16 swept away by ocean surge by Vanguard Media Limited

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SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012, PAGE 3

Mrs. Ibrahim, Joel Ibrahim, winner of grand prize at the GAPE Exhibition 2012, Mrs. Ngozi Ukachukwu, MD/CEO GIFIC Limited and Mr. Ibrahim's brother during the official presentation ceremony.

‘Akwa Ibom open to negotiating with Cross River on 76 oil wells’

OVERNOR Godswill Akpabio says Akwa Ibom State is not averse to entering into a dialogue with Cross River State on the issue of the 76 oil wells which ownership by Akwa Ibom State was affirmed by the Supreme Court in a recent judgment. Akpabio, speaking during the monthly prayer meeting held at John’s Chaplaincy, Governor’s Lodge, Uyo, said, ‘’Akwa Ibom is extending a further hand of fellowship that, despite the Supreme

Court judgment, it is still ready to enter into dialogue with Cross River State on the issue of the 76 oil wells’’. He deplored reports misquoting him during the legal tussle on the disputed oil wells earlier controlled by Cross River State, and said he would gladly enter into such dialogue with Cross River State in the interest of brotherhood, peace and ancestral bonds. The governor said he would not be distracted to break the box of democ-

racy, promising to do his best with available resources and leave the rest for his successor to continue from where he will stop. ‘’I won’t be angry like the Biblical Moses who broke the tablet of God’s commandments on return from Mount Sinai to see the idolatrous worshipping of a golden calf by the Israelites. While in office with so much work done, I am still being criticized. I see the criticisms as good for my administration’’, Akpabio noted.

From left: Dr. Samuel Adenekan, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Nestle Nigeria, Deborah Leipziger, Head, Corporate Responsibility Consulting, Brookline Massachusetts, USA and Ken Egbas, Managing Partner TruContact Limited at the specialist training on CSR, organized by TruContact in Lagos, recently.

‘Oyinlola goofed on Ogun PDP exco’ BY DAUD OLATUNJI Abeokuta

faction of Ogun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, described the National Secretary of the party, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, as an impersonator for claiming that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party has recognised the PDP congresses in the state held by a faction loyal to

‘The secret of Oshiomohole’s victory at the poll’

OMRADE A d a m s

Oshiomhole’s landslide victory at the Edo State g u b e r n a t o r i a l election was as a result of physical infrastructural transformation that motivated the people of the state to vote overwhelmingly for him. According to the Director General of the Institute of Administrators and Researchers of Nigeria, Prof. Jacob Etinagbedia, the era of godfatherism a n d ethnicity is waning in Nigeria. “The citizenry is more i n f o r m e d , sensitized and concerned about the actions and inactions of their political leaders. The people cannot be taken for granted, especially in this e ra where we have Professor Attahiru Jega as the chairman of Independent Electoral Commission (INEC). While using this opportunity to congratulate and felicitate with the c o m r a d e governor, Adams C M Y K

Oshiomhole, we sincerely hope that he will not disappoint the people of Edo State, by slowing down the pace of development in the state”, Etinagbedia stated. “This second term ticket to him gi ven

is a great opportunity to demonstrate to the people that he can do more in developing different parts of the state. We have also learnt from this election the neutrality of the President, Goodluck Jonathan. His critics were flabbergasted to discover

that he (President) Jonathan was one of the first to congratulate Adams Oshiomhole by alluding his victory to his good works in Edo State immediately he was declared winner of the election”.

Hospital boss kidnapped in Enugu, three days after VC’s abduction •ESUTnot involved in negotiation for VC’s release —DVC BY TONY EDIKE Enugu

ARELY three days af ter the Vice Chancellor of Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT, Enugu, Professor Cyprian Onyeji, was abducted, kidnappers struck again on Friday, abducting the Administrative Director of Niger Foundation Hospital, Enugu, Mazi Jonah Ndubuisi Abah. Abah was abducted while on his way to the morning mass and his

whereabouts were not known. A Spanish doctor working at the same

hospital, Dr. Joe Machimbarrena, had been abducted early this year.

former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Factional chairman, Bayo Dayo, in a statement in Abeokuta over the recent comment by Oyinlola on the leadership of the party in the state, said it was laughable that the National Secretary could constitute himself into the NWC. Oyinlola, in a letter dated August 4, had said the NWC has recognised the recent congresses held by Obasanjo’s faction which produced Senator Oladipo Odujirin as chairman of the state executive. Reacting to the pro-

FUTA leads environmental campaign BY DAYO JOHNSON Akure

HE authorities of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) yesterday expressed their readiness to lead the campaign on environmental protection and sustainability in the c o u n t r y . Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Adebiyi

Ondo 2012: PDP crisis deepens BY DARE JOHNSON Akure

HE crisis within the opposition Peoples Democratic Party PDP in Ondo State, yesterday, deepened as a faction of the party said some leaders, for selfish reasons, have been frustrating ef-

forts to reconcile aggrieved parties. The chairman of faction of the party, Dr Akin Olowookere, said, in a statement that “”the irreconcilable differences among the PDP chieftains in Ondo state is as chronic as a malignant

nouncement, the Dayoled faction chided Oyinlola, saying. “This is one of Oyinlola’s several desperate attempts to hijack the structure of the Ogun State PDP for his master in order to achieve some invidious plot ahead of the 2015 general elections. It is laughable, to say the least, ” For one single individual to constitute himself into the NWC and claim that it has endorsed the congresses when the body has not met since the contemptuous exercises were purportedly held.

tumour.” “All the former senators and almost all the members of the House of Representatives and 70 percent of the former House of Assembly members are against the present structure as it is constituted in Ondo State,”he pointed out.

Daramola, said this at the inauguration of the tree planting campaign of the institution, known as “FUTA Greening 2012”. Daramola said the campaign, which would be done through knowledge transfer and high quality environmental education, would not be limited to the campus of the University but also in the host and neighbouring states. According to him “A good environment is a pre-requisite for healthy living. We all need healthy living for longer life and guaranteed productivity. ”We therefore have a direct responsibility to protect the environment, and to ensure that our activities as individuals, families, groups or organisations have less negative impact on the environmt.

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Funeral service for Chief (Mrs) Victoria Osinubi

Panic in Benin as plane hovers, aborts landing BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

VER fifty passengers aboard a plane from Lagos to Benin City escaped death, yesterday, when the aircraft failed to land after hovering in the Benin airspace for about 15 minutes. The incident caused panic in Benin-City as people immediately evacuated their homes, fear-

ing that the plane might crash-land. The flight flew back to Lagos after it failed to land at the airport. One of the passengers on board, who craved anonymity, disclosed that some “passengers fainted due to fear.”The passenger continued: “We thought it was going to be another crash. We were hovering round the Benin airspace but we

could not land. Of course people were shouting the name of Jesus until we were taken back to Lagos”. A source at the Benin airport said the pilot may have failed to get landing clearance from the control tower. The Benin Airport Manager, Mr Segun Ayodele, he said he was unaware of the incident when contacted last night.

NBA decries deplorable state of judiciary in Bauchi BY SUZAN EDEH

HE Nigeria Bar Asso ciation, Bauchi State Chapter, has decried the deplorable state of the judiciary in the state, saying, with the wave of insecurity experienced in the country, the state needs a functional judiciary to dispense justice. It said there is an escalation of crime in the state, particularly armed

robbery and Sara Suka militancy, which, if left unchecked by the judiciary, will throw the state into anarchy. According to a press statement by the chairman of the NBA, Mohammed Alhassan, the association lamented the lack of court rooms and other basic facilities that will engender a functional judiciary in Bauchi. “There are only three permanent court rooms for

magistrates which are located in Azare, Ningi and Misau local government area of the state while the rest are makeshift buildings donated by the respective host local governments to the judiciary in addition to the movement of magistrate courts from their rented quarters which they presided their courts twice throughout the year,”Alhassan lamented.

The funeral service of Chief (Mrs) Victoria Osunubi, mother of Managing Director, Punch Nigeria Ltd, Mr Demola Osinubi was held yesterday in Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State.Photos by Biodun Ogunleye. From left: Mrs Anuoluwapo Odumosu, Demola Osinubi and Dr (Mrs) Titilayo Benedict, all children of the deceased.

From left: Ekiti State gover nor, Kayode Fayemi, former Punch chairman, Ajibola Ogunsola and Deaconess Olayemi Aboderin.

Church of Jesus Christ ‘cleans the nation’ BY TONY NWANKWO

HE Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, yesterday, embarked on a clean-up and beautification programme in Nigeria courtesy of its “All Africa Service Project”. The “Mormons Helping Hand” project is a yearly event embarked upon by the Church across Africa wherever the members reside. A statement in Lagos said the Church carried out its cleaning, painting and beautification exercises across the country. In Rivers State, for instance, the church embarked on a service project in Port Harcourt, where members cleaned Oyigbo Junction, Port Harcourt-Aba Road and Ogu Park/Plaza Market, including evacuation of blocked drainage in the area. Another centre where the campaign took place was at the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA compound where Church members embarked on cleaning, grass cutting and ground maintenance

of the television compound in Owerri, the Imo State capital. In Jos, the Plateau State capital, members trooped out in their dozens, to

clean the city’s main abattoir despite the sectarian violence that has threatened the peace of the city for sometime.

High rate of crimes attributed to deprivation of rights BY CALEB AYANSINA

Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Africa Centre for Citizen Orientation, has attributed the high rate of crimes in Nigeria to the deprivation of rights and dignity of citizen, thereby, poses threat to peaceful resolution of differences and rightful participation of all in the democratic process. The Representative of the Association, Mr. Casey Adeleye who stated this while briefing newsmen on the forthcoming of the Africa Regional Youth Crime Prevention and Development Conference (Secure Africa 2012) in Abuja called for the effective justice system to prevent escalation of crime rate.

His words, “While terrorism and crime is a national problem, its control is primarily a responsibility of local units of government. An inability to prevent or deal effectively with acts of criminality and terrorism has a number of negative consequences. “When individual commit violations and escape being processed through the criminal justice system, future illegal acts are encouraged. Escalating crime rate require that resources, which could be devoted to other social problems, be diverted to the crimecontrol effort, resulting in the further entertainment of such ills as poverty, substandard housing, and inadequate medical delivery systems”.

L-R: Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi; former Chairman, Punch Nigeria Ltd, Mr. Ajibola Ogunsola; Mrs. Olayemi Aboderin; and Ogun State Deputy Governor, Prince Segun Adesegun, during the funeral service in honour of Chief (Mrs) Victoria Osinubi, mother of Managing Director, Punch Nigeria Ltd, in Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State.

From left: Mr Gbayode Somuyiwa. Mr Eniola Bello, Mr Kunle Oyatomi, Mr Joseph Ogunsemi and Mrs Bosede Olaoye.

L- R: Felix Adenaike, Ladi Bonnuola, Alhaji Mojeed Jimoh. Demola Osinubi and Kayode Komolafe.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012 — PAGE 5

16 swept away in Lagos ocean surge Teenager’s killing sparks protest in Kano Continued from page 1

evacuated “to make way for movement of sand into the area.” A state government statement on the evacuation was silent on those allegedly swept away. The take-off point and destination of the traders in the ill-fat ed boat could not be ascertained at press time. A local diver on a fishing boat who attempted to rescue the traders in the boat reportedly got d r o w n e d . The four fun seekers at Kuramo Beach were said to have been swept off with their cabins. Some fishermen who were paddling their canoe towards the upper side of the beach were, according to sources, swept away. Reports said yesterday’s tragic incident was not the first of its kind as residents said the surge occurs once every year. Prominent hotels and houses in Victoria Island, according to eye witnesses, were flooded. Confirming the story, Lagos State Police Spokesmen, Ngozi Braide, said 17 policemen were drafted to the scene. According to her, the tragedy, which started at about 7a.m. had the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Victoria Island, Mr Adegoke Fayoade, sending policemen to cordon off the area so that the surge did not consume more people. Braide confirmed that one dead body was recovered around 6p.m. Senior Assistant to Governor Babatunde Fashola on Media and Publicity, Mr. Hakeem Bello, said the state government was on top of the situation. In a statement, Bello said following seven days of high waves accompanied by a strong ocean surge which hit the country’s coastline with Lagos being among the worst hit due to its location, Lagos State Government ordered the immediate evacuation of the state’s waterfront. He quoted the state Commissioner for Waterfront Infrastructure Development, Prince Segun Oniru, as saying the process started with the immediate evacuation of the Kuramo Beach to make way for movement of sand into the area. The action, the statement explained, had to be taken immediately to avert the disaster of the Atlantic joining the Kuramo waters and subsequently the lagoon. The statement said the state was getting the extreme of weather condition due to the location of

BY ABDULSALAM MUHAMMAD

Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, presenting certificate of Merit to the CEO of Landover Airways Limited, Capt. Edward Boyo, during the 12th National Productivity Day celebration and conferment of National Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM) Award held in Abuja. Photo by Adeyanju Olowojoba. Lagos State, noting that coastal waterfront areas badly affected from which people would be expected to move include Badagry and Ojo waterfront areas, Bar Beach, Kuramo Beach, Goshen Estate,

Maiyegun and Alpha Beach. It added that the state emergency services had been mobilized to monitor the situation and respond accordingly. The statement urged everyone to remain calm.

HERE was protest in Gwale area of Kano central by residents following the killing of a 12-yearold boy identified as Hassan Muhammad by a police sergeant attached to Gwale divisional station. The trigger happy cop, identified as Laminu Adamu, was said to have fired a shot that hit the teenager on the head. He died from the fatal injury on his way to hospital. The incident triggered pandemonium and violent protest in the area. An attempt to set alight the divisional police office, located in the municipality, was frustrated by the arrival of several combat ready personnel. The arrival of several plantoons of anti riot police aggrieved the locals but it took persuasion and restraint to

avert a blood bath in the city bedeviled by security challenges. Confirming the incident in a press statement by the acting Police Public Relations Officer, Kano State Command, ASP Magaji Musa Majia, said that “the command noted with deep regret the unfortunate incident that occurred at Gwale in which 12-year-old boy was shot by Sergeant Laminu Adamu”. Majia stated that the incident happened when the sergeant, sitting on a patrol vehicle, fired a shot which hit the deceased. The police spokesman said the affected officer had been arrested and was undergoing orderly room trial. He assured of fairness and justice. “We have assured the members of the family of the deceased that the process will be fair and open, and that justice will surely be done”, Majia stressed.

SUBSIDY PAYMENT CRISIS

Jonathan, Diezani, Okonjo-Iweala under pressure *Fuel scarcity may spread nationwide this week *Finance ministry promises prompt payment after Sallah *Conflicting subsidy claims all round

BY JIDE AJANI & YEMI ADEOYE

HERE were indications, at the weekend, that President Goodluck Jonathan and two of his ministers, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Diezani Allison-Madueke, in charge of Finance as well as doubling as the Coordinating minister for the economy, and the Petroleum Resources Minister, respectively, have been under immense pressure arising from the impending fuel scarcity that has already

SOLUTION

paralysed the Federal Capital territory, FCT, Abuja. In fact, information made available to Sunday Vanguard yesterday suggested the quartet of the Jetty and Petroleum Tank Farm Owners, JEPTFON, Depot and Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, DAPPMAN, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, and the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN, have decided to cease further importation and distribution once the stock they have is depleted. Curiously, whereas the Finance Ministry claims to be settling subsidy payments, the figures being thrown around by marketers and importers as well as depot owners are not the same. As a remedial effort, sources close to the Finance Ministry disclosed that prompt payment of another batch of claims would be effected after the Sallah break. While the Finance Ministry claims to have facilitated the issuance of N42.666 Sovereign Debt Notes between April and August this year, “this is just a paltry amount when placed side by side the hundreds of billions being owed MOMAN”, a source said. In addition, a DAPPMAN source says says members of the group are also being owed claims in excess of one hundred billion naira. At the crux of the matter, Sunday Vanguard has been made to understand, is “that the nation’s purse can not sustain the payment of

subsidy in any form”. Sources said the crippling of economic activities in the federal capital, occasioned by fuel scarcity, was largely the consequence of the strike embarked upon by petrol tanker drivers’ arm of the National Union of Petroleum and National Gas Workers, NUPENG. It was gathered that the “situation is so critical that the Petroleum Resources Minister met with President Jonathan mid-last week to give him a clearer picture of the situation, as against the assurances being given by the Finance Minister. “The President was told that whereas he should not be seen to be negotiating with those that have been indicted and would be facing prosecution, the fact remains that people are being owed huge sums of money and they would need to be paid, “one of the sources said. “The pressure on government was brought to laid bare last week when the seat of power, Abuja, witnessed serious scarcity”. This development is already creating a frosty relationship between the Finance Minister and her Petroleum Resources counterpart. Indeed, the Petroleum Resources Minister, who was said to be involved in high level consultations at the weekend, “ was practically begging operators in the industry to save the nation from the crisis created by the Finance Ministry’s handling of the matter”. Sunday Vanguard learnt

that the leadership of the tanker drivers group mounted surveillance in major entry points of the federal capital last and ensured that no products was delivered into Abuja. This, the drivers have vowed, would be replicated across the country this week. Chiefly at the heart of the subsidy payment crisis, another industry operator said, is the “glaring conflict of interest in the appointment of Mr Aigboje AigImoukhuede, Chief Executive of Access Bank, which allegedly participated in the funding of over 30% of activities in the petroleum product importation, to chair the Presidential Committee on Verification and Reconciliation of Fuel Subsidy Payments.” His committee indicted 21 companies. Aig-Imoukhuede said, while presenting his report, that, out of the N422 billion earlier found to have been unaccounted for, N18 billion was actually a duplication while only N403 billion was v e r i f i e d . N21 billion was cleared, leaving N382 billion as the sum in contention, the basis for which the committee recommended that the process of recovery should be made. A total of 116 oil marketing and trading companies (OM&Ts) that participated in the petroleum subsidy scheme in the period under review were invited for interviews. Six categories of issues, likely fraudulent cases for criminal investigation - you have 21 OM&Ts affected.

PAGE 6—SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012

Okupe and alleged failed contract: Suswan asks predecessor to clear the air BY PETER DURU

L-r: ACP Dan Okoro, Area E Commander, Festac; Mr. Folorunso Ola of Western Concrete Nig. Ltd. and Umaru A. Manko, Commissioner of Police, Lagos Staste, during a courtesy visit to Amuwo Odofin Local Government, Fstac Town, Lagos.

OVERNOR G a b r i e l Suswam of Benue State has washed his hands off the alleged N700million said to be owed the state government by the Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, for alleged failed contract. Suswam maintained that his predecessor, Senator George Akume, owed the people of the state an explanation as to what actually

Oando leads Ondo opposition leaders to Labour Party

OTABLE leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), led by Prince Elumaro Adesanmi, a.k.a Oando, and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) leaders with thousands of their followers from Irele and Okitipupa Local Government Areas of Ondo State have defected to the

ruling Labour Party in the state. Governor Olusegun Mimiko and the state deputy chairman of Labour Party, Chief Dele Akinyele, received them at a grand rally held at Ode-Irele. The defectors include Mr Deola Ayelomi (ACN chieftain and deputy chairman of Omoluabi group), Mr Michael

Emakaro (PDP), Mr Akintan Kayode (ACN), Robert Abele (PDP), Dele Akinloye (PDP), Fameso Damilola (PDP), Adetarami Femi (PDP) and Koledoye Adegoke (Galaxy group). While welcoming them into Labour Party, Mimiko noted that the party was ready at all times to receive genuine

politicians with the sole motive to work for the success of the party and for the continuity of the laudable programmes of his administration. Mimiko, who restated the commitment of the Labour Party government to completely transform Ondo State, promised to continue to work for the people of the State. In their speeches, the defectors said laudable projects of the Mimiko administration would make him to be victorious in the Octob er 20 gubernatorial election.

transpired in that transaction. Fielding questions from newsmen in Otukpo, Suswam stressed that he was handicapped to dabble into the matter because his predecessor never handed him a handover note in 2007 when he assumed the

leadership of the state. The governor maintained that Akume was in a better position to clear the air on the N2.3billion contract that was awarded in 2004 and so much money paid to the contractor in 2006, at the twilight of that administration.

Schools urged to embrace ICT BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

RIMARY and s e c o n d a r y schools in the country have been urged to embrace ICT, stressing that it is a technological revolution that has come to advance the course of learning in

this age. Chief Executive Officer, Trisat Communications Limited, Mr Oseni Abiola, who spoke at the unveiling of EDUSaaPRO in Port Harcourt, explained that the product is a software designed to eliminate bottlenecks and improve efficiency in the administration of schools. Adding that the product has zero cost, Mr. Abiola said it

reduces running cost of schools by over forty percent. According to him, some features of the product include: school at a glance, messaging system, debt tracking system, student profile grade book, etc. He said the software also enables parents and guardians to access their children and wards’ grades in schools. Adding that the software has a security system for users, Mr Abiola further enjoined school owners to see ICT as a development that has come to enhance efficiency in learning and running of schools. Other speakers at the event also enjoined parents to encourage their children to develop interest in the ICT culture.

Oba of Benin asked to call Bini Profs at UNIBEN to order BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

HE Benin N a t i o n a l Congress (BNC) has written to Benin monarch, Oba Erediauwa, appealing to him to call to order some professors of Benin origin in the University of Benin (UNIBEN) engaged in campaigns of calumny against the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof.Osayuki Oshodin. A letter signed by Dr. David Ekomwenrenren, BNC Director of Publicity, regretted that the professors were some of those who failed to clinch the vicechancellorship position, and therefore resorted to endless writing of frivolous petitions with a view to discrediting the person of .Oshodin despite his laudable efforts in ensuring that the university remains number one in the country. “We wish to most humbly solicit the royal intervention of the revered Benin Monarch, the Oba of Benin, in the cold war between top management officials of the University of Benin, some of whom are

prominent Benin academics whose penchant for petition writings have reached a crescendo; by deploying t r e a c h e r o u s instrumentalities against the vice chancellor, namely, accusation of overstocking the institutions’ employees in favor of the Benin people, “the letter said. “The purpose of

seeking your intervention is to avert a situation or precedent where, youths of your revered Kingdom (Benin) will be seen to be dragging these Professors of petitions before traditional tribunals in their various domains, if they and their collaborators fail to retract from these destructive paths.

Delta community reshuffles exco

GULAGHA community in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State has reshufled its executive body for effective running of the community. This follows the removal of Mr. Francis Boumiebi, Mr. Alfred Oghar unli and Mr. Diamond Seimode, who were chairman, secretary and financial secretary respectively, from their positions. In a letter to His Royal Majesty, Elder Joseph Timiyan, the paramount ruler of Ogulagha Kingdom, on August 13, by the following leaders of the community, Chiefs Council Guwor, Francis

Temewei, John Diegbegha, Peter Tuasinde and Pa Selecon F. Iseh respectively, they said those relieved of their positions have been replaced with the following persons: Mr. Tony Temewei, chairman, Comrade Victor Isekere, General Secretary, Mr. Johnbull Ogobiri, PRO, Mr. Julius Oweipade, Treasurer, and Mr. Jephta Okosuyei,welfare secretary, who now have the mandate to pilot the affairs of the community. They said the reorganisation became imperative for the community to move forward.

HTTP://A5.SPHOTOS.AK.FBCDN.NET/HPHOTOS-AK-ASH3/38882_1567279582896_8247664_N.JPG

SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012, PAGE 7

Eid-el-Fitri: Jonathan, Atiku, Tambuwal, govs harp on nation’s unity

RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has reaffirmed his administration’s “absolute and immutable commitment to the unity and indivisibility of the Nigerian nation”. In a Sallah message, yesterday, Jonathan congratulated the Muslim Ummah for the successful completion of the fasting period. A statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Communication, Reuben Abati, said: ”On behalf of himself and the Federal Government of Nigeria, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan congratulates all followers of the Islamic faith in the country who have successfully concluded this year’s Ramadan fast. ”President Jonathan rejoices with all Muslims in the country as Nigeria joins the rest of the world in celebrating Eid-El-Fitri which marks the end of the month-long annual fast. ”He prays that Almighty Allah will grant them all the rewards promised to the faithful for the pious observance of its injunctions of piety, abstinence, self-discipline, constant prayer and charity. ”Against the background of persisting challenges to unity, harmony and peaceful coexistence in the countr y, President Jonathan seizes the opportunity of the Eid-El-Fitri celebrations to reaffirm his administration’s absolute and immutable commitment to the unity and indivisibility of the Nigerian nation. ”The President assures all Nigerians once again that the imperatives of national unity, peace, harmony, collective development and progress will continue to inspire and motivate all policies and actions of his administration”.

Eid-el-Fitr Sallah celebration to reflect on their spiritual life as individuals and how they can contribute more meaningfully towards making Nigeria a greater nation. Tambuwal said the steadfastness and devotion shown by Muslims during the Ramadan Fast was a reflection of their service to the Almighty Allah who will reward them abundantly. According to him: “The long period of self restraint and self purification was a great spiritual exercise that has its heavenly blessings,. it is only those who are genuinely convinced in their chosen faith that can successfully undergo the process.” While congratulating the Muslims for the Sallah festivities, the Speaker further enjoined all Nigerians in general to imbibe the spirit of tolerance, love and good neighbourliness amongst themselves as exemplified by the Prophet Mohammed (SAW).

Let’s unite and love one another – Atiku

Governor Peter Obi joined the Muslim community in Anambra State to break the Ramadan Fast at the Central Mosque Awka. Obi, who led a delegation, called for collective efforts to sustain the corporate existence of the country. He said he attended the prayer as the governor of Anambra State. The governor said the country belongs to all Nigerians and every citizen had the right to live free in any part of the country without fear. He explained that peaceful and harmonious co-existence will further solidify stability and create conducive business environment that will attract more investors to strengthen the national economy.

In his own message, a former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, asked Muslims to unite behind the country’s leaders in the efforts to find a lasting solution to the problems of poverty and insecurity bedeviling the nation. ”On the blessed and joyous occasion of the Eid-el-Fitr after the rigorous and spiritually uplifting Ramadan fast, I urge Muslims and all Nigerians alike to embrace the common goal and unity, which the Ramadan essentially manifests,” Atiku said. He said without unity, Nigerians cannot build a prosperous, modern nation-state. He challenged all Muslims and the other citizens to avoid hatred, anger and revenge in view of the current national dispensation. According to the erstwhile Vice President, leaders also have a duty to identify with the problems of those who put them into office. He stated that poverty is a potential threat to social stability and that leaders at all levels must work with greater commitment to tackle this urgent task facing democratic governance. Reflect on your spiritual life – Tambuwal The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, at Sallah, urged Muslims to use the period of the C M Y K

exercise on our nation because we cannot afford to remain the same. The spiritual exercise should usher in the rebirth of Nigerians for a more peaceful and enviable Nigerianation”. Amaechi preaches peace, national rebirth Rivers State Governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governor ’s Forum, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, in his message, called for peace and unity amongst Nigerians in line with the spiritual rebirth gained by muslims during the holy month of Ramadan. He rejoiced with all Muslims

on the successful completion of the 2012 Ramadan fasting, urging them to continue to pray for peace and progress in Nigeria. “This is most crucial especially at this challenging time of our nation’s history. Nigerians should forget ethnic and religious differences and join hands as one nation to build a better and unified country,” Amaechi said. Aregbesola calls for unity Osun State governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, charged Nigerians to let peace and unity reign in their uppermost minds

for the country to be in the path of glory, progress, growth and sustainable development. Aregbesola, at Sallah, noted that as a nation, what the people, leaders and followers need to do is to come together and forge a harmonious relationship for the betterment of the country. He called on the Muslim faithful to draw abundantly from the lessons of Ramadan, which include spirit of commitment, Spartan discipline, obedience and love of Allah, and apply them to their fellow human beings irrespective of ethnic and religious differences.

Chime urges commitment to national unity GOVERNOR Sullivan Chime of Enugu State, in another message, urged Nigerians to use the occasion of the Eid-el-Fitri celebrations to re-dedicate themselves to values and virtues that would promote tolerance, brotherhood and unity among all groups in the country. The governor said the celebration offered Nigerians the opportunity to reflect on Allah’s love and compassion for mankind and to ensure that they extended similar attitudes to one another. He commended Muslims in Enugu State for the contributions and sacrifices they have continued to make towards the rapid development of the state.. Obi celebrates with Muslims

Mimiko Calls For Dedication To The Nigeria Project Ondo State Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, called for more dedication to the Nigeria project “. Mimiko made the call in his Sallah message, urging the “nation to take advantage of the Ramadan to usher in a new era into the country devoid of conflict, blood letting and traces of evil”. He said: “The long period of self restraint and self purification was a great spiritual exercise that should not be allowed to come and go in vain. ”We must allow for the impact of the just concluded spiritual

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN (standing) addressing pilgrims from Lagos and other states, during a Tafsir programme and special prayers for the nation organized by the Lagos State Moslem Pilgrims Welfare Board in Mecca, Saudi Arabia at this year’s Lesser Hajj (Umrah). With him are: Deputy Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr. Kolawole Taiwo (right), Commissioner for Home Affairs and Culture, Mr. Oyinlomo Danmole (left), the Tafsir lecturer, Sheikh Musa Yahya Agboola (3rd left), former Special Adviser on Political and Legislative Powers, Abdul-Lateef Abdul-Hakeem (3rd right) and a Cleric, Thaoban Adam Abdullah Al-llori (2nd right).

THREAT MESSAGES IN BAUCHI

‘We’ll celebrate Eid-el-Fitr with bombs, guns’ *Security beefed up in metropolis

BY SUZAN EDEH

ECURITY agents, yesterday, stepped up checks on motorists and pedestrians in Bauchi State ahead of the end of Ramadan prayers. Security patrols were intensified especially in densely populated areas of the Bauchi metropolis and the suburbs of Yelwa (crisis prone area), Bayara, Guru, WuntinDada, and Tsohon Kanfani, along Bauchi -Jos Road. Other areas include Inkil,Bauchi / Gombe Road, Rafin Makaranta, along Bauchi Ningi/ Kano Road, Tirwum, as well as Tundun Salmanu. In the metropolis, problem prone areas such as Karofi,Jaahun,Kandahar,Kofar Dumi,Yakubu Wanka,Bakin Kura and Gombe Gate,security was beefed up ostensibly in anticipation of political thugs commonly known as Sara-Suka. According to unconfirmed sources, text messages warned of invasion of the state capital by Islamists at the prayer to end Ramadan with bombs and guns. Abdullahi Magaji, a resident of Doya in Bauchi center, showed a text message sent tohim by somebody he did not know. The text read: “Asalaamailakun. This is to inform you that our people will be in Bauchi to celebrate the Eid el Fitr along with you with our guns and bombs either Saturday or Sunday.Be sure you receive our people . Salaamuailaikum’’. Our reporter was shown

similar message by one Malama Zueilla Abubakarof Jahun quarters who said’’ the name and the telephone number of sender was concealed’’. Most of the people who said they received the threat messages did not know the sender(s) of the messages and could not disclose their sources. It was observed that some policemen, at check points, were selective in checking cars; flashy cars with Abuja numbers plates entering Bauchi were not checked.This was particularly on the Jos / Bauchi entry point from Tsohon Kanfani/ WuntinDada. From Kano/Ningi entry, the frisking was thorough as motorists and their passengers

were asked to disembark while vehicles and people’s bodies were searched. A police sergeant, who asked not to be named at one of the checkpoints on the Kano/Ningi entry point, said: “You know this road is a notorious route for insurgents. It was on this road that our people were killed last week. The killing has happened almost five or times and we have to be more security conscious here’’. When contacted, Bauchi Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Auyo Hassan, said he had been away from Bauchi and could not tell what was happening in Bauchi”.

Kogi: Stay at home for Eid-el Fitri prayers – Monarch * Gunman killed in duel with police

BY BOLUWAJI OBAHOPO

ARELY two weeks after the killing of worshippers at Deeper Life Bible Church, Otite, Kogi State, and two soldiers at Okene by gunmen, Okene, a major town in the state, was turned to a battle field, yesterday, as gunmen and Mobile Policemen engaged in a shootout. At the end, one of the gunmen lay dead. An eye witness account said the incident occurred at Idare, Okene when the Mobile Policemen stormed the hideout of the gunmen where they

recovered rocket launchers, guns and bombs.The shootout, which lasted three hours, put Okene in confusion. Kogi State Police Commissioner, Mr. Muhammed Katsina, who confirmed the incident, described the gunmen as armed robbers, stressing that when his men stormed their hide out, they opened fire but his men were able to contain the situation. Meanwhile, the Ohinoyi of Ebira land, Alhaji Dr. Ado Ibrahim, has called on his people to stay at home today to observe their Sallah prayer because of the security situation in the area.

PAGE 8—SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012

debbiemoments@gmail.com debbiemoments@gmail.com PhD, Department of Philosophy, University of Lagos,

Quod erat demonstrandum tion of a divine plan to shift power to the southsouth. In fact, a few vociferous Ijaw irredentists even suggested that God used the situation to ensure that the south-south where the bulk of our oil revenue is derived produced Nigeria’s leader for the first time. rom the above it fol F lows that (a) God deliberately eliminated Yar’Adua to make way for

Nigerians must continue to demand good leadership from their President, and be prepared to act decisively against him if things continue to deteriorate

Jonathan to become President, (b) whatever happens during Jonathan’s presidency is divinely ordained. I am very sure that Yar’Adua’s family will never endorse proposition (a) because it means that the late president was a mere pawn in the chess game played by an inconsiderate deity unperturbed by the emotional distress and anguish his death would cause. Moreover, for millions of Nigerians living in grinding poverty, it is thoroughly wicked

Starting again

HE past two col umns opened a flood gate of emotions in quite a number of people and it says how much we all need support. These days I get a lot of counselling requests and I wish I had more time and even wisdom to really deal with them one at a time extensively. Once in a while we all get to a stage in life when we get stuck in a rut and it looks and feels hopeless; at times like these we need a reservoir of strength to draw upon. Most people think of certain events or even relationships as their final destination, so they are understandably devastated when it crashes. I will not insult anyone’s depth of feeling by dismissing their pain or C M Y K

hurt, all these are quite natural; people have a right to grieve the loss of anything they value; be it a loved one, a business or a relationship but it is important to begin a process of healing that rejuvenates their existence once again. I went through a horrible ordeal not too long ago and I thought I would die from the pain! I was hurt and totally broken... it looked really dark for a while but I had two wonderful small people who needed me so I could not really give in to the despair that was threatening to overwhelm me!!

to even suggest that their plight is part of a divine plot to make Jonathan president. Of course, theological interpretation of Jonathan’s presidency is an instantiation of the general fallacy of non causa pro causa, that is, the error of misidentifying the real causes of phenomena. To really understand scientifically the emergence of political leaders in any given socie-

esilience is the key to surviving any and everything. Unlike a majority of people, I am very resilient and this (I

ty at a specific point in time, one needs to critically dissect the complex dialectical interplay of institutional and idiosyncratic factors which determine the nature and structure of political power. n the emergence of O Jonathan as president, for example, the key

to grasping it lies in rigorous investigation of both the emergence and evolution of ruling power blocks in Nigeria and the charac-

think) is my most redeeming quality; I take a lot of blows but I crawl my way from zero back up. I believe that life is a journey and consider every event a stop; no matter how long or short, painful or happy; they are all just stops. In my mind the most important thing is to enjoy the pleasure of the journey.

