Presidency breaks Govs' ranks

...towards a better life for the people

**

VOL. 25: NO. 61826

Pope signs law for early election of successor

ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

N150

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

•Pg 14

7 French hostages: Boko Haram claims responsibility •Pg.9

Presidency breaks Govs' ranks

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR & HENRY UMORU

New NGF chairman emerges May As Amaechi retains position PDP Govs' Forum to resolve S-West issue

A

BUJA — BARELY 24 hours after the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, formed a forum for its governors, seemingly to break the ranks of the increasingly influential Nigerian Governors' Forum, NGF, the Presidency flexed its muscle, yesterday, with most of the governors backing down from a showdown.

This effectively whittled down the powers of the governors forum.

It was gathered yesterday that the Presidency has infiltrated the ranks of

Continues on page 5

COLUMNISTS:

PINI JASON •P.17

JOHN AMODA •P.19

Mr & Mrs

NGF MEETING: From left: Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State; Governor Aliyu Babangida of Niger State; Chairman, Nigerian Governors' Forum, NGF, and Rivers State Governor, Chief Rotimi Amaechi; Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State and other governors addressing newsmen shortly after the third meeting of the NGF, in Abuja, yesterday. Photo: Gbemiga Olamikan.

Jonathan okays Justice Archibong's sack —P.9

Soldiers' bullets hit three Nasarawa varsity students —P.7

2 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

C M Y K

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013 — 3

C M Y K

4 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

C M Y K

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26 , 2013—5

POCKET CARTOON

PUBLIC HEARING: Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Engr. Andrew Yakubu (left) and Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison Madueke, during the public hearing of the joint committee on petroleum resources upstream and downstream on the proposed $1.56 billion NNPC loan, at the National Assembly, Abuja, yesterday. Photo: Gbemiga Olamikan.

Presidency breaks Govs' ranks Continues from Page 1 the governors and has broken their resolve to rally around Governor Amaechi.

The expected showdown in the battle for the leadership of the NGF turned into an anti-climax, yesterday. At the end of a meeting that lasted for about four hours, the governors resolved to reschedule the elections to May just ahead of the end of the tenure of the incumbent chairman of the NGF, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State.

Yesterday’s decision of the NGF was the culmination of intrigues and power play that saw

Amaechi in direct conflict with the assumed interests of President Goodluck Jonathan. President Jonathan's close associates, it was learnt, were directly deployed in mobilizing support for Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State who had been selected as the choice candidate of the Villa to replace Governor Amaechi who had been considered as hostile by the Villa.

Powers of the Presidency At the Monday night's meeting of the PDP

LIFEWORDS

BY PASTOR ITUAH

There is no time to waste time. Do what you need to do and do it now.

TAKE HEART

BY ELLA RANDLE

N

OBODY can hurt me without my permission – Mahatma Gandhi.

C. JoyBell‘s perspective about inner strength and how to keep your peace no matter what you may encounter in life is indeed enlightening.

You’re going to meet many people with domineering personalities: the loud, the obnoxious, those that noisily stake their claims in your territory and everywhere else they set foot on. This is the blueprint of a predator. Predators pr ey on gentleness, peace, calmness, sweetness and any positivity that they sniff out as weakness.

Anything that is happy and at peace, they mistake for weakness. It’s not your job to change these people, but it’s your job to show them that your peace and gentleness do not equate to weakness. I have always appeared to be fragile and delicate but the thing is, I am not fragile and I am not delicate. I am very gentle but I can show you that the gentle also possess an inner strength. I compare myself to silk. People mistake silk to be weak but a silk handkerchief can protect the wearer from a gunshot.

There are many people who will want to befriend you if you fit the description of what they think is weak; predators want to have friends that they can dominate over because that makes them feel strong and important. Just be yourself at all times. It is the key to self mastery in life.

Governors at the Villa, it was learnt that Governor Babangida Aliyu questioned the rationale for setting up a PDP Governors Forum when it was the party that set up the NGFm in the first place.

He was allegedly shouted down by Governor Akpabio which resulted in a shouting match between the duo.

Normally reliable sources disclosed, last night, that ahead of the expected showdown, the powers of the Presidency at the highest levels in Aso Rock were directly deployed in the campaigns that saw the governors being contacted individually.

The governors were reportedly told that Gov. Amaechi had declared war against President Jonathan and the governors should not empower him.

In some cases, some governors were shown video recordings where Amaechi was alleged to have sworn to unseat President Jonathan.

“Recordings of events where Amaechi said hostile things against the president were given to the governors and it was said that the president vowed that he would not leave without a struggle and that is what happened today,” a source privy to the development told Vanguard, last night.

Some govs develop cold feet It was learnt that a number of the governors who had backed Amaechi until yesterday developed cold feet in the face of the fierce determination and pressures from the presidency. Shema, who was the presidency ’s choice to replace Amaechi,

it was learnt, still did not have enough votes to carry the day, leaving the two camps to postpone the election till May.

The communiqué Governor Amaechi who read a three-paragraph communiqué at the end of the meeting, yesterday evening said: “We the Governors of the 36 states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria at our third meeting of the year held today (yesterday) Monday, February 25, 2013 at the Rivers State Governor’s Lodge, Abuja, deliberated over a number of issues and resolved as follows: “Members reviewed the affairs of the Forum in the past 21 months detailing activities, achievements and challenges experienced during the period.

“After exhaustive deliberation of the issues regarding filling vacant positions, the Forum resolved that election in this regard be postponed until May when the Chairman’s initial two-year tenure will expire.”

Yesterday’s meeting, which started at 4p.m. and ended 7.45p.m, was a follow-up to that of last Wednesday which ran into the early hours of Thursday and also ended in a deadlock.

Besides the governors, two prominent PDP chieftains, Chief Tony Anenih and Prof. Jerry Gana, were present at the meeting where issues pertaining to the party and the adoption of a common position on the chairmanship of the NGF were reportedly adopted.

A source at the meeting disclosed that Governor Shema of Katsina was adopted as the putative PDP nominee for the chairmanship of the NGF. Besides, as a way of showing the relevance of the new PDP Governors Forum, it was resolved that the new forum would champion the reconciliation of the party’s divided factions in the South-West.

Remarkably, Governor Akpabio, who briefed newsmen at the end of the afternoon meeting, said the new forum would liaise with the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party in repairing the party’s damaged fortunes in the South-West.

Backs NWC to reinstate Kugamaled Adamawa Exco In a significant concession to his colleagues, Akpabio said the PDP Governors' Forum would go along with the NWC’s decision recognizing the Mijinyawa Kugama-led executive of the party in Adamawa State which is loyal to Governor Murtala Nyako The earlier decision by the NWC to dissolve the Kugama-led executive was a direct reason for the confrontation between the governors and the Presidency which led to the recent face-off.

Maiden PDP Govs'

Why I was elected —Akpabio

Prior to the meeting of the NGF, 19 of the 22 PDP governors met in the Akwa Ibom Lodge in Abuja in the first formal meeting after the formation of the Forum of PDP Governors.

Briefing newsmen at the end of the meeting, Akpabio further disclosed that a committee led by Governor Shema of Katsina State has been constituted to evaluate the situation in the South-West.

Forum meeting

He said his emergence as chairman of the PDP Governors' Forum at the Sunday night meeting with the president and senior officials of the party was a direct result of the dangers posed by the merger of the major opposition parties into the All Progressive Congress, APC. “We are of the opinion that we should take steps to set up structures to meet the emerging challenge of APC. And part of the resolution is that we should have continued interaction of the party, the NWC, leadership of the Board of Trustees and to build a synergy with the Nigerian Governors’ Forum.

Shema heads c'ttee to evaluate S/West crisis “We set a committee to evaluate the situation in the South-West and we will be communicating with the South-West leaders and that committee is headed

by Governor Ibrahim Shema. Governor Shema and the leaders of that committee would be meeting with the leaders of the South-West and they will come with resolutions that can resolve the issue in the South-West.

“We also looked into the issue of Adamawa State PDP and came to the conclusion that we should allow Governor Sule Lamido’s committee to do its work and to report immediately to the party, NWC and the Presidency. ”But in the meantime, we plead that the status quo should be allowed to remain. By the status quo we mean the Mijinjwa Committee. The executive in place prior to the dissolution of the state executive.”

He explained that the Shema committee would submit its report within two weeks.

Governors of Abia, Delta, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Benue, Kano, Jigawa, Kogi, Katsina, Sokoto, Adamawa, states, among others were present.

6—Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Abducted lecturer mistaken for govt official

BY NDAHI MARAMA

M

AIDUGURI—THE ab ducted University of Maiduguri lecturer, Dr Abba Kagu, said to have been kidnapped on Saturday by gunmen in Maiduguri was reportedly mistaken for an in-law of a top official of Borno State government propmting, his abductors to demand N5million from his family, it was learnt.

Investigations revealed that the abductors had initially demanded N100 million ransom for the release of the supposed target and a brother in-law to a very senior elected political office holder in the state.

This came even as a retired

Kidnappers abduct Oguta bizman

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

O

WERRI—THE prevail ing peace in Oguta was badly shattered on Sunday, following the shooting of two mobile policemen and abduction of a prominent son of the community, Mr. Emeka Aseme, by suspected kidnappers.

Vanguard investigations revealed that the hoodlums, who wore military uniform, stormed the Niger Plaza Hotel, where Aseme was supervising over his business, between 8 and 9 pm on Sunday.

High number of prisoners blamed on justice system

BY EVELYN USMAN

A

BOUT 35, 000 out of 52,754 suspects in various prisons across the country are awaiting trials for various offences, prison authorities said yesterday in Lagos, pointing out that the high number of prisoners was hampering reformation efforts for the inmates.

At the Kirikiri Maximum prison, Lagos, for instance, there were 752 male inmates , out of which 418 of them were awaiting trial persons, while the Medium Security Prisons had 2,248 awaiting trials out of 2,395 inmates.

Spokesman for the Nigerian Prisons, Mr Raphael Odeyemi, spoke during a tour of the three prisons in Kirikiri, blaming the yawning gap between convicted and awaiting trial persons on the criminal justice system in Nigeria.

Residents of Badia protest over forceful eviction and ongoing demolition in Badia East Community, at Alausa, Ikeja Lagos, yesterday. Photo: Bunmi Azeez.

We 'll not stop youths from retaliating killing of our kinsmen — Southern Kaduna people warn

BY LUKA BINNIYAT

K

ADUNA—SOUTHERN Kaduna People’s Union, SOKAPU, yesterday, warned it would no longer restrain youths from the area from reacting if any of its communities was attacked by suspected Fulani herdsmen again.

SOKAPU spoke against the backdrops of last Saturday’s killings of five mourners in Aduwan village, Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

Among those who were reportedly killed included a five month old baby allegedly shot on the chest and head.

According to the association which is the umbrella organisation of all socio-ethnic groups in Southern Kaduna, no fewer than 100 of its members had been killed in unprovoked attacks since April 2011.

Addressing newsmen, the National President of SOKAPU, Dr. Ephraim Goje, also said that the Joint Task Force, JTF, in Southern Kaduna should be disbanded as it had outlived it usefulness.

Said Goje: “Between 9 and 10 am last Saturday, as youths gathered to mourn the demise of an aged community leader in Aduwan, some 10 armed men in military uniform stormed the place and opened fire on these defenceless, unarmed people with no apparent reason. They are said to be Fulani. They killed five people. Six were critically wounded and are now receiving treatment at the Jos Teaching Hospital. Four who were not so hurt are are St. Louise Hospital, Zonkwa.

“A five- month old baby was among the victims. The baby was shot in the head and on

the chest. Its mother was also shot death and the lifeless body of the infant dumped on the dead mother.

“This will bring to 25 the number of such inexcusable invasions by the evil people since the April 2011 political violence. From our last count, we have lost well over 120 people in such bizarre manner.

“And it is coming after we have made robust progress in bringing back those who left after the April 2011 violence and many are still returning.

“I know the kind of intervention we the elders had to put to stop our youth from going haywire. They have told us that this will be the last blood to be shed in Southern Kaduna. They said we will never be able to restrain them next time.

“And I want to say it here, that if the JTF cannot protect us, they should pack and leave. We will mobilise resources and the wherewithal to protect our land, our lives and resources. And we will do that with the last drop of our

blood.

“What is most shocking is that each time someone is arrested, nothing happens to the person. He is left to go free. There seems to be some kind of conspiracy between these cowards and security agencies. Why hasn’t any of those caught been prosecuted? We are calling on the state government to set up neighbourhood community watch in every community here and fund it. They will work with the police. The message is that, enough is enough.”

Importation of firearms: Court grants bail to 15 Russian sailors ...releases them to Russian Ambassador in Nigeria

BY INNOCENT ANABA

L

AGOS—FIFTEEN Russian sailors charged with alleged unlawful importation of arms to Nigeria, before a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, were, yesterday, released to the Russian Ambassador in Nigeria, as part of the bail condition.

Trial judge, Justice Okechikwu Okeke, who granted bail to the accused persons, also admitted to bail, the vessel they were arrested on board, MV Myre Seadiver in a bond of $500,000 to be obtained from First Bank Plc. The accused Zhelyazkov Andrey, Savchenko Sergel, Chichkanov Vasily, Varlygin Igor, Komilov Alexander, Lopatin Alexey and Baranovskly Nikolay, Mishin Pavel, Llia Shubov, Dimitry Bannyrh, Alexander Tsarikov,

Kononov Sergel, Korotchenko Andrey, Vorobev Mikhail, and Stepan Oleksiuk, are charged together with their vessel, on four-count charge of alleged unlawful importation and possession of firearms, as well as non-declaration of the content of the vessel.

They pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The accused, yesterday, argued their bail application, which was not opposed by the prosecution, though the court asked the prosecution to state the conditions under which the defendants should be admitted to bail.

After listening to argument of parties, Justice Okeke ordered that the defendants be released on bail to the Russian Ambassador in Nigeria, who will produce them from time to time in court.

The judge also asked the

Russian Consul Officer, Mr Radomir Ganich, to choose a bank from which the bond would be obtained and gave three options of First Bank, Zenith Bank and Guarantee Trust Bank, but the Consul Officer chose First Bank.

The judge ruled that the bond be obtained from First Bank and adjourned the case till April 10 for hearing.

The accused and their vessel were arrested by Naval officers on October 18, 2012, within the Nigerian territorial waters, in Lagos State, as they entered the Nigerian territorial waters without due licence and clearance from the Nigerian Customs Service.

The accused were said to have refused to declare the content of the vessel contrary to the provisions of the Customs and Excise Management Act, 2002.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013—7

Water shortage protest: Soldiers hit 3 Nasarawa varsity students

BY SONI DANIEL, REGIONAL EDITOR, NORTH

T

HREE students of the Na sarawa State University were yesterday, allegedly shot by soldiers deployed to quell festering protests over water shortage on the campus located on the KeffiAbuja Road.

The students, who were said to be fatally wounded, were rushed to nearby hospital and their fate remained uncertain at the time of this report..

Eyewitnesses said the soldiers had to be called in to salvage the school from being run down by irate students, who had been coping with water shortage on the campus, when it became clear to the school authorities that the police who were earlier brought in, could not save the situation.

A reliable source described the situation that led to the students’ protest as provocation and insensitivity on the part of the school authority over the water problem, which had been lingering for some time without any response from the school.

The source, who is familiar with the situation, told Vanguard, “In

fact, at a point it was the Students’ Union Government, SUG, that was providing water for the students but they could not sustain it.

“What you are seeing today is the product of frustration thrown

up by many months’ of managing a bad situation,” the source explained.

On arriving the campus, the soldiers were said to have started to shoot sporadically to scare the rampaging students but they end-

ed up hitting the three students critically.

The Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof Shamsudeen Amali, could not be reached for comments on the development, which had jolted the institution.

Soldiers making efforts to quell the riot by students of Nasarawa State university over protest of water shortage.

Unlawful detention: Court orders Army to pay 2 brothers N10m

U

BY ANAYO OKOLI

MUAHIA—A Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia has ordered the Nigerian Army to pay two brothers, Destiny and Mustard Enweremadu N10 million for unlawful detention.

The two brothers are the children of the traditional ruler of Ngwa Ukwu, Eze Bernard Enweremadu.

The court presided over by Justice M. G. Umar however, ordered that the two Enweremadus be handed over to the police for proper investigation of the allegations against them.

They were arrested sometime last year by soldiers from the 14 Brigade Ohafia on April 7, 2012 over alleged case of armed robbery and kidnapping.

They were arrested from their fathers’ palace by soldiers following reports alleging that armed robbers and kidnappers were living in the palace.

Delivering judgment in a suit filed by the Enweremadus, Justice Umar said that it was wrong for the military to assume the role of the police when they are meant to take care of the territorial borders of the country.

According to him, the army have no right to detain anyone involved in a criminal case, saying “even when they make such arrests they are bound by law to hand them over to the police who have the right to detain them and investigate the matter properly.”

He berated the Army for their penchant for arresting and detaining people, saying that it was not their duty to detain but to hand

over to police any suspect they arrested.

His words: “The law allows for detaining of suspects at least one

day and at most two days, yet these boys have been in military cell without anyone knowing the state of their health.”

Court urged to decline hearing of suit by sacked INEC staff

BY ABDULWAHAB ABDULAH

A

N Ibadan High Court has been urged to grant a no case submission filed by the sacked head of ICT unit of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, allegedly caught with six DDC machines belonging to the electoral body in a hotel in Ibadan, Oyo State capital.

The prayer was contained in a reply filed by Mr Shuaib Alaran, who is prosecuting those charged for conspiracy and unlawful revision of voters' register in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital in 2010.

Already, Justice A. A. Aderemi has fixed March 4, 2013, for the adoption of written addresses on the no case submission filed by the defendants.

Osunlola Akinyinka, the sacked INEC official, was accused of conspiring with others, including Olufemi Samuel, Dauda Oladeji and Salami Adetola to tamper with INEC Direct Data Capturing, DDC, machines contrary to Section 516 of the Criminal Code Cap.38 Vol.2, Laws of Oyo State of Nigeria, 2000.

Apart from the DDC machines which contained names and particulars of some eligible voters that were allegedly seen with the de-

fendants, they were said to have been caught with one laptop, 11 chargers and 11 external discs belonging to INEC.

...orders 45-yr-old suspected rapist remanded in prison

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

A

BEOKUTA—AN Abeokuta Magistrate Court sitting in Isabo, yesterday ordered that a 45-year-old rape suspect, Taofeek Kolawole be remanded in prison custody till Friday, March 1, 2013.

The suspect, who is a security guard with a Chinese company was arrested last Thursday for allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl at Kemta Housing Estate, Idi-Aba, Abeokuta, Ogun State capital.

During his arraignment ,Counsel to the accused person, Tajudeen Idris, prayed the court to grant his client bail on the ground that the alleged offence was bail-

able, but, his plea was however, rejected by Magistrate Idowu Olayinka.

The Police Prosecutor, Inspector Augustine Osimirin however, told the court that Kolawole unlawfully had carnal knowlege of the 12- year old girl and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 218 of the Criminal Code vol 1 Laws of Ogun State of Nigeria 2006.

In his ruling, Magistrate Olayinka told the defence counsel to file an application for bail and serve both the Director for Public Prosecution, DPP, and the police and ordered that, the accused be remanded in prisons, till the next hearing date on Friday.

Delta probes death of pregnant woman

BY EMMA AMAIZE

W

ARRI— DELTA State government has commenced investigations into the death of a pregnant woman, Mrs. Elo Oyoro, rushed to the General Hospital, Ughelli, November 25, last year, but who died due to alleged neglect and absence of a doctor.

However, Oghenejabor Ikimi, counsel to the widower, Mr. Onome Joseph, told Vanguard, yesterday, that his client was not satisfied with the manner the Ministry of Health was handling the probe and would head to court.

His words: “I detailed Barrister Lord Ibordor to represent me. They got to the Central Hospital, Ughelli by 10.00 am but the investigating team, led by the medical director, Central Hospital, Warri, arrived by 12.00 pm, thus Joseph Onome was kept waiting for two hours”.

....As women protest alleged killing of indigenes by Fulani herdsmen

BY FESTUS AHON

U

GHELLI—ABOUT 200 women from Uwheru and Ohoror communities, yesterday stormed the Ughelli North Local Government Area council’s secretariat, Delta State in protest against the alleged invasion of their farmlands and killing of over 10 indigenes from the communities by Fulani herdsmen.

The women who started thronging the council’s secretariat from about 10 am, alleged that three indigenes of the communities had been killed by the Fulani herdsmen within the last two weeks.

The women who chanted various songs displayed palm fronds and placards with bore inscriptions such as “herdsmen have taken over our farmlands”, “we are afraid to go to our farmland for fear of being raped”, “they have killed our husbands”, amongst others, adding that many of the communities’ women had been raped in the bush by the herdsmen.

Speaking on behalf of the protesters, one of the women leaders, Mrs. Rose Osiebe noted that attempt by youths in the community to accost the Fulani herdsmen had ended up in bloodbath.

8—Vanguard , TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Tambuwal queries NNPC over $1.56bn loan

BY OKEY NDIRIBE & EMMAN OVUAKPORIE

A

BUJA—SPEAKER, House of Representatives, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, yesterday, queried the proposed $1.56 billion loan by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, saying it was neither reflected in the 2013 budget that was presented to the National Assembly nor included in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework.

However, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Deziani AllisonMadueke and Group Managing Director, GMD, NNPC, Andrew Yakubu, in separate statements before the House Joint Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream and Downstream), Aids, Loans and Debt Management and Justice, claimed that the money in question was not a loan but a forward sales agreement between the Corporation and its trading partners in lieu of the Corporation’ s indebtedness to them.

Tambuwal made the statement while declaring open the public hearing on the said loan by the House Joint Committee.

He said: “The public hearing was in line with the resolve of the 7th House to deliver the dividends of democracy to Nigerians and also ensure the entrenchment of a policy that the citizenry could be proud of.”

While encouraging the Joint Investigative Committee to do a thorough work on the matter, Tambuwal, who was represented by the Chief Whip of the House, Mr. Ishiaka Bawa expressed optimism that the findings and recommendations of the panel would tremendously influence the direction and decisions of the Parliament.

He said: “Its importance is predicated on the fact that the proposed loan was neither captured in the 2013-2015 Medium Term Framework, nor the 2013 budget.”

Maina to resurface today if... As FG dissolves PRTT

BY SONI DANIEL, Regional Editor, North & VICTORIA OJEME

A

BUJA—THE embattled Chairman of Pension Reforms Task Team, PRT T, Alhaji Abdulrasheed Maina, who has been on the run, may resurface today as his N1.5 billion suit against his arrest commences at the Federal High Court, Abuja.

Maina, it will be recalled, was relieved of his appointment by the Federal Government, following the dissolution of the controversial agency and the return of pension management to the Office of the Head of Service, HoS, of the Federation, OHCSF. Government had also re-

turned the entire PRTT staff to their various Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, with immediate effect. The dissolution was confirmed to Vanguard in Abuja, yesterday, by the HoS, Alhaji Bello Sali.

The HoS, who spoke through the Director of Press and Public Relations, Mr. Tope Ajakaiye, explained that the preparations and payment of pensions had been taken over by the OHCSF since last November.

We won’t join issues with Maina— HoS

Sali said he would not join issues with Maina, as his PRTT had since been dissolved and all the members

returned to their respective agencies.

Sali said: “The President has approved the dissolution of the Pension Reforms Task Team and all the members were issued with letters to return to their various agencies.

“The Office of the HoS will not join issues with Maina or any member of the dissolved task team on pension payment. Our position on payments for now is that genuine pensioners are being paid from this office since November 2012 and we have told any pensioner with any form of complaints to come to our office for redress.

“The new payment system is in line with the new Federal Government Financial Regulations being operated through the Office of the Accountant-General of the Fed-

eration known as Government Financial Management Integrated System, GFMIS.” Findings by Vanguard showed that the controversial pension chief may come out of his hiding if Justice Adamu Bello of the Federal High Court, Abuja, grants his prayer quashing the warrant of arrest issued against him by the Senate.

Hearing in the N1.5 billion lawsuit, which was instituted

by Maina on February 2, comes up today after the judge had adjourned the matter last week to allow the Senate and the Inspector-General of Police to enter their defence and for the applicant to respond.

He had argued that allowing the police to arrest him based on the warrant issued by the Senate would amount to an infringement on his fundamental human rights, as such would be unconstitutional, illegal, null and void, and violation of the provisions of Section 36 (1) and 6 (6) b of the Constitution.

Maina releases statement

VISIT: From right— President Goodluck Jonathan; Amb. Hassan Yukur, Principal Secretary to the President; Mr. Jose Ramos-Horta, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Guinea-Bissau, and other dignitaries at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday. PHOTO: Abayomi Adeshida.

PDP in unholy alliance— Buhari

BY GABRIEL EWEPU

A

BUJA—LEADER and presidential candidate of Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) has accused Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, of an unholy merger with some public service agencies to hold to power by crooked means.

Speaking at the CPC Interactive Dialogue with its elected representatives yesterday in Abuja, Buhari said the country had been in the grip of bad governance under the PDP-led government since 1999, as it had manipulated some relevant government institutions to remain in power.

He said the only way to re-

move PDP was to have a strong and broader merger.

Buhari said: “The country is in the grip of a bad government whose only purpose is to hold on to power by hook or by crook— preferably by crook.

“PDP does not need merger or alliance. They are already merged and are in alliance with Police, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the judiciary, and also with the Nigerian National petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and pension funds.

“The country is tired of PDP. We are tired of oppression, corruption and insecurity.”

Buhari was optimistic that merger was the only politi-

cal instrument that can end PDP’s governance, and he urged the political class to embrace and actualise the merger currently pursued by opposition parties to rescue the country from the grip of PDP. He said: “I believe merger is the only way to prevent the continuation of this bad governance. The political class is in one accord that the only way to stabilise the nation is for the opposition to merge and face the ruling party.”

Buhari also showered encomium on the party ’s elected representatives for their victory at the 2011 general elections without any form of electoral malpractice, and described them as face of CPC.

However, while still awaiting the outcome of the court verdict, Maina, whose whereabouts is still shrouded in secrecy, released a statement, Sunday, accusing the HoS of “returning pensions funds to the looting era.”

Maina alleged that the HoS had inexplicably refused to sign the pension vouchers prepared by the PRTT, thereby stalling the payment of pensioners since November last year.

Maina’s statement was released by Olajide Fashikun, identified as a media consultant to the embattled pension officer, now being kept at arm’s length by top government officials, who had hitherto portrayed him to President Goodluck Jonathan as pension funds messiah in Nigeria.

The statement read in part: “There is credible and verifiable intelligence that the Federal Civil Service Pension Office is going back to the looting era as pensioners are being denied of their monthly pensions.

“About 98 percent of pensioners have been grossly underpaid and some of them totally denied pensions in the months of November and December 2012 and January 2013.

“In November 2012, the Head of Service Pension Office hijacked the preparation of monthly pension’s payment without the knowledge of PRTT or recourse to its authentic biometric database.”

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013—9

7 French hostages: Boko Haram claims responsibility

BY UDUMA KALU, with agency reports

M

ASKED militants, claiming to be radical Islamist group, Boko Haram, yesterday, posted an online video showing seven French hostages kidnapped from northern Cameroon.

Some members of the Islamist sect last Sunday, had denied involvement in the abduction of the seven French tourists. The group, which declared ceasefire five weeks ago, made this known during a press conference in Maiduguri.

Sheikh Abu Muhammad Ibn Abdulazeez, who spoke for the leader, Abubakar Shekau, had also absolved the sect from the renewed hostility within and around Maiduguri, in which at least 30 persons including security personnel and three Korean medical expatriates, were killed in the past three weeks. Abdulazeez said:

“We have been hearing of late how people are linking us with the kidnap of the seven French nationals in Cameroon. We have nothing to do with the French people or their abductors.

“The security or whoever that is trying to rescue the kidnapped French nationals should better look elsewhere, because it would amount to waste of time if they continue assuming we are involved.”

However, French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, confirmed, yesterday, that Boko Haram had claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of a French family, following the release of a video from the abductors.

France “now has the information that Boko Haram claims to be holding” the seven French citizens kidnapped last week in Cameroon, Ayrault said after a top-level meeting following the release of the video on YouTube. Ayrault

said the family is “probably held in Nigeria.”

He said: “The video tape... is being studied by our (intelligence) services, who are examining precisely the nature of these claims,” he said, adding that “French authorities are in close and permanent contact with Nigerian and Cameroonian authorities.”

The more than threeminute video shows the family, including four children, held in an undisclosed location, surrounded by at least three of the abductors from the Nigerian group whose faces are hidden.

A source close to the family confirmed their identities to AFP. It was not clear when the video was made.

The video, posted to YouTube and mentioned on a jihadist website, shows one of two French men reading a statement, with a woman in between them.

Four children sit on the

ground near them, flanked by two masked militants wearing camouflage uniforms and holding rifles.

A masked militant in front said in the video that Boko Haram kidnapped the French hostages, taken from Cameroon’s Far North Region last week.

A black banner in the background, bearing the images of the Quran flanked by two Kalashnikov assault rifles, also resembles a symbol previously used by Boko Haram.

The man says the kidnappings came due to the French military intervention in northern Mali, where its troops have fought with Malian soldiers against Islamic extremists who took over the north in the months following a coup last year.

The man also threatens the Nigerian and Cameroonian governments, calling on them to release their imprisoned members.

Jonathan approves Justice Archibong's sack

BY BEN AGANDE & IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI

A

BUJA—PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan, following the recommendation of the National Judicial Council, yesterday, approved the compulsory retirement of Justice Charles Efanga Archibong over his complicity in judicial corruption.

According to a statement by the legal body yesterday, President Jonathan directed Justice Archibong, who was hitherto with the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court, to proceed on retirement with immediate effect.

The NJC had under the chairmanship of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Aloma Mariam Mukhtar, said it was satisfied that Archibong violated his oath of office.

10—Vanguard, TUESDAY, FUBRUARY 26, 2013

My Pickin : NAFDAC tells court how citizen lost 14month-old son

BY INNOCENT ANABA

L

AGOS—AN employee with National Agency for Food Drugs, Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Mrs Titilope Ogunrohunmu, yesterday, told a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, that one Mr. Chidi Njoku reported to the agency that his 14 months old son died after taking “my pikin” teething mixture.

The witness told the court that in November 2008, the said Mr Njoku brought to NAFDAC, as evidence, the remainder of the teething substance which he had administered on his late child, which allegedly led to the boy’s death.

Ogunrohumun gave evidence at the resumed hearing in the trial of Barewa Pharmaceutical Company Ltd and two others, Ebele Eromosele and Adeyemo Abiodun, who are facing a sixcount charge of production of an alleged killer teething mixture, “my pikin, which allegedly claimed the lives of no fewer than 80 children in 2008 in the country.

The witness said based on the report received from the complainant, an inspection was conducted at the factory of Barewa Company, where about three batches of drug samples were collected and taken to NAFDAC laboratory for test.

Being cross-examined on the evaluation of the results from the laboratory test, Ogunrohumun, said her duty did not extend to obtaining such results, but only inspection.

Lagos govt shuts down Ladipo market over sanitation offence

Arrests 10 armed bandits, recovers dangerous weapons

BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI, BOSE ADELAJA, MONSUR OLOWOOPEJO & DONALD ARJI AGOS—LAGOS State Government yesterday made good its threat to shut down the popular auto spare parts market, Ladipo in Mushin area of the state for allegedly contravening the State Sanitation law, paralysing business activities of traders among other users of the market.

