abandoned, adding that the

board would religiously implement the directive.

Among the projects he inspected were a solar water project at Effrun –Otor- Ukpionvwi Oghior Road and Ovwor Model Primary School, in Ughelli South council.

Mr. Utuama, who was impressed with the level of job done, commended the contractor handling the project and advised him to always be in touch with DESOPADEC engineers, to avoid making avoidable mistakes.

2015: Jonathan qualified to contest —Mudiaga-Odje

BY FESTUS AHON

U

GHELLI—FACILITATOR of Niger Delta Democratic Union, NDDU, Dr. Akpo Mudiaga-Odje, yesterday, insisted that President Goodluck Jonathan was qualified to seek re-election in 2015 under the 1999 constitution, as amended.

He said that the declaration of a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states without dismantling the political structures, was the best thing President Jonathan did, noting that “the President has no powers, under the constitution, to suspend any elected person.

“There is certainly no need for the furore over the intention of Mr. President to contest for a second term in 2015. The basic and highest law of our land, which is the 1999 constitution as amended, has clearly provided and set forth the grounds that disqualify any Nigerian from seeking election into the office of the President, under Section 131 thereof.

“And a close examination of the provisions of Section 131 reveals clearly that the Jonathan is not disqualified directly or indirectly from contesting for a second term in office."

46— Vanguard , THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Strike: NUT gives Ebonyi govt 2-week ultimatum

Chime orders commissioners to submit performance report

BY TONY EDIKE

BY PETER OKUTU

A

BAKALIKI—EBONYI State chapter of Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, yesterday, gave the state government two weeks to conclude negotiations on payment of 27.5 percent salary increment to teachers in the state or face strike.

The national executive of the NUT had directed 11 states’ chapters of the union, including Ebonyi State, to commence an indefinite strike over the non-payment of 27.5 percent “Teachers’ Peculiar Allowance” to teachers in the country.

The affected states, according to NUT national leadership are, Benue, Cross River, Bornu, Ekiti, Ogun, Ebonyi, Edo, Kogi, Niger, Zamfara and Sokoto.

In a statement by the State Chairman, NUT, Comrade Nweke Joseph, State President, ANCOPSS, Comrade Nwalo Peter, State Chairman, AOPSHON, Comrade Opoke Ephraim and Principal State Secretary, Comrade Ikpitibo Clinton at the end of an emergency meeting in Abakaliki, the union appealed to teachers in public primary and secondary schools across the state to go about their normal duties and await further directives from them.

Madam Abache for burial

M

ADAM Mamuna Maria Eaterumehegbe Abache, 75, of Afokpella, Okpella Etsako East Local Government Area of Edo State, is dead. She died on May 9, 2013.

A statement by Pastor James Abache, one her children, said funeral programmes will commence on Friday June 7, 2013, with service of songs and Christian wake keep at her residence, Afokpella, Okpella Etsako East Local Government Area, followed by Church service at Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Afokpella, on Saturday. Her interment follows immediately after the church service. Thanksgiving service will hold Sunday, at the same church.

Late Madam Abache C M Y K

E

VISIT—From right: Deputy Speaker, House of Representative, Emeka Ihedioha; Leader of the Ovuru and Mbaise People of Imo State delegation, Dr. Paddy Njokwu; and Mrs. Cachi Njokwu JP, during their visit to the National Assembly, Abuja. Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan.

Dana: Aviation law experts ask FG to explain cause of crash

BY KENNETH EHIGIATOR VIATION Attorney Group, AAG, led by British law firm, Irwin Mitchell, has charged the Federal Government to explain circumstances that led to the crash of Dana airline on June 3, 2012, saying explanations contained in the interim report on the accident were not convincing.

The group, made up of international aviation law experts, currently represents families of victims of the crash which occurred in a Lagos suburb, Iju Ishaga, while the MD-83 airliner was approacing the Murtala Muhammed Airport.

AAG, which spoke through its press officer, Rob Dixon, lamented that while the Nigerian au-

A

thorities were yet to explain the cause of the accident, the airline had also not paid families of victims statutory compensation.

It alleged that Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, was yet to respond to series of correspondence sent to it on the issue.

Dixon said in a statement sent to Vanguard yesterday: “International aviation law experts representing the families of passengers killed in a Dana Air crash in Lagos on June 3 last year are now demanding that authorities in Nigeria provide answers over the incident and explain what is being done to improve flight safety in the country, following the first anniversary of the tragedy.

“More than 150 passengers including a British citizen, a family of six Americans, four Chinese, two Lebanese and a French woman were killed in the crash, along with six crew and 10 people on the ground.

“A preliminary report released around a month after the incident suggesting it was caused by a loss of power from the engines but it does not identify what caused this power loss nor does it disclose key evidence from the Cockpit Voice Recorder, which survived the crash.

“However, despite writing to the NCAA and requesting more information related to the flight, Irwin Mitchell’s team of experts have been repeatedly frustrated at their attempts to access vital detail over the events of the day".

Gulf of Guinea 'll experience flooding this year — ACMAD

BY JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU

A

BUJA—AFRICAN Centre for Meteorological Application for Development, ACMAD, has predicted that regional ocean basins, especially the North Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Guinea, will witness flooding as a result of heavy rainfall this year.

It would be recalled that last year, water released from LAGDO dam by the Camerounian government flooded areas around the dam, including Adamawa State, resulting in over 10 deaths and loss of property worth millions of naira.

Besides, over 12,000 people were displaced in Cross River State as a result of the effect of the flooding from the dam, while at the lower Benue river region, more than 10,000 homes were submerged and streets of Makurdi town occupied by croc-

odiles, amongst other dangerous, creeping creatures.

In a statement at the 16th Regional Climate Outlook Forum for West Africa, Chad and Cameroon, PRESAO-16, with the theme, “Risk Management in

Agriculture, Water Resources and Health,” ACMAD advised governments of countries within the ocean basins to take precautionary measures to prevent a recurrence of last year’s experience in some countries.

Onaiyekan, 50 others for Nsukka Catholic Bishops' inauguration

BY TONY EDIKE

E

NUGU—Archbishop of Abuja Diocese, His Eminence, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, is expected to lead over 50 bishops from the conference of the Nigerian Bishops for the Episcopal ordination/installation of the new Bishop of Nsukka Diocese, Prof Godfrey Igwebuike Onah, billed for July 4 this year.

According to the Diocese, the Bishop-elect, who had lived

over two decades in Rome, would use his amazing contact with friends and colleagues to impact positively on the growth of the Diocese.

Chairman of the Ordination/ installation General Committee and former Minister of Information, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, who briefed newsmen on the proposed inauguration, said over seven governors, senators, ministers and 1,000 priests, among others, were expected at the event.

NUGU—ENUGU State governor, Mr. Sullivan Chime, has directed commissioners in the state to henceforth prepare and submit to the office of the Secretary to the State Government an annual performance assessment report of their ministries.

Chime gave the directive while addressing the opening ceremony of a two-day mid-term retreat for the State Executive Council, EXCO, members at Nike Lake Resort Hotels, Enugu.

He spoke through the Deputy Governor, Mr. Sunday Onyebuchi, pointing out that the report would enable the government have a database of its activities in all the ministries and also identify new challenges and concerns for prompt attention.

He told the participants that the retreat was designed to provide them the opportunity to review government performances and see whether they were in line with existing plans for action.

....As Nsukka people laud him

BY CHINENYEH OZOR

N

SUKKA—THE peo ple of Nsukka in Enugu State have commended the state governor, Mr Sullivan Chime, on his declaration that it was the turn of the zone to produce the next governor of the state in 2015.

According to them, Chime’s declaration has shown that he is a man of honour.

This was contained in a statement by the Chairman of Nsukka Elders Cultural Forum, NECF, Chief Maximus Ukuta yesterday.

Ukuta was reacting to the just concluded Town Hall meeting in Enugu where Governor Chime informed the members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and other stakeholders that it was the turn of Nsukka to produce his successor based on an internal arrangement of the party during the 2015 governorship election.

Vanguard , THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013—47

DONATION: Corporate Sales Manager (Nigeria), British Airways, Adetutu Otuyalo (left); Trade Sales Manager (Nigeria), British Airways, Ademola Sanya (right); during the presention of utilities including mosquito nets to homes for the less-privileged including Modupe Cole Child Care and Treatment Home/School, represented FORUM: Mr. Enahoro Michael, Executive Director, Excellent World Foundation by Class Teacher, Akinkunmi Abiodun (2nd right) and 18-year-old (left) and former President Olusegun Obasanjo, at the Disaster and Flood Manage- student, Taiwo to mark this year's Children's Day celebration for polio-surviving children, by British Airways and Nigeria-Britain Assoment Forum, organised by the Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta. ciation in Lagos. Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi.

From left: Prof. Murray Low; Mr. Austin Okere and Clifford Shorer, at the Columbia Business School’s Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Centre and MasLAUNCHING: From left: German Consul General, Mr. Walter Von Den sachusetts Institute of Technology’s Legatum Centre for Development and Driesch; Director, Chemical Evaluation and Research, NAFDAC, Mr. Momodu Entrepreneurship, US. Segiru- Mamodu and Prof. Olutayo Alebiosu, Provost, College of Health Sciences, Osun State University, Osogbo, at the launch of Bayer Contour TS Blood Glucose Monitoring device in Lagos.