HE title of our dis course today re minds me of some lectures in mathematics which I had while in secondary school. I was in Form Three when my mathematics teacher explained to the class Pythagoras theorem concerning right-angled triangles. Specifically, he tried to establish, with the aid of diagrams, that in a rightangled triangle the square on the hypotenuse side is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides. At the end of the proof, my teacher wrote “Q.E.D.,” an abbreviation for the Latin expression quod erat demonstrandum. Q.E.D. is usually written after a mathematical theorem has been proved successfully. Now, when Goodluck Jonathan became President after the demise of Umaru Musa Yar ’Adua, many Nigerians, including some Ijaw leaders and prominent members of the clergy, interpreted the situation from a religious perspective. In other words, they saw Jonathan’s meteoric political rise from an obscure lecturer to the president of Nigeria as the handiwork of providence, the culmina-

ter of individuals and institutions that determine how and to whom economic and political power is allocated among competing interests especially since May 29, 1999. Such a concrete scientific analysis, by revealing the human and institutional variables that made Jonathan’s presidency possible would simultaneously reveal the poverty of theological mystifications proffered by intellectually lazy commentators. Certainly, Nigeria has not recorded significant progress in critical areas of national development under President Jonathan. Thus sycophants who naively thought that his name, “Goodluck,” would automatically bring “good luck” to the country, if they are honest, should by now be asking themselves serious questions about what luck has to do with good leadership, considering that things are falling apart in several aspects of our national life.

robably, “luck” plays some part in determining the life experiences and achievements of prepared individuals. However, in matters concerning efficient, productive and responsible political leadership “good luck” is irrelevant. Top class leadership is a matter of vision, deep thinking, strategic planning and unwavering selfless determination to implement well-thought out policies for the common good. A transformational leader must inspire and perspire: he or she must inspire compatriots to do great deeds and work extra hard for meaningful positive impact on the masses. President Jonathan is yet to make good his promise

sync; being crippled by pain however is self defeating and serves no purpose at all. There is absolutely no value to pain if we don’t learn any lesson from the event that heralds it; yes!! You read write; pain is a teacher and from my experience, painful lessons are never forgotten. It’s like a child playing with an open flame; you never ever forget the searing pain of your burning flesh no matter how little you are. I don’t think a person can be defined by the failure of a relationship but unfortunately some people do themselves this dishonour.

No one should mourn a relationship that breaks down and not build up. If a man can walk away from a life long commitment without any thought to the vows he made or his family then he is not worth thinking about

Pain is an important part of life and while unpleasant it’s a necessary gauge of the intensity of our emotions, it has a purpose; it is an alarm of things or emotions out of

The end of anything can also mark the beginning of something new maybe even beautiful.

ighting change is exhausting, refusing to accept reality is at

to transform Nigeria. Like previous rulers he makes fine speeches but falls far short on actual performance. Of course Nigerians understand the enormity of problems facing whoever leads them at any point in time. But nobody forced Jonathan into politics; in any case he voluntarily offered to be elected President. Now that his wish has been fulfilled, Mr. President must be prepared to take responsibility for not performing well. His factotums and spin doctors can use all sorts of immunising stratagems to shield him from legitimate criticism. Still, Nigerians must continue to demand good leadership from their President, and be prepared to act decisively against him if things continue to deteriorate. Consider the state of Nigerian sports after Jonathan came to power: generally no genuine improvement has been recorded in that area. ndeed the just conclud I ed Olympics Games in London are a sad reminder

that Nigeria is just “ordinary body without engine.” Although the federal government spent almost two billion naira for the event none of our athletes won a medal. As usual, commentators have identified the usual reasons for our embarrassing performance. The major point that emerges from the discussion is that, aside from the personal shortcomings of Nigerian athletes, our extremely poor showing in London 2012 is a paradigm manifestation of the all-pervading leadership kwashiorkor which has virtually crippled the country.

best delusional. Anger is a totally useless emotion if it keeps you bitter and harsh. What we all need is a deeper appreciation of our roles and value in the universe; everyone has a right to be treated with a degree of respect in any relationship or association. I am always baffled by clingers, especially when they are clinging to abuse, emotionally and sometimes physically..No one should mourn a relationship that breaks down and not build up. If a man can walk away from a life long commitment without any thought to the vows he made or his family then he is not worth thinking about.

he same goes for women who cheat on their spouses or disrespect them for material reasons, when such people leave, it is better in the long run. The way I see it, the end of such relationships should be seen as the removal of a malignant tumour, may be painful but better in the long run. These days I am no longer in love with Love; I know what values I need in a human being to be able to cohabit and co-exist peaceably. I can say I love my

Sports in Nigeria, just like other aspects of our national life, are administered by selfish intellectually myopic individuals motivated only by what they and their cronies can get from the system. Expectedly the usual hypocritical “sound and fury” from top government officials anytime we perform badly in international sports has begun. A few weeks from now when the matter might have faded from people’s consciousness everybody would go back to business as usual. All the officials responsible for sports, beginning with the sports minister, will retain their positions because everything in Nigeria is the “will of God” or happens by the “special grace of Allah.” n any case, President I Jonathan is not really keen to hold his subordi-

nates accountable for nonperformance. Uche Chukwumerije, one of the “senatorial pigs” in the Animal Farm, Nigeria, accurately describes our situation in a newspaper report: “[Objective assessment] of role performance is never done in Nigeria. When you finish whatever you are doing, you go behind and bribe one official or the other and criticise or politicise it with one person who is your brother or sister from the same tribe.” Nigeria’s disastrous performance is an apt Q.E.D. for the proof that the “Goodluck” in Goodluck Jonathan cannot contribute anything to our developmental efforts, that the semantics of a president’s name is completely irrelevant to a country’s achievement, or lack of it, in any area of human endeavour.

husband and state the reasons why. Love is not an abstract thing, its a force that is there in every interaction, in every single moment.

o how does one start again? Laughter is my answer. No matter how bad it is now, finding and in this case hunting down something to laugh about is a sure way to lighten our loads. It may seem trivial and trite but nothing is as attractive as a laugh; it draws people in and empties out heaviness. My grandmother always said laughing at life is the best way to get on its good side; to be favoured by the gods! That may be rooted in some medieval tradition but I know I would rather be with someone who laughs a lot than someone who yells a lot. Laughter heals; its a gift from God to ease tension and its a most inexpensive but effective medicine. Starting life again can be done at any age, it can be scary but life begins when we give ourselves permission to live, to love and even laugh... the rest is all in God's capable hands.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012, PAGE 9

God save us from the curse of We have no shame *The wicked have done their worst “First Ladies”

C M Y K

GOVERNOR FASHOLA AND UNINTENDED CONSEUENCES OF RUSHED LAWS – Part one. “Impress it on the mind of any man that he can make no error and he will soon convince you of your mistake”. Praise can be just as intoxicating as alcohol, power and money. Too much of any of the three produces monstrous results. Fashola’s performance, in the first term, was exemplary and deserving of all the accolades which he received. But, perhaps there was too much of the backslapping from all of us. I am deeply worried about the unintended conse-

HE institutionalisation of an office which does not exist in our constitu tion was the fault of the media – print and electronics – and it betrays our slave mentality with regard to transient occupants of great offices. Our forefathers were carried into slavery mostly because they preferred to be herded like cattle into ships than to die as free men. The mentality is still with us their successors. We still invent various forms of self-enslavement to our fellow men – even when they are our own people. Go and read every Americam newspaper and you will hardly find any which calls Mrs. Obama “First Lady”; nor her husband the President “His Excellency”. Indeed, any American who addresses Obama as “Your Excellency” at a function will be regarded as someone needing to have his head examined. The picture of Mrs. Obama hugging basketball player Kobe Bryant, at the London Olympics, was captioned “Mrs. Obama hugs Kobe” in American newspapers. In Nigeria, it became “American First Lady hugs Kobe”. The difference is clear between free people and slaves pretending to be free. “First Ladyism” started like an aberration; which would soon correct itself. The major intrusion, of unelected wives of public officials, Presidents, Governors and Local Government Chairpersons, started with the creator of the Better Life Programme for Rural Women. And, on it millions of naira of public funds spent. Till today, nobody has told Nigerians how much was taken from our Federation Account to fund this programme; there has been no audited report and nobody has told us what was achieved for all the noise and publicity. But, those old enough to remember what happened, must recollect that it later became known as Better Women for Rural Life. Each inauguration of a Better Life project in any state was accompanied by uniforms sewn for the First lady and her entourage from the office, the Minister for Women Affairs as well as Permanent Secretary, all the wives of the State Governors and their free-loaders, all the wives of all the Local Government persons from several states, etc, etc. Cows were slaughtered and consumed and invariably, it was a carnival such as the rural people had never seen before – or perhaps after. Today, there is not a trace anywhere of the Better Life Programme. No great idea, to the best of my knowledge, which benefits the people, dies so quickly. The truth was, and is, it was a rotten idea on which hundreds of millions of naira of public funds were wasted. Then came Mrs. Mariam Abacha. Again the entire charade called Family Support Programme, FSP, by that intruder into our national life, can be illustrated by one intervention she made in Lagos State. She “donated” (they use our money to buy things for us at inflated prices and call it donation; the Yoruba people refer to that scam as owo Abu la fin se Abu la lejo; meaning ‘you use Abu’s money to entertain him’ ) a small bus to the Old People’ Home at Yaba, Lagos. The bus at the time could not have been worth more than a million naira. But, the pageant supporting the event consumed almost twenty times that. I recollect asking in a column, at the time, why she could not have bought ten buses for more Old Peoples’ Homes or Motherless Babies Homes in Nigeria and simply have them delivered. My “reward” was a week-end “retreat” with the SSS. Again, today, there is no trace anywhere of the FSP. The only wife of a Military Head of State who stayed out of the treasury, to her everlasting glory, was the wife of General Abdulsalami Abubakar. I had hoped that the idiocy had ended. And, Obasanjo seemed to have supported me when, on coming to the helm, announced that his wife is no First Lady but Mrs. Obasanjo. Unfortunately, the media would not purge itself of its slave mentality. Like a nation of the deaf led by the deaf, the

noise about First Lady was heard all over once again. It was enough to break my heart. You are probably asking “why now?” The reason is simple. Some of the columnists I personally enjoy reading have lately cultivated the bad habit of calling some housewives “First Ladies”. Sometimes, in order to justify the investiture of the bogus title, they tell us long stories about the “achievements” of these intruders. Months ago, it was my friend Tunde Fagbenle of THE PUNCH singing the praises of one of them from the Southwest – whose husband I personally like. Usually, I would read Fagbenle from start to finish. This time, four paragraphs were all I could stomach. Lately, Segun Ayabolu of THE NATION and Abimbola Adelakun of THE PUNCH forced me to throw away papers for which I paid good money for using that expression — which is meaningless and is not recognized in law. With all good respects to Fagbenle, allowing illegal conduct, when engaged in by someone we admire, is an invitation to the sort of disasters we had experienced with former and present wives of elected officials. There is no example, anywhere in Nigeria, of projects initiated by one intruder outlasting her occupation of the master’s bedroom in the Presidency or Governor’s mansion. Now Local Government Chairmen wives are joining in the criminal waste of public funds on projects which will not outlast them– because most of them are bogus, corruption ridden or insane to start with. God save us from these people – and I mean all of them.

Praise can be just as intoxicating as alcohol, power and money. Too much of any of the three produces monstrous results

quences of recent initiatives –some of which have, to be candid, gone overboard. Back in 1969, while undertaking my MBA programme in Boston, the professor teaching Business Policy introduced us to the dangers of unintended consequences. Summarised, it comes out this way. The Chief Executive Officer, CEO (MD, Governor, DG, Chairman), takes a measure expecting a positive result from it. Then he takes a second, almost at the same time, still expecting a good result from that also. Then, he takes third, without waiting for the outcome of the first two; and before he knows it, all hell has broken loose. Perhaps I should stop there….

”In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers . . . we are ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.”— Alexander Solzhenitsyn

nebulous group called The James Ibori Political Associates has announced the cancellation of the planned 54th birthday celebration for James Onanefe Ibori which was earlier scheduled for August 4. I t h a s not been the best of times for James Onanefe Ibori. So to have to be celebrated in absentia for his 54 th b i r t h d a y i s i n bad taste and rubbing salt in the wounds of hardworking and honest Nigerians. These associates of his took pages of advertisements to lament his lack of freedom and they have blamed it on the wicked that have done their worst. They have blamed it all on the wicked step mother. Correct me, if am wrong, but did James Ibori not

“Revolutions end up in the hands of madmen. Besides, if the power is great enough, it will make its own mad men by its own pressure” - Saul Bellow. (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS ....

Nigeria has been appealed to a British court” (meaning what?) that they (who are they?) discriminated against James. Ibori’s defence in the face of allegations had always been that he had a successful business career and had made money independent of government, yes, pull the other one. Only in Nigeria! “If those investigating fraud can be so easily compromised with a mere $3 million and have the names of some expunged from the crime books, we can imagine how easily a crime can be pinned on another (meaning they pinned the crime on James!)”. They offered their prayers and indeed that of all wellmeaning Deltans at this period. They implored all Deltans and indeed Nigerians to continue to pray to God to strengthen “our leader, Chief James Ibori as he matches through this difficult phase of his life”. Nigerians, we seriously have a problem and something is definitely wrong here. “Have we dealt with pressing issues such as who stole the pension funds; have we identified the petroleum subsidy thieves and their collaborators; have we prosecuted the

We seriously have a problem and something is definitely wrong here. “Have we dealt with pressing issues such as who stole the pension funds; have we identified the petroleum subsidy thieves and their collaborators

steal the people’s money or not? Was the court impartial? Why did Odidigboigbo run away to Dubai and avoided London? Now we are learning that it was because James spear-headed the resource control struggle but was he the only one in the struggle? Oh yes, he is the modern Robin Hood then, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor? This man has been convicted of grand fraud and he is serving time in our majesty’s Prisons. And he is being feted as a leader, surely yes, Ali Baba and the forty thieves more like! Yes, we should be reminded, even by an egg-head of James’ “achievements in life which speaks volumes. That even while away that James bestride the political firmament with that aura that stands you out”. They said that “James’ tribulation (that) had their origins in the struggle for resource control” hence “that has not dampened” their love for him. Are they talking about the very same James Ibori? Did we not all observe that since his incarceration, “no other criminal case in

sponsors of Boko Haram; unearth those who collected the money for the power sector without electricity; explain why the Warri-Port Harcourt (East-West) road cannot be completed; or identify and prosecuted those who bunker our commonwealth”. For the love of oil, we pander and exult the immoral, thieves, murderers, miscreants and the nefarious. The elephant in the room by Denrele Animasaun “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”-Benjamin Franklin We once had a national airline with a logo of a flying green elephant with big ears. So it was a relief to see that the mascot for the national team to the Olympics settled for an eagle. Like the elephant, the eagle too failed to soar to greater heights. We arrived in London for the 2012 Olympics with a contingent of 51 sportsmen and women competing in 8 sports and we failed abysmally. Not one single medal between them, not one. We do not exactly have a good record of amassing Olympic medals. Sports

can give a window into a country’s prowess, so the result speaks volumes –the government has enriched its pocket as always and failed to invest in the young. They failed to invest where and when it mattered most. If they let go of some of their loot and put their money where their mouth is; invest in grassroots sports project, nurture, develop sporting talents and provide, support, trained coaches, sport specialists and roper training facilities. Most of the Nigerian athletes had to finance their own training and expenses to compete and we expect better results? The athletes, like the rest of most of our population, are dispirited and disenchanted people. The medallists told us that their win means commitment and dedication with financial support and top notch training facilities. None of these elite athletes come from rich homes. T h e y w e r e picked at local school and college sport meets and selected because of their talents and they had in them the hunger, potential and drive to rise about their background and become champions. Time and time again , the grassroots, from working class is where you nature these future potential. Nigeria needs to invest in these communities and let them work their way out of poverty, hopelessness and inspire others that through hard work and determination they too can become champions.. The Minister of Sports, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, expressed the Federal Government’s disappointment at the dismal performance of Team Nigeria at the 2012 Olympics. He admitted that poor preparation was to blame! You think? Once again they failed to foot the blame. “Our inability to win any medal so far is as disappointing for my team and me and for all Nigerians everywhere. But we must have the courage to see it as it is. This is a clear testimony to how far our sports have fallen behind.” There has to be a system that puts athletes’ welfare at the heart of planning and only then can we guarantee a couple of medals? I know how much the British team medal tally lifted the nation’s morale and it definitely has inspired the young to take up sports like their heroes.

PAGE 10—SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012 Onigu Otite after an extensive field work, recorded 374 ethnic groups, in his book “Ethnic pluralism and Ethnicity in Nigeria”

Which Nigerian figure is reliable? office holders. So, we are free to believe such classification as that Nigerian leaders move about in the longest convoy of vehicles in the world. As for the nation’s size, any claim can only be guess work. That our borders have been severally declared as too porous to be managed would cast doubts on how we got a figure of 923, 768sq km. Our population figure is no less controversial as no one knows how many Nigerians there are. Whereas other nations confidently announce their figures, Niger-

NE thing that Ni geria is not good at and which many of its citizens seem to overlook is the issue of figures and statistics. It is rather difficult to run into any Nigerian figure that is reliable. Even when it is arranged for us, by outsiders, it suffers the same fate because of the numerous versions by different bodies and also because the helpers do not know many things about us. Again, because we ourselves are negative about our country in addition to the fact that we do not have the correct statistics on anything, we have no option but to believe any conclusions about our nation. During the last independence anniversary celebration, lecture, Mr. Richard Dowden, Executive Director of the Royal African Society in London who spoke on ‘Nigeria in transformation’ identified our leaders, as the highest paid salary earners in the world. For a country that is not the richest in the world to have the highest paid public office holders is food for thought but no one controverted Dowden, because till date, even the relevant body-the salaries and wages commission- knows only a fraction and not the exact take-home pay of certain

Festus Odimegwu, a diligent manger of business is in charge of the subject, things may change. The only fear is that to count bottles in a well organized brewery is not the same as counting people in a Nigerian location where several people bear the same names and live in unnumbered houses in streets without names. May be Odimegwu can find out how America used its Central Intelligence Agency to count us, on our behalf and got a figure of 170, 123, 740. Another issue that cannot

Our population figure is no less controversial as no one knows how many Nigerians there are

ia’s population is usually explained by statements like “out of every five black people on Earth, one is a Nigerian”. At independence in 1960, we had 35million people. The 2006 census took the figure to 140 million-an incredible increase of over 100 million in less than 50 years. Now that the indomitable Eze,

be described with some certainty is the number of ethnic groups into which the country can be divided. Almost every literature says there are 250 such groups. How this figure was arrived at is not easy to know considering that as far back as 1990, one of Nigeria’s foremost sociologists, Professor

The Autumn of the General

C M Y K

body. He became president and governed Nigeria for eight controversial years. The eight years of Babangida re-shaped both the values and the direction, and without question, the political and ideological landscape of Nigeria, most of his critics have continued to insist, for the worse. Some among his admirers continue to make laudatory claims on his behalf, and there is no better panegyric tome ever written of the man than Chidi Amuta’s Prince of the Niger. My generation was the real victim of the Babangida years. We expended our youth either as University undergraduates or young professionals engaged in fierce ideological disagreement with his government over the future of Nigeria. That future came eventually, and like the proverbial chicken, was home to roost. I say that we were ultimately right in our fights with Babangida, even if there is no real pleasure today in being proven right. Many suffered imprisonment under Babangida. Some died in prison. Some were killed. Some fled to exile. Some succumbed to madness. Quite a whole lot became resigned and disillusioned with Nigeria. But Babangida is Ok, he says, thanks to Allah, the beneficent. If the Soyinka generation was the

wasted generation, my generation which emerged in the Babangida years was aborted. We didn’t even have a chance! At the height of his power, Ibrahim Babangida seemed absolutely indestructible – well, until the 1990 coup – the aftermath of which led to a hurried and distorted transition, and certainly of course to what has become Babangida’s greatest political albatross, the June 12 elections. Babangida had gone under with June 12, his political life was uncertain for a while, but it was always

HIS past Thursday, August 16, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida turned 71. He gave thanks to God. Just as the late K.O. Mbadiwe said of himself in 1983 at his official retirement from national politics, he was no longer “K.O,”said the juggernaut, he was then, “O.K;” Ibrahim Babangida is quite OK; he was satisfied with himself, he told reporters at his Hilltop home in Minna, and it was all the doing of Allah. It is amazing how men of enormous wealth and power insist on the partiality of God as a way of self-justification. But that’s not the point I wish to address today – the partiality or not of the divine Architect – but about the General in his autumnal years. Babangida turned 71. He shares a birthday with my favorite poet, Africa’s greatest lyrical poet of the 20th century, Christopher Okigbo who died fighting at 37 at Nsukka during the Nigeria-Biafra Civil war. For a while, I ruminated on writing a memorial to Okigbo who would have been 82 years last Thursday had he survived. Babangida also was in that war as a young subaltern, and he survived, with he says frequently, some shrapnel still lodged in his

n the area of politics, no one is certain about Nigeria’s voting population. For the 1983 general elections, over 65milion voters were registered to enable the ruling party at the time, the National party of Nigerian (NPN) to win 120 out of every 100 votes. No one was surprised when 15 years later, the voters list dropped to 57million. Till date however, election results in the country are not related to the voting population or the voter turn- out. In 1999, former American President, Jimmy carter who led the international observers alleged that there was disparity between the number of voters at the polling station and the votes eventually declared. Again, unlike most countries which operate the two tier federal system, Nigeria has a third tier. In reality however, our three tiers of government exist only in theory and by Law; but in practice, we illegally operate a two-tier structure. The third tier- the local government is only a strategy for attracting funds from the federation account. Although the nation’s constitution formally guarantees a democratically elected local government, it is hardly obeyed across the nation. Thus we cannot claim to be running either a three or two tier federal system. In business, Air transportation is becoming popular. As a result, many of our cities now lay claims to hav-

course, full time. It was I, who had the dubious honor of first calling him “evil genius” in a piece I’d written in the Vanguard in the mid-90s; a term which he then used in an ironic and self-referential way in an interview with Tell magazine, which has since stuck to him. There should be no doubt that Ibrahim ‘Badass’ Babangida is a master of intrigue. It was in recognition of this that Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, himself not a stranger to intrigue andMachiavellian politics accused Babangida and the other autumnal General Buhari of knowing more than they were willing publicly to tell about Boko Haram. He challenged them to publicly disown and condemn Boko Haram. Clark’s challenge quickly led to a “Kiriji war” of

It seems indeed that Babangida is alluding to the struggles of displaced communities to find settlement and integration and security of their political rights within the federation

edgy and intriguing anyway, and he is still regarded as one of the most powerful individual political forces in Nigeria to date. In 2007, Ibrahim Babangida resurfaced to try his hands once again at the presidency, and that ambition never got off the marks. But since then, Babangida has reemerged at the center of Nigeria’s political dis-

words that quickly went south towards name-calling, with words like “irrelevance” and “senile” liberally used to close down Clark’s challenge, who then in a fit of pique challenged Babangida and his campfollowers to a public debate. Finally, Babangida used the occasion of his birthday to shape that debate, enter

ing international airports, although they operate only local flights. In banking, having moved its12 branches in 2000 to 320 under the leadership of Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, Oceanic Bank won the Nigerian Bank of the Year Award among banks from over 143 countries for 2 consecutive years, 2006 and 2007. The award was organized by the Banker magazine, a subsidiary of the Financial Times of London. For us at the newly established NTA International at the time, it was good content but months later, with a change of guards at the Central Bank Oceanic bank got a new story. The next year, 9 Nigerian banks reportedly made the list of the Top 1000 World Banks. This time, Zenith Bank and First Bank were the two top most in Nigeria in the exercise by Tier One Capital in the 2011 edition by The Banker magazine.. While Zenith ranked 296, First Bank of Nigeria Plc ranked 310. Other Nigerian banks that made the Top list were Guaranty Trust Bank ranked 444, Access Bank (495), United Bank for Africa (513), Fidelity Bank (567), First City Monument Bank (586), Diamond Bank (650) and Skye Bank (657). In education, an organization known as the 4International Colleges & Universities (4icu.org), which ranks universities says the University of Lagos (UNILAG) is in the first position in the country. University of Ilorin emerged second, University of Ibadan, (UI), third, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife, fourth and University of Benin, fifth. Another rank-

ing for the same period, this time by Webometrics, an organization that ranks universities based on the size, content and publications, global performance and visibility of their website placed the University of Benin as the best in Nigeria and 22nd in Africa.. Interestingly, neither 4(icu.org) nor Webometrics was aware of the decision by the British General Medical Council (GMC) to bar Medical graduates from 9 Nigerian universities from obtaining licenses to practice in the United Kingdom .Those affected are: Ambrose Ali University, Ebonyi State University, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, University of Jos, University of Nigeria, University of Port Harcourt, Igbinedion University and the University of Benin. The schools were axed because they no longer met the required standards for practice in the UK. rom all that we have said so far, it is time for Nigeria to become diligent. Against this back drop, we are waiting to hear the response of the Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu to the request by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), for information on how much has been spent on maternal health care delivery system and prevention in the country in the last five years. It is significant that the request is based on the Freedom of Information Act which gives the Minister 7days to act.

some caveats, and make some clear attestations. It is indeed the autumn of the General, and with autumn, the season of aging, comes some wisdom. Of Boko Haram, Babangida offers his own defence. He is, he said, not behind it. “I have been commenting on the Boko Haram issue and I have never hidden my disaffection against the sect and will continue to dissociate myself from the sect” he said. Nigerian journalists should investigate further, particularly the connection between Boko Haram and the movements of the Gwari, the Pastoral Fulani, and “other tribes” in Nigeria, the General also suggested. It seems indeed that Babangida is alluding to the struggles of displaced communities to find settlement and integration and security of their political rights within the federation. There might be something to it. Not long ago, Babangida put his weight behind the debate to remove the “indigene/settler ” clause in the Nigerian constitution that inhibits Nigerian citizenship; he also has advocated for the removal of the “quota system” and the restoration of merit as the basis of recruitment in federal jobs. The question of course is, why did Babangida not do these things when he had the absolute power to accomplish them? He also now lends his support for the creation of “state police”- a suggestion for which once he could have publicly shot or jailed any proponent. He categorically dismissed Boko Haram’s call to President Jonathan to resign. Of

course it is a ridiculous call by Boko Haram, and it was best ignored. I think that the presidency should have been fully advised not to dignify Boko Haram’s call on the president to convert to Islam and resign, with a response. There is no basis for it. It is on the same grounds that very thoughtful Nigerians have strenuously argued against the so-called move to open “negotiations” with Boko Haram. The question has always been, negotiate on the basis of what? No self-respecting government negotiates with a faceless terrorist group like Boko Haram, whose methods will soon most certainly be exhausted because when violence ceases to surprise or shock; when the population becomes immune to it, the terror factor which depends on fear loses its edge and its awe. In the end, Babangida may still have to debate his “friend of 35 years,” Kiagbodo Clark to clarify other matters between them, and although he is making the right kinds of noises these days, most Nigerians still have a deep of mistrust of Babangida. It is important, at every moment nonetheless, to see where we all meet in agreement: so yes, wisdom comes to the General in the autumn of his life. Yes, Boko Haram has no power to force the resignation of the president of the Republic. Yes, it is the right of the states to organize a state police. Yes, Babangida is right on those scores. But yes, also, Nigerians still have to take him at every moment with a pinch of salt.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012, PAGE 11

Undersized organ! Dear Rebecca

’M a young man of 25 years. I lost the woman I wanted to marry and other girl friends due to my small penis. They had complained of my quick ejaculation and my inability to satisfy them sexually, so, they left. Since then, I’ve been too shy and worried to make love to my new girlfriend because I’m afraid the whole problem will develop all over again. I’m so badly shaken. I think this problem might affect my marital life. I’m fond of wetting both my night clothes and bed sheets since then. Please help me as I’m so confused. Should I enlarge my penis? If so, what do I do? How can I stop wetting my bed at night? James. REPL Y REPLY

OU are not alone in this problem. Since our private organs are used for reproduction, we get worried when we feel that they are not functioning as we think they should. An expert says that the size of the organ does not determine fertility, neither does premature ejaculation stop a man from having children. You may not be endowed with a large organ, but knowing how to please your partner and yourself is more satisfying than mere physical endowment. It is like wealth or good looks. These may help get a partner easily but they will not determine how well you can perform. That is something you have to learn and perfect. There are advertisements which claim that an operation can en-

large your organ but these are in western countries and I doubt if it is worth your while to risk your health and money in such a thing. No one is fully satisfied with the way he is, so, accept your organ as it is and be thankful to God that it is active. Some men lose the use of theirs, through an accident or an illness and along with the misfortune, may become infertile. Yet, these people are glad to be alive and they just adjust to giving and getting sexual satisfaction within limited capability. When there is real fondness between a couple, they accept each other no matter the size of the organ, or the sexual performance. Study your partner and find out how you can give her maximum pleasure. Exercise regularly and eat a balanced diet of carbohydrates, protein and fruits to stay healthy. When with a girl, do not start worrying about what she will think if she sees your organ. Just relax, enjoy kisses and cuddles and let sex happen the way it likes. How nice it would be if you can defer sex until you are married. Abstinence brings peace of mind. However, if this is impossible with you, use the condom please, to help reduce the risks of venereal diseases and unwanted pregnancies. By ‘bed wetting’ I assume you mean sperm discharge while asleep. An expert says this is normal in many young men, and it has no adverse effect on your life, except the inconvenience of changing and washing your bed sheets. If you mean urine, I suggest you don’t eat or drink late at night, and you set your alarm clock to wake you up several times in the night so that you can urinate.

When with a girl, do not start worrying about what she will think if she sees your organ. Just relax, enjoy kisses and cuddles and let sex happen the way it likes

Confused about this relationship Dear Rebecca

’M 20 and a 100 level student. I met this guy in April this year at the bank. He told me he’s 25. He is in the Police force. Since we met, he’s been sending me text messages everyday. I fell in love but I’ve never been in a relationship before.He is from Kogi State, while I’m Igbo. A week after we met he took me to his barracks and I met his friends, and some people he said are his cousins. I would say I was well received by them all. He told me later that they all approved of me and that it was the first time they were approving a girl he dated, and they suggested that he should marry me. He said he told them I’m still a student. Towards the end of May, I visited him and he asked for sex. I refused but we kissed and he caressed my boobs. I told him to stop and he did. He does whatever I ask him to do, although I sometimes reject his gifts. I asked him the reason he left his former relationship, and he said the girl left him for another man. However, on four occasions when I rang to tell him I was coming to see him, he told me he was going to see his uncle. I didn’t believe him, even though he sounded as if he was telling the truth. Help me. What will I do and what should I say to him to keep the relationship going? He has asked to know my people, but I refused because he seems a stingy guy. Can you send me a direct reply, please? Comfort

REPL Y REPLY

ORRY, we don’t re spond directly to readers. We publish our responses on this page so that other people with similar problem can benefit from the advice given, and they won’t have to write in. I would advise that you don’t base all your hopes for a husband on this man. You haven’t studied him enough, and anyway, he’s not actually proposed marriage to you. All he has said is that his friends and relations approved of you and they suggested that he should marry you. Now, that’s not a marriage proposal. What he has done was to say that other people think you’re right for him. He’s been silent on what he feels about marriage so far. However, even though he’s working, but at 25, I doubt if he’s ready for marriage. You’re only 20, and in your first year in a learning institution. Normally, it’s best for you to complete your studies first before getting married so that you don’t have distractions that could affect your studies adversely. Like having to worry about where your husband is while you’re on the campus, and if he’s cheating on you or not. Also, you could get pregnant and that condition could make you so unwell that

you may not be able to concentrate on your studies. So, considering all the above, you shouldn’t begin to take this relationship very seriously, and ask for strategies that could sustain it. At your age, you shouldn’t have a special boyfriend yet, unless you have marriage in mind right now. If you don’t, it’s advisable for you to have many young and responsible boys as ordinary friends so that you can have the opportunity to study and understand members of the opposite sex better. It is important for you to know the sort of man that you would want as a husband and the father of your Godgiven children. The character of a person is much more important than the way he looks, his job and how much money he spends on you. Consider things like kindness, patience, sense of responsibility, integrity, honesty, politeness, self-respect, cleanliness, a desire to make progress in life, religion, his background and members of his family. All these combined, will give you a fair knowledge of what life with him would be. Of course, after the wedding, you will still discover other things about the man; some which may please you, and some which may displease you. In that case, you will have to learn to accept and adjust to his ways, not to try to change him. It’s only

God who can minister to a human being’s heart to change him, not necessarily another human being. I would advise you pay more attention to your studies now, than to a relationship with boys, so that you can make good grades from the start and not have carryo v e r s . You will then graduate at a good level and stand a chance of landing a good job. Just regard this man as a casual friend. Don’t visit him and place yourself in a position to be forced to have sex. Decent girls don’t ask men for gifts, and they don’t accept expensive gifts from a man they’re not engaged to be married to. If you do, when you want to end the relationship, there would be trouble as the man would feel cheated. So, be contented with what your parents or guardians can provide for you. If this man appears stingy to you, it could be that he doesn’t earn much, and probably have much financial responsibility in his family. Don’t discuss marriage with him, either. If he brings up the topic, tell him that it’s early days yet as you’re only in your first year at the university, and you don’t want to tie him down to an engagement. If later in your final year you feel that he’s the man for you to marry, well, introduce him to your parents, and let him take you to meet his parents (not his friends) too.

•All letters for publication on this page should be sent to: Dear Rebecca, Vanguard Media Ltd, Kirikiri Canal, P.M.B 1007, Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria. E-mail: dearrebecca2@yahoo.com

P AGE 12 — PA

SUND AY Vanguard, A UGUST 19 , 2012 SUNDA AUGUST

0808 066 0660 (Texts only!)