L

Arrest and recovery of weapons During the exercise the taskforce claimed 10 suspected armed bandits were arrested from a section of the market.

The taskforce said they included five hoodlums who initially prevented the taskforce from carrying out the operation.

However, Vanguard gathered that those arrested were members of the proscribed “Bakassi Boys” put in place by the union to provide security and check other criminal activities in the market.

One of the suspects, Samson Apeh said: “We are not criminals. We are security guards employed by the President of the market union. All we do here is to protect the goods of the traders. The machetes and other arms found with us are security equipment used for protecting the stalls from thieves who always attack the market at the close of the day.”

Commissioner’s visit, warning Before the closure, Commissioner for the Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello, had visited the market and decried the wanton degradation of the environment including filthiness of the area, warning that if nothing was done, the market would be shut.

However, the traders were said to have taken government’s threat lightly and did nothing to remedy the situation until officials of the Lagos State Taskforce on Environmental and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit stormed the market to shut it.

Before the closure, it was gath-

ered that trading activities usually took place on the streets without regard to the law against such activities.

Also, shops, attachments, were built around the market/canals while abandoned vehicles parked within the market, indiscriminately.

Task force Vanguard gathered that as early as 4a.m., hundreds of armed taskforce officials led by its Chairman, Chief Superintendent of Police, Bayo Suleiman, stormed the market and shut it down having dispersed the traders.

An Armoured Personnel Carrier, APC, was stationed at the Toyota end of the Apapa-Oshodi express-

way, while the area was barricaded, although some of the traders claimed they were caught unawares.

Issues wrong with the market Taskforce Chairman, Suleiman, claimed that there were several issues wrong in the market, ranging from hooliganism, lack of toilet facilities, degradation of the environment with diesel among others.

He said: “The state government had issued several warnings to the traders without result and their action had posed serious threat to the environment. The Commissioner for the Environment has visited

this place and advised the traders accordingly, but nothing was done. We came here two weeks ago, but the officials of the market did not show up. There was serious trading going on in the streets and there were lots of shanties here. We shall make sure that this time around, proper sanitation is done by the traders before the market will be re-opened and they have to submit to the chairman of Mushin Local Government.”

On when the market will be re-opened, Suleiman said: ’’I have no authority to disclose when it will be re-opened but I am sure the traders know what is expected of them.’’

Some of the suspects arrested at Ladipo auto market, during enforcement order on the closure of the market by the Lagos State Government, yesterday. Photo: Monsur Olowoopejo.

Good Governance tour, a fraud —CDHR

L

BY LAJA THOMAS

AGOS—COMMITTEE for the Defence of Human Rights, CDHR, has said the ongoing “good governance tour ” by the Federal Government is a fraud.

Lagos State coordinator of the committee, Buna Isiak, in a statement said that what the Federal Government was doing by the tour was an aberra-

tion that should be condemned by every right thinking Nigerian Immediate past president of CDHR, Supo Ojo at the 7th memorial lecture in honour of Dr Beko Ransom Kuti, faulted the tour, noting that a situation where the executive was overseeing projects done by the same executive was unconstitutional.

He said: “It is a fraud by a member of the federal executive council and the person leading because he wouldn’t have done that without the consent of the presidency.”

He added that it was unfortunate that most of the governors were falling in line with the illegal allegedactivities of the Labaran Maku-led team.

Vanguard , TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013 —11

Mimiko dissolves cabinet A

BY DAYO JOHNSON

KURE—BARELY 24 hours after he took oath of office for a second term as governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, yesterday dissolved the State Executive Council, SEC, and all non statutory boards and parastatals.

Investigation showed that the SEC would have been dissolved about a week ago but majority of the members of the inauguration committee were serving commissioners and members of boards and parastatals.

Vanguard gathered that many of the commissioners cleared their tables two weeks ago believing that they may be sacked before the inauguration of the governor for a second term in office.

It was gathered that the governor may forward names of three commissioners whose portfolios are key to the day to day running of administration of the state to the House of Assembly for approval.

However, intense underground lobbying was said to have started last week by former commissioners to return and others eyeing their positions from the 18 council areas of the state.

Traditional rulers, captains of

industries and notable personalities in and outside the state are said to be mounting pressure on the governor to consider their candidates.

Announcing the dissolution, the governor who thanked the outgoing cabinet members and political

office holders for selfless service and dedication to the State, assured them of his deep appreciation of their efforts in the past four years.

“I have always said that the good work we have been able to achieve has been as a result of

the synergy and team effort put in by all of us at the cabinet as well as in other positions of responsibilities we have found ourselves since we came on board,” Mimiko said.

The statement was by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Eni Akinsola.

In the statement, Mimiko said: “Through our collective efforts,

rich debates, engaging arguments, agreements sometimes disagreements; we have provided responsible and dedicated leadership to the people. Diligence has been our watchword and for this I am very grateful to all of you.”

The governor listed the affected office holders as commissioners, chairmen and members of boards and parastatals; Senior Special Assistants, Special Assistants and others who have served in positions other than statutory commissions.

Oba Tejuosho bags award

O

VISIT: From left: Ms. Funmilayo Onuma, Business Development Manager; Mr. Ben MurrayBruce, Chairman; Mr. Roy Graham, Chief Business Development Officer, all of Silverbird Group, and Mr. Gbenga Adefaye,Editor-In-Chief/GM, Publications, Vanguard Newspaper, during the team’s visit to Vanguard Media Limited, Apapa, Lagos, yesterday. Photo: Biodun Ogunleye.

BA (Dr.) Adedapo Tejuosho, has bagged This Day Newspaper ’s life time award. The annual award is billed for Abeokuta today.

A statement by the monarch’s media consultant said the event would also feature former President of the United States of America, Bill Clinton as the special guest.

The statement said Oba Tejuoso was excited as the award come’s a week after his 75th birthday.

EFCC re-arraigns Akingbola today

BY ABDULWAHAB ABDULAH AGOS—THE Eco nomic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC will today re-arraign former Managing Director of Intercontinental Bank Plc( now Access Bank Plc), Dr. Erastus Akingbola over allegation of stealing of N47.1bn belonging to Intercontinental bank.

To ensure his appearance in court the antigraft agency yesterday claimed he was arrested

L

and held at its office in Ikoyi. It saidAkingbola will be docked before Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo of the Ikeja High Court.

The re-arraignment is sequel to the elevation of former trial judge, Habeeb Abiru of the Ikeja division of the state High Court to the Court of Appeal.

Akingbola is facing a 29count charge alongside one of his aides, Mr. Bayo Dada.

Part of the former charge preferred against him

read, “That Erastus B.O. Akingbola, whilst being the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Intercontinental Bank Plc sometime in March, 2009, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court stole property of Intercontinental Bank Plc by fraudulently converting same to your own use.

“This is stealing, contrary to Section 390(7) of the Criminal Code Law, Cap 17 Laws of Lagos State 2003.”

Bad weather aborts Arik flight

BY LAWANI MIKAIRU

& DANIEL ETEGHE

L

AGOS—ARIK flight from Lagos to Benin city, Edo State, was yes-

terday, aborted as bad weather in the ancient city prevented the plane from landing. The pilot returned to Lagos and waited until the weather improved be-

fore returning to Benin.

According to the airline’s Public Relations and Communications Manager, Mr. Adebanji Ola, the pilot had to return to Lagos when he discovered that visibility in Benin was poor. But the passengers had since been flown back to Benin when visibility improved. There is no problem with the plane as the same plane has done several flights afterwards.

He said: ‘’There is no story in that. If the weather is bad and the plane left, came back and landed safely, what is there, it is normal, there is no story in that. Air return is normal.

In fact that same plane has done several flights afterward so there is no story in Air Return.‘’

12—Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

MOSOP gives condition for oil exploration in Ogoni

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

P

ORT HARC O U R T — MOVEMENT for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, has listed autonomy for the area among issues that must be addressed before oil exploration can resume in any part of Ogoniland.

In a statement by Chairman, MOSOP Kingdom Coordinators and chapter leaders, Mr. Frank Jonah, the movement, said challenges of environmental protection and payment of compensation for long years of pollution should also be tackled.

MOSOP said the implementation of the recommended clean-up of Ogoni by the United Nations Environment programme, UNEP, was not enough to allow resumption of oil exploration in the area.

It threatened to resist any move to resume oil exploration in the area, if the conditions it gave were not met, adding that any attempt to ignore the issues raised by MOSOP could create

another round of conflict and tension in the area.

He said: “We understand that the Nigerian government has little value for the lives of Ogoni people, and we have seen this during the years of General Ibrahim Babangida, General Sani Abacha and General Olusegun Oba-

sanjo as Heads of State.

We, however, urge President Goodluck Jonathan not to use the crude approach of his predecessors in Ogoniland. We advise the government to listen to the priorities of the people to peacefully resolve the issues of survival for the Ogoni people.”

SURE-P: FG deploys 3,000 youths in Edo

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

B

ENIN—THE Federal Government has commenced the deployment of 3,000 unemployed youths in Edo State under its Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme, SURE-P. Former Edo State deputy governor and chairman of SURE-P in the state, Chief Lucky Imasuen, who spoke during the flag-off of the deployment exercise in Benin City, explained that the commencement of the payment of N10,000 known as ‘Goodluck alert,’ was delayed due to the

processes of registration of the beneficiaries, which includes opening of bank accounts for them.

Denying allegation that the forms were being given to only Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, members in the state, Imasuen said the beneficiaries, include youths, HIV/AIDS victims, indigent students cutting across the three senatorial districts of the state, adding that after the deployment of the 3,000 youths, the Federal Government will commence additional deployment of another 2,000 youths making it 5,000 in every state.

“We have ensured that 30 per cent of the beneficiaries are women as directed by the Federal Government," he said.

Urhobo in Warri not marginalised —Delta PDP chieftains

BY DANIEL GUMM

W

ARRI—A POLIT ICAL pressure group in Warri, Okere– Urhobo PDP Faithful, has dissociated itself from comments credited to some political leaders in the area, who "claim to be marginalised” in the current political equation in Warri, Delta State. They described the allegation as laughable, provocative and capable of disrupting the peace in Warri.

The group, in a letter to the state governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, said that the allegation

was “baseless, with no sustainable truth, and a calculated attempt to cause confusion.” They said that the allegation portrayed their “ignorance of the working of PDP, which they do not belong to."

The statement, by 15 stalwarts of the party in the area, including Okumagba Ward 1 Chairman, Mr. Femi Okumagba, urged members of the

public to ignore the alleged marginalisation claim.

They sought to know how Urhobo in Warri were being marginalised, when Uduaghan appointed Chief Bernard Okumagba, Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Matthew Poko Opuoru as Special Assistant to the Governor on Special Duties and four people from OkereUrhobo as Transition Committee members,” in Warri South council.

Politicians urged to identify with pressure groups

A

SOCIO-POLITI CAL group known as G25 Assembly, based in Asaba, Delta State, has called on politicians in the state to identify with political pressure groups that have the ideology of developing the polity in Delta State and not those with selfish interests inimical to the development of the state.

The group, which made this known through the

chairman, Mr. Benedict Ebede, during its meeting at Asaba Hilton Hotel, Asaba, Delta State, stated that the group was poised to ensure peace and unity among political pressure groups in the state.

Ebede explained that G25 Assembly is made up of well meaning Deltans who believe in the unity and development of the state.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013—13

Esiri to be buried in April

BY BENJAMIN NJOKU

L

EGENDARY actor and broadcaster, Justus Esiri, who died last Tuesday, in Lagos, will be buried in the third week of April, in his home town, Abraka, Delta State.

The late actor’s relative and spokesman, Mr. George Esiri, a photo journalist made the disclosure, yesterday.

He said that while the service of songs and wake-keep will hold in Lagos, lying-in-state will take place at the Warri Stadium in Delta State.

Speaking with Vanguard, on telephone, Mr. George Esiri said the Esiri family had been holding consultations and had dispatched a delegation to Abraka to conclude arrangements for the interment.

He said: “As soon as that is done, the family will release details of the programme.”

Meanwhile, a statement by the late actor's son and pop singer, Dr. Sid, on behalf of the family, yesterday, confirmed that the actor died of complications resulting from diabetes.

Firm donates classrooms, town hall to Delta communities

BY FESTUS AHON

U

GHELLI—SEPLAT Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, weekend, commissioned a block of four classrooms at Ugbokodo Secondary School, Ugbokodo, Okpe Local Government Area, Delta State. The company also commissioned an ultramodern town hall it renovated at Okegborode, Sapele Local Government Area in the state.

Commissioning the projects, which it executed in collaboration with Nigeria Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, its Base Manager, Prince Chukwumah Igelenyah, said the projects were part of the company ’s obligations and social corporate responsibilities to its host communities.

C M Y K

S-South states in support of Jonathan —Uduaghan

BY AUSTIN OGWUDA

A

SABA—DELTA State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, weekend, assured President Goodluck Jonathan of the support of the South-South states, saying: “We are giving him all the support we can and by the grace of God, he will succeed.”

The governor, in Asaba, when he hosted the Good Governance team, led by Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, to a dinner party, said Delta State was behind Mr. President and will do its best to support the policies and programmes of the Jonathan administration.

Uduaghan noted that the tour will benefit every one and showcase the democratic achievements of the various tiers of government.

Commending the SouthSouth states for their support to the Jonathan administration, the minister expressed the team’s appreciation to the government of Delta State for the development taking place in the state, noting that the state was moving forward because of the developmental projects.

He said: “This is a time you are making history for having one of your own as the President and you are making great impact in the transformation of Nigeria.”

Meantime, Maku has commended the state government for initiating the micro-credit

programme aimed at reducing crime and empowering the youths, women and the needy in the state as well as promoting employment for skilled and unskilled Deltans.

“I am delighted that this programme is empowering ordinary Nigerians and en-

OCHEI @ 44: From right: Mrs. Ochei; Rt. Hon. Victor Ochei, Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly; Justice Abiodun Smith, Chief Judge, Delta State, and Justice Stella Ogene, President, Customary Court, and another guest, during a thanksgiving service to mark the Speaker's 44th birthday, in Asaba. Photo: Nath Onojake.

Oil spillage: Bayelsa pledges support for FG's EIA project

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

Y

ENAGOA—BAYELSA State Government, yesterday, said it was ready to support the commencement of Environmental Impact Assessment, EIA, project of communities devastated by oil pollution in the Niger Delta region by the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, with the donation of an office complex in the state.

The assessment of the impacted communities Bayelsa

State and others is expected to be conducted under Hydro-Carbon Restoration Project, HYPREP, led by its National Coordinator, Mrs. Joy NunienOkunnu.

Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Rear Admiral John Jonah (rtd), speaking in Yenagoa, during a call on him by top members of HYPREP and the hand over of the office complex, said the state government and the people had longed for a detailed assessment of the environmental effects of the incessant pollution caused by oil spillages and illegal oil bunkering in the

state.

He said the decision by the Petroleum Ministry to set up the HYPREP was timely and would put an end to controversies between communities and oil multinationals over spillages and pollution.

He said: “The Bayelsa environment is highly polluted with lots of oil residue on waters and farmlands. They are mostly caused by spillages and illegal oil bunkering.

We drink from these rivers.

When you fly over the sites, you will see heavy layers of oil."

Health care delivery in Delta gets boost

BY VICTOR AHIUMAYOUNG

H

EALTH care delivery in Delta State has received a boost with the commissioning of Stephen Uche Okoh Snr. Memorial Community Health Centre, built, equipped and donated to the Igbodo community by a United States of America based medical practitioner, Dr Isioma Okobah.

couraging them to be economically independent by taking them out of poverty. I commend the state government for putting this programme in place as it had made the ordinary citizens employers of labour and exporters of Nigerian products,” he added.

Deputy governor of the state, Prof. Amos Utuama, SAN, who commissioned the project, reiterated the government's commitment to providing affordable, accessible and qualitative health care for Deltans in line with globally accepted standards.

Utuama commended Okobah for the donation, noting that the health facility would go a long way in enhancing the policies and programmes of government in the health sector, especially

the free maternal health care, medical scheme for underfive and rural health care programmes.

Speaking, Chairman Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, decried the high incidence of maternal and infant mortality in the country and said the health centre will assist in improving the health challenges of Igbodo people and neighbouring communities.

UNIBEN drags Edo govt to court over evictions

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

B

ENIN—AUTHORITIES of the University of Benin, have dragged Edo State Government before an Edo State High Court sitting in Benin, over the eviction of staff of the institution occupying 18 landed property located at Government Reservation Area, GRA, in Benin-City.

The university, in the suit, is seeking to restrain the government, its agents, servants or privies from evicting its staff from the property, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.

Meanwhile, hearing in the suit had been fixed for March 5, 2013.

The university is contending in the suit, that since its inception in 1970 as Mid-West Institute of Technology, the institution started as the property of the defunct Mid-West State Government, which had metamorphosed from Bendel to Edo and Delta states.

It argued that like every new project, the defunct Mid-Weststate government committed it resources to ensuring the successful take –off of the institution.

14—Vanguard, TUESDAY, FUBRUARY 26, 2013

Ariaria International Market crisis deepens

BY ANAYO OKOLI

A

B A — T H E crisis rocking the leadership of Ariaria International Market, Aba, Abia State, has deepened with some members of the management committee accusing their chairman, Chief Francis Eze Duru of financial recklessness.

Duru has dismissed the allegations leveled against him, saying that they were baseless. According to him, there is no problem in the leadership of the market, saying that the aggrieved members were just interested in his position as the chairman.

But the aggrieved committee members led by Chief Joseph Mbonu have also alleged that the chairman, inflated contract of a road in the market to the tune over of over N3.5 million and accused him of neither consulting the committee members nor the commissioner for the projects.

MTN’s ‘Next

Titan’ final audition set for Lagos AFTER TWO successful auditions in Abuja and Port Harcourt, the MTN Business’ Next Titan final audition is set to hold on February 28, and March 1, 2013 at WaterPark, Toyin Street, Ikeja, in Lagos.

The auditions which being organised to select the final 16 contestants, that will eventually be admitted into the entrepreneurship empowerment academy, have been thrown open to every Nigerian graduate, aged 18 and below 35 years.

Pope Benedict XVI signs law for early election of successor ...accepts resignation of Britain’s only cardinal .New pope may emerge early March

BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE & KALU UDUMA (WITH AGENCY REPORTS)

T

WO days to his exit from the Papacy, Pope Benedict XVI has signed a new decree allowing for an early election of his successor.

Reports from the Vatican, yesterday, said Pope Benedict took the rare step of changing Vatican law to allow his successor to be elected early, adding to a sense of crisis around the Roman Catholic Church.

This came as the Pope accepted the the resignation of Britain’s only cardinal elector, Archbishop Keith O’Brien, who was to have voted for the next pope.

O’Brien, who retains the title of cardinal, has denied allegations that he behaved inappropriately with priests over a period of 30 years, but said he was quitting the job of archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, Scotland because he was suffering from “indifferent health” and not inappropriate behaviour.

Aside rejecting the allegation, his spokesman said he was seeking legal advice.

The Observer, which gave little detail on the claims, said three priests and a former priest, from a Scottish Diocese, had complained over incidents dating back to 1980.

One said the cardinal formed an ‘inappropriate relationship’ with him while another complained of unwanted behaviour by O’Brien after a late night drinking session.

Born 75 years ago, O’Brien could have attended the conclave despite his resignation because he is still a cardinal under 80, but he said he would stay away because he did not

Tears as Goldie is buried

BY BENJAMIN NJOKU, FLORENCE AMAGIYA, ANOZIE EGOLE & IYABO AINA

L

AGOS—EMOTION ran high as friends, colleagues and family members paid their last respect to the late pop singer and former Big Brother Africa star, Goldie Harvey, when she was buried yesterday.

K

ANO—UNKNOWN gunmen, yesterday, evening shot dead the Commandant of Kano State Mobile Police Force, MPF, Dahiru Ibrahim Majia, at his private residence at Sabo Gandu Quarters in the m u n i c i p a l i t y .

The deceased is the elder brother of the state Police spokesman, ASP

Goldie died penultimate Thursday night after a brief illness at Reddington Hospital, Victoria Island, Lagos. She was buried yesterday at Ikoyi Vaults and Garden, Lagos.

The songstress’ remains was brought into the premises in a R350 Mercedes Benz by MIC Caskets and Rangers at 9.30am accompanied by some of her

17 flood victim communities in Anambra receive N153m cash, food

BY VINCENT UJUMADU

A

WKA— SEVENTEEN communities in Anambra West Local Government Area of Anambra State, yesterday, received N153 million cash and other food items as part of state

Magaji Musa Majia.

Details of the incident were sketchy at the time of this report, even as his death has thrown the Kano State Police command under a new Commissioner, Musa Daura, into total confusion.

Police Public Relation Officer, PPRO, in the state, Magaji Musa Majia confirmed the story on telephone but failed to give further d e t a i l s .

Majia told Vanguard: “I have lost

The outspoken opponent of gay marriage, last week advocated that priests should be allowed to marry because many priests found it difficult to cope with celibacy.

Fromleft: Dr. Dora Akunyili, former Ministerof Information; Dr. Ausbeth Ajagu, Gov. Peter Obi of Anambra State and Chief Barr. Goddie Uwazurike, President General, Aka Ikenga, during the Febuary meeting of members of Aka Ikenga, in Lagos. Photo: Shola Oyelese

government’s resettlement programme for the flood-ravaged communities.

The entire Anambra West Local Government was submerged during during last year’s flood and the people are still battling to cope with the effect of the

Gunmen kill mobile police commandant

BY ABDULSALAM MUHAMMAD

want media attention to be focused on him instead of the process of choosing the next leader of the 1.2 billion-member Church.

my brother to gunmen in his private residence in Sabo Gandu this evening and we are making arrangements for the burial. That will likely come up t o m o r r o w . ” The head of MOPOL under the police hierachy is entitled to armed police escort and guards but at the time of this report officers in the command were ready to volunteers details over the incident.

devastation.

Though farming had started in the area, many of the farmers were unable to procure seedlings as they were waiting for promises made to them while they were in camps provided by government during the flood.

The joy of the people knew no bounds as the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Mr. Oseloka Obaze and memebrs of the State Flood Rehabilitation Committee distributed the items and cash to the affected families in the area under the second phase of the programme.

It would be recalled that the state government had mapped out N400 million to be disbursed to 55 communities in eight local government areas.

close friends, including Denrele Edun.

Her husband, Mr. Andrew Harvey, who reportedly was refused visa into the country, finally made it to the burial. He performed his last duty to his wife whom he married in 2006.

Missing at the funeral rites, that had only family members and some close friends of the departed songstress in attendance, was Kenyan rapper and Goldie’s friend, Prezzo. He was last week warned by Goldie’s husband not to attend his wife’s burial rites.

The coffin, however, was carried from the MIC Hearse to the grave yard where a prayer was offered for the repose of her soul. The short ceremony ended with the dust-to-dust event.

Goldie’s husband, in his graveside tribute, said that there would be no other Goldie as her life though short was memorable.

Late Goldie.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013 — 15

C M Y K

16—Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Tanko Yakassi laments formation of PDP’s splinter governors’ forum SONI DANIEL, Regional Editor, North

A

S the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, basks in the euphoria of setting up its own Governors’ Forum with the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio, as the chairman, elder statesman and politician, Alhaji Tanko Yakassi, has condemned the move, saying it is capable of weakening the party ’s unity and cohesion.

Speaking exclusively to Vanguard in response to Monday’s emergence of the party ’s governors’ forum after a nocturnal meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan, Yakassi noted that it was wrong for the PDP to create factions after remaining under one umbrella for over 14 years.

According to the Second Republic National Assembly Adviser to President Shagari, the emergence of the PDP Governors’ Forum in addition to the existing Nigerian Governors’ Forum and the Northern Governors’ Forum is deliberately aimed at subjugating both Governors Rotimi Amaechi and Babangida Aliyu to the whims and caprices of Akpabio.

Silverbird boss advocates N300bn transport subsidy ...seeks setting up of transport intervention fund

BY MICHAEL EBOH

A

BUJA—BEN MurrayBruce, Chairman of the Silverbird Group, yesterday, called on the Federal Government to set up an urban mass transit system policy that will see it investing N300 billion annually, in subsidising transportation and upgrading of key transport infrastructure.

Speaking during a courtesy visit to Vanguard Newspaper, in Lagos, Murray-Bruce also advocated the spending of N900 billion by the government on strategic national projects across the length and breadth of the country.

The funds, according to him, would be sourced from money saved from the partial and total

withdrawal of subsidy.

According to him, the government said last year that removal of the fuel subsidy would allow the N1 trillion spent on fuel subsidy in 2011 to be used for improving electricity supply, health and education; instead, it should spend N200 billion on transport subsidy annually.

Also, N100 billion, he said, should be spent on annual investments in buses and taxis, infrastructure — bus shelters, bus terminals, bus depots, roads; and institutional, regulatory and legal strengthening, among others.

He maintained that other sectors, such as agriculture, aviation, textile, among others,

have intervention funds, but wondered why same cannot be extended to the transport sector.

He said: “After the fuel subsidy protests, the government backed down and reduced the subsidy, raising fuel prices to N97 per litre.

"As a result, last year, we spent an estimated N1.2 trillion on fuel subsidy. We believe the fuel subsidy is basically a transportation issue, and the solution therefore has to be transport driven.

“After worldwide consultation with public sector and urban transport experts, the identified solution is an efficient and subsidised public transport system implemented

From left: Dr. Olusegun Aganga, Minister of Trade and Investment; Chief Kola Jamodu, former Minister of Industry; Mr. Oscar Onyema, Director General, Nigerian Stock Exchange and Engr. Florence Seriki, MD/CEO, Omatek Computers, during the visit of the Minister, Dr. Aganga, to Omatek Computers' new factory, in Lagos. Photo: Lamidi Bamidele

By Bartholomew Madukwe

PEOPLE SPEAK

08102479985

as social policy, much like health and education.

“In other nations worldwide, oil price increases do not translate to an increase in transport fares because subsidised and efficient public transport systems exist.”

He noted that no individual, irrespective of the social status, should spend more than 25 per cent or 35 per cent of their take-home pay on public transportation.

He added: “We do not have a transport policy, that is fundamental. Historically, every time there is a price increase in transportation, the government will rush and provide buses for Labour and transporters. Providing buses in a crisis, does not solve anything.

“Half of those buses are put to personal use, most of them end up only in Lagos, because the economy makes Lagos the most viable place to run transport. The buses will not be in Sokoto where people are poorer and cannot afford the cost of transportation, market value cost as in Lagos.

"So the policy of providing buses when there is a crisis is fundamentally wrong.

“Transportation is subsidised all over the world. In Ethiopia, when there is a crisis, you do not see people going over the street rioting because transport is subsidised.

"When anybody in Nigeria gets on a plane and goes to London, he catches a bus, but how many people in the bus know the price of a litre in England? No body cares! It is like that also in New York, South Africa, among others, why do people care in Nigeria?"

(nwamad@yahoo.com)

LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTONOMY: WHAT IS YOUR TAKE?

A

UTONOMY will bring government nearer to the people. There may be one or two lapses, but it will bring about development in the local government areas in the country. This is why I simply believe that we should give it a chance.

- Mr. Moses Adeyemi, Writer

L

O C A L governments get more financially handicapped since they do not have autonomy. So many abandoned projects in local government areas would have been completed, if they had autonomy.

Miss Olaiya Oluwaseyi, Student

W

ITH autonomy there would be better achievements in providing roads and other basic amenities for the communities. The local government does not really need the state’s consent,when both are not from the same party.

-Mr. Wale Oshikoya,, Student

I

WON’T agree to local government autonomy because of the rate of illiteracy in our local government areas.

Majority of the local government chairmen are O’ Level WASC holders, so how would they manage the autonomy? Miss Anisere Ifeoluwa, Student

T

HERE is really no qualm for the autonomy, but my only fear is that it will be abused by the local government bosses.

Maybe what should be done is to strengthen the local government rather than allowing it have self-government.

-Miss Chinonye Chinny, Communicator

L

OCAL government autonomy may be good but I do not think our local governments are ripe for it. Even with the way the staff of the local governments operate, one can easily imagine what will happen if they are given autonomy.

-Mr. Tomiwa Shodiya, Musician

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013—17

A

Obession with foreign coaches

F

irst, the obsession of some Nigerians with foreign coaches in our football, to me, smacks of colonial mentality—downright inferiority complex! Are these Nigerians asking for a “foreign” coach or a “European” coach? If it is a foreign coach, then they should look no further. Keshi is a “foreign” coach by whatever standard you measure that. When Keshi coached Togo he was a “foreign” coach (abi?) but Togo brought a “European” coach after Keshi had qualified Togo for the World Cup! When he coached Mali, he was a “foreign” coach! Coming back to coach Nigeria does not make him any less a “foreign” coach. But, if we are looking for a coach more competent than Keshi, I can understand that, no

“foreign” coach was mostly idle and spent his time luxuriating in his home country, pretending to be “monitoring our players in Europe”. Come competition time, he clobbers together a team of “established foreign players” he believes would deliver in the carefully scripted racket. If he leaves out any of those the Association considered favourites, they scream havoc to the coach! That is how our football nosedived!

An industry empowerment

Keshi: Foreign coach or European coach? matter where he comes from. But a European coach for the sake of anything from abroad is colonial mentality.

But, seriously now, how can an Association that cannot pay our local coaches afford a “foreign” coach?

Where will the money be coming from?

Why will such money be available only when a “foreign” coach is involved?

Is there a racket involved in this obsession with a foreign coach? If you paid our coaches as much as we would pay a “foreign” coach, will they not perform better? Let us not forget that most of the stars who play for our national team today were discovered and nurtured by Nigerians (I don’t like the derogatory term “local”) coaches like Obuh and others. Some of these coaches have won international competitions with these players. So what mentality makes the NFF to treat Nigerian coaches shabbily only to recover their manhood at the mention of “foreign” coaches?

Moreover the obsession with “foreign” coaches is not a new one.

Coach Steven Keshi

for

youth

I

,

S you were reading this column last week where I was deprecating the self-serving behaviour of members of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, and their inability (or is it unwillingness) to pay the Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi, his entitlements, the news broke that the coach of the Under-20 team, Mr. John Obuh refused to accompany the team to Egypt because he was being owed 13 months salaries. You heard right, 13 months salaries! To get him to join the team, the NFF hurriedly paid him six million Naira, part of his outstanding salaries. And that may be it for the next 13 months! How does a coach with family and kids in school survive and concentrate on his job when he is being owed salaries for 13 months? Yet, we are not aware that those guys in the NFF forgo their own allowances.

In the midst of this, I found confounding, the suggestion by a man with arguably the shortest run as Nigeria Football Association, NFA, chairman (thanks to those with vested interests in players’ ticket racket), Mr. Kodjo Williams, that the NFF should quickly hire a foreign coach to work with Keshi. Tongue in cheek, he added that such a foreign coach would work under Keshi. That prescription, considering Keshi’s well publicised, if you like, unflattering views about “foreign coaches in Africa”, is a recipe for disaster. Which foreign coach will want to prove that he is actually adding value to African football by working under an African coach, least of all, Keshi? Mind you, I am not against foreign coaches in our sports.

But I don’t think that a “foreign” coach is the most important issue for now.

Football is a spectator game.

Without spectators it dies. The urgent assignment for the NFF today is not to hire a “foreign” coach. It is to conduct a study to find out how to put spectators back into the stadia as it used to be in the seventies and eighties

,

We hired them before, but could not pay them. Manfred Hoener ran away from here abandoning his passport!