PRESENTATION: From left: Mr. Dada Ajai-Ikhile, Ex-officio; Mrs. Omolara Ikpen, Financial Secretary; Mrs. Magdalene Osumah, Chairman, PTA, presenting the keys to Mrs. Catherine Ebuoma, Director of the School and Mr. Emmanuel Bada, School Head, at the presentation of a second School bus by the PTA to Halcyon International School, Ilupeju, Lagos. Photo: Diran Oshe.

SEMINAR: From left: Deaconess Monica Umoh, Programme Facilitator; Deaconess Funke Akinbola and a volunteer, at the Global Outreach and Open Health seminar of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Lagos.

C M Y K

AWARD: From left: Mr. Felix Kumuyi, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of TransQuest Magazine; Chief Jacob Idinye, GM, Africa Independent Television, AIT, and Presenter of Customs Report, receiving the award for the Best Transport Reporter from Mr. Nseobong Akpabio, Sector Commander, FRSC, Lagos State and Dr. Zebulon Ikokide, President, Nigerian Institute of Freight Forwarders during the TransQuest Media Concepts' 6th anniversary in Lagos. Photo: Bunmi Azeez.

BRIEFING: From left: Mr. Oladele Lateef, South-West Leader; Mr. Ismail Lanleyin, Convener, National Youth Council of Nigeria, NYCN; Mr. Taofeeq Gbadebo, NYCN Chairman, Lagos State chapter and Mr. Hameed Abiola, Co-convener, during the NYCN/Network Voluntary Youth Organizations of Nigeria, South West zone briefing on the aborted National Congress in Makurdi, Benue State in Lagos. Photo: Bunmi Azeez.

SIGNING: From left: Coordinator, 1000 Leaders Meeting Project Group, Mr. Nsikak Daniels; President, Board of Trustees, Lagos Penya Club, Mr. Leslie Oghomienor and Senior Vice President, Board of Trustees, Mr. Kayode Adeleke, after the signing ceremony between 1000 Leaders Meeting Project Group and Lagos Penya Club in Lagos.

48—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Yuguda defends relocation of Tafawa Balewa LG Hqtrs

PAC moves to assist security agencies

A

BY SONI DANIEL, REGIONAL EDITOR, NORTH & SUZAN EDEH

B

AUCHI—GOVER NOR Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State, yesterday, defended the relocation of the headquarters of the crisisridden Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area from Tafawa Balewa to a neutral ground at Bununu, saying it was to avert further bloodbath.

Yuguda, who spoke while laying the foundation stone of the local government secretariat, said that the relocation had halted the spate of destruction of lives and property, which was almost spreading to neighbouring states.

Earlier, Yuguda had laid the foundation stone of the Bauchi State Specialist Hospital valued at N4 billion. It is expected to be completed in May next year and meant to replace the one taken over by the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching Hospital to qualify the state for training medical students.

At Bununu, the governor said that there was no justification whatsoever for groups, which should be living together in peace, to be embroiled in ceaseless conflicts largely propelled by religious intolerance, as neither Christianity nor Islam preaches violence.

NCC—From left: Assistant Director, Human Capital, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mr. Ike Adinde, and NCC Commissioners : Dr. Mike Onyia, Mrs Biodun Olujimi and Alhaji Yusuf Hamisu Abubakar at the 73rd Telecom Consumer Parliament in Enugu.

NOA urges teachers to support Jonathan's transformation agenda A

BUJA— THE National Orientation Agency, NOA, has urged school principals, headmasters and teachers to support President Goodluck Jonathan’s transformation agenda by imparting the right values in their students.

Mr Mike Omeri,the Director General of the agency, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, yesterday in Abuja.

According to him, school teachers should use their roles to support government’s transformation agenda by imparting the right values in their students.

Omeri said that the essence of producing transformational teachers was to impart the right values that could shape the character of the students to secure their future.

He added that imparting the right values would benefit the future leaders and the educational system.

The NOA boss stressed that human capital drives and determines the pace of development of any nation and challenged teachers to execute their tasks with all diligence.

Omeri said that teachers are to build human capital via professionalism and vi-

101 physically-challenged persons graduate from skill acquisition centre in Bauchi

BY SUZAN EDEH

B

AUCHI—ABOUT 101 physically-challenged persons have graduated from the skill acquisition centre established by Challenge Your Disability Initiative, CYDI, in Bauchi State.

Speaking during the ceremony, yesterday, the wife of the state governor and founder of CYDI, Hajiya Abiodun Yuguda said the beneficiaries were drawn from 10 local government areas of the state, including Katagum, Ganjua, Kirfi, Bogoro, Bauchi, Misau, Darazo, Toro, Shira and Gamawa.

She said that the training of

the beneficiaries was carried out in partnership with Bauchi State Commission for the Rehabilitation and Development of Youths and Women, BACYWORD. Yuguda further said that the aim of the training was to make some impact in the lives of the less privileged and people living with disabilities, adding that,“this is with the view to transform and make them become useful for themselves and the society in general, therefore contributing to the economic growth of the state.”

She, however, expressed gratitude to BACYWORD for being a good and dependable partner.

According to her, the beneficiaries were the third set of

graduands of the skill acquisition programme, even as 105 other less privileged and physically challenged persons had so far been trained by the CYDI. The beneficiaries were trained in vocations such as welding, carpentry, tailoring, knitting, embroidery, vulcanizing and hairdressing among others.

Chairman of BACYWORD, Prof. Musa Maisamari commended the Governor’s wife for her passion for assisting the less priveledged and physically challenged in the society and advised the beneficiaries to make proper use of the opportunity.

sion for the future.

He said that they should therefore be resolute in grooming students for a better society.

"Teachers must correct the malaise in the educational sector by cultivating the right values in the students", he said.

He urged government to select teachers who were ‘teachers by choice’ and not just by certificate, adding that competence and not certificates made good teachers.

NAN reports that NOA had, on April 18, commenced mobilisation of principals of secondary schools to stem unpatriotic behaviours and vices among the students.

Omeri said the programme with theme: "Moral Rejuvenation in Schools", became necessary as a result of moral decadence being witnessed across the nation’s secondary schools, adding that such would no longer be tolerated.

BUJA—THE Police Affairs Committee, PAC, yesterday, embarked on new strategies and tactics to mobilize its grassroots members nation-wide towards assisting security agencies in the country through information and intelligence gathering.

Director-General of PAC, Dr. Martins Oni spoke at a one-day workshop on Information/ Intelligence gathering held in partnership with the Senate Committee on Police Affairs in Abuja to educate and train members of the public on how to assist security agencies.

He said, the current security challenges in the country had made it imperative that some important groups within the grassroot under associations of tradesmen/ artisans could be mobilized as informants to assist security operatives in reducing high rate of crimes in the country.

The security workshop which had in attendance, the chairman Senate Committee on Police Affairs and representatives of all service chiefs including the Inspector General of Police, IGP, among others deliberated on the new strategies adopted by PAC. This centred on community policing using various categories of tradesmen and artisans in the area of giving voluntary assistance to security agencies nationwide through information and intelligence gathering and dissemination.

FGBMFI seminar addresses business devt

L

AGOS—AS part of efforts towards strengthening the entrepreneurial skills and career development strategies of Nigerians, the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International, FGBMFI, South West 3 District, will from June 7 to 8 hold its 2013 Annual Business Seminar.

The seminar tagged Business and career sustenance strategies will hold in Lagos.

At a press briefing to an-

nounce the programme for the seminar recently, the District Coordinator, Mr. Fola Aguda, said the seminar will help participants to acquire critical skills that will enable them structure their careers and businesses for sustainability.

Aguda further said: “A good number of businesses and other service organizations start well but die before age five. Success in business and career is not powered by zeal and hard work alone.”

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013— 49

C M Y K

50—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

CONSTITUTION REVIEW REPORT: Six-year single term for Presidents, Govs Continues from page 5 In the recommendation, Diaspora voting system was also rejected against the backdrop that it would be counter productive to extend the responsibilities of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC abroad without the requisite capacity.

Life salary for NASS officers The Committee recommended that former Senate Presidents, Deputy Senate Presidents, Speaker, House of Representatives shall be entitled to pension for life at a rate equivalent to the annual salary of the incumbent President or Deputy President of the Senate, Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of Representa-

C M Y K

tives.

The Committee also recommended Financial Autonomy for local governments as the existing State-Local Government Joint Account was expunged from the Constitution.

It was also recommended that "where the persons duly elected as President and Vice President die or are unable for any reason whatever to assume office before the inauguration of the National Assembly, the Independent National Electoral Commission shall immediately conduct an election for a President and the Vice President.

"Where a person duly elected as President dies before taking and subscribing to the Oath of Allegiance and oath of office; is for any reason whatsoever unable to be sworn in; dies while

holding such office, resigns from office or otherwise ceases to hold office in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution, the Vice President-elect shall be sworn in as President and a Vice President appointed in accordance with the provisions of this constitution and in the case of(c) above, the Vice- President shall hold the office of President and shall complete the remaining term of office of the President.”

