Henry Okah to spend24 yrs in prison by Vanguard Media Limited

...towards a better life for the people

VOL. 25: NO. 61847

ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

N150

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013

FRONT PAGE COMMENT

Tackling Insecurity: Rule Nothing Out I

N the search for solutions to the security chal lenges Nigeria faces, government should not rule out any options. Government’s openness would win it new friends and partners in a fight that is proving increasingly more daunting with the opposition so desperate that it aims at taking more lives.

Nothing can justify the wanton loss of lives and property and the shrinking control of government over parts of the country. What began in Bauchi almost four years ago as attacks on police and civilians, has spread to almost every State in the North, claiming thousands of lives. Continues on Page 18

ABUJA, WARRI BOMBINGS:

AGREEMENT— From left: Mr Kayode Akinkugbe, MD FBN Capital Ltd; Mr Bruce Burrows, Chief Financial Officer, Seven Energy Int'l Limited; Mr Philip Iheanacho, CEO and Mr Stephen Tierney, MD, Accugas during Accugas $225m refinancing and Expansion facility signing ceremony held in Lagos yesterday. Photo: Lamidi Bamidele.

Henry Okah to spend 24 yrs in prison C M Y K

•Gets 12 yrs each for Abuja, Warri bomb attacks •It's unfortunate, he should appeal — Falana •It's politically motivated — MEND, Keyamo E-West Road contract properly awarded — Otobo

BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE, WAHAB ABDULLAH, SAMUEL OYADONGHA, IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI & GBENGA OKE (WITH AGENCY REPORTS)

AGOS—A SOUTH African Court, yesterday, sentenced former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, Mr. Henry Okah, to 24 years imprisonment, having been found guilty on 13-count charge of terrorism. The charges related

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Mr & Mrs

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Detractors behind Lamido, Amaechi Campaign posters •Pg.8

JAILED—File photo of Henry Okah in Court on February 28, 2013.

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POCKET CARTOON

ECOWAS—President Goodluck Jonathan (3R) in a group photograph with the leader of a delegation of ECOWAS Commissioners, Mr. Desire Ouedraogo (3L); former Women Affairs Minister, Hajia Salamatu Suleiman (r) and others during an audience at the State House, Abuja, yesterday. Photo: Abayomi Adeshida.

Henry Okah to spend 24 yrs in prison Continues from Page 1 to two car bombs in Abuja, in which 12 people were killed and 36 injured on October 1, 2010, on the anniversary of Nigeria’s independence, and another two explosions in Warri, earlier in March, 2010. Judge Neels Claassen delivered the sentence in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, Phindi Louw, spokeswoman for the National Prosecuting Authority, said in a phone interview. The

sentence came after five postponements. Okah was found guilty on January 21 of planning car bomb attacks in 2010 in Abuja, close to where President Goodluck Jonathan was celebrating Nigeria’s 50 years of independence. South African law allows trials of alleged terrorists arrested or resident in the country, no matter where their acts were committed. The court reserved pronouncement of the sentence to Janu-

LIFEWORDS

BY PASTOR ITUAH

Excuses have no value. Forget about making excuses and focus on the amazing possibilities. You can still make the seemingly impossible possible.

TAKE HEART BY ELLA RANDLE

A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allow you to grow — William Shakespeare

ARY Jacsch perspective on the value of good friendships: If it wasn’t for friends, I would have never survived some of the most difficult moments in my life. When I was going through one of the most challenging and painful events in my life, it was friends old and new that came to the rescue and saved not only the day but my sanity! Friends were there to give me advice and a perspective on my life. Friends were there for strength and courage. They were also there for laughter and encouragement. I now realize that friendship is tested during life’s tough moments and become strengthened when facing and overcoming adversity. While I am not seeking more problems in my life merely for the sake of nurturing friendships, I’ve found that we can always deepen and strengthen our relationships with others. Sometimes we are so busy with life and family that we forget that we have friends. We need to be aware that the friends in our lives won’t be there forever. Although they may be “just” a neighbour or classmate today, it doesn’t mean they will be tomorrow. Be aware that the people you spend time with as friends is the first step in building stronger relationships. Good friends are hard to come by so value the friendships you do have and they will last you a lifetime.

ary 31, 2013. The sentence was later postponed to February 28, March 18, 19 and 20 before it was given yesterday. MEND, the main rebel group in Niger Delta, which is home to Nigeria’s petroleum industry, Africa’s biggest, claimed responsibility for the Abuja bombing. Okah was sentenced to 12 years for the Abuja bombing and another 12 years for a March, 2010 bombing in the Warri which MEND also claimed responsibility for, Louw said. Okah was also sentenced to 10 years for threatening South Africa and that term will run concurrently with the 12-year sentence for the bombing in Abuja, she said. MEND had threatened to attack the holdings of companies including MTN Group Ltd. (MTN), Africa’s biggest mobile phone operator, and SacOil Holding Ltd. (SCL), an oil and gas exploration company, saying South African President Jacob Zuma is interfering “in the legitimate fight for justice” in the Niger Delta region. Okah, who denied the charges, declined to testify. He said his trial was unfair because the Nigerian government blocked about 20 witnesses from traveling to South Africa to give evidence, he said in an interview on January 31. “The judge made his decision based on what was before him,” Okah

said. “The problem is that my witnesses were stopped from coming.” Nigeria’s government accused Okah of being the leader of MEND, which said it was fighting for a greater share of oil revenue for the region. Thousands of fighters have since dropped their weapons and accepted government’s amnesty. While Okah denies being involved in the Abuja blasts and yesterday described the claim that he leads MEND as “ridiculous,” he has said he commands the support of many armed groups in Nigeria’s oil region.

It’s unfortunate – Falana Reacting to the sentence, Mr. Femi Falana SAN, former counsel to Henry Okah, said the decision was unfortunate and urged Okah to appeal. “It is very unfortunate after he had led the militants to lay down their arms here in Nigeria; after he and others were granted amnesty and after I defended him in Jos. The development is very unfortunate. I believe he will definitely appeal the judgment. He still has the ample opportunity to ask for the review of the judgment, and I am sure he will appeal.”

Not a surprise — MEND

On its part, MEND, yesterday, said it received with incredulity the 24 years sentence on Henry Okah after a "sham trial in a South African kangaroo court". In a statement by its Spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, MEND said the sentence did not come as a surprise to it and accussed the Federal Government of influencing the verdict. The statement read in part: "We are disappointed but not surprised that the South African judiciary has allowed itself to be compromised by the highly corrupt Nigerian government. "The governments of South Africa and Nigeria should realise that this planned sentencing of Henry Okah would not in any way, shape or form, change our struggle as we will remain dedicated to our cause until we achieve full justice and emancipation for the Niger Delta and its people."

Sentence politically motivated – Keyamo Also, Lagos-based human rights activist and lawyer, Mr. Festus Keyamo, said the verdict was politically motivated. In a statement, Keyamo contended that the judgment was legally incorrect because “Okah was not given adequate facilities and the opportunity to defend himself.” He therefore urged the Federal Government to “immediately use all diplomatic efforts to ensure that Henry Okah does not die in a South African prison and for the South African Government to grant him unconditional pardon.” Last January, Edmund

Ebiware, an accused accomplice of Henry Okah was sentenced to life in jail by a Federal High Court in Abuja over his involvement in the Oct 1, 2010 Independence Day bombing by Justice Gabriel Kolawole. Born in 1965, Okah was arrested in Angola and deported to Nigeria in February 2008, and charged with 62 count of treason, terrorism, illegal possession of firearms and arms trafficking, and faced the death penalty. The trial, which began in April, 2008, was held in private, because late President Umaru Yar ’Adua said it would “jeopardize national security ”. Lawyers for Okah said a closed trial was an infringement of his rights and asked a superior court to overturn the decision. In response, on May 26, 2008, MEND attacked a Royal Dutch Shell pipeline in the Delta region and claimed to have killed 11 Nigerian soldiers. In July 2009, Okah’s lawyer announced that he accepted an amnesty which had been offered by the Nigerian government to any militant willing to lay down his arms in a bid to end attacks on the oil industry. Senior MEND official “General” Boyloaf claimed that if Okah was set free, the organization would indeed lay down its arms, and Jomo Gbomo Jomo, spokesman of the organization, supported Okah’s decision since his health was failing. However, other MEND leaders said that they would reject the amnesty. On July 13, 2009, Judge Mohammed Liman announced that Okah was released, telling him in person “Having reviewed what the attorney general said, you have become a free man at this moment.”

6—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013

Man demands N11m compensation over son's death BY SUZAN EDEH

AUCHI — A 65-YEAROLD man from Yashi village in Duguri district of Alkaleri Local Government Area, Bauchi State, Alhaji Bala Adamu, has demanded N11million as compensation for the alleged torture to death of his son by the police over alleged defamation of character. Adamu who was accompanied by the state officer of the Bauchi State Legal Aid Council, Mr Muhammad Hanbal, alleged that his 25-year-old son, Bala Babangida, was tortured to death by the police while in detention. He alleged that his son was severely beaten by one Musa Abdul, a policeman while in cell at the Maina Maji Police outpost in Alkaleri Local Government Area, which subsequently led to his death. In his account, the aggrieved old man said the problem started when one Dan Bauchi, a resident of Yashi, reported his son at the police station in Alkaleri on July 23, 2008 for allegedly defaming him. According to him, "soon after my son was arrested, the village head of Yashi, Alhaji Ibrahim Saleh, went to the police station to secure his bail but the police refused to grant his request, so I took it upon my self to secure his bail. “On reaching the police station, I was able to secure bail for my son, but I could not recognize him because he had been badly tortured. His younger brother had to carry him home because he was too weak to walk. My son managed to take a bath and I tried to find out from him why he was arrested and tortured. "He told me that Musa, the policeman was the one that tortured him and that he was innocent of the allegations levelled against him by the said Dan Bauchi. He said the policeman kept beating and marching him in the cell.” The man further said that he went to the police station the next day to ask the police to accompany his son to the hospital but the police refused hence he had to seek the help of a lawyer who stood as a guarantor before his son was admitted at the Specialist Hospital, Bauchi where he died.

Gunmen kill policeman, 27 others in Plateau BY TAYE OBATERU

OS —A POLICE corporal was among 28 persons killed, yesterday, when gunmen attacked two communities around Ganawuri in Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State. He was among the security

personnel posted to the area to maintain peace following the outbreak of violence. Eyewitnesses said the gunmen stormed Da Jak and Attakar communities setting their houses on fire and gunning them down as they tried to flee. The state's Commissioner of Police, Mr. Chris Olakpe,

confirmed the killing of the corporal identified as Jubrin Sule, saying he was on a peace mission to the area. He said no arrest had been made but investigations had commenced into the attack. Also confirming the attack, a member representing Riyom Constituency in the Plateau State House of Assembly, Mr.

Daniel Dem, said dozens were killed but could not give the exact number. He lamented the continuous attack on his people without the security men on ground doing anything to protect them. He reaffirmed his earlier call for a review of the security arrangement which he said was not yielding expected result.

Court remands man in prison for alleged criminal trespass

BUJA — AN Abuja Magistrates’ Court, yesterday, ordered that one Buhari Ahmadu, 21, of no fixed address be remanded in prison for alleged criminal trespass. Ahmadu is standing trial before Magistrate Abdullateef Abiola on a two-count charge of criminal trespass and attempt to commit the offence of theft. The Prosecutor, Sgt. Friday Idi, told the court that one Mustapha Mohammed of Plot 804 in Galadimawa, Abuja, reported the matter at the Galadimawa Police Station, Abuja, on March 19. Idi said that the accused criminally jumped into Mohammed’s compound with an attempt to commit an offence and that the complainant suddenly woke up from sleep and both started fighting. He said that Ahmadu strangled Mohammed by tying an electric wire round his neck, but that Mohammed eventually freed himself. The prosecutor said that when the accused jumped over the fence to escape, he was arrested by a soldier on duty.

...and doctor for failure to produce suspect Also, an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court has remanded a medical doctor, Uzoma Opara, at the Kirikiri Prisons for failing to produce a suspected fraudster in court. The magistrate, Mrs Olufunke Hamzat, however, gave Opara, 36, an option of forfeiting the N500,000 bail bond he entered for Temiloluwa Owolabi for whom he stood as a surety. Hamzat said that standing as a surety was risky and advised that people should not do it for those they did not know well or trust. The doctor, who resides at Agege, Lagos, is facing a charge of perverting the course of justice.

National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, protesting against alleged refusal of the leadership of the House of Representatives to swear in former President of NANS, Comrade Tonye Nwoye, as a member of the House, at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja, yesterday.

Terrorists hideout: Afenifere asks security agencies to probe ownership of the house BY DAPO AKINREFON

AGOS — PAN-YORUBA socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, has called on security agencies to investigate allegations that the house where nine suspected terrorists, including a Chadian, were arrested in Ijora-Badia in Lagos belongs to Bayelsa State Government. It would be recalled that the Ojora of Ijora,Oba Fatai Oyeyinka Aromire had alleged that the house where nine suspected terrorists, were arrested belongs to Bayelsa State Government. The monarch who made the allegation while receiving a delegation of Hausa community, said: “I also want to say that the blame should go to the Bayelsa State government for not taking care of their abandoned house which the evil doers were using as their hideout. We have been talking to them for a very long time to lease it out for the people that would make use of it, but they refused. "If you ask the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, in this area, he would tell you all our efforts to ensure that they either demolish or give it to the people that would make use of it, but they are yet to respond.” Afenifere, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Yinka Odumakin, said the claim by the Ojora raises a red flag that cannot be ignored “given the psychological warfare that has

been waged against Yorubaland of possible terror attack for about a year now. What has largely been perceived as threat is assuming a near reality with the discovery of this terror hideout.” The group said it was compelled to call for a thorough

investigation of the incidence to ascertain “who these suspects are and what links they have with the blood-sucking Boko Haram or Army. Why the Bayelsa State Government would maintain an abandoned property in IjoraBadia of all places in Lagos?"

CNS warns personnel against complicity in crude oil theft BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

ENAGOA — CHIEF of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Dele Ezeoba, yesterday, warned officers and men of the Nigerian Navy against complicity in crude oil theft in the Niger Delta, saying anyone caught will have himself to blame. Vice Admiral Ezeoba, who gave the warning in Yenagoa while addressing men and officers of the Central Naval Command of the Nigerian Navy as part of his annual inspection tour of naval commands in the country, accused some personnel of being complicit in act of crude oil theft and illegal bunkering activities in the region. He warned that any one caught in the act would not go scotfree. The CNS said: “I like to reiterate the issue of complicity which we have observed in the past. I hope that we do not as a matter of priority allow that to continue.

“We have a mandate and we must be defined by the core tenet of character, sincerity of purpose, total commitment and dedication to duty for which you have attested to during your commissioning as officers. These are the guiding principles that will define our attitude and character. Those core attributes of honour, integrity and duty must be seen as building blocks for naval operation to move forward.” He cited the Brass/Akassa corridor of the nation’s maritime domain as one of the notorious zones for vandalism and crude oil theft in the region. This, he said, informed his decision to order the deployment of more and newer naval ships to the area to combat the menace. He told his men that there was zero tolerance for criminality in the force hence commanders of formations had been made to sign a performance contract which stipulates that any erring officer would be sanctioned.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013—7

Man jailed for causing road obstruction

Adamawa State Library in Ganye Local Government Area set ablaze by gunmen during attack in the town, Friday. Photo: NAN.

Customs officer shot dead at Seme border BY GODWIN ORITSE

AGOS — GUNMEN, Saturday, shot and killed a Customs officer, Mr Musa Bala, a Senior Inspector of Customs, at the Seme border Command of the Nigeria Customs Service. Confirming the development, spokesman of the command, Mr. Ernest Ollotah, said the incident came as a shock to the command, adding that the remains of the officer had been deposited at the Badagry General Hospital mortuary. Ollotah told Vanguard that the command was still awaiting the report of the incident from the Police as the matter was being investigated. The incident, according to Ollotah, took place at about 5 a.m, a few metres from Customs Barracks in Seme. He said the command would not jump into conclusion over the incident until the Police report was

ready, adding that the family of the deceased officer had been notified, a development that necessitated a visit to the command by the deceased's brother.

The command’s spokesman also told Vanguard that the late officer hailed from Adamawa State and will be buried after investigation into his death. Customs officers in the Seme

axis have come under serious attacks in recent times. The death of Musa is about the second this year as another officer was shot dead by one of his colleagues few weeks ago.

Suspected cultist impregnates 7-year-old As police rescue kidnapped principal, vice principal BY EMMA AMAIZE

ARRI — POLICE at Orerokpe, Delta State, have arrested a suspected cultist, simply called Monday, for allegedly raping and impregnating a seven-year-old girl (names withheld). Vanguard learnt that the girl was living with her 27-year-old aunt, Destiny, in Ometa village, where Monday allegedly had carnal knowledge of her. It was gathered that the victim fell sick after the incident but Destiny did not suspect it was as result of pregnancy until she

alerted the child’s mother, a widow, who said she should be taken to the hospital. The young child was taken to a clinic where a pelvic scan conducted on her confirmed she was pregnant. A family source said: “The suspect was subsequently, arraigned in court yesterday, and remanded in prisons custody.”

As police rescue kidnapped principal, vice principal

Meantime, police in Delta State have rescued the Principal and

Vice Principal of Okuname High School, Agharho, Mr. Michael. Akpoduma and Mrs. Gerah Edith respectively, kidnapped by three gunmen, March 25. Police officers and members of a vigilance group in the area stormed the kidnappers' den in Okuname forest to rescue the victims, yesterday. Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba, who confirmed the the rescue of the victims said the kidnappers initially demanded N10 million and later reduced it to N5 million to free the victims, adding: “No ransom was paid.”

Lack of functional toilet causes factory worker’s electrocution BY BOSE ADELAJA

AGOS — TRAGEDY struck, Monday, at Odogunyan area of Ikorodu, Lagos, when a factory worker with African Steel Mill was electrocuted after the company allegedly denied him access to its toilet facilities. The incident occurred around 7.30 a.m, when the worker, Ebor Ofem, 27, who wanted to defecate went to a senior staff of the company to collect the toilet key, but was refused access on the account that the only functioning toilet in the company was meant for staff and not casual workers. Immediately, Ofem who was already pressed, rushed to the company’s perimeter fence area to defecate oblivious that the fence had been secured with live electric cables which subsequently electrocuted him. Another casual worker, however, raised alarm around 8 a.m, after discovering his colleague’s lifeless body. Ironically, he was also refused access to the company’s toilet which drove him towards the fence where Ofem’s corpse lied. The incident almost degenerated into crisis as the aggrieved workers protested the injustice meted to their colleague but the timely arrival of Policemen from Sagamu road division saved the

situation as the corpse was immediately removed and deposited in a morgue. A source in the company who pleaded anonymity said the workers were aggrieved for the fact that the company authorities wanted to sweep the case under the carpet. According to the source,"excreta everywhere here because we lack toilet facilities. Also, the Chief Security Officer did not inform the Police about Ofem’s predicament; he only informed them that his lifeless body was found and this shows that our life is not precious to the company. “Prior to the incident, the casual workers had complained about lack of toilet facilities in the company as the only functioning one could not serve the legitimate staff of the company not to talk of the casual workers but the company had turned deaf ears to this and allowed the workers to defecate at unauthorised places.” When Vanguard visited the company, yesterday, she was denied access into the premises although an offensive odour oozed out from the back of the company. Also at Sagamu road police division, both the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, Benard Ediagbonga and his Divisional Crime Officer, DCO, Sunday Akaeze, were not on seat as at the time of Vanguard's visit but they were said to have gone to the company for further investigations.

BUJA — AN Abuja Senior Magistrates’ Court yesterday, sentenced a bus driver, Alfa Malik, to three months imprisonment for causing obstruction along Lugbe road, Abuja. Magistrate Aminu Eri, who handed down the judgment, said each of the three-count charge levelled against the convict attracted one month imprisonment. Eri, however, gave an option of fine of N100 on each of the charges following plea for leniency by the convict. Earlier, the Police Prosecutor, Mr Jeremiah Elijah, had told the court that the convict, who was the driver of a Mazda bus with number plate: XL 48 AKD, was arrested by ASP Gambo Opav. He said Opav, attached to Lugbe police station, arrested the convict along Umar Musa Yar’ Adua highway on March 26. The prosecutor said the convict parked his bus on the road, which eventually caused obstruction to other road users. Elijah said when the convict was taken to the police station to clarify himself, it was discovered that he was not having necessary documents and gadgets for the vehicle. According to him, the convict, therefore, committed the offence contrary to Section 39(3) Cap 548 of the Road Traffic Act (RTA), Section 18 Cap 548 of RTA and Section 25(2(C) Cap 548 of the RTA.

8—Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013

2015: Detractors behind Lamido, Amaechi campaign posters BY SONI DANIEL & LUKA BINNIYAT

ADUNA—AGENTS of top politicians, who are uncomfortable with Governor Rotimi Amaechi's leadership of the Nigerian Governors' Forum, NGF, are behind the campaign posters purportedly announcing the presidential ambition of Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State and his Rivers State counterpart, Amaechi, it emerged yesterday. The posters, which were planted in strategic locations in Kaduna State, carried the faces of the two governors as presidential and vice presidential aspirants ahead of the 2015 election. Although residents of the city paid little or no attention to the materials, some persons believed to be security agents who were in vehicles with tinted windshield, were sighted near the posters, apparently protecting them from being tampered with. A source, who is familiar with the posters, said they were planted by agents of top politicians who are opposed to Amaechi’s continued leadership of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF, with a view to poisoning the minds of other governors from the North, who are also nursing presidential ambition. According to sources, the plan by the promoters of the posters, which Lamido and Amaechi, have since disowned, is to pitch the two governors against the rest of the northern governors and cause a division among them ahead of the Governors Forum election coming up in May. A top politician and member of the Northern Elders Forum confirmed yesterday that there had been pressure on some of the governors to move against Amaechi because of his perceived face-off with the Presidency. “But let me tell you that the northern governors are not fools and they know that Amaechi has been working hard for the overall wellbeing of the Nigerian people through the NGF, which he has been leading in the past two years or so".

Zero allocation to SEC: Senate bows to pressure, to make a U-turn •Hands off Constituency Projects •Backs Jonathan on Boko Haram BY HENRY UMORU & JOSEPH ERUNKE

BUJA— STRONG indi cations emerged, yesterday, that the Senate may revisit its decision on zero allocation for Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, in the 2013 fiscal year because of the faceoff with the commission’s Director General, Ms Aruma Oteh. The Senate, according to the Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, PDP, Abia South, will reconsider its stance in the spirit of ‘give and take’ against the backdrop that the decision to deny the commission funds in the 2013 budget was based on the report of the conference committee of both chambers. Abaribe also said that the senate was yet to take a decision

on the proposed amendments to the 2013 budget earlier presented to the National Assembly by the president The Senate also yesterday bowed to pressure from the presidency to hands off the handling of constituency projects as the Upper House said there will be no problem with the transfer of such powers to the Ministry of special duties. It said the move by the ministry to take over the projects became imperative for better performance and to distance the National Assembly from involving itself in the projects. Abaribe said: “We think that

what is being done in the presidency is probably to make it (constituency projects) more efficient, taking a look at what happens with regards to projects that are tagged constituency projects. You are aware that constituency projects are done in each ministry and what the National Assembly does is simply to pinpoint those projects and where they ought to be sited. We have nothing to do with implementation, except through our oversight functions for the constituencies’ projects. “So, if the Presidency feels that they have to bring it under one umbrella so that it will be better assessed so be it, that is the job of the executive. Our job is through our oversight func-

tions to ensure that all constituency projects or otherwise are faithfully implemented with regards to what comes out in the budget.” On SEC Budget and Oteh, the Senate spokesman said: "what happened was that there was a conference committee set up between the House and the Senate on the 2013 appropriation and the result of the conference committee is what is in the 2013 budget. Of course Mr. President indicated in the letter to the Senate and the House of Representatives that there are certain aspects of the 2013 budget which is already signed into law that he wants us to revisit and definitely, we are going to revisit those aspects. That is the process of give and take within government."

Govs' Forum asks Anambra, Ekiti, 16 others to conduct LG polls BY HENRY UMORU

BUJA—THE Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF, the umbrella body of the 36 state governors in the country, yesterday, called on Anambra and Ekiti states to conduct local government elections, just as it said the states were part of the 18 that were yet to conduct local government polls. According to the NGF in its State Peer Review Report, SPRM, presented to newsmen, in line with Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution, there must be local governance in the sense of a representative local government established through competitive elections where elected officials will be in place to run the affairs of the local governments and government brought close to the people at the grassroots. Presenting the reports on Ekiti and Anambra States, the National Coordinator, State Peer Review Mechanism, NGF, Dr. Afeikhena Jerome who noted that section 7 of the 1999 constitution was in the doldrums in Ekiti State, said, "Local government elections have not been conducted as and when due in the state since 1999. The conduct of local elections has been thwarted by successive governments not playing by the letter and spirit of the relevant laws that regulate the establishment

LECTURE—Former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo having a handshake with Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Edo State governor at the first Dr. Abel Guobadia memorial lecture in Benin City, yesterday.

BPE, PHCN workers in final negotiation BY EMMA UJAH, ABUJA BUREAU CHIEF

BUJA—THE Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, and representatives of Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, workers have entered the final phase of negotiations towards an amicable settlement of the workers’ terminal benefits. The benefits and rationalisation committee is overseeing the payment of about N384 billion package for about 50,000 workers of the PHCN. It was learnt that from the last staff verification conducted by the Federal Government in conjunction with the workers’ union, there were 10, 000 casual workers, while the permanent staff were a little less than 40, 000. Presidency sources said $ 2.6 billion (about N408 billion) would be realized from a successful privatization of the 15 successor companies of the PHCN and as such, virtually the proceeds from the privati-

zation of PHCN would be expended on settling workers’ entitlements. “What it means is that virtually the public investment in PHCN will now go to its workers in the name of paying entitlements. In spite of that we believe that it is in the interest of the nation to free the power sector from those who have held it down for many decades, the cost to the public, notwithstanding”, the source said. The source said with the investors already making good their bids for the successor companies, the government has decided to ensure a seamless takeover of the companies upon the completion of final payments expected within the next three months. The severance package for the PHCN workers will see them going home with between N8 million to as much as about N40 million, depending on the qualifications, positions and length of service.