Clemense Westerhoff was able to survive five harrowing years here by bypassing the NFA. These “foreign” coaches, with the exception of ClemenseWesterhoff, were never hired to develop our football, but to take us to competitions. Most of the “foreign” coaches were contracted for not more than the life of a competition, some for as short as six months.

Their contracts spelt out the stage of the competition he must qualify us. Bronze or Silver medal was good enough for Naira rain at Abuja. This is Nija! Thus, the

am surprised that we have continued to allow a few selfish men to toy with an industry that has the greatest capacity for youth empowerment. Why are we not advocating for foreign coaches in other sports that we used to show appreciable presence, like boxing and weight lifting? In Denmark today, any sports reporter (in Nigeria, we are all editors and no reporters) will tell you the number of Danes who are professionals in any of the sports and where in the world they are! The records are there. Here, the NFF could not even manage a website. The last attempt they posted wrong data that nearly jeopardised the careers of some of our players. The euphoria of our recent achievement must not delude us. I don’t believe that Keshi’s rebuilding project is over. There are urgent tasks ahead.

As I have written in the past, football is a spectator game. Without spectators it dies. The urgent assignment for the NFF today is not to hire a “foreign” coach. It is to conduct a study to find out how to put spectators back into the stadia as it used to be in the seventies and eighties. I am game for hiring a foreign administrator to help us run our professional league properly. In less than 20 years, South Africa’s league is one of the best organised in the world. The NFF must learn how to maintain security at our stadia to make them spectator friendly and how to market our football, not marketing advertising space! NFF must enter into merchandising too. In short, the NFF must be making money, its own money from football and properly account for it. That is the way to attract private sector investment. If it then feels it can pay a “foreign” coach, so be it. But it must put the spectators back to the stands! If not, selling matches to Governors who can pay for them, will ultimately kill our football!

OPINION

BY MIKE UDAH

T

HE story that Peter Obi is the mastermind of the alleged clamp down on Victor Umeh and by extension All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) is an old story, very old at that. It is indeed a cliché. But a cliché could be factual. However, this is not the case with Victor Umeh’s story against Mr. Peter Obi ; that he ( Umeh) gave Obi the APGA ticket on which platform he (Obi) became Governor of Anambra State first between 2006 and 2010 (excluding of course the illegal impeachment period) and then ,from 2010 till date; that Mr. Peter Obi has dumped APGA and embraced the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP); that the bone of contention between Obi and himself (Victor Umeh) is the former’s refusal to conduct Local Government election in Anambra State ; and lately that Obi ‘compelled’ (or influenced) the Chief Judge of Enugu State ,Justice Innocent Umezulike to send Umeh packing as the Chairman of APGA. Also false are so many other stories against Mr. Obi told by Victor Umeh, including those of APGA UK, APGA Youths and uncountable non-existent organisations.

All these are balderdash. They are unfounded, untrue, malicious and are merely deliberate attempts made

by Victor Umeh and his cohorts albeit unsuccessfully to malign and ridicule Mr. Obi who actually was the

Victor Umeh and the rehash of balderdash finger that fed the Estate Management practitionerturned politician. Let us examine Umeh’s allegation against Obi one after the other. The claim that Obi dumped APGA which made him and joined PDP is as false as it is unsubstantiated. As a matter of fact, the relationship between Obi and APGA could be likened to the relationship between the boxing legend – Mohammed Ali and boxing. Asked if he would miss boxing after his retirement from the sport,Ali had pointed out that boxing would rather miss him. For him as for all of us, boxing got its popularity and appeal from Mohammed Ali. In other words, it was boxing which gained more from Ali and not the other way round.

In a similar vein, it is Mr. Obi who gave life and vitality to APGA. True, a group of people had registered APGA before Obi joined them; but it was he , however, who , through his moral and financial support, gave the political party its appeal and attraction as, it were.

This writer remembers vividly that day in 2003 when Mr. Obi formally declared his intention to run for the office of governor of Anambra State at the field of the Holy Trinity Cathedral, Onitsha. It was on that day

that the late Ezeigbo Gburugburu, Chief Emeka Odumegwu – Ojukwu , obviously excited over the formation / registration of APGA , called on Ndigbo to support the party , remarking that other major ethnic groupings had secured their own political platforms in other parties. It must be noted that as at that day, he was neither the presidential candidate of APGA nor even a serious member of the party. It was on the same occasion that he (Ojukwu) offered to formally join the APGA. This writer cannot recall if Victor Umeh was any where in sight on that day. If he was there, he was obviously note noticed. No one reckoned with him because the chieftains of APGA at then considered him a political neophyte.

The point being made here is that it was Peter Obi who dusted up APGA and saw to it that it was presented to Nigerians as a political party to beat in Nigeria. It was Obi who single-handed gave APGA life.

Continues on pg 18

18 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013 NIGERIANS have seen enough mergers to understand them better than those who lead the moves. The proposed All Progressive Congress, APC, has ambitions of “rescuing Nigeria from the iron grip of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP”.

Such narrow programme offers nothing concrete, meaningful. PDP, which currently controls 22 of the country’s 36 States, has 71 out of 109 senators, 211 of the 360-member House of Representatives, has run the country poorly on similar stance in its 14 years at the centre.

The merging parties - Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN; All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP; Congress for Progressive Change, CPC; and a faction of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA – will need to do more.

Nigeria’s history is replete with failed alliances and mergers. In the First Republic, the United Progressive Grand Alliance, UPGA, the National Council for Nigerian Citizens, NCNC, and the Action Group, AG, aligned against the Northern Peoples Congress, NPC. Individual ambitions of UPGA leaders ruined them. In the Second Republic, the Nigerian Peoples Party, NPP, Unity

What APC Can Do Party of Nigeria, UPN, Peoples Redemption Party, PRP, and the Great Nigerian Peoples Party, GNPP, formed the Peoples Progressive Alliance, PPA, to counter the National Party of Nigeria, NPN, this collapsed due to unresolved differences.

The 1999 presidential poll accord of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, which had swept the South-West, with All Peoples Party, APP that dominated parts of the North, failed too.

Nigerian voters are not as politically naïve as they seem. They know these mergers are not about good governance, but merely new platforms for accessing power, especially at the centre, where the juiciest chunks of the countries resources are located. Politicians are

arming themselves for future elections, their future, with minimal interests in the welfare of the people.

What democratic practices exist in the parties proposing the merger? Are their governors concerned about the well-being of the people?

Would a merger suddenly produce governments that care for the people?

Is the merger an alternative in form or format?

Former mergers failed because the politicians could not agree on how to feather their interests within the subterfuge of being the new messiahs.

However, the arrival of the APC could broaden the debates on critical issues as the elections approach. How much more can APC do? Can it influence constitutional changes that could lessen encumbered governance?

APC can be a beneficiary of PDP’s miserable leadership if its own governors can tackle corruption, management of public resources, and execute projects that would improve lives.

These could position it as an alternative.

The issue of the moment is the survival of Nigeria and her peoples – none of the politicians and their parties considers this important.

OPINION

BY MIKE UDAH Continued from pg 17

I

T was Peter Obi who ran the 2003 gubernatorial election on the platform of APGA, won the election, only for his mandate to be stolen by political buccaneers. It took his continued, persistent fight at the Election Tribunal and later at the Court of law for him to recover the stolen mandate freely given to APGA

by Anambra voters. If Obi had not gone the whole hog, fighting for three years to recover his mandate, paying lawyers, witnesses and party supporters, would anyone have remembered today that there was once a party called APGA? If that mandate was not recovered, would anyone have reckoned with APGA? Wouldn’t the party have sunk into oblivion?

Umeh did not give Obi APGA ticket.

Rather, at its inchoate stage, Obi nursed APGA and thus enabled it to grow into a truly National Political Party!Obi earned APGA ticket.No one gave it to him.It was Obi who brought Umeh to limelight. Before Umeh was railroaded into the position of chairman of APGA, what was he in the hierarchy of APGA both at the State and National levels? He was simply the National Treasurer of the Party! Pray, in what country, State or

Victor Umeh balderdash

and

community anywhere in the whole wide world does a treasurer transmute into a helmsman when the latter position becomes vacant? But for Obi’s support, Umeh could not have become a replacement for Chekwas Okorie. In fact, Okorie was once quoted as having referred to Umeh as one who did not know his left from his right; who never saw light until he took him for the first in his life to Europe. Now, the question is: Who sponsored that trip to Europe?

Answer: Peter Obi! But today, Umeh claims he made Obi whereas the reverse is simply the case.

Obi made Umeh a prominent member of APGA first and foremost, and later made him a prominent chieftain of the party. Nowhere in the world, did a treasurer succeed the chairman of a political party when there was occasion to dump the chairman.

It is preposterous to hold that Mr. Obi who gave APGA life and vitality, has suddenly dumped the party and embraced PDP. Up until now, Mr. Obi sees to it that APGA executive and ordinary members are adequately taken care of. He supports them financially and materially. He (Obi) has not announced his membership of PDP; he has not for once been seen to

the

rehash

of

have adorned any badge, logo or any insignia of PDP or that of another party than APGA. The claim that Obi refused to conduct Local Government elections in Anambra is as laughable as it is fallacious. Local Government elections would have been held if the stage had been properly set for the democratisation of the third tier of government in the State. But enemies of progress threw a spanner in the works, filed several suits at the courts, thereby making it impossible for the election to be held when the matters have not been vacated by competent courts. Who received the nomination fees paid by APGA aspirants? Umeh did. Why did Umeh have to wait until he disagreed with Peter Obi before he announced to the world that that the Governor was the person stalling the conduct of Local Government elections?

B

y far the greatest lie told by Victor Umeh in recent times is that Peter Obi asked the Chief Judge of Enugu State to oust him as APGA’s National Chairman. Peter Obi must indeed be a demi-god, who wields transcendental powers so much so that he can go from

the Executive Arm of Government where he rightly belongs to the Judiciary to influence a chief judge of another State to sack an ‘innocent ‘National chairman of a political party!” Can a sitting chief judge be this naïve, gullible and corrupt? Only time can tell this.

Who are the members of APGA UK? Who are the members of Network for Igbo Renaissance ( NETWIRE)? Who are those behind APGA Youths? The answers to these questions are that these are people who were created and are sponsored by Victor Umeh with one charge namely to continue to issue unpalatable statements against Gov. Obi with a view to giving him a bad name. But this is not the first time that people would try to run down Governor Obi for sheer political reasons. Like previous efforts made against him by liars, political jobbers and gladiators alike, this present effort will not fly; it will not succeed, for truth will always prevail.

Victor Umeh had better learn from Chekwas Okorie, Ifeanyi Okonkwo and their co- travellers. His present campaigns of calumny, like those of the people mentioned above, will fall like a pack of cards.

Concluded. *Mr. Udah is CPS to Gov. Obi of Anambra State.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013— 19

, T

HISDAY, February 17, 2013 in the Sunday News page carries the story titled, “Nigeria Sliding into a Failed State, say Nwabueze, Akinrinade, others- seek convocation of National Confab”. It is this phrasing of the National Question that informs the title of this particular column. When we read sections 13 and 14 of Chapter 2 of the 1999 Constitution we will see the necessity of distinguishing between the state as capability for sovereignty and government as the governance institution of sovereigns. Making this distinction will, in fact, help to amplify the enormity and urgency of the issues symptomatic of the national crisis alluded to as slide into a failed state and what should be the subject matter of the National Confab advocated by Professor Nwabueze and the other leaders of opinion.

Section 13 states: “It shall be the duty and responsibility of all exercising legislative, executive or judicial powers to conform to, observe and apply the provisions of this Chapter of the Constitution”.

The authority of this section inheres in the enforcement of the duty and responsibility declared in this section. Justiciability is a consequence of the dereliction of this duty and responsibility. Absence of

an authority to compel all organs of government and of all authorities and persons exercising legislative, executive or judicial powers to conform to, observe and apply the provisions of this Chapter titled “Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principle of State Policy”, Section 13 is reduced to guidelines and directives to be treated as suggestions. Yet duty and responsibility are not words of suggestion or advice- they are imperative in denotation and connotation.

Section 14 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c) declares the state policy.

(1) “The Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be a State based on the principles of democracy and social justice.

(2) It is hereby, accordingly, declared that(a)Sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through this Constitution derives all its power and authority (b)The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government; and (c)The participation by the people in their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provision of this Constitution”.

Section 14 declares that the Federal Republic of Nigeria to be a state founded on the principles of

,

democracy and social justice, it is accordingly declared that: (a)Sovereignty belongs to the people from whom government through this Constitution derives all its powers and authority; (b)The security and welfare of the people shall be primary purpose of government; and (c)The participation of the people in their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provision of this Constitution.

S

ection 14(a) is the foundation of the State. It should be rock solid to bear the edifice of the nation called the Federal Republic of Nigeria; but Section 14(a) it is not; it is only declarative. It should not be a declaration, it should be expressive of the fact of a sovereign people with the capability of sovereigns for exercising their sovereignty through their Constitution; the government should be the government they institute, their government; but there is no such state because the people with the capability for sovereignty is merely assumed and assigned the status of a sovereign while the promulgators of the 1999 Constitution exercised their sovereign will

Nigerian clerics: Kicking God, kissing the dog (2) Continued from yesterday's Viewpoint pg

BY AYO OPADOKUN

M

EANWHILE, Matthew 24:11-12, predicts: “And many false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”

An American-based research group in 2010 reported that Nigeria was the most religious country in the world. Another organisation, measuring citizens’ state of mind in 2008, reported that Nigerians happen to be the “happiest” of all people globally.

That is a paradox. How can the sixth largest exporter of crude oil, with about $400 billion gross oil earnings, have one of the most wretched people in the world, have unprecedented levels of poverty, have about 70 per cent of its population living on about $1 per day, have about 40 per cent of its work force unemployed, and yet be considered the “happiest” place in the world?

It beats logic. It is an irony. To say it is a contradiction to reality is an understatement. As a Nigerian, are you happy with all that you see?

Confronted with an economy that defies all understanding, Nigerians sought refuge in He who promises peace that passes all understanding. The national economy witnessed an unprecedented down-turn, and many Nigerians resorted to patronizing the many one-man founder churches for promised succour, comfort and varieties of trumpeted “miracles.”

In looking up to the hills of religion for help, these Nigerians were just being human.

Humanity is faced with the regular situation of a state of anomie, confusion and paranoia in attempting to deal with the fear of the unknown. But once laid vulnerable, human psyche quickly becomes susceptible to various manipulations by so-called men of God. We have had the likes of the “Jesus of Oyingbo”, the “Saviour of Agege,” various Gurus, and their likes in the early '70s. And their proliferation in recent times is indicative of the end times as forewarned in the Bible. Many now deceptively profess to be Pastors, Bishops, Founders and General Overseers, Popes, Prophets, Evangelists, Imams, Ustazs, Gurus, Grandmasters, etc.

But as prophesised, they usually come in sheep’s clothing. But they are wolves through and through. One common thread in their activities is that rather than proclaim God’s supremacy and the Gospel of Christ, they engage in vain self-glorification and selfadvertisement of their accomplishment of the “supernatural and miracles”.

Apostle Paul’s divinely inspired teachings on the acceptable characteristics of true servants of God as contained in 2 Corinthians 2:14-26 and 1 Timothy 3:1-7 are noteworthy, particularly where he instructed in 1 Timothy 3-2-3 that: “A Bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach…. Not given to wine, no striker, NOT GREEDY OF FILTHY LUCRE, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous.”

Furthermore, Paul’s admonition in Titus 7-9 is helpful enough as guide-post to our clergy.

,

Nwabueze, failing states and urgent calls for national confab

It is the constitutional political arrangements that is sliding into a failure; as a bridge fails and collapses under the load it should normally carry, so is Nigerian constitutional government in crisis

of enacting a Constitution for their government. We thus find that the 1999 Constitution is not an act of the People as the state. The People have not the capacity for sovereignty because they have not instituted their sovereignty over the territory of Nigeria and have not set up for themselves a government whose primary purpose is their security and welfare.

What Professor Nwabueze alludes as state failure is thus the failure of the government the 1999 Constitution has established and unconstrained by Chapter 2 of the 1999 Constitution. What is absent in Nigerian constitutionalism is the fact of the People who through contestations for proprietary control of the country have established themselves as owners and rulers of Nigeria. Such an end is not accomplished without the instrument of sovereigns power- the Party of the People, the instrument by which the People have organised themselves into a Nigerian territorial sovereignty. The distinguishing characteristic of the Nigerian Constitution is its enactment of governments without sovereigns, of governments responsible to themselves.

Sovereignty being an achievement and not a postulation, the state is its institutional expression and the party is the organisation of the people as sovereign, as their organised capacity for sovereignty, and cannot therefore be abstracted from The People; for there is no The People, without the People organised as sovereigns, as The Party. What the 1999 Constitution recognises as political parties in section 221-224 are authorised mechanisms for canvassing for votes for candidates at any elections. An association shall function as a political party when it conforms to conditions stipulated in the relevant provisions of the Constitution.

The political parties of the Con-

Many Nigerian clerics today will take tithes, offerings and gifts from anyone without questioning the sources of such largesse; and sometimes, these giftgivers wear the reputation of corruption

,

There are numerous advertorials in the media, signposting where these charlatans make ridiculous claims of general and specific miracles –making babies for the barren, matching-making spinsters with life partners, securing jobs for the unemployed, healing the sick of afflictions, overcoming worshippers’ enemies, prophesying and foretelling for the curious, etc.

A

particularly worrisome dimension to the reported cases of the outrageous conduct of many clergymen and clergywomen in recent times is the incredible race by church proprietors and leaders to out-pace, outmanoeuvre, and out-class their colleagues.

They have embarked on this inordinate acquisition of cheap popularity, dubious wealth and the endorsement of and collaboration with politically-exposed persons and business tycoons capable of financing them. Many Nigerian clerics today will take tithes, offerings and gifts from anyone without questioning the sources of such largesse. And sometimes, these gift-givers wear the reputation of corruption, with provable evidence and indictment for misappropriating public funds. Yet our clerics will accept offerings

stitution are thus not the organs of the sovereignty of The People but mechanisms for electing candidates for running the government as provided for by the Constitution of its promulgators. It is the constitutional political system established by the promulgators of the Constitution for the running of their government according to the provision of their Constitution that is in crises. It is the constitutional political arrangements that is sliding into a failure. As a bridge fails and collapses under the load it should normally carry, so is Nigerian Constitutional Government in crisis. It is because it is government and not governance that is failing that is why its failure is equated with a failed state. The Nigerian crises are two crises in one- (1) The absence of a sovereignty in Nigeria (2) The failing of government.

“This country,” observes Prof Nwabueze, “is on the verge of becoming a failed state, there are so many failed states in Africa and Nigeria is on the verge of getting that status of a failed state. Before now, we didn’t know about kidnapping, but it has become a way of life. Did we know about bombing before? But today churches, schools, offices are being bombed on daily basis; the worst is that bombers are not coming from outside of the country, we are bombing ourselves. A nation that cannot provide a credible election for her people is a failed state.

In 2003, 2011 we had no credible elections, yet we are talking about democracy. A country that cannot secure social and economic rights for her people is a failed state. Read chapter 2 of Nigeria’s Constitution and you will understand what I am talking about; they are not leaders but looters,” he said… The professor lamented that the masses are suffering and living in abject poverty while the National Assembly members have all kinds of allowances running into millions of naira.

from these degenerate dogs. In fact, they have shown a preference to kick their God and kiss these dogs. But they have queries they must answer their Creator and the society. *How can our clergymen justify their penchant for contracting their personal security to armed professional outfits? Why are they afraid, to the extent of employing bouncers to keep commoners from coming in contact with them? Are they not now in unholy competition with our political jobbers who hedge themselves in with armed guards and convoys? *How can our clergymen justify their ostentatious lifestyle and opulence in the current circumstances of extreme poverty and misery ravaging their flocks? *How can our Christian religious leaders rationalise their usage of private jets when their flocks are being manipulated through sophistry to part with their hard-earned donations and tithes?

(4)What Biblical foundation justifies their playing “god” in their various advertorials, propagandas, signboards and banners, as opposed to promoting Jesus Christ?

No doubt, the global community has entered the JET AGE, concomitant with the development of IT and social media, and many church ministers just want to “belong”. But should our clergymen and clergywomen not return to the divine injunction of soberness and tenderness of the spirit to prevent further ridicule of Christendom?

Nothing here indicates we demand that our priests must be superhuman and behave like angels. But as we find in Luke 12:48, “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required” meaning that: “Greater privileges demand greater responsibilities”. In essence, anyone who has volunteered to heed the divine call must accept the demands, the disciplines and the denials concomitant with such a high calling.

Concluded *Mr. Opadokun is chair, Central Working Committee, CODER.

20 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

C M Y K

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013 — 21

AAEUN seeks interest free loan from banks, govt

BY PETER DURU

B

OTHERED by the steady decline in food production across the country, the Agricultural and Allied Employees’ Union of Nigeria, AAEUN, has implored financial institutions, federal and state governments to introduce interest free loans for farmers in order to help them battle the looming food crisis in the country.

This was part of the resolutions that was reached last week by AAEUN and jointly signed by its National President, Comrade Simon Anchaver and General Secretary, Comrade Sunday Aitokhuehi at the end of the union’s National Executive Council meeting held in Makurdi.

The union maintained that “if this incentive is introduced, it will encourage farmers and also engender massive agricultural yield and avert food shortages in the country”.

They also urged the “Minister of Agriculture to throw his weight behind the agric workers in their agitation for occupational hazard allowance in order to further boost the their morale as they work to achieve the food needs of Nigerians”.

While canvassing “greater support from the federal government for food producing states like Benue in order to boost their agricultural yields, AAEUN also commended the “moves by Federal Ministry of Agriculture to check activities of middlemen in the Nigerian Agricultural value chain.

They added that the “feder-

al government should discourage the importation of food, especially rice, by imposing import duties on such commodities to discourage the patronage by over-zealous

business shylocks within the Nigeria business community and their exploitative tendencies”.

The union maintained that Nigerian’s potentials to pro-

duce and export food to other countries was not in doubt adding that agricultural workers in Nigeria would not relent until that dream was realized.

From left: Mr Wale Goodluck, Corporate Affairs Executive, MTN; Mr Brett Goshen, CEO, MTN Nigeria; Mr Folusho Phillips, Chairman, Nigeria Economic Summit Group and Mr Frank Nweke Jnr, DG, NESG at the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) Collective Action Roadshow, in Lagos. Photo: Lamidi Bamidele.

Nigerian, French firms partner to develop building automation system

BY MICHAEL EBOH

T

ERRA Synergy Limited, Information Communication and Technology, ICT, company has entered into a strategic partnership with a French firm, Somfy International to develop the Nigeria’s building automation industry.

Somfy is a global manufacturer of spe1.45 143.2 cialised motors and control systems for retract2,189.00 +46.00 able awnings, rolling shutters, interior 18.22 0.1 shades, blinds, projection screens and other lift-up applications for the home.

114.25 +0.72 Speaking at a one-day interactive seminar for 92.96 +0.14 stakeholders in the building industry in CURRENCY BUYING CENTRAL SELLING Lagos, Mr. Olanrewaju Gboney, Director/ DOLLAR 154.74 155.24 155.74 Chief Executive OfficPOUNDS 236.2261 236.9894 237.7527 er, Terra Synergy LimEURO 203.87 204.5287 205.1875 ited, said the company FRANC 166.0835 166.6202 167.1568 is striving to ensure YEN 1.6591 1.6644 1.6698 CFA 0.2964 0.3064 0.3164 that Somfy brings its WAUA 235.2225 235.9825 236.7426 expertise to the counRENMINBI 24.8147 24.8953 24.9759 try, with the setting up RIYA 41.2596 41.3929 41.5262 of a manufacturing base KRONA 27.2747 27.3628 27.4509 in Nigeria.

SDR 234.7715 235.5301 236.288 He said, “Our long CBN Exchange rate as at 22/02/2013 term goal is to see Som-

fy increase its presence in Nigeria, by setting up a manufacturing plant in Nigeria.

“Our goal is also not just to deliver home and office automation products, but also the delivery of high quality service to professionals.”

He said the partnership is borne out of the high quality products and services delivered by Somfy in the area of home and building automation.

He maintained that Terra Synergy was selected by Somfy due to its knowledge of the Nigerian market and based on similar values shared by both companies.

He said, “Terra Synergy has been in the market of automation of controls of electrical and mechanical systems. We know the market; we have a thing for perfection.

“Somfy, coming to Nigeria, looked for a company that will work with them based on their values and to actually deliver these values to the customers and end users of their products. We believe this partnership is a sign of better things to come.”

Continuing, he said, “We have been with Somfy for like three years now. We have used windows automation

products from other manufacturers over the years, but Somfy stands out. We normally have challenges with others, but Somfy have given our clients rest of mind. They have five years warranty and they have products which are far higher in quality.”

Also speaking, Mr. Nadim Eid, Regional Business developer, Emerging Countries, Somfy, said the company has a tradition of quality craftsmanship and a clear vision of the future.

He stated that Somfy has developed into the world leader in motors and control systems for the automatic movement of products around the home and workplace.

He said, “From a distribution perspective, Somfy Systems has earned a reputation for being the most professional, responsive and serviceoriented company in the industry. It’s no surprise that Somfy Systems has a broad base of highly qualified customers throughout North America who integrate Somfy motors and controls into their product lines to provide the consumer with the best possible solution for shading, security, comfort and convenience.

LACSOP engages Lagos residents on budget monitoring

By CHINEDU IBEABUCHI & HANNAH ISIBOR

T

HE Lagos State Civil Soci ety Partnership, LACSOP said it is has created a platform where Lagos State Government and residents can reach each other to discuss the annual budget of the state.

The platform via a social media network, Tweeter, creates a participatory process for an effective budget planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the annual fiscal budget.

Speaking at its tweet conference on the 2013 Lagos State budget in Lagos, State Team Leader for State Accountability and Voice Initiative, VI, Mr. Felix Obanubi, said the project is concerned with giving voice to the people, adding that it is another way of helping the government to be transparent.

“If we are to bridge the gap between the elected and the electorate, then we require a greater means by which we can create a platform where by government and the citizens can reach each other to redefine the monster called budget and bring about meaningful implementation.

“For all the core areas for the budget to be addressed, we need to know what the people are looking out for and let people know what Lagos State Government is doing as well as what should be expected,” he said.

“The tweets will feature issues like how does the budget monitor link with the government service charter? What is the role of the House of Assembly in budget implementation? And the link between the mass media and budget monitoring, among others.

“For all the core areas for the budget to be addressed, we need to know what the people are looking out for and let people know what Lagos State Government is doing as well as what should be expected,” he said.

“The platform will involve response from all relevant government agencies to and research offices as well as enhance the understanding of the budget performance which will aid their over sight function.

The tweets feature salient points on the Lagos State 2013 budget and seek all relevant government agencies to respond to queries on the budget with a view aid their oversight function.

22— Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

T

HE opportunity to buy shares through private placement or public offering as we learnt last week is not always available. This is because it is not all the time that companies raise money by selling shares.

Buying existing Shares ut you can buy existing shares, that is, those in the possession of shareholders of the company. This is because there are always shareholders who want to sell all or part of their shares in a company. In the first part of this series, we explained that stock brokers are licensed to act as middlemen between sellers and buyers of shares in the stock market. So if you want to buy shares from those who want to sell, you will have to go through a stock broking firm.

The first thing is to locate a stocking firm. There are about 156 of such firms licensed to trade on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE). But to avoid falling into the hands of fake stock broking firms or stock brokers, visit the website of NSE (i.e http:// www.nse.com.ng/Regulation/ ForBrokers/Pages/DealingMembers.aspx) for the list of licensed stock broking firms.

The next challenge is, which of the licensed firms should you go to or patronise. You can ask friends, colleagues, and your bank, to recommend one to you. But whichever they recommend, make sure it is on the list published by NSE and SEC. Also when you visit the stock broking firm, study the environment to observe how organised it is and the attitude of staff to investors or its customers. This will help you assess the efficiency and trustworthiness of the firm and its staff.

In other words not all the licensed stock broking firms and brokers are trustworthy and efficient. Some of them are dubious. You can give them money to buy shares for you, and instead of buying the shares they will use your money to trade and claim that the shares you want to buy is not yet available. They may also buy shares for you at N10 per share and claim that they bought it at N15 per share.

Some may also sell your shares without your knowledge or approval. An example is Sir Kingsley Ikpe jailed in in 2005 for stealing money paid by an investor to his company for share purchase. So you have to be watchful and careful When you get to the stock broking firm and tell them you want to buy shares, you would

B

personal data, the shares of the company you want to buy, the quantity you want to buy, and the price at which you want to buy. You can indicate a price range or limit, you can also indicate time limit i.e. buy within one week. The law requires stockbrokers to carry out clients order within five days.

The next thing is to pay. As a rule don’t pay cash, or give cash to any stockbroker or the staff of the firm. It might end up in their personal pocket.

Request for the bank account of the firm, pay into the bank account, photocopy the teller and take it to the stock broking firm as evidence of payment, and you would be issued a receipt. You must open a file where you keep such documents. Now after payment, check the newspapers to monitor the movement in the price of that share, in case the broker wants to lie about the price of the shares.

INVESTORS’ EDUCATION

Buy a Share, Own a Company (3) Your Right as an Investor

The CSCS econdly, when you are informed or told that the shares have been bought, request for a CSCS (Central Securities Clearing System) account. The CSCS is the bank for shares in the stock market.

It contains all the shares of quoted companies, and has a account for every shareholder.

Hence, when shares are sold or bought, the CSCS transfer the amount of shares involved in the transaction from the share account of the seller to the share account of the buyer. If the buyer does not have an account with CSCS, the company will create one for him/her.

So it is the CSCS statement, obtained from the stock broking firm or from CSCS itself, that confirms that the shares have indeed been bought and also bought in your name.

S

•Courtesy: Securities and Exchange Commission be asked which company you want to buy. If you don’t have any particularly one in mind, you can request for their advice. A good stock broker would educate and advice you on the companies to buy. The issue of which company to buy will be discussed at some other time.

After you have decided on which company to buy, you will be given an ORDER FORM, where you will indicate your

,

BY BABAJIDE KOMOLAFE

Not all the licensed stock broking firms and brokers are trustworthy and efficient. Some of them are dubious. You can give them money to buy shares for you, and instead of buying the shares they will use your money to trade and claim that the shares you want to buy is not yet available.

,

Protect your shares with De-materialisation

BY NKIRUKA NNOROM

W

HEN you buy shares from a com pany, the company issues a share certificate which indicate your name and the number of shares you bought. That is the documentary evidence of your shareholding in the company. But the advent of computers and electronic devises has made it possible to keep information in electronic form, which can always be printed on paper whenever necessary. Thus, the authorities of the stock market introduced the electronic documentation of shares, whereby the information about shares owned by investors is kept in electronic form. For this purpose the Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) was established to create electronic account for each shareholder (CSCS Account) where information regarding the number of shares and of which companies is kept. Thus, the CSCS Account

statement became documentary evidence of share ownership in the stock market.

Consequently, investors do not need to keep their shares in paper form, as represented by share certificates. You can put all your shares in CSCS Account, and hence avoid the risk associated with share certificates. For example physical certificates can wear out with time, can be stolen, and may be misplaced to mention a few of the problems associated with this. Besides, during the period of boom, those who have their shareholding in electronic form can take advantage of the season by selling and making capital gain, unlike those that still retain their physical certificates.