According to Ekweremadu, devolution of powers, creation of states, recognition of geo-political zones, local governments, fiscal federalism, mayoral status for the FCT and executive immunity were some of the issues highlighted, adding that "those recommendations were derived from the

views of Nigerians as expressed in memoranda submitted to the committee. Since then, the committee has systematically aggregated and analyzed all proposals, comments and experiences and translated them into constitutional review recommendations informed by international good practices.

According to the report, "to guarantee the independence of the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Attorney-General of the State, the office is accordingly separated from that of the Minister of Justice or Commissioner for Justice.

"Section 162 - Removal of State-Local Government Joint Accounts. To make for accountability, and an effective Local Government system, the

State-Local Government Joint Account is expunged from the Constitution.

"Section 302 - An Elected Mayoral System of Administration for the Federal Capital Territory.

Accordingly, a Mayoral status to the FCT is not only in keeping with the practice in many capital cities of the world, but it is also to ensure efficient administration of the FCT. "Section 6 of the 1st Alteration Act. Direct funding from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation is made for the Attorney-General of the Federation, the Auditor-General of the Federation, Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission; and the National Human Rights Commission.

According to the Second Schedule, Part 1 Devolution of Powers of the States: States can now constitutionally carry out such responsibilities that were exclusively for the Federal

Government, adding, "the Exclusive list under part 1 of the Second Schedule to the Constitution is congested, cumbersome and unwieldy.

There is therefore, the need to decongest the exclusive list by maintaining only items of utmost importance to the federation as a whole, while transferring items of concurrent interests to the concurrent list. The Committee therefore substituted “Posts and Telegraphs” with “Posts and Telecommunications “, removed Prisons, Railways, Stamp Duties and Wages from the Exclusive Legislative List and also added new items to the Exclusive and Concurrent lists namely: (Concurrent List) Arbitration, Environment, Healthcare, Prisons, Railways, Road Safety, Stamp Duties, Wages, Land and Agriculture, Youths, Public Complaints and Aviation and (Exclusive List) National Security.

Continues on page 51

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013—51

ommend that the preferred approach at this time is to critically look at the current federal police system with a view to sanitizing and strengthening it.”

No special status for Lagos

From left: Mr. Dan Obi, winner, Best CSR Report of the Year; Mr. Charles Igbinidu, MD TPT International and Mr. Isiaka Lawal, Coordinator Corporate Communications, Promasidor Nigeria Limited, during the presentation of Promasidor’s products to winners of Quill Awards in Lagos, yesterday.

CONSTITUTION REVIEW REPORT: Six-year single term for Presidents, Govs Continues from page 50 In the third schedule of the constitution, section 6 of the second alteration act, section 14 of the third alteration act, sections 150, 174,195 &211 which is on judicial reforms, the Committee "recognizes the singular role of the judiciary as the final arbiter over all disputes in the nation. Thus, the recommendations seek to reinforce the independence of the Judiciary; provide for the elaboration of rules, regulations and administrative processes that enhance quick and affordable access to justice.”

On remuneration of past Presiding officers of the National assembly according to section 84 (5), the Committee recommends that "past presiding officers of the National Assembly should be remunerated (provided that such officers were not impeached) just as it is the case with certain past judicial and executive officers.”

The committee's proposals "In its deliberations and painstaking analysis of the proposals, comments from stakeholders and strategic partners, reports of experts, C M Y K

feedbacks from the National and Zonal Public Hearings and the Bills referred to it, the Committee observed as follows: (a)While most proposals and forwarded Bills were widely popular with the citizenry and advanced strong arguments for constitutional amendments, the Committee was constraint to assess not only the popularity of the proposals, but also their value and workability in the context of Nigeria.

Of course, citizen’s views have been carefully integrated into every recommendation contained in the draft bill. It must be underlined, however, that these views were appraised in the context of their compatibility with the Constitution as a whole as well as with democratic principles and national unity in general.

"Some of the bills referred were not as comprehensive and were rife with ambiguities, some do not promote the spirit of separation of powers in a Presidential system of Government, while some proposals are better treated as conventions rather than codified in the Constitution.

"Senate Bill 96 which is a proposal seeking to establish State Courts of

appeal in the six geopolitical zones, introduce State Legislative list, adjust and modify the legislative powers of government between the Federal and State Governments and provide for the recognition of the six geo-political zones in the Constitution. The Committee is of the view that the present structure/arrangement should be sustained. (ii) Senate Bill 136 Constitution (Alteration Bill). This Bill seeks to provide for the implementation and or execution of the National Assembly resolutions and or approve report of investigations conducted by the National Assembly.

This proposal good as it may be to assert the authority of the National Assembly does not promote the spirit of separation of powers in a presidential system of government and it apparently encroaches on the powers of the executive arm of government.

"Senate Bill 139 - Constitution (Alteration Bill) 2012. This Bill seeks to provide for more responsibility to the State by transferring some legislative items from the Exclusive legislative list to the Concurrent list. It also provides for the creation of the Office of the Auditor-General

of the Federation as distinct from the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federal Government of Nigeria. The scope of the transfer of items in the Exclusive list is too wide especially considering the fact that the Committee has already transferred and included more items into the concurrent list. It is necessary to maintain a strong federal government that can hold the country together.

In the case of the Auditor-General, the present constitutional provision is good and wide enough. What is required is financial independence which has now been provided for.”

On the President attaching portfolios to list of Ministerial nominees, the Committee said, ‘’this seeks to make provision that will enable the National Assembly to be more effective in the screening of Ministerial nominees by ensuring that portfolio is attached to each nominee.

Assigning portfolios should remain the prerogative of the President for reasons of flexibility.

Besides, it has been shown that professional qualification does not necessarily approximate to performance in practical terms.”

On rejection of State Police, he said, ‘’We rec-

On Special Status for Lagos, the Committee concluded that ‘’While the Committee appreciates the peculiar needs and challenges of Lagos, it is our considered opinion that according such special status should be a matter of political decision which should be kept out of the Constitution.”

On Ministerial Slot for “Indigenes” of the FCT, the Committee noted that: "This seeks the inclusion of the FCT in the proviso to section 147 (3) of the Constitution as it relates to ministerial appointments so as to ensure that an “indigene” of the FCT is appointed as a minister.

Desirable as that may be, we are of the view that the provisions granting mayoralty status for the FCT will go a long way in ensuring equitability and is sufficient to ensure efficient administration of the Federal Capital.”

For rotation of Executive Offices, it said: "We rejected this proposal on the grounds that the Constitution should not make Nigerian leadership subject to ethnic or regional considerations.

This should be a matter of consideration amongst the various political parties.

For Prohibition of Foreign Accounts (Section 3 Of Part 1 of the Fifth Schedule), the Committee noted that, "we recommend that the status quo be maintained in this regard. Making any alteration is most likely to be received with misgivings and outrage by Nigerians as it may portray the National Assembly as self serving. This may affect the entire legitimacy/credibility of the Constitution amendment exercise.”

On Diaspora Voting (S.77 (2)), the Constitution review Committee said: "INEC is still grappling to strengthen its capacity to conduct elections within the country.

It would be counter-productive to extend INEC’s responsibilities abroad without the requisite capacity.

For State Creation, it said: "The under-listed 61 requests for state creation were made to the Committee. However, none of those requests complied with the entire provision of section 8(1).

"The Committee, therefore, recommends that, provided the House of Representatives received same, henceforth, the Clerk of the National Assembly should be directed to forward any memoranda that complied with section 8(1)(a)(I, ii &iii) to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a referendum which itself is still half of the journey towards state creation. This can be done at anytime, whether or not there is a constitution amendment exercise going on.

Orubebe dismisses his suspension from PDP

BY BEN AGANDE

A

BUJA—MINIS TER of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe has dismissed his alleged suspension by a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in his local government saying that those who purportedly suspended him have no powers to do so.

Addressing State House correspondents, yesterday, Elder Orubebe said the group that suspended him “is a factional group which I don’t recognize and they don’t have any power to do what they

are doing and they also know that they are just looking for cheap attention.

“You are aware that this is a government that stands for the truth, it is a government that is transforming. We had a PDP elected body in place and from behind, a group of people went and imposed an illegal body on the people and I said I will not recognize them because, the one that was duly elected by everybody that came for the election of the National Chairman and the national exco is the one that I do recognize” he said.

52— Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

P

IANIST Babatunde Sosan made an indelible impression at his piano recital “Romantic Classics” held last weekend at the Muson Centre. In an attempt to relive the memories of his mentor and instructor Raymond Banning who passed away last year, Sosan displayed an impeccable artistry with the white and black keys of the piano. Playing pieces from Schumann, Chopin, Debussy, Rachmaninoff and other celebrated romantic composers, Sosan proved his keyboard prowess to his audience.

Opening with the exquisite melody line of Schumann’s ‘May, Charming May, Sosan set the mood for a night of provocative relish in romantic classics. Like an adventurous sailor, Sosan led his audience on a romantic voyage by playing pieces of Mendelssohn, Chopin’s formidable No. 1 G minor ballade, Poulene’s Novelette. At the rendition of his own piece,’ Precious Jewel’ Sosan displayed a subtle approach that reflects the romantic influence in his personality. Closing the first section before an interval with a Concertino for trumpet and piano with Michael Oladugba as the trumpeter, the pianist whetted his audience appetites who were already seated before the second section.