Meanwhile, the union is likely to earn more than N3.5 billion in check-off dues from the severance package of the PHCN workers. It was learnt that the union received about N520 million in check-off dues from N47 billion arrears earlier paid to the workers. “As at March 21, 2013, BPE had received $559,445,573.96 from 14 bidders for 15 successor companies”, the agency’s Head of Public Communications, Mr. Chigbo Anichebe, had said. The BPE said it received $31million from four Power Consortium, being the mandatory 25 percent of the bid value for PortHarcourt Distribution Company; $31.5 million from Interstate Electrics Limited; being the mandatory 25 percent of the bid value for Enugu Distribution Company; and $27,913,633.50 from North-South Power Company; being the mandatory 25 percent of the bid value for Shiroro Power Plc.

Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013—9

Achebe projected African image—Obasanjo Senate holds special session for him today Reps ask FG to name National Library after him BY OKEY NDIRIBE, EMMAN OVUAKPORIE & DAUD OLATUNJI

BUJA—THE House of Representatives, yesterday, advised the Federal Government to immortalize the late Prof. Chinua Achebe by naming the headquarters of the National Library after the literary icon. This was sequel to a motion moved by a lawmaker, Charles Odedo, ACN Anambra. The Senate also resolved to hold a session today in honour of the late Achebe. The decision followed a motion on matters of urgent national importance raised by Senator Chris Ngige, ACN, Anambra. Ngige, who described Achebe as one of his constituents, said that torrents of tributes had been pouring in since Achebe's demise, but requested the Senate to honour him with a session of tributes.

Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo also described Prof. Achebe as a Nigerian who used his literary prowess to project the image of African continent to the world. Obasanjo made his views known in a statement in Abeokuta, yesterday, saying that late Achebe was a man of culture, a literary giant and a distinguished Nigerian. However, presenting his motion after a minute’s silence was observed in honour of Achebe in the House, Odedo said Prof. Achebe brought honour to Nigeria with his literary works that included his classical novel, ‘Things Fall Apart’. Oledo said one of Achebe’s books ‘The trouble with Nigeria’ identifies bad leadership and bad governance as the major problems with Nigeria. Speaker of the House, Aminu Tambuwal said he was given one of the books

of late Achebe with the title: “Arrow of God’ as a gift when he came top in the English class while at the Teachers’ Training College, TTC. The House agreed to send a letter of condolence to Achebe’s family as well as be represented during his burial rites. Meanwhile, Obasanjo lamented that “Achebe’s death’’ at this time was a great loss to Nigeria, Africa and particularly the global world of literature. Achebe had rejected a national honour during Obasanjo’s regime in 2004, blaming his decision on the former president’s maladministration. In his letter rejecting Obasanjo’s gesture, Prof Achebe stated, “I write this letter with a very heavy heart. For sometime now, I have watched events in Nigeria with alarm and dismay, particularly the chaos in my state Anambra,

where a small clique of renegades, openly boasting its connection in high places, seems determined to turn my homeland into a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom. "I am appalled by the brazenness of the clique and silence, if not connivance of the presidency... Nigeria’s condition today under your (Obasanjo’s) watch is however too dangerous for silence. "I must register my disappointment and protest my decline to accept the high honour awarded me in the 2004 honours list.” But Obasanjo added that “ while he lived, Prof Achebe had by his person and through his works demonstrated an important perspective of the soul of the African and his world view at a period when the continent was undergoing some of the most significant changes in its history. Because of what he wrote and showed, the world understood Africa better. This is a well deserved tribute that can never be taken away from him.”

N2.2bn fraud: Court to Ogbulafor: You 've a case to answer BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI

BUJA—FORMER chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, yesterday, failed to persuade Justice Ishaq Bello of an Abuja High Court, Maitama, to terminate further hearing on the criminal case instituted against him by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC. The court, in a ruling it delivered said it was satisfied that the embattled erstwhile PDP leader, Ogbulafor, had explanations to give regarding the alleged role he played in the illegal diversion of about N2.2billion from the coffers of the Federal Government in 2001. Ogbulafor, who is answering to a 17-count criminal charge, was said to have conspired with two others, Mr Emeka Ebilah, and Mr Jude Nwokoro to defraud the Federal Government via fictitious con-

tract payments. The ICPC alleged that he used his position as the head of the National Economic Intelligence Committee, NEIC, which was set-up to verify debts owed local contractors, and okayed as genuine several forged documents, which it said were relied upon to certify that three bogus companies executed jobs worth over N2.2billion. The three fake companies the accused persons allegedly floated in 2001 to siphon N82.6million, 11.5million and N6.2million respectively, were listed by the anti-graft agency in its charge sheet as, Henrichiko Nig Ltd, DHL Consultants and Chekwas Industries. Besides, ICPC told the trial court that its investigations revealed that Ogbulafor collected kick backs of N2million and N28milion from the 2ndaccused person, Mr. Ebulah, and one Mr Chris Nwoke, respectively, to facilitate the release of the funds to the fake companies.

10—Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013

Court throws out suit over ‘The State of Lagos' BY BARTHOLOMEW MADUKWE

LAGOS—A Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere, yesterday, dismissed charge against a 20year-old man, David Monday, by The State of Lagos (prosecution), over what it described as none existence of the prosecution. The trial judge, Justice Ebenezer Adebajo, said: “Section 3 of the Constitution is headed States of the Federation. It is by virtue of this section that a State belonging to the Federation, note the use of the word ‘of,’ is named as Lagos. Thus we have Lagos State. “This application is brought against The State of Lagos. It is a State belonging to Lagos. Does Lagos own a State? Who is Lagos or what is Lagos? “Lagos exists by virtue of Section 3 of the Constitution and it comprises of named Local Government Areas. To say The State of Lagos is to refer in my opinion to a State that belong to Lagos."

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BY EVELYN USMAN

AGOS—NIGERIAN Immigration Service, NIS, Lagos Command, yesterday, said that it had repatriated 57 nationals from Republic of Niger, who were arrested during random raids of suspected terrorists' hideouts. This is just as it had launch a manhunt for illegal immigrants across the country with a call on aliens without the right documents to do what was right in their interest. Some of the arrested illegal immigrant have attributed their easy passage into the country to security lapses at the Seme and Kamba borders. The aliens were among the 92 illegal immigrants arrested during a joint operation of the Lagos State Police Command and Lagos State Task Force on Environmental Offenses, weekend, from various parts of the state and, thereafter, handed over to the Immigration Service, Monday. While parading them before newsmen, Comptroller of Immigration in-charge of the command, Mr. Rasheed Odupeyin, said no weapon was found on them. He could, however, not state whether they were members of any terrorists group. He disclosed that out of the number of suspects handed over to the command, 18 were Malians, while 17 are Nigeriens, who claimed to be from Kano State. He said: “We normally look

Arrested illegal Malian and Negerien immigrants.

NIS repatriates 57 Malians, arrest scores out for documents that permits a foreigner to remain in Nigeria. But we discovered that most of them were not registered, that is why we call them irregular immigrants. “If they had gained access into the country and regularised their stay, we would not have problem with them”

‘I'll come back to Nigeria'

One of the immigrants, a Nigerien who gave his name as Ismailia Amodu, said: “I came in through Kebbi State.

I came on my own. I always pass through there because no one will stop you. “I sell borehole water to people. I live in Surulere. I do not have passport. I will still find my way back when they throw me out. I am not a Boko Haram member, I am even afraid of them.” Other Nigerians among them claimed they were from Takai in Kano State, insisting that they have no linked with any terrorist groups but were only in Lagos to earn a living through hard labour.

EFCC arraigns Atuche, 2 others over forgery BY ABDULWAHAB ABDULAH, ONOZURE DANIA & MICHAEL OLADEPO

AGOS—ECONOMIC and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, yesterday, arraigned former Managing Director of Bank PHB, Mr. Francis Atuche, and two officials of the bank before a Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja over alleged forgery. He was arraigned before Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo alongside Joachim Nnosiri and Uguru Onyike. They were docked on a

nine-count charge on forgery, conspiracy and use of forged board resolutions belonging to Futureview Securities Ltd, Tradjeck Ltd. and Extra Oil Ltd into Keystone Bank, (formerly Bank PHB). According to EFCC, the board resolutions were allegedly signed by the Managing Director of the companies, Mrs Elizabeth Ebi and addressed to Keystone Bank. The purpose of the purported board resolutions, EFCC said, was to request a N10.9 billion credit facil-

ity from the bank. In the charge, the anti-graft body claimed the alleged offence was committed on March 4, 2013 and run contrary to Sections 361 and 409 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State 2011. The trio pleaded not guilty to the charge, while the trial judge gave them the luxury of coming from home to argue their bail applications. Atuche is already enjoying a bail condition granted in a sister case before the state High Court.

Nigeria not exploiting youths' potential BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI & MONSUR OLOWOOPEJO

AGOS—GOVERNOR Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, has said ineffective deployment of Nigerian youths for national development had been a major challenge in the country. Fashola, who spoke during a courtesy visit by the management of University of Benin, UNIBEN, to him, an alumnus of UNIBEN, in Alausa, said the concern of the country should be how to deploy the intelligent youths scattered across the state to strategic sectors for the country’s development. He said: “The leadership issues of the country and the myths surrounding it must be exploited by the local capacity that can be produced within the country. And for those who believed that the country has a leadership challenge, I think there isn’t any leadership problem with the country.

Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013—11

ECONOMIC

BY EVELYN USMAN

AGOS—PLANS by some suspected terrorists to move into Lagos was, yesterday foiled, following the arrest of 20 of them along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. The suspects, as gathered, were inside a trailer loaded with goods from the northern part of the country. On reaching Berger, plain clothes security operatives of the Department of State Security, DSS, reportedly accosted the trailer. Eyewitnesses said the driver refused to stop. An unconfirmed report had it that the operatives shot into the air, an action that sent road users and commuters scampering for safety. The truck was eventually brought to a halt. When the cover of the purported goods was opened, eyewitnesses said some of the suspects were discovered to have hidden between the goods. They were reportedly whisked to the DSS office where, during investigation, the suspects were said to be unable to give reasons for being in Lagos. The Nigerians among them were reportedly allowed to go. It was gathered that the aliens, some of whom were from neighbouring countries, usually claim to be Nigerians, using their ability to speak Hausa language as cover.

MGT TEAM: From left— Mr. Femi Otedola, Chairman, Forte Oil; Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, Minister of Agriculture; Mr. Oronto Douglas, Presidential Adviser; Mr. Atedo Peterside, Chairman, Technical Committee on Privatisation, and Mr. Jim Ovia, Chairman, Visafone, during the meeting of the Economic Management Team at the State House, Abuja, yesterday. PHOTO: Abayomi Adeshida.

DSS nabs 20 suspected terrorists in Lagos There were also indications that they usually parted with money to some Hausa traders in Lagos to be transported along with their goods. Sources at DSS office, who confirmed the arrest to Vanguard, informed that the 20 suspects had been handed over to the NIS.

Sources further hinted that the arrest was made based on information that suspected terrorists had shifted their focus to Lagos. A source said: “We got this information in February. And we have been working round the clock to beat them in their own game. The raid at Ijora

was an attestation to the privileged information. Our men are planted around major areas in the state to nip their act in the bud.” Sources at the Lagos State Command of NIS also confirmed that some aliens were handed over to the command but could not give details.

Amosun cautions Obas BY DAUD OLATUNJI

BEOKUTA—GOVERNOR Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State has read riot acts to traditional rulers in the state, who employ land speculators to intimidate people in their areas, vowing to lead the attack on them. The governor also warned against illegal dredging of land in some parts of the state, which he said could cause flood and other environmental risks. He spoke at the inauguration of the Awujale and Paramount Ruler of Ijebuland Oba Sikiru Adetona, who succeeded the Alake and Paramount Ruler of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, as Chairman of the Council of Obas in the state. Amosun lamented the level of involvement of some Obas in illegal and criminal acts.

... as INTERPOL pledges support on cross-border crimes BY KINGSLEY OMONOBI

BUJA—NIGERIA and International Police Organisation, INTERPOL, have agreed to improve on their collaborative efforts towards tackling cross-border, drug trafficking and corruption-related criminal cases. This was disclosed at the end of the meeting between officials of the Ministry of Police Affairs led by the Minister, Navy Captain Caleb Olubolade, and a delegation from the organisation led by its Presi-

dent, Mrs Mireille Ballestrazzi, who visited the Ministry as part of her tour of Nigeria. According to the INTERPOL President, such collaborative efforts, which would be powered by timely and accurate exchange of information between the country and the Organisation, will be aimed at achieving effective law enforcement, especially among member countries. Mrs Ballestrazzi said the organisation was greatly concerned about Nigeria’s security challenges, but assured the Minister of INTERPOL’s

commitment to fight against terrorism and the achievement of relative peace globally. She commended Nigeria for her commitment to the ideals that informed the setting up of INTERPOL, which has led to her active participation in the country’s activities. The Minister commended INTERPOL on the successful hosting of the 81st Inter-Ministerial Meeting held in Rome in 2012 which, according to him, recorded great achievements, especially in the renewed war against international terrorism and cross-border crimes. He welcomed the revitalised collaboration between Nigeria and the organisation, which he said will impact positively on the security situation in the country. Olubolade also appealed to INTERPOL to assist Nigeria in setting up a National Crime Database, which will greatly improve policing in the country, while giving the assurance that Nigeria will continue to honour her obligations to the organisation.

12 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013

Boko Haram fighting its last battle —DHQ BY KINGSLEY OMONOBI

BUJA—DEFENCE Headquarters, yesterday, in Abuja dismissed fears being expressed over the increase in terrorist attacks in the Northern part of the country and the threat to move into the South-West, insisting that Boko Haram insurgents are fighting their last battle, as their defeat is imminent. New Director, Defence Information, BrigadierGeneral Chris Olukolade, gave the assurance in Abuja in his maiden meeting with Defence Correspondents. He also dismissed the purported retirement of the Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ola Sa’ad Ibrahim. The recent multiple bombings in Kano, Jos and Maiduguri, and the attendant problem have been making many, including foreigners living in Nigeria, jittery as they believe the sect is getting more lethal and daring. Disclosing, however, that the reverse is the case, the DDI said: “What we are witnessing of recent from Boko Haram insurgents, I personally see as mere desperation. It is generally said that the battle is hottest

Madam Ogbidi for burial

HE remains of Madam Ikahokhele Ogbidi, will be interred today at her home town, Idimu Aigberemon, in Ebhoyi Uromi, Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State. She was aged 95. A statement by Mr. Henry Omokhuale for the family, said entertainment of guests would hold at the Ogbidis' compound at Idimu Ohoghe, Ebudin, in Esan Central Local Government Area, Saturday.

Late Madam Ogbidi

when it is about to end. It is, therefore, obvious that this is the last fight by Boko Haram. From the way they have been working and the expectation from the headquarters, the fight against terrorism is coming to an end. Whatever is happening, the end of terrorism in Nigeria has come. “Since its establishment, the JTF has identified and destroyed many IED factories, recovered large quantities of arms, ammunitions and IED materials, arrested most of their leaders and followers. They have also been able to identify and repatriate illegal immigrants from Niger, Chad, and Mali, among others. "The efforts of the JTF have, to a large extent, made Maiduguri and its environs uncomfortable for Boko Haram. Some of the citizens who left Maiduguri at the heat of the Boko Haram insurgency are now gradually returning. In the past few weeks, there was the destruction of Boko Haram identified camps at Sambisa and Demboa games reserves."

Admiral Ola Sa’ad Still CDS On the purported retirement of the Chief of

Defence Staff, Olukolade dismissed the assertion and urged the media to avoid sensational news and stories that could cause disaffection in the military. His words: “The Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ola Sa’ad Ibrahim, has not, under any circumstance, sought or asked for permission of the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, to voluntarily retire from active service, as reported by some national dailies and online reporters. These media outfits, some of which are quoting an online news sites or other anonymous sources, did not bother to check for facts before embarking on this dangerous sensational report, which is capable of inciting insecurity in the country. “This is very unfortunate, especially as it went on to paint a scenario that portrays power struggle within the services, apparently with a view to undermining the cohesiveness of the leadership of the armed forces. Admiral Ibrahim remains committed to serving the nation to the best of his ability in his capacity as the Chief of Defence Staff of the most vibrant Armed Forces of sub-Sahara Africa."

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013 — 13

No crisis in Fed Psychiatric Hospital, Uselu —Union BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

E N I N— S E N I O R Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Associated I n s t i t u t i o n s , SSAUTHRIAI, Federal Psychiatric Hospital, Uselu branch, yesterday, dissociated itself from media reports that fresh crisis was brewing in the hospital over the alleged refusal by the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr. Sunday Olotu, to give a written approval to some staff invited by Department of State Security, DSS. Insisting that there was no crisis in the hospital as all unions in the institution were enjoying a robust relationship with the Chief Medical Director since his assumption of office last year, Chair-

Community gives oil firm 7-day ultimatum to relocate flow station BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

GBOR—OBI–ANYINMA community in Abavo, Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State, has issued a seven-day ultimatum to Pan Ocean Oil Corporation to relocate the proposed oil flow station at Owa-Alidinma to Obi–Anyinma, or face legal action. Counsel to the traditional ruler of Abavo Kingdom, King Uche Irenuma II, Abavo community, and 36 communities in OPL 275, in the petition, noted that the plan to cite the said flow station at OwaAlidinma was a violation of an earlier agreement and understanding that the oil company would cite the flow station at Obi – Ayinma in Abavo community.

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man of SSAUTHRIAI, Dr. Francis Ediae, said the statement credited to some staff claiming that there was another round of crisis involving the union and Dr. Olotu, should be ignored as they were impostors. Ediae, in Benin, yesterday, alongside other officials of the union, said: “Oriakhi and Osifo are not part of the executive of SSAUTHRIAI, Federal Psychiatric Hospital, Uselu branch, and never had our mandate

to speak on the behalf of the association. “They have been deceiving and misleading the public, impersonating and they are orchestrating events that never happened in the hospital. As we know, there is no crisis in the Psychiatric Hospital, Uselu. We are not at loggerheads with the management and whatever we asked the management to do for us, they have always been cooperative with us."

PRESENTATION: Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State (2nd left), presenting a cheque for N3.2 million to the Commissioner for Education, Chief Salo Adikumo (3rdleft) to offset 2012/2013 WAEC and students' school fees; Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Mr. Kombowei Benson (left) and some members of the newly inaugurated Education Inspectorate Committee, at Government House, Yenagoa.

14—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013

Guber aspirant laments crisis in Anambra PDP BY ANAYO OKOLI

MUAHIAA governorship aspirant on the platform of the PDP in Anambra State, Mr. Afam Damian Onwuanyi, has blamed the lingering crisis in the state chapter of the party on selfish interest. He warned that the party might not win the state unless members of the party dropped personal interests and pursue collective interest of the party. According to Onwuanyi, what was destroying the party in Anambra State was the struggle for the leadership of the party, which is anchored on selfish interest. Onwuanyi, who is also the legal adviser of the party in South Africa, explained that such unnecessary struggle for leadership had made the party to lack direction. His words: “I want all the members of the party in the state to drop personal interests to pursue collective interest of the party; collective interest of the party should be the guiding principle of the members of the party."

Abia govt accuses Niger Delta ministry of neglect •It's not true—Orubebe BY ANAYO OKOLI

MUAHIA—ABIA State government, yesterday, openly put the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Chief Goddsday Orubebe, on the defensive, by accusing him of neglecting the state and treating it as not part of the region. The government made its position known when Orubebe led a delegation of senior staff of his Ministry, including the Minister of State, to Government House, Umuahia. The minister, however, fired back, saying Abia State had not been neglected by his ministry. Abia State deputy governor, Chief Emeka Ananaba, who received the minister and his delegation, said: “If not that the governor asked us to welcome you, we could have received you with placards to ask what you are coming to do. Are we part of the Niger Delta? Do you want us to join those who are complaining against the EastWest road? We have not seen you. You have talked about some projects, we have been hearing

that. You said you want to create a road map. We welcome you, but we are not happy. Look at the road you said you are building from Obehie to Azumini, it is in a mess. Well, when we look at the road map, we will study it, I hope the governor will nominate those who will come (for the conference). “I don’t want to be there because I will tell you what you don’t want to hear. At my age, I will tell you if you are my friend. Can you tell us how many of Abia youths you have employed; their files are in your office. You have not done anything on them. But for Ochendo (the governor), kidnapping would have continued. It was caused by lack of job.” He also told Orubebe to watch his staff, saying some of them always fed him with falsehood. Ananaba said:" Watch your staff. But for the stones they are throwing at you on the East West road, you would not have come out.” However, the minister, who

said he took the feelings of Abia State in good faith, explained that the ministry two weeks ago employed 300 graduates, out of which 41 were Abia indigenes. He also explained that the ministry had trained 602 youths in the areas of agriculture,

maritime, adding that 62 Abia youths benefited from the programme. “So it is not true that Abia State was forgotten. It is not in any way true that Abia State is neglected. Abia State is never neglected.”

UNTH resumes open heart surgery, operates 5 successfully BY TONY EDIKE

NUGU—THE University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, UNTH, Enugu, has resuscitated its cardiovascular surgery, otherwise known as open heart surgery, ten years after the service was suspended on account of the hospital’s movement from its old site within the Enugu metropolis to the permanent site at Ituku-Ozala. The hospital, under the new programme being handled in collaboration with a United States-based non-governmental organisation, the VOOM Foundation, has performed five open heart surgeries on patients

with heart related ailments. About 10 other patients with heart related ailments, including six-year-old Sadia Ibrahim from Sokoto State, now on admission would be operated during the second phase of the programme by the medical experts, who left the country after the first phase of the operations yesterday. Speaking when the Minister of Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, visited to witness a live surgery at the hospital, the Chief Medical Director, Dr ChrisAmah, said the hospital, which is a Federal Government designated centre of excellence for open heart surgery, suspended the exercise about ten years ago.

— 15 Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013—

16—Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013

CAR: Looting rises as Junta rules by decrees

INPECTION: From left— Mr. Temidayo Adeboye, Manager, Operations Oando Marketing Plc; Dr. Gogomary Oyet, Head, Environmental Health, Safety, Security and Quality Assurance, Oando Marketing and Mr. Abubakar Ibn Aliyu, Manager, Oando Terminal 1, Apapa, at the inspection of newlyacquired LPG bridging trucks.

ENTRAL African Republic strongman Michel Djotodia was set to unveil a new government yesterday after declaring he would rule by decree following the latest coup in the notoriously unstable nation. Looters were on the rampage in the capital Bangui after Djotodia’s Seleka rebel coalition seized control in a rapid-

ENERAL Carter Ham, head of US Africa Command (Africom), traveled to the headquarters of a regional joint mili-

IRNIN KEBBI— NATIONAL Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has expressed worry over the high rate of drug hawking and sale of fake drugs and other narcotics in Kebbi State. State Director of NAFDAC, Mr. Bitrus Fradel, stated this while responding to questions from newsmen in BirninKebbi, yesterday. Fradel, who said hawking of drugs was more prevalent in Jega Local Government Area of the state also stressed that the exposure of drugs to harsh weather was not in the interest of their users as such drugs could be ineffective and harmful to health. He said the agency was grappling with the problem of sale of fake and narcotic drugs in the state, advising the public to be careful about what they buy and eat. Fradel lamented that drugs like tramol, which was being sold by almost every chemist in the state and which is being used illegally by many youths

in the state, should only be administered according to doctors’ prescriptions. He said: “Tramol is supposed to be prescribed by a doctor but you can see that the youths are

fond of using it indiscriminately,” adding that although the registration of Tramol as a product was in 50mgs, the ones being consumed by youths were in the category of 200mgs.

APC: ACN holds convention BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, Political Editor

CTION Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has set April 18 for its national convention where it hopes to adopt a resolution collapsing the party into All Progressive Congress, APC. The proposal from the party is coming as the party, yesterday, said it was not particularly concerned with the registration or non-registration of any political association. ACN’s stance nonetheless, Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP, has welcomed the rejection of the application for registration of African Peoples Congress by Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. While confirming the April 18 date for its national convention, ACN’s national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,

told Vanguard, yesterday, that ACN was mindful of the reason given by INEC for the rejection of the application by African Peoples Congress. He said INEC should have rejected the application on the basis of the constructive knowledge the commission had about the merger even before the consideration of the irregularities in the application. He said: “We are not interested in any association getting registered or not being registered, it is not our business. Our point is that INEC ought ab initio not to have accepted that acronym from them. That is our position. “The fact that they have disqualified them on another ground, we are not impressed because what it means is that if they had filled their names correctly then they would have been registered."

Kwara boosts health sector BY DEMOLA AKINYEMI

LORIN—GOVERNOR Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State, yesterday, distributed 13 new ambulances to 13 specialist and general hospitals across the state to improve the health care C M Y K

delivery system. He further distributed hospital equipment and roll back malaria drugs to 43 primary health centres across the state. Speaking at the occasion, Ahmed said the ambulances and drugs were purchased in fulfilment of his administra-

tion’s commitment to strengthening the healthcare delivery in the state. Ahmed recalled that the state government in 2011 purchased and distributed anti-malaria drugs worth 47 million naira and rapid diagnostic test kits worth over N11.3 million.

South African troops were among those killed, the nation’s heaviest postapartheid military loss. “We can’t give figures for the moment, but there was a large number of wounded and killed,” Georgios Georgantas, the senior official of the ICRC in the country told AFP. “Red Cross volunteers are deployed in the city to help the wounded and clear the bodies.”

Africom Chief visits Sahel region

NAFDAC raises alarm over G illegal drugs sale in Kebbi BY SAAWUA TERZUNGWE

fire weekend assault that forced president Francois Bozize into exile and was condemned by the international community. “There is pillaging everywhere, it’s very hard to control anything,” a soldier from the FOMAC African force told AFP. The International Committee of the Red Cross said the fighting had left scores dead. Thirteen

tary committee in southern Algeria, the defence ministry announced on Monday. Sahel region’s joint mili-

Former Zambia President pleads not guilty

AMBIA’s former President Rupiah Banda has pleaded not guilty to a charge of abuse of power during his time in office. The charges relate to an oil deal signed with a Nigerian company, which prosecutors say was meant to benefit Mr Banda and his family. “No my Lord, I deny the charge,” Mr Banda told the court, AFP reported. The ex-president says the charges are part of a political witch-hunt against him and his allies. After three years in power, he lost the 2011 election to Michael Sata. He was arrested and questioned for nearly three hours before being freed on bail on Monday. Earlier this month the 76-year-old was stripped of presidential immunity. Prosecutors said Mr Banda instructed his son

Henry to stash away the proceeds from the oil deal, which were to be used for the benefit of his family. Henry Banda left the country shortly after his father lost power and is wanted by Zambian

tary staff committee, known by its French acronym CEMOC, was formed by Algeria, Mali, Niger and Mauritania in April 2010 to coordinate their efforts against Al-Qaeda’s north African affiliate AQIM. It is based in the desert town of Tamanrasset, not far from northern Mali which was overrun by armed Islamists last year and where fighting continues more than two months after a Frenchled operation to drive them from the region was launched on January 11.