When you put all your shares in the CSCS Account, which is an electronic account, it is said that you have ‘dematerialised’ your shares. Hence the process of transforming your shares from

share certificates to the CSCS Account is called DEMATERIALISATION. The following are the procedures for dematerialise your shares.

Open an account with a stockbroker.

For the account opening, you will be required to provide the stockbroking firm with a valid means of identification and evidence of last utility bill paid.

Thereafter, you will be asked to fill an account opening form. This will be forwarded to the CSCS for opening of an account for your shares. On successful completion of the process, a CSCS account number will be issued with which you can monitor your shares’ account.

Next, take the share certificate(s) you want to dematrialise to your stockbroker. You will be asked to fill a Transfer Form where you will provide information about the name of the company whose shares you want to dematerial-

Continues on page 23

For more information, and enquiries about this subject, send email to vanguardinvestorsforum@gmail.com.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013 — 23

Registrars imposing stockbroking firms on investors

BY PETER EGWUATU

R

EGISTRARS have been unilaterally allocating stockbroking houses and stock acco unts of shareholders of

bank Holding Companies (Holdco), said Central Secu rities Clearing System (CSCS) Limited.

The Holdcos, namely First Bank Holdco, UBA Holdco and Stanbic IBTC Holdco were created to become the parent company of the bank and its subsidiaries. Hence the shares of the subsidiaries were to be distributed to the shareholders.

But rather than allow the shareholders to choose which of their CSCS account or stockbroking house they want the shares transferred to, Registrars, according to CSCS, just transferred the shares as they deem fit, an action tantamount to imposition.

Speaking exclusively with Vanguard, Managing Director, CSCS, Mr. Kyari Abba Bukar, said, “The CSCS is not to be blamed for the error in crediting the stock account of any shareholder and imposition of stockbroking houses. It is the responsibility of the registrars to furnish us the details of shareholder account. It is the information that the registrar sent to us that we make use of when crediting the account of shareholders with a stockbroking house.

Continuing, he said, “ The registrar is suppose to seek the consent of shareholders on which stock broking house they want their account to be credited to, rather than unilaterally choosing for them.

You know shareholders have many stockbroking houses they can use to operate their account so it is the duty of registrar to

INVESTORS SPEAK

Why investors should embrace e-dividend

By WILLIAM JIMOH

Rev. Samuel Olayemi, a stockbroker. lectronic dividend is okay in as much as it is done in an ideal way. It helps investors to get their dividends through electronic means. That is to say that they can access their dividends using their bank accounts which they must have given to the registrar.

But the problem I am having with E-dividend is that, the level of education in this country is very low. There are many of the investors that don’t have any bank account while many are living in the villages where they are not having access to banking services. So, for people in that category, it is not something that they can be encouraged to adopt.

For example, many of them while using dividend warrant method of claiming dividend still complain of unclaimed dividend and so many other issues. But tell me how electronic dividend will be able to solve such problems if they don’t have account numbers the alternative way through which they could have access to their money. It is impossible to operate e-dividend most especially when they are not even having time to visit their brokers.

When the CSCS started, we requested that it should be made automatic and compulsory for everybody. But because it was not registered then, you find out that there were a whole lot of such accounts that were not registered with CSCS, and if

E

Peter Ashade MD, Africa Prudential Registrars

David Ajiboye,CEO, Zenith Registrars seek their consent before sending any information to us.

“For instance, in the case of Holdco entities that the shareholders observed error, it was the information that African Prudential Registrars supplied to us that we used.

They ought to seek the consent of shareholders on which of the stockbroking house they want their account credited with.

Even I was also affected;

Babatunde Ayeni, Md, Union Resgistrars

Bayo Olugbemi, MD, First Registrars Prudential Registrar just on their own transferred my portion of the share holdings in UBA Plc to UBA Capital and Prudential Registrar to an inactive account. So we are going to let them know this error so that they can educate investors to state which particular account and stockbroking house they want their account to be credited to.”

COMPLAINTS & ENQUIRIES Can I buy shares online?

Please tell me if I can buy these shares online (internet) from banks and broking firms? (A.C.Godson, Ogwashi-uku from Delta State) Investors Forum No you can’t buy shares online. You have to go to the office of a stockbroker to buy. But some stock broking firms have online platform for clients to make orders to purchase shares.

GTRegistrars, give me e-dividend The name of my company is ICON C O N T I N E N TAL G L O B A L S Y S T E M S LT D . A corporate client of GTB REGISTRARS via its shareholding in GTBANK PLC. At the inception of e-dividend policy, we subscribed to this platform and GTB registrars have always credited our Zenith Bank account with dividends issued by GTBANK PLC. But some few months back, my manager called to inform me that he discovered an expired dividend warrant in my official address (Currently, I’m based in Italy) which I quickly instructed him to take back to GTB registrars for re-validation or direct payment into our corporate account which is already known to GTB Registrars (With another e-dividend form endorsed by Zenith Bank Plc) but to my surprise and disappointment my manager was not granted any audience and all attempts to contact GTB registrars have been are to no avail. Several emails, phone calls and fax messages have been without feedback. Their official website is not interactive as all phone & fax numbers and email address were are not responsive.

It might interest you and GTB registrars that we have never changed our banker, address or make any variation of our profile, so why the sudden postage of physical dividend warrant to my official address when I have already subscribed for e-dividends? Why is GTB Registrars subjecting client to this humiliating and cumbersome process? When all they need to do

is check their records to know where the error originates from. Thanking you for your anticipated cooperation and service.

(Akinola M.A) Investors Forum Dear Mr Akinola, thanks for reading Vanguard, and for trusting us with the responsibility of resolving this challenge. Below is the response from GTRegistrars: The client (ICON Continental Global System LTD) had never registered for e-dividend. Our record shows that the client has been receiving physical dividend warrant and has been paying it into its (client’s) account. GTRegistrars have always sent physical dividend warrant to the client since inception and has never paid dividend directly into the client’s bank account because it does not have the mandate to do so. The Client indeed brought warrant of Dividend 39 to GTRegistrars for revalidation but we insisted he must register for e-dividend before the warrant is revalidated. We do this so that we would not need to issue physical dividend to the client again, and hence forestall the problem of expired dividend warrant, that would be brought to us for revalidation.

they are not registered with CSCS, the probability of capturing them may be very difficult.

Another thing is that, dividend warrant is now made almost like a cash cheque where by you can quickly branch into your bank and claim your money.

It was in the past that you have to sign on your dividend warrant before you can claim it, but now, you don’t have to sign. Most especially for some of the bankers that are understandable enough, they allow you to collect your dividends right there at the counter or save it into your savings account, though it is not all of them. The only thing is that they will not pay you any interest until it has been cleared.

Mr. Martins Adebara, a stock broking firm agent One of the advantages of electronic dividend is that it reduces the volume of dividends that are lost or claimed by persons other than the clients or shareholders. It also solves the problem of transferring shareholders current information which often resulted in returned and unclaimed dividend if not even lost.

Another benefit is that it saves both the company and shareholders the stress of going around with divided warrant since the client’s account is credited directly.

And also some times before these dividends warrants get to the client, it becomes stale since it has a validating period.

Protect your shares with De-materialisation Continues from page 22 ise, number of shares you own, and a sample of your signature.

This is then is forwarded to the Registrar of the Companies that issued the shares, who will confirm your signature against the one they have in their system. Once your signature is confirmed, they will communicate your shareholding in the respective companies to the CSCS, who will then record the information in your CSCS Account. Thus your shares have been transformed to electronic form.

The whole process takes between two weeks to three months depending on the stockbroking firm. It is important to state here that demate-

rialisation attracts some cost, which vary depending on the stockbroking firm.

COMPLAINTS AND INVESTIGATIONS Do you have any challenge with your investment in the stock market or with any company (stockbroker, Registrar Company etc), write to vanguardinvestorsforum @gmail.com OR send text to 08157550673. We will INVESTIGATE AND REPLY

24—Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Nigeria loses $2.7bn to oil production decline

BY SEBASTINE OBASI

T

BY MICHAEL EBOH

N

IGERIA is estimated to have lost about $2.7 billion or N426 billion from decline in crude oil production in the last quarter of 2012 October to December, even as it earned $16.075 billion or N2.54 trillion from crude oil export in the same period.

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN Fourth Quarter Economic Report, attributed the decline in crude oil production and export to natural disaster, oil theft and sabotage to oil infrastructure during the period under review.

As a result, Nigeria’s oil revenue in the fourth quarter of 2012 dipped by N112.6 billion, as gross oil receipts in the Federation Account stood at N1.824 trillion, dropping by 5.8 per cent from N1.936 trillion recorded in the third quarter of 2012.

The CBN data put Nigeria’s crude oil production, including condensates and natural gas liquids at 2.00 million barrels per day (mbd) or 184.00 million barrels during the fourth quarter of 2012, compared to the 2.26 mbpd or 207.92 million barrels recorded in the third quarter, representing a decrease of 0.26 mbd or 11.5 per cent in production level.

The report pegged the average price of Nigeria’s reference crude, the Bonny Light at $112.73 (N17,811.34) per barrel, with crude oil export at 1.55 mbd or 142.60 million barrels in the fourth quarter, compared with 1.81 mbd or 166.52 million barrels in the preceding quarter, representing a decline of 14.4 per cent.

Crude allocated for domestic consumption in the review period was valued at $4.667 billion or N737.386 billion, while actual allocation of crude oil for domestic consumption was put at 0.45 mbd or 41.40 million barrels.

However, the report indicated that it was not all woes for Nigeria, as, “At N1.824 trillion gross oil receipts, which constituted 75.6 per cent of the total federally collected revenue, exceeded the proportionate budget estimate and the receipts in the corresponding period of 2011 by 9.9 and 151.2

BRIEF NLNG to borrow $1.6bn from BNP Paribas, GT Bank

From left: Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke; Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mr. Andrew Yakubu; Executive Secretary, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, Mr. Reginald Stanley; and Commercial Director, KAZTEC Engineering Limited, when the minister was conducted round the Kaztec Stand at the just-concluded 2013 Nigerian Oil and Gas Exhibition and Conference, in Abuja.

per cent, respectively, but declined by 5.8 per cent below the receipts in the preceding quarter.

“The rise in oil receipts relative to the proportionate budget estimate was attributed, largely, to the improvement in the receipts from Petroleum Profit Tax, Royalties and domestic crude oil and gas sales during the period.

“Available data showed that total federally-collected revenue during the fourth quarter of 2012 stood at N2.414 trillion, representing a decline of 0.4 and 13.3 per cent below the proportionate

budget estimate and the level in the preceding quarter of 2012, respectively. However, relative to the level in the corresponding period of 2011, total federally-collected revenue rose by 101.1 per cent.”

Continuing, the report stated, “Provisional data on foreign exchange flows through the CBN showed that inflow during the fourth quarter of 2012 amounted to US$11.17 billion, representing a decline of 16.9 and 16.1 per cent below the levels in the preceding quarter and the corresponding period of 2011, respectively.

“Outflow amounted to US$7.82 billion, showing a decline of 3.3 and 44.5 per cent below the levels in the preceding quarter and corresponding period of 2011, respectively. This resulted in a net inflow of US$3.35 billion, compared with a net inflow of US$5.36 billion in the preceding quarter and a net outflow of US$0.79 billion in the corresponding period of 2011. The decline in inflow relative to the preceding quarter was attributed largely, to the 9.6 per cent fall in crude oil sales, while the fall in outflow was attributed to the 35.2 per cent decline in DAS

HE Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) is to raise $1.6billion through France’s BNP Paribas and GT Bank for six LNG carrier ships. The loan, structured as a medium to long term financing would be expected to be drawn from the end of March, 2013.

NLNG had indicated last year that it would seek loans from the international market to expand the operations of its shipping subsidiary, Bonny Gas Transport Limited, which currently has 24 LNG ships.

The loan is part of the $12billion foreign direct investment, expected within the next four years through the proposed Train 7 of the LNG project. According to Babs Omotowa, the Managing Director, LNG, “We are expecting foreign direct investment of $12billion from our proposed Train 7 plant, which we hope will be completed within the next four years. The project is expected to create 13,000 new jobs and generate $3billion revenue annually for the government.”

NLNG has a capacity to produce 22 million metric tonnes of liquefied gas a year. It gets its gas supplies from the upstream oil companies and liquefies for export.

Recently, Stena Clear Sky tanker, with a capacity of 145,000 cubic metres, left Nigeria’s Bonny Terminal for Portugal’s Port of Sines.

Also, South Korea, the world’s second biggest buyer of LNG received 130,000 cubic metres of Nigeria’s LNG in January.

Subsidy: Oando receives N270bn in 4 years NKIRUKA NNOROM & KUNLE KALEJAYE

O

ANDO Plc. a major player in Nigerian oil and gas industry last week disclosed that it received the sum of N270 billion as subsidy claims from the Federal Government in the last four years, adding that it was not involved in the scandal.

This was made known by the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Wale Tinubu, in a parley with the management of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, and the stock broking community.

Tinubu said that the

company decided not to join words with the Federal Government during the fuel subsidy probe to allow for peace, adding that in a clime like Nigeria where the government is the major benefactor of businesses, it would be unwise to raise dust over the subsidy claims.

According to him, “government has paid us at least N270 billion subsidy claims in the last four years. A lot of our shareholders dropped their shares as a result of the dust raised by that subsidy scandal. We suffered for failing to declare our position and the real value of

our petroleum subsidy whether it was paid, whether there was scam or no scam.

We are the biggest importer in the country and we had the largest bills.

“The spotlight was on Oando. In the process, a lot of foreign shareholders sold their shares. We just came back from an international road show to see the foreign investors as well, and pretty much a lot of them dropped their shareholding without benefit of support from local shareholders because we didn’t pay dividend, and that is the truth.

“So, we suffered a reduction

in the share price during that period for nine months, remember we were in the news everyday; subsidy this, subsidy that. We were not paid, we were owed over N52 billion. The fact remains that there was a lot of panic selling,” he said.

He continued: “I was accused of not coming forward to publicly state Oando’s position in the subsidy scam, but the truth of the matter is that you don’t really do well when a company begins to challenge government’s position because you depend heavily on the government for support.”

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013—25

26 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

BY NOEL ONOJA

T

HE Nigerian Nation al Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has revealed that the country will become the regional hub of petrochemical and fertilizer by 2017.

The Group Executive Director of Gas and Power, Dr. David Ige, made this disclosure in Abuja last week, while receiving the prestigious Man of the Year Award from the Oil and Gas Year Book that chronicles the Who’s Who of the Global Energy In-

Gas revolution: Nigeria set to become regional hub dustry.

Ige said that with the gas development agenda of the Federal Government, in country capacity is being doubled, adding that in a few years from now the entire nation would be wired up with gas.

“All that we need is to make Nigeria a regional hub of petrochemical with fertilizer is in place, and

by 2017, Nigeria clearly will become the regional hub of gas in Africa,” Ige affirmed.

He noted that the dedicated major gas infrastructure development initiated by the President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration is designed to create flexibility in the movement of domestic gas nationwide.

Ige further revealed that the Ajaokuta-KanoKaduna gas line is at an advanced stage of design to supply gas to the northern part of the country for power generation, and gas-based industries, stressing that similar gas infrastructure projects are ongoing in different parts of the country.

The NNPC director

averred that the improvements in gas supply and power availability are a testament to the holistic approach of the administration’s resolve in ending the power crisis in Nigeria permanently.

He posited that the nation is on its way to achieving gas export parity, a development that would encourage greater

investment from the private sector in the gas exploration and production.

He revealed that domestic gas usage has been increasing; noting that 300 taxi drivers had converted their cars to run on compressed natural gas in Benin City.

Ige applauded the organisers for the award and said it would spur him and the NNPC to record more milestones in the gas revolution agenda of the Federal Government.

Speaking in similar vein, the Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Osten Olorunshola commended the organizers for their painstaking efforts adding that the nation is moving forward as production of crude oil has stabilized in the country.

In his remarks, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Engr. Ernest Nwapa applauded the publishers for showcasing Nigeria in positive light aimed at transforming the economy of the nation through the Oil and Gas Industry.

ERHC Energy upbeat on rights offering

E

RHC Energy Inc. has described the response to its rights offering as encouraging.

The company ’s Vice President, Administration and Controller, Mr. Sylvan Odobulu, said the rights offering is an initial step in ERHC’s efforts to raise funds needed for oil and gas exploration in Kenya and Chad as well as for general corporate purposes and working capital needs. ”The rights offering (is) not the only step by any means,” said Odobulu. “We have several other steps planned, including possible registered direct offerings to new investors. How much we seek from new investors will depend on the degree of takeup of the rights offering by our existing shareholders, and nothing is definitive at this point in time.”

In late December, ERHC distributed on a pro rata basis one nontransferable subscription right for every three shares of common stock owned.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013 — 27

BRIEF

Oildat Oildataa concludes extended drill stem test

O

ILDATA Energy Group has announced the successful completion of its first extended Drill Stem Test (DST) operation. The text involved testing multiple hydrocarbon zones in a single well, and was part of an extended end-to-end well performance efficiency and field optimization test for Energia Ltd., an independent marginal field operator.

The project currently deployed for Energia has been expanded into a fieldwide campaign to boost production from the field, a development, the Managing Director, Energia Limited, Mr. Felix A.V. described the test as “probably the first of its kind in Africa and by an African company.”

The DST is an extension of Oildata’s Multi-zone, Single-trip Tubing Conveyed Perforation (TCP) technology solution called “MultiFire” – a sequential multiple firing system, which allows the perforation of several zones (regardless of the intervals between) in a single run.

The Multifire was first deployed for Shell operations in Nigeria, with over 700 feet intervals between various producing zones. The operation was commended Head, Well-Completions team, Mr. Friday Otutu, who described the solution as “innovative”, and had added value to the team’s operations by saving a significant amount of expensive rig operations time.

Oildata’s spokesman, Mr. Kingsley Idedevbo, noted that the company strives to continuously innovate and provide value-added technical solutions for optimizing production of oil and gas energy resources for various markets.

Oildata is an independent energy service company specializing in the safe production and delivery of hydrocarbon energy and enhancement solutions to operators and end users in emerging markets.

Oildata Wireline offers oil and gas well-intervention technology services, which are primarily deployed on electric line, fibre-optic cable, slick line and coiled tubing.

These are essential for the safe and enhanced production of oil and gas in remote and mature fields.

BY NOEL ONOJA

I

N view of the current security challenges faced by the country, the Federal government has put mechanisms in place to control and ensure that explosives, which are regarded as indispensable materials used in the mining sector do not get into the wrong hands.

This position was made known by the Minister of Mines and Steel D e v e l o p m e n t , M r.

Mohammed Sada, at a stakeholder ’s consultative forum on control of commercial explosives in Abuja.

“As you are all aware, Improvised Explosive Device (IED) have been widely applied by terrorists in causing considerable damage to lives and property especially in the northern part of the country, and investigations carried out by the government have revealed that more than 70% of IED detonated in Nigeria has major ingredients of ammonium nitrate, detonators and detonating cord.

“As a fall out of this, government is focusing attention on how best to control the importation, sale and use of these items. An Inter-ministerial Technical Committee, consisting of relevant ministries and security agencies has been set up to look into the best way possible to control the importation of ammonium nitrate and blasting accessories used in the formulation of IED by terrorists.”

He further explained that government has also gone ahead to classify ammonium nitrate as explosives, and has therefore placed the full control of the chemical substance under the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development.

FG reviews use of commercial explosives

•From left: Chairman, Senate Committee on Privatisation, Senator Olugbenga Obadara; Acting Director General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, Mr. Benjamin Dikki; and Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, at the execution of industry and transaction agreements for PHCN successor companies, in Abuja.

“For the purpose of emphasis, NAFDAC and any other ministry or agency of government no longer has control over the product. This is in tandem with section 1 (1) of the Explosives Act, 1964 and Cap. 121 Part II of the Explosive Regulations of 1967 NAFDAC has been formally informed of the new dispensation.” The minister added.

With regard with to what the inter-ministerial team is expected to do, the minister said the team will carry out a nation-wide verification of all explosives storage facilities.

They will also engage

personnel and assess the security measures put in place in consonance with the provision of the Explosives Act and Regulations.

“The findings of the Task Team shall form the basis upon which deep security consideration shall be given in the control of Ammonium Nitrate and blasting accessories which are widely applied in the formation of IED,” he said.

Sada also revealed that government has commenced the review of the Explosives Act 1964, and Explosive Regulations of 1967, with a

view to addressing the current security challenges under the law, adding that the draft copy will soon be presented to the public for its input.

“A data bank of all the explosives manufactured, imported, stored, transferred, sold and consumed has been created by the ministry, and the federal government is expectant of a situation whereby the explosives manufactured locally shall far overshoot the need of this country, so as to pave the way for exportation of same to neighbouring West-African countries and beyond,” Sada noted.

NIM seeks resolution of Nigeria’s power crisis T

HE Nigerian Institute of Management is set to engage stakeholders in the Nigerian economy on ways to address the country ’s epileptic power situation and positioning it to contribute meaningfully in driving the country’s transformation agenda.

According to a statement announcing its forthcoming inaugural ‘Nigeria: Arise and Shine,’ annual lecture, scheduled to hold February 28, 2013, Dr. Michael Olawale-Cole, President and Chairman of Council, NIM, said the Institute is aware of the critical role played by a stable power supply in the advancement of any economy.

According to him, the lecture, which has its theme, “Appraisal of Vision 20:2020: Perspective of Power generation and National Development,’ is the Institute’s contributions to nation building.

He said the NIM is strategically positioned to make the much-needed impact on the nation and Nigerians with the lecture.

He said, “The topic of the maiden

lecture was deliberately chosen to look at the issue of power generation which is a key aspect of the Transformation Agenda of the Federal Government as encapsulated in Vision 20:2020.

“The Institute believes that once the issue of power generation and distribution is resolved, the nation’s firm match to greatness will be guaranteed and this singular motivation was what informed our choice of focus for this year’s lecture.”

Olawale-Cole maintained that the Institute believes more in helping government to solve the many challenges of governance rather than criticising its every attempt at governance.

He added that the Institute will use the platform to vigorously preach national re-orientation, attitudinal change and debilitating social vices which have been the bane of meaningful development in the country.

“Since the Institute believes in the Nigeria Project and its indivisibility, it knows that the problems besetting

the nation are temporary and that Nigeria will rise again and take its rightful place among comity of nations if all hands are on deck to lift the nation up instead of sitting by and criticising every attempt at governance,” he stressed.

He further stated that it will take the action of both a committed government and a responsible followership to move Nigeria to the desired destination.

He enjoined the government to do all within its powers at all times to meet the yearnings and aspirations of the governed while the governed should not only support the government but equally speak well and positively of the country and its leadership always.

The statement noted that the Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Professor Rahamon Adisa Bello, will be the guest speaker, while the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, will be the special guest of honour.

28 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

BY FELIX AYANRUOH

Oil & People

H

ERE we are again reinventing the wheels of governmental agency reform, this time the power sector, while simultaneously taking actions that seem to undermine the reform process - alleged bias in the granting of distribution licenses, capacity shortages and, generally letting the bottom fall out of the quality of power generation and distribution.

The government has recently announced the commencement of the review of its “Power Sector Roadmap.”

It is indisputable fact that Nigerian has one of the most problematic electricity sectors in the world, with an estimated installed electricity generation capacity of 8,644 MW, and available capacity of only approximately 3,718 MW, to cater for the needs of a population of over160 million. By comparison, South Africa, with a

•FELIX AYANRUOH

felix.ayanruohlaw@gmail.com

The challenges of the Nigerian electric power sector reform population of just 50 million, has an installed electricity generation capacity of over 52,000 MW. On a per capita consumption basis, Nigeria is ranked a distant 178th with 106.21 KWh per head, - well behind Gabon (900.00); Ghana (283.65); Cameroon (176.01); and Kenya (124.68).

The historic gap between the demand for electricity and the available capacity has led to the current widespread power shortage and inefficiency and, consequently, selfgeneration of power by both industrial and residential consumers.

The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria

(MAN), and the National Association of Small Scale Industries (NASSI), have estimated that their members spend an average of about N2billion (about $12 million) per week on selfpower generation. To this end, the Nigerian power sector presents immense opportunities for private investment in the electricity power sector.

I

t is self-evident that h e poor performance of the electricity power sector in Nigeria has been a significant barrier to private investment in the country, the overall development and economic growth. The sector’s market structure like most economies of the developing world is dominated by the stateowned power entity – Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), formerly the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) in a monopolistic, vertically integrated business model.

The dissatisfaction with the performance of PHCN – symptomized by its low capacity generation; high costs; inadequate distribution of electric power; inability to finance new or expanded infrastructure; and inadequate machinery for effective billing and collection of bills fuelled the debate on the theoretical and empirical justification for its involvement in Nigeria’s electricity power sector, and became the driving force behind liberalization.

Heuristic analyses, by experts in the field conclude that the process of reform and liberalization of a t

capacity-deficient electricity power sector such as Nigeria’s, should include the following key elements: • Mandating PHCN to operate according to commercial principles •Introduction of competition •Restructuring of PHCN’s supply chain to enable full liberalization.

This entails unbundling PHCN’s business structure into several generation and distribution enterprises.

•Privatization of the unbundled electricity generators and distributors under dispersed ownership, to encourage private investors and operators to bring in financial resources and technical and managerial expertise to correct PHCN’s deficiencies •Development of economic regulation that is independent from government and industry capture • R e s t r i c t i n g government’s role on policy formation and execution.

Beginning in 1896 when electricity was first produced in Lagos, with a generation capacity of 60KW, and continuing to the establishment of NEPA in 1972, several efforts have been to continually increase capacity output. The promulgation of the Privatization and Commercialization decree No.25 of 1988 which established the Technical Committee on Privatization and Commercialization (TCPC), led to the review of the failures of state monopolies including NEPA and proposals to commercialize the operations of PHCN. Following the enactment of the Public Enterprises Act of 1999, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) replaced TCPC with the power to shift emphases from commercialization to encouraging core investors, and promoting foreign investment in the privatization program.

D

espite the foregoing broad statutory framework, the Nigerian electricity power sector continued to experience low electricity supply. In response, the Federal Government adopted the National Electric Power Policy (NEPP) in March 2001, setting out the following critical objectives: •Attract private

investment both from Nigeria and from overseas •New legislation to provide the legal framework for the reform Agenda •Establishment of an independent regulatory agency •Development of a wholesale electricity market •Establishment of a consumer assistance fund to ensure the efficient and targeted application of subsidies to less privileged Nigerians •Establishment of a Rural Electrification Agency (REA) to manage the rural electrification fund.

T

he Electric Power e c t o r Reform Act of 2005 (EPSR) codified the preceding objectives, creating a new legal and regulatory framework for the sector, including the elimination of NEPA and provisions to ensure privatization of successor c o m p a n i e s ; establishment of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC); establishment of the Rural Electrification Agency; and a Consumer assistance fund to bridge the funding gaps for low income earners.

After five years of implementation of the 2005 Reform Act, the liberalization process remained stalled and mired in intractable challenges.

Power shortages, poor operational performance, a lack of foreign investment, the absence of a sustained and deliberately deployed long term power development strategy, under-exploitation of the nation’s abundant energy endowments and the i n a d e q u a t e implementation of reforms, were readily conceded by Government in the Presidential Road Map of 2010.

In a nutshell, liberalization has not enjoyed the predicted success. The challenges facing the sector can be summed up as both institutional and regulatory. Some have argued that, for liberalization to attain its objectives, the government must have political will and also allow for a captive-free regulation regime.

S

To be continued.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013 — 29

Why Amnesty programme must end in 2015 — Kuku

BY JUDITH UFFORD THREE years down the line, the Amnesty programme has taken giant strides to achieve set objectives, so says Hon. Kingsley Kuku, the man whose shoulder the programme now rests.

According to him, over 26,000 ex-militants have been trained and empowered in various human endeavours. Some of the ex-militants have been sent out of the shores of the country - to South Africa, Malaysia, India, Dubai, The Philippines, to mention but a few. Others have received some form of training within the country.

But in spite of these successes, there have been dissenting voices of non-inclusion and these voices are not relenting until they are included in the programme.

In June 2011, for example, agitation by some youths led to the blockage of the East-West Road at Mbiama area. This was a last minute realisation of the gains of the post-amnesty programme; so the youths wanted to be included in it. The

Mbiama youths were not alone in this demand for inclusion. So, in response to many such calls from various ethnic nationalities of the Niger Delta for inclusion, the Presidency recently approved an addition of 3,646 ex-agitators to the list of beneficiaries of the programme.

Perhaps, it was against this backdrop that Senator James Manager, representing Delta South senatorial district, called for an expansion of the programme.

According to him, a project of the magnitude of the amnesty programme would certainly have challenges but was quick to add that such challenges are not insurmountable. Said he: “The programme was targeted at a group; because of the doubt created by our system, some people disallowed themselves from being part of it. We are calling on Mr. President to extend the programme further so as to accommodate these groups of people who are also Niger Deltans, who are ex-militants who excluded themselves from the beginning.” And here is the

Ex-militants now students in Murdoch University, Dubai.

crux of the matter.

But Hon. Kingsley Kuku vehemently disagree. According to him, the amnesty programme is not elastic to take in more agitators claiming to be exmilitants. The terminal date for the programme is 2015 he insists, so to include more people now would create problems for the programme. Said he: “When the programme was conceived, 2015 was the target date to wrap it up, I cannot kill the truth. So, we cannot continue to accept every group that claims to have surrendered arms to the JTF. In

2010, for instance, President Goodluck Jonathan briefly opened the window and after thorough screening by the JTF, about 6,166 disarmed agitators were enlisted in the second phase of the post-amnesty programme using a ratio of threepersons-to-one gun. We cannot admit all shades of unemployed youths and women under all manner of umbrellas in the Niger Delta, who use deplorable tactics such as blocking national highways and coming to Abuja to protest just to arm- twist government to get them included

Job creation: City and Guilds partners Kwara govt on skill acquisition

Ahmed recently laid the foundation of an International Vocational Centre, at Ajase-Ipo, in the Irepodun local government area of the state.

The project whose construction is scheduled for completion in the next couple of months, isbeing jointly executed with the City and Guilds of London. Highpoint of the ceremony was the signing of a memorandum of understanding, MoU between the Kwara State government and City and Guilds, London. The MoU is for the training of high flying professionals in various vocations at the International Vocational Centre.

Already, about 200 pioneer students will be trained at the centre by the C and G in the first phase of the collaboration. Vanguard Features checks revealed that the partnership would particularly aid the students to be trained and equipped in skills of their interest that would enhancetheirworkandenablethemtransferand export their skills to gain economic advantage. Among the vocational skills to be acquired at the centre are electrical, mechanical, oil and gas, plumbing and construction. VF checks further revealed that the entire project will cost $65 million over three phases and will take five years. Also, the centre will be supported by three Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed (right) inspecting plans for the incubation centres International Vocational Centre, Ajasse Ipo with City and Guilds where graduates will officials (middle), Abayomi Ogundola, SSA Investment and the receivepractical, realproject contractor.

BY DEMOLA AKINYEMI, ILORIN HE world over,unemploymenthas become a major headache to many leaders and their governments. In Nigeria,gainful employment for the teeming youths and graduates of various tertiary institutions, has defied many solutions.

This development has and continues to constitute a security threat .

In Kwara State, the situation is not different. To this end, the state government has decided to take the bull by the horn. It has taken measures to tackle the hydra-headed problem of unemployment and insecurity headlong. The dream of government is to create a number of jobs for people of the state in such a way that the problem of mass unenployment, crime and criminality would be a thing of the past.