Sosan opened with a brooding Rachmaninoff Prelude in C sharp minor, which was followed by Evans’

•Sosan and friends during the performance at MUSON.

Evening of Classics at MUSON ...moment with Tunde Sosan inspiration from its inner being with the ascension of the notes into a melodious harmony.

In a special dedication to Raymond banning, a song he claims was his late mentor’s favourite, ‘La cathedral egloutie’, Sosan once again drew inspiration from its inner being

,

‘Peace Piece’, the most romantic ballad of the night. With his skillful fingers, Sosan lured his audience into a flirtatious tempo, adding embellishment to the notes, stretching the romantic ambience with his textures.

In a special dedication to Raymond banning, a song he claims was his late mentor’s favourite, ‘La cathedral egloutie’, Sosan once again drew

,

Adding flavor to the recital was the performance of the MTN Project Fame’s vocal coach, Dupe Ige Kachi, popularly known as Ige. She gave a very powerful rendition of the popular Benjamin Britten’s ‘Johnny’ with choreography by Zoe Chinaka who played the bride and Obinna Ifediora who played Johnny. The choreography provoked laughter from the audience who were amused

by the way Johnny kept leaving his lovely bride heartbroken despite her ambitious ways of getting him to propose to her. He was always lovely in the beginning of their dating but suddenly became overwhelmed by an inexplicable aura; he jilts his lover over and over again.

While the audience might have shed a tear or two for heartbroken Chinaka, she came back on stage to sing the award winning “I will always love you” by the late Whitney Houston with Perpetual Atife on the saxophone, Nelson Taiwo on the bass guitar and Sunday Oruoghor on the drums. With a soulful voice, Johnny couldn’t help but did what she had always wanted him to do: he came back on stage going down on one knee, he finally proposed to her. This definitely brought the love drama to a satisfactory

The Flight of the Eagle: Tribute to Chinua Achebe The news of your transition came suddenly, Like a bolt out of the blue, turning my morning to misery, Bringing shock, disbelief, pain and grief, So unexpected was it that I was stunned for days.

There I was far away in the calm city of Charleston, USA, Swimming in a river of pain, bewildered.

Death invaded the literary community, stealing a valued griot.

What does it mean? How does one begin to understand?

That your calm and inspiring presence is lost forever?

C M Y K

That your gentle and winning ways, always visible, Must seek a new realm to glow and shine?

That the great storyteller, has joined the ancestors.

You wove together Nigeria’s story, a coat of many colours, Revealing how things fell apart, the hopes and impediments.

Then there was a country aborted just before birth And there is a country still staggering like a toddler That must be guided past the precipice, A superhuman task now left to us, the living

Though gone, you sure are in a place where creativity thrives.

A literary icon you will remain till the end of time, The path you illumined will never darken.

Farewell, Omenka: master artist, now a revered ancestor.

Many more like you will walk the path you cleared, For as you taught us, it is morning yet on creation day.

Professor Akachi AdimoraEzeigbo English Department, University of Lagos.

end as the audience applauded the characters.

Perhaps the duet with the German based pianist Dapo Dina was the peak of the concert. It brought the house down with an outstanding performance by the two pianists. Performing the classical theme from love story composed by Francis Lai, the pianists stamped their foot on this brilliant music. At a point, they were both lost in a trance of the music that they conjured impeccable melody and harmony that got the audience screaming for an encore.

Brilliant performance It was so brilliantly performed that one could see the satisfactory grins from the audience as they tapped their foot and sway their heads sideways in melody. It was the most successful of all the performance of the night.

Tunde Sosan is the acting director of the Muson School of Music and also the Resident pianist. He is the great grandson of the music legend Dr. T.K.E. Philips. His musical career was influenced by his grandmother Arinola Sosan and his church organist and master of music, Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos, Mrs. Tolu Obajimi. Though he graduated from the Lagos University Teaching College of Medicine as physiotherapist, he proceeded to Trinity College of Music Greenwich, England where he was privileged to be tutored by the late renowned pianist and teacher at the college, Raymond Banning. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Piano and Organ performance.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 — 53

My encounter with bead painting —Lanre Buraimoh

By STARRYS OBAZEI

NIGERIAN born and American based Lanre Buraimoh is a bead painter. Being a rare and technical genre in visual arts, the Yoruba born artist has successfully explioted the beauty and challenges inherent in this art form. In the course of his work, he has had a brilliant time out on canvass with his compositional excellence. In this short conversation, he talks about his enduring engagement with paint knife and brush.

C

AN you share your experience with us about your interest in glass bead painting?

Over the years, bead painting has filled me with a sense of accomplishment and integrity. It has proven a most amenable vehicle for translating my inner vision to realism.

My passion for this bead painting has transformed my life and now everything about me is art.

I love the creative power which bead painting gives me, and I have studied it avidly.

The Curator, Professor of Art, University of Nebraska in the 15th Annual All Media Juror International Art Exhibition where my bead painting, ‘Passionate Mother’, won Special Recognition Award, Professor Laurence

•Larry Bradshaw in a speech about me, said Lanre Buraimoh is an accomplished artists who uses beads skillfully to the admiration of art lovers. His work, ‘Melody Makers’ is jubilant in the sense of the colour tonality with an abundance of highly saturated hues.”

What are the challenges with this brand of painting?

I really don’t see any negative challenges because my signature -bead

painting- is a unique medium and it is not a field of artistic expression for a lot of artists.

Collectors and art lovers always look for a new thing in art and the good news is, I have a master new approach in bead painting. I had also finally given it give it a new touch, taking the family symbol of glory to the height which seems previously unattainable.

Painting every day gets me into a creative habit and routine.

It takes persistence as well as lots of ideas such creative paintings Knowledge of colour theory and colour mixing is one of the most important aspects of painting.

What is the future of glass bead painting in the emerging visual arts world?

The future of glass bead painting is bright.

To what extent can you say that your sojourn in the U.S. has influenced your practice of glass bead painting?

The journey to the United States has accorded me opportunity to fully utilise my creative skills in the field of art. It also gives me the opportunity to showcase my signature in bead painting along with other established artists in the United States.

Would you have continued to practise bead painting if you were back home in Nigeria?

I enjoy working in this medium and I will always continue to create it anywhere.

In the alternative, what other genre of art would you have involved yourself in? Why? I also have remarkable talents in oil and acrylic painting that I got under the tutelage of my parents.

I use both abstract and real-life paintings techniques to contribute my own quota to making our society a conducive place to live through my numerous food for thoughts artworks for the benefit of mankind.

Benin culture on display with Agho Obaseki

By PRISCA SAM-DURU

T

HE Agip recital Hall of the Muson centre Lagos, weekend was full to the brim with an enthusiastic crowd who defied the heavy downpour to feel the thrill of stage action as young actors and actresses from the Atlantic Hall Drama Club, performed Agho Obaseki, a play written

by Don Pedro Obaseki. The play was produced by the Atlantic Hall Drama Club, and directed by veteran stage director, Gboyega Gbiletan Jerome.

It was indeed a celebration

•Scenes from play.

of culture of the ancient Benin Kingdom with most scenes beginning or ending with popular Benin songs.

The theme music, musical interludes, coronation and closing musical presentations were all rendered in Benin dialect.

Transfer of power It was amazing how the actors numbering about 101 were able to flow freely with a language that many of them were speaking for the first time.

The play was spiced with African proverbs where necessary. And of interest is the manner in which the new king’s wives come out for their husbands coronation with palms, covering their noses.

Agho Obaseki narrates the events that take place in 1897 with the fall of Benin Kingdom to the British and Oba Ovonramwen N’ogbaisi exiled to Calabar, which led to the transfer of power to Obaseki “the ambition man” of the Kingdom who is married to Nógbaisi’s daughter Orinwianme, played by Adannia.

On seizing power, Obaseki exercised authority with absolute corruption and without any regards for his people and the Edo traditional practices.

It was not after the death of the Oba in exile and the coronation of Aiguobasimwin (played by Eregie Nosaru) after 17 years of conflicts and intrigues, that peace and freedom returned again.

The choice of Oba Ovonramwen N’ogbaisi’s son, Aiguobasimwin as the new king by the British, in place of their puppet, Obaseki (Okotete Kevwe) comes as

hard blow on Obaseki who sees the development as the height of betrayal.

In sharp contrast, the turn of event in this particular scenario is rather seen by the people as a fact of truth has a way of prevailing, despite how long it takes lies to tarry.

Despite its tragic essence, the play succeeds in every theatrical sense in keeping the audience spellbound as no viewer could hide how enthused he was due to the enthusiasm and passion with which the students interpreted their roles and scenes.

54—VANGUARD, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Senate: David's marks at mid-term UNTIL the advent of the Mark Senate in 2007, the Senate had largely been seen as a body in perpetual crises given the undue influence of the executive in its affairs. Now with a leadership largely seen as independent of the executive arm, the legislative body has an opportunity to make its marks

T

HE first half of the life of the seventh senate was an opportunity for self discovery for a legislative body that had largely been defined by internal and external crises.

Though the sixth senate that had the same leadership in the persons of Senator David Mark and Ike Ekweremadu was largely removed from the crises that beclouded the preceding senates, it was, nevertheless, confronted with the monumental crisis that arose from the sickness of President Umaru Yar‘adua.