Men sneak in their mistresses all the time! having a house-warming party in their home town. She’d already made arrangements for the couple to stay in one of the guest rooms. “Eugene cancelled at the last minute|, Franca said, “and I wouldn’t have dreamt of going if my sister-in-law hadn’t been such a supportive friend. We were in-between house-helps but Eugene said looking after our three boys wouldn’t be a problem. The weekend away really gave me time to think about my marriage. I didn’t want us to split up. Despite Eugene’s recklessness, I still loved him and I loved being married. He loved me in his own way - understanding what had gone wrong was the difficult bit. As lavishly as I was entertained by his sister, it was a relief to get back home that Monday morning. Eugene was already at his office and as I hurriedly got dressed to go to work, I noticed my husband had kept everywhere tidy the whole flat was tidy even my things had been neatly packed away and the floor spotless. I was impressed. He’s tried really hard to impress me, I thought. He must still care. I began to feel hopeful. “Then my mobile rang.

Decreasing the girth

OLLEAGUES of mine of both sexes at Vanguard have lately been asking about ways and means of reducing the bulge of the belly. It’s just as well, because we all know how healthy and appealing a flat and well toned abdominal wall is. Apart from aesthetics, well conditioned stomach muscles speak volumes of the state of the health. Almost all the pot-bellied people I know have high blood pressure not to mention other petty, petty health problems that they also suffer from. But there is a sure way out, whether the bulge is caused by bad postural habit – like sitting crouched at the table or computer, or from too much food and alocholic drinks. Exercise with accentuation on the abdominal region will achieve the following: the saggy musC M Y K

cles will gradually firm uo and a lot of fat will burn off giving way to a slimmer waist line. A little caution though – when we exercise the abdomen we should also do likewise for the back muscles to protect us from back aches and injuries. This means the toning up of the muscles of the belly must be done side by side with improving of the back muscles. When both sets of muscles are in great condition, we’re able to hold the trunk in a more upright posture which further improves the general health and well being. The following yoga exercises will all help in reducing the girth. But practice must be regular. The Rocking Technigue: Sit down with the hands at the back of the knees. Now raise the feet

It was a number I was unfamiliar with but I picked it up all the same - it could be a new client. ‘Is that Franca?’ a woman’s voice asked. ‘Yes, who is this?’ I replied. ‘My name’s Nita,’ she told me. ‘I got your number from Eugene’s phone when I was at your house over the weekend.’ My stomach lurched. Was this a sick joke? Nita explained she met my husband through a girlfriend and they ’d started a relationship. She just spent the weekend in the flat. She sounded so casual, as if she was dismissing a party we’d both attended. ‘You’ve been at our flat? With my husband?’ I asked her. ‘You

can hardly call him your husband can you?’ she said. ‘You’ve been separated for months now.’ “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. ‘Separated?’ I said. ‘We’re still very much married. What gave you that idea?’ she paused a while then said: ‘I thought it was strange that there were wedding photographs everywhere - and personal photographs of yours as well. But Eugene told me you were obsessed with him and found it difficult to accept the break-up - that was why you refuse to take down the photographs.’ This must be a nightmare. ‘If you were in the flat, where were the children?’ ‘The children didn’t see me

up a little above the ground and thrust then both forwards and then quickly draw then backward again. This forward and backward motions of the feet should be kept going steadily. If there is any hesitation you’ll upset the rhythm and will

is also reputed to aid sleep. The Triangle Technique: Stand with the feet quite wide apart and passing both hands up from the back, bend the trunk leftward and place the forehead on the left knee. Hold the position for about 10 seconds, and repeat on the other side for the same length of time. Benefits: The Triangle tones up the muscles and organs of the abdomen. The hamstrings and the abductor muscles receives some beneficial stretching. Legs and Trunk Raise Technique: Lying flat on your back, interlace the fingers and place them at the back of the head. Now, breathing in deeply, raise the legs up, keeping the knees locked and the back as well. Be sure that shoulders are completely off the floor. Stay up for 5 seconds and breathing

ANY crimes of passion have been committed for less - a woman who has a strong feeling her marriage is unshakable suddenly gets a call out of the blues from her husband’s mistress wanting to know when she (the wife) would have the decency to set her husband free! That was the dilemma that faced Franca the day her nightmare started. “We’d been married for 12 years but our marriage was getting a bit stale,” Franca told me sadly during her lunch break. “Eugene, my husband had always been a ladies’ man and after forgiving a couple of affairs, I got to the point where I knew I couldn’t take anymore .. .” Franca has a good job and had sponsored herself on one of the top management courses run by my office. We’d talked a few times on her husband’s philandering and I’d consoled her that affairs weren’t such a big deal these days - as long as the husband chip in his bit financially. “Well, that’s the problem,” Franca had flared during one of our chats. “He gives me anything he fancies and spends the rest of his money on good clothes and women! A few months later, Eugenes’s sister was

The Triangle tones up the muscles and organs of the abdomen. The hamstrings and the abductor muscles receives some beneficial stretching

be ‘stuck’. A few trials will soon make you get the hang of it. Benefits: This is a great warm-up exercise which

though,’ she said. ‘Eugene made me hide in the bedroom till they’d all gone to bed.’ “It was then that the new look in the flat made sense. I thought the house was tidy because Eugene was making an effort to save our marriage not knowing he’d been trying to cover his tracks. He didn’t want me to see how busy he’d been, getting up to no good with his mistress. In my bed! I simply hung up and seethed through the rest of the day, waiting for when Eugene came home to really tell me why he did what he did. He gave a hoop of joy as he made to give me a welcome back hug but I remained rigid. “Nita just called my mobile,’ he looked so incredulous I was filled with anger. ‘How could you when the children were at home?’ He looked a bit shocked, then defiant. He admitted taking care not to expose the kids to his indiscretion. But he’d really done it this time. I told him that as far as I knew, I no longer had a marriage. He was on his own. He tried to bluff his way through another of his shameless escapades but I knew there wouldn’t be an end to his philandering as long as I continued to take it on the

chin. My only consolation was that he’d hidden his mistress away so well the children never suspected a thing. The children are growing fast and needed to be protected from their dad’s irresponsibility. “ I would have loved to see his face the day he came home and found all of us gone. But weeks later, he moved Nita in. I was so upset I felt like going to the flat and thrashing the place. But I’d taken all the valuables that were mine and it was time I moved on” It was poetic justice when I learnt months later that Nita had left him. I had taken the cars, the plasma TV - all those items that gave the flat the sophisticated touch Nita had wanted for herself. I bet she didn’t get as much money off him as she thought she would - and she wasn’t ready to spend her money on a man who could show her the same consideration he showed his wife and the mother of his children ... “ I assured Franca she wasn’t alone. Her saving grace was she could afford to leave because she was financially independent. What about tons of women who’d gone through worse treatment and didn’t leave because they couldn’t afford to?

out, lower down the body. Benefits: The abdominal muscles

along with the rest of the musculature are toned and the whole body revitalised.

The triangle posture

Yoga classes at 32 Ademola Adetokunbo Victoria Island, Lagos, 9.10am on Saturdays

SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012 , PAGE 13

A NATION CHARRED BY INSURGENCY (II)

The Patience and Good Luck President Jonathan Needs zBoko Haram, FTO status, and

‘American Wonder’ zWhy

Jonathan’s resignation is not the solution

t a trying time like this, A there are two things President Goodluck

Ebele Jonathan needs – patience and good luck. Patience in that he would need to wait till after the US elections to know whether that country ’s government would change its position on designating the Jamaatu Ahlil Sunna Lidawati wal Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram, as a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANISATION, FTO; and good luck, that things don’t spiral out of control before then. Just take a look; and then imagine. Take a very long, hard look; and then imagine that your brother, or sister or any member of your extended family had been a victim or had been lost to the insurgency in those areas marked on the face of the map of Nigeria as areas of insurgent attacks. To understand the magnitude of the crises confronting the Nigerian nation, just imagine for how long this had gone on and the attendant magnifying spectre of extremism and criminality, as well as the increasing helplessness of many a people. You can add to this the seeming shambolic approach of government in containing what is turning out to be an insurgency of extremism, markedly different in scope, size, content and context, C M Y K

from politics and poverty that some people are reading into it. And for those calling on President Jonathan to resign, the call is not only ridiculous, it smacks of crass illiteracy and self-serving venture in hallucination, especially in a country of clashing socio-political, ethno-religious and economic interests. If Jonathan resigns, what next! Would the insurgency

By Jide Ajani

which made him a dully respected global citizen. Does Jonathan wish that for himself? Only he can answer. Vanity upon vanity! But if Jonathan is said not to be proactive, what about the government of the US which has adopted a confusing posture over the designation of Boko Haram as an FTO? This, after designating three leaders of the group as terrorists.

It is hypocritical for the United States and the international community to say that they believe in freedom and equality when there actions do not support those who are being persecuted

disappear? Would there be efficient power supply? Would the healthcare delivery system improve overnight? Rather than a call to resignation, President Jonathan should be constantly made to understand the implications of a sliding country under his watch, the damage it would do to his person, his wife, children and tribe, just as the shambolic eight-year rule of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his attempt at tenure elongation have brought him down to earth from the Olympian height

In the second part of this series on the congressional hearing in the US on the matter, you would read the exchange between Hon. Christopher Smith, Ms. Bass, Mr. Turner and Mr. Fortenberry and Ambassador Johnnie Carson, about Boko Haram and Nigeria. More importantly, the exchanges between Hon. Smith and Ambassador Carson are very interesting because Smith wondered “if you could speak to why the organization has not itself been classified as an FTO.

Are those three acting in a way that is contrary or out of sorts with the organization itself? What would a designation of that organization as an FTO (achieve). Why don’t we call an organization that is seemingly responsible and claiming responsibility for horrific acts of violence, which appears to have at its core as the radical Islamic position (an FTO. (I’ve spoken to many people within and outside and some are) contemptuous and fearful of what our game plans are. I think we have done it in places like Egypt. So, why are groups designated as FTOs in other countries and yet you do not see the need to designate Boko Haram as one”? Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor’s presentation is also reproduced below. A snippet: “It is hypocritical for the United States and the international community to say that they believe in freedom and equality when there actions do not support those who are being persecuted. A non designation for the group only serves to hamper the cause of justice”.

Excerpts: Ms. BASS We all know that Africa’s most populous nation with wealth of natural resources, Nigeria, has much to offer the continent, our country and the world. Over the last six years, Nigeria has experienced an

average growth rate in GDP of nearly 7% due in part to the fact that Nigeria is the largest African oil producer and one of the top US suppliers of oil. It is said that oil and gas production account for 95% of export earnings. The congressional research service reports that US imports account for over 40% of Nigeria’s total crude oil export, making the United States the highest trading partner. It is clear that US and Nigerian have a unique partnership that links our two nations in important and meaningful ways. However, despite all that Nigeria has to offer, Nigeria continues to be challenged by a host of social, political, economic and security issues that stifles its full emergence as one of the continent’s brightest stars. President Jonathan must address some of the most enduring tensions that divide ethnic groups in the north and south and also cut across religious lines. Too many Nigerian have lost their lives. I would appreciate the witnesses (Amb. Carson) providing an update on the Jonathan’s administration efforts to address corruption. We’re all also aware that Boko

Continues on page 14

PAGE 14 — SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012

Boko Haram, FTO status, and ‘American Wonder’ Continued from page 13

Mr. TURNER I have a series of questions for the witness, Mr. Carson, regarding the non-designation of Boko Haram as a Foreign Terror Organisation, FTO. This designation has been pressed by the FBI and the department of justice, homeland security, as well as a bill in the senate. There was the attack on UN House, there has been over thousands of deaths attributed to it. The attacks have been based on religious grounds – (attacks at Christmas, at Easter, attacking Christian churches and as I’ve researched this, all recommendations seem to be this will make life a lot easier here, if Boko Haram is designated as an FTO, in view of the proactive interdepartmental efforts against terrorism since 9/11. It would seem this will be the logical thing to do, yet it is not, so I would like to get a better understanding of the rationale, it has been blocked by the state department and

state department only. So that would be my single question. Mr. FORTENBERRY Serious problems demand our attention, a collection of photographs recently published in Washington post under the headline forgotten conflicts, highlighted Nigeria’s Niger Delta region which is yet to emerge from a vicious circle of environmental degradation and militancy and remains largely inaccessible to outside observers. Also a long standing rivalry between the north and the south punctuated by ethnic and sectarian tensions have resulted in the loss of more than 13,000 lives since 1999, brutal attacks on minority Christian communities in Nigeria illustrate why the US commission on international religious freedom recommended that Nigeria be classified as a country with particular concern and then consider the potential for region-

Haram continues down the part of violence and destructions and it poses a threat to peace in Nigeria and can be a destabilizing element throughout the region, especially if it is ties to AQIM are continued. What diplomatic efforts show sign of positive progress with the Nigerian government to effectively address Boko Haram strength and position. I would appreciate greater clarity about designating Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist organization - is there the potential for Boko Haram to be further emboldened and given greater legitimacy, with an official designation and most importantly, how do we address the root causes of Boko Haram grievances without ostracizing other groups and communities and regions where the social economic and political realities are equally challenging.

Ambassador Carson : "Boko Haram, an organisation of several parts

now: How do you see the future of reconciliation (in Nigeria) and evaluate the national government efforts to address the grievances in the Niger Delta such as the Ogoni community?

Why don’t we call an organization that is seemingly responsible and claiming responsibility for horrific acts of violence, an FTO? Some are contemptuous and fearful of what our (American Government’s) game plans are

al destabilisation as radical elements within Nigeria potentially linked with global terrorist organization. Even as reforms developed under President Jonathan, which offer encouragement, Nigeria’s future trajectory will depend on how effectively the root sources of instability within that society are managed. Secretary Carson, am going to state one question

Mr. SMITH

Mr. Carson, this administration has designated three members of the Boko Haram terrorists, and I’m wondering if you could speak to why the organization has not itself been classified as an FTO. Are those three acting in a way that is contrary or out of sorts with the organization itself? What would a designation of that organization as an FTO (achieve). Why don’t we

call an organization that is seemingly responsible and claiming responsibility for horrific acts of violence, which appears to have at its core as the radical Islamic position (an FTO. (I’ve spoken to many people within and outside and some are) contemptuous and fearful of what our game plans are. I think we have done it in places like Egypt. So, why are groups designated as FTOs in other countries and yet you do not see the need to designate Boko Haram as one?

Amb. CARSON

Mr. Chairman thank you for that question, it is an important question, it is a question that we think about all the time. We have indeed designated three individuals, who we think are in top leadership positions inside of Boko Haram. But we have not designated the entire organization because we do not believe that Boko Haram is a homogenous organization. We believe that it is an organisation of several parts. We believe that the individuals that we have designated (as terrorists) represent a core group who lead a part of Boko

Haram which is desirous of attacking not only Nigerian targets and interest, but also Western and international targets and interests. We believe that the larger element of Boko Haram is (only interested in and doing everything) to discredit, disgrace the Nigerian government; discredit, disgrace and embarrass the Nigerian government by carrying out attacks against Nigerian government, security and the civil institutions, attacking politicians, attacking government officials and judges. But the both of the organisations, we believe to be mainly aimed at going after Nigerians equally. And as you would see in my longer testimony almost everything of the criminal nature that happens in the northern Nigeria today is attributed to Boko Haram. And again a lot of things that go on such as bank robberies and assaults on homes and individuals are frequently labeled as attacks by Boko Haram. They are in fact only criminal activities that are labeled as such. We believe that the designation of these individuals will Continues on page 15 C M Y K

SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012 , PAGE 15

Why Jonathan’s resignation is not the solution Continued from page 14

Mr. SMITH

How large is Boko Haram? Where did they get their money? Where did they get their weapons? When people say that Boko Haram (has done something) whenever they did it - burning houses, burning the church - is it that the group claims credit for (these acts, or it’s just a statement that is made by someone who has been victimized)? And finally, how often do we actually designate individual members of a group - especially when they are in the leadership capacity - and we’re now saying that they were out of sorts with the rest of the organization. Designating only those three and not everyone else or maybe the organization, (what is that)? What is leadership? And often do we do that for other foreign terrorist organizations – that is target just main individuals but not the group itself?

Amb. CARSON

I have to take that last question and get back to you. I

Mr. SMITH

What kind of assistance?

Amb. CARSON

zChristopher H. Smith: "Some people, contemptuous of our game plan

think that their activities are carried out in northern Nigeria. They do have someone who is known to be the spokes person for the organization. But frequently, claims that are made in the name of Boko Haram (are sometimes from) individuals that we don’t know anything about.

be useful (because) when these individuals are designated, it means that they would not be allowed to travel into the US, they would not be allowed to be given visas, all of the assets if they have any in the United States, would be frozen and confiscated; it prohibits any American national from engaging in any kind of commercial activity, economic or financial activity with these individuals; it also opens up other opportunities for discoveries of other federal statue which governs the work of the FBI, and I might point out that none of the individuals here are believed to be in possession of visas or likely to travel here or have any assets in the United States. But by designating these individuals, it is certainly a signal that we think they are in leadership positions, that they have relationships, and linkages with the AQIM; that the individuals are of considerable investigation interest to the US and it signals to the others in the region and the international community that this is (our resolve).

offered both advice and assistance to the Nigerian government on trying to tackle the problem that the Boko Haram presents.

bers of the catholic community. (So, what is different here)?

Mr. CARSON

We can look into this.

Mr. SMITH

(He quotes a document) I quote “the issue is impunity that there seems to be no consequences for the violence”

We believe that the larger element of Boko Haram is (only interested in and doing everything) to discredit, disgrace the Nigerian government; discredit, disgrace and embarrass the Nigerian government

Mr. SMITH

Could you provide the answer for the record to know how often it is certain and what degree of confidence we have that it is not Boko Haram that is actually doing it or it is just out there, and I remember when other groups like IRA operated, they claimed credit and you know we took in their word that they blew up some soldiers and mem-

(and, therefore, the group is more emboldened). Could you speak to the issue, are we doing enough? Is everyone doing enough?

Amb. CARSON

We have our bi-national commission and through our bi-lateral discussions and engagements with Nigerian officials in Abuja and all also here in Washington on any of a number of occasions, we’ve

We have provided investigative courses, courses of post blasts, courses on IED prevention and other related police courses that would help the Nigerian authorities and we have provided the forensic training and forensic experts to deal with post blast situations and we have given them advice on how to prevent IEDs and other forms of explosives being used against facilities. We have also encouraged the government to establish an intelligence fusion circle which would help them to better integrate the intelligence that they receive from their various police and military and security services and to be able to effectively operationalise the kinds of information they acquire. We have also encouraged Nigerians to do several other things that are critically important and not to allow their security services and the military to carry out human right abuses as they go after individuals in the community. And there have been many complaints that when the military had come into to a community, looking for one or two suspects where they live, many of the citizens and homes in that community are put in disarray. So it is important that human right abuses do not occur during investigations of the activities. But let me also bring you back Mr. Chairman to the concerns that I raised of Nigeria needing a comprehensive policy that will address the problem of Boko Haram. There is a need for good security policy, but there is also, equally, a strong need for social, economic recovery in the policy of the north. I know that the level of income in Nigeria is relatively low given its vast oil reserves but many figures we certainly can provide you with demonstrate that the economic conditions in the northern Nigeria are some of the very worst not just in Nigeria but across Africa. The infant mortality rates are

among the lowest in the world; mothers who die during child birth are among the highest in the world; access to clean water, among the lowest in the world; illiteracy among women, some of the highest in the world; infrastructure, among the weakest; unemployment and under employment, well over 50% across the north and particularly in the north east, in the Borno area. I know that people will make comparison to other parts of Nigeria which are also deserving of attention but the problems in the north are some of the most outrageous. I would remind people that the phenomenon of Boko Haram is one of discrediting the central government in power for its failure to deliver services to people. The current president is a southerner, a Christian, has been in office for less than a year and half and before that, was effectively only acting president for approximately six months. His predecessor was indeed a northerner, the late Yar ’adua. Boko Haram’s emergence as a terrorist organisation in Nigeria predates the current government and irrespective of whether there is a Christian leader or a Muslim leader in the country as long as the social economic problems exist in the north to the extent that they do, there would be a reaction which may, in fact as this one does, make for political consequences.

Mr. SMITH

If you could answer, how big Boko Haram is? Where are they getting their weapons, or are the IEDs coming from Iran, for example? You just called it a terrorist organization, why is it not designated as a terrorist organization with the implication which follow from that and I think it is all too convenient to suggest that somehow just because they are poor, (then people automatically become terrorists). Osama Bin Laden was (from a rich family) but had an ideology that is highly radicalize. Poor people don’t necessarily become terrorist and killers. That’s an insult, frankly, to poor people. I think we made the same mistake with all due respects with South Sudan; the impo-

Continues on page 16

PAGE 16 — SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012

Continued from page 15 sition of Sharia law; the same type of radicalization happened in Yugoslavia where Muslims were massacred and I say for the record no one did more to try to help the Muslims in the former Yugoslavia, than I did. So how big is Boko Haram and where did they get this money? And if there are things to be conveyed to the subcommittee secretly, we would welcome that to get a better hint as to why it has not been designated as a terrorist organization. What is the reason?

Amb. CARSON

Mr. SIMTH

Do we have any evidence that it is coming from Iran? I mean those IED!

Amb. CARSON

I’m not aware of any weapon coming into northern Nigeria from Iran. I say the elements that comprise most of the (vehicles laden with explosives and bombs as well as IEDs are things that can be acquired locally). It is the sophistication and the ability to put these things together that is acquired as result of the linkages that established with other organizations that have tried these things in other parts of Africa.

zPresident Goodluck Jonathan

zPastor Ayo Oritsejafor

Why Jonathan’s resignation is not the solution Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor

I want to thank you for your interest in the situation in Nigeria and especially the increase in terrorist attacks targeting Christians and Christian institutions. Just this last weekend (late last month, July) 58 people were killed in Christian villages in Jos, including a federal senator, state law maker. Boko Haram has already claimed

Thank you Mr. Chairman for your comment, I can’t tell you exactly how many members there are in Boko Haram. We will ask our colleagues in the intelligence community to see what they have in terms of an estimate. Certainly, the core group probably is in hundreds (in terms of membership), so there is probably an estimate, but the precise number I can’t tell you. Where do they get their money and their arms? They probably get a lot of their money from engaging in criminal activities, robbery and extortion. And so you can look at that as the source of arms; easy to acquire when you have money and that money can buy lots of things across Africa. They are probably buying all the kinds of things that they need to make IEDs locally for the most part. What they do get from the linkages they have with AQIM, is the sophisticated training that gives them the knowledge of how to put together these kinds of devices.

try divided by North and South, but it is a country divided by those who support freedom and equality in the eyes of the law and those who promote persecution and violence as a means to an end. To an outside observer it may appear as though Boko Haram is not a monolithic group, one that is fragmented and disorganized. I am here today to give you

Defeating Boko Haram would require a sophisticated and comprehensive domestic response that has both a security strategy and a social economic strategic component for addressing the social and economic conditions of the northern Nigeria

responsibility for these coordinated attacks against the Christian community in Jos and it also reaffirmed its early position saying for Christian in Nigeria to know peace, they must accept Islam as the only true religion. Boko Haram is not a northern problem but a Nigerian problem with global implications. Nigeria is not a coun-

the Nigerian perspective. Since its creations, the BokoHaram network has never hidden its agenda or intentions. Boko-Haram has openly stated that it rejects the Nigerian state and its constitution and seeks to impose Sharia law. To this end, Boko-Haram has waged a systematic campaign of terror and violence. It seeks an end to western

influence and the removal of Christian presence in Nigeria. This is outright terrorism. It is not a legitimate political activity or the airing of grievances. By refusing to designate Boko Haram as a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANISATION, FTO, the United States of America is sending a very clear message not just to the federal government of Nigeria, but to the world that the murder of innocent Christians and Muslims who reject Islamism. And I make a clear distinction here between Islam and Islamism. It is hypocritical for the United States and the international community to say that they believe in freedom and equality when there actions do not support those who are being persecuted. A non designation for the group only serves to hamper the cause of justice. And it has emboldened BokoHaram to continue to strike out at those who are denied equal protection under the law. The frequency, lethality and sophistication of BokoHaram attacks raised disturbing questions regarding training, logistical support they have received from other like minded international terrorist

networks. In January 2012, the UN Security Council published a report stating that Boko-Haram members from Nigeria receive training in AQIM camps located in Mali and Chad during the summer of 2011. That same summer, Boko-Haram carried out a bold terrorist attack in the United Nations building located in Abuja. Boko-Haram did not hesitate in claiming responsibility for the attack nor has it ever hesitated in claiming responsibilities for its ongoing attacks against police, military, local businesses and increasingly, churches and Christian institutions. In Nigeria, my people are dying every single day. And it is only a matter of time before the international terrorist rings and anti-democratic Islamist agenda of BokoHaram turns its attention to the United States. In fact, this may already be a reality. Because in April 2012, the NYPD learned that a US citizen or resident, leaving on the east-coast has sent surveillance including maps and photographs of lower Manhattan, and Lincoln tunnels to an alleged member of Boko-Haram based in Nigeria. State department designated Boko-Haram current leader, Abubakar Shekau and two others as special designated terrorists but fell short of designating the organization. This will be the equivalent of designating Bin Laden as a terrorist but failing to designate Al-Qaeda as a terrorist organization. Although I am aware that the designation of Boko-Haram as an FTO is not the final solution to all of the Nigerian problems, yet, it is an important first step towards restoring the confidence of those who believe in freedom and equality in the eyes of the law. We too want to have freedom - freedom of religion, freedom to worship as we choose without fear. We want to have justice based on equality and not driven by discriminatory religious practices. Let me remind us that this is not all about economics at all, but about an ideology based on religious intolerance that has a history of sponsoring genocide across the globe. As Boko Haram increasingly turns towards genocide, through the systematic targeting of Christians and Christian institutions in pursuit of its goals, history will not forget the actions or in-actions of your great nation. CONTINUES NEXT WEEK: THE POSITION OF AMERICAN SCHOLARS AND THE IMPLICATIONS OF DESIGNATING BOKO HARAM AS AN FTO. IT IS REVEALING.

SUNDAY Vanguard, AUGUST 19, 2012— PAGE 17

Alhaji Shettima Yerima, an activist and president of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, wonders why the Federal Government is yet to arrest politicians believed to be involved in the Boko Haram insurgency. The youth leader, who describes the president’s new initiative, the Almajiri School as crazy, canvasses the establishment of Arewa Ministry in order to tackle the myriad of problems confronting the North. Excerpts:

C M Y K

ou were in Kaduna and some parts of the North recently. What was the level of destruction? The problem of northern Nigeria did not start today, that is why I disagree with those saying that it was because Jonathan was President hence some people were making it difficult for him to govern the country. It started after independence. The situation has always been going from bad to worse and now it is indescribable. It has come to a point for people to be recruited by any kind of group to foment trouble in order to survive. Nobody could have imagined that, at 52, Nigeria would have suicide bombers. It is a clear indication that something went wrong. These people did not just wake up one day to become what they are. They have been there since the days of Obasanjo. We have been told that when the leader of this group was arrested, prominent politicians were among those who bailed him saying they were not from this country. This said leader of the group was used to achieve political gains. But at a point he became a problem between government and these politicians. We now have a situation where an average armed robber goes to the bank and now calls himself Boko Haram. Somebody killed his political opponent and it is called Boko Haram. People take advantage of this situation because there is an existing group calling itself Boko Haram who were aggrieved because certain injustice had been meted out on their lead-

er. So, the situation has gone beyond Boko Haram. Some of those arrested are not even Muslims, like the case of Bauchi, Damaturu that a security officer was involved in. There was a situation in Yenagoa where somebody was dressed like a Muslim to bomb a church, only to find out that he was not from the North, he was not a Muslim but did so just because he had a disagreement with his pastor. If you put all these together, you will discover that a lot of things are happening. When I look at people, bringing sentiment into it and accusing the North, I feel bad. I get worried that people don’t see beyond what is happening. Nobody is witch-hunting the southerners in the northern part of the country. The bomb does not know an Hausa man or a southerner. Once they put it

By Ishola Balogun

about that? It was an Eid-elMaolud day, when the gunmen killed about 300 people in a mosque.Which religion supports violence? None, Islam does not allow violence. The Prophet does not declare war on Christians. They are called ‘People of the Book’. In the North, we know how many die daily. Recently, there was a bomb in a mosque in Fagge Central Mosque, Kano, but, for the grace of God, it was found before it went off by security agents, suspects were arrested. Just because somebody was bent on fanning the embers of religious violence and declaring war! An Imam was killed at a Friday prayer in Kano, nobody talked about that. How many Imams have they killed now? We must learn to be just to stories. What are the leaders in the North doing to assist govern-

The bomb does not know an Hausa man or a southerner. Once they put it in a public place, people will die not minding whether they are Hausa or Ibo

in a public place, people will die not minding whether he is an Hausa or Ibo man.

But there were cases of church bombings?

Even the mosques were affected. In Jos, over 300 people were killed in a mosque. Was there any propaganda

ment in bringing this to an end? If you follow the issue, you will see that a lot of elders have condemned the violence on several occasions. The Elders Forum, ACF, condemned it. The Elders Forum as a body that comprises other organisations is working under the

leadership of Maitama Sule to ensure that this issue of violence is brought to an end. They have raised a fundamental issues, only God knows why the government has not arrested those believed to be involved. They said the best way to solve this issue is to show sincerity in treating this issue. If Yusuf was alive today, he would have told us a lot of stories about this group. An instruction must have been passed; the police could not have pulled the trigger after the Army handed him over to them; somebody must have given the instruction either from Abuja or from the state. You think followers will fold their hands when their leader was killed. Of course they will react. If I am killed today as a leader of an organisation, there are tendencies that people will react. We are not saying Yusuf was right or wrong, but they would have allowed justice to prevail. So, government should have been more proactive except they have any other thing they are hiding or perhaps like Jonathan said that the Boko Haram members are in his government. Then who will be held responsible if government is involved? I agree with his statement, the former NSA also said it, unfortunately, they sacked him unceremoniously after what he had done for this nation. If not for anything, he should be commended for sustaining the unity of the country. He inherited the problem. The problem started from Muktar time as NSA, during Yar ’Adua government; so it has nothing to do with a Niger Delta man. This is a problem that affects

Continues on page 18

PAGE 18 — SUNDAY Vanguard, AUGUST 19, 2012

’We can do without people who went to school without shoes’ Nigeria as a whole and not only the northern part of the country. The media are witnesses to the high rate of beggars on the streets, how does begging become part of Islam or a culture of a Hausa man. No! People were forced into it because they have no means of livelihood. We have had opportunities to make Nigeria a better place to live through our leaders. But today the leaders deserve to be stoned in public because they are part and parcel of this problem in the North. The same media celebrate them. This is not right! We cannot move further until we tell ourselves the truth. We cannot do anything until we are able to reflect on the past, present and champion a new course for a better Nigeria. So, what in your own view is the short and long term solution? The government is not ready for the short term but a long term by opening Almajiri school. That is crazy. Yes. Tell me one person that is not an Almajiri in Nigeria. Today, the constitution has made the Federal Government stronger and the states weaker. Anything you want to do, you have to go to Abuja and lobby for it. In fact, if you want to be your local government chairman, you have to lobby for it in Abuja, no matter your credibility or acceptability. So, who is not an Almajiri? The Vice President himself will have to lobby. The day he falls in the black book of the First Lady, he is finished. If they don’t remove his security, they make sure he doesn’t do any major job. They make him redundant. The system has succeeded in making everybody a beggar to survive. The day they discover you are a threat to them, they will destroy you and make you subservient to them. That is why you see people often times compromise because they want power. Even those who call themselves progressives change tunes the moment they get into power. Look at Obasanjo and Atiku after the 2003 elections. The latter was more of a spare tyre that could not function simply because the president did not want to see his

face. So, the problem in the northern part of the country requires a total overhaul and you can’t do it all at once, there are short measures to take rather than creating Almajiri school. The concept of the Almajiri is the children of poor people, beggars and the less privileged of the society. You cannot compound the problem by carving them out of the society. What they would have done is to integrate them into the existing public schools; give them free education at primary and secondary school levels and enact a law to make it compulsory for every child to go to school and make the parents liable for keeping them away. You are doing it to protect our future. When the Niger Delta case came up, we thought it was only Niger Delta until it spread to other parts of the country in form of kidnapping, rape and terrorism. Today, by extension, that was what gave birth to what we are

How is the North preparing for 2015 then?

Yerima Massob and so on. But I think the regional government would have been better with the situation we now find ourselves. People are not happy with the system. The system is not working for Nigeria. The president said in his last media chat that he could declare his assets. That takes us to 2015. What is your take on whether or not Jonathan should contest in 2015?

Continued from page 17

It is too early to talk about 2015, but with what we are seeing, he does not deserve a second chance and I don’t think the vote of the South-South alone can make Jonathan president in 2015 seeing. It is too early to talk about

The belief is that if the language of violence is only what the government understands, if you take up guns, they respect you, honour you, then they will fester on it. Boko Haram will come and go someday but what will happen in other regions? Nigeria has a way of creating trouble without knowing how to get out of it. Maybe government will one day think about it. We also need Arewa Ministry to address the major problems. In fact, that is our focus now, we will demand for it and we will achieve it. That will take care of our own affairs just like we have the Ministry of Niger Delta. Who knows, maybe, someday the Yoruba will decide to have Odua Ministry and the South East will declare for Ibo or Ohaeneze Ministry,

anything to blackmail or threaten anybody. Time will tell, 2015 is at hand. We have learnt our lessons, we have seen the government of the Ijaws by the Ijaws and for the Ijaws. And when they see us, they abuse us, abuse our elders without respecting the fact that we were part of the struggle that made Jonathan. Nobody is afraid of death, death comes but once. A man in you dies the moment you saw tyranny and you could not speak. We must speak and if we die in the course of speaking, so be it.