To actualise this vision, Governor Abdulfatah

T

life training before going out into the real world. Interested persons after completing the programme,will also receive soft loans to set up their own businesses.

Speaking after signing the MoU with the management of City and Guilds, the governor lamented that the large scale unemployment in the country is due to the neglect of skills acquisition. He recalled that "when the present administration came into office in 2011, we decided to fashion out the wayoutofunemploymentinthebidtoreduce employment rate in the state. It was on this premise that the International Vocation Centre, Ajase-Ipo was designed and established so as to assist the people to acquire skills thereby creating jobs for the members of the public."

Ahmed added: “to enable this centre achieve its desired objective, the state governmentdecidedtoenterintoMoUwith the City and Guilds, London so as to provide a platform for the students of the centre to acquirenecessaryprofessionalandenduring skills in their various chosen vocational attainment.

Visser said that his team was excited by theconcept,thebackgroundandthedelivery of the international vocational centre. He assuredthegovernorthatthecertificatesthat would be offered at the centre are also recognizedonmanyframeworksaroundthe world including the national framework of the United Kingdom. According to him, the training would be equivalent to what is obtained in top notch schools in the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Dubai. He said that key industries will be served by the International Vocational Centre.

in the programme.

“As one of the planners of this amnesty programme, I cannot kill the truth that it will terminate in 2015, it is not unending.” Kuku explained that the amnesty programme was not designed as a platform to engage unemployed youths in the Niger Delta. He wondered what Niger Delta governors, whom he noted had benefitted immensely in terms of federal allocation to them since the programme was proclaimed had done. He therefore urged the various state governments in the region to step up and start creating jobs for young people in their states.

“States in the Niger Delta must constitute alternate engagement platforms for unemployed youths and women… If we continue to open our East-West road to demonstrators (for inclusion in the amnesty programme), we are inviting adverse consequences.

The Niger Delta would be back to the abyss, and Nigeria would suffer for it,” he noted.

For Kuku, the clarification of the termination period of the programme became necessary following reports of receipt of fresh arms and ammunition from youths in the Niger Delta, by the Joint Task Force, JTF and other security agencies, adding that this gives an impression of an unending amnesty programme.

According to him, after the second phase of the amnesty programme in October 2010, that led to the inclusion of 6,166 exmilitants, bringing the total to 263,548, the JTF and other security agencies have come up with other names of 3,642 exagitators for inclusion.

He said: But what happens to trainees whose programmes extended beyond the 2015 deadline. Kuku had a ready answer. According to him, upon termination in 2015, care for participants in the amnesty programme, who would still be under training, because they are undergoingfourorfive-yearcourses, would become the responsibility of otherFederalGovernmentagencies.

These youths would be transfered to them so that the programme can shutdown.

30 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Touch of luxury: The Kia Cadenza way

BY THEODORE OPARA

O

NCE a minor in the automobile world and a brand that was looked down upon, Kia has risen to become the brand to be reckoned with, churning out exciting and world class models like no other maker. No one thought Kia could today, compete in the luxury car segment.

But, the car maker, with the slogan, “the power to surprise” has continued to spring surprises with every new model released into the market.

The all new Picanto, Rio, Cerato, Optima, Sportage and Sorento, are clear testimonies to the company’s research and development ability to surprise.

But the ultimate surprise is Kia’s entry into the luxury car segment with the Cadenza and Quoris, two cars that have earned Kia high respect in the industry.

While the Quoris is competing inthe top end luxury car segment, the Cadenza has settled in the business class, parading features that have never been made standard in this car category before.

Confident that the cars can beat all competitions, Kia is offering five years warranty on them, which is unprecedented in the nations auto industry. No other auto maker has gone beyond three years warranty.

The Kia Cadenza is one of the newest addition to Kia family in Nigeria and has set a new benchmark in automobile technology.

Powered by a new Lambda II 3.5 litre V6 gasoline engine, Cadenza generates a maximum power of 290 ps at 6,600 rpm. This fuel efficient, lightweight powerplant features dual continuously variable valve timing, a silent timing chain system to maximise noise and a variable intake system to maximise efficiency. A 6speed automatic transmission mated to this engine makes driving an exciting experience.

Design with luxury in mind, the Cadenza surpassed all expectations in performance, comfort and safety. It is available with only one engine variant, a V6 powerplant with push button start/stop. The touch of luxury radiates all over

Ford tops in value

F

the car. Organ accelerator pedal, electric parking brake, premium sound system with a choice of three audio settings, indash six-CD changer integrated into the dashboard, panorama sunroof, leather seats, remote keyless entry system, puddle lamps on the underside of the rear mirrors which

automatically lights up when the car detects the smart key approaching, outside door handle lights, and many more are some of the luxury touches on the Cadenza.

Spacious interior of the Cadenza with well laid cockpit, garnished with good lightening, all combine to give the

interior luxury of the highest order and aura of elegance.

Cadenza boasts of many safety features aimed at ensuring safety of both occupants and pedestrians. A rigid high-strength steel structure with reinforced side sills means energy is effectively absorbed and

dispersed in the event of a collision.

The Brake Assist System deploys in an emergency situation, sensing brake pedal speed and applying increased pressure to ensure a shorter braking distance. Airbags at the front and side offer protection for both driver and passengers.

OR the second straight year, Ford dominates the U.S. News & World Report 2013 Best Cars for the Money rankings, with six Ford vehicles offering consumers the most bang for their buck.

The 2013 Focus, Fusion, Fusion Hybrid, Taurus, Escape and Edge captured awards based on their outstanding value and critical acclaim.

This marks the fourth year in a row Taurus reigns in the large car category, while for two straight years Edge is best midsize SUV, Fusion is the midsize champ and Fusion Hybrid is the best hybrid vehicle. U.S. News & World Report determines the winner in each of 21 categories based on vehicle safety and reliability attributes as well as expert opinion.

Ford improves parts availability with new distribution centre

F

ORD Motor Company is taking action to improve parts availability in Nigeria by expanding service of its Middle East Parts Distribution Center (PDC) to dealers in SubSaharan Africa (SSA), getting parts to customers in the region more quickly than ever before.

Ford’s goal for the facility is to help expedite the delivery of parts to dealers throughout SSA, and improve customer satisfaction in this

important region where sales of Ford vehicles are on the rise. The PDC is capable of stocking up to 50,000 different parts, or 6 million total pieces from all of Ford’s production locations around the globe.

Previously, Ford dealers ordered parts from each vehicle’s country of origin (North America, Europe, South Africa and Thailand), which resulted in lengthy delivery and shipping times that varied greatly,

depending on the source location.

More regular shipments from a single location will significantly reduce the time customers will have to wait for parts to arrive at their service locations, as approximately 92 percent of the parts most often used for vehicle service or repairs will be in stock and immediately available at the PDC. Order to delivery time from the PDC to dealers in SSA will improve

substantially, with parts orders now arriving at dealerships in as few as two days. With more parts readily available, the PDC will improve lead time for special-order parts as well, reducing vehicle downtime for customers and fleets.

“Ford is committed to providing customers throughout Sub-Saharan Africa with exceptional customer service and an improved ownership experience,” said John Earp, Ford Customer

Service Division Regional Manager, Sub-Saharan Africa. “By providing a one-stop-shop resource for parts for our dealers, Ford is demonstrating its commitment to customer service in SSA.” The facility began servicing 25 SubSaharan Africa countries this month. With the SSA launch, Ford’s facility now services more than 35 countries throughout Africa and the Middle East.

Vanguard , TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013—31

Sport cars are world's most expensive

BY THEODORE OPARA

B

UGAT TI Veyron Super Sports, Aston Martin One-77, Pagani Zonda Cinque Roadster, Lamborghini Reventon, Koenigsegg Agera, Hennessey Venom GT Spyder, Mclaren F1, Ferrari Enzo, Pagani Zonda and SSC Ultimate Aero. These are world’s most expensive cars.

They have many things in common. Apart from being very fast and expensive, they are all Sport cars.

I bet, not many have set there eyes on most of these cars in some parts of the world because they are not common sights even in Europe, America, Asia and Arab world. They are owned only by the super rich. Some of them hard-

•Bugatti Veyron Super Sports

•Aston Martin One-77

•Pagani Zonda Cinque Roadster

•Lamborghini Reventon

•Koenigsegg Agera R

ly drive the cars but rather use them as status symbols.

The world’s most expensive cars are not made for bumpy roads ,

so don’t expect to catch a glimpse of one anyhow. I was told that the almighty Veyron Super Sports was sighted at the Federal

THE SUPER CARS •Bugatti Veyron Super Sports $2,400,000 (N379.2m).

This is by far the most expensive street legal production car available on the market today (the base Veyron costs $1,700,000). Capable of reaching 0-60 mph in 2.5 seconds, the Veyron is the fastest street legal car when tested again on July 10, 2010 with the 2010 Super Sport Version reaching a top speed of 267 mph (430 km/h). When competing against a Bugatti Veyron, you better be prepared!

•Aston Martin One-77 $1,850,000 (N292.3m). The name “One-77” says it all: beauty and power in One, limited to 77 units. With 750 hp, it is able to travel from 0 to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds and reaching a maximum speed of 220 mph (354 km/h).

•Pagani Zonda Cinque Roadster $1,850,000 (N292.3m). One of the most exotic cars out there is also one of the most expensive. It can go from 0-60 mph in 3.4 seconds with a top speed of 217 mph (349 km/h).

•Lamborghini Reventon $1,600,000 (N252.8m). The most powerful and the most expensive Lamborghini ever built is the third on the list. It takes 3.3 seconds to reach 60 mph and it has a top speed of 211 mph (339 km/h). Its rare (limited to 20) and slick design are the reasons why it is expensive and costly to own.

•Koenigsegg Agera R $1,600,000 (N252.8m). The Agera R can burn 0-60 mph in 2.8 seconds, reaching a maximum speed of 260 mph (418 km/h). It is capable of reaching 270 mph, but this supercar is electronically limited to 235 mph (378 km/h). You will need to sign a waiver, only then does the company unlock the speed limiter for a given occasion.

•Zenvo ST1 $1,225,000 (N193.55m). Able to reach 60 mph in 2.9 seconds and a top speed of 233 mph (375 km/h). The Zenvo ST1 is from a new Danish supercar company that will compete to be the best in speed and style. The ST1 is limited to 15 units and the company even promised “flying doctors” to keep your car running.

•Hennessey Venom GT Spyder $1,100,000 (N173.8m). What makes the 2013 Hennessey Venom GT Spyder is its price tag, a compelling 1.1 million dollars. There is no other convertible in the world today that can match-up with this car. Not to mention that it goes from 0-60 mph in 2.5 seconds.

•McLaren F1 $970,000 (NN153.26m). In 1994, the McLaren F1 was the fastest and most expensive car.

Even though it was built more than 15 years ago, it still has an unbelievable top speed of 240 mph (386 km/h) and reaching 60 mph in 3.2 seconds. Even today, the McLaren F1 is still top on the list and outperforms other supercars.

•Ferrari Enzo $670,000 (N105.86m). The most popular supercar ever built. The Enzo has a top speed of 217 mph (349 km/h) and able to go from 0 to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds. Only 400 were produced and it is currently being sold for over $1,000,000 at auctions.

•Pagani Zonda C12 F $667,321 (N105.44m). Produced by a small independent company in Italy, the Pagani Zonda C12 F is the 8th most expensive car in the world. It promises to deliver a top speed of 215 mph (346 km/h) and go from 0-60 mph in 3.5 seconds.

•SSC Ultimate Aero $654,400 (N103.4m). Don’t let the price tag fool you, this American made car is actually the 3rd fastest street legal car in the world with a top speed of 257 mph (413 km/h) and reaching 0-60 mph in 2.7 seconds. It costs less than half as much as the Bugatti Veyron, yet has enough power to compete against the most expensive car. It is estimated that only 25 of this exact model will be produced.

•Ferrari Enzo

Capital Territory Abuja, not quite long ago.

Some of the cars like the Bugatti Veyron Super Sports, Aston Martin One-77 have price tags that are comparable to most private jets.

Most car freaks here would have expected the world most expensive car list to include brands like Mercedes Benz, BMW, Rolls Royce etc but the sport cars have it. So we

present to you the list of world most expensive cars (Supercars).

The 1931 Bugatti Royale Kellner Coupe was sold for $8.7 million in 1987. That and many others won’t be included in this list, they are no longer available in the market.

If you can afford it, you would probably invest a small fraction of that on a bevy of supercars for your garage. Here are 10 of the most expensive street legal production cars on the market.

•Zenvo ST1

•Hennessey Venom GT Spyder

•McLaren F1

•Pagani Zonda C12 F

•SSC Ultimate Aero

32—Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Nigeria is a lie and we believe it – Nyiam Lt. Col. Gabriel Anthony Nyiam came to national reknown after the abortive April 22, 1990 coup orchestrated by a group of middle belt and southern officers of the Nigeria Army against the then authorities headed by Gen. Ibrahim Babangida. Col. Nyiam was the highest serving officer involved in that uprising which seriously violated Babangida’s headquarters in the Dodan Barracks and led to the death of the military president’s ADC, Lt. Col. Usman Bello.

A son of a soldier from Cross River State, the young Nyiam followed his father’s profession early in life when he enrolled into the Nigerian Military School, Zaria, and from there into the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna as part of the 9th Regular Combatant Course that began in January 1971.

Following the completion of his studies at the NDA he was enlisted into the Army Corps of Engineers and from there proceeded on study leave obtaining a first degree in Quantity Surveying from Earthwork University in Scotland and subsequently, a masters degree in International Relations from the University of Aberdeen, also in Scotland. While studying, he was seconded to the British Army, where in his words he claims to have learnt that “soldiering is an

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR

W

HAT are you campaigning for?

I thought that the first thing we should have done was to have come up with a process whereby we meaningfully start building the basis of democracy.

You would see what has happened in Egypt of recent; the first thing people do is to go for a conference towards a constitution. It is on the basis of that agreement that every sensible state proceeds from.

In our own case, people who are supposedly democrats took over a constitution which starts with a big lie and makes a claim on behalf of the people and we have been working on a constitution which was imposed by military decree.

The problem that we did not solve with the Aburi Accord still hunts us and I see as an observer that democracy which we are supposedly pursuing and that we are just paying lip service to democracy. Our elections I can say with all humility are 70% fraudulent. Our census is fraudulent. And we know this and we are supposed to be intelligent people and we accept this.

Our federalism is in itself fraudulent and it is not surprising

judiciary may have to come in before they can authorise an American to kill.

In our own case, we pay lip service to things that are very fundamental because they are not bread and butter matters.

What are important to us?

Elections! They will come and go and we are still in square one and we yet we have no constitution that Nigerians consented to.

You hear parliamentarians saying that because there is a government in place that there cannot be another conference.

Rubbish. Right now in the UK which is a very old democracy, there have been national conferences.

Scheduled referendum There is a scheduled referendum and it all came out from a conference which was something like a sovereign national conference. A bill was passed that whatever is arrived at that conference would be subjected to a plebiscite, but here, you hear people arguing because people forget that there is a difference between what is called direct democracy and indirect democracy.

Most of what we are familiar with is what I call the indirect that is, we delegate sovereignty to

,

Our federalism is in itself fraudulent and it is not surprising why there is pipeline vandalism, it is not surprising why there is bunkering

why there is pipeline vandalism, it is not surprising why there is bunkering. In other words, Nigeria is in lack of people who can discern the principles that determine a process and keep by those principles.

Look at the US and the issue of the use of drones, you can see the discussion and the level it is going as to how to make the government more accountable with some suggesting that the C M Y K

honourable profession in the defence of the weak”.

Upon returning to Nigeria he was deployed to the army headquarters where he worked directly under General Babangida who was at that time Army Chief.

His last posting was as a directing staff at the Command and Staff College, Jaji. Following the failed April, 22 1990 failed putsch, Nyiam relocated abroad and joined forces with the camp of pro-democracy enthusiasts that fought the Sani Abacha regime from abroad.

Nyiam has written a book "True Federal Democracy or Awaiting Implosion: an aide-memoire" which he envisages should be used as a working document for making a new Nigeria constitution.

Ahead of the formal presentation of the book, Col. Nyiam had an interaction with Vanguard Editors during which he spoke on issues relating to Nigeria’s federalism, his relationship with Gen. Babangida, reasons for the coup and the commercial reasons behind the amalgamation of the north and southern protectorates of Nigeria 100 years ago. Excerpts:

,

our National Assembly. They are delegates. When it comes to what is beyond making laws, people take back their sovereignty.

What I am trying to point out is that once you breach the principles of a process, the consequences would be that anything else would be dysfunctional.

This argument you have put down in your book is it a one-off one man brain wave?

Col. Nyiam...our federalism is fraudulent

I have said nothing new. In fact, those who are familiar with Awo’s writings would know that what we fought for in April, 1990, all we have been saying are footnotes of what Awo had written. That we do not have politicians of the quality of Awo, politicians, who think from first principle like Mandela. All we have are people who are jumping to action without thinking through what they do.

Correspondingly, we do not have the institutions that ensure that thoughts always precede action. Don’t you think that if the military had not intervened that many of the things we are grappling with now would not have arisen?

Agreed. I agree.

So, what do you think we should do as a nation?

First of all, it is to discuss. Why are we running away from sitting down to discuss our problems?

The first thing is that no one has the answers and the first thing to do is to have a conference. If you look at the growth of India and Pakistan. Pakistan is made up of Aryans much more than the Indian part. Pakistan had much more potential to develop more than India, but because of military rule they have not and also because of the failure to practise federalism and these are two things that have also been our problem.

Failure to practice federalism But India which pursues federalism properly and sticks to democracy, you can see the progress. In the first republic we did not have the commissioner of police in Enugu being a Yoruba man or an Hausa man.

The senior cadre of the police in the east or in the west were

indigenous people. What I am trying to say is that once you breach principles you would just be dancing around. OPC as it is organised now is much more in tune with the principles of policing than Nigerian Police Force.

I still believe that if we carry on democracy we will get there.

But my point is that we cannot say we are a federal state and there is no fiscal federalism.

People wonder why Boko Haram? I tell people that Boko Haram is an indication of the lack of self determination and self determination is seen as treasonable in Nigeria. But federalism allows for people to self-determine who governs them.

How do you think we can move this country forward if we cannot develop pillars of trust, given that should there be a national Continues on page 33

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013—33

Federal Govt a big thief Continues from page 32

conference it could be easily hijacked?

I think you are right and this has been an issue since Aburi.

At Aburi, a decision was reached and people came back and advised government which then went back on what was reached.

But we have examples to learn from. In South Africa they started by having a truth and reconciliation commission, but here what do we do? No, you cannot discuss that, you are overheating the polity! That terminology I don’t know where it came from. We pretend to ourselves, we lie to ourselves and we believe the lies. You have a constitution in a democracy which says that someone’s resources beneath the soil is not his; ab initio, you have attempted to steal those peoples resource.

That is why I have nothing against illegal bunkerers because from the beginning, the Federal Government itself is the biggest thief. I have to put it straight because you go to Pakistan, you go to India, nobody would go

Considering the fault lines you mention in our federalism, do you think we were better off in 1990?

We were better off in 1963. I went to school in Yaba and in my community where I grew up in Lagos the politicians were Ibos and there was no discrimination.

When we were going to military school, Gen. Maimalari took us, the Lagosians; myself, Marwa, they treated us as if we were Lagosians. We were more united though we had regions that had their own constitutions, their own anthems, everything.

So, the 1960/63 constitution is a model that would work anytime. If you ask me, 1990? I would say things are worse off right from the government before this. Remember we took action before the June 12 crisis even though we foresaw that it would go that way and that was why we took the action, but if Obasanjo’s last government was a military one, I would have taken an action, but if it is elected, I wont. But there is need for clarification. If elections continue becoming fraudulent,

If you ask me, 1990? I would say things are worse off right from the government before this

,

and tell a man that what is underneath yours is not yours.

The Federal Government is the first thief and they put that in the constitution and then we accepted that! My point is that the way we are going we will not last. We will keep on having problem, we are not going to break, but we will keep on having problems.

Some say it is better to break?

I believe that our Lord Jesus Christ came to teach us the oneness of God and God is one.

It is not for nothing that every religion says that God is one.

From that angle, unity is paramount. I say this for somebody who may at times have been said to have been asking for the excision of a section of the country.

If you read that statement, we gave conditions that if these leaders from these areas continue doing like this that they are suspended from the union. I believe that mistakes were made and of course we have learnt our lessons and that Nigeria needs to be together. If you break and say remove the south-south, then the middle belt of the Southsouth would soon say that they want their own autonomy and where do you stop?

So, I don’t think that is the way out. The way out is that we need to be more creative, we need to use the head God has blessed us with.

,

then it is bad as a coup.

To what extent has the fact that someone from your region is now president mollified the angst of your people in the south-south?

That’s not my point. My point is that being a president is too transitory. It doesn’t even matter to me. I think having a structure is more important. I remember a man who played a key part in my life, that is Obasanjo, I remember when I worked for him asking me what I wanted. I told him, sir if you restructure this country and he then said to me, you are pontificating. I said no and in no time after he left office some of the things he did were being thrown aside because there are too many tactical manourveres in Nigeria.

Strategic thinking In politics, there is no strategy.

There is a lack of strategic thinking in our institutions. We cannot run away from trying to build institutions and to think strategically – strategically in that we think about the posterity of our children.

In advanced countries you see them thinking about their children but in our case, it is just about ourselves. Are we animals? There is no rocket science about it as Awolowo did it. Why is Yoruba land ahead of everyone else?

Before?

Till tomorrow! Awo was a man who understood politics and went to the first principles and tried to establish that. Even when he was minister of finance during the war, Awo working under the basis of first principles helped Nigeria to be able to win the war more than anybody gave him credit for because the measures he took which are misinterpreted in certain quarters – I am not saying that he is blameless- but the measures he took undermined the efforts of the opposite side. When he knew the opposite side was trying to buy arms he strategically approached the issue by undermining the currency. Awo was not a military man, but he was a strategist.

One of the few strategists today is the man in robes, Bishop Kukkah, a man who thinks everything from the depths. But our politicians very few think in that direction.

What is more important to me now is that there should be a conference by whatever name it is called. Let our people sit down together and we all pour our grievances.

Why should the National Assembly with representatives from all sections of the country be a platform for that?

Democracy has two dimensions indirect democracy and direct democracy. Indirect is what we are doing now and you delegate sovereignty to some people to act on your behalf to make only laws. When it comes to making the constitution, the people take back their power and do it directly by plebiscite. So, I do not know where we learnt this argument that because there is a National Assembly that there cannot a national conference.

National conference It is not true. The military deliberately came up with a skewed system, they made some regions to have the block votes that they can determine how laws are passed in this country.

It was a deliberate thing, it wasn’t by accident that there are so many local governments in some areas and some areas are deprived. So, we have to go back to basis and until we begin to tell ourselves the truth we will not move.

Were you more Nigerian in 1963 than you are today?

I was. I was. My dad was an ex-soldier and the minister of defence then, Ribadu treated everybody without discrimination. Of course you know Tafawa Balewa that some of his best ministers were not from the north. So, Nigeria gave

Col. Nyiam...things are worse off now than 1990

me much as a young man. I went to school where I was paid salary and from that salary and as a student I was paying my younger sister’s school fees. So, I was a Nigerian through and through.

Don’t you think Nigerians would be more interested in you telling them why you took the action against Ibrahim Babangida instead of a treatise on federalism?

The issue of writing about oneself is so much of an ego trip.

We have not solved our problems. This country has done so much for me and for many of my colleagues who are VCs and so on. We all had scholarships.

Young officer As a young officer I was earning even more than the British prime minister with my estacodes. I was getting a £1,000 monthly in the early seventies and my salary from Udoja awards was another £600 and the British prime minister at that time was earning £14,000. When he is taxed, his salary came down to £11,000 and that enabled me to help my relations that I could help and I was able to buy houses and that’s what I have been living on.

So, the country has given me…and I am not alone. Hardly any one of my generation that didn’t enjoy the benefits of this country and what are we doing?

We pay back by corruption!

Where would you take the money to? It is not that I am not tempted to be corrupt, but I see the futility.

I remember a man I respect very much, Beko Ransome-Kuti, they were begging him to come and take a plot of land and he refused.

Who was begging him?

Tinubu! The man lived so selflessly. If you knew Beko, his sitting room was so poor looking, but that was a man for me! When I came back from exile and he

came to welcome me and the car he drove, an old Volvo! And if you know Beko, he was more courageous than many generals in our army. In fact, the things Beko did? I have seen enough of life to know that if you are in the rat race you will remain a rat and I don’t want to be a rat.

What is your take on Prof.

Chinua Achebe’s book on the civil war?

I was a young man from the east and they didn’t make exception.

If you were a young man from the east they just thought that all of you were Iyanmiri! I was actually by the Jebba bridge but my dad asked me to go back to the north and I was one of the people on the bridge that they stopped and I saw them picking people and shooting them. I was a form one student going to form two. So, I saw some of the things that happened. I also lived close to the barracks and I saw how Ibo officers, and even a relation was killed in Abeokuta.

Traumatised people I experienced these as a young man so I can see where Chinua Achebe is coming from. It is this issue of trust. A people so traumatised like Chinua Achebe.

Remember Chinua Achebe left the country and for most of the time has lived outside the country, so he is like what they say that an “Indian who has left India is more conservative than an Indian who is still in India.”

Chinua Achebe still has not forgiven Nigeria. I, also there are certain things that push me and even our action, I would say that some of it were driven by that my childhood experience.

On what Chinua Achebe has said, he has a right to write history as he sees it. Other people have a right to correct the picture. But one thing I must say is that at one point, I think there was a discussion between Continues on page 34

34—Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Justus Esiri: Sudden departure of a Nollywood patriarch The way we are going, we will not last

A TRIB UTE TRIBUTE

W

Continues from page 33

Ojukwu and Awo and somehow, one person did not follow the agreement that was reached.

Concerning April 1990, you talked of learning your lessons are you saying you regretted the action?

I do not regret an action against a military government. People see it as a coup, but I don’t see it as a coup. We did not take action against an elected government.

Some of the officers who took part in the action and soldiers who joined, were actually Hausas and they came and said oga, thank you for this, but during the action when they heard the speech – (to excise the core North from the country) they became confused and I think that is where the regret is for making that statement I must say, Col. Nyiam...Gen Babangida and myself made misyouthful overzealousness or takes whatsoever.

I have also seen that over time that the fact, the east became the weaker side. It goes back common Fulani man following his cows and to Lugard. You know Lord Lugard was the there are many in my state, Cross River, he is governor of the northern protectorate, he was sent just a human being like any other human to come and be both governor of the north and being. If you go to Osun, you will see some the south. When Lugard came and said these beautiful Yoruba looking people, but I heard people are so rich, he saw how the south was rich and he then used his connection in Whitehall that they are Fulanis.

(British Civil Service) to convince them to amalgamate these two people so that the crown Accusing office would not be subsidising the northern a people office.

It was by chance! In the same way when the So, my regret is this: it is not the people, it is not Yoruba or Ibo that is the problem, civil war happened it was expedient to as well because in our action it tended to give that undermine the other regions by centralising impression, the regret is that you cannot power. It was only for war. But in so doing, they now realised that “ah, we can now have a share accuse a people.

God has blessed us and I do pray that the of this wealth.” What that has now done is that it leaders help us towards having a country. has made some who were among the best farmers This would be the greatest country there in this country to become lazy. As a young man in would ever be. A country where you have Zaria, I saw that the Hausa farmer was a better people with round faces, you have people farmer than any other farmer in the country. The with slim faces, bantu looking, Fulani looking irrigation techniques we read about Egypt, I saw and I think that this could be one of the it in practise around my school in Zaria. Instead greatest countries looking if the leaders give of baking we are now sharing the cake.

We have no apologies to give and Sharing makes people like I said, Gen. Babangida and lazy, we need to go back, let the people myself have made mistakes and we from each region do have moved forward their best and contribute to the centre.

,

it a chance.

What’s your present relationship with Ibrahim Babangida you were recently seen with him at a book launch?

We were all honouring a common friend, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi. Of course that is not the first time we have met as it is being portrayed. One of the papers went as far as saying that Great (Ogboru) was apologising.

There was no apology, it was just respecting in the true Nigeria culture, an elder-statesman.

We have no apologies to give and like I said, Gen. Babangida and myself have made mistakes and we have moved forward.

Having successfully conducted the civil war and the idea that no part of the country should again be able to question the centre, do you think that the case of devolution of powers to the states would work?

Lets be clear, if you see the killing of Easterners, Ojukwu had no choice. It wasn’t that anyone in the east was too powerful, in

,

The Hausa man would be better off because he is a very hardworking man if he is not deceived by this issue of governors going to the centre to take money which I see as stolen money.

In the sharing of the cake you said “they” saw. So how can you convince the they to hands off the cake?

If they don’t allow, you see what Boko Haram is doing? People forget that Boko Haram now is a class war. The people who are affected more than anybody are the emirs from the north more than even us. So, it is no longer they now, but it is a time of reckoning now and it is in that spirit that some of us believe that Babangida, Buhari, the southern leaders should get together because we really need to talk. We cannot run away from talk. What the National Assembly is doing is just a joke and I knew it was coming to that and I am not surprised that the issue of hidden agenda has now come out. The people there, how many of them were properly elected? How many of them are really representatives of the people.

BY OKOH AIHE

E hadn’t seen for years. But news of Mr Justus Esiri recuperating in a London hospital troubled me to no end. For, we had a relationship - Justus Esiri, Gaby Okoye (Gabosky), Charles Igwe, Amaka Igwe, Mahmood Ali-Balogun and my humble self - all of them movie makers, with me working from the outside as a journalist.

The tiny group, very informal in nature, had one major goal: to make the country’s movie industry, later christened Nollywood to our protestation, self-sufficient and be able to pay practitioners like the real stars they are. With all the glamour, we knew Nollywood was hollow inside and we expended time trying to add some depth to the industry by giving it a character and direction that could attract the global community. We had to protect the industry from being perishable!

There was no gainsaying the fact that the industry could be bankable on the long run. After all Kenneth Nnebue had shown the way with Living in Bondage. And you couldn’t attend film and television

Justus Esiri...a good man

programmes market across the world, attend various trade shows and wind up at the NAB in Las Vegas without knowing that there was big money to be made from the movie industry. The challenge, however, was that the industry was too informal and the practitioners were not tempered enough to look at the real business in this unfolding entertainment genre.

But Esiri was there trying to introduce some seriousness into the business. Among us we hosted some meetings in turn and those meetings were like little parties, some kind of fun amid fashioning out very serious business that would later become one of the country’s biggest exports. Sometimes pioneers can be like little paper tow-

els that mean very little in the course of a great meal.

People knew Esiri for his role in The Village Headmaster and several other roles in the movies and may not be conversant with this small story as a real patriarch of the movie industry. He was one of the few elderly ones who absorbed needles insults for Nollywood to stand.

Back to the tiny group working for the growth of Nollywood; little strands of progress soon began to create little waves of confusion.

Members of the group who had made very difficult financial sacrifices and expended unrewarded time were beginning to look at the end and not the journey to the end. Naturally distrust crept in like the biblical thief of the night and attacked the seams of a relationship like the bunch of broom sticks that together could not be broken.

I didn’t see Esiri for years. And Mahmood Ali-Balogun too. So when Mahmood told me he had lodged together with Esiri at the Hilton in Abuja, it was God provided opportunity to meet him and do some little flicks down memory lane.