US advises against Myanmar

OMMUNAL riots in Myanmar have spread closer to the main city Yangon, police said yesterday, as the United States warned against traveling to parts of the country in the wake of unrest that has left 40 dead. Fresh Buddhist-Muslim violence broke out late Monday and again on Tuesday in villages in the Bago region roughly 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of Yangon, with several mosques and dozens of homes reported to have been destroyed.

“Police and soldiers had to control the clashes almost the whole night,” a police officer who did not want to be named told AFP, adding that another mosque was destroyed on Tuesday in the town of Oakpho. In a statement on its website, the US Embassy “strongly advised” citizens to avoid travel to the Mandalay region — where the unrest began — as well as to a Muslim neighbourhood in Yangon near the Mingalar Market/Yuzana Plaza.

War crimes suspect Ntaganda pleads innocence at ICC

ONGOLESE war crimes suspect, Bosco Ntaganda made his first appearance before the International Criminal Court yesterday , telling a judge he was innocent of charges ranging from murder and rape to using child soldiers. The man known as “The Terminator ” appeared with a shaven head, thin moustache and wearing a black suit and dark blue tie after

arriving in The Hague on Friday following his

surprise surrender in Rwanda.

N /Korea repeats threat to hit US as sanctions bite

ORTH Korea repeated threats yesterday to target U.S. military bases as Washington and its allies tightened economic sanctions against the isolated country by targeting Pyongyang’s main foreign exchange bank with new measures. The rhetoric from North

Korea which has threatened the United States with nuclear war and rehearsed drone attacks on South Korea - and Washington’s hardening reaction, drew more concern from China, Pyong-yang’s only major ally, which said the situation was “sensitive”.

— 17 Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013— quick. There were also organic elements at play in the quick healing process: a popular realisation of the fact that many mistakes had been made by the military since the January 1966 coup, for which millions paid massive penalties, including the loss of more than a million lives; a thriving economy which created possibilities for economic reintegration; and the realisation that every section of the country was vital to the other. Since then, periodic agonies are triggered when the horrendous suffering by the civilian population is revisisted; or when it appears that the nation is forgetting that one million lives had to be sacrificed to keep it united.

“Two men look out through the same bars; One sees the mud, and one the stars.”-Fredrick Langbridge, 1849 – 1923

Chinua Achebe a historian who took liberties with a personal perspective on such changes. There are not many equals of Achebe in the use of a foreign language to speak to his society, and the contemporary and peer such as Soyinka who were elevated above him by an international award have been pilloried for being better at addressing foreign audiences than their fellow Africans, or taking away an honour Achebe deserved. Fewer writers have shown a more consistent disdain for the decline in values and the failure to utilise potentials in their nations as Mr. Achebe. Even when he was comfortably esconsed in foreign lands, his heart was always with his people and his country. Twice he rejected being honoured by Nigerian governments he felt were not good enough to honour him, having partaken in the demolition of what could have been a great edifice for all Nigerians and the black race. The controversy generated by his last book will sadly be the most lasting memory among Nigerians of this

great writer, particularly those too young to know or remember the tragic civil war. His take on key aspects of the conflict, and his successful exorcism of old ghosts on alleged genocide and the of Chief Obafemi Awolowo resurrected some dormant sentiments and bitter quarrels from the past. Achebe must have known that his book will generate massive controversy, and while this is good for

HE dust raised by his last contro versial book There was a Country has not settled. A former Military Governor of North Western State during the Nigerian Civil War, Alhaji Usman Faruk has just published his own version of the war in which he casts the Northern leaders who executed the war as patriotic heroes. On the very day he died, alarming statements were being made by people who were not even born before the Nigerian civil war, most of them threatening mayhem, revenge and even another civil war following the bombing of buses in Kano which, as it turned out, mostly took the lives of people from the same stock as the presumed bombers. One or two prominent writers even hinted that the bombing in Kano may have hastened his death. Chinua Achebe’s Nigeria is falling apart at a rate no one could have imagined. The tragedy is that history will record him as a symbol of its cultural wealth, as well as a symptom of its failure to utilise its assets. The last book published by Achebe will not be the one best remembered by the world. But that book reminds us that we have fought many battles, and it unearthed feelings and sentiments which remind us that we are today very much still in the past. That past had produced the Achebes and Soyinkas and Abubakar Imams and Zungurs, heroes of the literary world, activists who dared authorities and broke down walls, yet unable to live entirely above their social contexts. The world will mourn him for his classics such as Things Fall Apart, but Nigerians will always argue over whether he is an icon which the nation should cherish and honour, or an ethnic champion whose last hurrah was to open up old wounds in a nation desperate to move on. The world will mourn a great African writer, and many Nigerians will miss a man who had stirred nests with his defiance and courage to ruffle feathers. Achebe would appear to have been born with a complimentary set of gifts: the gift of expression, and the gift of using the expressed word to assess his social and political environment and attempt to change it. From Things Fall Apart, which captured the effect of major social upheavals and changes engendered by colonialism, to other works which parody post-colonial efforts to build a nation out of many conflicting value systems, to his last novel which was a personal history of the Nigerian Civil War, Achebe was at once participant observer with a keen eye on social change, as well as

Chinua Achebe left this world pretty much as he found it: Troubled and troubling. But history will say of him, here is one who couldn’t live with it

books because they get sold in larger quantities, a rendition of a painful history in a manner guaranteed to deepen the nation’s faultlines is difficult to defend in terms of patriotism. It will certainly tap into an existing residue of sentiments and resonate with contemporary realities and conjectures; but by no stretch of imagination can Achebe’s last work be described as a heroic contribution to healing past wounds.

The late Prof. Achebe

t is possible that Achebe’s last work was never intended to heal wounds and move the nation forward. The major wounds of the civil war had been healed a long time ago by an enlightened leadership which made reconciliation possible, desirable and

n spite of dozens of books on the genesis and execution of the war, controversies were sustained by arguments over who was right, what went wrong, and what lessons the nation should draw from the war. This in itself is not a problem. It becomes a problem when comments on a sad chapter in our history tend to shed light on contemporary realities, and reveal a tragic failure to move on from that tragic period. This was, going by the reactions of many Nigerians to There Was a Country, what Achebe did. His last comment on his country played into the hands of people who thought the Igbo should never forgive Awolowo; people who thought Awo has always been maligned by Igbo people who will not accept to pay a just price for their follies; people who thought that Igbo people have never recovered from an orchestrated genocide, and are still paying a price in political terms; and even people who think the dream of Biafra is not dead, and can and should be vigorously reactivated. It will be interesting to know if Mr. Achebe had been availed of even the tiniest peak into conversations among younger Nigerians on cyberspace which followed the release of his last book. It will be uncharitable to say he had triggered a major setback in the unity of the country, but it will be fair to say he lit up the dark and frightening chasms which separate many younger Nigerians and equip them the horrible stereotypes with which they see each other. If he did have a glimpse at this level of our national psyche, it is doubtful if he would not have felt some pain that his fellow citizens harbor such sentiments and feelings towards each other. He may even have asked if he and his generation are justified in enjoying their smug comfort in the belief that they had discharged their obligations to their nation. Chinua Achebe left this world pretty much as he found it: Troubled and troubling. But history will say of him, here is one who couldn’t live with it.

OPINION BY CLEMENT UDEGBE

IGERIANS woke up on Monday 19th March 2013, to the explosion of five luxurious buses by Boko Haram at Sabo-Ngari area in Kano City, killing over 100 persons and maiming several others, mostly Ndi Igbo. Expectedly, government officials issued their statements denouncing the act as usual, some pleaded for non-reprisal attacks, others want amnesty for Boko Haram. The truth is that none of these groups and interests spoke of the solution to the matter, because they want us to believe that Boko Haram has no face, some northern leaders go to the extent of claiming that that they do not know who Boko Haram is. But who on this earth says we do not know who Boko Haram is? Those who are calling for amnesty for them, know who they are, where they are, and how to reach them. It was reported earlier in January, that Borno State government agreed on a truce with them, and whether that was not the case or not, His Excellency could not have been talking with faceless beings. President GEJ, should invite those calling for amnesty for these murderers to negotiate on their

The Monday Kano bombing: What will Ndi Igbo do? behalf, get their lists from them, and pay them, so that that they may stop the killing of innocent persons, especially the Igbo people! After all, it boils down to sharing and distribution of the wealth of Nigeria. Some are capitalising on such a serious matter to play politics, but the question is where will the rich politicians from the South West hide, when this evil of Boko Haram is allowed to reach the South? They are now in Lagos ! Since some of these men play politics with everything, let them carry on with their richman’s politics. Many northern elders and politicians avoided being linked to this group about one year ago.But over time, Boko Haram has become bolder, killing Igbos in the north by the left, right and centre, in their states. The reasoning now seems to be that If GEJ does not want Igbos killed, he must grant amnesty and pay money, like he is paying to the South South Niger delta folks.Those who reason like this make a bad mistake.

The north has goofed in putting forward this type of reasoning! Niger Deltans never killed any innocent person during their campaigns, They faced FGN oil installations and their allies; they had a face, and a voice, they did not have to throw in recorded messages to media houses with threats to publish, they were not mass murderers. Their issue was purely economic, but the northern propagators of Boko Haram chose to use religion, so that the human bombs could be used etc, and now they want to prey on the Igbo peoples of Nigeria. As a matter of fact, the oil we use to develop the north and elsewhere is buried by God in the bowel of Niger Delta lands. We need their oil, and it is the oil money that we are all fighting to control, why will they not get settled ?

Continues on pg 19 *Mr. Udegbe, a lawyer, wrote from Lagos.

18 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013

Continues from Page 1

Arsons, bombings, killings, prison breaks, kidnappings have become routine; hardly a day passes without killings in parts of the country. Damaturu, Gombe, Maiduguri, Mubi, Potiskum, Yola, have held headlines for bombings. The incidents spread to Abuja, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kogi, Niger, Sokoto States, joining the perennial killings in Plateau State. The most embarrassing of the incidents remain the bombing of the nation’s 50th independence anniversary in Abuja and the targeting of elite military and other security offices. Places of Christian worship, entertainment centres, schools, markets and most recently the motor park in Kano have been targets. The attacks on the Police Headquarters, the United Nations offices in Abuja and storming of the police detention facility in Abuja to free detained Boko Haram members all emphasise the extent of the insecurity.

Tac kling Insecurity ackling Insecurity:: Rule Nothing Out Government’s efforts at halting the insurgency have met with varying degrees of successes, coupled with the inevitable criticisms that flow from allegations of human rights abuses in areas security agencies have mounted operations against the attackers. Doubtlessly, government has to do more. People would measure the success by the stop in the loss of lives and the ability of Nigerians to move freely in all parts of the country. More collaboration is required with various interests in the country to achieve

peace. External assistance could be required as cross border interests appeared involved in escalating the fight. The President’s recent visit to the North East, the epicentre of the attacks should be followed up with more actions that can assure Nigerians that the war against terrorism is being won. The President should be seen as offering more than warnings and threats to the terrorists. As he fights, he must be willing to embrace those who want peace. He has to strengthen the security systems to ensure that suspects are secured for trials. The spates of prison breaks to free criminals and suspects are embarrassing. The bids to explain the breaks are repulsive. Where else do they explain persistent jail break that are freeing terrorists suspects in the North East and those arrested for kidnapping in Warri? The 2010 Bauchi jail break freed more than 700 inmates; more than 100 were members of the Boko Haram awaiting trial.

OPINION BY EMMANUEL AJIBULU

N decent societies, thorough urban and regional planning is seen as one of the veritable tools to fast track economic growth, apart from that, it helps to ensuring a safe and habitable environment. It has been practised under many names: Town planning, city planning, community planning, land use planning, and physical environment planning. The object of planning is the "physical environment," which is taken to mean land and all its uses, along with everything that has tangible existence on or beneath the land surface. Planning also includes the manner and style by which buildings are laid out in a city, and the design of public places. Physical environments are partly natural and partly man-made. A satisfying manmade or "built" environment is the ultimate goal of planning, but relations between natural and built environments, and interactions between people and their environments, are also of vital concerns. Human activities can have negative impacts upon the natural environment, just as certain natural conditions are hazardous to human well-being. Planners are equally concerned to protect natural environments from the adverse effects of human use (e.g, water pollution), and to protect people from adverse natural circumstances (e.g, flood zones). To plan the physical environment means C M Y K

Nasir el-rufai and the enduring glory of FCT to impose some deliberate order upon it, with the aim of achieving a desired standard of environmental quality. Environmental quality is the heart of planning practice. Different cultures have tended to value environmental qualities differently and to organise their environments in different ways. Many factors influence the choice of qualities that are most desired at a particular time and place. Each community, through social and political processes, must set its own standards of a good physical environment. Also, people's needs, tastes and economic circumstances influence the quality of environments that are planned and built. A variety of issues fall within the scope of urban and regional planning, depending partly on the geographical scale of the planning area. Regional planners will be concerned with such matters as the protection of farmland or other valued resource sites (e.g, forests, mineral deposits, seashores, lakeshores); the preservation of unique natural or historical features; the locations of highways and other transport facilities, such as pipelines or airports; and the growth prospects of communities located throughout the region. If the region is organised around a large city, the planners must also take account of the

problems caused by the city's expansion, and its impact upon the surrounding countryside and nearby towns. Fairly all these essential factors were painstakingly put into action under a man who truly knows his onions, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai. Former Federal Capital Territory minister, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai’s excellent disposition to achieve such a world class environment which is what we witness and still enjoying today in Abuja cannot be forgotten so easily. He has proven to the world that excellence and dedication to service are not jut determined by size or height but through great potentials and values within and how best one can harness and explore them in the interest of one’s motherland.

oday our nation is full of aspiring political leaders but sadly, very few live up to the leadership ideals. In fact, many political leaders seem to severely lack some of the most important leadership qualities, such as integrity and accountability. It is no coincidence that for many people, the word “politician” has such negative connotations! However, history and present day shows us that there are still a few who come close to the leadership ideals and who are good

examples of an effective political leader. It is instructive to emphasise that compassion is the humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something to alleviate that suffering. While many see compassion as a weakness, true compassion is a characteristic that converts knowledge to wisdom. Great political leaders use compassion to see the needs of those he leads and to determine the course of action that would be of greatest benefit to all those involved. Deciding which candidate to vote into office is simply a matter of party affiliation for many people. Others, however, cast their votes based on specific characteristics they look for in their candidate of choice. It has however been succinctly put by various stakeholders in politics that 2015 stands a defining moment in the toga of our democratic setting. Recently, I read the book written by this dogged and fearless icon (Nasir elrufai), titled ''The Accidental Public Servant'' albeit I am convinced that our nation can still be great once again.

*Mr. Ajibulu, a commentator on national affairs, wrote from Abuja.

—19 Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013—

, S

EXUAL offence is therefore a fact of human life, perhaps more so now than in the past. In the particular instance of tertiary institutions, ‘sexual harassment’ is by no means the most serious of the problems confronting them. And this for reasons that there are regulations/laws within the university system, apart from the wider laws of society that can take care of this as that there are more pernicious factors that defeat the purpose for the existence of tertiary institutions than the advertised case of sexual harassment. The primary purpose of universities is search for and dissemination of knowledge even of the kind that institutions that proclaim their purpose as the preservation of the moral wellbeing of human beings would consider ‘immoral’. This is not saying that knowledge should be devoid of morality but to every sector its business and the kind of issue the ICPC chair and the Punch editorial seem to be addressing is not the core business of universities. In searching for a panacea for the downturn in the fortunes of our universities you would not find it without addressing the core issues of right

personnel and infrastructure even if everybody in the universities swear to the vow of celibacy. Sex is everywhere including, as we increasingly see, in assumedly religious/sacred places. And it should be combated in our universities as it should else where. Elevating sex and presenting it as the central issue confronting our universities where the physical rot that is debilitating to any mental/ intellectual activity proclaims itself to the high heavens is a non sequitur. The problem with our universities then cannot be sex but issues that impede the effective operations of universities as they are known everywhere else. What should be done is to provide the right facilities that will make it possible for the best people, both students and their teachers and other personnel within the systemconditions should be created that allows for optimal production and dissemination of knowledge that the larger society can by the rules/ laws it has set for itself use in the manner it approves. Generally, universities forbid sale of ‘handouts’ or unapproved books, for example, even though some lecturers still sell them at the risk

of their jobs. But if lecturers and students can find the best and most current literature in the field in the library if not bookshops, say, what justification would a socalled lecturer have to compel students to buy pot boilers hurriedly put together from a cocktail of internet sources ranging from Wikipedia to comments picked off facebook? Create the atmosphere for scholarship by providing the best infrastructure and allowing the best staff and students to come in and then the conversation can commence about Nigerian universities meeting world standard or be damned for devoting their time to sex escapades.

he so-called sexual rot in universities is surely being blown out of proportion especially if it now ranks in the view of some as the number one problem confronting universities. It is certainly not as pervasive or blatant as is being made out and the Pharisaic attitude that is now being adopted in its deserved condemnation would achieve little if anything at all.

The Monday Kano bombing: What will Ndi Igbo do? Continued from pg 17

BY CLEMENT UDEGBE

SKING for Amnesty for mass murderers because that was done to Niger Deltans is so unreasonable that those who ask for this are part of why Nigeria is the way it is! If the food , grains and cattle which we get from the north has become a big issue, let them keep their things, while we keep the oil! This is so, because the killing of Igbo people in the north MUST STOP NOW . There is no adult who does not know how to be mischievous, all he needs do, is to spoil anything that others claim is good! If these northern politicians are tired of Nigeria, they can leave and go peacefully! It will be foolishly naive, and an unfortunate miscalculation for any northerner to think that Ndi igbo cannot fight back; or to think that with money, once money is involved, Ndi Igbo will and can only bark !That may be true even as I write this piece.But ,Change is one thing that is permanent in life, and Ndi Igbo may wake up one day, and just change! Who knows, the challenge of Boko Haram may bring about this change. Igbos have these options now: 1.They may Stay put in the north, especially in Kano, and Jos, get killed shamelessly, in arrant madness, and without reasons, get good and sympathy comments from the people in power, and continue to wait until 1966 genocide starts and happens again. Reports will then be compiled, the UN, and other agencies will speak, in the

C M Y K

meantime, the dead will bury the dead ! Who will do the burying and weeping? Ndi igbo! Or; 2.They may Sit down and regroup, and ensure that when next they are attacked and struck like this, that they teach the assailants a lesson they will tell the story for generations to come. A thoughtless or wicked look at this option would say it is encouraging tit for tat, but self-defense, is a Human Right, that cannot be alienated even in the northern Nigeria. Ndi Igbo in the north must be prepared for self-defense, against Boko Haram attacks. Or; 3.They may get their acts together and accept the fact that the north hates them. For example, the spirit of oneness there, is so strong that if the north decides that no one should buy any property owned by Igbo man from hence forth, they will carry it through when the time comes. How many of them have built mansions, or plazas in your own South Eastern states ? Why can’t we read ‘the body language’ of the core northern politicians? If Ndi Igbo will accept the truth and Leave the north for the northerners today, in the next six years they will forget them completely, and move on with their lives with the dignity they genuinely deserve as a people and the true believers in one Nigeria. His Excellency the Governor of Kano Sate has said it in all honesty that “ rather than get killed like this, let Ndi Igbo leave the State” But Ndi igbo cannot just leave like that because money is involved, the economies of families will collapse completely if they left without a carefully thought out plan, Therefore;

The ICPC/NUC report and sexual harassment in Nigerian universities (2)

Things are far more complicated, the power relations far less onesided, certainly more horizontal than it is vertical than the ICPC narrative impresses.

Condemnable as it is the situation is far more complex for any armchair prescription and being a carryover problem from the larger society, a sign of the failure in homes, it is a no brainer to say it begins well before students take their matriculation oath. To expect any change in four undergraduate years is sheer nonsense. Nor is it profitable to pretend it was caused by a few hormonally berserk mental patients misnamed lecturers and who, bored to distraction in their intellectually and physically impoverishing spaces called tertiary institutions, turn to sex. But combating it demands no more than ensuring the best human and material resources are in place and that students actually interested in university education not just those rich enough to pay for placements are allowed in. The ICPC/NUC report and the editorial from it create the impression that our universities are now glorified brothels crawling with mental patients with high libidinal drives but who nevertheless impose their sexual will on hapless students. Not so simple- harassment is a two way traffic whose initiation can come from a lecturer to a student or the other way round. Many students are far more worldly-wise than their parents care to know (although some parents only pretend) and since the university operates on the assumption that a student is at least a young adult at admission (in Nigeria a student must at least be 16 by October 1st of the admission year), they are able to freely exhibit those traits they had successfully hidden from their parents while still at home where those parents are not complicit in fostering the traits. They leave their pre-university institutions hardly literate but their parents are determined to give them university education by any and all means and proceed to

The Governor of Kano Sate has said it in all honesty that “ rather than get killed like this, let Ndi Igbo leave the State”

4.The South Eastern Governors must create a fund to rehabilitate Ndi Igbo fleeing from persecution, religious and ethnic violence and cleansing in the north. There must be plans to Resettle these people and give them a good sense of belonging. After all, they are Ndi Igbo, they are not ordinary, their blood is highly priced, because it has been bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus. Such blood cannot be spilled by unbelievers in this degrading manner. We must install arrangements to preserve the lives of Ndi Igbo wherever they may be. They are special, and must be treated as such by those God has chosen to lead them.

ach State Governor should therefore ensure that his indigenes fleeing untimely death in the north are received, secured, settled and rehabilitated for good. These Excellences must together come up with methods and ways to engage this evil nonsense called Boko Haram constructively, and teach them that killing the Igbo man will only destroy their land in the north, ultimately. This is the challenge for our Governors, and they can do it! And; 5.The South East, must place a demand

buy secondary and later university placements for them having registered them in ‘special centres’. It is far easier to manipulate or ‘harass’ an academically deficient student where such students are not themselves ‘harassing’ their lecturers for good grades than it is one who made it to university by personal effort however mediocre. Is the phenomenon of ‘virginity’ test, an illegal and invasive act, that some school heads impose on their students not based on the observed rot at these lower educational levels by these selfappointed moral police? There is no denying the bullying antics of some lecturers who can go to great extent to ‘harass’ students. But then bullies are everywhere and are best handled by direct confrontation. Where this fails there are existing measures in universities that make it difficult, sometimes very much so, for a lecturer to take advantage of a student or favour one who is weak but is ‘close’ to the lecturer in the manner popular imagination has it. Otherwise, the universities would have fallen beneath the standards of a brothel which is what the ICPC chair seems to be saying. The point to know however is that there are other lecturers, male and female, and indeed non-teaching members of staff watching and ready to join issues with colleagues perceived as corrupt in this manner. Female lecturers are especially keen to take up such matters where female students are involved. The impression lent credence by the ICPC report and the Punch editorial that lecturers are sexually-inflamed brutes imposing their foul breath on unwilling students is to no little degree simply that- mere impression. Things are far more complicated, the power relations far less onesided, certainly more horizontal than it is vertical than the ICPC narrative impresses.

on the FGN, to stop all this useless, pedestrian, non-helpful, beggarly comments whenever they kill our people, and Our Governors must insist on actions from FGN, that will secure Ndi igbo, while they plan and relocate. If Boko Haram is ready to kill, and maim even their own Kings and Emirs, who then is an Igbo man to them? The Igbo man is not worth a worm before their blood thirsty eyes! So vacate their lands at all cost. Affliction, the Bible declares, shall not arise a second time. Don’t be a fool, don't let them kill you again like this ! You can do without living in the north, you surely can! Come to the South East, South West, South South of Nigeria, where people have respect and value for life! LEAVE THE NORTH ALONE FOR NOW! Come home to where you will not be bombed! 6.Our prayer now should include,that God will give the leaders of the South East the courage and grace to think for the safety of the Igbo man in the north,the FGN the Spirit to see the need for stronger action, and the victims the fortitude to bear the irreparable losses. The Bible declares in the Book of Hosea,that "Ephraim has joined himself to Idols, leave him alone" It is surely better to have ten Naira in the South East with your peace, and dignity intact, than to have N1000, and get bombed every day, in Kano, or Jos ! Why should you die like fools? In the Book of 2nd Samuel, Chapter 3, verse 33, Kind David while lamenting the killing of one of his warriors, by another of his loyal war commander cried “ Should Abner die as a fool dies ?Should Ndi Igbo die as fools die? Let them run into safety today and don’t die as fools die! Let them go and develop the International market at Oba in Anambra State. Concluded *Mr. Udegbe, a lawyer, wrote from Lagos.

20—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013

of the culture in which it has its being.” It has promoted the view of society and of culture as a prison-house from which the individual must escape to find freedom and fulfillment. If this is so then it seems to me that a real parting of the ways may have occurred between Western literature and its own origins, to say nothing of other literatures. The father of Western philosophy says: I think, therefore I am. The unknown formulator of the great Bantu assertion says Umuntu, Ngumuntu Ngabantu: a person is a person because of other persons. The Igbo put it proverbially: if a person feels an itch in the back he calls his fellow to scratch him; an animal scratches itself against a tree.

ACHEBE’S LAST KEYNOTE ADDRESS LITERATURE AND ETHNICITY:

Is literature shaped by the cultural contexts of the authors? (2) O

NE of the major characters in the novel has this to

say: If it were still only a matter of ourselves, of the conservation of our substance, the problem would have been less complicated: not being able to conquer them, we should have chosen to be wiped out rather than to yield. But we are among the last men on earth to possess God as He veritably is in His Oneness...How are we to save Him? The point being made here may elude anyone who has not read Cheikh Hamidou Kane’s novel Ambiguous Adventure so I will summarize it: “We the Diallobe people,” it says “would have had no excuse to continue living after our fathers were defeated by French arms; we would have had every justification in committing suicide. But we are among the few in the world who truly understand God. If we should die what would happen to God then?”