2015, but what we are seeing, he does not deserve a second chance and I don’t think the vote of the South-South alone can make Jonathan president in 2015; unless they want to do that to break the country to impose him on Nigerians. Every section of this country is tired and disappointed with this government. We were part of the struggle that made this government. The Niger Deltans were never in the forefront of Jonathan realising this dream. When the Save Nigeria Group was formed, they were just few that came. We were more in number than them. The South West mooted the idea and some of us came and we insisted that he must be an acting president. If he hadn’t been acting

president, perhaps, it would have been a different story today. We pushed, under the leadership of Tunde Bakare, I was one of the strongest voices in the North. Despite my relationship with the government, and my background as a northerner, I stood behind him demanding that due process be followed. The constitution must be respected no matter how lopsided it is. Of course I have my reservation about the constitution. That is our legal document but it lacks legitimacy. We stood, we fought and we marched, mobilised people to Abuja and Lagos. That was what gave birth to ‘the doctrine of necessity ’ that brought Jonathan as acting president. Election came and people mobilised from all parts of the country for Jonathan. We believe that he had a different background compared to the old crooks and we said, ‘let us try a new thing’. But if this is how people who went to school without slippers suffer and become leader only to produce this kind of government, then we will never go for people who go to school without slippers.

t is not worth it. We thought he was part of the society, he had seen poverty; he came like every other average Nigerian being somebody who had a dose of it, he would made an impact in the lives of common Nigerians. But now the situation has degenerated from bad to worse. Then somebody will tell me that it is either he becomes president or they break Nigeria, to hell with that threat. We can no longer be threatened but the right thing must be done. Nobody is afraid of anybody and nobody must use

We are mending fences with our Christian brothers in the northern part of the country, the Hausa Fulanis. We are trying as much as we can to unite and speak with one voice, like the legacies left behind by our founding fathers. Sir Ahmadu Bello never castigated anybody, no matter the religious or tribal differences. He was able to bring every body on board. That is what we are doing. You said the constitution lacks legitimacy. How do you mean? The 1999 constitution lacks legitimacy in the sense that the making of that constitution was totally wrong. There was no time Nigerians sat at any conference to produce that document. Few people sat down during the military era under Abdulsalami Abubakar to produce it, even his number two man, Mike Akhigbe, was not part of it. Abdulsalami is alive today, if that is not true, I challenge him to speak. They rushed it up and bogged it with so many decrees to protect their interests and that of their cronies; imposed it on Nigerians and called it 1999 Constitution. It lacks legitimacy because there was no input of all Nigerians. I am not a lawyer but I know the difference between legitimacy and legal document. All Nigerians must be seen to have representative who will come to make their position clear in it. Less than 15 military officers and few civilian cronies sat down to produce it. That is not done, no constitution in the whole world was made like that. We challenge that legitimacy and we are still challenging it in the Federal High Court Abuja. We are not saying it is not a legal document, but its legitimacy is what we are challenging. The National Assembly can make laws but they cannot make constitution. There is difference between the two. The legitimacy makes it unamendable. C M Y K

SUNDAY Vanguard, AUGUST 19, 2012— PAGE 13

By Okey Ndiribe

100 YRS AFTER The clock ticks for Bakassi zReps seek review of the ICJ verdict on ceded territory had some time before Cameroon finally takes over Bakassi permanently. Toyo threw another poser: “Has the Federal Government given up completely on the people of Cross River State?” She expressed her belief

nce again the people of Bakassi have em barked on a fresh agitation against the 2006 ceding of their ancestral land to the Republic of Cameroon through the Green Tree Agreement which was signed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. This fresh agitation is a fallout of a recent Supreme Court judgment which awarded 76 oil wells that have been in dispute between Cross River and Akwa Ibom states to the latter. The apex court’s judgment has already elicited widespread lamentation among the government and people of Cross River State. Some of them interprete the judgment as another confirmation of the abandonment of the people of the area by the Nigerian state. This feeling remains strong among the people of the area because despite the 2002 judgment of the International Court of Justice-on which the Green Tree Agreement is anchored- they have unequivocally demonstrated their unwillingness to be part of Cameroon. They protested against the judgment by pointing out out that merging them with Cameroon would sever them from their Efik kith and kin in Nigeria. Speaking on the Supreme Court’s recent decision which was the culmination of a long legal battle, Hon. Nkoyo Toyo, who represents Calabar/ Odukpani Federal Constituency in Cross River State, said that the main reason the people of Cross River State were unhappy with the judgment was that “ what befell Bakassi was responsible for where we are today with regard to the 76 oil wells that were awarded to Akwa Ibom State.” Toyo said she recalled that Obasanjo had intervened during his tenure by proffering a political solution to the dispute between the two neighbouring states. She further stated that she heard that the judges had relied on a letter that was written by the former president stating that Cross River State was entitled to the 76 oil wells on account of the then Federal Government’s negotiations with Cameroon over the status of Western Bakassi. The lawmakers asked: “If there was ever an intention like that to take back Western Bakassi from Cameroon, the question that arises now is, what has happened to the Federal Government’s intention on that issue? “ Toyo stated that Nigeria still

not been addressed. We need to lodge a complaint with the ICJ about the failure of the Green Tree Agreement in line with the provisions of the agreement. This is primarily because there are many Nigerians who have now be-

There should be absolutely no hurry in handing over Bakassi because the consequences of handing over Bakassi have not been addressed

that the complete implementation of the Green Tree Agreement needs to be revisited. Her words: “ There should be absolutely no hurry in handing over Bakassi because the consequences of handing over Bakassi have

come stateless; they are neither Nigerians nor Cameroonians. “There are many unanswered issues including that of the map; we are still looking for the official map that indicates the correct boundary between Nigeria and Came-

roon. That official map has not been published. All the maps that are available are illustrative- these are maps that are in the process of being developed but have not yet been authenticated. If we can have such a map, it would be helpful to fundamentally address the situation.” Toyo also proferred another option in permanently resolving the Bakassi imbroglio, saying it would be in line with the political solution that was adopted in resolving the controversy surrounding offshore –on-shore dichotomy several years ago. She recalled that the formula was applied by Obasanjo despite an earlier Supreme Court judgement which had declared that all off-shore oil wells belonged to the Federal Government. According to her: “ If this option is to be adopted, the Federal Government would

need to sit down with the National Boundaries Commission and consider the option of treating Cross River State as a special case. Today, even the 13 percent derivation formula, used in sharing revenue accruing from oil sales, is a special intervention to address the agitation for resource control from communities of the Niger Delta. Now there is another special situation similar to that where people have been denied their entitlement. “ What answer does the Nigerian state have for this situation?” Perhaps the House of Representatives had sought to provide that answer days before the Supreme Court delivered its judgment early last month. During one of its plenary sessions, the Green Chamber passed a resolution asking the Federal Government to file a process for the review of the International Court of Justice judgment ceding the Bakassi Peninsula to the Republic of Cameroon. The House decided that the process should be initiated before October 10, ahead of the 10th anniversary of the judgment. While debating a motion that was tabled before the lower chamber, the lawmakers observed that the decision of the Obasanjo administration was in breach of Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution, which required that such treaties must be ratified by the National Assembly to have the force of law. In the motion presented by the member representing Calabar-South/Bakassi Federal Constituency, M r. Essien Ayi, he said his people would continue to oppose the judgment because government did not exhaust all the remedies before it proceeded to cede the territory. Ayi argued that under Article 61 of the ICJ Statute, a judgment of the court could be reviewed whenever new facts emerged not known at the time the judgment was delivered. According to him, a process for such a review is to be filed before the expiration of 10 years of the delivery of the judgment. In the case of Bakassi, the expiration date is October 10, 2012. The lawmaker stated: “One of these facts is that the 1913 Anglo-German treaty relied upon by the ICJ to cede Bakassi to Cameroon is in breach of Article 6 of the General Acts of Berlin Conference that enjoined European powers ‘to watch out for the preservation of the native tribes and not to take over or effect transfer of their territory.”

PAGE 20—SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012,

THIS SEGMENT PRESENTS INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS, IN A MANNER NEVER BEFORE EXPLORED, ON CRIME AND NATIONAL SECURITY MATTERS. THIS IS DEPARTMENT 'C'

By Luka Binniyat

C M Y K

zIslamists...Two killed by their own

devices

Kaduna : Suicide bombers caught in their own web on Boko Haram’s bombings until last Wednesday’s. Here is a catalogue of the activities of the Islamist group to inflict maximmum damage on prime targets usually Christians and security personnel in Kaduna. April 8 2011 Police uncover massive bombing plots after bomb kills one On this day, three hours after the Kaduna State Police Command said it was aware of plans for massive violence to disrupt the presidential poll, a bomb exploded in Mahuta, a

ast Wednesday, Kadu na metropolis, ever on the tether of Boko Haram threat, got lucky once more as two couriers of an explosive abruptly ended their sojourn on earth after their lethal cargo inadvertently set off before they hit their target. The two suicide bombers, operating on a motor bike, were killed by their own devices at Abakwa, along Ali Akilu Road, as they were heading towards Ungwan Sarki Area, according to Kaduna State Police Spokesman, Abubakar Balteh, (ASP). With that development, Kaduna heaved a sigh of relief, as no one could have predicted the outcome if the bikers had delivered their consignment. Kaduna, unsettled, since 1992, by a rhythm of mindless bloodshed between mainly Hausa/Fulani Muslims on the northern part of the Kaduna river and mainly Christian enclave of non Hausa/Fulani tribal groupings south of the river, was just recuperating from a major violence that took place in June. A coordinated suicide mission in June, later claimed by an Islamist group, had led to the bombings of two churches in Zaria, and another in Kaduna leaving about 21 worshippers dead, and scores injured. As if on cue, Christian youths south of the Kaduna river took to the streets and visited mayhem on any Hausa/Fulani Muslim found, leaving corpses on the streets that Sunday afternoon. Governor Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State, immediately placed a 24-hour curfew on the state, just to partially lift the embargo on movement the next Tuesday. Hausa/Fulani Muslim youth took advantage of this and launched murderous assault on nonMuslims caught withintheir strongholds. Before then, precisely in January, two members of the Islamist group, Boko Haram, which claimed responsibility for the bombings, had rammed through the gates of I Div Mechanised Division of the Nigerian Army, Kawo Kaduna a jeep that exploded and killed the two. The Army authorities said none of their personnel was hurt in the assault. Since the June unrest sparked by the bombings, there seemed a kind of lull

ed the previous night at an interval of two hours injuring eight and destroying some structures According to the then Kaduna State Police Commissioner, Mr. John Haruna (now deceased), the second explosion, which took place near a high profile public gathering place around 10:30 pm that night at Magajin Gari Sharia Court, was a powerful bomb that could have killed hundreds if it had been detonated at a busy hour. 22 April 2011

Kaduna heaved a sigh of relief, as no one could have predicted the outcome if the bikers had delivered their consignment

suburb, killing the handler and maiming one Mohammed, a suspected accomplice who was rushed to St. Gerald Hospital Kaduna under police cover. The police said it found over 100 strands of dynamites loaded in three sacks in the home of the arrested bomber, enough to cause havoc in a few streets. . 17 April 2011 Police arrest 4 foreigners after two bomb blasts The Kaduna State Police Command this day paraded four arrested foreigners and a suspected Nigerian accomplice after two bombs explod-

Bomb making factory uncovered after blast killed one. The state Police Command on this day took newsmen to a bomb making shop it had uncovered at the Rafin Guza area of Kaduna metropolis. The police also displayed recovered arms from the shop. The late Haruna John said eight persons had been arrested three of whom were critically injured during the blast which occurred at about 6.00pm the previous day. June 11, 2011 Police find bomb at Gonin Gora market Police Anti-Bomb Disposal

Squad on this day discovered and detonated a live bomb in a market place in Gonin Gora area of Kaduna metropolis at about 11 am. The state police spokesperson, DSP Aminu Lawan, said, “it is an explosive object discovered by the people and they quickly alerted us and we were able to move to the scene, recovered and detonated the object immediately”. June 13, 2011 Bomb found at NNPC quarters The police on this day recovered an explosive lclose to the NNPC staff quarters at Narayi, Kaduna. “Our men were alerted to the presence of an explosive around 4am by the security man”, said Kaduna State Police Command spokesman, DSP Amuni Lawal. “We quickly mobilised our team and decommissioned the bomb. We are investigating the matter”, he said. 14 June 2011 Strategically placed bomb found near school. On this day, a bomb, strategically placed under a bridge near a high profile private secondary school which, if exploded, could have cut off Southern part of Kaduna metropolises from its North, was discovered by the police. The bomb was planted on a rail track near an overhead bridge behind Dambo International School around Barnawa GRA in the heart of Kaduna city.

The officer in charge of t h e Police Anti-Bomb Squad, DSP Patrick David Effiong, who spoke at the scene of the discovery, said, “The explosive is capable of causing massive destruction of the rails into fragments and buildings and cutting off the bridge” December 6, 2011 Bomb explosion kills 8 A shattering explosion in the heart of Kaduna metropolis in the morning rush hours of this day bought down a block of shops and apartments, which promptly went under smouldering flames leading to the agonising death of 8 February 7, 2012 Police find, detonate bomb. The police on this day found a bomb in a compound and promptly detonate the explosive safely. T h e b o m b w a s discovered in the Tudun Wa d a h o u s e o f H o n . Auwalu Ali Tafoki, a former chairman of Kaduna South Local Area The discovery created panic and anxiety making residents of the area to scamper for safety as it was believed to be capable of destroying the whole area. however, it was expertly detonated by men of the Police Anti Bomb Squad without a single casualty recorded. April 1 2012 Bomb kills lone bomber in Kaduna A lone man suspected to be making improvised bombs was this day killed by an explosion at Unguwan Muazu area of Kaduna, said K aduna State Police spokesman, Deputy S u p e r i n t e n d e n t of police(DSP) Aminu Lawal in a telephone interview.” The explosion happened at Unguwan Muazu and killed a lone person we suspect to be making explosives. And we mobilized our Anti-Bomb Squad in the area. I can tell you based on the report I got from the place one person died. This was around 7pm this evening”, he said. April 8 2012 Suicide bomber kills 36, injures 13. A suicide bomber ’s car laden with a bomb accidentally exploded at Sardauna Crescent junction, Kaduna after he failed to gain entrance into the 1st ECWA Good News Church, on Gwari Road, not far from the point of the incident. At least 36 people, mostly Hausa Muslims, were killed.

SUND AY Vanguard , AUGUST 19, 2012, PAGE 21 SUNDA bunmsof@yahoo.co.uk

08056180152,

SMS only

How easy is it to dump your new love for your ex?

T’S interesting how a single phone call can lead to a chain of mind-blowing events. I got such a call not too long ago. The call was from Farouk, a very good friend, an engineer who has been successful beyond his wildest dreams. A divorcee, he’d sworn off women because of the traumatic experience he had with his ex until he met Rita at my place. She is 5 feet 9 inches tall with an athletic body and a foreign twang to her voice. Spontaneous and easy going, she’s totally into having fun. The fact that her marriage crashed barely four years into the union has never faxed her. The two kids of the marriage live with her mother-in-law and as soon as she clamped eyes on Farouk, all her man-hunting techniques came into fore. Farouk was obviously smitten with her, and at some point in the evening I felt as if I was the odd one out! Rita’s always been renowned for fooling around with men who are supposed to be off-limits than the available men. Farouk, at that moment was in-between girl friends and I prayed Rita would hang around him long enough for him to make a commitment. So when next they both visited, clinging to each other as if they’d been stuck together with super glue, I kept my fingers crossed. As the ‘lucky charm’ that brought both of them together, I reaped the benefits of my good work. Farouk always supplied endless bottles of good wine whenever I had any get-together, and whenever both of them travelled, Rita spoilt me with thank you ‘gifts’. “I never believed I could be this

happy,” she gushed. “Farouk is always generous, never handing money over to me. Instead he showed me where he always put his cash and said I should help myself to it whenever I needed some ...”. I was a bit jealous, believe me. A few months into this hot affair, Rita came to me, sober for once and on the verge of tears. “Your friend has gone bonkers”, she wailed, “he’s asked me to move my things out of his house!” They weren’t living together in the real sense of the word, but since she spent most of her time in Farouk’s house, she’d virtually moved in but kept her bed-sit in her parent’s home. So what happened? “He saw the note Dejo sent me and hit the roof ”, she said. Dejo was her latest ex and she’d regaled Farouk with tales of what a wonderful man he was and how they had to break things up when the wife not only found out, but quickly got pregnant again - and they’d been trying for a child for years. So why was he writing her a note after such a heart-breaking fare-well? “Sis, there’s no point asking questions. What’s happened has happened”, she said, a bit irritated. “Dejo just sent a note to tell me how much he missed me, nothing serious .... “ And he sent the note to Farouk’s house? “No, he bribed my younger brother to bring it to me in Farouk’s house!” So, why didn’t she tear up the note after she’s read it? She just shrugged. I wanted to get hold of her and shake her, but she looked so contrite

OUR column to express your loving thoughts in words to your sweetheart. Don’t be shy. Let it flow and let him or her know how dearly you feel. Write now in not more than 75 words to: The Editor, Sunday Vanguard, P.M.B. 1007, Apapa, Lagos. E.mail: sunlovenotes@yahoo.com Please mark your envelope: “LOVE NOTES"

Cheer up ladies!

If you always look sad and depressed and not always putting up a smiling face,then you cannot ex-

C M Y K

that I eventually agreed to have a word with Farouk on the phone. “I kind of hoped you would come with me to his place”, she pleaded, rolling her puppy-eyes at me. In the end, she twisted my arm, and I agreed. Giving a triumphant whoop, she made her way to the kitchen and helped herself to something to eat. “Farouk believes I’m so ashamed of the way I’d behaved, I couldn’t hold any food down. What he doesn’t know is that I sneak in meals from time to time wherever I can find them before I get to the flat. Farouk’s face was like thunder when he let me in and saw Rita hovering in the background looking really sorry for herself. He grudgingly let us in and before I could say anything, Rita was on her knees, weeping profusely and begging Farouk’s forgiveness “Do you want me to be laughed at?” she wailed. “After a failed marriage and relationships with one or two heartless men, I’ve finally found my soul mate and you want to send me away in disgrace! You know I love you and that no man is a match for all the things

you’ve done for me. What would I tell my parents and my friends? Where would I go ... “ On and on she went, and I marvelled at the way she quickly changed from the chatty woman she was at my place to this snivelling wreck! I had no choice but to put in a word or two for her and Farouk relented. No man with a heart would watch Rita’s performance and not be moved. Farouk asked Rita to get me some refreshments, “and get something to eat yourself,” he told her. “You know she’s not been eating well since all this happened? I was a bit worried she might do some sort of damage to her health ...” What could I say? Some women certainly know how to manipulate their men! I went to the kitchen with Rita to get a drink when she quickly kicked the door shut and howled with laughter. “You see how easy it is to get round your friend”, she bragged. “Thanks, sis, I owe you one”. That was some months ago, and now Farouk was on the phone. Be-

pect to attract a man because men have a tendency to be attracted to those women that are always happy,caring,understanding,loving and independent. Augustine Udi austudi4eva@yahoo.com 07032236700

Dear unfailing love You are mine! I promise to love you with all my heart. i want your love and blessings be merciful as you promised. I pondered the direction of my life, and turned to follow your love. I will hurry, without delay to love you. Evil people try to drag me to cheat on you, but I am firmly anchored to your love. I rise

fore I could get past the ‘hello’, he was shrieking shrieking down the phone: “Tell that trollop ‘sister’ of yours to stay away from me,” he warned. “If I see her around this house, I promise you I’ll kill her!” This was going to be a long chat, I groaned inwardly. “You know that b .... h left this house a week ago, and went back to her ex? I couldn’t believe it. “You had better,” he fumed. “She left the house last week with my permission because she lost her aunt - her mother’s younger sister. Her mum was distraught when she called through with the tragic news and I advised her to go home to console her. So, yesterday, I felt a bit guilty for not visiting after all the days she’d been away. Instead of calling her first, I went to the family home, intending to spend some time with her mum, and give her some money towards the funeral. “1 must have passed her car parked a few houses from her family home without noticing it. But her mum was said td be sleeping, and Rita was out. I promised to

repeat my call. Going back to my car, I noticed hers. The car looked deserted. Did it break down? Curiously, I approached it and peered in low and behold, who should be inside but rita with her ex in the most passionate lip-lock I’d seen in recent times! They didn’t even notice me peering down at them from the car!” But how did he know it was her ex? “She pointed him out to me once at a party. So I already knew what he looks like. Just tell her to stay away or 1 would kill her! Luckily, she took most of her things the last time she went back home. I’ll send the rest to her or burn them - it depends on how I feel later” . With that he hung up the phone! I didn’t know what to make of this latest development. When I called Rita, she naturally wasn’t aware of her being found out. “That will save me the bother of breaking things off with Farouk, wouldn’t it?” she sighed. “Things didn’t work out between my ex and his wife. She lost the baby and the poor man is still in love with me. I like Farouk, but I’m not in love with him. If he can’t send my things, tell him to give them to his next girlfriend, afterall, most of the stuffs were bought with his money!” “But Rita, how could you ... “ I started to say. “How could I what?” she was on the verge of being rude. “These things happen you know? If he were the one who got fed up with the relationship, he wouldn’t be crying down the phone to youwould he? Let him go and take a jump!” I haven’t heard from either of them since the incident and I don’t want to.

at midnight to think of your love. My love, your unfailing love has filled my heart. I love you. Emma Mine/Ben mine4christ@gmail.com 07051037749, 08078662320

My irreplaceable love I love your lips when they're wet with wine & red with a wild desire; I love your eyes when the love light lies with a passionate fire. I love your arm when the warm chocolate flesh touches mine in a fond embrace; I love your hair when the strands enmesh your kisses against my face. Onyi Eze 08033737927 bishopmadus@yahoo.com

PAGE 22—SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012

News

"Corruption, insecurity, uncertainty,...to inspire a wasted generation!...

M A I L B A G

All letters bearing writers' names and full addresses should be typed and forwarded to: The Editor, Sunday Vanguard, Kirikiri Canal, P. M. B. 1007, Apapa, Lagos. E-mail: sunvanguardmail@yahoo.com

Nigeria's poor Olympics outing in London 2012 Dear Sir,

T must be clear to Nigerians by now that prayers/fasting and a huge population, don't win medals in the Olympics or any other continental or global competition. A committed and selfless administration coupled with a clear vision, good planning, timely execution of plans which includes early preparations plus with hard work, produces positive results. Although China uses her huge population to her benefit because she's not only a world power sports wise but also a global power politically, economically. scientifically, militarily

etc. In contrast, Nigeria the self proclaimed "giant" of Africa is none of the above even at the continental level. South Africa with one quarter of Nigeria's population, is the one calling the shorts in politics, economy, sports etc on the continent. What we have going for us is our huge and laughable indolent population that is largely unproductive. Our poor showing at the just concluded London Olympics, is a true reflection of the state of the nation in all aspects. It is on record that 22 Nigerians represented other countries including Great Britain, Canada etc.

nation without God’s guidance is a nation without order ” (Proverbs 29 : 18). With what Nigeria and her people are passing through in terms of security, economic downturn, political illfeelings and other challenges, it shows that our leaders are too far from God and do not serve God with all their hearts. They are being controlled by forces beyond their powers. Only sincere repentance to God, fasting and prayer would ensure peace and justice in Nigeria. Prayers will change bad things to good. Prayer will also checkmate the bad works of evil men. Prayers will also influence God to turn the hearts of those in authority from doing evil. For God’s intervention, redemption

and deliverance in Nigeria, we must humble ourselves, pray and seek God’s face and turn from our wicked ways, for God to hear from heaven and forgive us our sins and heal our land (2 Chronicles 7 : 14 ). The Bible teaches us that prayer and intercession be made for all men, including those in authority. If we do not pray for our government, the hand of satan would be upon them. So Christians and other believers in Nigeria should accept responsibilities to pray and fast for good governance that we desire in our country. Our leaders should always hold prayer summit to overcome wicked thinkings and ideas emanating from the evil one, satan. Pastor Olumide Ayeni babasekunderin@yahoo.com, info@tworeminternational.com

drawing board to repeat the same old mistakes. Fact is that since we have refused to do the right things at the right time, we don't need a T.B. Joshua to tell us that we shall get the same results. James Obi, Warri, Delta State

Power outage: An impediment to national growth Dear Sir,

Nigerian leaders far from God Dear Sir,

It is also on record that 19 out of the 22 won medals of different colours for their adopted countries. These are medals Nigeria could have won if we were a serious people but have "donated" to more serious countries. Did we learn any lessons? I doubt. As usual we shall come back to the

appeal to President Goodluck Jonathan to decentralize the Power Holding Company of Nigeria,P HCN, on time before it goes into extinction. The decentralization of the sector of the economy, without a shadow of a doubt, will expedite effectiveness and efficiency in its mode of operation. It is disheartening to note that PHCN has brought a lot of untold hardship to Nigerians and caused serious disadvantages to our national development initiatives,such as capital flight,economic straight jacket,loss of lives,idleness with regard to the activities of the artisans. The privatization of PHCN is very much apropriate. The PHCN has been able to exhibit obstreperous act to exacerbate the plight of Nigerians.It is writ large that malfeasance, malversation, and maladministration have become an open secret to

everyman jack in the country. The PHCN monopoly has to be broken in its entirety for progress and stability to thrive.By and large, the decentralization of the sector will also create mass employment for the youths across the country. It is a moral certainty that power, security of lives and property are the cornerstone of a responsible and responsive government.The privatization encourages competition among the virile companies.The power sector,as it were, is in shambles which requires total restructuring to make it viable to the generality of Nigerians.As the saying goes,the prove of the pudding is in the eating.It is a phantasmagoria to say that PHCN has performed beyond people's expectation. Adeola Onitolo,Lagos, (adeonit@yahoo.com)

SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012, PAGE 23

Advertising Insurance Brand .

..Client’s brief and effective advertising

C M Y K

change agent and growth catalyst. So its importance is not parochial to meeting the advertiser's need only, but also stimulate better living standard among targeted segment in the larger society by reason of its function of information and awareness generation. So, practitioners and brand owners should begin to appreciate advertising quality as a service to society and contribution to economic growth. A good advert message helps the target audience towards making safe and beneficial choice at the market place. The import of such good decision automatically impact on financially rewarding buying decision, appropriate deployment of scarce resources, etc. Unfortunately, today's experience with brands management practice and

RANDS management is a knowledge-based profession. Its effectiveness or otherwise, therefore, is a direct function of the quality and quantity of information available on the one hand and the quality of interpretation of available information, on the other. In some respect, therefore, advertising shares similar character traits with the information management system that says “garbage in, garbage out”. The importance of very good quality information gathering and processing to effective brands management and advertising can hardly be over emphasized. C o n t e m p o r a r y advertising in today's local environment posts compromised quality version principally because compromised information gathering and interpretation. For a fact, both Client contact(s) and consultants post quality compromise, hence prevalence of not too effective (we are running aware from mentioning “brilliant”) advertising. Looking deeper into quality of advertising today, most advert messages are empty in focus, essence and execution only because of the reasons mentioned above. Appreciation of client's brief was one of the hard lessons we learnt as rookies in brands management in the INSIGHT SCHOOL, when it all began. The creative process starts with the client's brief. We were not even permitted to run with a verbal brief from the client. Therefore, the client deliberately captured what the assignment was, supplying necessary information to include brand characteristics, present market performance, competitive analysis of market situation, some derivatives from SWOT consideration and the marketing or advertising objective. Taking on Clint's assignment armed with good quality information as listed above, became fun. Then-on, the creative process gets interestingly logical, systematic and scientific. Among other things, what the client's brief does is provide industry and brand information that aids the agency strategic planning process towards robust information gathering and processing. When agencies churn out good adverts, it is not due to superior knowledge of given market, versus the client, but only as a result of professional and scientific processing of information provided by the client. So, it all starts with the client and the client's brief. We once mentioned on this page that advertising serves as

brand in question, the market, competition and setting the right marketing objective. We agree proper brief writing is one very tasking assignment. It is only when all of the mentions above are professionally handled that good results are posted. Such good results manifests in successful and profitable brands management, loyal consumers, market leadership and all the other plusses. Hence successful brands will not compromise in their quality of human resource. They will consistently train and retrain their process managers to keep up with set professional standards and philosophy. By extension, therefore, the quality of input in the generation of information for mass consumption, the better the impact of such input to the over-all good of the related

Unfortunately, today's experience with brands management practice and appreciation is one of compromise. More and more, quality of input from the client's and agency is consistently suspect in quality, in more ways than one

appreciation is one of compromise. More and more, quality of input from the client's and agency is consistently suspect in quality, in more ways than one. Brand or marketing managers do not even write briefs anymore. Even among brand managers trained in brief generation, some of them are now too lazy to so-practice. Writing a brief draws a lot on intellectual discipline and exercise. It requires deliberate efforts at critical thinking, information gathering, generation and analysis. It requires having a working knowledge of the

public. So, if for instance the banking public is fed inadequate information on banking services on offer and their value essence, that public will be compromised on the benefits of such information towards optimizing options in engaging banking services and products. On the aggregate many sectors of our macro-economic environment have been suffering from improper professional handling over the years, and of interest to us at this point is the insurance industry. As mentioned some where

above, particular industry owe most benefits to the recipient public than the operators, and insurance is one of them unfortunately, however, the insurance industry is one very important offer of direct positive impact on economic growth with immense value on the individual and the public which value has not been adequately tapped, only because the industry players have not been quite responsible in managing the offer and value-essence (with all due respect). Perhaps owing to the historical perspective, insurance products and services are generally sold on the basis of compulsion, such as non-life penetration in the area of vehicle insurance, marine insurance and such various other commercial engagements the law has made to purchase relevant insurance products by force. And because such businesses pull huge earnings for industry players, laxity replaced professionalism, drive and innovation in our local market. In fact the introduction of health insurance added to the mustbuys, so much so, industry players might as well go to sleep at the acquisition of operating license. The public is the looser. Because the industry players are not challenged, supposed brand managers do not even bother to generate process and disseminate information to enlighten the public on the various advantages in engaging insurance. Empirical studies have proven insurance to be materially instrumental to macroeconomic growth. It improves investment climate and promote a more efficient mix of activities than would have been undertaken in the absence of risk management instruments. In aggregating the sector-by-sector contribution to societal macroeconomic growth, insurance leads in comparison to the contribution on of banks and securities trading. Unfortunately, banking and stock trading that are only marginally complementary to the leadership role of insurance star in glamour and appreciation because insurance has not been well sold and presented to the public. The public is loosing. The average man and woman in Nigeria foes not know insurance as the most reliable means to prosperity. Among other benefits, insurance enables the following, exclusively: 1. Indemnification and risk pooling facilitates commercial transactions, provides credit, measures and

manages non-diversifiable risk. 2. Insurance enables risk averse individuals a n d entrepreneurs undertake higher risk and higher return activities. 3. Insurance promotes higher productivity and growth are 4. Insurers institutional investors positioned to provide capital infrastructures and other long term investments 5. Insurers provide very safe investment a d v i s o r y services for optimal return on investment best investment decisionmaking process management. 6. To a great extent, insurance supports healthy and happy living. The list goes on. But the public's knowledge of the benefits of insurance is near zero. The average individual in Nigeria runs with the topof-mind reference to insurance as a fraudulent engagement forced on people by statutory regulation. Vehicle insurance is taken up just to fulfill all righteousness. The scope of any economy's insurance market directly impact on the range of available risk management alternatives, and the quality of information available to guide investors in the process of deciding on which alternative to stay with. Therefore, the deliberate effort by macroeconomic policies in support of insurance penetration in any economy is a very strong stimulant for improved productivity, investment and over-all economic growth. The scenario in our local market is quite sad: while the macro-economic policies have set the stage for a vibrant insurance market, the industry is peopled by those not equally driven in enthusiasm. If only efficient brand managers are driving the industry insideout, our macro-economy would have been better for it. In conclusion, therefore, we like to state that managing insurance brand is requiring of dedicated professionals from among industry players and brands management consultants, to help one and all draw from the enormous growth potentials on offer by INSURANCE. It requires professionalism, commitment, dedication and hard work from us all. ADVERT PLACED ON THIS PAGE ARE CONNECTED TO OVER 45,000 READERS WEEKLY. ADVERTISE HERE. “To all our Muslim Readers, RAMADAN KAREEM”

PAGE 24—SUNDAY VANGUARD,AUGUST 19, 2012

Lagos traffic law should be fine-tuned for effectiveness

F you live in a big and busy city like Lagos, the word ‘traffic’ is of so great importance to you, that it’s in your thoughts as you plan your day. The state of the traffic in Lagos, to a large extent, rules our lives and determines the sort of day – good or bad – that we will have. You set out very early for work or an appointment, and give yourself two hours, instead of the normal thirty minutes that the journey should last, to take care of any possible traffic hold-up on the way, so that you won’t be late. Sometimes, fate smiles on you, and you coast along unhindered for a while,and then bang! You’re confronted with several queues of all categories of vehicles in chaotic zigzag, with drivers struggling for any available means of inching forward. Tempers are rising and insults are hurled around freely if anyone dares get in your way. It becomes a battle of the fittest. You could be on the same spot for about twenty minutes before moving a few metres and coming to another standstill. You have to be careful that you don’t run into another vehicle and yours doesn’t get hit too, as this could invite a fight and cause further delay. Meanwhile, the commercial motor bikes operators are weaving in and out between vehicles in a hair-raising manner. You pray they don’t take off your side mirror. If they do, they don’t stop. Your stress level is increasing by the second, and in the long run, you miss your appointment or are late for work. The cause of the traffic build-up could be a broken-down vehicle, unruly parking of tankers, trailers, and other heavy duty lorries. It could be an accident too, or, a very bad road. You have to slow down at pot-holes and navigate your vehicle through them carefully, if you don’t want to wreck it. Some people’s health conditions have been made worse by sitting tensely for hours in their vehicles, in a traffic buildup. Anything that would improve the state of the traffic in Lagos, would be welcome by the majority of commuters. So, the newspaper headline ‘Lagos Goes Tough On Traffic Violation, as new traffic law debuts’ brought much hope and expectation to many of us here. Let’s examine some aspects of the law that were highlighted in the publication: – To test alcohol level of drivers. – Th is is welcome news. Judging from the way that many commercial vehicles and motor bikes are driven, it’s obvious that their drivers don’t operate only under their own steam, and alcohol, and probably something a bit stronger could be responsible for the unreasonable reckless way they drive, putting the lives of their passengers and other people in danger. I hope the government will have the right instrument for testing the alcohol level in a motorist’s system, and the law-enforcement officers who will use it, would be welltrained in its use, will be honest and will not be intimidated by the personality of the motorist involved. This shouldn’t be seen as a means to demand bribes, or haul people off to their offices on trumped-up charges. – For more effectiveness there should be a restriction on the open sale of dispensed or portable packs of hot drinks in traffic and in motor parks. C M Y K

View-Point

Helen Ovbiagele Woman Editor

Like many decisions in our country, there’s a lot of good things in this new traffic law. Our problem is usually strict adherence to the guidelines, implementation and constancy – Smoking, eating, phone calls, others, outlawed while driving. – If there’s no serious traffic buildup, I doubt if these would be a problem. One would need to be an acrobat to engage in these activities successfully, if there are no potholes on the road, and the traffic is flowing well. Still it’s good to include them in the law because they could be the cause of serious accidents on the road, when the motorist loses concentration. Pity there are no cameras on the road to pin offenders, as it may be difficult for an officer who’s on foot to give chase to a motorist who’s moving fast and smoking, eating, making phone calls or sending sms. Also, those selling snacks in traffic will have to be restrained from doing so. – Restriction of trailer movement to within the hours of 6am and 9pm. – I don’t quite agree with this order. Shouldn’t this be the period these vehicles which are the causes of major traffic hold-ups, and serious accidents, are off the roads, so that traffic can flow well? In most western countries, particularly in the U.S, and the U.K., trailers, tankers and heavy duty vehicles move at night, and end early in the morning, unless they happen to be on trans state journeys. You won’t find any of them in

the day time in the middle of the cities and in residential areas, like we do in Nigeria. – Prohibited routes for motorcycles and tricycles. – This would be most useful. For their own safety and that of other road users, they should not be on express ways. I suggest that local government should run regular seminars at ward level for these riders who seem to feel that traffic rules and regulations are not for them. From my own observation, the local governments seem to be more concerned about collecting the daily operating dues from them, than getting them to abide by traffic rules. Many of these riders would need interpreters for them to understand what they’re being taught. – Also, many of them don’t know their ages, so, it might be difficult to enforce the ban on people under 18 operating commercial motorcycles. Are we going to ask them to have their birth certificates on them? – Ban on driving in a direction prohibited by the road traffic law; that is, driving against traffic popularly known as one-way driving.