There he was in his suite with the driver he had contracted to take him for two days while in the capital territory. The embrace was tight like that of the wrestlers in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, and I was overjoyed because of the strength I could feel through him after all I had read in the papers.

He told me the story of his life, how a seeming innocuous health condition took him to the UK and how he had been told by one of the doctors that had he continued with a particular prescription drug could have harmed him irretrievably had he continued with it. The 30 minutes we spent together were nearly a good cover for all the years we had missed each other.

Esiri was a good man.

He had enough dose of humour to douse any situation. He could get along with anybody no matter the age and material difference and would contribute his best with utmost humility. He was a star but never carried the imprimatur on his forehead. He radiated light in the darkness that is the daily grind of the Nigerian life and spread joy to many homes across the country. His death on Wednesday has robbed the country of a great actor per excellence, a seasoned stardust in the real sense of it. Yet all humans must subject themselves to the finality of death and the supremacy of the Almighty God, the father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. As they put it in the movies: Roll Tape, Action and Cut. So, for Esiri, it is final curtain call, a glorious apotheosis to the realm of the celestial.

•Okoh Aihe writes from Abuja

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013 —35

Secretary in Women Affairs and Social Development which is affiliated to my office, is a no nonsense woman.

When I leave office the next person that will come in will not allow the project to collapse because the whole programme is targeted at youths, men and women empowerment.

My legacies'll last very, very long — Abia First Lady CHIEF (Mrs.) Mercy Orji, the first lady of Abia State, in this interview reviews her activities in the last six years and asserts that the inputs she has made to the development of the state will last for a very long time. Excerpts:

BY ETOP EKANEM

H

OW did you conceive the idea of this empowerment and skill acquisition programmes?

The idea was conceived about three years before I assumed office as wife of the Governor of Abia State.

Before then, I was already visiting and rendering assistance to the less privileged in the society including orphanages and other charity organizations.I was doing that because of my passion to uplift the lives of such people, considering the difficulties they undergo.

So, when we came on board, I decided to embark on the construction of a skill acquisition centre to enable the youths and women to be trained in various trades that can empower them economically.

I sincerely believed that the learning of trade will go a long way in assisting them to cope with the present economic realities in the country. I also hope that by so doing, it will help them to realise their dreams in life.

Who are the beneficiaries of the skill acquisition centre?

The beneficiaries are the youths. The training period is one year but some people are allowed to undergo six months training but it depends on the type of trade they are learning.

Apart from giving them equipment after their graduation, we also support them financially to enable them set up the business of their choice.

What exactly can you say that is motivating you in what you are doing?

Honestly, the whole thing was influenced by my personal experience in life. I want to use this opportunity to specially thank my husband for being there for me always.

I was able to realise this dream today through his active support both morally and financially.

This skill acquisition centre is offering about 10 trades namely: ICT/Information and Technology, fashion designing and interior decoration, shoe making,

•Orji: I will be remembered for long. electrical, catering and home management, radio repairs, plumbing, wielding, and GSM repairs.

Are there plans to sustain

this centre after you leave office?

We have capable hands that can run the centre after I must have left office.

For example, the Permanent

Senator Adeyemi’s smart moves against Abuja landlords A bill to regulate rent in the federal capital stirs controversy

By JOSEPH ERUNKE

S

ENATOR Smart Adeyemi is hot strange to controversy and especially those that put him at odds with the elitist class which many Nigerians believe he is an integrated part of.

Senator Adeyemi who came to national renown as national president of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ has used the platform of the senate to canvass support for the class of people he calls the common man. On account of his tirades against elites he has acquired the sobriquet Man of God. Now in the latest controversy he is stirring, Senator Adeyemi is pushing for a cap to the number of years tenants can pay for rent in the federal capital.

The bill titled “The Bill for an Act to re-enact the recovery of premises Act (Abuja) 2013” seeks to regulate the relationship between tenants and their landlords in the number of years a tenant can

*Adeyemi pay for rent, recovery of premises as well as other matters connected therewith.

Not unexpectedly, the bill is already setting confusion in the midst of Abuja landlords with some allegedly raising opposition against it.

The main grouse of the opponents is the prescription in the bill that any tenant that

proves that he was forced by the landlord to pay for more than one year could stay in the house for an additional five years free of charge. It is a prescription that many Abuja landlords is said to be bothering many Abuja landlords who are now said to be mobilizing resources to defeat.

Presenting the bill when it came up for debate in the senate last Wednesday, Senator Adeyemi said it is aimed at looking into the administration of arbitrary and prohibitive rents being imposed by landlords in the Federal Capital Territory, saying if passed, the bill would bring succor to tenants of the FCT as well as make it easy for landlords to get the rent of their houses.

The Bill, according to him “seeks to ameliorate the hardship of tenants, by making housing affordable and rents sustainable in the FCT. This will help tenants, especially the low income earners, who are the majority of FCT residents to get decent accommodations within their income. This Bill is basically to fortify innocent Nigerians from the sharp practices of landlords, not minding the stiff opposition that may arise from property owners”, he explained.

“The bill stipulates that the

Most Abians fondly call you Osinulomaranma, how did you come about the name?

Well, the name was given to me by my husband’s people during the time I wanted to build health centre for them.

There was no land until I finally saw a piece of land that was not up to one plot.

When I approached the owners of the land they said because of me that they would release it to me.

This happened before we came into office. The original plan was to build a bungalow but I ended up building a storey building in my husband’s village. When the women and men saw this they marveled.

They were the people that gave me Osinulomaranma which means one that starts her good work right from the home.

How would you want to be remembered after leaving office?

I will like to be remembered for good; for the good work I have done in Abia State . I want to leave a legacy so that I will be remembered just like my husband who is leaving behind very good legacy in the state. landlord is entitled to receive only six months’ advance rent from a sitting tenant. It also provides for a rent review mechanism which requires landlords to review their rents, not earlier than two years from the previous review. It recognizes the need for tenants to be paid for repairs carried out after obtaining prior written consent of the landlord”, he said further.

The bill, according to him, would ensure a general downward review of rents to curb the arbitrary rents by setting maximum limits for rent as influenced by the location of the property.

“We would together make history by stemming the activities of shylock landlords and land speculators within the FCT. “This will also give the FCT residents, and indeed the masses of Nigeria, an opportunity to live worthy lives in befitting accommodations, ‘’ he said.

After heated debate, the bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Judiciary to look into it and submit its report in four weeks.

36 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013 — 37

Delta LG Secretaries laud Uduaghan on devt

BY FESTUS AHON

U

GHELLI—FORUM of Secretaries of Local Government Transition Committees, Delta State, yesterday, hailed Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan’s effort at development of every part of the state.

The forum, in a statement by its chairman, Mr. Isaac Atikueke, said: “The secretaries of the 25 local government areas in Delta State, under the auspices of Forum of Local Government Secretaries, commend Governor Uduaghan on his efforts in driving home the threepoint agenda of the administration.

“We have carefully appraised Uduaghan's administration in line with his three point agenda, and found that he has achieved a lot.

“For instance, the massive renovation of schools and the construction of new model schools across the state had further amplified the quality of our education system in the state."

2015: Four ethnic groups in Delta root for Monye

BY TOMMY ANADUAKA

F

OUR ethnic political pressure groups in Delta State, Urhobo Political Elites, UPE; Itsekiri Movement for Good Governance, IMGG; Ijaw Renaissance, IR; and Isoko Political Network, IPN, have thrown their weights behind the governorship aspiration of Special Adviser to the President on Performance Monitoring, Prof. Sylvester Monye, in Delta State.

Leaders of the groups, Chief Amos Onokpite, Olorogun Abel Oritsejafor, Chief Issac Okerigwe and Elder Joseph Ekiyor, described Prof. Monye as a true Nigerian, a detribalised and seasoned technocrat, whose contributions to the overall socioeconomic development of the nation over the years had made meaningful impact on the lives of the people.

Kidnappers' training school uncovered in Delta ...as Uduaghan insists on not signing death penalty law

BY AUSTIN OGWUDA

A

SABA—DELTA State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, weekend, explained why he would not sign into law, the Bill passed by the state House of Assembly, prescribing death penalty for kidnappers, describing the Bill as a duplication of efforts.

He also said that a school for training of kidnappers had been uncovered in the state.

Speaking at Unity Hall at Government House, Asaba, on questions posed to him at a town hall meeting during the visit of the Good Governance tour team, led by Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, to the state, he said: “As a state government, we have been dealing with kidnapping. Presently, we have been able to identify some hot spots in the state, what are called the red spots, where kidnappers are trained. We have identified those areas.

“We are strategising on security for those areas and that is why, in the last few weeks, you could see that the incidence of kidnapping has gone down. There are other

strategies we are still working on to deal with kidnapping, which I cannot disclose here.

“Another question is, why are we having issues with death penalty for kidnappers? There is already a death penalty in our laws. Every kidnapper is an armed robber, I believe, so I

don’t know why we are talking today of death penalty for kidnappers. When you go to court, the case is usually kidnapping/armed robbery. Why do I have to sign another law for kidnappers?

“Once you are a kidnapper, you are also an armed robber.

THANKSGIVING/DEDICATION SERVICE: Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Lady Valerie Ebe (middle); Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Elder Samuel Ikon (left), and the state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr. Effiong Abia, during the thanksgiving/dedication service of the Chairman of Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area, Obong Godwin Ekpo, at Church of God Mission International, Enen Afaha, Uyo.

Edo PDP slams Oshiomhole over comment on Good Governance tour

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

B

ENIN—EDO State Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Dan Orbih, has described the statement credited to Governor Adams Oshiomhole, that the ongoing Good Governance Tour led by Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, was a Federal Government project, saying that Edo State Government had no project to showcase to the

visiting team.

Governor Oshiomhole had said that it was not proper to use Edo State tax payers’ money to finance a Federal Government programme, saying, “If they pay me a courtesy visit, I will receive them, but I don’t have a dime to spend on them because I do not need them to come to tell Edo people how I built roads and schools.”

Reacting, weekend, in Benin, Orbih commended Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State for having the courage to speak out that the tour was em-

barked upon based on the collective decision of the 36 state governors of the federation.

He said: “For us, we really want to commend the people who took that decision because there is really the need for the Federal Government to go round the states to ascertain what the governors are doing with the allocation they receive from the Federation Account. For us in Edo, we are aware that the Good Governance team does not have anything to look out for when they come here."

Oyerinde: Oshiomhole to appear before House of Reps tomorrow

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

B

ENIN—GOVERNOR Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, will tomorrow appear before the House of Representatives Committee on Public Petition, following the petition by a coalition of civil society organisations in Edo State, over Police handling of the investigation into the murder of his late Principal Private Secretary,

The law is already there to sentence kidnappers to death. And I must say that in this state, in the last few months, our judges have been bold enough to convict many kidnappers. They are working hard to sentence more kidnappers.”

Mr. Olaitan Oyerinde.

Meanwhile, Trade Union Congress, TUC, has backed Governor Oshiomhole’s call for justice in the murder of late Oyerinde, just as it regretted what it described as the “unedifying” role played by the Nigeria Police in the matter.

Conference of Non-Governmental Organisations, CONGOS, had petitioned the Mr. Uzo Azubuike-led House Committee on Public Petitions, after it accused the police of alleged

cover up and professional misconduct in the investigation into the murder of Oyerinde on May 4, 2012, in Benin City.

It condemned what it described as an attempt to frame up the Executive Director of African Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ, Rev. David Ugolor, who also is a bosom friend of the deceased with a view to shielding the real killers of Oyerinde.

Bayelsa moves to save Ijaw language from extinction

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

Y

ENAGOA—IN a bid to save the Ijaw language from extinction, Bayelsa State Government has awarded scholarships to 110 teachers to study Ijaw at the state Niger Delta University, NDU. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, had listed the Ijaw language as one of the endangered languages in the country.

Speaking during the presentation, which was part of Federal Government's programme of activities to mark the International Mother Language Day in Yenagoa, Governor Seriake Dickson, said the scholarships were to develope the Ijaw language for sustainable cultural development.

Represented by Secretary to the State Government, Prof Edmund Allison-Oguru, the governor urged the Federal Ministry of Education to “include the teaching of Ijaw language in its national curriculum just as it had been done for other languages."

38 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

APC formation: Igbo group lauds C21 over APGA

A

group, Congress for lgbo Rennaissance, CIREN, has commended the role played by C21 in leading the authentic All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, for joining the new All Progressive Congress, APC. In a statement signed by the coordinator of the group, Mr. Japhet Ugwu, said that the courage shown

by C21 and its leadership in rising to the challenge of embracing a national rescue agenda as represented by APC, is a vintage never say die spirit of the lgbo man that must be preserved, nurtured and projected anywhere and everywhere.

He said: "We are once more liberated in our spirits and energised in flesh, by the hope that the political oppression and economic penury inflicted on us by the current lords and lackeys of leadership in Nigeria, will receive a decisive red card from the superior political armoury of APC".

MDGs've failed in S-East — Imo NUJ

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

O

WERRI—THE South East Zone of Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, has expressed shock that 12 years into the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, there was nothing on ground to show for their efforts.

The NUJ Vice President, South East, Mr. Chris Isiguzo, disclosed that the verdict followed an independent assessment of the implementation of MDGs in South East it conducted in partnership with other bodies.

The other bodies included Department of Public Administration and Local Government, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Oganiru Ndigbo Foundation and Global Research and Development Limited Isiguzo said: “MDG has failed in the South East. Poverty is still as high as 80 percent. Healthcare is still comatose. Education is nothing to write home about.

There is no way one hospital can effectively serve a local government area”.

A

GUATA political class, an umbrella organisation for the Old Aguata Union, OAU, comprising three local governments of Aguata, Orumba North and South, has thrown its weight behind Governorship ambition of Dr. Alex Obiogbolu, for Imo State in 2 0 1 5 .

The governorship aspirant last weekend visited the organization to intimate them of his aspiration.

In his welcome address, the chairman of the organisation, Chief Iwuejina Igbokwe, declared that the aspirant was a man who could be trusted with responsibilities without apprehension of getting disappointed.

Agbalanze described Obiogbolu as an astute politician whose consistency and transparency had become a bench mark for the political class irrespective of one’s political learning.

“The large turnout of delegates and stakeholders from various communities in the five South Eastern States during the two-day summit, shows the importance Ndigbo attach to development”, Isiguzo said.

While saying that the N50 billion trust fund was realizable and should be transparently guarded by eminent members of the Board of Trustees, Isiguzo also promised that every community in Igboland would be a beneficiary of the fund.

Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson (left) and his Enugu State counterpart, Sullivan Chime (right), during a visit to Chime at Government House, Enugu.

Anambra threatens to shut down illegal motor parks

BY ENYIM ENYIM

...rallies support for Obiogbolu guber ambition

The South East NUJ was also of the opinion that “the South East governments have not achieved anything tangible to actualize the MDGs”, adding that this is a challenge to Ndigbo in diaspora and the state governments.

O

NITSHA—ANAMBRA State Government yesterday threatened to shut down illegal motor parks in Awka, Nnewi, Onitsha and other major towns to ease traffic congestion in the state.

Commissioner for Transport, Dr Chike Ohamobi, who announced this while speaking to newsmen, said government decision followed the obstruction of free flow of traffic on major roads by activities of the illegal parks operators.

He said his ministry had already started decongestion of roads as directed by Governor Peter Obi and decried activities of some miscreants who attacked law enforcement agents deployed to enforce the decongestion order.

According to him, “we are ensuring that illegal loading bays are closed down. We are building bus stops in the urban areas so that drivers drop passengers and move immediately and we will not spare any defaulter”.

While appealing to commercial motorcycle operators otherwise known as Okada riders to pay their taxes and levies, Ohamobi said government would not hesitate to deal decisively with any of them that failed to comply with the directive.

He said government had not collected any form of tax from the commercial motorcycle operators

in the last eight months.

On ban on Okada, Ohamobi said government had not placed ban on commercial motorcycles, saying rather government was properly articulating the issue and

would soon come up with a decision that would be good for the people of the state.

He added that government was discussing with the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas

Workers, NUPENG, and Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, to evolve ways of reducing incessant accidents involving heavy trucks, particularly tankers that carry petrol.

2014 guber: Anambra North to opt for consensus candidate

BY VINCENT UJUMADU

A

WKA—INDICATIONS have emerged that politicians from Anambra North senatorial being favoured to produce the next governor of the state in 2014 are already making consultations aimed at producing a consensus governorship candidate for the zone.

The reason for the decision of a consensus candidate, it was gathered, was due to what stakeholders in the area considered as the unwieldy number of governorship aspirants from Anambra North senatorial zone.

At the last count, no fewer than 14 persons had indicated interest in the governorship race, a development many people in the zone, said may deny the zone the office of governor.

At a meeting weekend held at Aguleri, six governorship aspirants from the zone were said to have agreed to step down for Senator Emma Anosike, who is among those eying the seat in 2014.

The reason given by those who want to step down for Anosike was that he is the most experienced of all those interested in the race, having been a member

of House of Representatives, a Senator and deputy governorship candidate at various times since the emergence of the present democratic dispensation.

Smuggling of rice has reduced at Idiroko, Seme borders — Dikko

T

HE Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko has said that smuggling of rice and other edible items through Seme and Idiroko borders has reduced following an increase in revenue profile of the two border posts.

Speaking in an interview in Lagos, the customs boss reiterated that the two borders had generated more revenue on monthly basis last year.

He however, attributed this development to attitudinal change of the importers who are paying duties as at when due.

Dikko said: “No more evasion

of duty, importers are coming forward to pay duties on their imported goods. He therefore, challenged those who are perceiving land borders as haven for smuggling to visit the borders and see things for themselves and stop peddling rumours.”

In the same vein, a community leader and renowned freight forwarder at Idiroko border, Otunba Akeem Adigun, confirmed that clearing agents at the border are law abiding people, who are always complying with customs laid down rules and regulations on clearing of goods and facilitation of trade.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013—39

TOUR: Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State (left) and Mr. Labaran Maku, Minister of Information at a town hall meeting during the Good Governance Tour at the Government House, Asaba. PHOTO: Nath Onojake.

VISIT: From left— President John Mahama of Ghana; Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigerian Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance; and Mr. Seth Tekper, Ghanaian Minister of Finance, during a visit to the President of Ghana, in Accra Ghana.

GREEN ECONOMY: Mr. Paul Odili, Delta Green Economy Project Leader (left) and Mr. James Rogers, Chairman/President, Duke Energy at the R20 Vienna conference on sustainable development, Austria.

P R E S E N TA TION : From left—

DONATION: From left— Dr. Kayode Ogunjobi, Chief Medical Director, General Hospital, Aramoko, Ekiti; Dr. D.K Aina, Permanent Secretary, Hospital Management Board, Ado-Ekiti; Oba Adeyemi, Alara of Aramoko, Ekiti, and Mr. Abbas Ismail, Specialist, Government Relations, Etisalat Nigeria, at the commissioning of a 27KVA power generator, donated by Etisalat to the General Hospital.

AWARD From left— Mr. Dayo Adekoya, Regional Sales Manager; Mr. Martin Krugel, Finance Director, both of Nestle Nig. Plc; Mr. Bola Oyebamiji, Managing Director, Osun State Investment Company, and Mr. Martin Woolnough, Managing Director, Nestle Nig. Plc, during the presentation of Outstanding Distributor Award to Osun State Investment Company in Lagos.

OIL & GAS: From left— Mr. Mark Ward, Chairman/Managing Director, ExxonMobil Companies in Nigeria; Dr. Alirio Parra, Board Member, CWC Group Limited; and Mr. Mario Gabriel Budebo, former Undersecretary for Hydrocarbons, Republic of Mexico, at the Leading Light Session at the ongoing Nigeria Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibitions 2013, Abuja.

Oscar Onyema, CEO, Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE; Mr. Wale Tinubu, Group Chief Executive, Oando Plc; and Mr. Haruna Jalo-Waziri, Executive Director, Business Development, NSE at the presentation of Oando OGas 3kg Cylinder to the Nigerian Stock Exchange management during Oando's Facts Behind the Figures at the NSE.

INSPECTION: Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State inspecting a road project in Ijebu-Ode, weekend.

AWARD: From left— Mr. Kwaku Boateng, Customers Director, Unilever; Mr. Ikechukwu Igwediebube, Key Distributor; Mr. Thabo Mabe, MD and Mr. Kalpesh Palmar, Customer Marketing Director, both of Unilever, at the company's 2013 customer forum/partnership award ceremony held in Lagos, weekend. PHOTO: Biodun Ogunleye.

WORKSHOP: Mr. Simon Onekutu, Central Bank of Nigeria, Director, Consumer Protection Department, CBN; Mr. Tade Fadare, Deputy Registrar, CIBN, and another official, during the CIBN workshop on bonds, indemnities and guarantees in Lagos.

INAUGURATION : From left— Mr. Kolawole Taiwo, Deputy Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly; Mr. Surajudeen Adekunbi, Speaker; Mr. Israel Jolaosho, Majority Leader, and Hon. Adijat Oladapo, member, representing Ifo Constituency 2, all of Ogun State House of Assembly, at the inauguration of blocks of classrooms, free health care and graduation of free ICT trainees instituted by Oladapo, at her constituency office in Akute, Ogun State.

40 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

‘Emergence of APC may alter political equation in Plateau’

BY TAYE OBATERU

J

OS—THE merger of some opposition political parties ahead of the 2015 general election if successful, might alter the political equation for the governorship and other elections in Plateau State and put the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on its toes.

Vanguard’s investigations showed that many politicians within and outside the PDP which is currently the dominant party in the state are already projecting into the political benefits they could reap from a successful merger of the opposition parties.

A prominent politician confided in Vanguard, weekend, that they would not mind to identify with the new party “if it musters the capacity to serve as an alternative to the PDP.” He admitted that only a strong opposition party like the one likely to emerge from the on-going arrangement could challenge the PDP successfully and dislodge it from power.

It was learnt that some prominent politicians who were angling to re-join the PDP despite threats by the state leadership of the party that they would not be re-admitted were treading softly to see how the merger would work.

Another source privy to some of the meetings by politicians in the state hinted that the issue of the zoning of the governorship had been top on the agenda with many favoring a continuation of the arrangement which would see the Southern Senatorial District producing the next governor. ”Any party who tries to tamper with this arrangement would pay dearly for it and that is why we need a strong opposition party which will serve as an alternative where people can freely decide the future of the state,” the source said.

He said they are angry that Governor Jonah Jang, who left PDP to become ANPP’s governorship candidate in 2003 and waslaterre-admittedandgiven the PDP governorship ticket in 2007 would want to shut out those who left the party for one reason or the other, as has been alleged.

C M Y K

Bauchi govt beefs up security over spate of kidnappings

BY SUZAN EDEH AUCHI—FOLLOWING the kidnap of seven foreigners in Jama’re Local Government Area of Bauchi State last weekend, security has now been beefed up in Bauchi metropolis, especially around the Triacta Nigeria Limited, a construction company handling the Bauchi International Airport.

Sources told Vanguard that security was beefed up in the area to protect the expariates handling the airport project and other workers in the company.

“Since the kidnap incident, there had been heavy security at the Triacta Nigerai Limited because most of the people handling the project are foreigners, and the work on the airport project must go on,’’ the sources said.

However, as a result of the new security measures, security agents have mounted many check points around the state capital, a development that has led to traffic congestion as motorists now queue up at such check points before being cleared to move on.

The police have also commenced a 24- hour non-stop and search operation to ensure security of lives and

B

property in the state.

Apart from routine police check points, anti-riot policemen and soldiers have also been stationed along major highways, especially those leading to the local government areas in the state just as motorists are being subjected to intense scrutiny.

Many commuters who were held up in road traffic around

Yelwa Road,Wunti, Central Bank Road, Awala Junction, Gombe and Wunti Dada Roads, however, expressed their frustrations concerning the development, saying that it cost them important engagements and discomfort.

“I am just coming from Abuja and from Jos to Bauchi Road, the security checks were hellish. In some security check

From left: Mr. Wale Goodluck, Corporate Affaairs Executive, MTN; Mr. Brett Goshen, CEO, MTN Nigeria; Mr. Folusho Phillips, Chairman, Nigeria Economic Summit Group, NESG, and Mr. Frank Nweke Jr, DG, NESG, at the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) Collective Action Roadshow in Lagos. Photo by Lamidi Bamidele

Return missionary schools to original owners, Cardinal Onaiyekan tells govts

M

BY PETER DURU

AKURDI—BOTH ERED by the falling standards of education in the country, Head of the Abuja Ecclesiastical Province of the Catholic Church, His Eminence John Cardinal Onaiyekan, has urged state governments to return all missionary schools to their original owners in order to stem the steady decline of standards in the sector.

Onaiyekan spoke weekend, in a sermon he delivered during a Thanksgiving

Mass and Reception organised for him by his alma mater and Old Boys of St. Michaels’ Secondary School, Aliade in Benue State.

He said: “The take over of missionary schools by state governments was wrong as it has not helped the sector in any way whatsoever, given the steady decline of standards in that sector. ”That is why it has become imperative for state governments to return the missionary schools to their rightful owners without further delay.

”What governments need do is to collaborate with the owners of such schools and assist in whatever way possible, because you cannot take over what does not belong to you. ”The missionaries should be allowed to run their schools, so that we can properly bring up our children in the right way possible. Until this is done, the schools will continue to yearn for a return to their original owners just as the standards in our education sector will continue to deteriorate.’’

Sokoto approves N1.5bn for UBEC

BY ABDALLAH EL-

S

KUREBE

OKOTO—IN what seems to be a move to improve the standard of primary education in the state, the Sokoto State Government is to pay its 2011 matching grant to the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC amounting to N1.15 billion.

The grant, which is to be facilitated through a loan

points, I spent not less than an hour. In some, I spent over two hours. This is very frustrating and to make matters worse, the hot weather has been very harsh. If you don’t have a good vehicle, the heat will be terrible and cause problems for you,’’ a commuter who simply identified himself as Mohamed said.

from Zenith Bank Plc, was approved during the state Executive Council Meeting in Sokoto.

In a joint briefing shortly after the meeting, Environment and Information Commissioners, Dr. Jabbi Kilgori and Danladi Bako, said the loan, which would be re-paid within a year, would attract 15 per cent interest rate, while management charges would attract 2 per cent.

They added that the coun-

cil had approved N150 million for the replacement of five water pumps at the state water board as well as the purchase of 10 Prado jeeps for some Ministries at the cost of N139.92 million.

Also, N540 million would be used to sink 60 solar and generator powered bore holes across the state while N218.92 million would be spent on the landscaping of Murtala General Hospital, Sokoto.

NOA boss wants more women in politics

A

BUJA—AHEAD of the 2015 election, the National Orientation Agency, NOA, has called on more women to embrace the democratic process in the country by participating in politics actively.

In this regard, the Agency is to design and implement a programme for the political empowerment of women, peace and security in the country.

The Director-General of the NOA, Mr. Mike Omeri, said Abuja, weekend, that a workshop to sensitize women to the fact that they are to vote and be voted for at any given elections will hold in Asaba, capital of Delta State, next week.

Three federal ministers including Finance, Dr.Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Aviation, Stella Oduah and Women Affairs, Hajia Zainab Maina, will be at the parley to enrich the perspective of the meeting. The wife of the Delta State governor, Mrs. Roli Uduaghan, will mobilize women of the state to the programme.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013 — 41

C M Y K

42— Vanguard, TUESD AY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013 TUESDA

Nigerian hospitals:

Houses of health or homes of death?

BY CHIOMA OBINNA

A

RE Nigerian hospitals houses of health or homes of death? Do the sick go to healthcare centres to cure or procure ailments. This is the big question on the lips of patients seeking healthcare services in government health institutions in Nigeria today.

Even in the face of unacceptably poor health indices, the scenario isn’t doing much to remedy the already bad situation. Little or no succour is offered to those who ail.

Cases of patients slumping or even dying on the queue while waiting to see the doctor are commonplace.

Granted, many health government health institutions are overwhelmed and their facilities overstretched, but the problem goes deeper.

At the primary level- the erstwhile first point of care nothing works, nothing is given and nothing is obtained. At the secondary level, activity is at best sub-optimal.

There is shortage of everything from drugs and beds, bandages and syringes, to

health workers, critical equipment and funds. But perhaps the most telling of all is shortage of patients. It is not surprising that general hospitals have lost the confidence of patients.

Today, the bulk of the health service delivery in hospitals falls squarely at the doorstep of tertiary health institutions primarily established to carry out research as well as handle delicate referral cases that cannot be handled at the primary and secondary levels.

But service delivery even at this apex level is fraught with ill-motivated staff, poor time management, strikes, and decaying or decayed equipment and other inadequacies too numerous to mention. Here, the average patient is eternally confronted by endless waiting, bad staff attitude, and indistinct or unmarked service points. Half the time in a typical tertiary health institution is spent battling legion of inconsistencies.

The challenge of seeking and obtaining attention as a patient needs to be experienced to be believed.

As the first patient for the

• Patients waiting anxiously to be attended to by health workers; a sight that has become a daily occurrence in Nigeria. Many of these patients have reportedly lost their lives while on the queue. ing. But quite often, the first-come, first-served arrangement is scrapped.

At five minutes to 8:00 am, patients are turned back, even those on appointment.

Most times patients leave the hospitals worse than they came.

Janet, a patient at the eye clinic department says: “To beat the 8:00am rule is never a problem but the most harrowing experience is getting here by 6:00am and not having a place to sit until they are ready to attend to you.”

Janet who has attended the clinic in the last one year claimed to have met a consultant just once. “My pain is not only spending the whole of the day here, it is most disturbing that I am going blind. The consultant who sent me tems 2, PATHS2, a programme funded by for laboratory test has not seen the UKaid from the Department for Interna- result. At each appointment,I am given another date or asked to go for tional Development,DFID. In attendance was a team of clinical ap- another test hoping that the consultplication specialists led by Dr Susan ant would have been around by Wanjau from Philips Healthcare in then.”

Alli, another patient, said his docNairobi, Kenya, who described the 10 brand new ClearVue 550 ultrasound sys- tors are yet to decipher exactly the problem with his eyes since he tem - as among the best in its range.

“The versatile ClearVue 550 with Ac- started attending the clinic months tive Array technology offers image qual- ago.

“I was first diagnosed of immature ity designed to enhance diagnostic concataract, later, they said there was fidence, delivering diagnostic images nothing in my eyes and I was sent to with quality, speed, and precision. The another private laboratory. But the training became necessary to build the capacity of health workers to use the two test results are yet to be interequipment effectively in their health preted by the consultant.”

These patients are not faced by facilities.training for doctors,” Wanju obthese challenges alone, many of them served.

PATHS2 Lagos State Team Leader, Mrs complained that the condition at Bisi Tugbobo, said goal is reduction of which they are left outside the waitmaternal and child mortality through pro- ing room only aggravate their convision of required skills and knowledge ditions.

From the moment you enter into the for management of potentially hazardhospital no matter how sick you may ous conditions. Tugbogbo who spoke on be you are not allowed into the waitbehalf of PATHS2 National Programme ing room.

There are no seats. Every Manager, Mike Egboh explained that the new ultrasound machines were donated patient is forced to stand including

by PATHS2 to augment provisoin of com- the elderly, pregnant women and prehensive emergency obstetrics services children.

Standing is just the beginning. If and that the training became necessary you cannot stand for long, simply find Continues on page 44 Continues on page 43

day, you do not get to see the doctor before 10:30-11:00am. And just perish the thought of seeing a senior doctor or consultant. This cadre doesn’t resume work this early.

