PDP LEADERSHIP CRISIS: Tukur survives by Vanguard Media Limited

...towards a better life for the people VOL. 25: NO. 61909

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FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

How Amaechi defeated I'm not in Rivers to fight Jang — Oshiomhole —P.8 Amaechi — Patience Jonathan •P.9

PDP LEADERSHIP CRISIS:

Tukur survives •Opposition can't uproot PDP — Jonathan •Gana heads special Convention committee •New national officers, deputies emerge

RECOVERED FROM ROBBERS

BY HENRY UMORU

BUJA—NA TIONAL Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, yesterday survived the bid by party stakeholders to remove him from office. This came as President Goodluck Jonathan, also yesterday, slammed plans by opposition parties to unite against the PDP. President Jonathan said the party was set to increase its number of governors. Continues on Page 5

Why Ogun monarch was stripped naked •P.7 COLUMNISTS:

DONU KOGBARA •P.17

ADISA ADELEYE •P.57

Mr & Mrs RECOVERED

—Weapons, cash and cars recovered from robbery suspects arrested by the Kaduna State Police Command on display at the Command Headquarters, Kaduna yesterday. Photos:Olu Ajayi.

— P.1 5

We're winning war against terror — Jonathan

Edo Police parade 36 suspected •P.7 kidnappers, cultists

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POCKET CARTOON

PDP NEC MEETING—From left: PDP BOT Chairman, Chief

Tony Anenih; Speaker, House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal; Senate President David Mark; PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and Vice President Namadi Sambo welcoming President Goodluck Jonathan to NEC meeting in Abuja, yesterday. Photo: NAN.

PDP CRISIS: Tukur survives Continues from page 1 He spoke at a meeting of the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the party in Abuja, where Tukur survived intrigues mounted against his continued stay in office. Eight national officers of the party, however, stepped down in accordance with recommendations of a report of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which said that they were irregularly elected. Besides them, all deputy national officers of the party also stepped down yesterday. A new set of acting national officers and deputy

national officers were approved by the NEC to steer the affairs of the party pending a special mini-convention of the party slated for July 20 in Abuja. A convention planning committee to be headed by Professor Jerry Gana was also approved by the NEC. Also at yesterday ’s NEC meeting, an endorsement of President Jonathan’s stewardship of the country was approved following a vote of confidence moved by Senator Ibrahim Mantu. Yesterday’s NEC meeting was attended by governors of Niger; Kogi, Delta, Kwara, Kaduna,

LIFEWORDS

BY PASTOR ITUAH

Those who you knowingly and deliberately help to pull up will one day unknowingly help to lift you up. What you sow is what you reap.

TAKE HEART BY ELLA RANDLE

F you’ll dare to take your mind off your trou bles, get your mind off your own needs and, instead, seek to be a blessing to other people, God will do more for you than you could even ask or think —Joel Osteen Be willing to let go of the old in order to experience the new. Let go of old beliefs that no longer serve you, beliefs you hold on to as though they were the crown jewels. Let go of old behaviour, old reactions, old ways of viewing the situations and things in your life. As we let go we are moving back into the place of who we are, the true self, not influenced by the ego, power, and undue attachment to materiality. I could ask you to define yourself and you might say, I am a man or a woman, I am a parent, I am unhappy, I am joyful, I am thin, I am rich, I am beautiful, the list is endless. But these are just ways in which we conditioned our unique limitless beingness. You might very well see yourself as all these things, but beneath it all is the real you. The magnificent creator of your dreams, the higher you that is more loving and compassionate being. Always listen to that inner quiet voice as it brings you new ideas, new concepts and inspiration. And remember to follow through with your dreams.

Taraba, Sokoto, Kano, Kebbi, Gombe, Bauchi, Cross River; Plateau; Bayelsa; Akwa Ibom and Abia states and deputy governors of Jigawa and Katsina states. Governors Gabriel Suswam of Benue, Martins Elechi of Ebonyi, Sullivan Chime of Enugu, and Murtala Nyako of Adamawa were absent and did not send representatives to the meeting. President Jonathan in his opening remarks said Nigerians should commend the party for bringing stability to the polity. He especially noted that unlike in the past when the number of political parties increased as elections approach, he said that the reverse was now the case given plans by some opposition parties to unite against the PDP. "One good thing that Nigerians should commend PDP for now is that if you look at the evolution of political parties, it is now stable. Before, when elections approach, by now you will be hearing about new parties being formed and at a time, the ballot paper was becoming too long; INEC was finding a way of de-registering parties. "Because PDP has come on very strong, no matter the criticisms, they know that we are very strong and they realize that what they need to do is not forming new parties but parties coming together. So, we are helping stabilize the polity. We will encourage them to come together more. We want a situation where it is PDP versus one. In that case, the polity will be more stable. Even our members will be more loyal to the party

because they will have nowhere to go. "All this time, immediately we disagreed in PDP, somebody is picking form in one PPP, DDD party and contesting election for the House of Assembly or House of Reps or Senate. When we have only two, before you get there, they have already occupied that place. So, even if we disagree, we will agree at the end of the day and it will even help to build a stronger party,” Jonathan said. Saying that the PDP was set to increase its number of governors, he said: "Governor Akpabio said it all that at the beginning; there was no need for PDP-GF but now that we have reduced in number to 23, definitely, this should be the least. We cannot shrink below this level. We must build up. At the time of formation of the Nigeria Governors' Forum, focus was slightly different. In every organization, over the years, there must be some change in direction and so on and so forth. "So, looking at the number of PDP governors vis-a-vis the total number of governors, it becomes very clear that the PDP needs to have their own thing because we have realized that some of the other political parties, the governors used to meet before coming for general meetings. But PDP being the elephant among them did not really bother much. But over the period, we have realized that there is the need for them to also meet because politics is politics. Politics is a game of interests.”

Tukur warns against inordinate ambition Earlier in his remarks, the PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur had warned members of the party to stop over-heating the polity because of their inordinate ambition as that contradicts the party’s perception of democratic orderliness, just as he said that open confrontation with political administration exposes political weakness of the party. Tukur who also warned members of the party irrespective of position to respect President Goodluck Jonathan as the symbol of PDP stressed that he must be respected and treated with dignity. Tukur said: "Open confrontation with political administration exposes our political weaknesses. Fighting the party from within is unhealthy and

dangerous for our image and aspirations. Overheating the polity because of inordinate ambition contradicts our perception for democratic orderliness. "Here in Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan is our symbol. He must therefore be respected and treated with dignity. Undermining the leader for no just reasons can nowhere bring us good results. This observation is necessary to remind PDP members that we owe ourselves a duty to protect, project and support our President to leave behind a lasting legacy for the Nigerian." The National Chairman also proposed the use of e-registration to boost the influence of the grassroots on the party and the appointment of presidential liaison officers to coordinate the activities of federal establishments in the states. Vanguard gathered that the controversy over Tukur’s continued stewardship of the party did not come up at the NEC meeting as multiple sources said the closed door meeting was completely devoid of rancour. Senator Mantu, it was learnt, moved a motion for a vote of confidence in President Jonathan in the light of what he said was his transformation agenda and it was wholly endorsed. Adhering strictly to the report of INEC, NEC accepted and approved the resignation letters of eight members of the National Working Committee, NWC, eight Deputy National officers and three Ex-officio members, just as Tukur, the Financial Secretary, Elder Bolaji Anani and National Auditor, Adewale Adeyanju remained. Vanguard gathered that soon after, chairman of the Delta State chapter, Chief Peter Nwaoboshi moved a motion for the affected members of the NWC to submit their letters of resignation, NEC immediately endorsed it and

they were all asked to leave the venue of the meeting and they complied. NEC also approved the appointment of former Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives and loyalist of Minister of State, Education, Nyesom Wike, Chibudom Nwuche as the acting Deputy National Chairman, Sam Sam Jaja; Remi Akintoye as Acting National Secretary; Senator Emma Agboti, Acting Deputy National Secretary; Yusuf Hamisu Abubakar, Acting National Organising Secretary; Tony Caesar Okeke, Acting National Publicity Secretary; Simon Jok, Acting National Legal Adviser; Barrister Tanko Beji, Acting National Youth Leader; Oyibo Nwaneri, Acting National Woman Leader; Yau Kwadon, Acting Deputy National Legal Adviser; Peter Adefunmilayo, Acting Deputy National Youth Leader; Nasiru Ibrahim Birchi, Acting Deputy National Auditor; Mrs Torkwase Ajoh, Acting Deputy National Women Leader; Mohammed Dandari, Acting National Treasurer and Deputy National Financial Secretary, Awwalu Gwadabe. Others were Onyemaechi Ikechukwu Jideofor, Acting Deputy National Organising Secretary; Augustine Lugbenwei, Acting Deputy National Treasurer; Caleb Yahaya, Acting Deputy National Treasurer; Chief Akin Taiwo, Acting Ex-officio; Tope Ademiluyi, Acting Ex-officio; Chief Mike Akinfenwa and Gbenga Oduwaiye as Ex-officio.

Special convention holds July 20 Addressing journalists at the end of the NEC meeting, chairman of the Special National Convention Committee, Professor Gana disclosed that the Special National Convention will hold July 20, South West Continues on page 11

6—Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

NSCDC nabs 7 illegal refinery operators

Egba high chief, two others die in multiple auto crash BY DAUD OLATUNJI

BY DAYO JOHNSON

KURE — MEN of the Ni gerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, in Ondo State have arrested seven persons suspected to be operators of an illegal refinery and petroleum depot. Commandant of the NSCDC in the state, Waheed Bamidele Popoola who revealed this, yesterday, in Akure said the suspects were picked up at Iju Osun, Ore, Oniparaga and Onitea area of the state. He said three tankers marked EKY 699 XH, XA 995 KMR and JJJ450 XA were recovered from the suspects. The commandant added that the suspects were currently in prison custody.

Court sends human trafficker to 18-month jail BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

ENIN CITY — THE Benin High Court presided over by Justice Alero Eruaga has sentenced one Mrs Tobias Esther to 18 months in prison for human trafficking. The convict was apprehended by officials of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and other Related Matters, NAPTIP. Esther was arraigned in court in charge No B/5C/13 on a two-count charge of deceitfully inducing two girls (names withheld) to Togo from Benin City, contrary to Section 19(b) of the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Law Enforcement and Administration Act 2003(as amended). The accused had recruited the victims under the pretext that they were going to learn how to buy clothings and jewelries in Togo. In Togo, the accused forced one of the victims into prostitution, while the second girl escaped prostitution because she fell ill on arrival. The accused, who was represented by G. OkpalaAniekire, pleaded guilty as charged. On the basis of a plea for mercy by the defence counsel on behalf of the convict, the court considered the convict's two-year-old baby and consequently, sentenced her to 18 months imprisonment without an option of fine.

BEOKUTA — AN Egba High Chief and Senior Lecturer at Ogun State-owned Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Dr. Gbenga Dally and two other persons lost their lives in a multiple road crash, Wednesday evening, along the Abeokuta/Sagamu road. Six passengers were also said to have been rushed to the state hospital following the various degrees of injury they sustained in the accident. Vanguard gathered that the incident occurred about 30 kilometres to Abeokuta, near Onipepeye village at about 6.25p.m and involved three vehicles— a Toyota Camry car with number plate LAGOS AAA 181 AA in which the late Akinfimogboye of Egbaland, drove. It was further gathered that one of the vehicles involved in the accident skidded off the road after the driver lost control on his way to Lagos and crossed the culvert, facing another oncoming vehicle. Further findings showed that the Egba chief, who was returning from the university, on getting to the scene attempted to avoid a head-on collision but an articulated truck crushed his car from behind. The development was said to have led to the instant death of Dally and two others whose cars had part of their roofs smashed. Confirming the accident, Head of Operations, Ogun Command of the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, Cecilia Alao, said

The Toyota Camry car driven by the Egba chief, Dr. Gbenga Dally yesterday, that the accident involved three vehicles and eight persons. She said a Toyota Camry car with number plate LAGOS AAA 181 AA, Mitsubishi Space wagon OGUN LAR 55 XA and Honda car with number plate LAGOS KSF 224 AT, collided due to over speeding. Alao added that the remains of the victims had been deposited at Ijaye General Hospital, Abeokuta, adding that six persons who sustained various degrees of injury were also receiving treatment at the hospital. She appealed to motorists to exercise patience and apply what she described as “common sense speed limit” while on the highway. Among the first prominent callers at the scene included the state Police Command Public Rela-

The third car also in the bush. Photos: Wumi Akinola.

tions Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi; the state Commissioner for Commerce, Mr. Bimbo Ashiru and Adviser to the Governor on Political Matters, Mr. Adesanya . At the school owned by the late

don, along the Abeokuta/ Sagamu road, staff and students wept uncontrollably as the news of his death was broken, yesterday.

Police trail ex-cop over attempt to murder wife zHe attacked me 7 months after eloping with another woman— Wife BY DAYO JOHNSON

KURE— POLICE in Ondo State are on the trail of an ex-police officer, Tajudeen Adeniyi, over an attempt to kill his wife, Moyosola, by macheting her, inflicting a 10centimetre deep gash on her head. The 38-year-old suspect took to his heels immediately he inflicted the injury on his wife who has had four children for him. Adeniyi, according to investigation, has gone underground following the hint he got that the family of the wife had reported the incident to the Police. Consequently, the Police have combed the houses of his friends and family members to no avail. Narrating her ordeal to newsmen on her hospital bed, yesterday, Moyosola said her husband abandoned the house for another woman since November 2012. She alleged that her husband

invaded her apartment at Plaza area of Akure at about 11 p.m on Wednesday and attacked her. According to her, the husband forced the door of the room open with the use of the mortar and attacked her with cutlass, bottle and club. She also alleged that her husband who was accompanied by two other men inflicted several machete cuts on her head and neck, making her to lose several pints of blood. Moyosola explained that after the husband abandoned her she took their four children to their hometown in Ogotun-Ekiti. The doctor taking care of injured Moyosola, Dr. Matthew Adeyeri, told newsmen that she had about 12 centimetres cut on her head. He noted that it was sheer providence that she survived the attack. According to him, “if the cut inflicted on the woman’s neck had been as deep as the one on

Moyosola her head, she would have died before getting to the hospital. The state's Police image maker,

Wole Ogodo, said men of the command were on the trail of the suspect for attempted murder.

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 2I, 2013—7

Edo Police parade 36 suspected kidnappers, cultists BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

ENIN CITY — THE Edo State Police Command, yesterday, paraded 36 persons allegedly involved in kidnapping, robbery and cultism, including the cult leaders allegedly involved in recent killings in the state. The suspects were arrested with cache of arms, including AK47 riffle, two AK 47 rifle magazines, 23 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition, two Magnum pump action guns, one English-made cut to size double barrel gun and 107 live cartridges. The Edo State Police Commissioner, Mr Foluso Adebanjo, who paraded the suspects before newsmen, reiterated his call to criminals and cultists to leave the state or be “crushed,” just as he solicited the cooperation of members of the public to give useful information to the police. While hailing the ban on Okada in the state capital, the CP said about 90 per cent of crimes being committed in the state were carried out with motorcycles. He said the suspects were arrested in different locations in the state, adding that the kidnappers among them were involved in the abduction of some foreigners and members of the Nigeria Union of Teachers few weeks ago who were arrested in their hideouts. Insisting that the ban on commercial motorcycles will help check the excesses of criminals in the state, Adebanjo said “the ban on Okada is a very good thing and for security purposes. A lot of crimes being committed in Benin City are bike-related. They

Some of the suspects and weapons recovered by the Edo State Police Command during the parade of 32 suspected robbers and kidnappers in Benin City, yesterday. Photo: Barnabas Uzosike.

use bike to rob people, kill people and even cultists use bikes to operate. “So we have no fear that the ban on Okada will increase crime, we

AGOS— DO you buy used electronics such as fridges, television sets otherwise known as Tokunbo? Then you have to be careful as you could be buying toxic waste. This disclosure is coming on the heels of an arrest of a vessel, MV Euro Cargo Saleno by the Nigerian Navy, yesterday, for allegedly bringing in three trucks carrying used fridges into the country. The crew members among them a female captain, identified as Claudia Mondino, were arrested. Briefing journalists on the arrest, the Commanding Officer, Nigerian Navy Beecroft, Commodore Chris Ezekobe said an alert was received from the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, NESREA, to arrest the vessel if sighted on June 11, 2013. However, the vessel, according to

are fully prepared to take care of that. These people arrested failed to heed to my earlier call that they should repent or face the fire power of the police. We are go-

ing to charge them to court. I am also advising others to repent or leave the state because we will not tolerate cultism, killings and robbery in Edo State.”

Why Ogun monarch was stripped naked —Traditionalists BY DAUD OLATUNJI

BEOKUTA — CUSTODI ANS of traditions and shrines in Ado-Odo town in Ado-Odo-

Navy nabs vessel laden with used fridges BY EVELYN USMAN

10 defendants freed in N1.59bn pension scam

him, was sighted yesterday afternoon at Breakwater, at her berthing position at about 1648 and escorted to the AMPL Terminal 12, Tin-Can port, Apapa. Although Ezekobe could not state categorically whether the contents of the vessel were actually toxic waste he explained that the Navy’s role was only to arrest and hand over to the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASSA , with the assistance of NASREA for further investigation.

Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State, yesterday, explained that the failure of Oba AbdulLateef Adeniran to embrace all the deities in the area led to the attack by the hoodlums who beat him up, stripped him naked then burnt down his palace . The traditionalists, under the aegis of the Olorisa Parapo of Oduduwa Shrine who appeared, yesterday, before the Judicial Commission of Inquiry set up by the state government to look into the crisis in the area said it would not have been possible for any hoodlum to touch the Oba if he had "subjected himself to all the traditional rites before ascending the throne." Leading the aged men and women to the commission which sat at Isabo in Abeokuta, the Otun Olorisa Obirin, Chief Akoye Osolo, and the custodian of Oduduwa shrine, Chief Sule Odunlami, accused Oba

Adeniran of preventing them from performing their traditional rites, vowing to resist any attempt to lord the embattled Oba on the people of the town. The group, however, told the commission that one Adetokunbo Akinsowon led a team of mobile policemen and hoodlums to the town weeks before the crisis to enforce the Supreme Court judgment which favoured the embattled Oba. Oba Adeniran was attacked by hoodlums April 14 and 15, 2013 where he was beaten and stripped naked before they burnt down his palace. Meantime, the driver of the embattled monarch, Olufunmi Olajide, told the court that the hoodlums actually had the intention of killing the Oba. Olajide while giving details of the attack on the monarch, told the commission that one Mr. Jaiye Falana and Fatai Egi (aka Ode) masterminded the attack

BADAN— AN Ibadan Chief Magistrates’ Court, yesterday, struck out the charges against 10 persons accused of defrauding the Oyo State Government of N1.59 billion in pension funds. Chief Magistrate Durosaro Kehinde-Tijani struck out the case based on the application made by a Principal State Counsel, Ademola Ojekunle, on June 4. Tijani said striking out of the charges against the defendants would not have any negative impact on the defendants. She cited section 75 and 211(1) of the 1999 constitution earlier cited by Ojemola empowering the Attorney General to withdraw the matter. The accused were Alhaji Hakeem Muili, Alhaja Iyabo Giwa, Adeduntan Johnson, Oguntayo Banji and Adesina Jimoh. Others were Johnson Bosede, Adebiyi Olasumbo, Kareem Rasheed, Muili Adedamola and Salewa Adedeji The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the defendants were rearrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) immediately they stepped out of the court’s premises. Mr Adebayo Ojo, the Oyo State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, told NAN that the EFCC had, however, taken over the matter. Ojo said the defendants would be charged to court if found guilty after a fresh investigation to be conducted by the EFCC. NAN recalls that the prosecutor, Ademola Ojekunle, had told the court that Ojo had instructed him to withdraw the charges against the accused persons.

Police arrest three robbery suspects in Enugu BY TONY EDIKE

NUGU—THE police in Enugu State have arrested three robbery suspects who have been terrorizing residents of the capital city and its environs for some time now. The state police command also

said it had commenced investigation into the alleged suicide by one Chika Ugwuanyi at Hill Top area of Nsukka. The three robbery suspects were arrested by operatives of the Emene Police Division following a robbery operation at the Emene Industrial Area. The state Police Public Relations

Officer, PPRO, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, who confirmed the arrest said one James Onu from Afikpo in Ebonyi State was arrested at about 5 a.m on June 16, 2013 following a distress call by the victims during the operation. The gang was operating around the industrial area in Emene when the policemen from Emene

Police Division, in response to the distress call, swooped on them and apprehended Onu. Following a confessional statement by the suspect, two of his gang members he identified as Ifeanyi Edeh and Maduabuchi Igwe both residing at the Artisan Market Quarters were arrested at different locations in Enugu.

8—Vanguard , FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

OVERNOR Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State yesterday in Abuja narrated how Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State defeated Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State in the Nigeria Governors' Forum, NGF, election. Oshiomhole, who spoke at the 9th triennial delegates conference of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, warned that the crisis in the NGF was not about the forum, but about democracy in Nigeria, especially in 2015. He lamented that if governors could dispute an election where only 35 persons voted, how would they ensure free and fair election in 2015? The Edo State Governor, who berated labour for not taking decisive action on the crisis, called on unions to get more involved in the country’s governance, saying time to remain non-partisan was gone if Nigerians must get the benefits of democracy. Oshiomhole said: “I read the communiqué of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and I was not satisfied with its statement on the NGF election. An election was held, one won and one lost. “NLC cannot be appealing to both parties to behave, it should appeal to the one that lost to behave and accept defeat. What are we going to be remembered for? That we were silent when everybody was going crazy?

‘They were preachers’

“35 people went into a room and they were saying let us be reasonable, the world is watching us. One by one they were sermonised like very seasoned pentecostal pastors. “We had some who said we must do open ballot. I said how can you do open ballot when you are already fighting before the ballot. Let us do secret ballot because we are products of secret ballots. Why are we now afraid to do it? “There should be one governor, one vote. Then, 35 now voted and my twin brother from Delta State became the agent of the two candidates and he stood by the Director-General, who was unanimously appointed a month ear-

HIIC MEETING: From right—President Goodluck Jonathan; Vice President Namadi Sambo; and Baroness Lynda Chalker, Coordinator, Honorary International Investor Council, HIIC, at the 14th meeting of the Council in Abuja, yesterday. PHOTO: Abayomi Adeshida.

NGF crisis: How Amaechi defeated Jang, by Oshiomhole zUrges NLC, TUC to stand up for democracy lier.

“Votes counting, executive madness”

“They counted 35 papers. So one by one in the open and in an open secret ballot we voted, and counted the votes. They were 35, representing the 35 state governors present. When they were counting, Jang, Jang, Jang, the Niger State Governor said ‘Jang in early lead’. “After then, they started counting Amaechi, Amaechi, Amaechi and in the end, the votes were out. Jang got 16 votes and Amaechi got 19 votes. However, immediately, the very people that voted said no, no, no, we are going to walk out. “I said, how can you walk out? Even in madness, there

are levels. Unfortunately, people who call themselves Christians and Muslims, who insist they are executive governors, were demonstrating executive madness. “All this is just sycophancy when the facts are so clear. Comrade presidents of NLC and TUC, you cannot be quiet. You must take a position. From all you have heard and seen thereafter, if Jang won, say so and if he did not win tell him to stop parading himself and behave. “That is the truth. If you choose to live the life of a liar, you cannot live longer but the difference is even in death. Those who speak the truth, there is a place reserved in heaven for them. “But those who choose to tell lies, there is also a place in hell that is reserved for them.

This matter is serious.

It’s about democracy

It is not about NGF; it is about democracy. I need you to know the implication if you do not already know. “If we can dispute or contest whether 16 is majority instead of 19 in a small election, can we expect 2015 election to be free and fair? Do we need to get there before we see it? “The time to fight is now. It is about you, not them. How could you say that votes were cast, that people signed a document in April for an election that was to take place at the end of May? And that the person that won in April is valid and not the person that won in May. On economy Oshiomhole added: “I need

Roads: FG needs N600bn to meet Vision 20:2020 goals

BUJA—THE FEDERAL Govern-ment will need about N600 billion to build 14,000 kilometres of roads annually to meet Vision 20-2020 goals. Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, made this known in Abuja yesterday, saying Nigerians spent same amount (N600 billion) needed to fix roads to import vehicles into the country yearly. Onolememen spoke at a oneday public lecture, organised by the Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria,

APWEN, on the theme Road Sector Reform for Sustainable Roads Development. However, Director-General, National Automotive Council, NAC, Aminu Jalal, added that 50,000 new vehicles and 150,000 used ones were imported into the country yearly. According to Onolememen, for Nigeria to move towards a sustainable economy commensurate with Vision 202020, there was need to increase the total road network from the current 200,000km to 300,000km by 2020.

He said that the paved network would also need to be increased from the current 65,000km to over 200,000km, also by 2020. The minister said the situation would require the construction or paving of an average 14,000km of roads every year at the cost of N600 billion annually. He said: “The point has been made several times that Nigeria cannot overcome its road infrastructure development challenges unless necessary reforms are embarked upon to reposi-

tion the road sector to meet up with the world. “Vision 20-2020 requires that Nigeria attains a GDP of, at least, 900 billion dollars by the year 2020 and GDP per capita of at least 4,000 dollars. “Experience has shown that there is a direct link between economic growth and the size and condition of road networks. Thus, for every one dollar spent on road maintenance, there is a corresponding increase in the nation’s GDP."

you to engage in specifics about the economy. You must revisit our industrial policies, emphasise production and not importation. I think we need to emphasise that Nigeria must return to production. “We must not only make the refineries to work, we must build new ones so that more people can be employed. If we resolve that we can stop importation today. Where will our young engineers work if we are exporting jobs and importing unemployment, exporting prosperity and importing poverty? “The economy is not about statistics. It is about real human beings and their well-being. So, I ask you, the labour movement: let us engage them.”

Jonathan reacts

Speaking, President Goodluck Jonathan, represented by the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, said the NGF was a voluntary association registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission and that he had never and would never interfere in its affairs. He, however, called for the support of labour in his efforts to transform the nation, recalling some of the achievements his administration had achieved since two years of assuming office. He called on labour and all lovers of democracy in the country to appeal to Governor Jang to accept defeat in the interest of free and fair elections in 2015.

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013 — 9

8th day prayer for Abibatu Mogaji

NUPE DICTIONARY: From left— Gen. T. Y. Danjuma, Jarman Zazzau; Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State; and Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, Etsu Nupe, at the public presentation of Nupe Heritage Dictionary in Abuja, yesterday.

I'm not in Rivers to fight Gov Amaechi— Patience Jonathan P

ORT HARCOURT—THE First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, yesterday, said she was not in Rivers to fight Governor Rotimi Amaechi. Jonathan said this in Port Harcourt when 135 chiefs from Kalabari Kingdom called on her. She said: “I am not here to fight the Governor of Rivers State because he is my brother. We should come together to develop the state. “We shouldn’t play politics with our home. Our home remains our home. We shouldn’t play politics with our elders.” The President’s wife said the presidency was an opportunity for the people of the SouthSouth to rule the country not to be at war against one another. She said: “The presidency is an opportunity that fell unto us on a platter of gold. We shouldn’t throw it away. We have had people that contested from this region but didn’t win. “We didn’t fight, we didn’t pay. God willed it to us so we shouldn’t use politics to fight one another or destroy our kingdom. Kalabari has been peaceful and its people are peace-loving.”

Why 135 chiefs visited

Earlier, the chiefs said they were at Jonathan’s residence to state clearly that President Goodluck Jonathan must run for presidency in 2015. Their spokesman, Chief Dumo Oruobu, Anyawo XI of Bakana, said their mission was “not a phantom solidarity visit.” He said: “We can no longer remain silent under the present political atmosphere as our silence can be interpreted to mean consent or sitting on the fence.

“We, hereby, state that the question of choice does not arise. Our son should run for office in 2015. “We assure him that we will do everything within our col-

lective abilities to help him achieve that objective. The Kalabari and Ijaw clans are one people and no revenue allocation or problem can tear us apart.”

Oruobu, who said the chiefs were used to premeditated attacks on the president in the past, said: “Our people refused to take sides against our son.”

Traders ‘arrest' 6 suspected Boko Haram members in Borno BY NDAHI MARAMA

AIDUGURI—TRADERS at Gamboru market in Maiduguri, Borno State, Wednesday, rounded up six suspected Boko Haram gunmen and handed them over to soldiers of the Joint Task Force, JTF, eyewitnesses said. This is even as suspected sect members, yesterday evening, detonated an Improvised Explosive Devise, EID, in the metropolis, targeting the patrol vehicle of the JTF, in spite of the emergency rule imposed on Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, and the total ban on the use of GSM and Thuraya Satellite cell phones in the troubled states. The gunmen, according to

eyewitnesses, entered the market and were spotted by a trader that saw weapons hidden under their garments. A 36-year-old grocery merchant in Maiduguri, Babagana Aji, said: “It was a trader that alerted us when he saw them and we immediately trailed and rounded them up. “We caught them before they could bring out their guns. After we succeeded in disarming them, we beat them blue and black before handing them over to the soldiers.” Another trader, Sanusi Dantakai, said Gamboru traders had had it up their neck and were forced to take the bull by the horns. He said: “This Gamboru market had suffered several

attacks. Boko Haram has set it on fire twice and killed several traders and an orange vendor, among others. “We are tired of the losses we incur at every attack carried out by Boko Haram. That was why we summoned courage to catch them today.” Meanwhile, the sound of the explosion, which occurred at 6:30pm in the metropolis forced residents and traders to rush back to their houses to avoid being caught in the 6pm to 9pm curfew imposed on the state. Due to the total network black out, spokesman of the JTF, Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa and the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Gideon Jubrin, could not be reached for confirmation at the time of going to press.

Hospital scores a first in arm replacement surgery BY CHIOMA OBINNA

OR the first time, a Nigerian hospital has blazed the trail in metallic replacement of the whole arm bone, shoulder and elbow joints. The life-saving medical procedure, which is the first in

Nigeria and West Africa, was performed by a team of surgeons from Lagoon Hospitals, Lagos. The team was led by Dr. Segun Abudu, a renowned Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Royal Orthopedic Hospital, Birmingham, UK, seconded to the

hospital. Commenting on the ground breaking surgery, the Hygeia Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Lars Stork, noted that a significant number of Nigerians, who would normally go abroad for similar treatment, will now have it done in the country.

RRANGEMENTS have been concluded to hold the eight day prayer for Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji, late mother of Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on Sunday. According to the burial committee, the prayer will hold between 12noon and 3pm at Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos Island. The statement was signed by Mr. Demola Seriki, a former Minister of State for Defence, Mrs Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, Chief Pius Akinyelure, Mr. Jide Sanwo-Olu and Dr. Akintola Benson. Alhaja Mogaji died last Saturday in her sleep. She was 96.

Fashola for LASU alumni lecture

O V E R N O R Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State will, Tuesday, June 25, deliver the 2013 Lagos State University, LASU, annual alumni lecture at the institution’s main campus’s new auditorium by 12 noon. Entitled Good Governance: A Tool for Revitalisation of Socio-Cultural Values for Social Development, the lecture will be chaired by former Head of State, Chief Ernest Shonekan, while retired Justice Adesola Oguntade will be CoChairman. A statement by the Alumni President, Major-General Cecil Esekhaigbe (rtd) and the Vice President, Mr. Norrison Quarkers, indicated that the university’s Vice Chancellor, Professor John Obafunwa will be the Chief Host.