– Those most involved in this, in my opinion, are uniformed people themselves, government V.I.P.s, followed by commercial vehicles. – I’m glad that all stakeholders including, the Judiciary, the Police, LASTMA, VIOs, etc. sat down to deliberate on the contents of this new traffic law. As charity should begin at home, we the masses will be looking up to them to obey this law, and encourage the rest of us to do likewise. – Dismissal, prosecution for compromised enforcement officers. – Ah! Where do we go to report offenders? To whom do we report them? – Enforcement not immediate – Well, we thank God that enforcement of this new traffic law will not be immediate, because the government does need much time to fine-tune all aspects of it. Officers will need to be trained to carry out the implementation in a way that will bring respect and credibility to the government’s intention. – Like many decisions in our country, there’s a lot of good things in this new traffic law. Our problem is usually strict adherence to the guidelines, implementation and constancy.

Pakistani-Indian-Girls-fashion-2012. edesibabes.com

SUNDAY Vanguard, AUGUST 19, 2012, PAGE 25

QUACK AT WORK?

Abubakar goes for fever treatment, doctor removes his two kidneys By Suzan Edeh

C M Y K

Abubakar Buba

The victim...lying critically ill in hospital

fever, but the doctor rushed him into the theatre for operation and removed Abubakar’s kidneys saying they had been damaged by typhoid. Ibrahim said after the incident, they were referred to Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano where doctors confirmed that Abubakar ’s two kidneys had been removed. They referred him back to Bauchi for dialysis. He said the patient needs N5million for kidney transplant to live and it must be done outside the country. Ahmed added that the doctor took the patient to the theatre without even giving the family the chance to sign a guarantor form and follow other normal administrative process in the clinic. Mohammed Abdullahi Hari, Secretary General, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, Bauchi State chapter, said, “What happened to Abubakar is very unfortunate. Some peo-

ple we suspect to be ritualists sent their representatives to work in some of these private clinics and they charge exorbitantly. Now, instead of curing him of his ailment, they

hen people are sick, they go to hospital for medical attention, but, in the case of Abubakar Buba, a native of Maciyar Kuka Village Bununu district in Tafawa Balewa local government area of Bauchi state, he was sick and went to hospital. But his condition deteriorated instead of improving. Sunday Vanguard gathered that the 23-year-old went to a private clinic for the treatment of fever, stomach acheand diarrhoea. It was learnt that the doctor, who handled his case, ended up removing his two kidneys through an operation, a situation that has left Abubakar in a life-threatening condition. He is now permanently on dialysis machine at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH) Bauchi to keep him alive. A Kaduna-based physician, Dr Mohammed Bello, told Sunday Vanguard that a patient cannot survive with no kidney unless he is placed 100% on dialysis machine. “It is possible to live with only one kidney if the other is removed. But no one can live without both kidneys, unless he is placed on dialysis machine which plays the role of a kidney.” Also, a senior personnel in ATBUTH said the hospital’s main concern now is how to help the victim to survive. He added: “We need money to take him abroad for kidney transplant and we need someone who will donate a kidney for him”. Narrating the tragedy that befell Abubakar, the Director of Administration of Miyetti Allah Cattle Rearers, Bauchi State chapter, Alhaji Sadiq Ibrahim Ahmed, said the victim went to the clinic in Bauchi complaining of stomach ache, diarrhoea and

session of dialysis in Kano and he needs three sessions in a week. We were referred back to ABTBUTH, Bauchi because it is cheaper and nearer home. In Bauchi, we pay N5,000 for each session of dialysis.” The father of the patient, Alhaji Buba, said: “When my son was operated upon, the doctor asked me for N10, 000 at the private clinic which they said was for drugs. After sometime, maybe they understood that my son would not survive and I started raising alarm,

It was learnt that the doctor who handled the case ended up removing his two kidneys through an operation, a situation that has left Abubakar in a lifethreatening condition.

further compounded the problem of the poor boy. We know the hospital as a place where humanity is taken care of but this time around they are turning it to something else”. One of the family members, who pleaded anonymity, said, “We spent N8,000 for each

they now asked us to go to Kano. “They refused to send us to Bauchi. All my money finished in Kano on his treatment. “From Kano, when I could not shoulder the expenses for the treatment, the hospital wrote to Bauchi Teaching Hospital to

continue the treatment”. According to him, when he returned to Bauchi, the CMD asked him for money and he told him that he had nothing. “On humanitarian grounds, the CMD ordered that doctors should start giving my son treatment free of charge before deciding on what to do. I am appealing to good Samaritans to have mercy on my son and come to my aid by making contributions that will facilitate his treatment abroad”. Sunday Vanguard, in the meantime, learnt that Bauchi State government was making efforts to help the victim. Meanwhile, the police have arrested the doctor who allegedly removed the kidneys of Abubakar. Bauchi State Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Hassan Mohammed Auyo, confirmed the arrest of the man simply identified as Dr. Sani, saying, “The doctor that carried out the operation and a nurse are with us at the State Criminal Investigation Department; they are helping us with our investigation.” Auyo said the offence, if established, is criminal as it has to do with threat to life and the suspects will be charged to court.

PAGE 26—SUNDAY Vanguard, AUGUST 19, 2012

hen Juliana Chibuogu Ike chukwu’s legs started swelling about eight years ago, little did the family know that her two kidneys had failed. She went on treating malaria and typhoid fever after tests failed to identify the exact cause of the ailment. Then the situation worsened. The family remained in a dilemma until she was taken to Ntiku General Hospital, Enugu, where she was diagnosed of kidney failure. From Ntiku, she was referred to Annunciation Hospital, also in Enugu, for blood transfusion. But the effort could not save the situation. Juliana, 35, with three kids, was further referred to Life Support Medical Centre, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos, where she has been, for the past six months, spending N140,000 for two dialysis a week. Today, the husband, Mr. Goodluck Ikechukwu, says he has spent his last kobo battling to save Juliana’s life, and is no longer sure she can see tomorrow. Narrating the story, Mr. Ikechukwu, said: “Juliana has been sick for the past two years until she was found to have lost her two kidneys about eight months ago. I just came back from work one day and she told me that her legs were swelling up. When I saw it, I ignored it, thinking that it

Julianah, mother of three dying of dual kidney failure

zJuliana before illness

is one of those sickness until after about a week, when the legs continued to increase in size and we went to hospital for tests.” “After they conducted the tests, they found nothing at Ntasi Obi General Hospital, before they referred us to Ntiku General hospital where they discovered that her two kidneys were having problem.

zThe victim on dialysis

By Emmanuel Elebeke

They referred us to Ntiku General Hospital where they discovered that her two kidneys were having problem.

From Ntiku, we were moved to Annunciation Hospital, also in Enugu. There, about three pints of blood were transfused into her, but, after some weeks, the situation grew from bad to worse. We have received some support from friends and relatives. At the beginning, everyone was showing concern until it was discovered to be kidney problem.” Ikechukwu, a former staff of MTN, said he had since lost his job because of the wife’s sickness. The family is seeking pub-

‘My man kept three different canes to beat me’ BY ADEOLA ADENUGA

housewife, Mrs. Fatimo Arowono, alleged before an Alakuko customary court, Lagos that her husband, Lukman, had three different canes he used to whip her like a baby whenever they had misunderstanding. The 32-year-old woman claimed that the hubby was not only beating her always but also raining curses on her. She added that Arowono denied her the opportunity to have Western education deC M Y K

spite the fact he promised to educate her when they were about to formalize their union. The applicant also said that her husband mounted pressure on her to have more children inspite of the fact that their union had five children, and that whenever she refused to have sex with him, he always used his canes on her. She alleged that the estranged husband lacked care for her and the children, saying she had been the one responsible for feeding and payment of their children‘s school

fees. Fatino urged the court to dissolve the marriage and grant her custody of the children. Lukman denied the wife’s allegations. He pleaded with the court that he did not want to divorce his wife because he still loved her. The respondent claimed that he was not in the habit of abdicating his responsibility on the welfare of his children. He said that he did not want his wife to engage in buying and selling because men always use the opportunity to date women, adding that there was a day he saw a man trying to kiss his wife. Court president, Mrs. Banigo, adjourned the case for further hearing.

lic support to raise N6.5 million to fly the victim to India for kidney transplant so that she can live. Juliana hails from Oru local government area of Imo State. Until her ordeal started, Juliana was working at a private firm as office assistant. When Sunday Vanguard visited her on her sick bed, she pleaded with well-meaning Nigerians to help her out of her predicament. If you are moved by the victim’s plight, kindly call the following number for clarification and further inquiries, 08038754125.

Man, 31, defiles 7-yr-old girl BY ADEOLA ADENUGA l for chenna Nnamdi, 31, is facing tria of dge wle kno al carn ing allegedly hav ked doc was t pec sus e .Th girl d a 7- year-ol n State. at an Ota Magistrate Court, Ogu ted the mit com e hav Uchenna was said to crimof 28 tion sec er und offence punishable n Ogu of s inal code vol.1 of the Revised Law State. amdi, on According to the prosecutor, Nn Str eet , iya Ola 3 No at Jul y 28, 201 2, te, forced Adelemo, Sango Ota, Ogun Sta bed . to gir l the e sam the in ng livi be The victim was said to son per d use acc the h wit neighbourhood crime. before he committed the alleged charge the to Uchenna pleaded not guilty lo, adBel S.T. , rate while the trial magist . ring hea her furt for journed the case

SUNDAY Vanguard, AUGUST 19, 2012, PAGE 27

Country News

‘Delta opening up rural areas’

Housewife:

By Gab Ejuwa

that, if every other governor works like him, the transformation of the country will be much ucky Omamuromu Ayomanor, Director, Cen defined. You don’t need to be an expert to tral Operations of the Direct Labour Agen- appreciate the transformational government cy (DLA), Delta State, speaks on how his agen- of our humble, focused, dynamic and Godcy is opening up rural areas in the state. Ex- fearing governor. cerpts: As a Director in the Direct Labour AgenDelta State hosted the South-South Summit cy, an outfit of the state government, is it not quite too long. What is your impression of meeting the peoples’ expectations? the Summit and how would you rate Governor DLA, as a government agency, is working Uduaghan’s three-point agenda? towards meeting the needs of the people. The South-South Summit is indeed a histori- But DLA is opening up rural areas in Delta cal event that has no doubt idento facillitate movement of goods tified the focus of the South-South and services to urban centres. region particularly that of host Niger Delta Peoples NetGovernor Emmanuel Uduaghan. work, which you also head, The importance of the summit can celebrated its 10 years, recentnot be over-emphasised; the host ly. What is the way forward governor has been able to showfor the body? case his drive for economic deNiger Delta Peoples Netvelopment, an attribute that was work, NDP.N., is a heterogere-affirmed during the last deneous and cohesive network mocracy celebration. The hosting with chapters in the nine states of the summit is justified in all of the Niger Delta Region. We Lucky Omamuromu ramifications. I advise all the Ayomanor give thanks to God that we South-South governors to sustain were able to sustain the the spirit behind the summit. group; the ten years anniverI wish to say that the Uduaghan government sary witnessed lectures and the award night is God-sent. It is a transformational government in Grand Hotel, Asaba, Delta State, where and people-oriented. Even when N.D.P.N visit- deserving sons and daughters from the reed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National gion were given awards. Similarly, the group Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, in Abuja, I is preparing for the Niger Delta Unity Cup, told him that the people’s governor, Dr. Emman- and, recently, paid a solidarity visit to the uel Eweta Uduaghan, is working very hard and PDP National Working Committee.

My husband aborted pregnancies with punches WATOBILOBA ADEYEMI BY ADEOLA ADENUGA & OLU ing ring and himself a man turned his home into a box gnancies, a housewife boxer using punches to abort pre sitting at Agbado Oke-Aro. has told a Lagos customary court that her husband aborted at Mrs Olayinka Uzamat alleged ied for him with punches. This least three pregnancies she carr duced three children. came after the marriage had pro ches were the result of sevpun – g rtin The pregnancy – abo eral disagreements. e of divorce, said the husOlayinka, the petitioner on the cas ward, saying he once g way band always accused her of bein a quarrel. had y the vowed to kill her when dissolve the marriage and to rt cou the ed urg She therefore n. grant her custody of the childre the court that he never raised d rme info ez Aze e, enc def his In e he loved her passionately. his hands against his wife, becaus court should not dissolve The respondent pleaded that the children, adding, however, the mar riage for the sake of the t, the court should grant him that if his wife remained adaman custody of the children. osho, adjourned the case The court president, Mr. M. O. Jola for further hearing.

Is the threat by MOSOP to declare self- government for the Ogoni people justified? By Alaine Elizabeth, Ann Mamilor, Udeh Sandra, Oluwasayo Hamzat

C M Y K

r Fabian Moses: If gov ernment has refused to give them what they want, then they are free to fight for their right; after all, the oil is gotten from their land and, as such, they are supposed to be favored by government. The problem is not only about the Ogoni people, there are so many problems around the country; the truth is that Nigeris has no idea where it is heading to. See the issue of Boko Haram, it has become very disturbing since Jonathan was elected into office. So I don’t see anything wrong in what the Ogoni are trying to do since government has refused to heed to their call. I think it is better that everyone goes his separate ways.

this case, this is not the right thing to do. This action will only bring about more political instability, crippling of the economy and crisis in the country. There are other ways this problem can be solved. Government, on the other hand, should look into this issue by providing the Ogoni people the basic amenities they need.

Miss Grace Jonathan: I don’t think it is justified because it won’t bring any change to the country. Yes, I know that when you’re pushed to the wall, you’ll be forced to take action. But, in

Mr Basil Okolie: If you put yourself in their shoes, what will you do?. Since oil is gotten from their land, government is supposed to develop the community. Now that government has refused to do so,

Fabian Moses

Basil Okolie they have decided to take action they feel is best for their community to develop. Government should compensate them by giving them the facilities they need. Democracy is for the people, but when the people are deprived of their right, then democracy is no longer for the people but for the government. So I think government should see to it that this issue is resolved once and for all. Miss Ugonna Ejiogu: I don’t think its written anywhere in the constitution that a state or a group of people can have their own self-government; so

Grace Jonathan their claim is really not justified. Nevertheless, the people of Ogoni have gone through enough problems without government doing anything. Government keeps promising to give them a better living condition and they never kept the promise. Maybe it is time for government to look into their case. Mr. Obiora Mba: Government really shouldn’t bother these people. They have been pleading with the government to do something about their plight but all their pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Now the people of Ogoni have decid-

Ugonna Ejiogu: ed to take their destiny into their own hands. Their threat is justified. Rosemary Okpor: Their threat is not justified because, ordinarily, it is to let the Federal Government hear them out. They cannot have their own government being that it is uncalled for. Also I observed that Rivers State government is not in support of it,so it is not possible.There cannot be two governments in Rivers. Lastly, if the leader of MOSOP continues with the threat, he should be charged with treason.

28 —SUNDAY, Vanguard, AUGUST 19, 2012

With Ayo Onikoyi

08033286159

Glitzy conjugal bliss ffor or S oju Sttella and TToju

f Toju Aminaghan, son of Mr and Mrs Sonny Aminaghan and Princess Stella Gbemudu, daughter of His Royal Highness Obi and Late Mrs Katherine Ifeyinwa Gbemudu had dreamt of a fairy-tale wedding to leave people smouldering with envy and gossips long after the D-day, they certainly got it spot-on as their wedding was a spectacle of whimsical glamour and glitz. The families of the couple couldn’t have come looking more resplendently colourful and in sing-song harmony both at the church and the reception which held at Catholic Church of Ascension, Ikeja on July 28, 2012 as they did. Photos by Joe Akintola, Photo Editor

Navy Captain Nkem Gbemudu and Mrs Nnebue Ezedimbu, representing bride’s parents

The Couple; Mr and Mrs Toju Aminaghan with groom’s parents, Mr and Mrs Sonny Aminaghan

L-R: Prof. John Pepper Clark with Mrs and Mrs Victor Hammond

R-L: Mr and Mrs Sonny and Chuko Aminaghan, groom’s parents and Senator and Mrs Roland Owie

The Couple; Mr and Mrs Toju Aminaghan and the bridal train

Mr and Mrs Sonny Amuka-Pemu L-R: Mrs Rita Amuka and Miss Yeye Rewane

Mr and Mrs Israel Amuka-Pemu

Mr and Mrs Godfrey Amuka-Pemu

L-R: Miss Temi Nunu with Mr and Mrs Sonny Ekukunbor

L-R: Mrs Ese Omamadia-Kagho, and Mr and Mrs Kivie Omamadia-Kagho

SUNDAY, Vanguard, AUGUST 19, 2012 â&#x20AC;&#x201D;29

With Ayo Onikoyi

08033286159

Glitzy conjugal bliss ffor or S oju Sttella and TToju Miss Lizzy Apoyi Otuedon with the couple; Toju and Stella

Mr and Mrs Aji Rone-Orugboh

L-R: Mr Apollo Osaragbaje, Mr Peter Arigbe and Mr Sonny Okpure L-R: Mrs Noyo Owie and Mrs Tobi Odunaiya

L-R: Ogbuefi Engr. S.K. Azinge, Mr and Mrs Billy Amuka-Pemu and a guest

Bunuju bags PhD award

here was a commissioning ceremony of new cadets and award of Honourary Doctorate Degree by Christian Theological Ministry Worldwide and Paramilitary organization, whose origin is from the United States of America, recently in Benin City. One of the awardees was the SouthSouth Regional Advert Manager of Vanguard Newspapers Ltd, Nat Bunuju who was awarded Hon. Doctorate of Letters (Ph.d. Lttrs.)

R-L: Fred Odueme, Mrs Helen Arowolo, Ms Titi Jolaoso, Olushola Ojo and Neville Amorighoye

Mr and Mrs Emmanuel Osakwe

Toyin w eds TToju oju Alatan weds

r. Toritseju Ricky Alatan who hailed from Koko, Warri North LGA, Delta State took Miss Oluwatoyin Shoroye from Owu, Abeokuta, North LGA, Ogun State to the Altar in Living Faith Church, Ogba to become husband and wife in a colourful wedding attended by prominent persons from Itsekiri and Yoruba communities last Saturday

Mrs Tosan Nwafor and Stanley Gbemudu

Burial rites for Sotonwa

uneral Service for Late Group Captain Segun Sotonwa (rtd) was held at the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Gbagada Phase 2 in Lagos recently. Photo by Biodun Ogunleye

R-L: Nat Bunuju receiving his Ph.D Certificate from Dr. T.L. Ambek.

R-L: Dr. Harrison Okotie, Dr. Godwin Onyema Okafor, Dr. Nat Bunuju, Dr. Bibowei James Braie, Dr. M. Amakhabi, Dr. (Mrs.) M. Amakhabi, Dr. T.L. Ambek, DR. Dave P.A. Eyowei and Dr. Felix Tarakiri Atit C M Y K

The couple in colourful Itsekiri traditional costumes

Two families of both bridegroom and bride with the couple

L-R: Mr Paul Fashoro, Mr Jide Odesanya, Mrs Dupe Adewunmi, Mr Deola Bankole, Barr Deola Sotonwa,Daughter of the Deceased and her mother ,Joke, Mr Babatunde Ayo -Vaughan, Mr Dolapo Adeite and Mr Titus Ajayi

PAGE 30 — SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012

chimeena@yahoo.com

Peaceful world my sincerest wish: Chinua Achebe BY NASRIN POURHAMRANG INTERVIEW

Recently, the classic African novel “Things Fall Apart” by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe was translated into Persian by Ali Hodavand and released in Iran. Nasrin Pourhamrang, Editor-in-Chief of Hatef Weekly Magazine interviewed the author on a wide range of topics from Art, culture and literature;politics, cultural and linguistic preservation; to the legacy of colonialism and his forthcoming book there was a Country-A personal history of Biafra.

C M Y K

Chinua Achebe such as The Blind Owl byHedayat and Sin by Farrokhzad should be required reading around the world, in my opinion. On my desk is Cypress Tree by Kamin Mohammadi, who I understand, is a very talented young female writer. What will you say if I ask you to talk directly to the Iranian audience and discuss your concerns and wishes with them? “Peaceful co-existence between all racial and religious groups is my sincere wish for mankind” After the ancient civilizations of Africa, there are no peoples older than those that inhabit what the British first called “the Middle East.” The great world religions come from this part of the world. Islam and Judaism are consid-

echnology has come to the help of the borderless world of art and literature and has eliminated the geographical frontiers. How do you feel about the fact that your novel has been translated into Persian and that Iranian readers can read some of your works for the first time and make an acquaintance of Chinua Achebe? I received the news of the Persian translation of Things Fall Part with great joy!Of course, one of the goals of any writer is to connect with his or her readers. Things Fall Apart in particular, indeed all my books, have enjoyed a warm readership. I am particularly grateful for the effort of the translators of my work. They extend the reach of Art, in this case stories, to more people who may not have encountered them in the original English. I am told with this Persian translation that Things Fall Apart now exists in nearly 60 world languages! It is a wonderful blessing and I am deeply, deeply, grateful! So, the fact that readers in Iran can also read my work is very important to me. Are you familiar with Iran, its culture and civilization? Have you ever heard of the artworks of Iranian artists as well as the work of her authors and writers? I am a life-long student of Literature, History, Art and Culture. I can’t, however, claim to be an authority on Iranian history and culture. Let me also confess that I was caught looking through my Encyclopedia Britannica before this interview – my grandchildren insist that no one does that anymore! Nevertheless, I am aware of the writings of Herodotus on the Persian Empire and the spectacular golden art work of the Achaemenid period. I have always wanted to see the ruins of Thachar palace and Persepolis;the Quajarid reliefs, paintings from Iranian antiquity and the beauty of Persian calligraphy up-close. Of course, Persian carpets, as you are well aware, are adored the world over.In university, we encountered stories about great Persian emperors like Cyrus the Great who Alexander the Great revered. Also Darius the Great…and the later emperors. As a writer, as you might expect, I have a special interest in the ancient scrolls of Persian philosophy. I have also been taken with the medieval poetry of Rumi, Hafez, Sa’adi, Khayyam, Farrid Attar; as well asepics such Shahnameh (The Book of Kings) by Ferdowsi. Modern Iranian classics

river to return to Judea to rebuild their lives. Many, however, who had lived in Persia for a few generations, decided to remain and formed permanent Jewish settlements of intellectuals, merchants and artisans for centuries. Jewish scholars (something I am told can be confirmed in the Talmud – a revered Jewish book of rabbinical postulates), teach us that the environment was so tolerant for Jews in ancient Persia during this period that in a mark of their own magnanimity towards the Persian people, there was a call by Rabbis of the time for a picture of Susa the capital of Persian Kings to be engraved on the eastern gate of the temple of Jerusalem! My appeal, therefore, is to the ancient virtue of Iranian hospitality, tolerance and peace. It is vitally important that the educated classes in Iran point out this glorious history which is central not just to the Middle East; but to all of mankind. Finally, I would like to see the Dialogue of Civilizations proposed by former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami become reality–bringing together representatives of all of the earth’s people to Tehran in an environment of freedom of creative, intellectual,cultural and religious ex-

I have been asked why it took me over 42 years to write about Biafra…The answer is that I was not ready… I had to find the right vehicle that could carry our anguish, our sorrow… the scale of dislocation and destruction…our collective pain

ered Abrahamic religions because they are believed to descend from God through Abraham. We would not have Christianity without Judaism and the Jewish people. The three religions share many values and tenets and beliefs. There are parts of the Quran that integrate Jewish history. I wish to highlight lessons from Iranian history that should be championed by Iranian people in today’s precarious world. It is important for all of us to remember that the Iranians and the Jewish people have enjoyed a very long, mutually beneficial and fruitful relationship. It dates back to 727 B.C. and the deportation of the Jewish people to Media and Persian from Samaria…that is nearly three thousand years ago! Cyrus the Great, who we have mentioned in this conversation, through a decree later known as the “Cyrus declaration” allowed the Jewish people who lived along the Babylon

pression. Your new work There was a Country-A personal history of Biafra is due from Penguin Books next monthSeptember, 2012 – in the United Kingdom. Can you tell Iranian readers what it is about? The Nigerian-Biafran war raged from 1967-1970 and claimed nearly three million lives. The conflict wiped out twenty percent of my people – the Igbo and other Easterners- who were known as Biafrans. In There was a Country- A personal history of Biafra, I tell three interweaving stories – using an autobiographical prism to recount two broader stories – the story of pre and post-independence Nigeria, and the story of Biafra and its aftermath. I have been asked why it took me over 42 years to write about Biafra…The answer is that I was not ready… I had to find the right vehicle

that could “carry our anguish, our sorrow… the scale of dislocation and destruction…our collective pain.”In many ways, I can say that I have been writing this book for about four decades – at least in my head and the very scribbling on paper almost as long – particularly the research, interviews, data collection etc. I discovered while working on the book, quite interest ingly, that it would not be a straight forward work. I found that I had to draw upon prose, poetry, history, memoir, and politics and that they were independently holding conversations with each other – perhaps because no one genre or art form could bear the weight of the complexity of our condition.You see, the Biafran war was such a cataclysmic event that in my opinion changed the course, not only of Nigeria, which has not fully recovered from that conflict; but of all of Africa. I hope your readers pick up a copy! It is interesting to me that your first novel, “Things Fall Apart,” which is also your most widely read and translated book was published by a British publisher (William Heinemann LTD). Why did you offer it to a British publisher while it depicted the difficulties and cultural contradictions which the people of your country have suffered as a result of the colonial presence of the British in the past decades? That is a timely question…… In my new book,There was a Country-A personal history of Biafra, I point out that when a number of us [i.e. African writers] decided to pick up the pen and make writing a career there was no African literature as we know it today. There were many that preceded my time, but still, the numbers were not sufficient. And so I had no idea when I was writing Things Fall Apart whether it would even be accepted or published. All this was new- there was nothing by which I could gauge how it was going to be received. In those days one had very few avenues to get published…we had very few choices. My first novel was rejected by a number of publishers before providence led it into the hands of Alan Hill at Heinemann after Donald McRae, another Heinemann executive with extensive experience in Africa encouraged Heinemann to publish the novel with a powerful recommendation: “This is the best first novel I have read since the war.” So, you can tell that I had a good beginning and was only too pleased to have Heinemann publish the work. Later, Alan Hill and James Currey and I developed the African Writers Series (I served as first General Editor for the first one hundred titles). The African Writers Series ended up publishing many of the well-known writers of the era from Africa. In many ways, without the intervention of Alan Hill and Heinemann, many of the writers from that generation may not have found a voice. Over 50 years have passed since you wrote the book “Things Fall Apart.” Have your viewpoints and approaches toward the presence of a colonial power in the soil of your country changed since that time? Would you make changes and edits if you were to decide to write such a novel or rewrite

Continues on page 31

SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012, PAGE 31 chimeena@yahoo.com

Uwuigiaren, impacting morals to children with books BY JAPHET ALAKAM LITERATURE LITERA TURE

OR Delta State born Omoruyi Uwuigiaren the need to pro vide educational and instructional material for children is a task that must be achieved. The writer, poet, publisher who ventured into writing as a result of a vision from God is one of those who believes in the biblical saying “train up a child in the way of the lord and when he grows he will not depart from it.” According to Omuruiyi who is graduate of Mass Communication from Lagos State Poly , the level of infestation by foreign cultures and the way parents leave their children to the care of teachers and maids calls for a concerted action to address the anomaly. So in order to satisfy the yearning of parents who complain about the non availability of good quality books written by Nigerian authors he obeyed the voice and started writing children novels, and ever since then there has been no cause to regret. “A man of God called me one day in 1988 and told me that God wants me to write books for children and after that I started writing for children. I published my first book, Empire of the wicked in2004 and followed by Little Okon and other stories in the same year and till date I have 11 published books.” The books are in many series, the adventure series, the reading for fun

series, Drama series and survival series. Two of the books, The Adventures of Nihu and The City Heroes and other stories from the heart of Africa were published outside the country while others were published in Nigeria. They include: Stranger on the Farm; The Country Boy; Taiwo Da Silva; Giant in a Hut; Dalmos Returns Home; The Little King; Shadows in a River; The Cunning Tortoise; The Stone City; The Jungle Ants and others. The range of books with beautifully illustrated pictures could be described as a perfect introduction for

young readers to learn about the beautiful country of Nigeria, and see how easy and how fun it is to learn about a new culture in the heart of Africa. He went on to point out the special features of the books which are, they are suitable for middle grade readers, the stories within the collection contain messages and themes about forgiveness, charity, redemption and loyalty all from a decidedly African perspective. The young man who once tried his trade as a freelancer in Vanguard as

a cartoonist for years and presently work with a publishing firm, Learn Rite Publishers, Surulere, Lagos disclosed that he decided to go into the writing of children books because of the vision the man of God gave him. “I started writing after the message from the man of God but beside what the man of God told me, I also had personal revelation to that effect.” But the major reason is that “as a result of my upbringing, I intend to impact morals to the children. I realised that we are losing touch of our core values, and if we continue that way, in the nearest future our culture will be out of existence. So I use the books as a platform to change the psyche of the children. It serves as an educational and instructional materials for the children.” He added How did he fit into the system easily, “ writing is a gift to me because I am a natural story teller. Moreover writing flows in my family, my father was a writer and my uncle too. But because of the calling and what I intend to achieve, I embarked on a lot of research so that I will know how to meet the requirements of the children and send the message across to them. And God been on my side I was able to start. I started writing before I even went to the Polytechnic to study Mass Communication.” He added. Uwuigiaren who is also a preacher did not just make it without challenges but he said that “though they are numerous, but because the job is a calling, I don’t look at them.” Some of the challenges include: publishers rejecting your manuscript thereby discouraging the writer, the system in the country that does not encourage creativity, so you need to encourage yourself to keep going, the environment that is not conducive and others. However, he pointed out that the secret of his success so far has been dedication and been focused coupled with his desire to be a blessing to the children.

'Peaceful world my sincerest wish' Continued from page 30 it now and especially reconfigure the personality and reflections of the main characters such as Okonkwo? Every thinking person, if you consider yourself a serious intellectual grows…Intellectual evolution and growth does not mean, however, that all of a sudden horrendous things in our shared history appear less appalling. It means that greater knowledge and understanding help place the best and worst of events in clearer perspective. The legacy of colonialism is not a simple one but one of great complexity,

with contradictions- good things as well as bad. We do not have enough time to outline every aspect of the colonial and post-colonial condition…So, one cannot talk about making changes or edits to a book that was written to speak to a condition that existed and continues to exist in different forms and different guises. In many ways, the world is a much different place today than it was in 1958 when Things Fall Apart was published. Some may say a better place – women’s rights are improving around the world, race relations perhaps can be said to have improved as well. In other ways, many things can also be

Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe with former South African President Nelson Mandela at a Steve Biko memorial ceremony in Cape Town in 2002. AFP photo. C M Y K

said to have either remained the same or become worse. So the struggle to make the world a better place must continue! Your books and novels are considered to be the representative of modern African literature. In your view, what are the most prominent features and attributes of the modern African

literature? Yes, well…remember that there was an entire movement, a whole group of us…In There was a country,I discuss this in greater depth. Things Fall Apart, I believe, now has a life of its own. I think it is now more famous than I am! (Laughter). The fifty plus translations are a big indication of its impact. I feel like a parent watching a child succeed from the sidelines. The other books have also been successful. It feels good. I am very grateful. What was the second part of the question? What are the most prominent features and attributes of the modern African literature? Yes…I have stated elsewhere that one cannot cram African literature into a small, neat definition. I do not see African literature as one unit but as a group of associated units – in fact the sum total of all the national and ethnic literatures of Africa. National literature in my definition is written in national languages and has a potential audience through out the countries that speak that language. Ethnic literature, by contrast is available to a particular ethnic group within

that country or sub-region. I have often been asked why I choose to write in English rather than in my native language.That is a flawed question and a false choice, because most of us think and write in and speak both our ethnic language and the national languages we were taught in school. Context is very important…Those that ask this question fail to understand my goal and the goal of several other pioneers of modern African writing. When I picked up the pen to make writing a career, African literature did not exist as it does today…the numbers were not there. One of the consequences of colonialism was the loss of the many traditions of Africa. Many of us engaged Africa’s past, stepping back into what can be referred to as the “era of purity” before the coming of Europe. What we discovered we put in books and that became known widely as “African Culture.” Some of us would decide to use the colonizer ’s tools: his language, altered sufficiently to bear the weight of an African creative aesthetic, infused with elements of the African literary tradition. I borrowed proverbs from our culture and history, colloquialisms and African expressive language from the ancient griots, the world views, perspectives,

and customs from my Igbo tradition and cosmology, and the sensibilities of everyday people.

To be continued

Culled from Veterans Today, Military and Foreign Affairs Journal.