That senate rose to make a name for itself when Senator Mark proposed the Doctrine of Necessity to salvage a nation that was perched on the margins of an unprecedented constitutional crisis.

Indeed, the return of Mark and Ekweremadu to the leadership was devoid of the tension and intrigues that preceded the 2007 leadership election when the duo was almost sabotaged at the last minute by a last minute rebellion instigated by Senator George Akume and a number of former governors that had just entered the senate then.

Remarkably as the leadership contest got near in 2011, the tension was taken from Mark and Ekweremadu to Akume following insinuations that Mark and his crowd were set to make a payback to Akume who had defected to the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN on whose ticket he returned to the senate.

Surprisingly or maybe being the deft political tactician he is, Mark drew back from battle and allowed Akume’s nomination as minority leader to scale through.

So, Mark and his one time great friend turned domestic foe agreed to a détente that set the stage for Akume to lead the

Among the bills that stirred controversies in the 7th Senate in the last two years is the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, which has torn senators apart based on regional sentiments due to the provision of a 10 percent derivation fund for petroleum producing communities.

Although, the bill has scaled through second reading, there are fears that it is not yet over, following renewed calls in some quarters, especially in the North, that legislators of the zone should not support the bill to be passed.

The State of the Nation Address Bill which seeks to mandate the president of the country to stand before the joint session of the National Assembly in every second legislative week in July to present his yearly scorecard, the Same Sex Bill, Corporate Manslaughter Bill and the National Health Bill were among the bills that received enthusiastic support in the 7th Senate.

The superiority contest between the legislature and the executive arms of government which almost evaporated with the appointment of Senator Joy Emodi as Special Adviser to the president on National Assembly appeared to return in 2013 after the delayed assent of the 2013 Appropriation Bill.

opposition in the senate dominated by Mark’s Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Following the inauguration of the National Assembly on June 4, 2011 Mark had pledged to lead the Senate to confront headlong, issues that had hindered the country’s development in all spheres.

Budgeting system The first area of interest to him, he said, would be the nation’s budgeting system as he pledged to work to decrease the country’s high cost of governance.

In the first year the senate was able to receive a total of 178 bills out of which 127 bills passed first reading according to Senator Ita Enang, chairman Senate Committee on Rules and Business.

In the second year, the Senate resumed with a full determination to consolidate on its achievements. As it settled for business, the challenge of creating more states, ensuring fiscal federalism, state police, immunity for executive positions and a host of other nationally germane issues came up in its bid to amend •Mark the country’s constitution.

As constitutionally required, it While the National Assembly altered the conducted zonal public hearings and amount presented to it, the executive collated opinion from stakeholders from claimed the legislature overstepped its the various geo-political zones of the bounds. This development delayed the country. The Senator Ekweremadu led president’s assent to the budget until late committee that was saddled with the February. However, relations continued responsibility of amending the constitution to be managed especially on account of submitted its report last Tuesday and the goodwill of Senator Emodi across both extensive deliberation on it is being arms of government. awaited.

,

BY JOSEPH ERUNKE

However, relations continued to be managed especially on account of the goodwill of Senator Emodi across both arms of government.

,

Senators, nevertheless remain bothered that their many resolutions arising from welldebated motions are not getting the appropriate treatment from the executive arm.

This is essentially because of the perception by some senior presidency officials that resolutions emanating from the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly are advisory and do not have the force of law.

Besides the budget face off, the relationship between the two arms was also troubled by two different resolutions demanding the sack of two executive office holders. The second and even more recent was Alhaji Abdulrasheed Maina who the Senate insisted should be sacked as Chairman of Pension Reform Task Team, PRTT. Although, the president was stiff in adhering to the demands of the Senate, he nevertheless, unbent following the unwavering posture of the Senate on the two issues. Both personalities eventually received the boot.

VANGUARD, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 —55

House: Tambuwal turns the tide HAVING mobilized majority of the 360 members of the House to beat the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)favoured candidate in the leadership contest, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, was bound to run the affairs of the House on a cautious note given the determination of the party hierarchy to get its pound of flesh.

Most of the remaining 75 committees are viewed in some quarters as having refused to wake up from deep slumber.

But the issue is whether the leadership will change a team that has religiously supported it.

One of the major ingredients of Tambuwal’s Legislative Agenda when he assumed office in June 2011 was e-Parliament.

Vanguard gathered that work is at an advanced stage. The eparliament when finally installed would ease work for legislators particularly those among them who hardly enter the chamber.

BY EMMAN OVUAKPORIE

S

Farouk Lawan/Femi Otedola imbroglio The allegation of bribery raised against Farouk Lawan by Femi Otedola was one of the lowest points of the House last year as it considerably rubbished the image of the House in the eyes of many Nigerians.

The decision of the House to investigate the allegation that Lawan and a committee clerk allegedly collected $620,000 from Otedola to compromise the report of the House investigations into the fuel subsidy scam was seen as a way of redeeming the image of the House.

Lawan has been removed as chairman House committee on Education and adhoc committee on fuel subsidy and monitoring regime.

Oteh/Hembe face-off Similarly, the House was also faced with the challenge of resolving the crisis arising from the allegation of extortion made against the chairman of the House Committee on Capital Market, Herman Hembe by the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, Ms Arunma Oteh. The issues arising from the Hembe affair led to the indictment of Ms Oteh and the House resolution on her ineligibility to hold the top position in the apex capital market regulatory body.

Double standard The House is now locked in a face-off with the executive on the propriety of Ms Oteh continuing in office leading to refusal of the House to appropriate funds for the commission in the 2013 budget.

The House has, however, been accused of double standards given the dithering procrastination to discipline its own men in the two scams.

How Tambuwal managed SOE Kudos should be given to the House leadership the way the issue of state of emergency declared on Borno, Yobe and

,

INCE Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal emerged as Speaker of the House of Representatives in May 2011 he has remained in firm control despite the odds.

The manner he emerged speaker, truncating the plans of his party, the PDP, that fielded another candidate made leadership of the House to be very mindful of its transactions in and out of the House.

That has indeed been beneficial for the image of the House given the unceasing scandals that rocked the immediate past House.

The chamber indeed, could have survived the last 24 months without blemishes, but for the two major scandals that dainted the image of the House.

Petroleum Industry Bill T h e Pe t r o l e u m Industry Bill, PIB is another proposed legislation that may tear the House apart if not properly managed.

Although, •Tambuwal Tambuwal has carefully steered this legislation towards conclusion, many hope that the ad-hoc Adamawa states was managed. Though committee set up to manage it would not the House disagreed with the Senate in derail it. some areas, at the end of the day both The drums of war that greeted the bill have legislative chambers resolved their stopped for now, and maybe, until the addifferences after interfacing with each hoc committee comes up with its findings. . other.

Frosty relationship between the Financial probity Executive and Reps Maintenance of financial transparency has The frosty relations between the House been one major area that has given the House and the executive arm of government is leadership a lot of headache. When a group also a challenge to Tambuwal. Legislators of legislators raised their voices last year to who spoke to Vanguard had repeatedly know the state of the House’s coffers, they said there is no rancor between both arms. looked stupid as Tambuwal was found to have They largely claimed that it is all about lived above board. doing things the right way. Some cited During the executive session, a principal the amendment of the 2013 Appropriation officer had painstakingly and exhaustively Act as an instance. Reps advised explained the state of the House finances.

President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure The rumor then was that there was an the bill was well articulated before impeachment plot against Tambuwal. It is submission but it was poorly prepared believed in some quarters that lack of financial and sent to the House. probity dented the image of the Sixth This lackluster relationship has not Assembly. really made things go smoothly in the Vanguard had then reliably gathered that House as there are a few legislators who some of the legislators who raised their feel they should dine and wine with the eyebrows in this direction were those who executive. collected huge loans of up to N200 million but forgot about repayment. Some bought cars Colourless committee chairmen worth N25 million and even refused to invest Of the 89 standing committees only 14 the money. could score above average as some were If there is something Tambuwal has done glaringly invisible in the last two years. to further make him earn respect among his A source close to the leadership of the peers is the fact that in the last two years he House who pleaded anonymity said that has maintained an open door policy and some of the chairmen rode on the back operated like a leader who walks within the of their godfathers to get appointed into ethics of accountability. juicy committees but today the He also relates with colleagues with leadership knows better and may be humility, a virtue that is rare among many of amenable to re- composing the his followers in the House! committees.

The frosty relationship between the House and the executive arm of government is also a challenge to Tambuwal

,

56 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013—57

I've no case to answer,Thisday bombing accused insists ••says witnesses are afraid to appear in court to testify

BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI

A

BUJA—ALLEGED Boko Haram member, Mustapha Umar, who was accused of bombing the office of Thisday Newspaper in Kaduna, April 26, 2012, yesterday, told a Federal High Court in Abuja that he has no case to answer regarding the terrorism charge against him.

The accused person, through his lawyer, Mr. Nuru Sulyman, stated this on a day the federal government closed its case having called 10 witnesses that testified against him, as well as tendered 21 separate exhibits with a view to establishing his culpability to the onecount charge before the court.