Declaration of modesty Now that is hardly a declaration of modesty. In fact it is pretty arrogant. It would seem that the pride which the Diallobe people meditated upon is a living problem still with these people in spite of a thousand years of Islam, in spite of a history that has experienced imperial grandeur of their own making as well as the ultimate humiliation of defeat and colonialization by strangers. We are thus talking about qualities at the core of a people’s character. Something which survives time and events and can ferry across from oral poetry in an African language to modern

fiction written in French. We are not talking about transitory fads and fashions. I take my second example from my own people – the Igbo of south-eastern Nigeria, and a very different kind of creation myth. Unlike the Fulani story which takes place in a remote, ethereal setting, the Igbo story like the Igbo themselves, is very much down to earth. The crux of this story is that one morning Chukwu, the Creator, looks down and beholds the king of Nri and the King of Adama sitting disconsolate on an anthill surrounded by marshy ground (It is not clear whether there are two kings or one king with two titles: for simplicity I shall assume only one.) Chukwu asks him what the matter is and the king replies that the soil is too moist to plant the yam which Chukwu had directed him to plant during an earlier discussion.

Wandering through the bush As a result of this failure of the crop, the story tells us that people are wandering through the bush like wild animals. So Chukwu sends Eze Nri to Awka, the town of blacksmiths to invite one of them to blow on his bellows and make the soil dry. This is an unusual creation story. It is not the drama of creation that it is concerned with. The world is already made and functioning somehow. But it is not perfect. Man complains to God about this and holds conversations with him to bring about changes and improvements, specifically the tremendous transition of mankind from wanderers in the bush to settled agriculturalists using iron tools. The Igbo people who made this story are famous (or notorious according to one’s point of view) for their belief in conversation even with God. Unlike their neighbours, they do not care for kings and kingdoms. They were not easy to colonize; the British

Ghastly mistake

•Prof. Chinua Achebe described them as argumentative. Why the British would consider the Igbo habit of arguing as surprising, is the real surprise. Why would people who argue with the Creator of the world be intimidated by white district officers some of whom were in their twenties? The Igbo did not care for Empires; they preferred small-scale village communities where every adult male was the king of his own household and could take part in decision-making and every adult woman in (admittedly less frequent) women’s decisionmaking. I hope you will not expect me to demonstrate in detail how the world of Things Fall Apart and the world of Arrow of God derive their substance and ambience from these primordial conversations between the first Igbo people and their Creator. When the British colonized Nigeria they had a lot to learn some of them did, but some of them, unfortunately, did not. It was bad enough that the Igbo had no kings and no horses, but to also demand a hearing was just too much! What the uninitiated members of Britain’s imperial service did not realize was that the Igbo got away long ago talking back to God Himself. That is a major element of their ethnicity and it will be present in their life and literature.

Cultural context of the authors I want now to address briefly the question posed in what appears like a sub-title to the main subject: To what degree is all literature shaped by the cultural contexts of the authors? The creative enterprise is a magical space onto itself - the mind in mutual collaboration with the world and its elements to produce something of aesthetic value. Creative writers are like painters, using words to paint a literary tapestry. I think that words

have a magic, that human situations- one’s environment, culture, ‘ethnicity’ as we have spent time re-discovering - can be unburdened to join other factors wordsmiths use to create literary magic - that extra dimension that the writer can conjure up by placing ideas about the human condition side by side on paper. I suppose that cultural contexts is another name for what we have so far been calling the factors of ethnicity. Quite clearly these factors do shape literature. The cultural context within which a writer finds him/herself is relevant in so far as it brings

Being the second instalment of the last keynote address CHINUA ACHEBE presented at the 2011 Garden City Literary Festival in Port Harcourt, Rivers State

Georges Braque, co-founder of cubism, once described perspective as “a ghastly mistake which it has taken four centuries to redress.” Perspective is important but it is also a one-eyed view which can degenerate into mere draughts-manship. Perhaps the celebration of individualism, another one-eyed view of the world, can now use a little redressing in Western literature. The story of Nigeria is one steeped in ethnic and religious tensions and complexity. ‘Ethnicity ’ in the Nigerian context has not evolved, through ‘a post-primordial civic

Good literature, whether oral or written, will bear the marks of the author’s culture as well as his or her own personal signature

something of literary value contributes to the world story and does not claim superiority over, deny, obscure or jaundice, even oppress other perspectives or stories. But having said that let me now admit that there are other factors and not least among them is the genius and free-will of the author. I left this factor out of account until now, for a purpose. Good literature, whether oral or written, will bear the marks of the author’s culture as well as his or her own personal signature. Culture is a shared commodity. It implies community. The behaviour of one person is not called culture; but the action of one person can influence the culture of the group, and even change it. Western literature played a central role in promoting the ideal of individual autonomy. As Lionel Trilling tells us Western literature has in the last one hundred and fifty years held “an intense and adverse imagination

nationalism’ into a blissful, common national identity, as seen in say Switzerland. Until the day “the Swissification of ethnic conflict” arrives, Nigerians, particularly its writers, should not be satisfied with sweeping the matter ‘under the rug.’ For those who are not proficient in Nigeria’s recent political history it might be useful to point out that the word ethnic was not always ‘the ugly girl that many took to bed at night, but denied during the daytime.’ My generation remembers a Nigeria that was once a land of great hope and progress, a nation of immense resources at its disposal – natural resources, but even more so human resources. Nigeria possesses a great diversity of vibrant peoples who have not always been on the best of terms, but those of us who are old enough remember periods in our history when collaborations across ethnic and religious divides produced great results. To be concluded

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2012 — 21

Lagos sets up water regulatory council By MONSUR OLOWOOPEJO

From left: Director of Investment, Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment, Mr. Michael Olanipekun; Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga; and Head, Investment Policy Reviews, Africa, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Mr. Alexandre de Crombrugghe, during the inauguration of the task force to develop the Nigerian Policy Framework for Investments, in Abuja.

FG inaugurates taskforce to review investment policies T

HE Federal Government has inaugurated a task force to review the country’s investment policies. The review will be anchored by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Growth and Employment in States (GEMS3), a UK Department For International Development (DFID)-funded programme. Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, during the inauguration, said the review would cover investment policy, investment promotion and facilitation, trade policy; competition policy and corporate governance. The minister said that Africa was known as the last investment frontier globally in terms of investment opportunities. “For the first time, we have Nigeria in a different area where you can describe as the high growth and high return environment, compared to at least 75 percent of other global economies. This means that we are in a very unique position to take advantage of this unique opportunity. However, the only thing that stands between us and taking advantage of this huge opportunity is having a wellcoordinated and systematic investment policy,’’ he said. He said this was the point at which OECD and DFID would come in. Aganga said that the OECD and DFIC had a good track record that had been tested based on what they had done in 60 other countries. He explained that the review, which would be done at both the national and state levels, would be used

as a model, globally, based on the successful implementation of the programme. He said, “For us in Nigeria, it is the first time ever that we will have a well-coordinated investment policy framework, which we have never ever had in the country. “And because of the drive, for the first time, we have a well-coordinated policy between the federal and the state governments. OECD has done it in more than 60 countries at the national level but this is the first time that they are doing it at the subnational level (state level).” He said

Lagos would be used as the pivot, which would become a model to the rest of the world. Also, the Head, Investment Policy Review for Africa, OECD, Mr Alexandre de Combrugghe, said that the organisation’s decision to partner Nigeria was due to the growing investment interest in the country globally. Combrugghe said the ongoing economic reforms embarked upon by the government had helped to strategically position the country as a major investment destination.

Seme fixed scanner commences operation next month By GODFREY BIVBERE

LOBAL scan systems limited says its fixed scanner installed at the Seme border will go into full operation next month. Disclosing this to members of the Senate Committee on Finance during the committee’s visit to the Seme site, Managing Director of the company, Mr Fred Udechukwu, said the company has started test-running the fixed scanner. He explained that there is need for the company to test-run the fixed scanner over a period of time so that both the operators and those who will maintain the equipment will have

S part of measures to enhance hygienic supply of water, Lagos State Government has concluded plans to establish the Lagos Water Council, aimed at ensuring effective and efficient regulation and protection of all underground water in the state. Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello, who disclosed this at the first phase of stakeholders’ forum on sensitisation/awareness programme, themed: “Development of Water and Sanitation Policy for Lagos State,” held in Ikeja for Lagos West Senatorial District, said that this would help to create the lacking synergy between water and sanitation in the state. “There must be a synergy between water and sanitation. There must be a council that should regulate it. Previously, we haven’t had this for years. We were just supplying water to the public and the private individuals are also just erecting boreholes in their homes without government’s knowledge, and there is need for the state to have this council” he said. “This council will help to ensure that the waste generated and the underground water doesn’t mix up. Daily, residents of the state dig sock away and borehole in their houses; without creating certain distance between both infrastructures” Bello explained. According to him, “In Igando and Ipaja axis of the state, the underground water has been polluted heavily and in Surulere, people have started extracting saline water from boreholes as underground water.

136.10

2.35

2,164.00

-2.00

18.17

-0.04

good knowledge of it. Udechukwu also told the committee members that the fixed 107.50 +0.03 scanner must be manned by welltrained hands, adding that the 93.80 +1.26 health implication of nine million volts emitted by the fixed scanner is CURRENCY BUYING CENTRAL SELLING massive and requires proper 154.75 155.25 155.76 training of customs officers to operate DOLLAR STERLING 235.4212 236.1818 236.9425 it. EURO 200.85 201.499 202.1479 “We don’t want to risk the lives of FRANC 1.6307 1.6359 165.4099 1.6318 1.6371 1.6412 Nigerians, if not, cancer will ravage YEN CFA 0.2856 0.2965 0.3065 the society,” he said. WAUA 232.033 232.7831 33.5328 “Technically, there is need for RENMINBI 24.915 24.9959 25.0769 proper planning for the operations RIYAL 41.2645 41.3978 41.5311 26.9412 27.0282 27.1153 and maintenance of the scanner due KRONA 232.7595 233.5115 234.2636 to its high technology state so that SDR the ultimate operators would know CBN Exchange rate as at 26/03/2013 how to handle unanticipated faults.

22 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013

McNichols Q2 profits up 16.7%, as cost of sales falls BY NKIRUKA NNOROM

CNICHOLS Plc, a food and beverage manufacturing, research and marketing company, has reported 16.7 percent increase in gross profit for the second quarter ended 30 th June, 2013. Also, the cost of sales for the period fell by 1.6 percent to N137.204 million from N139.400 million in 2011, indicating an efficient price control within the management. The unaudited finan-

cial statement filed with the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, Monday, showed that the gross profit rose to N42.697 million, as against N36.59 million recorded in equivalent period of 2011. The company ’s turnover for the period increased marginally by 2.2 percent to N179.902 million from N175.99 million in the previous year. While the selling, m a r k e t i n g , administrative and general expenses rose by 13.2 percent from

N22.43 million in 2011 to N25.39 million in the review period, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose by 22.3 percent from N14.16 million to N17.31 million. Total assets went up to N245.47 million from N213.56 million, representing N14.9 percent improvement over the previous results. Net assets also rose by6.7 percent to N142.57 million from n133.68 million recorded in same period of 2011.

From left: Executive Director, Market Operations Technology, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Mr. Adeolu Bajomo; Executive Director, Business Development, NSE, Mr. Haruna Jalo-Waziri and Director, Product Management, NSE, Mr. Oladipo Omotoso during a press briefing on the recent development in the NSE, in Lagos.

FirstBank emerges Best Retail Bank in Nigeria

IRSTBANK of Nigeria Limited has emerged the Best Retail Bank in Nigeria for 2012. At an award ceremony, which was organized in conjunction with Asia’s most prestigious retail banking event, the Excellence in Retail Financial Services 2013 Awards at Westin Chosun, Seoul in South Korea on Thursday, March 21, 2013, FirstBank beat other contenders in a three-month evaluation process which was based on a balanced and transparent scorecard that was used to determine the ranking of various retail banks in Nigeria. According to Chris Kapfer, Director of Research of the Asian Banker, the organizers of the event, FirstBank was picked based on its performance as market leader in deposits and retail loans with a huge lead compared to its competitor. It is the first

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financial institution in Nigeria to cross the 5 million mark in issued payment cards, the only bank which is able to issue an ATM card in 15minutes, its wide reach and good financial performance as well as its strong focus on customer service. “FirstBank has a large customer base of six million people and a large market share in retail loans and deposits. The Bank grew its retail loans by over 44% in 2012, besides its revenue and operating profit. With its wide reach and good financial performance, First Bank of Nigeria stood strong on our balance scorecard”, he said. FirstBank’s spokesperson and Head of Marketing & Corporate Communication, Mrs. Folake Ani-Mumuney said the Bank is relentlessly deepening its retail dominance with the launch of innovative

products and services, tailored to suit the changing times and ever growing customer base. “Emerging the ‘Best Retail Bank in Nigeria’ for 2012 after a stringent three-month evaluation process, is a clear indication of the effectiveness of our strategy with regards to sustaining business services and retail financial products which, have helped to position our customers as first at all times”, she said The award ceremony was witnessed by about 150 senior bankers from 29 countries across the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. The award programme is administered by The Asian Banker and referred by prominent global bankers, consultants and academics. It is regarded as the most prestigious of its kind in the region.

An Appeal tto o the Ogun Stat e Go tate Govvernment G

OVERNOR Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State aptly demonstrated a commitment to obtaining solutions to our economic problems by his prompt visit to the Arepo area following on a recent vandalisation event of the petroleum products pipelines in the Arepo area. The petroleum products pipelines coming from the Lagos Ports area cross from Lagos State into Ogun State south of Ajuwon, Ogun State. The pipelines cross the River Ogun south of Akute-Oja and, east of the river, they reach the Lagos to Ibadan expressway at Warewa, they continue in a north-easterly direction through Arepo before crossing the River Owuru. East of the River Owuru, the pipelines pass south of Ilara-Ajeregu, they reach the Ikorodu to Sagamu road between Labori and Kamalo and then continue to the NNPC depot, east of the Ikorodu to Sagamu road. Warewa on the Lagos to Ibadan expressway and Ita-Oluwo on the Ikorodu to Sagamu road are at about the same latitude. North of these two places and as one moves towards Sagamu, the Lagos to Ibadan expressway and the Ikorodu to Sagamu road are separated by a distance of about 11 km. The River Owuru is located between the Ikorodu to Sagamu road and the Lagos to Ibadan expressway until the expressway crosses the River Owuru north of the Redemption Camp. The Redeemed Christian Church of God has, from its own resources, provided a bitumen – surfaced road from Simawa with a bridge crossing of the River Owuru at Ebute Bonwun thus establishing the first road link between Likosi on the Ikorodu to Sagamu road and the expressway. This road link joins the expressway at the southern gate of Redeemer ’s University. If one has to make a journey between Warewa and Ita-Oluwo, one route would be from Warewa to Ojota on the Lagos to Ibadan expressway, next on the Ikorodu Road from Ojota through Mile 12 to Ikorodu Town roundabout and finally on the Ikorodu to Sagamu road from the roundabout to Ita-Oluwo. The route length is about 39km. The Ogun State Government, OGSG, has an industrial estate at Ogijo, a town on the Ikorodu to Sagamu road, 2 km north of Ita-Oluwo. There is also an extension to this industrial estate planned for near Ilara about 3.8 km west of the Ikorodu to Sagamu road. The OGSG should provide an eastwest road link from the Ikorodu to Sagamu road to the expressway which link would provide access to the

industrial estates at Ogijo and Ilara and for resolving issues with the petroleum products pipelines. The OGSG should now identify and acquire the land corridor for this road link. One such corridor could be from Ita-Oluwo through Imusin-Ajegunle, Bolorunduro, Imunti, Imegbon and in a north-westerly direction until the route crosses the petroleum products pipelines and next in a westerly direction with a bridge crossing of the River Owuru, and the route reaches the expressway between Arepo and Magboro. The route should avoid the swampy areas through which the pipelines pass. The OGSG should acquire land along the route in order to secure the pipelines and to ensure that development in the area adds significant value to the area. This road link, when constructed, would provide a relief road taking traffic from the Lagos to Ibadan expressway to the Ikorodu to Sagamu road whenever traffic blockages occur on the expressway. The road link would allow the OGSG to view the land on both sides of the River Owuru as part of a metropolitan area stretching from the Redemption Camp in the north to Isheri North in the south and not as parcels of land on the fringes of Lagos State. The OGSG would be able to plan for and provide municipal facilities for this metropolitan area and in particular use the River Owuru as source of raw water for water treatment facilities. With the provision of potable water to homes and establishments in the area, the OGSG would have data of the residents who should be paying their income taxes in Ogun State where they reside. The vandalisation of the petroleum products pipelines has resulted in substantial pollution of the River Owuru south of Arepo and the pipelines. The opening up of the area around Arepo and the petroleum products pipelines should lead to a significant reduction in the vandalisation that leads to leakages of petroleum products which are the major cause of the pollution of the River Owuru. The OGSG and private interests have residential/industrial estates close to Lagos State, namely, Riverview Estate, Opic Estate, Lonex Gardens and Guiness Cooperative Estate. These estates could yield substantial revenue for the OGSG if steps are taken to prevent the floods that occur when the River Ogun overflows its banks. The measures that should be adopted by the OGSG will be discussed in this column next week.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013 — 23

DIARY Select ICT events GDC 2013. Holds 25-29 Mar 2013 in San Francisco, USA.

EDITED by Adekunle Adekoya

Operators breathe easier as NCC slashes interconnect rates

conhIT 2013. Holds 9-11 Apr 2013 in Berlin, Germany. Machine to Machine 2013. Holds 10-11 April 2013 in Paris, France.

Intertelecom 2013. Holds 11-13 April, 2013 in Lodz, Poland.

Preview

New inventions shaping life and living

LinkMe sends text to your wrist

The LinkMe bracelet displays text messages on your wrist and lets you keep your phone in your pocket. Currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, the LinkMe communicates with the smartphone via Bluetooth and will display SMS, Facebook or Twitter messages from selected users. The messages are displayed in red or blue letters that scroll across the LED screen. When not displaying messages, the LinkMe functions as a watch and displays the time. The LinkMe is in the prototype phase, and the final version may include additional options such as a vibrating alert or waterproofing.

NCC ON INTERCONNECT RATES, MNP: Director, Public Affairs of Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo (middle) flanked by Mrs Josephine Amuwa, Head of NCC's Legal Department (left), and Mr Edoyemi Oga,Special Adviser to the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, while briefing the press on the reduction of call rate and postponement of mobile number portability in Abuja, last week. Photo: Emmanuel Elebeke.

Microwork initiative'll create more jobs for youths — JOHNSON BY EMEKA AGINAM

HE Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Jonson Omobola was in Lagos recently to unveil a job creation scheme ‘’Microwork for Job Creation-Naijacloud’’ that seeks to reduce unemployment and create wealth for Nigerian youths. The project with support from the STEPB project of the Ministry of Education, according to the Minister would address the issues of employability and job creation using information technology. While talking on a number of industry issues, she said that Microwork initiative would bridge unemployment gap in Nigeria. Excerpts: What is Microwork and E-Lancing initiative all about? We have recognized that Information and Communication Technology is the fastest growing sector of the Nigerian economy. It is currently growing at 30 per cent

I Live in N S Nigeria, work I anywhere in D the world E C M Y K

and has maintained that for the past five years. The belief of the ministry is that the country can leverage on it for improved productivity. After much brainstorming, we came up with the idea. This is in partnership with Science and Technology Education Post-Basic (STEPB) World Bank for job creation in Nigeria. As you know the STEP-B project is about improving science and technology. The total amount for the project (STEP-B) is around $180 million and it includes what we are doing with the National University Commission on fibre-optic laying across Nigerian institutions in the country. The project is going live in Lagos and Abuja, but that of Kano will be on soonest. We have about seven sessions that will still come up, because it is going to be gradual. Our hope is that every individual that registered on this platform will actually begin to get work and get money. So this is something that you can see the result imme-

diately. However, to earn more money depends on the individual, how well he or she was able to handle the work given and improve his or her profile. The initiative is coming with great opportunities. It will create jobs, though without actually creating a company. Participants can sit at home with a PC and Internet connection and all that can be done without even going out. It will aggregate work for microworkers and rub off well for Nigerians and the economy. You said both Lagos and Abuja are on, while Kano will be later. Are there challenges hindering the take off in Kano? There are no challenges. I think the issue is that

Prolight + Sound 2013. Holds 10-13 Apr 2013 in Frankfurt, Germany.

BY EMMA ELEBEKE

this being the first time, we just thought it fit that we should start on pilot phases. The fact remains that nothing was stopping us from going to Kano next week, but we believe that we should take them one after the other. We are sure of getting Kano started any moment from now. We are also going to extend this initiative to other states. Yobe, Osun and some have their representatives around. It is a nationwide programme. Participants are complaining of not having the ability to access money, especially through some channels. There are arrangements to ensure a seamless process, reason why it took us about six months Continues on page 26

Participants can sit at home with a PC and Internet connection and all that can be done without even going out

ELCOS operating in Nigeria will breathe easier forthwith as industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission, disclosed that its decision last week to lower interconnect rates among service providers will deepen competition in the market among the operators. Further, the regulator revealed that the proposed launch of mobile number portability, MNP earlier billed for this month has been moved forward to April 25 and is also expected to stir up more competition among operators and make them more responsible to subscribers to enable them get value for the money. According to the Commission, the reduction in interconnect rates from N4.90k to N4.40k was in response to the yearnings of Nigerian consumers about the high cost of making calls in the country. NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Mr. Tony Ojobo who disclosed this Abuja said the announcement followed a stakeholders meeting in which all parties agreed to the reduction in the ICR to further deepen competition in the market and ensure that Nigerian consumers get value for their money. “This development is a direct response to the dynamics in the market and we are certain that it will make service providers more responsive to the consumers. Though, we see increase in traffic because it is a win situation to both con-

Continues on page 26

NUMBER PORTABILITY:

We're working SMARTwheel aims Achebe: There was with Police, says for safer driving a software icon MTN's Braithwaite

24 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013

Live in Nigeria, work anywhere in the world

ARLIER this vanced nations, you can month, penulti live anywhere in Nigermate Monday to ia and work anywhere in be specific, the Federal the world, without leavMinistry of Communica- ing where you live! The tion Technology came out beauty of this cloud thing with what we now know is that almost everybody as the Microwork for Job in every profession can Creation Initiative. The benefit since ICT has infirst phase of the initia- vaded and taken firm tive is tagged Nai- traction in every profesjaCloud, and the minis- sion. try elaborated that it is In layman’s terms, the “the starting point to a legion of unemployed longer term involvement Nigerian youths are a by private and public veritable pool of “cloud sectors in Nigeria around labour ” waiting to be Microwork and Elancing employed by “cloud emtechnologies and capa- ployers”! All that is needbilities.” ed is the relevant trainF u r t h e r, ing in the the ministry use of a In layman’s stated that computer the objecand interms, the tives of the ternet aclegion of initiative, cess. If among oththis thing unemployed ers are to “incatches, Nigerian crease Miand there crowork and is no reayouths are a Elancing son why veritable awareness it should among Ninot, it is pool of gerian worka verita“cloud laers and busible winnesses; facildow of bour” waititate interacopportuing to be emtions benity for tween the our notoployed by International rious Ya“cloud emMicrowork hoo boys and Elancing to turn ployers” leaders and coat and the Governgo legit. ment of NiBesides, geria and the Private Sec- honest Nigerians will get tor; provide an array of employed, while others action plans and strate- can augment their ingic actions for the Gov- come by participating. ernment of Nigeria to As Mrs Johnson said, evaluate and implement the opportunities abound in the medium_term; and in what is called Micro put Nigeria in the Elanc- Work and E-Lancing. ing and Microwork Micro Work comprises worldwide map, as per Micro Task and Macro previous experiences in Task, while E-Lancing India, Bangladesh or the comprises Simple Task Philippines. and Complex Task. WorkAs we all know, the shops have already been world is shrinking daily, held to acquaint those as advances continue to interested, but it would be made in the technolo- be nice if the Ministry gy of information and can see to it that more communication. Thus, it workshops are held in is now possible to open many other parts of the an office in Alaska, with country, preceded by apworkers you have never propriate publicity efforts seen, or are ever likely to to create as much awaresee, in Siberia, Kaza- ness as possible. khstan, or Papua New Since broadband is key Guinea. Tasks are allot- to the success of this inied to them, which they tiative, I urge the Minisexecute, and you pay ter and all other authorithem; everything is done ties, including stakeelectronically. holders to do all in their Put simply, by the time power to hasten actualiNigerians are fully aware sation of the Nigerian of the potentials of cloud broadband dream. Somecomputing, the reality how, we’ll get there, would have sunk home good governance or not! that as it is in the ad-

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RIVING safely requires that both hands remain firmly on the steering wheel, but some people find the temptation to use their smartphone at the wheel all too enticing, often resulting in road accidents. To combat this, a group of students has come up with SMARTwheel: a steering wheel cover that detects when drivers are engaging in unsafe activities like texting while driving, and provides sonic and visual alerts to refocus their attention. SMARTwheel was designed by students aged between 12 and 18 from Londonderry, New Hampshire. The team is collectively known as “The Inventioneers,” and has been working together since 2004. SMARTwheel is the third invention produced by the group thus far. SMARTwheel is primarily focused toward teenage and inexperienced drivers. The device fits onto a standard steering wheel and sounds an alert while simultaneously flashing red lights if a driver is deemed to be holding the steering wheel in an unsafe manner — hopefully

SMARTwheel aims for safer driving refocusing their attention as a result. A digital log of when the incident occurs is then produced, and can be later accessed by parents, employers, or law enforcement. SMARTwheel can send out real-time alerts to parents, employers, or law enforcement. The team explained that the device makes use of embedded sensors to determine when drivers have removed one or both hands from the wheel for too long, or if the person is texting while driving. At present, the digital log is accessed via wired connection to a computer, though plans are in the works to offer a version which sends out the data in real time – perhaps with a Bluetooth tether to a smartphone. The Inventioneers recently received an audience with President Obama, who declared his admiration for the

lThe SMARTwheel sounds an alert when a driver is detected holding the steering wheel in an unsafe way.