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SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012

‘Asaba as Silicon Valley of Africa can generate a billion dollars’ Special Adviser to the Governor of Delta State on ICT, Mr Sunny Ofili , speaks on the move to turn around the fortunes of the state. Excerpts: Delta State has witnessed an upsurge in kidnapping. Why is this so? RIMINAL minded people will always embark on criminal activities regardless of what you do. We had a peculiar situation in Delta State. You

will recall that not too long ago, a police officer in the anti-kidnapping squad in the state was actually indicted for kidnapping. He was arrested for being the one aiding kidnappers. So it was a situation we are working on, the fact that the guy whose job it was to arrest kidnappers was now himself fingered in kidnapping tells you the kind of problem we are dealing with. To get this man prosecuted has even become a political issue in the state. It is being sorted out but immediately this man was arrested kidnapping went to almost zero and as soon as he was released it picked up again. I believe the government of Delta ought to be commended for the role we are playing in bringing security to the state. What is happening to the ICT Park, cocoa farms and all other programmes you talked about before you took office? Before we took office, we talked about a sustainable Delta without oil. In the state today, the mantra is, ‘Sustainable Delta without oil’, because we want to see how we can diversify our economy. That vision of sustainable Delta is anchored on a tripod based on a well-tested system of SMEs creating special economic zones. What we decided to do is to build industrial parks. There are three industrial areas that designated in the state. One of them is the Koko Free Trade Zone, which the Federal Government has graciously granted Delta State to take care of the port business. The goal is to see how we can get another port city in Koko, away from Lagos. With that, we can take some business away from Lagos, decongest Lagos and move that activity to Koko port. That is one. We also have the Warri Industrial and Business Park. The park simply is a petrochemical park that will attract all petrochemical business to be domiciled in this area in this park. Not only will Warri take-off but it will also impact in all other communities in that area. Then the third park we are talking about is the ICT Park, which is where I am very

C M Y K

Mr Sunny Ofili involved in. If you look at the Asian tigers, the example we are trying to copy here is mostly from India and what they managed to do is to set up these parks and software incubation system in such a way that you are able to create entrepreneurs who will now become software developers and get into the outsourcing business. In Delta State today, I want to tell you that of these three special economic zones we are talking about, the ICT Park, Asaba is the one that has actually taken off already. As we speak, we have about 100 people working at the site.. If we are talking about the 21st century, what we are talking about is knowledge-based economy. Of all these other

parks and business we are talking about, it is all knowledge-based-economy; without ICT technology, we are not going to move from where we are today to where we want to be tomorrow. With the park, the goal is to turn Asaba into the Silicon Valley of Africa; our plan is that the incubation centre of the park alone has the potential to train about 10,000 people in the first five years. When I say 10,000, I mean 10,000 entrepreneurs not job seekers. Now look at the multiplicity of this and the domino effect; when you train 10,000 entrepreneurs who are domiciled in the park, who have jobs creating small softwares here and there, selling to Nigerians and outside our borders, the effect is that one entrepreneur has a potential to hire one person in the first year and that same entrepreneurs as the business grows is going to hire one or two more people in next two years. So, if you look at it, in the first three years alone, when one entrepreneur hires say three people, that is 30,000 people. Imagine 30,000 new jobs being created in Asaba, these people have to go to the market, they need shelter. So what is delaying all the other projects, assuming that the Asaba ICT is working?

state has already budgeted N1.3b for the park, next year, additional budgetary provision will be made. So work is ongoing, I figure that the you

BY BEN AGANDE

Our plan is that the incubation centre of the park alone has the potential to train about 10,000 people in the first five years

What we have done is that one of our core tenants, the NCC, putting together the Digital Bridge Institute, has started construction. The park itself is a N50 billion project but the state is not in any way going to invest N50 billion in it. What the state is doing is to create the infrastructure in the park, the connectivity, the road network, drainages, power and all of that and that we are already working on. For example, this year alone, the

build park, once you have your administrative building, few incubation blocks and the necessary things established, companies will begin to come. In Delta today, what we want is to make the park the destination of choice for all IT related businesses in the South-south or even in Nigeria. If an IT company wants to establish presence in Nigeria, we want to ensure that they find Asaba ICT Park as the best place to domicile. We are building a system so that when a company comes, all you have to do is bring your people and your computers in because the rest of the stuff have been built there already and you would not have to do anything. The network is there, the power, the infrastructure, the talents, the human capital and that is why you have to train people with the prerequisite skills that are needed to function in that area. The three parks, when are they going to be ready? I am more involved with the ICT Park and I can tell you that by this time next year, the NCC project in the park will be operational. I can also tell you that there are some other companies that have indicated interest in building offices and occupying the park. When you say operational, we may not be at full capacity in the next two years but, in the next two years, business should take off at the park but not at full capacity. Most parks in the world do not attain full capacity in the first five years; sometimes it takes up to 10 years for to attain full capacity. But, in the next two years, business will take off at the park. If the project finally takes off, I can tell you that if we can get five percent of out sourcing business from India, Delta could realize at the minimum about a billion dollars as income from the park annually.

Monetary policy formulation: CBN partners WAIFEM BY UDEME CLEMENT

HE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has embarked on intensive capacity building programme aimed at ensuring effective monetary policy formation and implementation to enhance sustainable development of the financial sector in Nigeria. To achieve this objective, the apex bank partnered the West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM), for a three-week capacity building exercise on ‘techniques of economic analysis, monetary policy and financial management’ for the staff of the bank. Speaking at the opening ceremony in Lagos , the Head, CBN Learning Centre, Mr. Job Olorunshola, said that the initiative was to upgrade the skills of participants in the formulation of monetary policies and conduct of effective monetary operations as well as financial stability in the financial sector. Also, to develop sustainable expertise in macroeconomic, debt and financial management among the staff of central banks, ministries of finance and economic planning, public sector institutions charged with core economic and financial management responsibilities. In his keynote address, the

Director General of WAIFEM, Prof. Akpan Ekpo, said, “The training covers recent developments in the money market operations, including the response of central bank to the recent financial market turbulence, even as it examined how monetary policy operations interact with a central bank’s financial stability and regulatory mandates. The major goal of economic analysis is to enable us understand the functions of the economy and the forces that impel the choices people make under the constraints that they face. The analytical technique involves in the work of CBN requires constant updating on the movements within the economy at national, sub-regional and international levels. A strong manpower base is needed to efficiently ensue the right policy making for the economy. It also explores various ways available to model monetary policy in a central bank in the context of both policy simulation and forecasting.” He continued, “The recurrent global crises from 1980s to the recent one, which started from 2007, have made it mandatory for institutions involved in economic management to build and strengthen their indigenous capacity for policy making analysis”.

The DG of WAIFEM, Prof. Akpan Ekpo(standing), presenting the keynote address, to his immediate left is Mr. Olorunshola, the Head, CBN Learning centre, Lagos and Mr. Baba Musa, Director, Debt Management Dept, WAIFEM. To the right of the DG is Prof. Olu Ajakaiye, former DG, NISER and a facilitator, others are Dr. Asiama and Mr. Euraclyn Williams, WAIFEM's Directors of Macroeconomic Management and Finance & Administration.

From left: Imam, Unique Ratibi Mosque, Amuwo Odofin, Imam Yusuf Nasiru; Chief Imam, Amuwo Odofin Muslim Community Central Mosque, Imam Yusuf Al-Mayaki; Assistant Communications Manager, Chain Reactions Nigeria, Godfrey Adejumoh and Secretary General, Amuwo Odofin Muslim Community Central Mosque, Alhaji Adams Yusuf; during the ‘Airwick Ramadan Scent Room Activation’ at Amuwo Odofin Muslim Community Central Mosque, Lagos.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012, PAGE 33

Most children with Autism are exceptionally skilled —Bolanle Adewole BY JOSEPHINE IGBINOVIA Her regular Montessori school, The Learning Place, Lekki, had been in existence for six years when two years ago, she decided to include a special unit, The Learning Place Centre. Mrs.Bolanle Adewole, The Director of TLP, who was impressed by the tremendous changes she was able to bring to the life of her eight year old autistic son, knew it was best to help other parents replicate such in their autistic children as well as children with other developmental disorders. In this interview, Mrs.Adewole who is also a member of the Parents Against Autism Initiative, speaks on her work with children, her style of helping children with autism, among sundry issues.

OW fulfilling has been your work with developmentally-challenged children? As an educator, by and large, I have found that children have an amazing ability to grasp concepts, depending on the way things are presented to them. Each child is an individual and should be taken as such. So, working with each child with developmental disorder demands that one works with the child on the basis of developing the child’s peculiar strengths and abilities. When children are worked with and treated as individuals, maximum result is always achieved. What are the symptoms of autism? There are many symptoms of autism. Basically, they include lack of eye contact, language and communication challenge, emotional detachment, repetitive or stereotypical behaviour, walking on tip toes, delayed milestone in language development and more, to mention but a few. But what exactly could be responsible for autism? There is no known cause for autism till date, but research focuses on environmental factors, genetics, and several others. The fact however is that the prevalence is now higher than it used to be. CDC in the United States recently released a ratio which estimated that 1 in 88 children have autism. As we speak, there is still no actual known cause and cure for autism. How many pupils do you have with autism at your centre? The ratio by the United States is lower than what we have in our school. Out of every twenty children, we have three with autism. I guess it must be quite challenging operating a typical and special school at same time? There is actually a link between the two schools. When developmentally-challenged children are taught oneon-one and their skills have been developed, they become better receptive when we integrate them into the regular school. What we do is that we let some children attend classes at the regular school for two days and then attend classes for three days

at the special school, every week. We continue taking them for inclusion at the regular school until they are finally able to integrate fully. Children with developmental challenges basically need to acquire individual skills first and then develop certain skills, before they are fully integrated. How effective has this strategy proved? Excellently well! We’re finding that children who couldn’t speak at the beginning of the school year now do very well; talk more, express themselves, acquire skills, etc. Over time, we’ve seen development, amazing growth and uniqueness. A lot of them are doing many more things than they ordinarily could have done. These make us very happy. With these children however, I must state that it is very important that one is consistent with whatever therapy the child starts with. The progress may be slow because it varies from child to child, but the fact is that you would surely get results. The Learning Place Centre is nearly six years younger than the Learning Place which is eight years old now. What prompted the setting up of the centre at the time you did? My eight year old son with autism informed the setting up of the centre. We found that

When developmentallychallenged children are taught one-on-one and their skills have been developed, they become more receptive when we integrate them into the regular school

Mrs.Bolanle Adewole....A number of great people who have done historic things are on the autism spectrum!

the services were not readily available, but from the researches and studies I did, I found that the disorder was actually treatable, particularly with the success I recorded with my son. The treatment was not satisfactorily accessible. So, since I already had a school, it was easier for us to set up a centre. Since the setting up of the centre, I have seen a lot of improvements happen in the lives of many children, and honestly, I can now say that I know the real reason why God gave me a child with autism in the first place. It is with much joy that I watch the children progress. How is your own son coping? He is coping excellently well. He has sensory disorders and that’s the only area we’re still battling with. Other than that, he is reading, comprehending stories, playing

the piano amazingly well, swimming, doing athletics, etc. His vocabulary is much wider, and he expresses himself well. As a nation, what do we stand to lose if we fail to give due attention to special children like those with autism? You know, one thing with children with autism is that they are exceptionally skilled. A number of great people who have done historic things are on the autism spectrum! Bill Gates, Robert Einstein and many others are on the spectrum. All of them have done exceedingly well for themselves and their nations. My son would just go to the piano and play a tune, and that is rare with regular children. Some of them are highly mathematically skilled; they can get to places in the computer that you do not even know exist. As a nation, if we empower them, it will be for the greater good of our society in the long run. But if we neglect them, it would be very bad because we would be losing out on experts who would have come out in future to develop our IT world, musical industry, etc. I’m however happy that the federal government is beginning to recognise autism as a disorder in Nigeria, and the World Autism Day is going to be observed by Nigeria on April 2nd each year. Things that were not readily available are gradually coming up, and I know that if we keep going with this momentum, we would get more things available for these children. C M Y K

PAGE 34, SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF TRADE UNIONISM IN NIGERIA

•Comrade Ali Ciroma, Comrade Hassan Sunmonu, Vice President of NLC Comrade Isa Aremu; Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Labour, Hon. Aminu and Acting Secretary General of NLC, Owei Lakenfa

Chiroma stood for independence of the Labour Movement This is the seventh edition of the serial on OWEI LAKEMFA's latest work: "One hundred years of trade unionism in Nigeria". The sixth part was published yesterday. ALI CHIROMA

Chiroma consolidated on the hugely successful Hassan Sunmonu legacy including collective leadership, and developed the relationship between the NLC, intellectuals, students and the civil society which served the Congress well in its anti-fuel subsidy strikes and protests in later years

LHAJI Ali Chiroma was the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) at the worst possible period in our history. He was NLC President from March 1984 to February 1988; he came into office when the BuhariIdiagbon dictatorship was on rampage; indiscriminately seizing politicians and carting them into prison, sacking workers en mass without recourse to rules and trying to destroy institutions like the press. In fact, that regime had a Decree 4 of 1984 which made the reportage of falsehood or truth punishable offences. Perhaps the most revolting of its acts was issuing a retroactive decree on drugs and publicly executing youths for what was not a capital offence when the act was committed. Chiroma was Congress President when the country transformed from that Stone Age dictatorship to the more subtle Babangida version which ultimately was worse than its predecessor. While Buhari-Idiagbon appeared rigid, Babangida presented an image of the ultimate compromiser; while the duo frowned, he smiled. But ultimately, the Babangida iron-fist was more devastating for Labour than that of his predecessors. In trying to suck Labour into his

system, Babangida appointed prominent labour leaders into his transition committees but without consulting Labour. So, then Nigeria Union of Railwaymen, NUR, Scribe, Paschal Bafyau and Bank Workers President, Halilu Ibrahim, were put in the Political Bureau. Frank Ovie Kokori, the NUPENG Chief scribe was appointed into the Constitution Drafting Committee while both Kokori and Bafyau were appointed into the Constitution Review Committee.

relationship between the NLC, intellectuals, students and the civil society which served the Congress well in its anti-fuel subsidy strikes and protests in later years. The Chiroma Leadership exposed the Babangida regime as a brute that was interested in self preservation and perpetuation. Despite the corrupting influence of the military regime, Chi-

rally to protest the killing of Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, students, and the following year when he led Congress against the attempt by Babangida to remove fuel subsidy. Chiroma was not in the mould of a radical Labour Leader like Imodu, Goodluck or Sunmonu and is not endowed with the power of oratory, but he made huge strides that made his administra-

Political process Chiroma was not apolitical. He described the philosophy of the NLC under him as far as the political process goes as “Unions in Politics and Politics in Unions.” When students were massacred in 1986, he led the NLC into the fight for justice. His leadership also organized anti-apartheid protests when Britain’s Margaret Thatcher visited Lagos and Kano. The Chiroma leadership is best remembered for its consistent battle against fuel price increases. For this, the Congress leadership including Chiroma were detained without trial. Chiroma consolidated on the hugely successful Hassan Sunmonu legacy including collective leadership, and developed the

A brutal police ...set to maim a protester roma stood stoutly for probity, good governance and the independence of the Labour Movement. Chiroma who talked little but achieved a lot, was detained at least twice including in 1986 when he organized a national

tion a success. The reasons for this included the fact that he had a pro-poor philosophy, a stubborn streak and high moral principles. When the military dictatorship thought they were breakContinues on page 35

SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012—PAGE

Chiroma stood for independence of the Labour Movement ing him by detaining him without trial, Chiroma took this as a challenge. By the time the season was ripe for new NLC elections in February 1988, the Babangida Leadership had shown in various ways that it would not want to see Chiroma having a second term in office. The Labour leaders, known as “Democrats” in the NLC picked the regime’s cue. When it became clear to them that their candidate, Takai Shamang was no match for Chiroma, they contrived

our independence on “a platter of gold” ignore the fact that there were genuine struggles in which people died, many were imprisoned, tortured or even went into exile. Back on July 28, 1928, after graduating from the Edo College, Benin, Lasisi Adams Osunde was a 17-year old youth who was sucked into the Nationalism vortex. While the British Colonialists partially tolerated the conformist nationalists, they hounded radicals who were fighting for not just freedom from colonialism but independence outside capitalism.

On his return in 1965 with a Masters, he was employed to lecture by the University of Lagos, UNILAG. After three years, he returned to his alma mater where he got a Ph.D in Economics in 1971. His thesis was on “Foreign Capital in the Nigerian Economy.” Osunde returned to UNILAG to teach Economics from 1971 to 1975 before moving full time in 1976 into the Labour Movement as General Secretary of the Municipal and Local Authority Workers Union of Nigeria. The Union after the 1977 re-organisation of unions became

Policemen getting set to stop a national strike

a crisis, declared Shamang the President, “sacked” the appointed NLC officers, and asked Babangida to ban the NLC as the military did in 1975. The Babangida regime wasted no time in grabbing this opportunity. Within forty-eight hours, (February 29, 1988) it rolled out the National Economic Recovery Emergency Powers (Nigeria Labour Congress) order, 1988 under which it banned the NLC and imposed an employer, Michael Ogunkoya as Sole Administrator. Although Chiroma made major positive contributions to the Labour Movement he, however, had a stain which tainted his beautiful records. Six years after his exit from the NLC, the Abacha dictatorship seized and detained leaders of the oil workers unions; NUPENG and PENGASSAN and banned the unions. That military regime then appointed Chiroma and former NLC scribe, Dr Lasisi Osunde as sole administrators of the unions. While Osunde wept that Abacha insulted him by such an appointment, Chiroma accepted. OSUNDE: THE PATH OF OUR FATHERS Many who argue that we got

To ensure its hold on post-colonial Nigeria, the British banned all socialist books and literature and made it a criminal offence either to possess them or travel to a socialist country. This was where the young Osunde came in. In 1948, at 18, he secured a job as First Class Postal Officer and Telegrapher. In this position, he sorted out socialist literature in the mail before they could get to the sorting room where British intelligence seized and destroyed them. He then channelled the literature to the Socialist Movement, which distributed them in the country.

Discharge and acquittal Eventually, the British intelligence zeroed in and arrested Osunde in 1958. He was indicted and charged to court for treason but was discharged and acquitted. The Socialist Movement decided that since Osunde’s cover had been blown, he had to leave the country. When in 1960, the country’s face was turned towards independence, Osunde faced the Soviet Union where for five years, he studied Economics at the Friendship University, Moscow .

the National Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE. Osunde remained its General Secretary until July 1, 1978 when he moved to the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, as Deputy General Secretary. From that date, he was de facto General Secretary of the NLC until his confirmation in that post on December 18, 1985. He had graduated from the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, two months earlier. Beyond being a key figure in the development of Congress, he was instrumental to many of its struggles such as those against arbitrary fuel price increases and military dictatorship, focusing workers through a Charter of Demands and the May 1981 General Strike which secure for workers a Minimum Wage and Minimum Pension. Osunde had learnt trade unionism at the feet of the legendary Wahab Omorilewa Goodluck and imbibed the latter’s radical politics and socialist beliefs. With Hassan Adebayo Sunmonu, another Goodluck protégée as founding NLC President, they had a team that could firmly root the NLC in national consciousness. But they realized that the NLC’s success was re-

versible especially when at the top of the NLC Secretariat, the strong consciously political elements were mainly Osunde and his Deputy Bernard Obua. So they brought in three new officers; Yahaya Hashim, Salisu Nuhu Mohammed and Lawson Osagie. In 1987 Osunde’s leadership brought in another line of officers; Chom Bagu, Chris Uyot, John Odah and Isa Aremu. So at the NLC under Osunde, there were three layers of leadership that could guarantee the radical traditions of the Labour Movement and withstand nuclear bombardments from enemy forces. Thus, when the Babangida Military regime seized the NLC on February 28, 1988 occupying it for ten months; and when the Abacha Military Regime seized the NLC in 1994 for four years, the NLC’s radical foundations could not be destroyed. After Babangida removed Osunde as NLC General Secretary by Decree, Osunde refused to recognize this, saying only the Congress NEC which appointed him could remove him. While the then NLC President Ali Chiroma complied, Osunde refused to handover. He went on, with other like minds, to get unions and workers to resist; these included court cases up to the Court of Appeal. After the occupation, he returned as General Secretary. A veteran of detention spells, when he returned from one on December 30, 1978, I interviewed Osunde. He told me: “My attitude to detention is that it means noting to me. Personally, I am not ruffled, the issue is objective; personal inconvenience is not the issue.”

Personal inconvenience For him workers cannot be divorced from politics because “Politics is essentially a concentrated expression of economics both in form and content.” His primary focus he said was to mobilize the populace “...against a regime which has gone beserk”. After many more battles including resisting attempts to enlist NLC’s support for General Babangida’s endless Transition Programme, Osunde on February 28, 1993 retired. From retirement he continued to make his services and experience available to the Working Class. Once, the very quiet and soft spoken Osunde was very angry. It was in

August 1994 when the Federal Government announced his appointment as Sole Administrator of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN). He felt insulted that a military regime could appoint him to administer a union it had seized. He did not even honour the Government with a formal decline of the offer. Osunde is one of the greatest labour leaders and patriots our country ever produced. Continues tomorrow

Continued from page 34

At the NLC under Osunde, there were three layers of leadership that could guarantee the radical traditions of the Labour Movement and withstand nuclear bombardments from enemy forces

PAGE 36—SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012

Abuja gets more from IGR T

The Minister of State for FCT, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide: "We would be firm and fair"

he Federal Capital Ter ritory Administration, FCTA, has constituted a new committee as part of the measures to resolve the lingering Apo resettlement challenge. The Minister of State for FCT, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide, who inaugurated the committee, said the administration would be firm and fair in resolving the outstanding issues on Apo resettlement before the end of this year. The new committee is chaired by the Solicitor General, Legal Services Department, FCTA, Mrs. Helen Oloja, and has as members, the Chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council, Hon. Micah Jiba; Director of Resettlement & Compensation, Mr. Francis Okechukwu; Director of Urban and Regional Planning, FCDA, Alhaji Abubakar Suleiman; Director of Public Building, Mr. Eni Ugot; and Senior Special Assistant (Special Duties) to the Minister of State, Mrs. Jummai Kwanashie. Other members include: acting Director of Satellite Towns Development Agency, Engr. Tukur Ibrahim; Deputy Director, Planning & Resettlement, Mrs. Helen Obichiena; Deputy Director, Valuation & Compensation, Mr. Odebode Olusola; Deputy Director, Monitoring & Logistics, Alhaji Babakura Umar; Personal Assistant (Resettlement Matters) to the Minister of State, Mr. C M Y K

How we will resolve Apo resettlement logjam, by Akinjide Ogenyi Benedict; and representatives of the Hon. Minister of FCT and the Permanent Secretary, FCTA. Akinjide explained that the Minister of FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed, was deeply concerned about the lingering Apo Re-

Stories by Favour Nnabugwu

ment to effectively work. “When the Federal Government is working effectively, the FCTA will also be effective as well as the whole of Nigeria. We don’t want a resettlement issue that brings disharmony or the administra-

The vision of the FCTA is to provide a befitting capital and a conducive environment for the Federal Government to effectively work.

settlement problem since 2007, adding that the administration would proffer a winwin solution on the matter. She said, “It is the wish of the Hon. Minister of FCT and my goal to resolve the issue to the satisfaction of everyone before the end of December 2012. The vision of the FCTA is to provide a befitting capital and a conducive environment for the Federal Govern-

tion to ridicule. We want this issue to end this year.” Akinjide gave the committee four weeks to complete its terms of reference and submit a report on the way forward. She listed the terms of reference of the committee members as: * To highlight all outstanding issues affecting the Apo Resettlement Scheme; * To look into the complaints

by the indigenes on cases of omission of allocation of houses and plots; * To identify, give accurate data on aggrieved persons and liaise with the communities in order to come up with immediate and lasting solution to the identified problems; * To explore out of court settlement where there are litigations; * To suggest new areas for layout plans where the affected indigenes will be resettled; * To ensure commitment from all aggrieved parties and stockholders through direct discussions and negotiation in order to gain their confidence, and * To consider any other matter that would assist the administration in tackling the problems identified. Responding on behalf of the committee members, the Solicitor General and Chairperson of the Committee, Mrs. Oloja, commended the minister for her commitment towards resolving the Apo resettlement quandary.

he Federal Capital Ter ritory Administration recorded internally generated revenue (IGR) of N1.472 billion for July 2012, according to the Minister of State for FCT, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide. The minister, who made this known while chairing the FCTA Area Councils Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC) meeting, said the IGR rose by N371 million or 34 per cent over the preceding month’s figure of N1.101 billion. She stated that the FCTA would increase its revenue in order to stimulate more economic activities within the territory. “ We are working very hard and partnering with the Area Councils Chairmen to raise the present level of revenue. This will ultimately result in more money being available for the Area Councils. “ We are also going to put in place before the next meeting mechanism such as biometrics to eliminate ghost workers and track the number of workers in the six area councils of the territory,” she said. She revealed that the Abuja Geographical Information System (AGIS) contributed the lion’s share of the IGR of N989.14 million while FCT Water Board realised N190.88 million. Other revenue collectors include: Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC), N146.24 million; Abuja Environmental Protection Board, N57.72 million and Directorate of Road Traffic Services, N53.52 million. Akinjide explained that the sum of N1.723 billion was available for distribution among the area councils from revenue received from the Federation Account Allocation Committee for June 2012. Of the N1.723 billion, she revealed that primary school teachers in the six area councils – Abaji, Abuja Municipal, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje and Kwali – accounted for N838.24 million while the area councils received N772.66 million. The FCTA Area Councils JAAC also allocated N95.04 million to Area Council Pension Board being 15 per cent pension fund and N17.23 million to Area Council Service Commission being one per cent training fund. The minister gave the breakdown of the revenue allocation received by the area councils as follows: Abaji (N116.32 million), Abuja Municipal (N170.05 million), Bwari (N133.38 million), Gwagwalada (N139.66 million), Kuje (N111.12 million) and Kwali (N102.11 million).

SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012, PAGE 37

Briefs Food subsidy in FCT

12 tertiary institutions receive N24b from TEtFund Stories by Favour Nnabugwu

ETERMINED to boost teaching, learning and research in the nation’s education sector, Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Tetfund, gave 12 tertiary institutions across the country N24 billion through its special intervention programme. The Minister of Education, Prof Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i, disclosed this at the 2012 Strategic Planning workshop organized by TEtFund for tertiary institutions. The institutions which benefitted from the special intervention are: Moshood Abiola University, Lagos and The

C M Y K

Prof. Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i

Polytechnic, Ibadan to represent the South West; Anambra State University, Uli and Alvan Ikoku College of Edu-

cation, Owerri to represent the South East, Federal Polytechnic, Nassarawa and Benue State University to represent the North Central. Others include, Kebbi State University of Science and Technology, Aleiro and Federal Polytechnic, Kaura Namoda to represent the North West, University of Calabar and Federal College of Education, Agbo to represent the South South while Bauchi State College of Education and Modibbo Adamawa University, Yola will represent the North East. Each of the universities, according to the minister is to have N3billion while the polytechnics and colleges of education are expected to have N1billion each.

The Federal Capital Territory Administration is subsiding food prices by 50 percent for Abuja residents. The release and sale of buffer stock grains from its strategic food reserve is part of measures to reduce high costs of staple food items in the territory. The Minister of State for FCT, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide, at the flag-off ceremony of the sale of buffer stock grains, gave N1,800 as the subsidised for maize and guinea corn while millet was given away at N2,500. She stated that the administration approved the sale of 11,548 bags of maize, 2,196 bags of guinea corn and 5,070 bags of millet to the public, Area Councils, government agencies and farmer associations.

‘They w ant ttoo ttarnish arnish want Bamangar TTuk uk ur’s image’ ukur’s Amid the travails of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, especially in the subsidy scam, a group, under the aegis of PDP Transformation Movement, has condemned the attacks on the ruling party national chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, as an attempt to tarnish his image. The group described the attacks as unwarranted and misguided attempts to drag Tukur ’s good name into the mud by linking him with the ongoing trial of suspects of the fuel subsidy scam. Addressing newsman, coordinator of the PDP Transformation Movement, Hon. Usman Ibrahim, said the calls on the PDP chairman to resign from his position over issues in which he had not been indicted in any way was absolutely uncalled for.

PAGE 38—SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012

If you are close to your mother and listen carefully, you will learn a lot more than you gain from your father

, Life Is A Tragedy For Those Who Feel, And A Comedy For Those Who Think —JEAN DE LA BRUYERE

enator Seye Ogunlewe served under the ad ministration of President Olusegun Obasanjo as the minister of works. Before then, he was a senator of the opposition Action Congress (now ACN) representing a Lagos District. His defection fetched him the ministerial job. Now he wants the PDP topmost job in Lagos State. In this interview, Ogunlewe speaks about his private life and why he wants to lead the PDP in Lagos State. You were once quoted as saying nobody toys with your mum. Your mum must have played some crucial roles in your life to warrant that position. A mother in all ramifications is the moulder of the character and future of the children. That is the person the children see most, she is the one they imitate and emulate most; so where your mother is a role model, your life will be better off. My mother is my role model. She teaches you all the virtues of life. If you are close to your mother and listen carefully, you will learn a lot more than you gain from your father. And if you remember her because there is this bond between children and mother that is almost for life, you remember your mother in many cases than your father. That is my own case. If you have bad parents, you will have bad children and vice visa and pass same to your children. If you see people misbehaving now, check C M Y K

their family upbringing, it must have been defective because they have nothing to relate to. People like that, they can disown their parents or even change their names in order to get to the top, so they have no family values. And they are very vicious because they have no value for life. You name your street after your mum. The impression one gets is that you are placing her above your immediate family. Well that is the person I remember most. I didn’t have a child or wife at the time I knew

By Lekan Bilesanmi

heart, with honesty, the sky is your limit. In all my exposures, from when I was in Lagos State Civil Service, I was in works, so my appointment as minister of works was not strange to me. It is like the continuation of what I was doing before. And we do things like that and let people with experience participate and advise. My concept of road works may be different which is involving Nigerian engineers to design and construct our roads. In a situation where you have expatriates to design

I discovered it was a leadership problem, that if we had the right leadership to manage the party, it would have been more probable for us to win elections

her as my mother. For the first how many years of my life, she was the one I knew. When I was nobody, she was all I had. The reason people reverence your name now is essentially because your name commands attention. So I have no option than to defer to her. All my female children bear her name. It is a must. At the time you went into politics, did you envisage you will come this far? Absolutely no. There was no way I could have thought of coming this far at that time. Again, if you do it with all your

your roads, construct the roads, you are not helping yourself. I bought the asphat plant and equipment, it is unfortunate that I was removed.

Why were you removed?

I don’t know. I was appointed and I was removed just like anything in life. Perhaps for your lack of competence. It will never be. Have you seen the letter the president wrote me? That I was a person of unequalled compe-

tence, uncommon knowledge. The assertion that I was incompetent is out of it, but whatever happens, even in life, it comes and ends. That is not an issue. You were once a senator,minister and now vying for the state chairmanship of your party (the PDP). It is like coming down. We have had several elections on the platform of the PDP and we lost consecutively. But I had another experience when we held the byelection into Constituency 2 in Ikorodu for the House of Assembly due to the death of the incumbent, so we had to do a rerun. I was invited by Mr. President on how we could win the election and I told him we could try and he then said ‘go and try’; we won; after the election, I analysed the major reason we were losing as against the reason we won. I discovered it was a leadership problem, that if we had the right leadership to manage the party, it is more probable for us to win elections but where you have the wrong leadership, people that are only interested in money such that when they give them money they share it rather than using the money to facilitate victory in an election. You have an agent for instance who is supposed to serve at the polling booth, the money he is expected to take is not given. You are supposed to give him food so that he will

not move out of the polling station, he is not given and you want the man to stay there for 6 to 7 hours, to protect the votes, count them and make sure everything is in order. How is that possible? If you neglect the agent or the interest of agent at the polling booth, it is to your detriment. So, if the leadership decides to steal the money, share it among themselves and neglect the polling agents, the canvassers, there is no magic in that, you lose the election. So I thought I could provide that leadership and use the experience gained while arranging that Constituency 2 Ikorodu election to make an impact and reverse the fortunes of the PDP in Lagos. But you can as well look for a suitable candidate to support instead of vying for the office? It is difficult to duplicate passion or experience, it is difficult to duplicate exposure or will to win election. I know precisely the benefits of winning an election as against the benefit of only sharing election money. At the last dispensation, look at the number of Lagos State PDP EXCO that moved to ACN one month to the election, it means they had been hobnobbing with the ACN; if you are a poor person, you cannot lead a political party; if you don’t have the means to survive on your own, Continues on page 39

SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012, PAGE 39

If your children are not ripe enough like mine, or they are not interested in politics, there is nothing you can do. You can’t compel them to politics

, Life Is A Tragedy For Those Who Feel, And A Comedy For Those Who Think —JEAN DE LA BRUYERE

'Why I am angling for PDP top job' Continued from page 38

Senator Ogunlewe

posed to my candidature? In a political situation, there is a choice for the electorate, but in the determination of the choice, you must look for who can provide credible leadership. In the opposition camp, we have people who share my passion, they can give it to them. There is General Olanrewaju, you have Dr. Akinloye, Chief Sani Adebiyi, they are on the opposition side. Give the chairmanship to any of them, I will serve them. I am talking about people that would talk in Lagos and people will listen, people that have pedigree, heritage, because the position is not for a minor. Some people would be talking on television and the public will be asking, who are these people? And that is the leadership of the party? Whereas, these people mentioned, if you check their heritage, upbringing, you will know that if they talk on behalf of the PDP in Lagos, people will listen, it doesn’t have to be me but let us raise the stake. Lagos deserves people that you can rely on and have confidence in, but where you go down too low to ‘boy-boy people’, people that would be saying yes, yes, yes to you, people will not respect them. I am not a ‘boy-boy person’. I

will stand by what is right.I was enticed to join politics while I was still in civil service. At that time, we had military governors and so politics was not attractive but when Alhaji Lateef Jakande came in as governor, we could see his passion for the people. And I was opportune to be part of the team that participated actively in revolutionizing governance in Lagos

if you say you are the head of a political party, then you must have a price and they would pay you the price at the appropriate time. So you think this attitude of being honest with money would win you more party faithful if you are elected. Yes, because they know that what is meant for them would be given to them. They know that if you have an agent at the polling booth, if they earmark X amount of money to him, it will get to him, so he is more determined to work for you. He would say if it is Ogunlewe, I will get my money which of course gives them a lot of confidence to work for the party. We have over 8,000 polling booths and one is as important as the other, and you don’t need people that have no confidence in you as polling agents because they are the most dangerous to work with even if it took you several years to campaign, the agents at the polling booths are the key to your success at the end of the day. Once he is compromised, you are finished, but, in many cases, they would earmark X amount for the agents, they won’t give then on time, or give them a paltry amount and you want to win an election. You need somebody they can first trust as we did during the Ikorodu by-election, because, in the election, they saw the difference of determination to succeed was at the peak, because once they knew I was involved, they were extremely happy and started working because they believed Ogunlewe would give them their money. Your entry into the Lagos PDP charmanship race has polarized the party instead of uniting the membership. It has to. If it were in a better clime, it is somebody like me that everybody will support. Honestly, I just want to share and experiment what I experienced at the Ikorodu election. That is all, it is not a magic world, not a mathematical issue. The people you say you want to salvage said they don’t want you, why not leave them? Good. But what is the percentage of the people op-

children at the background and put their followers at the war front? You are right. It is unfortunate though. Again, if your children are not ripe enough like mine, or they are not interested in politics, there is nothing you can do. You can’t compel them if they don’t want to play politics. Politics is not a profession that you can bequeath your children. They must like it first. It is a personal conviction. And none of them at the moment is convinced that his father has done something worthwhile in politics to emulate? They are complaining already because politics involves a lot of money, sacrifice, time and everything which is to the detriment of the family. So, it is not something you preach to people and they jump into it, it could destroy you, it could cripple your life, it could make your life miserable because you can lose everything you have worked for because it is expensive and risky. It is very dangerous I must tell you. It is not as easy as you people outside see it. You have to accommodate people, be available at all times, even if they are not decent, they must have access to you. So you must be ready for any eventualities. Do you have regret to have joined PDP from ACN. After-

I want to be myself. If you are yourself, you won’t go into ACN because it is a one-man show. It is not a political party

State at that time by providing the greatest good for the greatest number. 10,000 housing units at N6,000 per twobedrooms. This was what lured me into politics because it was an avenue to salvage the people from poverty, illiteracy, to provide shelter at affordable price. But what do we have now? The people are frustrated and hopeless because the government has no plans for them. So I am in politics to improve humanity. Why do politicians keep their

all, they have been in power at the centre since1999 It depends on what you want in life. What do you want in life. I want to be myself. If you are yourself, you won’t go into ACN because it is a one-man show. It is not a political party. How about PDP? PDP does conventions. We go to court. Have you ever seen a case in court involving ACN? They don’t have any formal EXCO election to de-

termine who runs the party, it has never been done. Only person has been chairman of ACN almost for life. There is some semblance of democracy in the structure of PDP but that does not happen in ACN. It is a one-man show. What is your relationship with Senator Bola Tinubu? He is my friend. When we meet at functions, we don’t discuss because he doesn’t discuss especially with people that knows him very well. And you know him very well? Very very, I know him very very well. Long time ago, I have known him for a long time now.