Reunion

HE grand finale of the 65th reunion and anniversary celebration of Anwar ul Islam College Agege Old Students Association, ACAOSA, will hold today at Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Ikeja.

10—Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

CANCER: Only 20% of children recover in Nigeria —- Expert BY LAJU ARENYEKA

OUNDER OF the Children Living With Cancer Foundation, Dr. Nneka Nwobbi, has said that only 20 percent of Nigerian children plagued by cancer recover, unlike most developed countries where cancer patients have 80-90 per cent chances of recovery. Nwobbi, who said this during a courtesy visit to Vanguard Headquarters yesterday in Lagos, commended the organisation for its role in spreading information about childhood cancer. Her words:’’there is a lot of noise being made about breast cancer and prostate cancer, but a lot of people are not aware that cancer affects children too. Even oncology experts in Nigeria pay very little attention to it. But our children are dying daily, and it seems like not many people care.

AES confab to host 5 ex-heads of state, govs

LL IS set for the 5th 2013 AES Annual National Conference, with the theme, ‘Transformational Leadership: SignBoard for Sustainable Development’ scheduled for Tuesday, June 25, 2013 at Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria island, Lagos. Statement signed by Dr. Ausbeth Ajagu, President of the Academy said that six ex- Heads of State, including Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, GCFR, would attend the conference. Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, GCFR, is the Chief Guest of Honour. The President of the People’s Republic of Liberia, Her excellency, Dr. Ellen Johnson – Sirleaf is to deliver the keynote address. Other speakers include, Gen. Muhammad Buhari, GCFR, Arch Mike Onolomemen, Minister of Works and Dr. Ausbeth ajagu, MFR, President, AES. Governors of Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Anambra, Kano and Ogun states are also expected. Labour and productivity are the hosts.

CONDOLENCE VISIT: From left: Mr. Mike Awoyinfa, former MD, The Sun Publishing Company Ltd; Chief Olusegun Osoba, former Governor of Ogun State; Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former Governor of Lagos State ; Senator Oluremi Tinubu; Mr. Sam Amuka, Publisher, Vanguard Media Ltd, and Mr. Dimgba Igwe, former Deputy MD, The Sun Publishing, during a condolence visit to Tinubu House, in Ikoyi, Lagos.

LASIEC to create new constituencies, plans tour of Lagos BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE

AGOS — TO ensure free and fair elections in 2015, the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission, LASIEC, will delineate new constituencies in Lagos. Also, to ensure that the new constituencies meet the expectations of Lagosians, LASIEC will embark on sensitisation tours of the 20 local councils of the state. Currently, there are 20 local councils, 40 federal constituencies, 245 wards and 8645 polling units in the state. According to Lagos LASIEC Public Affairs officer, Mr. Akinbiyi Olufemi, the tour will begin with a visit to Ajeromi-Ifelodun and Apapa local councils on Tuesday June 25. The tour will be rounded off with a visit to Epe and Ibeju-Lekki local councils on Tuesday July 16. Lagos Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dr. Adekunle Ogunmola will meet with traditional rulers, leaders of all registered political parties, representatives of market traders and religious leaders during the tours. His words: The tour provides the Commission with the opportunity to intimate stakeholders with plans by the Commission on the delineation of constituencies and the roles expected of the stakeholders.

General Adeyinka Adebayo (rtd), signing the condulence register at Tinubu House.

NAFDAC opposes bail for convicted makers of My Pikin BY INNOCENT ANABA

AGOS — The Na tional Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has opposed the application before a Federal High Court, Lagos for bail of convicted producers of killer My Pikin baby teething mixture, who were sentenced

to seven years imprisonment. It will be recalled that the court had convicted and sentenced Adeyemo Abiodun and Egbele Austine Eromosele, both officials of Barewa Pharmaceuticals Limited to seven years imprisonment for offences of conspiracy to sell and sale of a dangerous drug, to wit, My

Pikin. NAFDAC in its counter affidavit to a bail application by the convicts, who are seeking bail pending appeal on health grounds, argued that there was overwhelming evidence which Justice Okechukwu Okeke of the trial court ought to have relied on to convict Adeyemo and Eromosele on other more serious charges. Adeyemo and Eromosele in their bail applications, pleaded that they needed to be freed so as to take adequate care of their failing health. Opposing the application, NAFDAC in the counter-affidavit averred that there were adequate medical facilities and personnel in the prison that can conveniently take care of health issues of the convicts.

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013 —11

NGF crisis: Jang tackles Kwankwaso

OVERNOR Jonah Jang of Plateau State who is leading a faction of the Nigeria Governors Forum has described as unfortunate, statement credited to his Kano state counterpart, Rabiu Kwankwaso that he (Kwankwaso) nominated Jang for the NGF election knowing that he would be defeated. In a statement by Plateau State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Yiljap Abraham on behalf of Governor Jang, he said “Kwankwaso’s account of events during the Northern States Governors’ Forum which led to the adoption of Governor Jonah Jang as the candidate of the region for the chairmanship of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum has thrown a moral glitz on Nigeria’s political turf. According to the statement, “that the Kano governor could walk cool out of the room wherein “they” had decided to set up Benue and Plateau for a national “fall” tells us a bit about why we may not capture back soon Nigeria’s political morality.

From right: The GMD, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Mr. Emeka Emuwa; Chairman, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma; and Company Secretary, Mr. Somuyiwa Sonubi, at the Bank’s 44th Annual General Meeting, at the Conference Hall 1,Tinapa Lakeside Hotel, Tinapa Business and Leisure Resort, Calabar.

UI students protest police shooting on campus BY OLA AJAYI

BADAN — A police corporal, Ajisafe Amos, escaped being lynched yesterday by angry students of the University of Ibadan when he gave a 400-level student of the institution, Adewale Adegboyega, a hot chase and allegedly shot his car at the main entrance

of the university. Adegboyega, who is a student in the Department of Guidance and Counselling of the institution said he ran into the campus because he was not sure of his safety in the hands of the policemen he encountered. The police corporal reportedly shot twice with one bullet hitting the rear tyre of the student’s car. As the students heard the gunshots, they reportedly scampered for safety for fear of stray bullets. In protest of the action of the police team, the students led by the Student Union Government President, Babatunde Badmus, demanded the dismissal of the trigger-happy policeman. He added that it was dangerous for a policeman to shoot in denselypopulated institutions like the University of Ibadan. They seized the identity card of the police man to prevent possible denial that the the person that pulled the trigger was not a policeman. According to the student leader; “This man Ajisafe Amos must face the wrath of the law. The IGP should see to this case and ensure that the man is dismissed from the force. “ We will not allow anybody to

play with our lives. We shall resist any attempt to sweep the case under the carpet. We want justice.” It was the timely intervention of the Divisional Police Officer of Sango, Syblle Akinfenwa that prevented the policeman from being lynched.

Dame Fashola wants infant, maternal deaths reduced BY ESTHER ONYEGBULA

AGOS — LAGOS State First Lady, Dame Emmanuella Abimbola Fashola has called on community leaders, traditional rulers and non governmental organization in Lagos to use their influence to reduce maternal and child mortality in the state. She asked them to sensitise residents, especially pregnant women and children, of the need to use Primary Healthcare Centres in their locality. She made this call at the Lagos West II senatorial district town hall meeting on maternal and child reduction programme at Amuwo Odofin Local Government secretariat, yesterday. She noted that more people would use the services provided by the Primary healthcare centers if community leaders as well as traditional monarchs would make public announcement.

PDP CRISIS: Tukur survives Continues from page 5 Zonal Congress, July 11. The dates he said were adopted to meet the statutory 21 days notice expected to be given to INEC. According to the schedule of events released by Gana, the guidelines for the convention will be released on June 21, forms for the convention, will be out on June 26; local government congresses to ratify list of 2012 delegates and fill vacancies, if any, June 29; and state congresses if any, July 6. Deputy chairman of the Special Convention Committee is Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State while the Deputy President of Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu will serve as Secretary, with two members each drawn from the 36 states including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Other members of the Committee are governors of Abia, Katsina, Benue; Delta and Bauchi, with Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim; Political Adviser to the President, Ahmed Gulak; former Senate President, Ken Nnamani; Senator Stella Omu; Secretary, Board of Trustees, Senator Walid Jubrin; former Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro, among others as members. In his goodwill message on behalf of the governors, Chairman, PDP Governors’ Forum, Governor Akpabio noted that all the governors were loyal and behind President Jonathan.

12—Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

Police nab 5 C-River IRS staff over alleged fraud

BY EMMA UNA

ALABAR—FIVE staff of Cross River State Internal Revenue Service, have been arrested for allegedly cloning official receipts of the agency with which they gave to politicians to as tax clearance certificates to contest the 2013 local government elections in the state. Mr. Emmanuel Ogar, Chairman of Internal Revenue Service, confirmed to Vanguard, yesterday, in Calabar that some of his staff took advantage of the high number of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, aspirants seeking to obtain tax clearance certificates to contest the councillorship elections in the 196 wards in the state to perpetrate the monumental fraud. “Some staff took advantage of the situation we found ourselves IN following high traffic of those seeking to obtain the tax clearance certificates and cornered the aspirants, collected their money cloned our official receipts and gave to them as tax clearance certificates.”

Number of inmates in Delta prisons worrisome —PRISONS CHIEF BY AUSTIN OGWUDA

SABA—THE new Controller of Prisons in Delta State, Mr. Joseph Olanrele, has expressed worry over the large number of condemned convicts within the various prison formations across the state, noting that it was worrisome as they (condemned inmates), constantly create problems for prison officials looking after them while awaiting the hangman. Olanrele during a courtesy visit to the state Attorney-General/ Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Charles Ajuyah, SAN, called on the AttorneyGeneral to prevail on the governor through the Advisory Committee on Prerogative of Mercy to commute their sentences.

US Assistant Secretary of State visits Amaechi Amaechi on Niger Delta

ORT HARCOURT—THE United States of America Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilisation Operations, Mr. Rick Barton, has led a delegation of U.S. diplomats on a courtesy visit to Rivers State governor, Mr Rotimi Amaechi at Government House, Port Harcourt. Also in the delegation were the Director of Africa Operations, Bureau of Conflict and Stabilisation Operations, Mr. Neal Kringel and the Consular-General of the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Jeffrey Hawkins.

Governor Amaechi in his response noted that things were improving tremendously in the Niger Delta, adding that foreigners now live in safety in the state and drive around Port Harcourt. He called on the United States to allow their businesses flow back into the state.

Amaechi said: “I think that in the course of resolving conflicts, going further to ensure that we also allow businesses from the U.S. and other parts of the world to come back to Port Harcourt because if you can’t create employment, you will certainly not be able to resolve the problem because the problem actually is not of oil alone, it’s of poverty and unemployment and if

we don’t as a government create employment and create opportunities for which people can be employed, then we will continue to have crisis in the Niger Delta. “Whether it’s in Niger Delta or it’s in Borno or Yobe, the issue is the same. It’s the issue of unemployment and poverty. I thank you for finding time to come to Port Harcourt.”

Conflict resolution Mr. Barton told Governor Amaechi that they were in the state to find possible ways to assist the state government in any conflict situation. He highlighted the good relations between the United States of America and Nigeria and commended Amaechi for his work CONFERENCE: From left: Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, presenting in Rivers State and his ability to the Legal Instrument of Ratification on Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC 2006) to the Director-General of the International Labour Organisation, Mr. Guy Rider and Executive Director, Maritime resolve problems. “Thank you Mr. Governor, it’s a Labour and Cabotage Services, Nwabueze Obi,during a conference in Geneva Switzerland. great pleasure to be here with you. We have had the chance to savour your hospitality and enjoy your state in the last 24 hours and it’s been a great pleasure. We’ve had the chance to drive out to the countryside and visit with some of your constituents to get a feeling of what you and your cabinet are doing here in the about 6.36 p.m. with 18 Kenyan citizen flew into the By LAWANI state to advance the confidence of the public and MIKAIRU & DANIEL passengers, including country through the the state of the cordial life of your citizens. ETEGHE three deportees from Murtala Muhammed HE Federal Airports Kenya did not follow laid International Airport without Listening to Rivers people proper documentation, Authority of down procedures.” He added that officials of Monday, June 3 and was Nigeria, FAAN, said, “We are spending as much time as we can lis- yesterday, that a Kenyan the Foreign Affairs grounded by the Nigerian tening to the voices of Nigerians (Rivers people), aircraft has been Ministry and some aviation authorities. because at the end of the day our respect for you grounded at the Murtala security officials discovered According to aviation (Amaechi) and for your ability to solve problems is Muhammed International some lapses during sources, the pilot, apart from great and we want to help in any way we can but Airport, MMIA, Ikeja, routine checks and that the failing to file proper flight we know that this is your world and we are only since June 3. The agency DC-9 aircraft marked 5Y- schedule, falsely declared here to help as a friend would naturally do.” said the aircraft violated SAS, belongs to Cavok that the plane was on a diplomatic mission, as it was the country’s security Airlines. Dati, however, explained later found to belong to a procedures. General Manager, that “the aircraft will be Kenyan citizen. The jet was Public Affairs of FAAN, released immediately the said to have brought a personnel deported Nigerian based in Yakubu Dati, who spoke security Kenya, over the allegation with newsmen in Ikeja complete their checks.” It will be recalled that an of matrimonial crisis with his said: “The aircraft which landed at the MMIA at aircraft belonging to a Kenyan wife. BY EGUFE YAFUGBORHI ORT HARCOURT—AS uneasy calm hangs over the political impasse rocking ruling PeoBY BEN AGANDE appointed in 2011. Director of Energia. Before ple’s Democratic Party, PDP, in Rivers State, elders Jonathan has also his new appointment, he and chiefs of Ubima, the Ikwerre community, where R E S I D E N T approved the appointment was the managing director Governor Rotimi Amaechi hails from have warned G o o d l u c k of Mr. Hassan Bello, from of Geo-Concept Technical against perceived threats to the life of their son. During a council meeting, yesterday at the Com- Jonathan has approved Kebbi State, as the Limited. munity Square, the Ubima leaders of thought un- the appointment of Mr. substantive Executive der the umbrella of Ogbakor Ubima Consultative George Abiodun Osahon, Secretary and Chief Assembly, OUCA, assured the governor of their from Edo State, as the new Executive Officer of the 1. Operations Officers Shippers unalloyed support and prayers while describing Director of the Department Nigerian of Petroleum Resources, C o u n c i l . 2. Training Officers his detractors as “jokers.” - Ex Service Personnel Chairman of Ogbakor Ubima, Chief Anwuzuruike DPR, a statement by his According to Abati, 3. Security Guards Daniel, noted that being silent over the issue af- Special Adviser on Media Osahon had served as the - SSCE (Minimum qualification) fecting their son should not embolden outsiders to and Publicity, Reuben Group General Manager, Abati, said last night. National Petroleum take the community folks for granted over the unApply in person to: Osahon with more than 30 Investment Management folding development. THE ADMIN MANAGER Anwuzuruike, who expressed Ubima’s dismay years experience in the Services, NAPIMS; Superior Force Security Ltd. over the way desperate politicians have taken the petroleum sector is to Managing Director, 98, Bamgbose Street, Lagos Island matter, said: “We are saying that he (Amaechi) replace the incumbent Nigerian Petroleum Or Email-superiorforcemd@yahoo.com should not be afraid. We are solidly behind him. I Director, Mr. Osten Development Company, Olorunshola who was NPDC, and Managing Tel-07039511250 know God will not take our prayers for granted.”

FG explains grounding of Kenyan Airline

....As community elders warn against threat to Gov’s life

President appoints Osahon new DPR director

VACANCIES

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013 —13

VISIT: Rivers State Governor, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi( middle); United States Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Conflict and Stabilisation Operation, Mr Rick Barton(3rd left); Jeffrey Hawkins, Consular General, United States Consulate in Lagos (3rd right) and other members of the U.S. delegation that visited the governor in Port Harcourt.

Makinde decries activities of Fulani herdsmen M BY PETER DURU

AKURDI—PRELATE of Methodist Church in Nigeria, His Eminence, Dr. Sunday

Makinde, has decried what he described as unholy activities of Fulani herdsmen in most parts of the country.

Makinde who noted with worry the criminal activities of herdsmen in Benue and other states across the country la-

mented that such activities had led to loss of innocent lives and property. He spoke, yesterday, when he paid a courtesy

call on Governor Gabriel Suswam at Government House, Makurdi, the state capital urging governments at all levels to adopt

the policy of late Premier of the defunct Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, by creating ranches and grazing areas for herdsmen. He said: ’It is very unfortunate that the unabated crisis between native farmers and Fulani herdsmen across the country is leading to loss of lives, maiming and most times, raping of women. ”The dangerous aspect of it is the sophisticated weapons some of these Fulanis carry about. The question is what is their motive of arming themselves against the innocent farmers whose crops are destroyed by their cows. ”I think government at all levels should create grazing fields and ranches so that their cows would not be allowed to stray. Late Awolowo did this when he was Premier of Western Region.” The Prelate who said he was in the state for a ceremony holding at the Makurdi Diocese of the church on Sunday, commended Suswam for his developmental projects which he said had impacted positively on the masses.

C M Y K

14—Vanguard , FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

CPC debunks expulsion of Kanti Bello BY GABRIEL EWUPA

BUJA—THE Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, yesterday, denied that Senator Kanti Bello was expelled as it was insinuated in some quarters. The party in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Engr. Rotimi Fashakin, described the rumour as untrue and handiwork of mischief makers. Faskakin said: “Our attention has been drawn to the erroneous insinuations that Senator Kanti Bello has been expelled from the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC. This is nothing but a piece of bunkum. It is absolutely untrue. “We hereby state unequivocally that Senator Kanti Bello remains a bona-fide member of the party and expected to contribute to the growth and harmony of the party in Katsina state and Nigeria. The expulsion allegation should therefore be discarded as a piece of fiction, lacking efficacy”.

NIMET allays fears over flood alert BY JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU & GABRIEL EWUPA

BUJA—THE Nigeria Me teorological Agency, NIMET, yesterday, said Nigerians should not panic over weather reports, saying there was no cause for alarm. The agency, however, advised Nigerians to take precautionary measures to avoid flooding. Director-General of the agency, Dr. Anthony Anuforom, who gave the assurance, said weather reports and climatic activities such as the current rainfall being experienced, should not cause alarm in the country as the agency was monitoring weather conditions across the states and neighbouring countries. He said: “We are keeping watch on soil moisture in vulner-

able areas, especially water stressed areas, and we are monitoring it. Nothing yet like that because the rainfall is yet to stabilize, and in some of those areas rainfall will start in June. “There is no cause for alarm because the onsets date of prediction is not yet there, but we are keeping eye on this. "From June 18-20, 2013, show that the surface pressure conditions over the South Atlantic and coast of Nigeria and also the wind pattern do not support flooding as predicted. It rather shows stable conditions which will not result in flooding. “The fact that there is heavy rain does not amount to flooding, but people should take precaution. "Other factors responsible for flooding include poor drainage

maintenance, the habit of the people, and soil moisture.” According to him, cumulative rainfall from January to May 2013 has recorded heavier rainfall in and around Abeokuta, Calabar, Lagos, Ijebu Ode, Lokoja, Akure, Ibadan, and Owerri than the same period last year. He said rainfall amounted in excess range of 102- 428mm in some of these places, adding that on the other hand, less rain had been recorded in Bida, Iseyin, Jos, Yelwa and Zaria this year than last year. “The South West States as well as around Calabar and Lokoja soil moisture is beginning to build up but not alarming. The states should watch out, clear the drainages, and other water channels, and including building on flood plains should be considered".

2013 OUTSOURCING EXPO SEMINAR

Flood sacks school, hotel in Ebonyi

C M Y K

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR HE Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Committee constituted by the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, has given hope of reconciling the Victor Umeh and Maxi Okwu led factions of the party by urging both sides to make legal and political compromises. The chairman of the reconciliation committee, Chief Reagan Ufomba, said this yesterday following a meeting of the committee in Lagos with party stakeholders. Ufomba who was inaugurated by Okwu last week, noted the cordial reception given his team by the factional chairman Umeh when the team called on him on a peacemaking trip. Ufomba who was flanked by committee members, including Eugene Orizu, Chris Azubogu, Mr. Obi Okafor, Alhaji Tijani Idris, Mr. Samuel Ebogbodiri, Chief Ray Morphy, Hajia Zainab Abdullahi and Mr. Ezekiel Adegboyega, said the prospects for the committee achieving its objectives were possible.

CBN takes cashless campaign to Anambra

BY PETER OKUTU BAKALIKI—RESI DENTS of Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital, woke up yesterday to discover that flood had taken over some parts of the city, including a multimillion naira hotel, Salt Lake, belonging to the former State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, chairman, Chief Obinna Ogba. The flood also submerged a school, Hope High International, belonging to the wife of former governor of the state, Mrs. Ukama Egwu, following a heavy downpour. The flood, which affected both residential and commercial buildings, was believed to have been caused by the overflowing of Iyiudele and Iyiokwu rivers. Hope High International Schools located along Onwe Road Abakaliki and G-spot, a popular relaxation centre, adjacent the school, both owned by wife of the first civilian governor of the state, Mrs Eunice Ukamaka Egwu, were also affected. Management of the school was also forced to close down temporarily as parents who brought their children to school were seen going back home with them, following the management’s decision.

APGA reconciliation on course — Ufomba

BY VINCENT UJUMADU

SEMINAR—From left: Mr Soji Oyawoye, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Resource Intermediary Limited; Mr Seni Adetu, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Guinness Nigeria Plc and Alex Okoh, Chairman Resource Intermediary Limited at the 2013 outsourcing expo seminar at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos. Pix: Akeem Salau.

From left: Mr Fred Odueme, Assistant General Manager, Brand Vanguard Media Limited; Mrs Mary Uraih, Human Resources Director, Flour Mills of Nigerian Plc; and Jaccqueline Odiadi, Legal Counsel, AOPN.

WKA—THE Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, is to mount a sensitization programme for Anambra business community and other stakeholders in the commercial city of Onitsha to acquaint them with the new cashless policy expected to take off in July this year. Anambra is among six states where the CBN has commenced the sensitization as they control 90 percent of commerce and cash deposit in the country. CBN Deputy Governor, Operations, Mr. Tunde Lemo, at an interactive session with Governor Peter Obi and members of the state executive council said the exercise was part of the policy of the apex bank to stabilize the country’s economy through checkmating the risks involved in moving about with cash.

Vanguard , FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013—15

BY BEN AGANDE

RESIDENT Goodluck Jonath an, yesterday, reiterated his assurance to investors that Nigeria was winning the war against terrorism and the country’s climate was conducive for investments. He spoke at the 14th meeting of the Honorary International Investor Council, HIIC, at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja. According to the President, with the declaration of state of emergency in the North Eastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, the country has witnessed tremendous landmark in terms of security. President Jonathan said the remarkable support from the people of the affected states since the emergency rule was proclaimed was an indication that activities of the terrorists did not enjoy the support of the local population. Jonathan said what the country MEETING—From left: Wazirin Bauchi, Alhaji Bello Kurfi; Senator Salisu Musa Matori; and has been witnessing, in the last few Ambassador Ibrahim Mai-Sule, at the Arewa Consultative Forum annual general meeting in years, had nothing to do with reli- Kaduna, yesterday. Photo: Olu Ajayi. gion but activities of internationally-backed terror groups determined to destabilise the nation. Underscoring the importance of security to the attraction of investments into the country, President Jonathan said his administration would leave no stone unturned to guarantee safety of lives, property and investments.

We 're winning war against terror — Jonathan

Importance of security to investments He said the nation’s economy was growing, but he would like to see improvement to an appreciable level of double digit. The President informed the Council that his recent presentation of a mid-term report of performance of his administration on May 29, was to correct misrepresentations in the public domain about the regime, adding that government would encourage the growth of micro and medium scale business in addressing the high rate of unemployment in the country. In education, President Jonathan said the Federal Government would liaise with state governments to end the menace of high school drop out. He assured that the Federal Government would organise a forum of stakeholders from federal and state levels on the problem after resolving the political impasse within the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.

Problem of oil theft He assured that government will continue to work hard to address the problem of oil theft in the Niger Delta region In her remarks, HIIC Coordinator, Baroness Lynda Chalker, said government must take pro-active action to address the problem of oil theft which she said was “diminishing income into the treasury”. She also charged the government to double its drive on the development of infrastructure, roads, rails, power, which she said “are key to solving other problems”.

Increase in foreign direct investment Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr Olusegun Aganga, said there was significant increase in foreign direct investment in the economy, adding that the petrochemical sub-sector attracted over $20 billion investments with over $8 billion contribution by the Dangote Group. Aganga said the investments in

petro-chemical had encouraged value addition into the oil and gas sector and generate employment. The minister said in the last six months, the telecommunication sector had attracted over $6.9 billion dollars, noting that there had been influx of foreign investments from Brazil, Canada and Netherland, while Turkey had signed an agreement to build an industrial park in the country. He said some of the investors have, however, been asking for

increased incentives to invest in the rural areas, while some complained of skill-gaps. Aganga decried the situation where many Nigerians were unable to take advantage of the investment opportunities in the country because of lack of access to fund. He said government must designed programmes for local investors to access long term finance to encourage re-distribution of wealth.

....As Army trains 3,000 soldiers on counter-terrorism BY KINGSLEY OMONOBI

BUJA—THE Nigerian Army said yesterday, that 3,000 recruits will be undergoing training on counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency in four institutions in the country to further enhance their capability in the fight against terrorism. Director, Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Ibrahim Attahiru, who disclosed this, noted that the number was part of the 69 regular recruits intake who passed out of Nigerian Army Depot. He said they were expected to be trained on house breaking and clearing, urban patrol, unarmed combat, skill at arms and humanitarian laws, among others. Attahiru noted that in line with international best practice and transparency, the Army had reviewed its recruitment procedure to include pre-screening exami-

nation for soldiers’ recruitment. He said: “The Army Headquarters has procured new marking machines to enhance the recruitment exercise. “The machine will be put to use nationwide for the first time during the 70 Regular Recruitment Intake examinations on Saturday.” He disclosed that the prescreening exercise was aimed at selecting the best personnel for the Nigerian Army to enhance its man power and combat efficiency. “All candidates that have applied are advised to report to the examination centres in various states, including FCT. “After the examination, the first 500 candidates that passed would be selected from each state, including the FCT for zonal screening from July at two centres in each geo-political zone”.

He said the ban on sale of NA stickers/banners/military accoutrements was still being enforced. Attahiru said: “The attention of headquarters has been drawn to an impostor who claimed to be one Major Yahaya Shinko (rtd). “He has been parading himself as a retired Major and security expert in some international media and also discussing the ongoing state of emergency and military operations in North Eastern Nigeria. “Please be informed that the officer was reduced to Second Lieutenant on disciplinary ground for ‘Absent Without Leave, AWOL,’ and subsequently retired from service in 1999 for service no longer required". “NA wishes to inform the general public to disregard his views and what he stands for and report such an impersonator to any military unit nationwide.”

Housing: FG gets N48bn World Bank loan BY CHRIS OCHAYI

BUJA—THE Federal Government has concluded arrangements to secure N48 billion ($300 million) from the World Bank under the International Development Agency, IDA, credit facility for the establishment of a mortgage refinancing company to create mortgages in the housing sector. Minister of Lands Housing and Urban Development, Ms. Amal Pepple, who disclosed this during her presentation at the 2013 ministerial platform, said the Federal Government was seeking for international cooperation as parts of its efforts to address housing deficit facing the nation. Ms. Pepple also disclosed that an international conglomerate, Shelter Afrique, was extending $100 million credit facility to support housing development in Nigeria. She said the $100 million facility would be facilitated through the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, FMBN.

FCTA debt hits N201bn BY LAIDE AKINBOADE

BUJA—THE Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, said yesterday, its debt profile was in excess of N201 billion. FCTA also said it was set to perform the groundbreaking of 14 stations across the 250 square kilometres of Abuja rail project of FCT and some satellite towns. FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, who disclosed these at the 2013 ministerial platform said his administration was doing everything possible to ensure its reduction. He commended President Goodluck Jonathan who, in his wisdom, directed the fast-tracking of rail mode of transportation to reduce the over-dependence on road which had been characterized by traffic congestion and chaos. C M Y K

C M Y K

16 — Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

ACF boss accuses Northern elders of betrayal Alleges divide and rule tactics against North BY LUKA BINNIYAT

ADUNA—THE National Chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, Alhaji Mohammed Aliko has accused some members of both the ACF and the Northern Elders Council, NEC, of betraying the north by endorsing President Goodluck Jonathan for a second term in office, contrary to the north’s position that it was their turn to rule the country in 2015. Aliko spoke in Kaduna yesterday during the opening ceremony of ACF’s annual general meeting. According to Aliko, some ACF and NEC members have betrayed the North by meeting President Jonathan and affirming their support for him for the 2015 general elections and decried the ongoing political campaign ahead the elections, saying it was affecting the quality of governance in the country. He said: “It is very sad that the Presidency has employed the divide and rule tactics

against the North. It is very glaring, because we noticed with dismay that some members of this organisation have gone to the President and assured him that he must contest for 2015 election. “We are really surprised that some northerners that went there are also members of ACF. I am speaking particularly of two gentlemen. The two gentlemen I am referring to, one is a member of the ACF and the other is of the Northern Elders’ Council. The ACF

member is General Lawrence Onoja, rtd. He was actually part of the group that went to see the President (with elders of the South-South). Also, one of the Northern Elders Forum, is Senator John Wash Pam. He was there. “We are surprised that they have really gone to see the President. We are particularly sad because General Onoja is here with us in ACF. We went to Maiduguri together when

we went to see Dr. Ahmed Datti, (the President, Supreme Council of Sharia in Nigeria, SCSN) and Onoja was with us. “He (Onoja), also made it possible for us when we went to Maiduguri to meet the leaders of the Joint Task Force, JTF, and we had a long discussion with them till the early hours of the morning. The military had problems with the Maiduguri people and we thought that if we intervened, things would be better. “That is not all, we have gone

with Onoja to every meeting we have held and he knows what the North wants. Now for him to turn round to say the President must contest in 2015, using the word, must, is very sad for us in ACF.’’

Commenting further, he said: “It is the considered view of the ACF that starting politics of 2015 two years earlier is counterproductive, since apart from heating up the polity, such early start can distract governance, more so that INEC is yet to give the green light for political activities to begin.”

Military retirees lament non payment of pension arrears in 3 yrs BY EMMANUELELEBEKE

BUJA—THE retired Army, Navy and Air Force Officers Association of Nigeria, RANAO, yesterday, demanded the payment of three years pension arrears of its members as approved since 2010. The group lamented the non-

payment of the accumulated arrears three years after it was approved for payment. Briefing newsmen in Abuja, the Secretary of the association, retired Brig. General Patrick Onaghise, regretted that the association had lost some of its members as a result of the situation.

Onaghise said: “In 2010, President Goodluck Jonathan approved the upward review of salaries of federal officers which automatically applied to pensioners. While flagging off the payment of outstanding arrears of military pension, the president directed the Minister of Defence to ensure that

military pensioners be included simultaneously with any future review. “We are aware that all federal public servants including serving military personnel have been receiving this new remuneration with effect from July 1, 2010.”

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013 — 17

The Dame drama!