The Inventioneers present the first working prototype of the SMARTwheel to US Secretary of Transportation, Ray Lahood. project, and the team is currently planning to manufacture the SMARTwheel, with a proposed eventual retail price of US$200. While a

release date is still unconfirmed at this early stage, a late 2013 schedule is hopeful. Source: SMARTwheel USA

Ewa tasks Nigerian scientists on govt agenda BY EMMA ELEBEKE

INISTER of Sci ence and Technology, Professor Ita Okon Bassey Ewa has challenged Nigerian Scientists to come up with recommendations that will drive the real sectors of the Nigerian economy and fast- tract the transformation agenda of the present administration. The minister gave the charge at the 12th National Council on Science and Technology that was held in Ibadan, Oyo Sate recently. Professor Ewa who delivered the keynote address at the occasion said " The challenge before this Council is how to galvanize our thoughts and submissions and recommend implementable projects that will drive the real sectors of the Nigerian economy and fast track the transformation agenda of government." He admonished participants to use Science Technology and Innovation to transform Nigeria into one of the top 20 economies in year 2020, stressing that a nation that is unable to develop its STI system, will sink further down, while those with strong STI will mount up, as STI provides the basis for industrialization and sustainable development. The Minister enumerat-

ed the several achievements of his ministry towards the realization of rapid national development and the Transformation Agenda of the present administration to include, the establishment of the Ward Based Cluster projects; the development of a framework for the National System of Innovation; the strengthening of the Presidential Standing Committee on Inventions and Innovations; the renewal of collaborations with international partners and governments on STI; the engagement of stakeholder groups spanning inventors, research-

ers, industries, banks, SMEs, manufacturers and technology managers. He added that, at present, the ministry is in consultation towards the establishment of the Sheda Science and Technology Complex (SHESTCO ) Silicon Valley for the promotion of ICT wand solar technology, including the refocusing and the reformation of institutes to be specialized, technologically driven and responsive to specific industry needs. The Oyo State Governor, Senator Ishaq Abiola Ajimobi, represented by the

Secretary to the Oyo State Government, Alhaji Waheed Akin Olajide while declaring the occasion open stated that Oyo state is blessed with abundant natural resources such as clay, kaolin and aquamarine. He implored the ministry, agencies and the organized private sector to explore and develop these rich and abundant resources. He specifically requested from the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, the deployment of technologies for the procession of cassava, cashew and kaolin in the state.

FORUM: From left, Managing Director, Open SolutionsINC Software, Mr. Dele Ajisomo; Director, Standards and Regulation Department, NITDA, Mr. Inye Kemabonta and Dr. Akin Fapohunda at a stakeholders' forum on PKI in Abuja. Photo: Emmanuel Elebeke.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013—25

Microsoft leads big data drive in Nigeria BY EMEKA AGINAM

Number portability: We're working with A Police, says MTN's Braithwaite BY PRINCE OSUAGWU

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lAkin Braithwaite: MTN's working with Police on third party data requests. becoming quite an irritant and causing problems both for our customers and to us. So we took the view that we needed to do something very radical. We tracked and chased some of these hoodlums but it was clear that we needed something that was fundamental. That gave birth to the security number. Now what the security number has enabled us to do is to kind of put a lock and key behind people’s lines. It has garrisoned our customers’ data and their confidential business with us. So we have seen a drastic reduction in fraudulent

ITH the telecom sector regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC set to roll out the mobile number portability, MNP, the feeling in the industry is that the major operators who may be having network congestions due to too many customers may lose part of their revenue as some subscribers may likely port out to smaller networks and still retain their original number. So, when Hi-Tech ran into Mr Akin Braithwaite, Customer Relation Executive of MTN, one of the major operators in the country, we seized the opportunity to sound him out. However, Braithwaite did not only stoutly claim that MNP would favour MTN more, he revealed that his company and the Nigerian police were fine tuning ideas to make third party data request more accessible than ever, in answer to the growing insecurity in the country. Excerpts: Mobile Number Portability is expected to go live this quarter. Given the fact that MTN has a very large market share, how prepared are you to cope with this? Mobile number portability is something that we are excited about. As you have rightly mentioned, being the biggest network, there is a big attraction for customers to come join us from the other networks. The footprints for one; customer service for another; the branded experience; value for money; and being a very major brand that spreads across Africa and the Middle East. Customers had been constrained to come over in the past – because they don’t want to lose their number and things like that. So we are extremely excited and anticipating the commencement of mobile number portability. Let’s look at the issue of security numbers which MTN pioneered, how would this not be in the way? Absolutely not, already we have fared brilliantly with the initiative and it has brought a great relief to customers who are the beneficiaries. You see, out of nowhere, we began to notice a lot of identity theft – people wanting to commit nefarious acts with other people’s lines. This was

constantly having new customers joining our network. Interestingly and happily, customers are not leaving our network. Because our customers are relatively satisfied and they also appreciate that we are continuously trying to improve; they are attracting other customers and so we continue to grow. And as we are growing we are trying to build customer support frameworks both in terms of the online and the physical outlets. But the rate of growth of customers on our network has so far surpassed the extent to which we can build our

As I speak with you, we and the Inspector General of Police have agreed on a particular process

activities and this has made customers extremely happy. It will also help the subscribers more, whether they are porting in or out. Accessibility to the network is a big issue in customer relationship. If you are so confident of the network and the investments on it so far, why are customers still complaining of difficulty in getting through to you? This is something that gives us sleepless nights and we are constantly going at it and will keep going at it. The real challenge is that we are quite a successful network and that means that we are

assistance framework. A lot of that is set to change with the advent of social media which we are now embracing. Billing irregularities still recur from time to time among your customers, especially when people roam their phones. What are the real issues here? From basic disruptions of service on the network to fibre cuts, there may be a lot of reasons that can cause your call data records to go missing. Anything that disrupts the network flow can cause billing record irregularities. Perhaps and most importantly, the prices charged in the regions

roamed into may be expensive and in foreign currencies. The subscriber may not be aware of it, but it does not stop the charges from being deducted. Once you enter a foreign network, you start to burn data and money. So we are trying to really reach out and educate our customers on how to manoeuvre through those issues. The other thing that we have done is to look at how we as a network can help our customers to enjoy better call rates. So we have brought about a new functionality which is a sort of call back functionality where you dial a code and then you can access a service at a far cheaper rate and we have been trying to publicize it. Releasing customers call records is still an issue today. While some say the processes are cumbersome, others feel its an infringement on their privacy. How do people obtain call records from MTN? We have got very good processes around the release of customer records. Right from the introduction of security number all the way through to the involvement of the police. As I speak with you, we and the Inspector General of Police have agreed on a particular process which whenever there is an issue requiring the release of third party call records, it will go through a particular central police body who are the ones to make the requests. That’s on one level. But if you want your ordinary bill – you want to pay your bill and you want to know what your records are, we are not putting any major obstacles in your way. There is again a process that drives that and it’s available for our individual customers as a right. What has MTN done lately to improve customer experience on the network? We have done quite a number of things in this regard. First; we have taken the view that customer experience isn’t something that is negotiable and we like our customers to have the best branded customer experience. Recently we have been able to start swapping out our old network assets, together with modernization of other components in various regions of the country.

T the just conclud ed “Microsoft Run your Enterprise” event, big data, the latest emerging trend in the IT space took center stage. The event was aimed at showcasing the relevance of “Big Data” in an emerging market like Nigeria and how businesses can leverage on it to improve performance. It was a platform for Microsoft partners to share some of the innovative solutions they have deployed and the impacts on their clients’ performance. At the panel session moderated by Olufemi George, Microsoft Platform Specialist, Bambo Ibidapo-Obe, Head of Business Information Management at Oando and Nanfa Kumswa, Chief Technical Officer at Availsys enumerated the benefits of big data and how it can propel businesses to greater profitability. Kumswa noted that the era of big data is novel to

businesses in Nigeria; which provides the opportunity to consume as much data as required without any form of barrier. Bambo Ibidapo-Obe, added that “Government is the biggest beneficiary of big data and suggested the need to find a sustainable way of utilizing data effectively,” George, while speaking on SQL server and the new world of data, explained that the world of data is changing, storage cost is reducing but data volume is growing with increasing consumption of IT. He added that Microsoft proposition is to manage data from any data source by bringing ability to access data anywhere, at any time. George added that connecting with the world’s data empower developers to build new services and applications in a vibrant data market place. He disclosed that the Corporation was working with HP and Dell to bring parallel data warehouse, so end users can access data themselves.

‘Open innovation'll grow Nigeria's ICT industry’

BY PRINCE OSUAGWU

NTERPRISE Business Manager of Dell, Mr. Akin Banuso last week charged policy makers and business managers in Nigeria’s ICT sector to ensure the sector capitalised on open standards frameworks and architectures, to engender more growth in the industry. For him, there are three networking paradigms that are shaping the business landscape across the world today and they included: Convergence, distributed networking and software defined networks. They are popularly known as the ‘Networking Big 3’ Banuso however quipped that “though these topics are not new to the table, but having been discussed for some time, they are now beginning to hit the mainstream in terms of the maturity of the technology and where they are on the corporate agenda. “for instance, the first paradigm, Convergence; is not wholly a networking issue but its impact on the way networks are managed and who manages them, should not be underestimated. Previously IT functioned in silos, with server, storage and network administrations going about their business relatively inde-

pendently. When someone within the organisation wanted a new resource provisioned, working across these silos to make that happen could be a painful and unnecessarily cumbersome experience’’ he added. “For the next, Software defined networking, although the technology is still in its infancy, it is widely touted to revolutionise network infrastructures on the same scale as virtualization in the server market. Traditional networking has been unable to offer the flexibility that networking managers require today “Meanwhile, the last of the paradigms, Distributed networking; is a great shaper of industry. There is a shift from traditional to distributed architectures. This is because several developments have rendered the traditional centralised, monolithic chassis-switched network unfit for the modern business’ requirements. “Firstly, the workforce has become extremely disperse and mobile. Secondly, virtualization and cloud computing have resulted in much higher server-to-server traffic flow than before. Finally, enterprises now have vastly larger volumes of data to process, store, and analyse than was previously the case.’’

26—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013

Microwork initiative'll create more jobs for youths Continues from Page 23

Gov Imoke returns 2013 ISPON summit to Tinapa BY EMEKA AGINAM

S he flags off 2013 edition of edition of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria, ISPON, national software conference slated to hold in Tinapa knowledge city, the Governor of Cross River State, Senator Liyel Imoke will host the United Nation Chairman on e-Learning, Prof. Tapio Varis. This is even as Visafone boss, Mr Jim Ovia also recently launched his “Hope College” knowledge initiative as a

strategic fore-runner and human capital feeder to emerging ICT knowledge parks. Inspired by the UNCTAD report on IT and the contribution of CRSG to the attainment of ISPONs recognition by the recent UN report, Gov. Imoke now returns to the country with value added energy and wisdom to pursue the National Software Mission - with particular reference to the acceleration of the Tinapa Knowledge City and related National software initia-

tives to world class level. The return of Gov. Imoke coincides with the flagging off ISPON National Software Conference and Competition – Tinapa 2013 agenda with confirmation of keynote by Prof. Tapio Varis, UNESCO Chair on eLearning and Professor and Chair of Media Education Research Center for Vocational Education & Hypermedia Laboratory, University of Tampere, Finland, Europe. The conference would also have two speakers

from UNESCO as well as various speakers from Nigeria, Africa, Europe, USA and Asia. Over the years, Senetor Imoke has been know for his pro-active steps and energy designated to his passionate and unwavering support for IT development in the State of Cross River and Nigeria as a whole. This has led to the establishment and commencement of an IT Incubator and Knowledge park in the Tinapa Knowledge City, Calabar, Cross River State.

to get started. We have local payment switches. We are partnering with Interswitch on that so that people can get paid in Nigeria. PayPal is not part of this programme. Can we know the number of participants at the take off and the criteria for choosing them? At the start today, about three classes were on. I think we have over 900 participants presently. The other session will be for another 900 people. This means that we shall be training about 900 people every session. There are no criteria like that. But what we ensured is that a participant can speak English, be able to use a computer and you registered. This is an initiative we believe will have a life of its own as we progress in it. All that is required is for the person to register on the platform. The beauty of this initiative is that the participants only need the present training we are giving them now. All that is required like I said earlier is for such participants to understand what is involved, register and get the training, then such person can go home, become a micro worker and earn money. This initiative is happening all over the world on a large scale, but we are starting in Nigeria on a gradual basis so that we can really achieve something, especially in bridging the unemployment gap. You have been canvassing for improved local content development in the country, but surprisingly, the PCs being used

for this training are foreign brands. We didn’t see the likes of Zinox, Omatek and others that are indigenous? Well, we are still very much committed to local content development. The Digital Bridge is 100 per cent behind local content development. I believe that as they procure more computers, indigenous computers will be appreciated. I know you are aware of the Student PC ownership scheme we are working on. We are working on getting more Nigerians to patronize the local brands. You were in Lagos penultimate Thursday, where you said that you are targeting improved broadband connectivity in the country by 2017. Now, how does this Microwork scheme fit into your broadband strategy? Broadband has a lot to do with the Microwork scheme. The global platform by which people will access this initiative is through the Internet. So, it is very important for us to ensure that as we roll out this programme, people actually have access to the Internet no matter where they are in the country. The criteria for the Microwork is that as long as you have a computer, you can type, understand English, you are good to go. The E-Lancing appears to be a bit higher in the sense that it involves programming, software development skills, which is really part of what we are discussing and ensuring that we have Nigerians that can develop software not just for the Nigerian market, but globally.

Operators breathe easier as NCC slashes rates Continues from Page 23 sumer and the service providers, we took everything into account before coming up with this reduction in the interconnect rate. “We believe that mobile number portability will also make operators accountable to consumers as this will make quality of service improve far beyond what it used to be. We also believe that the ICR reduction and MNP regime are going to be an interesting time for all to watch,” he said. According to NCC, the reduction is targeted at both the small and new entrants as well as the big operators. Under the new arrangement, new entrants and small operators in the market who have 07.5 Percent subscriber C M Y K

base will now pay N5.20k instead of N6.40k they initially pay and from 2015 the rate drops to N3.90k. For the big operators, the initial N4.90k they pay will reduce to N4.40k and by 2015, the rate drops to N3.90. All these take effect from April 1st, 2013. The reduction is expected to reduce the cost of making calls from one network to another and also calls made within a network. As part of the commission’s effort to instil discipline in the industry, Mr. Ojobo said the commission has fined MTN the sum of N90 million for failing to meet up with the recently reviewed Key Performance Index, KPI by the commission.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013—27

HE human brain is a computer, and software is a knowledge logic system. The Nigerian knowledge profession and industry is grossly underestimated — due to technophobia mindset — generated by external influences! Indeed, it is the factory and wealth ecosystem in our heads. The Nigeria knowledge industry is worth perhaps ten times (1000%) more than the oil and gas sector. All these can be classified as “Knowledge Software.” Nigeria has abundant knowledge in almost all significant areas of human endeavour. Professor Chinua Achebe is software; so is J.P. Clark and

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Achebe: There was a software icon Wole Soyinka. Christopher Okigbo was a great poetic software; so also was Ken Saro Wiwa. Nnamdi Azikiwe was Software-Nigeria/Africa, so was Aminu Kano and, Obafemi Awolowo and many millions of African knowledge giants such as Nelson Mandela, Haile

Selassie and Kwame Nkrumah. Software is innovation and creativity. Indeed, there is software brain and architecture in this country populated by innovative men and women with creative knowledge. After all, Fela Anikulapo Kuti was software art in his own right – so is

Mallam Maitama Sule. However, one aspect is to recognize indigenous knowledge and the other is a conscious patronage of the products and services of our national software knowledge resources. Imagine if Professor Chinua Achebe after writing ‘Things Fall Apart’ in

1958, was never patronized or read by Nigerians, Africans and the world at large? Imagine if this innovative knowledge-ware was never given the attention it deserved by government and business policy makers? Currently, we know that the Achebe’s master piece, ‘Things Fall Apart’ was translated into fifty (50) international languages and sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. The above provides us with the technical and vivid alibi of the potency of Software-Nigeria and justifies the decade-long advocacy of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) for national recognition, promotion and mandatory patronage of Software-Nigeria by government and related stakeholders. With the demise of Professor Achebe, I am sure it is high time government seriously engages her ‘Technophobia Syndrome” and timely understand the critical importance of indigenous knowledge-ware and Information Technology Software in particular – as the engine of her transformation and development Agenda. The argument is that ‘no foreigner ’ could have written “Things Fall Apart” the way and manner it was culturally and traditionally structured and expressed by Achebe. The same logic applies to software in the ICT domain, which centrally focuses on the e-needs of the people and designing solutions peculiar to those needs to fulfill her development aspirations and sustainable goals. Those marketers of foreign software may be forgiven their pathetic, blind ignorance. Recognizing software development as a new productive frontier and potential instrument for economic empowerment and wealth creation, ISPON advised government in 2005 to launch a nation-wide awareness campaign based on the technical report of the InterMinisterial Committee on National Software Development Initiative (NSDI). The above observation was based on a factual study recognising the acute danger in allowing deployment of foreign software in key Federal Government functions/ operations domains. The advocacy aims to foster and promote the establishment of a National Software Development Policy and encourage the inclusion of the patronage and protection of indigenous software in the IT Bill. This will serve to improve the level of the nation’s computer knowledge and content competitiveness, as well as promote and spread development and use of indigenous software applications and services in gov-

ernance, education, health, business, industry, agriculture, transportation, public administration, law and justice, entertainment and national security. Currently, our knowledge base and technology environment of the “new economy” is greatly influenced, undermined and controlled by foreign information systems and database – where Software plays a fundamental role and viewed as the backbone of modern wealth creation and national security. Setting a national software development policy and awareness agenda therefore, is also against the backdrop that building software capacities presents immense economic opportunities for nation building. Suffice to state that Nigeria can earn $10billion USD in foreign exchange annually from the software industry. Every software-exporting country has evolved a unique industry, shaped by its own resources and situation and by the particular global opportunities presented at the time. For example, Japan exports mostly software games, India exports primarily software services to large software development shops, Ireland exports software products (created by MNCs located in-country as well as by a growing number of indigenous companies), and Israel mostly exports software technology which is subsequently productized by firms in the US and Europe. The global software industry continues to evolve, and countries now looking to develop their national software potentials for security, exports and survivability face a different global situation, and are likely to evolve fundamentally different software industries. The current dynamics of the global software industry should, therefore, inform ICT planning and policy, no matter the country’s stage of economic development. For countries with deficient infrastructure and tight resources (such as Ireland in the 1970’s), selective government initiatives have been critical to successful software industry development. Professor Chinua Achebe has lightened up the literary knowledgeware domain and indigenous software advocates can do even much more for the creation of wealth and survivability of our future. Goodnight, our Professor Knowledge Emeritus and software literature enigma. Sleep well and rest in perfect peace, because SoftwareNigeria is alive. We pledge to carry on the fight with assurances of success in the human knowledge Olympiad.

28 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27,, 2013

I won’t dance naked — Enyeama N

IGERIA goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama has confirmed that he broke his promise of dancing in his under pants following the Super Eagles’ triumph at the 2013 Afcon in South Africa. Enyeama has during their training tour in Faro, Portugal in January said, “It will be a dream come true and I am certain I will strip to my shorts. Yes, let everyone hear it that I will strip to my shorts if we a r e champions.” T h e goalkeeper has now declared that he had no intentions of keeping such a promise. “No I did not keep the promise because I am not obliged to keeping it. It is not all t h e promises that the federal

government has made that has been fulfilled. People also make promises and they don’t keep them,” Enyeama said. Enyeama described his action as “one of those failed promises” but insisted that he had a reason for his decision. “It is one of those failed promises…. I have my reasons I failed to fulfil it,” he added. Enyeama has made 78 appearances for Nigeria.

•Enyeama

Real offer Benzema or Higuain for Aguero

Amun rallies support for Eagles By SOLOMON NWOKE

ORMER Secretary General of the Nigeria Football Association, (NFA), Coach Fanny Amun has expressed confidence that the Super Eagles would qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil despite playing a 1-1 draw with the Harambee Stars of Kenya at the weekend in Calabar. Coach Amun, who led Nigeria’ Golden Eaglets to conquer the world in Japan ’93 FIFA Under- 17 World Cup commended the Super Eagles and their handler, Stephen Keshi for redeeming their image from the over ambitious Harambee Stars of Kenya who almost ran home with the maximum three points from Nigeria. “I’m happy over the result of the Eagles match against Harambee Stars of Kenya; I won’t tell you lie. You’ll also agree to the other side of the story if we had lost the three points that it would have been worst. Secondly, the boys did not play badly considering the fact that they went on break after their Afcon 2013 glory in South Africa early this year. So I applaud everybody including the coaches for the draw.. I know the feelings of Nigerians because we had a draw at home and why must it be a draw. No, I won’t say why. Why it was a draw we all saw it, we would have even lost the game. So I hail the boys and I urge Nigerians to still give them that maximum support to pick the World Cup ticket to Brazil next year.

EAL MADRID Monday night upped the stake s in thei r £45m bid to land Serg io Agu ero from Manchester City. Starsport revealed last week how City face a losin g battle to keep hold of star striker Aguero in the face of strong interest from the Spanish giants. Agu ero is beco min g disil lusio ned with life in Manchester after the break-up of his marriage. Barc elon a have also ente red the race to sign the Argentina striker. That has spooked Real – who have decided to offer City their choice of either Karim Benzema or Gonz alo Higuain as a sweetener. Real president Florentino Pere z knows he could lose Cristiano Ronaldo this summer and wants a major transfer to help him re-elected get year. Perez is also trying to sign Gareth Bale from Spurs and has now take n char ge of all the club ’s tran sfer negotiations. Real missed out on Aguero when he joined City for £38m because Atletico Madrid refused to sell to their rivals. But they have maintained their interest and a return to Madrid with Real could appeal to Aguero, who would be closer to his son Ben. Barcelona’s top priority is to keep hold of a rejuv enated David Villa, who has been offered a new deal. Aguero is a fall-back option.

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•Aguero

Brazil 2014 W/Cup:

Nigeria will be — Lamouchi I

VORY Coast coach, Sabri Lamouchi believes Nigeria’s Super Eagles will overcome the recent setback of a 1-1 draw at home to Kenya and qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. The African champions failed to sparkle on Saturday, requiring a stoppage time goal from substitute, Nnamdi Oduamadi to snatch a draw against the Harambee Stars in Calabar but Lamouchi will be surprised if the Eagles fail to fly to Brazil. “Of course my team, the Ivory Coast, one or two from North Africa, Nigeria and probably Zambia (are the five teams) that will qualify to

represent Africa at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil,” Lamouchi said on Monday. Nigeria knocked out the Ivory Coast at the quarterfinals of the 2013 Afcon in South Africa and Lamouchi has now confessed that he did not believe the Super Eagles would progress to the last four of the competition at the expense of his star-studded side. “No, (I did) not really (expect them to knock us out), but in this kind of big tournament you can never tell. I was however surprised how they played against us. “They were superb, had a stronger fighting spirit and pace than us. And after their win over us I tipped them to

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY WEDNESDAY,, MARCH 27,, 2013 — 29

Abramovich wants Mourinho back at Chelsea

OMAN ABRAMOVICH told Jose Mourinho he wants him back at Chelsea. The Rus sia n tyc oon and Blues owner knows he needs to find a fans’ favourite to rep lac e unp opu lar inte rim manager Rafa Benitez at the end of the season. Mourinho is set to accept the invitation as he is well aware going to Manchester City – who could also be looking for a new bos s wit h Rob ert o Ma nci ni’s pos itio n und er thr eat – wou ld thw art any future hope of succeeding Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. The 50- yea r-o ld has not agreed to go back to Stamford Bridge yet, because he does not want to be disrespectful to Real Madrid, who he hopes wil l win him a thi rd Champions League following success with Porto and Inter.

He als o is not kee n on tak ing cha rge at Sta mfo rd Bri dge if the Blu es do not qua lify for the Cha mp ion s Lea gue . Mo uri nho is als o bel iev ed to hav e a list of demands that include getting rid of chi ef exe cut ive Ron Go url ay and tec hni cal director Michael Emenalo. He has a list of tran sfe r targets, which he will want assurances over. But a comeback is looking inc rea sin gly like ly, as his relationship with billionaire Abr am ovi ch has bee n res tore d, wit h the pai r in regular contact. Sta rsp ort rev eal ed in November how Mourinho’s 16-year-old daughter Tita had enr olle d in a cou rse at Camberwell Art College and that the ‘Special One’ had bou ght a hou se in we st London.

Coloccini returns to Newcastle, eyes Europa comeback

CONTEST . . . Super Eagles forward, Victor Moses ( R ) vies with an unidentified Harambee Stars of Kenya player during their match last weekend in Calabar.

e in Brazil lift the trophy. “But look, to tell you how funny football is, Kenya almost defeated the Super Eagles days ago in the 2014

World Cup qualifier at home. If Nigeria had lost would you say Stephen Keshi is no longer a good coach?” he queried rhetorically.

•Coloccini

Woods hoping for major haul

•Woods

IGER Woods says he is pleased with the way he is playing ahead of the Masters after returning to the top of the world rankings. The 37-year-old completed a remarkable turnaround in fortunes on Monday when he regained his number one ranking with victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Having had his final round

•Mourinho

interrupted by a storm on Sunday, the 14-time major champion returned to Bay Hill to complete a two-under-par round of 70 to claim his eighth title at the Orlando course by two strokes. Woods’ win was also his third in five starts this year and has left him the redhot favourites for the Masters, which starts in two weeks. The American has won four

ABRICIO COLOCCINI flew back into Newcastle yesterday with his sights on a mid-April comeback. The Toon skipper headed back to Argentina after being diagnosed with two small fractures in his back after falling heavily attempting an overhead clearance against Southampton on February 24. Considering his desire to return to green jackets in his time as a pro and says he feels back to his best as he goes in search of another win at Augusta. “I’ve turned some of the weaknesses that I had last year into strengths. I’m really excited about the rest of this year,” he said. “The very beginning of the year I was excited because of how the end of last year turned. My short game came around, I thought my swing was getting better, my short irons got better, lo and behold, I won a few tournaments this year.”