At the resumed hearing on the case, yesterday, the prosecuting counsel, Mr Shuaibu Labaran Magaji, brought his last witness, an Assistant Commissioner of Police in Kaduna State, who in his testimony, told the trial court that the Honda Car the accused person used to bomb Thisday office was snatched at gunpoint and its owner shot dead few months before the attack took place. The burnt car with number plate AL-306-MKA was earlier admitted into evidence and marked as exhibit MU-20.

The masked witness who was simply referred to as the PW-10 owing to the sensitive nature of the trial, further tendered a video evidence where the accused person confessed and gave reasons why he undertook to embark on a suicide mission against the media organization.

Though Mustapha made his confession in Hausa language, however, trial Justice Ademola Adeniyi, asked an interpreter to transcribe and translate the video interview between the police and the accused person in English, just as he ordered that a certified copy be made available to journalists. In the interview which took place at the police clinic at Kaduna, the accused person, who said he was hitherto into the business of selling provisions, denied being a Boko Haram member, saying “I am only a Muslim and I promised to myself that as long as I am alive, whoever insulted a prophet of Allah I will revenge.”

C M Y K

Emergency Rule: Don't touch states, LG funds, Northern Senators urge Jonathan

BY HENRY UMORU & JOSEPH ERUNKE

A

BUJA—BARELY three weeks after the 109 Senators took a position to back the declaration of State of Emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States by President Goodluck Jonathan, Northern Senators, yesterday, renounced their decision urging the President not to touch the funds of states and local governments in the affected states.

The senators who said that they were concerned about the wellbeing of the people, however, called on the President not to touch the funds of the states or withhold any part of it.

Rising from an emergency meeting, yesterday, the senators who met under the aegis, Northern Senators’ Forum noted that it became imperative to take the latest decision having assessed developments in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States with regard to the emergency rule.

Addressing Journalists at the end of the meeting, chairman of the forum, Senator Umaru Dahiru, PDP, Sokoto South, who noted that the forum was in concurrence with resolutions reached on the floor of the Senate on the proclamation of the state of emergency in the three states, however said: “As concerned senators from the northern end, we felt we should be monitoring from time to time what goes on

and what goes out regarding the emergency and it is in this regard we decided to have a meeting today and reached these resolutions. “The forum, after an exhaustive deliberation on the security of the people of the affected states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, in particular and Nigeria in general, resolved and concurred with the resolution of the National Assembly that the statutory allocation of the affected states and

local governments are paid in full as and when due and no part of it whatsoever should be withheld."

Also speaking, Deputy Leader of the Senate, Senator Abdul Ningi, PDP, Bauchi Central explained that the forum was out to emphasise the resolutions of both chambers of the National Assembly on the emergency rule, adding that the resolution bordered on the fact that all the democratic institutions in the af-

L-r: Mr Sunil Kumar, Director of Consumer Electronics, Samsung Electronics West Africa; Ms Folakemi Emodi-Brown, Marketing Manager, Home Appliances and Consumer Electronics Samsung Electronics; Ms Kate Henshaw, Samsung Consumer Electronics and Home Appliances Brand Ambassador; and Mr Brovo Kim, Managing Director Samsung Electronics West Africa at a press briefing on Samsungs new range of Timeless Design Product in Ikeja Lagos, yesterday. Photo: Joe Akintola;Photo Editor.

PDP angry over Taraba crisis •As pressure mounts on State lawmakers

P

RESSURE is said to be mounting on Taraba State Executive Council and the House of Assembly to set up medical panel in line with section 189 of the 1999 constitution to ascertain the state of health of the Governor Danbaba Suntai who was involved in air crash six months ago.

This is coming as the presidency and the national leadership of the ruling party are reported to be angry over refusal of some PDP leaders in Taraba to cooperate with the reconciliation panel set up by the party leadership. The constitution had specified that a governor shall cease to hold office if a resolution passed by two-third majority of all members of the executive council declared that the governor is incapable of discharging functions of his office.

The constitution also provided that the resolution should be verified by a medical panel to be set up by the state assembly which will establish whether the governor is suffering from such infirmity of body or mind as ren-

fected were not touched and that “no funds of the states and local governments is supposed to be touched because the states are already enmeshed in some financial difficulty. “Touching any of their monies will mean more difficulty on the part of the governments to run their states, and more difficulty for the people of the states and that is why we must send a clear signal to the Federal Government to concur with the resolution of the Senate.”

ders him permanently incapable of discharging the functions of his office. Investigations showed that top leaders are becoming uncomfortable with assurances by the acting governor, Garba Umar, and the state executive council on the governor‘s state of health, a situation said to be worrying the ruling party at the national level, the presidency and leading leaders from the state.

It was gathered that it was the embarrassment of allowing another Yar‘Adua scenario that forced the party leadership to set up a panel to look into how to ensure smooth transition within the state. The effort of the party leadership is, however, said to be meeting brick wall as some groups in the state are yet to be convinced of the sincerity of the panel whose terms of reference include a look into smooth transition in the state.

Failure to cooperate with the panel is reported to have drawn the ire of the PDP leadership with reports indicating that the party is now considering direct

Nigerian cities absent from 120 competitive locations by 2025

BY MICHAEL EBOH

action to speedily resolve the leadership vacuum in the state.

A source at the national secretariat of the party said: “the leadership is angry with what is happening in Taraba with respect to ongoing hide and seek game on the state of health of Governor Suntai. We are taking drastic action in due course.

“We had thought the panel will help to get everybody on board the resolution train. It appears some people are yet to see the need for that state to move forward. They are not looking at the damage this is doing to our great party. We will not allow this to continue for long."

While the party is said to be angry, some interest groups in Taraba State are also said to be unhappy with the action of the party, with a loyalist of the state governor explaining that the party‘s action is coming late and that rather than a committee, the party should have directed its members in state assembly to initiate a medical examination to know the true state of health of the governor.

N

IGERIA’s competitiveness and ability to attract attention in the global financial landscape was brought to question, yesterday, as no Nigerian city was mentioned in the list of most competitive global cities in 2025.

According to a new Economist Intelligence Unit, EIU, research report, titled, “Hot Spots 2025: Benchmarking the Future Competitiveness of Cities,” commissioned by Citi, London, only Johannesburg and Cape Town, both South African cities, were mentioned.

The report said that overall, African cities are predicted to be less competitive than their global counterparts with Johannesburg and Cape Town, named the 66th and 77th most competitive cities by 2025. Johannesburg and Cape Town, the report stated are recognized for their physical capital, particularly improving telecommunications infrastructure. It added that both cities were recognised for their increased regional and global trade integration, cultural vibrancy, and attractiveness as tourist and conference destinations.

58 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Ghana airport security boss arrested in drug bust T

HE head of security at Ghana’s main international airport has been arrested in the US on charges of heroin trafficking, in the latest sign of a growing narcotics trade in west Africa, statements obtained by AFP yesteresday said.

Solomon Adelaquaye, the head of a private firm contracted to run security at the Accra airport, was charged alongside his Colombian and two Nigerian co-conspirators, Ghana’s Narcotics Control Board and the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) said.

In February 2012, Adelaquaye used his influence at the airport to guide a laptop packed with heroin through

security in exchange for $10,000, (7,600 euros), according to the DEA. Then, last month, the group made new plans to move 3,000 kilograms of cocaine through Accra in 25kilogram instalments.

All of their negotiations, held

mainly in Accra, were caught on tape by uncover DEA agents, statements said.

Adelaquaye, 48, and the two Nigerians — Frank Muodum, and Celestine Ofor Orjinweke — were arrested in New York on May 9, according to the DEA.

It was not clear why they travelled to the US ahead of their arrest and the US embassy in Accra did not immediately respond to enquiries.

Samuel Antonio Pinedo-Rueda, 72, was arrested in Colombia on May 16 and is awaiting extradition, the DEA said.

Syria arm armyy captures Qusair

S

YRIAN government forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies seized control of the border town of Qusair yesterday, dealing a major defeat to rebel fighters battling to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.

Two weeks of heavy fighting reduced many

buildings to mounds of twisted concrete, whole blocks flattened by shelling, with glass and rubble littering the streets as tired but delighted Syrian soldiers gathered

at the bullet-riddled cloc k tower.

“We will not hesitate to crush with an iron fist those who attack us. Their fate is surrender or death,” the Syrian armed

Scientists discover how malaria sticks to blood vessels

E

U R O P E A N researchers yesterday said they had identified how the malaria parasite sticks to blood vessels, a finding that opens up new targets for drugs to protect children who are the biggest victims of the disease.

Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest malaria parasite, grows in red blood cells.

It adheres to the wall of blood vessels to avoid being swept by the bloodstream down to the spleen, where it would otherwise be destroyed.

The binding trick has been known for more than a century, but how it is done has remained unclear.

A first insight came last year, when a lab team pointed the finger at a protein on the parasite called PfEMP1.

The new study, published in the journal Nature, has taken things further by looking for the docking point where PfEMP1 latches a hold on the blood-vessel lining.

A team led by Louise Turner at the University of Copenhagen screened

“Drug trafficking in west Africa has become a plague,” Derek Maltz, DEA special agent said in the June 3 statement.

The agency identified Adelaquaye as the individual “ who was responsible for security at the international airport in Ghana.”

2,500 profiles, but only one provided a fit: a receptor called endothelial protein C, or EPCR.