*Readers’ Reactions Here are some Vanguard readers’ reactions to my comments about Dame P: From: Ifeka Okonkwo ifekaokonkwo@yahoo.com Donu, the office of the First Lady which is unconstitutional, should be scrapped, as the wives of the President and the governors use such an illegality to boost their family fortunes for their generations yet unborn, while most of their compatriots are trying to eke out a living with the skin of their teeth, including myself who is a C M Y K

pensioner and whose pension is nothing to write home about! +2348078921191 Manni Donu, you are great. At least you have been able to tell Dame Patience the truth. I always wondered why she gets involved in so many controversies.

P is being a bit too feisty, even for a Feminist like me! She is generating too much tension and being excessively combative. Most of the Rivers State indigenes I know – Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi included - were very happy when one of our own became the most influential woman in Nigeria. And I know that looks are not important within this context, but we can be forgiven for frivolously boasting about Dame P’s prettiness.

disrespectful. You forget that we have some b a s i c responsibilities t o w a r d s constituted authority.

A perfect Presidential spouse +2348033323555 The day my Anonymous comments Official Nigeria has generated so w e r e much embarrassing published in residence controversies. If so much t h i s inglorious and bad publicity n e w s p a p e r, Amaechi proudly hung a trails Dame Patience while the nice photograph of Dame P on Dame •Patience Jonathan she is still in power, one came to Rivers the walls of his official wonders how history will deal State and we residence as soon as she with her when she is no longer were told that she would stay not only lavishly and became First Lady; and it is in power. here for a while, attending pointedly praised Amaechi’s so damned sad that a plethora various social and official opponents and predecessors of possibly avoidable Anonymous (requested that functions. And she quickly but scathingly implied that misunderstandings have his number be withheld): Port Harcourt has ceased to be muddied the waters and made her presence felt. Donu, can't stop loving your First she was a beautiful garden city during made Dame P feel neglected and slighted by her own state his tenure. government. She has also informed the She and Amaechi can resolve their But she and Amaechi can anti-Amaechi elements who problems without being spiteful and have treated her like a Queen resolve their problems since she arrived that this is without being spiteful and confrontational; most conflicts can the first time she’s been confrontational. Most conflicts be sorted out via honest and humble “properly” acknowledged on can be sorted out via honest her home turf since her and humble communication. communication And I – and so many other husband became President. Meanwhile, she’s been onlookers – will be immensely frank and sincere blasting of enthusiastically welcomed at holding meetings with disappointed in Dame P if she Dame P. Why is she the airport by a large crowd stakeholders. And I’m continues to parade herself as distracting a man (Amaechi) of politicians who have axes hearing that senior police an implacable rival who is who is performing fairly well? to grind with Amaechi. Then officers are reporting to her; eager to abuse powers to she is not She should cross over to my she created massive traffic and it has to be said that many which state and see six years of jams in the centre of town – people feel that she’s constitutionally entitled. A perfect Presidential waste. where she has built a palatial (inappropriately) carrying on spouse is one who is quietly residence - because several like an alternative governor. I have always liked feisty supportive rather than +2348069811376 Opara roads were totally shut down females who fear nobody, aggressively self-promoting. Haba! You more or less by her security operatives. accuse the President's wife of Then, in a speech that she bluntly speak their minds and A word is enough for the terrorism based on rumour. If delivered at a wedding, she do their own thing. But Dame Wise. you have facts, let us have them. Otherwise, by African Responses to: donzol2002@yahoo.co.uk or to 0802 747 6458 (texts only). PLEASE KINDLY or even Western standards, NOTE THAT UNLESS YOU REQUEST ANONYMITY, YOUR COMMENTS MAY BE you have been grossly PUBLISHED, WITH YOUR NAMES AND CONTACT DETAILS ATTACHED.

N last Friday’s column, I made the following comments about Dame Patience Jonathan, the First Lady: It takes less than 30 minutes to drive from my village to her village, so I feel as if we are Sisters of sorts. And I have fondly praised her on this page quite a few times. But she needs to protect her image more zealously. Her name keeps cropping up whenever toxic conflicts in our state – Rivers - are being discussed. And she’s often strongly suspected of being behind all manner of irregularities. Many people were, for example, sure that she was lurking in the background when militants stormed Government House last month to demand Amaechi’s removal. I would like her to be…genteel, decorous and totally uncontroversial.

•Gov. Chibuike Amaechi

•President Goodluck Jonathan

18 — Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013 IF officials of the Federal Ministry of Education, or any of the public officers with over-sight functions for education, had their children in polytechnics in Nigeria, they would have been more circumspect in joining the Minister of Education, Ruqayyatu Rufa’i, who is celebrating the excellent standards of the institutions. Staff of polytechnics, particularly federal ones, have been on strike for more than two months. Their grievances - teaching aids, arrears of their entitlements - have been addressed with official silence. Rufa’i spoke at a meeting in Abuja without a hint that she knew about the strike. The consequences of many weeks of no education on the qualifications the schools would award was no cause for concern. While those who have been admitted cannot complete their education in a wholesome manner, the minister was busy announcing plans for admitting new students into universities and the striking institutions. Her duty appears to begin and end with making these announcements. According to the minister, 51 federal and state universities and polytechnics had benefited from rehabilitation and upgrading

BY KALU -ONUMA I.A.

ECENTLY, there has been a lot of news about a police bust up of baby selling homes or cartels, or about people selling their children for a fee. The government reaction has been predictable: arrest the culprits, spit fire and make outlandish claims. Hardly is there any statement made of the victims, the children or any further news, if any, of outcomes of investigations. One is left with little or no information about what really is the truth of the matter. Divest from the story our perennial superstitions that whosoever gives a baby away or plays a go between or obtains a child by such means is necessarily doing so for evil intentions. Consider for once that this is a social challenge that neither the government or the consciously ignorant and superstitiously ridden society has no time to give any serious thoughts. The ills of unwanted pregnancies which eventually results to unwanted child births have been long considered a taboo in our land. The unfortunate young girls, mostly victims of rape, poverty, exclusion and ignorance are immediately derided, cursed and treated as both a taboo and an outcast. With little or no protection from the law or society they are forced out and made to roam about often with no food and shelter in addition to being sick. On the other hand, we are meant to care and show some understanding both for the poor girl and her unwanted yet-to-be-born child. In the past, we know there were old women in our various villages that stepped in to carter for such poor souls and provide shelter. Then came the Church and the Catholics led in this. They provided shelter and food and helped the

Over-sighting Education of their laboratories to 21st century standards. The project cost N15 billion. What type of laboratories would N15 billion set up for 51 institutions? At an average of less than N300m or $1.83m, what type of laboratories would they be? How useful would the laboratories be if the authorities ignore the teachers and technicians who would use them? The silence over the teachers’ strike says a lot about the type of attention the human resources side of education gets. It did not matter how long the strike lasted. It was unimportant if the students missed the opportunities that evaporated with their graduation at certain periods.

We are only wondering if it would have made a difference if the wards of those in authority attended these schools. Would they have left their children at home for so many weeks? Why are governments unable to fulfil their obligations, particularly to education and health workers – two major areas of national lives, and often of major labour relations rifts? The Education Committees of the National Assembly were quiet too, though these schools fell within their over-sight functions. Were the committees unaware of the development? What are their plans to end these disruptions that contribute to the production of poorly trained graduates? Nigerian leaders have to be more serious with important issues like education. It makes little sense to make grandiose plans about education without provisions for the human resource base that would implement them. Alarms are being raised about the falling standard of education. Insistent strikes that leave students untaught for months can only worsen the situation. Issues around education are too important to be relegated to resounding silence.

OPINION or factor The Moses fact young girls find their bearing and also helped in finding foster parents for the children since most if not all of these girls were rather too young to carter for their children. As time went on, they started getting unwanted babies dropped in front of the churches or nunneries; these too were taken in and taken care of. We had motherless babies homes created by these churches purely to carter for these aspect of our social challenges. They were initially funded by the various Church missions, but like most things Nigerian, they were taken over by fiat and with time this too fell into disrepute. A lot of stories were spurn around them, funds were cut off and with time it became a grooming hot bed for rejected kids who had to make the most of what were and most of them became both criminals and prostitutes just to survive. Over the years, some of these missions, mostly in Enugu and Anambra states had by government support started reclaiming some of these homes and they have slowly started playing their roles again. In other places, we still have some of the homes, poorly run and their matrons, as they were called, turning to various sharp practices to keep the homes running. Some had closed down, others as was reported a few years back, were taken over by a gang of criminals who did as they wished with the children. Now, one wonders what the surprise and rage over these illegal "Foster Homes" is all about. Nature they say abhors vacuum. Nigeria cares little or nothing about what social challenges its citizens go through. It

pays no attention to our ills and this carelessness breeds a certain kind of indolence and props up some back room resolutions. No laws are made to deal with these challenges. Some NGOs had in the past raised alarm over such neglect and some have even done something about it, but it isn't enough as we can see. To really resolve these matter and control the abuse of this rather sensible approach to scorn and ridicule, laws should be made to control the creation and sustenance of foster homes. Where these laws already exist they should be reviewed and implemented. The so-called illegal homes must not just be a subject of ridicule or criminal investigations, they must be understood for what they are, and proper regulations, in terms of space, culture, health and other important parameters, put in place. No doubt, there would be abuses, but when these are thrown open, and allowed to function as part of our institutional changes, innovations would come in and so also funding. We should not abandon this aspect of our society and demonise or criminalise any that tries to do something.

hat is the fate of those rescued from the said homes? My inquiries showed that apart from the immediate loquacious note of triumph coming from the police and governments, nothing did happen to some of them. Both the Abia and Imo cases were treated as political gimmicks and the children and their

rescued mothers asked to go back to their respective unwelcoming families. No medical attention has been given to their various health challenges and the obvious psychological traumas that are embedded with these kind of estrangement. A society that cares less about its vulnerable citizens is bound to treat all with scorn. Yet the various unconstitutional "First Ladies" run amock with our funds creating all sorts of plastic foundations that cater for nothing more than their egos and criminal minds. Of what values have they added with the token bags of rice and various other nonsense they have donated to few of these select homes? What is required is a grand scale rehab of our social system. With enabling laws to guarantee the safety of the young girls, obvious victims of entrapment and their unborn babies; and a law on adoption reviewed and stringently controlled we can control the spread of illegal foster homes. As long as society would exist as we know it, there would be a continued need for the provision of support for the vulnerable. The right to shelter, the right to life, the right to be treated with respect and dignity, all remain a fundamental human right and must be implemented across the board. We must shed our superstitions and ignorant fixated belief that any baby born out of wedlock, given out to another or adopted is evil or wrong. History is littered with great men and women adopted, found or taken care of by another.... Remember Moses? We sure do. And there are many more like that out there. *Mr. Kalu-Onuma, a social critic, wrote from Lagos.

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013— —19

AHATMA Gandhi, referred to by historians and authors as the Father of Modern India, listed the seven blunders of this world as Wealth without Work, Pleasure without Conscience, Knowledge without Character, Commerce without Morality, Science without Humanity, Worship without Sacrifice and Politics without Principles. Gandhi was assassinated in 1948 because this world wanted to live with blunders at whatever the cost. The Collins English Dictionary 21st Century Edition 2000 defined blunder as: “ To make a stupid or clumsy mistake…or to mismanage or botch a thing”. For man to blunder in a situation, his action must appear stupid or an action resulting from lack of intelligence or common sense perception. We have spiritual, economic/ financial, and political blunders. It is a spiritual blunder for man to attempt to coast through life unaware of the constant conflict between the forces of good and those of evil over man’s affairs on this earth, and that you can’t get any special favours from the heavens without sacrifice. God lives in the third heavens. The devil knows this, and from the second heaven attempts to

illegally commit man to the blunder of the occult, satanic, marine, and fetish power, all to the ultimate destruction of his victims, because through these avenues accidents, untimely deaths, calamities, afflictions, poverty, marital failures, killings and murders are unleashed on earth using the activities of demon spirits. It is a blunder for parents not to teach their children that demonic activities like stealing, adultery, corruption, same sex relationships, ritual killings, are very bad. People seek human blood and parts for rutual powers to get wealth and fame, but it is the biggest blunder as such evil money is often left, after the death of the victim, for his wives and relations to squander! Only Jesus gives wealth without sorrow, and He demands some hard work. The Bible declares that those unwilling to work will not eat.Ritual for money and fame is a blunder. It is economic blunder to think that wealth from deceit and lies will last. Many Nigerian business moguls got their money from government one way or the other through deceits, lies, and stealing. It is a blunder when a man goes to China, imports substandard products, and sells to unsuspecting consumers. The Bible in Proverb 20:17 declares that money obtained from deceit

is sweet, but in the end it will be like stones in the mouth. It is an economic blunder for all the oil wealth of this nation be owned mainly by one section. It is such blunder that led to the Niger Delta militancy, the Boko Haram uprising, and who knows what next. It is a blunder for government to think that unemployment will be reduced without industries, factories, agriculture, and the real sector.

t is a blunder for a man to jump into a business enterprise without studying and understanding the tricks of the trade and the booby traps to avoid in the business. A friend of mine, who retired from an oil company jumped into the

2015: Neither Amaechi nor ACF but God through good works BY GODWIN ETAKIBUEBU

RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has come of full age in the politics of survival. He seems to have learnt all the tricks in the kitty of political manipulation. He now knows how to apply the brake of any fast moving political vehicle when he is not even in the driver’s seat. He has been fully baptised into the inner chamber of this game of manipulation and permutation, which partisan politics stands for. Looking backwards, however, I dare say that the man knew little of this game-play when he emerged as Vice President in 2007. Nor can it be justifiably concluded that it was his knowledge of the political terrain that threw him up as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces after the demise of his predecessor. Yes, he did some politicking when he came of full age to contest, on his right, for the presidency of the country in 2011. Even then, the “finger ” of God was obviously seen in his life. God sent “helpers of destiny ” to him and the difficult task became so simple. Let us take a few of those notable “obstacles” of that time who were fully prepared to stop him. The Northern Elders Forum, NEF, stood out as first among equals in that battle to stop a South/South man becoming president in Nigeria. The second entity on that battle was no less than one of the controlling “Principalities and Powers” in Nigerian kingdom of darkness – Major General Muhammadu Buhari [rtd]. Please, permit me to say that all the past Military Heads of State; all of C M Y K

them, except Yakubu Gowon maybe, are in the club of Principalities and Powers and they are all, what the Bible called “rulers of darkness in high places”. The NEF, in that battle, unknowingly worked out the ‘promotion and decoration’ of Jonathan in ascending the throne. They probably meant it for evil to Jonathan when they disqualified a deity, the evil genius himself, who would have made more impact, in favour of Atiku Abubakar. By that action, the NEF, which carried all the viable Northern groups, including Arewa Consultative Forum, shot itself fatally, and sustained a major “injury” that might take more than 25 years to heal. Buhari, on the other hand, became victim of his past anti-democratic, draconian and anachronistic actions and he fell in the field of democratic freedom. Besides, his ego of religious fanatic-cum-tribal sentiments levelled him to the dust on the very vital day of electorate reckoning. These were the events of that time that Jonathan must not forget in hurry. Now, let me go to the reason of the above historical excursion. Of recent, with the shameful and most disgraceful work-out of the Nigerian Governors Forum, there is no hiding the fact that Jonathan has drawn up some battle plans to shoot down those he perceived as road blocks to his appointment with destiny, come 2015. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the Governor of River State, may just be “first among equals” in the “enemies” list. There must be others on the list, one can guess. The pathetic thing about Jonathan’s list is the inclusion, probably, of the war guru

BY CLEMENT UDEGBE

Man, blunders and Nigeria

More political blunders are waiting to happen, including not allowing GEJ to run in 2015; the North thinking that they can forcibly take power in 2015 by violence and Islamic fundamentalism

business of asset management with a rookie from a bank as his operations manager. They took in so much money from depositors without any exit covers and arrangements. When the capital market crashed in 2009, he landed in so much debt, his depositors called in the EFCC. He insisted that he would not run from the country, and he was jailed for three years. Had his representatives argued blunder, it would have perhaps made the difference in his defense and in the records of the High Courts, such that with time, the defense of blunder may avail honest business mistakes against certain charges in court. This is because to blunder is not criminal! To prove that this world does not accept blunders as criminal, two examples in business will suffice. On March 15, 2013, the Financial Times of London reported that a key and senior staffer of J.P. Morgan Chase, committed a big blunder that led to a loss of over $2.0 billion and increasing as months pass by. JPMorgan – which is the biggest US bank in terms of assets –did not charge the officer involved for a criminal offence. In Nigeria the EFCC would have beaten their chest that they have caught a thief. Also on November 8, 2011, the London Guardian reported that: “JUST one government official lost a bonus over a mistake which is believed to have cost taxpayers £10million, it was revealed yesterday ”. This wiped off bankers Goldman Sachs’ £40million tax bill after an avoidance scheme failed. The officer involved was not charged to court. It is hoped that blunders

My dear President, if you can fix (the energy sector) and move Nigeria to the region of 15 – 20 KWA before 2015, angels from heaven will surely come down to join millions of Nigerians to campaign and vote for you

– “Baba” Olusegun Obasanjo himself. What a titanic battle! There will be casualties of this “enemies” as the race to 2015 leaps, obviously. Though no one can predict the exact outcome of any battle because of the dynamics of war, it is safe to say that there can be “double bumping” sometimes in the arena of hostility. This may mean that per each “enemy” of Jonathan brought down by his “ war machine”, he may be, unwittingly, creating more powerful enemies. Let me give one good example of this before telling the President the real enemy that can stop him in 2015.

ormation of the PDP Governors Forum by the ruling party to smear and cut down the influence of the NGF and deal a terrible blow to Governor Amaechi has back fired, to say the least. Now, all those Governors that voted for Amaechi [the enemy] as against Jonah Jang [the friend] are now actual enemies of Jonathan because the truth is that, NGF election is not between Amaechi and Jang

will avail genuine cases of mistake, in Nigerian law courts with time. Blunders occur even in high level global politics.Professor Jagdish Bhagwati, a Professor of Law and Economics at Columbia University and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Exchange in an article, on their website, portrayed President Obama’s failure to appoint Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo –Iweala as a blunder at the World Bank.“President Obama was not prosecuted, and no criminal conduct was imputed to him on this account, because it is human to commit blunder. The continued neglect of the South East Zone of Nigeria, including the absence of a deep sea port, international airports, rail links, and good road network, is a blunder by the leaders of the ruling political party in this country. The late Prof Chinua Achebe rejected the Nigerian national honours on two occasions because of the deliberate destruction of the political structures that will weaken South East to negotiate power at the center by the FG. More political blunders are waiting to happen, including not allowing GEJ to run in 2015; the North thinking that they can forcibly take power in 2015 by violence and Islamic fundamentalism; that our police force as it is now, can give us efficient security. Blunder is part of life, but the worst blunder is for one tribe to kill another for political power in this country.

*Mr. Udegbe, a lawyer, wrote from Lagos.

but between President Jonathan and Amaechi. This unnecessary creation and extension of the enemy territorial power base would have been avoided if only Mr President ignored the so-called Governor Amaechi influence factor. What the President needs to know is the name of the actual ENEMY that can stop him in 2015. That enemy is neither Governor Amaechi nor Aliyu Babangida [who co-ordinated the Northern Governors for Jonah Jang, only to cast his vote for Amaechi, according to Chief E.K Clark]. Not even the North [which North?], speaking through ACF plus ECF can stop Jonathan as an enemy in 2015. The real enemy that can, and will surely stop you in 2015, Mr President, is when you fail to perform. Take the energy sector for an example my dear President. If only you can fix it against all odds and move Nigeria to the region of 15 – 20 KWA before 2015, angels from heaven will surely come down to join millions of Nigerians to nominate, campaign and vote for you. If the truth must be told, as things are now, if you were to even secure the ticket of your party – PDP – to run and contest the elections of 2015, the Nigerian electorate will reject you. The foundation of such massive rejection will be purely “ your inability to perform” and there is no any other sector that performances can better be appreciated in Nigeria of today than fixing the energy sector. And you can do it if you don’t allow these “household enemies” [your PDP brothers] to deceive you. Don’t allow them to lead you to your doomsday in 2015 by giving you an automatic ticket or any other Hosanna language. These same people will shout crucify him after your fall and quickly queue behind whoever comes next. So it is your works, my dear President, not the enemy, that can stop you in 2015. *Mr. Etakibuebu, a commentator on national issues, wrote from Lagos.

20 — Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

Shocking: Father lacerates back of 14-month-old baby ••says: Her crying disturbs me BY SUZAN EDEH, Bauchi

HAT would push a man into an action that will inflict severe pain or even endanger the life of his own child? Which sensible or a normal father will readily take up a whip to flog a child that is only 14 months old? A child that can barely talk? These are some of the questions now begging for answers following the petition of a housewife who brought her husband before the Bauchi State Shariah Commission. Vanguard Metro, VM, gathered that Huwaila Abdulahi, 22, who has been separated from her husband, is asking the Commission to investigate and unravel the mystery behind the strange marks all over the back of her 14 months old daughter. Although the estranged housewife is not seeking for a divorce, she is demanding for justice for her innocent baby as the 14 marks were not there when the father sent one Ibrahim to bring the little girl to spend some time with him. The man, identified as Ibrahim Haladu, is being accused of carrying out a ritual on his child.

shouting at me to stop. She was even angry and rebuked me for beating her like that. I regret my action. The marks on my daughter’s body is not for ritual purposes as wrongly insinuated by some people. I can never use my child for ritual. It is unfortunate that my wife had to drag me to the Sharia Commission because

I was watching an Arab channel but she would not let me be with her cries; I was enjoying the programme, but her cries kept distracting me

He has been invited by the Commission to explain the strange marks on his daughter’s back. But he is insisting that he only flogged his daughter with the cord of his handset charger because she was disturbing him from watching his favourite satellite television programme. He has also denied that the marks on his daughter’s back were for ritual purposes. In spite of his statement, many people who saw the strange marks on the child were not convinced of his testimony as they believed they were carefully incised. In his account of the incident, Ibrahim said: “I was watching an Arab channel but she would not let me be with her cries. I was enjoying the programme, but her cries kept distracting me. I was provoked so I brought out my charger phone wire and flogged her. My first wife Aisha who heard her cries came out and was C M Y K

* Sahura, the 14 months baby...flogged by her dad

*The injury marks on her back

she has a grouse against me. We have been having problems with her, but that is between us. Why should I go to the extent of using my child for ritual? I only beat

her as a father. I don’t belong to any cult or secret society”. Some residents of the Tirwun, a suburb of Bauchi, where Ibrahim allegedly carried out the beating of his baby were left in shock on seeing Sahura with the 14 strange marks on her back. They called for thorough investigation into the case so as to unravel the motive behind his action. But his estranged wife Huwaila, the mother of the little girl, is still sceptical over her husband’s explanations. She is pleading with the commission to thoroughly investigate the matter. VM learnt that the couple had not been living together due to some marital problems. Ibrahim moved to his house in Tirwin with his first wife, Aisha leaving his

second wife, Huweila with his parents. Hajiya Huwaila told VM that her husband occasionally comes to pick Sahura to spend some time with him since they were not living together. According to her: “My husband, his first wife and I lived with his parents at Bakin Kura before he moved with his first wife to Tirwun, leaving me and my daughter Sahura behind. But he occasionally comes to take the baby to spend some time with him in his new place and bring her back. One day he sent one Ibrahim to come and bring Sahura; this was around one in the afternoon. But when they brought back my daughter, I noticed something unusual about her because she kept crying and I wondered what was wrong with her. When I

checked her body, I saw some strange marks all over her back”. Huwaila said she quickly rushed to the Bauchi State Shari’ah Commission to lodge a complaint after she confronted her husband who claimed he only flogged Sahura because she was disturbing him with her cries. The permanent Commissioner II of the State Shari’ah Commission, Jibril Hassan, confirmed that Huwaila lodged a complaint prompting the commission to summon the husband. Hassan added that the commission was investigating the issue and would charge the father of the girl to court at the appropriate time. He also said that if found guilty of the accusations leveled against him, the accused would be charged to court.

Security: US holds youth forum for safer environment BY VERA SAMUEL

ANYAGAFU & PRISCA SAM-DURU

HE US Consulate Lagos recently held a youth forum in honour of American Fulbright scholar, Erica Licht. The event featured presentations that addressed strategies that would enable the youth get engaged in an experimental learning project using criminal justice, environment and life skills curriculum. The youth justice program tagged U.N.I.T.E (You and I Teach Each Other) which was initiated for the promotion of positive behavioural development of youths through exposure to the criminal justice system and nature, ac-

cording to Erica, “will positively break down barriers between the youth and law enforcement agents, and through environmentalism teach leadership, communication and conflict practices in Nigeria”. Under the auspices of the security and youth development programmes in Ajegunle, Ogudu and Lagos Island, youths were taught how to understand and manage their environments without conflict or any form of violence. Participants in each of the U.N.I.T.E community sites were taken through special workshops in video arts, yoga, media production, painting, poetry, photography, gender based violence and alternative to violence, ATV, while rep-

resentatives from the three zones each testified that participants acquired the much-needed training on how they would relate with their environment in resolving conflict situations. Speaking also at the event on the need for the police to partner with the youth in order to address the security challenges the country is facing, Divisional Police Office, DPO, Adeniji area, CSP Monday Agbonika, while commending the consulate and Erica for putting together such programme at a time Nigeria is battling against violence, noted that U.N.I.T.E programmes have been able to teach Nigeria youths to understand that there are alternatives to violence and criminality.

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013 —

FIRS to start automated VAT deductions in aviation sector — Official

From left: Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Central Securities Clearing System Plc, CSCS, Mr. Kyari Bukar; Chairman, Mr. Oscar Onyema; and Company Secretary, Mr. Charles Ojo at the company’s annual general meeting, in Lagos.

Africa Export-Import Bank disburses $1.51bn to Nigerian clients T

HE African ExportImport Bank in Addis Ababa said it has disbursed more than $1.51 billion to clients in various sectors of the Nigeria economy within the past 20 years. Jean-Louis Ekra, President and Chairman of the bank’s Board of Directors, made the disclosure while addressing a news conference shortly after a seminar with the theme “Industry Clusters and Supply Chains as Prerequisites for Diversification and Sustainable Development of Export in Africa.“ The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the seminar

was part of the activities to mark the bank’s 20th anniversary and Annual General Meeting (AGM). It was attended by various economic and finance experts, including the World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB) and government officials from Africa and beyond. Ekra said the bank, with a Regional office in Abuja, Nigeria’s Capital, had provided the amount as loan and investment to more than 10 business concerns in the Finance, Aviation, Energy,

+0.75

122.75

2,210.00 -49.00 16.94

+0.18

106.04

-0.23

98.21

+0.02

CURRENCY BUYING CENTRAL DOLLAR

154.75

STERLING EURO

242.2611 207.3805

FRANC

168.2065

YEN

1.6272

CFA WAUA

0.2942 234.5852

155.25 243.0439 208.0505 168.75 1.6325 0.3042 235.3432

SELLING 155.75 243.8266 208.7206 169.2935 1.6377 0.3142 236.1011

RENMINBI

25.2545

25.3366

25.4186

RIYAL

41.2623

41.3956

41.5289

KRONA SDR

27.7987 236.3342

27.8886 237.0978

27.9784 237.8614

CBN Exchange rate as at 20/06/2013

Agro-Allied, Transport, Hospitality and Telecom subsectors of the Nigerian economy within the period. He said the bank is currently partnering with some 20 banks to provide about 88 trades and intermediary support in the finance sub-sector to help the growth of middle level businesses in Nigeria. According to him, the bank is providing banking and finance services through partnership with Diamond Bank, Skye Bank, Nigeria’s Bank of Industry, Nexim Bank and Unity Bank. Others

include, Arik Air, Songhai, Ibom Power and PPMC, Ile Oluji Cocoa and Dansa Foods; Lagos Bus; Ikoyi Hotel and Panasonic; Lonestar and Seplat; Nigerian German Chemicals and CAPCOM Telecom Limited. Ekra announced that the bank planned to increase its support in providing infrastructure, which is currently a major challenge on the African Continent. Experts including the World Bank said Africa needs an annual investment of $120 billion for the next 10 years to meet its infrastructure demands.

Guinness boss decries unhealthy competition in outsourcing industry BY JONAH NWOKPOKU

ANAGING Director and Chief Ex ecutive Officer of Guinness Nigeria Plc, Mr. Seni Adetu, has decried the unhealthy rivalry between different outsourcing companies in the country, saying the trend has led to unnecessary fragmentation of the industry. Delivering a keynote speech during this year’s outsourcing expo held in Lagos, Adetu said professionalism in outsourcing is all about effective leadership but it is unfortunate so many people are ignorant of what the profession is all about and therefore abuse it. “I have never seen any industry as fragmented as the outsourcing industry. The industry has been bastardised. Just about anyone who cannot find a job quickly thinks of going into outsourcing. So many people are very ignorant of what the profession is all about. They have neither the

skill nor understand the scale that the outsourcing business demands,” he said. He explained that due to global economic changes such as changes in global lifestyle, fast pace in technological advancement, increasing urbanisation and the heated competition in business landscape, the outsourcing business is becoming indispensable in modern business operations, noting that it is important that players understand these changes and exploit the growing opportunities in the industry. “The world around us is changing; there is a growing shift from the so-called powerful economies to the developing economies. Consumer lifestyle is changing as they are becoming more branded. Technological advancement is on the fast lane, rapid urbanization and the competition landscape is getting heated up. All this would work to provide opportunities for more outsourcing players.

HE Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) will commence implementation of automated Value Added Tax (VAT) and Withholding Tax deductions for the aviation industry in the third quarter of the year. This was contained in a statement signed by Mr Emmanuel Obeta, the Director of Communications and Liaison Department of the service in Abuja. The statement quoted the Acting Executive Chairman of FIRS, Alhaji Kabiru Mashi, as saying this at a one-day sensitisation workshop for FIRS field officers, collection agents and banks. It also quoted the FIRS boss as saying that the pilot automation process in the aviation industry would later cover other sectors such as telecommunication, power and financial institutions. Mashi, who was represented by Mr Onyekachi Ihedioha, the Coordinating Director, Direct Report Group (DRG), said there would be an increase in the number of payment channels to ensure the effectiveness of the scheme. Also, the Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS) will be implemented as part of steps being taken by FIRS to ensure increased tax revenue collection for government. Mashi said that FIRS was also collaborating with commercial banks to make the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) mandatory for opening individual and corporate accounts. “We appreciate the level of cooperation in the implementation of the Taxpayers Identification Number (TIN) system. We have achieved some significant mileage with the introduction of TIN and we hope the banks will fully adopt the “No TIN No Account” option as we go on,” he said. The acting chairman said that while part of the ITAS project focused on taxpayers registration using TIN, the filing and registration and returns processes as well as payment and processing were being addressed by the collection automation project. He said that these mechanisms were being put in place for adequate analysis and monitoring of tax remittances.