Are you fulfilled?

Very much so, more than fulfilled. God has been extremely wonderful to me. I never expected to be at this level in life. Is it experience, exposure, my children, extended family? I am more than fulfilled. With benefit of hindsight, are there some actions you took in the past that you will have to think twice now before you do them? our access to people. When you are in power, the more access you have to people, the more you will be hurt. It is better you are conservative, limit your association with people because it is that position they cherish not you. Immediately you leave the stage, you cannot imagine what people that you stake your life for would be saying against you. So, it is better to be on your own and don’t expect too much from whoever is your friend or associate, be yourself. And expose yourself less. I exposed myself to too many people believing I was helping them, they are the ones that would stab you at the back and talk ill of you. Human beings are not too decent, no matter what you have done to them. Ore oju ni won (they are friends on the surface). Any sad events. Yes but my happy moments have over shadowed all that. The Lord says count your blessings and name them one by one, He didn’t say sadness. He has taken sadness out of my life. You talked so much about God. Are you that religious? Very much so. There is no substitute for God. C M Y K

PAGE 40—SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012

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SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012, PAGE 45

Open letter to I-G Abubakar BY OGBENI LANRE BANJO

VIEWPOINT IN BRIEF Some steps to move the police forward.

RIOR to the de served confirma tion, I watched your performance as the Acting Inspector General of Police. I matched your parlance with your effective actions. Even though I seldom praise Nigerian leaders unless consistency is proven, I have had cause to commend you for consistent performance. Road Block Order I elected to drive throughout the Southwestern parts of the country, all the way to Ilorin, to personally evaluate the effectiveness of your road block stop, knowing fully well that similar orders by your predecessors were only orders on paper. It was only between Kaba and Ado Ekiti that I was stopped by the police. Even at this lone disobedience of order, as soon as I asked if this checkpoint was ordered by the IG, I was quickly allowed to go. The effective removal of the police checkpoints is, indeed, an accomplishment in Nigeria and the credit belongs to

you. I have also interviewed several transporters, who confirmed that extortion by policemen has virtually disappeared. They are all full of praise for you. It is on behalf of these voiceless Nigerians that I write to encourage you to do more. You have given some of us hope that our country ’s public officials, and particularly a negatively viewed security department, can do right by the people they serve. In my own political are-

VIEWPOINT VIEWPOINT

lives. The Sagamu–Ore Road was one of the most patronized expressways for policemen out to collect bribes from motorists. In my travels, I have noticed how the police became an environmental hazard by destroying road and endangering the life of Nigerians with their make-shift roadblocks. It was, at times, difficult to distinguish armed robbers from the police as some of policemen would stop traffic with torchlight without wearing police uniforms.

It is an incontrovertible fact that when suspects are arrested in Nigeria, false confessions are sometimes extracted from them through torture

na of Ogun State, I have experienced unbelievable events in which the police not only failed to protect citizens but also fed on the innocent public as parasitic fungi – including landlords, transporters, private drivers, banks and small businesses. My people thought the police were a hindrance to their normal

My political campaign team eventually became a victim of this bad practice when highway robbers, whom we had taken for the police, waylaid us. The men of the underworld rained bullets on our campaign bus because the lead vehicle in the front mistook robbers for policemen. We can only thank men

of the police assigned to us for the rally who repelled the attack. As you receive commendation for bringing quick and far-reaching changes to one of the most disrespected police organizations in the world, my purpose of writing is to join well-wishers but cautiously point out that there is a lot of work to be done – it is not yet Uhuru! Of the areas attention need to be paid, I want to stress some that are urgent and needful. The need for a police hotline Since the responsibility to curb crime in the entire nation is mostly under your purview, with this defective federal system of ours, citizens need to be encouraged to report crime to the police. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a toll-free emergency number that will enable citizens to report suspicious activities at no cost. Torturing of Nigerians It is an incontrovertible fact that when suspects are arrested in Nigeria, false confessions are sometimes extracted from suspects through torture. Thus, citizens have been wrongly convicted for crimes not committed. We do not need the United Nation to direct us not to torture our own

citizens before this inhuman and barbaric act is discontinued. We should give the United Nation a basis to use us as a good example for other nations. Related to this is the need to give every Nigerian the right to not make a police statement without the presence of a lawyer. Parading of criminals When Pa Alfred Rewane was brutally murdered, some of the suspects falsely arrested were later released after so many years in incarceration without compensation. These Nigerians were publicly paraded for an offence they did not commit. Their names were soiled, character maligned and reputation destroyed. This still happens to this very day. Any suspect arrested should be charged to court in accordance with our law and, while in court, the suspect should be allowed to exercise his/her right to address the media either through his/her lawyer or directly so that the public will know that appropriate persons are arrested and charged with the crime. Police Orderly to Gubernatorial and Presidential Candidates In accordance with our laws, all gubernatorial and presidential candidates are entitled to police

orderly. However, the system is so corrupt that only the rich candidates are given police orderly. In my case, it was only when Mr. Israel Ajao was the Commissioner of Police in Ogun State that I received police orderly without any request and without having to travel to Abuja. This gentleman just read that I have emerged as the gubernatorial candidate of the National Conscience Party and ordered the DPO in Sagamu to provide me with protection. At that time, I had never met Mr. Ajao in my life before and I am proud of him for this step. Denial of protection guaranteed by law or public policy is often as a result of the refusal to offer bribe – at least in my case and a few that I know of. Policing in Nigeria begs for so many reforms. Your confirmation is an opportunity to bring the reforms that will profoundly change the course of the nation. You can do it and Nigerians will support you and remember you – even if you try and fail; but you must be ready, courageous and focused.

* Banjo was the NCP gubernatorial candidate in Ogun State for the 2011 elections.

Arthur Nwankwo: The intellectual as a patriot BY OWEI LAKEMFAE

TRIBUTE IN BRIEF The life of an activist and author on his birthday I did not want to set out on an impossible mission to capture the essential Dr. Arthur Agwuncha Nwankwo in a single piece. Where do I begin the assessment of this outstanding Nigerian and pan Africanist who turned 70 on Sunday August 19, 2012?. Is it to analyse his intellectual prowess which has over twenty books to show for it? Is it as one of Africa’s most successful publishers whose Fourth Dimension Publishing Company (FDP) has churned out over a thousand books? Is it as a courageous and dogged human rights fighter who would not compromise? Or do I assess him as a principled politician who refuses to join the rotten lot? To mark the seventieth birthday of this Ajali, Anambra State-born Ike-Ogu (tireless fighter of the people), I decided to set myself the very modest task of celebrating Nwankwo from the prism of my interactions with him and how he affected my professional being as a journalist, writer and political activist. I do not know when I made his acquaintance; he is one of those great minds you grow to know or you assume you’ve known all your life. But I recall that before meeting him, he had affected my life as an undergrad-

uate at the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University). Some of us undergraduates who wanted to work for the liberation of Nigeria were told by our lecturers like Gordinin Darah that there was a book by Mokwugo Okoye which explained some of the tragedies that had befallen us as a nation. Unfortunately, it was out of circulation. Then out of the blues, the book, “Storms on the Niger”, was reprinted by Nwankwo’s Fourth Dimension. Also, there was a raging “ war ” on literary criticism on the campus with the legend, Professor Wole Soyinka, in the thick of it. Quite often, pieces of writings by the Bolekaja critics: Chinwezu, Onwuchekwa Jemie and I. Madubuike, were quoted. Then the Fourth Dimension published their literary fireworks in a book form which made an instant hit. When I began my journalism career, I was one of the beneficiaries of a war on freedom of expression and press freedom which Nwankwo had won against tyranny and officialdom. He had written and published a book, How Jim Nwobodo Rules Anambra State. Nwankwo was, in 1982, bundled before the High Court charged with sedition. That was the British colonial law used to whip nationalists into line or send them to prison. He was found guilty and sentenced to twelve months imprisonment with hard labour. Nwankwo went to the Federal Court of Appeal, Enugu which upturned his conviction and pronounced the Sedition law dead.

The victory for press freedom and the peoples fundamental right to criticise their leaders. The Nwankwo books I find most interesting are those on the National Question. He wrote widely acclaimed books like Biafra: The Making of a Nation, Nigeria: The Challenge of Biafra, and The Igbo Nation and the Nigerian State. In them, he dissects the Igbo nation, not as an irredentist, but as a patriot and pan Africanist. A few years ago, I decided to write the biographies of a handful of patriots including Nwankwo. I contacted him for possible interviews to which he readily

TRIBUTE

The citizenry of a country is like a farm; if you do not cultivate or tend it, weeds like Boko Haram and ethnoreligious crises would sprout and begin to choke the seeds of peace, unity and development

agreed. I then set about collecting the books he authored; I got seventeen, and, from references, I discovered there were at least twenty five! It is quite a challenge, but I hope one day to face it with the courage Nwankwo faces tasks before him. It is not only on the literary field

or journalism I encountered him. We were involved in the challenges to military misrule and dictatorship. One of the most trying periods in my life was engagement in the pro-democracy struggles during the Babangida and Abacha regimes. It was a dangerous enterprise to mobilise the populace and confront trigger happy policemen and soldiers on the streets. But like I used to tell my friends, if we had elders like Doctor Beko Ransome-Kuti, Tai Solarin, Arthur Nwankwo and Professor Soyinka in the thick of the struggle, what excuse could we have? Nwankwo was National Vice Chair of the opposition National Democratic Coalition (NADECO). While many NADECO leaders were in exile, Nwankwo decided to return home to co-ordinate the struggle against the Abacha dictatorship. On June 3, 1998, while he was holding consultations in his Enugu home with some pro-democracy activists, the Abacha goons attacked and captured the activists. Nwankwo and his comrades were battered, and rather than being put in the cars they had brought, the invading soldiers and policemen stuffed the activists into the boots and dumped them in a detention centre at the Enugu State Government House. While the activists were awaiting “deportation” to Abuja, the headquarters of the Abacha murder squad, words filtered to Nwankwo and his comrades on June 8, 1998 that the country’s tormentor-in-chief, General Sani Abacha, had died. The country

erupted in a gigantic wave of excitement. The irony was that while Nwankwo was stuffed into the boot of a car on his way to detention, Abacha’s corpse was stuffed into the cargo holding of the presidential jet on its way to be interred in Kano. After military rule, Nwankwo was one of three plaintiffs who successfully prosecuted Abacha’s successor, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, in the United States for gross human rights abuse. Whenever I am in Enugu, I make my way to the Chancery, Nwankwo’s home, brazing myself for the inevitable intellectual engagement with a man whose understanding of the Nigerian and African political scene is amazing. If I were to summarise what I learnt from my interactions with Nwankwo, it is that the citizenry of a country is like a farm; if you do not cultivate or tend it, weeds like Boko Haram and ethno-religious crises would sprout and begin to choke the seeds of peace, unity and development planted over the ages. We are blessed as a people to keep producing committed intellectual giants like Mokwugo Okoye, Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Bala Usman, Akinwumi Ishola, Odia Ofeimum and Arthur Nwankwo. Nwankwo’s life of dedication to the liberation of the mass of our people from the clutches of backwardness, hunger, poverty and oppression, is worth emulating. *Lakemfa is the secretary general of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC)

PAGE 46 — SUND AY V ANGU ARD, A UGUST 19, 2012 SUNDA VANGU ANGUARD, AUGUST

Robber y, kidnapping alien to Igboland---- Okere obbery

onsignor Theophilus Okere was born in 1935 in the rural Nnorie community, Ngor Okpala local council area of Imo State. He grew up like any other child and was ordained in 1962 at Mbutu Okohia by His Lordship, Most Rev. Godfrey Mary Paul Okoye to become the first Catholic priest from Ngor Okpala. He sat for the first school leaving certificate in 1949 and in 1950, got admission to study in Holy Ghost College, Owerri. He studied philosophy at Catholic University, Louvain, Belgium. He finished his degree in December 1971 and then did his thesis on African Philosophy becoming the first to venture into that area. His doctoral desertation was: “Can there be an African Philosophy: A hermeneutical inquiry into the conditions of its possibility.” And for the past 50 years he's been working in the Lord’s vineyard. In this interview with CHIDI NKWOPARA, the priest fielded questions on his ecclesiastical voyage in the last 50 years. Excerpts.....

How did you get into the seminary? I recall that Fred Konyeaso, an ex-seminarian from Ezeogba, Emekuku, was teaching then and he reminded me that a seminary was to begin at Okpala in 1951 and I transferred to St. Peter Claver Seminary, Okpala. I was diligent and did very well in my studies. I remember only once that I did not retain the first position in class. We did the GCE in 1954 and I also combined the Advanced Level. We were the first set to take the GCE rather than the Cambridge. I can say we were already matured before we came to senior seminary. We owe this development to the two brother priests, the Dohenys. They brushed us up. At our level, we had already mastered singing the Plain Chant at Okpala. For the seven years I was in the senior seminary, I was one of the few cantors who led the singing throughout. Was there anything spectacular during your ordination? I was ordained in 1962 and there was a bit of drama during the event. My bishop, Rt. Rev. Joseph Brendan Whelan, told me to make a choice. He explained that he was going on vacation to IreC M Y K

land and would not be at my ordination. He said I had a choice to go to Onitsha to be ordained by Archbishop Hill along with my Onitsha classmates or if I insist on being ordained at ho-me, he would invite Bishop Okoye, who was then in Port Harcourt diocese, to carry out the exercise. The parish priest would not want any celebration because he didn’t have the money to entertain anybody. He advised that I could take guests to my Nnorie country home and I told him it was fine by me. So, we had the ordination at Mbutu Okohia. Bishop Okoye came with several people, Catholics and Protestants, including Eronini and Lawrence Egu from Port Harcourt. I said my first mass at Nnorie on August 5, 1962 and by October 2, I was already in Ireland for higher studies. What happened on your return? I stayed in Ahiara Mbaise Parish for six months. Thereafter, I was posted to teach in Bigar Memorial Seminary, Enugu. I sought to revolutionize the study of Philosophy, which was at the time, essentially scholastic. When we were studying in Louvain, we went through all these books in their original language. We had to learn their language to know what they were saying and not what somebody else said that they said. That made a lot of difference in Enugu. Can you mention some of your big time students? There are many of them

Monsignor Theophilus Okere in big jobs now. The Archbishop of Onitsha, Most Rev. Valerian Okeke, was my student. All the bishops around, including the one at Enugu, Ogoja, Okigwe, Awka and Umuahia, were my students. Someone was telling me that

How did you come about the name, Theophilus and what was growing up like? My late father told me that the name, Theophilus, was given to me at baptism in October 1935, two months after my birth. My father was always travelling to Owerri to watch court proceedings where he heard someone calling his son, Theophilus and was immediately impressed with the name. He later took me to Mount Carmel Catholic Church, Emekuku for baptism where he gave me the name.

You've spent 50 years as a Catholic priest. Looking back, are there things you think you should have done differently? (Had a good laugh) I will rather say very little. My personal attitude does

Since most of us here in Igboland are Catholics, most of the thieves are Catholics and you are asking me what I regret?

Rev. Fr. Jerome Okonkwo is the new Vice Chancellor of a new university. The list is endless. So, we have produced a lot of people. I started the Ikot Ekpene branch of Bigard Memorial Seminary, which was eventually renamed St. Joseph’s Seminary. I left them in 1983 to start Seat of Wisdom Seminary, Ulakwo. I have been able to cover the entire gamut of the seminary ecclesiastical institution in Igboland and Eastern Nigeria. This explains why my students stretch throughout the eastern dioceses, which are progressing till now.

not allow regretting what could have been. If I was in different circumstance, I could imagine. If I was not a priest, if I was married, how could I have raised my children? If, as a priest, I was made a Pope, what could I have done? These are not what I think about. I think more positively of the opportunities I have had. And you can see, even from telling my stories, the little I have told that I relish, that I enjoyed life. I took seriously whatever came my way! Can you remember your saddest moment and what was it? Well, there might be

more than one. Yeah, my sad moments obviously had to do with the bereavements I have had. I am from a big family of 10 siblings. My initial sad moment was when my elder sister died in 1974. Then, of course, the one where my brother, Eugene, a lecturer in Soil Science at University of Nigeria, Nsuk-ka was brutally murdered three weeks from his wedding day and five weeks from his travelling to the University of Reagan to do his postgraduate work in soil science! He was on his way distributing his wedding cards when he was murdered at the Ulakwo bridge. That was a rude shock. Others came in their turn. My elder brother also died while I was still teaching in Ikot Ekpene and then my grandmother, they all died in the same year, 1981. In 1988, I did my silver jubilee and a year after, my younger sister, Ursula, died. So, personally, those were the years of grief. Did you ever stop to look at your work as a priest? Well, yes! After all these deaths, I ran off to think of the lacuna that had been left in our work, especially as a priest. The seeming intransigence of the world that we live in, enmeshed in evil, in not making the effort to be better. That can be frustrating and it frustrates me a lot. I think of it a lot as I get older. I ask myself: Is it that we have not put in our best? If so, is our best so bad or so poor that we haven’t made any significant difference? And when I say “we”, I am

not just referring to priest but all Christians, because we are there together. Priests are only specialized in certain areas. But all of us, Christians, our job is really to Christianize the world and is that it? And when I ask this question, I feel a dissenting sense of defeatism. Are we really progressing? If you think that we had made progress, can we not see today, how much we had gone down the hill again? Not only on superstition but the things like armed robbery and kidnapping in Igboland, robbery and thieving were such a taboo in Igbo society, but today, it is the in-thing. The only sin is being caught. if you can steal us blind, even as a governor, then just don’t get caught. They get away with murder. They get away with massive embezzlement. Nobody asks any question. With these things, you just wonder where we are heading. The thieves of today are all virtually baptized Christians. And since most of us here in Igboland are Catholics, most of the thieves are Catholics and you are asking me what I regret? Are you now saying you have regrets? You can see my regret because as I go now into the evening of my life, I begin to wonder what I achieved in the morning of my life. What has it come to? Of course, I can always console myself as I often do with Jesus. But there would be another generation of church. Let us be responsible for the time we are in. Let us do all that we can, while we are here, hoping that another generation may stand on our shoulder and stand higher and do better with the world.

SUND AY V ANGU ARD, A UGUST 19, 2012— P AGE 47 SUNDA VANGU ANGUARD, AUGUST PA

CGM aims at greater works

HEALING SCHOOL

N December 26, 1993, I was at tacked by armed robbers on the road from Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos. This attack has proven to be one of the greatest blessings of my life. Joseph said to his brothers who sold him as slave to Egypt: “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.” (Genesis 50:20). Similarly, my ears were opened during the attack and I heard the Lord speak to me for the very first time. He said: “Femi, nothing is going to happen to you here.” That became my introduction to “kingdom dynamics.” Although the Lord assured me nothing would happen, something happened almost immediately thereafter: I was shot in the leg. However, the Lord ignored this and continued: “Femi, there is nothing wrong with your leg.” God said to Habakkuk: “The just shall live by his faith.” (Habakkuk 2:4). Accordingly, the Lord’s challenge to me was to live by His word and not by the feeling in my leg. A few weeks later, the Lord visited me and healed my broken leg miraculously. That healing blew my mind. Today, there is still a bullet in my left leg. But, according to the word of the Lord; there is nothing wrong with my leg. Deadly anointing

he healing of my broken leg be came a watershed for me spiritually. Suddenly, the hills of my life came alive with the songs of deliverance. My attitude to the word of God underwent a seachange. Jesus says: “Freely you have received, freely give.” (Matthew 10:8). To receive the Lord’s healing is to have healing to give. Jesus also says: “These signs will follow those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons... They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mark 16:17-18). Therefore, I knew I would be praying for the sick for the rest of my life. The first sick person the Lord asked me to pray for was my sisterin-law’s mother. He said he would heal her if I laid hands on her and prayed for her. I visited her in hospital and did

If Satan can’t steal your joy, he can’t keep your goods exactly that. But two weeks after that prayersession, she died. I started wrestling with God. Why would you ask me to pray for someone and afterwards the person dies? What then is the point of the prayer? But the Lord offered me no explanation. Some weeks later, I got a visit from a delegation of the women’s group of Ikoyi Baptist Church, Ikoyi, Lagos. I had given a testimony in their church about how the Lord healed me miraculously. They informed me that one of their husbands, Chief Olagbaju, was seriously ill. They had been fasting and praying for him. Suddenly, the Lord reminded them that I had been to their church to testify of His healing power. He told them if I prayed for Chief Olagbaju, He would heal him. When I asked the Lord, He confirmed that He had, indeed, sent them. So I eagerly went with them to pray for him at home. But two weeks after that prayer-session, Chief Olagbaju also died. I resolved to mind my own business after that and to pray for no one ever again. But the Lord would have none of that. He asked me again to go and pray for the mother of Chibuzo Nwoke; a colleague of mine at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos. She had a stroke and was in a coma. This time, I decided to go with some accomplices so that, if the woman also died, I could not be held solely responsible. I persuaded Mrs. Margaret Vogt and Mrs. Titi Ayanfalu, also my colleagues at the Institute, to accompany me. I was greatly encouraged during the prayer because immediately I touched the comatose woman, she moved. Therefore, I was convinced I had finally overcome my deadly anointing. But two weeks after that prayer, Nwoke’s mother also died. This plunged me into a big crisis of faith. It seemed I was being used to kill and not to heal. My wife did not help matters. She said jokingly: “Whatever happens, Femi,

don’t pray for me.” Wrestling with God

was quietly mind ing my business at the house-fellowship of my church, when the Lord decided to provoke me again. My first cousin, Tunji Bamgbose, told us the story of one Kehinde Ladipo, the Managing Director of Lisabi Mills, who was terribly sick with cancer. Then he said: “I think Femi should go and pray for him.” I immediately recognised this to be the conspiracy of God and, like Jonah, was determined that I would not go to Nineveh and be embarrassed yet again, but would head instead for Tarshish. (Jonah 1:1-3). However, mindful of being swallowed by a big fish, I finally went to see Kehinde Ladipo most reluctantly. I discovered he was not a babyChristian like me. Although in considerable pain, he was strong in faith, trusting in God. When I told him my testimony, he needed no convincing. He already knew Jesus heals. I prayed for him and went back home, convinced I had finally turned the corner. But two weeks later; I was back again to square-one. His family sent for me. They said after that prayer-session, his condition improved remarkably. But now, it had become so much worse. Could I come back and pray for him again? By this time, I had reached the end of my rope. I told the Lord flat out: “I am not going." So

He said to me: “Femi, don’t pray for him again. Just play a videotape for him.” But what tape would one play for a man dying of cancer? The Lord chose a videotape by Jerry Savelle entitled: “If Satan can’t steal your joy, he can’t keep your goods.” After much soulsearching, I went back to see Kehinde Ladipo. When I tried to play the tape, it stopped playing after only 10 minutes. Nevertheless, I gave him the gist of the message: “Don’t let Satan steal your joy.” Accordingly, for the next two hours, in concert with members of his family, I sang praises to God with Kehinde Ladipo. Afterwards, I took my leave and went home. Epiphany

wo weeks after that praise-ses sion, Kehinde Ladipo also died. This time, I decided not to fight the Lord. I told Him: “I don’t care anymore. I will pray for whoever You ask me to pray for. Kill them if You like, that is Your business. My own business is to pray. ” When I reached that conclusion, the Lord suddenly asked me to sing a song. The song says: “I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart; I will enter His courts with praise; I will say this is the day that the Lord has made; I will rejoice for He has made me glad.” Finally, I understood. The song told me everything I needed to know. Kehinde Ladipo was going to heaven. I was not sent to heal him, but to prepare him. The Lord was saying to him: “I want you to enter my gates with thanksgiving in your heart. I want you to enter my courts with praise.”

SJCCG to ordain 37 ministers

AINT Joseph’s Chosen Church of God (International), established in 1937, will today conduct an ordination service at the national headquarters, Mount Zion Cathedral Complex, Ogiamien Street, off Sakponba Road, Benin City. The event which is billed for 10.00 a.m. will involve 37 ministers made up of one apostle and 36 prophets, evangelists and pastors. The ordination ser-vice will be officiated by the Spiritual Leader of the church, Apostle (Dr.) Hayford Alile who will be assisted by other top apostles in the church. The service was preceded by the Council of Ministers meeting on Friday which attracted dignitaries from within and outside the church.

OR the Church of God Mission it's time to move to new heights for greater works through evan gelising the nation for Christ and it is doing that through its Lagos East bishopric convention, reports SAM EYOBOKA. Briefing Religious correspondents in his office in Mafoluku, Oshodi, Lagos, the bishop in charge of Lagos East zone, Bishop Sunny Faith Ugbah said the church, also known as CGM, has perfected plans to contribute its quota to national peace through its convention scheduled for August 30 through September 2, 2012. Speakers, he said, will include Archbishop David Huskins from the US, Archbishop Margret BensonIdahosa and other anointed preachers who are currently equipping themselves to supernaturally touch lives of people for good. Flanked by members of the church council in the Lagos East zone including; Rev. Matthew Atchor, Rev. M.A. Lamai, Rev. Dave Asifor, Rev. John Asein, Rev. Willie Alapa, Rev. Righteous Ubanatu, Rev. Sunny Attah and Rev. Suji Adebowale, the bishop said the theme of the convention would be "New heights for greater works" and it is billed to hold at the church premises in Mafoluku, Oshodi as well as Welcome Centre on Airport Road, Lagos. Fielding questions from newsmen, the bishop refused to see the threat from Islamic sect, Boko Haram as a declaration of war, arguing that every nation is facing similar security challenges. "The foundation of the earth is out of course; that is why you see problems here and there but to say that we are at war; no!" he noted, adding that as a nation we need divine intervention at this time when the nation is passing through grave security challenges. Ugbah condemned the killing of innocent people in any part of the nation, stating "we speak against it and we pray against it. The greatest weapon of the Christian is prayer, but we must also be watchful like our Saviour enjoined us to do." The cleric threw his weight behind calls for Christians to defend themselves whenever they come under attack, arguing that there is a great difference between retaliation and self defence. "While I do not subscribe to people retaliating, but I am all for self defence because when somebody comes to your house to remove your head, you have to find a way to defend yourself and if possible remove his head. In a nutshell, defend yourself," he enjoined Christians in volatile areas of the nation.

Group kicks against abortion

HE Order of the Knights of St. Mulumba, Nigeria, Maryland Sub-Council, has warned parents against aiding their children to procure abortion, saying it is murder and could lead to dire consequences, reports AKOMA CHINWEOKE. Speaking at a seminar organised by the group for parishioners of the Catholic Church of Presentation, GRA, Ikeja, with a theme; "Life: A Gift from God; Protect It," the deputy grand knight of the subcouncil, Michael Nwaojei said; “nobody has the right to take life in any form because life is sacred. “We have been talking to students in secondary schools about the evil of abortion and the need for them to abstain from pre-marital sex. Today, we have decided to bring this same message to parents through the Christian Women Organisation (CWO) because we found out that even mothers take their daughters to hospital to procure abortion to protect their prestige and ego," Nwaojei stated. He hoped that the mothers will spread the message they have received today because it is very vital for the survival of the world. The deputy grand knight urged parents to have a good relationship with their children and educate them on the dangers of pre-marital sex, rather than aiding them “to commit murder when there is a mishap”. The message, he noted, centres on two things; prevention through education and that when there is a mishap, parents should try and protect the baby instead of destroying it.

*Triumphant Baptist Church

RIUMPHANT Baptist Church (Holy Ghost Compound), begins her annual programme, ”Holy Ghost Festival" today till Tuesday at the church auditorium Olufemi Ojo Street, Shasha Road, Akowonjo, Lagos. Guest minister is Evangelist Tunde Siyanbola, said acting pastor, Rev Olajide Oke. C M Y K

PAGE 48—SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012

There is no logic in the case against state police —Gov Fashola •On Makoko: The facts, the fiction, the falsehood • ‘Our mistakes and the lessons we learnt on Dana crash’

HE raging issue now is the ejection of indigenes of Makoko and the uproar that followed. But a lot of people are wondering how a government that places premium on the protection of the rights of its citizen got to this situation? I think the time has come when we must be honest with one another and decide whether we truly want progress. On one hand, we are battling environmental problem on flooding. Now, the Lagos lagoon is one of the biggest assets of the state. That is where water from all the floods gutters up. It is nature’s drain for Lagos. But that lagoon is shrinking everyday by encroachment and by building on the lagoon. It is not land. The drainage channels from Oworonsoki, Somolu, Bariga, Akoka are all served by this lagoon as you will find Ikorodu from that part of Ajegunle that flooded about two years ago. They are all served by that lagoon as, indeed, Lekki people, Ajah, Victoria Island- they are served by that lagoon. Now, if you continue to shrink it, it loses capacity to serve its purpose and that’s one reason we are there. The second reason is that between the people of Makoko and Oko-baba, we’ve had engagement for a long time. As I speak, we are doing a resettlement programme for the people of Oko-baba in Agbowafunded by government. The people of Makoko were undecided whether they wanted to move or not and we said, ‘Okay, we’ll leave you here for now. Let’s solve half C M Y K

Gov Fashola

of the problem as we already have people who have bought into our relocation programme. But because we haven’t compelled you to move is no justification to invite more people to come and expand’. So, those who have been there before- yeahfine! But those who have come now, they must go. So, it is the new people we are moving. You’ll see that the frontiers of the place are encroaching- it is expanding into the lagoon every day. So, we are not moving everybody; it is the new ones that we are moving. The reality is that some people have been making political and financial capital out of these people’s difficult. In the name of supporting them, they get grants which never get to the place. So, part of the noise you are hearing also is orchestrated noise. If that place is no more, the livelihood of the so-called supporters evaporates.

o, in one breathe, they expressed sympathy for their condition, in the other breathe, when we want to move them, they say ha, this is their livelihood going because as long as that slum exists, it becomes an international news feature from which they can benefit; from which they can say they are given grants and they are going to treat them for AIDS; they are going to help them for cholera and they are going to help them for things that never get there. So, people are living off that slum and these innocent people don’t know. So, we had thought that for those who had been there, in the event that they are not persuaded by the resettlement plan and they want to stay there, it is to organize them properly so that they become sustainable

as a community and that is why we toyed with whether we could create a Lagos Venice there. And people in our physical planning, urban planning ministries are working on that solution. That plan is also on the table. But that would mean cleaning up the water, providing potable water there on a sustainable basis, providing waste and sewage treatment plant there because if you had human waste, you can’t empty it into the lagoon and then take water from the lagoon again to drink? So, it’s a very

Lagos State government has been the butt of criticisms over the recent demolition of Makoko area and the consequential displacement of its residents. However, Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) does not shy away from issues relating to the state. His response to the critics: “I think the time has come when we must be honest with one another and decide whether we truly want progress”. In this interview, with Dapo Akinrefon, BRF as he’s fondly called, who celebrated his 1900 days in office, addresses some of the topical issues presently relating to governance in the state. Excerpts:

there illegally. Those are the multiplicity of the facets relating to that place.

nother challenge confronting your administration in recent time is the management of emergency situations. How have you been able to confront this challenge? Let me say that emergency management is a very complex undertaking and, from the little I know about it, it’s a multi-disciplinary undertaking as well. Emergency management in

The people of Makoko were undecided whether they wanted to move or not and we said, ‘Okay, we’ll leave you here for now

complex problem, but we are working on it. What we are saying is that our ability to succeed will be limited if they continue to expand. The truth is that our constitution protects rights of property; it is rights that are lawfully acquired and not rights that are illegally acquired. So, if people talk about 72 hours notice, did they give notice to anybody before they moved there? We are extremely generous. They are not title holders but that is the law as painful as it may be. Our action in giving notice is compassionate and, let me also make this point very clearly; apart from the people from neighbouring parts of Badagry, it’s a lot of foreigners- people from other countries who have no immigration papers are the people there. They are living

terms of first is the management of lives. That’s the first strategy and it’s the one leg of it. The other leg, of course, on the extreme end, is the management of fatalities when it actually happens. When lives have been lost, what do you do? I think, without sounding selfadulatory, we have the best emergency management capacity in the whole of Nigeria and it is still not where I like it to be. First, we had established a safety commission and what is the brief of the safety commission? It is to prevent accidents from happening. We see needless loss of lives on the African continent every day. In the Nigerian political space and in all the states, many of them are avoidableaccidents, traffic accidents. Where there is a large body

of human community, accident will happen on road traffic. So, it is the commission’s responsibilities to ensure safety. We set up the safety commission in 2008 or so because we were concerned that, first of all, our primary responsibility is to protect lives and property. So, what should we be doing? How can we be proactive instead of being reactive? We had the LASEMA- Lagos State Emergency Management Agency- it’s been there.

ut what kind of equipment does it have? Every year, we’ve continued to improve its equipment capacity, the training of its personnel and we have very passionate officers running the place. So, from when you had collapsed buildings, for example, and couldn’t find if there was life in the building, we now have equipment that can sense human in buildings. So, you won’t hear of incidents of people trapped in a collapsed building for two/ three days in Lagos anymore. We’ll find them and bring them out. ‘Why Buildings Collapse’ However, before buildings collapse, that is where safety commission must come in; that’s where physical planning must do more; that’s where professionals, architects, builders must ensure that they use the right building materials. Those are just emergencies, for example, coming from building collapse. It’s not because government is doing less, it’s because professionals are not doing as must as they should do- cutting corners, building beyond the established approvals, building with sub-standard

Continues on page 49

SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012, PAGE 49

materials, building in violation of existing codes. That’s what brings down buildings. So, people must become more professional and, as such, safety commission goes round from factory to walkside on the highway to petrol stations to prescribed safety procedures that, on this construction site, no, stop work because your men do not have boots, they don’t have hard hats, they don’t have gloves and they don’t have goggles which is standard procedure in every jurisdiction. So, they would go from industry to industry and prescribe safety like they go to a hotel and look at the number of exits they have. If a conference is going on and fire happens because fire can happen at anytime; do you have enough exits? They prescribe them and ensure that people comply. Our capacity to respond to emergency was what led us to street-naming because when we now give patrol vehicles to policemen in response to robbery and violent crimes, you’ll find out that they couldn’t find their way to the site. Sequence of Events ll of these are not accidental; they are a combined sequence of events that had taken place over the last few years. From then, we developed an emergency helpline. The 767 line is the only one that I know of in the whole of this sub-region. It’s free We have a reliable ambulance service system and we are ordering more ambulances. So, we’ve created a professional cadre there- the LASAMBUS. They will get there and they will give help. They are saving lives You saw the unfortunate incident with the Dana aircraft. Before that incident, we had been preparing for emergency; we’d raised our emergency levels and that was why we could respond the way we did. Two months before that incident, we were seeing the global crises that were going on and we could not pretend to be insulated.