A case at hand is the current situation at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH. By 5.00am, it is a common sight to see hordes of patients hanging around the premises, either standing in the open or lying on the bare floor. Several left their homes as early as 3.00am or spent the night within the premises in order to be in good position at the head of the lengthy queue in the morn-

PATHS 2 trains 80 doctors to save women’s lives

BY SOLA OGUNDIPE

E

IGHTY doctors selected from sec ondary health care facilities in Lagos, Enugu, Jigawa, Kaduna and Kano States, have been empowered to utilise state-of-the-art ultrasound scanners in health facilities for provision of comprehensive emergency obstetrics

services.

The 4-day training at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, Ikeja, was geared towards addressing the unacceptably high maternal and infant mortality ratios often incidented by obstetric failures.

The sessions were facilitated by the Partnership for Transforming Health Sys-

•Doctors undergoing training on utilisation of ultrasound application skills during a training workshop organizsd by PATHS2 recently in at LASUTH, Ikeja, Lagos.

C M Y K

Vanguard, TUESD AY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013 —43 TUESDA

Nigerian hospitals: Houses of health or homes of death?

Continued from page 42 somewhere to perch.

In the absence of the consultants, the younger doctors hold sway, but only to book you for another appointment in three months without consideration for the state of your health. “How will a very sick person survive?” One aggrieved patient queried.

The situation is not much different at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH,

Idiaraba. On clinic day at the surgery department, just 10 patients are seen by the consultant. No matter how early you arrive, forget about getting attention if your card fails to be among the first 10 cards submitted. You better just go back home.

These hospital scenarios call to question when long waits at public hospitals will really be over. It could be recalled that the Federal Ministry of Health

in partnership with SERVICOM, last year gathered all the chief medical directors of university teaching hospitals, specialist hospitals and the medical directors of Federal Medical Centres in Abuja to brainstorm on how to roll out a pilot programme aimed at reducing patients’ waiting time at the General Out Patient Department, GOPD, of hospitals in the country developed by the

Servicom office.

There were reports that the pilot implemented at the Federal Medical Centre, Keffi by the SERVICOM office reduced waiting time at the GOPD from seven hours to 30 minutes. If this happened, when will Nigerians reap the benefits of this programme in other health institutions across the country?

However, if the Federal Ministry of Health’s plan to launch

a new patient feedback platform, PFP, which will allow patients lodge complaints against hospitals is anything to go by, it would help push the country’s health workers to deliver world class services.

The PFP is expected to enable patients and their relatives send their complaints or commendations about services direct to the health minister ’s office by SMS at no cost to the patient. Nigerians are waiting.

Hygeia promotes community health insurance in Kwara

•Tripartite MoU targets 0.6m

BY SOLA OGUNDIPE

A

• Mr. Chukuka Chukutem, Head, Pharma Sales & Marketing, May & Baker Nigeria Plc presenting a plaque to Dr. Ojikutu Moninuola Seliat, one of the best graduating students of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, 2013 while Mr. Eugene Olewuenyi, Head, Corporate Communications, May & Baker Nigeria Plc watches.

M&B provides free basic practice tools for graduating doctors

BY CHIOMA OBINNA

H

ENCEFORTH graduat ing medical and dental students from Nigerian universities will receive free basic practice tools from a premier pharmaceutical manufacturing company, May & Baker Nigeria, PLC. The initiative which is aimed at ensuring smooth start off of the graduands in their chosen profession is in partnership with leading Nigerian Colleges Medicine.

The project which is designed to run in 11 Colleges of Medicine in 2013, however

kicked off in February with 150 graduating medical doctors at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, who received their stethoscopes and ward coats. The best graduating students of medicine and dentistry received cash prizes and plaques.

Mr. Chukuka Chukutem, Head, Pharmaceutical Sales and Marketing Division, said the project which is a Corporate Social Responsibility by May & Baker, is to support the students with basic take-off tools for a good start.

“This will run in phases.

Phase one comprises 11 Col-

leges of Medicine with the LUTH as the pilot roll out.

Other institutions include Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH; University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital; Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Awka and the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital.

“Others are Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto, University of Jos Teaching Hospital, University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University and the University of Benin.

TRIPARTITE Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, just signed by the Hygeia Community Health Care,HCHC, Dutch Health insurance Fund and the Kwara State Government towards the state-wide expansion of the Kwara Community Health Insurance Programme, is designed to enrol no less than 600,000 low-income individuals in the 16 Local Government Areas of the state by 2017.

The Kwara State community Isurance Programme, a Public Private Participation, PPP, initiative is facilitated by HCHC and PharmAccess Foundation with a premium subsidy funding agreement between the Kwara State Government and the Dutch Health Insurance Fund. Under the arrangement the Kwara State Government increasingly takes the health insurance premium subsidy financing.

Disclosing this in Lagos, Group CEO, Hygeia Group, Mr Lars Stork described the development as a major milestone . “This accomplishment plus a significant demonstration of the commitment of the Health Insurance Fund, PharmAccess and HCHC to partner with the Kwara State Government aims to strengthen the healthcare delivery system of the state through community health insurance schemes,” Stork remarked.

He said the signing of the MoU which guarantees expansion of the scheme to achieve universal health coverage in the State,was preceded by passage of the Kwara State Community Health Insurance Legislation in 2012.

Stork said funds have been mobilised in addition to donations and subsidies towards facilitating over 400,000 hospital visits, 6,500 safe deliveries and 2,000 surgical procedures at public and private healthcare facilities without need for out-of-pocket payments by enrollees.

“Significant investments have also been made on infrastructural upgrades, purchase of equipment, improvement of quality of service, and provision of access to care. It is anticipated that this will serve as an impetus for replication or adoption by other State governments in achieving universal healthcare coverage, improvement of healthcare indices, especially the Millennium Development Goals. MDGs and socioeconomic profile of the country.

SSPN endorses Pfizer’s therapeutic pain product

T

HE Society for the Study of Pain, Nigeria (SSPN) has endorsed Pfizer’s therapeutic pain product. In a statement Pfizer‘s Director, Communications & Public Affairs, Pfizer Global Pharmaceuticals, NEAR, Margaret Olele, said the journey started over two years ago when Pfizer applied and got corporate membership from this association in a bid to collaborate with SSPN for the overall advancement of C M Y K

pain management in Nigeria.

SSPN is an affiliate body of the International Society for the Study of Pain (IASP). The International Association recommends Pfizer’s therapeutic pain product as first line for the management of neuropathic pain.

“This achievement underscored the fact that this product stands in a class of its own as the recommended number one agent for the management of neuropathic pain,” Olele noted.

She said the company will continue to strive for continuous improvement in its products, ensuring that standards are never compromised.

• L-R: Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed of the KWSG; Dr. Peju Adenusi, MD, HCHC; Mr. Lars Stork, Group CEO, Hygeia; Mrs Fola Laoye, and Chairman, Hygeia Group during the media presentation of the Tripartite MoU on the Kwara Community Health Insurance Scheme last week in Lagos.

44—Vanguard, TUESD AY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013 TUESDA

Infertility:

FTSF offers free treatment to 3 indigent couples Fertility Centre, Lagos/Asaba/Abuja, with the goal of enabling Nigerian couples with the challenge of infertility, to access full assisted reproduction technology, ART, services, in form of Free IVF treatment cycles.

In addition to providing opportunity for infertile couples to have their own biological children completely free of charge, the FTSF campaign also serves to heighten awareness about the availability of treatment for infertility in addition to presenting a support system or platform for interaction.

Formerly known as Expanded Access to Reproductive Treatment,EART, Foundation, FTSF was established in 2008 as a result of the increasing prevalence of infertility in the society. Managing Director, Nordica Fertility Clinic, Lagos, Asaba and Abuja, Dr. Abayomi Ajayi, explained that the goal this year, is getting a live baby.

“Towards this end, the FTSF Board was recently reconstituted to be more proactive.

We have done two competitions in the past but the cost is inhibiting and the aim is to get more support to do this competition every quarter.

• At least 25 percent of Nigerian couples is infertile.

“People should

BY SOLA OGUNDIPE HREE Nigerian couples with the challenge of infertility stand to benefit from fully-funded fertility treatment cycles as the Fertility Treatment Support Foundation,FTSF, kick starts the 2013 series of funded fertility treatment campaigns for indigent Nigerians.

A registered non-profit organisation based in Lagos, FTSF provides financial support and services for infertile couples, in partnership with Nordica

T

come out of their shells to address the issue of infertility,” he remarked. He said from research, one out of every four couples is fertility-challenged, thereby, informing the appreciable demand for ART, solutions.

Ajayi argued that affordability of treatment is a common cause for concern of fertility-challenged couples and it is to keep the dreams of fertility-challenged couples alive, that FTSF was born.

With the theme:”Speak Out On Infertility” the 2013 edition which marks Nordica’s 10th year anniversary, the FTSF is paying for the free treatment of three fertility challenged couples to be undertaken in each of the Nordica Fertility Clinics in Abuja, Asaba and Lagos.

To participate, all that any infertility challenged couple needs to do is produce and send a three-minute video clip telling their “journey so far” in a compelling/credible/creative way and send as entries to the FTSF website at www.ftsfnigeria.org or submit in CD format to Nordica Fertility clinics in Lagos, Abuja and Asaba. More details can be obtained through 08037360870.

A statment from the Foundation explains that entries should be sent in English language and Pigin English, but where a native language is used, it must be interpreted in English language and must not be exceed three minutes.

While the campaign is open to all indigent infertility challenged Nigerian couples from all the regions of the country, entries are to be produced by the couples themselves and should show their faces. The statement urges entrants to note that sending in entries does not mean couples have automati-

cally won, because there would be a draw which will then produce three winners. Only one entry can be submitted by any entrant/couple. Decision on choice of winners is final.

Entries that contain/ propagate "hate" messages, make defamatory statements, or which are otherwise extraordinarily offensive are not eligible. Ineligible entries may be disqualified at any phase of the competition without notification.

Further, the statement warned that entries above three minutes will be automatically disqualified. Each entrant will receive an email and SMS acknowledgment of receipt. The FTSF assumes all entries are original and must be available on the Internet from Friday February 22, 2013 through March 21, 2013, the statement asserted. In partnership with Nordica Lagos, FTSF, over the years has provided free fertility treatment for 25 couples.

PATHS 2

Continued from page 42 to build capacity of health workers to use the equipment effectively.

Trainees were instructed to apply the technology to detect and manage common incidences and causes of maternal mortality and to make better decisions on normal and abnormal obstetric cases.

Fourty eight scanners are earmarked for other General Hospitals nationwide.

PATHS2 has supported focal states to the tune of N3 billion in drugs and medical equipment, towards reduction of maternal and infant mortality and attainment of targets of the health related MDGs.

COMMON SEXUAL PROBLEMS AND THEIR NOVELTY BASED SOLUTIONS (ADVERTORIAL)

G

ood day sir. Please what is the ideal age for a man to get married? Thank you – Chima Dear Chima, there is no ideal age for a man to get married. Maturity occurs at different ages. In addition to having the basics (an education, a stable job and decent income) a man should get married before he is 35. That way he can raise his kids before he grows old – Uche My uncle is 50years old and recently started experiencing weak erection. Sometimes he gets an erection but it will get weak in the middle of intercourse. On top of that, he does not last for up to three minutes before ejaculation and his sperm is small and watery. He does not want to use drugs because he is hypertensive – Luke Dear Luke, did your uncle tell you all these personal things about himself or are you the one having the problem? Anyway, men who do not want to use supplements for erectile dysfunction can use a penis pump instead.

The Remote Plunger Pump is a new penis pump and is very good for weak erections and penis enlargement.

He should also use a Cockring after pumping to maintain the erection for up to twenty minutes. For premature ejaculation, the Power Plus Delay Cream is recommended and for small watery sperm, Max Load supplement is what he needs. Max Load increases sperm quantity, thickens the sperm as well and makes male climax very enjoyable– Uche Hello sir. Thank you so so much. I am taking Sex Voltz now and I am getting powerful erections – Uche I experience dryness and pain sometimes during intercourse and I understand that a lubricant will help me. Please my husband and I do oral sex sometimes so please I need a lubricant that can be ingested– Margaret Margaret go for Frutopia Lubricant. It is made for lubrication and oral intercourse – Uche I could not get an erection for months until a friend that you helped told me about Enzyte. I just wanted to let you know that I took your advice and bought Enzyte.

Now my erections are okay again. Thank you sir - Linus C M Y K

I have had a lot of sex but I have never really had an orgasm. Why? Mrs Ofokansi There are many factors that affect a woman’s ability to have an orgasm. Her upbringing, religious orientation, quality of intercourse, length of intercourse and her mental are all factors that shape a woman’s sexual experience. Get the movie Incredible Orgasms or the book Guide to Female Ejaculation. They will explain this subject in detail and teach you what you have to do to become orgasmic. Also get a vibrator. That will make orgasms quick and easy – Uche Maximus Enlargement Cream has begun working since I started using it. The first thing I noticed before the enlargement started was that when I ejaculate during sex, my erections remained hard for more sex. I used to wait for hours before getting a second erection but not anymore. Thank you so much. You have no idea how this has helped me – Jimmy You are welcome Jimmy – Uche Good morning sir. Please what is the work of Sex Voltz?

I want something that will make me go two to three rounds – Ahmed Ahmed, in the words of the manufacturer, ‘Sex Voltz is a natural herbal supplement for men that gives energy, sexual vigour and bigger and harder erections with results that last up to 72 hours. Sex Voltz also gives intensified orgasms, increased ejaculate fluid and a recovery time of as little as five minutes between erections’ (meaning that after ejaculating the first time, you will get a second erections within five minutes for a second round).

So yes, Sex Voltz is what you need – Uche That’s it for today. The names of the people featured here have been changed for their privacy. Adults in need of these treatments/novelties can call 08027901621 or 08051924159 or any other number here to order or they can order online at www.zeevirtualmedia.com. Zee Virtual Media delivers to you wherever you are in Nigeria. For enquiries, send your emails to custserv@zeevirtualmedia.com Uche Edochie, MD, Zee Virtual Media.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013—45

HIGH POINTS •Government should intervene directly in the housing sector as it did in other sectors •20 percent interest rate on housing is not sustainable; Government should lend to the banks at 6 percent for onlending to end users at 9 percent

A housing estate under construction (INSET): Mr Emeka Eleh, President of NIESV.

Housing sector cannot be developed without mortgages – NIESV president

By JUDE NJOKU

Eleh who described land reform as key to development explained why this is so. “The issue of land reform is key for us because it is THERE is no way the housing sector can a source of wealth for everybody. Everybody has access to land in develop without mortgages. And there is no one form or the other and unless you are able to tap into the way the mortgage sector can develop without a reform potentials of the land that you already own, then you cannot of our land tenure system because ultimately, those who develop. If you look at the Western countries and imagine how give you mortgages must rely on something as a collateral they developed, it was not by magic. They were able to leverage and the most important thing they can rely upon is on what they have and that is why a mortgage on a property is the land”. This view was canvassed by the President of the single most important way that anybody can raise money in the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, United States of America. That is not the same case here , so we NIESV, Mr. Emeka Eleh at an interactive session with feel that reforming our land tenure system is key to development. newsmen last week.

It will help boost the economy, it will help create wealth, it will help the Agric sector which is key . I remember four years ago when Saraki was still the Governor of Kwara State, he brought in Zimbabwean farmers to come and man the farms in Kwara State. Somebody asked, why wouldn’t the Zimbabwean farmers RESIDENT Goodluck We are looking beyond our be happy because they were brought in and Jonathan is expected to members to throw the conference given acres and hectares of land and they were declare open the 43rd Annual open to other professionals so as given title to the land, whether it is for 20 year General Conference of the to have diverse perspectives to lease or 30 year lease, they were given titles.

Nigeria Institution of Estate the conversation”, Eleh explained Compare them with the average farmer in Surveyors and Valuers, NIESV on the choice of speakers at the Kwara State, what do they have? slated for Benin City, the Edo conference.

They have hectares and hectares of land State capital on March 14.

The Conference lead speaker without title. But the man you have given title, President of NIESV, Mr. Emeka is a former Minister for will go to the bank and raise money for his Eleh disclosed this at a meeting Education and member of former business and so they were immediately put at at an interactive session with President Olusegun Obasanjo’s an advantage over those who own Kwara State journalists, explained that Edo Economic team, Mrs. Oby who didn’t have a title,” he explained.

State Governor, Comrade Adams Ezekwesili. Other speakers The NIESV President who stated that Oshiomhole and Minister of include Dr. Mansur Ahmed, title creates a wide gap between equity Lands, Ms Ama Pepple will also the Director General of the and inequity, noted that the Land Use grace the opening ceremony.

Infrastructure Concession Act failed because it couldn’t ensure Eleh explained that the choice Regulatory Commission, Mr. equitable distribution of land to all of the Conference theme, Adekunle Oyinloye, the Nigerians . “Equity means we must be ‘Infrastructure Development and Managing Director of Infraput at par but where he has title and I Economic Empowerment’ was structure Bank Plc, Dr. Christian don’t have, then there is no equity. informed by the need to open the Oboh, the Managing Director of Therefore, one of the most important aims transformational conversation in Niger Delta Development of the Land Use Act failed because of the housing and property sector Commission, NDDC and Dr. B. lack of title. And If you look at every to experts in diverse professions. J Patunola-Ajayi, the second other issue that has to do with housing, “We are going to Benin to vice-president of NIESV. access to titled land is key; it is liquidity discuss development of infraThe NIESV President said over which you can use to raise money for structure that will engender 2000 members of the Institution your business. Look at mortgages, my empowerment and to ensure that have registered to attend the view is that Government has realised the the topic is properly resourced. conference which he said will fact that you cannot develop the housing

… To brainstorm on infrastructure development at Benin confab

P

•Land reform is key to development because land is a veritable source of wealth to everybody

sector without mortgage. We have been saying it for a long while,” he said.

Continuing, Mr Eleh said: “Right now the Government is doing a lot to revive the mortgage sector. They now know that cannot happen if they don’t reform the land tenure system.The Presidential Committee is working hard on the land reforms agenda and the Federal Ministry of Finance is working hard to revive the mortgage sector”..

Noting that housing is so key to development, Mr Eleh posited that housing does not only provide shelter and enable us to conform with the Millennium Development Goals, it has a lot of multiplier effects.” If you look at the multiplier effects of investments in housing, the fact that there are too many linkages in the housing sector, if you go the to average construction site, you will see suppliers of sand, suppliers of water, those who sell food, those who supply rods, the artisans who work, the plumbers, all these people get paid. At a recent event in Abuja, the Minister of Housing said that for a three-bedroom bungalow, the evidence shows that at least 70 people will be employed on the site.

So, imagine if it is a massive project that is being done.

So, when we talk about housing, it is not just about providing shelter, it is because of the other linkages that the sector can engender to enable us achieve what we want to achieve as a nation because if you check the western countries, the collapse of the world-wide economy, the depression we are having right now, arose as a result of the collapse of the mortgage sector in the United States of America and Europe.

46—Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

LSPWC boosts asphalt production with two new plants

By KINGSLEY ADEGBOYE

L

AGOS State Public Works Corporation, LSPWC, has established two new asphalt plants in Imota and Badagry to boost its operations in terms of asphalt production. The Chairman of the Corporation, Mr. Gbenga Akintola explained that the Imota plant which has 120 tonnes per hour capacity when in full operation, will cater for about 404 roads located in the six local council development areas LCDAs in Ikorodu, Epe, IbejuLekki and parts of Eti-Osa area while the Badagry plant which is expected to commence production in the second quarter of the year, will cater for 400 roads in Amuwo-Odofin, AjeromiIfelodun, Ojo, Badagry and Egan-Igando axis of Alimosho Local Government Area.

Mr Akintola also unfolded plans by the agency to complete 1,000 roads, fix 100 manhole covers, 250 gratings as well as construct drainage channels in 17 locations scattered across nine council areas in the state this year.

The LSPWC boss stated that in order to achieve the corporation’s target for the year, the agency will take advantage of some proven effective approaches.“We are also relying on the fruits of our equipment renewal programme which started in 2010 as a strategy to up our game in 2013. We have made appreciable progress over the years by adding different kinds of state-of-the art equipment to enable us carry out duties at world class level. We are expecting many more in the year 2013.

LSPWC will double its night op-

erations capacity in 2013 with the delivery of additional five units of floodlights just a week ago. This is as a result of our quest to work more at night given our sensitivity to the difficulty road users go through whenever maintenance work is being carried out, especially on very busy roads,” L-R: Head, Mechanical, Engr. Olamide Daniju, Executive Chairman, Lagos State Public Works Corporation, Gbenga Akintola and Director, Engr. Rasheed Teslim-Balogun during a press briefing on the corporation’s he said..

Mr. Akintola ex- 2013 road maintenance strategy plained that with the anticipated operations of Imota FERMA to attend to maintenance heavy rains expected this year, out paying attention to the damand Badagry asphalt plants, need on federal roads in Lagos Akintola said: We have posi- age that can be done to such work there will be need to increase will continue. He announced tioned to take full advantage of if it rains too soon after complethe number of agency’s mainte- that with the directive of Gover- every dry day, so as to cover ap- tion. However, the use of internance gangs. “This automatically nor Babatunde Fashola, LSPWC preciable mileage by mobilising locking paving stones and other means greater capacity to main- has commenced sales of asphalt all men, materials and equip- palliative methods like lean contain more roads in 2013'’, he as- at discount rate to FERMA so as ment. ‘Our expansion of night crete mix, bouldres and crushed to enable it respond more operations will also help us to stones will allow us to provide sured He gave the assurance that the promptly and effectively to road carry out maintenance work in relief to Lagosians even when it collaboration with the Federal maintenance needs in Lagos. On the night in instances where it rains’’, he said.

Roads Maintenance Agency, the corporations preparedness for rained in the day, but not with-

Faith groups renew opposition to trade in endangered species

S

TATEMENTS by leaders of 34 religious traditions were last week, presented to the Duke of Edinburgh as part of a major initiative linking religions and conservation groups in opposing the illegal wildlife trade, which is annihilating the world’s rare and endangered species.

The statements were presented to Prince Philip during a meeting at Buckingham Palace in which he was also updated on the latest conserva-

tion initiatives undertaken by faith groups around the world.

In their statements the faith leaders, who represent Christian, Buddhist, Daoist, Hindu and Muslim communities in Africa and Asia, called upon their followers to protect wildlife and combat the trade in threatened species, saying this is a moral and spiritual issue.

They are the result of a major initiative by the Alliance of Religions and Conservation ARC, WWF-US and faith lead-

Finally, Amansea gets potable water J

OY and ecstasy pervaded the air last week at Amansea, the border town of Anambra with Enugu State, currently in the news for morbid tales as Hydraulic engineers and contractors who two weeks ago commenced exploration for clean water in Amansea town, struck clean water which scaled purity test in one go at approximately 300 feet depth.

The water samples were subjected to tests ,which it scaled at first instance.

The feat achieved courtesy of the Millennium Development Goal programme originally to be implemented in April 2013, at the instance of Senator Chris Ngige was fast-tracked because of the discovery of over 50 floating corpses in the Ezu River which automatically removed their source of drinking water.

The borehole is sited at Amaowelle

Village Square about 200 metres from the South West bank of the Ezu River.

Amaowele the riverine village which is one in five villages of the border town, under Awka North local government Arae of the state.

Senator Chris Ngige, had on January 24, 2013, on a constituency visit to the scene of the disaster advised the community to desist from drinking from the Ezu River,owing to the shocking discovery As he put it, “you will never drink from that river again, because we shall ensure that you have potable water”.

Ngige, a medical doctor, therefore promised them that they would get alternative drinking water through a motorised borehole as a matter of emergency.

That promised gained full realisation at the last week in the form of a water

ers aimed at tackling the issue through education, awareness-raising and action in the key countries in Asia and Africa affected by the illegal wildlife trade.

C rucially, the partnership also focuses on undermining consumer demand in China and other Asian countries for medical ingredients or luxury items made from rare and endangered species.

ARC Secretary-General Martin Palmer said: “All faiths

facility with 100,00 litre storage capacity tank under construction and a 24-solar energy power, with NEPA as a standby source of power’ While breaking the ground for the scene on Tuesday last week, the Senator Ngige made an additional donation of a 500 KVA transformer with all accessories which he described as ‘standby ‘ for the water.

Said he : “We decided to use solar energy because each day the sun comes out ,all of you will be sure to get your water ,instead of looking for diesel, fuels and mechanics all over the place.”

The mini-water works which comprises chambers for solar inverters and the technical back-up included a two year programme of training for the community- selected management team who will run the facility when the installing technical personnel would.

believe that our place in nature is to protect as much as it is to use the gifts that have been given us. This is why 34 major religious traditions from around the world, each driven by their own spiritual understanding of our responsibility to the rest of nature, have joined together to combat this most pressing of assaults on the diversity of nature – the illegal wildlife trade.

Illegal wildlife trade is the fifth largest illicit transnational activity worldwide after counterfeiting and the illegal trades in drugs, people and oil. “Tens of thousands of wild elephants are being killed each year for their tusks to meet the demand for ivory coming from China, Thailand and other Asian countries,” she said. “The profits made from the killing of African rhinos and elephants and Asian tigers are about $10 billion each year. This is not local poaching, it is wildlife crime. It is a trade run by international crime syndicates.”

The statements by the faith leaders came ahead of this year’s CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) conference in Bangkok where members will consider further actions to combat the illegal trade in elephant ivory, tiger parts and products, and rhino horn as well as in Asian big cats, great apes and other species.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013 — 47

48— Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

alive; we are more than 10,000.The state government gave us the quit notice on February 20”.

Medunoye, however, denied sabotaging the effort of the community, saying that the letter of eviction was handed over to him by officials of the state government who demanded that he should hand over the letter to Chief Ojora, his superior, for proper action. After few minutes of heated argument, the protesters trooped to the office of the Chief for confirmation.

We are builders and not demolishers

Some of the displaced occupants retrieving their properties from the debris at demolished ijora slum

AFTERMATH OF DEMOLITION:

•Say we now sleep under the bridge

By OLASUNKANMI AKONI & MONSUR OLOWOOPEJO

R

ESIDENTS of Iganmu Ala wo Community in Apapa Iganmu Local Council Development Area, LCDA, obviously did not see it coming. So it came as a rude shock to them when they woke up last weekend to be confronted by bulldozers of the Lagos State Taskforce on Environmental and Special Offences Enforcement Unit. And by the time the operation, which was reminiscent of the Oshodi demolition exercise, was over, the slum settlement which had been home for the residents for years had been reduced to rubbles and they found themselves homeless.

The demolition is said to have been carried out to pave way for the actualisation of the Ijora housing scheme estimated to have about 10008 housing units.

Governor Babatunde Fashola had in his budget presentation for the year 2013, informed of ongoing construction of houses of 1, 2, and 3 bedroom flats in at least 15 locations such as Ilupeju, Mushin, Alimosho, Sangotedo, Agbowa, Ogba, Igando, Magodo, Omole, Surulere, Lekki, Abijo, among others, adding that plans were on for more in Iko-

rodu, Badagry, Ijanikin, Ketu, Ijora Badia and Bariga.

Since the demolition, thousands of displaced residents have taken refuge under the Orile Bridge, while others presently sleep beside their belongings at every available open space.

Evictees recount experiences Mr Ifianyi Oyema, a resident of the community, said: “I slept under the bridge. But while we slept, some of our possessions were carted away during the night. All I could do was to salvage what was left of my belongings.”

Commercial motorcycle operator Oyema, a former commercial motorcycle operator popularly called Okada lamented that he relocated to the community two months ago due to the new road traffic law which banned Okada operation from major roads in the state. He pleaded: “I want the state government to assist me with N4, 000 to transport myself back to the village. I am tired of living in Lagos.”

Another resident, Mrs. Olayinka Ogunyemi, who also passed the night outside, at the mercy of the elements, urged the state government to relocate the resi-

dents to another place.

“All we need from the state government is for it to relocate us to a better place since the Federal Government has taken over our land and have used it for the construction. So we will want the state government relocate us immediately. We are dying,” Ogunyemi said.

Ganiyu Rufai, also a resident, who hitherto lived in a church located within the community narrated thus: “My family and my church members have been rendered homeless by the eviction. Prior to the demolition, we appealed to them to give us some consideration but they refused.

We are very useful to the government. I can say that is why we had been spared over the years, despite all the rumourss of the likely demolition of this place. We are very surprised that government demolished our houses. We have no power but we are appealing to them to considerate by providing us shelter”.

Assault on community leaders However, during the demolition exercise, irate residents went after their community leader, Baale, Owosheni Medunoye, alleging that “he sabotaged our effort to continuously occupy the community”.

Angered by the development,

the residents attacked the Baale at about 9:00 am, demanding that he should explain why he signed the eviction letter from the government without informing residents of the state government’s intention.

One of the residents who identified himself as Oladeinde said: “We don’t know why he signed the letter without informing the residents of the development. It

,

Ijora slum evictees count losses

Recently, Governor Fashola undertook an extensive tour of projects across the state and disclosed that his administration was to launch a capital intensive housing estate of about 1008 flats at Ijora for the teeming populace, adding that the first phase of the state’s light rail project, from Iganmu to Marina in Central Lagos, would be completed in June this year.

“People should be able to live close to the train station and walk about a kilometre to their homes.

So it is a dream, it is beginning to come together. This is what we saw and we will deliver it. What we are going to do in Ijora from this year with about 1008 housing units is not consistent with a government that is demolishing.

We are builders and not demolishers. We are focused; we know where the target is. We are locked on target and that is why we are all out here as a team from our local governments to House of Assembly, members of the House of Representatives. This government is tight, it knows where its goal is and it knows what its people expect of it and would deliver it,” Fashola stated.

I slept under the bridge, but while we slept, some of our possessions were carted away during the night. All I could do was to salvage what was left of my belongings

shows that the state government has offered him substantial amount of money before embarking on the demolition exercise”, adding that “since his installation two months ago by Chief Ojora, he has done the community no good.”

We are shocked, says Baale Speaking with newsmen, the Baale of Iganmu Alawo Community, Chief Lucas Owosheni Medunoye, expressed shock, saying: “We were formerly living in Ilaje_Iganmu where the National Art Theatre is presently located.

But the Federal Government moved us to this place to enable them build the National Art Theatre in 1973. I cannot say specifically the number of people still

,

Demolition exercise The newly promoted Chief Superintendent of Police and Chairman of the Taskforce, Bayo Sulaimon, who led the operation, said the state government could no longer allow continuous existence of slum in the area, saying there was no way government can allow slum in the heart of the state, considering its megacity aspiration.

According to him: “There is no way we can achieve the mega city status with this kind slum in this area. You can see it is a swampy area. The Nigerian Breweries is very close and there are some other industries around here and to allow a slum to remain here is not acceptable.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013 — 49

Scene of one of the flooded schools in Lagos last year. (Inset): From right: Commissioner for the Environment, Mr Tunji Bello; Permanent Secretary, Drainge Services in the ministry, Engr. Muyiden and Engr. Erinle during an inspection tour of ongoing drainge projects in Surulere LGA last week. Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi.

2013 RAINY SEASON:

Lagos delivers massive deflooding projects in public schools •to complete Mushin drainage projects in May

By OLASUNKANMI AKONI

L

AGOS State Government has commenced construction of drainage channels in public schools across the state, aimed at reducing incidences of flooding in schools.

The state has taken giant strides in fulfilling the educational aspirations of its citizenry. It has 906 primary schools with 859,456 pupils. The state also has 360 secondary schools with 633,247 students, five Technical Colleges with 3,223 students, two Colleges of Education including that for Primary Education.