22 — Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 201 3

Champion Breweries to raise fresh capital for improved growth C

HAMPION Breweries has concluded plans to increase its capital base in order to enhance competitiveness and ensure growth and profitability. Chairman of the company, Alhaji Shuaibu Ottan, disclosed this during the company ’s 2011 and 2012 combined annual general meeting held in Lagos. He emphasised that re-financing of existing debt through conversion to equity and injection of fresh cash to the company through right issue are key success factors that must be embarked upon. He added that efforts were being made to secure the commitment of major shareholders to participate in the re-financing programme. Giving account of the 2011 financial year, Ottan disclosed that the company recorded a loss of N1.8 billion, stressing that the huge downturn was principally due, in part, to the N603.5 million committed to overhauling the company’s production equipment to enhance capacity and achieve set production targets. Other factors that contributed to the loss, according to the chairman, were interest cost of N517 million arising from the company’s accumulated debt burden, and N716 million depreciation cost, occasioned, partly by the evaluation of assets during the year.

e said that trading results for 2012 continued on the negative trend as in previous years. Though turnover remained stable at N1.8 billion, the company recorded loss of N1.3 billion. The huge loss was occasioned by interest cost of N707 million and depreciation charge of N782 million. Ottan further explained that with the support of professional advisers, the various restructuring options were fully considered before the company opted for refinancing; debt-toequity conversion, allotment of shares on deposit for shares account balances and rights issue. He said that during its meeting of 7th of June, 2012, the board approved a share conversion price of N1.85 per share for the debt-to-equity conversion. He said this was based on the fact that valuation methods such as discounted cash flow do not ascribe value to the company’s shares in view of its huge debt and interest burden. After taking

into consideration the recently concluded acquisition by Consolidated Breweries Plc of the 57 percent shareholding in Champion and the regulatory

BY PETER EGWUATU

filings for the transaction, which included a price of N1.85 per share, he said the price range for the debt-toequity conversion of 50 kobo to

Various options were considered before the company opted for refinancing; debt-to-equity conversion, allotment of shares on deposit for shares account balances and rights issue

N1.85 per share was considered. “This means that 3.1 billion ordinary shares will be allotted to Consolidated Breweries to reduce the company’s debt with N5.735 billion. The board also resolved to propose an increase in the authorizedshare capital. This will allow for the subsequent allotment of shares to Akwa Ibom State Government and Consolidated Breweries to cover the amount in their deposit for shares account,” he said.

BRIEFS ICC Nigeria holds annual general meeting

HE International Cham ber of Commerce Nigeria (ICCN) will hold its annual general meeting at which new members will be introduced next week. The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) is the largest representative business organisation in the world. Its global network comprises over six million companies, chambers of commerce and business associations in more than 130 countries. According to the statement signed by the Secretary General, ICC Nigeria, Mrs. Olubunmi Osuntuyi, the ICCN annual general meeting is being sponsored by Zenith International Bank Plc. She further ascertained that the traditional Post AGM Talk would be delivered by Engr. Joseph Makoju, mni, OON, a former Special Adviser to the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria under two Administrations and presently the Honourary Adviser to the President on Electric Power and Mr. Asue Ighodalo, Senior Partner, Banwo & Ighodalo. Amongst others, the duo will dwell on the topical issue of “Power” and way forward for business.

Citi to mark Global Community Day From left: Mr. Mike Itegboje, immediate past president; Mr. Emmanuel Ohanwusi, First Vice President and Mr. Muritala Olushekun, President/Chairman of council, all of Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS) at a press briefing on the forth-coming Second Annual National Workshop of the institute, in Lagos.

Total pledges steady growth, pays N2.72bn dividends By NKIRUKA NNOROM

OTAL Nigeria Plc said it will take advantage of the opportunities presented by projected growth in the economy in the course of the year to grow its business and deliver more value to shareholders. Chairman of the company, Mr. Momar Nguer, made this promise at the 35th annual general meeting of the company in Lagos. At the meeting, shareholders approved as dividend for the year, N2.72 billion, amounting to N8.00 per ordinary share. This, along with N3.00 interim dividend disbursed earlier in the year, brought the total dividend paid in the year to N11 per share. Nguer added: “Though 2013 is envisaged to be marred by challenges; your company is well positioned to overcome the challenges of the business environment as it has the human capital and experience to do so.” ”We envisage that 2013 will continue to provide us with opportunities for growth and investment and it is a year within which we shall consolidate on our past achievements, take advantage of growth the Nigerian

economy will offer and deliver value to our shareholders and other stakeholders,” he added. He noted that despite the challenges in 2012, Total was still able to post very encouraging results. The company’s revenue increased from N173.95 billion in 2011 to N217.84 billion at the end of 2012 with the market share rising to 11.4 percent from 10.3 percent in the previous year. Also, profit before tax grew by 21 percent to N7.098 billion, up from N5.859 billion in 2011. Profit after tax increased from N3.81 billion to N4.67 billion, 22 percent higher than the previous year, while shareholders fund rose by 13 percent to N11.301 billion from the previous N10.026 billion in 2011. Nguer noted that the result is indicative of the commitment of the board and management to growing shareholders’ value irrespective of operating challenges. He noted that Total is now one of the major players in the solar energy industry with the acquisition of 66 percent stake in Sun Power, a leading solar energy operator based in the US.

MPLOYEES of Citibank Nigeria, yesterday announced plans to contribute to the development of education and strengthening communities in Nigeria, as parts of activities marking the bank’s annual Global Community Day. According to a statement by Ohunene Aliyu, Public AffairsNigeria & Ghana, Citibank Nigeria Limited, Citi employees, alumni, family and friends around the world will reinforce the company’s commitment to supporting and improving communities by turning out in force on June 22 to commemorate Citi’s eighth annual Global Community Day. She stated that in the days leading up to and including Global Community Day, more than 60,000 Citi volunteers will gather in 95 countries around the world to participate in more than 1,200 service projects to benefit local communities. “In Lagos, Citi volunteers will be working in collaboration with the UK Department for International Development to provide educational aid to a public school in Lagos. “In Abuja Citi will be providing educational assistance to a school for the Blind and in Port Harcourt Citi will be providing educational support to a Community school.”

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013 — 23

MINISTER of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adeshina recently called on the Federal Government to privatize all the 12 river basin development authorities across the country for what he described as their failure to live up to their mandate. In a swift reaction, Managing Director of Upper Niger River Basin Development Authority, Minna, Niger state, Professor Paul Marley, in this chat with WOLE MOSADOMI, said the various authorities have not only performed creditably well but even far beyond their capabilities in the face of scarcity of funds and therefore submitted that the agitation for their privatisation cannot and will not work. Excerpt.

Privatisation of river basin authorities’ll spell doom — Prof. Marley

N the call by Agriculture minister for privatisation of river basins

It is a misconception. The river basins authorities have done quite much based on the funds available to them and also based on the policy changes from one administration to the other.

On government’s position on the issue Certainly, I am not aware of such a decision, at least we have not been informed.

Is there any need for the river basin authorities to be privatised now or in the future? There is no need privatising the RBDAs. How are you going to privatise a dam? You have a dam with an irrigation scheme attached to it. How are you going to privatise them. Do not forget that these dams and irrigation schemes are located in the rural areas and not in the towns and assuming you have a scheme with 8,000 hectares, the primary beneficiaries of those schemes are the farmers in those areas. First, it is their land in as much as compensation have been paid to them, it is still primarily their land so we are holding that land in trust for them because we cannot say those lands are one hundred percent our own. They still have a claim to it and so when you privatise such a scheme, are you creating employment or creating more unemployment because you are going to throw all those people out of those areas because the private individuals will want to come with their own machineries to carry out their own business and make money. So how do you privatise such a scheme?

Prof. Paul Marley

What are the consequences of privatising such a scheme. I think we need to sit down and really look at issues and not just because of possible primordial thinking and issues. So, privatization in itself will not work. It cannot and it will not work.

achieved since then clearly shows that we have justified our existence. In Niger state for example, we have the Tungan Kawo irrigation scheme which has been

On the relevance of the Upper Niger River Basin Development Authority.

I can authoritatively tell you that the Upper Niger River Basin Development Authority has taken giant strides from those days it was created. A brief look of what we have

expanded from 300 to 600 hectares and now going to 800 hectares of irrigated land which is being utilised. We have constructed the Agaie/Lapai Dam which is even bigger than the Tungan Kawo Dam and we have also awarded a contract for the irrigation scheme. We are starting with 400 hectares now and in the nearest future, it is expected to reach 1000 hectares. Also in this state, we used to have the Jebba/Doko and other minor irrigation schemes,but because of the policy change that all agriculture related infrastructure should be privatized during the days of TCPC which was also one of the damaging factors that caused the RBDAs to almost go comatose, the irrigation scheme was neglected. For example at our own level here, all our significant assets were sold to private individuals but if you go round today, the infrastructures privatized then are now in a sorry state. Go and see the largest poultry scheme we had then in Gwada, you will weep and this is a government infrastructure. It was sold to an organisation that can hardly maintain an office of its own. In terms of other achievements, we have resuscitated some of these minor irrigation schemes

including that of Jebba Dam, Doko irrigation scheme and we are assessing right now how much it will cost to revitalize the Swashi Irrigation scheme which is another large scheme that went comatose with the changes in policy. That scheme is 2,900 hectares with two dams lying waste as at today. Similarly in Niger State, we are also constructing twelve dams scattered all over the state. They are located in Kuta, Paiko, Lefu, Tundun Fulani, Essan, Kogi Liman, Bago, Angwan, Akili, Mariga, Auna,Kontagora all now under construction. The Aunal/Kontagora Dam when completed is going to be the biggest in the state. In Kaduna, we have so many dams and irrigation schemes that have been constructed. We have more than twenty solar earth dams. Of this, we have even given about sixteen to Kaduna state government after signing an MoU. Apart from that, we have built the Galma Dam which was completed about a month ago. This Dam is one of the largest Dams within our Authority and this Dam was also built for three purposes which are to supply water to Zaria, to contribute to the development of the 1000 hectres irrigation scheme with 400 hectres about to take off now and to generate 2.5 megawatt electricity from the same Dam.

Nigeria looks to EU market for fresh produce trade INISTER of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has expressed optimism about the country’s ability to play big in the European Union fresh produce market, saying that the country has the potential to do this. Before now, smaller

Officials of theFederal Ministry of Agriculture presenting letter of approval for the establishment of cottage industry for farmers in nine cooperative societies and other associations in Oyo State

countries in the sub-region have been supplying bulk of what goes to Europe as fresh produce, with Nigeria trailing behind, doing very little in the trade. The minister, speaking while receiving a delegation comprising Nigeria’s Agricultural Fresh Produce Growers and Exporters’ Association of Nigeria (AFGEAN), Irish and Belgian Ambassadors, EU high-level representative and DFID representative in Abuja recently, said for the country to do this that there must be a national strategy and an investment plan, adding that a mulch-stakeholder approach is needed in putting the plan and strategy in place. Adesina observed the need for a research and development service as well as an institutional arrangement comparable to what obtains in Kenya, which is now a major horticultural

product exporter in Africa. The minister said Nigeria is closer to Europe than Kenya and can compete better than Kenya in the European market. Lamenting the lost opportunities in the past, the President of AFGEAN, Alhaji Tajudeen Aminu Dantata, said “Nigeria is seriously lagging behind in the export of vegetables whereas other nations are making a headway.” Dantata observed the socioeconomic benefits that can accrue to Nigeria through production and export of fresh produce from Nigeria to Europe. “In agriculture, he said, we need to put the economics into perspective. Maybe we can reduce anti-social behaviours.” This, he said, was to help reducing the vices associated with unemployment, as fresh produce can profitably engage many people.

24— Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

Libya counts on tourism for rebuilding

IBYA´s Ministry of Tourism has enlisted UNWTO to help implement an action plan to rebuild its tourism sector as an effective way to increase national revenue, create employment, foster national cohesion and enhance the county’s international image. A UNWTO mission led by Secretary-General Taleb Rifai made a first approach on the specific needs of the country during a workshop on technical cooperation in the capital Tripoli. Libya is counting on tourism to help rebuild the country, in the light of its ongoing socio-political transformation. Libya´s Ministry of Tourism has drawn up an action plan focused on institutional capacity building to pave the way for sustainable tourism development and calls on the support and participation of its public and private sectors to help implement its plan. — UNWTO

Honest hotel worker gets surprise reward

Mambilla plateau

Mambilla Plateau: The unexplored tourist haven STORIES BY JIMOH BABATUNDE

HIS summer, like previous ones, aFFLUENT Nigerians will be trooping out of the country to visit tourist destinations in Europe and America, in complete disregard for lots of destinations in the country they do not even know about. One of such tourist destinations is the Mambilla Plateau. As a destination it has one of the best weather conditions in the country which is cool and always accommodating all year round, unlike other parts of the country where there are temperature extremes during the day and night. The Mambilla Plateau is also free of mosquitoes and tse-tse flies. Daytime teperature hardly exceed 25°C on Mambilla; the driest months are from December to January with relative humidity dropping to about 15 per cent while the wet season usually starts from August. Located in the highland region of Taraba State of Nigeria, Mambilla Plateau houses Chappal Waddi mountain considered the highest point in Nigeria with an average height of about 2,419 metres (7,936 ft) above sea level. The Mambilla Plateau is inhabited by five major ethnic groups with different cultural heritage. These

ethnic groups are; Mambilla, Kaka, Fulani, Panso and Kambu. Just as the weather is accommodating, so also are the people of the Mambilla Plateau, welcoming and so hospitable. At an altitude of some 700m, these villagers live in a different ecological zone where oil palms grow and gallery forest is found. The Mambilla language is an amalgam of dialects and related languages.

Beauty of the plateau The journey to Mambilla starts on a snake-like road from the foot of the mountain to the top, about 25 to 30 minutes drive where you start savouring the beauty of the plateau. There are rolling hills, backdropped with exotic flora and fauna. It has a lot of scenic views to behold, which while watching the mountain chain and the curvacious valleys you will have a breath of fresh air that is uncommon in many other parts of Nigeria. The major tourism attraction sites on the plateau are: The mountain chain, the plain green view, and a magnificent water fall. Then there is the historic site — the famous cave in Mbamnga — Ndumyaji Cave. There is the rock with a giant foot

print of an ancient warrior at Kabri, the rock with a horse foot print at Hienary, the historic site of the ancient blacksmith that existed before the modern one at Killa yang. There is also the historic rock of the Mbar people that looks like a woman and her daughter. The Mambilla Plateau is richly blessed with fertile land, and various crops grow well there. The crops include banana, plantain, pineapple, yellow pepper, kola nut, red and white carrots, peas, cassava, cocoa yam, sweet potatoes, Irish Potatoes, Coffee Arabica, and lots of other fruits. In addition, three or four types of berries grow there. It also has the second largest tea plantation in the world second to the one in India. Livestock like cow, goats, sheep and other rare birds thrive on the plateau. There are also natural forests like the Ngel Yaki mountain forest and the Ndum-yaji forest that are home to very rare species of birds and trees which have attracted lots of researchers from around the world. Because of the remote location of the plateau and lack of properly tarred roads which are still under construction, utility vehicles are recommended and visitors should make sure that essential camping equipment and food are included in their journey.

S you read this, a staff of Transcorp Hilton hotel, Abuja, Blessing Victor is studying in an aviation school in Lagos, free, as a reward for her honesty. Blessing Victor, a room attendant in the Housekeeping Department of Transcorp Hilton found N500,000 cash in a room she was cleaning. The occupant had checked out. The money, apparently left by the last occupant of the room, was returned by Blessing to her supervisor and recorded as lost but found. The guest later discovered his money was missing and quickly contacted the hotel, not sure if he actually left the money in the room. The guest was surprised to learn that the room attendant who cleaned the room after he checked out found the money and returned it intact. Impressed by this rare show of honesty, the guest returned to the hotel two weeks later to reward Blessing for her display of honesty and integrity. She was rewarded with a cash prize of N100,000. The guest didn’t stop with the cash reward, he offered Blessing the opportunity to further her education at the Nigerian Aviation School in Lagos by paying full tuition for a two-year diploma course for her. Integrity does pay! Blessing’s exemplary conduct was also recognised by the hotel management. At a reception organised for her, the General Manager thanked her for living the Hilton Value of Integrity and presented her with a Blue Energy Certificate in addition to an offer of complimentary stay in the hotel on any weekend of her choice.

•Blessing Victor,

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013 — 25

26—Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

How destiny brought Fatai Rolling Dollar and I together

•Evangelist Ebenezer Obey

— Ebenezer Obey

Ahead of preparation for the final burial of highlife maestro, Fatai Rolling Dollar, who was buried last week in Lagos, Juju music maestro-turned evangelist, Ebenezer Obey in this interview recounts the story of his brief encounter with the late octogenarian musician. He also talks about what it takes to be a musician back in time among other things.

By BENJAMIN NJOKU

read your tribute where you de scribed late highlife maestro, Fatai Rolling Dollar as your mentor. How was it training under him? Music is something I believe God wanted me to pursue as a career in life. When I look back, and I remember that as a baby, my mother was carrying me to the church. I was actually influenced into music through the church. While in my early school days, I became a member of the school band. Thereafter, I joined the choir and emerged the school band leader. The gift of God in me as a multi- instrumentalist was speaking for me wherever I go. Right from my school days, I became a famous person by the fact that I was the school band leader. From there, we had the Idogo Boys and Girls Club. In that club, we had a band.

Though I was the youngest member of the club, yet I was made the leader of the band. This is because I was leading the vocals and was actually the star of the band. However, when other members of the band realised it was my show, they all left the band. That was when I formed my own band and named it Ifelode Mambo Orchestra in 1957. I grew up in Idogo, Ogun State and had my early education in Lagos. While in Lagos, I became the doyen of bands. The bands saw me as a gift and they all wanted me to play with them. I finally played with some elderly musicians such as Bangwoshe and Savage Orchestra. While I was playing with these bands, Fatai Rolling Dollar was also playing with J.O Araba. One day, I heard the sound of Agidigbo, an instrument somebody played excellently in J.O Araba’s music. I also play the same Agidigbo very well and I would use

my experience to score the performance of the person that played the instrument in that music. Within an hour I’m done but this particular one took me several hours to score his performance. That was what made me to insist on meeting the man that played this Agidigbo. As a matter of fact, I spoke to those elderly musicians, pleading with them to introduce the man to me whenever he comes around. They told me that the man usually passes by my axis. I pleaded with them that I was interested in knowing who he was. One day, while he was passing, they told him that ‘this boy had been asking after you.” They introduced me to him. That was the day we met for the first time. I saw his guitar hanging around

INSIDE

Why Kim Kardashian named baby Kaidence Donda West

C M Y K

Seen TV with magic remote control?

his neck. That day, I asked him if he was the one that played the Agidigbo, narrating how it took me several hours to score his performance. He inquired to know how many fingers I usually use while playing the Agidigbo. I replied, saying that I’m used to two fingers while most people use only one finger. But he shocked me by saying that he used all the fingers. At this juncture, you cannot use two fingers to score somebody who plays with all his fingers. It would be difficult. That was how he became someone I so much loved and admired. From that moment, I followed him to his house with his guitar hanging around his neck. While on the way to his house, every chord he struck, I would compose a song. He marvelled at my talent. That was how we became friends. He cannot do without seeing me then, just as I could not do without seeing him a day. He would visit my house and I would follow him to his own house. That led to my playing with his band, Federal Rhythm Brothers. I happened to be the person that God used to bring that band together. He became my boss and we had good relationship until we later parted ways. I later formed my own band. Rolling Dollar was a nice man.

Continues on page 27

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013—27

Synopsis Star Trek Into Darkness is a 2013 American science fiction action film. It is the twelfth installment in the Star Trek franchise and the sequel to 2009’s Star Trek. It was directed by J. J. Abrams from a screenplay written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Damon Lindelof, based on the series of the same name created by Gene Roddenberry. •Ebenezer Obey

•Fatai Rolling Dollar

How destiny brought Fatai Rolling Dollar and I together Continues from page 27 Within the years you worked with him, what would you say endeared you to him? He was a man who was committed to his career in music. He was working at the Railways before establishing bis band. But when we formed the band, it was a full time thing. He was a talented vocalist and guitarist. You described your first album, E wa wo ohun oju mi ri as a failure. What was the problem with the album? It was not a failure. I was explaining that in those days, it wasn’t like what is obtainable today where artistes approach recording companies with their demo. The recording outfits will have the opportunity to play the demo and decide whether they will release the album or not. But during my time, there was no demo technology. Everything was based on the practical. I could recall how I went to a recording company and introduced myself as a future star and a musician. The company auditioned me with my band and thereafter, they recorded my songs. The pattern in those days was that they would record all the artistes and later, organise a listening time for distributors who would book the number of copies they want from the individual artiste’s songs. So, at the end of the day, they would total the number of records they booked from each artiste. If it’s not up to 500 copies, the recording company would see the songs as something they would not release. However, after I have scaled through all the auditions, and by the time, the distributors listened to my songs, the total number of copies they booked was 19 pieces less than the 500 as required by the company. That does not mean that the album was a failure. Rather, I wasn’t able to meet up with the required numbers of copies. Even at that, the managing director of the recording company who believed in me ordered about 25 copies of my songs instead of the 19 copies. And it was the first time the company’s Managing Director would order an artiste’s songs . What the musicians of today should learn from my time was the determination I had to trek from Mushin to Lagos Island to storm Decca West Africa office to sell myself to the management of the company. That determination is part of life. That was what helped me become who I am today.

I didn’t wait until I had money to board a bus before I could go to the Decca West Africa office on the island. If you are sure of the gift of God in you, then try to be adventurous. Without adventure, there

can’t be success. What was it like playing Juju music in those days? The Juju music we played, we had an identity. Every artiste must have an identity. I am known as a good composer and my songs were meaningful. If you are a good composer, people will want to listen to your music all the time. It’s either you are a good composer or a good instrumentalist. I’m a good instrumentalist and the edge I had over my contemporaries back then, was my composing ability. Meanwhile, every musician then had an identity. That’s the way we played Juju in those days. But I admire the present generation of musicians. They are reaching out to their generation. The only thing they need to take away from us is the lyrics of their songs. Anybody will like to hear something good That’s the secret. Was it all that easy abandoning your musical career for the work of God? Yes, it was easy because it was a call. God’s call cannot be resisted. God called me after being a successful musician. I have taken my music to the four corners of the world and God now called me into the ministry. I heeded the call and here I am today. I knew everything about me came from God. The success I recorded as a musician also came from God When God spoke to me, I wondered if I could be able to embark on the journey. But when the Holy Spirit speaks, it speaks the right words. 21 years after becoming a servant of God, what would you say have changed about you? Several things have changed about me. I noticed that before I came into the ministry, the life of a celebrity was still in me. But by the time I came into the ministry, I started weighing a lot of things because not everything is acceptable to God. If you want to follow God’s way, you must be prepared to do away with certain things. Do you believe that Fatai Rolling Dollar’s name desire to be immortalized? There are so many things that can be done to immortalise him. One, to remember him for the good things that he did while he lived, to remember him for the records he released, and to realise that by his death, the Nigerian music industry has lost a great musician. Nothing can be too much in trying to immortalise him.

“Thirty Seconds to Mars” begin Intl. tour

TOP MOVIES OF THE WEEK •AFTER EARTH •FAST AND FURIOUS 6 •STAR TREK •TEMPTATION •LETTER TO MY MOTHER

Exhibition Schedule for 21st -27th June, 2013 SILVERBIRD CINEMAS, VICTORIA ISLAND Star Trek into Darkness :11:10am,6:10pm,8:50pm Letter to my Mother :2:10pm,6:00pm After Earth :2:20pm,4:10pm,9:10pm Fast and Furious :11:45am,4:15pm, 6:45pm Temptation: 1:35pm, 3:55pm. SILVERBIRD CINEMAS, IKEJA Star Trek into Darkness :10:40am,1:10pm,6:20pm,9:00pm Letter to my Mother: 5:25pm After Earth :12:00pm,6:50pm,8:55pm. Fast and Furious : 2:25pm,9:05pm Turning Point: 11:55am Temptation: 4:35pm SILVERBIRD CINEMAS, PORTHARCOURT Star Trek into Darkness :12:40pm,3:20pm,6:00pm,8:45pm Letter to my Mother :4:15pm,6:35pm,8:40pm After Earth : 12:30pm,2:40pm,6:50pm, 9:00pm Temptation :11:00pm,4:40pm Turning Point :12:10pm,2:10pm Fast and Furious :3:50pm,6:20pm,8:50pm Host: 12:20pm,2:25pm Journey to self :11:45pm, 4:10pm,20:35pm SILVERBIRD CINEMAS CEDDI PLAZA , ABUJA Letter to my Mother :12:30pm,4:30pm,8:30pm After Earth :12:40pm,2:40pm,4:40pm,6:40pm,8:40pm Temptation: 2:15pm, 6:55pm, 9:10pm. Turning point: 2:30pm,6:30pm SILVERBIRD CINEMAS ABUJA Star Trek into Darkness :12:10pm,3:10pm,5:40pm,8:20pm Letter to my Mother :4:30pm,8:10pm After Earth :12:20pm,2:20pm,4:30pm,6:30pm, 8;30pm. Fast and Furious 6 :12:50pm,3:20pm,6:000pm,8:40pm Turning point :4:00pm G. I JOE: 12:40pm, 5:00pm SILVERBIRD CINEMAS, UYO After Earth: 12:20pm, 2:35pm, 4;40pm,7:00pm Temptation: 12:15pm,2:30pm,4:45pm, 6:55pm, Letter to My Mother :12:10pm,2:20pm,4:50pm,6:50pm The Host:2:20pm,6:40pm Turning Point :12:00pm, 6:50pm Weekend Getaway: 2:05pm Journey to self :11:45pm,2:00pm OZONE CINEMAS LAGOS Star Trek into Darkness : 2:15pm,5:00pm,7:40pm After Earth: 12:15pm,2:30pm,4:35pm,6;40pm Fast and Furious :1:05pm,3:40pm,6:15pm, 9:00pm Temptation: 12:00pm FILM HOUSE SURULERE After Earth: 5:00pm, 7:00pm FILM HOUSE IBADAN After Earth: 2;10pm, 4:10pm,6:10pm Flower Girl: 3:30pm,5:45pm The Host: 2:30pm,7:45pm FILM HOUSE CALABAR After Earth: 4:00pm,6:45pm Temptation: 8:45pm

28—Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

MI, J.Martins, others storm Owerri for Star Trek

t’s been two exciting weeks so far with FESTAC city and Lokoja getting first taste of the Star Music Trek excitement as superstar artistes MI, Ice Prince, Naeto C, Sound Sultan, Psquare, J. Martins and many more storming concert venues to thrill eager music lovers. This weekend, MI, JMartins, Phyno, Wande Coal, MrRaw and other artistes will be storming Owerri, the entertainment hub of the east where eager fans from the city and surrounding areas such as Abia, and Enugu are already getting ready for the 3rd leg of the exciting annual music tour. The concert, which is hosted this year by comedian and compere, Gbenga Adeyinka will hold at Hero’s Square tomorrow. According to rapper and label boss, MI, fans in Owerri who have been awaiting this Saturday’s show, can be sure of three things: great music, fantastic artiste per-

MI formances and lots and lots of amazing surprises. “It’s always an awesome time at each Star Music Trek Concert,

our fans can attest to that. Owerri’s event will bring the brightest and best of our artistes on one stage, I’m sure many music lovers are looking forward to

that,” he added. Speaking in the same vein, J. Martins noted that the concert would be a great time to hang out with friends and just generally have fun. “Every Star Music Trek concert brings something different and that’s what attracts the thousands who come out, rain or shine, for every show. “It’s real, it’s exciting and worth every minute spent there for both the performers and artistes.” Music fans in Aba, Abeokuta, Agege, Asaba, Enugu, Nnewi, and Surulere are not left out as the concert will also tour these cities over the next two months. The Star Music Trek Presents ‘The Trek’ ends with a major finale on August 10th at National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.

Why Kim Kardashian named baby Kaidence Donda West

IM Kardashian and Kanye West have re portedly named their daughter, Kaidence Donda West. The reality TV star gave birth to the couple’s first child last Saturday in Los Angeles, California, and a loose-lipped nurse at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, the hospital where she had her baby, has allegedly revealed their new arrival’s name. According to reports, Kim and Kanye have settled on calling their daughter Kaidence, which would follow the Kardashian family tradition of naming daughters with the letter ‘K’. Meanwhile, the newborn’s middle name is a tribute to the ‘All of the Lights’ rapper’s late

THE TEAM BENJAMIN NJOKU njokujamin@yahoo.com

AYO ONIKOYI OPEOLUWANI OGUNJIMI

mother Donda West, who died in November 2007. Kanye, 36, was incredibly close to his mother and even penned a tribute song about her, titled ‘Hey Mama’, for his 2005 album ‘Late Registration’. Kim, 32, was expected to give birth in mid-July but had her baby five weeks early after experiencing an early onset of labour pains last Friday evening. The star ’s sister Khloe Kardashian-Odom said both mother and baby are doing well.

Crystal Sapphire thrills fans with DanceHall 101 By IYABO AINA

OP musicians proved their mettle in music, dance and comedy during the maiden edition of Dancehall 101, held at Crystal Sapphire and Club located along Ojo Road, Alakija area of Lagos. Artistes that performed include Mode 9, Sound Sultan, Naija Ninjaz crew, Spyda Man, Frank D Nero, Easy Miagy, Skinny, Ine among others. Each artiste thrilled the guests with hit-tracks from their album. Speaking at the occasion, the manager of Crystal Sapphire and Club, Michael Nlemadim said, “ Dancehall 101 is a show where different artists entertain party lovers with different genre of music. It is a monthly show set up by the hangout to raise the bar in entertainment industry in the •Chinyere country.”

Terry G inspires my music — Samklef By ANOZIE EGOLE OPULAR producer and P singer, Samklef, went down

memory lane recently as he recalled how he sang in the same church and produced with Terry G . Since then, he has been inspired mostly by the singer. It might interest you to know that the showbiz boy, Samklef, who has churned out hits after hits with Terry G, would be doing his first collaboration with Terry G in his video titled, “Display” which will soon hit the market. The video which was shot by Samklef, brings out a side of him which fans are not used to as everyone in the video catch the ‘display’ frenzy and dance it all off. Meanwhile, the singer is also doing finishing touches on his single which will soon be out where he featured a female singer whom he would not want to say her name for the mean time.

Kim Kardashian

GOtv out with 2 new channels G

Otv has been punching well above its weight and this month the dynamic pay TV operator continues to champion its audiences’ right to great entertainment. This time, it has partnered with the heavy hitters of African television, M-Net and SuperSport, to launch a new movie and a new sports channel Wednesday, offering even more action and entertainment to its GO-getters! From love stories that will melt the heart, laugh fests to keep you giggling or action to get you fired up, M-Net Movies Zone is des-

•Samklef.

tined to become a popular viewing choice among fast growing GOtv Plus audiences. The channel has also conveniently scheduled family movies during the day, with comedies and romance scheduled at night. There will be six new movies released every week on the channel and if you miss any movie, the titles will be rescreened to give you more opportunities to view. And the best news is that there are absolutely no ad breaks on this channel. So you won’t go to commercials in the

middle of that tense scene or have to wait until after the advert to see what happens next. Of course, in the M-Net tradition, you can expect to see some of the biggest stars in the world on M-Net Movies Zone so there’s Hollywood glamour and glitter to add a special sparkle to your day! In June look out for Laws of Attraction (Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore), Step Up (Channing Tatum), The Man (Samuel L. Jackson), Hidden Assassin (Dolph Lundgren) and Let Go (Kevin Hart).

Also making its debut on GOtv Plus is SuperSport Select 2, the sister channel to the already very popular SuperSport Select. While the original Select channel will continue to screen African football; live games from the EPL, UEFA Champions League and Italian football; as well as delayed Spanish and Bundesliga games; plus other FIFA/CAF football, the reality is that the channel had so much sport (soccer, boxing and athletics) that the only way to accommodate it all was to launch a second channel.