Syrian soldiers patrol Qusair after recapturing the town

Germans, Czec hs on aler Czechs alertt as floods spread nor th north

T

ENS of thousands of G e r m a n s , Hungarians and Czechs were evacuated from their homes on yesterday as soldiers raced to pile up sandbags to hold back rising waters in the region’s worst floods in a decade.

The deluge has killed at least 12 people in central Europe since the weekend. Water started subsiding in Prague and Passau, but fears grew for Bratislava, Budapest and parts of Germany which forecasters say will be hit in the next few days.

About 1,000 people had to leave their homes in the baroque German city of Dresden, which was devastated by floods in 2002 when the Elbe

burst its banks. Residents paddled up streets in boats as soldiers drove past in tanks. Further

north, authorities in the town of Halle on the Saale told hundreds of residents to leave their homes.

forces command said in statement, adding that, “We will continue our string of victories until we regain every inch of Syrian land.”

An opposition group from the town said more than 500 rebels had died in two weeks of fighting, with a further 1,000 wounded, leaving just 400 outgunned men struggling to hold onto the town.

Facing determined Hezbollah guerrillas from neighboring Lebanon, who swung the fight Assad’s way, the survivors decided to escape in the night through a corridor that the attackers said they had deliberately left open to encourage flight.

Some bodies lay in the street — at least three men, sporting long beards, appeared to have been executed.

Building collapses in Philadelphia, rescuers search for victims

A

BUILDING collapsed in downtown Philadelphia yesterday as rescue workers pulled 12 people from the rubble and were trying to reach two others trapped beneath it, fire officials said.

A four-story building under demolition collapsed onto a neighboring two-story Salvation Army Thift Store at 2140 Market Street at 10:45 a.m., trapping people under mountains of crushed concrete and splintered wood, said Philadelphia

Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers.

In addition to those rescued, “ we located two others and are in the process of extricating both of those people,”

Ayers said.

Those pulled from the rubble suffered minor injuries and were taken to area hospitals where they were in stable condition, he said.

Rescue workers search through rubble following a building collapse in Philadelphia yesterday.

B-R-I-E-F-S Michael Jackson’s daughter survives suicide bid

P

ARIS Jackson, the 15 year old daughter of of late pop legend, Micheal Jackson is in hospital after attempting to kill herself, a publicist has confirmed.

Obama to name Samantha Power for UN post

A

WHITE house official has said that President Barack Obama will name former aide Samantha Power as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Power will replace Susan Rice, who will take over as Obama’s national security adviser. The official says Obama will announce both appointments from the White House yesterday afternoon.

Tunisia cour t adjourns on topless female protesters

A

TUNISIAN court on yesterday adjourned to next week the trial of three European women for holding a topless antiIslamist protest and rejected their request for bail, their lawyers said.

“The trial has been adjourned to June 12.

The bail request for the three Femen activists was refused,” defence lawyer Souheib Bahri

Hundreds fall sick in Bangladesh garment factory

H

UNDREDS of employees of a Bangladeshi garment plant near the capital fell ill Wednesday after drinking suspected contaminated water at work, police and factory officials said. The incident follows the collapse of a building housing five garment factories in April that killed 1,129 people and triggered renewed scrutiny of “made-inBangladesh” clothes commonly sold in the West.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 — 59

French Open Special …. French Open Special

Djokovic, Nadal reach French Open semifinals T

HE long, leafy main walkway at Roland Garros separated Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic as they played simultaneous French Open matches in different Stadiums Wednesday.

Now they’ll go head to head.

Both advanced to Friday ’s semifinals with victories in straight sets, finishing less than 10 minutes apart. Nadal routed Stanislas Wawrinka 6-2, 6-3, 6-1, and shortly thereafter Djokovic eliminated 35year-old Tommy Haas 63, 7-6 (5), 7-5.

So much for the preliminaries to set up a much-anticipated rematch of last year’s final, which Nadal won for a record seventh French Open title. He’s 57-1 at Roland Garros and bidding to become first man to win eight titles at the same Grand Slam event.

“I’m ready to play five sets,” Djokovic said.

The Serb, ranked No. 1 and the winner of six Grand Slam titles, seeks the only major championship he has yet to win.

With two more victories he would become the

eighth man to complete a career Grand Slam.

The other semifinal pits Spaniard David Ferrer against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who’s trying to become the first Frenchman in 30 years to win Roland Garros.

Advancing on the women’s side were defending champion Maria Sharapova and twotime Australian Open winner Victoria Azarenka, and they ’ll meet Thursday. The other semifinal will match No. 1 Serena Williams against 2012 runner-up Sara Errani.

Nadal leads Djokovic 19-15 but lost their most recent meeting in the Monte Carlo final on clay in April. Nadal leads 6-3 in Grand Slam meetings.

“I played a great match when I faced him on clay this year at Monte Carlo,” Djokovic said. “That match gave me a bit of confidence against him. But here in Roland Garros, he’s very good. He has lost only once in the past 10 years. It will be very difficult for me. But I’m in a very good position now.”

•Djokovic

•Nadal

Sharapova keeps hope alive M

ARIA Sharapova kept alive her hopes of retaining the French Open title with a 0-6 6-4 6-3 win over Jelena Jankovic in the quar-

ter-finals on Wednesday despite a hail of unforced errors.

Sharapova had entered the contest with a 7-1 winloss record over her old

Montjane advances to next stage Montjane, who is

S

OUTH African No 1 wheelchair tennis star KG Montjane made a solid start at the French Open Women’s Wheelchair Tennis Champs on Wednesday, winning her opening round match against Sharon Walraven.

ranked sixth in the world, defeated Walraven, of The Netherlands, 7-6 (5) 1-6 6-4.

She now comes up against second seed and world number two Jiske Grifjoen, of Holland, in a vital match on Thursday.

HE maiden edition of the Proprietors’ Cup, organized by Ornibod Sports Services and the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) held

in Lagos recently has been described as remedy to age falsifications in nation’s football teams.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the

sliding into the splits as she chased down the ball.

Jankovic wrapped up the first set after yet another sloppy forehand from Sharapova, which took the number two seed’s unforced errors count to 20.

“You have to erase the chapter and move forward... no matter how bad I was playing or how well my opponent was playing, I still felt I was in the match,” a relieved Sharapova said in courtside interview.

. . . as Azarenka stops Kirilenko •Sharapova celebrates.

‘Proprietors’ Cup ‘ll check-mate age falsification

T

sparring partner from the Bollettieri Academy but no one would have guessed following her first-set meltdown.

With the Russian’s backhand misfiring, forehand malfunctioning and serve stuck in first gear, Sharapova gave Jankovic free reign to do as she pleased.

The Serbian former world number one blasted winners with her “money-shot” backhand “that pays my bills” and then drew loud cheers for

event which attracts participation from students of private schools in Nigeria, the Chief Executive Officer of Ornibod, Mrs. Adenike Onile-Ere said the annual event

which is aimed at discovering young and skillful footballers to keep the Nigerian football team afloat, would help in discovering skillful players.

T

HIRD-seeded Victo ria Azarenka became the first woman representing Belarus to reach the semifinals of the French Open, defeating Maria Kirilenko of Russia 7-6 (3), 6-2 on Wednesday.

The two-time Australian Open champion

won five straight points to lead 6-1 in the tiebreaker before hitting a backhand winner to take the first set.

Kirilenko, who never went beyond the quarterfinals in any Grand Slam tournament, double-faulted to trail 3-1 in the second set.

60 —

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

World Cup Qualifier: Nigerians hail Eagles N IGERIANS from all walks of live m a s s i v e l y hailed the Super Eagles on Wednesday for securing the vital three points in the World Cup qualifying match against the Harambee Stars of Kenya that succumbed 01.

Nigeria’s Ahmed Musa was on target in the 81st minute to assure of the three points, in a match played at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani.

Some of the soccer fans said it was crunch match, which the Eagles had to win to stay atop its Group

‘F’, so as to improve their chances of making it to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

A former Green Eagles’ winger, Adokiye Amiesimaka, commended C o a c h Stephen Keshi for working out a tactical game plan that gave the Eagles the slim but vital 1-0 victory.

Amiesimaka told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) shortly after the match that Keshi had proven that Nigerian coaches had the qualities to assemble a formidable t e a m .

“The Eagles have shown

that with commitment, they can go places. I want the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) to give Keshi and his team the maximum cooperation to win the remaining

matches”.

The Dolphins of Port Harcourt’s Media Officer, China Acheru, said the Eagles deserved to win, having dominated most of the game in Kenya.

Abuja comes alive, as Jonathan launches Rhythm N’ Play

T

HE Velodrome of the Abuja National Stadium will come alive today, as President Goodluck Jonathan

Musa Continues from BP minutes on, Musa speedily intercepted a ball meant for George Owino.raced in and crossed perfectly for Ideye, only for the not too brilliant attacker to miss a sitter by wanting to displace an opponent instead of hitting first time.

The Eagles continued to dominate, especially in the midfield where Mikel Obi, Sunday Mba and Onazi held sway.