South America for personal reasons the previous month, many Newcastle fans feared they’d seen the last of the popular central defender. But Coloccini, whose flight home was sanctioned by the club, will begin light training in the gym this week, having spent the last month resting his back And the 31-year-old hopes to be in first team contention for Newcastle’s finale, which could include a Europa League final in Amsterdam. In his absence, French international Mapou YangaMbiwa has slotted in seamlessly alongside Steven Taylor, who himself has been called into the England squad after some impressive performances. But Toon chief Alan Pardew rates Coloccini as one of his key players and is desperate to have him back for the closing weeks of the season. The centre-half, is still expected to quit the club in the summer, however, and return home.His former club San Lorenzo were desperate to land him during January’s transfer window and Coloccini himself made it clear he wanted to head home. C M Y K

30 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013

How the compulsory insurance affects you By ROSEMARY ONUOHA

HE National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, in 2010 came up with the Market Development and Restructuring Initiative, MDRI, as part of efforts to boost insurance penetration in the country. Part of the objectives of the MDRI is to enforce the compulsory insurances under the Insurance Act of 2003. But so far, a larger chunk of the general public is yet to buy into the initiative. The reason is not farfetched. The Nigerian public to a very large extent have a negative perception about insurance. Although the sector is changing for the better, it has not been easy to convince Nigerians. Unfortunately though, this poor perception is negatively affecting the growth of the sector, it is high time Nigerians began to see insurance in a new light. Oftentimes, people are wont to say that there is no value attached to insurance, but the truth is that insurance offers a lot of value. Take for instance, people think that putting on the safety belt is to prevent law enforcement agents from arresting them, whereas the purpose is to save their lives. There is no gainsaying the obvious that the loss of confidence from the general public on the insurance sector is as a result of indiscipline. Insurance operators on their part, know that indiscipline and unprofessionalism have impacted negatively on their businesses over the years, as such, are employing all positive means to win back the confidence of the general public. An insurance practitioner once said “We insurance practitioners are not disciplined professionals. And as long as we remain indisciplined, some of those practices that we come out and criticize openly and go back and do privately will continue.”

The compulsory insurances Compulsory insurances are those classes of insurance made compulsory by law, with the objective of providing protection to third parties and the general public. The following types of insurance C M Y K

in the event of mental or physical disability. This law applies to both public and private sector employees. This means that employees (and their families) have the right to demand compensation and payment from their employers in the event of injury or death. The penalty for non-compliance with this law is N250,000, record of conviction, and in addition the place of business may be sealed up.

Healthcare Professional Indemnity Insurance

A building under construction should be insured are compulsory in Nigeria: 1. Builders Liability – under the Insurance Act 2003/under the Lagos State Building Control Law 2010 2. Construction All Risks 3. Occupiers Liability – under the Insurance Act 2003 and Lagos State Law 4. Employers Liability – (Group Life) – under the Pension Reform Act 2004 5. Healthcare Professional Indemnity – under the NHIS Act 1999 6. Motor Third Party Liability – under the Insurance Act 2003

Builders Liability Insurance This is a type of insurance that all owners or contractors of buildings under construction (more than 2 floors), must purchase to provide compensation in event of bodily injury, death and property damage to workers at construction sites and affected members of the public following collapse of the building and other construction risks. The penalty for non-compliance is N250, 000 plus three years imprisonment. Record of conviction, sealing-off and demolition of the building are the penalties provided under the federal and Lagos State laws.

Occupiers Liability Insurance This is a type of insurance that all owners or occupiers of

public buildings, whether private or public, are required to provide under the National Insurance Act 2003 and the Lagos State Building Control Law 2010. A “public building” is any building that is not 100 per cent used by the owner for residential purposes. Public buildings include tenement houses, hostels, residential buildings occupied by tenants, lodgers or licensees, and any other building to which members of the public enter and exit for the purpose of educational, recreational or medical services (e.g. schools, cinemas, hospitals, malls, petrol stations, etc). Occupiers Liability Insurance provides compensation in events of bodily injury, death and property damage to the business users and members of the public in the event of

building collapse, fire, earthquakes, storm or flood. The penalty for noncompliance is N100, 000 plus one year imprisonment, and sealing-off or demolition of the building under the federal and the Lagos State laws.

Employer’s Liability (Group Life) Insurance This is a type of insurance that all employers of labour with more than four employees are required to have under the Pension Reform Act 2004. The law requires the employers to have insurance that will provide for compensation in the event of death, disappearance, disability, or critical illness suffered by staff while in service and to subsidize pension provision

This is a type of insurance that all licensed health care providers and medical practitioners (such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists, etc) are required to have under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) 1999. The law requires them to have insurance that will protect their patients in case of accidents or fatalities (death) resulting from professional negligence. This type of insurance provides compensation to patients and their relatives in the event of involuntary murder, disability, shock and injury suffered by patients as a result of the negligence of Health Care Providers. The penalty for noncompliance with this law is a possible revocation of licence by the National Health Insurance Council, a record of conviction, and sealing-off of the premises.

Third Party Motor Liability Insurance This is the minimum insurance that all owners and drivers of motor vehicles, motorcycles and special type vehicles plying the Nigerian roads are required to have under the National Insurance Act 2003. The third party motor liability insures the motor vehicle against liability as to death, bodily injury or damage to property of a third parties arising from the use of the vehicle. The penalty for noncompliance is a fine of up to N250,000 plus one year imprisonment.

Total premium volume in USD in 2011

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013 — 31

By ROSEMARY ONUOHA

ECENTLY the media has been awashed with stealing, mismanagement and embezzlement involving the old pension scheme known as the Defined Benefit Scheme. There is the case of the convicted pension thief who stole billions of pensioners’ money. Also, the disappearance of Abdulrasheed Maina, the former Chairman of the Presidential Committee on pension matters has continued to raise lots of dust and questions as to the safety and survival of the new pension scheme called the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS. Accordingly, it is necessary to state that the CPS is solid and Retirees won’t have to queue under the CPS well-structured to prevent any form of stealing or embezzlement by people in authority or anywhere.

The old versus the new The National Pension Commission, PenCom, the regulatory body for insurance practice, in fulfillment of its statutory duties, has licensed Pension Fund Administrators, PFAs, and Pension Fund Custodians, PFCs, which are private sector institutions charged with the responsibility of management, administration and custody of pension funds. PFAs are specifically charged with the responsibility of registering employees, managing the pension funds, maintaining records of remittances, providing information on investment strategy, market returns and other performance indicators, calculating and paying benefits to qualifying employees and general customer service. PFCs on the other hand are expected to receive remittances made by employers on behalf of employees and inform the PFA on receipt. They hold pension funds and assets in safe custody on trust for the employees and beneficiaries of the RSA and carry out the investment/administration instructions of the PFA. Also, Section 58 of the Pension Reform Act provided an important role for external auditors as the Act requires them to report situations that could lead to imminent financial collapse of a PFA or a PFC and to report any evidence of attempts by any PFA or PFC to provide misleading information to the Commission. The Act also provides for severe sanctions against any auditor discovered to have supported or condoned actions that contravene the provision of the Act. Under the DBS, no contributions were made, and projections were required to be C M Y K

Pension embezzlement is alien to the CPS

made of the pension entitlements of each employee by the employer, with such projections being determined by the employee’s years of service and earnings. Thus, the pension obligations were effectively the debt obligation of the employer, which assumes the risk of insufficient funds to satisfy the contractual obligations to retired employees. In contrast, under the CPS, the employer is responsible only for making specific contributions on behalf of employees. However, the employer does not guarantee any certain amount upon retirement as he is no longer indebted to the employee. Payments to employees upon retirement will depend on age, gender, Retirement

Savings Account, RSA, value and final salary. The new scheme allows for the maintenance of a RSA by each employee, which gives the workers responsibility over their retirement savings. Pensioners are no longer at the mercy of employer, and are assured of regular payment of retirement benefits. The new scheme also affords employees an opportunity to pass wealth to survivors in the event of death. In addition, RSAs maintained by millions of workers generate a huge pool of long-term funds, which are available for investment. Also, having a pension scheme that pays out benefits in the form of a life annuity/programmed withdrawal affords workers protection against longevity risk, by pooling mortality risk across others. For both the

DO YOU KNOW?

employer and the employee, the new scheme encourages labour market flexibility. The worker is free to move with his account as he/she moves to another place of employment and/or residence. To the extent that the CPS aids mobility of labour, it is an important tool enabling employees and employers to adapt to changing circumstances.

Evading pension contribution Ways in which employers may evade pension contributions include: *Failure to register themselves and some or all of their employees *Portraying their workers as contractors, family members or belonging to other categories

Program Withdrawal vs Retiree Life Annuity

that could be considered as non-workers *Failure to contribute, or decide to embark on late remittance of contribution

Regulatory sanctions for evading pension contribution Pension contribution evasion poses a major challenge to the success of the CPS since it influences the adequacy of benefit payments to participants. The role of the National Pension Commission, PenCom, in enforcing the penalty for defaulting employers as provided in the Act is critical in ensuring compliance with the law and also ensuring the overall success of the scheme. PenCom in recognition of this role has recently appointed compliance monitoring team who are expected to follow up on defaulting employers while PFAs are also required to report defaulting employers to the Commission on a monthly basis.

Making it happen with the contributory pension scheme The need for a united effort by all stakeholders to make the system realise its set objectives cannot be overemphasized. With the ample commitment demonstrated so far by PenCom towards addressing pension issues in general, a world class pension scheme is definitely in the making, here in Nigeria. SEND YOUR QUESTIONS AND ENQUIRIES TO insuranceandyou@yahoo.com

32— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013

Finance: Elumelu tasks FG to support entrepreneurs to grow economy STORIES BY PETER EGWUATU

HE Federal Government has been advised to support entrepreneurs by providing them with adequate funding and create an enabling environment that will boost their businesses and in turn grow the economy. Tony Elumelu, the philanthropic entrepreneur whose selfnamed foundation has been promoting business excellence and leadership across the continent for the last three years said, Nigeria’s entrepreneurs should be firmly encouraged to continue making sustainable investments in the local economy, as this will form a new approach toward building competitive industries in Africa. In fulfilment of its mandate to promote entrepreneurship and competitiveness throughout Africa, The Tony Elumelu Foundation hosted its Founding Patron, the world’s foremost expert on business strategy and competitiveness, Professor Michael Porter, at a series of lectures and events intended to inspire and improve business

leaders from around the country. “We are committed to developing the future leaders of industry in Africa,” said Elumelu. At a lecture delivered at The Tony Elumelu Foundation offices in Ikoyi, Michael Porter, who was described by the Times of London as the world’s “most influential management guru” and is widely regarded as the foremost authority on company and country competitiveness, spoke on competitive strategy, addressing entrepreneurs and business leaders on how best to sustain market advantage. Porter also met with the members of the recently-inaugurated National Competitiveness Council of Nigeria (NCCN), which is chaired by the Minister for Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, to deliver a timely lecture on how to improve the productivity and competitiveness of the Nigerian business environment, which is experiencing a lot of activity under the transformation agenda. Improved performance in this area, he said, will help Nigeria’s private sector become more productive and competitive.

At the weekend, the Tony Elumelu Foundation and USbased AllWorld Network, which ranks dynamic fast-growth private companies globally, hosted the inaugural Nigeria50

Awards, at Eko Hotel & Suites in Lagos, to honour 50 of Nigeria’s most innovative and fastest growing companies. The winning entrepreneurs have diverse professional

backgrounds and run companies in energy, IT, agriculture, management consulting, financial services, logistics, medical practice and more.

CBN unveils new charges for use of e-Form ‘M’ by banks

HE Central Bank of Ni geria (CBN) has introduced a new charge for the use of e-Form “M” on the Nigeria Single Window Trade portal by all Authorized Dealer Banks (ADBs). The e-Form “M” is the electronic payment system for foreign trade transactions . In a circular released by the CBN weekend, it said, “Following the successful deployment of the e-Form “M” on the Nigerian Single Window Trade portal and the commencement of on-line submission of the Form “M” on December 6,2012, all ADBs and the General Public are hereby informed of the introduction of fee to be charged for accessing the e-Form “M”.” The charge according to the

apex bank is as follow: A charge of N1, 500.00 as fee per declaration for e –Forms will be applied with effect from December 6, 2012. The CBN further noted that it will implement the “Recovery of the cost of e-Form “M” used by processing banks since December 6, 2012 when the e-Form “M” was deployed. The cost recovery is pursuant to all e-Forms M utilized when the pre-paid hard copy Forms M ceased to be used; an Direct debit of the processing bank’s current account for each declaration which should be recovered from the customer by the bank.” It will be recalled that commercial banks across the country began the implementation

of the CBN’s directive on electronic ‘Form M’. The banks had switched over from hard copy to electronic foreign exchange forms (e-form M). E-form M was introduced by the CBN and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in line with the electronic transaction and payment system already embraced by the two organizations. The pilot phase for the processing of electronic form M commenced on 22nd November 2012 while the full implementation began on Thursday December 6, 2012. The benefits of the e-form M : include the automation of international trade transactions and reduction of turnaround time from importation to the clearing stage of all international trade transactions.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013—33

•The East-West Road ... not constructed without design, due process and financial plan.

East - West Road was properly awarded —Otobo BY ENGR. GUY OTOBO

UR attention has been drawn to the publication in the Vanguard Newspaper of March 25, where it was alleged that the Minister for Niger Delta Affairs revealed that the EastWest road was awarded without design, due process and financial plan. This certainly is not true. The East-West Road is a link in the Federal Road Network and the contracts for the construction were properly awarded by the Obasanjo Administration. This is one of the actions taken at the time to stem the rising militancy of the youths of the Niger Delta. President Obasanjo had announced at a stakeholders meeting at the Presidency that the East-West Road would be awarded within four weeks. He was well aware that the demand for the reconstruction of the EastWest Road to a dual carriageway was one of the major grievances of the Niger Delta youths. He, therefore, commissioned Messrs. Guy Otobo & Partners as Coordinating Consultants to produce tender documents to be used for the award of the contracts for the construction of the Warri - Patani - Kaiama - Port Harcourt - Onne Trunk Road F103 otherwise known as the East-West Road. The Federal Ministry of Works and Housing had earlier commissioned four engineering design consultants to produce designs for the reconstruction of the EastWest Road. Though the designs were not completed, there was

enough information to enable us produce Tender Documents for meaningful tenders to be submitted. Having worked as Supervising Consultants on the Warri Port Harcourt Road Dualisation Project under General Muhammadu Buhari-led Petroleum SpecIal Trust Fund (PTF) from 1996 to 1999, we knew the terrain of the East-West Road very well. The President, therefore, commissioned us, Messrs. Guy Otobo & Partners to produce the Bill of Engineering Measurement and Evaluation (BEME) for the necessary tenders to be submitted for the four sections of the East-West Road Dualisation Project.

Balancing major road constructions President Obasanjo thought it right to balance a major road construction in the South with a major road construction in the North and we were, therefore, also commissioned at the same time to be the Co-ordinating Consultants for the Kano - Maiduguri Road Dualisation Project. We were able to harmonise the existing designs of the road to produce a BEME that was used for the tendering process and subsequent award of the five contracts for the Kano - Maiduguri Trans-Saharan Road Project. Messrs. Guy Otobo & Partners analysed and produced the Draft Engineers’ Reports on tenders for the two projects and on the instruction of the then Minister of Works & Housing renegotiated with the prospective contractors

Existing design Sometime ago, we had read from press reports that the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs alleged that one of the problems it had in respect of the execution of the East-West Road Project was that the existing design of the EastWest Road Project was substandard in respect of width of the shoulders and the height of the embankment fill. This allegation

Being a reaction by Engr. Guy E. Otobo, retired Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Works and Coordinating Consultant of the East-West Road to the allegation that the East-West Road was awarded without design

to harmonise their prices. Our Chairman, Engr. Guy Otobo personally defended these two projects namely: the EastWest Road Reconstruction Project and the Kano - Maiduguri TransSaharan Road Project at the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit (BMPIU) of the Presidency otherwise known as the Due Process Office under the then head of the unit, Professor Kunle Ade Wahab. At the time we produced the BEME for the tenders of the construction of the East-West Road, we fully recognised that the final engineering design work still had to be done and this was planned to be done during the execution of the project. This is not unusual in the execution of Civil Engineering Projects when there is an absolute need to do so. Therefore, we had earmarked the sum of N5 Billion to: •Allow for project administration. •Allow for compensation in accordance with clause 92 of the Condition of Contract, relocation of existing utilities, properties and community relations. • Allow for cost of supervision. •Allow for detailed design and deep sub-soil investigations (about N2 Billion). Adequate provision was made for possible escalation of quantities of work items by providing a generous contingency allowance.

again is not true. As stakeholders from the Niger Delta, it certainly was in our interest to ensure that the Warri-Port HarcourtEket-Oron Road was well constructed. The scope of works we produced for tender purposes is reproduced as follows: “The stretch of road from Warri to Port Harcourt to Eket to Oron traverses the worst possible terrain in the country due to the presence of poor underlying soils, very high water table and the numerous rivers and creeks to be traversed. The construction period is also very short due to long rainy seasons. As the road was originally constructed as a

to achieve dualisation is to build a new road as close to the old alignment as possible. The scope of works herein will consist of bush clearing of trees and shrubs of the mangrove swamps of the Niger Delta, carting away of cleared rubbish to spoil, removal of top soil, importation of new fill material which will be stabilized with dredged sand to produce a high embankment in order to raise the new road well above the usual high water table in the region. The sand is to be stabilised with quarry dust or cement when found necessary so as to create a stable foundation for the new road. Thereafter suitable imported 250mm sub-base material and 250mm crushed stone base material will be constructed which will be overlaid with 60mm asphaltic concrete binder course and 40mm asphaltic concrete wearing course. New bridges, box and pipe culverts will be constructed across various rivers, canals and streams on the road alignment. In certain areas where the underlying soils are of such poor shear strength that large settlements of the completed road will be a possibility soon after construction, concrete deck-on-piles or geo textile materials will be utilized. The new road will have shoulders of 2.75m width which will receive two coats of surface dressing. The side slopes will be grassed. The new road will be constructed to the Federal Ministry of Works standards and specification.”

It is surely the responsibility of the the minister to provide a financial plan to the Federal Executive Council for approval having regard to the total contract sums for the contracts

state road, it is below Federal Highways Department standards. The road has failed regularly and has been rehabilitated several times over the years. Therefore, the present scope of works is aimed at providing a more permanent solution. The scope of works for the rehabilitation/reconstruction is to remove the existing unsuitable material up to 1m to 2m depth and replace with suitable material mostly dredged sand which will be stabilized whenever necessary to achieve full sub-grade strength. On top of the fill will be 250mm of the crushed stone base course. The road surface will have a 60mm asphaltic concrete binder course and 40mm asphaltic concrete wearing course. In areas where the existing road pavement is of adequate strength all that will be needed will be the construction of a new crushed stone base course and asphaltic concrete road surfacing. The scope of works necessary

As for the Minister’s allegation that there was no financial plan, it is surely the responsibility of his ministry to provide a financial plan to the Federal Executive Council for approval having regard to the total contract sums for the contracts and the duration of time programmed for the execution of the project. The Minister, therefore, has only himself to blame if he is unable to get the Presidency to approve a financial plan for what is easily the most important project under the supervision of his ministry. Finally, perhaps Mr. President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, should consider relocating the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs to any city or town in the Niger Delta so that the officials of that ministry will live daily with the pains that we in the Niger Delta continue to battle with. Abuja that lacks no infrastructure is not the best place to locate the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs that seeks to “develop” the Niger Delta.

34—VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013

Is he marriage material?

My dad molested my daughter Dear Bunmi, I returned to Lagos from our base in the North to escape an unhappy marriage that had become unbearably violent. I moved back to the family home with my five children. Unfortunately, the accommodation was choky as my three siblings still lived at home, but we managed. We had been living with my family for almost a year when I discovered that my 13-year-old daughter was being abused by my father. I was so enraged that I called a family meeting but my brothers and sister wanted to keep the whole business hushed up, especially since my mum was not well. I was so frustrated that I

moved out and cut my family off. I don’t speak to my only sister because she didn’t back me up to deal with our father. I just feel sad that I couldn’t protect my daughter from a father I thought was above board. Thankfully, my daughter seems to have forgotten about the incident and is now at the polytechnic. Yosoye, by e-mail. Dear Yosoye, Your sister is not accountable for your father’s bad behaviour. Like you, she too has to live with the knowledge that her father assaulted his young grand-daughter. Abuse within the family is often concealed because of

the sense of shame. Family members often deny to themselves that abuse has taken place, or continues, within the home. Unfortunately, this only serves to protect the abuser. I sympathise with what you and your daughter went through, but bitterness towards your sister is misplaced. Rejoice that your daughter is living a happy life. The person to feel really sorry for is your father the abuser, who is either wicked or tragically weak. Now, he’s no longer in your life, try to move on and put the abuse where your daughter has obviously put it— in the past.

His affection is choking me!

Dear Rhoda, You should make up your mind whether or not you want to be with this man. The fact that you find him clingy sug-

gests you’re less in love with him than he is with you. He probably suspects this and that’s what makes him want to be around you all the time. You should both have separate interests. He shouldn’t rely on you the whole time for his social life.

’

Dear Bunmi, I’ve been going out with my boyfriend for the past 12 years and he is a great guy. The problem is that he’s very clingy. He follows me everywhere and wants a blow-byblow account of my activities. I had to ditch him a few years ago when his possessiveness started irritating me. But I took him back months later because I missed him a lot. Things were okay for a couple of years after we got together again but I’ve recently started feeling trapped all over again. I don’t want to hurt his feelings, but I need my space too. What do you suggest I do? Rhoda, by e-mail.

He may be a great guy, but is he the man you want to be with? If he is, then you need to be honest with him by letting him know how he’s smothering the affection you have for him. The thing is, clingy men seldom change but you just might be lucky!

He had flushed the toilet to distract me, but when I checked his mobile, the text he sent was mind-blowing. It was to this receptionist

’ All they want is my husband’s property

Dear Bunmi, When I got married 32 years ago, my husband’s family were extremely nasty to me because they wanted him to get married to a girl they approved of from their village. I tried my best to ignore their hostile attitude and could tolerate them until my darling husband died two years ago. They made moves to shove me out of the house we lived in but my lawyer soon put a stop to it. You see, I was the owner of the plot and the papers bore my name. My husband insisted we developed it first so we could have a roof

over our heads before he built another one in his village. Now, my in-laws are spreading vile rumours that he was constantly under my spell and have even tried to turn our four children against me. Now the children don’t want anything to do with them. Please help. Lami, by e-mail. Dear Lami, Your husband chose you, so what his family thinks shouldn’t be important to either you or your children. You’ve done your best to make things right with them, but 32 years of making an effort is

enough. Now he’s gone, there’s no reason at all why you should bother. So why are you still trying? I suspect you think you need their approval and have to know they now think you’re ‘good enough.’ But it is obvious you’ll never get that, they have no intention of changing. You know in your heart you’re good enough, after all, you made your marriage work for almost three decades and believe me, that’s a triumph! So give yourself the approval your in-laws never gave you. And cut them out of your life.

Dear Bunmi, I thought my boyfriend really loved me, he told me he did all the time. But he has recently been set by his office to do some trouble-shooting in one of their branch offices outside Lagos where he was really friendly with the receptionist. He talked about her all the time and I thought nothing of it until the night I caught him in the toilet sending a text message. He had flushed the toilet to distract me, but when I checked his mobile, the text he sent was mind-blowing. It was to this receptionist. He’s denied there is anything but friendship between them. He’s even talking of us getting married. My fear is

that if he thinks sending lurid text messages is fun, wouldn’t he stray easily? Genny, by e-mail. Dear Genny, Text messages have really taken an exciting dimension, and you will never know if your boyfriend is only re-cycling one of the ones he was sent if you don’t ask him. But why did he send it to the receptionist? Was he bored, feeling trapped? Was he flattered by her attention? So have a serious heart-toheart with your man and not one where you scream at him! Listen to him and find out what’s really going on with him. Then you’ll know whether you can really trust him.

Could my husband be infertile? Dear Bunmi, I have been married for two years now and we’d been trying for a baby even before we got married. My doctor has assured me that tests have proved conclusively that nothing is wrong with me. He, however, suggests that my husband should get himself checked out too either with his doctor or at his clinic. He has refused to treat me further except my husband does this. But my husband has refused to subject himself to a test, saying he has a 6-year-old daughter as a test of his virility. My doctor is not impressed

by this claim and still insists on a check-up. Why is this? Stella, by e-mail. Dear Stella, Because it takes two to make a baby. Since your doctor says you’re okay, it’s worth having your husband’s semen examined to establish whether he is producing a high enough level of sperm. If he’s got a daughter, then there is no reason to fear as fertility check-up for men is a simple procedure. Besides, anything could have happened in-between when he had his first child and now.

Is there really no cure for herpes? Dear Bunmi, After a few weeks of going out with my new boyfriend, I allowed him to make love to me. A few days later, I could hardly walk as my vagina was inflamed. The pain was intense in and outside my vagina and I felt burning sensation when I had a wee. I went to my doctor and he prescribed antibiotics which he said would ease the pain. He, however, warned that what I had was herpes and that I might never be rid of the disease. Is this true? Teju, by e-mail. Dear Teju, Herpes is a sexually-transmitted disease which is caused by one type of the her-

pes simplex virus. The symptoms include an itching, burning sensation and painful fluid-filled blisters around the genital area. The blister bursts to form ulcers and take 10 to 21 days to heal. Swollen lymphnodes, fever and headaches may occur. Antiviral creams, saline baths and painkillers can all reduce the severity of the symptoms. Subsequent episodes tend to occur during times of anxiety or depression, before menstruation, after sex, or if the person is run down. Recurrent outbreaks often become less painful and less severe over time. An affected individual must not have sex until sores have healed as these are infectious.

Share your problems and release your burden. Write now to Dear Bunmi, Vanguard Newspapers, P.M.B 1007, Apapa, Lagos. or bunmsof@yahoo.co.uk

VANGUARD, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013 — 35

36—Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013

EAST-WEST ROAD: Relocate office to construction site, rights group tells Orubebe

CDC tasked on selflessness BY FESTUS AHON

BY EGUFE YAFUGBORHI

ORT HARCOURT— RIGHTS group, Nigerian Democratic Awareness Forum, NDAF, has told the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe, to relocate his office to the D e l t a - B a y e l s a - Po r t Harcourt axis of the EastWest Road, refrain from excuses and channel his utterances and efforts towards the completion of the road. NDAF tasked the minister to, if possible, relocate his office to where construction continues to drag to enable him give first hand monitoring and supervision, “or better still, bow to public wish and resign if he has no value to add in seeing to the early completion of the project.” The group expressed concern, following recent claim by Orubebe to the National Assembly that the East-West Road project was conceived without project design and financial plan. Publicity Secretary of the group, Mr. Franklyn Awusonye, told Vanguard in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, “we believe it’s time Orubebe realised that prolong non-completion of the East-West Road was bound to be a touchy issue of public displeasure at a time a Niger Deltan leads the nation. “Every defense he gives on the dragging road adds to the mockery his principal (President Jonathan) suffers on the state of the project. “It is been one excuse too many for Orubebe on the fate of the project. In one spell, he had lied to the National Assembly that about 70 percent or so of the road had been completed at a time it was exaggerating to claim even 25 percent completion. “Then, he alluded to poor funding. Now it is that the project being originated without design and financial plan. What impunity.”