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013—29

With PRINCE OSUAGWU princeosuagwu@gmail.com 08050498513

Seen TV with magic remote control?

hen the new LG CINEMA 3D Smart TV lineup, unveiled in Nigeria last week, what every potential user at the launch event queued to see was the magic remote control. The remote provides a similar function as a mouse controlling a PC and incorporates unique control capabilities of –point, wheel, gesture and voice search recognition. Teamed with easier content access and sharing, the updated Magic Remote helps the new Cinema 3D smart TV bring a simplified, intuitive user experience. The LA8600 & LA7400 TV series come with Smart share plus functions that enable content sharing from various devices to the screen of the TV and vice-versa via six different ways. While the Time Machine II function gives users the opportunity to record live TV programs as well as rewind, pause and playback contents with the TV’s in-built memory. Introducing the device at the Ikeja City Mall, weekend LG said the aim was to revitalize the family time that has been observed to be waning. The TV comes with Smart features, sleek design and superior

picture quality. The Magic Remote itself has been redesigned to fine-tune content and menu navigation, making interaction as simple and intuitive as possible. GM, Home Entertainment Division of LG West Africa, Mr. Steve Ryu said: “In a massive way, the new LG Cinema 3D Smart TV line-up brings today ’s sophisticated consumers a premium home entertainment world. It is packed with new features that are designed with consumers’ savvy needs in mind, resulting in smart sharing of content, smart control of home entertainment system, and smart content that brings a smile to adults and children alike. ”This TV has enhanced smart share features which provide users the ability to mirror or better still transfer content from smart devices to TV via a multitude of connectivity options, including WiDi (Wireless Display), Miracast, Tag on and 2nd display, making it superior to competition.” With the newly updated version of LG’s popular Time Machine II feature, users do not have to worry about missing their favorite shows

V, mart T S a m e D Cin *LG-3 anymore; TV programs can be recorded and saved onto the TV’s built-in 4GB memory. Users can later rewind, pause, or playback the recorded content. It also allows users record programs on a TV channel while watching a different channel with its 2-Tunner function. They are also able to rewind and playback in the middle of recording. Another remarkable feature is that it can also be scheduled to record a program even when the TV is not switched on. An exhilarating aspect of the LG Cinema 3D Smart TVs are the Smart Share functions with a massive array of capabilities. One of the outstanding feature in the new TV is the Wi-Fi Alliance certified Miracast which makes

NEW DEVELOPMENT

Samsung for faster Galaxy S4 smartphone?

Microsoft office to run on iPhone

BY JOY OBOMASE

sers of iPhone will from today begin to use Microsoft’s Office software package through subscription as Microsoft office is offering the ability to read and edit text documents, spreadsheets and slide presentations at the doctor ’s office or at a soccer game. However, the company isn’t making an iPad version, nor is it offering the app on Android devices. The company seems to be making its $100-a-year Office subscription more compelling, without removing an advantage that tablet computers running Microsoft’s Windows system now have - the ability to run popular Office programs such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Office Mobile for iPhone is available free through Apple’s app store, but an Office 365 subscription C M Y K

it possible for users to enjoy easy and fast connection among TV smartphones and tablets without wires, enabling easy transfer and sharing of digital content right on the TV screen. In general, Miracast allows users to push video, music and pictures from an Android smartphone or tablet (Android 4.0 or newer) to the screen of the TV, wirelessly. Sharing between mobile devices and the television set has never been simpler with Tag On; this feature allows mutual content sharing and mirroring; users can share contents from their TV to their phone and vice-versa; by users simply “tagging” their smartphone to

*Apple iP

hone,

is required to use it. That subscription lets you use Office on up to five Mac and Windows computers for the annual fee. Actually, subscription can be more expensive than buying the package outright for just one or two computers, but the iPhone version won’t be sold separately for those who resist the recurring fee. Microsoft has been pushing subscriptions as a way to get customers to keep paying for a product that has historically been sold in a single purchase.

ven when the newly launched Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone is yet to gain ground, reports are rife that Samsung is likely to come up with a faster Galaxy S4 smartphone. The product will debut in India. The phone is reportedly touted to have the ability of transmitting data at nearly twice the normal speed. The new S4 will use LTEAdvanced 4G technology, an upgrade from conventional 4G called LTE, or long term evolution. LTE-Advanced offers data transmission at up to twice the normal 4G speed. The phones will be powered by Qualcomm chips. Samsung range of Galaxy devices include, Galaxy S, Galaxy SII, SIII and now SIV, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note 2 and Galaxy Y. Samsung remained world’s number one smartphone seller for the first quarter of this year in terms of revenue, overtaking Apple. Available statistics data from Strategy Analytics show, as Samsung’s smartphones topped $23.63 billion during the first three months of 2013, toppling the

iPhone maker which had occupied the top spot in the previous quarter. Apple posted $22.95 billion worth of smartphone sales in the first quarter, down $7.71 billion from the previous quarter. Comparatively, Samsung’s first-quarter sales figure was up $952 million from the previous quarter. Samsung plans faster Galaxy S4 smartphone

*Galaxy S4 smartphone

30 — Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21,

C M Y K

2013

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013 — 31

C M Y K

32— Vanguard, FRIDAY , JUNE 21, 2013

O many people turn to crazy fad diets to shed the pounds, because they promise dramatic and unrealistic results. Not only are these diets proven to be ineffective, they can also be very dangerous to your health. Experts maintain there is only one way to lose weight properly: exercise regularly and eat a healthy diet that’s high in protein. Proteins maintain and promote your lean tissues, while burning fat for fuel and curbing your appetite. In short, eating a high protein diet will make working out more effective and eating healthy easy.

1. Lean Meat, Fish, Poultry Amount: 1 Ounce = 7 Grams of Protein Incorporating and increasing the amount of lean meats, fish and poultry (lean chicken, salmon, tuna, etc.) in your diet will give you a huge boost of healthy protein in addition to offering so many other health benefits. An average piece of chicken breast or salmon fillet can range from 4 ounces to 8 ounces, depending on the size. Also, keep it grilled, baked, or raw (in the case of fish) and avoid the breaded or fried stuff.

2. Eggs

1 Large Egg = 6 Grams of Protein Eating two or three eggs a day is a great way to add healthy protein to your diet and keep your calories from sky-rocketing out of control. If you don’t have time to make eggs before work or school, hard boil a dozen eggs at the beginning of the week and store them in the

Why you need your protein fridge. This way, you can easily just grab them and go in the morning.

3. Cheese

1 Ounce = 7 Grams of

ounce of chicken!

4. Low-Fat Cottage Cheese 1/2 Cup = 14 Grams of Protein Low-fat cottage cheese ranks

But there are a few things every individual should know before immediately increasing their protein intake. First, the recommended daily allowance for protein is 56 grams per day for men and 46 grams per day for women. Second, the types of protein you incorporate in your diet can have a huge impact on your weight loss or gain. Lean proteins are always the way to go.

Eating two or three eggs a day is a great way to add healthy protein to your diet and keep your calories from sky-rocketing out of control

Protein Enjoying just a few slices of cheese everyday will increase your protein intake significantly. To put things into perspective, 1 ounce of cheese will give you the same amount of protein as 1

number one for the highest amount of protein per serving. But the key is making sure you’re consuming the low-fat version of these products.

5. Nuts

1 Ounce = 7 Grams of Protein Eating a handful of nuts instead of chips or chocolate for your afternoon snack will go a long way in adding a boost of lean protein to your diet. If you don’t like eating nuts by themselves, try adding walnuts or almonds to a salad to mask the taste and get the same health benefits.

6. Peanut Butter

2 Tablespoons = 8 Grams of Protein Eating peanut butter can be perhaps the easiest and most delicious way to up the amount of healthy protein in your diet. You can add peanut butter to so many things – like wraps, sandwiches, and smoothies – or you can simply consume spoonfuls of this delicious

spread straight from the jar! Either way, I recommend the raw, unsalted version.

7. Soy

Soy products like tofu, soybeans and soy milk are all rich in protein and provide all nine essential amino acids. A 1/2 cup serving of fresh tofu provides 10 grams of protein, 1/2 cup of soybeans provides 11 grams of protein, and 1 cup of soy milk provides 10 grams of protein.

9. Beans

A half cup of beans contains as much protein as an ounce of broiled steak! Great for vegetarians who still want to sneak in the protein. Plus, these nutritious little nuggets are also loaded with fiber, so you’ll stay full for

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013 — 33

Aged citizens lament neglect by govt, society

...as foundation comes to the rescue

n hours.

10. Greek Yogurt

This unsuspecting food is hard to top when it comes to energy-boosting, dietfriendly protein. A 7 oz. serving of this treat delivers about 20 grams of protein. Drizzle with honey or use it as a replacement for mayonnaise in your tuna salad! The following are the absolute worst sources of protein and should be avoided in exchange for the fabulous lean proteins listed above: Hot dogs Bologna Pork shoulder Pork ribs Pork sausage bacon Ham lunch meats Salami

BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI

and well to do in the society cannot give back to the aged. “In civilized countries, senior citizens are paid monthly stipends along with other perks and basic infrastructure for recreation. But here in Nigeria, reverse is the case. Therefore we are appealing to governments at every level and the rich to come up with programmes and policy that would ensure adequate welfare for the aged because what goes around always comes around. It is everybody’s prayers to live long to his or her old age. If you fail to plan for your old age, then you have planned to fail.” Also, Mrs. Anna Ogunbiyi, 68, noted the dearth of welfare homes for the aged and appealed to members of the public to come to their aid as successive governments have failed in their responsibility to help the aged. She said: “I am very frail now, as you can see. My children are not with me. Every weekend one of them comes around to assist in some household chores. But during the week, am all alone. I lost my husband many years ago. Life is so boring during the week. Please we need your assistance, we the aged in this our country.” The founder and Executive Director of the foundation, Mrs. Oke, however, said that before year 2010, when she established the foundation, caring for the people, especially the aged had been her passion. She said she hopes to sustain it as far as she could because, “we should all take care of our aged just as we take care of little kids.” Oke, who disclosed that plans were ongoing to build a standard Old Peoples’ Home, with Occupational Therapy Centre, listed some of the objectives of the programme as: Prevention, diagnosis and treatment of minor ailments for the elderly, provision of free drugs, distribution of cash gift among others.

It is everybody’s prayers to live long to his or her old age. If you fail to plan for your old age, then you have planned to fail

ENIOR citizens of Nigeria, the aged, in Lagos state have cried out in supplication to God for intervention as various levels of government in the country. They alleged that the society has forgotten about their welfare leaving them to wallow in neglet. The aged, who are above 60 years, comprise both sexes and numbered about a hundred, expressed their displeasure, weekend, during an empowerment and free healthcare service programme. The event was organized by Nightingale Senior Citizen Foundation in collaboration with the Ifako-Ijaiye Local Government and held at the council area office, NRC Building, old Akute. The event, a pet programme of the wife of the Executive Chairman of the council, Mrs. Modupe Oke, takes place every second Friday of each month for the past two years. Various items such as foodstuff, games for recreation, clothing, cash, among other things were distributed to the beneficiaries who have formed a group, being run by committee members. Mr. Aro Alaka, 70, who spoke on behalf of other members, commended initiators of the programme for remembering the elder citizens but lamented that their welfare was not well taken care of. While calling on other well meaning members of the society to emulate the gestures by the foundation and the council,Alaka said the foundation should assist in the movement of members by providing a bus with an inscription of the foundation on it. They also demanded for a standard Old Peoples’ Home, equipped with Public Health Centre, PHC, recreational centre for games, that would take care of inmates as well as a generator that would power the entire home whenever there is power failure. Alaka said: “We are suffering. Some of us have died in the past due to boredom and lack of adequate care, apparently, due to insufficient fundss by the children. We have spent our energetic years serving this country meritoriously, there is no reason why the government

34—VANGUARD, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013 “And when my slaves ask you (O Muhammad) concerning Me, then (answer them) I am indeed near. I respond to the invocations of the supplicant when he calls on Me. So let them obey Me and believe in Me, so that they may be led aright.” (2: 186)

iterally, dua means to call for something needed. The word is far more than what we conceive it to be. It is far more than how we observe it and that is why most Muslims do not fully grasp its importance. No Muslim will ever visit a marabout, or any other place to seek spiritual means of solving problems other than the way of Allah. The Prophet said that dua is the sword of every devoted Muslim to subdue his adversaries. It illuminates the heart and strengthen the faith. In another hadith narrated by Abu Hurayrah, the Prophet (s.a.w) said, “In the court of Allah, there is no greater thing than Dua” (Ibn Majah) Dua or supplication is sharper than the spear and arrow that the enemy could possess. It wards away calamities, it is the key to Allah’s blessings; it is the cure for all pains and aches. Prayer is one of the three things that protects an individual. This is followed by abstinence and repentance from sins and showing gratitude to Allah. It is dua that stands between Almighty Allah and His humble servants. The power of the tongue is great, the power of the word is unimaginable. Allah created the world and everything therein with the word. He created man with His word including everything that is hidden and apparent. Whenever He decides to make a thing, He just decrees (commands) with His word and it comes to be. The sun, the moon, stars, fire, etc are created by His word. The same way, Allah has made our tongue potent enough to cause something to happen via dua. He has empowered us to the limit of our relationship with Him to change our destinies with

Dua can change destinies prayers. No matter the need, once communication is established with Allah on a regular basis, there will be result and solution to a problem. Ahmad, Abu Dawood, Tirmidhi related in a hadith as follows: “Verily your Lord is Generous and Shy. If His servant raises his hands to Him (in supplication) He becomes shy to

Prayer for the nearness of Allah – This is more or less observed by Ulamas. They use the prayer in getting closer to Allah. It is strictly adhered to such that it becomes a regular phenomenon. They don’t use it to seek materialism or any

equivocation, the chanting of Allah’s name regularly to magnify Him without any other objective other than to gain nearness of Allah can endear the supplicant to Allah.

And He, in His infinite Mercy, also says: “Who else is there that responds to the call of the one in distress when he calls out, and He removes evil from him? ...Is there any other God besides Allah? Little is it that you remember!” (27:62)

If you regularly call on Allah, He will surely answer you. If you’ve tried calling during the day, beseech Him during the night, call on Him, chant His name, cry unto Him and He will sure answer you. It is a promise He made and He will never renege on it

return them empty” But how do we pray and what are the types of prayers that meets our desires and what are the pre-requisites of dua?

Kinds of prayers

lot of people confuse one prayer with the other and at the end tend to think that their prayers are not answered. No prayer said in the right way, meeting all the prerequisites that is not accepted. Since Allah said call on Me, I will answer you, He will surely answer if you meet the conditions for dua.

Two kinds of dua

thing in the world, but mainly for nearness to Allah. The fact is that it is not only limited to the ulamas, every other person can observe it. It is a prayer for those who believe that once a relationship is established with Allah, every other need becomes less important. The main condition for this prayer apart from other conditions that relate generally with prayers is that it must be sustained, it must be regular. This, to a large extent informed the idea of Sufism. The act is not a bad idea, but some of the adherents of that philosophy have gone beyond their bounds to deify their leaders which is at variance to the principle of Islam. Without

The second kind of dua is supplication for seeking heart desires. (Al-dua qodohul-Ajaati) These are meant to seek material things and other provisions from Allah. Human beings are created with insatiable wants, no matter our position good or bad, rich or poor, high or low class, we need something from Allah. Both kinds of prayers are necessary in the life of a Muslim. When you get closer to Allah, all other material heart desires will become easy to reach. In fact, they will be at your command. If you regularly call on Allah, He will surely answer you. If you’ve tried calling during the day, beseech Him during the night, call on Him, chant His name, cry unto Him and He will surely answer you. It is a promise He made and He will never renege on it.

Conditions for dua

A cross section of the Public Relations team of the Nasrul-Lahi-l-Fatih Society of Nigeria, NASFAT, during the two-day PR seminar organised for branches, in Ikeja, Lagos.

lthough being a Muslim is not a condition for dua, Allah (SWT) accepts the dua of a kafir (disbeliever). Remember, he accepted the prayer of Iblis

to be allowed to live until the last day of Qiyamah. But as Muslims, in establishing dua as a culture, three things must be present. (i) At-toharrat – Allah is God of purification and cleanliness. We must purify ourselves at all times. This act of purification is further divided into three, these are outer, inner and place purification. The outer purification is the ghusl and ablution we make before our prayers. You cannot communicate with Allah in a state of impurity. If you are required to take a bath (ghusl), endeavour to take it before making your dua just as we know that there is no salat without a valid ablution. The inner purification entails that you purge yourself from those things that lead to sins. Any one making dua regularly must endeavour to be conscious of his actions, gazes, sex life and other relationships as well as ensure purity of sustenance. He must eat from what is halal and detest what is h a r r a m . Prophet Muhammad said “Oh you who believe! Eat from the pure and good foods We have given you” Then the Prophet mentioned a traveler on a long journey, who is disheveled and dusty, and he stretches forth his hands to the sky , saying “Oh my Lord! O my Lord!” – while his food is unlawful, his drink is unlawful, his clothing his unlawful, and he is nourished unlawfully; how can he be answered?” (Muslim, Ahmad). The third part is also as important as the former and the latter. The place of worship or dua must be neat and free of impurities. (ii) The second condition for a proper prayer is faith. The supplicant must show that he believes in the efficacy of prayer. He must pray from the depth of his heart and should have a conviction that Allah alone has the absolute power to fulfill his heart desires. The stronger the faith of the supplicant the better the chances of the prayer being answered. (iii) The third condition is Sabr and Istiqaamat (Patience and Steadfastness) Any one calling on Allah in supplication must exercise patience and remain steadfast in prayer. You don’t say ‘I have done a prayer' and fold your arms, you have to regularly and continuously establish communication with Allah, you’ve got to be persistent in knocking the doors of Allah. Also, in being steadfast, you must abstain from sins and shun what Allah asks us to refrain from.

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013 —35

Over 300 Imams for Mogaji's Fidau

n the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful. Someone long time ago, put the question to me on the use of wig by some muslim sisters even though they still abide by the use of hijab. Islam much has it permits the use of ornaments and other kinds of beautifiers for women does not sanction the use of wig. The religion wants us to remain as natural as posssible. Wearing the hair of another human, man or a woman, or joining human hair to one’s hair has been clearly forbidden by the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) The act is viewed in Islam as deceit and not encouraged. The Prophet did not permit it even for a woman whose natural hair had fallen. A’isha (r.t.a) narrated that an Ansari married woman at a time became sick that all her hair fell out. They (her family and friends) intended to join her hair with unnatural hair, so they asked the Prophet (s.a.w) who said: “Allah has cursed the woman who joins her or someone else’s hair (with the hair of another man or woman) and the woman who asks for her hair to be joined with the hair of another.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, no 5589), the hadiths was related by Abu Huraira. The Prophet (s.a.w) said: “Allah has cursed the

Avoid wig and hair extension woman who adds hair extensions and the woman who asked for it to be done.” (Sahîh alBukhârî (5934) and Sahîh Muslim (2122) Therefore, using human hair in any shape or form is unlawful. It is prohibited to join one’s hair with the hair of another human or to wear a wig made out of human hair, regardless of whether the hair is completely joined and fitted into the hair or whether it is merely a wig which can be removed and worn whenever one desires. The ruling would be same even if one had a valid excuse in that one’s hair fell out, as the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w) did not permit it even in such situations. I also understand that some scholars at a time considered that what if the attachment was from from animal, would it be permisible? Yet, the popular opinion among the scholars was that it will only be permissible if it was made from animal hair other

than a pig. “To join one’s hair with the hair of another human is unlawful (haram), whether it is one’s own (removed) hair or someone else’s hair, as mentioned in al-Ikhtiyar sharh al-Mukhtar. However, there is nothing wrong (la ba’s) for a woman to put the fur (hair) of a camel or a goat (or other animals except a pig) in her hair strands, as mentioned in Qadikhan.” (al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 5/358) Apart from the fact that we may not know from which animal a wig or hair attachment was made, it will then be plausible to abstain from it and remain natural. We may also have to contend with the difficulty of getting water across the head while performing ablution or during the ritual bath, ghusl. No matter how synthetic the attachment is, it becomes an external thing on you and should be treated as external during the ritual of salat.

LL is set for the eight-day fidau prayer of Alhaja Abibat Mogaji, the mother of the National Leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, on Sunday. The occasion according to reports reaching Vanguard’s Facing the Kaaba indicates that all the Chief Imams in Lagos including their counterparts from other states in the South West will attend the occasion. Sources confirmed to Vanguard that various chief Imams from Epe,

Ikorodu, Ikeja, Badagry and others from other states will be there to take part in the recitation of the Qur'an for the soul of Alhaja Mogaji. "The attendance will be more than the over 100 Imams that were present at the third day fidau held last Tuesday. Each of them will be given roles to play." he added. "You know she was also the Iya-Adini of Lagos and everybody wants to be part of the prayer." The event which will hold at the Tafawa

Balewa Square, Lagos will also attract eminent personalities from all walks of life. Like the third day Fidau, there will be recitation of Holy Qur’an, the khutbah and lectures. Mogaji, PresidentGeneral of Association of Market Men and Women in Nigeria and mother of former Governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, died last Saturday at the age of 96 and was buried the following day according to Islamic rites.

...as Ansar-ud-Deen mourns

HE Ansar-ud-Deen Society of Nigeria (ADS) recently described the demise of the President-General, Association of Nigerian Market Men and Women, Habibat Mogaji, as an irreparable loss. The group, in a statement issued by its Publicity Secretar y, Alhaji Muibi Adebanjo, said that the late mother of the former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, was an accomplished woman leader.

ADS said it received the news of the demise with total submission to the will of God, adding that she had lived a purposeful life devoted to humanity. “Mama Mogaji had contributed to the development of Islam in Nigeria through her various sponsorships of Islamic programmes, particularly on the electronic media. “A n s a r - u d - D e e n Society, as a foremost Islamic organisation in Nigeria, will for long

remember the support and contributions of the late Mogaji, a distinguished Muslim woman and an accomplished woman leader,” it said. The Society joined the Muslim congregation to commiserate with the entire family of Mogaji and her son, Tinubu, on the loss. It also commiserated with Gov. Babatunde Fashola, Oba Rilwan Akinolu of Lagos as well as Alhaji Abdul-Lateef Okunnu, the ADS President.

Virtues of healing with natural medicine BY HARUN RAZAQ

he Prophet used natural medicine such as herbs for treatment and cure of ailments during his life time. These prophetic natural medicine also include herbs used by his righteous companions which he (Prophet (SAW) had earlier consented to. Most of these materials are mentioned in the Qur’an and Hadith. For example from the Qur’an we have the following: Honey: Allah refers to honey as healing for mankind in Qur ’an 16 verses 68-69. Ripe Dates: Allah said to Maryam “and shake the trunk of the date palm towards you, it will let fall fresh ripe-dates upon you, so eat and drink and be glad” (Q 19 Maryam: 2526). Pomegranate: Allah said: “In them (both) will be fruits and date palms and pomegranates”. (55 Ar-Rahman:68). Myrtle: Allah said:

“And also corn, with (its) leaves and stalk for fodder and sweetscented plants” (Q55 :12), also see Q 56:88-89. Ginger: Allah said: “And they will be given to drink there of a (cup of wine) mixed with Zanjabil (ginger) (Q76:17) Olive Oil: Allah refers to Zaitun in Q95:1, Q24:35. Tiin (Figs): It's one of the blessed trees mentioned by Allah. And from Hadith we have the following: Honey: It is stated in the two Sahih that Abdullah Ibn Ja’fae said: I saw the prophet (SAW) eat the snake cucumber with ripe dates. Pomegranate: It is narrated from Alli that: “Eat the pomegranate with its pulp for it constipates the stomach”. Myrtle: In Sahih Muslim, the prophet (SAW) said: The one who offered a myrtle to him should not repulse as it is light and perfumed. Ginger: Abu sa’d Khudr (RIA) said “The king of

Byzantines presented a jar of ginger to the prophet (SAW) so he gave each and me also, a morsel to eat”Zamzam: It emerged in answer to prophet Ibrahim request in Qur ’an e.g. Q14:37. The prophet (SAW) said concerning Zamzam water: It is useful for all intended purpose, if you drink it for healing, Allah will heal you, if you drink it for protection, Allah will protect you and if you drink it to quench your thirst, Allah will satisfy you. (Ibn Majah, Ahmad). Habatussauda: Abu Hurairah report that the prophet (SAW) said: There is no disease, except that its cure is found in Habatu Saauda (Muslim) etc. (2) Its efficacy was recently confirmed by the experiments of the modern scientists. (3) Its provide salvation to the problem that have been regarded as out of hand by modern doctors. (4) They were blessed materials for example Q 24:35 referred to Olive tree as blessed tree.

From left: Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State; Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Imam Abdulrahman Ahmad, National Missional of Ansar-ud-Deen, Society of Nigeria, during the thrid day fidau prayer for late Alhaja Abibat Mogaji, mother of Asiwaju Tinubu, former Governor of Lagos State and National Leader of Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, held at TBS, Lagos.

A cross section of alfas during the third day fidau prayer for late Alhaja Abibat Mogaji at TBS, Lagos Island. Photos: Bunmi Azeez

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Rivers CP denies knowledge of any security council meeting BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

ORT HARCOURT— RIVERS State Police Commissioner, Mr. Joseph Mbu, said yesterday, that there had never been any security council meeting in the state since he resumed as Commissioner of Police in the state. Speaking against the backdrop of the allegation by the state governor, CP Mbu said he had not received any formal invitation to security council meeting in the state,

adding that all he had been getting were informal invitations to security meetings. He said: "I called this press briefing to speak on the very unpleasant reactions that are coming from the governor of Rivers State. The office of the governor is a revered office, it has respect. It is not an office that should be commonised. Sometimes silence is golden but sometimes it is misconstrued. I have respect for Governor Amaechi but his

Shell Trans-Niger pipe on fire after oil spill — Witness

KEY Nigerian pipeline op erated by a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, has caught fire following an oil spill, an eye witness and local environmental activist said. “The fire is on. I can see the smoke in the air,” said community leader Sylvester Kogbara, who chairs the council of chiefs and elders of Bodo, the community in Rivers State where the incident took place. A spokesman for Shell said he was aware of an incident in Bodo but didn’t have any more details. A trunk of the Trans-Niger Pipeline, which carries 150,000 bar-

rels a day of oil through the Niger Delta to the Bonny terminal, suffered a spill early last week, Mr. Kogbara told the Wall Street Journal. But “Wednesday, it caught fire,” he said, wounding several workers at the site. The community leader added that to the best of his knowledge, the “oil is still flowing.”Godwin Ojo, executive director of Environmental Rights Action, the Nigerian branch of Friends of the Earth, confirmed an explosion on the pipeline Wednesday in Bodo but said he didn’t know if it had caused any deaths.

attacks on me are going beyond bounds. "We have never held a formal security meeting in this state since I came. There has never been any formal letter written to convene security meeting in this state since I came. Letters for such meetings go to the security commanders indicating that there will be a security meeting with the governor or his deputy. Attached to the letter are the agenda and the minutes of the previous meeting. I ask the governor to produce such. What the governor does is to ask his security officer to call the Commissioner of Police for a meeting. These people are below the rank of a DCP. I stopped them recently from calling my line because there are channels of communication. There is an Inspector General of Police, IG directive that after every security council meeting details must be sent by hand to the IG." Describing himself as a core profession who will not compromise on standard police tradition, Mbu said he was not in the state to act any script, stressing that the governor should not drag his name into politics. He noted: “I will beg the governor not to drag my name into poli-

tics. Nobody can influence me. It is only my conscience that can. I believe in God and I trust in God." He said he had to provide Police protection for the president of Port Harcourt Club because there had been two failed attempts on his life, adding that there were threats from a highly placed political office holder in the state on the life of the

president of the Club. He said the crime rate had dropped drastically in the state, stressing that he would back this with proof. “I have refurbished twelve Hilux vehicles on my own. The crime rate has dropped in the state. There have been tremendous changes. I spent six months in Oyo State and the House of Assembly held a special session to honour me.

Uzoh lauds Jonathan's agric programme

HILANTHROPIST and chief Executive of Gocuz Group Limited, Chief Obinna Uzoh, has commended President Goodluck Jonathan’s agricultural transformation programme for changing the agricultural orientation of the people. Uzoh who spoke while donating highbred seedlings, fertilizer and other agricultural materials worth more than N15 million to farmers in Anambra State, said the focus would revolutionise agriculture. While describing farmers as very important across the globe, Uzoh said if any group deserved assistance in Nigeria, it

was farmers because they fed the poor, the rich, the old and young. The philanthropist who said he was aligning himself with President Jonathan’s agricultural programme, urged the youths to embrace farming instead of waiting for the competitive white collar job since they can make out decent living from it. Royal father, Igwe Odimegwu Ken Moses who also spoke at the occasion lamented that previous administrations in the country did not accord adequate attention to agriculture. He described Uzoh as a pacesetter who should be emulated by other politicians in the country.

44—Vanguard , FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

Stakeholders back Monye for Delta guber

Why Dickson is always in Abuja— Aide

TAKEHOLDERS from various political parties in Delta State have appealled to the Special Adviser to the President on Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation, Prof. Sylvester Monye, to declare his interest to contest the governorship position of Delta State in 2015. Some of the stakeholders, who spoke at a meeting in Warri, said the call became necessary to enable Deltans, irrespective of their political differences, give their support to Monye. They noted that Monye’s contributions to the socioeconomic development of the country and the state no doubt stands him as the most qualified to take over from Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, whom they said had done well to bring development to the people.

Delta council commissions facilities

GHELLI—CARETAKER Committee Chairman of Ughelli South Local Government Area, Delta State, Chief Oviri Uto, has commissioned a 40 unit open market stalls, 10 toilet facility and a borehole worth N17.2 million at Otokutu community of the council. At the commissioning, Uto said that his administration had so far awarded 37 projects worth N196.8 million since it came on board in December 2012, adding that 27 of the projects had been completed while 10 were still at the tendering stage.

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA ENAGOA—SPECIAL Adviser to Bayelsa Governor on Political Matters, Chief Fred Agbedi has said there was no cause for concern with the frequent trips of Governor Seriake Dickson to Abuja. Agbedi said due to the importance of block support, it was crucial that the governor gather the necessary political waves for the actualisation of President Goodluck Jonathan’s aspiration. He noted that the developmental agenda of the restoration government of Governor Dickson was on course regardless of his national assignments. The Special Adviser, in a radio Bayelsa programme monitored in Yenagoa, said that the governor ’s actions and deeds were for the well being of Bayelsans. He stressed that participation in national politics, mobilisation of a support base for President Jonathan were central to the fulfillment of the desires of the people of Niger Delta region. Chief Agbedi assured Bayelsans that Governor Dickson was on ground and already delivering the divi-

dends of democracy to the people. He said his commitment was exhibited in the state of emer-

gency in the educational sector, ongoing road constructions across the state, instilling fiscal discipline in gov-

Host communities women call for PIB passage BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

ENIN—WOMEN wing of Host Communities of Nigeria Producing Oil and Gas in the nine oil-producing states of the Niger Delta has appealed to members of the National Assembly from the region to ensure the speedy passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, to address the anomalies in the oil sector. National Coordinator of the wing, Evangelist Carina Gassidy, who spoke to Van-

guard in Benin, Edo State, ahead the inauguration of the group on June 27, said that the passage of the bill will bring transparency and protection of women from the effects of oil exploration and exploitation in the region. Gassidy said the body will be inaugurated by the President of Host Communities of Nigeria Producing Oil and Gas, Chief Alfred Bubor, adding that women from the region were ready to assist in the actualisation of the PIB. She said: “Our lawmakers are representing us and we appeal to them to push for the

YO—GOVERNOR Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State has called on indigenes to help conserve public funds by taking care of amenities provided for them. Akpabio spoke when he inaugurated nine projects executed by his administration in Nsit Atai Local Government Area of the state. He said: “Protecting public facilities against vandalism will help the government to

BY EMMA AMAIZE

ARRI—A group, Delta Elites for Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, said the South-South geo-political

zone should produce the next President in 2015 to give every geo-political zone in the country a sense of belonging and fair representation. Coordinator of the group,

spend funds, which should have been used in re-constructing existing projects in providing other new lifetouching projects for the people.” Represented by the Head of Civil Service, Mrs. Cecilia Udoessien, the governor advised the benefitting communities to safeguard government property in their areas against vandalism and make proper use of them.