Call it tactical play to conserve energy, yet you will be disappointed that despite the massive advantage possession wise, the Nigerians could not make hay, missing again and again With goalkeeper and skipper Enyeama virtually on holiday, and the defense line of Omeruo, Ambrose, Echiejile and Obobona not tested, the Eagles continued to make life difficult for their hosts to the chagrin of the over 40 thousand spectators especially from the midfield.

In the 20th minute Oduamadi broke free from the right, displaced two defenders and was in a goal scoring position when he was brought down but the referee waved play on to the relief of the weakened home fans.

The Eagles returned in the 28th minute, but again Ideye fluffed the chance by reacting too slow to a ball that was handed to him for the kill.

At this stage the Kenyan bench deprived of Coach Eden Amrouche who was handed the marching orders in Calabar and banned for one match, did not know what to do as the Eagles intensified their quest for the all important goal which did not come till the end of the first half.

The second half took the pattern of the first as Oduamadi at point blank range with only the goalkeeper to beat saw his trial deflected by the legs of goalkeeper Ochieng in the 47th Musa continued his runs down the right flank but with no commensurate reaction from his colleagues in an afternoon where it was evident Nigeria needed to shop for attackers and fast too.

With the midfielders also not joining in the attack, Keshi brought out Sunday Mba for John Oguh and followed it up with Tony Ujah for off form Brown Ideye. The replacements helped to intensify steam, yet the goals refused to come.

Just when the Kenyans were ready for a draw, and goalkeeper Ochieng had been booked for wasting time, Musa struck.

With this victory, Nigeria has shot to the top of the log with eight points and with a victory over Namibia next week in Windhoek, will qualify for the next round of the world Cup Africa qualifiers with a match to spare.

Brown Ideye (left) escapes his Kenyan marker in yesterday's match. Nigeria won 1-0.

officially launches Rhythm N’ Play, an initiative of the Nigeria Academicals Sports Committee (NASCOM) which was inaugurated by the Minister of Sports, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi late last year as part of his playground to podium policy.

With the intention of involving two million kids in the next two years, Rhythm N’ Play is an exciting youth-friendly campaign aimed at enhancing mass youth participation in sporting activities and age-grade competitions.

For the Chairman of NASCOM, Yemi Idowu, the project would help reposition sports in order to facilitate the mass participation and early discovery of young sporting talents at the grassroots level.

“The Rhythm N’ Play campaign is intended to reach children between the ages of 12 – 17 years and encourage active participation in regular sporting activity."

Neymar can be better than Messi, insists Pele

B

RAZIL legend Pele believes new Barcelona signing Neymar has the potential to develop into a better player than Lionel Messi.

The former Santos star completed his €57 million

Keshi Continues from BP “I will not single out any player for praise.

This is a sweet victory for us and it was only possible by teamwork.

Everyone played his part and at the end, we are happy to have the three points.

“However, our focus is now on the match against Namibia in Windhoek next Wednesday. We have to pick maximum points from that match as well, to make sure of our progress in the race, even ahead of the last matches in the group,” Keshi said at the postmatch parley.

move to the Liga giants on Monday, when he was presented to around 56,000 fans at Camp Nou. Speaking at his unveiling, Neymar revealed how he was looking forward to helping Messi “continue being the best player in the world” although Pele is adamant that the Brazil forward has all the attributes to potentially surpass his Argentine team-mate.

Team departs Continues from BP World Cup qualifier in Windhoek on Wednesday, the delegation will then fly into South Africa on June 13 and connect to Sao Paulo, Brazil for the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup tournament.

They will on June 14 arrive in Belo Horizonte, venue of their opening match against Tahiti on June 17.

“Neymar has really gone up the last two years,” he told Goal. “He can use both feet well and get up in the air.

“The difference that I try to explain to the people is that both are really good. I love Messi, I love the player. But to make the comparison, I think Neymar has the capabilities to play better than Messi... or maybe not.

“I’m not happy, because Santos lost a good player"

•Neymar

High Commissioner Continues from BP evening,” said Ambassador Oyateru.

The top diplomat and his mission staff, who have given the Nigeria Football Federation good support in planning for the Super Eagles’ comfortable stay in the Kenyan capital, were at the Moi International Sports Centre to cheer the African champions.

Ambassador Oyateur added: “We are very happy with the Super Eagles’ performance, and this goes to show that their victory at the Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa was no fluke. I believe they will win in Namibia and go ahead to qualify for the 2014 World Cup finals.”

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013— 61

C M Y K

62 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

C M Y K

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013— 63

C M Y K

VANGUARD, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Keshi hails teamwork, targets three points in Windhoek

C

OACH Stephen Keshi has praised his Super Eagles for excellent teamwork after a 1-0 win over Kenya that earned them three precious points in a crucial 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Nairobi on Wednesday.

Ahmed Musa’s delightful chip over goalkeeper Duncan Ochieng with nine minutes to go, and Malawi’s failure to win against Namibia in Blantyre same day, means the African champions will reach the final qualifying fixture of the 2014 showpiece should they beat Namibia in How they fared Windhoek and Kenya hold Malawi in Blantyre Inyama( 6) Omeruo (6) on Wednesday next Echiejile (5) Obobo- week. na(5) Ambrose(6) Mikel Continues on Page 60 (7) Onazi(5) Mba (4) Ideye (3) Oduomadi (5) Musa (8) Team departs for Subs Ujah(4) Oguh(4) Namibia Friday Fegor (4) HE Eagles’ delegation will fly High Commissioner out of Nairobi to fetes Eagles Windhoek, via on IGERIA’s High Johannesburg, Friday.

Commissioner to After the 2014 FIFA Kenya, Ambassador Akin Oyateru will Continues on Page 60 today host the Super Eagles at the Nigeria House in Nairobi.

“I want the team to rest after such a positive performance that earned us victory over Kenya on Wednesday. But I have concluded plans to host the entire delegation on Thursday Continues on Page 60

Musa shoots Eagles atop

BY PAUL BASSEY, Nairobi

I

t would have been unfair if it came from any other player apart from Ahmed Musa. Fresh from an inspired Russian league win with.CSKA Moscow...it was only logical that the petite winger should be given a starting role by Coach Stephen Keshi and he did not dissapoint tormenting the Kenyan defenders with his electrifying runs.

After series of unconnected crosses, he was rewarded in the 85th minute when he decided to go solo, raced past Brian Mandela in the Kenya defense before cheekingly lobbying the ball over on-rushing goalkeeper Duncan Ochieng...for Nigeria’s much awaited goal.

The hype apart, the Kenyans did not really come to the party and two

Continues on Page 60

PREVIOUS MATCHES IN GROUP F

N

SUPER HEROE: Ahmed Musa celebrates his goal against Kenya yesterday. Nigeria won 1-0

Nigerians hail Eagles Page 60

PUZZLE

YESTER DAY'S YESTERDAY'S

ANSWERS

ACROSS 4 Composition (5) 7 Firework (6) 9 Skill (3) 10 Material (3) 12 Furze (5) 13 Discharge (4) 15 Fire-raising (5) 17 Fuel (6) 19 Nobleman (4) 20 Subsequently (5) 22 Vigour (3) 24 Least (7) 27 Cushion (3) 28 Shabby (5) 31 Bird (4) 33 Thawed (6) 35 View (5) 37 Cultivate (4) 38 House (5) 39 Faucet (3) 41 Epoch (3) 42 Erase (6) 43 Combine (5)

DOWN 1 Trial (6) 2 Handwriting (6) 3 Through (3) 4 Therefore (4) 5 Boulder (5) 6 Assimilated (8) 8 Rip (4) 11 Foresighted (9) 14 Pour (4) 16 Slender (4) 18 Excursion (4) 21 Hearing (8) 23 Necessity (4) 25 Title (4) 26 Encounter (4) 29 Revised (6) 30 Shouted (6) 32 Island (5) 34 Precede (4) 36 Trouble (4) 40 Favourite (3)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS

ACROSS: 5, Tucjet 8, Ruche 10, Smooth 11, Aver 14, Loving 15, Devised 18, Wed 19, Rot 21, Read 23, Denim 24, Seed 27, Don 29, Peg 31, Rioting 32, Sniper 34, Cite 35, Spider 38, Acted 39, Master 40, Teeth.

How to Play Sudoku

•Keshi

QUICK CROSSWORD

Sudoku TODAY'S

T

THE VIGILANTE

DOWN: 2, Hem 3, Erotic 4, Rut 5, Teal 6, Clever 7, Tugged 9, Cheered 12, Vow 13, Ride 16, Ease 17, Donor 20, Twiest 22, Anon 24, System 25, Epic 26, Depict 28, Stride 30, Get 33, Rear 36, Pet 37, Eft.

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.

Printed and Published by VANGUARD MEDIA LIMITED, Vanguard Avenue, Kirikiri Canal, P.M.B.1007, Apapa. Phone: Newsroom: 018773962. Deputy Editor: 01-8944295. Advert Dept: 01-7924470; Hotline: 01-8737028; Abuja: 09-2341102, 09-2342704. E-mail: editor@vanguardngr.com, news@vanguardngr.com, letters@vanguardngr.com. Advert:advertproduction@yahoo.com Website: www.vanguardngr.com (ISSN 0794-652X) Editor: MIDENO BAYAGBON. Phone: 01-7742861, All correspondence to P.M.B. 1007, Apapa Lagos.