RECEPTION: From left— Prof. Amos Utuama, Delta State Deputy Governor; Chief Kenneth Gbagi, former Minister of State for Education, and Justice Rosaline Bozimo, former Chief Judge of Delta State, during a birthday reception in honour of Justice Godwin Gbemre in Warri, Delta State, Sunday

Edo LG polls: Court halts PDP's move to substitute candidate BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

ENIN—AHEAD April 20 local government elections in Edo State, an Edo State High Court sitting in Benin, restrained the leadership of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state from substituting the duly nominated chairmanship candidate of the party in Ikpoba Okhai Local Government Area, Mr. Amos Omoregie, pending the determination of the substantive suit. Trial judge, Justice Efe Ikponwonba also restrained one Chief Edegbe Ugbogho from parading himself as the chairmanship candidate of PDP in Ikpoba Okhai council, pending the determination of the substantive suit. Omoregie had been screened by PDP and was given the ticket as the chairmanship candidate of the party in the council in the forthcoming polls. But he had approached the court to secure his ticket after he accused the leadership of the party in the state, led by Chief Dan Orbih, of alleged attempt to substitute his candidacy after he was duly nominated and passed the screening conducted by the party.

He asked the court to restrain the leadership of the party from substituting him. He also urged the court to restrain Ugbogho from parad-

ing himself as the chairmanship candidate of the party. Meantime, further hearing in the matter had been adjourned till April 11.

Navy warns personnel against oil theft in N-Delta BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

ENAGOA—CHIEF of Naval Staff, CNS, Vice Admiral Dele Ezeoba, yesterday, warned the officers and men of the Nigerian Navy against complicity in crude oil theft in the Niger Delta, saying anyone caught will have himself to blame. Vice Admiral Ezeoba gave the warning in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, while addressing men and officers of the Central Naval Command of the Nigerian Navy as part of his annual inspection tour of naval commands in the country. He accused some personnel of complicity in crude oil theft and illegal bunkering activities in the past. He warned that any one caught in the act would not go free.

Ezeoba said: “I like to reiterate the issue of complicity, which we had observed in the past. I hope that we do not as a matter of priority allow that to continue. “We have a mandate and we must be defined by the core tenet of character, sincerity of purpose, total commitment and dedication to duty for which you have attested during your commissioning as officers. “These are the guiding principles that define our attitude and character. The core attributes of honour, integrity and duty must be seen as building block for naval operation to move forward.” He cited the Brass-Akassa corridor of the nation’s maritime domain as one of the notorious zones for vandalism and crude oil theft in the region.

Okotie-Eboh to Jonathan: Security before 2015 or...

ARRI—SON of First Republic Finance Minister, Mr. Emmanuel OkotieEboh, has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to address the current security challenges in the country, saying failure to do so might mar the electoral process of 2015. He also urged the President to constitute an elders’ forum from the six geo-po-

litical zones in Nigeria to proffer lasting solution to the lingering problem bedevilling the nation. In a statement, OkotieEboh said: “The current state of the country, which has created room for consistent loss of lives and property in Northern Nigeria, needs to be addressed immediately and if not given the necessary attention by patriotic

Nigerians, may lead to loss of national sovereignty.” He suggested that “Nigerian elders, who will not put politics before national unity, such as Inuwa Wada, H. I. D. Awolowo, Yakubu Gowon, Odigie-Oyegun, Lulu Bricks, Ebitu Okiwe, Chief Roland Akinjide, among other,” could make up the elder’s forum.

GHELLI—ODIOOlogbo of Oleh Kingdom, HRM Ovrawa Omogha I, has charged members of Community Development Committees, CDC, across the country to be selfless in the discharge of their duties. The monarch, while inaugurating the second Oleh CDC, made up of 24 persons, charged members to properly manage facilities and the operations of Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, (OML 30). He said: “The CDC will oversee the operations of NPDC, OML 30. The inauguration is in the interest of peace and harmony of Oleh community and to respond to the cry of marginalisation by some sections of the community, particularly Okpohro and Ukolobi quarters." He said the committee members were drawn from oil landlord families in the seven quarters of the community, the palace, women and youth wing. He appealed to them to imbibe the principles of equity, fairness and unity of purpose with a view to achieving the objective for which the committee was set up.

St. Brendan's @ 50

T. Brendan’s College Bomadi Old Students Association has celebrated the school’s golden jubilee with a call on parents, community leaders and stakeholders to collaborate with government to raise the falling standard of education. National President of the association, Mr. William Bozimo, at the ceremony in Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta State, charged parents to invest on the children’s education, noting that even if education was free, it was not enough to be left in the hands of government alone. He opined that the current standard of education was not falling, stressing that what was falling was the commitment of teachers and parents to the educational development of the child.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013 — 37

Deltans urged to support Uduaghan's programmes BY FESTUS AHON

GHELLI—NATIONAL patron of Delta Unity Group, DUG, Olorogun John Oguma, has enjoined Deltans to remain united in their support for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDPled government of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan. Oguma, when he played host to members of the group, said they were committed to the unity of the state, adding that the feat already achieved by Governor Uduaghan in the areas of peace, security and infrastructural and human capital development was overwhelming. Noting that the vision of the group was to support the administration of Uduaghan, he said, “we need one another to succeed in our drive to achieve the dream of tomorrow.” He appealed to the people to support the PDP zoning formula for the governorship of the state come 2015.

Oil firm enlightens pregnant women on safe delivery

EPLAT Petroleum Development Company, Sapele, Delta State, has embarked on enlightenment of pregnant women in its area of operation. The programme is tagged Hygiene In Pregnancy, Safe Motherhood Programme. Dr. Chioma Wachukwu, who represented the Managing Director of the company, Engr. Austin Avuru, said that Seplat organised the programme for the benefit of pregnant women. She said that the company was happy to be involved in giving the communities good healthcare programme. The programme involves prenatal and postnatal materials care for pregnant women, including nets to protect them from mosquito bites that could lead to malaria and other infections. C M Y K

Edo power plant project to be completed April — FG ...says project is 98% completed BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

ENIN—THE Federal Government, yesterday, said that the on-going National Integrated Power Project, NIPP, being executed in Ihovbor, Edo State, with a view to boosting power supply in the Niger Delta region, will be completed in April this year. Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Niger Delta Power Holding Company of Nigeria, owners of the NIPP, Mr. James Olotu, in Benin City, during the commissioning of the 2x15 MVA 33/11 KV injection sub-station constructed by the NIPP in Ugbowo, Benin City, said when completed, each of the units of the power plant will generate and transit 125 mega watts into the national grid. He said: “The power plant is about 98 per cent completed. Hopefully by April, the first unit of the power plant will come on stream to give us about 125 mega watts. The power plant has four units, it is our hope that in the next one month, one unit

will come into the system from April. So by June-July, all the units should have been ready.” On the newly commissioned injection sub-station, which will boost power supply in Ugbowo and Oloku areas of Benin City, Olotu said; “If the sub-station is well

maintained, it can last for 30 years or more. The Federal Government is determined to improve power supply in the country and that is why there are so many intervention programmes currently on going. We also have lines that are coming from the sub-stations and distributing power to lo-

COMMISSIONING: Speaker of Delta State House of Assembly, Mr. Victor Ochei (middle), flanked on his left by his Deputy, Mr. Basil Ganagana, Dr Alphonsus Ojo and Princess Pat Ajudua and on the left is Delta State Commissioner for Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Anthonia Ashiedu and a PDP Chieftain, Dr. Pius Sinebe, during flag-off the multi-million naira empowerment scheme of Mr Basil Ganagana, member representing Patani constituency in the House, at Patani.

IPC calls for dialogue with Burutu communities over data collection BY ETOP EKANEM

JAW People Congress, IPC, has called on Joint Task Force, JTF Commander, Major-General Debiro, and authorities of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to order Integrated Data Servicing Nigeria Limited, IDSL, to hold talks with Akparemogbene, Oyangbene and Ayakoromo communities in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State over its ongoing data-collection in the area. National President of the group, Mr. Ekanpou Enewaridideke, in a state-

ment, said that IPC was demanding “an immediate cessation of the data-gathering operation of IDSL, which is a subsidiary of NNPC, because the aggrieved communities are warming up for a legal action against them. “The ongoing exercise is being embarked upon without consensual discussion with these communities. IDSL claims to be engaged in data collection and gathering in preparation for seismic exploration and we guess this is how they give wrong data to NNPC and later create problems for generations

unborn and label the Ijaw as militants, when they agitate for corrective reversal. Must datacollection be carried out without the involvement of the people in the territory?” IPC urged NNPC to ignore any data collected and given to them for operational activities in the area, alleging that the approach was flawed. "As a proactive move, the JTF should wade into the matter and stop further invasive desecration of the forests. The company must discuss with the communities before it steps into the area,” the statement added.

Private schools not gold mines — Okunowo

HE proprietress of KAY’s Nursery, Primary and Secondary School, Surulere, Lagos, Mrs. Kehinde Okunowo, has denied claims that private schools rate profit-making above national service. She said parents and other stakeholders needed a new orientation on the mission of private schools in providing quality education at minimal cost. Okunowo, during the biennial inter-house competition of her school, held at the University of Lagos Sports

calities around here.” Also speaking, Managing Director, Benin Electricity Distribution Company, Engr. Effiong Umoren, said the commissioning of the project will go a long way to bring relief to electricity consumers in many communities in Benin City.

Complex, weekend, argued that ascribing profit-making to private schools was an erroneous judgement that needed to be erased from the minds of parents. She said: “There is a lull in the economy of the country and it is biting hard within the private sector. Some parents often find it difficult to pay their wards' fees, even though they have more confidence in enrolling them in the private schools. They believe they are better taught in private schools.

However, they don’t want to pay for it.” According to her, despite the high confidence rating enjoyed by private schools before parents, school proprietors empty their pockets in the maintenance of the schools, provision of modern facilities and hiring of competent staff. The event was chaired by the Auditor, Lagos Waste Management Agency, LAWMA, Ijora, Mr. Sunday Osekita, while the Mother of the Day was Mrs Ikem- Okolue.

Dickson tasks project monitoring c'ttee on compliance with standards BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

ENAGOA—BAYELSA State Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson, yesterday, urged the state Directorate of Project Monitoring and Evaluation to ensure that contractors adhere strictly to government’s set standards in the execution of on-going projects in the state. The governor, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, during a meeting with the chairman and members of the Directorate in Yenagoa, underscored the importance of the meeting, noting that it was meant to provide him with first hand information on the constraints and issues affecting them because of the magnitude of the assignment they have been saddled with. He said: “I want to see a more pro-active project implementation, monitoring and evaluation endeavour, because the systems we have put in place are such that unless you have a certificate, things don’t move forward, and more so, as we are dealing with the aftermath of the devastating flood.”

38—Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013

Lagos CJ assures judiciary workers on welfare BY ONOZURE DANIA

AGOS State Chief Judge, Justice Ayotunde Phillips, yesterday promised judiciary workers in the state an improved welfare condition. Justice Phillips, who was addressing senior members of the judiciary and other workers at the commissioning of the refurbished restaurants at Chief Magistrate Court, Ebute-Metta, and Lagos High Court, Igbosere, said her administration would do the necessary things to ensure that workers’ welfare was not subverted. The Chief Judge said the provision of the ultra-modern restaurants was in fulfillment of her promise to hold the welfare of judiciary staff paramount. She thanked the committee in charge of the project, which was headed by Justice Yetunde Idowu.

Ebonyi disburses N1.3bn to health sector BY PETER OKUTU

BAKALIKI—GOVERNOR Martin Elechi of Ebonyi State said, yesterday, that his administration had so far disbursed N1.3 billion to six rural hospitals across the state. The health institutions are Sudan United Mission/Reformed Church Hospital, Onuenyim Izzi; St. Vincent Hospital, Ndubia Izzi; Mile 4 Hospital, Abakaliki; Rural Improvement Mission Hospital, Ikwo; Presbyterian Joint Hospital, Uburu and Mater Misericordae Hospital, Afikpo. The governor stated this while declaring open the 2013 Scientific Conference and Annual General Meeting, AGM, of the Health Reform Foundation of Nigeria, HERFON, at the Women Development Centre, Abakaliki. C M Y K

SUMMIT: From left— Mrs Chidinma Amam, Major Customer Executive; Mr. Randy Buday, Managing Director, and Mr. Gbenga Alabi, Field Sales Executive, all of DHL Express, during The Economist Summit at the DHL stand, Lagos.

Killings in North: MASSOB declares June 8 day of mourning BY PETER OKUTU

BAKALIKI— M O V E MENT for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, yesterday, set aside June 8 as a Biafran Public Holiday to mourn members of the group, especially Igbo, who lost their lives, following the insurgency of the Islamist sect, Boko Haram, in the Northern part of the country. In a statement by the Regional Administrators of Afikpo North and Afikpo South (Edda Central), Mr. Uchenna Madu and Rev. Ogbonnaya Nnachi, respectively, in Abakaliki, the group described the event as a sit-at-home exercise, stressing that the death of its members could only be avenged by the existence of a nation, Biafra. MASSOB said it would also use the period to mourn its members, who were unjustly killed by the Nigerian Army and Police, including the six Igbo who were murdered at Apo village, Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, on June 8, 2004. According to the group, the duration of the exercise will last between 6am and 4pm as private and general motor parks, major and minor mar-

kets, shops, schools, air and sea ports, banks, among others, will be closed to commemorate the exercise. The statement read in part: “MASSOB urges Ndigbo, irrespective of their locations,

to observe this one-day sitat-home from 6 am to 4pm. “It is a national duty for every Biafran, an honour to our fatherland, a special sacrifice offered for our freedom, a unique price paid for the

world to know about us. “There shall be no movements of vehicles and persons. All motor parks, markets, shops, schools, business places, banks air and sea ports shall be closed on June 8."

First Bank gets 14-day ultimatum over workers' unionisation BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

ATIONAL Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Intuitions Employees, NUBIFIE, has issued a14 day ultimatum to the management of First Bank Nigeria Plc to compel Insourcing Limited, one of its service providers, to allow its workers to freely join union as enshrined in the Nigerian constitution to avoid the wrath of organised labour. NUBIFIE, in a letter to the Group Managing Director of the Bank, dated March 19, and copied to Controller Lagos office, Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity; Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 11; President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC; Director of State Security Service, DSS, among

others, warned that by April 2, if nothing positive came from the bank, labour would take any necessary action. The letter is entitled An attempt to undermine existing industrial peace at First Bank of Nigeria Plc, by Insourcing Limited, disregard to union rights/14-day ultimatum. The union said: “You will recall that our union had been engaging your management and that of Insourcing Limited with series of correspondences over the overwhelming desire and intention of the workers to exercise their legitimate rights to belong to their union, which processes had been concluded by both the workers and our union since 2011. “We have written series of letters to the management of Insourcing Limited, in line

with an established tradition of the union’s inclusiveness approach to unionise our members in Insourcing Limited, who are out-sourced to your bank. “Regrettably, all our correspondences, meetings, coupled with the intervention of Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity to resolve the issue, reached a brick wall. “In view of these developments and in order for the current industrial harmony at First Bank Plc to be sustained, we insist that you compel the management of Insourcing Limited to conclude the unionisation process with our union, within 14 days from the date of this letter. “If the matter is not concluded within 14 days, the union should not be held responsible for any action organised labour would take.”

Shortage of judges in Imo worry NBA BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

WERRI—NIGERIAN Bar Association, NBA, Owerri branch, has called on Imo State government to resolve the crisis militating against the appointment of

new judges in the state. NBA Chairman, Mr. S. Opara, made the appeal yesterday while delivering his address at the valedictory session in honour of retiring Justice Ngozi Opara. He said: “This call is borne

out of the fact that three of our judges will retire this year and our judges are overworked because of congestion of cases in all the courts. “Whereas the law provides for 30 judges for Imo State, we have only 17 judges with

the retirement of Hon. Justice Ngozi Opara,” adding that another two will retire before the end of the year. State Chief Judge, Justice Benjamin Njemanze, described the retiring judge as “an erudite scholar."

Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013 —39

STUDY—From left: Director of Army Public Relations, Brig.-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru; Commandant, Nigeria Defence Academy, NDA, Major-Gen. Chukuemeka Onwuamaegbu and Brig-Gen. Olaleye at the 2013 directorate of army public relations first quarter study period in Kaduna. Photo: Olu Ajayi.

BUSINESS LUNCH—From left: Chairman, Etisalat Nigeria and President, King's College Old Boys' Association, KCOBA, Mr. Hakeem Belo-Osagie; General Secretary, KCOBA, Mr. Lucky Idike and Erelu Abiola Dosunmu during the Etisalat-sponsored KCOBA business networking lunch at the Metropolitan Club, Victoria Island.

VISIT—From left: Hajia Salamatu Eluma, Director Human Resources, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN; Mr Joice Nkemakolam, Acting Director General, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, Mr Mazi Nnamdi, Udo, Managing Director, Nigerian Airspace Managment Authority, NAMA, Mr George Uriesi, Managing Director, FAAN, Nkiruka Onyejiocha, Chairman House Committe on Aviation, Ezekiel Adoji, Deji Jakande, Ganiyu Hamzat, during a visit by members of the House of Reps to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos. Kehinde Gbadamosi.

MEETING—Lagos Deputy Governor, Mrs Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire (left) and Ogun State Deputy Governor, Prince Segun Adesegun, during a joint meeting on Lagos/Ogun boundary at Alausa, Ikeja. Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi.

AWARD—From left: Mrs. Busola Adeogun-Philips, Regional Director, DStv Media Sales; Mr. John Ugbe, Managing Director, MultiChoice Nigeria; Mr Abayomi Abidakun, Brand Manager, Amstel Malta; Mrs. Biola Alabi, Managing Director, M-Net Africa and Dr. Hafiz Oyetoro during the 2013 AfricaMagic viewers choice awards at the Orchard Hall, Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos. Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi.

CORONATION—From left; The Onibeju of Ibeju land, Oba Rafiu Olusegun Salami, Senator Gbenga Ashafa and the Onitedo of Itedo, Oba Tajudeen Afolabi Elemoro during the 5th coronation anniversary of the Onibeju of Ibeju Kingdom and the official opening of the Onibeju Palace.

LAUNCH—From left: Managing Director, Iford ICT Systems Limited, Mr. Eddy Okeke; Managing Director, Hosana Technologies Limited, Mr. Jerry Mba; Head of Admin, Iford ICT Systems, Confidence Nwanyanwu; and Executive Director (Operations), Linda Okeke, during Iford ICT Systems launch of Unibind binding solution in Ikeja, Lagos.

CONVENTION—From left: Pastor Samuel Babatunde Ogunfowokan, General Overseer, Christ Healing Evangelical Church; Mother-in-Israel, Lady Evangelist Beatrice Ajoke Bamidele and G.O.'s wife; Mrs Olawunmi Ogunfowokan at the 2013 National Convention of the church at Loburo, Mowe, Ogun State.

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40—Vanguard , WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013

Wada promises adequate security for corps members in Kogi

Gunmen kill Police corporal in Jos

OS—GUNMEN on Monday shot dead a police corporal, Munir Jibril, at Ganawuri village, near Jos, in Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau. Mr Chris Olakpe, Commissioner of Police in the state, who confirmed this to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Jos yesterday, said Jibril was killed while on patrol along with his colleagues. “The incident happened around 2 p.m. on Monday when the patrol vehicle was attacked by the gunmen,” he said. The police officer said the corpse of the slain police man had been deposited at the Plateau Specialist Hospital for autopsy. “There are no arrests as yet, but we are already combing the area in search of the culprits.” Olapke described the incident as “very sad and unfortunate”, but assured members of the public that the command would not be deterred in its effort to restore peace in Plateau.

MTN unveils Afrinolly winners

INNERS of the maid en edition of the MTN Afrinolly short film competition were unveiled, at the MTN Link Forum, held weekend in Lagos. The competition, which was launched on November 1, 2012, received over 500 entries from African film-makers across 14 countries. While unveiling the winners, Kola Oyeyemi, General Manager, Consumer Marketing, MTN, stated that the selection process was painstakingly done by a jury of credible and renowned film-makers, across the continent. In the short movie and documentary category, Anthony Onah and Bemigho Awala, who both carted $25,000 emerged first prize winners, “Dara Ju” and “Hustle On A Mile” respectively. Akin Okunrinboye and Soji Oyinsan both went home with $10,000 for coming second in the short movie and documentary category, with their works, “The Promise” and A Short “Documentary.”

By BOLUWAJI OBAHOPO

From left: Mr Joshua Kempeneer, Programme Director, Family Care Association FCA, Dame Abimbola Fashola, First Lady of Lagos State, Mrs Suzi Abou Matar, Chairperson Lebanese Ladies Society, LLS, and Oba Adetunji Akinloye, Ojomo of Ajironland, during the commissioning of the Family Care Association, FCA, Hospital, Ikota, Lagos. Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi.

Benue Govt orders LG chairmen to declare assets BY PETER DURU

AKURDI —THE Benue State Government has directed the chairmen of the 23 local government councils of the state to declare their assets. This was in a bid to check corrupt practices at the local government councils. Special Adviser to the state Governor on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr. Solomon Wombo gave the directive, yesterday, at a meeting he held with the chairmen in Makurdi, the state capital, adding that the development was in the interest of the chairmen. He said that the Code of Conduct governing their offices and the anti-corruption stance of the present administration in the state, made it imperative for the chairmen to declare their assets. Wombo noted that “the directive became necessary be-

cause of the anti corruption stance of the state government and the need for prudent management of the councils. ”It is also in line with the state government’s policy of ensuring transparency and accountability in the man-

agement of the state’s resources by those entrusted with such responsibilities.” The Adviser then asked the 23 council chairmen to ensure that their assets were declared at the Code of Conduct Bureau, warning that anyone caught flouting the directive would be sanctioned accordingly.

APGA ready for Kogi council polls — Nuhu

BUJA— THE Kogi Chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Alhaji Umar Nuhu, has expressed its party ’s readiness for the state’s council elections scheduled for May 4. Nuhu expressed his party’s readiness in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, yesterday in Abuja. According to him, the party

is going to field candidates in all the available positions across the 21 local governments in the state. “We are fully prepared and we are sure of capturing all the 21 local governments in the state on a level playing ground. “At the last executive meeting we had, we all agreed to work assiduously to ensure that the party comes out victorious,” he said.

Group accuses Bauchi legislature of compromising statutory functions BY SUZAN EDEH

AUCHI—DISTURBED by alleged inability of the Bauchi State House of Assembly to checkmate the excesses of the Executive in the interest of good governance, a coalition of civil society groups under the aegis of the Bauchi Alliance for Good Governance, BAGG, has accused the Legislature of compromising its statutory functions, describing it as the

worst Assembly in the history of the state. Speaking in an interview with Vanguard, yesterday, in Bauchi, the leader of the groups, Chino Abdulsalam alleged that the reason for the alleged poor performance of the House was because, majority of the members were hand-picked and imposed on their various electorates in 2011. Abdulsalam said that despite the glaring failure of the executive to address the

problems of civil servants and teachers, the legislative arm of the government has remained silent. “The state House of Assembly is now a mere rubber stamp of the Executive. It has outlived its usefulness to the society and should not be allowed to continue. Aggrieved segments of the society and civil servants in particular, should liaise with their respective localities to initiate processes for recalling the erring legislators,” h said.

OKOJA—KOGI State Governor, Idris Wada, has promised the National Youth Service Corps members in the state of adequate security through out their service year in the state. Wada who spoke at the end of orientation course for the 2013 Batch “A” Corps members deployed to the state at the NYSC Permanent Orientation Camp at Asaya in Kabba, urged the corps members to make their service year different from others, as the developmental needs of the country and the state should take precedence in their minds. The Governor who was represented by his Deputy, Yomi Awoniyi said the development process should not be left for the government alone and urged the corps members to contribute to the socio - economic development of the state.

Rainstorm destroys N80m property in Kwara

LORIN— PROP ERTY estimated at over N80 million were lost to rainstorm in six local government areas of Kwara State. Alhaji Musa Abdullahi, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Emergency Relief Services, made this known when he visited rainstorm victims in Babaloma in the Ifelodun Local Government Area of the state yesterday. He said the rainstorm affected several communities in Irepodun, Isin, Oke-Ero, Asa, IIorin East and Ifelodun Local Government areas of the state.

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BY CHARLES KUMOLU

LL over the world medical tourism has become a major source of income. Saudi Arabia, India, Germany and even Dubai earn very high revenue from medical tourism as a result of the huge investments their governments and individuals made in constructing and equipping hospitals, laboratories and other medical centres with state-of-the-art facilities. Nigeria loses billions of naira yearly through Nigerians who travel abroad for medical check up and treatment. It is common knowledge that teaching hospitals, general hospitals and other medical centres lack basic facilities to attend to patients. In the past few years, however, the Federal Government has made some efforts to improve the facilities of teaching hospitals.

MEDICAL TOURISM:

High tech diagnostic to the rescue?

Global medical tourism Recently, the President of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, Dr. Osabon Enabulele, disclosed that India earned over $260 million from medical tourism from Nigeria alone in 2012. He noted that India is projected in 2013, to realise between $1 billion and $2 billion from the global medical tourism market that is collectively worth over $20 billion. His assertions indicate that Nigeria which is one of India’s largest patron will greatly contribute in percentage to this expected revenue. The NMA President stated that the decision of Nigerians, particularly political office holders, to seek for improved medical healthcare

A 1.5 Tesla MRI scanning machine. country. This situation, if not redressed, will continue to

abroad is costing the country over $500 million annually and that a breakdown of the figure shows that an average Nigerian traveller on a medical tourism spends between $20,000 and $40,000 on a trip. In his lamentations, Enabulele explained that about 5,000 Nigerians visit India and other countries in Europe and America every month in search of various medical diagnostic services such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging, MRI, Computed Tomography, CT, scan, Electrocardiography, ECG, mammography and dialysis services as well as treatments to medical conditions that can be satisfactorily managed in the C M Y K

drastically reduce the nation’s foreign exchange which could otherwise be utilised in improving infrastructure. This is why analysts want indigenous and foreign investors to see Nigeria as an investors’ haven in medicare. Observers are of the view that with a population scattered across the world yearning for medical attention, the privileged few who can afford to travel abroad for efficient diagnosis and treatment will have no need for frequent trips abroad. For instance, the Governor of Kogi State, Idris Wada was involved in a vehicle accident and received satisfactory medical care and attention in the country.