He explained that the money spent on providing basic infrastructure and social amenities across the state can be justified if benefitting communities would ensure adequate protection of government property in their domains. At the Community Secondary School, Ikot Ubokudom, the governor’s representative commissioned a six-classroom block, a library, principal’s quarters and solar pow-

Mr. Oroghene Agadiagho, in a statement in Warri, Delta State, said: “The South-South geopolitical zone is not likely to seek the Office of President till it has gone round other zones if it exhausts its two terms. “It is only fitting and proper that they are given the opportunity to fully exhaust their twoterm limit since anything worth doing is worth doing well. “If the South-South produces the next President in 2015, it becomes undoubtedly a settled fact that they have indeed had their fair share of participating in the governance of the country at the highest level, like other geopolitical zones. “It will be like other geopolitical zones that have also had the privilege, bearing in mind that it is the resource centre of the country.”

By Bartholomew Madukwe

PEOPLE SPEAK

08102479985

bill to be passed into law because it will ease the current problems we are encountering as a country in the oil sector. “We had also made presentation and want to use this opportunity to commend President Goodluck Jonathan in his efforts to bring sanity to the oil sector.” Princess Uhunmwangho, who hosted the over 40 women that attended the meeting in Benin, expressed their readiness to support state governments in developmental projects in oil and gas communities and urged the governors to involve the women more.

2015: S-South should produce President— Delta Elites

Protect amenities, Akpabio urges indigenes

ernance, positive engagement of people across political divides and security and peace.

(nwamad@yahoo.com)

On President Jonathan's mid-term report(4)

ROM what I have seen so far, President Jonathan is serious in ensuring that we get dividends of democracy. Just that there are so many bed eggs in his administration that need to leave for things to be better.— Miss Danquah Lucina, Student.

ONESTLY, I do not know where to start from. Is it the roads, electricity, unemployment level or general poverty in the land? You name it. They are not working. Yet I see people say this administration has done well.— Mr. Tunde Julius, Sound Engineer.

IKE I used to hear “Rome was not built in a day.” So Nigerians should be patient because these things cannot just change suddenly. However, with time things shall be better. I score him 60 percent.— Miss Suzzie H e r b e r t , Businessperson.

IGHT now there is nothing to score this administration on. If what we were told by some ministries during the mid-term report are believable, let me hope that things will get better in the country. Let us just hope so.— Miss Temmy Williams, Student.

really do not like dabbling into politi cal issues because our politicians are not trying. They do not inspire hope at all. The only time they show interest in us is during elections. After electioneering, their true colours show.— Mr. Nelson Nwamara, Writer.

ELL, let us hope that something good will come out in the remaining two years. For now, I cannot say that the current administration has done well. Even the payment of N18,000 minimum wage is still an issue.— Miss Obioma Okoye, Businessperson.

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013 —45

Subsidy fraud: Oil marketer, cargo surveyor get N2bn bail L

BY INNOCENT ANABA

AGOS—A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, yesterday, granted bail in the sum of N2 billion to an oil marketer and cargo surveyor, charged with N1.7 billion fuel subsidy fraud. The judge, Justice Ibrahim Buba, however, ordered the accused to be remanded in custody, pending the perfection of their bail. The accused, Samuel Owa and his company, Stone Bridge Oil Limited, were arraigned alongside a cargo surveyor, Onassis Wajutom and his company, Vibrant Ventures Limited on June 18 on a four-count charge bordering on the alleged offence. At the resumed hearing of the case, counsel to the first and second accused, in adopting his bail application, urged the court to admit his client to bail on liberal terms. Counsel to the third and fourth accused, also aligned himself with the submissions of counsel to the first and second accused and urged the court to grant his clients bail on favourable terms. The court in its ruling on the bail application held that it was satisfied with the affidavit deposed to by the accused that they will stand

FG urged to confirm FUPRE VC

BY EMMAARUBI

ARRI—THE Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, has appealed to the Federal Government to confirm the appointment of the Vice-Chancellor of Federal University of Petroleum Resources, FUPRE, Ugbomro, Prof. Alhassan Bichi as the substantive VC to empower him to continue with his transformation agenda in the institution. IYC office of the Students Representatives Council, Western Zone, in conjunction with Ijaw Employment Bureau led by Mr. Magada Franklin, who briefed newsmen in Warri, Delta State, made the appeal, after a working tour of select Colleges and Universities in the Niger Delta region. Magada said the Petroleum University has witnessed tremendous peace, stability and immense infrastructural development since the coming of Prof. Bichi, adding that there now exist excellent working relationship between the students, academic and non-academic staff, including members of the host communities. According to him, the university that used to be like a ghost town after school hours has been turned into a beehive of activities as the institutions campus now boast of 24 hours activities as a result infrastructure put in place by the VC.

trial. “The charge before this court is a serious one as it touches on advanced fee fraud. The court has seen it and appreciates the gravity of the offence. However, the provisions of sections 36 (5) of the 1999 Constitution as

amended, still avails the accused. ”From the affidavit evidence before this court, I am satisfied that the accused will appear to stand trial. The second and third accused are hereby granted bail in the sum of N500 milllion each with sure-

ties in like sum, who must depose to an affidavit of means. The accused are also to deposit their international passports with the registrar of the court, and also file an undertaking not to delay court proceedings, I so hold,” the judge held.

ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIP: From left: Minister of Sports, Mallam Bolaji Abdulahi; Cross River State Governor, Senator Liyel Imoke and his Deputy, Mr. Efiok Cobham, at the start of the third edition of Cross River State/All Nigeria Athletics Championship, at the U.J. Esuene Stadium, Calabar.

Why I instituted N1m investigative journalism award —OCHEI A SABA—THE need to reposition the media for greater challenges through veracious reportage, has been adduced as the reason for instituting an annual N1million prize for the best investigative journalist in Delta State, said Speaker of Delta State House of Assembly, Mr. Victor Ochei. Speaking during an interactive session with journalists as part of activities to mark the second anniversary of the Fifth Assembly of the Delta State legis-

lature, Ochei challenged the media to eschew speculative journalism, which according to him lack the elements of societal development. Ochei urged media practitioners to embrace factual reportage, as against sensationalism, adding that while truthful presentation stands the test of time, fallacious journalism pales into insignificance which in the final analysis, puts the journalism profession to the test.

He said: “Journalists as members of the fourth estate of the realm and dependable partners to government owe it a duty to the society to always present facts as they are, in line with their expected functions in any society.” He pledged to assist the media ensure that prospective winners of the prize would be afforded the opportunity to improve on their skills by way of training,which will offer them a platform for global recognition.

Ndokwa group warns of looming crisis

BY EMMAAMAIZE

A R R I — N D O K WA National Youth Vanguard, NNYV, has warned that crisis is looming in Ndokwa and in Delta State over the divide and rule tactics of oil companies operating in the area. President of the group, Mr. Ozegbe Adoh, who addressed newsmen, said Ndokwa people, with an estimated oil reserve of over 2.5 trillion barrels have been grossly marginalised. He said: “Ndokwa owns the largest gas reserves in West Africa in excess of 100 trillion cubic feet, yet we occupy a very

uncomfortable political position, with total absence of developmental projects, tertiary institutions, federal position, appointments and infrastructural development. “Instead of developing their host community and local governments, they (oil companies) introduced divide and rule just to cause friction and disaffection in every community where oil and gas is found. “Independent Power Project, IPP, was generated from Ndokwaland, but today, we

remain in darkness. At the commissioning of the IPP on April 1, 2005, the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, gave a presidential directive to the IPP agencies to immediately commence the Step down of electricity for our people. More than seven years after, nothing has happened.” The group wondered why Agip Oil Company, which helped generate the IPP refused to Step down electricity for its host communities despite the a presidential directive.

Uduaghan lauded on roads BY FESTUS AHON

GHELLI—MEMBER representing Ughelli South constituency in Delta State House of Assembly, Olorogun Taleb Tebite, has commended the state governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan over the good network of roads in his constituency in particular and the state in general. Tebite in a chat with newsmen at OkpareOlomu, his hometown, said the reconstruction of the ECN Road and other roads in the state by government would boost the socio-economic lives of the people of the area. He said: “Governor Uduaghan is giving the entire state a face lift. My constituency, Ughelli South is now wearing a new look. “There is good road network in the council, almost all the communities now have street lights. Our schools, both primary and secondary are being reconstructed.”

ACN stalwart counsels members

T H I O PE—THE leader of Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Ethiope East chapter in Delta State, Chief Philip Eyagomare, has advised members that are involved in the merger to disregard rumours of executive formation at the ward, local government or state levels, urging them to be united as they await the registration of the party. Eyagomare, who gave the advice at his residence, said the meeting was called on the directive of the Delta State chairman of the merger committee, Senator Adegor Eferakeya, asking members to disregard any information on wards, local government or state executive formation until the processes of registration of All Progressive Congress was complete. He said that the party can achieve its objective if there was cooperation and unity among members and pleaded that they should wait for the completion of registration and directives for congresses from the ward, local government and the state level.

46—Vanguard , FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

Ubah tackles Gov Obi over N25bn supplementary budget

Navy assures on protection of marine environment

BY ENYIM ENYIM

BY EVELYN USMAN

NITSHA—THE Ifeanyi Ubah campaign organisation, yesterday, raised alarm over the supplementary budget of N25billion approved for Governor Peter Obi by Anambra State House of Assembly. A statement by the Director of Media and Publicity, Mr Afam Ilounoh, stated that it was against the tenets of democracy and good governance for a supplementary budget to be approved for the governor barely three months the 2013 budget was approved for him. Ilounoh said the proper thing to have been done was for the governor to furnished the House of Assembly with the performance indices of the main budget before the supplementary budget was approved. He said: "It is an unfortunate development that barely three months the 2013 budget was approved for Governor Obi he went back to the House of Assembly for a supplementary budget without giving them the breakdown of how he spent the money earlier approved for him".

Nigerian hospital blazes trail in arm replacement surgery BY CHIOMA OBINNA

OR the first time, a Nige rian hospital has blazed the trail in metallic replacement of the whole arm bone, shoulder and elbow joints. The life-saving medical procedure which is the first in Nigeria and West Africa was performed by a team of surgeons at Lagoon Hospitals, Lagos. The team was led by Dr. Segun Abudu, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Royal Orthopedic Hospital, Birmingham UK, seconded to the hospital. Commenting on the ground breaking surgery, the Hygeia Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Lars Stork noted that a significant number of Nigerians who go abroad for similar treatment will now have it done in the country. Stork added that the outstanding achievement demonstrated the commitment of the hospital to operating at global standards. C M Y K

ROAD SHOW—From left: Director General Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mr. Benjamin Dikki; Deputy Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Senator Chris Ngige; Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam; and Minister of State for Power, Hajiya Zainab Kuchi, at the Niger Delta Power Holding Company and Bureau of Public Enterprises Road Show in Hong Kong on Wednesday.

Dangote has brought harmony to NSE — Stockbrokers BY NKIRUKA NNOROM TOCKBROKERS have at tributed the recent rally witnessed in the share prices in the last one year partly to Aliko Dangote’s return as President, Council of Nigerian Stock Exchange. They observed that Dangote's leadership qualities had brought harmony to the council and created good atmosphere for management of the exchange to implement strategies which had taken the market to new levels. A look at the primary market indicators showed that one year after, NSE market capitalisation soared by N5.183 trillion, while the NSE All-Share Index rose by 76 percent. Market capitalization rose from N6.712 trillion to N11.895 trillion by close of trading on Tuesday. In the same vein, the ASI grew from 21,028.39 to close at 37,024.72 the same day. Mr. Ifeanyi Odunwa, CEO, Investment Centre Limited, said the market had done well in

terms of restoring investor confidence, quantum positive leap in market indices and return of local investors to the market in the past one year. Odunwa's words: “The market that defied various corrective policies put in place since the meltdown years suddenly started responding positively on a sustained basis since his return as NSE President. Dangote personifies investment, hard-work, integrity, resilience, humility, the Nigerian can-do spirit, goodwill, transparency, trust and confidence, which are necessary ingredients that positively drive a stock market". Speaking in the same vein, CEO of Lambert Trust and Investment Company Limited, Mr. David Adonri, said the NSE has undergone transformation from a mono-product capital market to that of multiple products offering. Adonri said: “Dangote has successfully restored a firm or-

der to NSE affairs in the past one year. The boardroom crisis he inherited from the previous council has become a thing of the past. The NSE is once more poised to take its rightful position in the process of capital formation for the Nigerian economy.” It will be recalled that on assumption of duty last year after protracted battle to regain his presidency, Dangote had pledged that during his tenure as NSE president, he would be guided by five key themes. These he listed as: transparency and improved governance of the market; improving the liquidity, turnover and size of the market; enhancing market efficiency by ensuring clearer and updated rules, processes and procedures; provision of world-class infrastructure and technology for our market and capacity building and rapid skill enhancement of staff of the stock exchange and investor education.

Group, Indian specialists to build N38bn hospital BY VINCENT UJUMADU & OKONKWO EZE

WKA—A GROUP of Anam bra professionals is to partner with some Indian medical specialists to establish a worldclass hospital in the state estimated to cost about N38 billion. The proposed 200-bed hospital is expected to employ about 100 doctors and 1,500 nurses and other medical professionals. Promoter of the project, Igwe Chukwuemeka Ilouno of Ifitedunu, a medical practitioner, said funds for the hospital would be sourced through international financial institutions such as the World Bank, African Development Bank, AfDB, as well as known financial donors, international health foundations, medical philanthropic organisations

and international health facilities. According to Ilouno, a large parcel of land has been acquired for the project at Ifitedunu. He added that the Anambra State government had constructed a road to the site and also promised to provide a bore-hole for

water supply. He added that the hospital would be fitted with on-line telemedicine exchange programme with American health institutions and universities and will be affiliated to numerous international health centres in the USA, Europe and Asia, especially India.

HE Nigerian Navy has stated its resolve to protect the nation’s marine environment and other sea borne activities to ensure survival of the maritime sector. President, Nigerian Hydrographic Society, Rear Admiral Abdulahi Inusa, stated the Navy’s resolve as the nation joins other countries to celebrate World Hydrography Day. Inusa, who is also Nigerian Navy’s hydrographer, said the importance of hydrography to the Navy and Nigeria could not be overemphasised, adding that the nation needed a safe marine environment for ships to sail safely. He said: “ Every human activity that takes place in, on or under the sea depends on hydrography of the area. That is knowledge of the shape and nature of the seafloor, its characteristics and hazards".

Chief Anene for burial

HE death has been an nounced of Chief Felly Okonkwo Anene of IdumuKpeneke Quarters, Ogboli, Issele-Uku, Delta State. Until his death, he was a devout Christian, family man, a first class Chief and community leader. The funeral programme as announced by the family include: Service of songs on Thursday June 20, 2013 at IdumuKpeneke Quarters, Ogboli, Issele-uku, Delta State. There will be a burial service at Pilgrim Baptist Church, Ogbewele, Issele-Uku to be followed by internment at his compound. He is survived by many children amongst who is Mr. Emeke Anene.

Legend promo holds today

HE third and final raffle draw for this year’s Legend Real Deal National Consumer Promotion will take place today at Eldorado Hills, Amuwo Odofin, Lagos. Eight lucky consumers are expected to emerge as winners of the grand prize for this year’s edition of the promotion.

The grand prize is an all-expense paid trip to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for 25 lucky consumers. While in Dubai, the lucky consumers will get the opportunity to shop for gift items worth N1 million within 60 seconds, in one of the city's largest shopping malls.

z Late Chief Anene

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 47

PRESS BRIEFING: From left, Dr. Paul Orhii, DG; Alhaji Kasim Ubale, Director,Narcotics & Controlled Substance; Mr. Momodu Momodu, Director, Chemical Evaluation & Research and Mrs. Mojisola Amore, Ag. Director, Veterinary Medicines & AlliedProducts, all of NAFDAC, during the press briefing by the DG on activities of the agency, in Lagos, yesterday. Photo: Biodun Ogunley

FLAG-OFF: From left, Osun State governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; Project Manager, Fady Hamouch; representative of Chairman, both of RATCON Construction Company, Engr. Dany Mikhael; Site Manager, Ali Hashem and wife of the governor, Sherifat, during the official flag-off of Omoluabi Motorways and construction of Chief Adebisi Akande Trumpet Inter-Change Bridge, at Gbongan-Odeomu Road, Osun State.

GRADUATION: From left, Pastor Wale Adefarasin of Guiding Light Assembly; the Founder, Society for the Performing Arts in Nigeria, SPAN; Mrs. Sarah Boulos and the MD, ITB Nigeria Ltd, Mr. Gabi Massoud, during the first graduation ceremony of SPAN in Lagos.

COMMISSIONING: From left, Divisional Police Officer, Maroko, CSP Johnson; Deputy Commissioner of Police (Administration), Lagos State and representative of Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, Felix G. Ogundeji; Chairman, Lekki Residents Association, Mr. Wole Akala; Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, Airtel Nigeria, Segun Ogunsanya and Vice Chairman, Lekki Residents Association, Gerry Otiji, during the commissioning of a police post renovated by Airtel, yesterday, in Lagos

PRESS CONFERENCE: From left, Dr. Ausbeth Ajagu, President, Academy for Entrepreneurial Studies, AES; Dr. Godwin Omene, former Deputy Managing Director, Shell Petroleum, and Dr. Violet Arene, former General Manager, NNPC, during the press conference announcing AES 5th National Conference, in Lagos

CELEBRATION: From left, Assistant Coordinator, Catholic Women Organisation, CWO, Ikeja Deanery, Mrs. Maria Ofili; Station Chairperson, CWO, Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Odogunyan, Mrs. Adebisi Fosudo and Coordinator, CWO, Lekki Deanery, Mrs. Elizabeth Idigbe, during the celebration of the World Union of Catholic Women Organisation, WUCWO, by Lagos Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women Organisation, LACCWO, at Catholic Church of Transfiguration, Victoria Garden City, Ajah, Lagos.

COMPETITION: From left, Director, Programmes and Operations, Junior Achievement Nigeria, Mrs. Efe Adefulu; Teacher, Liberty Bells College, Badore; Mr. Wusu Mathew; winner of the competition, Adejugbe Temitope; Executive Director, Junior Achievement Nigeria, Mrs. Kunbi Wuraola and Regional Programmes Coordinator, Mr. Adegbola Abiodun, during the Junior Achievement 2013 competition and awards ceremony in Lagos

PLAY: From left, mother of the 'king', Mrs. Funmi Olawuyi; chairman, Childville Schools, Ogudu Estate, Lagos, Sir Kehinde Smith; the 'King', Master Aduragbeminiyi Olawuyi; school principal, Mr. Warren Townsend and the 'king's' father, Rt. Rev. Isaac Olawuyi, at the the play: 'Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi,' at the Unilag Auditorium, Akoka, Lagos

PRESS CONFERENCE: From left, Mr. Muritala Olushekun, president/chairman of council; Mr. Bisi Oni, chairman, technical sub-committee and Mr. Olu Abayomi Sanya, chairman, financial technical sub-committee, of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers, CIS, at a press conference on the forth-coming 2nd Annual National Workshop by the institute, in Lagos.

48—Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

Bauchi spends N40m on evacuation of refuse

3.4million Nigerians live with sickle cell anaemia BY TAYE OBATERU & HOPE OFOBIKE

OS— HEAD of the sickle cell unit of the Jos University Teaching Hospital, JUTH, Dr Silvanus Okpe, yesterday, said about 3.4 million Nigerians are currently suffering from sickle cell anaemia while about 40 million Nigerians carry the gene of reproducing sickle cell patients. Okpe stated this at the Launch of the Media Initiative Programme and Celebration of the World Sickle Cell Day which was tagged “Know Your Sickle Cell Status, Eat Right”; held at the permanent site of the Jos University Teaching Hospital, JUTH. According to him, “the burden of sickle cell anaemia is enormous. About 30 per cent of out-patients who visit this hospital daily, live with this sickness while a lot of children die of the illness daily”.

Monarch seeks more funds for agric sector

LORIN—A MON ARCH, Olusegun Rotimi, the Obajisun of Aiyedun in Oke-Ero Local Government Area of Kwara, has urged governments to allocate more funds to agriculture to enable the nation feed itself. Rotimi made the call at his palace while receiving an award from the Batch ‘B’ NYSC members who just completed their national service in the area. According to the monarch, agriculture remains the only source through which sufficient food for the people could be guaranteed, especially at the grass roots level. “Government at all levels need to give enough financial backing toward transforming agriculture genuinely for the nation to overcome unemployment and feed its teeming population."

VISIT—From left: Niger State Governor, Dr. Mu'azu Babangida Aliyu, receiving a gift from Nonny Ugboma, Executive Secretary, MTN Foundation, and Austin Iyashere, Senior Manager, Government Relations, MTN; during a courtesy call on the governor at the Niger State Government Liaison Office in Abuja, yesterday.

Bauchi govt discovers 6,500 ghost workers BY SUZAN EDEH

AUCHI—THE Bauchi State government has said that it discovered 6,500 ghost workers in the civil service since the inception of the present administration in the state. The state Head of Civil Service, Mr. Abdon Gin made this known, yesterday during the civil service day in the state. He spoke on the theme: “Attitudinal change and reorientation towards a resultoriented Bauchi State Civil Service.” Gin said that the state government set up a committee that conducted a verification exercise and discovered 1,500 ghost workers at the state level and another 5,000 at the local government level. “The state government in its efforts to address the problem of ghost workers in the civil service, introduced a measure called the bi-metric capturing system where the bio-data and thumb print of every civil servant are captured as they physically appear before the screening committee in order to ascertain their real identity. “The essence of thumbprinting is to identify the actual number of staff in all the state government's ministries and agencies who are supposed to be on the government’s payroll,” he said. Gin further said that the state government saved

N12million during the first month of the bi-metric capturing exercise, adding that through the exercise, a databank of all the civil servants in the state was built and now being updated on a regular basis. He noted that some of the policies and programmes introduced by the state government to rejuvenate the civil service include re-orientation of the civil servants,

capacity building and retraining programmes. “Every workforce needs to be updated from time to time and that is why the state government introduced the training and re-training programmes for civil servants for optimum results. So far, out of 32,000 civil servants in the state, 4,000 have gone through training programmes within and outside the state,” he further added.

AUCHI—THE Bauchi State Environmental Protection Agency, BASEPA, has said that it spent more than N40 million monthly on evacuation of refuse. The Permanent Secretary of the agency, Alhaji Waziri Jalam, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Bauchi. “Because of the incident of last year, 2012, NEMA and other agencies responsible for the focus, have predicted that Bauchi State is among the states that are going to be affected. “We launched the cleaning of all the drainages in Bauchi on the March 31; I must confess to you that people are really complying with the directive as groups and associations have been participating on their own. “Just to mention a few - Yelwa, Gwallaga, Fadan Bayan, Mallam-Goje and Anguwan Waziri; once they brought out the de-silt materials, the agency would clear everything."

TERRORISM: Defence Hqtrs assesses operations in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa BY EMEKA MAMAH

AGOS—APPARENTLY worried by the resurgence of terrorist activities in some northern states in the last few days, the Defence Headquarters, said yesterday it has dispatched a ‘’high powered” delegation of senior officers to Borno, Yobe and Adamawa to assess the ongoing operations to rid them of terrorists. Boko Haram Islamic sect attacked some areas in Maiduguri, capital of Borno State, Wednesday, killing four teachers, students and farmers in the process just as 48 villagers were mur-

dered in Zamfara State same day, according to the state Commissioner for Information, Ibrahim Birnin-Magaji. Over 20 other people were murdered in some parts of the North-East earlier on Tuesday. However, the Director of Defence Information, Brig.Gen. Chris Olukolade, told newsmen in Abuja, yesterday that the eight-man delegation would assess the progress made by troops in routing the terrorists who had occupied some local governments along the Nigerian border with Cameroon and Niger Republics in Borno State. However, Olukolade, who is

part of the delegation, said that the team was expected to report their findings to the Chief of Defence Staff, Ola Ibrahim. President Goodluck Jonathan had on May 14, declared a state of emergency in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states after ordering the deployment of troops to recover the areas taken over by terrorists. Shortly after the deployment, the DHQ said it had dislodged several camps belonging to the insurgents as well as rescued some abducted women and their children. Jonathan later directed the Chief of Defence Staff to deploy more troops to the three troubled states.

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013 — 49

Shell shuts down pipeline over explosion at spill site •Crude output drops by 150,000 barrels daily •Nigeria losing N2.36bn daily BY MICHAEL EBOH

IGERIA’s daily crude oil output declined by 150,000 barrels, as Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, SPDC, joint venture, yesterday, said it has shut the Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP) following an explosion and fire at a crude theft point on the 28” section of the facility at Bodo West in Ogoni land. To this end, the country is currently losing about $14.73 million (N2.357 billion) daily, pending when the pipeline is restored. A statement by Mr. Tony Okonedo, Corporate Media Relations Manager, said that prior to the incident, SPDC had shut down the 28” TNP to remove crude theft connections, and has now closed the 24” TNP as a precautionary response to the fire. This means that the entire TNP system, comprising the 28” and 24” pipelines have been shut-in. The 24” TNP will be reopened when it is safe to do so, while the 28” TNP will remain shut-in until the fire has been extinguished, and investigation and damage assessment completed.” Damage assessment Also speaking, Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu, Managing Director, SPDC and Country Chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria, said: “This is another sad reminder of the tragic consequences of crude oil theft. Unknown persons continued to reconnect illegal bunkering hoses at Bodo West even as our pipeline team were removing crude theft points. It was, therefore, not surprising that the fire occurred from the continuing illegal bunkering even as a previous crude oil theft point was being repaired by the team. “So far, there is practically no spill from this event as the oil is burning off. What is visible in the water is from an earlier oil spill which was also as a result of oil theft. The explosion also triggered a fire on a nearby barge. Crude theft continues to pose significant challenges to

people, the environment and the local and national economy, and all stakeholders must work together to stop this criminal activity.” The current shut down is a confirmation of the International Energy Agency report, which predicted a drop in Nigeria’s crude output this quarter, stating that Nigeria’s crude oil output declined to a six-month low of 1.96 million barrels per day. The agency attributed the decline to oil theft and pipeline vandalism, which had bedeviled the industry for a long time. Amnesty International and Holland’s National Contact Point for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, had, Wednesday, faulted Royal Dutch Shell’s claims on incidences of oil spills in Nigeria, urging it to be prudent when publishing spill investigation data. Shell had blamed most spills in the Niger Delta on thieves hacking into pipelines, a crime known as ‘bunkering’. However, an independent investigation into how the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s guidelines are enforced found discrepancies between Shell’s story and other accounts of the size and cause of spills. Holland’s National Contact Point for the OECD told the oil giant to exercise prudence when publishing spill investigation data and also called on Shell to publish figures from before January 2011, when the company began putting information about leaks on its website. It also repeated the United Nations concerns that investigators are at the mercy of the oil companies when assessing the size and severity of spills. The report follows a complaint by Friends of the Earth and Amnesty International, which submitted evidence of spill investigations it said were heavily influenced by the company. Also speaking, Audrey Gaughran, of Amnesty said “Shell has repeatedly stated operational spills are going down and sabotage is going up. This is all based on a process where the investigator is being investigated.” She called for more independent assessment to offset weakness in local regulation.

Read Africa Session: Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar reading from the literature books donated by UBA Foundation. With him are Group Managing Director/CEO, United Bank for Africa Plc, Mr. Phillips Oduoza; Managing Director, UBA Foundation, Ms. Ijeoma Aso, and students from cross section of Police Secondary Schools in Nigeria at a special edition of the Foundation's Read Africa initiative in Abuja on Thursday C M Y K

50—-Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

June 12: Pondering future of Nigeria’s democracy Dear Sir,

LOT has happened since 1993 and our country has been unable to get it right electorally since that watershed election. Consolidating Nigeria’s democracy through the conduct of credible elections has remained an albatross since our independence. Universally, election is regarded as the heart of representative and participatory democracy. That is why a free, fair and credible election not only confers legitimacy on eventual winners, it is also important for the sustenance of democratic order and national development. June 12 made it exactly 20 years since the the freest and fairest election was conducted in Nigeria's electoral history. The election won by Chief M.K.O Abiola was criminally annulled by former dictator, Gen.Ibrahim Babaginda. Chief M.K.O. Abiola was to later die in detention for declaring himself president on the basis of the election. Since then, we have been unable to get it right electorally. Nigerians have since retreated to their ethnic shells and allowed religious bigotry to becloud their sense of electoral judgement. Ballot snatching,

illegal thumb printing of ballot papers, multiple voting, falsification of election results and outright declaration of illegal results have since become our culture. All these electoral vices were absent in the June 12 revolution of 1993. June 12 represented the victory of light over darkness, representative and participatory democracy over military dictatorship, truth over falsehood and optimism over opportunism. President M.K.O Abiola displayed unparalleled courage and uncommon candour in defence of the mandate reposed in him by 14 million change-seeking Nigerians who defied all odds to vote for him in 1993. The annulment of the June 12 election by a despotic cabal represents the greatest injustice ever done against the Nigerian people. That distasteful and cowardly act will continue to haunt us in our march to true nationhood and Nigeria may never really recover from it. We have carried on as a people as if nothing happened on June 12. The memory and the symbolism of that day cannot be wiped away from our memory. We should continue to celebrate June 12 as a day of freedom and national revival. We should entrench June 12 as a day of national rebirth and we

should commemorate June 12 as our authentic Democracy Day. It's not too late to accord presidential recognition to Chief M.K.O Abiola as a duly and democratically elected president of Nigeria with all the paraphernalia of a former president and his photograph conspicuously placed at the council chambers in Aso Rock. Late President Abiola paid the ultimate and supreme price for

Curbing street beggars’ menace in Effurun Dear Sir,

HERE is a growing trend in Effurun which demands urgent attention of government and her agencies. It is the proliferation of beggars on our streets and major junctions such as Airport, Jakpa and Enerhen junctions. The worrisome aspect of this trend is that over 95 percent of them are women with children ranging from few months to 12 years and are all from a certain part of Northern Nigeria. These children pursue passers

NGF

OVERNOR Rotimi Amaechi should not allow himself to be intimidated by the Federal government. The visible dividends his administration has delivered to the people are enough collateral to damn any plot against him. He is a man of the people and they are the ones who will determine his political future. Anonymous 080205822339

2015 elections and danger ahead

NIGERIANS should be watchful and careful about whom they elect to lead the country in the next general elections. The actions, reactions and pronouncements of some potential presidential aspirants leave much to be desired. Some actions are nothing but treason, some seditious and some unfortunate. This is a country where miscreants speak and call for war and nobody calls them to order. Some are supporters of

terrorism with utterances ready to tear the country apart and when that happens, where is the country they want to lead? There are some who think we are all idiots; how else can one explain the fact that inspite of their nonperformances, they see

IT is very sad to note that after 14 years of uninterrupted democracy, our governors find it difficult to conduct a mere election to choose a chairman amongst themselves, just 35 of them. God save Nigeria and Nigerians in the 2015 elections. I think the governors should just suspend the Nigeria Governors’ Forum for now and relate as friends on mutual grounds and save us from the jamboree that he forum has become.