Deficiencies Now, did you plan for a plane to crash? No! So, you don’t have equipment to move a plane. But you are able to deploy all your first responders because they have been trained. I don’t like to say this but, at least, we looked like a civilized society as we brought the bodies out in body bags. Those body bags didn’t drop from heaven; this government had bought them in advance and kept there. We want to be prepared. As you plan for the living, you plan for the dead and we are all going to die anyway. It was a very unfortunate incident but we were only able to respond because we had been preparing for emergencies C M Y K

generally. That was why it was easy to raise everybody quickly. If you read Rudy Giuliani’s (Mayor of New York) book on leadership and about how he handled 9/11, they had a monthly or quarterly training programme for managing emergency in New York and he’ll tell you that the only way they could respond to 9/11 was because they had been rehearsing. But they didn’t plan anything as big as 9/11. But that was their operational take-off ground. Today, even from this crash incident, we’ve learnt new things. We’ve lear nt now that communication on site was difficult. So, we’ve ordered foghorns to communicate. Even at that, it’s a continuous learning process for us. We’ve seen deficiencies in our team, so, we are bringing new people. We are running courses now. We’ve seen, for example, some of the mistakes we’ve made which will be addressed later. So, it’s a

Gov Fashola

'Our problem with the FG over power supply deal' continuous process. Your submission on the constitution review exercise appears good. But let’s consider the issue of state police side-by-side with the fear of plausible abuse by those in office. Are you genuinely comfortable with toying with that idea? You see, first of all, when I hear these questions, they suggest to me something is wrong with Nigeria and nothing is wrong with Nigeria. It diminishes me as a Nigerian when you ask me if I can manage a police institution. Let’s subject it to experimentation: Do we manufacture cars here? Don’t we drive cars? So, it’s like saying don’t give them cars because they won’t know what to do with it? Do we manufacture wrist watches? So, it’s like saying they can’t wear wrist watches because they are bloody natives or whatever. It’s like saying don’t give them tie because they ’ll strangle themselves with it.

very system will operate as well as the people in it. If there are excesses within a system, there must be a selfcuring mechanism within that system to deal with the excesses. Just recently, we saw a shooting incident in Colorado. Who was on top of the case? It was the state police, then, later they called in the FBI when they saw that it was high wire explosives. And that’s what we are saying that let the state police be here, it doesn’t mean the federal police won’t exist. If you are running a system that

Continued from page 48

(badges), so that it would be 270 megawatts and arrangements were reached on how that power would be dedicated to Lagos. And, in consequence of that arrangement, some agreements were reached. There were pricing gaps and Lagos State government said if there is a gap in this pricing, between what is billed and what is collected- I don’t quite remember that off the top of my head now- but that we’ll meet the difference. So, we gave a guarantee to pay the difference. Now, every month, thereafter, we got a bill for N250million as the difference. But, how did you arrive at that difference? How much did you bill? The principle is that PHCN becomes an accounting party to say, ‘okay, we’ve generated so much power, you billed so much, you collected so much and this is the shortfall. For this shortfall, you’re responsible’.

The 767 telephone line is the only one that I know of in the whole of this sub-region. It’s free. If you don’t have credit on your phone, it will work. Yes, we have saved lives

is not working, have the courage and confidence to change it, knowing that if it doesn’t work, you’ll change it again.

ow, people forget that this federal police was not what we had before. We used to have a regional police system and it was applicable in a federal environment. It was alleged that some people abused it. But some people found the courage then to change to a central system because it was not working. Forty something years after, that central system is now not working again, so, you are saying we should forever continue to say, well, they killed one person today, kidnapped one in the afternoon, murdered one in the evening but we must not touch what those people did 40 years ago? And we are expecting that it would change by itself or continue to simply pray? I can’t be persuaded by that. If we changed it and it doesn’t work, we’ll find something else. The Georgian people, for example, when their police wasn’t working disbanded the whole thing. That is extreme treatment because, given what

I’d done with the police here, I know if they have half the opportunity, they ’ll do even better. We didn’t change the police here; we simply provided them with resource and opportunity. So, it means that they can work if they have the opportunity.

our government has been all out recently against the PHCN over alleged illegal deduction of state funds. What really was the problem? It’s a very long story but I think the way to understand it is that at the time this democratic experience started in 1999, power was a major issue and still a major issue. We’ve gone 13 years now without sustainable power and this is the attitude of Lagos State governmentalways ready to find solutions. My predecessor, audacious in his thinking, got badges and said, ‘look, I’ll provide my own power since the constitution now allows the state to generate power ’. And he got three badges. Each badge was 30megawatts which comes to 90megawatts for Lagos. And the Federal Government said if you have this solution, bring nine

ut if PHCN issues 10 bills and does not go to collect any, it can’t expect me to pay so much for its own inability to pay its bills. It must show good faith by collecting its bills and billings. So, every month, we just got N250million. Are you saying every month you generate enough power? There are no down times with the turbines? That people don’t travel? Those are the issues we raised and we said no. And before we knew it, they just started deducting our money from FAC. They have no rights to do that simply because the money is passing through them. You have no such rights. It’s a breach of the constitution to touch any state money. At the very best, there was a dispute, you should go to court. When you get a judgment, then you can take my money. We went to court, got a restraining order saying, d‘on’t touch this money again’, but they continued. It was late President Yar ’Adua who stopped it. By that time, they had deducted a total of over N15billion from our money. Now, this power was not dedicated to Lagos; it was being used in most part of South-west and pumped to the national grid which therefore means we subsidise the nation for an innovation that we wanted to do only 90 but you said we should do 270. But that is not even the point. We are in court; we have arbitration going and we are saying give us back our N15billion. Is it because we are not fighting? PHCN workers who went to court when the reform process was going to start were quickly paid. So, maybe the people who get something are those who fight and not those who appeal. And we said, ‘look, the power sector is too big- it’s bigger than N15billion. But investors will be concerned if they learnt that there are court cases, it would slow down this process, why don’t you go to the National Assembly and say look, this is not the time for right and wrong, I want the power sector to work. So, tell them look, let’s buy out Lagos so that the asset is free from risk’. That’s our simple case. Now, we are in arbitration and you won’t believe it. I mean, I thought I had seen everything that could possibly go wrong here.

PAGE 50 — SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 19, 2012

Edo guber: Why the people rallied round Oshiomhole, by Inusa-Umoru *’He will resolve South-Ibie tussle’ ONE month after Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State secured re-election, the echoes of the poll continue to reverberate. In this interview, the Aidonogie-designate of South Ibie Kingdom in Etsako West Local Government Area Edo State, Prince Umoru Inusa-Umoru, explains why the people voted enmasse for the governor at the election. He is also optimistic that the governor would do the right thing on the chieftaincy tussle in his kingdom. do State g o v e r n a n c e today compared with 10 years ago The comrade-governor has redefined governance in Edo State and indeed in Nigeria as a whole. He brought his pragmatic approach to governance just as he handled the Nigerian Labour Congress. We have had great leaders in Edo (Bendel) State before now, such leaders as General S.O. Ogbemudia (rtd) and Prof. Ambrose Alli; but these are modern times and the approach of Governor Oshiomole has matched modernity with creativity in governance. All Edo people

must be proud of him. Edo State was becoming a laughing stock with the way former governments ran the state as if they were not accountable to the people. If anything contrary had

BY DEOLA ADENUGA

The comradegovernor has redefined governance in Edo State and indeed in Nigeria as a whole

happened, it would have become a bad precedent because it will amount to celebrating mediocrity at the expense of excellence. Edo State stands out as the evidence and beauty of democracy and how democracy should be practiced. For the first time, the people of Edo State are genuinely happy to participate in the electoral process.

Gov. Oshiomhole and Inusa-Umoru. When you watch women and youths who are the bulk of the voting population lining up in the sun to cast their votes and again waiting after the voting exercise to watch the counting so as to ensure that their votes are counted; then you will realize that if any one takes them for a ride, they will react. In addition, they offer silent prayers either for good or ill for the leaders depending on that leader ’s performance. The comradegovernor is definitely receiving the blessing and the good prayers of the people of Edo State. The election that returned

Oshiomhole for second term The governorship election of 14 July, 2012 in Edo State stands out as the best, and the most free and fair election in the history of election in Nigeria. We commend His Royal Majesty, th e Oba of Bini Kingdom, who showed good example to this effect. He was clearly not partisan but his body language was enough to let all the Edo people know that they should

appreciate good work. The Bini tribe, which makes up the Edo South Senatorial Zone, also provided good leadership in all of these. President Jonathan and the INEC also deserve commendation in the success we recorded in Edo governorship election. Expectations from oshiomhole he governor embarked on massive infrastructural development that is definitely not cheap in terms of financial allocation. While I support the continuation of the infrastructural development, I

will also advise the comradegovernor to establish and nurture institutions that will outlive the administration which will also support the maintenance of the infrastructural development, so that whoever will come after him can build on his achievements. Edo State was like a ruptured site that needed to be escavated and sand-filled before starting any meaningful development. This is why it will not even be right to compare Edo State in terms of development with other states, which have witnessed some form of development before these other governors took over. The governor has fully performed in all areas to ensure ev en development of the state. I am sure that in this second term, the comradegovernor will consolidate on the achievements of the first and take Edo State to greater heights.

Chieftancy dispute in south ibie community he comrade-governor has been very fair in the chieftaincy dispute in South Ibie community in Etsako West Local Government of Edo State. The problem created with the installation of the wrong person in the community against court pronouncements and the law was done by the PDP Government of Lucky Igbinedion and definitely not by the comrade governor or the ACN government in Edo S t a t e . We all know the governor as a law abiding leader who himself is a product of the rule of law. We have long recognized the comrade-governor as a fair and just leader who believes in the rule of law. The people of South Ibie community wishes the governor a most outstanding performance in his second term, and we are all praying that his next assignment will definitely take him to the nation’s capital, Abuja.

Governorship election: The PDP exemplar in Edo

HE new shape and texture of politics in Edo State have presented a positive challenge which politicians in other states must accept: a challenge of commitment to state-interest as amply demonstrated by the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which decided not to file any petition against the outcome of the July 14, 2012 governorship election in which Governor Adams Oshiomhole of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) emerged winner. A proper reading of the decision and how it was communicated to the public would indicate that it was not an admission that there were no solid grounds on which a petition could be filed against the election of Oshiomhole at the tribunal. The PDP believed and still believes that there were enough good grounds to challenge him at the levels of qualification and alleged irregularities that marred the election; but it had chosen to take the painful decision not to proceed against him. Indeed, nothing more fundamental than state-interest could have been reasonably adduced as the main reason that informed the PDP decision. C M Y K

There could have been other pertinent reasons, but I believe the least of them would be greater than a mere exercise in the political cajoling of Oshiomhole, given the gutsy build-up to the election: the brickbats, propaganda, intimidation and blackmail. Against the backdrop of those aggravations, not going to the tribunal would have been the last thing on the minds of the PDP and its angry leaders. But the state chairman of the PDP, Chief Dan Osi Orbih, who announced the party decision not to go to the tribunal, had premised the action on devotion to the preservation of stateinterest-some form of patriotism to state politics, and not on selfish considerations. According to him, “…Edo people went to the polls to elect a governor to administer the affairs of the State. The results that were declared by INEC were in favour of the ACN Candidate, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. The PDP had set a good example in Edo regardless of the sundry feelings and attitudes some persons in some quarters may harbor. It would appear that the candidate of the party, General Airhiavbere, who had already approached the tribunal, is left to contemplate self-denial; but there are feelers that he is working out ways of managing the withdrawal of his

petition so that he would not attract ill-will to himself from his supporters who believe that he should subject the grounds of challenge against Oshiomhole to legal test at the tribunal. But, as far as loyalty to the party is concerned, Airhiavbere should not have wavered in aligning with the party decision. He should have

BY JOHN AINOFENOKHAI

It is expected that Oshiomhole will blow the trumpet well in the domain of good governance and political accommodation of the opposition

quickly withdrawn any petition he might have filed whether shortly before or after the party announced its decision not to go to the tribunal. Anyway, he is yet to fully cut his teeth in politics. He is just about a year in the PDP and was privileged to

have emerged the candidate of the party in line with some wellthought out political strategy. Perhaps, his party had not, as of the time of filing his petition, furnished him with necessary consideration. Those are internal arrangements that the PDP would have to fine-tune, concretize and formalize. His running mate, Hon. Johnson Abolagba, a thoroughly loyal party man, has already aligned with the party decision. What is, by and large, significant in the emergent postelection “politics without bitterness” or if you like “demonstration of political sportsmanship” in Edo is the great example that the PDP has shown. It is an example that is capable of helping to reposition and redefine the party in the consciousness of the people and the electorate in Edo in the buildup to future elections. Oshiomhole, who is a beneficiary of this rare political sacrifice, should eternally relate to it as commendable. He should always appreciate the leaders who guided the PDP into taking the decision not to go to the tribunal. Such commendation should be borne out of the fact that, by the decision, he (Oshiomhole) is spared all forms of distraction that would have attended the legal voyage at the tribunal. In

essence, his attention would now be completely focused on governance. He would have the leverage to quickly deliver on his campaign promises. This is the beauty of the PDP decision. Orbih had succinctly captured it this way: “…And now that ACN has taken the King’s trumpet, the task should be left with Governor Adams Oshiomhole to find a place to blow it.” It is expected that Oshiomhole will blow the trumpet well in the domain of good governance and political accommodation of the opposition for the sole business of building a greater Edo State. I also expect that posterity will always remember the elements in the PDP who facilitated the decision not to go to tribunal against Oshiomhole. Indeed, the political leadership of the former Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih (aka the Leader), must be appreciated together with the intervention of President Goodluck Jonathan and the National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. They were all instrumental to the decision not to proceed against Oshiomhole at the tribunal; and should thus take the credit for this PDP exemplar in Edo. · Ainofenokhai contributed this piece from Benin, the Edo State Capital.

SUNDAY Vanguard, AUGUST 19, 2012— PAGE 51

C M Y K

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SUNDAY Vanguard, AUGUST 19, 2012— PAGE 53

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PAGE 54—SUNDAY Vanguard, August 19, 2012

After the farce, what next? L

ONDON 2012 had no attraction for Nigerian athletes. Therefore it was foolhardy for any serious track and field follower to have expected the country’s athletes hard done-by ill preparations and malnourished policies to perform magic. Over the years, Nigeria’s participation in the Olympics has been rancorous, however, at the London Games things got worse, and they will get even more worse in the years to come, unless genuine seeds of rapid development are sown by those who have been entrusted with authority to administer the sport. President, Goodluck Jonathan ordered that there should be an overhaul of sports in the country, after the Nigerian team touch down, but to many Nigerians, the President is only waging the dog. After a couple of weeks all the

hullabaloo will die down and it will be business as usual until three months to Rio 2016. “Nigerians can talk and we forget that there is work to done. Policy pronouncements and recriminations have always trailed each poor performance at the Olympics and other sporting events, but nothing is ever done,” Olympics gold medalist at Atlanta 1996 declared. If Nigerian administrators were serious with sports development in the country, they would have built on the successes recorded by Nigerian athletes at the 1996 Games, where Nigerian recorded the highest number of medals from a single competition Ajunwa won gold, Mary Onyali won bronze in the 200m and the women 4x400m won silver. Even at the Sydney 2000, Nigeria was close to it, with Gloria Alozie winning silver in the 100m hurdles and the men

4x400m winning silver, which was later elevated to gold by the International Olympics Committee.

thletics Federation of Nigeria head coach, Innocent Egbunike told the home truth before the London 2012 Olympics, when he said that Nigerians should expect the unexpected, because requisite preparations were not made. Egbunike who regrettably pointed out that his 44.17 400m record still stands 25 years after submitted that rather than hope on hope, Nigerians must now go back to the grassroots to develop younger athletes. Rightly so. But the question is will Nigeria ever learn? Will Nigeria ever go back to real sports development, instead of officials just waiting for the Olympics to knock on the door before they start gathering athletes some of whom are working professionals. They only begin to

train, when the Olympics is just around the corner.

bel Selu is the spe cial adviser on sports to the Benue State governor Gabriel Suswam. In Mr. Selu’s estimation Nigeria totally lost it, after grassroots sports was relegated to the background. “The States are practically doing nothing. If Nigeria were to return to international sports, the States must begin to look into their strong field. “For instance we know that the Southern States have prowess in the sprints, while the middle belt and northern states have long distance runners. Each state should look into its areas of strength and begin to develop their athletes. Unless something close to this is done, we may be going around in circles and and getting nowhere. Perhaps this is the way to go and Cross Rivers

•Osazuwa State is already setting the pace. Delta and Lagos States are close to doing so. Ekiti State started a similar programme with former AFN head coach, Armelia Edet as consultant, but that programme seem to have run into a ditch with change of administration. They need to start again, other States like Akwa Ibom where Mobil is sponsoring a schools athletics meet should wake up and start something their domain. Apart from the States’ programme the AFN

should think about getting a pool of junior athletes in all events. Those who have potentials should be exposed to world class training just like was done to Blessing Okagbare who was plucked from the Nkoyo Ibori Championships. That grassroots championships produced a crop of athletes like Kesiena Egone, Endurance Abinuwa, Believe Otorvibi, Rebecca Okitipki and many others. If Nigeria is really serious of developing athletes there is a need to fashion out working programme.

How I quit football e ik m A — s ic t le h t a for enry Amike was an athletics gladiator and his exploits are well documented in continental and global track and field annals. He is one of Nigeria’s greatest hurdlers, and this could seen in the Nigerian athletics record book as his all time best performance of 48.50 seconds he did in 1987 in Rome, Italy remains the nations record in the event. In this interview with Vanguard, the new President of Nigeria Olympians Association who came in after the exit of Smart Akaraka, told Vanguard his story as a footballer and how he later turned to an athlete. He also talks about his most painful moment and how he was able to overcame his trials. Enjoy! In the beginning as a football and athletes I am from a family of C M Y K

eight, I started as a footballer with a club called Greater Tomorrow, the Nigerian national team in1977 which is now called Flying Eagles before I later joined athletics and becoming an international athlete. Discovering of my athletics skill. Tobias Igwe discovered me in 1977; by all standards he was the one who influenced my decision to start a career in track and field. By 1978, I got into Secondary School games held in Calabar and did well in the game. In 1979, I went to Ibadan for National Sport Festival and also won it . And also represented Nigeria very well in the Olympics, both in Africa and at the world level. So by the grace of God my grace is better than my grass.

•Amike

The most difficult moment of my life was when I fell down and came eight in the 400 metres hurdles, at the 1984 Olympics Games in Los Angeles, United States

ough Beginning Like I said earlier on, I was a former football player. We used to train at the national stadium Surulere, Lagos. One day, after our training I met coach Igwe, I didn’t know he was watching me run with the ball with speed. He told me that I could do better in athletics. For him, my speed counted especially each time I run with the ball.

At first, I felt reluctant about it. The next day, when I got to the stadium, they were doing trials he told me that I should joined them. Then I tried and did well in the trials, I came first in that trial. From there, I developed much interest in athletics and I was combining with football but later on, I realised that football was taking much time because of

our constant matches and track and field was less cumbersome. That was how I started running track and field. Tough moment The most difficult moment of my life was when I fell down and came eight in the 400 metres hurdles, at the 1984 Olympics Games in Los Angeles, United States. Having trained so hard for four years, believing that at the end I would come out victorious. But the last 100m to the finish, I fell down and I realised that it was all over. It was a sad and dark moment of my life, but I thank God that I was able to stand up and finish the race since it was a 400m race That race was won by Eddy Moses, and I told myself that any time I meet him again I would beat him, and we did not meet again on still 1986 and I beat him very well. Why the fall Nothing caused it; what happened was the

anxiety in me to get to the top, having worked so hard for four years for the competition. Although, I over reacted to the hurdle stick.

vercoming my trials Really, overcoming it alone wasn’t easy but with my pastor, friends, coaches even the federal government supported me, I was able to over came my predicament. Lesson learned What I have learned so far in life is that, whatever that happened to you, put it behind you and forge ahead. Best Moments To me, it was the day I set the national record which was in Rome, Italy in 1987. And broke it again Barcelona, Spain. Advice All I can tell people is that, life is full of ups and downs and whatever happens to you is destined to happen to you. All you need is to be determined and as well be positive.

SUNDAY Vanguard, AUGUST 19, 2012 — 55

Sunshine aim to rule Africa S

UNSHINE Stars have said they want to be only the second Nigerian club to be crowned African champions after they beat ASO Chlef 2-1 in Algeria. Sunshine goal scorer in Algeria Medrano Tamen told MTNFootball.com they are now confident they can go all the way in the competition.

”It was a tough game, we both went into the game with aim of winning. We thank God we came out victorious,” said the Cameroonian midfielder who opened scoring in Algeria in first half stoppage time after he was set up by Izu Azuka. “I am now confident that we will win the trophy with the way we played

and won this game.” “We are on course and I see us getting the ultimate, which is the trophy, we are good for it no doubt,” added goalkeeper Moses Ocheje. “We have again shown that we are equal to the task. We ensured we were not distracted and remained focused, and this has again paid off.”

Nwosu expects different approach from Falconets By KATE OBODO

S the Falconets begin their World Cup campaign against South Korea in Saitama, former Green Eagles midfielder, Henry Nwosu wants to see a different approach from the •Henry Nwosu team at the tournament. “I was impressed with the girls performance during world,, they really need to the qualifying series but up their game especially, now that they are facing the being able to go above what

they did in the qualifier. “For them to succeed, they have to change and develop a new style of play alongside their attitude on the game, knowing that they will be confronting the best teams in the world. They can be the best in Africa but at the world stage, that does not count.. They must prove that they are worth their top ranking in Africa”, added Nwosu.

Funds threaten NHF’s world participation BY IME BASSEY

HE dream of Nigeria Hockey Federation (NHF) to attend next month’s qualifier for the International Hockey Federation (FIH) World League may die because of poor funding. According to sources, efforts by the federation to get the male and female national teams ready for the qualifier in Accra from September 7-9, 2012 may have been dashed following NSC’s insistence that it does not have money for the tournament.

Osaze fires Continued from back page when he saved Shane Long’s poor penalty after Daniel Agger was redcarded in the 58th minute. But it proved to be nothing more than a temporary reprieve as Martin Skrtel gifted the Baggies another spot-kick just minutes later. This time Long had to stand and watch as Odemwingie stepped up to make it 2-0 with 64 minutes played. And Rodgers’ misery was compounded when Baggies substitute Lukaku, on loan from Chelsea, netted to rub salt into the wounds 13 minutes from time. C M Y K

“We have done our bit by opening our camp for selected players with funds from corporate bodies. We informed the NSC of our plan months before but now that we expect money for the trip to Ghana, the Sport ministry is saying that there is no money be-

cause of the just concluded Olympics,” the source stated. Commenting on the issue, President of the Hockey Federation, Patrick Ukah said, “NHF has organised about four national tournaments with fund secured from corporate bodies.

Barca reach Song deal

ARCELONA have confirmed they have agreed a deal to sign Arsenal midfielder Alex Song for around £15million. The 24-year-old Cameroon international will now travel to the Nou Camp to finalise personal terms and undergo a medical, with that news also being confirmed by Arsenal in a statement

on their website.

•Song

Falconets confront Korea Continued from back page podium, in what promises to be a fascinating clash of styles. Falconets will be oozing with confidence having enjoyed a very impressive qualification campaign, in contrast to their Asian foes, who only secured their place because Japan were awarded the hosting rights. Falconets’ forward, Francisca Ordega, said

that the match against the fast-paced Koreans was going to give an idea of how far the Nigerians were going to go in the tournament. “Our opening game against South Korea will give us an indication of how far we can go, and it could also give us a real confidence boost. Make no mistake, I haven’t come to Japan to admire the skyscrapers; I’m here to win the World Cup.”

Again, the blame game begins T

HE 30th Olympic Games in London came to a classic close a week ago with the host not only putting up a spectacular closing ceremony like they did on the opening day on July 27, they recorded their best outing at the Olympics with a third place finishing with 28 gold medals. The story is not the same with Nigeria whose contingent recorded her worst outing since the 1988 edition in Seoul, South Korea, the same year Canadian sprinter, Ben Johnson tore the 100m record to shreds before he was discovered to have spiced his system with banned drugs. Ironically this Olympics will go down in recent history as one in which Nigeria presented her smallest contingent, aiming to concentrate in the sports where she has comparative advantage over other competing countries. With the poor outing, calls have started flying from aggrieved Nigerians for the sack of the sports minister and the entire administrative machinery of the National Sports Commission, NSC on whose table the failure has been heaped. No one has however paused to ask why the athletes failed but all we hear is that N2 billion of tax payers money was wasted in the country ’s participation and therefore a probe should be ordered immediately. The probe, if it would be carried out, must be from the Federal Government, which in itself, is the real reason Nigeria’s sports sector, like every other, is in serious coma today. Therefore, it should be a soulsearching exercise rather than a probe of the sports sector. It is on record that the various governments of the federation, local, state and federal, see sports as recreation and not business that should be taken seriously hence lip service is paid to it every year and always. That is why the annual domestic budget for the president, his vice and the ministers put together is almost equal if not bigger than that allocated to sports every year which is barely enough to pay salaries of its bloated staff, most of whom are friends and family members of political office holders as well as fund football which the government believes is the only sport to be suported. It is an irony that sports did better under the military than civilian regimes. This is because the military which gained power through the barrel of the gun rather than the ballot paper, sought to curry the favour of the citizenry by pumping money into the sports sector, especially football, which is seen as a unifying factor for the country as well as to soothe the nerves of Nigerians and distract them from asking for their exit. Grass-root development and school sports which was the nursery for discovering talents and grooming them into future stars were jettisoned for short cut measures by officials who craved for financial rewards. And so when established stars started fading out, there were no replacement

for them and so the country had to, in most cases, fall on self-made athletes who were not properly groomed. As a way to address the bad state of sports in the country therefore, the government must see sports as serious business and not political patronage for party members and therefore allow thorough bred professionals run its affairs, administratively and technically henceforth. The government should concern itself with provision of world class facilities and ensure that money meant for sports is not tied to its annual budgetary rituals which most of the times causes the non or late release of funds to prepare athletes for competitions.

enceforth peanuts must not be allocated to sports and such grants must come well ahead of any competition. For example, Brazil who are hosts of the next Olympic Games in 2016 have budgeted a whopping US$700 million to help her athletes prepare and improve on the three gold medals they won in London. Great Britain have equally earmarked a huge sum annually to the 2016 Games, so Nigeria should do same by putting her money where her mouth is and stop witchhunting or chasing shadows. There exist documented plans on how sports can grow in the country, the latest being the one compiled by the Sports Development Thematic Group of the Vision 2020 committee put in place by the late president, Alhaji Umar Musa Yar’Adua in 2009 and they all are covered by dust on shelves in government offices because the government lacks the will to implement them. If Nigeria doesn’t want to go through another disgrace at the Rio de Janerio 2016 Olympics, the government should have the will to implement policies put in place to lift sports and preparation should begin now and not six months to the Games. Half baked officials foisted on the NSC should be shown the way out while the various sports federations should be thrown open to ideas men who have the will, interest and resources to run them professionally and profitably. The Nigeria Olympic Committee, NOC should also be reinvigorated by ensuring that civil servants whose only interest in its leadership is to feather their nest should be weeded out of its Board to give room for sports businessmen and technocrats who can liaise proficiently with the International Olympic Committee, IOC for better results for our athletes. Lastly, athletes must be well motivated and handled professionally for them to give their best and not the ‘free range’ system where they fend for themselves and become malnourished. That is why they feed voraciously during competitions and fall to their much more exposed and groomed opponents at competitions.

SUNDAY Vanguard, AUGUST 19, 2012

RESULTS Arsenal Fulham QPR West Brom West Ham Newcastle

0 5 0 3 1 2

Sunderland Norwich Swansea Liverpool Aston Villa Tottenham

0 0 5 0 0 1

TODAY’S FIXTURES

Osaze fires Liberia warning •scores against Liverpool W

ITH about three weeks to Nigeria’s Afcon 2013 qualifier against the Lone Stars of Liberia, Super Eagles’ striker, Osaze Odemwingie yesterday, sent a strong statement of his readiness for the match when he scored in West Brom’s 3-0 victory over Liverpool in the Premier League. Though Coach Stephen Keshi is yet to name his squad, Osaze’s performance in the league opener at the Hawthorns seems to have put hin in good stead for a call-up for the two-legged encounter against Liberia for a place in next year’s African Cup of Nations. Just as Keshi is eager to qualify the Eagles for the Nations Cup, West Brom boss Clarke was desperate to get off to a flying start against his old club, who axed him along with Kenny Dalglish at the end of last season. Liverpool were caught cold a minute before half-time when James Morrison’s corner was only half cleared by Daniel Agger. The ball dropped to Gera, who chested it down before smashing a volley beyond Reds keeper Pepe Reina. Liverpool had Reina to thank for keeping them in the game

Continues on page 55

HE first of 21 days of football at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Japan starts today with four matches holding and it promises to have a party atmosphere, plenty of diversity and no little emotion. Nigeria’s Falconets start their campaign against South Korea in Saimata, with the Africans hoping for a win. Nigeria, who were runners-up in the last edition held in Ger-

Chelsea Southamptn

1:30pm 4:pm

FIFA U-20 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP Japan v Mexico New Zealand v Switzerland Brazil v Italy Nigeria v South Korea LA LIGA Athletic Bilbao Real Madrid Barcelona Lavante

v v v v

Real Betis Valencia Real Sociedad Atletico Madred

6pm 6pm 8pm 10pm

Van Persie less Gunners fall short

RSENAL started life after Robin van Persie with a frustrating goalless draw against Sunderland at the Emirates Stadium. The Holland striker whose 30 goals had dragged the Gunners into third place last season yesterday completed a £24million move to Manchester United, having made it clear earlier in the summer he would not be signing a new deal.

•Giroud

Five-star Fulham M

IN THE BAG ... West Brom’s Osaze Odemwingie celebrates after scoring in yesterday’s 3-0 victory over Liverpool .

Falconets open World Cup account against Korea BY JOHN EGBOKHAN

PREMIER LEAGUE Wigan v Man City v

many, confront the side that finished just beneath them on the

Continues on page 55

Barca reach £15m deal for Song — Pg 55

•Petric

LADEN PETRIC had a debut to remember as Fulham got off to a flying start at Craven Cottage , minus Clint Dempsey. With Dempsey in exile after allegedly refusing to play for the club again, Damien Duff broke the deadlock in the 26th minute. John Arne Riise’s long ball caught out Norwich’s high defensive line and Irishman Duff nipped around Marc Tierney to nudge beyond John Ruddy.

ACROSS 1. African Country (7-4) 5. Ooni’s domain town (3) 7. Human being (3) 8. Nigerian currency (5) 9. Matter (5) 10. Dwelling (5) 13. Charity (4) 16. Night bird (3) 17. Donkey (3) 19. Female title of respect (5) 22. Speech defect (4) 23. Nigerian state (4) 24. Architectural moulding (5) 26. Tree (3) 27. Paid notices (4) 29. Smallest particle (4) 31. Strength-giving drink (5) 34. Consumed (5) 35. Fish (5) 36. Fish (3) 37. Friend (3) 38. Amused (11)

DOWN 1. Long backless seat (5) 2. Angry (5) 3. Friend (3) 4. Forebode (4) 5. Introduction (for short) (5) 6. Enlists (6) 11. Eye-socket (5) 12. Taste (6) 14. African river (5) 15. Yoruba thunder god (5) 18. Nigerian State (6) 20. Play (5) 21. Nigerian soup (5) 25. Horse’s gate (6) 28. Metal (5) 30. Underaged (5) 31. Giant (5) 32. Doctrine (5) 33. Greatest footballer (4)

SEE SOLUTION ON PAGE

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