With perennial flooding challenges in public schools, the state government begun the rehabilitation and cleaning of drainages in several schools ravaged by flood last year.

This is to ensure that the schools are flood-free this year.

About 623 schools were identified last year to have been ravaged by flood, and such schools that were in most critical condition had been identified for urgent rehabilitation.

Some of the schools were flooded during the raining seasons because they were located in flood-prone areas, with the rehabilitation it would help to arrest disruption of learning during the raining season.

“The government is committed to tackling the challenges posed by flooding in the state. We are not only concerned about the drainage channels and canals but also important to us is the drainage channels around the schools.

“We are reconstructing and rehabilitating them to free the schools from flooding so as to

enable our children learn in a conducive atmosphere,” Commissioner for the Environment, Tunji Bello stated in one of his inspection tour to such schools.

Bello said government had promised to complete all ongoing construction, dredging and maintenance of drainage projects

in the 57 local councils in the state as part of efforts to ensure that the drains were cleaned before the rainy season.

The commissioner expressed satisfaction with the job done by the contractor handling the project, noting that the dredging and lining of the channel had

provided great relief to the people in the areas.

Bello, during a recent inspection of ongoing drainage projects across the state in preparation for the 2013 rainy season, said some structures built on drainage channels would also be demolished while some places would be shut

•Files 1,957 cases on land disputes in 3 years — Fashola

By MONSUR OLOWOOPEJO

L

AGOS State government between 2009 till date has filed 1,957 cases involving land disputes in the High Court of Lagos, Governor Babatunde Fashola has disclosed.

Fashola, speaking at a lecture he delivered on the occasion of 80th birthday of the former Federal Commissioner of Works and Housing, Alhaji Femi Okunnu, held at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, NIIA, Lagos, stressed that “In Lagos, Land is a serious matter.”

The governor explained that the cases filed were: “Our attempt to navigate the course of the land Use Act and use its provision to aid investment and development has been largely successful. ”The power granted to the government in section 28, to revoke rights of occupancy in the overriding public interest has greatly aided the government's ability to embark on the massive infrastructure renewal in the state.

“For instance, all the land we acquired along the right of way of the Blue line light rail, which is nearing completion, would have been impossible but for the land Use Act.” According to him, “From 2009 till date 1,957 cases involving land disputes have been filed in the High Court of Lagos. There were 420 in 2009, 356 in 2010, 590 in 2011 and 591 in 2012.

“Of the roughly 150 processes that are served from the office of the Attorney-General weekly,

at least a third that is, 50 of those processes are in respect of land or property dispute in the state.”

Ex-Federal Commissioner of Works tasks Fashola on lands acquired by FG Meantime, former Federal Commissioner of Works and Housing, Okunnu, has asked Fashola to urgently, reclaim the entire lands belonging to the state, acquired by the federal government.

Okunnu, speaking at his 80th birthday, posited that land is a residual matter which lies with the state government adding that some of the lands include: Osborne Road Estate, Banana Island among others.

He was however quick to say that the present administration of Fashola has “a very hard battle ahead of him.”

According to him, “The FG must recognise that land in any part of the country is a residual matter and that even under the land use decree, whatever isn't owned before1978 by the FG belong to the state. Any land which the FG gained after 1978, like Banana Island, Osborne road estate and other sparse of land which they didn't owned at 1978 at all or for FG purpose, the title to that land is vested in the state government.”

The former federal commissioner lamented “The civilians have also copied the military style of acquiring what belong to the state. During Gowon's administration, we recognised the federal system in the country.

down for not adhering to environmental regulation.

One of the schools being executed under the year 2013 deflooding of schools executive programme, by direct labour, is Eleja group of schools at Itire Ishaga, Mushin area of the state.

The scope of works include: Construction of 2000 meters length of 0.4m cross section internal drain, construction of 300 metres length of 0.75 m x 0.75m cross section external drain.

According to the commissioner, the progress work on the schools had been completed while similar projects would be carried out in other identified public schools in the state.

However, Bello, expressed displeasure and great concern of government over the environmental nuisance always created by the Ladipo spare part dealers around the trapezoidal section of Isolo conduit channel.

While condemning the act, Bello, who was accompanied by the chairman of the state on Special Offences on Environmental Task Force, Supol Bayo Sulaimon, declared that government would not continue to fold its arm and watch the environment being degraded by the activities of the dealers.

Lagos camps LASTMA, KAI for intensive community training

BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI

T

HE Lagos State government, weekend, said the ongoing reform exercise in the traffic management sector was aimed at improving traffic operatives’ sense of community services and achieve law enforcement with human face.

Senior Special Assistant on Transport Education, Dr. Mariam Masha, made the remarks at the Agbowa relief camp, where about 200,Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA and Kick Against Indiscipline, KAI, personnel are currently undergoing career evaluation programme including community services.

Masha said the on-going reform: “Is to enhance capacity of the traffic and environmental operatives with the central goal of making a life-time change in the state law enforcement as well as their agencies.”

She said the ideals of selfless service, humility, enterprise, interaction, trust, inter-agency relationships and other sound values “are being inculcated in these participants towards improved service delivery to the people of the state.

According to her, “we know what we want as a government and we want the right people in the right places. The officers were grouped and assigned specific areas with various traffic and environmental challenges that need to be addressed.’

50 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

C M Y K

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBUARY, 26, 2013 —51 was no private transportation for my movement. Kole had informed me that his mum would get a driver for me so that I could move around easily, but nothing came out of that eventually. His mother did not get the driver and I had to continue taking public transportation even after the baby was born. It took a while before I started getting the feeling that something was wrong.

Though we spoke almost on a daily basis, it was obvious that we were not really communicating. Sometimes, decisions already taken between Kole and myself will be changed by his mother without him consulting with me first.

On other times, he will just dismiss whatever I tell him insisting that his mum will not like the idea and that he does not want me to have any problems with her. I did not want any problems with her as well.

I wanted to do everything that will please her, so, I did not really mind.

It was a matter of time, at most, two years and I will be joining my husband. Or so I thought.

Mummy as I call her insisted on

Married but living single(2) I

pregnant that same Christmas, it was not proper for me to be carrying a pregnancy in my parents’ home. My parents considered it disgraceful and disrespectful to them. If I had known it would all end like this, I never would have agreed to get married in the first place. Everything seemed alright at the beginning.

Because of my pregnancy, my mother-in-law insisted I must go from home so that she can keep an eye on me. I thought it kind of her at first, but much later, I realised it was simply so she could monitor my movements.

It was not easy commuting to and from school at Ojo while we live in Surulere. At every point in time, there were two cars in the house

,

HI! T is the dream of every wom an to find her own Prince charming, get married and be called Mrs. It is a dream they have harboured in their hearts since they were little. And when that husband comes in a package wrapped with success, the promise of life abroad and access to the good things of life, many women are likely to throw caution to the winds. Unfortunately for some, reality may sometimes be different from dreams and they find themselves trapped in between two worlds, neither married, nor single. We will be taking the story of three women who are trapped in unions with guys who reside outside the country. Below, we continue the narratives of Arike, (30), mother and graduate as she shares the story of how she became a single parent living with her in-laws.

“We were married over the Christmas celebration that same year and I moved in with his parents. Now when I look back, I regret that I did not listen to the advise of some of my friends.

In deed, it is good to learn from other people’s mistakes and never from your own. Two different people had advised me on two separate occasions that I should not move in with Kole’s parents.

According to them, there will be problems as such an arrangement was not likely to work in my favour.

But I did not listen. In fact, it was difficult for me to listen under the circumstance. Kole was showering me with so much gifts and attention and his mother appeared to be the best mother-in-law any girl could ever pray for.

An apartment of my own at the time was not realistic at all. The plan was for me to go and join Kole in the USA right after my graduation in another year. His mother insisted that once married, I have become a member of their family and could no longer stay with my parents. And my parents felt the same way too. To crown it all, I became

His father is a Big Boy sort of and does not come home everyday, sometimes, he would be gone for several days. I discovered he has a private apartment he stays in to enjoy himself

always, each driven by Kole’s parents. His father is a Big Boy sort of and does not come home everyday.

Sometimes, he would be gone for several days. I discovered he has a private apartment he stays in to enjoy himself. It was an open secret, everyone knows the place, but no one goes there to look for him. that is where the other two cars are kept as he drives them home in turns.

Ironically, everyone believes also that he does not have a wife or children outside of his marriage, he only keeps a chain of female friends, young and not so young.

He was almost a stranger to everyone and obviously to his wife. It was therefore difficult to pin the man down to anything. All that one saw from the outside was a big charade.

Eventually, I figured this must be responsible for most of the bitterness and spitefulness in Kole’s mother.

Kole’s mum did not have a driver and I could not drive, so there

,

giving me money for transportation whenever I needed to go to school, since I did not go everyday. She would give me N1000 even when I tell her not to bother as I had enough.. Then, Kole used to send me 300 Dollars every month and more when I have anything to do.

In my naivety, I thought she was being kind and taking care of me.

In fact, I thought I was enjoying and living the life everyone had predicted I would because I had enough to do almost anything I wanted to, including lending and dashing money out to friends.

There was not much for me to do with money as I was attending antenatal clinics with their family doctor and Kole’s parents paid all expenses. So, eventually the money Kole sent was just for personal stuff.

One day, I went to the bank to pick up my Western Union and all I got was a 100 Dollars. I was surprised and had to call to confirm the amount.

To be continued

Friends Searching Males

•Justine, 25, resides in Abuja, needs a pretty lady, aged 30-40, for a romantic relationship. 08096150294 •Emmanuel, from Anambra state but resides in Delta state, needs a lady, who is a graduate and obedient, for a relationship.08169209974 •Jp, resides in Warri, needs a nice and beautiful lady, aged 22-25, for a serious relationship.

08035457860 •Segun, 26, resides in Benin Edo state, needs a rich lady, aged 30-45, for a romantic and serious relationship.08069703250 •Elvis, resides in Edo state, needs a plumpy and busty lady, that also resides in Edo state for a relationship.08094767899 •Michael, 34, resides in Lagos, needs a mature and employed graduate lady, who is ready to settle down, aged 30-34.08093252952 •Vincent, 25, tall, slim, light in complexion and from

Abia state, but resides in Lagos state, needs a caring, gentle, intelligent and lovely lady, aged 17-35, for a relationship in either Lagos, Abia , Abuja or Ogun state.07030778275 •Ade, needs a honest Muslim lady, who is busty, •Dear readers, please note that neither Vanguard, nor Yetunde Arebi will be liable for any error in the publication of requests on the Lovezone that may result in any form of embarrassment to any member of the public.

Also note that we do not run any match-making agency in or outside the country. Any reader who transacts business with anyone claiming to be our agent does so at his/her own risk.

Henceforth, only messages sent through the numbers readers want to be contacted on will be published.

This notice is necessary in order to serve you better in our refreshingly different style. To get your requests published, just text it to the code number 33055. For further enquiries, call 08026651636. Cheers!

Attitude which inspires honesty in men

BY ONOZURE DANIA

D

O you sometimes wish that men could just be more honest with you? Or do you feel discouraged when dating because the men you meet actually lie about what they want from the relationship, what their background is, what they do for a living and sometimes even lie about whether or not they are available?

Especially when sometimes, you end up being involved with a man who is already seriously dating another woman, or worse still is married? If these are situations that you run into a little more than you would like, then you need to know about some attitudes that can actually inspire a man to be completely upfront and honest with you about such things.

You will know; if he is looking for something serious or casual, if he is seeing other people, if you are the kind of woman he is drawn to, if he is ready to settle down or not.

As a matter of fact, with the right attitude, you may be able to get a man to reveal a lot more than he would ever reveal without prompting.

The added benefit of this is that he will feel more connected with you because he will feel he can tell you just about anything. He will feel more attracted to you because he feels more understood and appreciated by you. This attitude does not only inspires honesty from a man, it makes him feel more connected to you at the same time.

Nice. If you are single and dating right now, this mindset or attitude can actually help you qualify the right man and avoid Mr

Wrong as early as possible.

If you are in a relationship, it can help you get to the bottom of what he is thinking and feeling, so you can know why he is withdrawing, if he is open to taking things to the next level, or what is holding him back from fully committing to you.

However, there is a fundamental question that seems to bother a lot of women, “why does this even have to be an issue?Why can’t a guy just be upfront and be honest with you?

Why, for example, is it so hard for a man to tell you why he’s not calling as often or why he stopped asking you out, especially when he seemed so into you in the beginning?

If you go out on a few dates with a guy and you think everything is going great. Then he stops calling. He doesn’t respond to your emails or texts. It’s like he’s dropped off the face of the earth and you don’t know why. It’s not that you are so particularly “heartbroken” about this.

Maybe you even realized that he was a nice enough guy, but you didn’t know him well enough yet to fall in love or anything. But still, you wish you could at least hear why he stopped calling, stopped asking you out and stopped responding to your messages. When you want to inspire honesty in a man, you need to let him know that he is safe. When he shares stuff with you, you have to adopt what is called “anything is ok attitude”. This doesn’t mean that anything is ok for a man to do or that you are supposed to accept anything he does and have no boundaries or limitations.

fair or light in complexion and average height, for marriage.08065968873, 08078775379, 08077224645, 08095798670 •Ayuba, 24, needs a lady, aged 20-24, for a serious relationship.08102461326 •Samson, 30, employed and from Asaba Delta state, needs an employed lady, aged 20- 26.

08033804486 •Solomon, 25, employed and needs an employed lady, aged 20-28.08137471911 •Lanre, 35, average height, handsome, chocolate in complexion, sociable, intelligent, a graduate, employed and resides in Lagos, needs a sexy, busty, romantic, caring and God fearing, hardworking, lady, who is ready for a serious relationship, that will lead to marriage, aged23 and above. 08027611058 •Nelly, an engineer, from Abia state, needs a good and employed christian lady, for a relationship, that will lead to marriage, aged 34-36 .08078220788

52—Vanguard, TUESDAY, FUBRUARY 26, 2013

GK Animashawun: Celebrating a man of many parts @80 P

ARK Geun-hye made history yesterday by becoming South Korea’s first female president, pledging to secure South Korea against the threat of an increasingly hostile North Korea at the same time as mending bridges with Pyongyang.

“North Korea’s recent nuclear test is a challenge to the survival and future of the Korean people, and there should be no mistake that the biggest victim will be none other than North Korea itself,” she said, adding that, “I urge North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions without delay and embark on the path to peace and shared development.”

Reiterating her policy of ‘trustpolitik’ - a policy based on deterrence combined with cautious approaches to North Korea - she said she intended to “lay the groundwork for an era of harmonious unification where all Koreans can lead more prosperous and freer lives and where their dreams can come true.”

“I will move forward step-by-step on the basis of credible deterrence to build trust between the South and the North.”

She said South Koreans stood at a new juncture, confronting the difficulties of the global financial crisis as well as the threat from the North.

Italian election heads to deadlock

E

ARLY results from Italy’s election suggest the houses of parliament may split between left and right, causing new anxiety in the eurozone.

According to early figures, Pier Luigi

Rival DR Congo rebel groups clash

A

T least eight people have been killed in the first clashes between rival factions of the M23 rebel group in DR Congo, sources have told the BBC. The violence was linked to a powerstruggle between M23 political leader Jean-Marie Runiga and military chief Sultani Makenga, the sources said.

On Sunday, regional leaders signed a UN-brokered accord to end conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

About 80,000 people have been displaced in fighting since May 2012.

The M23 launched a rebellion against the DR Congo government, briefly seizing Goma, the main city in the east, in November.

Bersani’s centre-left bloc is poised to take the lower house while Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right appears to leading in the powerful Senate.

A protest movement led by comedian Beppe Grillo has surged into third, even as the election comes amid a deep recession and tough austerity measures.

It marks a return to full-blown democracy for Italians after the technocratic government of Mario Monti whose attempts to reduce spending caused widespread public resentment.

As projections began to show no clear winner the Milan stock market dipped into negative territory, after earlier soaring nearly 4% when exit polls suggested a clear Bersani victory.

Correspondents say Italy ’s EU partners and the financial markets want to see a stable outcome to the election, with a commitment to reform and debt-reduction.

The BBC’s Europe editor, Gavin Hewitt, says Brussels and Berlin would like to see Mr Bersani form a governing coalition with Mr Monti.

West offers Iran relief at nuclear talks

P

OWERS to offer Iran sanctions relief at nuclear talks with major powers will offer Iran some sanctions relief during talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, this week if Tehran agrees to curb its nuclear program, a U.S. official said yesterday.

But the Islamic Republic could face more economic pain if it fails to address international concerns about its atomic activities, the official said ahead of the February 26-27 meeting in the central Asian state, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“There will be continued sanctions enforcement ... there are other areas where pressure can be put,” the official said on the eve of the first round of negotiations between Iran and six world powers in eight months.

A spokesman for European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who leads the talks with Iran on behalf of the powers, said Tehran should understand that there was an “urgent need to make concrete and tangible progress” in Kazakhstan.

Both Russia and the United States stressed there was not an unlimited amount of time to resolve a dispute

that has raised fears of a new war in the Middle East. “The window for a diplomatic solution simply cannot by definition remain open forever.

Egypt opposition leader calls for election boycott

A

top Egyptian opposition leader at the weekend urged a boycott of parliamentary elections in April, describing them as “an act of deception.”

Mohamed ElBaradei is one of the leaders of Egypt’s National Salvation Front, a coalition of opposition groups.

In a tweet from his official account, he called for the boycott, just like he did three years ago.

“Called for parliamentary election boycott in 2010 to expose sham democracy. Today I repeat my call, will not be part of an act of deception,” it read.

But Essam Erian, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and leader of the majority party in Egypt’s upper house of Parliament, criticized the proposed boycott.

chairmanship of Dr. Yomi Finnih.

In a goodwill message to the octogenarian, the management of IGI described Pa G. K. Animashawun as a blessing to the company. It said: “All of us in the IGI family rejoice with you on the occasion of your 80th birthday. We seize the opportunity of this special event to pay tribute to your sterling leadership Chief Abdul Gaffar Kayode Animashawun qualities, professional acumen and profound TRIBUTE wisdom, which have been of tremendous

BY BASHIR ADEFAKA advantage to our dear company over the years. We pray that Almighty God will grant you many more years in good HIEF Abdul-Gaffar Kayode health.”

Animashawun, is 80 today. He On the religious side, the was born in Lagos on February 26, 1933 octogenarian has been an age-long as the 10th child of the late Alhaji member of the Ahmadiyya Movement Muritala Ajadi Animashawun, a in Islam, Nigeria and is the life renowned Islamic scholar and religious president of the movement in the broadcaster and late Alhaja Safauratu country. Just as notable as his Amori Animashawun. contributions to development of Yoruba Following his relocation to the United race and the nation is, the Ooni of Ife, Kingdom for sometime now, due to His Imperial Majesty, Oba Okunade health issues, his 80th birthday Sijuade, had installed him a chief in his anniversary has, therefore, got a twodomain, which saw him becoming the dimensional angle of celebration. He B’obagunwa of the Source, Ile-Ife. will be celebrated in the city of London Chief GK Animashawun holds an today with special prayer and LL.B. degree in Law from the University thanksgiving service at Alvion Gate College London. On his return to starting at 1400 and 1500 GMT Nigeria in 1963, he joined the law firm respectively. of Kotoye and Oluwa Solicitors in Lagos, where he successful practiced before Businessman leaving to establish his own legal and politician practice in Western House.

He was chairman of Mushin Council The same line of events will run in 1966 before the first military coup sent concurrently in Lagos, today, with the First Republic politicians out of special prayer holding at Ahmadiyya power in Nigeria. He has carved a niche Central Mosque, Simpson Street, Fondly called GK, AbdulEbutte Meta and reception at the Gaffar has been a lawyer, New Ahmadiyya businessman and politician and Praying Ground, between Ladipo has made his marks in all the and Adams three Street, Ebutte Meta, Lagos, each commencing at 10.30am and for himself as an investor in major areas 12.30pm respectively. of business, therefore, contributing to Fondly called GK, Abdul-Gaffar has job creations in the country which spans been a lawyer, businessman and over 30 years. politician and has made his marks in His business empire includes all the three. He is married to Yetunde, Kayotunde Investments Limited, a daughter of late cleric, Rev. Canon D. family business, which deals in real K. Asekun, in a marriage that has estate development, commodity trading spanned 50 years with five brilliant and and equity investment. GK Animashaun successful children. has been the Chairman/Chief Executive Pa G. K. Animashawun sits on the of Roger Renaud GK Nigeria Limited board of numerous companies since inception in Nigeria in 1976. The including the foremost insurance firm company is a Franco-Nigeria in Nigeria, Industrial and General partnership, which successfully Insurance Plc (IGI), where he is one of pioneered the introduction of in-situ the founding directors, alongside industrialized pre-cast construction eminent Nigerians like former head of systems in Nigeria. state, Gen. (Dr.) Yakubu Gowon, and At the time it started, the company Apostle Hayford Alile, among others. handled the construction of two He is a director on the board of thousand units of three-bedroom flats Vanguard Media Limited, publishers of in FESTAC Town in less than 24 months Vanguard Newspaper titles under the and has over the years, built in excess chairmanship of renowned journalist, of four thousand housing units in Mr. Sam Amuka and is a major Nigeria and remains in the forefront of shareholder in Bridge Clinic under the pre-cast construction in the country.

C

,

Park Geun-hye becomes South Korea’s first female president

,

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013 — 53

C M Y K

54 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Sunday Mba Continues from BP He also produced the player ’s license and contract showing that he was a Warri Wolves player. Their petition to the League Management Board against the move of Rangers to sell Mba to European club even during the Nations Cup and the resolution of the league board on the matter were equally produced. Abigor then said the following:

C M Y K

“I pray for the career of Sunday Mba to blossom. He is a good player but he must watch his conduct and behaviour. It is difficult to succeed without discipline. Mba has exceptional talent but he must be honest and sincere in all hedoes.

He must learn to respect contracts otherwise he may not be a successful professional. On the side of Rangers

Football Club, I find their claim as irresponsible. The documents speak for us.”

When Delta State Governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan rewarded Super Eagles players for winning the 2013 Nations Cup, War ri Wolves players in the team were paid additional N2.5 million. Mba collected his share. But on Sunday he was quoted in the media as saying that he belonged to Rangers.

On Sunday, chairman of Enugu Rangers, Festus Onu, rewarded Rangers players who were in the Nations Cup team. Each of the players received N300,000 each. Mba and Chigozie Agbim were listed as recipients. Former Ogun State Sports

Commissioner, Bukola Olopade counseled that the matter should be handled professionally, lest the outside world would laugh at our system.

However, we gathered yesterday that Mba was already in Europe on trial with a club. It was not immediately known

the country he went to.

One of the players from Rangers simply said “he has gone to Europe.”

Rangers said last night that they would produce their own documents on the player.

Below are all the relevant documents produced by Warri Wolves.

Vanguard, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013 —55

Heartland prepare for strike

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA, OWERRI

U

NEASY calm is now raging in Heartland Football Club of Owerri, following what the players called “inability or reluctance of the state government to clear their legitimate earnoings”.

Sports Vanguard gathered that the aggrieved players have concluded plans to embark on indefinite industrial action until government pays them.

They players are irked that they are owed a balance of 30 percent of their sign-on fees from the last football season, seven match bonuses and arrears of salaries since August last year.

One of the most vocal players, who spoke on strict grounds of anonymity, told our Correspondent that as the last count, they have, between 2011 and 2012, won five trophies.

“These include the Federation Cup 2011, Champion of Champions Cup 2011, Pre-season Super Four Tournament

2012, Federation Cup 2012 and Champion of Champions Cup 2012.

The sad thing is that up till now, Governor Rochas Okorocha has not deemed it expedient to rewarded the players”, the aggrieved player lamented.

Answering another question, the ace footballer said the morale of the players at the Naze camp is very low, even as they are gradually losing hope.

“Next football season begins March 9, while our continental engagement will also begin in the same month. I do not know how we can successfully prosecute these assignments with the present state of affairs”, the young man fumed.When contacted on his mobile line, the Club’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Cajetan Nkwopara, affirmed that the players are owed some money but quickly added that the management is yet to be informed of any impending strike.

RIVALS ... Mario Balotelli and Inter captain Javier Zanetti

Fans taunt Balotelli with bananas M

ARIO Balotelli was taunted by racist Italian football fans who waved inflatable bananas and jeered him

Sunday night..

The ugly side of football was again on display as yobs hurled abuse at the ex-

Manchester City star as he played against his former club Inter Milan.

Balotelli - who now stars for Inter ’s rivals

Pistorius reports to authorities

A

spokeswoman for Oscar Pistorius says the Olympic and Paralympic sprinter has reported to authorities in South Africa’s capital of Pretoria under the bail terms in the premeditated murder case against him.

Lunice Johnston said Monday that the doubleamputee Olympian vis-

ited correctional officers, but she did not specify the location in the city.

Pistorius, who was released on bail Friday, is staying at the home of an uncle in the affluent suburb of Waterkloof in Pretoria, as his home is the crime scene where Pistorius is accusing of shooting and killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp

Paintsil denies stabbing wife MITCHELL OBI MEETS MR. PRESIDENT....AIPS Executive Committee Member , Mitchell Obi (r) of Nigeria meets President of Senegal, Macky Sall, who honoured AIPS president, Gianni Merlo of Italy at the weekend with the Chevalier d’order de merit. ( Knight of the order of Merit). It is the first time in its 78years old history of AIPS that president of AIPS will be so honored.

G

HANA internation al John Paintsil has denied he stabbed his wife in the eye after be-

Pastor Adeboye tennis tourney begins T HE first Pastor Enoch Adeboye National Table Tennis tournament final begins today at the Redeemed Camp with about 25 states of the federation in attendance. In a preevent press briefing held

C M Y K

at the Christian Church of God Events Centre, the Special Assistant to the General Overseer (Admin and Personnel), Pastor Johnson Odesola said N6m prize money is at stake. Winners in both

male and female categories will go home with N1.5 million each, the runners up get N1 m each while the 3rd and 4th place finishers get N250,000 as prize money. Each participating state presented 8

players of 4 boys and same number of girls. The preliminaries will end on Thursday when the quarter finals and semi finals will be concluded while the final comes up on Saturday.

ing arrested on Friday for the alleged incident.

The Black Stars defender’s spokesperson, Ebenezer Aidoo, has denied that the incident involved a stabbing by the player, and the couple were now living “peacefully” again.

“John in his right frame of senses and cannot take a knife and stab his wife,” Aidoo told Accrabased Joy FM.

AC Milan - had to endure inflatable bananas and vile taunts calling him a “son of a whore”, shocking footage in Italy has shown.

Despite the abuse Balotelli kept his composure and signalled for them to be quiet by putting a finger to his mouth.

Milan manager Massimiliano Allegri praised the 21-year-old striker.

He said: “Balotelli did very well not to react to the provocations, I’m just sorry he wasn’t able to score.”

Eyewitnesses said there were more than 100 inflatable bananas, according to disturbing reports.

In a heated San Sito, Balotelloi was mocked

by Inter fans who outnumbered AC supporters.

Mario’s teammates and opponents appeared aware of the vile taunts.

The Inter captain Javier Zanetti appeared to restrain Balotelli urging him to ignore the abuse.

Zanetti is also reported to have scalded Inter fans waving the inflatables by shaking his hand at them.

VANGUARD, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Sunday Mba moves to Europe •As Warri Wolves turn furious over Rangers claim •Produce documents on him

BY ONOCHIE ANIBEZE

C

HAIRMAN of Warri Wolves, Godwin Abigor yesterday

became furious over the claim of Enugu Rangers on Nations Cup hero, Sunday Mba, saying that he was scandalised by the club and the

CONTROVERSY: Sunday Mba (r) in action for Nigeria

attitude of the midfielder.

Abigor produced documents to authenticate his claim that Mba was still a Warri Wolves player.

Among the documents was a November 2, 2012 letter from Rangers requesting for the services of Sunday Mba, Chigozie Agbim and Lazarus Chukwu.

Wolves were yet to release him as negotiation for any transfer, according to Abigor, had not taken place.

“In that letter, Rangers referred to Mba and the other two as Warri Wolves players and since transfer had not taken place why are Rangers now claiming that Mba was theirs?” Abigor said.

Continues on Page 54

PUZZLE

Barca, Madrid set for crunch Copa showdown A FTER a thrilling 11 draw at the Santiago Bernabeu, Real Madrid will travel to Camp Nou to face off with eternal rivals Barcelona in the return leg Copa del Rey action, today.

This week will give fans two Clasicos in only five days. But with big matches on the horizon for both clubs, this week will not only be about the great rivalry.

However, no matter what matches are coming up, the first Clasico of the week will be the most important.

With the aggregate score

at 1-1, the match at Camp Nou will decide who books their place in the Copa del

Rey final. Expect both teams to field their strongest lineup and give this match the upmost importance.

Blatter eulogises Keshi, Eagles on Afcon success

P

RESIDENT of world football-governing body, FIFA, Joseph Blatter has eulogised the Super Eagles Head Coach, Stephen Keshi who led the Nigerian team to the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations triumph in South Africa recently.

In a letter dated 14th February and addressed

directly to the Nigeria Football Federation, Mr. Blatter stated, “Please convey my warmest wishes to all of the players, the technical and medical staff, and in particular to Stephen Keshi – only the second man to lift the trophy as both captain and national team coach. Stephen is a great example to other African associations."

QUICK CROSSWORD

Sudoku TODAY'S

TRICKY: Lionel Messi (c) surrounded by Madrid players in a previous El Clasico

YESTER DAY'S YESTERDAY'S

ANSWERS

ACROSS 2 Fat (5) 7 Relish (5) 8 Van (5) 10 Principal (5) 12 Anger (3) 13 Outcome (5) 15 Earthenware (7) 17 Rough (6) 19 Groove (3) 20 Quiver (7) 23 Appear (4) 25 Comfort (4) 26 Remarkable (7) 30 Fruit (3) 31 Detain (6) 34 Stupid (7) 37 Chew (5) 38 Spasm (3) 39 Courteous (5) 40 Bird (5) 41 Recently (5) 42 Cut (5)

DOWN 1 Lariat (5) 2 Happen (5) 3 Command (6) 4 Ooze (4) 5 Fragile (7) 6 Inactive (5) 9 Mineral (3) 11 Recipe (7) 13 Coldly (5) 14 Drawing-room (5) 16 Bath (3) 18 Wandering (7) 21 Consumed (5) 24 Cogs (5) 27 Cask (3) 28 Fur (6) 29 Sum (5) 32 Monarch (5) 33 Rebuke (5) 35 Dress (3) 36 Quote (4)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS ACROSS: 2, Pitch 7, Beau 8, Unruly 9, Tryst 11, Bar 13, Arm 15, Eyed 16, Lea 18, Area 19, Consist 20, Used 22, Sink 23, Rattled 25, Stem 27, Hit 28, Stun 30, Tee 31, End 33, Beast 36, Escape 37, Oath 38, Godly.

How to Play Sudoku

THE VIGILANTE

DOWN: 1, Delay 2, Put 3, Try 4, Hut 5, Pry 6, Glare 10, Seen 11, Bequest 12, Reference 13, Artistic 14, Mankind 16, Loath 17, Asset 18, Ass 21, Dam 24, Live 26, Tense 29, Unite 32, Bud 33, Beg 34, Aid 35, Toy.

e-mail: rowolove@yahoo.co.uk

Place 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.

C M Y K