NGF vs Amaechi

Nigerians as docile people who will never complain. They lay claims to imaginary achievements; we would do better if we elect someone on merit rather than because he is from our zone or region. Charles 0803582233

the entrenchment and consolidation of our democracy. Without his selfless and courageous struggle, we probably would still have be enmeshed in unbridled military dictatorship till now. The declaration of May 29 as the official celebration of Democracy Day by the Nigeria ruling class while relegating June 12 to the dustbin of history is a disservice to Nigerians and a

monumental rape of our democratic evolution as a people. We cannot continue to ignore the man popularly called M.K.O on whose blood our country rode to the uninterrupted civilian rule we now have in Nigeria today. On the occasion of the commemoration of the 20 years anniversary of the June 12 election, we call for a genuine reform of the electoral process in Nigeria. We demand for internal democracy in our political parties and we restate our demand for the convocation of a peoples sovereign national conference to resolve the Nigerian national question. Dr. Philip Ugbodaga, National Chairman,Coalition to Save Nigeria (CSN).

by begging for alms. This is abnormal in any right thinking society. I have also noticed that the babies in the hands of these women are always sleeping and I have wondered why. Out of curiosity, I made a private investigation and discovered that most of these infants are drugged, making them sleep for hours so that they can carry out their acts undisturbed. This again is the highest form of child abuse. The government must do something fast and get this people off the roads and

undeserved space in the national political terrain. We have more than enough constitutional bodies, that are focused to enthrone enduring democracy in Nigeria. Enough is enough. The Nigeria Governors Forum should be proscribed immediately and let’s save ourselves from unnecessary distraction. Chief Ose Pat Okupa 07036529443

Division in PDP

OLUSEGUN Obasanjo’s hold on the PDP cannot be taken for granted by any serious minded member of the party aspiring for top position. Alhaji Bamanga Tukur ’s only advantage is that he hails from the North, but he should be mindful of the former president’s clout.

Mercy,Delta State

NIGERIANS are sick and tired of the Nigeria Governors Forum, an unconstitutional body angling for an

Obasanjo will continue to leverage on the loyalty of many PDP members in high places who determine how Nigeria’s political pendulum swings. Eunice 08031550923

President Jonathan vs Go hi Govv. Amaec Amaechi

THE spilt between President Jonathan and Governor Amaechi is unhealthy for our democracy. Both have shown that they have no space for dissdenting voices. This ought not to be so in a democratic setting. Both men should channel their efforts towards providing quality service to the people who elected them into office . This country is in dire need of good leadership, not quarrelsome leaders. Gbenga 080308924497

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

Still on NGF’s crisis

streets. Most of these beggars are not even ready to work. I have always asked aftertheir husbands whenever I meet them. Their actions are callous and demeaning. I believe if they are serious minded people, they should have relatives, friends and kins men who could help them start up small scale businesses but the question still remains, are they ready to engage in meaningful trade? Alexander Ighoro,Effurun, Delta State.

Adewale08056180103, Lagos State .

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

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21 21,, 2013 —51

•Medical treatment for Infant jaundice include appropriate treatment under phototherapy lamps.

‘Adequate feeding prevents jaundice in babies’ BY CHIOMA OBINNA

NDOUBTEDLY, Infant jaundice remains one of the main killers of newborns in Nigeria. It is a medical condition associated with yellow discoloration of a new born baby’s skin and eyes. It occurs because the baby’s blood contains excess bilirubin, a yellow-coloured pigment of red blood cells. Infant jaundice is common, particularly in babies born before 38 weeks gestation (preterm babies) and breast-fed babies. It also occurs because a baby ’s liver isn’t mature enough to get rid of bilirubin in the bloodstream. In some

cases, an underlying disease may cause jaundice. In Nigeria, available statistics show that one new born baby in every 22 dies as a result of jaundice, a situation which experts say has not changed in over a decade. Hospital statistics have shown that 60 to 70 percent of full term babies born in the country develop the condition which may result in irreversible brain damage or death if not properly managed. Signs of infant jaundice usually appear between the second and fourth day after birth. It is usually noticed first in the baby ’s face. If the

condition progresses, you may notice the yellow colour in his or her eyes, chest, abdomen, arms and legs. The best way to check for infant jaundice is to press your finger gently on the baby’s forehead or nose. While many home remedies are often used to treat babies with jaundice, experts say the best prevention of infant jaundice is adequate feeding. According to them, breast-fed infants should have atleast 12 feedings a day for the first several days of life. Formulafed infants should have about 30 to 60 milliliters of formula every two to three hours for the first week.

A study by researchers from the Department of Family Medicine, Eastern Division of West Virginia University, USA showed that a structured and practical approach to the identification and care of infants with jaundice can facilitate prevention, thus decreasing rates of morbidity and mortality. According to them primary prevention such as adequate feeding and ensuring timely outpatient follow-up within 24 to 72 hours of discharge also play a critical role and initiating the breastfeeding relationship immediately after birth. Although solution to infant jaundice remains medical treatment such as measuring the levels of jaundice and appropriate treatment under phototherapy lamps, there are treatments not recommended for decreasing jaundice in the breastfeeding infant such as; Supplementing feeding with sugar water: This can cause jaundice to worsen by interfering with breast milk intake, breast milk production and delay the drop in bilirubin levels. Discontinuing breastfeeding: This can ultimately make jaundice worse and can sabotage a mother’s effort to provide her child with the best nutrition possible. Frequent and efficient feedings of breastmilk is the best way to decrease jaundice. Early detection will prevent the progression to severe jaundice and so reduce disabilities and deaths.

Unhealthy eating habits challenge to health — EDMARK boss

NHEALTHY eating habits have been identified as the greatest challenge in the Nigerian environment. Chairman, EDMARK International, Mr. Sam Low, who made this known in a chat with Health & Living in Lagos, warned that unhealthy eating habits lead to unnecessary accumulation of fat and cholesterol. Low further stressed that; “Our physical appearance is a reflection of our state of health. Being overweight is an indication of a highly toxic body due to poor digestion and blood circulation and an inefficient defecation cycle. It is also a manifestation of an unhealthy lifestyle characterised by a high cholesterol diet and a sedentary lifestyle.” Calling for a change in eating habits, he noted that frequent and excessive eating of food rich in fats and carbohydrates should be reduced. “So, when

you eat things that are not just healthy, like French fries (chips), fried yam, meat pie, one eats carbohydrate and oil, what is going to happen is that a lot of these chemicals will get stuck in the intestines resulting to unnecessary fat, as well as, create other health issues.” People should be mindful of how they eat these things as well as the frequency,” he said. Noting that unnecessary cholesterol was harmful to the body, the EDMARK boss stressed the need for people to take food supplements as part of their feeding routine. ”It is essential to take food supplements to support the body as we may not get all the nutrients that the body needs from the food we eat. He said EDMARK understands the concept of healthy living, and to achieve this, the company has produced various food supplements for iron, vitamins

and otherproducts use for detoxification and fibres amongst others. Low said that EDMARK had a variety of products to detoxify burn fat and nourish, balance and cleanse, as well as rejuvenate the body. “We have programmes and products that are aimed at improving health, detoxycifying the body, meal replacement therapies and others. During its third International Convention tagged: “The year of Comeback”, the General Manager, EDMARK Nigeria, Mr. Maurice Etim urged the public to avail themselves of the opportunities EDMARK offered in promoting healthy living. Etim stated that the company has identified the need to help people live a healthy lifestyle. “Our bodies need these food supplements. They will help reduce incidences of most diseases. In addition to enjoying a healthier life by accessing EDMARK products,

25,000 condoms dispensed in Abuja hotels, brothels BY SOLA OGUNDIPE

total of 25,412 condoms havebeen distributed through strategically positioned condom dispensers and baskets in 26 outlets including brothels, hotels and other relaxation spots at various locations in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The development which came to light within six months of inception of an HIV transmission preventive advocacy measure introduced by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, AHF, has a condom education and awareness aspect. Findings show that it is a conscious attempt to emphasize the importance of safe sex and in an attempt to bring condom closer to the people. The FCT which has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in Nigeria, was one of the sites selected for the initiative, primarily targeted at reducing HIV transmission through strategic response to barriers impeding access of Nigerians to condoms, using a core evidence based HIV prevention strategy.

50 HIV sites in Benue The initiative is also focused on 50 outlets in Benue State, which has the highest HIV prevalence rate at 12.7 percent. AHF - a global organisation that is providing cutting-edge medicine and advocacy to more than 200,000 patients in 28 countries is the largest provider of HIV/AIDS medical care in the U.S, with headquarters in Los Angeles. In a statement, AHF Advocacy Manager, Ms. Oluwakemi Gbadamosi, remarked: “AHF is extremely impressed with feedback coming from partners: hotel managements and individuals; at the various outlets, who have described this initiative as a significant step in the right direction towards the fight against HIV/AIDS in Nigeria while assuring us of their commitment and continuous support.” To be sure, she said the effort is in line with internationally validated fact that effective condom use has helped reduce HIV transmission and encouraged safer sexual behaviour. “The positive impact of condom use to halving the rates of new HIV infections can be seen with successes recorded in countries like: Zimbabwe, Brazil etc.,”

52 — Vanguard AY , JUNE 2 1 , 20 13 anguard,, FRID FRIDA 21 201 52— YOUR LUCK TODAY By Joshua Adeyemo Phone 08056180139

LIBRA; Similar to yesterday but, today more emphasis’ll be on money. Thus those of you who are more financially ambitious’ll have better and rewarding day than others. However that is not to say you should neglect your health. SCORPIO; Positive things are happening from (and around) you. The more enterprising you are the better for you today. And some of you will be mixing business & pleasure without harm. Lovers can have their way moderately. SAGITTARIUS; This is your day when things’ll go according to your plans. And you’re advised to hit very hard not minding minor pressure from your base.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY By Richard Eromosele

guess you are won dering is anything in this life free? If you are thinking this way, your thought is not far from mine. Until I was educated on it, I thought everything has a price.

TERROR MUDA in “Never say goodbye”

CAPRICORN; Once again success would come if you experiment with good ideas rightly at the right time. Those of you travelling are in for an exciting day.

Free of cchar har ge? harge? Guess what I am talking about? Well, I am referring to the celebration of nudity in our society today. I met a man recently, who told me he thanks God that he doesn’t need to waste his

money any longer on girls since what he was to pay for he has already seen it, imagine bare breast, uncovered back, uncovered chest, open navel etc all exhibited for free.

By Lanre Kehinde

TERROR MUDA

“Never say Goodbye’

Haba. Now this may not reflect your real person but how will people know except through what you wear, so dress the way you want to be addressed. Think about it!

By Lanre Kehinde

AQUARIUS; Early part of the day may bring you good opportunity along your business/business lines. Work and your health must be taken very seriously PISCES; Like yesterday the Moon will operate from your Star sign again to the betterment of your cause. Think of both your immediate and far future now. ARIES You can still count on the supports of your tried and trusted friends. But it’s imperative you keep secrets as much as you can positively do. TAURUS; The more receptive and willing you are to give and take co-operation the better for you today. It’s wrong of you to neglect your friends in need now. GEMINI; You’ll have the needed opportunity to consolidate on progress you have recorded yesterday along your career/business lines. Try to work harder. CANCER; Element of luck will work favourably for you. Therefore you’re advised to expand the scope of your tentacle for better results. It’s another fairly favourable day for lovers who are more enterprising today.

KAPTAIN AFRIKA

“Princess Shii’

By Andy Akman

LEO; Joining forces with other people is not a sin but it’s important everybody knows the clear term of the venture , be it of short or longer duration. Be very practical. VIRGO; Many of you’ll travel either physically or within your mind; whichever one you’re involved with the out come will be favourable. Be more receptive, especially if your priority is commercial success. Take your new ideas more seriously today.

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

Basic characteristics of Aquarius Aquarius is ruled by freedom loving Uranus-the planet of unpredictability, eccentricity and genius. Aquarius is friendly, loving, hopeful and very altruistic in nature. That is why they are nice persons who truly care for others, especially the less fortunate ones. They are loyal friend willing to belong to powerful social clubs or reasonable community. The quality of Aquarius is fixed. That means it is important for them to watch the way they change their minds on important issues; Uranus factor makes all Aquarius natives freedom loving and whoever tries to impose any idea on you will be resented The element of Aquarius is the air. That makes you an intelligent person with fair share of sense of humour. Aquarius is the star sign that rules considerable social influence, and the natives of this star have better chances to have at least some influential friends. Then, Aquarians are truly good friends and bad enemies; it is not in the best interest of anybody to frustrate an Aquarian.. Aquarius being a scientific sign. Aquarians can be inventive. Any Aquarian who falls to take his sudden flashes of ideas seriously is doom (to fail eventually) because, Uranus the ruler of Aquarius, usually bring success to Aquarians unexpectedly through ideas that come suddenly, and unexpected luck usually accompany their sudden inspiration and/or ideas. The most dangerous weak points of Aquarian are the tendencies to procrastinate things and willingness to take opponents or enemies for granted I mean you must not believe that some body you might have had heated argument with will not try to undermine your progress after what will look like intervention of peace makers.

VIRGINIA

HOME & AWAY

dadadekola@yahoo.com

by Lawrence Akapa

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013—53

C M Y K

54—Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

S/West PDP returns to the trenches Major stakeholders in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the South-West gathered last Tuesday for what was envisioned as a breakthrough meeting to resolve the many crises that have hindered the party’s aspirations. It was, however, a talk shop that ended with the endorsement of President Goodluck Jonathan for a second term BY CHARLES KUMOLU

Roll call Those at the event included former Ekiti State governor Ayodele Fayose; former Osun State governor Isiaka Adeleke; former Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose; former Zonal Leader Senator Yinka Omilani; former Science and Technology Minister Senator Bode Olowoporoku; former Lagos State Deputy Governors Alhaji Rafiu Jafojo and Mrs. Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele; former Works Minister Senator Seye Ogunlewe; Board of Trustees (BoT) members Chief Dayo Okondo and Mrs. Aduke Maina; former Housing Minister Mrs. Mobolaji Osomo; Senator Ayo Arise; Prince Dayo Adeyeye; Mr. Bisi Kolawole; Chief Segun Adegoke; Mr. Bisi Omoyeni; Senator Lekan Balogun; Senator Olasunkanmi Akinlabi; Mrs. Salman Badru; Dr. Tayo Dairo and Dr. Yomi Finnih. Absentees Notable absentees were: Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola;

•Sen Yinka Omilani, Sen Isiaka Adeleke and Mrs Salmatu Badru at the South-West PDP stakeholders forum former Zonal Leader Mr. Segun Oni; Senator Dipo Odujinrin; Senator Jubril Martins-Kuye; Commodore Bode George (rtd); Dr. Olusegun Agagu and Senator Iyiola Omisore. Accordingly, the forum also provided a platform for the representatives of various state chapters to give account of the

T was not a totally new move. The search for peace in the South-West chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has been a long pursuit for stakeholders and leaders of the party within and outside the zone. Last Tuesday another attempt at peace-making took place in Lagos at a gathering of major party stakeholders from the zone. Even though, doubts are trailing the prospects of this peace initiative given the history of failed realignment endeavours, party stalwarts, who are championing the development are nevertheless convinced of a favourable outcome. Little wonder the leaders from the six states in the zone, who converged at the stakeholders forum presented what they described as the true state of their chapters. Convened primarily to debate on the challenges facing the party in the zone, the event was also an avenue to re-strategise on how to reposition the party for electoral success.

in Lagos. We are trying our best, but the truth is that things are not well with Lagos PDP. It is painful that one person can cage the entire South West PDP.” Similarly, Ondo State representative, Chief Tayo Dairo regretted that the absence of unity, was responsible for the party ’s

...a few have argued that the support for the President’s rumoured second tenure ambition might be the primary reason for the gathering

activities of the party in their respective states. State of the state chapters While presenting the state of the party in Lagos, Sen. Ogunlewe regretted that the chapter has been hijacked by a notable party chieftain, adding that if the trend was not arrested peace would remain elusive in Lagos PDP. ‘’We can win Lagos State, but our problem is disunity and abandonment of leadership. Most party members have been marginalised in the state and they are not happy about that. This is why we want our zonal leaders to come and talk to us

failure at the last gubernatorial elections in the state. He said, ‘’the PDP is very strong in the state but if we had contested the last election as a united party, we would have performed better, though our performance was encouraging. Our party should not always see A.C.N as the only opposition party in the state, the Labour Party, LP, is also an opposition party. So, our focus should not be on A.C.N alone. We are meeting to ensure that we have peace, but we don’t want any zonal or national leader to frustrate the reconciliation efforts.’’ In the same vein a former

deputy governor of Ogun State, Badru, said efforts are being made to bring back those who left the party. ‘’Our leaders are working hard to bring back those who left the party for various reasons. PDP will be the ruling party in the state come 2015. A lot is being done in that respect. I want our members to forget about the past and concentrate on the future so that the party can be well repositioned,’’ Badru added. Relatedly, Dr. Olu Alabi, who spoke for Osun State PDP, said, ‘’what is happening to the party now is not strange, however, the important thing is that we should bring the warring parties together. We need zonal reconciliation. The PDP in Osun is strong and focused and we have formidable candidates ahead of the 2015 elections.’’

Rightful position In addition, the massage from Oyo PDP was an appeal to the party leadership to ensure that the region assumes its rightful position in the nation. A former Commissioner in the state, Dr. Babalola Owolabi, who said this, dismissed claims

that the region is not marginalised in the present dispensation. ‘’Some say that the South West region is not currently marginalised, but I will say that it is not true. The leadership should ensure that the region plays its rightful role in national development. On our own part, we will continue making PDP the wining party,’’ Owolabi added. The issue for the Ekiti delegation was essentially on how to win the forthcoming gubernatorial election. Nonetheless, what might pass for the highpoint of the occasion was the inauguration a 19-member stakeholders’ council under the Chairmanship of Senator Lekan Balogun and the endorsement of President Goodluck Jonathan for a second term in office. The endorsement followed a motion moved by a PDP chieftain from Ogun State, Prince Kashamu Buruji and seconded by another chieftain, Chief Tola Odulaja. However, not a few have argued that the support for the President’s rumoured second tenure ambition might be the primary reason for the gathering.

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013—55

Tambuwal’s prescriptions against strongmen At a recent lecture at the Island Club in Lagos, Speaker Aminu Tambuwal gives reasons why the era of strong men in the governance of the country is over. BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR

INCE the return of democracy in 1999, a recurring issue in Nigeria’s polity is prevalence of godfathers, who determine who gets what, where and when, in spite of the views of majority of the citizenry. Fourteen years into uninterrupted civil rule, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, says Nigeria could no longer adjust to the inadequacies of strongmen as obtains in autocracies. He urges that the legislature, which is the symbol of democracy, be made stronger and allowed to operate without threat, blackmail and interference to deepen the country’s democracy and shake

government. The pitfalls inherent in the types practiced in various African countries notwithstanding, it is far better than the best of any military regime. But having tasted uninterrupted civilian rule for 14 years, can we say unequivocally, Mr. Speaker, that we, the people of Nigeria, are better than we were under the military? In other words, to what extent have the people benefited from the so-called dividends of democracy?” Answering the question, Tambuwal ‘dividends of democracy ’ transcend execution of projects. Noting that military governments also implement good projects, he said dividends of democracy should be seen as the promotion, protection and guarantee of our personal

If our democracy must grow therefore, our challenge is to see how well we can develop the legislative branch to remain true to the tenets of representative democracy and the legislative system

off the hang-over of military rule, which he said is still slowing the growth of the country. Tambuwal spoke in Lagos on Tuesday while delivering the Quarterly business lecture of the Island Club entitled: “The Legislature and the growth of our democracy.” The speaker, who was accompanied by a number of his colleagues such as Femi Hakeem Gbajabiamila, Deji Jakande, Joke Okoya-Thomas and Lanre Odubote among others, said how well the country developed the legislative branch would determine how well she grew. Dispelling insinuations that lawmakers award contracts for constituency projects, he said: “Constituency projects are not meant to be awarded by the lawmakers themselves. We are to identify and site the projects but implementation rests with the executive. No member of the House is given money to execute the project,” he told his audience, which included Governor Babatunde Fashola, who was represented by Dr Wale Ahmed (commissioner for Special Duties), elders, leaders and members of Island Club. The club’s Chairman, Prince Ademola Dada, set the stage for the speaker’s comments in his welcome address. He said: “Democracy is undoubtedly the best form of

•Tambuwal: Instiutions should do their work

freedoms and liberties. On this score, he said the country had recorded some successes especially in the House. Given the country's recent experience at the advent of the fourth republic when President Olusegun Obasanjo was largely seen to have brought military fiat to some of his actions, Speaker Tambuwal was quick to assert the importance of the legislature in the

administration of government affairs. He said: “Any legislature performing its representative functions, therefore, must have first hand knowledge of the real needs of the people and must be at the forefront of making sure those needs are met. It is not only odd, but brazen arrogance for anyone to pretend to know what is good for the country better than those that the people elected to be their voices, their representatives, their mouthpieces. We do not just talk on behalf of the people, we are the people!” He continued: “In all humility, we will be failing in

our duties if we wait for the executive to solely decide what the people need, or what the budget should do or what the policy priorities should be. When we insist on having a say in the determination of constituency projects, we are merely saying that we have first hand knowledge of what the needs are more than anyone else because we represent and interact more intimately with those who will use these infrastructures, services and facilities. When we say the budget for this or that should be raised or lowered, we are not just engaging in idle talk or muscle

flexing. We speak because the lives of our people are involved, because we are the voice of those who do not have the financial or political clout to make their words count. The people cannot be said to be sovereign unless their interests become the foremost reason for governance. And this cannot happen unless the arm of government which represents them exercises the latitude to do its work without threat or blackmail. We have just celebrated 14 years of uninterrupted democracy but the hang-over of decades of military rule continue to slow our progress. We practice a presidential system of government in which the centre is erroneously presumed to be as powerful as in a unitary state and the executive appropriates humongous influence without boundaries. “Part of the duty of the legislature is to act as a counterweight and constantly balance the powers of the executive so that we can avoid the problems that will otherwise arise. If we fail to act as a check and a balance, we would be aiding and abetting a crime. There is no way that democracy can thrive unless the three arms of government respect their constitutionally assigned roles and cooperate together for the benefit of our country. As members of the House of Representatives, we shall continue to work towards the sustenance of our hard earned democracy for the benefit of our people.”

Bayelsans yearn for change In 2015 — Dr Eberiye DR. Saturday Eberiye was the candidate of the Progressive Action Congress, PAC in the 2012 governorship election in Bayelsa State. In this interview he expresses his disappointment on the performance of Governor Seriake Dickson, whom he revealed was quick to break the promise of carrying gubernatorial candidates along in his government. Excerpts: BY GABRIEL EWEPU

O you think Governor Dickson Seriake is really touching lives of Bayelsans? Not at all. We in the opposition initially agreed to work with Dickson but we later found out that he cannot take advice from anybody because he knows everything; he is a lawyer, he is a learned friend, nobody can advice him. It will send wrong indications that we are also in that league giving the wrong advice. We gave him two weeks ultimatum that except he changes we are

going to withdraw. So after the two weeks what he tried to do was to send some insignificant persons to challenge us that we are hungry men, that his government is the best in this country. We told him that blackmail, threat and intimidation cannot solve the problem except the truth, and that we are telling the people of Bayelsa that we are no longer in the unity government of Dickson because he is not the person we are supposed to move with. Since he is not taking our advice we

•Eberiye will not want the public to say that we are still with him.That

is why we have come out openly to say enough is enough and that Dickson is on his own. Bayelsans are worried because the man (Dickson) is talking too much and doing less. He had told us at the initial stage that Bayelsa State had enough for any governor to thrive and bring development to Bayelsa State. After three months he told us how he had saved N27 billion, then everybody was happy. But in the next month the same governor, who said he had saved N27 billion turned Continues on page 56

56—Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

Obaze: Is this Obi’s man for his job? Given the well known impression that Obaze is nursing governorship ambition, it was not difficult asking why he is not yet campaigning and organizing meetings like other aspirants

BY VINCENT UJUMADU

T a period when the many governorship aspirants in Anambra State are jostling for attention and trying to outdo one another with posters and other campaign gimmicks, one notable aspirant has been conspicuous by his seeming silence. The Secretary to the Anambra State Government, SSG, Mr. Oseloka Obaze, considered by many to be Governor Peter Obi’s presumed heir apparent has been largely mum. Like his principal, he is giving the impression that he is not a classic politician. Obaze, it would be recalled, was brought back by Obi from the United States of America, where he was a senior official at the United Nations, UN, to become the SSG. Since his return to Nigeria, the SSG, who hails from Ogbaru which is part of Anambra North Senatorial Zone being favoured by his boss to produce his successor, has been engrossed in his work as SSG despite his rumoured governorship ambition. Indeed, Obaze last Wednesday declared his interest in succeeding his boss, but has beyond that kept mum.

Release of the guidelines So, why is he not yet campaigning and organizing meetings like other aspirants? Like a diplomat that he is, Obaze said it would be improper for him to jump the gun, insisting that he would only make known his ambition after the release of the guidelines concerning the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. “Many governorship aspirants are going about doing what they are not supposed to be doing. People have asked me about my political ambition and my position is that we must wait for INEC to release the guidelines for the election. I have taken cognizance of one thing because of whom I am and where I have been. I know that before we start electioneering, we must wait for INEC to give us the guidelines. So I am not going to make any pronouncement on the issue until the guidelines are out. According to him, the large number of people that have shown interest in the race (at the last count about 32) should

Governor Peter Obi has tended to behave like an apolitical public official while quietly undermining rooted political forces in Anambra State. With his exit date drawing nearer by the day, there are suggestions that he could be planting another seemingly apolitical man as heir.

, •Obi: Has he found his man? not discourage any serious aspirant, adding that the essence of democracy is that people come out to ask for votes and people are elected based on their records. “I maintain that the race for an election is like an Olympic Game where you present a lot of candidates and people are eliminated during the heats. If you run on somebody’s track, you are disqualified and at the end of the day, it is only those who run a clean race and get to the finishing line that will win. One thing is however very clear about Obaze’s governorship ambition and that

•Obaze: A governor in training? is that his job as the SSG and chairman of the state flood rehabilitation committee for the resettlement of last year’s flood victims in the state, has enabled him to get acquainted with all the nooks and crannies of Anambra State. Indeed, he has become a household name in the state as he was at the head of the team that distributed relief materials to the over 60 communities that were affected by the flood. During that assignment, he brought his personality to bear on the people. Besides, the political body language of Governor Obi indicates that the cap of

governor could fit his SSG. For instance, while performing an official function in the state last Monday in Awka, Obi told stakeholders of the state that gathered at the Women Development Center that development partners are concerned about who will succeed him next year in view of the on-going projects they are executing in the state. Obi said: “Their worry is that Anambra has come a long way in terms of partnering with international donor agencies and they have been expressing worry that what we have achieved in the past seven years could be wiped out in few

months by a governor who does not have what it takes to interact with and attract donor agencies that have described Anambra as one of the most reliable states in the country in terms of the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals, MDG, in which the state has ranked among the best performers.” Interestingly, INEC is expected to release the Anambra governorship election guidelines later this month and until then, Obaze will continue to keep mum about his ambition even if he is carrying out the campaigns behind the scene.

Bayelsans yearn for change In 2015 — Dr Eberiye Continued from page 55 around to say Bayelsa was broke, we don’t have enough money and that he was going to deduct restoration tax from civil servants, which is indiscriminately done. Now, civil servants in Bayelsa State are crying over these deductions Secondly, somebody who has never been a civil servant was appointed permanent secretary. In the civil service, before someone is appointed permanent secretary the person must grow from the ranks, you grow up to the rank of director, which is level 17 and then such a person can be appointed as permanent secretary. Here, a man who is a lawyer,

who has never been a civil servant is made a permanent secretary to head directors. The wife of Mr. President, Dame Patience Jonathan, has been appointed permanent secretary when the woman is under special leave of spouses. Once a man becomes a governor or deputy governor, president or vice president the wife automatically if she is civil servant is automatically placed on special leave of spouses. And until successful completion of that position she is not entitled to any position or promotion until she returns after service, and she is given what is called notional promotion according to civil service rules. And yet she has been

appointed permanent secretary by Dickson. The question is, which office is she holding? Mr. Governor has not told us. Another issue is rumour mongering. He has forgotten that rumour mongering and propaganda are elements of politics. There is no political environment without rumour mongering and propaganda. Now, he has sent a bill to the State House of Assembly to approve and pass into law a bill against rumour mongering and propaganda. It is an obnoxious law. It will be better for him to be advised to know that there is a Freedom of Information Law passed by the federal government. It is alleged that you are

preparing to re-contest the gubernatorial election in 2015. Why and on what platform? My interest is that we have not arrived as a state since PDP has been ruling. When Bayelsa West Senatorial District was yet to produce a governor, all of us were longing for it. In fact, I was the co-chairman, Sagabma and Ekeremor Political Forum, and Chairman, Sabgama Elders’ Forum. Our interest was to see that we produced a governor, and not because we were asking for governorship position, anybody can be a governor for us because we were thinking Seriake Dickson can be a governor that will come and solve the problems in the state.