This move was described as worthy of emulation and a good example to the high and mighty in Nigeria. One such private initiatives that has provided state of the art equipment in medical diagnosis is the Lifebridge Medical Diagnostic Centre located in Abuja, the Federal Capital. The Minister of Health recently visited the institute and was overwhelmed by the various hitech equipment available there. They include the Magnetic Resonance Image, MRI, scanner which is the first 1.5 Tesla installed in Nigeria till date. What is available in Nigeria are the .32 and .35 models. The machine is able to image the brain to show areas affected by disease and stroke as well as cancer. It can also show blood vessels within all parts of the brain and the neck. These images can then be sent to any part of Nigeria and the world. The MRI is safe for pregnant women and babies. Others are: The 64 Slice CT computerised scanner. This equipment is the sharpest in its class and can capture the image of a beating heart in five seconds. It can also be used for whole body examination and screening for colon cancer. Internal injuries are very clearly seen as well as brain

monitoring of completeness of treatment. The Medical Director of the centre, Dr. Philip UmeEzeoke, a consultant physician laments the situation where high profile Nigerians travel abroad for cure to ailments that are readily available in Nigeria. He gave an example of a medical facility in Kaduna where ENT surgeons receive patients from abroad on daily basis.

Knowledge and expertise •Dr. Phillip Ume Ezeoke injuries due to accidents. *Mammogram machine: This equipment detects and confirms breast cancer. *Ultrasound and Echocardiagram: This machine picks up the internal structure of the heart and changes due to hypertension and heart failure. *Ultrafast Digital X-ray Machine: It can handle 69 patients x-rays in one hour. The completely computerised machine does not require any darkroom or processing of films. *Dialysis Machine: This is a six bay dialysis unit with adimea computer software which guarantees the real time

If these foreigners appreciate the knowledge and expertise of our consultants and consult them for medical attention, why should we ourselves not realise that we don’t need to travel abroad for what is available here with us even at reduced cost. Ezeoke, who specialised in accident and emergency medicine, stated that Lifebridge has two fold mandates - detect diseases and refer Nigerians to appropriate specialists because people are not really aware that these services and specialists are available in Nigeria and also make available the latest technology-based equipment in diagnosis as good

Continues on page 46

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UKBA, VFS move to ensure first class visa services BY VERA SAMUEL ANYAGAFU

N a bid to provide Nigeria visa applicants with first class and efficient visa services, the UK Border Agency and its commercial partner, VFS Global, have introduced an online visa application process for all UK visa types. By introducing the online visa application procedure, which takes effect from March 2013, U.K visa applicants are now saved the rigorous process of having to wait in long queues just to apply and or submit visa applications, as they would hence forth have to apply from the comfort of their homes. The modernized and compulsory visa application proceedings, as stipulated by the Agency must be completed online by applicants, before they proceed to any one of the UK visa application centres in Nigeria for submission of the application as well as provision of bio-data. In other words, subsequent visa applications which are not completed online would be rejected by the U.K application centres in Nigeria. Fraudulent documentation: Based on the increasingly fraudulent practices by a large number of individuals who parade themselves as affiliates, agents and commercial partners of the embassy, UKBA mandates applicants to make use of the embassy ’s dedicated Nigeria website for details concerning visa prerequisites relating to applicant’s choice of visa. Applicants are also strongly warned against submitting documents that are not genuine and not from the authentic Nigerian issuing authorities in support of their visa applications as defaulters stand the risk of a ten year ban from entering the UK for any purpose. Also in furtherance of a more committed visa services, UKBA and VFS Global have successfully designed a premise that will ensure the provision of a first class visa service to Nigeria, and by delivering the highest levels of customer service, applicants are given the option of selecting from diverse dedicated visa services. Comfort of the lounge: In this case, UKBA, prioritizes the processing of visa applications and makes documents available for collection in a short period. The service according to Regional Director-Africa, International Operations and Visas,

U.K. Border Agency, Mr. Kashif Chaudry, “Is available to visitor visa applicants, (excluding students visa), who have previously travelled and compiled in the last two years to one of the following countries: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and any Schengen Country, the U.K and U.S.A.” There are also the options of receiving automated confirmation message on mobile phones, detailing applicants with updates of every stage of visa application processes, and photo boot facilities in a case whereby applicant’s passport photographs were not in accordance with the UKBA specifications.

Canada warns against immigration fraud BY PRISCA SAM-DURU WITH AGENCY REPORT

HE Canadian Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney has advised intending travellers to Canada to get adequate information to avoid becoming victims of immigration fraud. Speaking on the 2013 Fraud Prevention Month, Minister Kenney said, “I have heard stories from victims across the country that have been left emotionally and financially devastated because of immigration fraud,” adding, “The best way to protect oneself is to become informed. I encourage Canadians, and especially newcomers, to visit the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) website during Fraud Prevention Month to learn about their rights and responsibilities as they relate to citizenship and immigration so they can protect themselves.” While last year focused on informing Canadians about unauthorized immigration consultants who guarantee visas or high-paying jobs for a fee, taking large sums of money with no tangible results for the prospective immigrant, the focus of this year’s Fraud Prevention Month for CIC according to him, is combating marriage fraud. In line with this, a new video has been created which features real victims of marriage fraud as well as explanations on how individuals can avoid becoming victims.

High tech diagnostic to the rescue? Continues from page 44 as, if not better than, those they attend abroad at much higher cost. He asserts that the 1.5 tesla MRI scanner in the centre is called the ‘cold magnet’, a new Japanese technology that they acquired as the first in Africa and the third outside Japan. “The expertise to manage, consult, select and advise is here,” he said. Accordingly, all services in the Diagnostic Centre are interconnected across the three floors, with a top of the range G.8 computer server and network. The centre has uninterrupted power

supply, ensured by 2no 350KVA generators and a 160 KVA UPS battery bank. A dedicated water treatment plant ensures water quality, a situation rarely seen outside the University Teaching Hospitals. No wonder the Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, after a visit to Lifebridge Medical Diagnostic Centre commended the promoters for “the quality and scope of their intervention”, describing it as a practical demonstration of private sector investment and support of President Jonathan’s health programme.

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•From left: PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur; Vice President Namadi Sambo and Gov. Mukhtar Yero of Kaduna State at the PDP North West special zonal executive committee meeting in Kaduna

TUKUR’S TROUBLES:

The cat and mouse game with PDP governors BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR

T was celebrated as the boldest peace shooting initiative ever in the history of the fractious Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Central to the plan was a tour of the six geopolitical zones by the National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and members of the National Working Committee, NWC to build bridges across the divides in the party. What was announced as the grand finale of the reconciliation moves was to be a lunch and get together of the party ’s top echelon where most top public officials of the party were invited. Remarkably, the Sunday lunch gathering scheduled for the International Conference Centre was also to coincide with the first anniversary of the election of Tukur and his NWC. The event, however, turned into an anti-climax as only two of the party’s 23 governors turned out for the historic lunch with the national chairman, Tukur. The president, Dr. Goodluck

Jonathan who was the man who forced the 78 year old billionaire on the party rank and file as national chairman last year, remarkably stayed away. His absence was perhaps to avoid the embarrassment of witnessing the boycott. The two governors present were Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State who is also the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum and Governor Ibrahim Wada of Kogi State. Five governors, Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Ibrahim Shema (Katsina), Abdulafatah Ahmed (Kwara) and Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe) were represented at the meeting by their deputies, while 16 others did not bother to come or send high ranking officials for the celebrated lunch with the party chairman. The absence of the governors, even including those who had lately tended to incline themselves towards President Goodluck Jonathan, it was learnt was indicative of continuing bitterness by many of the

governors towards the national chairman. Central to the beef of the governors is the grievance that Tukur has paralysed other organs of the party and that he is running a one man show that only accommodates the interest of his principal backer, Dr. Jonathan. Notable among the organs of the party said to have been neutralised by Tukur is the National Executive Committee, NEC of the party which based on section 12.74 of the PDP constitution is supposed to meet at least quarterly. The section reads: The NEC shall meet at least once in every quarter at the instance of the chairman or at the request of twothird of its membership, who shall notify the chairman at least seven days prior to the meeting and an emergency meeting be summoned by the National Chairman having regard to all the circumstances of the agenda. However, since the advent of the Tukur executive, the NEC which should have met at least four times has met only once with

no prospect of a meeting in the immediate future. As such, crucial issues that ordinary should be taken up by the NEC have been either left undone or rather usurped by the national chairman. It is an issue that is central to the apathy of the governors

Central to the beef of the governors is the grievance that Tukur has paralysed other organs of the party and that he is running a one man show that only accommodates the interest of his principal backer, Dr. Jonathan

A MAJOR effort in peacemaking by the PDP ends with the exposure of internal dissensions traced to the style and schemes of its national chairman.

understatement. There are so many things not working under Tukur, a whole lot of the party structures are not working and this is not just about people not attending one meeting, but there are fundamental issues that need to be tackled and unless those issues are resolved it would be continue to be a cat and mouse game.” Besides rendering the party organs inactive, Tukur is also being accused of fostering division in the state and zonal chapters of the party. It is an accusation that remarkably flies against the NWC’s celebrated peace shooting missions throughout the country last week. In his home state, Adamawa, Tukur’s ascension as national chairman led to the fracture of the party into two factions with one section rallying behind him and another rallying behind the state governor, Admiral Murtala Nyako. What is happening in Adamawa is also developing in some other states where allies of Tukur or those who in the past were overwhelmed by their home governors are now going through Tukur to inspire rebellion at home. In Kano State for example, Governor Rabiu Kwankwanso’s comprehensive dominance of the party is now being challenged by a group of party men who are reportedly being supported by either Tukur himself or his associates. It is instructive that Kwankwanso has for most of the time showed ambivalence towards the Tukur regime hardly having any intercourse with it. Kwankwanso, apparently has his reasons to be wary of the politicians at the PDP national secretariat in Abuja. It is not difficult to forget that just before

towards what could have been a celebration of the first anniversary of the Tukur administration. As one source said last Monday, “The official reason is that we couldn’t make it, but if I must be truthful with you many of the governors are seriously angry with Tukur. This is not about Jonathan, but about Tukur’s style of administration as he has completely rendered all other organs of the party useless in one year,” the source said. Another source speaking on the development said: “Saying the governors are angry is an

the deadline for the submission of party candidates for the gubernatorial election in 2011 that some in the party bureaucracy apparently acting in concert with some in the presidential villa attempted to withdraw Kwankwanso’s name as the PDP gubernatorial candidate despite his massive win in the primary. The plot was about leading to a breakdown of law and order in Kano as adherents of his Kwankwansiya movement contemplated their options before the party hastily Continues on page 51

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013 —51

The cat and mouse game with PDP governors

Reconciliation meetings "Many of the governors were absent from the rally mainly because they were part of the reconciliation meetings in their respective zones, and had made useful contributions during the visit by the National Working Committee members, a reason it was never compelling for them to be in Abuja. They contacted the National Headquarters about their inability to be in Abuja for the rally with stated reasons.” However, speaking also about the same time after a visit to the presidential villa, Akpabio, chairman of the PDP-GF said the absence of the governors was due to poor communication as he said that the governors were not aware of the Abuja meeting. “The PDP lunch was not well publicized. I had a meeting with the PDP publicity secretary, Olisa Metuh. Many Governors were not aware of the ceremony. Metuh mentioned to me if I will be at the International Conference center and I said for what? And he said for the grand finale of the zonal meeting of the National Chairman and I told him I was not aware of it.” “I was receiving the Super Eagles in my state. I still said let me struggle to get to the International Conference Center to represent the Governors of the PDP many of whom were not aware that the event was going on. I knew that if the Governors were not there, Nigerians will think they boycotted the meeting. It was more or less a slightly rushed affair. It was not well publicized so you cannot blame any governor that was not there” he said. The assertions of Tukur and Akpabio nonetheless, most governors contacted on their absence gave varied official reasons for their absence at the Abuja reconciliation talks. Almost all of them cited pressing engagements or failure to catch a flight back. But beneath the veneer of the official reasons is the unofficial whisper of ill-feelings towards the national chairman.

This revelation reportedly led to William’s arrest after which he was handed over to the police. However in this interview with Crime Alert at the State Criminal Investigations Department, Yaba, Monday, where he was paraded alongside some robbery suspects that have been terrorizing Lagos, it was observed that Williams was not coherent with his words. He simply stated that the The victim— Olawale Ayetimi Allen deceased was never his brother. According got him, “ He is not my brother. He is Ogunmadede’s son. What happened on that very day was that as I was in my room at midnight, somebody pointed a torch light in my face. And I said hey man, you know you Williams Abiodun Allen— the suspect •Where Olawale’s body was dumped have been threatening me. The next thing I did was to reach for a cutlass. I moved over and stabbed him in the head in order to act safe. It did not look easy for me to kill him “Asked why he that he would never live to see his mission chased his mother and siblings from the main BY EVELYN USMAN accomplished. Before retiring to the building, he denied that stating: “ I am a IGERIAN US Army deserter,Allen bedroom which he shared with his elder US soldier for your information. I only Williams Abiodun,52, who was brother, Olawale was said to have escaped and returned home in 1992 because arrested on February 20, 2013, for allegedly instructed one of his sisters to boil water of a lady I fell in love with from the Ogunmade killing his younger brother, a Merchant for him to bath the next morning. family in Ondo State. But when I returned, Navy personnel in Imude community, Oto Apprehension set in next day, after his she dumped me and I could not go back”. Awori Local Government area of Lagos, sister went to inform him that the hot water Back to the question about his mother, he has finally opened up on why he committed was ready, only to discover his blood- said, “I did not chase my mother away. In the dastardly act. stained clothes on the floor without any fact, she was in her office in Ikeja when the The six-footer confessed to Crime Alert sight of him. As she was about to leave, incident occurred”. that he stabbed the deceased, Allen she reportedly met Williams, who informed Asked how that was possible since he said Olawale Ayetimi,24,to death, following her that Olawale had gone to the bank. the incident occurred at midnight, he simply continuous threat on his life by Olawale. Unsure of what to do, she reportedly stared at this reporter. At a point, he started The late Olawale was reportedly sleeping alerted her mother who raised alarm that behaving funny like one who is mentally when Williams allegedly stabbed him in created a scene in front of the building. deranged, saying things that were not the head, neck and jugular. A neighbour who claimed to have seen relevant to the issue at hand. After allegedly committing the devilish Williams deed, Williams reportedly dumped dragging what I did not chase my mother away. In fact, Olawale’s remains in an uncompleted he suspected building foundation behind their she was in her office in Ikeja when the to be Olawale’s compound and,covered it with leaves. body into the incident occurred Report said he thereafter, took his late bush told brother’s ATM card, Merchant Navy Crime Alert: uniform and phone. Investigation carried out in his community “I came out at about 1 am to ease myself, Crime Alert gathered that the deceased only to notice some movements. Out of revealed that he was feigning to be mentally only returned from an official trip to Port curiosity, I peeped to see what it was, only deranged, in order to be let off the hook. Harcourt at about 11pm that fateful day. One of his relatives who spoke on condition to find Williams dragging something on Although, he was based in Port Harcourt, the floor. When I finished from the toilet, he of anonymity said: “ He has never had any Rivers State, his mission to Lagos, as was returning from where he went. I mental problem since I knew him. He is just reliably gathered, was to settle a score noticed his hands were stained with blood pretending so that one will think he is a between his elder brother and their mother. and out of curiosity, I asked where the blood mad man”. On arrival,the late Olawale reportedly Meanwhile, his mother and siblings are came from and he said he just killed a goat. washed his uniform, took his bath and Since I did not suspect anything, I went currently gripped with fear over the shared a brief moment with his mother and inside to sleep. It was when I heard a shout possibility of Williams’ release.But police siblings in the shop they were confined from their compound in the morning that I operatives assured they would conduct a test to,during which he informed them of his was compelled to disclose what on him to ascertain his mental state before intention to convince his brother to accept charging him to court. happened.” them back to the main building,unaware

Why I killed my brother — Nigerian US Army deserter

Continues from page 50 House. At the end of the meeting, Anenih still his taciturn self, only muttered “we are here to discuss PDP, and the corporate existence of the Nigeria state”. About the same time, party operatives and officials in Abuja were also in overdrive to manage the fiasco of the day before. Even in the process of managing the disaster, the party still displayed its seemingly inherent proclivity to disorder or what its critics assert as deception. Tukur in a briefing with reporters in his Abuja residence while aiming to explain the absence of the governors said that many of the governors took permission from him for one reason or the other.

52— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013

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— 53 Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013—

54— Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013

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Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013 — 55

Jose: I love London J OSE MOURINHO has declared his undying love for London — and hinted at a return to Chelsea. SunSport yesterday revealed how the Real Madrid boss was back at Stamford Bridge last night for the first time since 2011. Mourinho was only in the stands to watch Brazil’s friendly with Russia. But his appearance further fuelled speculation he will be back as Blues manager this summer when Rafa Benitez leaves his interim role. And the Special One today confirmed he would love to work again in England — especially in

his old job. Mourinho said: “I am in London very often because we have a house here, we love it here and our daughter is coming to study in London. “Every time I come here, every time people see me walking around or doing some shopping people immediately start making speculation that I am returning. “I say every day that I love it here, I had a fantastic time here, that I will return one day, so to be fair, I give a little bit of contribution to that speculation just because I love it.

Harambee Continues from B/P champions, the Super Eagles over the weekend. For a team used to limp returns home following their abysmal away record, all stops were pulled, a traditional band in place, jubilant fans and above all, Nairobi Senator-elect, Mike Sonko, making good his pledge as he handed team captain, Dennis Oliech, Sh1.1m in cash. President-elect, Uhuru Kenyatta, has also promised the side Sh1m with Sonko awarding the team Sh1m for the ‘win’ and Sh100,000 to Francis Kahata for the goal. The man of the moment was of course, Thika United youngster, Kahata, who bent in the wicked free-kick to the top corner to leave Super Eagle’s captain, Vincent Enyeama clutching straws for the opener on the 36th minute. “The Super Eagles were not an easy target but with the teamwork and a coach who understands us we were able to draw the game,” he said mobbed by fans. Speaking after giving his reward to the stars at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Sonko challenged political leaders to put political differences aside and stand with the national team “We must restore our

soccer back to its lost glory,” he added noting he had decided to pay out the win since by the end of 90 minutes, Stars had ‘ won’ the game 1-0 before the Super Eagles equalised in the fourth minute of added time through Nhamdi Oduamadi. Algerian born Belgian coach, Adel Amrouche, also came for praise for organising the team to counter the threat posed by the African champions who were crowned last month in South Africa in his first game in charge. He was however, still seething from being sent-off in the dying minutes of the match at the behest of the fourth official, a factor he attributed to the lapse in concentration that allowed Oduamadi, the AC Milan rookie. Speaking earlier, Amrouche promised Nigeria ‘hell’ during the return, fired up by the mal-treatment his team received in Lagos where they were forced to train in an estate primary school ground and lodged in a boarding school. “My team played the last 10 minutes without me; it is tough for any team playing like that. I was asked to leave at the time they needed me most. My absence caused us a lot.”

arri ready ffor or Africa AYAC 2013: W Warri — Uduaghan BY ONOCHIE ANIBEZE

OVERNOR Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State yesterday visited Warri Township Stadium, the venue of the Africa Youth Athletics Championships and after inspecting the facilities there he uttered three words as a preamble to what he had to say: ‘’We are ready.’’ He was particularly impressed by the EDM (Estimated Distance Measurement) equipment the state acquired for accurate distance measurement and the reconfiguration of the Warri Stadium to accommodate track and field events of international standard. The stadium has a four lane warm- up track with jump facilities outside. It is the only stadium in Nigeria outside the Abuja National Stadium that has such facilities. The EDM equipment is the first of it’s kind in Nigeria. It is from Timetronics, arguably, the best in the world. It’s a timing device for the management of competitions so that tapes would no longer be required to measure distances in events like Long Jump, Javelin, Triple Jump etc. The reaction of athletes at the start lines are also

READY — State of the art facilities at the Warri Stadium. Photo: Henry Unini recorded. It is so sophisticated that five Belgians and one Dutch are in Warri to install it and also teach Nigerian officials how to operate it. Delta acquired it and the Athletics Federation of Nigeria will be using it for the first time in Nigeria. ’’We are setting standards to help develop sports so that our athletes will be encouraged to do their best to raise their own standards and be among the best in the world. It is from competitions like this that the likes of Blessing Okagbare were discovered and being a youth event it could be

the springboard to many athletes from Africa,’’ Uduaghan said after his inspection. He will be at the accreditation centre this morning to do his own accreditation for the continental event that will actually kick off tomorrow, (Thursday). Today has been set aside for arrival and accreditation. Uduaghan said something that should interest Nigerian athletes. ‘’If you are identified as a talent, we have a development programme that could help you achieve your potential.’’ On the event that Warri is hosting he asked

questions from LOC Chairman, Amaju Pinnick and having seen for himself what was on the ground he said ‘’we are ready for Africa.’’ Africa’s queen of the tracks Mary Onyali, AFN scribe Maria Whophill, Amaju Pinnick, and Commodore Omatseye Nesiama who is the tournament director were among those who took the governor around the facilities including the media tribune and media centre. Uduaghan asked some technical questions on the EDM which gave him out as keen follower of track and field. Onyali was handy in answering them. Uduaghan left the stadium a happy man.

Reptiles,weeds take over Abuja National Stadium — Mark By HENRY UMORU & JOSEPH ERUNKE

ENATE President David Mark yesterday warned that if Nigeria as a country must get it right in the area of Sports and compete favourably with other nations of the world, there was the urgent need for the Federal government to stop what he termed lip service to the sector and show serious commitment. Lamenting the deplorable condition of Sports and its facilities in the country, the Senate

President who cited the Abuja National Stadium as a case study in this bad state of the sector, stressed that the edifice had been taken over by reptiles and weeds due largely to lack of attention by the government. He equally decried the way the country’s Super Eagles was starting its 2014 World Cup qualifier, warning, “It will be a major embarrassment if Nigeria fails to qualifier for the World Cup. Senator Mark who also accused the Federal Government of being solely responsible for

Nigeria’s dwindling sports development, stressed that sports administrators were running the sector purely on what he termed their selfish desires. The Senate President spoke yesterday during debates on a Bill for an Act to Repeal the Nigerian Football Association Act Cap. N110 Law of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 and Enact the Nigerian Football Federation Act 2013 to provide for football administration in Nigeria which was sponsored by

Senate Committee Chairman on Sports and Social Development, Senator Ibrahim Gumba, PDP, Bauchi South. He said, “Football unites Nigerians and we have to do what it takes to save football in the country. Government cannot fund football and not be involved and this is what FIFA doesn’t want so we need to strike a delicate balance”, he said, adding: “This Bill needs to be accelerated so that we can remove the gray areas. Government alone cannot run football”.

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013

AYAC 2013: Warri ready for Africa – Uduaghan

• Page 55

P —Page —

Tennis star stung on backside

PAIN, SET AND MATCH ... Lauren Davis is in agony after wasp sting

TEENAGE tennis star suffered a stinging defeat yesterday — after she was attacked by a WASP. Lauren Davis, 19, was knocked out of the Sony Open in Florida following a 2-6 6-3 6-2 defeat to Alize Cornet. But that was only after the American ace had been stung on the backside by the stripy winged insect. Davis refused to put the defeat down to the sting but BOTH players still left the court in wheelchairs after suffering exhaustion from the severe Florida heat. Cornet last week beat Britain’s Heather Watson in the first round of the tournament.

S-H-O-C-K-E-R!

Egypt kicks out Nigeria BY JACOB AJOM, Algeria

IGERIA’S hope of defending their African Youth Championship crown, yesterday went into smoke as Egypt’s U-20

team thrashed the Flying Eagles 2-0 in a semi-final game decided at the Ain Temouchet. After managing to scrape into the last four of the eightnation tournament, which also served as the

qualifier for the forthcoming FIFA U-20 World Cup in Turkey, the John Obuh-tutored team played without vision as they wasted the early chances that came the way of their strikers.

Harambee Stars return to heroes welcome …...Pomp, colour, cash greet shining Stars

T was pomp, colour, pageantry and loads of cash as Harambee

Stars milked a warm return from Nigeria on Monday night following

their heroic 1-1 draw against African Continues on Page 55

Senate President in pains over National Stadium — P.55

READY — Gov Emmanuel Uduaghan listens as Mary Onyali and Pinnick Amaju brief him on the readiness of Warri Stadium for the African Youth Athletics Championship. Photo: HENRY UNINI.

QUICK CROSSWORD

Sudoku TODAY'S

PUZZLE

YESTER DAY'S YESTERDAY'S

ANSWERS

ACROSS 1 Surplus (6) 5 Base (6) 9 Different (5) 10 Dome (6) 11 Lasso (6) 12 Comic (5) 14 Rave (4) 17 Day before (3) 18 Shift (4) 20 Taut (5) 22 Helped (5) 23 Bellowing (7) 24 Nudge (5) 26 Pulsate (5) 29 Lake (4) 30 Pitcher (3) 32 Domesticated (4) 33 Garment (5) 35 Passion (6) 36 Pedant (6) 37 Enhance (5) 38 Custodian (6) 39 Cowardly (6)

DOWN 1 Partner (6) 2 Managing (6) 3 Retailed (4) 4 Gaze (5) 5 Beauty (5) 6 Spoken (4) 7 Stand (6) 8 Entangled (6) 13 Engulf (7) 15 Passage (5) 16 Pang (5) 18 Power (5) 19 Poison (5) 21 Pull (3) 22 Insect (3) 24 Begin (6) 25 Span (6) 27 Ethnic (6) 28 Bequeath (6) 30 Juryman (5) 31 Romany (5) 33 Pipe (4) 34 Clever (4)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS ACROSS: 4, Great 7, Unhurt 9, Due 10, Bid 12, Space 13, Dirt 15, Niche 17, Thresh 19, Lady 20, Ensue 22, Pip 24, Debacle 27, Far 28, Orate 31, View 33, Random 35, Hinge 37, Soft 38, Valet 39, Ewe 41, Act 42, Trance 43, Berth.

How to Play Sudoku

THE VIGILANTE

DOWN: 1, Curdle 2, Shorts 3, Orb 4, Gush 5, Repel 6, Accident 8, Tine 11, Disparade 14, Thud 16, Chic 18, Reef 21, Nominate 23, Plod 25, Barn 26, Eros 29, Amount 30, Esteem 32, Wheat 34, Newt 36, Itch 40, Err.

e-mail: rowolove@yahoo.co.uk

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

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