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013 — 57

critical reader once asked me to define the concept of sensible politics and commonsense economics that I always refer to in this column, and also, to differentiate between that concept and President Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda. My logical answer is that the President’s Transformation Agenda is now in vogue and Nigerians are familiar with the consequences of some of the actions of the Federal Government. Simply put, the Agenda on the Economy is macro-economic stability with full employment and less inflation. The idea is to grow the economy to the extent that poverty would be eradicated and prosperity restored and maintained. The political agenda points to politics without strife and bitterness and security of life and property. My concept of sensible politics and commonsense economics would depend on application of policies to the attainment of peace and prosperity. In a democratic environment, there would be a government and the opposition (alternative government). It is the duty of the government, through its pre-election promises, to rule and provide good and tolerable administration for the people. It is the right of a progressive opposition to examine critically the policies of the government, point out adverse consequences and assure the electorate of its readiness to provide a better solution. In the absence of organized strong and effective opposition, many Nigerians, through the media, have been critical of the government to the displeasure of the celebrated spokesmen of the authorities. The idea of sensible politics rests on the pillars of consensus – a stand which will appeal to majority of Nigerians and which the opposition parties will find it difficult to oppose with good reason. In the recent emergency declaration in three states of the March, the stand of the federal government, though belated, was widely supported by majority of Nigerians. It is

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Policy of sensible politics and commonsense economics: A revisit however recognized that such an important step should have been discussed before action, with a responsible opposition. In all civilized democratic institutions of the world, security matters, war and peace, are thoroughly discussed with responsible organs of the state to obtain maximum support of the people and easy passage of laws at the Legislative houses. The organized opposition of the people and the discordant notes from the nation’s parliament on many critical issues is a stronger pointer to the fact that political processes, at times, lack sensible approach. A case in point is the recent Senate approach to a single term of six years for President and Governors. How do you gather support from the affected political office holders if they know that their fortunes are affected? You should not expect a President to support a piece of legislation that would affect his chance of second term. It is amazing, if not embarrassing that of all the myriads of problems facing Nigeria, it’s only the term of principal political officers that would excite the

minds of our highly paid parliamentarians. The electoral processes need structural reforms before 2015; there are questions about suitability of the presidential system of government for a developing country; other problems concern the imposition of a unitary system of administration on a federal constitution. There are also problems of armed robberies, kidnapping and ritual and political killings that need adequate attention. Many analysts believe that a plural society like Nigeria needs the development of sensible politics to promote consensus on vital matters through cooperation and understanding. The negative approach to sensible politics is the apparent curious behavior of many PDP governors and some party officials. The strife within the rank and file of party members and the dictatorial and proud attitudes currently being displayed do not suggest an atmosphere for rational thinking for the development and progress of the country. The words in the mouths of many patriotic Nigerians rest on the believe that

Amosun’s govt acts before thinking — Ladi Adebutu HON. Oladipupo Adebutu was a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State before his recent defection to the Labour Party. A former member of the National Assembly, he was also a commissioner in the Local Government Service Commission in the Gbenga Daniel administration. Lado spoke with journalists in his home at Iperu in Remo-North local government on the affairs of the Ibikunle Amosun administration. Excerpts: BY DAUD OLATUNJI

ow do you assess the government of Senator Ibikunle Amosun in the past two years? It seems the ability to do good government is now totally lacking. The ideas are just not there. Even, the small enterprises are being choked, the enabling environment is being choked despite the fact that hundreds of companies were attracted to Ogun State as a choice location for investment, this was done by the last administration and now this government is acquiring taxes from those concerns but they don’t even have the foresight to expand this programme. What is the way forward sir? Ogun State is in a serious dilemma and if we don’t arrest this, it is going to get worse. The Labour Party, I can assure you, is the only way forward to

sort out this perpetual issue of youth unemployment and worker discontent and I can tell you, it is the only vehicle that can take Nigeria out of an impending disaster. If concern of those who strived to exist is not taken into consideration, I’m sorry we are in a deep mess. That is why it is so easy to contrast with what the present government is doing. For the first time, the local government workers went on strike. What is your reaction to the response by the state government to your allegation of a N200 billion debt profile? For the first time in two years, the ACN government felt the necessity to actually respond and we were promised that by the following Friday, the State Commissioner for Finance would respond to allegations. But to my surprise, till date, that allegation has not been

•Adebutu addressed. Rather, it’s been stories of fake loans they were telling us. What are fake loans? We have records of the years preceding this government. No bond was taken! No bond; underlined, because the mantra this present ACN government had then was “bond is

a party that does not tolerate opposition and cannot manage its affairs with dignity may not be the party that would bring peace and prosperity to the country. The tragedy of the Nigerian politics is the difficulty or near impossibility of removing a non-performing sitting administration. People doubt the efficacy of the present electoral regulations in resolving rigging issues. Many economists are not sure of the effectiveness of some policies under the Transformation Agenda to ensure prosperity through less poverty and high employment. At present the reliance on oil for the sustenance of the Nigerian economy has not encouraged the desired economic development. Oil revenue, as an engine of growth, is being used to support the budgets of all tiers of government (whose propensity to consume conspicuous non-essential goods is prodigious). The failure of the federal government and the states on the use of Excess Crude Oil account for infrastructural development is a case in point. Also, as Nigerian oil would be facing bleak future in foreign market, the home production is affected by pipe-line vandals and daring crude oil thieves. It is regretful that the present economic policy has produced a regime of high banking lending rate, low value of the naira, high unemployment rate and deepening poverty. A preferable commonsense approach would be cheap money (low bank lending rate) as being practiced in many developed countries; a suitable exchange rate in respect of certain necessary commodities and great incentives to domestic manufacturing. There is no other way to tackle high rate of employment problem than the injection by the government of massive funds into the economy to stimulate effective demand and thereby, increase employment. Commonsense dictates this approach in the short-term (as the year 2015 approaches), as Lord Keynes once noted, ‘in the long term, we are all dead’.

bondage”. But this government now, despite that mantra, has received various bonds and incurred various debts. What they have just simply done is wish-washy. They’ve not answered yes or no. they should, as a responsible government, be able to tell us that after two years, we don’t owe N200 billion, we owe N1 billion or N5 billion. They’ve said nothing. But with the Freedom of Information Act, they will talk or go to jail. What is your assessment of the administration efforts in the area of security given that some say the government has done well? Do you know for a fact that it was during Amosun’s tenure that for the first time in the history of Ogun State, banks actually refused to work because of bad security situation? Then, they would say. They are now back at work with the purchase of Armoured Personnel Carriers. The APCs cost stupendous amount. Your approach to politics seems to be a resemblance of the slain governorship candidate of the defunct ActionCongress, Otunba Dipo Dina; do you think you can do it? Don’t see Dipo Dina in me; see Ladi Adebutu (laughs). I’ll tell you something: Dipo Dina

may his soul rest in peace, was a good man. He had a good heart and it is a pity that he had to pay with his life. But the truth of the matter is that when these things happen, we feel bad. The problem is not Dipo Dina’s problem; any lucky one here will stay till 100 years and we are still going anyway. But we are going to spend more, thousand times more, wherever we are going and we’ll give account of our jobs. What difference does Labour Party hope to make in the governance of the state? By the very nature of the Labour Party, it is a party of compassion for the average man. It is a party that has to work. The culture of work for profit is understood, that is a fundamental tenet of the labour movement; value for work done. On a wider scope, the personalities involved in the labour movement today are people that have aptitude, that actually know what they are doing, they have come from various sections of the community to form a united front to save our state. Aptitude, ability to reason before actions are done is a very intrinsic part of government.

58—Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

PDP has no regard for Ndigbo — Mbadiwe •Nigeria at a standstill under PDP rule DR. Eddie Mbadiwe, member of the House of Representatives, representing Ideato North/South Constituency and leader of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA caucus in the House was born into a family of politics and has since his student days, been in the public eye. In this interview he spoke about issues pertaining to his party, APGA among other national issues. Excerpts:

S The leader of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the House, how do you feel about the current crisis in the party? I am worried about the crisis because APGA by philosophy is a progressive party, the crisis is very bad for our party and our people but I believe that with time, may be this crisis will be resolved. People shouldn’t believe that they are right all the time, they need to make concessions at times because at the end of the day, the society is bigger than any one of us. I came from England to run for this election, I would have joined the PDP but I believe that PDP cannot move this country forward because there is no philosophy, it is like a cabal who wants to see what they can get for themselves, this is not what politics is all about.

Support for merger Politics is about service to the society buy PDP is a party where people are only after what they can get from the system. That is why I support the merger of some of the opposition parties into All Progressives Congress (APC). I am not saying that they are different human beings, they are the same Nigerians but let’s have different philosophy that defines where we are going, PDP doesn’t know where they are going but APC will give more stability to this country. There are too many political parties in Nigeria, to have any meaningful opposition; the other parties have to merge in order to have a more formidable platform to go for power. The way they are fragmented at the moment, they can never get power so the merger is good for the country. But your party APGA had announced that they are not involved in the merger, so which APGA do you now belong to? There are factions in APGA at the moment, there is the Governor Peter Obi APGA which does not believe in the merger, I think that the National chairman made a statement that APGA will not surrender it’s certificate which means that they are not ready to merge.

You don’t become President by wishing it, nobody gives you power, you have to take it

power, you have to take it. Igbo as a group have to organize themselves and come out with one voice. When election starts, you will have between 50-60 Igbo coming out to run and in that kind of scenario, who is going to be president? The other groups will exploit the situation. Let us first of all organize ourselves, unite and talk to other Nigerians, make friends with them. It is not a matter of saying it is

•Mbadiwe: You can't wish to be President our turn, such things don’t happen in politics, you have to get it by negotiation and persuasion, you have to convince other groups that other zones have had it, we have not had it, we should get it. You have to look at structures to know which party is more likely to produce the president and you ask within that structure,

what is our standing. In fact, that is one of the reasons I didn’t join the PDP, PDP has no regard for the Igbos, the highest Igbo man in PDP presently is the National Publicity Secretary, what is that in terms of party structure? The presidency will come naturally but it may not come in 2015 but it will come.

700 motions in two years? That’s true representation! BY IMAM IMAM

T is really exciting going through the statistics of the mid-term score card of the House of Representatives under the leadership of Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal. For a recap, the leadership of the House was elected on June 6, 2011 in an atmosphere that has served as a quick reminder of the goodness of team work and promotion of democratic tenets. Two years into Tambuwal’s mandate, the House of Representatives has continued to set historical milestones in carrying out its constitutionallyassigned duties of representation, law-making and oversight.

Lawmaking and oversight The statistics churned out at the celebration to mark the two years has surprised even the lawmakers themselves. With it all, the House of Representatives has set the pace in legislative activities in the country and it’s a bar the members are very anxious to exceed in the years to come. Such anxiousness, according

to Tambuwal, had led to the raising of a total of five hundred and twelve bills (512) all of which have passed first readings; passage of sixty (60) bills into law, and legislative work one hundred and thirty four (134) other bills. The bills have so far undergone second reading and are at Committee stage. Now to the juicier part: for a House mandated to sit a total of 180 days in a year, it has passed a total of over seven hundred (700) motions raised on the floor and resolutions adopted on matters of concern to the citizens such as national disasters, communal violence, and governmental oppression among others. What this means, therefore, is that every year, Tambuwal’s House adopts an average of 350 motions in 180 days of legislative business. That is hard work; that is true representation. The exemplary conduct of Tambuwal as the Speaker of the House in the last two years highlights the end of an era of self-representation, when lawmakers took decisions that were at variance with the wishes and aspirations of their constituents. Here and now, Tambuwal’s House is what a

There is Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo state who believes in APC and held a rally recently to say that APGA Imo or APGA Rochas is now APC. I am with my governor. If Ojukwu had not died, there wouldn’t have been this split in APGA, the major cause of the split was the fact that Ojukwu who had been the rallying point is dead, if Ojukwu had not died, I am sure APGA in the next election would have gotten about four states and that will give us a leverage to grow but as the party is at the moment, if I tell you that APGA will win Anambra election, I am not being realistic because you must unite first in order to be able to win, so the crisis is very bad for our people. Igbo Presidency You don’t become President by wishing it, nobody gives you

BY CHARLES KUMOLU

As the Speaker pointed out, the credit for the stability goes to the members who have exhibited uncommon diligence, support, inspiration

parliament should be: focused, vibrant, independent and one that gauges the pulse of the nation and works in tandem with the needs and desire of the people. When it comes to the House of Representatives, it is a widely-held opinion that there is no public relations magic better than performance. Tambuwal’s performance has set the bar in governance. His courage and equanimity in the face of tough challenges have served as inspiration to his colleagues in the House to go about their duties without fear, or favour. Importantly, it has given Nigerians hope that in Tambuwal, they have a leader

who can be trusted to deliver no matter whose ox is gored. Two years down the line, the return on investment has come with appreciable successes. Such success has ensured unprecedented stability which has in turn laid the foundation for all that has been achieved so far. As the Speaker pointed out, the credit for the stability goes to the members who have exhibited uncommon diligence, support, inspiration, selflessness, passion, maturity and willingness to sacrifice towards the promotion and preservation of the National Interest. Another credit to Tambuwal and the House is that of consultative representation. As part of its agenda to remain true and faithful representatives, the House has consulted with the people of Nigeria on all critical issues. Of particular reference is the Peoples’ Public Sessions held in the 360 federal constituencies nationwide to avail the people the opportunity to participate in the making of their Constitution.

*Imam is the Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs to Speaker Tambuwal

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013—59

C M Y K

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Arab Islamist rebels, Kurds clash in northern Syria I

SLAMIST rebels have cut access to a Kurdish area in northern Syria and clashed with Kurdish nationalist PKK fighters whom they accuse of backing President Bashar alAssad, sources on both sides said yesterday. The confrontation threatens to open a new front in Syria’s 27-month-old civil war, in which Kurds, who form about 10 percent of the population, have so far played a limited role. Fighting erupted overnight on the edge of Ifrin, a rugged, olive-growing area on the Turkish border, the sources said. Four people were killed, bringing to at least 30 the death toll from battles and assassinations in the last few days. Dozens more have been taken in tit-for-tat kidnappings, the sources

Kurdish fighters from the Popular Protection Units (YPG) pose for a picture in Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood said. Tensions between Arabs and Kurds, whose relationship is riven by land disputes, especially in eastern Syria, have risen since

the uprising against Assad erupted in March 2011. Thousands of Kurds joined peaceful pro-democracy protests early on in the revolt but the com-

munity has mostly stayed out of the armed and largely Islamist insurgency that followed.

US uses drones for surveillance, says FBI

HE US uses drones for surveillance in some limited law-enforcement situations, the head of FBI has said, prompting additional debate about the Obama administration’s use of domestic surveillance. Robert Mueller ’s acknowledgement came in response to questions on Wednesday from members of the Senate Judiciary Com-

mittee who said they wanted to know more about the federal government’s increasing use of unmanned aircraft. “Does the FBI use drones for surveillance on US soil?” Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa asked during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. “Yes,” Mueller said, adding that the use was in “a very, very minimal way and very

seldom”. Mueller did not go into detail, but the FBI later released a statement that said

Hezbollah urged to pull out of Syria

SLAMIST rebels have cut access to a Kurdish area in northern Syria and clashed with Kurdish na-

New Palestinian prime minister offers resignation

ALESTINIAN Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah has offered his resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas just two weeks after taking office, an official in his press office told Reuters on Thursday. It was not immediately clear whether Abbas would accept the resignation by Hamdallah, an academic and political independent whose cabi-

net only met for the first time last week. The government source told Reuters that Hamdallah made the abrupt, unexpected move because of a “dispute over his powers”. Hamdallah’s cabinet consists overwhelmingly of members of the Fatah party led by Abbas, and political commentators immediately questioned how much room he would

unmanned aircraft were used only to watch stationary subjects and to avoid serious risks to law-enforcement agents.

Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah

tionalist PKK fighters whom they accuse of backing President Bashar alAssad, sources on both sides said yesterday. The confrontation threatens to open a new front in Syria’s 27-month-old civil war, in which Kurds, who form about 10 percent of the population, have so far played a limited role. Fighting erupted overnight on the edge of Ifrin, a rugged, olive-growing area on the Turkish border, the sources said. Four people were killed, bringing to at least 30 the death toll from battles and assassinations in the last few days.

have to maneuver.

Row over Taliban flag at Qatar office frustrates talks

row over the status of a flag at the Taliban’s office in Doha, Qatar, continues to frustrate efforts to start Afghan peace talks. After a rebuke from the Qataris, the Taliban removed the flag, only to hoist it again on a shorter flagpole, a BBC correspondent in Doha said.

Kabul expressed “serious displeasure” at the handling of the peace talks.

The US has long wanted the talks, but Kabul said there had been a “breach

of principles” in the initiative.

Somalia’s al-Shabab militants in ‘deadly feud’

EAVY fighting has taken place between rival factions of Somalia’s militant Islamist group al-Shabab near

the key coastal town of Brava, witnesses said. Six militants, including two foreigners, were killed in the gun-battle at

dawn, they told the BBC. Al-Shabab denied there had been any fighting within its ranks.

62 — V anguard, FRID AY, JUNE 21, 2013 Vanguard FRIDA

Thriller Continues from B/P glorious chances to claim victory, but instead found themselves on the wrong end of a 4-3 scoreline. They had flair. Italy had the spirit. They had the game, Italy had the goals. It was a thriller. Still breathless from their efforts, but with broad smiles on their faces, various Italian players, as well as their coach, Cesare Prandelli, chatted exclusively with FIFA.com post-match. A common theme to emerge was their respect for the superb Japanese performance. Prandelli’s charges were magnanimous to a man, dishing out praise to the talented Asian representatives, and even admitting that Lady Luck had been on their side during the epic Group A encounter. Daniele de Rossi was one of Italy’s outstanding performers on the night, scoring the crucial goal that cut Japan’s lead to 21, playing a part in the decisive fourth goal, as well as generating most of Gli Azzurri’s positive play on the night. Now 30 years of age, the Roma midfielder has participated in every major tournament the sport has to offer, but despite that is unashamed to admit that it was “one of the toughest matches”

of his career. Following that revealing declaration, the versatile midfield man does not hold back his admiration for the losing side. “They’re an amazing team that didn’t deserve to lose. To be honest, I really must congratulate Japan, who showed great quality. They were very brave, and had great players like Keisuke Honda and Shinji Kagawa – we were exhausted running after them,” he said. But he was not the only one to rave about the Samurai Blue. Even the statistics reveal the spectacular nature of the duel, with the Asians managing 17 shots on target (including four that hit the post) to the Europeans’ 12. They also unexpectedly dominated possession, by 55 per cent to 45 per cent. It comes as no surprise, then, to hear defender Giorgio Chiellini recognise that “they put us under enormous pressure.” For the Juventus centre-back, the credit for Japan’s enterprising play should go to one man in particular. “It comes down to Alberto Zaccheroni, without a doubt. He was my coach at Juventus and I learned a lot under him, and the same thing seems to

Japanese midfielder, Shinji Kagawa controls the ball. be happening with them. I think he’s doing a remarkable job. They’re the current Asian champions and he’s got them playing very well. With another year of hard work under their belts, they’re going to be a force to be reckoned with at the World Cup.” Prandelli’s analysis of the match is less emotional but

equally complimentary. “I was expecting a difficult game, but not to that extent. We were very lucky, and we had to show courage to pull off the win. Japan are an organised, attractive team that play great football. I’m really impressed.” Japan’s ebullient display coupled with Italy’s traditional hunger for victory laid the

foundations for a confrontation that will live long in the memory, as confirmed by another of its protagonists, Christian Maggio. “It was an incredible spectacle that even we hadn’t expected. The outcome was a win that we struggled for, but it was also hugely impressive. We rode our luck, and at one point we could tell that we had a real game on our hands, but we pulled ourselves together to overcome an excellent team,” explained the 31-year-old defender. Emanuele Giaccherini, the last player to share his thoughts, was one of Italy’s heroes in Recife, demonstrating persistence and skill to provoke the own goal that levelled the score at 2-2. The Juventus star offers a more pensive reflection on the night’s events: “It was a learning experience for us. To mount a comeback versus such an intense, formidable team will no doubt serve us well for the rest of the competition.”

TRANSFER TALK....TRANSFER TALK.... TRANSFER TALK....

Mikel denies Galatasaray switch J

C M Y K

ON Obi Mikel has denied making comments about a move to Galatasaray attributed to him in Turkey. Chelsea’s Nigerian midfielder had been quoted as saying he was close to a move to the Turkish side, and that he had discussed it with their striker and his former Chelsea team-mate Didier Drogba. But Mikel has denied giving the interview and insisted that he never said the words. Chelsea are looking at midfield reinforcements this summer, as Jose Mourinho tries to put his stamp on the squad. The Independent reported earlier in the week they were seriously looking at Sevilla’s 20-year-old Geoffrey Kondogbia. Chelsea are also thought to be keen on Wigan Athletic’s James McCarthy, likely to

Sneijder snubs Chelsea T

HE agent of Galatasaray playmaker Wesley Sneijder has ruled out any possibility of his client joining Chelsea this summer. TalkSPORT reports how the 28-year-old attacking midfielder has been frequently linked with a move to west London,

Bale won’t leave — AVB

•Mikel leave after Wigan’s relegation, and Marco Van Ginkel, the Holland Under-21 player currently at Vitesse.

NDRE Villas-Boas has told a Spanish newspaper that Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy has given him his word that Gareth Bale will not be leaving the Premier League club. Speculation has been rife since the season ended that the Welshman - both PFA and Football Writers’ player of the year in 2013 - could be heading out of White Hart Lane.

even before he agreed a lucrative move to Turkey last year Jose Mourinho’s return to Stamford Bridge has led to

speculation suggesting that Sneijder could be reunited with his former Inter Milan manager ahead of 2013/14, but his representative Soren Lerby has closed the door on a move to Chelsea this transfer window.

Cavani unsure of future

DINSON Cavani says that he would like to play for one of ‘the biggest clubs in the world’ but insists there is nothing official to announce at the moment. The Napoli striker is currently away with Uruguay

at the Confederations Cup in Brazil. Cavani has been linked in recent weeks with Real Madrid, Chelsea, Manchester City, Paris SaintGermain and Monaco.

deal in a u ig H e re g a l a n e Ars ed hi s ha ve RS EN AL re ed ag re po rt ed ly Re al th wi pe rs on al te rm s za lo on G d ar M ad rid fo rw £22 rd co re b clu a in Higuain e. ov m n) million (R348-millio en be s ha d The 25-year ol e London heavily linked to th m both fro rts po re club, and nt in a ge En gl an d an d Ar an d em -d in re ve al th e

iz fo rw ar d ha s fin al where s, er move to the Gunn 15,000 £1 rn ea he is set to k. ee -w -a n) io (R1.8 mill cord for The transfer is a re ashing sm b, the London clu (R 23 7 n io ill th e £1 5 m Ze ni t St m ill io n) pa id to id fie ld er Pe te rs bu rg fo r m January in in Andrey Arshav 2009.

Vanguard, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013 — 63

Oduamadi: I love to dance S

UPER Eagles forward Nnamdi Oduamadi has said that he loves to dance when he scores for country and club. Three times on the score-sheet against the OFC champions, Oduamadi is the epitome of a Nigeria team that is bursting with ability and anxious to make a name for itself on the international stage. “I’ve suffered a lot of injuries in the last few years,” he told FIFA.com. “That’s why I missed the last Africa Cup of Nations, which my team-

mates won in such spectacular style. ”I’ve been given the chance to show what I can do in the national team now though, and I don’t want to waste it. I’m very happy with the first steps I have taken in the competition, and I’m going to give my all to help my team go as far as possible. I’m back.” In discussing the dance moves that followed his goals, the smiling played said: “I love music and if you like music, then you like to dance too. You’ll see me dancing every time I score.”

Federation Cup: Omofomah detonates Benin’s Dynamite

ARRI Wolves on Wednesday at the Rojenny Stadium, Oba, Anambra State defeated hard fighting Dynamite Football Club Benin 10, in the round of 64 of the Federation Cup courtesy. Omofomah Freedom scored the lone goal in the 40th minute of the thrilling encounter. Omofomah, who was bought from the Benin outfit at the beginning of the season had boasted before the match that he had would nail the boys from Benin lived up to his words after posting a 5-star performance which kept the crowd cheering throughout the

Oduamadi

encounter. Coach Solomon Ogbeide had rested some regular players including Oghenekaro Etebo who has scored nine goals in the league but those selected did not let the team down. Speaking after the match, Coach Solomon Ogbeide praised the boys for their performance against Dynamite FC who played in the round of sixteen last season. “I am giving kudos to my players because the Federation Cup is not easy all over the World. Dynamite FC sent out Akwa United last season.”

Luiz requires surgery on broken nose Beckham causes stampede, five injured David Luiz will undergo surgery after suffered a broken nose during Brazil’s latest match in the

Confederations Cup on Wednesday. The Chelsea defender sustained the injury in a collision with his

Luiz

U-20 World Continued from BP talking tough ahead of the match which comes up at the beautiful Kayseri Kadir Has Stadium, 7.00 pm Nigerian time. Obuh has declared that today ’s Group B opening match against Portugal is a must-win affair. “This is our first game at the World Cup. It’s very crucial and a mustwin match because a win will ease the pressure on the team and it will boost our confidence,” said Obuh, who is making C M Y K

his second appearance at the U20 World Cup. Two weeks ago at the Toulon International Tournament in France, Portugal edged past Nigeria 2-1. Incidentally, both teams also battled, leading up to the 2011 World Cup in Colombia. The first friendly in Lisbon ended goalless, while Portugal won the second match 2-0 in an invitational tournament in Panama. In the last edition held in Colombia, Portugal reached the final, while Nigeria crashed out at the quarterfinals.

Brazilian team-mate Thiago Silva during their 2-0 victory over Mexico. However, the 26-yearold expects to be available for Brazil’s remaining matches in the tournament, which ends on June 30. He faces an operation in early July and Luiz told Chelsea’s official website: “Yes, my nose is broken, but that’s part of the game. “Now I’ll have to wait until the end of the competition and undergo surgery to fix it.”

ECKHAM mania swept through China yesterday as five students were injured as a stampede ensued at Shanghai’s Tongji University. The former Manchester United and Real Madrid star was due to meet members of the University football team as part of his seven-day tour to promote the Chinese Super League. However, a mass crowd of people wanting to catch a glimpse of the former England international made it impossible.

Home Science, Chrisland win chess competition

OME Science and Chrisland schools have emerged champions of the Junior and senior categories of the just concluded 6th All primary school Pedachess tournament which was held at Chrisland school in Lagos. The two day Chess tournament attracted an unprecedented number of participants as 48 primary schools in Lagos featured in the event that had over 500 children in attendance. The second and third positions in the junior category was won by the duo of Karis School and Daniels Elementary

School while Home Science and NEPA Staff School got the second and third positions in the senior category. A pupil of Karis School, Anjola Bank-Olemoh bagged the overall best player award in the junior category while O’Neal Egwuatu emerged the best overall player in the senior category. Professor Abisogun Leigh who was one of the dignitaries that graced the occasion remarked that the future of Chess in the country is on the rise due to the amazing resources available in the country.

An injured police woman being rescued by security personnel. Beckham was unable to hope the fans are ok and make it through the I wish them a speedy hordes of fans waiting for recovery.’Around 1,000 him and later posted on people are believed to his Facebook and Sina have turned up to get a Weibo account close up of Beckham and apologising to his fans. Police confirmed that He said: ‘Sorry I three of their officers had couldn’t get out on the also been injured in the pitch to see the teams but crush. The 38-year-old it was impossible to get retired from the game last through the massive season having helped crowds. I heard there Paris-Saint Germain to were a few injuries, I the Ligue 1 title.

Messi Continued from BP courthouse at Gava, Catalonia by tax authorities accusing them of defrauding the state out of more than €4m in tax. Messi and his father both denied the allegation, which is for the years 2006 to 2009 and calls for their criminal and civil responsibility over the sale between of the

Argentine footballer ’s image rights to third parties based in tax haven destinations. Today the judge overseeing the complaint has ruled that the pair do have a case to answer and has admitted the prosecutor’s complaint. Subsequently, the player and his father have been summoned to court as defendants on Tuesday, September 17.

VANGUARD, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

Tomorrow's matches Italy Japan

vs Brazil 8.00 pm vs Mexico 8.00pm Result

Spain

10 - 0

THRILLER IN BRAZIL!

Italy, Japan in explosive soccer exhibition W

HEN the referee signalled the end of the FIFA Confederations Cup match between Japan and Italy at Arena Pernambuco in Recife, the winning side barely had the strength left to

raise their arms in celebration. In a pulsating contest that swung back and forth, the Italians dug deep in the final minutes to beat a valiant Japanese team that had Continues on Page 62

U-20 World Cup begins, Obuh talks tough

Continues on Page 55

Obuh

PUZZLE

SPANISH judge has ruled that Barcelona forward Lionel Messi and his father Jorge Messi do have a case to answer on the charge of tax fraud. The duo were the subject of a complaint filed last week in a Continues on Page 63

Today's matches FIFA U-20 W/CUP France vs 4.00 pm USA 7.oopm

CHALLENGE.....Japan’s Keisuke Honda, left, and Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini challenge for the ball during the Confederations Cup group A match at the Arena Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil, Wednesday. Italy won 4-3. Photo: AP

Ghana vs

Spain

Cuba vs Korea Republic 4.00 pm Nigeria vs 7.00 pm

Portugal

QUICK CROSSWORD

Sudoku TODAY'S

Tax fraud: Messi charged!

Messi

HE Flying Eagles will today open their account in the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup with a mouth-watering fixture against last edition’s runners up, Portugal. Coach John Obuh who led the team to the quarter finals in Colombia is already

Tahiti

YESTER DAY'S YESTERDAY'S

ANSWERS

DOWN ACROSS 1 Cruel (6) 1 Reveal (6) 2 Average (6) 5 Span (6) 3 Blemish (4) 9 Kayak (5) 4 Stuffing (5) 10 Abduct (6) 5 Brag (5) 11 Spite (6) 6 Hire (4) 12 Cook (5) 14 Commonsense (4) 7 Degrade (6) 8 Simply (6) 17 Gear (3) 13 Dirigible (7) 18 Post (4) 15 Bizarre (5) 20 Puppet (5) 16 Daub (5) 22 Healthy (5) 23 Hearing range (7) 18 Theme (5) 19 Insert (5) 24 The best (5) 21 Sweet potato (3) 26 Brushed (5) 22 Nod (3) 29 Listen (4) 24 Angel (6) 30 Gratuity (3) 25 Unrefined (6) 32 Destiny (4) 27 Oar (6) 33 Extra (5) 28 Protect (6) 35 Keep (6) 30 Harmonised (5) 36 Sieve (6) 31 Danger (5) 37 Frozen (5) 33 Symbol (4) 38 Further on (6) 34 Travel (4) 39 Myth (6)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS

How to Play Sudoku

ACROSS: 4, Drape 7, Asylum 9, Ore 10, Dam 12, Avast 13, Twig 15, Large 17, Allege 19, Lope 20, Endue 22, Nil 24, Mariner 27, Dot 28, Siren 31, Bean 33, Tussle 35,. Evade 37, Land 38, Fibre 39, Eat 41, Vex 42, Mallet 43, Steer.

THE VIGILANTE

DOWN: 1, Castle 2, Myriad 3, Duel 4, Drag 5, Revel 6, Postpone 8, Male 11, Magnitude 14, Glum 16, Rein 18, Lead 21, Novelist 23, Less 25, Rota 26, Rill 29, Really 30, Nudity 32, Nerve 34, Seam 36, Veer 40, Tag.

e-mail: rowolove@yahoo.co.uk

lace a number (1-9) in each blank cell. (No line can have two of the same number). Each row (nine lines from left to right), column, (also nine lines from top to bottom) and 3 X 3 block within a bold block (nine blocks) contains number from 1 through 9. This means that no number can appear twice in any block, column or row. No mathematics is involved – no adding, subtraction, division or multiplication, just plain logic and your imagination. Printed and Published by VANGUARD MEDIA LIMITED, Vanguard Avenue, Kirikiri Canal, P.M.B.1007, Apapa. Phone: Newsroom: 018773962. Deputy Editor: 01-8944295. Advert Dept: 01-7924470; Hotline: 01-8737028; Abuja: 09-2341102, 09-2342704. E-mail: editor@vanguardngr.com, news@vanguardngr.com, letters@vanguardngr.com. Advert:advertproduction@yahoo.com Website: www.vanguardngr.com (ISSN 0794-652X) Editor: MIDENO BAYAGBON. Phone: 01-7742861, All correspondence to P.M.B. 1007, Apapa Lagos.